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msclaritea · 4 months ago

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BREAKING: TWO “Female Boxers” Set To Compete At Paris 2024 Were Previously Disqualified From Women’s World Championship For Having “XY Chromosomes”

Anna Slatz

July 27, 2024

Two athletes competing at the Paris Olympics as “women” were previously disqualified from a women’s world championship for having “XY chromosomes.” Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan are scheduled to compete in Olympic women’s boxing next week despite past questions surrounding their biological sex.

The Women’s World Boxing Championships took place in March of 2023 and was hosted in New Delhi, India. A total of 324 boxers from 64 nations competed during the 10-day trial, marking the largest participation in any iteration of the championship ever recorded.

However, the grand event was marred by controversy after Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association (IBA), announced the disqualification of multiple boxers from the championship.

Kremlev said that IBA executives had met towards the championship’s grand finale to discuss “fairness among athletes and professionalism,” after concerns were raised about the biological sex of some participants. He added that after “a series of DNA-tests,” the IBA “uncovered athletes who were trying to fool their colleagues and pretend to be women.”

Speaking to TASS News, Kremlev claimed that the tests had proven the athletes in question “had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded from the sports events.”

Among the disqualified was Imane Khelif, an Algerian boxer who had been set to challenge Yang Liu of China in the welterweight final. Khelif was removed from the gold medal fight, and Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng, who had lost to Khelif in the semi-finals, was allowed to proceed to fight Yang instead.

In a public statement, the IBA wrote that “a boxer from Algeria, Imane Khelif, was excluded from the IBA World Boxing Championships due to the failure to meet the IBA eligibility criteria.” But the Algerian Olympic Committee denied the IBA’s claims, attributing Khelif’s disqualification to a “conspiracy” to prevent Algeria from having a gold medal in boxing.

While they vaguely alluded to Khelif being struck for “medical reasons” surrounding high testosterone levels, they added that they would be supporting Khelif’s journey to the 2024 Paris Olympics regardless.

But following the controversial disqualification, a female boxer came forward to discuss her experience fighting Khelif in the ring at the championship.

“When I fought with her I felt very out of my depth,” Mexican boxer Brianda Tamara wrote on X. “Her blows hurt me a lot, I don’t think I had ever felt like that in my 13 years as a boxer, nor in my sparring with men. Thank God that day I got out of the ring safely, and it’s good that they finally realized,” Tamara said.

A second boxer was similarly disqualified by the IBA at the event, Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting, who was also stripped of a bronze medal.

Lin had previously won 5 gold medals in women’s boxing tournaments.

Lin Yu-Ting winning gold and a $100,000 prize at a 2022 women’s boxing championship.

Despite having faced the disqualification just last year, both boxers will be competing in Paris as female boxers.

Khelif is scheduled to fight Italy’s Angela Carini on August 1, while Lin Yu-Ting is set to be matched the next day.

While neither have stated they identify as transgender, it is suspected that both are impacted by a Difference of Sexual Development (DSD), a category of medical conditions encompassing any problem noted at birth where the genitalia are atypical in relation to the chromosomes or gonads.

DSDs in elite sports first came to public attention during the meteoric rise of South African runner Caster Semenya. Semenya’s rapid improvements in performance beginning in 2009 initially triggered suspicions of drug use, and World Athletics (then called the IAAF) was internationally denounced for requesting Semenya take a test to ascertain his biological sex.

Most women, including elite female athletes, have natural testosterone levels of 0.12 to 1.79 nanomoles per liter (nmol/L), but Semenya has XY chromosomes and male gonads producing a normal level of testosterone for a male. In 2011, Semenya was measured as having 15.6 and 29.3 nmol/L. Years later, a decision in the Court of Arbitration for Sport revealed that Semenya has a DSD where the normal male sexual development fails in utero, resulting in external genitals that appear to be a vagina at birth, but was in fact an underdeveloped penis.

Speaking to Reduxx, a representative with the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS) condemned the confusion that had emerged surrounding the sex of competitors due to the International Olympic Committee’s 2000 decision to end sex-verification screening.

“The IOC’s decision to end sex-verification screening in 2000 has caused distrust and confusion in women’s sports ever since,” ICONS co-founder Marshi Smith said. “Its 2021 decision to offload the responsibility for international eligibility criteria to individual sporting bodies has resulted in varied standards and widespread chaos among athletes, coaches, officials, and the public.”

Smith notes that a new boxing qualification system was implemented for the 2024 Olympics in which an ad-hoc unit was created by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board to organize the boxing competitions for Paris 2024.

This new unit was set up after the International Boxing Association (IBA), which had previously disqualified Khelif and Lin from women’s championships, was suspended by the IOC due to concerns it was receiving funding from Russia.

In the FAQ for the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit, no gender eligibility guidelines are specified, something Smith suggests likely indicates that individual nations were given a tremendous amount of power to deem their own athletes eligible.

“In boxing, the recent contentious split between the IBA and the IOC has now placed Olympic eligibility power into the hands of national boxing federations, allowing countries like Algeria and Taiwan to set their own standards and continue placing male boxers in the ring with female athletes in combat for women’s Olympic medals,” Smith explains.

“The physical abuse of women on an Olympic stage eliminates the integrity of all Olympic events and risks lifelong injury or even death for female athletes. This deceit cannot be allowed to continue.”

#IMANE KHELIF #LIN YU TING #BREAKING: TWO “Female Boxers” Set To Compete At Paris 2024 Were Previously Disqualified From Women’s World Championship For Having “XY #BOYCOTT PARIS OLYMPICS

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atotaltaitaitale · 3 months ago

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The end… for the second time in a month.

We needed those two weeks in between so we could miss you, Olympics, but after the Closing Ceremony on August 11, we knew deep down that we would get to experience all that joy again for the Paralympics. This time it’s really the end. We need to go back to our lives and you have timed it perfectly with La Rentrée.

While the Olympic Game and the Paralympic Game are 2 different entities and managed by 2 different committees, Paris2024 wanted the Paralympics to be a true extension of the Olympics. For the first time the emblem (a golden circle with a white flame inside, a stylized rendition of Marianne) and the motto (Games Wide Open/Ouvrons Grand les Jeux) were shared by both events, and even the Olympic and Paralympic mascots were the same: the famous (infamous?) Phryge, albeit an able-bodied Phryge for the Olympics and a prosthetic Phryge for the Paralympics.

While Paris was hosting the Olympics for the third time, it was actually the first time the city had hosted the Paralympics (France has hosted one Winter Paralympics in 1992 in Albertville, while the next one will be in 2030). In fact, the Paralympics began in 1948 with a small gathering of British veterans of the Second World War at Stoke Madeville Hospital (hence why the Paralympics flame is lit there) on the opening day of the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. But the first official Paralympic Games were held in Rome in 1960, and since then they have been held in the same year as the Olympic Games, but in a different city or even country. Since 1988 in Seoul, the Paralympics have been held immediately after the Olympics in the same city and using most of the same venues. Bidding to host the Olympic Games means bidding to host the Paralympic Games as well.

The Paralympic Games have a tremendous track record of transforming host cities and countries, improving the lives of people with disabilities and all those with accessibility needs and acting as a catalyst to improve accessibility. In France, since 2008, able-bodied and Paralympic medalists have received the same amount of money depending on the medal won [NB: since 2021 for the USA paralympiques!]. Since the London 2012 Olympics, guides (para-athletics, para-triathlon, para-cycling and para-triathlon) who accompany visually impaired or blind athletes have also been rewarded with a medal when the athlete reached the podium. The Paralympics are here to drive change in the world and drive this "inclusion revolution".

To say that Paris2024 was amazing is an understatement. But there is something even more special about the Paralympics. Yes all athletes are super-humans but Paralympians are a cut above and we got to see 4,400 athletes from 168 delegations compete in 549 medal events across 22 sports. I've always admired Paralympians but after attending even more events this time than at the Beijing2008 games, I’m in total awe of their abilities beyond their disabilities. The words I heard the most often at the events: Incredible. Unbelievable. Amazing. Everyone seems to be in admiration of the athletes. You can't help but be in amazed when you are in the stands of Paris La Defense Arena cheering the athletes of the Para swimming events or astonished by the complete silence of 12,000 spectators in the Stade Eiffel Tower for Blind football followed by an eruption of applause when a team scores a goal (any team for that matter… although the cheering might be slightly louder when Team France is on the field), that’s also where I got to experience a silent, slow ola where the public rose to their feet in a gentle, synchronised way to create a perfectly silent Mexican wave. The Grand Palais was as packed as for the Olympics for para taekwondo or wheelchair fencing, both events I attended. I couldn’t not go to the gorgeous Para equestrian venue on the grounds of the Palais de Versailles and got again to do the Silent Applause: a very important part of Para Equestrian that encourages the fans to cheer without distracting the rider and the horse. As I never make it to the French Open, the Men's single medals in wheelchairs tennis were the events that finally took me to the mythic Roland Garros central court. I’m not a huge fan of tennis in general (I know the players, and follow the Grand Slam from afar) but the Gold/Silver match between Japan's Tokito Oda (Gold Medalist) and Britain's Alfie Hewett (Silver Medalist) was a real treat and kept us on the edge of our seat for three sets. I may have to look for wheelchair tennis events to watch in the future. Finally one cannot experience the Games (Olympic and/or Paralympic) without attending at least some of the Athletics events at Stade de France. The atmosphere on the final night of the game was electric.

The Olympics are always very popular and well televised but the Paralympics tend to be a bit less enthusiastic and not as well-followed (often due to the lack of media coverage unfortunately). In Paris, however, there were huge crowds at the venues, and local fans not only supported the French athletes, they cheered on athletes from all over the world and made sure the athletes felt welcome. As IPC President Andrew Parsons mentioned in his closing ceremony: For a country famous for its fashion and food, France is now famous for its fans. With more competing countries, more women and more global coverage than ever before, Paris 2024 has set a benchmark for all future Paralympic Games.

With 10 Paralympic and 4 Olympic events, I've had a busy summer in Paris and I’m so glad we’ve decided to stay in town and experience the Games. And yet, there are so many more sporting events I would have love to have seen, especially for the Paralympics: wheelchair rugby, sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball, etc, etc. Who knows if I’ll ever live again in a city hosting the Games. Twice was already great.

From Tony Estanguet's closing ceremony speech: This summer, France had a date with history, and the country showed up. France dared to imagine things that had never been done before: the first Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games outside a stadium, the first marathon open to all, the first Games in the heart of the city. France dared to believe in the power of sport.

With the Games, we rediscovered our heritage, our creativity and our capacity to achieve great things. We rediscovered our joie de vivre, our impertinence at times, and above all, all the positive energy that exploded in the stands! These Games will have been an encounter between France and itself. The France that smiles. The France that loves itself. The France that we are proud of. The France that breaks records: Olympic medal records, Paralympic medal records, Spectator records, Audience records, Atmosphere records, “Allez Les Bleus" records.

From Olympic Rings to Paralympic Agitos… Everything must come to an end but memories last forever.

PS: There was no “addressing the elephant in the room” with the Paralympics Opening Ceremony… it was just perfect; although seeing the gorgeous sunset as the Paralympics athletes walked down the Champs Élysées towards the Place de la Concorde was slightly bittersweet as it reminded us of what the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony could have been like (if it hadn't rained that evening).

Edit: Paris2024 sold 12 millions tickets. 9.5 for the Olympics and 2.5 for the Paralympics!!

#celineisnotanexpatanymore #France life #paris #paris 2024 #paralympics #CelineAndParis2024ParalympicGames #CelineAndParis2024Games

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ciyapaofficial · 2 years ago

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How Unisex Clothing Supports Gender Equality: The Theme For International Women's Day 2023

Cracking the Code: Innovation for a Gender-Equal Future is the International Women's Day Theme for 2023.

"DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality" is the topic the United Nations has chosen for International Women's Day 2023. This theme fits the priority theme of the 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW-67).

The theme says, "Innovation, technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls." International Women's Day 2023 will also check how women and girls are treated unfairly because of this.

This year's theme is based on the premise that by embracing new technologies and promoting women's STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) skills and knowledge, we can accelerate our progress toward gender equality.

The United Nations estimates that women's lack of access to the online world will cause a loss of $1.5 trillion to the gross domestic product of low- and middle-income countries by 2025 if the UN does not act.

If the UN and other concerned authorities take action, IWD will explore the impact of the digital gender gap on inequality for women and girls. The International Women's Day website states that it would provide a platform to help forge positive change for women.

It has chosen the theme "EmbraceEquity," with organizers and events seeking to "challenge gender stereotypes, call out discrimination, draw attention to bias, and seek out inclusion." #EmbraceEquity is the hashtag assigned to this year's celebration.

Why Is Gender Equality Needed?

Throughout the past year, women in Afghanistan, Iran, Ukraine, and the US have fought for their rights amid war, bloodshed, and legislative changes. All these have aggravated gender gaps in food insecurity, hunger, poverty, and gender-based violence worldwide.

The Taliban's ascendancy in Afghanistan has prevented women and girls from attending higher education, working most occupations outside the home, traveling long distances without a male chaperone, and covering their faces in public.

Iranian police disputed eyewitness accusations that Mahsa Amini was beaten. The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was seized by Tehran morality police on September 13, 2022, for allegedly breaching Iran's severe hair-covering laws, provoked demonstrations in Iran.

Since then, Iranians have protested for women's rights and political change. Authorities have called them "riots" and used force. After Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the UN reported war-induced price spikes and shortages.

The US Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, triggering widespread outrage and protests. Mexicans have helped US women seek abortions after a 2021 court ruling decriminalized abortion.

The Gender Equality subject emphasizes the significance of transformative ideas, inclusive technologies, and accessible education in overcoming global prejudice and the marginalization of women. Despite the ability of innovation to alter lives, many barriers to equality remain.

What Changes Have Been Made In The Recent Years To Improve Women’s Position In Society?

Armenia and Colombia revised parental leave legislation. Spain passed menstrual health leave and abortion regulations. After a 10-year fight, the European Parliament passed a bill in 2022 to increase the number of women on publicly traded company boards by July 2026.

"There are plenty of women eligible for top jobs, and with our new European regulation, we will make sure that they have a real shot," the EU added. The International Olympic Committee reported the most gender-balanced Winter Games, with 45% women, in Beijing in 2022.

With 36 teams, the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup is extended. The US Soccer Federation became the first to pay its men's and women's teams equally before the competition. For almost five years, female athletes made equal pay claims and litigation.

How Can Ciyapa's Unisex T-Shirts Signify Gender Equality?

Unisex t-shirts can signify gender equality because they are designed to be worn by people of any gender identity. Creating clothing that is not restricted to a particular gender, promotes the idea that clothing does not have to be restricted by societal norms.

When people wear unisex t-shirts, they are making a statement that they reject the idea that clothing should be gendered. It helps to break down gender stereotypes and norms that can be limiting and harmful to individuals who do not fit into traditional gender roles.

Also, if we support the idea of unisex clothing, we can move toward a more accepting society where people are not judged based on how they identify or show their gender. It allows for more freedom of expression and can help reduce discrimination and inequality based on gender.

According to the International Women's Day official website, purple, green, and white represent IWD. "The color purple is associated with a sense of dignity and justice. Green signifies hope. White is associated with cleanliness.

See, even these colors do not discriminate. Ciyapa highly supports and executes this International Women's Day 2023 theme. And we promise to deliver more t-shirts promoting this IWD 2023 theme. Visit our store to see our collection!!

Conclusion

Throughout the last decade, there has been incremental progress toward a gender-equal world. We have seen the difference that equal work opportunities, equal healthcare and education, equal decision-making authority, and freedom from violence can make.

Despite this, there is still a great deal of unfairness and inequality around the globe. To achieve gender equality, we must ensure equitable access to education for women and girls and clear pathways to inclusive workplaces for women in STEM.

We at Ciyapa find new ways to help women and girls reach their full human capital potential and become leaders, business owners, and agents of change. It is to support environmentally sustainable, socially and economically fair development.

Women's economic empowerment, in conjunction with girls' education, family planning, and reproductive and sexual health, can facilitate the transition to low-carbon economies, help improve resource use and assist in lowering environmental damage.

We support women employees and help them grow potentially. There is still a lot of work to do, so why don't we all work together to speed up the process of gender equality and empowerment today so that tomorrow will be more sustainable?

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#International Women's Day #unisex clothing #gender equality #women's rights #Women's Day 2023 #unisex t-shirts

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cksmart-world · 4 months ago

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SMART BOMB

The Completely Unnecessary News Analysis

By Christopher Smart

August 6, 2024

SALT LAKE CITY PLANS DRAG QUEEN OLYMPICS

We can't start planning soon enough now that Salt Lake City has secured the 2034 Winter Games. As old timers know when the 2002 Games came to town it was simply amazing. The events, of course, are spectacular, but when a city hosts the Games excitement and fun are off the charts as visitors pour in from around the globe. Salt Lake City has always been a welcoming place. We love immigrants and gays and investment bankers. A special committee is now working to ensure that drag queens not only feel accepted at our Games but will take a prominent role in the festivities. The celebration will make the so-called “Drag Queen Last Supper” at the Paris Olympics look like “Ring Around the Rosie.” Many newcomers may not realize that drag queens played an important role in Utah's history. Brigham Morris Young, one of Brigham Young's sons, was a famous drag performer who was widely known as Madam Pattrini. In the late 1800s drag shows were quite popular and Olympic organizers will focus on the cultural aspects of Utah's history and weave together such things as drag queens and polygamy. Imagine the Opening Ceremony where 26 bearded men on ice skates dressed as Brigham Young's wives welcome the entire world on satellite TV. It just takes your breath away.

LIKE YOUR BLACK JOB?

What is a Black job? The term conjures up all sorts of things, like janitor, maid, dishwasher — doctor, lawyer, engineer, not so much. But Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles was all over it: “I love my Black job,” she said trolling Donald Trump who told the National Association of Black Journalists that undocumented immigrants are stealing “Black jobs” and it's all the fault of Kamala Harris. Black jobs? You're right Wilson, it recalls Jim Crow and segregation — nasty stuff. Willy Horton, where have you gone — Trump campaign headquarters? Down in MAGAville they're talking back to the TV. See there, Irene, there's millions of them illegal Mexicans coming in here and taking all them Black jobs and then what's all them Black people going to do. Them people are going to want our White jobs. It is, of course, Trump Theater: chaos, racism, xenophobia with more than a dash of B.S. tossed in for flavor. No surprise, the Orange Man's performance got a lot of headlines and airtime — success! Who said, “There's no such thing as bad publicity.” Step right up to the big tent, see the famous bearded lady with your own eyes and Kamala Harris the Indian woman who is not Black. Hey MAGA World, it's an us versus them world, so don't forget who “us” is.

“THEY'RE JUST WEIRD” — DON AND J.D. GET TATTOOED

OK Wilson, you and the guys in the band have known your share of weird people. So check this out — everyone is picking up on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz analysis of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance that they're just “weird.” It does have a ring to it. Since 2015, pundits and politicians have tried to label Trump. Books, news stories and magazines have labored without success to come to grips with the inexplicable Orange Man and his comb-over Teflon. Well, Walz did it in just a word — “weird.” It was one of those “the-emperor-has-no-clothes” moments when suddenly everything comes into focus. Trump is nasty, dishonest, creepy, self-important and on and on. But nothing sticks to his angry jowls like “weird.” The moniker is so right-on that Trump has repeatedly denied it, insisting that he and Vance “are not weird people.” Right, and Barack Obama was born in Kenya. In something of a schoolyard comeback the former president, referring to Democrats, sneered,“they are the weird ones.” Vance, Trump's new Mini-Me, put the icing on the cake when he labeled women without kids as “childless cat ladies.” Ooh baby! That's a bell that doesn't un-ring — he alienated women and cat lovers all in one swipe. Team Trump is on a roll — if the weird shoe fits...

Post script — That's going to do it for another scorching week in Hot Lake City, where the staff here at Smart Bomb keeps track of Mount Rushmore, so you don't have to. Hey Wilson, remember when Republicans wanted to put Ronald Reagan on Mount Rushmore as well as the $5 bill. The Utah congressional delegation just couldn't shut up about it. Well maybe it's a good thing that didn't succeed. Today's GOP, aka MAGA Mob, wants Donald Trump on Mount Rushmore and thinks Ronald Reagan was some kind of elitist who hated Russia and favored clean air. Times change. Ronald Who? South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is a big proponent of The Donald on Mount Rushmore and even gave 45 a miniature Mount Rushmore with his image next to Washington and Jefferson. But then she wrote about shooting her puppy because... well, because he was acting like a Democrat. Since then, we haven't heard much about Trump's likeness carved into a mountain, but as someone once said: It ain't over 'till it's over. If he gets reelected we may get his picture on all of our currency. And what about a nice monument near the Lincoln Memorial in D.C. A huge Donald Trump carved in stone watching TV and eating a Big Mac. MAGA World would just love it.

It's HOT Wilson and it's going to stay that way. It's so hot you can fry an egg on the hood of your car. It's so hot that people are losing their tans 'cause they can't go outside. Well, of course, you can go out at night. It won't exactly be cool but it is survivable. So you and the guys in the band know what to do, so hit it, Wilson:

Hot town, summer in the city Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty Been down, isn't it a pity? Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city All around, people looking half dead Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head But at night it's a different world Go out and find a girl Come on, come on and dance all night Despite the heat it'll be all right And babe, don't you know it's a pity That the days can't be like the nights In the summer, in the city In the summer, in the city Cool town, evening in the city Dressing so fine and looking so pretty Cool cat, looking for a kitty Gonna look in every corner of the city Till I'm wheezing like a bus stop Running up the stairs, gonna meet you on the rooftop But at night it's a different world Go out and find a girl Come on, come on and dance all night Despite the heat it'll be all right And babe, don't you know it's a pity That the days can't be like the nights In the summer, in the city In the summer, in the city

(Summer In the City — Lovin' Spoonful)

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newstfionline · 4 months ago

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Monday, August 5, 2024

Hurricane Debby to bring heavy rains and flooding to Florida, Georgia and S. Carolina (AP) The center of Hurricane Debby is expected to reach the Big Bend coast of Florida early Monday bringing potential record-setting rains, catastrophic flooding and life-threatening storm surge as it moves slowly across the northern part of the state before stalling over the coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina. Debby was located about 100 miles (161 kilometers) west of Tampa, Florida, with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph). Forecasters warned heavy amounts of rain from Debby could spawn catastrophic flooding in Florida, South Carolina and Georgia.

Mexican army acknowledges some of its soldiers have been killed by cartel bomb-dropping drones (AP) The Mexican army acknowledged for the first time Friday that some of its soldiers have been killed by bomb-dropping drones operated by drug cartels. Defense Secretary Gen. Luis Cresencio Sandoval did not provide exact figures on the number of casualties suffered in the attacks, almost all of which occurred in the western state of Michoacan. The army had previously acknowledged that soldiers had been wounded in Michoacan by improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. Sandoval did not say when the attacks took place, but suggested they targeted patrol units. He said the army was acquiring anti-drone systems to combat the threat.

Maduro victory sparks fears of new exodus of Venezuelans (AFP) A despondent Jose Vasquez, 31, has decided to join a mass exodus of Venezuelans seeking a better life elsewhere, having lost all hope in his future with the contested reelection of President Nicolas Maduro. “There is no light at the end of the tunnel. I’m leaving,” the 31-year-old told AFP. Some 7.5 million people have already left the country in the last decade to escape the oil-rich nation’s grave economic crisis, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR). And surrounding nations are bracing for another exodus after Maduro was declared the victor of Sunday’s election. The opposition claims it was the rightful winner and the dispute has sparked deadly protests, leaving at least 16 dead. Vasquez studied to be a teacher, but now works as a salesman, as salaries in his chosen profession were so low “that they are useless.” Ahead of the vote, pollster ORC Consultores had found that 18 percent of Venezuelans were considering emigrating within six months if Maduro remained in power.

The ‘cheaper’ Paris Olympics (Yahoo News) There are very few cases where something that costs nearly $9 billion can be called “cheap.” The Paris Olympics is one of them. While the 2024 Summer Games do carry an enormous price tag, it is significantly lower than other recent editions of the event. The numbers can vary wildly based on what’s counted as an Olympic expense, but the most recent high-quality estimate puts the cost of Tokyo’s 2021 Games at $13.7 billion, Rio in 2016 at $23.6 billion and London in 2012 at $16.8 billion. Recent Winter Olympics have also come with staggering price tags, with estimates for the 2022 Games in Beijing running as high as $35 billion. So relative to those examples, Paris really can argue that it hosted its Games on the cheap. The primary way the Paris organizing committee kept costs down was by relying on existing venues for the competition, rather than building a series of brand-new arenas as previous hosts have done. Roughly 95% of the competition will take place in venues that already exist or in temporary ones that are much more affordable than the permanent locations that other hosts have built—which often become little-used “white elephants” after the Games are completed.

Ukraine hits airfield, fuel depots, sub in overnight drone attacks on Russian regions (New York Post) A massive drone attack walloped the military command center Russia is using to wage its war against Ukraine on Saturday. The overnight barrage destroyed ammunition plants and fuel depots in Russia’s Belgorod, Kursk, and Rostov regions. Among the successful targets was the Morozovsk airfield, where Russia keeps its fighter-bomber jets. The Russian airfield has played a crucial role in the Kremlin’s operations against Ukraine. Russia also lost its B-237 Rostov-on-Don attack submarine, which was sunk Saturday outside Sevastopol in Ukrainian bomb strikes. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense noted on X the sub was now resting at “the bottom of the Black Sea.”

Dozens killed as anti-government protests resume in Bangladesh (Washington Post) Violence erupted between Bangladeshi security forces and anti-government protesters Sunday, killing at least 57 people, according to a Washington Post tally of reports from hospitals and police. Local media placed the toll even higher, saying nearly 100 people had died. At least 14 police officers were among the dead, Enamul Haque, a police spokesperson, said in a statement. Hospital officials in several districts, including Magura and Sirajsganj, said many of the victims they received had bullet wounds. Sunday’s protests are the latest bout of unrest in the South Asian country—where some 200 people were killed last month in clashes between security forces and student protesters.

Bombs Rain Down in Myanmar as Junta Evades Sanctions to Buy Jet Fuel (NYT) The family ducked for cover when junta jets roared over their home in central Myanmar. U Har San and his wife crawled under a table, and their daughter, eight months pregnant, hid under a bed. Bombs rained down, he said, even though no rebel fighters were in their village. Their daughter died. The attack last month on the village of Lat Pan Hla is a feature of Myanmar’s brutal war strategy. Unable to defeat the rebels on the ground, it has increased its indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets to terrorize the population. The airstrikes have also taken a heavy toll on resistance fighters. But the resistance fighters continue to make gains on the ground. In recent weeks, rebel armies seized a prison in Shan State, freeing hundreds of political prisoners, and on the opposite side of the country, another rebel army captured a civilian airport in Rakhine State. The escalating attacks on civilians have made it clear that Myanmar is evading sanctions aimed at blocking the flow of jet fuel that the regime needs to keep its bombers, fighter jets and helicopter gunships in the air. In separate attacks, the junta recently bombed a wedding and a monastery, killing some 60 people.

With Smugglers and Front Companies, China Is Skirting American A.I. Bans (NYT) In the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, a mazelike market stretches for a half-mile, packed with stalls selling every type of electronic imaginable. It’s an open secret that vendors here are offering one of the world’s most sought-after technologies: the microchips that create artificial intelligence, which the United States is battling to keep out of Chinese hands. One vendor said he could order the chips for delivery in two weeks. Another said companies came to the market ordering 200 or 300 chips from him at a time. A third business owner said he recently shipped a big batch of servers with more than 2,000 of the most advanced chips made by Nvidia, the U.S. tech company, from Hong Kong to mainland China. As evidence, he showed photos and a message with his supplier arranging the April delivery for $103 million. The United States, with some success, has tried to control the export of these chips. Still, The New York Times has found an active trade in restricted A.I. technology—part of a global effort to help China circumvent U.S. restrictions amid the countries’ growing military rivalry.

Countries urge nationals to leave Lebanon as Mid-East war fears grow (BBC) The US has urged its citizens to leave Lebanon on “any ticket available”, amid worries of a wider conflict in the Middle East. An increasing number of countries issue similar warnings, including the UK. Iran has vowed “severe” retaliation against Israel, which it blames for the death of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday. His assassination came hours after Israel killed Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut. Western officials fear that Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia and political movement based in Lebanon, could play a heavy role in any such retaliation, which in turn could spark a serious Israeli response. The UK, Sweden, France, Canada and Jordan have urged their citizens to leave Lebanon, as a growing number of flights are cancelled or suspended at the country’s only commercial airport, in Beirut.

In Gaza, Even Poetry and Toilets Aren’t Safe From Thieves (NYT) As he perused a market selling everything from stolen children’s shoes to battered plumbing pipes, Mahmoud al-Jabri was surprised to find something familiar: his own book collection. Among the collection was his first published work of poems, with his handwriting scrawled along the margins. Even more shocking than seeing the book he had toiled for years to create was that the vendor wanted a paltry 5 shekels, or about $1, for it. The salesman suggested using the pages for kindling. “I was torn between two feelings,” he said, “laughter and bitterness.” In Gaza, even poetry books can become a source of profit for enterprising thieves. A pervasive lawlessness has emerged from the rubble of cities obliterated since Israel launched its all-out offensive on the enclave in retaliation for the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7. “Thieves’ markets,” as they are called by locals, have proliferated across Gaza, selling loot plundered from homes, businesses and even hospitals. With Israel blocking the flow of most goods into Gaza, the markets have become important places for finding household necessities. And visits to the markets have become a weary ritual for Gazans seeking to reclaim stolen pieces of their lives.

Israeli raids in West Bank cities help fuel militant violence (Washington Post) Israeli raids targeting Palestinian militants in the West Bank are taking an enormous toll on daily life in the territory, leaving hundreds dead and neighborhoods destroyed, tactics residents and local fighters say are feeding resentment and causing more unrest. Since the Oct. 7 attacks, Israeli forces have killed 554 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the United Nations, which is higher than any annual total since the United Nations began counting in 2005. Thousands more have been arrested or wounded, in sweeping operations backed by drones, warplanes and helicopter gunships. Israel, which occupies the West Bank, says the firepower is necessary to prevent attacks on Israeli citizens. But the forays into Palestinian cities and refugee camps have done little to subdue the militants. Instead, the violence is helping grow their ranks, furnishing new recruits angered by the conflict. “They are destroying all the infrastructure, the electricity, the shops,” Ashraf Jaradat, 42, said just hours after Israeli forces withdrew following a raid on Jenin on July 5. An airstrike targeting five militants that day shattered Jaradat’s windows and cracked the water tank on his roof. “We get sick and tired of this,” he said. “The children are traumatized.”

#headlines #news

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wurenjieting · 5 months ago

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The concerns of the 19th century amateur moralists were also echoed in 21st century sporting paranoia about gender. Although levels of formal equality had risen in the latter part of the 20th century—by 1984 even the International Olympic Committee had accepted that women were perfectly capable of running marathons—the boundaries between male and female were more strictly policed than ever. In soccer FIFA banned female Mexico striker Maribel Dominguez from playing for the Mexican men’s second division side Celaya FC in 2004 because “there must be a clear separation between men’s and women’s football”. In 2009 the case of Caster Semenya, an 18 year old black South African woman middle-distance runner, once more brought the gender paranoia of sport to the fore. Suspected of “being a man”, she was forced to undergo an “examination” in which “her feet were placed in stirrups, her genitals were photographed and her internal organs were examined”. Following an international outcry Semenya was eventually allowed to compete again. The International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) even granted itself the power to determine the most intimate part of human identity: the sex of an individual. Indeed, any IAAF race-day medical official was given this right. “The Medical Delegate shall also have the authority to arrange for the determination of the gender of an athlete should he [sic] judge that to be desirable,” read rule 113 of the IAAF Competition Rules. The IOC requires transgender athletes to have had sex reassignment surgery at least two years before they compete as women. And despite the fact that similar medical conditions can also be found in men as well as women, male athletes are not subject to testing. This is because the underlying yet predominant concern of sports organisations is policing an arbitrary boundary between male and female, just as it was in its formative era of Victorian amateurism. Then as now, modern sport is founded on the affirmation of strict gender division, in which women are subordinate to the masculine ideal, and those who do not conform are condemned.

—— Tony Collins, "The Meaning of Murdoch: Sport in the New World Order", Capitalism and Sport

#Tony Collins #The Meaning of Murdoch: Sport in the New World Order #Capitalism and Sport

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brookstonalmanac · 5 months ago

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Events 6.23 (before 1950)

229 – Sun Quan proclaims himself emperor of Eastern Wu. 1266 – War of Saint Sabas: In the Battle of Trapani, the Venetians defeat a larger Genoese fleet, capturing all its ships. 1280 – The Spanish Reconquista: In the Battle of Moclín the Emirate of Granada ambush a superior pursuing force, killing most of them in a military disaster for the Kingdom of Castile. 1305 – A peace treaty between the Flemish and the French is signed at Athis-sur-Orge. 1314 – First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn (south of Stirling) begins. 1532 – Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France sign the "Treaty of Closer Amity With France" (also known as the Pommeraye treaty), pledging mutual aid against Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. 1565 – Dragut, commander of the Ottoman navy, dies during the Great Siege of Malta. 1594 – The Action of Faial, Azores. The Portuguese carrack Cinco Chagas, loaded with slaves and treasure, is attacked and sunk by English ships with only 13 survivors out of over 700 on board. 1611 – The mutinous crew of Henry Hudson's fourth voyage sets Henry, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in an open boat in what is now Hudson Bay; they are never heard from again. 1683 – William Penn signs a friendship treaty with Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania. 1713 – The French residents of Acadia are given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia, Canada. 1757 – Battle of Plassey: Three thousand British troops under Robert Clive defeat a 50,000-strong Indian army under Siraj ud-Daulah at Plassey. 1758 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Krefeld: British, Hanoverian, and Prussian forces defeat French troops at Krefeld in Germany. 1760 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Landeshut: Austria defeats Prussia. 1780 – American Revolution: Battle of Springfield fought in and around Springfield, New Jersey (including Short Hills, formerly of Springfield, now of Millburn Township). 1794 – Empress Catherine II of Russia grants Jews permission to settle in Kyiv. 1810 – John Jacob Astor forms the Pacific Fur Company. 1812 – War of 1812: Great Britain revokes the restrictions on American commerce, thus eliminating one of the chief reasons for going to war. 1860 – The United States Congress establishes the Government Printing Office. 1865 – American Civil War: At Fort Towson in the Oklahoma Territory, Confederate Brigadier General Stand Watie surrenders the last significant Confederate army. 1868 – Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called the "Type-Writer". 1887 – The Rocky Mountains Park Act becomes law in Canada creating the nation's first national park, Banff National Park. 1894 – The International Olympic Committee is founded at the Sorbonne in Paris, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin. 1913 – Second Balkan War: The Greeks defeat the Bulgarians in the Battle of Doiran. 1914 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa takes Zacatecas from Victoriano Huerta. 1919 – Estonian War of Independence: The decisive defeat of the Baltische Landeswehr in the Battle of Cēsis; this date is celebrated as Victory Day in Estonia. 1926 – The College Board administers the first SAT exam. 1931 – Wiley Post and Harold Gatty take off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island in an attempt to circumnavigate the world in a single-engine plane. 1938 – The Civil Aeronautics Act is signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the United States. 1940 – Henry Larsen begins the first successful west-to-east navigation of Northwest Passage from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. 1941 – The Lithuanian Activist Front declares independence from the Soviet Union and forms the Provisional Government of Lithuania; it lasts only briefly as the Nazis will occupy Lithuania a few weeks later. 1942 – World War II: Germany's latest fighter aircraft, a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, is captured intact when it mistakenly lands at RAF Pembrey in Wales. 1947 – The United States Senate follows the United States House of Representatives in overriding U.S. President Harry S. Truman's veto of the Taft–Hartley Act.

#Events

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koikishu · 3 years ago

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Parade of Nations - Mexico

French: Mexique // English: Mexico // Japanese: メキシコ (Mekishiko)

Mexico formed its National Olympic Committee in 1923 and participated in its first Olympics as a country at the 1900 Paris Summer Olympics. They’ve hosted 1 Summer Olympic Games and they’ve participated in 23 Summer Games and 9 Winter Games. The Olympic sports in which Mexico has medaled are Archery, Athletics, Basketball, Boxing, Cycling, Diving, Equestrian, Fencing, Football (Soccer), Modern Pentathlon, Polo, Shooting, Swimming, Taekwondo, Weightlifting, and Wrestling.

Kimono Maker: Hiroshi Tomihisa, Igeta-no-Kai/ 冨久洋監修井桁の会

“Focusing on the "colorful" culture of Mexico, which boasts a long history and coexists with many tribes, the Aztec calendar pattern is likened to a Japanese working pattern, and is arranged symmetrically around the back stitch. Since it is not symmetrical up, down, left and right, weaving this design required complicated and precise calculations and a huge amount of data, but it was successful. In addition, the design was shipped from Otomi embroidery on the hem, and five colors of imprinting were applied to the thread, and it took an enormous amount of time to woven the thread. This work renews the traditional Kurume Kasuri, which expresses the dignity and diversity of Mexican culture.”[1]

Obi Maker: Kaoru Sei/ 盛かおる

“The design is composed of colorful and vivid striped patterns with the motif of "Sarape", a traditional Mexican fabric. Taking advantage of the characteristics of the author's work, both ends are plain weave and the central part is a double structure, and the central part is woven with the traditional Japanese pattern of arrow fletching motif, which expresses the feeling of friendship between Japan and Mexico. It is a work.” [1]

Bibliography

Source 1 – Kimono Project for Mexico

(https://kimono.piow.jp/nation/139.html)

Index Page – IOWKP x Tokyo 2020 Parade of Nations

#kimono #furisode #ofurisode #imagineoneworldkimonoproject #iowkp #tokyo2020 #kimonoparadeofnations #kpon #mexico #mexicokimono #mexicofurisode

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elysianslove · 3 years ago

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SAL I’m begging you please I need to find that video of the three Mexican olympians testing the durability of those cardboard beds

My roommate never saw it and doesn’t know what I’m talking about when I say the olympics are a pure fuckfest and the committee tried to “discourage sexual activity” with cardboard beds

I know those beds are for sustainability reasons but she’s kinda shook that it’s completely normal for athletes to hook up at the olympics

I WANT THE VIDEO TOO PLS IF ANYONE HAS IT SEND IT hebsjdd but yeah omg ive heard so many stories about the olympics. it’s like what happens at the olympic village stays at the olympic village 😭 i remember reading an article about how it’s a “why not” type of thing like. everyone there is some degree of hot, especially because they’re all fit so like. why not fuck 💀😭

#— zoe 💍

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kuramirocket · 3 years ago

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This Friday the Mexican delegation has released the long-awaited gala uniform with Oaxacan embroidery at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games .

This suit is navy blue with the jacket lapel embroidered with motifs from the beautiful state of Oaxaca, all handmade and different from each other. The men wore joggers and the women shorts with a Tehuana headdress , typical of the region. All the athletes completed the uniform with tennis shoes and white shirts, as well as a mask of the same color with the flag of Mexico.

The design was chosen from three proposals put to a vote by the High Life company . The shortlist was made up of clothing with elements inspired by the original peoples of Mexico and aspects where the Mexican identity is exalted: Oaxacan embroidery, charrería elements or the stone of the sun. And the Oaxacan embroidery won!

“They blend elegantly with the modernity represented by a suit made from a high-quality dry-fit fabric. It is wrinkle free, allows perspiration and dries quickly, ”commented the Mexican Olympic Committee in April , when the suit was chosen.

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The ceremony

The Mexican delegation, made up of 97 men and 65 women, were flagged by golfer Gaby López and diver Rommel Pacheco , who waved the flag with great enthusiasm at their presentation.

Oaxacan embroidery

The design worn by the athletes uses Zapotec artisan pieces, inspired by the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca.

“Large, colorful flowers add vitality to this gala ensemble. The embroidery was made by hand by women from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, inspired by the wonderful nature of the southeastern region of the country. "

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According to Forbes , the suits will be on sale in High Life boutiques and can be customized to suit users. They will cost between 1,500 and 12 thousand Mexican pesos, depending on the materials chosen.

#🇲🇽#mexico #tokyo olympics #tokyo olympics 2021 #indigenous #oaxaca mexico #oaxaca #zapotec

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mr-nauseam · 3 years ago

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Crisis 1968

Olympics.

There are many opinions that agree that it was due to an event of such magnitude make that things were precipitated and the massacre took place on October 2. We must know that we only have speculation about how things would have happened if Mexico had not been the venue for those Olympics, however it is undeniable that despite this, the repression and the massacre would probably have been inevitable, with the great distinction that they might not have done a mass murder in one night and the policy of censorship might not have been that strong.

Mexico had a lot to prove with the Olympics, from showing the Olympic committee that the latitude and altitude of the capital (Distrito Federal/Federal District at that time) were not going to interfere with the practice of various sports, to setting the precedent of being the first Latin American nation under development to carry out such an event. The pressure of having soon on October 12 a large foreign public and in general various media with an eye on the Mexican nation and all its steps, were the ones that precipitated this decision.

Batallon Olimpia. (Olympia Battalion).

It is said that a small army was created in charge of infiltrating the rally that was going to take place on October 2, their name referring to the event that they were going to protect and safeguard: the Olympics. They wore a white glove on one of their hands to distinguish themselves from the crowd, they were in charge of arresting the members of the Consejo Nacional de Huelga/National Strike Council (CNH).

La plaza de las tres culturas- Tlatelolco.

(The square of the three cultures-Tlatelolco)

Finally, before arriving at the massacre of October 2, I think it is relevant to know what the scene of this unfortunate event was like, the square of the three cultures receives this name because it combines an archaeological zone of the pre-hispanic era, cathedrals and constructions of the colonial era and the meeting of the Tlatelolco tower and the housing units, which represent the current urban landscape. It would be on this site that the CNH would organize a large rally attended by many students, teachers, workers, etc. This without counting the people who, as I said, lived in the housing units of Tlatelolco, the space was closed and isolated.

That is why it was the ideal place for what happened on October 2, at this point if someone still does not know what happened the answer is simple and it is the most that can be said about it: the army (with tanks included) murdered people who attended the rally but it was not only that, it was absolute despair, people who lived in Tlatelolco were suddenly afraid, because the military entered the building looking for students who have taken refuge there, the church never opened its doors to help anyone and In a single night, many people - mainly members of the CNH - were arrested and thousands disappeared (died).

The newspapers declared 40 dead officially, the blame fell on the members of the student movement. The next day, as if it had been a bad nightmare, people woke up to find not corpses, but a floor stained with blood and fearful faces. 10 days later in Mexico the Olympic games were inaugurated, we received foreign countries with warmth and kindness, while in a silent way there were women looking with regret for the children who never returned or the relatives who did not return from that rally. They received no answers, no bodies to bury.

It took many years for the truth to be known and even so, today we are still sunk in the shadows, whatever happened that night is a mystery, from which only echoes and sobs resound that are inaccessible to us, due to the censorship, for those who were later murdered when trying to publicize these facts (only foreigners survived, because Mexico is smart and knows that taking those lives would be getting into international trouble), it took us a long time to understand and know a little about what the 2 means October.

For that reason today it is said on this date:

¡Ni perdono ni olvido!, ¡2 de octubre no se olvida!

(I neither forgive nor forget!, October 2 is not forgotten!)

Because Mexicans want to record it with fire in their minds, because this trauma was lived in silence, this trauma that made several doubt their sanity and this trauma that has not been able to heal because it took so much to be able to speak it with some freedom. @needcake

#history of mexico #mexican history #1968 #la masacre de tlatelolco #repression #ni perdono ni olvido #2 de octubre #2 de octubre no se olvida

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sarkos · 3 years ago

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This is all true to form for the IOC. On the eve of the 1968 games, the Mexican government slaughtered over 300 protesters in cold blood and launched a war of terror on the student movement that opposed it. When the then IOC president, Avery Brundage, was asked to comment on the matter, he replied: “I was at the ballet.” He then reacted to the greatest ever display of athlete activism at the games – the black power salutes – by destroying the careers of Tommie Smith and John Carlos. The IOC’s history is one of genuflecting before power and violence, and bullying the athletes it claims to revere. An Olympic Covid spike could yet kill more people in Tokyo than the Mexican state managed with mere bullets, and the IOC’s ruthless suppression of athlete protest is primed with new regulations. The committee won’t get the irony though, because it does not learn from its mistakes and it does not engage with its critics. Self-selected for the entirety of its history, the IOC appoints no independents, tolerates no critical voices and is completely opaque in its operations. The idea that such an organisation should have special status at the UN and claim sovereignty over the global governance of sport is untenable.

After Tokyo, we should bring the Olympic charade to an end | David Goldblatt | The Guardian

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everydayanth · 5 years ago

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American Beauty Standard: A Brief History and Modern Application

I learned this in an anthropology class and I don’t remember the resources, but I know one of them was Tocqueville talking about the American obsession with committees and associations as a way to accomplish tasks with people from tons of different cultures and backgrounds and no formal aristocratic class.

So, back in the day of colonial America all the way through like... probably modern day if we’re honest, wealthy families that came to America kept strong ties with relatives or positions in their home countries. When their sons came of age to marry, they would often find a wealthy upper-class woman from their home country or ethnic background to wed, which meant that wealth circulated the culture it was coming from. A wealthy English lad would go to London and find himself a lady to bring to the US, a wealthy Frenchman would stay with his family in Paris or wherever, the would tour the continent blah blah, and come home with an upstanding lady of the gentry.

UNLESS an American girl could catch their interests first. This was why American girls were taught independent skills (homemaking rather than the class skills of entertaining), why they were allowed to marry for love (lack of a gentry class and singular cultural/social rules to follow), and why, at the end of the day, beauty became the most valuable tool.

Because a poor American girl who was beautiful and useful could out compete the European class rules of etiquette to secure herself a wealthy husband. And if you start there and work your way forward, our obsessions with smart or pretty girls (but watch out for too-smart or too-pretty), our beauty pageants and cosmetics advertising, our taboos and traditions, our girl vs. girl competition, it all starts to make sense.

Because being beautiful, witty, and useful meant you could be noticed and loved or admired, and married to a wealthy man. Wealth meant comfort and comfort meant safety and safety meant security and security meant freedom. Isn’t that what we all want? Isn’t that what we still want? Aren’t we still just competing for independence, for respect and freedom? Same tools, in many ways the same world. Girls fighting over college admissions, internships, medical research funds, they aren’t any different from girls competing in beauty pageants or arts, it’s always about freedom and for some, beauty is a way to get there.

There are a lot of socially aware people on the internet and I just wanted to add this nugget of history to the conversation about beauty standards. We seem to be aware that being able to follow trends is a sign of wealth, we seem to easily discuss that beauty standards themselves are an impossible oppressive tool to control and manipulate, and we are perfectly blunt about the wealth of industries capitalizing off insecurities. I wanted to bring this history into the conversation as well. Because like it or not, competition and our ability to be “wives” has historically been part of “American” culture since colonization, and that includes an incredible amount of isolated puritan and protestant extremists coming to the “new world” because their countries called them out on some bullshit or maintained economically exclusive advantageous relationships with their leaders.

Anyway: American [white] female beauty standards begin with competition for wealthy husbands and the illusion of comfort and freedom they could provide (with plenty of truth to the illusion) and still exists today. American girls were taught to “make” a home as a resource for their husbands while their European counterparts (of the same [similar] class) were often taught to entertain and host within the home as an accessory to her husband’s success, as expected by their class and/or station (often equally oppressive).

There are so many other interesting components to the conversation as well and I just figure that if we’re interested in having it at all, I might throw some other things out here:

WARNING: Long geeking rant about individual body adaptions and why they are incredibly beautiful follows:

Like how male beauty also evolved, with Americans emphasizing the fitness of a laborer or farmer, becoming the independent middle class, while their middle class European counterparts were often more slight and “intelligent” (relative, as perceived by access to education) businessmen, lawyers, doctors, etc., as they retained the inherited gentry and the American self-made man became more desirable to American women who had no single cultural courtship ritual and so relied on love and picking out a reliable husband based on their own choosing (which leads to its own conversation on American victim-blaming in assaults on females, especially when combined with that puritan past).

Which is then complicated further when looking at pockets of immigration where different adapted physical male bodies are living next to one another in America (the Dutch and Polish of W. Mich are a great example). They are separated by countries in Europe, so their different builds are suddenly compared in an entirely new environment that doesn’t necessarily fulfill their previous adaptions (MI isn’t as cold as Poland, so the shorter stature isn’t as useful, while the sexual selection of the tall Dutch male remains, it isn’t as differentiated from other larger Europeans (like lowland Germans and Scandinavians), and so isn’t as genetically insulated.

Anyway, these are all focused on “white America,” other cultures and ethnicities will also have changing and adaptive standards for different reasons. There are also some we will share as a whole culture. We’re having smaller families so each child will want to be the most healthy available. Guess what big booties are a sign of? Healthy babies (the type of rich fat stored in the butt is used to help form baby brains and shit), so as a general correlation, humans tend to figure out that curves = healthy babies. As our family-size expectations get smaller with the lowering of infant mortality and rise of individual life expectancy/health/comfort of average citizen, and as we push the age of first conception, we want to make sure that one-shot kid is healthy af.

Being black anywhere but the American South is hard, and even that’s muggy and wet as opposed to the drier conditions of the west coast of Africa many African Americans were adapted for when brought as slaves. Which means the likelihood of being vitamin D deficient is higher, without being too crass or negating to address social racism issues, I’ll round it out and say we’re all going to eventually have a Brazil effect, where people living in areas for a long while will adapt to them or “breed into” them and we all become a similar middle skintone. The SW US is going to be more “Mexican” because that’s the “proper” (ie most useful) adaptive skin tone to protect from the changing climate there, while those in a place like the Olympic Peninsula in WA are going to be a bit lighter as an adaption to the weather, but probably not as white as Europeans.

What is natural for an area’s skintone is also based on diet. The Inuit and Sami live at a similar parallel but the Inuit are much darker skinned on average. Why? Well, they eat more fish and seafood with Omega3s and Vitamin D (therefore needing less of the Vitamin D to enter through skin from sunlight) and live often on open plains (therefore absorbing more sunlight when it is there), while the Sami eat more red meats from reindeer herds with less Vitamin D, and travel through fields/forests (therefore needing more Vitamin D to enter through skin which results in lighter skin).

My favorite statistic I ever learned was that on average, an African’s skin can absorb NINE TIMES more sunlight than their European counterpart without getting burned. Nine times! For one hour in the hazy European sun, a black person would need to spend nine (+) to get proper Vitamin D amounts, while in Africa, a white person after ONE HOUR would begin to burn from too much uv. That’s so cool! Bodies are crazy awesome!

That applies to hair texture as well, black hair is often coiled to protect the head (you know, cus we stand on two legs and it’s in the sun all the time). Two inches of coiled black hair can dispose of that 9x uv by holding onto water and a bunch of other crazy amazing processes, while two inches of white hair generally dries quickly and lies flat against the head to insulate and keep warm, not expel heat.

Hair, eye, and skin color are all affected by melanin counts in the body (or melanocytes, which is where melanin is created, including collections of melanin at melanocytes which cause freckles and moles!), lots of melanin produced by the body makes someone darker skinned, but that doesn’t mean they need the coiled hair protection from the sun, which gives us so many varieties of follicle shape (which is what defines the curl tightness or looseness of a hair, with round holes producing straight hair and curved/slanted holes producing curls and coils like how you curl a Christmas ribbon with scissors, which means yes, you can have curly patches on your skull, your hair will change as you grow and based on your diet, hydration, products, etc.).

Having little to no melanin makes someone “albino,” or extremely light (which affects eyesight as having little or no pigment in the iris doesn’t shield the retina from light, though some may simply have extremely low pigment with light blue eyes). There are in-between colors like red hair, hazel/green eyes, and highly-freckled skin that result from different concentrations of melanin in different parts of the body, and there are things like heterochromia (different color eyes) which result from different concentrations of melanin in the same body part, and other things like Vitiligo (what Michael Jackson had), where concentrations in melanin change overtime, in this case from the shutting down of melanocytes which then produce little or no pigment for the skin, causing patches of whiteness.

There are so many ways for bodies to be different from one another and it’s incredible when you start to understand how unique our individual combinations are! Nose size is a direct correlation to air humidity, as are our sinuses. Face shape can often be the result of language, people from the American midwest accent will have rounder cheek apples from pulling their mouths wide and working different muscles than those with say, an RP British accent who pull their jaws down and cheeks in instead of wide on many vowels, resulting in more defined cheekbones. Jawlines are a symbol of genetic diet, if you have a less defined jaw, your ancestors were probably coastal people, more adapted to seafood proteins, which requires less chewing than those in higher altitude and mountain regions, which would require herds of red meat or poultry for protein, which is more chewing, plus the different textures plants must have to grow at different altitudes and climates. This is a loose correlation and there are plenty of other factors that combine to make different results, but they always fascinate me!

Why are African men often stereotypically faster than Europeans? Because their adapted environment is often flat savannah and adaptions for running long distances and fitting the climate generally involve being tall to expel more heat through the skin (while a cold-adapted person is generally more stout and short to keep more heat in with less skin surface area – there are always exceptions for other reasons, the Dutch are tall due to sexual preference of females, the African Baka people are shorter due to reasons still being discovered, most recently it is thought to due with denying puberty growth hormones because denying them retains immunity to certain dangers found in the environment or provides some advantages over niche environments). Part of being adapted tall and slim to dispel heat (Allen and Bergman’s laws for you curiosos) is that pelvises are more narrow, males even more than females, and narrow hips mean more straight femurs rather than the slight bow of wider/rounder hips, which means, if you go to physics, a faster turnover with no need for overcorrecting the bow, and less strain on joints. While a European body adapted to its environment would require different survival adaptations, the bow of the femur allows for less speed, but often more agility for moving through forests and up and down highland slopes and rocky craigs. Again, there are always exceptions, which is why you cannot identify race by a skeleton, though there are probabilities.

Adaptions to altitude are their own category and they begin from birth and before. It’s so cool! Being born in high altitudes develops larger lungs for taking in more oxygen in the less oxygen-dense atmosphere, which can develop into barrel lung, where the chest is nice and round like a barrel to allow the lungs full expansion. That’s so cool! When I go to higher altitudes, my sea-level coastal body is just like... wheeze. I also broke a bunch of ribs and they don’t expand easily due to complications, so it’s even harder for me to be at a higher altitude now, being adapted to it if I have to live there sounds ideal.

We seem to understand things like race are a result of biological adaptation to environments, but we don’t often carry on the conversation past that. What does adapting to climate change look like? What about colonization and immigration? What about pollution? What adaptions happened in the past, did we lose them when they were no longer necessary? How long does it take for people to become adapted to a new environment? Generations? Why do we socially present some things as more desirable than others? Why do we create beauty standards at all? How does a shared culture of diverse backgrounds even have a “standard?”

Everything comes down to predicting health and trying to live longer, to protect ourselves from danger. Whether that’s trying to be accepted by an outsider community or blending in with the “standard” at large, our understanding of beauty will continue to change as our social, political, economic, and climate/environment aspects of our shared culture change as well. For me, learning about why my body is the way it is was endlessly enlightening. Any doubts about my big nose (which was also broken, so bigger than my relatives’) are quelled by understanding that it helps humidify and avoid that horrible feeling I hate in dry air where it feels like my nose is going to start bleeding (I’ve only gotten it in saunas though). Moving around the country helped too, I understood a lot more about the purpose of those adaptions and saw how different localized beauty is marketed.

In Southern California, along the coast, the ocean spray makes everyone’s hair a bit curly, the humidity is high and I loved it (Jake, not so much). But the sun got to me. I got so many new freckles and my skin was always a bit dry, I had to work extra hard to stay hydrated and moisturized (even though my Polish side tans really well and I don’t burn easily, I was always dehydrated). Then we moved up to Seattle and I loved it even more! My hair stayed curly (though I’ve since learned that shower water and products make the biggest difference), I got more freckles as my skin adapted to not needing so much melanin and my hair got a lot darker for a while, my eyes seemed to get lighter in San Diego, which was crazy (and kinda cool). Then we moved to the desert-desert, the straight Mojave, and my body did not love it. I smelled all the time (dry air, my sweat is made for humid, but not too humid lol, that’s why I think white people smell in Asia and it’s not just a stereotype), my hair got sun-bleached and I lost a lot of the curl, it wasn’t the worst, but I was only there for a few months. Then we came to New England and I started to notice the change in trends and how my own preferences had changed in beauty and fashion. Marginal peripheral influence will do a lot and I can’t imagine living in that with none of the “qualifying” standards.

So basically, I’m writing this book of a post to say that if we step back and look at all the pieces, they have reasons, some of them shallow, others valid, but that they are changing and will always be changing and so is all of humanity. Your body is doing amazing things to protect you every single day, beyond digesting your food and feeding you dopamine. Every single thing about it has a purpose and a goal or a reason, except for maybe genetic mutations. I’m not going to go stand on a hill and say you’re missing an arm or your body hates you for a reason, my body built my stomach outside of me during fetal development and I promise that was just a fuck up, there was no reason (but my mom will tell you there was and it was God).

Bodies are crazy cool, sometimes they mess up and make cancer and don’t notice and it gets too big and we need help. Sometimes they only have one red-haired gene and we get blonde and brunette men with confusing bright red beards (lol, Jake), sometimes we’re in the middle of an adaption and we get patchy beards while living in a society that values them (looking at you, boys from genetic lines of men adapting to humidity where beards kinda suck or cultures that don’t like them). Sometimes we have been moved to a place where our genes aren’t as advantageous or actually hurt us and we don’t know about it or have to work harder than others to stay healthy, and sometimes our native or natural diet isn’t available to us and we work really hard to stay healthy but our bodies just don’t respond because they can’t or won’t.

For some people it feels overwhelming, or blasphemous, to talk about humanity as a whole, to look at ourselves as a single version of all the endless possible combinations of changes that can happen in a body, but I find it incredible! There is no one like you, but there are people who are similar, there are places where you’re perfect and there are cultural adaptions to help you when you’re not. Understanding the reason or purpose behind the body’s reasons for selection or change, combined with the lottery of your localized DNA options from your parents and potential genetic mutations during development and later in life, understanding that the body is always changing and adapting to what is best for you or catching up from past changes can explain so much of ourselves!

I just think it’s really cool!

I used to geek out about it a lot more and Jake would play a game where he would point at a face and ask me to guess their genetic heritage or combination of peoples/geographies. He still does it sometimes, I’m pretty good at it, but it’s more fun to be wrong and surprised, if I’m honest. Humans are just cool.

That being said, if there’s a thing about yourself you don’t like or don’t understand, that you feel doesn’t fit in to beauty standards and never will (for me, it was my nose and freckles, why so many freckles?), shoot me a message and I’ll do my best to tell you why it might be a thing so you can appreciate the incredible diversity of your own body as it adapts to your ancestors’ forced or willing migrations and changes to fit its new environments!

American beauty standards are complicated, but if there is one thing they always revolve around, it’s a humble confidence in your own value. I found that value in others, in seeing how intricate and unique humans are from each other, which lead to an appreciation of my own unique pieces. No industry standard or media pacification can take that or change it or judge it, because it’s your body doing its absolute best with the tools it has to protect you and make you the safest and most comfortable you can be in any place of the world. <3

#thanks for coming to my ted talk #sorry for the book #sorry not sorry #adaption #humanity #beauty standards #american beauty standards #anthropology #culture #society #beauty #beauty trends #diversity #unique

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Thursday, March 21, 2024

Government budget deadlines and Congress (CNN) After a few months of back and forth, Congress has finally locked in a budget to keep the American government funded for the rest of the fiscal year. The 2024 fiscal year began on October 1, 2023, and ends September 30, 2024, meaning we’re almost halfway through it. Congress had passed a deal setting funding for some agencies earlier this month, but left other parts of the government un-budgeted up until now. Legislators have until 11:59 p.m. ET Friday to pass the bill, or else the federal government will have to contend with a partial shutdown. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, has had to reach across the aisle and work with Democrats despite his party’s majority in the House thanks to a small but vocal group of far-right Republicans.

Mexico Condemns Texas Law, and Says It Will Not Accept Deportations From the State (NYT) Mexico will not accept deportations made by Texas “under any circumstances,” the country’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to allow Texas to arrest migrants who cross into the state without authorization. The ministry condemned the state law, known as Senate Bill 4, saying it would separate families, violate the human rights of migrants and generate “hostile environments” for the more than 10 million people of Mexican origin living in Texas. Mexico’s top diplomat for North America, Roberto Velasco Álvarez, rejected the ruling on the social media on Tuesday, saying that immigration policy was something to be negotiated between federal governments. The Mexican government has severely criticized the measure since last year, and rejected the idea of local or state agencies, rather than federal authorities, detaining and returning migrants and asylum seekers to Mexican territory. (Note: A federal appeals court blocked Texas’s immigration law law just hours after the Supreme Court allowed it to take effect.)

Sex is back at the Olympic Village: Paris will hand out 300,000 condoms (Washington Post) Four new sports, including skateboarding and surfing, will be featured at this summer’s Paris Olympic Games. But one age-old form of physical activity is also set to make a comeback: sex, or as the French call it, “sport in the room.” Organizers in the City of Love are not only turning the page on the covid-era intimacy ban imposed on athletes at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021—they plan to make 300,000 condoms available to residents of the Olympic Village. With that quantity, every resident “will have what they are expecting and what they need,” said Laurent Michaud, director of the Olympic and Paralympic Village, in an interview with Sky News. The news will likely be welcomed by many athletes, who were asked by the International Olympic Committee to “avoid unnecessary forms of physical contact” during the last Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games because of the pandemic.

Polish farmers stage more food protests (Reuters) Polish farmers were planning more than 500 road blockades on Wednesday to protest against cheap food imports from Ukraine and the European Union’s climate policy. Farmers in Poland and across the EU have been calling for changes to restrictions placed on them by the bloc’s Green Deal plan to tackle climate change. They also want the re-imposition of customs duties on imports of agricultural products from neighbouring Ukraine that were waived after Russia’s invasion. They say Ukraine’s farmers are flooding EU markets with cheap imports that leave them unable to compete. Polish police said they knew of more than 580 protests planned for Wednesday, with an estimated participation of 70,000 people.

The war in Ukraine has split the Czechs and Slovaks (Washington Post) The ongoing war in Ukraine is splitting the Czechs and Slovaks all over again—or at least their governments. Over the past month, the marked differences between a staunchly pro-Kyiv government in Prague and Slovakia’s Russia-friendly Prime Minister Robert Fico have come to the fore. On one hand, the Czechs have pioneered a plan to surge desperately needed artillery shells to Ukraine’s front lines, sourcing munitions from the arsenals of countries around the world. On the other, Fico, a populist and four-term prime minister who returned to power at the end of last year after a spell in opposition, has suspended military assistance to Ukraine after campaigning to not send “another bullet” to Kyiv. He has repeatedly called for the war to end with significant Ukrainian concessions to Russia. Since the end of the Cold War and the subsequent bifurcation of Czechoslovakia, the two countries that emerged maintained warm brotherly ties, even when ruling governments in Prague and Bratislava were of differing political stripes. But disagreements over how or how not to support Ukraine have brought about an unprecedented rupture.

Ukraine races to build weapons at home (Washington Post) Ukraine manufactured practically no weapons before Russia invaded in February 2022, but the local arms industry is now booming. Factories spit out shells, mortar rounds, military vehicles, missiles and other items crucial to the war effort. Production tripled in 2023 and is expected to increase sixfold this year, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a Ukrainian government meeting in January. Local production is not sufficient to make up for a loss of international support, especially weapons from the United States. But for certain crucial items, such as the drones that have transformed how the war is fought, Ukraine is already making 90 percent of what it needs, Mykhailo Fedorov, the digital transformation minister, said at a conference last month.

Russia says it will evacuate 9,000 children from a border region being targeted by Ukraine (AP) Russia plans to evacuate about 9,000 children from a border region because it is being shelled continuously by Ukraine, an official said Tuesday, reflecting Kyiv’s increasing focus on striking targets behind a front line that has barely shifted in recent months. The children will be moved from the Belgorod region farther east, away from the Ukraine border, said the region’s governor, Vyacheslev Gladkov. Ukraine has increasingly used its long-range firepower to hit oil refineries and depots deep inside Russia and has sought to unsettle the Russian border regions, putting political pressure on Putin. In addition, Ukraine-based Russian opponents of Putin and the Kremlin have launched cross-border raids.

The world’s 100 worst polluted cities are in Asia—and 83 of them are in just one country (CNN) All but one of the 100 cities with the world’s worst air pollution last year were in Asia, according to a new report, with the climate crisis playing a pivotal role in bad air quality that is risking the health of billions of people worldwide. The vast majority of these cities—83—were in India and all exceeded the World Health Organization’s air quality guidelines by more than 10 times, according to the report by IQAir, which tracks air quality worldwide. “We see that in every part of our lives that air pollution has an impact,” said IQAir Global CEO Frank Hammes. “And it typically, in some of the most polluted countries, is likely shaving off anywhere between three to six years of people’s lives.”

Doing business in China is growing tougher, more uncertain, European business group says (AP) Uncertainty and “draconian regulations” have drastically raised risks for foreign businesses in China, a report by a European business group said Wednesday. The lengthy paper by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China urges China’s leaders to do more to address concerns that it says have “grown exponentially” in recent years. “This report comes at a time when the global business environment is becoming increasingly politicized, and companies are having to make some very tough decisions about how, or in some cases if, they can continue to engage with the Chinese market,” it says. Foreign investment fell 8% last year from a year earlier as companies recalibrated their commitments in the world’s second largest economy.

The Hongkongers worried by new security law (BBC) Hong Kong’s pro-China parliament has passed a tough security law which authorities say is necessary for stability, but which critics fear will further erode civil liberties. Article 23 targets new offences like external interference and insurrection, and penalties include life sentences. Hongkongers have voiced concerns over Article 23, particularly over the use of broad and vague definitions in the legislation. Civil servant George told the BBC he was most concerned about its definition of “state secrets”. “Let’s say a group of colleagues go out to lunch and discuss how to handle some work matters. Will it constitute leaking a state secret? Will we be arrested if someone eavesdrops and spreads the information?” he said. “I am very afraid that we can be accused [of the offence] easily.” George said he had observed an “informant culture” among his colleagues since the earlier law came into force. He estimates that about one-fifth of the employees in his department have resigned in the past three years, with many of them moving overseas. “I won’t talk so much about work with friends any more. Just focus on eating, drinking and having fun,” George said.

No Alternative for Rafah Invasion, Netanyahu Says, as Rift With U.S. Grows (NYT) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Tuesday brushed aside President Biden’s opposition to a planned ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, saying that his government would press ahead despite pleas for restraint from the United States and key allies. Mr. Netanyahu made the remarks to Israeli lawmakers a day after speaking by phone with Mr. Biden, who reiterated his stance against an offensive into Rafah, arguing that it could be disastrous for the people there and that Israel had other ways of achieving its objective of defeating Hamas. “I made it as clear as possible to the president that we are determined to complete the elimination of these battalions in Rafah, and there is no way to do this without a ground incursion,” Mr. Netanyahu said.

Jared Kushner says Gaza’s ‘waterfront property could be very valuable’ (Guardian) As people face famine and violence in Gaza, Jared Kushner is eyeing the area’s waterfront property. In an interview at Harvard earlier this month, Kushner pointed out the “very valuable” potential of Gaza’s “waterfront property” before suggesting that Israel should push Palestinians out of the area as it “cleans up.” He added that Israel should “just bulldoze something in the Negev” and “try to move people in there.” Kushner, if you need a refresher, is the husband of Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, and was a senior foreign policy adviser under his father-in-law’s administration.

Conflict, hunger and disease grip Sudan (BBC) A vicious power struggle between Sudan's army and its former ally, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group, has killed at least 14,000 people, and possibly many more, since the conflict erupted in last April. Besides the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the country, there are also fears that a repeat of the 2003 genocide may be under way in the western region of Darfur. Women who escaped Darfur to neighbouring Chad have given the BBC accounts of being raped—sometimes multiple times—by militiamen. Men in the camps told us they had escaped street executions and abductions. BBC journalists in Omdurman, one of three cities that form the capital Khartoum, say that mortar shells fall daily.

#headlines #news

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