#state of the kingdom

[mysharona1987]

Huh. says it all really.

[la7ma-mafrooma]

The fact that we, Arabic-speaking average people(aka non-journalists), have to keep up with translating Palestinian posts from Arabic to English to avoid having Western Media/Pro-Zionists mistranslate on purpose, says enough about how we all lost trust in the media. From the "there's a list" guy who was standing in front of a calendar and condemning the days of the week, to the BBC's mistranslation of a freed Palestinian hostage's interview. I will try my best to keep translating whatever I can find, and I encourage my fellow bilingual/multilingual Arabs to do the same. It's already sad enough that Palestinian journalists and even children have to use English in videos instead of their native tongue in order to get the world leaders' attention.

Please keep speaking about Palestine.

[soapdispensersalesman]

[zoroshark]

[Headcanon] Cheeky surprise 

[reasonsforhope]

Double dose of articles about how crime is actually plummeting

From the UK:

"Seventy-eight per cent of people in England and Wales think that crime has gone up in the last few years, according to the latest survey. But the data on actual crime shows the exact opposite.

As of 2024, violence, burglary and car crime have been declining for 30 years and by close to 90%, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) – our best indicator of true crime levels. Unlike police data, the CSEW is not subject to variations in reporting and recording.

The drop in violence includes domestic violence and other violence against women. Anti-social behaviour has similarly declined. While increased fraud and computer misuse now make up half of crime, this mainly reflects how far the rates of other crimes have fallen.

All high-income countries have experienced similar trends, and there is scientific consensus that the decline in crime is a real phenomenon.

The perception gap

So why is there such a gulf between public perception and the reality of crime trends? A regular YouGov poll asks respondents for their top three concerns from a broad set of issues. Concern about crime went from a low in 2016 (when people were more concerned with Brexit), quadrupled by 2019 and plummeted during the pandemic when people had other worries. But in the last year, the public’s concern about crime has risen again.

There are many possible explanations for this, of which the first is poor information. A study published in 1998 found that “people who watch a lot of television or who read a lot of newspapers will be exposed to a steady diet of crime stories” that does not reflect official statistics.

The old news media adage “if it bleeds, it leads” reflects how violent news stories, including crime increases and serious crimes, capture public attention. Knife crime grabs headlines in the UK, but our shock at individual incidents is testament to their rarity and our relative success in controlling violence – many gun crimes do not make the news in the US.

Most recent terrorist attacks in the UK have featured knives (plus a thwarted Liverpool bomber), but there is little discussion of how this indicates that measures to restrict guns and bomb-making resources are effective."

-via The Conversation, May 13, 2024

And the United States:

"[The United States experienced a spike in crime rates in 2020, during the pandemic.] But in 2023, crime in America looked very different.

"At some point in 2022 — at the end of 2022 or through 2023 — there was just a tipping point where violence started to fall and it just continued to fall," said Jeff Asher, a crime analyst and co-founder of AH Datalytics.

In cities big and small, from both coasts, violence has dropped.

"The national picture shows that murder is falling. We have data from over 200 cities showing a 12.2% decline ... in 2023 relative to 2022," Asher said, citing his own analysis of public data. He found instances of rape, robbery and aggravated assault were all down too.

Yet when you ask people about crime in the country, the perception is it's getting a lot worse.

A Gallup poll released in November found 77% of Americans believed there was more crime in the country than the year before. And 63% felt there was either a "very" or "extremely" serious crime problem — the highest in the poll's history going back to 2000.

So what's going on?

What the cities are seeing

What you see depends a lot on what you're looking at, according to Asher.

"There's never been a news story that said, 'There were no robberies yesterday, nobody really shoplifted at Walgreens,'" he said.

"Especially with murder, there's no doubt that it is falling at [a] really fast pace right now. And the only way that I find to discuss it with people is to talk about what the data says." ...

For cities like San Francisco, Baltimore and Minneapolis, there may be different factors at play [in crime declining]. And in some instances, it comes as the number of police officers declines too.

Baltimore police are chronically short of their recruitment goal, and as of last September had more than 750 vacant positions, according to a state audit report...

In Minneapolis, police staffing has plummeted. According to the Star Tribune, there are about 560 active officers — down from nearly 900 in 2019. Mannix said the 2020 police killing of George Floyd resulted in an unprecedented exodus from the department...

In Minneapolis, the city is putting more financial resources into nontraditional policing initiatives. The Department of Neighborhood Safety, which addresses violence through a public health lens, received $22 million in the 2024 budget."

-via NPR, February 12, 2024

[fashionsfromhistory]

Ensemble

c.1855

American or European

The MET (Accession Number: 1992.31.2a–c)

[the-phantom-peach]

using my pencil like an idiot

I really like this pencil it’s so silly ❤️

[dadaonice]

UN Security Council rejects ceasefire proposal in Gaza Strip

[hot-kellynixe]

Daddy seems Harley is packing all the heat 😩 come let both cum together 💦🤤👉👌

[mysharona1987]

[justacynicalromantic]

Kids with the hardest childhood imaginable, having traveled half the country to receive treatment for cancer, now having to receive treatment for shrapnel wounds and be dug out from under the rubble.

[darkfluffydragon]

White Lily Cookie's braids were giving me a hard time so I decided to draw how Pure Vanilla's appearance would look instead lol. I was going to make him a jester like the faeries but then remembered that Shadow Milk Cookie likes plays and stories. A story wouldn't be fun if everyone was the same character, and Pure Vanilla was supposed to be more of a main character, unlike the faeries. So, going with the jester theme, I decided to make him a puppet king instead!

His appearance doesn't change in the animation because Shadow Milk Cookie figured that it would hurt White Lily more if Pure Vanilla Cookie betrayed her while still looking like himself. Casually planting seeds of doubt in her mind.

I also realised kings have knights, so I'm giving PV a knight :D (to be designed later). Also, I headcanon that Shadow Milk Cookie is a theatre kid who likes dancing.

edit: I spelt Knight wrong in the image XD

[bfpnola]

original instagram post

[reasonsforhope]

Scientists have developed a new solar-powered system to convert saltwater into fresh drinking water which they say could help reduce dangerous the risk of waterborne diseases like cholera.

Via tests in rural communities, they showed that the process is more than 20% cheaper than traditional methods and can be deployed in rural locations around the globe.

Building on existing processes that convert saline groundwater to freshwater, the researchers from King’s College London, in collaboration with MIT and the Helmholtz Institute for Renewable Energy Systems, created a new system that produced consistent levels of water using solar power, and reported it in a paper published recently in Nature Water.

It works through a process called electrodialysis which separates the salt using a set of specialized membranes that channel salt ions into a stream of brine, leaving the water fresh and drinkable. By flexibly adjusting the voltage and the rate at which salt water flowed through the system, the researchers developed a system that adjusts to variable sunshine while not compromising on the amount of fresh drinking water produced.

Using data first gathered in the village of Chelleru near Hyderabad in India, and then recreating these conditions of the village in New Mexico, the team successfully converted up to 10 cubic meters, or several bathtubs worth of fresh drinking water. This was enough for 3,000 people a day with the process continuing to run regardless of variable solar power caused by cloud coverage and rain.

[Note: Not sure what metric they're using to calculate daily water needs here. Presumably this is drinking water only.]

Dr. Wei He from the Department of Engineering at King’s College London believes the new technology could bring massive benefits to rural communities, not only increasing the supply of drinking water but also bringing health benefits.

“By offering a cheap, eco-friendly alternative that can be operated off the grid, our technology enables communities to tap into alternative water sources (such as deep aquifers or saline water) to address water scarcity and contamination in traditional water supplies,” said He.

“This technology can expand water sources available to communities beyond traditional ones and by providing water from uncontaminated saline sources, may help combat water scarcity or unexpected emergencies when conventional water supplies are disrupted, for example like the recent cholera outbreaks in Zambia.”

In the global rural population, 1.6 billion people face water scarcity, many of whom are reliant on stressed reserves of groundwater lying beneath the Earth’s surface.

However, worldwide 56% of groundwater is saline and unsuitable for consumption. This issue is particularly prevalent in India, where 60% of the land harbors undrinkable saline water. Consequently, there is a pressing need for efficient desalination methods to create fresh drinking water cheaply, and at scale.

Traditional desalination technology has relied either on costly batteries in off-grid systems or a grid system to supply the energy necessary to remove salt from the water. In developing countries’ rural areas, however, grid infrastructure can be unreliable and is largely reliant on fossil fuels...

“By removing the need for a grid system entirely and cutting reliance on battery tech by 92%, our system can provide reliable access to safe drinking water, entirely emission-free, onsite, and at a discount of roughly 22% to the people who need it compared to traditional methods,” He said.

The system also has the potential to be used outside of developing areas, particularly in agriculture where climate change is leading to unstable reserves of fresh water for irrigation.

The team plans to scale up the availability of the technology across India through collaboration with local partners. Beyond this, a team from MIT also plans to create a start-up to commercialize and fund the technology.

“While the US and UK have more stable, diversified grids than most countries, they still rely on fossil fuels. By removing fossil fuels from the equation for energy-hungry sectors like agriculture, we can help accelerate the transition to Net Zero,” He said.

-via Good News Network, April 2, 2024

[perfectlovercat]

HELP ME TO EVACUATE MY FAMILY FROM GAZA WARZONE.

🛑I ask for your help in sharing my story again to keep hope alive for me and my family to ascape war Gaza.🛑

Ahmed Abu Aisha from Gaza, a radiologist, and I had many wishes and dreams, me, my brothers, and all the members of my family, which includes my father and mother.

I am 25 years old. Unfortunately, those dreams were killed in the blink of an eye due to the difficult situation we live in Gaza. They killed our dreams and destroyed our future. My work at the hospital stopped because of the immediate war my sister, Dr. Samah, went on strike to finish his studies at the College of Human Medicine and was unable to treat the wounded in the Gaza Strip. All the necessities of life are gone and the wheel of life has stopped for us.

👉 please read my story here and donate as much as you can without forgetting to share, and reblogs will be greatly appreciated.⚘️🍉🇵🇸

Fundraiser is Vetted and verified please don't ignore it and don't scroll,because the campaign goal is further down, I have to reach you with a cheerful heart and hope to see our better tomorrow.

Goal: $1200/44000

I hope with your help, you can take us to a safe place as the damage has become more severe for us. Thank you for your time to read our story and for your understanding may you be blessed.🙏🙏

[palestinegenocide]

A secret internal ‘NYTimes’ memo reveals the paper’s anti-Palestinian bias is even worse than we thought

The shocking revelation of the New York Times's offensive internal style guide on language it will not permit in its Palestine reporting should prompt a broad examination of the paper's longtime bias.

[link]

Kudos to the anonymous New York Times staffers who leaked the paper’s offensive internal guide about the language it won’t permit in its reports on Israel/Palestine, and more kudos to The Intercept for publishing it. The shocking revelation should prompt an even broader examination of the biased language that has long been routine in the Times and across all U.S. media.