#shopping malls U.S.

[menandwomanofhistory]

Victor Gruen

[zvaigzdelasas]

The Onondaga claim that the United States violated a 1794 treaty, signed by George Washington, that guaranteed 2.5 million acres in central New York to them. The case, filed in 2014, is the second brought by an American Indian nation against the United States in an international human rights body; a finding is expected as soon as this year.

Even if the Onondaga are successful, the result will mostly be symbolic. The entity, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, has no power to enforce a finding or settlement, and the United States has said that it does not consider the commission’s recommendations to be binding.

“We could win against them, but that doesn’t mean that they have to abide by whatever,” Mr. Hill said in an interview.

The 2.5 million acres have long since been transformed by highways and utility lines, shopping malls, universities, airports and roller rinks.

The territory encompasses the cities of Binghamton and Syracuse, as well as more than 30 state forests, dozens of lakes and countless streams and tributaries. It is also home to 24 Superfund sites, the environmental detritus of the powerhouse economy that helped central New York thrive during the beginning and middle half of the 20th century.

Most notorious of these is Lake Onondaga, which once held the dubious title of America’s most polluted lake.

Industrial waste has left its mark on Onondaga territory, leaving the nation unable to fish from its streams and rivers. The history of environmental degradation is part of what motivates the Onondaga, who consider it their sacred responsibility to protect their land.

One of their chief objectives in filing the petition is a seat at the table on environmental decisions across the original territory. The other is an acknowledgment that New York, even if only in principle, owes them 2.5 million acres.[...]

Some Native nations have been willing to drop land claims in exchange for licenses to operate casinos. But the Onondaga say they are not interested in cash. Nor are they interested in licenses to sell cannabis or operate a casino — which they consider socially irresponsible and a threat to their tribal sovereignty.

There’s really just one thing that Mr. Hill says would be an acceptable form of payment: land.

The Onondaga insist they are not looking to displace anyone. Instead they hope the state might turn over a tract of unspoiled land for the nation to hunt, fish, preserve or develop as it sees fit. One such repatriation effort is underway: the return of 1,000 acres as a part of a federal settlement with Honeywell International for the contamination of Onondaga Lake. The United States has not contested the Onondaga's account of how the nation lost its land. Indeed, the lawyers representing the United States in the Onondaga case have centered their argument on legal precedence, noting that courts at every level — including the U.S. Supreme Court — rejected the Onondaga’s claims as too old and most remedies too disruptive to the region’s current inhabitants.

To the Onondaga, the logic required to square these contentions seems unfair. Why should the United States be allowed to steal their land and face no obligation to give some back?[...]

In New York, [...] Native people were not considered to have standing to sue on their own behalf until 1987.[...]

In 2005, the Onondaga filed a version of their current claim in Federal District Court in the Northern District of New York, naming as defendants the State of New York, its governor, Onondaga County, the City of Syracuse and a handful of the companies responsible for the environmental degradation over the past centuries. A similar case filed by the Oneida Nation was, at the time, pending before the Supreme Court.

But just 18 days after the Onondaga filed their petition, the Supreme Court rejected the Oneidas’ case. The decision referenced an colonial-era legal theory known as the Doctrine of Discovery, which holds in part that Indigenous property claims were nullified by the “discovery” of that land by Christians.

The “long lapse of time” and “the attendant dramatic changes in the character” precluded the Oneida nation from the “disruptive remedy” it sought, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in the majority decision.[...]

[L]awyers for the Onondaga used the rejection as the premise for a new argument. They contended that the U.S. court system’s refusal to find in their favor proved that they could not find justice in the United States.

The petition filed before the international commission amounts to the most direct challenge of the United States’ treatment of Indigenous people to date in terms of human rights — and the first to apply the lens of colonialism.

“What the Onondaga litigation is doing right now is to force a political dialogue with the colonial occupier,” said Andrew Reid, a lawyer representing the Onondaga, adding that a favorable finding could prompt a political conversation about the United States’s treatment of native people on the world stage.

Representatives for the State Department declined to be interviewed and did not respond to requests for comment. But in legal documents, the United States contended that the Onondaga’s central claims have been rejected in prior cases; that they have had “abundant opportunity” for their case to be heard; and that they are merely unhappy with the outcome. It also contended that the commission has no jurisdiction, given that the bulk of the nation’s losses took place two centuries before it was established.

“The judicial process functioned as it should have in this matter,” the United States wrote in legal papers.

15 Mar 24

[betty-bourgeoisie]

The thing I find most concerning about the sudden and rapid declines of platforms like Twitter, Reddit, and to a lesser extent Discord and Facebook, is the loss of digital third places that will result from it.

[Definition: a Third Place is a space outside of work or the home that you spend a significant amount of time in. Usually a social gathering place like a church, library, park, or gym]

It's a known issue that physical third places are disappearing. Cities, malls, and shopping centers have cracked down hard on loitering, resulting in a lack of public space for people to just hang out in. Parks exist, but their use is usually dependent on weather conditions. Church attendance has been in decline for decades for a lot of reasons I won't get into here. Libraries exist but they're not a good place to talk with friends. And pretty much every other third place I can think of (bars, game stores, bookstores, coffee shops, etc) requires you to spend money if you want to be there. None of these are new observations, smarter people than myself have written whole books on the loss of in-person third places.

Social media has been filling in the gap left by these third places for the last couple of decades. As physical space has become less accessible we've migrated online to find community - and especially during COVID, social media was really the only place you could socialize with others. None of this is new information either.

But the current issue, that I've seen very few people talking about, is that companies are starting to price and bully people out of those digital third places the same way they did with physical third places. The difference is that it's happening much faster, and usually at the whim of just one or two people. These are not broader sociological trends slowly shutting down social spaces like what we saw with the decline of shopping malls. There will be no slow adjustment to another social medium. We are seeing individual billionaires making a choice in real time to monetize people out of some of the only public social spaces we have left.

I've seen people bemoaning the loss of information that comes with these sites collapsing, but personally, I am far more concerned with the loss of social space. Don't get me wrong, social media of all kinds is an absolute nightmare, but for many people (and especially for teenagers who have more restrictions on where they can go and what money they can spend) online space is one of the only places they can reliably go to socialize.

In a country like the U.S. where the federal government is calling loneliness an epidemic this is actually a much bigger concern than I think a lot of people realize. How many people have more online friends than in-person ones? What happens to rates of loneliness as social media platforms become inaccessible and people lose those connections?

Obviously, the preferred answer is that people will go make more friends in person, but remember that in-person social spaces have already been severely limited. This is not the easy option that you might hope it is.

My actual call to action on this is to fucking fight to get your in-person third places back. Talk to your local representatives about repealing loitering laws - organize protests or ballot initiatives about it if you have to. Work with rotary clubs and parks departments to fund new public restrooms and park shelters. If there are places in your community that provide free workshop spaces/ game nights/ art walks/ etc go to them and support them financially when and if you're able. Go to your local library and check out a book so they get more funding! I know this shit can be boring, but things are only going to get worse if people don't have places where they can connect with each other. We can't keep letting capitalists take community spaces from us.

[themotherofhorses]

im begging you, dark!aemond bodyguard of the president/king’s innocent daughter omggggg

pairing: bodyguard!aemond targaryen x president's daughter!reader

warnings: explicit language. oral sex. loss of virginity (kinda). daddy kink. slight breeding and housewife kink. small mentions of past obsessive tendencies on aemond's part.

notes: hello, long time no write. consider this me using this request like i'm saddling the horse after getting thrown off.

(also ik aemond might not seem AS dark as other times but like pretty pls read between the lines. thank you ☺️)

masterlist

For being the nation’s current president, your father was quite the fucking fool of a man.

He loves you, truly. How could he not? You were the spitting image of your late mother, and the youngest of his children- his sweet little chick that was barely beginning to spread her wings and leave the nest. He would never forgive himself if you ever got hurt due to his elected role as the commander-in-chief and head of state.

That was the main reason why he hired Aemond Targaryen as your personal bodyguard.

The man had a commendable record behind him, despite his young age. Your father was beyond impressed with him when he first interviewed him for the job. Two tours in the U.S. army as a sergeant and sniper before receiving an honorable discharge and a Purple Heart due to an eye injury while seeing combat overseas. According to some of the everyday politicians, he threw himself over his younger nephew during an ambush with enemy fire, and took a massive chunk of bomb shrapnel to the left side of his face; doctors saved him, of course, but his eye was too damaged to save.

They offered him a glass eye and a fully paid scar revision (along with special vet benefits and apparently some hush-hush money as well), but he refused it all. Instead, he accepted the purple heart, crammed a pretty and shiny sapphire into his empty socket, and made sure everyone- military personnel and civilian altogether- looked him in both eyes whenever they addressed him.

The rumors were true- Sergeant Aemond One-Eye was as terrifying as he was deadly.  

Perhaps that was the reason why it did not take very long for him to be buried between your thighs.

You never had a boyfriend before, always too devoted towards your college academic and hobbies, and way too protected and overshadowed by your father. But it was Aemond who stole your first kiss, two months into his new job as your bodyguard. He had been accompanying you on a small shopping trip to the mall, treating it as a sort of bonding experience. When you had mentioned the new lip gloss you were trying out (it was flavored ‘chai latte’), he had asked to taste it.

Okay! you giggled, thinking nothing of it; only for it to be a week later and with his head in between your thighs, eating you out like a starved man.

“Stop it…! Aemond! My daddy might walk in!” You cried, tossing your head back against the pillows as you bit down on your bottom lip to stop the moans from tumbling out. It was all in stupid vain; your bodyguard had you putty in his hands. Anything he wanted, you would happily give him- yourself included. “A-Aemond…!” How could he ever stop? Not when you sounded oh so fucking pretty, so sweet and yummy, his newfound favorite meal served to him on a silver platter, just ready to be completely devoured.

Aemond shook his head. “I don’t give the tiniest shit, babygirl,” he muttered as he sucked on your clit, only pausing every few seconds to kiss your soaked pussy. He had to be soft as well, considering this was a fucking dream come true for him.

The poor bastard remembered all the times he saw you on the television, in those paparazzi photos and the Christmas cards and those gorgeous social media posts of yours. No one would ever understand just how badly he wanted you, and the lengths he went just to have you.

And, well, maybe you should’ve thought first before stepping out in that sinful, short-cut and backless blue dress, the one that made you look perfect for him to knock up, his pretty little housewife. Perfect for him. Made for him. He kept your legs wide open with the tightest grips as he feasted on your cunt, ignoring your desperate (but adorable) attempts to push him away.

“If you can’t handle this, how will you handle my cock?” he tutted. “Poor baby, I’m going to fucking destroy you.”

Everything made your pretty face scrunch up in pleasure, especially when you felt him lick a large stripe up your pussy before he shoved his face in only deeper. You squealed, hiding your face from behind your hands. You could feel his nose, his chin, the heavy pants and low growls and soft kisses he peppered along inner thighs. “And what did I say to call me?” before he gave your ass a hard spank.

You whimpered, already on the verge of sobbing. Fat tears were streaking down your cheekbones. “I-I’m sorry…s-so sorry, daddy!”

Oh but your entire body felt like it was lit on fire- a burning yet tightening sensation nestled deep within your belly. It was so strange. You didn’t know what to make of it. Your head lolled to the side while your back arched up from the bed and your hand found Aemond’s long, whitish-blond hair.

(A common genetic mutation in his family, according to him. Some of the politicians mocked it as the ‘new Habsburg jaw’. You thought it made him look all the godlier.)

His hands soon slid up to your breast, palming and tweaking your nipples between his fingers. Your toes curled as you felt ready to explode at any second. “Daddy!” you mewled, peering down through teary eyes to watch as his face shook side-to-side. His own face held sheer bliss, especially when he brought a finger to trace along your drenched folds. “Daddy…! Daddy! Ah, gods, please!”  

“Yeah, that is right, pretty baby, I’m your new daddy now.”

Your father was none the wiser to the fact that, every night, his youngest daughter’s bodyguard had her in a mating press every night, whispering into her ear that it would not be long until she made him into a real daddy.

It was the least you could do in return, considering he was protecting your life with his.

After boring meetings and countless banquets and your a.m. college classes, Aemond would be quick to shove your panties in your mouth before bending you over the nearest furniture set.

You were his.

All his.

His pretty baby, his sweet little future housewife, the girl whose picture he used to secretly carry in one of the vest pockets during his days in the military.  

One day, your father pulled him aside and offered him a bonus.

“Truth is, son, you’re doing such a fine job at protecting her. I don’t worry as much as I did before you came along. We could not ask for a better bodyguard, Sergeant,” he admitted, patting him on the back. “Would there be anything you’d like in payment? A vacation? A bonus? Some free time with your family? I know you miss your mother very much; my little girl told me.”

But Aemond shook his head, declining everything. “Sir, with all due respect, your daughter feels like my new family now, considering how close we’ve grown in these past several months, and my duty in keeping her safe. I would prefer to remain by her side if you would allow it,” he said, and your father gave him a cheeky grin.

“Should I perhaps be worried, Sergeant?”

“Of course not, Mr. President. I adore your daughter, but only as a brother would his little sister.”

So it was true, it seemed- your father, bless his heart, was quite the fucking fool of a man. It should’ve been no surprise to him at all that seven months down the line from his conversation with your bodyguard, you would be trying to hide a swollen baby bump from everyone's eyes.

And if he really was smart, then he would’ve remembered the reason why the Targaryens were so often compared to the old Habsburgs of Austria.

[mariacallous]

Over the past decade, China has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in its international media network. The Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network, China Radio International, and the China Daily web portal produce material in multiple languages and use multiple social-media accounts to amplify it. This huge investment produces plenty of positive coverage of China and benign depictions of the authoritarian world more broadly. Nevertheless, Beijing is also aware that news marked “made in China” doesn’t have anything like the influence that local people, using local media, would have if they were uttering the same messages.

That, in the regime’s thinking, is the ultimate form of propaganda: Get the natives to say it for you. Train them, persuade them, pay them—it doesn’t matter; whatever their motives, they’ll be more convincing. Chinese leaders call this tactic “borrowing boats to reach the sea.”

When a handful of employees at RT, the Russian state television network formerly known as Russia Today, allegedly offered to provide lucrative payments to the talking heads of Tenet Media, a Tennessee-based far-right influencer team, borrowing boats to reach the sea was exactly what they had in mind. According to a federal indictment released last week, RT employees spent nearly $10 million over the course of a year—money “laundered through a network of foreign shell entities,” including companies in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the Czech Republic, and Hungary—with the aim of supporting Tenet Media’s work and shaping the messages in its videos.

The indictment makes clear that the influencers—propagandists, in fact—must have had a pretty good idea where the money was coming from. They were told that their benefactor was “Eduard Grigoriann,” a vaguely Euro-Armenian “investor.” They tried to Google him and found nothing; they asked for information and were shown a résumé that included a photograph of a man gazing through the window of a private jet. Sometimes, the messages from Grigoriann’s team were time-stamped in a way that indicated they were written in Moscow. Sometimes the alleged employees of Grigoriann’s alleged company misspelled Grigoriann’s name. Unsurprisingly, in their private conversations, the Tenet Media team occasionally referred to its mysterious backers as “the Russians.”

But the real question is not whether the talking heads of Tenet Media—the founders, Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan, who were the main interlocutors with the Russians, but also Tim Pool, Lauren Southern, Dave Rubin, and Benny Johnson—had guessed the true identity of their “investor.” Nor does it matter whether they knew who was really paying them to make videos that backed up absurd pro-Moscow narratives (that a terrorist attack at a Moscow shopping mall, loudly claimed by the Islamic State, was really carried out by Ukrainians, for example). More important is whether the audience knew, and I think we can safely say that it did not. And now that Tenet Media fans do know who funds their favorite influencers, it’s entirely possible that they won’t care.

This is because the messages formed part of a larger stream of authoritarian ideas that are now ubiquitous on the far right, and that make coherent sense as a package. They denounce U.S. institutions as broken, irreparable: If Donald Trump doesn’t win, it’s because the election is rigged. They imply American society is degenerate: White people are discriminated against in America. They suggest immigrants are part of a coordinated invasion, designed to destroy what remains of the culture: Illegal immigrants are eating household pets, a trope featured during this week’s presidential debate. For the Russians, the amplification of this narrative matters more than specific arguments about Ukraine. As the indictment delicately explains, many of the Russian-sponsored videos produced by Tenet Media were more relevant to American politics than to the Ukraine war: “While the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, the subject matter and content of the videos are often consistent with the Government of Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions.”

But these themes are also consistent with the Trump campaign’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions. People who have come to distrust the basic institutions of American democracy, who feel aggrieved and rejected, who believe that immigrants are invaders who have been deliberately sent to replace them—these are not people who will necessarily be bothered that their favorite YouTubers, according to prosecutors, were being sponsored by a violent, lawless foreign dictator who repeatedly threatens the U.S. and its allies with nuclear armageddon. On the contrary, many of them now despise their own country so much that they might be pleased to hear there are foreigners who, like the ex-president, want to burn it all down. If you truly hate modern America—its diversity, its immense energy, its raucous debate—then you won’t mind hearing it denounced by other people who hate it and wish it ill. On X earlier this year, Chen referred to the U.S. as a “tyranny,” for example, a phrase that could easily have been produced by one of the Russian propagandists who regularly decry the U.S. on the evening news.

These pundits and their audience are not manipulated by Russian, Chinese, and other autocrats who sometimes fill their social-media feeds. The relationship goes the other way around; Russian, Chinese, and other influence operations are designed to spread the views of Americans who actively and enthusiastically support the autocratic narrative. You may have laughed at Trump’s rant on Tuesday night: “The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating—they’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame.” But that language is meant to reach an audience already primed to believe that Kamala Harris, as Trump himself said, is “destroying this country. And if she becomes president, this country doesn’t have a chance of success. Not only success. We’ll end up being Venezuela on steroids.”

Plenty of other people are trying to reach that audience too. Indeed, the Grigoriann scheme was not the only one revealed in the past few days. In a separate case that has received less attention, the FBI last week filed an affidavit in a Pennsylvania courthouse supporting the seizure of 32 internet domains. The document describes another team of Russian operatives who have engaged in typosquatting—setting up fake news websites whose URLs resemble real ones. The affidavit mentions, for example, washingtonpost.pm, washingtonpost.ltd, fox-news.in, fox-news.top, and forward.pw, but we know there are others. This same propaganda group, known to European investigators as Doppelganger, has also set up similar sites in multiple European languages. Typosquatters do not necessarily seek to drive people to the fake sites. Instead, the fake URLs they provide make posts on Facebook, X, and other social media appear credible. When someone is quickly scrolling, they might not check whether a sensational headline purporting to be from The Washington Post is in fact linked to washingtonpost.pm, the fake site, as opposed to washingtonpost.com, the real one.

But this deception, too, would not work without people who are prepared to believe it. Just as the Grigoriann scam assumed the existence of pundits and viewers who don’t really care who is paying for the videos that make them angry, typosquatting—like all information laundering—assumes the existence of a credulous audience that is already willing to accept outrageous headlines and not ask too many questions. Again, although Russian teams seek to cultivate, influence, and amplify this audience—especially in Pennsylvania, apparently, because in Moscow, they know which swing states matter too—the Russians didn’t create it. Rather, it was created by Trump and the pundits who support him, and merely amplified by foreigners who want our democracy to fail.

These influencers and audiences are cynical, even nihilistic. They have deep distrust in American institutions, especially those connected to elections. We talk a lot about how authoritarianism might arrive in America someday, but in this sense, it’s already here: The United States has a very large population of people who look for, absorb, and believe anti-American messages wherever they are found, whether on the real Fox News or the fake fox-news.in. Trump was speaking directly to them on Tuesday. What happens next is up to other Americans, the ones who don’t believe that their country is cratering into chaos and don’t want a leader who will burn it all down. In the meantime, there are plenty of boats available to borrow for Russians who want to reach the sea.

[girlactionfigure]

🟡 Friday - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

Rosh Chodesh Sivan, have a good new month!

Erev Shabbat - Parshat Bamidbar - Numbers 1:1 - In the Sinai Desert, G‑d says to conduct a census of the twelve tribes of Israel.

🌡 HEAT WARNING.. high temperatures today and tomorrow, returning to normal summer temps Sunday.  Hydrate, check your elderly.  And there have already been several baby and toddler deaths from left-in-car overheating, be extra careful!

🔸DEAL.. Hamas leader Sinwar to mediators: "Hamas will not disarm”. (WSJ)

.. Qatar has threatened senior Hamas officials to be expelled from Doha if they oppose the deal.

.. Qatari Foreign Ministry: "Hamas has not yet responded to the proposal for a ceasefire; they are still studying the proposal and the efforts of the mediating countries continue.”  (Yes this is opposite from previous reports.)

▪️INFILTRATION FROM JORDAN.. overnight near Tirat Zvi.  Town alert squads activated, IDF searching area.

▪️HEZBOLLAH FIRED ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSILES.. at Israeli jets over south Lebanon.  This is the first time they have fired at jets, but have previously shot down Israeli high flying observation drones.

▪️NETANYAHU TO SPEAK TO U.S. CONGRESS.. on July 24.

▪️US SEC STATE BLINKEN TO ISRAEL.. early in the coming week.

▪️ISRAEL ORDERS MORE F-35’s.. Israel signs a contract with the US to purchase 25 F-35 fighter jets for $3 billion.

▪️KIRYAT SHMONA SHOPPING MALL HIT.. by Hezbollah suicide drone.  Significant damage, no injuries.  (( As a precision weapon, someone want to comment about shooting at military vs civilian sites?  Israel is literally dropping leaflets warning civilians, Hezbollah is targeting civilians. ))

▪️MEDIA FEEDING THE ENEMY ENERGY.. The Lebanese Al Mayadeen channel quotes from the editorial of the Haaretz newspaper this morning:  “The countdown has begun and it is only a matter of time to the final collapse of Israel. A Lebanon war will push Israel into the abyss with a lack of international legitimacy and an exhausted army.”  This is from an Israeli newspaper during a war!

▪️HOUSING.. High Court decision on a long running case on who pays differences in some indexed payments on fixed price new apartments, the contractor, the State, or the buyer which was agreed between the contractors and State to be divided among the 3 - the court rules buyers aren’t party to the agreement and therefore can’t be charged.  Savings of NIS 8,000 per 1,000,000 of home price for buyers are expected. (Calcalist)

▪️MORE POLITICAL POLLING.. this time from right wing Ch. 14..

Likud - 25

National Unity - 17

Israel our Home - 14

Yesh Atid - 13

Shas - 10

Otzma Yehudit - 9

Labor - 9

United Torah Judaism - 8

Ra’am - 6

Religious Zionism - 5

Hadash-Ta’al - 4

Balad - below minimum at 3%

Meretz - below minimum at 2.2%

National Right - below minimum at 1.7%

Trends of note:  Labor significantly up with new leader, Israel our Home trending up.

⭕ HAMAS ROCKETS at Magen and Ein HaBsor near Gaza.

⭕ HEZBOLLAH ROCKETS at Beit Hillel, Ma'ayan Baruch, HaGoshrim, Zarit in the north.

SPECIAL REPORTS

❗️ON INFILTRATION from Gaza attack:

.. The tunnel shaft through which the terrorists reached 200 meters from the border is a shaft that is connected to a tunnel that has been known to Israel for 10 years, since Operation Protective Edge, and has not been destroyed.

.. When the terrorists reached the first fence, the old fence, they passed through an opening in the fence that remained breached and unprepared.  And while IDF forces are using it for entry to Gaza, not even a gate added.

❗️EMERGENCY PLANNING

Links to prepare for greater conflict.  Note many of the links work on in Israel, to view from outside use a VPN (special app or program that lets you appear somewhere else on the internet).

.. Preparing your home for an emergency.  https://www.oref.org.il/12490-15902-en/Pakar.aspx

.. Supplies and Equipment for Emergencies.  https://www.oref.org.il/12490-15903-en/pakar.aspx

.. Help Prep your Neighborhood and Family Elderly.  https://www.oref.org.il/12550-20999-en/pakar.aspx

.. Know the Emergency numbers

Police 100 emergency, 110 non-urgent situation

Ambulance 101

Medics 1221

Fire 102

Electric Company 103

Home Front Command 104

City Hotline 106

Senior Citizen Hotline *8840

Social Services Hotline 118

Cyber (hack) Hotline 119

[sirfrogsworth]

Regarding my heading down an unfinished road... I found it on Google Street View.

So these are from a year ago.

This is the lane I drove down.

And this is the section where I realized, "Oh shit, I ain't supposed to drive here."

I used generative fill to update these images to what they looked like on the day of embarrassment.

Looking back, there were a few cones. But all of the "do not enter" signs were gone and I think it would be perfectly reasonable to assume you could drive here. I think other people may have avoided it because they drive in this area regularly. I drive maybe once or twice a month.

And here is what the dead end looked like with a year of construction progress.

(It is scary how close generative fill matched this to my memory of it.)

I was really confused when I got to this point. I wasn't sure if I should try backing up or turning. I thought the gravel was okay to drive on, so I pulled forward and started a u-turn. But there was a sharp drop-off from the road to the gravel section I couldn't see and that was very jarring. And the gravel was not fit for driving on. So I kicked up a ton of dust and passers-by were all "WTF are you doing?"

Hell, I was like "WTF are you doing?"

I have a feeling this memory will join a few other embarrassing moments that pop into my head right before I try to fall asleep.

It wasn't my fault, but yeah, I hate driving around here.

It feels like the highway construction in this area is endless. It's been going on for years and it never feels like any progress is being made.

They closed off 3 highway exits for streets that contain a lot of local businesses. One of them leads straight to Ferguson. And if you don't know to exit onto a side road ahead of these areas, you'll just pass them by. So people from out of town who might be looking for a place to eat or shop could easily drive past these areas.

I feel sad for my community. Big franchises are closing up shop. There is no pizza place that directly delivers to my area. When your last pizza place closes up, that's when you know your community is in trouble.

If anyone around here wants pizza delivered you have to spend a ton to have it DoorDash'd in from another area.

And it all started with a "white flight" epidemic. They even made a documentary about it called Spanish Lake (my township). There was a failed housing project nearby and a lot of poor Black folks started moving to Spanish Lake afterward. Then some scummy real estate people took advantage and it all snowballed from there...

"The 1990s saw a mass exodus of the white population, spurred on by blockbusting, a practice some U.S. real estate agents use to encourage white property owners to sell their houses quickly at a loss, implying the African-Americans moving into their neighborhood will depress their property values."

Apparently blockbusting is the new red lining.

The "controversy" section on Wikipedia sums up the movie pretty well.

I started following a Facebook page dedicated to Spanish Lake, thinking it would be other folks in my community. I thought maybe I could get to know my neighbors.

Instead, it is all of the white people who moved away reminiscing about how great Spanish Lake used to be.

People in this group are trying really hard not to say the quiet part out loud.

Riff raff?

Scot, I think you dropped this...

I grew up here. I still live here. I love my house and my street. There are some areas that could really use some help, but if you live here, you know the few small pockets to stay away from. I have no issue walking up and down my street at night without fear.

They also mourn the loss of the businesses that closed because they abandoned the area.

There is the mall which will be officially demolished soon.

And, yes, it is the spooky mall from that viral video.

There was the movie theater... at the mall.

There was the Aloha Roller Rink.

Which now looks like this.

And the burger joint.

The pizza place.

And the other pizza place.

Saullo's was okay.

Angelo's in the next town over is better. And still in business!

What was I talking about?

Oh, yeah. Don't drive down unfinished roads!

[londontwinkton]

Tips on how to find cute vintage clothes

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

this post is inspired by a tiktok from @blackhairedbrat go watch it and show it love!!

Knowing your tastes:

theres so many things to look into when it comes to vintage clothes. obvi, u wanna start with what period of time u aspire to dress like. late 90s, early 2000s, mid 80s, 50s-60s, 2010s (not really vintage but its definitely making a comeback). also knowing what styles looked like during those times in different countries can definitely broaden ur horizons. examples like japan during the 90s, central europe in the 2000s, and the U.S. in the 70s can definitely open u to new things u didn't know u are into. pick and choose stuff, make it ur own, its all up to u on what ur signature look is!

once u settled on a time period(s), research into the fashion scenes. there are many sub-genres of fashion back in the day that translate into the aesthetics we know today, such as goth, preppy, grunge, mcbling, futuristic, and many more. go with whatever fits ur personality or even a version of urself u always wanted to be. see whats compatible with your proportions; what u wanna accentuate and minimize, the materials of clothes and colors, the makeup, any and all of it!

once u got all ur shit figured out, make a mood board, follow some brands that were popular during that time, and start curating your closet. get rid of anything that u don't really wear anymore or that u feel doesn't suit ur vision.

Where to look:

thrift stores like savers, salvation army, goodwill, etc.

online shops (depop, grailed, etsy, poshmark)

shop locally (go to pop up shops/flea markets, follow people on instagram that sells secondhand, use related tags to find users, etc.)

ask for hand me downs from relatives, friends, literally anyone who u know had pieces from the desired era u wanna dress like

malls! the more run down the better! look for stores that are reminiscent of clothes u want.

small businesses that garner towards a certain aesthetic!

Other helpful tips:

FIND ALTERNATIVES! nothing is ever ideal. beggers can't be choosers right?

when leaning into more of the punk/alternative stuff, DIY it to make it more authentic. i do it all the time its fun!

trading. (sorta tied to both the online shops and locally shop points previously) surprisingly, people will trade their stuff as long as u have something equally as good or valuable. just gotta look at the right places on the internet and stay safe.

↶*ೃ✧˚. ❃ ↷ ˊ-↶*ೃ✧˚. ❃ ↷ ˊ-↶*ೃ✧˚. ❃ ↷ ˊ-↶*ೃ✧˚. ❃ ↷ ˊ-↶*ೃ✧˚. ❃ ↷

Have fun and don't get scammed, u fashion icon!

[rabbitcruiser]

The Shops at Crystals, NV (No. 4)

Architecture critic James S. Russell, writing for Bloomberg News, called Crystals "a fun antidote to the smothering fairy-tale pomp that has become the Las Vegas norm". Another architectural critic, Paul Goldberger, wrote in The New Yorker that Libeskind's jagged shapes "inject the normally dreary precinct of a shopping mall with a shot of adrenaline". In 2013, USA Today named it among the most "amazing luxury malls" in the U.S.

Like other buildings at CityCenter, Crystals was designed to be environmentally friendly, with features including skylights, reclaimed wood, and efficient water fixtures. In October 2009, it was awarded LEED Gold Core & Shell certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, making it the largest retail district in the world to achieve such a feat.

Source: Wikipedia

[clove-pinks]

After a lot of driving back and forth on Anthony Wayne Trail—named for General "Mad" Anthony Wayne himself, Revolutionary War hero and apparently a Founding Father—we made it to the Fallen Timbers Battlefield and monument.

Our first stop (by accident) was the actual battlefield site, which has a plaque, a few nature trails, and a visitor's center that wasn't open.

I know this is the battlefield site, because it's right next to a mall called "The Shops at Fallen Timbers." Yeah, they built a shopping center adjacent to/basically on top of one of the most important sites commemorating the Northwest Indian War (1785-1795), which saw the United States defeating a confederacy of Indigenous peoples and their British allies, opening a huge territory to US settlers.

It prefigures the War of 1812, which involved the same Chippewa, Lenape, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Miami, Shawnee, Wyandot, United States, and British belligerents. The 1795 Treaty of Greenville, which followed Fallen Timbers, set aside large tracts of northwest Ohio for Indigenous use.

It was edifying to read the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, which names the Indigenous nations I've included from a list on a monument at the site as well as "Eel Rivers, Weas, Kickapoos, Piankeshaws, and Kaskaskias." (Make of the spelling what you will, because the Treaty even spells European names wrong e.g. Fort Lawrence instead of Fort Laurens). The Treaty carves out a number of exceptions for land in the territory ceded to U.S. forts, and a guarantee of free passage between the forts.

Obviously this is very significant in the War of 1812, which mostly took place in a region of Ohio that was granted to Indigenous people not even a generation earlier. William Henry Harrison, military leader and politician, was known for his manipulative and deceptive agreements that kept putting lands into U.S. hands without honoring past treaties. It's a lot of interconnected conflicts between opponents who are already familiar with each other (Harrison, Tecumseh, and Procter come to mind, but it goes even deeper).

I feel a lot of sympathy for the settlers and even the U.S. military personnel engaged in these conflicts; but this park is a rather one-sided presentation of a complicated history. There is an attempt at including more of the Indigenous perspectives, which is something that I think needs a lot more attention in Western War of 1812 history. They wouldn't make a monument like the 1929 Anthony Wayne memorial again.

Fallen Timbers Battlefield is confusing to locate because the historic site with the 1929 monument is also in the wrong place. Only in 1995 did researchers uncover the real location of the battle (near the present-day shopping center).

The GPS took me on some unnecessary adventures, but as you can see, people have been getting this wrong for over 200 years.

We didn't go walking on the trails (at either park), although it was a warm sunny day. I would like to do that in the future. I think you can still see some of the actual fallen timbers (trees knocked over by a tornado) on the real battlefield 230 years later!

[bawnjourno]

without further ado... Sparks Austin recap

I won’t elaborate but the two days of travel to get here were very exhausting and trying. I rolled up to the venue, prepared to maybe sit during some songs and nurse a Diet Coke. 

I had never been to Austin before and boy, is it a music oriented city. Not just the venues but the people, the culture. There were multiple fans in Hippo tour shirts, a fully cosplayed Cate Blanchett, and lots of women in beautiful dresses. The Moody Center’s hallway had snapshots of all the cool people that had played there. I love venues with history!

I was worried that the venue set up would be annoying or awkward but I got to my front row seat and I was 4 feet from the stage, just off to the left of Ron’s piano - the perfect view.

The show started... a lot of U.S. venues had audiences who mostly sat and then got up during MTCYDT but the two thirty something hipster dudes behind me stood the whole time so I got to stand and dance :) And a good chunk of the crowd on the left stayed standing too! I was drenched with sweat maybe 4 songs in and it was amazing. All my tiredness and stress melted away as I was loudly singing and dancing.

This crowd was electric, so loud and responsive and to the Latte cuts too! Not just the hits! People were going crazy for TGICIHL in a way that Milwaukee was more subdued about. Russell smiled at me really big early in the show, probably because I knew the words and was loud and enthusiastic. I got a cute SMWS Russell tummy jump video which I will post later.

During  Nothing Is As Good As They Say It Is, I obviously knew the way Russell sashayed and waved his arm back and forth during the chorus from other shows and was mimicking him. He locked eyes with me and we did the hand punctuating thing at each other during that TWICE.

I am a “woo”er I will freely admit that and so I am constantly obnoxiously screaming and clapping and just being super loud. So I obviously was screaming my head off when Ron got up for Shopping Mall Of Love. During the second chorus he looked DIRECTLY at me and went “yeah ✊” I will post video later but I was shakinggggggg.

There were lots of loud applause breaks and late-ish in the show (can’t remember when), Ron looked directly at me again and mouthed “thank you”. Like no thank YOUUUUUUUU KING!

I know Russell bounces around a lot on stage, HOWEVER, the way this stage was set up, it was probably a bit harder to get to our side of the stage, but he came over a lot anyway and I have to think it was partially because of me because he seemed to almost be finding excuses to come dance with us even when he was about to have to start singing again 🤗

Eli dancing and feeling the music was so slay I love that short king jfdgkjrfkjg

I’m not sure how or why Russell would ever EVER feel self conscious about his tummy.... I was lucky to get it captured during SMWS... during MTYCTD though he danced over and it was too fast for me to get filmed but I basically was 4 feet from the man and watched his tummy bounce out from under his t-shirt for a good 5-7 seconds... mesmerized is the most polite way to put how I felt in that moment but oh my fucking god 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 [redacted] [censored] [an oncoming train whistle obscures what i’m about to say] but suffice it to say [meme voice] I think I hauve covid...

And the open collar and sweat obviously..... yeah.

As I divulged to a few of you and was encouraged by @jefffreybeaumont, the plan was to make a sign that says “YOU’RE MUCH HOTTER THAN THE GALLAGHER BROTHERS” because in interviews they’re always being asked how they don’t fight like the Gallaghers or the Davies. The secret spice was typing it out in Barbie font. I somehow managed to not get it wrinkled in my over 1000 mile 2 day voyage and held it up during the shuffle. I don’t think Russell could read it because he was farther away but during the shuffle I held it up. It was hard to tell Ron’s reaction because I was multitasking but I watched later and sent it to @rhythmthlef and she says his face showed “bemused self effacement” fdkjgkldjsfkg. 

Something I’d stupidly personally worried about for ages was that Ron and Russell didn’t care about the U.S. as much - the U.K. has always embraced them and I’d worried that they didn’t think of these shows as special or meaningful because radio stations here don’t give them the time of day and they don’t always sell out. Since Chicago, I don’t worry about that anymore. Their faces shine with excitement, pride, and pure joy at EVERY SHOW. They’ve gotten more fans since TSB and opportunities that they wouldn’t have gotten ten years ago, even in the U.S. I mean, NPR Tiny Desk! Wow. Russell was emphasizing that the feelings of the shows “don’t go away when we go to the next city” and I could tell that he really meant it. 

Eli came out for the encore in the bucket hat and a red Southern style bandana - very cute. The man who took the photo handed Russell his cowboy hat beforehand and Russell says, “Oh yeah, my hat.” He then proceeds to put it on, smirk confidently at the audience, and say, “What’s up, yall? You from these parts?”WHAT IS WRONG W HIMMMMMMMM GFHJDKJGFKLDSJFKDS CALIFORNIA DOOFUS!!! And I fought for my life squeezing into the pic but I’m in there! Right behind the keyboard!

The pic is taken and I know my chance is now. I start screaming for Ron (who was a bit closer to me) but he doesn’t hear me. I then start screaming at the top of my lungs “RUSSELL!!! I HAVE A LETTER!! RUSSELL!!” and after about 7 times he hears and sees me and meanders over and takes the letter and 2 rainbow Sparks logo acrylic pins (the ones I sold to some of yall a couple months ago)! I’m not sure if they’ll wear the pins but I had to try. I do hope they read the letter - they really do mean everything to me. I was unsure that I’d get their attention at all, so I didn’t get the moment I handed it on film, but I do have a video of Russell holding and then glancing down at the letter. They were leaving the stage and Russell stopped to hold hands with multiple people on his way offstage.

I stood there for a minute, very emotional, then made my way out. As I left, a security guard off to the side went “Hey, you sang all night man, that was great.” and I just replied “They’re my favorite band, you’ve gotta be passionate, y’know, thanks!” Even non fans know I’m a real one kgcjkgjfdkjgfd.

My Lyft driver was super sweet and chatty and I rode back to my hotel feeling like I was floating on a cloud.

Random sidenotes: A) They cut “Toughest Girl In Town” which I didn’t realize til later - I’m sure they’re getting tired near the end of the tour B) Eli is truly such a talented guitarist? He slayed the Bon Voyage solo. He was right in front of me so I really got to see him shine (in my brief moments not zeroed in on Ron and Russell) but obviously the whole band is amazing C) I sent Alissa snaps of me during Beaver O’Lindy and they said “You’re almost singing louder than Russell is” kdgfjkdjkg D) This was the one time I didn’t cry during It Doesn’t Have To Be That Way because I was sweating so much that [Lucille Bluth voice] I couldn’t spare the moisture E) I will share a few videos but I swear my singing is horrendous and embarrassing so just the key moments jfdgjfi F) I used almost 10GB of memory on photos and videos...

The plan is to get a Sparks tattoo within the year. I’ve gotta do it. They are so special to me. I’ve been into bands before and I don’t regret any of it but this feels different and special. This truly feels like where I belong as a fan and a person and as someone who has always felt strange and awkward and out of place. But there’s one place and one song and that’s Sparks.

SparksTour forever ✨

[brostateexam]

The rapid growth of the Wild Seed Project coincided with a broader war on lawns gaining traction across the country. Lawns in the U.S. cover a land mass about the size of Iowa, accounting for as much as half of all residential water consumption and a quarter of the use of several popular herbicides. Gas-powered lawn and garden equipment puts an estimated 20 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, and the emissions footprint of nitrogen-heavy lawn fertilizers is as bad or worse. Across the country, particularly in the parched West, cities and towns have started mandating the removal of turf grass and incentivizing permaculture, and more-naturalistic lawn alternatives have even begun catching on in New England, as the region slogs through years of severe drought.

Out in the Butler Sanctuary, as McCargo led her group around the rhododendron patch, she squatted down to show off a little woodland wildflower: Trillium undulatum. Commonly called painted trillium, it had three pale petals with a blush of crimson at their center. Ants typically disperse trillium seed, McCargo said, attracted by a nutrient-rich crest atop each seed. But the insects, she explained, rarely carry the seed more than 20 feet — which, as it happens, is the average width of a two-lane road. Wild Seed Project’s deceptively simple mission — plant seeds, mostly natives, just about anywhere — is a response to such habitat fragmentation and destruction, which has displaced native plants like painted trillium and kept it from regaining a foothold, making landscapes less biodiverse and less resilient to a changing climate. “It doesn’t have to be a shopping mall or a road — if you have a lawn, they can’t get across it,” McCargo said. “Humans put up all these obstacles.”

[astramachina]

OC ship song tag?!

Y'all know me. I will take any excuse to talk about the musical vibes behind my projects, and nobody knows this better than @tragedycoded who smacked me with a tag while I was AFK.

Because I've been lost in The Singularity Project sauce, I'm shoving two of my boys in the spotlight: Mike & Cy!

now that's what i call 80s!

since i haven't talked about them in a hot second for reasons, here's a very brief rundown on who these two are:

Mike Delgado: [actual name Miguel Antony Delgado] is a Dominican med student who, given some unfortunate familial circumstance, moves to the U.S. to find work. because it's Montana in the 80s, best he could land was a security gig in a very suspicious Mall complex. suspicious because the job pays a little too well so long as nobody asks questions about the turnover rate (or why said turnover rate is a consequence of bloody disappearances). chronic plant collector, his most prized possession is an ant farm he found abandoned in his apartment when he first moved in.

Cyrus "Cy" Hart: full-time employee at an electronics shop in said Mall complex. nobody knows much about him, not even himself, aside from the fact that he's worked in the same place for as long as he can remember. his diet consists of Coke, Pop Rocks, and popcorn. very normal, not at all debilitatingly socially anxious, and absolutely 100% human the last time he checked.

Took a lot of money to look the part Took a lot of pain to tame a heart Took a lot of years to lose my fear of flying Took a long time to finally start then it Took a good day to fall apart Took a lot of tears to lose my fear of crying

i hope you like doomed yaoi. :)

very short ramblings beneath the cut ↓

TSP isn't particularly a shippy project since it's very much a sci-fi horror, but Mike and Cy definitely have one of those "not platonic, not romantic, but third infinitely weirder thing" going on, at least from a meta perspective.

Mike is crushing HARD on Cy, but Cy spends a solid chunk of his horrific existence trying to survive the very literal horrors. It's one of those "I'm probably gay but it's the 80s, I'm working overtime in an extremely cursed environment, I think the walls are literally talking to me?, please get me out of here" situations so the guy simply does not have the time to hold hands and maybe kiss under the light of arcade cabinets regardless of how badly he wants to.

So it's not quite unrequited, but maybe in another time things could've worked out.

While I'm here, the picrews I used are this and this!

I FEEL LIKE EVERYONE AND THEIR MOM ALREADY DID THIS so I'm leaving the tag open. I'm late to the game I wholly understand.

[radicalurbanista]

“walkable cities” and the “car free” movements sound nice but they’re such jokes because their core is white liberals who despise that the U.S. doesn’t look more like europe. And there’s no real understanding that the reason we have car-centric development isn’t because of “car culture” but because we live in a apartheid state that routinely sells technologies of war and war industries to the (upper) middle class and deploys these technologies to destroy Black and other communities of color!! Let’s think about why cars and airplanes received so much federal $$$ after the growth of their industries in World War II.

So they pursue these neo-liberal measures for pedestrian friendly cities which are often incredibly weak, patchy, ecologically insufficient, and almost always tailing or preceding gentrification and the displacement of POC from the inner city. Or in the case of suburbs, it’s the neo-mall new urbanist movement of simulated urbanism where everything is an outdoor shopping mall with shitty overpriced apartments. All while doing nothing to address settler colonialism, racism and segregation, war, or the oil and mining industries responsible for this in the first place!

[austin-in-taiwan]

July 21 - Taipei - Sunday Free Day, Independent Excursion

Today was a free day on Sunday! The night before, I went out to a nightclub with a group of people, so I started at 12:00 pm this morning. We have an "Independent Excursions" assignment, in which we have to use one of our free days or afternoons to pick an excursion based on a cultural aspect of Taiwan. We were told to choose something related to our undergraduate major. I decided to focus my excursion on Taiwan's technological focus as my major is Information Systems. The day before, I did some research on places to go. Some museums, such as the TSMC museum, were booked for months and only had tours in Mandarin (the TSMC tour would have been awesome). In addition, I thought about visiting the main offices of companies like Nvidia. However, they were closed on Sundays, and besides seeing the building, there would have been little to do. My first stop ended up being the National Taiwan Science Education Center.

Once I got to the NTSEC, I realized (and probably should've been evident from online reviews) that this museum was more for children. I had seen some information about semiconductors and technology online, so I only did a little research before getting there. Although I was frustrated that I had spent 30 minutes on a bus going to a children's education museum, I decided to go anyway and see how Taiwan's education museums might differ from those in America. Honestly, I was really glad I went inside. First of all, an event was going on, the 112th academic year Aboriginal Culture and Science Exhibition Awards Ceremony. If you've read my previous blog posts, my entire group had visited an aboriginal person's museum. We were told that we had gone to that museum because it was improbable that we would get any first-hand experience with any aboriginal persons or culture. So, at this exhibition, I could actually get that first-hand experience. Although I didn't stay for the entire exhibition, I watched a group on stage perform some aboriginal dances and songs while wearing traditional clothes. Although that's different from what I came for, it was a fantastic added bonus.

The museum itself was actually very excellent. One person explained online that (even with it being open 9am -6pm) they wish it was open longer because their kids could've spent more time exploring the museum. It was 11 floors, and there were tons of interactive exhibits that all the kids looked super engaged with, from chemistry to math, to physics, to environment, to innovations and tinkering and more. I wandered to the innovations and technology exhibit and was happy to find a timeline on semiconductors, which Taiwan is currently famous for. The timeline ranged from 1833, when a British physicist discovered silver sulfide as a semiconductor material, to 1987, when TSMC was founded, to 2016, when Amazon completed its first drone delivery. Although I was upset that the museum wasn't what I thought it would be, I was happy to find the timeline that I was looking for. Overall, I thought it was interesting that they had exhibits like this that kids were also super interested in.

Then I took the train to Syntrend Creative Park. This is Taipei's technology district and was much more than I expected. There are many tech shops, from gaming to drones to massage chairs and anything you could imagine. Right when I got there, a mobile call of duty game fair was going on. I was encouraged to hop in a short line and try the game, so I did, and I even got a free Red Bull. I initially realized the cultural differences as this fair was super popular, and people in the U.S. aren't interested much in mobile games on their phones. Then, I went into the mall, and it was insane. It was packed, and there were shops with gaming computers, keyboards, crazy gaming chairs, tables, phones specifically for gaming, and many more. I even saw advertisements showing professional gamers promoting the hardware they use, just like an ad of a football player promoting the shoes they wear. I quickly realized how much larger gaming was into this culture. I began to understand how companies like Nvidia in Taiwan were so focused on making semiconductors and computer chips back before COVID-19 that they are now so crucial for building AIs (if you don't know, Nvidia originally made their chips for gaming, and it's now very vital to AI). I will discuss this more in my upcoming Academic Reflection for my independent excursion.

Academic Reflection

As reflected in my freewriting portion of this blog post, I focused my independent excursion on Taiwan's cultural focus and dominance in innovation and technology. Over the past years, Taiwan has become globally recognized for its significant contributions to tech, specifically in its semiconductor production (think Taiwan Semiconductor). U.S. companies, like Nvidia, heavily rely on TSMC and other Taiwan tech companies to advance AI (a world-changing technological innovation that may be bigger than the creation of the computer itself). All things considered, Taiwan has accomplished a remarkable feat in becoming the world's top producer of semiconductors from an island whose primary exports before the 1980s were all low-tech. 

Taiwan built a culture of innovation and technology from the ground up to get to where they are today. Today, I could see this simply by walking through the technology district and Syntrend Creative Park. The gaming culture was more extensive than anything I have seen. Many stores sold tons of gaming hardware, including computers, keyboards, chairs, headphones, etc. I even saw a mobile phone that was designed explicitly for gaming. Outside the building, there was also a convention for a mobile first-person shooter game that was extremely popular. The popularity of mobile gaming is one thing that I found different from that of the United States. However, this high interest in gaming and technology shows a significant cultural investment in technology. I initially discovered my love for new technology, AI, and later, my major in Information Systems, partly because of my interest in playing video games when I was younger. Overall, in this way, the cultures in the U.S. and Taiwan are similar. 

In addition, it's essential to see how the government helped shape this success years ago. In the 1970s, "Chiang Ching-Kuo, the de facto political leader at the time, sought a "technical breakthrough" to advance Taiwan's industrialization" (Huang 1). He and Dr Pan Wen-Yuan proposed the idea of investing in IC manufacturing technology in Taiwan to the Minister of Economic Affairs. This was the beginning of Taiwan's technology boom. Furthermore, the creation of the Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park resulted in large amounts of foreign investment and the expansion of the semiconductor industry. They also sponsored the VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) project. This project invested in research and development, trained Taiwanese engineers, and sponsored partnerships with international experts. As a result, the region's capacity for producing semiconductors enhanced and facilitated businesses like TSMC. Overall, the government played a huge part in promoting a culture of innovation in technology through education and investing resources, leading to the success of Taiwanese businesses.

Huang, Ling-Ming. "A Short History of Semiconductor Technology in Taiwan during the 1970s and the 1980s." Taiwan Insight, 10 May 2024, taiwaninsight.org/2024/05/10/a-short-history-of-semiconductor-technology-in-taiwan-during-the-1970s-and-the-1980s/. Accessed 20 July 2024.

[mariacallous]

This is dated 12-29-2023, for the record.

It was a nightmare scenario that Ukrainian and Western officials had feared for months. Western officials have watched as Russia stacked up precision-guided munitions to launch targeted attacks on Ukrainian critical infrastructure in the winter while keeping up the pace of strikes on cities using unguided “dumb” bombs. 

And on Friday morning, it became a reality. Russia conducted a hailstorm of strikes across Ukraine, hitting Kyiv, Dnipro, Lviv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, and Kharkiv. There were at least 158 drone and missile strikes in all, which damaged hospitals, a shopping mall, and schools, killing at least 31 people and injuring more than 160. 

The numbers are still going up as search and rescue teams pick through the rubble. Russia fired its missiles with so much abandon that the Polish government confirmed one of the Kremlin’s projectiles entered its airspace. In the chaos that engulfed the Kyiv streets, one man tried to stop the fires from spreading by driving his burning car away from his neighbors. 

The renewed barrages have Ukrainian officials and U.S. experts questioning how long they’ll be able to keep the lights on during winter—or hold territory—especially with the long tail of U.S. military aid running out, unless Congress acts soon. 

Ukrainian officials believe that Russia’s capacity to strike is even greater than what it just showed off: The Kremlin can fire off about 300 Iranian-made suicide drones in one attack on Ukraine and about 150 ballistic missiles in one shot on Kyiv, said Sasha Ustinova, a Ukrainian lawmaker.  

And with the Ukrainian counteroffensive stalled and fresh weapons not flowing until January at the earliest, how resilient will the Ukrainians be? 

“The Ukrainians are heading for a tough winter, for obvious reasons,” Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson said in an interview earlier this month. “But I think that the Ukrainian morale is much, much higher than the Russian morale. What is crucial right now, of course, is that we all will step up support.”

But that morale is now getting tested, as Ukrainians were shaken out of bed by dozens of air raid alerts that lit up their phones. And the aid isn’t coming—at least until the U.S. Congress gets back from recess in the second week of January, and maybe for even longer. 

“Ukraine needs funding now to continue to fight for freedom from such horror in 2024,” Bridget Brink, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, wrote in a tweet screenshotting the numerous air raid alerts sent to Kyiv residents.

U.S. officials have seen movement across the nearly stagnant front lines slow considerably in recent weeks, a trend that is expected to continue. The weather in Ukraine has hit subzero temperatures and piles of snow have mostly halted forward movement along the 600-mile front, underscoring the prospect of several months of attrition warfare. Ukraine is already making moves to lower the draft age to get more men onto the battlefield.  

Ukraine doesn’t need any silver bullets, experts say. It just needs the regular kind. 

“We’re clearly past the ground counteroffensive now,” said Peter Rough, a senior fellow and director of the Center on Europe and Eurasia at Hudson Institute. “Since it won’t get large numbers of longer-range precision fires, Ukraine probably needs to entrench and defend right now—and absent Congress passing the supplemental, even those defensive lines may not remain stable.” 

Still, Jonson said the Ukrainian military has been getting some access to more long-range strike weapons, which has forced Russian ships and aircraft to move farther away from the front lines. But Ukraine has had to build its military while fending off the invasion: Jonson said that Kyiv is operating about 600 types of Western weapons systems, while ferrying fuel and spare parts across the front line. All that on roads that will be coated with sleet, snow, and ice. 

Even with its limited arsenal of Western-provided long-range weapons like British-made Storm Shadows and the cluster variant of the U.S. Army Tactical Missile System, Ukraine has still made a dent, knocking out a Russian tank landing ship in Crimea on Tuesday. And experts believe that Russia’s fragile logistics system—which was never designed for continuous military operations across Europe’s second-largest country—is a good target.  

“If they had longer-range weapons, they could completely wreck the logistics system,” said Ben Hodges, the former head of U.S. Army Europe. “I think they know this is a real vulnerability for the Russians, particularly in winter.” 

But Ukrainians fear they are already running out of munitions—and time. Though Western-provided air defenses blanket much of Kyiv, they are not enough to defend against far-flung Russian attacks that could dot the country during winter. As much as Ukraine needs more air defenses to blunt attacks like Friday’s firestorm, Ukrainian officials have indicated that the falling temperatures have already shifted their priorities: Attrition warfare means a premium on artillery fire, and Europe is far behind on its target to produce a million artillery shells by March 2024.

“The biggest problem we’re going to run into is when they start shelling us heavily,” Ustinova said. “Because we will not have enough munitions.” 

But Ukraine has been forced to cut military operations as aid has dried up. Ukrainian Brig. Gen. Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, who heads up a group of forces in the southern push, told the BBC this week that Ukraine is facing particularly acute shortages of Soviet-era 122 mm and 152 mm shells, which still make up a large portion of Kyiv’s military arsenal. And if the Ukrainians want to apply forward pressure in spite of the snow, they have to clear entire minefields in front of them, only for the Russians to reseed the deadly explosives from the air. 

The Russian war chest is still heavily stocked. Hanno Pevkur, the Estonian defense minister, said in November that Russia still has about 7,000 to 8,000 tanks in reserve. Meanwhile, Russia has turned its sanctions-battered economy into a war economy. The Kremlin plans to spend 6 percent of GDP on defense next year. And Russian President Vladimir Putin’s deals for drones with Iran and ammunition with North Korea have indicated to Western officials that Russia’s game is quantity, not quality. 

“It doesn’t matter. As long as it fires, as long as it unfortunately kills Ukrainians, it is good for Russians,” Pevkur said. “They are increasing their production, especially ammunition. They don’t care about the quality. They care about the quantity.” 

Western officials believe that there are 300,000 to 400,000 Russian troops on Ukrainian soil, across a swath of occupied territory that is about the size of the contiguous Baltic states. Russian casualties have totaled about that many troops in the 22 months since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion began. But experts caution that the cannon fodder won’t last forever. It might not have to last that much longer, though.

In November, Russian forces claimed to gain ground around the eastern city of Avdiivka, where Western officials believe the Kremlin is trying to make a pincer move to encircle the town, the site of a major coke fuel and chemical plant. They’ve also set their sights on the important railway junction of Kupyansk. 

“They just keep pushing these guys into a meat grinder to convey the sense that they have endless resources,” Hodges said. “They don’t have endless resources.” 

For now, though, absent Western aid, Russia’s focus on eastern Ukraine could lead Kyiv to cede more ground. 

“That’s very painful for us, because we pay thousands of lives to get every single kilometer,” Ustinova said.  

“They are already taking more territory,” she added. “Look at the map.”