#and I'm still disappointed

[otiksimr]

Poorly drawn Onix line (With a slightly less poorly made Steelix)

[egophiliac]

tsum events really are just the best, huh

[kittyprincessofcats]

ICJ Ruling

Okay, let's get into this.

First of all, I get the frustration at the court not ordering a ceasefire. I was disappointed and frustrated at first too, since a ceasefire was the biggest and most important preliminary measure South Africa was requesting - and of course we just all want this horror to finally end for the people in Gaza. So I get the frustration and disappointment, I really do.

However, I do think this ruling is still a major win for South Africa, Palestine, and international law as a whole and here's why:

The court acknowledged that it has jurisdiction over this case and completely dismissed Israel's request to throw out the case as a whole. It will now determine at the merits stage (that will probably take years) whether Israel is actually commiting genocide.

The court acknowledged that Palestinians are a "distinct national or ethnic group and therefore deserving of protection under the genocide convention". Pull this out next time someone tells you "there's no such thing as Palestinians, they're all just Arabs".

The court acknowledged very unambiguously that "at least some" of Israel's actions being genocidal in nature is "plausible". South Africa has a case, officially. Israel is accused of genocide, in a way the ICJ deems "plausible", officially. This is huge. (And seriously, how freaking satisfying was it to hear all of those genocidal statements by Israeli politicians read out loud and used as justification for this rulling?)

The court might not have ordered a "ceasefire" in those words, but they did order Israel to "immediately end all genocidal acts" (which includes killing and injuring Palestinians) and submit proof that they actually did. How are they going to comply with this ruling without at least severly reducing or changing what they're doing in Gaza?

In fact, this wording might actually be more appropriate for a genocide (vs a war), as author and journalist Ali Abunimah notes on Twitter:

He's completely right. Israel lost today, by overwhelming majority (I mean, 15 to 2? I heard people predict the rulings would be very close, like 9 judges vs 8, but instead we got 15 to 2 (and even 16 to 1 on the humanitarian aid). Holy shit.) The court disimissed almost everything Israel's side of lawyers said, while acknowledging that South Africa's accusations are "plausible".

And this is important especially because of Mr Abunimah's second tweet there^. Because the question is, where do we go from here?

This ruling means that Israel is officially /possibly/ commiting genocide and that should have huge international consequences. The rest of the world now HAS to take these accusations seriously and stop arming and supporting Israel - and if they won't do it on their own, we, the people, have to make them. This is THE moment to rise up all around the world, especially in the countries most supportive of Israel (the US, the UK, Germany): Protest, call your representatives and demand a ceasefire and an end of arms deliveries to Israel.

We now have a legal case to back our demands: If Israel is, according to the ICJ, "plausibly" commiting genocide, then all of our governments are, according to the ICJ, "plausibly" guiltly of aiding in genocide. And we need to hold that over their heads and demand better. We need to do that right now and in huge numbers. Most politicians only care about themselves and saving their skin. We have to make them realize that they could be accused of aiding in genocide.

(As a German, I'm thinking of Germany here in particular: After South Africa's hearing, our government dismissed their case as having "no basis" - how are they going to keep saying that now that the ICJ officially thinks otherwise? Over the last months, people here have been arrested at protests for calling what's happening in Gaza a genocide. How are the police supposed to legally keep doing that now that the ICJ has officially deemed this accusation "plausible"? I used to be scared to use the word "genocide" at protests or write it on my protest signs - not anymore, have fun trying to arrest me for that when the ICJ literally has my back on this one 🖕🏻.)

So yeah - don't be defeatist about this, don't let Israel's narrative that they "won" (they didn't) take over. This might not be everything we wanted, but it's still a good result. Don't let what the court didn't say ("ceasefire"), distract you from the very important things that they did say. Let this be your motivation to get loud and active, especially if you live in any country that supports Israel. Put pressure on your governments to not be complicit in genocide, you now officially have the highest international court on your side.

[floccinaucinihilipilificationa]

[lichenaday]

*gasps* could it be? Public attention for my special little guys? Teaching folks about the most interesting organisms in the world? Dare I hope?

Oof. Nevermind.

"Thallophytic plant" isn't even a recognized designation anymore. Also, this isn't a helpful definition because it, well, doesn't define anything. It does nothing to demystify lichens or explain what a lichen actually is (a symbiotic association between an obligate fungal partner and one or more photosynthesizing partners).

Hopes dashed. We soldier on.

[beif0ngs]

C'mon heart, beat loudly again! 💓

[littleblackraincloudofcourse]

My apologies to the hard working, unfairly treated, writers, directors, cast and crew but I am not exaggerating when I say I am one more cancelation from not being willing to start any more new shows. I can't keep getting attached to these characters and excited to see their stories only for them to canceled after one or two seasons and never be told. Especially when most of them only get eight episodes or less. I wouldn't mind short seasons if I got a complete story but that rarely happens anymore.

[clarabosswald]

had to get out of bed to vent about this because jesus fucking christ.

tl;dr there is enough real shit to criticize and condemn about israel, stop making stuff up.

anyway this is the full thing that just happened to me on reddit:

on which i commented

(the pancakes thing is a reference to a post i saw on tumblr, btw. it had 10k+ notes.)

which then prompted this lovely interaction with the sub's mods:

so here's the thing.

no, "not legally recognized" and "illegal" are not the same thing. just like "not legal" and "not legally recognized" are not the same thing!

interfaith marriage is not illegal in israel! neither is queer marriage! neither is secular marriage!

the thing about jewish marriage here is that, within israel, in order to get full spousal rights from the government, you need to go through the state rabbinate. the state rabbinate grants marriage only according to their very strict interpretation of the jewish religion. that means that anyone who doesn't want to get married like that, will have to pick other routes.

for instance. cyprus is a popular marriage destination for israelis! any israelis! including secular jews! i know that because my own parents, who are 100% jews but also 100% secular, flew to cyprus to get married there, and then got legally recognized as fully married back in israel!

queer couples who get married abroad are legally recognized as married within the country!

other religions - muslim, christian, druze, etc. - have their own religious marriage institutions that are legally recognized!

while traditional marriage in israel is tied to religious institutions, there are alternative routes to being legally recognized as a couple, which grant at least some, if not all the rights granted to religiously married couples!

all of this knowledge comes not from taking wikipedia articles as gospel, but from actually living in this stupid cesspool of a place!

pretending to know more about local queer issues than local queers is queerphobic as fuck!

pretending to know more about jewish issues than a jew is antisemitic as fuck!

to make things crystal clear: israel is a fucked up place there are plenty of actual, real, crimes this state does that are actually grounded in real evidence you don't need to make shit up to make this country look bad speaking over, invalidating, and excluding locals from talking about their own lived experience doesn't make you righteous! it makes you a pompous, elon musk-wannabe dickwad!

your local plot of grass is touch starved as fuck

[royalarchivist]

YD: Hello, I'm from Korean.

Letshugo: Hello, I'm from Germany.

YD: Can you see what I'm saying?

Letshugo: Yes, I understand.

YD: Hey, this is really amazing. I speak Korean, and you speak German, but we have a conversation!

Letshugo: Yes, that's really awesome.

YD: I'm a Minecraft grandma who has been playing Minecraft for 14 years.

Letshugo: 14 years? How old are you?

YD: You don't need to know. 😑

Letshugo: Oh, ok.

Quackity has created something so amazing, it makes me so proud seeing his project help people communicate like this. He looks so happy. :')

[yeonjune]

Yeonjun about the strain he felt while preparing for his debut solo project ✙ "GGUM" MAKING FILM

[zivazivc]

Finished!

A lazy summer day by a stream~

I finally put my illustration degree into good use and made a proper traditional illustration (although still fanart 😅). Sometimes I really wanted to just "undo" some strokes or move some things around haha but man was this relaxing and satisfying to work on, also I am just so proud of the outcome. I haven't done a proper traditional illustration on this scale since my thesis so it's been a few years.

I took these photos with a phone outside to try and really capture the colors and details.

[gaffney]

johnny lawrence: i love all my children. miguel, devon, and especially *looks at smudged writing on hand* dobby the house elf

[arttsuka]

Based on somewhat real events

I spent way too much time drawing this...

But yeah, Ford finally saying thank you

A continuation (kinda)

[green-green-grass]

in which they all live happily ever after (and have a dance party)

[sherrymagic]

At last, our dream is about to come true.

Poom Phuripan as JOE in Episode 12 MY STAND-IN (2024)

[gingermintpepper]

Okay, let's finally talk about EPIC's Apollo

I feel very compelled to say, first of all, that I do not dislike Epic. In fact, I am very fond of Epic and have been following its production and status very eagerly! I attend all the launch streams, I watch all of Herrans' update videos; I am, at the end of the day, a fan and I want it to be known that my words are spoken out of love and passion as much as they are spoken from a place of critique.

So really, what my problem with Epic's Apollo?

In the briefest possible terms; the choice to have Apollo be defined by his musical aspect in God Games is thematically strange. And not in the 'oh well in the Odyssey, Apollo was important to Odysseus and his family so it's weird that that wasn't kept in Epic' strange, strange in the sense that Odysseus' character arc since My Goodbye has been getting more and more obviously Apollonian and so it is positively bizarre that when we get to meet Apollo, the god seems entirely disinterested in him and his affairs. So much so that he is not even defined by any station that would indicate that he has been watching over and protecting Odysseus and his family.

What do I mean by 'Odysseus has been following an Apollonian arc'? I'm so glad you asked!

Remember Them is the last song in which Odysseus explicitly uses his sword until Mutiny where he must use it to defend himself against Eurylochus' blade. He uses it to help enact the plan to conquer Polyphemus and, due to Polites dying in that battle, Polites who wished for Odysseus to put the blade down entirely and embrace a post-war life, Odysseus also retires his sword. This is an action that symbolically separates him from Athena - and the image of Odysseus as a traditional warrior set for him in Horse and Infant - as much as My Goodbye physically separates him from the goddess and her war-ways - from this point onwards, Odysseus will no longer be leaning on Athena's wisdom or methods to solve his problems. Likewise, he will no longer be able to rely on her protection.

Odysseus thusly solves most of his upcoming problems through diplomacy and avoidance. He approaches Aeolus - a strange and ambiguous god (both in gender and in motivation) and appeals to them for help. Circe too, he approaches not with wishes to conquer or for revenge, but for the safe returning of his men and an alternate way forward. In all of these scenarios, there is some Apollonian element which is subtly interweaved alongside the influence of other gods; it is with a bow and arrows that Polyphemus' sheep is slain (and thus it is this Apollonian element which is at the root of Odysseus' spat with Poseidon), it is a vision of Penelope that warns Odysseus that his men are about to open Aeolus' wind-bag, Circe's peace offering to Odysseus is to refer him to a prophet of Apollo who has since died.

In this way, Apollo is walking alongside Odysseus for all of his journey after Athena departs - even in the Underworld, he is guiding him. It is Tiresias' proclamation that is the last straw for Odysseus, it is by the power of a mouthpiece of Apollo that Odysseus decides to embrace his ruthlessness. It is with the bow and arrow that Odysseus subdues the siren who sought to trick him, likewise, Odysseus does not attempt to undermine or escape the fate of paying Scylla's passage price - he knows of the doom about to befall the six men and quite unlike the rest of the journey until this point, he does not fight against it. This all comes to a head on Thrinacia where it is a blade which sacrifices the sun god's cow and brings destruction upon the crew once more.

My point with all of this is that when I heard the teasers for God Games years ago, it made perfect sense to me that Apollo would be Round One - he is not Odysseus' adversary and has no reason to oppose Athena's wish to free him. From other teasers about what will happen in the climax of Epic, Apollo will still be walking alongside Odysseus - it is Apollo's bow that Penelope will give the suitors to string. Likewise, it is Apollo's bow that will prove Odysseus' legitimacy and identity. That bow will be the power by which Odysseus hunts his adversaries and cleans out his palace - it is Apollo who is the avatar of Odysseus' ruthlessness, not Athena.

So tell me, truly, what was the point of having Apollo raise a non-argument in God Games? Why have him appear unconcerned, aloof and slightly oblivious? Why have him appear in his capacity as the Lord of Music at all?? And if the intention was never to make Apollo an active player in Odysseus' life like he was in the Odyssey, why keep Odysseus as a primary archer?

The answer of course is that Apollo is inextricable from the fabric of the Odyssey - his influence and favour exudes from Odysseus just as much as Athena's. In Athena's ten year sulk, it would have been Apollo who kept Telemachus and Penelope safe. It would have been Apollo protecting Odysseus from Poseidon's gaze as he travelled the seas (according to the Odyssey anyway)

Forgive me for not being excited about something that I thought was being purposefully set up. I was extremely ecstatic about all of the little Apollonian details that litter the sagas because I know where this story ends up (loosely) but all God Games did was reveal that maybe those Apollonian details were not intentional at all, but merely the ghost of the Apollo who persistently haunts those he favours, even if he cannot explicitly come to their aide in an adaptation.