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[inthedayswhenlandswerefew]

Where Will All The Martyrs Go [Chapter 2: I’m The Son Of Rage And Love]

Series summary: In the midst of the zombie apocalypse, both you and Aemond (and your respective travel companions) find yourselves headed for the West Coast. It’s the 2024 version of the Oregon Trail, but with less dysentery and more undead antagonists. Watch out for snakes! 😉🐍

Series warnings: Language, sexual content (18+ readers only), violence, bodily injury, med school Aemond, character deaths, nature, drinking, smoking, drugs, Adventures With Aegon, pregnancy and childbirth, the U.S. Navy, road trip vibes, Jace is here unfortunately.

Series title is a lyric from: “Letterbomb” by Green Day.

Chapter title is a lyric from: “Jesus Of Suburbia” by Green Day.

Word count: 6.2k

💜 All my writing can be found HERE! 💜

Let me know if you’d like to be added to the taglist 🥰

On the shores of the Susquehanna River, just north of Harrisburg, you find a Wawa with no gas: bags on all the pumps, cars with their fuel caps unscrewed and dangling. This is a common courtesy adopted en masse, like rationing during the World Wars or flying American flags after 9/11. It signals that a car has already been siphoned, no gasoline to be found here, no transparent flammable gold made of eons-past decomposition. You wonder if in a few million years, some unfathomable new apex species will be drilling your liquefied remains from the lightless layers of the earth to power their spaceships.

“Then we got sent to Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling,” Rio continues, gnawing on a piece of beef jerky, Jack Link’s in a red bag, teriyaki. Mercifully, whoever took the gas left some of the food. You are sitting in the parking lot, a quaint zombie apocalypse picnic, trail mix and Rice Krispies Treats, Herr’s potato chips and Tastykakes, warm soda sipped from plastic bottles. Luke and Rhaena are on the roof of the Tahoe. Jace is tearing the convenience store apart; he is convinced the employees must have kept a gun somewhere in case of robberies. You know he’s fine. You can hear him banging around and swearing in there.

“Then we built some schools and a hospital in Djibouti,” you say.

Aegon is baffled yet intrigued. “Djibouti…?”

“It’s on the Horn of Africa, near Ethiopia and Somalia.”

Luke snorts. “It’s nice of you to assume he knows where Africa is.”

“Huh.” Aegon tosses a green M&M into his mouth. “Djibouti is horny.”

Rio says: “And after that we spent like six months in Key West, and then we got shipped to Corpus Christi, where Chips very narrowly avoided getting impregnated by, marrying, and inevitably acrimoniously divorcing a Marine.”

Everyone laughs except Aemond, who gives you a teasing smirk. “Did you really?”

“Uh, no. He asked me out, I ghosted him, that’s as far as it went.”

“Why’d you ghost him?” Baela says, crunching on Utz Cheese Balls.

Aegon turns to Rio. “You want a Honey Bun?”

“You’re my Honey Bun,” Rio replies. Aegon smiles, his sunburn flushing darker.

You shrug, eat a handful of candied almonds, tell a half-truth. “I just didn’t like him enough.”

Rhaena yelps and points: a snake, black and maybe five feet long, is slithering across the parking lot. It passes beneath the shade of the Tahoe and then continues towards the bushes. A moderate amount of panic erupts.

Helaena glances up from her notebook. “Rat snake. Not venomous.”

Rhaena shudders. “Well, I still don’t like it.”

“Where were you stationed next?” Daeron asks Rio.

“Chinhae, South Korea. Wicked cool place. The people love Americans, the food is incredible. We were there to rebuild a pier that got wrecked in a typhoon. They have these cute dolphin-looking things, they’d swim right up to the edge of the water with fish in their mouths to try to give to us. Like cats bringing home mice for their owners.”

“Finless porpoises,” you say.

“Yeah, those. And after Korea, it was Diego Garcia.”

“Diego…what?” Rhaena says.

Aegon turns to Luke. “Try to act like I’m stupid for not knowing where that is.”

“Diego Garcia is a tiny little island in the middle of the Indian Ocean,” you say, a bit wistfully. “It’s technically owned by the British, but we share a base there, we use it for airfields and to refuel submarines, things like that. We were renovating the housing facilities for Camp Thunder Cove. At night we’d go to the beach, have a few beers, look out into the ocean and it was just…nothing. Wide open dark nothingness for as far as you could imagine.”

“That’s what we need now,” Helaena murmurs as she makes elegant cursive annotations in her notebook, the cover picturing different species of spiders, a pinktoe tarantula, a green lynx spider, a black widow. “Someplace to go where no one will find us.”

“So you’ve known each other since basic training.” Aemond’s remaining blue eye shifts between you and Rio, like he’s still trying to puzzle it out. There’s really no mystery. You’re friends, and you’ve always been friends, and you’ve never been more than friends, despite many of your fellow seamen’s jokes to the contrary.

You tear open a Slim Jim. Aemond rebandaged your hands this morning, though they barely hurt anymore; he touches you with a clinical, focused restraint. “Not quite that long. Rio enlisted a few months before I did, so we weren’t at Great Lakes together, and then carpenters do technical school in Gulfport, Mississippi near Biloxi, and electricians train at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas. We met after we were both assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 1.”

“The First and The Finest,” Rio quotes the motto, grinning. “The original Seabees, founded during World War II. People called our battalion the Pioneers, which…is kind of ironic now.”

Aegon says, munching noisily on trail mix: “It’ll be so appropriate when you end up dying of a broken leg or the flu or in some other totally preventable way.”

“It’s so crazy, people died of anything back then,” Luke marvels gravely. “Tuberculosis, pneumonia, infections, starving, freezing, poisoning, getting kicked by a horse, giving birth…”

Rhaena shoots him a fearsome look and Luke shuts up, but of course he can’t take it back. There is a long uncomfortable silence punctuated only by birdsong and Jace’s muffled outbursts from inside the Wawa. Everyone looks at Baela, concerned, pitying, entirely unable to do anything to improve her situation. She is still eating Cheese Balls with one orange-stained hand, but the other rests on her belly.

“Clearly, the timing is less than ideal,” Baela says after a while, and if she’s terrified she doesn’t sound like it. “It wasn’t planned to begin with, but I was determined to make the best of things. I figured that I could still finish up my master’s degree with a baby, and Rhaena and our parents could help, and Jace would be done with law school soon, and it might be stressful for a while but we’d all get through it. And now…” She shrugs wryly. “Now all those plans are gone. Just gone.”

“You’re going to be okay,” Aemond says; a fierce low determination, a promise, a vow.

Baela smiles at Rio. “How old is your baby?”

He is caught off-guard, clears his throat, averts his gaze. Aegon looks over at him, alarmed. “Oh, he, uh…he’s little. Really little. He…” And Rio, so rarely at a loss for words, can’t continue. He eats his beef jerky instead.

You explain for him. “Sophie’s due date was right around the time the phones and internet went down. The last we heard, she was headed to Odessa to stay with Rio’s parents.” Aemond and his companions nod and don’t say what they’re thinking, but it’s swimming in their eyes: Sophie could have died, the baby could have died, they both could have died, you and Rio might be risking your lives to cross the continental United States for nothing. “Rio’s parents live in this…well, I joke around and call it a doomsday prepper cult, but that’s not really what it is, it’s just a farming community out in the middle of nowhere. People who have their own chickens and gardens, churn their own butter, don’t wear deodorant, make medicine out of tree bark…and a lot of them have kind of a survivalist mentality, they stock pantries and collect guns. So we figure we can reunite Rio with his family and then carve out lives for ourselves in relative peace.”

Rio reaches over to bump his fist against your shoulder. He is grateful. You punch him back, fairly forcefully; it’s like hitting a brick wall. Rio is as tall as Aemond but probably outweighs him by a hundred pounds.

You ask Aemond: “What’s in the Bay Area?”

“Our parents have a beach house. It’s up on a cliff by itself, pretty isolated, and surrounded by state parks. That’s where they were when everything shut down. I assume they’re still there.”

“Beach house?” Rio raises his eyebrows. “On a cliff?”

Rich kids. REALLY rich kids. “Your parents couldn’t just fly you to California in a private jet or something?” you say.

“Our pilots stole the jets,” Aemond replies, not realizing you were joking.

“Oh.”

“Jace and Luke’s parents were home in London, so getting there isn’t really an option, and then Baela and Rhaena…”

“Mum and Dad were on a business trip to Moscow,” Baela says. “I’d like to think they weren’t eaten, but…they were probably eaten.”

“I am so sorry,” you manage awkwardly.

A single zombie goes shuffling past the Wawa on the main street, a woman in a floral church dress, hair falling out of its curls, one pink high heel that clicks on the pavement, blood all over her mouth and chin. She notices the nine of you and begins to hiss, lurching closer. Daeron shoots her down and then trots over to retrieve his arrows, yanking them out of her cheek and eye socket. Rhaena winces. Aemond, distracted, bites into a Nature Valley granola bar. Aegon opens a can of Pringles, pizza-flavored.

Luke is peering through his binoculars, looking south towards Harrisburg. Faintly, you can see sunlight glinting off the gilded statue of a woman—the Spirit of the Commonwealth—that tops the green clay tile dome of the state capitol building. “What is that?”

“The sculpture?” you say.

“No. Farther away. Those big concrete towers, right on the water.”

Now you know exactly what he means…and you’d forgotten all about it. It’s an oversight you hope doesn’t cost too much. “That’s Three Mile Island. And we should leave so we can put more space between it and us.”

“Oh, fuck me…” Rio mutters.

Now everyone else is squinting to see the facility, barely visible from the Wawa. “Why?” Aemond asks you.

“Because it’s a nuclear power plant. And since the electricity is out everywhere, as soon as its backup generators fail, it will melt down and the whole area around it will become radioactive.”

Aegon puts two Pringles into his mouth so they look like a duck bill. “How do you know?”

“Did no one else go through a Chernobyl obsession phase in high school?”

“The professor mentioned it in one of my chemistry classes,” Aemond says, but he sounds doubtful; this must have been years ago, when he was consumed by med school prerequisites and had no space left in his brain for mere curiosity.

“Okay, listen up.” Rio knows the key points; he’s had to study different sources of electrical power. He demonstrates with dramatic hand gestures. “You have super radioactive reactor fuel, usually uranium or plutonium. You have a pool of water around it that circulates continuously. The heat of the fuel evaporates the water, which makes steam, which spins turbines, thus creating power. But if the external electricity fails, the water stops circulating, and the heat vaporizes all of it, and when there’s no more water the reactor fuel overheats and melts through the floor and poisons the earth, air, and groundwater. Any questions?”

There is a chorus of distressed chattering as people swiftly rise to their feet, clutching armfuls of snacks for the road. Jace comes trudging out of the Wawa, conspicuously not in possession of a firearm.

“No luck?” Daeron asks.

“Obviously not.” Then Jace snaps at Aemond: “Why were you stomping around all pissed off in the medicine aisle earlier? What were you looking for?”

“Nothing,” Aemond says quickly.

“Seriously, dude, what was it?”

“Nothing!”

“Damn, Plankton, calm down.” Jace shields his face from the sun, following Luke’s nervous eyeline towards the concrete cooling towers to the south. “What’s that?”

“Three Mile Island,” you say. “And we’re leaving now.”

Aegon yawns loudly. “I’m so full! Rio, can you carry me to the car?” And before anyone can tell Aegon to shut up, Rio has crouched down to let him scramble onto his back. Aegon cackles and waves his can of Pringles around as Rio sprints to the Tahoe. Now there are a few more zombies stumbling up the street, but you don’t waste arrows or bullets on them. Baela runs them down as she swerves out of the parking lot and drives northwest, heading towards Clarks Ferry Bridge where you will cross the Susquehanna River in a less populated area and commence the long slog to the Ohio border. She turns up the volume on the CD player: London Bridge by Fergie. Immediately, Rio, Aegon, Daeron, Rhaena, and Luke are singing along.

Baela checks the fuel gauge and looks at Aemond in the rearview mirror. “We have half a tank left.”

“We’ll find gas somewhere.”

“Aemond, it’ll be alright. Don’t worry about me.”

“You’re not going to be able to walk to California.”

Baela can’t think of a response. He’s right. Outside, the miles roll by in a blur of radiant, reptilian, early-summer green.

~~~~~~~~~~

Each time the interstate is blocked by a snarl of crashed vehicles or a backup too thick to navigate through—both common occurrences—Aegon digs the folded map out of his shorts and charts a new course for Baela to follow. This particular divergence might prove fortunate. The Tahoe has rolled into Distant, Pennsylvania, an Appalachian speck of a town, churches, coal mines, dilapidated old sheds. On the outskirts, perched on a hill and surrounded by oak trees, you find a small single-story brick house with a myriad of banners on the flagpole: an American flag, a Confederate flag, a black POW/MIA flag, Don’t Tread On Me, Trump 2024.

“Yeah,” Aegon says, scratching his scruffy chin as he peers up through the windshield. “I feel like they probably owned guns.”

“How do we know they’re not still home?” Baela asks warily.

“No car in the driveway,” Aemond observes. “No windows boarded up. They probably ran into trouble while they were out somewhere and never made it back.” Then he waits, the question upspoken. Are we going to risk it?

“We’re down,” Rio says after exchanging a glance with you.

Aemond turns to Jace. Jace—curly dark hair down to his shoulders, eyes on the house, chewing his full bottom lip apprehensively—doesn’t reply at first.

“You said you wanted a gun, Jace. All the Walmarts are cleaned out. This is what shopping looks like now.”

“Fine. Okay. Let’s go.”

Baela parks the Tahoe in the gravel driveway and tells Rhaena and Luke to stay inside with Helaena until the property has been cleared. The rest of you climb out, afternoon sun and mountain wind, dandelions crushed under your shoes. There’s a barn behind the house, you see now, gaps between the wooden boards and flaking red paint.

Luke is standing up through the open sunroof, inspecting the scene with his binoculars. “No movement.”

“We’ll take the house, if you want,” Rio tells Aemond. You’re clutching your borrowed baseball bat with bandaged hands, though it still feels unnatural; your M9 is in its holster in case of emergencies. Jace, Baela, and Daeron start plodding across the yard towards the barn. The grass is tall and mostly shaded, the oak trees decades old, massive, weaving a patchwork canopy of leaves.

Aegon trots over and slaps Aemond on his left shoulder, his blind side. Aemond says without looking at him: “I’ll go with them. You wait out here.”

Aegon drives an imaginary ball with his golf club. “I’m very sensitive to rejection, you know.”

“You’ll survive.” Then Aemond follows you and Rio to the house.

Rio tries the knob, locked. He doesn’t waste a bullet by trying to shoot the lock off the door, something that is far less reliable than movies would have you believe. He kicks it open instead, three tries and then the screws that secure the latch give way and the door swings ajar. You wait, counting seconds in your head, listening for growls or footsteps. There are no sounds except the breeze sighing through the trees, the warbles and wing flaps of birds. You steal a glimpse of the barn. Jace, Baela, and Daeron have unhooked the rusted iron latch and are venturing inside, Daeron last and glancing around watchfully, his compound bow already drawn. Rio steps into the house.

It’s hot, stifling, all the windows shut. But this has its advantages. You inhale deeply: no trace of decomposition, no black swampy nauseating rot, just dust and lemon Pledge and old-people staleness.

“Smells fine,” Rio says. And then, loudly: “Anyone home? We’re just looking for supplies. We don’t want to hurt you. If anybody is here, just let us know and we’d be happy to leave. And, uh, sorry about the door.”

You stay close to Rio as he sweeps through the living room—floral couch, television turned off, crosses on the walls—and then the kitchen, where bananas are turning black on the counter. Aemond is to your right; he’s placed you on his blind side. He trusts me, you think. When did that happen? You haven’t heard anything from Aegon or the barn. That must be going well.

In the bedroom, Aemond pulls the curtains open to let some light in. You search the drawers, the closet, under the bed. No weapons. The bathroom has 1950s-style pink porcelain, the dining room table is set for a meal that never happened. There is a deer head mounted on the wall, ten points, not bad.

“I can’t believe these fuckers didn’t have guns,” Rio says. “But where the hell are they?!”

You have always watched more than you’ve spoken. That’s why you’re good at shooting things, and why you’re still alive. Rio talks and you listen; Rio acts and you reflect. “Wait.” You turn to Aemond. “Did you see a cellar outside?”

“A what?” He is perplexed. “Like…a wine cellar…?”

“No. A regular cellar.” You walk back into the midday heat and circle the house, Aemond and Rio hurrying to keep up. Over by the barn, everyone else is stretched out across the grass, joking, relaxing, Baela with her hammer on the ground and her hands laced over her belly, Helaena cradling a praying mantis in her palms and showing it to Rhaena. Aegon is teaching Luke how to smoke with a pack of Marlboro Golds he found at the Wawa. Luke, game yet somewhat anxious, takes a puff and then immediately coughs until he starts retching.

“I want to try too,” Daeron says.

Aegon shakes his head, taking a nonchalant drag off his own cigarette. “Nope. Not for you. Illegal. You’re under eighteen.”

“I want to try!”

“Shut up, you can’t even vote.”

“Nobody can vote, the government has collapsed!”

You find it at the back of the house: a pair of large metal doors leading down into the underground cellar. The weeds have begun to encroach on them, wild violets and black nightshade.

“Awesome!” Rio says, lifting the doors open one at a time, the hinges shrieking. They’re heavy, but they cause him no trouble. Underneath is a staircase and a room dark with shadows; you can see a light switch that won’t work, the electricity long gone. Rio unclips the flashlight from his  belt—taken from Saratoga Springs, waterproof with a 90-degree head so it doesn’t roll, known as a Moonbeam—and ducks down into the cellar. It’s a small room, easy to clear, and then you can start inventorying your findings. Rio is laughing, ecstatic. There is a workbench, a coil of thick rope, an array of tools—screwdrivers, wrenches, hammers, saws—some homemade leather wallets and holsters, cans of Brillo color spray…and then a treasure trove of weapons mounted on the walls.

You scan the collection. “We got Marlin .22s, we got Ruger Magnums, we got Remington 12 gauges, we got hunting knives…and one Glock 20.”

“A lot of ammo under here, Chips,” Rio says, yanking boxes out from beneath the workbench and stacking them on the floor, organized by caliber.

“No scopes?”

“Not that I’ve seen yet.”

You lift one of the Remingtons off its hooks and examine it: dusty, unloaded, vines of rust on the receiver. “We’ll have to go through and sight all of them. I don’t think they’ve been used in a while.”

“That’ll be a lot of noise. But here’s the place to do it, I guess. Low population, and we’re not staying.”

“Exactly.”

“Sight them for close range, like ten yards?”

“Yeah, that should work.”

Aemond says, eyebrow raised: “I didn’t know the Navy used shotguns.”

“Everyone hunts where I’m from.” You put the Remington down on the workbench then pick up the Glock, a box of 10mm ammo, and a can of Brillo. “Come on. Grab one of those hammers. I’ll show you how to shoot.”

You bound up the cellar steps and out into the shade of the oak trees, not stopping until you are at the edge of the property. Across the backyard where he lounges on the grass, Aegon gestures to the barn and asks Luke: “What’s in there anyway?”

“Nothing. Saddles and a few dead horses.”

“Oh, dynamite, I gotta see the dead horses.”

Jace says: “Aegon, man, what is your diagnosis?”

You use the can of Brillo to spray a large chocolate-colored circle onto a tree trunk, then make another two feet above that. You count your steps as you walk back towards Aemond: approximately ten yards. You load a single bullet in the Glock, aim for the bottom circle, and fire. A hole appears at the very edge of the circle. You take the hammer from Aemond and give the rear sight a few knocks. “This isn’t recommended, but it usually works.”

Aemond is smiling. “Okay.”

You load the full magazine and try again. The bullet hits closer to the middle this time. “Here. Both hands.”

Aemond takes the Glock but hesitates. “Is…my eye…?”

“It shouldn’t be a problem. A lot of people close one eye anyway when they’re aiming. I always do.”

He is relieved. “Oh. Good.”

You tap the underside of the Glock. Aemond obediently lifts it. “The line of sight is slightly higher than the barrel, so you have to account for that. And then gravity will pull the bullet lower, and the longer the range of the shot, the more it will drop. So when you fire, the barrel should be angled upwards just the tiniest bit, not horizontal.”

“Like throwing a football.”

“Yeah, exactly. It’s an arc, not a straight line. At first it’ll feel like you’re trying to do all these calculations in your head, and it will be overwhelming, but then it becomes muscle memory and you don’t even have to think about it.” Jace, Baela, and Daeron are now eagerly crossing the yard to help Rio carry the guns out of the cellar and receive their own lessons. “Alright, we’re going to start with a really terrifying enemy. I want you to shoot that tree.”

“What a formidable tree.”

“Aim for the top circle. And if you hit it, then you can practice on Jace.”

Aemond laughs, butter-yellow sunlight filtering down through the trees, the shadows of leaves flickering over his skin, a mosaic of flesh and earth. You ghost your open hand down the length of his arm as if adjusting the angle. Really, you just want to touch him, to feel his warmth and his stillness, the tension of his muscles, the rhythm of his pulse. He’s watching you, lips parted, goosebumps rising beneath your fingertips. Birds are chirping, sparrows and blue jays. High above, squirrels leap and scrabble through the branches. You pull your hand away.

“Look through the sights. The rear sight at the back of the barrel is shaped like a U, and the one at the front is an I. Is the I in the middle of the U?”

“I have no idea.” A pause as he reconsiders. “Yes.”

“Right, it is, and the bullet should go exactly where you want it to because I already sighted that Glock. I’ll show you how to do it later. Now shoot the tree.”

Aemond aims but doesn’t pull the trigger. He’s nervous; he doesn’t want to seem incompetent, pathetic. You imagine it is rare that he isn’t the one with the solutions.

“Hey,” you say softly, and he looks over at you. “You don’t judge me for not knowing how to cure people. I won’t judge you for not knowing how to kill them. Deal?”

Now he’s smiling again. “Deal.” He returns his attention to the tree, lets a few more seconds tick by, and fires. He hits one of the branches. “Oh, that is…embarrassing.”

“It’s not that bad. You hit something. Try again.”

More seconds, more birdsong, more wind through the grass and the leaves. Aemond’s second bullet pierces the trunk about six inches above the top circle. “Yes!” he cheers, boyish triumph on his scarred face.

You resist touching him. It is startlingly difficult. “That was really good.”

He lowers the Glock, and you click the safety on for him. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” you say.

“Why’d you ghost that Marine at Corpus Christi?”

“I told you. I didn’t like him enough.”

“Okay, sure, but actually. What was wrong with him?”

“I’ve known you for like twenty-four hours. You think you’ve earned all my secrets?”

“Well, not all of them,” Aemond says, grinning. Rio is showing Jace, Baela, and Daeron how to load the .22s. Aegon is swinging his golf club in circles as he follows Luke into the barn. Helaena and Rhaena are giggling as butterflies land on their outstretched fingers. “But our time together could be very finite. It seems unwise to waste it by trying to preserve some amount of mystery.”

“You’ve convinced me.” You want to be known by him, you want to be understood. That is a frightening thing to realize. It’s like handing a stranger the keys to your home. Will they visit graciously, or will they rob you, ruin you, burn you down? “I haven’t seen many examples of love working out for people. I’ve seen couples who hated each other, and couples who split up, and a lot of women having to raise kids all on their own and turning into these…bitter, exhausted, hollowed-out versions of themselves. I never wanted that to be me. And for as long as I can remember, I’ve felt like that was just one wrong choice away from becoming my life. I don’t want men to disappoint me. So I don’t give them the chance.”

You think Aemond is going to say something cheap, flirtatious, awful: Give me a chance, baby. I won’t disappoint you. Instead he says: “I haven’t known many happy couples either. I mean…Luke and Rhaena would be the closest, I guess. But they’re so young. I’m not sure if they count.”

“Rio and Sophie seem happy. But they’ve also barely seen each other in five years.”

“It does things to you, when you start to believe love might be doomed to end or tear you apart or turn to hatred. If it’s just an evolutionary mirage to trick us into reproducing, what’s the point of giving someone that power over you?”

“Exactly.”

“I feel like one of us should be trying to talk the other out of being so fatalistically cynical.”

“Yeah, totally. Okay. You talk me out of it.”

He chuckles. “No, I don’t think I can. You talk me out of it.”

You’re watching Aemond, realizing you like everything about him—his smirk, his height, his hands, the clear direct blue of his eye—and wondering what the hell you’re going to do about it. Then there is a scream from the barn.

What?? Who??

“Luke!” Aemond shouts, and takes off across the yard. Now you’re all running, even Rhaena and Helaena who don’t have anything to fight with. Everyone is yelling, their lungs heaving in wild June air, their shoes pounding against the earth.

Inside the barn, on a wooden floor strewn with hay, Luke is shrieking as he tries to push a zombie off of him with his bare hands. She’s an older woman, grey hair in rollers, yellow nightgown stained with gore. Something has happened to her feet. Both of her legs end in exposed tibias and flapping strips of purplish, rotting skin. Aegon is beating her with his golf club, but he can’t get a good shot at her head. If he accidentally hits Luke, he could make it worse, he could stun him or even knock him out, and he’ll be bitten in the few seconds it takes anyone to remove his undead assailant. Rio lunges to grab the zombie. She snaps at him with bared teeth and he retreats, drawing his M9.

“Don’t shoot!” Jace is saying. The air is putrid: dead horses, dead people. “You’ll hit Luke!”

Your own M9 is suddenly in your hands, the safety clicked off, one eye closed. “Luke, don’t move.”

“Kill it, kill it!” he pleads hysterically, pushing the zombie as far from him as he can, his palms sinking into the decomposing bruise-colored tissue of her chest and throat.

“Don’t shoot!” Jace orders, but you ignore him. He fades into the background with all the other frenzied voices. Your finger on the trigger, a boom like thunder, bits of bone and brains against the wall. Luke shoves the corpse away, trembling, sobbing. Rhaena flies to him.

Aegon spots the fresh blood on Luke’s right hand and panics. “Is that a bite?!”

Luke notices the wound for the first time. “I don’t know!”

“What do you mean you don’t know?!”

“I don’t know!” Luke wails, tears flooding down his pink face.

“I thought you cleared the barn!” Aemond roars at Aegon.

“It fell out of the loft, we didn’t think anything was up there!”

Luke is blubbering: “I hit my hand against one of the stalls, I think that’s how I cut myself, I was just…I was pushing it away…I didn’t think it bit me…oh my God, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t want to die…”

“It only takes once, kid,” Rio says grimly, fidgeting with his M9, looking at Aemond as if for permission.

“Don’t touch him!” Jace hisses, stepping in front of his brother and clutching his bat. “No one is going to hurt him, it’s not a bite, you can’t prove it’s a bite!”

You reach for Luke’s bleeding hand. “Can I see—?”

“Get away from him!” Jace swings his bat. The tip of it connects with your skull, just a graze fortunately, but still enough to rattle you. Rio charges Jace, tackles him to the floor, starts throwing punches. Baela has apparently forgotten she’s heavily pregnant and is trying to pull them apart. You join her.

He’s going to demolish Jace. He’s going to break his nose or jaw or something. “Rio stop, I’m fine, stop!”

There is another gunshot, a cataclysmic earth-shaking explosion that makes the pain in your head surge from a ripple to a wave. Aemond is aiming his Glock skywards; a hole has appeared in the roof of the barn. “Stand up!” he commands. Rio and Jace reluctantly comply. You help Baela to her feet.

“Aemond,” Jace says. “You have to stop them, they’re going to kill Luke—”

“No one is killing anybody.” Aemond lowers his Glock. “Maybe he’s been bitten. Maybe he hasn’t been. And even if we knew for sure that he was going to turn, we don’t just execute people like this, threatening them when they’re terrified. We have humanity. We have compassion.”

There is a silence that strikes you as heavy, laden, holding meaning that escapes you. Aegon points at Luke. “So what the fuck are we going to do about him?”

“We’ll tie him up,” Aemond decides.

“What?!” Luke exclaims.

“There’s rope in the cellar. We’ll tie his arms and legs so he can’t do anything and keep him like that for a few days until either his hand heals up or he turns into a zombie. Someone will always have to be with him to help him eat and take a piss and also…you know. Deal with it if he turns.”

“I’ll stay with him,” Rhaena says immediately.

Aemond’s voice is now gentle, sympathetic. “I don’t think you want this.”

“If Luke has to die, I should be the person with him.”

“You’ve never had to put someone down before.” And in this statement lives another: Aemond knows what that feels like. Aemond has had to kill someone when they turned.

“I’ll stay with him,” Rhaena says again, this frail harmless doe-eyed girl, and you see a steeliness in her that you hadn’t thought existed.

“Okay,” Aemond relents. “When you’re asleep, Jace or I will take over.”

“It’s not a bite,” Jace murmurs, like he’s trying to convince himself.

“We’ll all find out soon enough,” Rio says, casting him a glare, then goes to fetch the coil of rope from the cellar.

Aemond cleans and bandages the wound on Luke’s hand. Then the weapons, ammo, and newly immobilized Luke are loaded into the Tahoe. Aemond asks you once everyone else is inside: “How’s your head?”

“Fine, I think.”

“Hurts?”

“Just a little.”

“Dizzy? Double vision?”

“No, nothing like that.”

He takes a quick look, parting your hair with his fingertips, feeling gingerly for blood and swelling. And this is becoming a serious problem: every time he touches you, you want more.

“Aemond…who did you have to kill?”

He doesn’t answer. For another moment his hand lingers by your temple, then Aemond turns away and climbs into the Tahoe. This time, no one sings along to the next song on the mixtape. Heads rest on windows, eyes are vacant and misty. Baela steers the Tahoe westbound on Route 1004, the Chainsmokers drifting through the speakers: All We Know.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Pick a card, any card,” Aegon says when he’s done shuffling. He fans out the entire Uno deck face-down and offers it to Rio, Aemond, and Jace. They each select a card, then Aegon picks one for himself. Finally, he holds out the deck to Luke, who stares up incredulously from where he’s still bound with rope and sitting on a curb in the parking lot of a Burger King just outside of Yarnell, Pennsylvania.

“Are you serious?”

“You’re an adult male, aren’t you? You think being in the middle of transforming into an undead murder machine exempts you from gasoline siphoning duty?”

“I’m fine!” Luke insists.

“Great. Then pick a card.”

“I can’t move my hands, you idiot.”

“Pick it with your mouth.”

“I hate you.” Luke bites his card of choice and waits with it clasped between his teeth, glowering.

“I want to pick a card,” Daeron says cheerfully.

Aegon refuses. “No. Too young. A baby.”

“Aegon, I’m seventeen!”

“Can’t enlist, can’t do jury duty, can’t buy lottery tickets, can’t sign up to drink gasoline. Okay, everybody show their cards.”

“I got a three,” Jace says, then yanks Luke’s card out of his mouth and reads it. “He got a skip.”

Aemond’s card is a nine, Rio’s a five, Aegon’s a reverse. “That means you lose, Jace,” Aegon announces, admittedly rather gleeful. “You had the lowest number.”

“This is bullshit, I had to siphon last time!”

“Then stop picking bad cards.”

“Jace, I can do it,” Aemond says.

“And get to be the martyr, as usual? No thanks. Give me the damn hose.”

Aegon roots around under the Tahoe seats and produces a long, semitransparent siphoning hose. “All the ones with the little pump attachments were sold out everywhere by the time we thought that might be useful,” he explains to you and Rio.

“That sucks, Jace,” Rio says. “I mean, literally, it sucks.”

“Next time we cross a bridge, I’m pushing you off it.” Jace takes the hose from Aegon, pops open the gas cap of the Dodge Ram 3500 you’ve found, and threads the hose down into the tank. He sucks on the other end and then shoves it into the Tahoe once the gasoline starts flowing. The fuel gauge was hovering just above E. Hopefully you can get at least a few gallons out of the Ram, another fifty or a hundred miles, maybe even two hundred, enough to get you across the Ohio border.

Jace is bent over and vomiting gasoline onto the pavement. Rhaena and Baela sit with Luke as Aemond feels his forehead and peers into his eyes. Daeron accompanies Helaena as she goes to scavenge inside the Burger King, her burlap messenger bag slung over one shoulder. Rio is now holding the siphoning hose and watching the liquid gold pour into the Tahoe, his smile growing with each passing second. Your eyes fall on Aemond and stay there, his careful hands, his brow knitted with concentration.

A whisper from behind you: “We could fake date to make him jealous.”

You whirl to see Aegon, mischievous smirk, neon green plastic sunglasses. “That is a super generous offer and I appreciate the thought you put into it, but no.”

“Why not?”

“It’s dishonest. It’s manipulative. If something is going to happen with Aemond, I want it to be real.”

Aegon sighs. “No, you’re right, it was a dumb idea. I just figured I have a lot of experience.”

“Experience with what?”

“People pretending to love me.” He flashes a strange, sad smile, then follows Daeron and Helaena into the Burger King.

[reasonsforhope]

"The first and only fungus on a global conservation outfit’s ’25 Most Wanted List’ has been found in the rain-soaked mountains of Chile, almost 40 years after it was first documented.

The big puma fungus is actually quite small, and despite being on the ’25 Most Wanted List’ it’s also rather unremarkable, being slightly greyish brown, and no bigger than a shitake.

GNN is always abreast of updates to the brilliant conservation initiative Search for Lost Species which has rediscovered several wondrous species of plants and animals through collaborative scientific expeditions to look for forms of life not seen in over ten years.

The big puma fungus (Austroomphaliaster nahuelbutensis), an enigmatic species of fungi that lives underground in Chile’s Nahuelbuta Mountains had only ever been found in the wild once.

An expedition team from the Fungi Foundation in Chile set out for the temperate forests of the Nahuelbutas in May 2023 to retrace the footsteps of Chilean mycologist Norberto Garrido, who discovered the big puma fungus and described it to Western science in 1988.

They timed the expedition to coincide with the exact dates in May that Garrido had hiked the mountains more than 40 years earlier.

“It’s possible that the reproductive parts of the big puma fungus—the mushroom—are only fleetingly visible above the soil on the same few days each year, which made the timing of the expedition a crucial factor,” said Claudia Bustamante, a mycologist, and member of the expedition team.

The expedition was captured in a documentary called In Search of a Lost Fungus, in which viewers can see how a last-minute day hike organized near a local Nahuelbutas community led to the big puma fungus’ eventual discovery.

On the last day of the expedition, the Fungi Foundation led a workshop and a community hike to look for fungi in a nearby forest. During that hike, two of the local participants found a group of about four mushrooms that all matched the description of the big puma fungus.

The expedition team carefully collected the mushrooms, leaving the mycelium in the ground, and took the mushrooms to the Fungi Foundation’s fungarium (FFCL). Although the mushrooms matched the physical and microscopical description of the big puma fungus, it was a DNA analysis that eventually confirmed the team had found the correct species.

“We knew it was going to be hard to find the big puma fungus and that the chances of finding the mushrooms were low, considering their colors and how they blend with the fallen leaves,” said Daniela Torres, programs lead at the Fungi Foundation and leader of the expedition.

“It was truly a unique moment when we managed to be in the right place at the right time to see the mushrooms. Understanding the biodiversity that exists and interacts within a specific area helps us comprehend its behavior and its potential to adapt to ongoing changes and underlying threats.”

Since 2017, the Search for Lost Species has rediscovered 13 of the world’s most wanted lost species. In addition to the big puma fungus, Re:wild, working with partners across the world, has confirmed the rediscovery of Jackson’s climbing salamander in Guatemala, both Wallace’s giant bee and the velvet pitcher plant in Indonesia, the silver-backed chevrotain in Vietnam, the Somali sengi in Djibouti, the Voeltzkow’s chameleon in Madagascar, Fernandina giant tortoise in the Galápagos, Sierra Leone crab in Sierra Leone, the Pernambuco holly tree in Brazil, Attenborough’s echidna in Indonesia, De Winton’s golden mole in South Africa and Fagilde’s trapdoor spider in Portugal."

-via Good News Network, September 13, 2024

[mikucountries]

Updated list of countries/cultures with Mikus on this blog :-)

Europe

Turkey

Netherlands

Romani

Hungary

Iceland

Moldova

Germany

Finland

Greece

France

Denmark

Poland

Romania

Ukraine

Hungary

Lithuania

Ireland

Wales

Belarus

Scotland

Slovakia

Italy

United Kingdom

Norway

Portugal

Kosovo

Latvia

Russia

Estonia

Slovenia

Serbia

Spain

Austria

San Marino

Mari

Czechia

Bosnia

Catalán

Croatia

Switzerland

Vatican City

Montenegro

Malta

Belgium

Asia

Jordan

Syria

Armenia

Ingush

China

Palestine

Taiwan

Tajikistan

India

Bhutan

Malaysia

Philippines

Pakistan

Thailand

Burma

Indonesia

Bangladesh

Vietnam

Nepal

Korea

Kazakhstan

Turkmenistan

Afghanistan

Kurdistan

Uzbekistan

Iran

Laos

Georgia

Cambodia

Oceania/Pacific Islands

Samoa

Fiji

Tuvalu

Maori

Aboriginal Australian

Papua New Guinea

Africa

South Sudan

Togo

Nigeria

South Africa

Algeria

Djibouti

Egypt

Ethiopia

Namibia

Ghana

Cameroon

Tunisia

Kenya

Morocco

Mozambique

Angola

Madagascar

Congo

North America

Cherokee

Guatemala

Panama

El Salvador

Mexico

Cuba

Honduras

Chicana

Trinidad

Anishinaabe

Canada

Muskogee

Belize

African American

Barbados

Yupik

Bahamas

Mi’kmaw

St. Kitts and Nevis

Jamaica

Costa Rica

Métis

Navajo

Dominica

South America

Ecuador

Peru

Argentina

Chile

Venezuela

Brazil

Colombia

Suriname

Guyana

Bolivia

Mapuche

Paraguay

Antarctica

[noneedtofearorhope]

Death to Afghanistan Death to Albania Death to Algeria Death to Andorra Death to Angola Death to Antigua and Barbuda Death to Argentina Death to Armenia Death to Australia Death to Austria Death to Azerbaijan Death to Bahrain Death to Bangladesh Death to Barbados Death to Belarus Death to Belgium Death to Belize Death to Benin Death to Bhutan Death to Bolivia Death to Bosnia and Herzegovina Death to Botswana Death to Brazil Death to Brunei Death to Bulgaria Death to Burkina Faso Death to Burundi Death to Cabo Verde Death to Cambodia Death to Cameroon Death to Canada Death to Central African Republic Death to Chad Death to Chile Death to China Death to Colombia Death to Comoros Death to Congo, Democratic Republic of the Death to Congo, Republic of the Death to Costa Rica Death to Croatia Death to Cuba Death to Cyprus Death to Czech Republic Death to Côte d’Ivoire Death to Denmark Death to Djibouti Death to Dominica Death to Dominican Republic Death to East Timor (Timor-Leste) Death to Ecuador Death to Egypt Death to El Salvador Death to Equatorial Guinea Death to Eritrea Death to Estonia Death to Eswatini Death to Ethiopia Death to Fiji Death to Finland Death to France Death to Gabon Death to Georgia Death to Germany Death to Ghana Death to Greece Death to Grenada Death to Guatemala Death to Guinea Death to Guinea-Bissau Death to Guyana Death to Haiti Death to Honduras Death to Hungary Death to Iceland Death to India Death to Indonesia Death to Iran Death to Iraq Death to Ireland Death to Israel Death to Italy Death to Jamaica Death to Japan Death to Jordan Death to Kazakhstan Death to Kenya Death to Kiribati Death to Korea, North Death to Korea, South Death to Kosovo Death to Kuwait Death to Kyrgyzstan Death to Laos Death to Latvia Death to Lebanon Death to Lesotho Death to Liberia Death to Libya Death to Liechtenstein Death to Lithuania Death to Luxembourg Death to Madagascar Death to Malawi Death to Malaysia Death to Maldives Death to Mali Death to Malta Death to Marshall Islands Death to Mauritania Death to Mauritius Death to Mexico Death to Micronesia, Federated States of Death to Moldova Death to Monaco Death to Mongolia Death to Montenegro Death to Morocco Death to Mozambique Death to Myanmar (Burma) Death to Namibia Death to Nauru Death to Nepal Death to Netherlands Death to New Zealand Death to Nicaragua Death to Niger Death to Nigeria Death to North Macedonia Death to Norway Death to Oman Death to Pakistan Death to Palau Death to Panama Death to Papua New Guinea Death to Paraguay Death to Peru Death to Philippines Death to Poland Death to Portugal Death to Qatar Death to Romania Death to Russia Death to Rwanda Death to Saint Kitts and Nevis Death to Saint Lucia Death to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Death to Samoa Death to San Marino Death to Sao Tome and Principe Death to Saudi Arabia Death to Senegal Death to Serbia Death to Seychelles Death to Sierra Leone Death to Singapore Death to Slovakia Death to Slovenia Death to Solomon Islands Death to Somalia Death to South Africa Death to Spain Death to Sri Lanka Death to Sudan Death to Sudan, South Death to Suriname Death to Sweden Death to Switzerland Death to Syria Death to Taiwan Death to Tajikistan Death to Tanzania Death to Thailand Death to The Bahamas Death to The Gambia Death to Togo Death to Tonga Death to Trinidad and Tobago Death to Tunisia Death to Turkey Death to Turkmenistan Death to Tuvalu Death to Uganda Death to Ukraine Death to United Arab Emirates Death to United Kingdom Death to United States Death to Uruguay Death to Uzbekistan Death to Vanuatu Death to Vatican City Death to Venezuela Death to Vietnam Death to Yemen Death to Zambia Death to Zimbabwe

[toastedcinnamonflakes]

Books around the world

A while ago, I made a post that I want to make a list of books from every country of the earth. The qualifications are rather simple: The author needs to be from that country and the novel needs to take place in that country. The books themselves don't need to be the best from that country, just something I've read. They need to exist in a language that I can understand (which, for me, are German, English, Norwegian and Swedish).

If you have any suggestions, please send them to me 😊 So, without further ado, here is the list! (Books that I've already read are bold, books I have picked out for the country but haven't read yet are not)

Abkhazia:

Afghanistan:

Albania

Algeria

Andorra

Angola

Antigua and Barbuda

Argentina

Armenia: The Gray House, Marjam Petrosyan

Australia: Picnic at Hanging Rock, Joan Lindsay

Austria: Liebelei, Arthur Schnitzler

Azerbaijan

Bahamas

Bahrain

Bangladesh

Barbados

Belarus

Belgium

Belize

Benin

Bhutan

Bolivia

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Botswana

Brazil

Brunei

Bulgaria

Burkina Faso

Burundi

Cambodia

Cameroon

Canada

Cape Verde

Central African Republic

Chad

Chile: The House of Spirits, Isabella Allende

China: Beijng Comrades, Bei Tong

Colombia

Congo

Costa Rica

Croatia: Marble Skin, Slavenka Draculic

Cuba

Cyprus

Czech Republic: Valerie and her world of wonders, Vitêzslav Nezval

Denmark: Vintereventyr, Karen Blixen

Djibouti

Dominica

Dominican Republic

East Timor

Ecuador

Egypt

El Salvador

Equatorial Guinea

Eritrea

Estonia

Eswatini

Ethiopia

Fiji

Finland

France: The End of Eddy, Eduard Louis

Gabon

Gambia

Georgia

Germany: Krabbat, Otfried Preußler

Ghana

Greece: Medea, Euripides (I would love to read a contemporary greek novel tbh, please recommend me one!)

Grenada

Guatemala

Guinea

Guyana

Haiti

Honduras

Hungary

Iceland: Moonstone - The Boy Who Never Was, Sjón

India: The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga

Indonesia

Iran: Reading Lolita in Teheran, Azar Nafisi

Iraq

Ireland: Skulduggery Pleasent, Derek Landy

Israel

Italy: Swimming to Elba, Silvia Avallone

Ivory Coast

Jamaica

Japan: Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata

Jordan

Kazakhstan

Kenya

Kiribati

Kuwait

Kyrgyzstan

Laos

Latvia

Lebanon

Lesotho

Liberia

Libya

Liechtenstein

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Madagascar

Malawi

Malaysia

Maldives

Mali

Malta

Marshall Islands

Mauritania

Mauritius

Mexico

Moldova

Monaco

Mongolia

Montenegro

Morocco

Mozambique

Myanmar

Namibia

Nauru

Nepal

Netherlands

New Zealand

Nicaragua

Niger

Nigeria

North Korea

North Macedonia

Norway: Vildskudd, Gudmund Vindland

Oman

Pakistan

Palestina

Panama

Papua New Guinea

Paraguay

Peru

Philippines

Poland:

Portugal

Quatar

Romania

Russia: Demons, Fyodor Dostoevsky

Rwanda

Saudi Arabia

Senegal

Serbia

Seychelles

Sierra Leone

Singapore

Slovakia

Slovenia

Somalia

South Africa

South Korea: The Vegetarian, Han Kang

South Sudan

Spain

Sri Lanka: Die sieben Monde des Maali Almeida, Sheban Karunatilaka

Sudan

Suriname

Sweden: Herrn Arnes Penningar, Selma Lagerlöf

Switzerland: Homo Faber, Max Frisch

Syria

Tajikistan

Tanzania

Thailand

Togo

Tonga

Trinidad and Tobago

Tunisia

Turkey

Turkmenistan

Tuvalu

Uganda

United Arab Emirates

Ukraine: Kult, Ljubko Deresch

United Kingdom: Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

USA: The little Friend, Donna Tartt

Uruguay

Uzbekistan

Vanuatu

Venezuela

Vietnam

Yemen

Zambia

Zimbabwe

I am also including some parts of the world that are not independent countries, but that I want to have in this list:

Faroese Islands

Greenland: Blomsterdalen, Niviaq Korneliussen

Scotland: The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, James Hogg

Wales: Fire and Hemlock, Dianna Wynne Jones

[mariacallous]

The ballistic missile hit the Rubymar on the evening of February 18. For months, the cargo ship had been shuttling around the Arabian Sea, uneventfully calling at local ports. But now, taking on water in the bottleneck of the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, its two dozen crew issued an urgent call for help and prepared to abandon ship.

Over the next two weeks—while the crew were ashore—the “ghost ship” took on a life of its own. Carried by currents and pushed along by the wind, the 171-meter-long, 27-meter-wide Rubymar drifted approximately 30 nautical miles north, where it finally sank—becoming the most high-profile wreckage during a months-long barrage of missiles and drones launched by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. The attacks have upended global shipping.

But the Rubymar wasn’t the only casualty. During its final journey, three internet cables laid on the seafloor in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait were damaged. The drop in connectivity impacted millions of people, from nearby East Africa to thousands of miles away in Vietnam. It’s believed the ship’s trailing anchor may have broken the cables while it drifted. The Rubymar also took 21,000 metric tons of fertilizer to its watery grave—a potential environmental disaster in waiting.

An analysis from WIRED—based on satellite imagery, interviews with maritime experts, and new internet connectivity data showing the cables went offline within minutes of each other—tracks the last movements of the doomed ship. While our analysis cannot definitively show that the anchor caused the damage to the crucial internet cables—that can only be determined by an upcoming repair mission—multiple experts conclude it is the most likely scenario.

The damage to the internet cables comes when the security of subsea infrastructure—including internet cables and energy pipelines—has catapulted up countries’ priorities. Politicians have become increasingly concerned about the critical infrastructure since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022 and a subsequent string of potential sabotage, including the Nord Stream pipeline explosions. As Houthi weapons keep hitting ships in the Red Sea region, there are worries the Rubymar may not be the last shipwreck.

The Rubymar’s official trail goes cold on February 18. At 8 pm local time, reports emerged that a ship in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, which is also known as the Gate of Tears or the Gate of Grief, had been attacked. Two anti-ship ballistic missiles were fired from “Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist-controlled areas of Yemen,” US Central Command said. Ninety minutes after the warnings arrived, at around 9:30 pm, the Rubymar broadcast its final location using the automatic identification system (AIS), a GPS-like positioning system used to track ships.

As water started pouring into the hull, engine room, and machinery room, the crew’s distress call was answered by the Lobivia—a nearby container ship—and a US-led coalition warship. By 1:57 am on February 19, the crew was reported safe. That afternoon, the 11 Syrians, six Egyptians, three Indians, and four Filipinos who were on board arrived at the Port of Djibouti. “We do not know the coordinates of Rubymar,” Djibouti’s port authority posted on X.

Satellite images picked up the Rubymar, its path illuminated by an oil slick, two days later, on February 20. Although the crew dropped the ship’s anchor during the rescue, the ship drifted north, further up the strait in the direction of the Red Sea.

For three days, satellite photos show, the vessel largely stayed in place thanks to low winds and weak currents. Then, on February 22, satellite images show peculiar circular wave patterns hitting the ship, as seen in the image below. One former naval intelligence analyst familiar with the images, who asked not to be named for safety reasons, says this could be a sign the anchor may have come loose. One image, they say, appears to show an unidentified object, which could be a small boat, nearby.

Both the wind and currents picked up on February 23, when the ship began drifting for a second time, says Robert Parkington, an intelligence analyst with geospatial analysis firm Geollect. “As wind increases, as current increases, that chance for movement gets so much higher,” says Parkington, who monitored the Rubymar’s movements with data from satellite technology firm Spire Global. “Even a small breeze can have an impact on where the vessel’s moving.”

More than 550 internet cables run along the ocean floors and connect the world. They link continents and economies, beaming everything from Zoom calls to financial transactions every millisecond. Twelve of the cables run through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, says Alan Mauldin, research director at telecom research firm TeleGeography. “These cables vary massively in their age, also in their capacities,” Mauldin explains. The region is a crucial, but vulnerable, choke point.

While the Rubymar was drifting, three cables were damaged: the Seacom/Tata cable, a 15,000-kilometer-long wire running the length of East Africa and also connecting it to India; the Asia Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1), which snakes 25,000 kilometers and links Europe to East Asia; and the Europe India Gateway (EIG), made of 15,000 kilometers of cable and joining India with the United Kingdom.

The Seacom cable went down at 9:46 am on February 24, according to new analysis shared exclusively with WIRED by Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at the web monitoring firm Kentik. Five minutes later, at around 9:51 am, the AAE-1 cable dropped offline. Madory says the third damaged cable, EIG, was already mostly offline following a separate fault elsewhere. A telecom industry notice seen by WIRED confirms the three faults and says this was the EIG’s second. The notice says the damage is located around 30 kilometers away from where the cables land in Djibouti and are at depths of around 150 meters.

To determine when the cables lost connectivity, Madory examined internet traffic and routing data from multiple networks. For instance, a network linked to Equity Bank Tanzania, the analysis shows, lost connectivity from the Seacom cable; moments later, it was impacted by the AAE-1 damage. The two clusters of outages impacted countries in East Africa, including Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and Mozambique, Madory says. But they also had an impact thousands of miles away in Vietnam, Thailand, and Singapore. “The loss of these submarine cables disrupted internet service for millions of people,” he says. “While service providers in the affected countries have shifted to using the remaining cables, there exists a loss of overall capacity.” The analysis matches when the Seacom cable went offline, says Prenesh Padayachee, the company’s chief digital officer. Both AAE and EIG cables are owned by consortiums of companies, which did not respond to requests for comment.

The telecom industry builds backups into its systems to account for disruptions—and the approach mostly works. When one cable goes offline, traffic is sent via other routes. “Connectivity just went away,” says Thomas King, the chief technology officer of German-based internet exchange DE-CIX, which used the AAE-1 cables. “The issue was detected automatically. Rerouting happens also automatically,” King says. Other firms sent data on different paths around the world.

In the days after damage to the cables first emerged, one unconfirmed press report claimed Houthi rebels could have sabotaged the cables. There has been no public evidence to support this. Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute think tank who has been monitoring the region, says it is most likely that the Rubymar damaged the cables, but Houthi sabotage should not be entirely ruled out, as “highly trained” divers could reach the cables’ depths. Telecom firms have reported fears about Houthi damage to cables, while Houthi spokespeople have repeatedly denied responsibility for the disruptions.

“We don’t even know if the cable is fully broken yet,” Padayachee says. “All we know is that the cable is damaged to a level where we’ve lost comms.” It could have been cut, or even dragged along the seabed and bent so light signals cannot pass through the cable, he says.

Many in the marine and cable industry have turned toward the Rubymar’s drift as the likely cause for the outage. Padayachee says it is the most “plausible” scenario given the ship’s predicted drifting speed. “If you work out the distance between the two cables that roughly relates to the same sort of timeframe as to when one cable will be affected to when the other cable will be affected,” the timing makes sense, he says, adding that the cables are 700 to 1,000 meters apart.

Anchor damage, alongside earthquakes and landslides, is one of the most common ways subsea internet cables are disrupted. For instance, multiple cables in the Red Sea region were damaged by a ship dragging its anchor in 2012. There are also several types of anchor, explain William Coombs and Michael Brown, professors at Durham University and the University of Dundee, respectively, who are researching the dynamics of anchors and how they can damage underwater cables. Some anchors sit on the seabed while others dig into the ground, they say. “If the soil type is not right, and the cable has quite shallow burial or it is on the seabed, you are going to catch it if your anchor starts to drag,” Brown says.

“Considering the timings of when outages were reported, considering the rough location of where those cables are known to be, and considering where we believe to be the location of the Rubymar, I would say that there is a likely possibility that the anchor did cause the damage,” says Parkington of Geollect.

The Rubymar finally sank on March 2. Videos reportedly taken inside the ship, gathered by Saudi state-owned news organization Al Arabiya English, show water gushing into the ship after the missile strike. As the Rubymar took on more water and partially submerged, experts say, its drifting likely slowed and eventually brought it to a complete stop.

While the ship has finished its journey, the three internet cables will remain offline for some time. Padayachee, from Seacom, says that the Yemeni government is likely to approve permits for the company’s repair plans in the next couple of weeks, with repairs to all three damaged cables possibly starting later in April.

Padayachee says that additional security measures are being put in place for the operation, but the repair work itself should be relatively straightforward. The repairs are taking place in water only a couple of hundred meters deep—shallow compared to other cases where cables are more than a mile deep. When the cables are pulled out of the water by the repair crew, it should be possible to say whether the cuts were caused by the anchor or deliberately.

The Rubymar presents one potential final challenge: Padayachee says the location of the cable damage is believed to be around one or two miles away from where the ship sank. “It doesn’t look like it will affect anything in the repair operation,” he says. “It could change by the time they get there: The vessel may have moved or, in fact, the vessel may have broken up and parts of it moved around.” The US Central Command has said the Rubymar also presents a “subsurface impact risk to other ships.”

The Houthi’s missile launches, meanwhile, don’t look like they will stop any time soon. Other ships have been damaged; lives have been lost, and those factors will impact repairs. “It's not something you usually see: trying to have a cable ship into those waters, recover the cable, make a repair, and then be able to return to port. It's a long process. It’s risky,” says Mauldin, from TeleGeography. The risk, for other internet cables, is a repeat of the Rubymar. “It is not out of the question,” Madory concludes in his analysis, “that we could have another vessel, struck by a missile, inadvertently cut another submarine cable.”

[burgerking-official]

Hello people. I am wishing you a happy new year from Burger King.

I wish a happy 2024 to all people in Abkhazia, Afghanistan, The Aland Islands, Albania, Algeria, Aotearoa, Andorra, Angola, Antarctica, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Artsakh, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Catalonia, The Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, The Cook Islands, Colombia, Comoros, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa, Cornwall, Costa Rica, Cote D’Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Curacao, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, The Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, England, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Euskadi, The Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gagauzia, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Guyane, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, The Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mann, The Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, The Netherlands, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Northern Cyprus, North Korea, North Macedonia, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, The Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Christopher and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Senegal, Serbia, The Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Sint Maarten, Slovakia, Slovenia, The Solomon Islands, Somalia, Somaliland, South Africa, South Korea, South Ossetia, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Transnistria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkiye, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, The United Arab Emirates, The United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, The Vatican City, Venezuela, Vietnam, Vojvodina, Wales, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

If I missed your country, I don’t care. I’m too tired to care.

[have-you-been-here]

April 14th update

Nothing new in the USA, but three new countries worldwide

On the statistics by number (which I send you on Google), America is third place again with 42% countries visited

Thanks for the stats!

Countries we're missing as of today (from what I can see) under the cut:

Americas

Belize

El Salvador

French Guiana

Guyana

Haiti

Honduras

Nicaragua

Paraguay

Suriname

Uruguay

Venezuela

Africa

Benin

Burkina Faso

Burundi

Cameroon

Central African Republic

Côte d'Ivoire

Djibouti

DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo)

Equatorial Guinea

Eritrea

Gabon

Ghana

Guinea-Bissau

Lesotho

Liberia

Libya

Malawi

Mauritania

Mozambique

Niger

Nigeria

Republic of the Congo

Rwanda

Somalia

South Sudan*

Sudan*

The Gambia

Togo

Western Sahara

Zambia

Zimbabwe

*These appear to be one country on the stats map?

Eurasia

Afghanistan

Azerbaijan

Bangladesh

Belarus

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Brunei

Iraq

Iran

Israel

Kuwait

Kyrgyzstan

Laos

Nepal

North Macedonia

Oman

Qatar

Syria

Tajikistan

Turkmenistan

Oceania

Papua New Guinea

Various islands that are too small to tell

[aroaceloverofgarlicbread]

name every country

Ok here’s a list of every country that I totally wrote all by myself (Totally not copy pasted don’t worry about it):

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of The Congo, Denmark (We are coming for you Denmark. We will win. Do not try to fight back), Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Ironland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Legoland, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria,North Korea, North Macedonia, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Palestine, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of The Congo, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sanlow, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, The Fire Nation, The Gambia, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Note: This is not technically every country because a lot of different countries have different definitions of what a country is and I’m not including every single micro nation ever created (I may or may not have included one though, as well as a few other Easter eggs which ones may it be?)

Also I realize this will take up a lot of space and probably be annoying so uh, sorry about that anyone else who’s reading this. Blame anon. We should all blame anon for everything bad that ever happens in our lives from now on. (Don’t ask why I wrote this last part I just want there to be some content worth anything in this post)

Also just so this is something about aspec which is this blogs main purpose: Aroace people exist. There you go

[darkmaga-returns]

“We have written a joint letter calling on all countries to stop the sale of arms and ammunition to Israel. We delivered this letter, which has 54 signatories, to the UN on November 1,” said Hakan Fidan at a press conference in Djibouti, where he was attending a Turkey-Africa partnership summit.

“We must repeat at every opportunity that selling arms to Israel means participating in its genocide,” said Fidan, adding that the letter is “an initiative launched by Turkey.”

Among the signatories were Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Algeria, China, Iran and Russia. The Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, both inter-governmental organizations within the UN, also signed the document.

Last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the UN to impose an arms embargo on Israel. He said the measure would be an “effective solution” to end Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza, which was sparked when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.

Erdogan has been a harsh critic of Israel throughout the war in Gaza, at one point appearing to say he would invade Israel to end the war. In May, he banned trade with Israel, ending the two countries’ robust economic ties.

Erdogan also met with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul in April, several months before he was slain in an explosion in Tehran widely attributed to Israel. Government officials told The Times of Israel earlier this year that Hamas’s leadership had briefly moved from Qatar to Turkey that month amid tensions with Doha.

Some of Israel’s allies have also floated restricting arms deliveries to the country. French President Emmanuel Macron said last month that an arms embargo is the only way to end the war in Gaza. In September, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer halted the delivery of some weapons out of fear they could be used to commit war crimes, but stopped short of calling for a full embargo. Canada’s Foreign Minister Melanie Joly also announced in September that she was suspending some 30 permits for arms shipments to Israel, saying Ottawa would not have “arms or parts of arms be sent to Gaza.”

Israel’s two largest arms sources, the United States and Germany, have resisted calls for an embargo on Israel, though each has been accused of withholding certain arms during the war.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/more-than-50-countries-press-un-for-arms-embargo-on--israel

[ongolecharles]

WORLD'S MOST PEACEFUL NATIONS

Where does your country stand?

Rank Country

---- -------

1 🇮🇸 Iceland

2 🇮🇪 Ireland

3 🇦🇹 Austria

4 🇳🇿 New Zealand

5 🇸🇬 Singapore

6 🇨🇭 Switzerland

7 🇵🇹 Portugal

8 🇩🇰 Denmark

9 🇸🇮 Slovenia

10 🇲🇾Malaysia

11 🇨🇦 Canada

12 🇨🇿 Czech Republic

13 🇫🇮 Finland

14 🇭🇺 Hungary

15 🇭🇷 Croatia

16 🇧🇪 Belgium

17 🇯🇵 Japan

18 🇳🇱Netherlands

19 🇦🇺 Australia

20 🇩🇪Germany

21 🇧🇹 Bhutan

22 🇲🇺 Mauritius

23 🇪🇸 Spain

24 🇪🇪 Estonia

25 🇰🇼 Kuwait

26 🇧🇬 Bulgaria

27 🇸🇰 Slovak Republic

28 🇳🇴 Norway

29 🇶🇦 Qatar

30 🇱🇻 Latvia

31 🇱🇹Lithuania

32 🇵🇱 Poland

33 🇮🇹 Italy

34 🇬🇧United Kingdom

35 🇲🇪Montenegro

36 🇷🇴Romania

37 🇴🇲 Oman

38 🇲🇰North Macedonia

39 🇸🇪 Sweden

40 🇬🇷 Greece

41 🇻🇳 Vietnam

42 🇦🇱 Albania

43 🇹🇼 Taiwan

44 🇲🇬Madagascar

45 🇲🇳Mongolia

46 🇰🇷South Korea

47 🇦🇷Argentina

48 🇮🇩Indonesia

49 🇱🇦Lao P.D.R.

50 🇧🇼Botswana

51 🇹🇱Timor-Leste

52 🇺🇾Uruguay

53 🇦🇪United Arab Emirates

54 🇷🇸 Serbia

55 🇬🇭 Ghana

56 🇽🇰 Kosovo

57 🇿🇲 Zambia

58 🇨🇷 Costa Rica

59 🇰🇿Kazakhstan

60 🇺🇿Uzbekistan

61 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina

62 🇳🇦 Namibia

63 🇲🇩 Moldova

64 🇨🇱 Chile

65 🇹🇿Tanzania

66 🇸🇱 Sierra Leone

67 🇯🇴 Jordan

68 🇧🇴 Bolivia

69 🇱🇷 Liberia

70 🇰🇭Cambodia

71 🇹🇯Tajikistan

72 🇦🇴 Angola

73 🇵🇾Paraguay

73 🇹🇳 Tunisia

75 🇹🇭 Thailand

76 🇦🇲 Armenia

77 🇰🇬 Kyrgyz Republic

78 🇲🇦 Morocco

79 🇲🇼 Malawi

80 🇳🇵Nepal

81 🇧🇭 Bahrain

82 🇬🇲The Gambia

82 🇹🇲Turkmenistan

84 🇸🇳 Senegal

85 🇬🇼Guinea-Bissau

86 🇫🇷 France

87 🇹🇹Trinidad and Tobago

88 🇨🇳 China

88 🇨🇾Cyprus

90 🇩🇿 Algeria

91 🇯🇲Jamaica

92 🇷🇼 Rwanda

93 🇧🇩Bangladesh

94 🇬🇶Equatorial Guinea

95 🇲🇷Mauritania

96 🇵🇦 Panama

97 🇩🇴Dominican Republic

98 🇨🇺 Cuba

99 🇵🇪 Peru

100 🇬🇪Georgia

100 🇱🇰Sri Lanka

102 🇸🇦Saudi Arabia

103 🇸🇿Eswatini

104 🇵🇭Philippines

105 🇪🇬Egypt

106 🇦🇿Azerbaijan

107 🇸🇻El Salvador

107 🇲🇿Mozambique

109 🇨🇮Côte d’Ivoire

110 🇨🇬Republic of the Congo

111 🇬🇾Guyana

112 🇧🇾Belarus

113 🇳🇮Nicaragua

114 🇧🇯 Benin

115 🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

116 🇮🇳 India

117 🇬🇹Guatemala

118 🇬🇦 Gabon

119 🇩🇯Djibouti

120 🇹🇬T ogo

121 🇬🇲Zimbabwe

122 🇰🇪Kenya

123 🇭🇳Honduras

124 🇬🇳 Guinea

125 🇱🇸Lesotho

126 🇺🇬Uganda

127 🇿🇦 South Africa

128 🇱🇾 Libya

129 🇧🇮Burundi

130 🇪🇨Ecuador

131 🇧🇷Brazil

132 🇺🇸United States

133 🇮🇷 Iran

134 🇱🇧Lebanon

135 🇹🇩 Chad

136 🇪🇷 Eritrea

137 🇨🇲Cameroon

138 🇲🇽Mexico

139 🇹🇷Türkiye

140 🇵🇰Pakistan

141 🇳🇪Niger

142 🇻🇪Venezuela

143 🇭🇹 Haiti

144 🇪🇹Ethiopia

145 🇵🇸Palestine

146 🇨🇴Colombia

147 🇳🇬Nigeria

148 🇲🇲Myanmar

149 🇻🇺Burkina Faso

150 🇨🇫Central African Republic

151 🇮🇶Iraq

152 🇰🇵North Korea

153 🇸🇴Somalia

154 🇲🇱Mali

155 🇮🇱 Israel

156 🇸🇾 Syria

157 🇷🇺 Russia

158 🇨🇩Democratic Republic of the Congo

159 🇺🇦Ukraine

160 🇦🇫Afghanistan

161 🇸🇸South Sudan

162 🇸🇩 Sudan

163 🇾🇪 Yemen

But what's the TRUE PEACE??

Only JESUS is the true PEACE ...

● "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." ... John 44:27

● "If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." ... Romans 12:18

【Build your Faith in Christ Jesus on #dailyscripturereadingsgroup 📚: +256 751 540 524 .. Whatsapp】

***

Source: Global Peace Index 2024.

[archivio-disattivato]

In brief

The Sudan Armed Forces yesterday carried out airstrikes in Nyala, South Darfur, allegedly with barrel bombs, killing and wounding several people.

Organizers of the recent Cairo humanitarian conference have released a report on the outcomes and recommendations of the conference.

Following the recent IGAD summit, representatives of East African countries, the European Union, and other stakeholders held a meeting in New York, organized by the German and French UN missions, to discuss building on the outcomes of the IGAD summit. Annette Weber, the EU Special Representative for the Horn of Africa, shared this image of the meeting, referring to the recent IGAD summit as “encouraging” and saying the New York meeting aimed to unify efforts for peace.

Similarly, the UN Secretary-General issued a statement welcoming “encouraging developments” at the recent IGAD summit. However, he said he was “gravely concerned by the unwillingness of the parties—so far—to cease hostilities.” The summit, held in Djibouti, marked the first public engagement of the secretary-general's new Sudan envoy, former Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra.

RSF, through its media team, issued a statement yesterday reiterating its “unwavering commitment” to participate in a proposed one-on-one summit between General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF Commander, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, facilitated by IGAD. The statement came in the context of rumors that RSF would send its deputy commander to the meeting instead. RSF said these were false rumors spread by its enemies.

In West Darfur, humanitarian organizations carried out a cross-border operation from Chad to deliver health and nutrition supplies to Kulbus and Jabal Moon localities to cover the needs of around 50,000 people, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Health organizations continue to grapple with outbreaks of measles, cholera, and dengue fever. Health services are non-existent in some areas affected by conflict. OCHA noted, “Attacks on health services and looting of supplies in transit as well as warehouses present a major challenge for continuity of operations.”

[mikucountries]

Updated list of Mikus! Thank you again to all of the amazing artists around the world.

Europe

Turkey

Netherlands

Romani

Hungary

Iceland

Moldova

Germany

Finland

Greece

France

Denmark

Poland

Romania

Ukraine

Hungary

Lithuania

Ireland

Wales

Belarus

Scotland

Slovakia

Italy

United Kingdom

Norway

Portugal

Kosovo

Latvia

Russia

Estonia

Slovenia

Serbia

Spain

Austria

San Marino

Mari

Czechia

Bosnia

Catalán

Croatia

Switzerland

Vatican City

Montenegro

Malta

Sweden

Belgium

Cyprus

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Albania

Asia

Jordan

Syria

Armenia

Ingush

China

Palestine

Taiwan

Tajikistan

India

Bhutan

Malaysia

Philippines

Pakistan

Thailand

Burma

Indonesia

Bangladesh

Vietnam

Nepal

Korea

Kazakhstan

Turkmenistan

Afghanistan

Kurdistan

Uzbekistan

Iran

Iraq

Laos

Georgia

North Korea

South Korea

Cambodia

Azerbaijan

Kerala

Mongolia

Sri Lanka

Kyrgyzstan

Japan

Yemen

Tibet

Indonesia

UAE

Bahrain

Singapore

Brunei

Maldives

Oceania/Pacific Islands

Samoa

Fiji

Tuvalu

Maori

Aboriginal Australian

Papua New Guinea

New Zealand

Tonga

Africa

South Sudan

Sudan

Togo

Nigeria

South Africa

Algeria

Djibouti

Egypt

Ethiopia

Namibia

Ghana

Cameroon

Tunisia

Kenya

Morocco

Mozambique

Angola

Madagascar

Congo

Kamba

Ivory Coast

Mauritius

Benin

Tanzania

The Gambia

Burkina Faso

Senegal

Gabon

Botswana

Mauritania

Zimbabwe

Uganda

Oromo

Habesha

Equatorial Guinea

Sierra Leone

Seychelles

Chad

Libya

North America

Cherokee

Guatemala

Panama

El Salvador

Mexico

Cuba

Honduras

Chumash

Chicana

Trinidad and Tobago

Anishinaabe

Canada

Muskogee

Belize

African American

Barbados

Yupik

Bahamas

Mi’kmaw

St. Kitts and Nevis

Jamaica

Costa Rica

Métis

Navajo

Potowatomi

Dominica

Apache

Nicaragua

St. Lucia

Lakota

Inuk

St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Antigua and Barbuda

Creole

Haiti

Dominican Republic

South America

Ecuador

Peru

Argentina

Chile

Venezuela

Brazil

Colombia

Suriname

Guyana

Bolivia

Mapuche

Paraguay

Uruguay

Grenada

Antarctica

[totallyseiso]

The non-binding UNGA resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza passed with 153 in favour, 10 against, and 23 abstentions.

In favour: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea (South Korea), Republic of Moldova, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, East Timor, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Tuvalu, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Against: Austria, Czechia, Guatemala, Israel, Liberia, Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, United States

Abstain: Argentina, Bulgaria, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Netherlands, Palau, Panama, Romania, Slovakia, South Sudan, Togo, Tonga, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay

[jaydencoolguy]

List of every country, in case you need one

Ever wanted a list of each and every country without having to leave the comfort of Tumblr? Or have you always wanted to easily copy and paste a list without extra numbers and letters getting in the way? Now you don't have to worry! Here's one simple and easy country list for all you geography and list lovers alike. (SPECIAL EDITION: INCLUDING TAIWAN AND VATICAN CITY)

Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Austrailia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Côte d'Ivoire Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo-Brazzaville Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Fiji Finland France Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Holy See Honduras Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestine Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States of America Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe

[zorciarkrildrush]

I think maybe the most visibly autistic I've ever done is very recent - for the past couple of years I knew being enthusiastic about flags is a thing (r/vexillology and of course, maybe more importantly r/vexillologycirclejerk) and I found it nice in passing but not more than that.

However, since I am determined to waste a significant portion of my workdays, a couple of weeks ago while browsing a news site I encountered a silly little 5-question flag quiz. Can I recognize flags like Venezuela at a glance, or at least know it's not Djibouti? Generally speaking I know the African flag color scheme, but if it's not an easy multiple-choice question, apparently I'm kind of lost.

Things happened rather quickly and I became very determined to just, always succeed. I need to know all of them. Finally I landed on this quiz: https://flagpedia.net/quiz

Which is rather inclusive (i.e, some flags are of territories controlled by other countries, but still have their own significantly used flag) and is apparently regularly updated with the designs from Wikipedia. I experienced this first hand when the flag for Afghanistan was the old one one day, and the new, Taliban one the next.

Most flag quiz sites will still, in fact, use the 2013-2021 version.

So, 254 flags on the list, an inordinate amount of them sporting the union jack with some random coat of arms like so:

(This is Fiji specifically but I promise you there's a lot of these fuckers)

And every quiz I finished was with several dozen mistakes, due to territories like these, and random islands in the Carribean or Polynesia or off the coast of Africa, or just small countries in Africa and South America and so on where their flags are just not really common knowledge.

But as I said, I became both determined to always succeed and determined to waste company time. So, doing it once or twice every work day, I've started narrowing my incompetence, remembering new and interesting designs (and also looking up what's up with those places - who knew the Comoros even exist, that they have less than 1 million people in population, and that their government bureaucracy is so wildly inefficient it harms the economy in large, tangible percentages?) and developing little ways of memorizing them. If you see a Union Jack design with waves on the coat of arms, it's either the Falkland Islands:

Recognized by the "Desire the right" wording, and I guess there's a sheep too, or it's the Cayman Islands:

With some thing or other that isn't "Desire the right".

Ireland has this widely recognized flag:

But don't mix it up with the Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire):

Ireland is known for being green, and "starts" with green. If it looks like Ireland but doesn't start with green, you know what it is instead.

Just tons and tons of these little tricks, dubbed ezelsbruggetje by the Dutch (Little donkey bridges! Random little tricks of memorization!), so that I can tell places at a glance, confusing or no.

No, don't ask about Monaco and Indonesia or Chad and Romania, I have no answers for you except sometimes I can tell Chad by the shade of blue.

So a week ago my mistakes have been lowered to about 3-5, slightly ambiguous flags like Gabon and Bolivia being responsible for it mainly (and like one last pesky Union Jack island or something), and last week it was lowered to one (fucking Bolivia still), and now it's at 0. I can repeat it and I have a very good chance at doing it completely open ended (provided I have tolerance for spelling mistakes and lack of accents, e.g with Sao Tome).

And there is no point, this is just A Thing I Know Now and it will be Stuck In My Head Forever. I always had reasons to suspect I'm somewhere on the spectrum, with special interests and social maladjustment and so on, but this is maybe the most egregious, forefront example.

Also trains are cool but like, everybody knows that, right?

Oh and if you reached this far, here are some of my favorite flags in no particular order, with no significance attached to the country itself:

Seychelles, the one, the only, the legend.

Morrocco, clean, set apart from the rest of Africa and/or Arabic countries, can be interpreted as occult by those so inclined, has insane harmony with the flag of Israel.

Iran, easily set apart from the somewhat similar but simpler Tajikistani flag by the repeating Takbir along the bands.

New Caledonia, recognized by whatever this thing is (it's a traditional Kanak totem-like structure placed on roofs?)

And honestly there's maybe a few dozen more worth mentioning but I've been putting off my housechores for long enough.