#also the financial cost of sending people to space when we are killing the planet and have so much inequality down here is disgusting

[tuttle-did-it]

You know why I don't celebrate anything to do with the space race or the moon landing?

Fucking Nazis.

America sold its soul to win the space race against the Russians by giving Nazis like Wernher von Braun, Hubertus Strughold and Walter Schreiber a pass, and using the 'research' based off torturing, terrorising and murdering innocent prisoners during WWII in the most horrific way possible.

America's victory in space was built on the corpses and torture of millions in concentration camps, and rather than punish these Nazi scientists for their crimes, they were applauded because it helped them win the space race.

And I don't want to hear any 'but Teddy, if we hadn't won the space race, Russia would have won and we'd have ended up in a war we couldn't win!'

We do not KNOW that. But even if that is true, it is still incredibly evil to promise literal Nazis a free pass just because it helps America plant a flag on the moon.

Doing something evil for the sake of winning is still evil.

It would have been one thing if America had recognised this then and publicly acknowledged this. And discussed it in their education with children.

If they'd said to the world, 'we're doing this horrible thing because we believe it will avoid war, but these evil Nazis will go to prison after they help us win the space race [spoiler alert, they did not]. We must recognise the damage and horror that got us here, and recognise that we had to get in bed with the devil to win this, and for this we are ashamed.'

They didn't do that. They've never even acknowledged it. Those Nazis walked away heroes for ‘saving’ America.

And they didn’t even acknowledge the efforts of Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan- the incredible Black women without whom NASA could probably never have done anything. It’s barely acknowledged now. But it is a fact.

This isn’t conspiracy theory bullshit. This is real, literal history. Actual factual history. And children are not taught this in schools. They’re just taught The Great ~Achievement~ made by white men in America.

So.

Fuck Nazis.

Fuck America, France and Britain (and everywhere else) for giving Nazis a free pass just because it was convenient for them.

Fuck the space race.

Fuck the moon landing.

Fuck the education faults of the space race.

Fuck the white washing of Black women who got them there, treating the women like shit, and not even acknowledging their achievements.

Fuck America for getting in bed with literal Nazis and not even educating their own people on this shameful history.

Fuck all the 'science' that was built off the torture and mass graves piled high with corpses of people in concentration camps from Nazis.

Fuck the moon landing.

Hey. Why isn’t the moon landing a national holiday in the US. Isn’t that fucked up? Does anyone else think that’s absurd?

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

UN chief warns China, US to avoid Cold War (AP) Warning of a potential new Cold War, the head of the United Nations implored China and the United States to repair their “completely dysfunctional” relationship before problems between the two large and deeply influential countries spill over even further into the rest of the planet. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to The Associated Press this weekend ahead of this week’s annual United Nations gathering of world leaders. Guterres said the world’s two major economic powers should be cooperating on climate and negotiating more robustly on trade and technology even given persisting political fissures about human rights, economics, online security and sovereignty in the South China Sea. “Unfortunately, today we only have confrontation,” Guterres said.

Canada votes in pandemic election that could cost Trudeau (AP) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gambled on an early election in a bid to win a majority of seats in Parliament, but now faces the threat of being knocked from power in Canada’s election on Monday. Polls indicate Trudeau’s Liberal Party is in a tight race with the rival Conservatives: It will likely win the most seats in Parliament, but still fail to get a majority, forcing it to rely on an opposition party to pass legislation. “Trudeau made an incredibly stupid error in judgement,” said Robert Bothwell, a professor of Canadian history and international relations at the University of Toronto. Trudeau entered the election leading a stable minority government that wasn’t under threat of being toppled.

Biden easing foreign travel restrictions, requiring vaccines (AP) President Joe Biden will ease foreign travel restrictions into the U.S. beginning in November, when his administration will require all foreign nationals flying into the country to be fully vaccinated. All foreign travelers flying to the U.S. will need to demonstrate proof of vaccination before boarding, as well as proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within three days of flight, said White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients, who announced the new policy on Monday. Biden will also tighten testing rules for unvaccinated American citizens, who will need to be tested within a day before returning to the U.S., as well as after they arrive home. Fully vaccinated passengers will not be required to quarantine, Zeints said. The new policy replaces a patchwork of travel restrictions first instituted by President Donald Trump last year and tightened by Biden earlier this year that restrict travel by non-citizens who have in the prior 14 days been in the United Kingdom, European Union, China, India, Iran, Republic of Ireland, Brazil and South Africa.

Recall vote highlights California’s geopolitical divisions (AP) The California recall election was a blowout win for Gov. Gavin Newsom that reinforced the state’s political divisions: The Democratic governor won big support in coastal areas and urban centers, while the rural north and agricultural inland, with far fewer voters, largely wanted him gone. “It’s almost like two states,” Menlo College political scientist Melissa Michelson said. Though California is a liberal stronghold where Democrats hold every statewide office and have two-thirds majorities in the Legislature, it is also home to deeply conservative areas. Those residents have long felt alienated from Sacramento, where Democrats have been in full control for more than a decade. A conservative movement in far Northern California has for years sought to break away and create its own state to better reflect the area’s political sensitivities.

US launches mass expulsion of Haitian migrants from Texas (AP) The U.S. is flying Haitians camped in a Texas border town back to their homeland and blocking others from crossing the border from Mexico in a massive show of force that signals the beginning of what could be one of America’s swiftest, large-scale expulsions of migrants or refugees in decades. More than 320 migrants arrived in Port-au-Prince on three flights Sunday, and Haiti said six flights were expected Tuesday. In all, U.S. authorities moved to expel many of the more 12,000 migrants camped around a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, after crossing from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico. The U.S. plans to begin seven expulsion flights daily on Wednesday, four to Port-au-Prince and three to Cap-Haitien, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Madrid street party (Reuters) Roughly 25,000 Spaniards joined in an illegal mass drinking party on the streets of Madrid on Friday, which took police until 7 a.m. the following day to break up. The huge outdoor parties, known as “macro-botellon,” have been resisted by Spanish authorities for years, and have taken on renewed significance as coronavirus restrictions limit public interactions. Police may find quieter streets next weekend as closing times for Madrid’s bars and clubs are finally extended to 6 a.m. from their previous 2 a.m. limits.

Thousands flee as lava spewing from volcano on Spain’s La Palma island destroys houses (Reuters) Authorities have evacuated about 5,000 people from villages in the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma as lava spews from an erupting volcano, local officials said. The 15-meter high lava flow has already swallowed 20 houses in the village of El Paso and sections of roads, Mayor Sergio Rodriguez told TVE radio station on Monday morning. Since erupting on Sunday afternoon, the volcano has shot lava up hundreds meters into the air and poured flows of molten rock towards the Atlantic Ocean over a sparsely populated area of La Palma, the most northwestern island in the Canaries archipelago. La Palma had been on high alert after more than 22,000 tremors were reported in the space of a week in Cumbre Vieja, which belongs to a chain of volcanoes that last had a major eruption in 1971 and is one of the most active volcanic regions in the Canaries.

Shooting at Russian university leaves at least 6 dead, 24 injured (Washington Post)  At least six people were killed and 24 were wounded after a gunman opened fire at a university in the northwestern Russian city of Perm, the government in the region said Monday. President Vladimir Putin called the shooting at Perm State University “a tremendous tragedy, not only for the families who lost their children, but for the entire country.” Such a rampage, which sent students hurling themselves from windows in a bid to escape the gunfire, is extremely rare for Russia, which has little experience of the kind of mass shootings routinely seen in the United States. Russia’s Investigative Committee, a law enforcement agency, said the attacker was a student who had purchased a hunting rifle in May. The agency said he had been apprehended and is in the hospital for treatment of wounds suffered while resisting arrest. Russia has strict laws on civilian gun ownership and requires people to pass psychological exams before obtaining a license for hunting and sport firearms.

Evergrande debts (NYT) Once China’s most prolific property developer, Evergrande has become the country’s most indebted company. It owes money to lenders, suppliers and foreign investors. It owes unfinished apartments to home buyers and has racked up more than $300 billion in unpaid bills. Regulators fear that the collapse of a company Evergrande’s size would send tremors through the entire Chinese financial system. Yet so far, Beijing has not stepped in with a bailout, having promised to teach debt-saddled corporate giants a lesson. Evergrande is on the hook to buyers for nearly 1.6 million apartments, according to one estimate, and it may owe money to tens of thousands of its own workers. As Beijing remains relatively quiet about the company’s future, those who are owed cash say they are growing impatient.

Pacquiao for president? (Foreign Policy) Manny Pacquiao, the former professional boxer and Philippine senator, has said he would run for president in next year’s election, accepting the nomination put forward by a faction of the ruling PDP-Laban party. His decision comes after Christopher “Bong” Go rejected a presidential nomination from a rival PDP-Laban faction earlier this month, although his running mate, President Rodrigo Duterte, accepted the nomination for vice president. If electoral authorities recognize Pacquiao’s nomination, he may still face competition from Sara Duterte-Carpio, the mayor of Davao and daughter of the president. Duterte-Carpio has topped recent opinion polls but has been cagey about her plans for higher office, saying last week that she would run for another term as Davao mayor in 2022.

Talibanning Women From Work (Guardian, BBC) In mid-August, with American troops still present, the Taliban vowed to respect women’s rights, forgive those who fought against them, and ensure that Afghanistan won’t become a haven for terrorists. Zabihullah Mujahid, long-time Taliban spokesman, gave his first ever public news conference, saying leaders had encouraged women to return to work and girls to return to school. He promised women would retain their rights, but qualified that as being “within the framework of Islamic law”—specifically, Sharia law. To no one’s surprise, it was just ‘happy talk’ meant to allay suspicions of world powers and the fears of Afghans. Soon there were ample reports of Taliban soldiers going house to house, searching for “traitors” and executing them. Working women were told to stay home and schools were shut down, although it was labeled a temporary security measure. In Kandahar, women bank tellers were forced out of their jobs at gunpoint. In the next days and weeks the group’s new government issued decrees restricting more rights of girls and women. Female students in middle and high schools were told they couldn’t return to classes, although boys were allowed to. Female university students were informed studies would now take place in gender-segregated settings, and they must abide by a strict Islamic dress code. Other crippling measures from when the Taliban ruled in the 1990s surfaced unofficially, including a requirement that Afghan women have a male guardian accompany them in any public place. On Friday, female employees in Kabul city government were told they couldn’t return to work if their job could be performed by men, meaning almost 1,000 women who were part of the city’s workforce of nearly 3,000 lost their jobs. The Taliban shut down the Women’s Affairs Ministry, replacing it with a ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice” tasked with enforcing Islamic law.

The Taliban vs. ISIS (Washington Post) After years of waging a holy war to overthrow the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan, Taliban fighters have struggled to adjust to their new day job: the mundane task of securing a city. “All of my men, they love jihad and fighting. So when they came to Kabul they didn’t feel comfortable. There isn’t any fighting here anymore,” Taliban commander Abdulrahman Nifiz told The Post. But the Taliban still faces a violent foe: the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, which claimed responsibility Sunday for a series of blasts over the weekend in the country’s east that reportedly killed several people and injured tens more. The improvised explosive devices were set off Saturday and Sunday around the city of Jalalabad, known as a stronghold for the Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K).

Troll Farms (MIT Technology Review) A report produced by a Facebook employee details the enormous impact troll farms—that is, organized networks designed to spread misinformation—have on the social network. The October 2019 report identified that the most popular pages for Christians and Black Americans were, in fact, operated out of Kosovo and Macedonia. As of October 2019, 15,000 Facebook pages with a predominantly American audience were operated out of those countries, reaching 140 million U.S. users every month. Troll farms operated the fifth-largest women’s page, the second-largest Native American page, 10 of the top 15 African-American interest pages, and every single one of the 15 top pages targeting Christian Americans.

[almaasi]

reaction post typed while watching SPN 12x17 “The British Invasion”

the deadly duo writing anything:

06:08pm

yeah i downloaded this yesterday and i was just DREADING it so i put it off as long as it took for me to feel bad that my tumblr queue is empty. deadly duo? no thank you

even though i have next to no idea what this episode is about, i'm kinda smug that this was the least-watched episode of the season so far (via wikipedia), 1.57 million vs the 1.7m~ average this season, and will probably remain the least-watched episode given we’re nearing the end of the season

things i don’t care about that i’m expecting to happen: reversing/erasing mick’s character development with only the slightest hint to previous episodes, no cas, no characters of colour (or alternately, characters of colour who die or have something else horrible happen to them), lady characters with little to no personality and a weird inclination to rape or kill people, consent issues in general, logic fails, a wonky plotline that makes no sense and fucks up all the work better writers have done all season - and indeed, throughout the entire 12 seasons of the show

(in case you’re new here, i don’t like these writers one bit, and i’m forever bitter that they still write their garbage for an otherwise okay/good show, and, most importantly, never seem to attempt to improve. i give them the benefit of the doubt every episode and they always let me down. i, like many people, have stopped expecting things.)

aside from the occasional use of the b-word and a lack of characters of colour, this show is otherwise fine - and has at least improved with the misogyny and representation in recent years. but i’m pretty sure a majority of the really shitty racist rapey misogynist stuff in this show has the deadly duo’s names on it. they keep writing things that erase other people’s better ideas and change the course of the story, and alter the overall feel of it, and since their episodes irrevocably become part of the canon, their writing never stops affecting the show negatively.

someone give me a meme where they are forcibly removed from the planet

okay okay enough whining let’s just watch this thing

-

06:23

oh god no the adorable deaf lady eileen is in the recap

IF SHE DIES

I WILL PERSONALLY EXHALE MY ACTUAL SOUL

AND HAVE IT FLOAT ACROSS THE OCEAN IN A HAZE OF FURY TO VISIT THESE WRITERS

AND I WILL ḊẼ̍̍S̈T̑R͑̌̃̊̊̆̄O͊ͧ̏Ý̊͂ ͂ͯ̉̈́͋T̡͇͔H̯̼E��̗̹̹̜M̳͚̫

-

06:26

mick looks so much like cas that if someone missed the previous episode, and then saw this recap, they’d probably just think cas got a haircut and didn’t shave for a couple days

-

06;27

funny how “outside london, england” looks remarkably like vancouver

-

06;28

eyyy the framing so the headmistress has horns

i’m a sucker for that kind of symbolism

-

06;29

tbh this is giving me a doctor who vibe, maybe because of the british school kids and a creepy vibe

specifically the episode with anthony head as the headmaster and the screechy bat aliens

-

06:33

but three episodes ago mick didn’t raise his hand when sam (or mary?) asked “who here has killed something”

inconsistency, or mick just lying by keeping quiet?

-

06;39

EILEEN HI YOUR HAIR LOOKS GOOD

-

sam: “so, after we talked, you went back to coeur d'alene, idaho?”

eileen: “right”

the exposure script........ guys........... i’m suffering

-

06;42

“i did some digging, check your phone”

eileen talks the same way sam does, that’s cool

-

DEAN LOOK AT THE GODDAMN ROAD

-

06:44

“that’s the plan”

i wanna hug eileen so badly, she makes me happy

-

06;45

eileen: “bye sam”

dean: “that’s cute”

sam: “c’mon”

yeah DEAN it IS really cute when two people are in a long-distance relationship and have a phone conversation and say “bye [insert name here]” at the end of the phone call

speaking of, WHERE’S CAS. WHEN DID YOU LAST TALK

-

06:48

mick is basically crowley and cas mixed together and poured into one asshole with a pretty face and childhood trauma

man they need some new character archetypes

-

06:51

dean: “it’s not kelly’s fault, she didn’t know lucifer was her boyfriend”

mick: “yeah, could happen to anyone”

SOMEONE LOOK ME IN THE FACE AND TELL ME THAT’S NOT ABOUT SEASON 11 POSSESSED!CAS DESTIEL, I DARE YOU

-

06:53

mick: “you should’ve shot her between the eyes immediately”

i still see these kinds of comments on the spn people’s instagram, i guess a lot of people missed the point of the season where the boys are going for the Some Monsters Are Decent People approach

-

06;55

lucifer and diagon’s telepathic conversation kinda reminds me of season 4/5 for some reason. makes me a lil nostalgic

-

07:01

dean’s all squirmy and sleepy and wants to cuddle his own arm

-

07:02

doctor to daigon: “you’re her... partner?”

diagon: “no.”

doctor: “birth coach?”

diagon: “sure”

cute character thing or lowkey homophobia, who knows

-

07:05

lucifer’s hair looks fluffy

also i feel dull inside and kinda melancholy

this episode makes me feel like i’ve forgotten something and it’s cold outside and there’s no heater inside, and as though i’ve got five hours left to wait until dinner

just generally unenthused, really

and very distinctly, it’s reminding me of 2007/2008 when every day felt like that, at the peak of my doctor who obsession, when i started watching spn. idk i don’t feel good right now, i want this to be over

feels like i’m wasting time

-

07:10

lucifer licking the floor

nnnnnnnnnnnn

this is so unnecessary 

GUYS I WANNA STOP I’M SO OVER WATCHING THIS SAME TROPE AGAIN AND AGAIN

-

07:11

i figured it out!! it’s like a background episode. something you put on while you do something else, and don’t really bother to watch

that’s what they were going for right

because that’s what they got

-

07:15

ketch: “mrs winchester, i believe you’re drawn to danger”

*cough* dangerous john winchester *cough*

also as cute as the murder pair are together, i’m not digging the mary/ketch thing personally

-

07:16

legit thought this was cas for 2 seconds and i got excited

same fucking nose and everything

-

19:19

!1!! wow!!! a nameless, personality-free murderous black man who attacks an innocent white man unprovoked for no obvious reason!!!!!!!! how fucking realistic and topical!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

/sarcasm

WHaT THE ACTUAL FUCK

ARE THEY

FUCKING

DOING

my exhaled soul is puking right now

it’s okay soul, they’re just mean nasty racists who don’t know any better and keep doing the same problematic things over and over without a moment of self-reflection!!!

f̡̼̮̼̹u͉̲͎͇̰ck̫̦̣̠̀i̘̘̯̖̙̹ͅn҉̼̙̰̰̞͉g͚̻̝̯̳̗̠ ḊẼ̍̍S̈T̑R͑̌̃̊̊̆̄O͊ͧ̏Ý̊͂ ͂ͯ̉̈́͋T̡͇͔H̯̼E̗̹̹̜͞M̳͚̫ 

look, nobody can ever, ever tell me that the writers don’t have a say in what kind of actor is cast for a role. they absolutely do. and you can tell, because the ones who are the worst in every other possible way are ALSO the ones who cast their rare characters of colour only into the Bad Guy/Dead Guy/Doormat roles. and it’s always the same. it’s one ~innocent coincidence~ after another and IT ALL ADDS UP TO nOT a FUCKiNG cOINCIDENCE

some writers have the capacity to offer diversity and positive representation, or are at least aware of what they might improve in the future. but these guys? all they offer are mere caricatures of good things that are actually poison, based on cliches and stereotypes. and i can’t stand it (┛◉Д◉)┛彡┻━┻ 

TWELVE YEARS

TWELVE YEARS WE’VE PUT UP WITH THESE FUCKHOLES

WHY ARE THEY STILL WRITING THE SAME SHIT

-

07:48

cas: “this is a voicemail. make yourrr... voice... a mail.”

sounds like chandler bing trying to make a jingle for “voicemail” (”pants! they’re like shorts, but looonger”)

also how often does cas change his phone/voicemail? i swear he had a different voicemail a few weeks back. if the brothers taught cas to change phones often, imagine all the “new phone it’s me” messages they must send.

also if you’ve ever set up a new phone you know it’s way more time-consuming than you’d think. at least for me. i think i’ve only set up voicemail once in my life and i never did it again on a new phone. right now i don’t even have a sim card or phone number, i just use my phone with the home wifi and it only has space for 5 apps and no photos or anything. you people with your fancy phones that do everything, i don’t know what that’s like. cas must be so tech-savvy by now. i wonder if he just keeps getting the same make and model of phone over and over. also that must cost hELLA CASH like where are they getting that money?? are they still running credit card scams? (how many credit card companies ARE there to scam?? do they scam the same people multiple times? if they’re at the bunker all the time wouldn’t companies realise their cards are going to the same place and are potentially being used in the same stores?) is cas being financially supported by dean and sam? I WANT ANSWERS

-

07:50

so the winchesters never say ‘bye’ at the end of phone calls

and if the script hadn’t let jared know that dean’s phone call was over, then sam is talking REALLY LOUDLY even though dean could theoretically still be on the phone to cas

also since eileen is deaf sam doesn’t need to fucking shout????????//

-

07:52

so the black dude with a knife is a) evil, b) dead

thanks that’s so great yay just what i always wanted  ಠ_ಠ

i get that eileen is A Capable Deaf Woman but ffs have these people ever heard of not throwing other oppressed people under the steamroller to elevate a disabled white woman

-

08:01

sam where the hell did you pick up that accent

-

08;11

okay the whole thing about daigon vanishing and eileen shooting the slimy british guy and then mick not shooting eileen was pretty cool

consistent character development!!! and daigon still lives!!!

but also why was it sam bargaining for eileen’s life..... romance probably

-

08:14

NNNNNNNNNN

KETCH AND MARY

/SQUIRMY UNCOMFORTABLE FEELING

this offically counts as a notp now

if the deadly duo thinks it’s a good idea then it’s a big ol nope from me

urhghgh flashbacks to 9x03 and how i actually told myself it was cute for 2 minutes before i burst into tears, and i didn’t know why i was so upset until tumblr explained me a thing

(i still have that reaction post somewhere. it wasn’t on tumblr, it was just to my friends)

-

08:17

also if we humour these dickwads and think about this mary/ketch pairing for a second, if we ever needed confirmation that john winchester was abusive, can we take it from the fact mary has a type ?

ugh god the heteronormativity of it all, too

it’s different to me suggesting ketch/dean had potential, because the point is dean HATES ketch and doesn’t trust him a bit, they could fuck and they both know there’s no safety and wouldn’t let their guards down for a second. wheras mary seems to trust ketch and values his approval and therein lies the danger of an abusive relationship.

and YES, anyone who’s thinking “elmie you complain about everything”, i’m complaining because everything IS a problem

deadly duo ep? more like ✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: U N N E C E S S A R Y  B U L L S H I T *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

-

08:23

all that said, ketch is still a cute fumbling bean tbh

if he wasn’t the kinda guy who would beat someone to death when he’s angry, this might work fine

THE CUTENESS IS A RUSE. HE’S SEDUCING US ALL

-

08:27

lucifer likes making the cute demon all flustered, pass it on

10/10 bisexual devil

(also: observe the pick-n-mix of deadly duo characters of colour-- fig b; cute black demon = Bad Guy + Doormat)

-

08:35

lady: “hunters are dogs”

ketch’s smirk was definitely about mary and again i’m ehhhhhhh on the subject

-

08;37

:c

mick

nooo

fuck you ketch

:c

i has a sad

-

08;38

dean’s humid sigh because he doesn’t know if cas is okay. he also has a sad

-

08:40

for the first time ever, my video file has next week’s preview tacked on the end

next week’s looks hella better than this week’s

fuck yeah give me a basement goat deity

-

08:41

*sighhhh*

okay well 

i get it, i get why this episode was the way it was, with mick and ketch and whatever

but

i dunno. there’s always these episodes that make me think “elmie, why are you watching this show again? there’s nothing in its contents that makes you happy or furthers your education or even interests you slightly”

but then i remember how much i like the other episodes by other writers

the problem is that when these people write something it brings everyone else down, and brings the whole show down

when i don’t enjoy an episode’s plot points, it’s solely because it wasn’t written well enough. it’s possible to watch a character you’re emotionally attached to die and say “ooh that was good watching” (i.e. “death’s door” with bobby)

yeah, some stuff happened that i didn’t like, but it’s the context of These Writers Being The Ones Who Wrote It that makes it dissatisfying. like, sure, important plot points. but it could’ve been so much better.

4/10, didn’t give a crap about anything except mick, eileen and kelly, and then mick was dead, eileen was written as a plot device for the men (i like that she was soft and emotional though, i never see myself in always-badass women), and kelly just got tossed around and told she’s gonna die because of her decision to keep the baby, and therefore her ability to choose her own fate was erased henceforth

bechdel test pass though. that was nice.

*dean voice* “dude, don’t compliment the bad guys”

[ladystylestores]

Your Wednesday Briefing – The New York Times

Brazil’s leader tests positive for coronavirus

President Jair Bolsonaro — who has repeatedly downplayed the threat of the coronavirus in Brazil, which is experiencing the worst outbreak outside the United States — said on Tuesday that he had been infected with the virus.

Mr. Bolsonaro, 65, said he had been tested after experiencing fatigue, muscle pain and a fever. He did not express contrition for his handling of the pandemic, saying that the demands of his job had put him at risk.

“I am the president; I have to be on the front lines of the fight,” he said. He compared the virus to “rain, which is going to get to you.”

The president once described the coronavirus as “a measly cold.” When asked in late April about Brazil’s rising death toll, he replied: “So what? Sorry, but what do you want me to do?”

Details: Critics have called his handling of the pandemic — which has included shunning masks, encouraging mass rallies of his supporters and championing unproven remedies — reckless. Brazil now has more than 1.6 million confirmed cases and more than 65,000 deaths.

Related: The World Health Organization has acknowledged that airborne transmission of the coronavirus may be a threat in indoor spaces. Here’s how to protect yourself.

In other developments:

The U.S. gave formal notice that it was withdrawing from the World Health Organization, officials said Tuesday. Effective in 2021, the move would cut off one of the organization’s top funding sources.

Melbourne will be locked down for six weeks after experiencing a record number of daily coronavirus cases, officials said.

The virus death toll in India surpassed 20,000 on Tuesday. With more than 719,500 confirmed cases, the country has overtaken Russia to become the third hardest-hit, after the U.S. and Brazil.

The U.S. government will pay the vaccine maker Novavax $1.6 billion to expedite the development of 100 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine by the beginning of next year.

The British government has promised $2 billion to save its cultural institutions, sending a powerful message about the centrality of arts in democracy, our theater critic writes.

As countries across the world reopen travel but block American visitors, a long-held sense that the U.S. passport was a golden ticket is fading.

Here are the latest updates and maps of the outbreaks.

Sweden becomes a cautionary tale

Since the coronavirus emerged in Europe, Sweden has captured international attention by conducting an unorthodox experiment: What happens when a government allows life to carry on largely unhindered?

Our European economics correspondent explains what happened: Not only have thousands more people died than in neighboring countries that locked down, but Sweden’s economy has fared little better. Its central bank expects its economy to contract by 4.5 percent this year, and the unemployment rate jumped to 9 percent in May from 7.1 percent in March — comparable to the economic damage in Denmark.

Details: More than three months after its neighbors imposed lockdowns, the coronavirus is blamed for 5,420 deaths in Sweden, a country of 10 million. Per capita, that is 40 percent more deaths than in the United States, 12 times more than in Norway, seven times more than in Finland and six times more than in Denmark.

What it means: Many countries have lifted restrictions on the assumption that doing so would revive their economies. But Sweden’s result suggests that a failure to impose social distancing can cost lives and jobs at the same time. The pandemic has disrupted businesses regardless of government policy, in part because people simply avoid shopping and dining out.

A troubling snapshot of global warming

Wildfires in the Arctic released more polluting gases into the Earth’s atmosphere in June than in any other month in 18 years of data collection.

Last month, such fires released 59 million metric tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide, scientists said on Tuesday. That’s more carbon than oil-producing Norway emits in a year. The Arctic is warming at least two and a half times faster than the global average rate. Smoke from the Siberian fires seems to be reaching as far as the Pacific Northwest in the U.S., scientists said.

What it means: Studies show that persistent Arctic warming may influence extreme weather events and thaw permafrost, which releases still more greenhouse gases.

If you have 5 minutes, this is worth it

Out-of-work Britons try berry picking

In this pandemic year, some Britons who trained as chefs, personal trainers or salespeople are working in fields instead, picking berries. And while the labor is not glamorous, many are enjoying it.

They are filling in on farms where fruit is traditionally picked by seasonal workers from Eastern Europe. “It’s not something I would always do,” one out-of-work chef said, but “it kept me busy, and it’s educating me.”

Here’s what else is happening

Deutsche Bank: The German lender agreed to a $150 million settlement with New York financial regulators after it repeatedly overlooked suspicious transactions by Jeffrey Epstein, the wealthy sex offender who killed himself last year.

President Trump: In a tell-all memoir, Mary Trump, the president’s niece, claims that Mr. Trump embraces “cheating as a way of life” and sees people in “monetary terms.”

Russia espionage: Russia’s secret police have arrested Ivan Safronov, a respected former reporter who recently worked as an adviser to the head of the country’s space agency. He has been accused of committing treason by passing secrets to an unidentified NATO country.

Arms sales: A day after imposing sanctions on 20 Saudis for human rights abuses, Britain on Tuesday resumed arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The sales had been suspended out of concern that the weapons would be used to violate international humanitarian law in Yemen.

London: An European gold medalist and her partner, a fellow sprinter, have accused police officers of racial profiling after the athletes were handcuffed and their car searched in an elegant London neighborhood. The police said there was “no concern around the officer’s conduct.”

Snapshot: A fleet of high-altitude balloons the size of tennis courts, like the one shown above in Nevada, began delivering internet service to Kenya on Tuesday, giving online access to tens of thousands of people. It’s the first-ever commercial deployment of the technology.

Travel: Hostels around Europe, built on the idea of community, have sat empty the past few months. Can they keep their sociability in a time of social distancing?

What we’re reading: This Star Tribune profile of the Minnesota radio host Garrett McQueen. Melissa Eddy, our Berlin correspondent, calls it a “great profile of his mission to expand our idea of how we define classical music.”

Now, a break from the news

Cook: This asparagus, goat cheese and tarragon tart is effortlessly chic. Make it with a store-bought puff pastry.

Read: “Lake Life,” David James Poissant’s first novel, is a tale of a family getaway gone very wrong. It’s less concerned with the origins of dysfunction than with how it plays out, our reviewer writes.

Do: Strength training is more physiologically intricate than you might have imagined. A new study shows that before our muscles become stronger, our nervous system changes.

Staying safe at home is easier when you have plenty of things to read, cook, watch and do. At Home has our full collection of ideas.

And now for the Back Story on …

Hard choices for tech in Hong Kong

After China imposed a new security law on Hong Kong, Facebook, Google, Facebook-owned WhatsApp, Twitter and some other digital companies said they would temporarily stop complying with the Hong Kong authorities’ requests for user data. Here’s what Shira Ovide, from our On Tech newsletter, has to say about their decision.

Going up against the new law could force those companies to shut down service in Hong Kong. It would also be a public defiance of China’s government that we rarely see from global companies. No one knows what happens next.

U.S. internet companies face hard calls as they decide how and whether to comply with the divergent laws and norms of each country they operate in without violating their own missions.

When it comes to China, those complications are multiplied by a thousand. The government and some of its supportive citizens are willing to punish global companies and organizations like the National Basketball Association that don’t go along with the government’s views of itself or the world.

Companies with business in China have twisted themselves in knots, for example, trying not to offend the government by appearing to side with Hong Kong’s demonstrators pressing for autonomy.

This Hong Kong law, however, presents the U.S. internet powers with one of those hard choices multiplied by a thousand. If they go along with China’s new law, they are likely to face backlash from American politicians and their own employees.

If they don’t comply, China might make it impossible for the American internet companies to continue to operate in Hong Kong. It might seize the tech companies’ offices in the city or even arrest their employees. You can imagine how the U.S. government would respond to that.

Even while they’re banned in China, the internet companies might not be able to avoid trouble with China.

That’s it for this briefing. By the way, we’re streaming this year’s Paris Fashion Week live. See you next time.

— Isabella

Thank you Melissa Clark provided the recipe, and Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh provided the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S. • We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about what Trump’s divisive speech at Mount Rushmore reveals about his re-election campaign. • Here’s today’s Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: 16 tablespoons (three letters). You can find all our puzzles here. • Our tech reporter Taylor Lorenz spoke to ABC’s Good Morning America about her reporting on high school students who use Instagram to expose racism they face at school.

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[blogsteveclark12]

How sales shopping is killing the planet

For retailers, these sales are a great opportunity to liquidate unsold or off-season stock into cash, make room for new stock and cross-sell existing stock via impulse or unplanned buying. For consumers, sales provide one or more “legit reasons” for spending and gifting, either to oneself, others or a bit of both. Indulgent spending is expected and even encouraged when discounts or bargains are widely available to be snatched up.

Putting their benefits aside, sales also come with numerous costs. Emotionally, they may drive consumers to spend money they do not have and then feel regret or guilt afterwards. Financially, they may entrap shoppers into (more) financial debt because of the faux sense of “entitled” indulgence or spending when there is a sale on. Psychologically, it may exacerbate compulsive buying disorder, also known as “oniomania”, by legitimising gifting and spending.

All this adds up to some serious environmental costs. Marketing academics like me often assess how people act through certain “behavioural lenses”, and I think there are two that are applicable here:

Throwaway culture

The throwaway lens, particularly visible in fashion, suggests that the more we buy, the more we throw away. While the correlation is yet to established empirically, it is logical to think that sales promote more buying and in turn mean there is more to throw away.

This proposition can be supported by the phenomenon of dwindling living space. In the UK, bedrooms are shrinking and on average living rooms in new build homes are a third smaller than in the 1970s. But despite this, people are still buying a lot more stuff than in the 1970s.

To make room for acquired sales items, people are likely to get rid of “pre-loved” items and harm the environment. For example, a UK parliament report in early 2019 found that in the country “around 300,000 tonnes of textile waste ends up in household black bins every year”, which is about 5kg per person. This is then sent to landfill or incinerators. The report notes that “less than 1%” of the material used to produce clothing is recycled. Our throwaway behaviour costs the planet.

Sales mean more products are returned

The product returns lens suggests a possible correlation between sales and the rate of product returns. Sales such as Black Friday have become digitally-oriented, with around three quarters of purchases being made online.

Online returns can involve a number of environmentally damaging activities. Consumers sending items back, and couriers collecting and redistributing them, all means extra driving and thus traffic congestion and carbon emissions. Cleaning, repairing and/or repackaging returned items mean consuming more natural resources and potentially using more materials that contain fossil fuels or palm oils. Processing, transporting and landfill of single-use or non-recyclable packaging used in returns mean more land use and a greater carbon footprint.

All of these activities are usually “invisible” to us, the consumer, and yet can have dire consequences for the environment. For instance, Vogue Business reported that in the US returns alone produce around 2.27 million tonnes of landfill waste and 15 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year, “equivalent to the amount of trash generated by 5 million people in a year”.

I don’t want to undermine the commercial value of sales nor the consumption joy they can bring when done wisely. However I cannot help wondering whether these sales can strike a balance between commercial, consumption and green value.

As we increasingly witness and experience the impacts of climate change, we do need to be (more) wary of our consumerist behaviors and subsequent environmental costs. A little thought for the environment might be just the way to enrich the shopping joy, or mitigate the spending guilt, experienced in sales events? Let’s spend (more) positively to protect our planet.

Thrift store shopping can be fun and you can cop a lot of things you’d never expect to find. If you are in FL or TN, check thrift stores in Panama City Beach, FL. They help men overcome drug and alcohol addiction by offering inpatient services at Haven House Addiction Recovery. Support a great organization while doing some sustainable shopping!

[sciencespies]

Op-ed | NASA: Need Another Space Assignment?  

https://sciencespies.com/space/op-ed-nasa-need-another-space-assignment/

Op-ed | NASA: Need Another Space Assignment?  

Civil aviation is one of the premiere success stories of the 20th century. Airmail was authorized by the US government in 1911 and began scheduled service in 1918. The federal government then authorized private contractors to carry the mail in 1925. An aviation boom followed. With the establishment of passenger airline service — initiated by the Air Commerce Act of 1926 — federal authorities established air routes, mandated standards for navigation, outlined licensing procedures for pilots, provided certification for aircraft, and created accident investigation standards. Commercial aviation was turned over to private industry and flourished. With full deregulation in 1978, aviation became more affordable, competitive and safer than ever. 

Here’s what did not happen next: the government did not step back in, redefine the routes, and nationalize the airlines who were plying ever-wider routes across the US and the globe. To do so would obviously have spelled disaster.

Sadly, some members of Congress are ready to do just that in space. They are preparing to turn back the clock and shut the door on an emerging golden age of lunar exploration and development. While the National Space Council has laid out a clear path to a prosperous American future in space and NASA leadership have embraced ambitious goals with quick and efficient plans, H.R. 5666, the National Aeronautics Space Administration Authorization Act of 2020, would return American spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit to governmental control. It would dictate the destination — Mars — and engineer the systems — governmental landers on governmental rockets.

In contrast to NASA’s current, innovative plan to return to the moon with a robust, competitive mix of commercial and governmental hardware, H.R. 5666 would send only a handful of short sortie human missions to the moon, abandoning the significant water and metal resources there to our international competitors. These are the resources that will unlock sustainable access to the rest of the our solar system and define the future of humanity for years to come.

Our congressional rocket scientists have not surprisingly designed the most expensive solution with the lowest possible economic return. H.R. 5666 would mandate “a minimum set of human and robotic lunar surface activities that must be completed to enable a human mission to Mars” — a certain path to high cost, low return missions, and the likely collapse of a space program capable of surviving a change in administrations. Worse, the plan mandates that NASA own its landers and rely only on the long-delayed and grossly over-budget Space Launch System for carriage.

Who wins here? In the short run, the traditional aerospace giants who have had trouble delivering their systems will keep plodding along. Who loses? Ultracompetitive and efficient companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin, who have been demonstrating the technical and economic superiority of their innovative spaceflight methods. In fact, Congress’s plan is terrible for our revered traditional firms in the long run, because it subsidizes their noncompetitive postures and kills a future market full of opportunities for them. And who will pay? The American taxpayer, who will bear the burden of Congress choosing the least expeditious and most expensive toll road in the heavens. 

If you have a sense of Déjà vu, you’re not alone. We’ve seen this space opera before. When President Obama took office, George W. Bush’s Constellation moon program was terminated. Prominent voices, including moonwalkers Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan, decried that decision. They dreaded the fallow period in American space activity that would follow the shuttle program. What NASA got instead was an endless “Journey to Mars,” a program that would theoretically put humans on the Red Planet in no specific year using a rocket specified by senatorial rocket scientists. Nobody outside of NASA’s communication department, the kids at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center and science fiction authors took the Journey to Mars seriously. NASA wasn’t building any landers, ascent vehicles or habitats to serve as Mark Watney’s Martian potato farm. Needing to actually send the rocket somewhere, NASA concocted the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), an unloved muddle that most everyone was happy to see the Trump transition team lay its ax to. 

H.R. 5666’s top-down, government-owned plan is like a bad sequel to a bad movie. The world’s premiere space agency is proceeding with SLS/Orion and also plans to work with entrepreneurial space companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin who, according to NASA’s own internal studies, can provide routine services (and even novel ones like lunar landings) for as little as 10 percent of the conventional approach. The public also loves the new excitement these firms have brought to spaceflight. So why would the House not listen to the world’s greatest experts who are in their ultimate employ or to their constituents? Use your imagination. (hint: entrenched financial and political interests).

Space enthusiasts have long pined for another “Kennedy moment,” in which the President would stride to the podium to announce a new, dramatic and time-delimited space goal that would galvanize NASA and the aerospace industry to do what they do best. Unfortunately, in the three attempts since 1961 (Space Station Freedom under Ronald Reagan, the Space Exploration Initiative under George H.W. Bush, and the Constellation program under George W. Bush) none were sufficiently funded, and none gathered broad support from the Congress or the public. They all hung on the Hill and damaged public confidence in NASA’s ability to execute on human spaceflight programs. One more cancellation or extended delay of a large program — in this case, the Artemis lunar landing by 2024 — could be calamitous for NASA’s image. Our international partners in space who would like to invest millions into helping NASA achieve these ambitious goals are aghast. Why should they invest in another politically doomed U.S. program when they can surely count on the Chinese to achieve their stated goals? Does the U.S. Congress seriously want to see European and Canadian astronauts beaming down at them from a Chinese space station?

Humans on Mars can wait. It can wait until we have worked out the many complex technical challenges, such as long-term life support tech, radiation abatement, and learning to work in an environment saturated with dangerous and potentially toxic dust. Mars can wait until these technologies have been tested and proved by working on the lunar surface and in lunar orbit aboard an orbiting platform, the Gateway. Mars can also wait until we learn how to “live off the land” on the moon by using lunar resources — that’s why very smart people in China and India are dedicating vast resources in their national space programs to accomplish that lunar goal. (If they succeed in doing so before the U.S. does, it could become much more difficult to accomplish that goal ourselves.) Finally, Mars can wait until cislunar infrastructure exists to make the push for the Red Planet affordable, sustainable and realistic. Otherwise we are likely to find ourselves spent and exhausted, both in terms of public support and national treasure, when H.R. 5666’s pointless Martian sorties — should they ever occur — lose their excitement, just as the Apollo program did in 1972. 

Finally, a return to closed-end Apollo-style human spaceflight programs, which will ignore the critical development of sustainable orbital and cislunar infrastructure, cripples our ability to respond quickly to potential foreign interference with American space assets. Russia and China are developing an increasingly robust ability to field tactical weapons in space and to interdict American assets there. Space infrastructure, developed by entrepreneurial companies, would establish an inherently strong cislunar posture for America — defending a territory is ultimately about occupying and exploiting it. H.R. 5666’s expeditionary mentality would blow right past the development of enduring infrastructure and economic development, leaving the protection of timid U.S. space assets to strictly military operators as the only responses the weak can make in the face of aggression, concession or violence.

Those on the Hill should listen to the distant echoes of the Space Race and learn. Reject the drumbeat of nationalism and antiquated governmental models. NASA is on the right course, with the right leadership and the support of our entrepreneurs and our international partners; let them do their job. Most importantly, embrace the most significant lesson of the 21st century: releasing space to free enterprise will secure prosperity for the next generation of Americans, just as releasing the internet from the grasp of government did for their grandparents.

  Greg Autry is founder of the Commercial Spaceflight Initiative at the University of Southern California. He served as a member of the Trump administration’s NASA transition team and as the White House liaison to NASA. He is Vice President of Space Development at the National Space Society. 

Rod Pyle has authored 15 books on spaceflight, including 2019’s Space 2.0 with a foreword by Buzz Aldrin. He is a consultant and keynote speaker for aerospace and in public venues, and is the Editor-in-Chief of Ad Astra, the print periodical of the National Space Society. Rod can be heard on iHeart’s Cool Space News podcast.

#Space

[eiliskmbuggy-blog]

MINIMALISM

Many a night I find myself endlessly scrolling through the Documentary category on Netflix in search for something that will really satisfy my need to learn, or inspire me to change my life while I lie in bed painting my nails. 

On one such occasion while going past films about the meat industry, marajuana, sport personalities, and of course many Louis Theroux films (which I have watched repeatedly and I would highly recommend everyone else does as well). I came across a 2015 documentary called Minimalism. Although not my normal choice of gritty and raw documentary, the description intrigued me and I wanted to know more - and I was not disappointed.

The film was enlightening and gave me a lot to consider and think about, especially about what the tag line says - “The Important Things”.

To really make clear of what I have gained and learned from the documentary I want to split this post into three points: humans, homes and fashion.

Humans

From the start and throughout the Documentary the outlying discussion was the human condition and our need to consume. Currently people in the West are experiencing the best standard of living in history. So why are we always wanting more? Why are we never satisfied with what we have?

There is something wired into our biology that always keeps us craving. For our species this craving is beneficial; it keeps animals and early humans alive through severe conditions and through evolution. How ever this auto-craving has not been able to adapt to our new standards of living.

“It’s why lottery winners are miserable. It’s why homeowners have three car garages.” - Jesse Jacobs, Entrepreneur, Minimalism: A Documentary (2016)   

A good example of this that was discussed on the documentary was mobile phones. We will see the latest phone and we will want it. The adverts will show to us that this new phone will improve our lives; its sleek, its sexy and its new. Then when we have the phone we will experience happiness, joy and utility. Then when a new phone comes out, the now old phone, becomes a source of unhappiness, and thus the cycle happens again.

The documentary centered around two men who were both climbing up the corporate ladder, both making more and more money, yet they weren't happy. This was until one of them discovered minimalism. The two then went on to write a book and the film followed them traveling across America to share their story in the hopes of making people question what is really important in their lives.

The concept I found interesting. I had never really questioned my inability to stop wanting stuff and why I “love” things. I use the word love loosely as this is something that was discussed in the film. We as humans have an ability to form great emotional connections to people and in some cases objects. We look after objects, it upsets us when they break, they fill us with happiness. However we should never let this attachment turn into love. These are just objects after all. 

There is one quote that was said at the end of the film and one which really resinated with me and that was “use things, not people”. I am now considering how much I value the things that I have and to not let them distract from what I believe to be important in my life, like people.

Homes

The documentary not only discussed how we are as humans it also talked about where we live. 

Now minimalism is not just a concept or philosophy, it is also a design. When we think about minimalism we picture large space which is bright and white. However minimalism isn’t just a style of decoration, it can help to inspire architecture. 

The documentary showed a new phenomenon which is becoming increasingly popular and that is ‘tiny houses’. Tiny houses are on average around 80% smaller than an average suburban American home. Although this is a huge downsize there are mass benefits to living in these miniature homes.

The documentary showed a study of how much space an average family use in their home. The study was a heat map and showed that only 30% of the rooms in the house were used, with rooms like the dining room barely ever used. Tiny houses solve the problem of space wastage as a person will make use of every part of the tiny house.

Granted tiny homes are not for families or if you have two great danes, but the benefits to the environment are great, with less land used to plot a tiny house, and also less furniture bought to fill it.

The financial benefits to a tiny house are also huge. The price of a tiny house can start at around £20,000 and can be completely designed to suit your own style and aesthetic. Many interior designers specialise in creating modern and unique homes so being an owner of a tiny house can be a really  special experience.

In the future I cannot see myself purchasing a tiny house, but it did give me a lot to think about when considering property and property investment. Most people will house hunt with a budget in mind. However, why is it that people will purchase a home at the top end of their budget? If you have £400,000 to buy a home, why would you look at homes which are £400,000? Why would you buy a three bedroom house at £400,000 when you are only buying a home with you and your partner? 

Most peoples budgets for buying a home isn’t even their own or real money. They have just been given a guaranteed amount of £400,000. This promise of high rates of money for properties comes with its issues and is what led to the US housing market crash of 2008. People were buying into properties which they couldn’t afford, with money they didn’t own. This led to many people losing a lot of their money as well as their homes. 

From this idea of being minimal with my home and my finances I have a lot to consider when I enter the housing market as to not damage the planet or my pocket.  

Fashion 

As a fashion student this portion of the film was quite hard watching and gave me a slight guilty conscience. The fashion industry is the 2nd most polluting after oil. This is extremely concerning and it all comes down to consumption.

In the past our parents and grandparents would buy clothes for two seasons: the hot and the cold. Now the fashion industry manufactures clothing for 52 seasons. 52! This mass growth in trends and demand has led to fast fashion.

Fast fashion is a term used by retailers to describe garments that have been moved quickly from catwalk to shops quickly, in order to be on trend. Now with fast fashion comes fast waste. As quickly as clothes are churned out into stores every single one of the 52 seasons, clothes are being thrown away just as fast. Clothing quickly becomes out of style and therefore undesirable. Don’t you hate it when you buy something and a couple of weeks later you return to the store and the same garment is in the sale with a huge price reduction? Yep, that’s all thanks to fast fashion.

Clothing is being manufactured so quickly that it also needs to be manufactured cheaply. This means increased labour in mainly developing countries as companies are able to pay workers so low. Bangladesh is currently a hotspot for fashion garment factories with workers paid extremely low and spending their days in dangerous conditions. In 2003 a factory in Bangladesh called the Savar collapsed killing more than 1,000 workers. This was one horrific incident at one of the approximately 5,000 factories in Bangladesh all housing the fast fashion industry.

Not only is the labour cheap but the products are as well. Garments that sell for only a couple of pounds or dollars, once “out of fashion” become worth a fraction the amount of what the customer paid for them, let alone the pennies it will have originally cost to produce. We are living in a world where used apparel is worth less than rice and beans.

It is the fault of the fashion industry that there is so much waste. Retailers and retail companies will make you feel like you’re out of trend, they will make you want to keep buying from them again and again which creates this vicious cycle of mass consumption and mass waste. Some fashion brands have been reported as slashing old garments with scissors and then leaving them on the side of the road so that nobody can re-sell or re-wear them.

However, the Minimalism documentary showed people who are trying to combat the problem of mass garment consumption. 

A new trend which people are trying in order to minimise their wardrobes and consumption is project 333. The idea is to only wear 33 pieces of clothing for 3 months, this includes shoes, coats and accessories. People who have tried project 333 saw huge benefits; they weren’t stuck on what to wear everyday, they weren’t buying any new clothes and the main one - nobody even noticed that they were outfit repeating!

Being a fashion student I love to keep up to date with whats trendy and whats in the shops, but I now have a new consideration to purchasing and keeping my clothes. Now when I shop I really consider the quality of the garment I am looking at; this includes where it is made, what is it made from and if I think it’s going to be on trend for months or even years. By shopping in this way I have been buying way less often but when I do it’s clothing which I really enjoy and know I will keep for a long time. I also have a plan for all my old garments; many I will keep as they could come in handy throughout my degree but if I do not find a use for them they will always go to a charity shop.

One new way of saying goodbye to old clothes without sending them to the dump is an app called depop. Depop is a buying and selling platform for clothing, accessories, shoes etc. The great thing about depop is that you can find some really interesting and unique pieces, and there is always a home for a piece of clothing you no longer want to keep.

From learning about minimalism and how it can benefit our minds and the planet I have started to adapt lots of the concepts into my own life. I have adopted a new considered approach to shopping which has meant that I have have purchased more quality items, as well as saving money. Overall the documentary really asked a question to the world as to whether we need so much stuff as in most cases accumulation is harmful not only to ourselves but to the planet.