#Overland Flood

[blurban-form]

Drain pipe outlet to street gutter

This one is such a tiny detail, I wouldn’t mention it except I saw it twice.

I believe the little circles in the curb are pipes under the sidewalk so that rain runoff drains under the sidewalk and into the gutter (rather than flowing over the sidewalk.)

(Left side of ramp, under Bingo)

(Below bicycle)

[seat-safety-switch]

Couple years ago, in engineering school, we built this robot for a final project. It was called "Fun Facts Frank," and it – I guess he – would follow you around the room, telling you fun facts about the world. Sounds simple, but there was just something about how he toodle-bootled throughout the place, genially meeting people before dispensing information about salamanders or spaghettini that won over our prof. And then he left the door open.

We never saw Fun Facts Frank again. The other folks in my group looked for him, but I knew it was futile. Against their recommendation, I had strapped a very powerful electric motor and an enormous battery to Frank, because I wasn't sure if we would be able to find an outlet on the day of the big presentation. It turns out that this gave Frank an effective range of "the entire fucking province." Also, Tedward thought it would be cute if Frank could ask you to plug him in when his batteries ran low. Nobody could resist such an adorable robot, so we figured he could easily travel from bar to bar, regurgitating Wikipedia for a couple cents of block-heater-outlet juice at a time.

After a while of searching, we did give up. Final exam season was coming up, and in all that excitement it seemed like Frank was the least important problem on our plates. It wasn't wise to cut out our studying and day-drinking to go searching for a wayward robot, especially one that had been explicitly programmed to avoid harming anyone. We got busy with our careers after that. Years passed before Charlie remembered about it, and by then we really didn't have a good idea where to find him.

Well, one fateful evening, I turned on the news, and Fun Facts Frank had become Mayor Frank. He was apologizing to the small town he had tricked into voting for him. Turns out we never programmed him to have fun facts about how to avoid massive overland flooding, and he instead spent the entire prep period driving around the shore of the river, telling everyone about how hot the surface of Mercury was instead of helping carry sandbags. We went there to pick him up, but he had already been re-elected by then, and his security guards had fun facts about truncheons applied to a bunch of nerds for us as well.

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Clap for the Indian Flapshell Turtle!

The Indian flapshell turtle, also known as Lissemys punctata is a species of softshell turtle found throughout India, as well as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar. It prefers quiet, stagnant freshwater and muddy bottoms, and is most common in slow moving river and streams, marshes, ponds, lakes, and reservoirs. However, this species is also able to tolerate salt water to some degree, and therefore may also be occasionally found in salt marshes and estuaries.

L. punctata gets its common name from the leathery flaps of skin attached to its underbelly, which covers the limbs when they are drawn in and helps individuals retain moisture during the dry season. Female Indian flapshells are larger than males, with a maximum shell length of 35 cm (13 in) and a weight of up to 800 g (28.2 oz), while males reach a maximum of only 23 cm (9 in) and 550 g (19.4 oz). There are three subspecies of the Indian flapshell turtle which may be distinguished by the pattern on their shells. The nominal species, L. p. punctata and L. p. vittata both have smooth, dark brown or olive green shells, while L. p. andersoni has bright yellow spots along the head and back. The underbellies of all subspecies are typically white or pale yellow.

During the wet season, Indian flapshell turtles spend most of their time foraging for food. Their drab colouring allows them to hide easily along muddy bottoms or dense vegetation. L. punctata are opportunistic omnivores, meaning they will eat just about anything that they can find. They are known to feed on a variety of items, including aquatic vegetation, fish, shrimp, snails, crustaceans, mollusks, small mammals and amphibians, and carrion. Adults are predated upon by crocodiles; in the dry season, they may also be opportunistically predated upon by vultures, crows, and wild pigs, as this is when adults are more likely to either burrow into the mud to wait for rain, or move overland in search of water.

Nesting for L. punctata typically occurs at the start of the wet season and continues from June to November. Adult males seek out females and court them by stroking her shell with his flippers. If she is receptive, the pair mirror each other and bob heads before copulation. Afterwards, the female digs a nest close to the edge of the water and lays anywhere from 2-16 eggs. She may lay up to three clutches over the course of the wet season. Incubation typically takes 200-300 days, although some clutches may take up to 400 days to hatch.

Indian flapshell eggs are highly resistant to flooding, and may survive up to 24 hours of submersion. After hatching, the young are completely independent; survival is therefore quite low. Those that make it to adulthood begin reproducing at 2-3 years old, and may live to be up to 20 years.

Conservation status: The IUCN currently lists the Indian flapshell turtle as Least Concern, although recent studies have recommended the species be upgraded to Vulnerable. They are primarily threatened by hunting for meat and medicinal value, as well as poaching for the pet trade. Secondary threats include habitat loss or degredation and road moralities.

Want to request some art or uncharismatic facts? Just send me proof of donation of any amount to any of the fundraisers on this list, or a Palestinian organization of your choice!

Photos

Harikrishnan S

avrajjal via iNaturalist

makarandsaraf via iNaturalist

L. Shyamal

[mylordshesacactus]

Particular shoutout to last week's Great Flood campaign session in which the party demonstrates that we are a well-oiled machine, competent and intelligent, maybe a bit rough around the edges but with hearts of gold and nerves of steel, the kind of unpolished gems that can be trusted to build and defend the future of Luiren.

So our first big quest was looting--WITH PERMISSION--the primary temple of the biggest nearby city, in order to steal a sacred cornucopia that we hoped to use to feed the growing refugee camp near my fighter/druid Sedge Burdock's hometown of Merryfaire, one of the very few settlements left intact after the titular great flood. As part of the deal, the high priestess let us keep everything else of value.

One of the magical items we looted was an enchanted cavalier's saddle. None of us have a mount and Sedge's opinion of it was "kinky" and nothing else, but we kept it and are petulantly refusing to sell it on the reasoning of "just in case" crossed with "fuck off we stole this fair and square".

Anyway. Our next quest sent us on an overland route, so despite extended complaining, Sedge wildshaped into a riding horse (think something of a cross between a mustang and an exmoor pony) so that Korel, the sahuagin totally normal wood elf sorcerer and only member of the party she likes, could ride her there using the saddle and also so she wouldn't have to talk to anybody.

Korel, who lives in the ocean and has literally never seen a horse before this moment, rolled a natural 2 on his attempt to figure out how to ride one.

This sparked an hour-long (in-universe) series of absolute slapstick bullshit in which Korel tried and failed to get onto the horse, random local halflings kept trying to help but were significantly too small to get on the horse--

Our newly-minted and deeply insufferable warlock just gave up on us entirely and spent an hour performing their once-per-day ritual of creating a potion of healing Summon Mineral Water.

So they triumphantly finish summoning their mineral water, Korel finally manages to climb into the saddle and triumphantly punches the air in celebration of having Mastered The Art Of Horsemanship--

At which exact moment, because Sedge only actually has two levels in Druid, the Wildshape times out and she turns back into a halfling with a sahuagin on her back.

[girlactionfigure]

*ISRAEL REALTIME* - "Connecting the World to Israel in Realtime"

🔹No rockets from Gaza yesterday.

▪️Wall Street Journal: Israel informed the US of its intention to establish a buffer zone one kilometer deep in the Gaza Strip.

▪️Shiite militias of Iraq (Iran supported and weapon supplied) state they have shut down Israel’s Haifa and Ashdod ports via suicide drone attack.  “The Islamic resistance in Iraq began the second phase of the naval blockade of the Zionist entity, which includes: a naval blockade in the Mediterranean Sea and the shutdown of its seaports. The siege on it will continue until the blockade of Gaza is lifted and the massacres in the Gaza Strip stop.”  This is called believing your own propaganda and assuming that your enemy failing to report on it is enemy lies.

▪️Flood alert:  Normal Negev and Dead Sea sites for seasonal rain flow are flooding or expected to flood and must be avoided.  Hiking and nature trips should be suspended.  The National Center for Flood Prediction: a flow has been detected down Nahal Ergot, it is expected to reach Highway 90 soon.

▪️The compound and neighborhood where 21 soldiers fell was destroyed yesterday afternoon.

🔶 GAZA-HAMAS Front 

▪️Heavy fighting continues in Khan Yunis, including airstrikes on enemy terror squads.

▪️Enemy action reports: Violent bombardment in various parts of the Gaza Strip now. Israeli aircraft bombed a group of people (fighters - but we report they were children) on the shore of the sea near Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.  Heavy concentration of IDF forces southwest of Gaza City.  IDF tanks firing at buildings next to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, south Gaza.

▪️Gaza Now reports that somehow, nobody knows why (sarcasm), the HUNDREDS of trucks of food aid entering Gaza and sent to north Gaza keep not arriving or arriving mostly empty.  Where is the aid going?

🔶 RED SEA-Houthis Front 

▪️The Pentagon:  Since the 11th of this month, we have destroyed 25 missile launch facilities and more than 20 missiles, drones and radars in Yemen.

▪️Due to the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, the German shipping company Hapag Lloyd announced the launch of an overland corridor from the shores of the Persian Gulf in the UAE and Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea - bypasses the "Houthi problem" and also significantly shortens shipping time - truck shipping the containers across Saudi Arabia and loading them on ships in the northern Red Sea closer to the Suez Canal.

🔶 REGIONAL War 

▪️Iraq:  A wave of American attacks in southwestern Iraq and on the way to Qaim (against Iranian backed Shiite militias that have been attacking US bases).  The area under attack is Jarp al-Nasr, an area that was taken over by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (yes, Iran operating in Iraq).  Iraqi Hezbollah battalions were also attacked.  American planes carried out 5 airstrikes.

🔶 JUDEA-SAMARIA Front 

▪️The village of Urif: our forces blew up the house of the terrorist who carried out the deadly shooting attack near the settlement of Eli on June 20 of last year.

[spearxwind]

I really love the idea of bunker cities in broken horizon but you mentioned that the storms are basically extremely powerful hurricanes. This means they must be leaving behind huge flooded areas wherever they go, and that water must be a huge load on the walls of a bunker city whenever it does happen. How do they deal with that? Where does the water go? does it drain rapidly into aquifers and rivers or does it sit and stagnate? if it stagnates, do bugs become a problem? do the cities have canals and other earthworks projects to make the water drain faster? And also, the cities themselves must act as massively complex machines in order to be able to switch from bunkers to regular cities. How do they maintain that? Or is it just that they build in a way that creates a storm-resistant city, such as with very hard and durable materials and with narrow, easily sheltered streets without using many moving parts? do the bunker cities have permanent walls such as those used throughout history? How do these bunker cities have electricity or plumbing while keeping those utilities within the bunker? How do they deal with the toxic gas buildup (such as CO and CO2 and CH4) that would surely result from enclosing an industrialized city in a giant box? or are they not an industrial society?

Oh these are great questions the most of which I hadn't given thought to (yet anyways haha)

The hurricanes DO leave floods, however cities are built with extremely robust drainage systems. They've honed and maintained the systems for hundreds of years under these heavy storms. The cities are built on relatively high ground so that the water has places to go specifically to avoid stagnation. However in the penninsula the temperatures are pretty low, so bugs aren't that huge of a problem. The walls are also significantly slanted to reduce the pressure of the impacts on it.

The cities have giant walls that move into place to protect the buildings underneath whenever a storm approaches and armors it against the downpour. Yes they have huge machines in place for that but they are far from complex as the more complex they are the more prone to failure they are. They've kept the technology for that as simple as possible, and put their advancements elsewhere. Still, because of this necessity, the buildings in cities arent very high, and a significant portion of the walkable areas are underground (so the buildings you see would be like, the "surface" level of the city). It is ample enough that no one is ever missing out on sunlight or outside time <3

They do have electricity and plumbing, it's one of the biggest advantages of living in the cities as opposed to out in the world. Like I said, they're very robust. Ventilation as well, there isnt any trouble keeping gas from building up and bringing fresh air inside

The city is somewhat industrialized (they're where overland vehicles and other machines are made) but the factory areas are separated from the living areas, and even if there was a lot of emissions they would have been built in a way where it wasnt harmful to the citizens. They want to keep people in, not drive them out or kill them off.

I don't have more technical answers because I am not an architect or a physicist to think of every detail but I did put some thought into it ^^

None of these cities are old cities, all of those got destroyed. These all got built post-storm era (somehow!!) and have been maintained since. It was impossible to adapt the older cities and had to be rebuilt from the ground up.

[quohotos]

Thoughts about bonds/bonding

This was something I was already planning to write up but then the latest return to regalia episode opened the flood gates and filled in some missing pieces for me. What follows is my own educated guesses and headcannon, very little of this is explicitly in the text of the books. Understand that much of this is my own headcannon, though I'll try my best to justify it with the text.

(also note that since I was an audio book kid I don't actually know if it's spelled flyer or flier and I'm going to get it wrong more than once and you're just going to have to live with that)

Luxa says that it wasn't normal for her to bond with Aurora so early, but that an exception was made as almost a form of therapy after the death of her parents. The same exception was made for Hazard and Thalia. We aren't explicitly told how old Henry was when he bonded with Ares, but I'm assuming it was before adulthood given how all four of them (Luxa, Henry, Ares, and Arora) have a storied history before the events of the first book. Henry had to be younger than 16 when they bonded (16 being the age of legal maturity in the underland, will amend if I'm misremembering), which isn't surprising given that he's Henry and he's never played by the rules. This raises the question of the bats' ages... we aren't ever told that. I would assume that the bats are of similar ages to their bonds, but I have no evidence to back that up.

In the Marks of Secret Ripred explains that rats grow up incredibly fast and reach full maturity in about a year, and that humans are uncommon in how long they take to grow up. It's not clear how long the bats take to grow up. Would Thalia have become an adult while Hazard was still a little kid, or would they have grown up concurrently? I can't say either way. One thing I can say with more confidence is that regardless of their ages, Aurora and Ares probably see their respective bonds like younger siblings. Obviously, being bonded to someone is a completely different relationship that we can't exactly map onto what we have in the overland, but I think that's a close approximation.

So Why and How do regular people get bonded?

The most surefire way to get bonded would be to join the military (something you can do from a very young age... I mean they have armor on hand for 12 year olds and we see seven year olds doing military drills in the Prophecy of Bane... yaaaaay). In the military you will be assigned to mixed species units and it's just sort of assumed that they'll all end up pairing up and bonding.

For civilians there are likely special yearly festivals that the two kingdoms share with the express purpose of giving people a chance to find bonds. My guess would be right around the time of the harvest when there's plentiful food to go around. After a hard year a bunch of flyers come to regalia and everyone has a big party to celebrate. There are probably specially organized games of whatever sport Gregor walked in on back in the first book. While specific flyers are probably scouted for sports and more importantly the military there's still plenty of opportunities for common Regalian and flyers to interact and meet.

What does bonding do for a flyer?

We see so much of the Underland Chronicles from the point of view of royal humans. To them, the benefits are obvious. Humans can't fly, bonding gives them access to someone who can. But why would a flier seek out a human bond? That just sounds like an obligation, right?

The Regalians have incredibly advanced medical technology. I've roasted them before for their metalworking, but their chemistry/biotech is unparalleled. They're able to produce antibiotics, as well as synthesize plagues and their cures. They have ways of treating illnesses that the overland doctors (allegedly) cannot. We also see that they have incredibly reliable and safe oral administered sedatives. Anesthesiology is such and advanced and risky field, and they seem to have cracked it to the point where people can safely be sedated for trivial maters without anyone batting an eye.

The arrival of humans (as permanent residents, native people made limited journeys to there before the arrival of Sandwich) in the Underland definitely raised everyone's average life expectancy by decades... before lowering it immediately afterwards through endless wars. In Curse of the Warmbloods someone steals the pain killers and Gregor realizes that the rats couldn't even use it if they wanted to because they don't have hands to open the bottle. Much of the Regalian's medical technology still requires a human to administer it. You need humans to carve splints and set them, you need humans to administer injections, you need humans to cut hair and perform surgery. Spinners can do some things to stop bleeding, but any significantly complex medical procedure is going to need human hands involved. Think about things like glasses and prosthetics, things we don't normally associate as medicine but would still kinda are. Humans probably manufacture and prescribe bat-glasses.

For a flyer, traveling long distances without a human bond is incredibly risky. If something bad happens, even if you have other flyers with you, you could die from what would otherwise be preventable causes. Bitten by mites? Who's going to apply the the ointment? Wing dislocated, who's going to pop it back into place (this one literally happened to Aurora). There are also probably some foods that can't safely be eaten raw, but a human could prepare. Heck, a human can boil water to purify it, or place traps that catch pray that otherwise wouldn't be hunt-able. Humans can catch fish that live too deep in the water for a flyer to peruse. Humans are adaptable. Your bond is your Swiss army knife, adaptable and versatile even if sometimes fragile.

Any flier trying to pursue and education needs to be bonded. You wanna go to bat-college? You gotta bring a human. You'll need one to transcribe all your essays and help you read books. The fliers definitely have a rich oral history that they all maintain, but there are some things that you just need a human to access. The average flier probably doesn't have a bond, but the higher in status definitely do for the educational purposes alone. While the queen herself doesn't have a bond, in fact it seems almost frowned upon in the royal family (Nike doesn't have one despite getting very close to a human who would like to bond with her in the later books), you bet your ass that every middle manager and local bat official has a bond who takes care of paperwork and accounting.

It's a funny parallel how flyers of low status like Ares can suddenly be whisked into royalty by being bonded to Henry, the same thing probably happens to humans. You could be Joe Shmo nobody (or I guess this is the underland so Joeth Shmavetus) who would probably live out their whole life carving stone jars, but you do numbers good so the bat-secretary of bat-state bonds with you and now you're really important.

That means that there are probably lots of places within the flyers lands that are built specifically to house humans long term. We see a little bit of that in the first book, but there's probably a lot more out of sight. Special areas where an important fliers' bonds can live and do their taxes and whatnot.

Bonding is usually an egalitarian process. It seems like both sides and both factions have to consent to it. When Gregor insinuates that one side owns the other he gets massive push-back. With that being said, I'm almost certain that Ares had little control in the matter over bonding with Henry. I think there's kind of an unstated rule that the royal families are going to bond with whoever they please, and that turning down a bond of high status would be a massive faux pas. Ares probably didn't feel like saying no was even on the table.

What about non-flyer bonds?

Oh yeah, code of claw spoilers beyond this point. Now that everyone's doing the reread and we're probably bringing a few first time readers into the fold I'm going to spoiler mark this part just in case since I'll be discussing things that happen in the last installment

Luxa and Ripred bond to usher in peace. This is treated as something that has never happened before but that the rules don't explicitly forbid. Henry jokes about people bonding to the crawlers, but in a way that portrays it as stupid and pathetic rather than impossible. In doing so she also symbolically brings the Gnawer into the spiritual fold that the flyers and humans already share.

Humans and Gnawers would then be allowed to bond with each-other. It might take generations for that to happen in earnest, sicne both sides have so much trauma and resentment built up, but maybe decades in the future the younger generations will find it in themselves to do so.

The fact that Luxa bonding with Ripred doesn't break her bond with Aurora sets the precident that you can bond with as many people as you want so long as you never have two of one species. I do not think Aurora is that happy about that, and I doubt she sees Ripred as her own bond. It's possible though, that in the future you could have big groups of underlanders who are all united by one bond. A whole bad batch rogues gallery of a flyer, a gnawer, a human, and a nibbler who each bring something special to the group.

Though never explicitly stated, I think it probably goes without saying that Hamnet and Frill were bonds. It definitely wasn't done the proper way, probably just informally in the jungle with nobody else observing, but still. A bond is a bond.

[mariacallous]

Europe’s never-ending struggle to provide tidbits of assistance to Ukraine while still pandering to the agricultural lobbies that dictate so much policy in Brussels took another tortured turn this week. The European Commission hammered out its latest, tentative compromise plan to offer Kyiv another year of tariff-free access to the European single market for some agricultural products—but it’s not a done deal, and it could end up as a nasty tripwire for Ukraine’s hopes to join the European Union.

At issue is a monthslong tussle over the renewal of tariff-free access for a handful of Ukrainian farm goods, such as eggs, poultry, honey, and maize (corn). Ukraine, which is not a member of the EU and is in the middle of a war with Russia, desperately wants the trade relief, which it figures is worth well over 1 billion euros a year in much-needed export earnings. 

Europe as a whole is unlikely to be concerned about such rounding-error figures, but certain groups in Europe—namely farmers in eastern “front-line” countries—care very much indeed. Farmers in Poland have added angry chants against Ukrainian food imports to the standard-issue complaints about the European Green Deal and free trade that animate farmer protests across the continent; they’ve even blocked the borders east and west in protest against what they say is a flood of outside food that is undermining their livelihood.

In a nutshell, Europe’s bid to offer Ukraine the tiniest of economic lifelines is threatening to weaken support for the country’s eventual membership in the EU by angering groups with outsized political influence that feel threatened by what looks to them like the stealth arrival of a new trade rival. That is most evident in Poland, Ukraine’s neighbor, which when the war began was hugely supportive of aiding Kyiv in any way possible but which in recent months has become a lot more sour on defense assistance, Ukrainian refugees, Ukrainian wheat, and, of course, Ukrainian EU membership.

According to recent opinion polls, support among Poles for further aid to Ukraine is dropping sharply, and that is especially true among more right-wing voters (as is true across much of Europe). One big reason for this decline in support is the fight that Polish farmers have waged against what they see as a flood of cheap, foreign food.

“What I can say is that the support for Ukraine has taken a real hit in Poland. Look at enlargement, support for refugees, even weapons,” said Isabell Hoffmann, a survey expert at Eupinions, an independent platform for European public opinion. “Support was extraordinarily strong before, and it is still strong today. But it weakened notably and quickly.”

Poland has been fighting over Ukrainian food imports for a year, but the protests intensified at the beginning of this year with further border blockages and anti-Ukraine animus which have found widespread popular support.

“This issue has become very toxic in domestic politics. There are more and more critical voices in Poland,” said Piotr Buras, the head of the Warsaw office of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). “This is the paradox: The European Commission is talking about more gradual integration with Ukraine and the single market, but we are talking about the gradual closing of the single market for Ukraine.”

All this began, like so many of Ukraine’s current woes, with the full-scale Russian invasion in early 2022, which threatened Ukraine’s breadbasket agricultural regions and, importantly, its main export route through the Black Sea. The EU offered emergency tariff relief for a host of Ukrainian agricultural goods so they could travel overland and into the EU and trade without prejudice. 

For Ukraine, desperate to earn foreign currency and boost the few exports that were left after the Russian invasion, it was a tidy little lifeline. 

“From an economic point of view, agriculture remains one of the key export sectors of Ukraine,” said Marek Dabrowski, an expert on European trade and enlargement issues at Bruegel, a think tank. “Before the war, it was metallurgy and industry, but then part of that was destroyed, and part is occupied, so exports now are essentially down to agricultural goods. The reason for these ‘emergency measures’ has not gone away.”

Indeed, those emergency measures have continued every year since—until now. The European Commission planned to simply roll the tariff relief over this year, giving Ukraine one more year of free access, worth about 1.7 billion euros for Kyiv’s empty coffers. But many of the countries bordering Ukraine, including Hungary, Poland, and  Slovakia, pushed back at what they viewed as a flood of cheap Ukrainian grain that was undermining their own farmers. Some countries, such as Poland, unilaterally blocked Ukrainian farm goods from staying in the country. 

Together, and most recently backed by France, those countries pushed for a tougher version of tariff relief for Ukraine that would have limited the amount of agricultural goods it could sell to Europe. The European Commission and European Parliament have been at work hammering out ever-tougher versions of tariff relief ever since. 

The latest proposal would still offer Ukraine relief for another year but with tougher quota baselines, which would cost Kyiv about 350 million euros annually. Ukraine’s farm lobby on Thursday decried the slide toward EU “protectionism” in the latest wrangling. But even that compromise measure still has to pass the European Parliament, where it could face yet further efforts to weaken Ukraine’s access. 

While an extension, even a watered-down one, would still be welcome in Ukraine, the problem is the perception that such preferential trade policies create in front-line countries such as Poland. Ukrainian grain is not the cause for the plight of Polish farmers any more than it is the reason for angst in the countryside in the other 26 EU member states; that has a lot more to do with falling prices for global agricultural staples such as wheat, as well as slightly tougher (and costlier) EU regulations on agricultural production. 

But many who are getting kicked while they are down don’t look carefully at precisely who is doing the kicking, and continual European assistance for Ukraine rubs many in the east the wrong way.

The temporary trade measures amounted to a full opening, Buras of ECFR said. “Basically, Ukraine jumped from a piecemeal opening to European access to the final stage of this process,” he said. “Nobody expected these measures to remain in place for three years or more. Technically, we have a full opening of the single market to Ukrainian products.”

The risk is that the tiny measures Europe is taking to shore up Ukraine today with trade relief could end up as a poisoned chalice in years to come. Once the war is over, Ukraine is widely expected to get on with its decade-long quest to become a member of the EU—a step that ultimately needs the go-ahead from all current member states.

“The Ukrainians should also, seen from Warsaw, be a little more careful when they push for more liberalization,” Buras said. “At the end of the day, Ukrainians are dependent on Polish support” to join the EU, he added.

[mrmrswales]

The Prince of Wales spoke via video call with some of those affected by the serious flooding in Australia.

On the call were: Daniel Cleave and Curtis Arthur, owners of a small business in Shepparton, Victoria; Grace Langlands, a member of the NSW State Emergency Service; Maureen Carter, CEO of the Nindilingarri Health Service in the Kimberly Region of Western Australia; and Brad Flowers, owner of the Overland Corner Hotel, Upper Murray, South Australia. Collectively, these individuals represent small business owners, frontline responders and local community and Indigenous peoples leaders.

[xxxdragonfucker69xxx]

Hiya again, I'm looking to draw a map of Xiatian for my game but its a bit difficult without the rest of the districts and their geographical necessities, do you have a shirt description of them I could borrow for map making purposes, even if they're not set in stone yet? Thank you!

so ive actually given this a bit of thought, though i don't have a workable map yet. and i sort of don't want to, i want to force every group to draw their own city. but heres mine

the island of xiatian is rather longer north-south than east-west, with a bit of a gouge taken out of the western coastline. mount gongshan stands in sort of its northeast, a lake on top of it, rivers draining down to wetlands in the eastern part of the island. to the west there's a small strait, and then the mainland; to the south there are lots of little islands.

jiaotou is very nearly at the exact northern end, big horn sticks out over the water to intercept stormwinds coming down

gongshan district sort of extends a bit down past its slopes, the river sort of winds down the mountain and theres lots of sort of isolated little spots all over, its very picturesque and pastoral

the river drains out into a flat delta called buntin, where the indigenous gayun people of the island originally had their fishing village; they've got a lot of swamp farming techniques, and nobody else really wants to drain it, so they've sort of been left alone. buntin covers a lot of the eastern shore

on the southern end of the island there's a yet unnamed docks district. not super sure what to do with this yet

the docks feed a lot of their cargo into an industrial district called huoxi that has sort of grown larger and larger and really started gobbling up the districts around it. this is much of what the megacorps were interested in. some it used to be quarries but much of that is mined out now

there's a thin little strip called babble alley 鬼話街 between the docks and buntin that's sort of a foreigners enclave, all tossed in together, japantown and indiatown and americatown jammed all in. it's where you end up if you immigrate in and can't manage to land on your feet. hear like five different languages on any street

swing back up the western shore of the island and that's yuanhai, stretching in a pretty thin boardwalk up along that bay

an unnamed suburban district covers the inland behind yuanhai. if you're an office worker for qinglong, you probably live here. stretches all the way to caiwan

youdu is mostly underneath the strait, which is why it's in such danger of being flooded. there are a lot of overland highways and sort of gas stations in between the asphalt

there's an unnamed shopping district that sort of occupies an embarrassingly large portion of the northern island rn, in between yuanhai and jiaotou

a likewise unnamed university district nestles between gongshan, jiaotou, and caiwan; i assume Tianbian at least partners their mad science labs with the university

swinging back around the island, just next to babble alley there's a slum called shilang that's obviously a little bit kowloon walled city but is really just where all the rejects from babble alley, gongshan, buntin, and caiwan all end up. great place to fish for desperate workers, great place to lay low

a little north of the island's heart is caiwan. they carved a perfect square grid out of all the districts around it, it's visibly scalpeled out on a map. this is the ultimate downtown.

[wuxiaphoenix]

Worldbuilding: The Fastest Ship on the Water

If your characters are traveling, you want to know where the rivers are. For many reasons. Rivers are water sources. Obstacles. Territorial boundaries. And trade routes. The history of civilization is a history of rivers. The Nile, the Yellow River, the Tigris and the Euphrates, the Danube; these are some of the better known. But every river has its own history, and its own challenges.

There can be a lot of obstacles to crossing a river beyond “the bridge is out”. A flood is a classic reason for said bridge to be out, and nothing sane people want to mess with. River monsters are another classic obstacle; from the mundane like alligators and Nile crocodiles, to exotic electric eels and piranhas, to supernatural gargoilles and kelpies. (See also shellycoats, water bulls, hellbenders, and a host of lesser-known water monsters. Water cougars are an Appalachian thing. Seriously.)

But what about a flood that’s broken an ice dam upstream, so your heroes are dodging ice chunks? Or the more businesslike hazard of loose rafts of timber being floated downstream to a mill? Floating at speed, turning and bumping, with all kinds of jagged, lung-puncturing branch ends sticking out. Death by logroll is not how your characters want to go!

Neither is getting shot by the guards of the next kingdom waiting on the far bank for spies and enemy scouts. Or captured and keelhauled by river pirates. Yes, river pirates are also a thing. Wherever you have commerce, you have pirates. And given how much less muscle power river shipping takes versus overland caravans, there is a lot of river traffic. Even if it’s slower than a straight line.

And sometimes it’s faster. Much faster.

Pre-airplane, and even for a few decades post-airplane, rivers were not only the cheapest, but the fastest way to bring cargo between places.

...But only when they were frozen.

It is, in fact, possible to put ice skates on a sailing ship. Note, you want to pick the right ship. Some designs are more dependent on the force of water holding them together than others. But if your hull can take the strain, and your mast and sails can take the winter wind - ice-rigged ships are fast. Some can reach four times the wind speed; over 100 mph is quite doable. Ice-rigged boats on the Hudson raced trains - and won.

Of course, this only works if the river freezes hard enough to support a ship. But if it does... instead of winter being a time when nothing moves, it might be when everything moves. The savings in time and energy, when wind just has to push runners over ice instead of a whole hull through water, are phenomenal.

Not to mention, picture a fleet of iceships charging down on a hapless enemy at speed. Zoom!

[contentment-of-cats]

Hilary funsie time.

The kitties know something's up. They're being very skittery and clingy.

So, here's the Hilary update.

First, if I were in better shape, I would be in the Pit of Disease known as Las Vegas. Not for the slots and mai tais, but for this:

There's two a year and it's for everything from dollar store merch to custom autos and high jewelry. It's my favorite trade show. Summer is why we buy, winter is when we exhibit. I love doing both. I'm sad that I've now missed three of them. However, I have been in The Pit of Disease when a monster storm passed over and would like not to experience that again.

Here's where we are this morning.

Hilary is a Category 3 this morning, with winds over 60 MPH.

Here in Los Angeles, we've moved from a Tropical Storm Watch to a Tropical Storm Warning.

Watch = Possible

Warning = Imminent

While Hilary has winds at 125 MPH now, going into colder water and overland is going to slow her down, assuming she slips just a little east of Los Angeles proper. This is only the most likely course for her based on current projections. If she continues up the coast, it might be a different story.

This is the rainfall outlook. This is why I am worried more about the rain than the wind. The video from below is from last year after a 1.5 inch rainfall in Las Vegas.

Deserts do not immediately suck up water. Dry ground is hard ground, like the concrete of the city. The water has to go somewhere.

While the flood itself is dangerous, there's often a debris flow out in front. If there's a narrowing of the wash, then it can dam and hold back the water, making the water rise faster upstream, and when that dam breaks from the pressure of the water behind it, that water moves with accumulated force down the wash. I live on the flats, not the lowest point, but I worry about the hillsides shedding water, the concrete and the two WPA era dams in the Valley. We are looking at the potential of three to six inches of rain over 18 hours.

In 2005, the flood control measures held out, and they did the same for the 'bomb cyclones' in subsequent years. We ought to be okay.

[nirikeehan]

A second prompt, if you prefer! For DADWC: "Secret that stays in the cave" for Thalia & Samson maybe?

LOL OK this was gonna be scary but then it got pathetic real quick. This is not quite... the full secret, but it is some of it!

Part of the next chapter of nightmare!au aka Through a Glass, Darkly, I present to you: Thalia and Cullen have narrowly escaped Samson's grasp... or have they?

For @dadrunkwriting

WC: 1144

---

Thalia did not like the idea of splitting up so soon after reuniting, but Cullen slid down to the forest floor with a groan, putting his head in his hands. It occurred to Thalia he’d already been pushed past his limit for quite some time. The way he hunched over in the indent of the tree provided decent cover… granted no one approached him head on. Thalia sighed, looking west. Or at least, the direction she was fairly certain was west. With no sun or stars to navigate by, it was a vague approximation, based on the way the vague remnants of moss grew on the trees. With a little time and concentration she could summon a directional spell, but she hadn’t the time nor the energy earlier.

She bade Cullen goodbye and ventured deeper into the forest. The directional spell made her course correct slightly, but they were, at least, not completely turned around. She used the spell to mark Cullen’s location, so that she could backtrack to him easily. 

Thalia continued overland. She came across no road or game trail, and thought safer that way. After a good half an hour, she decided to circle back around, unsatisfied with what she’d seen: unbroken, fog-laden woods. 

On her way, she heard Cullen’s voice. Faintly, but he was calling her name. Thalia sped up her pace, not wanting to shout back to him — what if that attracted unwanted attention? She summoned her location spell, but the amorphous blob that swirled in her palm seemed to indicate he hadn’t moved. Had she gotten turned around after all, and was closer to him than she’d thought? 

She cleared a thicket of bushes and found a low ascending hill. A narrow cave entrance stood in the vine-covered rock wall. “Thalia,” called Cullen. “In here.” 

Relief flooded her. He must have found a shelter after all. She ducked inside, blinking rapidly to adjust her eyes to the gloom. “Cullen?”

The cave was small and dank, with only a trickle of daylight cascading in from above. Standing in the pool of light in its center was a tall, bulky figure. Not Cullen. She knew that at once, and her hand went to the staff strapped to her back. “But how—?” 

Samson stepped fully into the light, which reflected off the ruby of his breastplate and cast his gaunt face in a blood red glow. There was real blood splattered on his face as well. He was grinning, holding up his fist. He opened his palm, and on his gauntlet sat a small, round stone, pulsing with magical energy. “Thalia?” The voice from within sounded remarkably like Cullen. 

Thalia took a slow breath to stave off the terror. “A summoning stone.” 

Samson tossed it in the air and caught it easily. “Neat little trick, eh? Upside of working with the Venatori. They can do all sorts of fun stuff for you. Always pays to have one or two in your camp.” 

Thalia didn’t hesitate. She drew her staff, twirling it in her hand to build up electric energy. She gripped it with both hands and slammed it into the ground, shooting lightning in his direction. Samson dropped the stone, drew his red lyrium longsword, and cut a brutal arc in the air, absorbing the magic attack. The great sword glowed with infernal heat. 

Faster than a man in such armor had a right to be, Samson advanced upon her, deftly batting the staff out of her hand. It flew behind her, thudding to the ground somewhere near the cave’s entrance. 

“Now, now,” he said, looming over her, “no need to be rude. I just wanna talk.” 

Thalia tried to back away, but after a step or two, her back hit the jutting cave wall. Her mind spun. How did he escape the battle? How long has he been following us?

“That didn’t seem to be your objective back in the clearing,” Thalia retorted. 

“Yeah, well, that was Plan A. It went south. This is Plan B.” Samson sheathed his sword and stepped back, hands up as if in surrender. “I’ve got a present for you, if you’d like it.” 

“A w-what?” Thalia had a difficult time following, concentrated as she was on finding a way out. Her staff was too far away; he’d be upon her before she could reach it. Her pouch held nothing that could help. She’d tucked a small dagger from Vivienne’s laboratory in the back of her belt, more as a way to replace her old paring knife she used to take in the field than for self-defense. It might be her only shot. 

“A present. You know, a gift? Like the ones they give at Satinalia or Wintersend — not that we were allowed to do that, mind.” He retreated to the shadows, maintaining his chatty demeanor. “Strictly against protocol in Kirkwall, a Templar giving mages gifts.”

“I don’t care what you did or didn’t do in Kirkwall,” Thalia snapped, horrified. What was he prattling on about? Had he finally lost what was left of his mind? 

Samson returned and, true to his word, he held a wrapped package, tied with a satin bow. He held it out to her with both hands, like an offering. Despite his smirk, the rest of his face looked painfully sincere. 

This had to be some sort of trick, like the summoning stone. “I don’t understand,” Thalia said helplessly. 

“Most people start with ‘thank you,’” Samson quipped. 

Thalia huffed, snatching it from him. She tore open the packaging, ignoring the hunger in his eyes as she did. In a narrow box, folded with painstaking care, was a bolt of fabric, silk or linen, dyed a deep scarlet. Thalia frowned. No, that was wrong. She grabbed it and shook it free, letting the box fall to the ground. 

It was a dress. The strangest, ugliest dress she had ever seen. Despite clear technical craftsmanship, she wasn’t sure how any woman could actually wear this dress. Holes — large ones — appeared throughout the area where the bodice should be. There were no sleeves, only larger bits of fabric that, she supposed, were meant to wrap around the bosom to give the wearer the smallest illusion of modesty. The skirt was similarly baffling, just long strips of gauzy, transparent fabric, so that one might bare her her entire thigh as she walked. And some of the skirts had… cuffs? As if they were to be adorned to the wrists. 

It was a dress devised by a madman. 

Thalia looked from it to Samson, grinning widely.  

She felt ill. “You thought… I would like this?”

“I designed it myself,” Samson said, a touch defensively. 

Of course he did. Thalia looked away, shook her head to clear it. He thought — somehow — he could lure her here — using Cullen’s voice — and win her over with this monstrosity? 

[wimpydave]

Massive Overland Flooding In Cass County, North Dakota

[phoneticallypneumonicpteradactyl]

Cool thing about this is that it is almost a completely outdated idea in that it isn't really necessary anymore, but you can't easily move a whole city. It was originally because when those areas flooded and then receded it would leave far more fertile soil, the Nile is the most famous example. So when people started farming they needed to stay in one place and the place where all the fish and yearly refertilised soil and a body of water for irrigation are is really nice. Later trade was a lot harder over land so coastal cities near rivers were important trade hubs, so there were more jobs, so more migrants, so more people and bigger cities. Nowadays overland logistics networks are efficient enough that inland cities have a lot easier of a time existing. So that's cool.

Where we put Cities

[pandahelper01]

When Should Emergency Communication Devices Be Used?

In today's world, emergency communication devices play a crucial role in ensuring safety, whether you're exploring remote areas or navigating daily life. These devices are designed to provide an essential link to emergency services, family, or colleagues when traditional means of communication fail. Understanding when to use emergency communication devices can be life-saving. Below, we dive into the most critical situations where these devices should be employed, and why they are so vital for maintaining safety.

1. Natural Disasters and Weather Emergencies

Emergency communication devices should be used during natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, floods, or severe storms. During these events, conventional communication infrastructure—like cell towers, landlines, or internet services—often becomes compromised or entirely inoperable.

In a natural disaster, you may find yourself in a situation where emergency services are overwhelmed, roads are impassable, and basic utilities are down. Satellite phones, for example, offer reliable communication regardless of local infrastructure conditions. These devices can help you reach emergency responders or loved ones, providing critical information about your location and condition. Furthermore, devices like Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs) or Satellite Messengers ensure that even if you're in an isolated area, your distress signal can be received, prompting immediate assistance.

2. Remote Outdoor Adventures

Whether you’re hiking, camping, or mountaineering, being in remote areas often means you're far from conventional communication networks. In these situations, having an emergency communication device is not only practical—it could save your life.

In the wilderness, cell phone signals are often unreliable or non-existent. Here, Satellite Messengers or PLBs become indispensable. If you're injured, lost, or trapped, these devices allow you to send an SOS message, along with your exact coordinates, to rescue teams. Some advanced satellite devices also enable two-way communication, providing an even greater level of safety by allowing rescuers to send updates or receive additional information about your condition.

3. Boating and Maritime Emergencies

The open water presents unique challenges when it comes to communication. Marine radios are often used near coastal areas, but if you’re far offshore, standard radios may not have the range to connect with emergency services. This is where Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRBs) and satellite phones come into play.

EPIRBs are designed specifically for maritime emergencies and send distress signals to search and rescue satellites. These devices, when activated, provide precise location data, making it easier for Coast Guard or other maritime rescue agencies to locate and assist your vessel. Satellite phones offer more versatility, allowing communication from virtually anywhere at sea, making them an essential part of any long-distance boating or yachting trip.

4. Off-Road and Remote Driving

Off-road driving or overlanding across deserts, mountains, or other isolated terrains can be thrilling, but it also comes with substantial risks. Vehicles can break down, roadways can be blocked, or drivers may become stranded far from help. In these instances, two-way radios, satellite phones, or emergency beacons should be used.

Without a means of communication, the harsh environment could quickly turn a minor vehicle issue into a serious emergency. Devices like satellite phones or PLBs allow off-roaders to call for help or send distress signals when they’re far beyond the reach of cell networks. In extremely isolated locations, it's also a good idea to equip your vehicle with a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) tracker, so your movements can be monitored, and assistance can be dispatched if something goes wrong.

5. Medical Emergencies in Remote Areas

Medical emergencies can occur anywhere, but they become far more dangerous when you're in a location where accessing healthcare is difficult. This is where Emergency communication devices can make the difference between life and death.

For instance, if you're trekking through a remote jungle or skiing in the backcountry, and someone in your group suffers a serious injury, your ability to call for immediate medical help will depend on your access to an emergency communication device. Satellite messengers, equipped with GPS technology, allow you to not only send an SOS message but also provide rescuers with precise location data, ensuring that medical teams can reach you as quickly as possible.

Some advanced satellite communication devices even allow two-way messaging, so you can describe the nature of the injury or medical condition to rescue teams, enabling them to come prepared with the necessary equipment.

6. Power Outages and Urban Crises

While emergency communication devices are often associated with remote locations, they are also essential in urban environments during major power outages or other crises. If the local infrastructure is compromised due to a prolonged blackout, civil unrest, or terror attack, traditional communication channels may be down.

Having access to a backup communication device like a satellite phone, radio, or even a mesh network device can help you stay connected with authorities or family members. This is especially important for elderly or disabled individuals who may need medical assistance or those living in urban centers where infrastructure can fail unexpectedly.

7. Traveling in Foreign or High-Risk Countries

In some cases, traveling to foreign countries—especially those with political instability, poor infrastructure, or heightened security risks—necessitates the use of emergency communication devices. For travelers, having a satellite phone or a global hotspot can provide peace of mind.

If you’re in a location with unreliable communication networks or potential security concerns, these devices allow you to stay connected with emergency services or your embassy. Moreover, in countries where local telecom services may be unreliable or censored, satellite-based communication devices ensure that you can always access help if needed.

8. Group Expeditions and Events in Large Areas

When organizing large events, whether it’s a festival, a marathon, or a group expedition, keeping all participants safe can be a logistical challenge. Emergency communication devices play a critical role in ensuring that, if something goes wrong, organizers and attendees have access to immediate help.

Devices such as two-way radios and portable satellite hotspots are ideal for staying in contact across large, dispersed areas. They allow you to quickly alert emergency services or manage resources efficiently, even if traditional communication networks are overwhelmed by the number of users.

Conclusion: When Should You Use Emergency Communication Devices?

In a world full of uncertainties, understanding when to use emergency communication devices is essential for ensuring safety. Whether you're facing a natural disaster, traveling in remote regions, boating in open waters, or dealing with medical emergencies, these devices provide a critical link to assistance when you need it most. The ability to communicate during an emergency could be the deciding factor between a life-threatening situation and a successful rescue.

From satellite phones and EPIRBs to PLBs and two-way radios, each device offers unique advantages depending on the environment and type of emergency. Always ensure that you are prepared and equipped with the right tools, no matter where your journey takes you. For more details here https://www.outdoortechlab.com/emergency-communication-strategies/