#kazakhstan review

[mikiviki111]

Hard West 2 Рык Дикого Запада

[placegrenette]

Every Ninety One Song Reviewed: “Biz,” 2023

“Bız,” released ahead of the album Gap, 2023 Music credits: Dulat Mukhametkaliev (ZaQ), Daniyar Kulumshin (Bala) Lyrics credits: Dulat Mukhametkaliev (ZaQ) Music video director: Askhat Bayanov

(Brief pedantic editor’s note: the song’s title is not “Biz,” as I originally wrote it, but “Bız," since the new Kazakh Latin alphabet uses the dotless I. If you speak American English, it sounds like the middle I in “bit,” so you were probably pronouncing it correctly even though I technically wasn’t spelling it correctly. If there’s a way to update the Unicode in the post title I don’t know it.)

At last we have the slightly-delayed pre-release single to the long-delayed album. It will make no difference in the long run, but for posterity’s sake, Ninety One originally said the music video would come out the 25th (the song was already available on streaming platforms by the time of the announcement), then changed that to the 26th, then had to make a sheepish Telegram post saying well actually the 27th, and finally released the darn thing after 11 pm Almaty time on the 27th. They’re not doing fantastic with meeting deadlines they set themselves, of late. But it’s a minor series of flaws, really; growing pains. I hope someday we get a little bit more of a glimpse into what it takes to take an enterprise like this running.

On to “Bız,” which has arguably the same relation to Gap as “Su Asty” did to Qarangy Zharyq and “Men Emes” did to its namesake EP, and those are big shoes to fill. “Bız” has less going on, both musically and lyrically, than either of those two. It’s a fun little hype track, especially when ZaQ decides to experiment with a goofier flow: “How you forgot about ME? Мығда NineTY? O-N-E?” But it’s not as lyrically ambitious; it’s basically a platform for the guys to talk about how awesome they are in the face of, once again, Vaguely Defined Adversity. The closest we get to anything substantial is ZaQ’s “My style is not accepted by your generation,” which is weak sauce when you consider what he brought to the table in “Men Emes.”

The other slightly worrying issue with “Bız” is how much it feels like Zaqira and the Three Singers. That may partly be due to circumstance: I’ll go ahead and speculate that Alem’s TV commitments meant he wasn’t available for much of the MV filming (which is why there are about three solo shots of him total) and Ace has been trying to slay the logistical hydra of the album release and tour setup (which may help explain why he looks so tense and preoccupied during his verse, especially in contrast to Bala’s looser performance). And ZaQ’s brain as Ninety One’s principal philosophical engine is not new. But they have been riding hard on We Are a Bonded Foursome for a year now; if they let ZaQ get out too far ahead without some obvious attempts at balance they risk doing some harm to that brand they’re so carefully cultivating.

Fortunately this is a pre-release, not a title track. I think they played the MV just right, for what it’s worth. Although Askhat Bayanov is still at the helm (and Nurs Bazarbay is director of photography, and Nurila Shakirova is producer and first assistant director, and Adil Kazkenov has a backstage credit -- anon, I still owe you that staff overview, as practically everyone I would mention worked on this video), we don’t have any callbacks to the symbolism-filled promo videos. It’s Ninety One in space, dancing and looking hot. They’ve actually never done a dance-performance-focused video before; it makes sense to do it now, as a calling card, before we get to the meatier (hopefully) content of the album.

How’s the Hair/Styling? Good! Bala’s undercut suits him, and in truth Zhadra has been doing especially well by her husband of late. Shame we couldn’t get a lingering shot of Ace in the tiara, though. Should You Start Here? I think I’m going to prefer “Gap” as an introduction -- we’ll see -- but as Boastful OT4 goes, this may outrank “Bata.”

[justfinishedreading]

A Bride’s Story, volume 4 by Kaoru Mori

This series was always good from the start but since volume 3 it’s really picked up and moved into ‘addictive reading’ territory. In the beginning of this volume we discover that Amir’s old clan is having trouble after losing land to grace their sheep, this plotline isn’t developed much but the groundwork has been laid down for future volumes. When I picked up this series I thought Mr Smith would be travelling the silk road route and we would meet new characters but ultimately they would be left behind as he moved on, I’m pleasantly surprised that it’s the opposite, characters introduced are going to be with us throughout the series, their story is not just a moment in time, we will see their story evolve as their lives do. So we get a short scene with Amir herself and then with Pariya as she struggles to behave herself during a meeting to discuss her possible marriage. The majority of the rest of this volume centres on Laila and Leily, two trouble-making twins who save Mr Smith from drowning.

As we move on to couples that are more age appropriate for each other, we now see romantic comedies and romantic dramas played out and I’m getting engrossed in these different love stories. I’m also starting to appreciate the variety of female characters that Kaoru Mori has created: Amir is kind and a good listener but also a skilled hunter and resourceful woman, uninhibited in many ways. Pariya is outspoken and brash but self-conscious of this and regretful as she struggles to keep her anger in check. While the twins Laila and Leily are free spirits, hyperactive and with a scary lack of mindfulness when it comes to other people. While Talas in the previous volume was a shy woman struggling to reveal her feelings and take charge of her life, in this volume we find out how many women have secretly done all manner of things to secure a marriage in a time where marriages were decided on by the male heads of each family, it’s an excellent example of how woman are not passive creatures when it comes to their future, even if they have to deal with a highly patriarchal society.

As always these books are also rich in history and culture of the various countries Mr Smith travels through, in this volume what struck me was the importance of the Aral Sea for the community. The Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world, located between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, it began shrinking in the 1960s due to the rivers that fed it being diverted by Soviet irrigation projects, by the 2010s it had largely dried up. The fishing industry that depended on it, collapsed, the water and surrounding areas became polluted. UNESCO has added historical documents concerning the Aral Sea to its Memory of the World Register as a resource to study the environmental tragedy. For more information check out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea. A Bride’s Story doesn’t go into the recent history of the Aral Sea, it just shows the beauty of what the Aral Sea once was, and this is enough to encourage a reader to find out more for themselves, and once you do the various casual comments made by characters throughout the books about Russian and British presence and interference start to resonate even more.

Review by Book Hamster

[cinefilesreviews]

Review: Steppenwolf -- Fantastic Fest 2024

Steppenwolf is screening as part of Fantastic Fest 2024, which runs from September 19 to September 26. Steppenwolf is a formally striking piece of grand existential absurdism. Within the confines of a brutal civil war, the characters in the film (in particular, the sociopathic Brajyuk) face death with an ironic distance that would make Camus’ Meursault proud. The film opens with the violent…

[swiftthistletea]

publishers will talk about representation and "#OwnVoices" and push books about gay theatre kid humor teifling pirates having queer gay sex written by a woman from Massachusetts with a gummy smile who calls herself a "Disaster Bisexual" on twitter and women will read the books and write rave reviews on goodreads about how it was so refreshing to see good queer representation and how much they squee'd and fangirled so hard when gay pirate 1 called gay pirate 2 "his silly stinky little guy" that they woke up their husband. and people will say that if you read these books youre a morally good person and the Trumpers Will Not Win and then other women will comment about how the books about gay pirate buttsex between two "feral unhinged germlin mode queers" are the only things keeping them from killing themselves and making their family watch. and then you will go to half price books and see the gay pirate book front and center on a display for 8 months and there will always be two women standing around it talking very loudly about BTS and House of the Dragon and then after the trend dies down 18 copies of the book will take up half a shelf in the sci-fi/fantasy section and they will never move and it will just be like that for years and its all because another #OwnVoices cozy historical romantasy came out but this time its about fantasyworld Tibetan Monks having gay sex on Not Mount Everest and the whole cycle repeats again but this time with publications and goodreads articles talking about "timely" conversations about race and queer identity. but this time it will be shortly lived because it will come out that Jenny Luizou the author of the monk gay sex book is actually another Massachusetts woman with a too gummy smile and is actually not a nonbinary bipoc Chinese person from Kazakhstan but everyone should have known this anyway because she calls herself a "disaster bisexual" on twitter sometimes. the pirate gay sex book is still taking up half a shelf during all this

[wachinyeya]

‘Ferrari in a junkyard’: Mules sold at auction are rare, endangered horses

https://washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/08/09/przewalskis-horses-rescued-dna-shrek-fiona/

Hannah Huckabay regularly combs livestock auctions online for horses she can rehabilitate and train at her Colorado ranch. But when she saw a video in February of a mule for sale in Kansas, she could hardly believe what she was seeing.

The stocky animal’s short black mane shot straight up like a mohawk, and its white belly stood out against its tan coat. As it nervously paced in its corral, Huckabay said it bore a striking resemblance to Przewalski’s horse, a critically endangered species she’d learned about while studying equine science.

“I was like, ‘There is no way. That is not a mule,’” Huckabay recalled thinking. “That’s a purebred Przewalski.”

Such a find would be incredibly rare. Once extinct in the wild, around 2,500 Przewalski’s horses remained worldwide as of 2022. They’re native to Mongolia and in June, seven were reintroduced to nearby Kazakhstan as part of an effort to return them to their natural habitats. They are the only truly wild horse remaining (mustangs are feral horses).

But scientists say Huckabay’s hunch appears to be correct. Hair samples from the animal Huckabay purchased - along with a second horse recently surrendered at a Utah sanctuary - were sent to Texas A&M University’s animal genetics lab. Both appear to be Przewalski’s horses, said Rytis Juras, the genetics lab’s director who tested both samples.

The hair test looks for genetic markers associated with different horse breeds to determine an animal’s likely ancestry. Unequivocally confirming that the horses are purebred Przewalski’s and not hybrids would require advanced blood tests that are expensive and would mean sedating the equines.

The blood tests look at the number of chromosomes in a horse’s cells - 66 in a purebred Przewalski, versus 64 in a common horse or 62 in a donkey. An even more advanced version could sequence the horse’s entire genome.

But Juras and two other scientists who reviewed the findings said the hair-test results are reliable.

“If I would have gotten it from a zoo … that would be one thing,” Juras said of receiving the samples. But two random tests with Przewalski’s results were “surprising and a little bit disturbing,” he said. “This is weird.”

How the horse Huckabay found - and the second in Utah - ended up in livestock auctions is a mystery, said Christopher Faulk, a professor of animal science at the University of Minnesota who has studied Przewalski’s horse genetics and also reviewed the DNA results.

“Someone had to have known what they were, they don’t just appear out of anywhere,” Faulk told The Post. “Especially to have been disposed of in that way is even weirder,” he said, since livestock that aren’t purchased at auction can end up in slaughterhouses.

“That’s like finding a Ferrari in a junkyard,” he added.

Huckabay bought the animal for $1,375 in February and, after three weeks in quarantine, the ragged and underweight animal sold as a mule arrived at her ranch outside Denver.

Seeing its features in-person left her even more convinced it was a Przewalski’s horse, she said. With a large clunky head and stiff black mane, her daughter said the horse was so ugly, he was cute, Huckabay recalled. They named him Shrek, after DreamWorks’s beloved ogre.

After almost two months of helping Shrek acclimate, Huckabay’s daughter stumbled upon a video posted on June 9 from a sanctuary in Utah.

“Did we just have a Przewalski mare surrendered?!” the caption read.

Kelsey and Gunnar Bjorklund - who own the Lazy B Equine Rescue and Sanctuary in Utah - suspected their mare was also a Przewalski. But they had no idea there was a second possible Przewalski, saved from another auction.

The Bjorklunds’ horse was brought to their facility after being purchased for $35 in January at an auction in Utah, where she was advertised as a mule.

“It takes more money to get your nails done,” Kelsey said, adding that her previous owner decided to surrender the mare after she flunked out of a professional training program.

When the horse arrived and was unloaded from the trailer, “we were just in shock,” Gunnar said. It was clear the animal wasn’t a mule or a mustang, he said.

“Anyone getting possible Przewalski vibes!?” the Bjorklunds posted. “A true wild, endangered species of equine‼️ How cool would that be!”

In response to seeing the Bjorklunds’ viral video, Huckabay’s daughter posted her own videos of Shrek two days later. One got over 11 million views.

After coming across Shrek’s video, it was easy for the Bjorklunds to settle on a name for their mystery horse - Fiona, the princess-heroine from the Shrek movies.

The rescuers were stunned that two possible Przewalski’s horses could have surfaced almost simultaneously. The Endangered Species Act allows private ownership of endangered animals, but only with a permit, and under strict stipulations. The law prohibits the possession of illegally obtained endangered animals or their transport across state lines without permits.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined to comment on whether officials are investigating the horses’ chain of custody.

Some livestock auctions have occasionally served as hubs for illicit trade in exotic animal species.

Because most Przewalski’s horses descend from only about a dozen surviving individuals, scientists closely manage breeding genetics for diversity. Compared to the feral mustang, Przewalski’s are more resilient, said Dolores Reed, a biologist who helps oversee a small herd of the endangered horses at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. Przewalski’s horses are built for the Mongolian steppe’s harsh climate, she said, adding, “they’re very tough,” and can be unpredictable.

There are about 100 Przewalski’s horses in U.S. zoos, Reed said.

Shrek and Fiona are adjusting to their new environments, their owners said. After keeping his distance from people and trotting in circles in his pen while stressed, Shrek has relaxed and moved to a larger field. He has bonded with two gentle mares and while he won’t accept treats from people’s hands, he loves when apples and carrots are left in his feed bucket, Huckabay said.

“He’s very piggy,” she said.

In Utah, Fiona has put on weight and made friends with a miniature mule and a quarter horse filly at the Bjorklunds’ sanctuary.

The rescuers wonder what would’ve happened if Shrek and Fiona hadn’t been saved. The endangered animals might’ve been sent to slaughter “and nobody would have known about it,” Gunnar said.

Huckabay and the Bjorklunds plan to care for the horses as long as needed, but said they’d prefer to see their rescued Przewalski’s move to a professional conservation program.

Shrek is happy on the ranch, but Huckabay said she’d rather see him with “a herd of his own.”

“That would be the best-case scenario,” she said.

[vestaignis]

Поезд среди вод Розового озера.

Train among the waters of Pink Lake.

Соленое озеро Бурлинское - достопримечательность Алтайского края, его самая главная примета  — розовый цвет, что привлекает к нему многочисленных туристов. Расположено оно на берегу поселка Бурсоль. Однако такого цвета озеро бывает не всегда. Розовый оттенок оно приобретает только в теплую погоду. В остальное время вода в нем привычного цвета. Поэтому лучшее время для посещения Бурлинского озера — жаркие летние дни. Чем выше температура воды и ярче солнце, тем более розовым будет водоем. Причина этого феномена - микроскопическая водоросль. В процессе своей жизнедеятельности она производит пигмент, заставляющий озеро играть всеми оттенками розового — от бледно-лососевого до малинового. 

Площадь бессточного озера - 32 квадратных километра, средняя глубина — около метра. Под илом находится слой глауберовой соли, которую добываю прямо на месте. Бурлинское озеро является центром соляного промысла, который зародилось здесь более 200 лет назад.

Salt Lake Burlinskoye is a landmark of the Altai Territory; its most important feature is its pink color, which attracts numerous tourists to it. It is located on the shore of the village of Bursol. However, the lake does not always have this color. It acquires a pink tint only in warm weather. The rest of the time, the water in it is the usual color. Therefore, the best time to visit Lake Burlin is hot summer days. The higher the water temperature and the brighter the sun, the more pink the pond will be. The reason for this phenomenon is a microscopic algae. In the process of its life, it produces a pigment that makes the lake play with all shades of pink - from pale salmon to raspberry.

The area of ​​the closed lake is 32 square kilometers, the average depth is about a meter. Under the silt there is a layer of Glauber's salt, which I mine right on site. Lake Burlin is the center of the salt industry, which originated here more than 200 years ago.

Источник://ngs.ru/text/world/2020/08/08/69392401/,

//ru.sputnik.kz/20200907/poezd-rozovoye-ozero-granitsa-rossiya-kazakhstan-14898936.html,

//www.tourister.ru/world/europe/russia/city/slavgorod/lakes/31633,

//www.tripadvisor.ru/Attraction_Review-g1820314-d10532379-Reviews-Burlinskoye_Lake-Slavgorod_Altai_Krai_Siberian_District.html,

//novate.ru/blogs/090321/58095/.

[mariacallous]

In the days since four Tajikistani citizens were arrested in connection with Friday’s terrorist attack at a Moscow concert hall, people with Central Asian ancestry, already frequent targets of racism in Russia, have been facing a new wave of hatred and aggression. The country’s security forces have reportedly begun treating people with “Asian features” with increased suspicion, while some Russian citizens have started refusing to ride with taxi drivers from Tajikistan. Meanwhile, according to the Telegram channel Baza, Tajik community leaders have advised diaspora members to avoid going outside at night for their own safety, and employees of a barbershop where one of the alleged terrorists worked for less than three months have received a flood of threats. Meduza shares examples of this unwarranted hostility.

‘I’m pregnant and I don’t know what to do’

On the day after the terrorist attack at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall concert venue, Telegram channels began posting the names of suspects who had been arrested while allegedly trying to flee to Ukraine. One of them, 19-year-old Muhammadsobir Fayzov, had worked for several months at a barbershop in the town of Teykovo in Russia’s Ivanovo region. As soon as town residents learned of this, they began bombarding the barbershop’s employees with threats.

Screenshots shared by the Telegram channel Baza show users calling on people to storm the shop and burn down the homes of its employees. It’s unclear where these messages were left, but they appear to have been posted on an unofficial community page for the barbershop and later deleted.

On Sunday, the barbershop’s official page on the Russian platform VKontakte posted a message saying that a “wild hatred” had been “unleashed” on the establishment. “The manager and the owner are getting threatening phone calls, and people are leaving bad ratings and writing awful reviews,” read the post. According to the shop’s employees, Fayzov only worked there for a few weeks before he disappeared and stopped responding to its management. The message was later deleted, and the page is now private.

The barbershop’s director, Yamina Safiyeva, told journalists that its managers’ phones have been “ringing nonstop” with people calling with threats. “People are calling and wishing for my death. I’m pregnant and I don’t know what to do. I’m afraid to go outside,” she said. Safiyeva also said the shop’s employees didn’t notice anything unusual about Fayzov during his time there.

‘I’m not going with you’

In Yekaterinburg, according to the local news outlet It’s My City, police have begun conducting routine stops of men with “Asian features,” and the administration of at least one shopping center has asked its tenants for information about store employees from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan.

Additionally, some taxi service users have been refusing to ride in vehicles with drivers from Tajikistan. Telegram channels and social media pages have published screenshots from taxi apps in which customers tell their assigned drivers to cancel the ride if they are from Tajikistan. “Hello, if you are Tajik, cancel the order, I’m not going with you,” reads one message.

The Telegram channel Baza has reported that Tajik community leaders in Russia have been advising diaspora members not to go outside at night and to avoid large public events. At the same time, according to the channel, some employers have asked workers from Tajikistan to provide them with updated personal information, including their passport data and residence.

On Monday, Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement warning citizens against traveling to Russia and recommending that citizens currently in Russia keep their documents with them at all times.

Russian State Duma deputy Konstantin Zatulin has said that anybody calling for “pogroms and lynching” in the wake of the terrorist attack should be prosecuted for “provoking destabilization inside the country.” He warned that “dealing with migrants in this way” will “inevitably lead to escalation.”

[cozybearz]

I feel like this isn’t something I’ve seen mentioned much (aside from a few posts I’ve seen on insta that aren’t in english), but the Kazakh government have been reviewing a petition against “LGBT Propaganda” and apparently a public discussion of it was held today in Astana.

I don’t know many details but it’s just a queer rights issue I want more people to know of. Hopefully the petition is shut down as I believe similar ones have been in the past.

[mikiviki111]

Обзор игры Icarus лучшая игра в жанре выживания

[placegrenette]

Every Ninety One Song Reviewed: “Synbaim,” 2023

“Synbaim,” released as an album pre-promotion single, 2023 Music credits: Daniyar Kulumshin (Bala), Azamat Ashmakyn (Ace), Batyrkhan Malikov (Alem) Lyrics credits: Dulat Mukhametkaliev (ZaQ) Music video director: Amal’ Temerbayev

This is the very last release before the upcoming album, and the teasers so far have been in three different languages—I know! Kazakh, Russian, and English! But the subs on “Synbaim” are in Kazakh, Russian, and Turkish, and I don’t blame Ninety One for wanting to care for their Turkish fans, said fans have had a difficult spring, but for an English-only speaker interpreting something as visually packed as this music video is a challenge. Is it based on Kazakh mythology? What is the “шч” referencing? Is the astronaut meant to be the child grown up or is the relationship between the astronaut and the story on the ground more symbolic?

(“Well, didn’t you watch the behind-the-scenes video?” I did! And not only does that also not have English subtitles, it has selective subbing: Kazakh when the people onscreen are speaking Russian and vice versa. As I type this I have two Google Translate windows open. They’re not helping much, other than to reveal that Amal’ Temerbayev was drawing inspiration from fairy tales and that Madi Rymbaev was the piano player model.)

And it’s frustrating, because this was clearly a labor of love and significance for everyone involved. Temerbayev, especially, but the timing of the release (I think a full month elapsed between the audio of “Synbaim” being made available and the MV coming out) suggests that Ninety One didn’t want to rush him even when he was blowing past deadlines. (About ten minutes into the behind-the-scenes video, in between lots of footage of Temerbayev and his team meticulously constructing the stop-motion stills and ZaQ discussing the meaning of the song, is a clip of Ace being cranky about the delays.) But from this distance it’s hard to get a grip on how video and song come together. There’s a line in the song that translates roughly as “Individuality in a round world is not beautiful,” and the general theme seems to be reaching out for connection with others as a way to deal with pain and hardship. But the video plotline is essentially individualistic: the prince rejects the demand of his angry father and the townspeople to be in the forest with his true love. It’s not just romantic but Romantic; Rousseauvian. There’s a point at which “Don’t isolate yourself from other people” and “Follow your heart” conflict, and Ninety One and Temerbayev seem to be eliding that conflict rather than addressing it.

Also, to be frank, I’m at a disadvantage here, having spent far too much of my childhood with “Sledgehammer” and the California Raisins. (We watched that California Raisins Christmas Special at least three years in a row. Those of y’all thinking the ’80s were a cool time in which to grow up: you are wrong.) I should be impressed by the hard work involved and instead the visual presentation feels muddy to me. I’m very glad the guys did it: this is a nice way of putting their money down to do something different and tie themselves into the larger Almaty arts scene. But neither “Synbaim” the song nor “Synbaim” the music video do a lot for me. Pretty, heartfelt, a nice change of pace, all true; check this out, especially if your musical tastes don’t match mine.

Should You Start Here? Hmm. My first inclination is to say no, just because I don’t particularly love it. But it does have a lot of typical Ninety One touches: the theme of building oneself up against vaguely defined adversity, ZaQ’s spikier rap breaking up the smoother vocalists, Bala charged with emphasizing the rhythm and Ace with going higher on the chorus. So: sure, but if you don’t like “Synbaim,” don’t let that dissuade you.

[indigostudies]

@princetofbone asked me to do a review of the mango languages app/programme, so here's my thoughts on it so far, having used it for a bit!

i've been using the app for korean, kazakh, and shanghainese, and i've also used the chinese and vietnamese courses as well. i have a full access account through my local library, so i don't pay anything for it. the pricing for if you want to purchase a subscription yourself is 7.99USD/mo for a single language, and 17.99USD/mo for a full access account.

so far, i've really found it very useful! while the shanghainese course doesn't have a ton of lessons (only one chapter and fourteen lessons), other languages have significantly more—mandarin chinese has seven chapters and almost 600 lessons, and korean has one chapter but 75 lessons.

it's a spoken, auditory, and reading-based system, with the emphasis being on listening to and reading phrases and words to learn them, and it has a specific exercise type for speaking a phrase or word aloud and recording it, and then being given a recording of the same phrase/word which can be played back in time or independently of your own recording to compare the two.

the speaking exercises are honestly the most useful to me, because i someone who really focuses on the pronunciation of words—for example, a lot of times the romanisation of hangul isn't very helpful for me, but i can pronounce a word perfectly after listening to the audio recording and adjusting my own pronunciation. in this way, it's somewhat similar to what duolingo used to be, but it hasn't been pared down and simplified the way that duolingo has—and, i think, considering that it's an entirely paid service, this is probably unlikely to happen.

additionally, for tonal languages, it actually includes the tones in the romanisation, and, for people who don't have any experience with tones, it includes explanations and recordings of tones to help, which i think is really useful. it also has a lot of languages that are harder to find resources for! as i mentioned it has shanghainese as i mentioned, but it also has armenian, thai, uzbek, and irish. as far as i can tell, all languages that use non-latin alphabets are taught in the app using the native script (though what script it is can vary, if there's multiple—kazakh uses the cyrillic alphabet used in kazakhstan rather than the arabic script used in china), though if you tap the word/phrase, the romanisation will pop up above it, which can help a lot, in my opinion, if you're unfamiliar with a writing system.

the only drawbacks, in my opinion, is that there's no writing exercises—but this is something that can be easily remedied by taking your own notes. there's exercises where you're asked to translate an english phrase or word into the target language, and you can pause the exercise and write down what you think it is, and then tap to show the answer and compare it to what you wrote down, and correct your answer if necessary. i use the mango app on my phone and take notes by hand in onenote on my laptop, which i've found to be a very efficient system.

personally, i would give it a solid 8.75/10—i've found it to be very useful, as someone who really likes and benefits from audio, reading, and speaking as methods to learn languages, and i've found that i retain far more information than if i only used a textbook for self-study. points are deducted for the lack of in-app writing exercises, and the fact that there's no option for a free account unless you have access through a library/other institution, but otherwise, i'd really recommend it!

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from DeSmog Blog:

With its unparalleled purchasing power and exacting demands, fast food has long shaped agricultural systems in the United States, Europe, and China. But as major American fast food brands, like KFC, expand into so-called “frontier markets,” taxpayer-funded development banks have made their global expansion possible by underwriting the factory farms that supply them with chicken, a DeSmog investigation has found. 

In all, the investigation identified five factory-scale poultry companies in as many countries that have received financial support from the International Finance Corporation (IFC, the private-sector lending arm of the World Bank Group), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), or both since 2003, and that supply chicken to KFC. A sixth company has benefited from IFC advisory services but has not received financing. 

A review of press accounts, financial disclosures, and the companies’ websites shows this support aided these firms’ KFC-linked operations in up to 13 countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe. 

In Kazakhstan, both banks helped a Soviet-era poultry factory become a KFC supplier. In 2011, the IFC lent poultry company Ust-Kamenogorsk Poultry (UKPF) invested $2 million in refurbishing housing for chickens, among other projects. In 2016, the EBRD made a $20 million equity investment in the company’s parent, Aitas, to finance the construction of a new facility to raise and process poultry. In 2018, two years after announcing the financing deal, UKPF revealed it had become a supplier to KFC in Kazakhstan. The EBRD sold its stake in the company in 2019. 

In South Africa, the IFC helped one KFC supplier bolster its operations across the region. In 2013, the bank loaned Country Bird Holdings $25 million to expand existing operations in South Africa, Botswana, and Zambia. Country Bird supplies KFC in all three countries, as well as Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Three years later, in 2016, Country Bird also became KFC’s sole franchisee in Zambia.

In Jordan, the EBRD’s technical support and a 2015 loan worth up to $21 million helped poultry company Al Jazeera Agricultural Company upgrade its facilities and expand its retail presence. Al Jazeera claims to produce half the country’s restaurant-sold chicken. It includes the local franchisees of KFC and Texas Chicken (known by its original name, Church’s Chicken, in the U.S.) as clients. 

With this Global North-financed fast-food expansion comes a host of environmental, social, and health concerns in regions often unprepared to field them.

“It’s so clear that these investments are not consistent with any coherent notion of sustainable development,” Kari Hamerschlag, deputy director for the food and agriculture program at Friends of the Earth US, told DeSmog. 

Providing Financial Security for Fast Food Suppliers 

Both the IFC and the EBRD are financed primarily by the governments of developed countries for the benefit of developing countries. The IFC was founded in 1956 under the umbrella of the World Bank Group to stimulate developing economies by lending directly to businesses. Founded in 1991, the EBRD was formed to support Eastern Europe’s transition to a market economy. Since then, it has extended its geographic reach to include other regions. 

Development banks often finance companies and projects in regions that more risk-averse commercial banks tend to avoid. The idea is to help grow a company’s operations and lower the risk for private sector investors. 

Both of these development banks’ investments cover a range of sectors, including manufacturing, education, agribusiness, energy, and tourism. Because large agro-processors, such as poultry companies, can transform bushel upon bushel of local crops into more valuable products, like meat, they make especially attractive clients. 

The world’s largest restaurant company, U.S.-based Yum! Brands, owns KFC, and calls the fried chicken powerhouse, which oversees more than 30,000 locations across the globe, a “major growth engine.” 

[lilfishiefigureskates]

Grand Prix de France Review

Men:

Adam Siao Him Fa (France) Total Score 246 - In this chaotic men’s even Adam got 8th in the short and 1st in the free program. I did not like his gangster short program, and maybe Ilia was right with the fake hoodie, cause the real hoodie was not the move. I really liked the Dune program tho, but I feel like lying on the ice and pretending to die is cheating. Also, having a backflip in both programs scares me so badly. Hopefully he will be able to put down two clean programs in China. #TheComebackKing.

Koshiro Shimada (Japan) Total Score 233.84 - Koshiro got 5th in the short and 3rd in the free. I’m glad he was able to put down a better performance than he did at Skate America! His Shawn Mendes short is not my fav but I really like his free. He’s truly an excellent performer. Unfortunately, it’s very unlikely we’ll see him at the Grand Prix final despite him getting a silver medal due to him only getting 6th at Skate America.

Andrew Torgashev (USA) Total Score 233.65 - 4th in the short and 4th in the free. Some unusual consistency for the pizza king. I’m glad he was able to survive this event and earn his first Grand Prix medal! He will be replacing Stephen Gogolev in the NHK trophy this upcoming weekend due to a last minute withdrawal. Since the men’s field is looking pretty wide open besides Yuma and Kao, we might see him back on the podium. We’ll see how we handles the last minute back to back competitions.

Mikhail Shaidorov (Kazakhstan) Total Score 231.86 - 6th in the short and 5th in the free. He did the 3A4T!!!! And nobody noticed cause he rotated it so damn fast. He probably has my favorite Dune costume. His technical elements are amazing, so I would love to see him work on his PCS. Moonlight Sonata into Take on Me was definitely a choice, but I was feeling it. He said he was working on another super secret combo, so I’m looking forward to seeing it in the future.

Kazuki Tomono (Japan) Total Score 231.48- 3rd in the short and 6th in the free. Even though he only did a 4S2T in the short, he was in the top 3 cause everyone else was flopping but he just couldn’t hold on during the free. In the free he had a bit of a rough start but he got it together in the end. I appreciate him for not having boring tops. He committed to the bit. I guess he was injured which I was not aware of (as twitter has pointed out, a lot of people at this event were injured/recovering from injuries).

Nikolaj Memola (Italy) Total Score 227.10 - 10th in the free and 2nd in the short (lol). I’m not going to talk about the short cause I’m trying to erase it from my memory. But his free OMGGGGG. He was moving quite slow, but it was beautiful. And he did the 4Lz!??!? He was emoting and gave us a gorgeous Ina Bauer. I would love to see him pick up his speed, but I guess he was injured during the off season, so I’ll let it slide for now. I think Mark said he was 6’5??? - which is literally insane.

Aleksandr Selevko (Estonia) Total Score 266.11 - 2nd in the short, 7th in the free. I just found out that he was dating a 15 year old girl which is literally disgusting so I’m not going to talk about him.

Boyang Jin (China) Total Score 219.05 - 1st in the short, 11th in the free :(((( Some serious menning occurred here. Really enjoyed the short, but why on earth is he skating to Boston in the free?????? It does not fit him at all. It was a joy seeing him in first after the short, but man was that short program rough. Hopefully he can put down a better performance in front of his home crowd when he competes in the Cup of China.

Lukas Britschgi (Switzerland) Total Score 212.94 - 7th in the short, 9th in the free. Very cool that he incorporated sign language into his short program (I know that Benoit is mad he didn’t think of it first). And in his free we were traveling through space and time I guess. I def liked the vibes of his free so hopefully he can put down a better performance at Finlandia.

Luc Economides (France) Total Score 205.55 - 9th in the short, and 8 in the free. Unfortunately having back to back programs was not kind to him. Although he earned 2nd at the Cranberry cup, the Grand Prix series was not very kind to him. I really do like his Interstellar free program tho. He also has the scariest axis on his 3A that I’ve ever seen.

Camden Pulkinen (USA) Total Score 193.6 - 11th in the short, and 12th in the free. He graduated college which is good, but instead of focusing on figure skating he got a finance job in NYC???? I feel like he should be choosing one or the other but I’m not in charge of his life. It’s just getting slightly frustrating to watch him. Here’s hoping he’ll have a comeback at Finlandia.

Francois Pitot (France) Total Score 183.17 - 12th in the short, 10th in the free. I do not like the half-jacket costume he has in the short, especially since it just kinda flaps around. He had a pretty had fall on his 4S in the short and it looked like he may have hurt his shoulder. He’s doing a Matrix free program, but it doesn’t sound like it’s from The Matrix but IDK. He got 11th at Skate America and last place here, so it’s been a tad rough for him, so I hope he gets some rest.

Women:

Amber Glenn (USA) Total Score 210.44 - 1st in the short, 3rd in the free. 3A in the short let’s go!!!!! She put her hand down on the 3A in the free was it was no biggie. I know she had a lot of trouble with consistency last season but I really think that this season is her season. So excited to see her at the Cup of China!

Wakaba Higuchi (Japan) Total Score 206.08 - 3rd in the short, 1st in the free. Grand Prix Final LETS GO!!!!!!!!!! I’m digging the Dune short, but I just wish that the free was just Running Up That Hill, because the second half of the program just works so much better than the first half. Improved her score from Skate America by almost 10 points!

Rion Sumiyoshi (Japan) Total Score 201.35 - 5th in the short, 2nd in the free. Beautiful costumes. Did the 4T in the free was it was UR and two-footed but it’s okies. Her jumps are so well woven into her choreography. I think this was her third time getting third at this event lol, so at least she’s staying consistent.

Chaeyeon Kim (South Korea) Total Score 199.99 - 2nd in the short, 5th in the free. I LOVE the Tron short program, but she only got a level 2 for her step sequence so we need to work on that. I think she was a little nervous going into the free program, because there was not a lot of emoting going on. It’s a shame she went down on the 3Lz3T. I really like her tho, and I think she’s quickly becoming one of my favs.

Sarah Everhardt (USA) Total Score 196.94 - 4th in the short, 4th in the free. I loved her spins. The short program was good, i just wish that she held her ending pose a little longer lol. She looked a little tired during the free and it kinda seemed like she was just going through the motions, and she didn’t have enough energy to match her music. But it was a very good Grand Prix debut!

Nina Pinzarrone (Belgium) Total Score 184.67 - 6th in the short, 6th in the free. The short program is a little weird. Like what do you mean she’s a young woman going to the theater to see swan lake? Why would we be so angsty to see swan lake?? Tell me Benoit?!?! And then in the free she’s drowning because her boat sank but the voiceover is from the Handmaid’s Tale. IDK she didn’t beat her score from Skate America and she has trouble with the 3Lz3T combo in the short but she does it pretty well in the free.

Mai Mihara (Japan) Total Score 174.93 - 7th in the short, 8th in the free. She is literally the human embodiment of sunshine. When she landed her 3Lz3T in the short her smile could’ve been seen from space. In the free there was very little going on between the jumps and she did struggle a bit, but she is still recovering from her injury.

Anastasiia Gubanova (Georgia) Total Score 173.32 - 9th in the short, 7th in the free. What’s up with the angsty ABBA cover for the short??? I did not like and I felt like she was just standing around on the ice too much. She saved most of her combos for the second half in the free and I don’t think that was the move for her. She’s just very inconsistent in general.

Livia Kaiser (Switzerland) Total Score 168.27 - 8th in the short, 9th in the free. Got a level 2 on her step sequence in both the short and the free and had some trouble with her spins in both programs as well. I liked her short a lot better than her free, because it was very moody and she does give good attitude.

Lorine Schild (France) Total Score 164.32 - 10th in the short, 10th in the free. Had a rough short program but did better in the free. I thought her costume was very pretty and the program built up nicely toward the end.

Lea Serna (France) Total Score 160.91 - 11th in the short, 11th in the free. Beat her score from Skate America by almost 10 points so heck yeah! For some reason I don’t have a lot of notes for her free so IDK. Sorry Lea.

Clemence Mayindu (France) Total Score 121.34 - 12th in the short, 12th in the free. This was her first senior Grand Prix event so I know this baby girl must have been nervous but boy did she have the crowd on her side! Had trouble with her technical elements and needed more ice coverage.

Pairs:

Minerva Fabienne Hase / Nikita Volodin (Germany) Total Score 211.69 - 1st in the short, 1st in the free. I liked the free a lot better than the short. Their 3Tw is great and the throw 3Lo is also pretty solid.

Sara Conti / Niccolo Macii (Italy) Total Score 203.39 - 2nd in the short, 2nd in the free. Crazy start and end pose lol, I wished they held their end pose for a little longer but I think that’s starting to be a pet peeve of mine. He went down in the SBS 3S in the free but that was their only boo boo.

Rebecca Ghilardi (Italy) / Filippo Ambrosini (Italy) Total Score 176.62 - 6th in the short, 3rd in the free. I’m not quite sure how their short is a program about violence against women but I’m a sucker for Moulin Rouge. I didn’t watch their free program because I think I was still recovering from the men’s event but I will get on it ASAP.

Dance:

Evgeniia Lopareva / Geoffrey Brissaud (France) Total Score 195.27 - 2nd in the short, 1st in the free. Listen they have found their niche because they do weird well. They’re both so expressive and have great musicality and the Rasputin short program is iconic.

Charlene Guignard / Marco Fabbri (Italy) Total Score 189.08 - 1st in the short, 5th in the free. Ketchup and Mustard in the short, and robots in the free. TBH i was vibing with the robots during the first half of the program but they lost me in the second half. He had a fall on the twizzles which is a no-no.

Emily Bratti / Ian Somerville (USA) Toal Score 185.88 - 4th in the short, 2nd in the free. I do not vibe with the short. IDK I just can’t take it seriously lol. And unfortunately I think the free is a little boring. However they both serve so much face (especially him) and I’m happy that they were able to make a comeback after their disappointing outcome at Skate Canada.

This whole competition was so chaotic but we made it out alive and that’s all that matters. RIP my fantasy figure skating picks tho. Coming up next is the NKH Trophy!!!

[a-room-of-my-own]

the UN - an organization with some branches that openly support Hamas and the Iranian regime

Do u have proof for this? Id like to take a look

Sure, I’m sorry I’m at work (late) and it’s going to be a bit scrambled. For Hamas, there’s quite a lot of sources online about UNRWA’s compromissions with them, notably some UNRWA employees who were keeping Israeli hostages in their homes. I can share some of your have trouble finding them.

For Iran, the UN has backtracked a little bit since 2022, but here are a few things

Mourning Iran's president Ebrahim Raisi

A month ago, after Iran sent drones on Israel + Raisi was involved in numerous, horrific human rights abuses, including the extrajudicial killings of thousands of political prisoners. The fact that the secretary general would salute the passing of someone like this says enough.

Inviting Iran to a 4-year term on its Commission on the Status of Women in 2021

It’s the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. The country was expelled the following year

Praising Iran for its commitment to Human Rights in 2020

"In the discussion, the delegations appreciated Iran’s cooperation with human rights mechanisms and the acceptance of the majority of recommendations received. Iran’s efforts to provide for refugees despite challenges it faced and the efforts to empower women, promote school enrolment and reduce the mortality rate for children at birth were acknowledged. "

Inviting Vice President for Women and Family Affairs Ensieh Khazali

so that she could demand the revocation of Israel's participation to the commission for women's rights, where she went as far as saying that Iran had made rapid progress since the Islamic Revolution in the field of gender justice.

Authorizing Iran's representatives to chair a U.N. human rights council meeting in Geneva last November

And that’s on the top of my head but there’s more. The UN is made of many commissions / members / stakeholders, so it doesn’t support Iran as an institution, but over the last few years there’s been several attempts to normalize the Iranian regime.

That’s why I was angry when I read about that meeting with the Talibans because I really don’t think normalizing works with that kind of people, if they’re brought to the table they just think they « won » not that everyone made a collective effort to talk to them despite what they’re doing.

[jollygood21]

The former Soviet Union (population):

Russia 🇷🇺 - 144 million

Ukraine 🇺🇦 - 37.6 m

Uzbekistan 🇺🇿 - 35.5 m

Kazakhstan 🇰🇿 - 19.7 m

Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 - 10.4 m

Tajikistan 🇹🇯 - 10.2 m

Belarus 🇧🇾 - 9.4 m

Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬 - 6.8 m

Turkmenistan 🇹🇲 - 6.5 m

Georgia 🇬🇪 - 3.7 m

Moldova 🇲🇩 - 3.3 m

Armenia 🇦🇲 - 2.7 m

Lithuania 🇱🇹 - 2.7 m

Latvia 🇱🇻 - 1.8 m

Estonia 🇪🇪 - 1.3 m

According to the World Population Review