#free 300 units

[rightnewshindi]

गरीब परिवारों को मिलेगी फ्री 300 यूनिट बिजली, सीएम सुक्खू बोले, 125 निशुल्क बिजली भी बंद नहीं की

गरीब परिवारों को मिलेगी फ्री 300 यूनिट बिजली, सीएम सुक्खू बोले, 125 निशुल्क बिजली भी बंद नहीं की #news #HimachalNews #HimachalPradesh #HimachalDiaries #ExploreHimachal #HimachalTourism #HimachalLovers #HimachalCulture #HimachalVibes #NatureInHimachal #Him

Himachal Free Electricity: मुख्यमंत्री सुखविंदर सिंह सुक्खू ने कहा है कि प्रदेश में 125 यूनिट निशुल्क बिजली को बंद नहीं किया गया और 300 यूनिट निशुल्क बिजली गरीबों को देंगे। अभी तक केवल लाखों रुपये का आयकर भरने वाले होटलों की सब्सिडी बंद की है। कर्मचारियों को पांच तारीख तक वेतन न मिलने पर उनके सहयोग के लिए धन्यवाद करते हुए मुख्यमंत्री ने कहा कि जब आर्थिक स्थिति बेहतर होगी उन्हें डीए और एरियर भी…

[rubywolf0201]

Gonna post some Gepard pics that I got as part of my good luck charm until I can get him.

[fiercynn]

With Palestinians breaking free of their besieged ghetto, we suddenly hear the all-too-familiar chorus of “the cycle of violence” and other such clichés. As usual, this fixation on pacifism only arises when the oppressed strike back at their oppressors. It seems that the refusal to live in a cage is not a convincing explanation for violence and armed resistance. Regardless of whether Israelis were killed or not, there was no way Palestinians could have launched an effective resistance campaign without being widely condemned or demonized. Even when resorting to tactics such as BDS campaigns to effect change, Palestinians were quickly rebuked, with critics likening the tactic to a “Nazi campaign,” and eliciting draconian legislation to legally ban the practice in places like the United States. In 2018, Gaza launched the unarmed Great March of Return to challenge the occupation and demand the right of return. It was dubbed a “riot,” and met with sniper fire, killing over 300 Palestinians, and creating an entire generation of maimed youth. Palestinian administrative detainees — prisoners held without charge, trial, or access to lawyers — are demonized for daring to go on hunger strikes. Even merely trying to access the International Criminal Court, which in theory should be the most agreeable arena to air grievances in the supposed “rules-based-international-order,” was met with hostility and rejection. These specific examples were chosen not to imply that other forms of resistance are illegitimate but rather to illustrate how even when Palestinians try to play by the non-armed rules set out for their resistance to be seen as “legitimate,” they are still framed as aggressive terrorists. There is always a reason why even the mildest methods of resistance are deemed wrong, always some technicality explaining that while “usually” this would be the right way to do things, it doesn’t apply to Palestinians. The goalposts are infinitely shifting, and it becomes glaringly obvious that the issue is not with the methods, but instead with who is undertaking them.

fathi nemer on october 24, 2023 for mondoweiss

[himachalnewsdaily]

300 Unit Bijli Free

[darkeagleruins]

FAILURE: Congress will begin a massive investigation into the assassination attempt on former President Trump. Why did USSS Director Kimberly Cheatle deny official requests for additional security at the rally? How many inexperienced DEI hires did she assign to Trump?

The building where Thomas Matthew Crooks fired from was less than 130 yards away from the president with free line-of-sight. Any United State Marine Corps recruit just finishing rifle training at Camp Pendleton could make that shot with iron sights. In fact, they could hit him with iron sights from 300 to 500 yards.

The Secret Service should have had someone on that building - the fact that USSS Director Cheatle denied requests for additional security to secure that rooftop is the reason Trump was shot and a supporter was killed (at least two other casualties as well).

[kawuli]

Today in "cool things the US government is doing"

The Environmental Protection Agency is giving out $2 billion in Community Change Grants "to empower historically disadvantaged communities all across the country to access federal funding to address the challenges of climate change, increase resiliency, and transform lives."

The grants target "communities most adversely and disproportionately impacted by climate change, legacy pollution, and historical disinvestments"

Specifically:

Tribes in Alaska: $150 million for projects benefitting Indian Tribes in Alaska including funds for cleanup of contaminated lands.

Tribes: $300 million for projects benefiting Tribal communities in the other states. 

Territories: $50 million for projects benefitting disadvantaged communities in the United States’ territories of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Disadvantaged Unincorporated Communities: $50 million for projects benefiting small and rural areas that lack fixed, legally determined geographic boundaries, such as Colonias.

U.S.-Southern Border Communities: Consistent with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) longstanding commitment to addressing transborder pollution challenges, $100 million for projects benefitting non-Tribal disadvantaged communities within 100 kilometers north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

$200 million is also available in technical assistance to help people with the application process, so organizations without the institutional capacity to understand complicated federal funding structures can get help, free of charge.

As they put it, "The Community Change Grants are funded by the Environmental Protection Agency to empower historically disadvantaged communities all across the country to access federal funding to address the challenges of climate change, increase resiliency, and transform lives."

So a) if you know of any organizations that might be able to use this funding, spread the word! and b) sometimes the government does good stuff, even in this the year of our discontent 2024.

[soranatus]

DC Comics Movie Poster Variant Covers: superman | super fly! 

wonder woman | 300

detective comics | the matrix

action comics | bill & ted's excellent adventure

catwoman | bullitt

green lantern | 2001: a space odyssey

green lantern corps | forbidden planet

aquaman | free willy

harley quinn | jailhouse rock

justice league dark | beetlejuice

grayson | enter the dragon

sinestro | westworld

justice league united | mars attacks

the flash | north by northwest

teen titans | the lost boys

(this isn’t every single one)

Thread made by fentyheffa!

[mousedetective]

Please Help A Mostly Queer/Disabled Homeless Family Pay Off Their Debt?

PAYPAL | AMAZON WISHLIST | KOFI | GOFUNDME

VENMO: @penaltywaltz | CASHAPP: $afteriwake23 | ZELLE: DM me for email address

03/05/24

So good news! We're in a 30-day shelter with a caseworker and help from the City of Encinitas Homeless Support Program to get housing with 30 days. It's a brand new shelter and we're all together in a room with the cats, and they're really eager to help get us out of our homeless situation.

Right now, we have about $1000 in money we can save up each month. If we can pay off the debts that my mom owes that she's in credit consolidation for, that frees up another $187 each month. If I can pay off my installment loan, which is four payments totaling $475, that frees up another $124 a month. I think my mom just paid off a credit card debt, but we have $100 debt that I think has gone to collections, $500 we need to pay on a card before that one goes to collections, and $300 for my PayPal 4 in 4 payments. We also have two payday loans I'd like to pay off before they're due at $600.

So if I can cover all that debt this month, we'll have well over $1,500 to put towards a rental payment in May, if we can get help with a security deposit and first month's rent through housing programs. We might be able to afford a two bedroom apartment in Fallbrook with that much. We'd need to come up with money to move our stuff out of storage as well, but a friend of mine has covered the big units until April 1st and may cover them an extra month if needed.

Any help would be amazing. We are so close to getting out of hotels/our car and into something stable. I'm setting the goal at $3000 for now because I don't have wifi at the shelter and can't check exactly how much my mom owes for her debt consolidation still.

But any extra will help with gas to get to places where we can get things we need (birth certificates, Lena's social security card with her dead name, Lena's psych eval, my mom's dental stuff, and doctor/therapy appointments) and food in case the snafu with my food stamps isn't fixed right away (we get three meals here, which is fine for me and Lena, but my mom is basically still on a soft food/liquid diet and they're still needing to get stuff for her and the gentleman here who has no teeth).

Please help if you can, and please reblog as well! We would all greatly appreciate it.

$2500/$5000

EDIT: We found out today that Lena is currently uninsured. The meds she was prescribed for her mood disorder are $1,500 out of pocket. She needs the medication badly. Please help?

[miyamiwu]

Last updated: Aug. 8, 09:30pm GMT+8

I first posted about this 2 days ago, but only now did I have the time to sort out how much I exactly need and… it’s a lot

Dorm rent: 1,624 PHP (~29 USD)

Laptop credit bill: 4,000 PHP (~70 USD)

Consultation fee on different psychiatrist: P1,500 (26 USD) 3,000 PHP (~52 USD)

College tuition: 5,000-7,500 PHP (86-130 USD)

Passport: 1,200 PHP (~21 USD)

Total: 13,000-16,000 PHP (225-280 USD) 14,824 - 17,324 PHP (258 - 300 USD)

But the college tuition one is just a rough estimate! Enrollment is still ongoing, so I don’t know yet exactly how much I have to pay for.

If you have any spare cash, please consider helping me out by donating to my Ko-fi:

Or, you can also avail of my alpha reading service on my Ko-fi commissions page. It’s only $5 right now!

Breakdown and explanation of the amounts under the cut

In the post linked above, I mentioned struggling on the June-July dorm payment, but that’s okay now. My mom was able to find a way, but now I have another problem and that’s the August payment and the December deposit. It will be the start of a new semester, and as always, I have to pay for the first month and the last month of the semester upfront. That would be P1,624 (~$29).

I really don’t want to also ask my mom for this, as my youngest sibling just told us in the sibling group chat that she’s been having suicidal thoughts (everyone in this family has mental health issues 😔). And apparently, she also just had an argument with her boyfriend (I didn’t even know she had a boyfriend…)

With that, I will also need P4,000 (~$70), to pay for my laptop’s monthly dues. My mom bought it on credit and she has to pay for it monthly… but seeing as how she’s already depressed over her multitude of debts, I really couldn’t bring myself to burden her with this as well.

Then yesterday, I started my sessions with a new therapist, and she’s telling me to get a second opinion on ADHD.

Remember how a few months back I went to see a psychiatrist? Well, that doctor turned out to be a traumatic experience. She gaslighted me, then denied me having ADHD on the basis of my mom saying that I was a “quiet child who kept to herself.”

Current therapist asked me if I have been considered for ADHD/OCD before, and when I brought up the previous diagnosis, she was unconvinced coz she thinks I may have the inattentive type of ADHD. Now, she’s referring me to a psychiatrist she knows that specializes in my case, but the consultation won’t be free.

Update: I initially thought she’d refer me to someone from the Philippine Mental Health Association (PMHA), where the consultation fee is only P1,500 ($26) since that’s what she mentioned during our session and the PMHA is also on our uni’s list of recommended mental health services. But earlier, she emailed me the three doctors she recommends, and all of them turned out to be from private hospitals/clinics with fees of around P3,000 (~$52) per session… which is twice the amount charged by the PMHA

Next, my college tuition.

I go to a state university, and in my country, tuition should be free for up to 5 years in my course. But due to mental health issues, I’ve had to retake several classes because I could never complete them on time. I also took a leave twice so uhh… I’ve used up my free tuition rights and now have to pay.

I don’t know the exact amount yet, as we are charged by the number of units we are enrolled for… and well, enrollment is still ongoing, and I’m not guaranteed any units as slots are extremely limited. But going from previous receipts, it should be around P25,000 (~S434).

I’m not gonna ask for help on that full amount, though! Because, god, it really is too much. I plan to apply for tuition loan in my uni, and apparently I can get up to 70-80% discount once approved, so after deduction, I’ll only have to pay P5,000-7,500 ($86-130)

Lastly, the passport. I really need to apply for a passport already. I posted about my valid ID woes a while back, but I really can’t find the post again, but long story short, I don’t have a single, valid government ID at the moment, and it’s hindering my access to a lot of services.

I used to have a postal ID, but it expired last year and I can’t renew it because postal ID issuance has been suspended throughout the country for maintenance.

I also applied for a national ID last year, but until now I still haven’t received it. That’s just how fucking inefficient my country is.

The one ID left that’s easy to apply for without a pre-existing valid ID is the passport, so yeah, I really have no choice but to apply for it now. The regular passport fee is 950 PHP, but I listed the price for the expedited one because I need it urgently. That would be P1,200 (~$21).

I need a valid ID to open an account at this one bank that my uni requires for all those aspiring to be student assistants. And in the case my uni scholarship application gets approved, I will also need the account to receive any stipend I may get as they only do it via that bank.

I will also be needing the account to encash stipend cheques I get from a government-funded scholarship (they still haven’t given me my stipend for the previous semester, though). The bank teller has already been lenient with me three times in the past by allowing me to use an expired ID along with my student ID, the latter which they don’t even accept. I really can’t bear to do it again.

Aside these, I will definitely be needing a valid ID and a bank account should I get accepted in any of the jobs I’m applying for… so yeah, I really need the ID 😭

No pressure at all, but if you have a little extra cash, I would be eternally grateful if you donate

USD to PHP conversion is high, so a little goes a long way for me

[hetalia-club]

Hetalia Olympics Drama

because it's very important that someone is documenting it.

England- was instructed by the British Olympic committee NOT to eat the meat at the Village.

Everyone- collectively hates the food and have said so in interviews and online DAILY. They have all been going out to do their own shopping and buying grills and flat tops to cook for themselves, because teh food is so retched. It has been given a 0/10 most days and on rare days a 2/10 by the Americans.

Norway- has gained the nickname 'muffin man' for commandeering the ONLY edible thing in the village, which may or may not be a hate crime, the beloved chocolate muffins. which they have all been fighting over. He was spotted the other day eating jelly toast, disgracing his name. Duolingo called it blasphemy. His team posted his shame for the world to see on tiktok. Scandalous

Australia, America, Canada, Greece, Italy, Denmark and England - Threw a fit until they were allowed to bring their own personal AC units to the village because the village has NONE, it is '79 degrease' in the rooms, how miserable. Australian and America made this possible by threatening not to come if they can’t have AC. I do not blame them at all. Could you imagine being outside playing tennis all day in 80 degree heat and then going back to your room to relax where it is STILL 80 degrees.

America- has brought his own mattress because the mattress is a thin piece of foam and everyone has been complaining of lack of sleep and back pain.

Canada- was caught cheating by using a drone to spy on New Zealand's soccer practice.

Hong Kong & Italy- Italy accused Hong Kong of fixing the fencing competition by paying off reffs (This is untrue and the fencing coaches are being sore losers, the athlete himself agrees with teh decision). Hong Kong has been taunting Italy with pictures of pineapple on pizza. Pizza Hut Hong Kong is offering FREE pineapple on any pizza for the next 2 days. Tragic. We don't know what this will do for his mental health I will try and keep you all posted.

England- Whilst mountain biking got a flat tire, had to carry his bike to get fixed and somehow still managed to get first after passing a French biker going around a tree in the forest. French spectators threw water bottles at him!? The fuck.

America- though not really drama but America has built their own “Team America” house for all their many athletes to come hang out in, it has AC and also it’s decorated like a frat house and looks like a frat house. They have ice cream, video games, iced coffee (extremely important!!) and clothing stores for merch, a big room like a movie theater where everyone can go to to both eat and watch the games together. If you’re not an American athlete it’s 300 bucks to go to for the day. This has angered other athletes who just want to go inside to see. Just import to note.

Belgium - Belgium got a gastrointestinal infection after swimming in the Seine river. Several atletes were seen vomiting after swimming in the water.

[drdemonprince]

With this read through of Dunbar-Ortiz’s book, I was completely blown away, and radicalized all the more. I unlearned so many intentionally confusing myths about what America is and how it came to be within the book’s 300 pages. 

I came to understand that this is a country created by settler militias, not by immigrants, and that moral culpability for the harm done by the U.S. goes a lot farther than just a handful of wealthy slave-owners and especially badly behaved soldiers.

I learned about how the U.S. government’s political repression of Native peoples set a legal precedent that would one day be used to justify the torture of suspected “terrorists” at Guantanamo Bay and in Abu Ghraib. I saw more parallels between the violent settlement of the U.S. and of Israel than ever. 

More than anything, Dunbar-Ortiz’ book taught me that the colonization of the United States relied upon the committing of several key sins — uniquely cruel political and military innovations that would reverberate forward throughout history, changing everything about how warfare is conducted and how oppressed peoples are exploited across the globe. 

The fundamental sins of American conquest are: gun “rights”, private property, factionalism, and irregular warfare against “unlawful enemy combatants.” In this piece, I will discuss where each of these sins came from, why they were so essential to a successful Indigenous genocide, and the legacy we continue to see from them today: 

Gun “Rights”

As an American, I had grown up being taught that the “well regulated militias” of the Second Amendment had arisen to fight off the British soldiers during the war of independence. 

Under this version of United States history, citizens retain the right to own guns so that we might defend our property from criminals, protect “our” territories against foreign invasions, and resist tyranny from federal government. To this day, Americans evoke this interpretation of the Second Amendment as a justification for concealed carry rights, and for “castle doctrine” laws that allow home owners to shoot intruders (even unarmed ones!) inside their homes. 

In reality, the militias mentioned in the Second Amendment had formed many decades before the revolution, and were initially created to slaughter Indigenous people and clear them out from their lands. The foreign “invaders” that the Second Amendment was created to defend against were not the British colonizers, but the many Native peoples who had been living on Turtle Island for thousands of years before European conquest. 

Dunbar-Ortiz writes:

“…Native peoples are implied in the Second Amendment. 

Male settlers had been required in the colonies to serve in militias during their lifetimes for the purpose of raiding and razing Indigenous communities, the southern colonies included, and later states’ militias were used as “slave patrols.”

 The Second Amendment, ratified in 1791, enshrined these irregular forces into law: ‘A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.’”

Full essay is free to read or listen to at drdevonprice.substack.com

[aimeedaisies]

On the road with the inexhaustible Princess Anne

8am 800 miles travelled, 12pm 650 hands shaken, 9pm 0 cups of tea drunk

By Hannah Furness, 9 May 2024

The Princess Royal is standing up a 42ft tower, looking out to sea in a north-westerly force six wind. Her hair, that neat up-do that has barely changed in 40 years, does not move, even as a sudden gust blows a seagull past her eyeline.

‘It’s quite exposed,’ she says, with understatement, then gets on with peppering her hosts with questions about tides, volunteer timetables and what precisely the diggers on the beach below are doing.

Outside the watchtower, her arrival in the Lancashire seaside town of Fleetwood has caused the smallest of stirs. A handful of curious dog-walkers gaze at her, camera-phones aloft, and she offers them a brief wave.

Inside, the volunteers of the National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) could not be more excited for a visit from their royal patron. The chairman, Stephen Hand, launches into a stream of compliments about the Princess’s work. ‘If I haven’t made the point clearly enough,’ he finishes, ‘we love her.’

This is her first engagement in a day that will see her travel 421 miles from Gloucestershire to Lancashire, then Merseyside, and back again via helicopter and Range Rover. It is one of 10 engagements in this typical week; she will complete about 450 this year.

‘She’s a dynamo,’ says the CEO of The Pony Club. ‘The best president imaginable,’ agrees the chairman of Carers Trust. ‘She should be queen,’ offers a member of the public. This is said at least once a day.

Not for nothing does she have the reputation as Britain’s hardest-working royal. In numbers of engagements, she and the King vie for the top spot each year. While he and the Princess of Wales have taken time off from public engagements to undergo cancer treatment, the 73-year-old Princess Royal has ploughed on with her head down, her work the definition of ‘unsung’.

Most of the time, that is how she likes it. She has eschewed the ‘rota’ system of journalists, photographers and broadcasters who cover her family’s outings. ‘I don’t go for their benefit,’ she once said of the press. ‘I go for the people who ask me.’

This week, in the middle of April, she has made an exception to grant vanishingly rare permission for The Telegraph to follow her on the road, for a snapshot of her work.

At no small effort from her close-knit team, which has accommodated me in its nomadic office, I have been allowed to document her encounters with the approximately 650 people she has met, the many charities and organisations she has put in the spotlight – and report from inside a Windsor Castle investiture for the first time.

I’ve spent seven years writing about the Royal family, travelling across the UK and the world to watch them at work, but Princess Anne’s no-fuss, no-frills team is unlike anything I’ve seen up close before. Professional and precise, she barely stops – every hand is shaken and every minute counts.

The Plan

The Princess’s diary is set months in advance. Twice a year, her office sends an invitation to 300-plus organisations she is affiliated with, asking for their requests for her time. Typically she’ll receive 1,000 to 1,200 requests a year – some suggest a visit, others ask her to write forewords to books, or ask for meetings. All are compiled into a database, arranged by date and region, and printed neatly in a book for the Princess to study. ‘[She] goes through everything required and decides what she’s going to do and when,’ says a member of the team. A planning meetings follows – and ‘once [the programme is] set, she sticks to it’.

Across the year, the Princess Royal travels the width and breadth of the United Kingdom

Her staff then go through it again to add last-minute audiences into the gaps. ‘The week is there to be filled,’ one long-serving team member tells me. ‘If she’s got a free hour and a half in London, we’ll look again to see what else to add.’

The Princess’s team is small but mighty. There’s her private secretary, Colonel John Boyd, who is fresh from 32 years in the British Army; her deputy private secretary, Commander Anne Sullivan (the double Annes occasionally cause confusion for outsiders); as well as five programme managers tasked with ironing out the exact schedule, right down to how long the Princess can spend talking to each person.

They are aided by 13 ladies-in-waiting, spread geographically, who accompany her out and about. Some of her first, who began working with her in the early 1970s, have only just retired.

‘You never quite know what she’s going to say yes to, but it’s never an outright no,’ says the long-serving team member of her schedule. ‘She’s probably been to more industrial estates than any other royal.

Monday - Estimated miles travelled - 0 (worked from home)

Hands shaken - 8

‘It’s a balance of what do the organisations want, what could she hear or learn or teach here? Every day is a school day where the Princess is concerned.’

At Gatcombe Park, her Gloucestershire home, the Princess’s assistant, Donna, welcomes a small group of eight smartly dressed representatives from the Royal Dairy Innovation Award with a cup of tea and a biscuit.

The Princess joins them once they are settled, in a homely barn conversion with framed seascapes on the walls. She reassures them that it’s ‘not going to be one of those formal events’, then starts grilling them about the Nova Scotian dairy industry and on-shore salmon farming.

Ash Amirahmadi OBE, winner of the prestigious Princess Royal Award, is there to officially collect the certificate honouring his leadership in the dairy industry. Afterwards, when the private engagement has sunk in, he tells me: ‘We had practised our formalities but she immediately put us at ease.

‘I was thinking, “How does she know this stuff, and how does she remember?” I come across eminent scientists and business leaders and not many have a better understanding of the food system than the Princess Royal.’

Ash Amirahmadi, the winner of this year’s Princess Royal Award, pictured with the Princess Royal

Before he leaves, the Princess tells him that she’ll be in touch to sign him up to deliver a speech at a conference next year.

She fits in a horse ride, dodging the worst of the day’s rain and hail she feared could be ‘painful’.

‘There’s no such thing as bad weather,’ she says later, with satisfaction. ‘Only inappropriate clothing.’

Tuesday - Estimated miles travelled - 421

Hands shaken - 200+

In Fleetwood, the wind whips across the sandy beach and the Princess Royal doesn’t flinch. She is there with a handful of volunteers from the NCI, celebrating its 30th anniversary. With an average age of 69, these are the local ‘eyes and ears’ that saved 22 people from trouble in the water last year by raising the alarm.

After a turn with the telescope, the Princess – wearing a navy-blue coat, colourful silk scarf and (the now famous) wraparound sunglasses – reaches the top of the Rossall Point Observation Tower, which looks out over Morecambe Bay, where conditions can be treacherous.

The Princess Royal inspects the Rossall Point Observation Tower

‘It really is extraordinary,’ she says. ‘Classically people say the sea is never the same, but in a place like this it really never is the same. The seasons, the bird life, the activity…’ Everyone nods.

This visit, it emerges, has little in common with most royal engagements, where guests of honour hear how things work. This has more of an air of a diligent business manager checking in on a regional branch. Nothing needs explaining to the Princess, a keen sailor and lighthouse aficionado, and she wins the approval of what could be a tough crowd with on-the-money observations about tide timings.

She speaks sparingly. Questions and remarks are formed from one or two words: ‘Since?’ ‘Previous experience?’ ‘Quite handy.’ She has a reply to everything, having travelled every inch of Britain in the line of duty.

John Bradford, who at 77 is the longest-serving volunteer, waits on the tower to shake her hand, but he is accidentally missed. The Princess is swept on to the next part of the engagement, presenting long-service awards and meeting 25 more volunteers in the nearby Marine Hall, accompanied by her new lady-in-waiting Dolly Maude, a midwife and friend of Zara Tindall who wastes no time in charming the room.

When her team discover someone has been missed out, they tell the Princess directly and Mr Bradford is whisked into the very last line-up.

‘I’m very glad you made it in,’ the Princess tells him, spending an extra few moments in conversation.

Then, plaque and certificate duties completed, she disappears to a back room where sandwiches are on offer. Ten minutes later, she’s back on the road.

It is a cliché that the Royal family thinks the world smells of fresh paint. The ground floor of the watchtower was drained of flood water shortly before the Princess’s arrival and the corridors at her next engagement in Merseyside have the distinct smell of bleach – but at the Wrea Green Equitation Centre in Preston, it is quite the opposite: a muck heap has been left intact. The hosts deem futile any attempts to fool the Princess into thinking it didn’t exist. She is, after all, a life-long equestrian.

She arrives on time; I do not. Without a helicopter, it’s impossible to keep up with her formidable itinerary.

Skipping the champagne reception and tea party, put on to celebrate 25 years of the Pony Club Centre Membership Scheme, the Princess instead strides around the yard watching the young riders and their parade of ponies.

She tours the stables and classrooms, chatting to children about horse massage and how side-saddle is still relevant for people with prosthetic legs, then she holds a presentation of commemorative plaques to 20 proprietors, each of whom has a different chat with her.

When a ‘naughty pony’ in a stable behind her unties itself to join the royal party, she is entirely unfazed.

‘She didn’t mind a bit,’ says Marcus Capel, CEO of The Pony Club – she simply carries on talking while stroking the pony’s ears.

The third engagement of the day: Sefton Carers Centre at Waterloo in Merseyside, which supports unpaid carers. Some of those assembled remember the Princess from 30 years ago, when she opened the centre. She is back to celebrate the anniversary.

Wearing a red jacket that looks strikingly similar to the one she was wearing back then (only the length and buttons are different), she hails a stream of people with a cheerful, ‘I haven’t seen you for a while,’ and, ‘This has changed a bit.’

The Princess Royal visits the Sefton Carers Centre to celebrate its 30th anniversary

Everyone is assembled in horseshoe shapes – her preferred arrangement for talking – and she ploughs on with gloved handshakes, getting through five large rooms of people. Among them are two men in their 90s who care for their wives with dementia, an eight-year-old girl in a wheelchair dressed as a princess, and teenagers who look after siblings and parents before and after school.

Some are nervous; a few curtseys are a little shaky. The Princess has a neat trick: her questions get more specific – no opinions are required, just short, easy-to-recall facts, to help ease them in. ‘Where do you live?’ ‘How long have you been coming here?’

Her own opinions are brief, delivered as common sense. On hearing that GPs don’t see the same families from cradle to grave any more, so find it difficult to support carers, the Princess says: ‘That’s part of the way people live their lives.’

She spends a few extra moments talking to the building’s cleaner, loudly declaring her ‘very important’. When one woman jokes about her long service, adding, ‘I think my face shows it,’ the Princess does an exaggerated double-take and says, ‘I’m sure that’s not true.’

She has another habit, shared with King Charles, of ending engagements by turning back for one last comment, leaving the impression she wishes she could stay.

The Princess Royal cuts the cake, on the promise it will be eaten

Downstairs, she unveils her third plaque of the day. There is a celebratory cake on the table in front of her and an expectant crowd waiting. She takes control of the moment. ‘You want the cake cut? On the basis that you’re going to eat it? Otherwise it’s just vandalism.’

Before she leaves, she is presented with a large rose planter. ‘Oh my word, a monster!’ she marvels. ‘What a lovely thing… I hope the helicopter can cope.’

By the end of the day, in small heels and with the briefest of breaks, she has spoken to at least 250 people. If she’s flagging, it doesn’t show.

Wednesday - Minutes of continuous conversation - 180

Hands shaken - 140

At 11 o’clock in Windsor Castle, Yeomen of the Guard stand on duty in the Grand Reception Room, as the Countess of Wessex’s String Orchestra plays quietly. The Princess Royal moves into position, wearing naval uniform, and the orchestra strikes up with God Save the King. Standing on a dais, a red velvet stool placed in front of her, she is ready for a full day of investitures.

The Princess is one of only three members of the family who perform them and while the King and the Prince of Wales have been needed at home, she has been carrying the load.

Some 140 people will receive an honour today, among them Paul Hollywood, who is being made an MBE. The pair discussed the smells of baking, he says later. ‘She loves Chelsea buns. I did promise her some so I’m not quite sure how I’m going to sort it out.’

The Great British Bake Off judge Paul Hollywood was among those honoured by the Princess Royal

Diana Parkes, a domestic violence campaigner who has worked with Queen Camilla in memory of her daughter, is made a CBE. She finds immediate common ground with the Princess via a family member who sold her horses.

One of the large team that makes the investitures happen tells me quietly that ‘you can always tell when it’s HRH’ on duty, because the day takes longer.

In theory, the Princess has her deputy private secretary on hand to jog her memory with details about people as the Lord Chamberlain announces each name. In practice, says a long-serving aide, she sends investiture notes back with her own comments about where she has met people before and which of her patronages they have links to. This is the case ‘95 per cent of the time’.

‘She’s got such a great brain. We often hear, “You must have briefed her really well,” but no, it’s all her. She makes it very easy in that respect.’ As each encounter winds up with a brisk handshake, recipients walk backwards to bow – desperate to get it right before rejoining their watching families. The Princess smiles at each one like they could not have performed it better.

After the 90-minute session has overrun slightly, she takes lunch in the private apartments before repeating it all in the afternoon.

Thursday - Core working hours - 9

Hands shaken - 250+

London’s Guildhall. The Princess Royal arrives via train for The Lord Mayor’s Big Curry Lunch, a City fundraiser for military veterans which has raised more than £3.3 million since it began in 2008.

To walk in as an outsider is to enter a new world where London’s livery companies (guilds dating back to medieval times) line the corridors with stalls – the Worshipful Companies of Bakers, Fruiterers, Gardeners, Pewterers and Framework Knitters are all there.

The Princess has no entourage, only her protection officers and one lady-in-waiting. She does not bat an eyelid at being escorted in by members of The Company of Pikemen & Musketeers, who wield weapons from the Charles I era and take their roles seriously.

Guests are an eclectic mix – a pearly queen mingles with barristers and bankers, alongside the military. An injured veteran in his mid-30s tells me: ‘In the Army, I’ve often been in front of high-ranking people who don’t care what you have to say at all… She’s different.’

Michael Hockney, co-chairman of the event, says the Princess is ‘very well-known and popular in the City because she’s involved in the livery movements’.

The Princess Royal greets the traders at London's Guildhall

Lunch is served on long tables. The Princess sits with servicemen and women, eating from an identical plate piled with chicken tikka masala, prawn malai, dal, rice and mango chutney.

Ballanupalli Sainath Rao, executive chef, asks if she remembers her last visit, in 2015, when she said she knew the factory of the company supplying the food and thought they could offer more variety than chicken every year. ‘Two meats and three vegetables,’ she suggested. Chef Rao added the prawn dish on that advice. ‘We had a lot of compliments.’

The Princess is plied with goodie bags, including matching socks for her and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, her husband. On her way out, she views a small garden with artwork by children from forces families and inspects a stall from the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers (est 1272); the stallholders have been hastily restocking ice and swatting away flies as they wait in the sunshine.

‘She was saying it’s great to see the array of fish,’ fishmonger Andrew Kenny explains afterwards. ‘She asks really precise questions… It’s very disarming.’

Climbing into a waiting car, the Princess tells the organisers: ‘[I’m] not causing too much chaos, I hope.’ And then she’s off – next stop Buckingham Palace.

At 7pm, the Princess Royal walks through the ‘secret door’, disguised as a mirror and cabinet, which links the Palace’s private rooms to the White Drawing Room, a State Room with a gold piano, familiar from some of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Christmas broadcasts. Tonight, she is hosting a black-tie dinner to celebrate The Duke of Edinburgh’s Commonwealth Study Conferences, which bring together future leaders to address pressing problems facing the world. In particular, she is saluting the Canadian team, which has led the way in hosting the conferences and keeping her father’s vision alive.

The Princess Royal enters Buckingham Palace's White Drawing Room via the secret door.

Wearing a long skirt and sequinned jacket in red to match the Canadian flag, she carries a handbag under her arm and wears her late mother’s three-strand pearls. Unlike other royals, the Princess’s team won’t confirm to the press what exactly she is wearing. One suspects anyone who asked would get short shrift.

She spends roughly an hour in the Picture Gallery, working her way through a crowd. One guest tells her of her memories of a drinks reception with the late Queen and Prince Philip on Britannia, during their visit to Ontario in 1984. Asking another about their trip to London, she agrees that walking is the best way to get around, although ‘not at this time of night and dressed like this’.

Ahead of a dinner of poached citrus salmon salad, roasted lamb, and crème brûlée with poached rhubarb, the Princess delivers an eight-minute speech. At one time, she is said to have written every speech herself. Nowadays, she often works from prepared notes, which she edits ruthlessly with liberal red pen strokes and capital letters.

The conferences, she says, were ‘envisioned by my late father, but I suspect he never thought it would last this long.

The Princess Royal greets guests at the Duke of Edinburgh's Commonwealth Study Conferences dinner.

‘At the moment, in these rather difficult times – post-Covid and just generally complicated – it’s just as important to have the ability to bring people together across the widest possible range.’

The Princess will stay on for dinner, sitting at a round table and entertaining guests until long after sundown.

Friday - Minutes on feet presenting honours - 90

Hands shaken - 79

Friday morning and the Princess is back at it with an investiture. There are 79 people this time, with their families, in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace.

Neil Constable, former CEO of Shakespeare’s Globe, is here to receive his OBE for services to theatre. He says afterwards that the ‘professional’ Princess knew the brief so well that she could make conversation about both his previous job and his next, at The Musicians’ Company. She told him she had just been to the Guildhall that week for the Big Curry Lunch, adding, ‘You’ll have a great time with them.’

‘You leave thinking, wow, actually we had a really good conversation,’ he says. ‘We talked about her late father Prince Philip being a long-standing patron of the Globe and how some of the timber from the Globe came from Windsor Great Park’, donated by Prince Philip.

‘[She] made it a very special day.’

At this point, I close the notebook that clocks in at 84 pages of shorthand. Everyone – kindly, warmly, generously – is saying the same thing, and we have run out of superlatives. The job, too, must get repetitive but you would never know it. In continually asking questions, the Princess has found a way to keep interested even after all these decades.

Princess Anne salutes at the conclusion of a commissioning ceremony aboard HMCS Max Bernays as part of Fleet Week, in North Vancouver, B.C

She treats her work as a ‘nine-to-five job’, one Palace source tells me. ‘Except it doesn’t often finish at five.’ I have barely seen her sit and haven’t seen her accept a single cup of tea while working.

The week after we meet, the Princess will be in Windsor, Shropshire, Cambridgeshire, London and Cornwall. After that, she will go from the Royal Windsor Horse Show to Canada for a three-day trip with Sir Tim.

She will be 75 next year but shows no sign of slowing down. I am half her age – and after barely a week of trying to keep up with her, I’m off for a lie down.

Weekly total

Estimated miles travelled - 818

Hands shaken - 677+

[martassimsbookcc]

• .package • Base game compatible • Collection file included • • 𝔻𝕆𝕎ℕ𝕃𝕆𝔸𝔻 • Ad-free as always at my website! 🤍𝕂𝕠-𝕗𝕚 𝕥𝕚𝕡𝕤 𝕛𝕒𝕣  | ℙ𝕒𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕠𝕟🤍 

【 ℂ𝕣𝕖𝕕𝕚𝕥𝕤 】 Mesh and textures: @ts4novvvas​​ | Original Sims 4 post: ⚪

- - -  APRIL 2023 - - -   • ALL OBJECTS: updated specular map; • Coffee table, Credenza, West Elm Bookcase and Wall Unit: added slots too; • Added collection file.

• Polycount, buy category, price § and more useful information ↓ •

* Books 1: 1962 verts | 1484 faces >> Found under Miscellaneous decor | 250§ >>> Not recolorable - 1 preset

* Books 2: 1400 verts | 878 faces >> Found under Miscellaneous decor | 150§ >>> Recolorable - 1 channel

* Coffee Table: 2480 verts | 2068 faces >> Found under Coffee tables | 295§ >>> Recolorable - 1 channel >>>> 21 slots for Small/Medium/Large objects

* Couch: 9788 verts | 13442 faces >> Found under Sofas and loveseats | 850§ >>> Recolorable - 2 channels

* Couch Blanket: 4661 verts | 6737 faces >> Found under Miscellaneous decor | 150§ >>> Recolorable - 1 channel

* Couch Cushions 1: 4863 verts | 9077 faces >> Found under Miscellaneous decor | 140§ >>> Recolorable - 2 channels + 5 presets

* Couch Cushions 2: 4142 verts | 5763 faces >> Found under Miscellaneous decor | 130§ >>> Recolorable - 2 channels

* Credenza: 2636 verts | 1468 faces >> Found under Miscellaneous surfaces | 450§ >>> Recolorable - 2 channels

* Eucalyptus: 18699 verts | 13033 faces >> Found under Plants | 225§ >>> Recolorable - 1 channel

* Ferm Living Vase: 32338 verts | 13950 faces >> Found under Plants | 260§ >>> Recolorable - 1 channel

* Ferm Living Wonder Clock: 2034 verts | 1904 faces >> Found under Miscellaneous decor | 325§ >>> Recolorable - 3 channel + 2 presets >>>> Can be moved up/down on wall

* Ficus Elastica: 12114 verts | 11266 faces >> Found under Plants | 350§ >>> Recolorable - 1 channel

* Floor Lamp: 2926 verts | 3160 faces >> Found under Floor lamps | 225§ >>> Recolorable - 2 channels

* Hand Sculpture: 25201 verts | 9824 faces >> Found under Miscellaneous decor | 215§ >>> Recolorable - 2 channels

* Muuto Vases: 2377 verts | 4596 faces >> Found under Miscellaneous decor | 105§ >>> Recolorable - 3 channels

* Plant with Books: 4889 verts | 5557 faces >> Found under Plants | 150§ >>> Recolorable - 1 channel

* Rug: 1266 verts | 1967 faces >> Found under Rugs | 420§ >>> Recolorable - 1 channel + 10 presets

* Secretary: 2929 verts | 1838 faces >> Found under Desks | 450§ >>> Recolorable - 2 channels

* Succulent 1: 9167 verts | 7613 faces >> Found under Plants | 75§ >>> Recolorable - 1 channel

* Succulent 2: 9854 verts | 9588 faces >> Found under Plants | 75§ >>> Recolorable - 1 channel

* Succulent 3: 7251 verts | 7356 faces >> Found under Plants | 75§ >>> Recolorable - 1 channel

* Table Lamp: 3329 verts | 3316 faces >> Found under Table lamps | 50§ >>> Recolorable - 2 channels

* Teak Armchair: 9937 verts | 13259 faces >> Found under Living chairs | 285§ >>> Recolorable - 2 channels

* The Poster Club Horizontal: 60 verts | 34 faces >> Found under Paintings and posters | 300§ >>> Recolorable - 1 channel | 10 different arts

* The Poster Club Horizontal V2: 64 verts | 36 faces >> Found under Miscellaneous decor | 300§ >>> Recolorable - 1 channel | 10 different arts

* The Poster Club Square: 60 verts | 34 faces >> Found under Paintings and posters | 150§ >>> Recolorable - 1 channel | 10 different arts

* The Poster Club Square V2: 64 verts | 36 faces >> Found under Miscellaneous decor | 150§ >>> Recolorable - 1 channel | 10 different arts

* The Poster Club Vertical: 52 verts | 34 faces >> Found under Paintings and posters | 250§ >>> Recolorable - 1 channel | 20 different arts

* The Poster Club Vertical V2: 56 verts | 36 faces >> Found under Miscellaneous decor | 250§ >>> Recolorable - 1 channel | 20 different arts

* Vitra Standard Dining Chair: 4592 verts | 6094 faces >> Found under Dining chairs | 195§ >>> Recolorable - 3 channels

* Wall Mirror: 2740 verts | 1958 faces >> Found under Mirrors | 350§ >>> Recolorable - 1 channel

* Wall Unit: 827 verts | 479 faces >> Found under Miscellaneous surfaces | 950§ >>> Recolorable - 2 channels >>>> 55 slots for Small/Medium/Large objects

* West Elm Modern Cabinet Bookcase: 498 verts | 296 faces >> Found under Miscellaneous surfaces | 500§ >>> Recolorable - 3 channels >>>> 30 slots for Small/Medium/Large objects

[cartermagazine]

Today In History

Dred Scott was born into slavery in Southampton, Virginia, around 1795, the property of the Peter Blow family. He was given the name “Sam” but took the name of his older brother, Dred, when the latter died.

In 1836, Scott who was approximately 41, married a teenaged slave, Harriett Robinson, at Fort Snelling who was owned by another U.S. Army officer, Major Lawrence Taliaferro of Virginia. Scott and Robinson gave birth to their first child, Eliza, in 1838 and a second daughter, Lizzie, in 1840, and their two children were born free.

In 1843, Emerson died and left his estate to his widow, Irene Sanford Emerson. When Scott offered to purchase his freedom for $300 in 1846, Emerson refused his offer. He then obtained the assistance of two St. Louis attorneys who helped him to sue for his freedom. His 1846 lawsuit was filed in the St. Louis Circuit Court and went to trial in 1847.

Scott lost this case, but later that year he won a second trail. By this point Scott received financial support and legal representation from the sons of Peter Blow, his former owner, who had become anti-slavery advocates, Irene Sanford Emerson’s brother, John Sanford, and her second husband, Dr. C.C. Chaffee, a Massachusetts abolitionist. To all of them the Scott case as an important challenge to slavery.

On March 6, 1857, the United States Supreme Court finally ruled in Dred Scott v Sandford [Sanford was misspelled by a court clerk]. In a 7-2 decision written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the majority of justices said that Scott and all slaves and free blacks were not citizens of the United States and therefore had no standing in the courts. The backlash to this decision strengthened the abolitionist movement and further divided the North and South, leading four years later to the U.S. Civil War.

After he was freed, Dred Scott went to work as a porter in the St. Louis area. He died from tuberculosis in September 1858. Harriett Scott died eighteen years later on June 17, 1876.

CARTER™️ Magazine

[shuttershocky]

Hey shutters, how does executor (reaper) work? I got him and have the mats to raise him but idk if he's worth it or not

Worth it or not? You're talking about an AOE unit capable of matching Mlynar and Typhon in damage output!

So Executor the EX Fedora is a unit that scales really hard the more investment you put into him. You can't really stop partly through and see results like you can with most 6 stars, because Executor the FedEx Delivery Driver that doesn't really stop seeing gains. He wants it all: levels, skill mastery on both S2 and S3, and a level 3 module. At E2L30 with level 7 skills, you're gonna half a decent if very expensive Reaper that still needs you to micromanage him unlike with La Pluma and Highmore's automatic S1s. But with S3M3 and module Level 3, you get a phys nuking god that keeps proccing a bonus double hit while doing 3K AOE damage per hit. Everything in range will die, even Patriot Shieldguards.

The secret to Executor the Next Hoederer's damage is in his Talent 1. He starts with a 20% chance to deal a double hit where the second hit also doesn't spend an ammo point on his skills, but every time he spends 1 ammo point he gets a +5% increased chance to activate the talent. Skill 2 gives 12 ammo and lets Executive Ex Frieren refund 1 ammo every time he dodges a melee attack, while Skill 3 gives Exeggutor the ex Friend 16 ammo. That means after 11 shots in S2, he has a 20+55 = 75% chance to proc his double hit, while after 15 shots with S3, he has a chance to do 20 + 75 = 95% chance to do a double hit. Pretty good odds to double hit at that point, and that's only counting the ammo given by the skills; Talent 2 gives Executor the Sex Foe +1 ammo for every Laterano operator deployed.

With a level 3 module, the Talent 1's base chance is increased from 20% chance to double hit, to 35% or almost doubled, still increasing by 5% per ammo spent, but now the second hit also ignores 300 DEF, just because.

Not only does this allow you to actually hit 100% chance to double hit before you run out of ammo, but the higher base chance in general greatly boosts Executor the latex Tsundere's damage even early on. Before, getting a 50% chance to double hit meant spending 6 ammo, but with a level 3 module, you reach it in 3 ammo, meaning every attack after 3 ammo gives you better odds of double-hitting than not. Remember: the bonus second hit ignores 300 DEF and doesn't use ammo, meaning it's free damage that's also stronger than his regular attack.

TL;DR for Executive Order

Get to E2L60

Specialize in S2M3 (survivability) and S3M3 (raw burst damage output), both give great returns for specialization thanks to lowering their SP costs

Get Module Level 3 for a ridiculously overbuffed Talent 1

Pair with other Laterano operators for extra ammo

Delete everything onscreen with jawdropping physical damage on S3 or outlast the horde with the consistent damage output and DEF Buff of S2, where dodging melee attacks refunds an ammo point to Executor the Ex Foedere to keep that Talent 1 rolling

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

Rockets continue to be fired at Israel, at least one person was injured, a 64 years old man. Here's a reminder that this is what it looks like AFTER Iron Dome has intercepted a rocket from Gaza, as the rocket's debris falls over the residential area that the terrorists fired it at, and debris can surprise people by landing up to a few minutes after an interception:

And this is what it looked like when a girl happened to be outside when the siren sounded, and she didn't have enough time to get to a bomb shelter:

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A post shared by חמ״ל - חדשות מתפרצות בזמן אמת (@hamal_news)

I've mentioned 77 years old Chana Katzir before. She was held hostage by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second biggest terrorism organization in Gaza, which released a vid with her and another captive kid, and then claimed that she was killed by IDF fire. She then turned out to be alive, and was released by Hamas on the first day of the hostage deal. Her family said she was healthy when she was kidnapped, but she returned from captivity with heart problems. Her condition deteriorated, and she is not hospitalized, with a real threat to her life.

This is Chana in the vid:

(the Arabic subtitle reads, "I am Chana Katzir from kibbutz Nir Oz")

And this is her with her family:

Chana's son Elad is still in captivity.

The IDF continues to expose constantly how Hamas uses civilians areas, including schools and kindergartens, for its terrorist activity:

The US Congress discussion on Antisemitism at college campuses was even more shocking than I thought it would be. It was evident that they would claim that certain phrases are disputed in meaning, and therefore protected by freedom of speech. I did NOT think that three presidents of prestigious higher education institutes would sit there, and not be able to bring themselves to say clearly, that an EXPLICIT call to genocide the Jews goes against their schools' code of conduct.

As a gay, Jewish and disabled woman, I think the following vid is incredibly important. It shows the "free speech" line of defence is applied selectively, it's used to allow harassment of Jews, while speech that is offensive to other marginalized groups is NOT allowed.

The answers (obviously coordinated, because these presidents are parroting each other, down to using the same terms) claimed that as long as this call was "just" speech, not conduct, it was not a violation of their code. I just wanna point out that the way we get to hateful conduct, IS by allowing hate speech. Also... what does that even mean, "if it turns into conduct" in the context of a call to genocide? Jews have to be massacred (with intent to destroy the whole nation) on UPenn's college campus, for the president of this university to finally think it constitutes harassment of Jews? Plus, harassment is absolutely one of the crimes that doesn't have to be an action. Sexual harassment has long been recognized to include speech, so why is harassment of Jews treated differently to harassment of women? Does anyone think that a Jewish student, who hears dozens of students on campus calling for the genocide of the Jews, is not feeling harassed?

And at the same time, House resolution 894, condemning antisemitism, passed with over 300 votes in favor. Which is good. What bothers me is that there is even a single person who would vote against it. And it turns out, no less than 14 people voted against it. Not to mention those who voted, "present." This should be an eternal shameful stain on the records of every single one of the people, who couldn't bring themselves to clearly say no to Jew hate.

This is 20 years old Assachalo Sama.

He's one of the Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza since the fighting resumed. He was mortally injured, and for two weeks, doctors fought for his life, before he succumbed to his wounds. The people who served with him said he was the heart of the unit. May his memory be a blessing.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)