#the number has been decreasing steadily over the years

[hirazuki]

Between my dog (two gates, one for either entry of the kitchen), my cat (a gate around a fake plant she was obsessed with chewing bits off of and swallowing), my sister's dog (one gate for my sister's room where he hung out when no one was home because there was nothing there that he could jump up on, one gate for each of our bathrooms because he liked eating cat poop, and one gate around the couch because even when supervised he'd try to take running jumps onto it), and my sister's cat (a gate around a majesty palm that she would just not leave alone), we had eight gates in our 1000 sq ft. apartment. That's one gate more than Gondolin.

As of today, we have none, and it feels so weird.

[reasonandempathy]

A brief summary of how Education fails Boys

I saw people sincerely questioning and minimizing the current struggles boys face in education.

So, I wanted to collect some relevant information, with sources. All of these are from the past couple of years, from 2021 onward.

Girls have more difficulty accessing education and are more likely than boys to be out of school at primary level. However, boys are at greater risk of repeating grades, failing to progress and complete their education, and not learning while in school. Globally, 128 million boys are out of school. That’s more than half of the global out-of-school youth population and more than the 122 million girls who are also out of school. The Leave no child behind: Global report on boys’ disengagement from education shows that boys are increasingly left behind in education. They are at greater risk of repeating grades, failing to progress and complete their education, and not learning while in school. While previously boys’ disengagement and dropout were concerns mainly in high-income countries, several low- and middle-income countries have seen a reversal in gender gaps, with boys now lagging behind girls in enrolment, completion and learning outcomes. Boys are more likely than girls to repeat primary grades in 130 countries, and more likely to not have an upper secondary education in 73 countries. At tertiary level, globally only 88 men are enrolled for every 100 women. 

In 1970, women only made up 42 percent of the college population. Today, the roles have essentially reversed. The U.S. Department of Education estimates men to make up 43 percent of enrolled individuals in college. And this crisis impacts minority populations even more: only 36 percent of Black and 40 percent of Hispanic bachelor degree recipients are male. 

This is not an issue of colleges neglecting to admit men at an equal rate. Rather, colleges are receiving fewer applications from men than women. In 2010, only 44 percent of college applications were from men and that number has been steadily declining since. The decrease in male applicants is a sign that men are discouraged from pursuing higher education at a disproportionately high rate. 

These statistics point to a larger, systemic problem. The American education system perpetuates a series of gender norms that cause significant harm to children; boys are impacted by these expectations in a way that tends to be overlooked. The stereotype that boys have a higher propensity to misbehave has led to the over-punishment of boys in the classroom.        

Boys are facing key challenges in school. Inside the effort to support their success

An APA task force is spotlighting the specific issues and recommending evidence-based ways to enact swift change At school, by almost every metric, boys of all ages are doing worse than girls. They are disciplined and diagnosed with learning disabilities at higher rates, their grades and test scores are lower, and they’re less likely to graduate from high school (Owens, J., Sociology of Education, Vol. 89, No. 3, 2016; Voyer, D., & Voyer, S. D., Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 140, No. 4, 2014; “The unreported gender gap in high school graduation rates,” Brookings, 2021). These disparities persist at the university level, where female enrollment now outpaces male enrollment by 16% (Undergraduate Enrollment, National Center for Education Statistics, 2022). “The gap between boys and girls is apparent from very early on,” said developmental psychologist Ioakim Boutakidis, PhD, a professor of child and adolescent studies at California State University, Fullerton. “The disparities not only exist across the board—from kindergarten all the way to college—but they are growing over time.” For boys of color, that gap is even larger. They face suspension and expulsion from school at almost five times the rate of their White male classmates and are even less likely to finish high school or college (“Exploring Boys’ (Mis)Behavior,” Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinities, 2022 [PDF, 261KB]). The implications of these disparities are huge. Doing poorly at school is strongly associated with major challenges later in life, including addiction, mental and physical health problems, and involvement with the criminal justice system—problems that also have ripple effects on society at large. In the United States, getting at least a college degree may be the one remaining, relatively stable ticket to a decent life, Boutakidis said.

In a recent New York Times essay, “It’s Become Increasingly Hard for Them to Feel Good About Themselves,” Thomas Edsall reviews a variety of research studies highlighting the plight of young men in the United States. As a front-line educator who has worked in boys’ schools for 30 years and served as the head of a boys’ school for the past 20 years, I’ve been an unhappy witness to this dilemma. Data supports the claim that boys are falling behind, and dramatically so. For example, there is a growing gender gap in high school graduation rates. According to the Brooking Institution, in 2018, about 88% of girls graduated on time, compared with 82% of boys. For college enrollment, the gender gap is even more striking, with men now trailing women in higher education at record levels. Last year, women made up 60% of college students while men accounted for only 40%, according to statistics from the National Student Clearinghouse. College enrollment in the United States has declined by 1.5 million students over the past five years, with men accounting for 71% of that drop.

[aeori-o]

Happy New Year!

Another year gone by! This one really felt like it flew. It has been an entire decade since I started doing these on tumblr! My first one was posted January 1, 2015! It’s wild to go back and see how little I tracked and talked about back then.

Let’s see if tumblr lets me make this into one post this year! I was so busy in the lead up to New Years that I am scrambling to try to get this posted on the first, let’s see if I make it! (I didn't, for the first year ever this is posting January 2nd, boo.)

So here’s what happened this year. I finally got to start playing D&D again with some friends and some new folks, and I very quickly became obsessed. I think the majority of my free time this year was spent on either making things for D&D (that nobody asked me to make, I’m just intensely into it) or wrapping my sister’s new car (the car I wrapped last year? Died.) So…

This year is the year I have read the least amount of books since I have been tracking reading books. The second lowest is the first year I was tracking, 2011, where I read 11 books total (that’s kind of funny, matched the last two digits of the year). I read 9 entire books this year, and technically have three on the go: House of Leaves, A Court of Mist and Fury, and Guilty Pleasures. Since 2019 the amount of books I’ve been reading each year has been steadily decreasing: 78 in 2019, then 65 the following year, then 43, 37, 26, and now… 9. With graphic novels (which I read 5) that number jumps to 14 but still, all time low.

I think across all the things I track I’m down this year, honestly, and that makes sense since, as mentioned, almost all my time was taken up by D&D and car-wrapping. If anything this year was an experiment in realizing I (we) really only ever have so much time, and it is finite, and we must choose where we spend it. (But that’s so hard.) I’m not upset by the lack of reading. I do wish I had read more, but I don’t wish I had done anything else less at the same time. I am extremely over being stressed out trying to reach certain goals so while I will very loosely hold the idea that I want to read more next year I’m not going to stress it.

The bright side is that I can really clearly remember every single book I read this year even though I read most of them toward the beginning of the year. This might also be because I have changed the way I journal about them. I used to just dump all my thoughts at once when I had finished the book. Now, because that really sucks to do with lengthier books, whenever I pause my reading I do a recap of what I read and my thoughts on the section. Gives me more to look back at later! And might be helping my memory of books but that will prove out better in a year where I read more books.

Before I talk about the good books I read this year let’s look at the stats! I am going to try to squash things into as few images as possible this year! Due to the entire Experience I had last year. (Thanks tumblr.)

Goodreads used to do this wonderful grid of books that made it easy to sort them into a nice little image but this year they just made a list with no option for alternate views. Awful. I had to arrange all those silly little icons myself.

Anyway it is wild to me how popular ACOTAR is. The fanbase seems to not even like the first book so I don’t think it’s controversial to say that having almost 6 million people, on one website, having read it is just… mind blowing. Last year I read another really popular book, The Summer I Turned Pretty, and despite being very popular, very ‘buzzy’, and even having a TV show made based on it, it had 5 million less readers. About 700,000 “shelved” instead of 5.7 million. It really is totally random what gets popular and what doesn’t. I wish there was a way to see the trajectory, see the point at which this book went from being just another YA book I could walk into the library and pull off the shelf (which I did, easily, years ago) to being a book you have to put on hold at the library to maybe get a chance at a copy in a few months. I’m not terribly interested in talking about ACOTAR as a book or series, I’ll be trying to read the rest of it faster but I have a lot of thoughts to write up on the first book still so who knows when I’ll get to it. But of the books I did read this year I’d like to highlight:

What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon

This book is surprisingly short for how much it talks about. Aubrey Gordon talks facts about fat while also weaving in anecdotes from her own life to bring in that human element that makes the narrative compelling and sympathetic as well as fact-based. I also listen to the podcast ‘Maintenance Phase’ on which the author is a host so most of this wasn’t new information but it’s still clear and concise here which is nice. Spoilers: Fatness is often out of a person’s control and Aubrey Gordon gets into why. Fantastic book, would recommend as long as it’s safe for you to engage with.

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

A really sweet book about a young woman trying to find herself and make space for herself as an asexual person and someone who wants to go against her family’s wishes. Lots of little dramas between friends and dynamics shifting as she becomes interested romantically but not sexually in someone and it makes her best friend jealous. The love interest is stupid sweet, I really enjoyed him, and the frictions in the friend group felt very real. It all turns out in the end and overall felt very cozy. I think maybe the most jarring thing was the opening chapter where the protagonist gets broken up with and gets like every weird asexual assumption thrown in her face by her soon-to-be ex-girlfriend. Might be a great hook for people who have been through that, for me I almost stopped reading but I’m glad I continued because the rest was a delight.

The Empyrean Series by Rebecca Yarros

I read the first book, Fourth Wing, and the second, Iron Flame, this year and the third comes out within a month I think. These books were massive but overall really fun, which I didn’t really expect from a stupid popular book series. I’m a huge sucker for dragons and I always respect a person who’s out there creating something they just think is cool. There’s a lot of things that are stupid-obvious for where the plot is going, and some things that feel cheap or undercooked (the jealous ex could have been handled in a more interesting way, I feel), some things are tropes that show up constantly in this genre (the protagonist, a woman, is just so thin and delicate but also cool and badass!) that your mileage may vary, but overall: Was a fun time. Nothing was ever egregious enough to make me not want to keep reading. And I think my biggest gripe with the book is that while the love interest goes down on and sates the female protagonist’s pleasure plenty of times she never once, despite being outrageously horny for the man, goes down on him. Is dick sucking a bridge too far? I have no clue but she doesn’t do it. Thumbs down. (But I also understand a lot of readers who are interested in men might really like the fantasy of having a man who will eat you out and never expect you to return the favor, so I can’t fault it too much for delivering the fantasy of Guy Who’s So Into You That Getting You Off Is Enough For Him.) The second major complaint I have is not with the book but with the fanbase, it’s so big, like ACOTAR’s, that only the most generically attractive art of the characters is what rises to the surface and becomes the only thing findable. Me squinting at fanart out here where I can’t tell any of the characters apart because they’re all Muscular Ambiguously Tan Men With Crew Cuts And Chiseled Jawlines. And again I get it, but it’s not really what I’m here for. Oh well, whatever.

Last year I mentioned it would be fun to re-read something from a decade ago every year. Totally dropped the ball on that this year, but if I can remember I’d like to do that this upcoming year. I might just set my goodreads goal to 10 and if I go over I go over and if I don’t I don’t. I am hoping to better balance my time in the coming year but my theme will give me a lot to work with.

I wrote this first section a few days in advance of New Years and couldn’t figure out where the storygraph wrap up data is. I can find the 2023 one but the 2024 one I guess wasn’t posted yet? Which is annoying but considering I read so little this year it probably won’t deliver much that’s interesting anyway, so I am not going back to look for it now that it is the New Year.

I watched 43 things this year! Which is also lower than last year, by a little, by 3. I’ve been slowly working on expanding my spreadsheet of things read and watched and so on so I should have even more stats for next year. Like I’ve started tracking release dates! Of films and shows released 2020 and 2024 I’ve watched 90, and 11 of the 42 things I watched this year were released this year! I love spreadsheets so much.

That side blog I made at the end of 2023 is paying off. Now I can easily make little graphics of everything I’ve watched (and played, and so on). There’s all the film-based-media I watched this year. For TV shows they only make it onto my category for a year if I finished them. So there’s some things I’m watching where I haven’t finished yet so they’ll make it onto next year’s (just in case anyone reading this is wondering where Game of Thrones is).

I think the biggest stand-outs have been older films that I just never got around to watching. Terminator, Alien, Singin’ In The Rain, and Scream were all fantastic films (or film series) that I had just never made time for. Scream I was particularly surprised by—I thought I had seen it but I think I had seen Scary Movie as a kid, not Scream, and somehow miraculously have never been spoiled for who the killer was so was still delightfully surprised at the end of the film.

Steph’s had us watch some weirder horror movies: Strange Darling, Lake Mungo, and Caveat and they were all really interesting, really weird little films. Great recommendations from Steph.

Looking at my image it’s occurring to me that only two things up there I watched on my own: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Fool Me Once everything else I watched with at least one other person but more often a group of people. Puss In Boots was a genuine surprise. I don’t think I’ve really enjoyed any of the Shrek Franchise movies since Shrek 2, including the other Puss In Boots movie I saw but I kept hearing good things about The Last Wish and it was genuinely incredible. I think I cried.

The classics I had previously seen all hold up: A Goofy Movie, A Knight’s Tale, The Princess Bride, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Kingdom of Heaven. Always fun to revisit something you’ve seen before and have it be at least as good as you remember it being. And the film Interview With The Vampire was just was wild and silly as I remembered, made all the more apparent because we had just finished watching the TV show which was incredible.

Almost all of the shows this year that I watched were incredible. Arcane we re-watched the first season (which is basically perfect as a show) and the second season was way messier than the first, there’s more to pick apart, but I think that’s only in contrast to the first season. And it is somehow more visually impressive than the first season. House of the Dragon season two got a lot of rough critical reviews for being ‘boring’ but I found it extremely engaging and interesting and I’m excited for the third season. Interview With The Vampire seasons one and two were both fantastic interpretations of the book. Loved watching those. Blue Eye Samurai fucking ruled. Beautiful show with a very cool protagonist. I am a little worried about how season 2 is going to go but only time will tell. I bounced off of the manga Delicious in Dungeon but watching the show with friends was an absolute delight and I want to give the manga another shot as a result.

Film is never a thing I really have any goals around watching more or less of, and I’m now wondering if part of why it winds up being such a weirdly consistent number year after year is because it’s largely a social activity for me. That does make me happy though! It’s nice to be able to look at all the stuff I watched and be able to recognize that it was (almost) all stuff I watched with friends or family. We just watched the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy yesterday (as a last day of the year activity) and those movies still rule and it was fun to have so many people hanging out to watch.

Okay so I played my PS4 so little this year Sony slash the Playstation Network will not give me a yearly recap. Which I think is very funny because apparently you need to just play ten hours to reach them giving you a recap. Yeah I… I didn’t finish Horizon Forbidden West this year. Or Pokemon Arceus. Or Pokemon Scarlet. Whoops. (Or Hades or Tears of the Kingdom but to be fair I didn’t start that one.) As mentioned above, though, this isn’t super surprising. Most of my time was taken up by car wrapping and making five billion documents for D&D.

So despite not finishing the games I highlighted (except for Folklore) at the end of last year I did start 21  games this year, finished 15, and reached 100% on 5. So I finished three quarters of what I started and I think that’s still a win. Finished fewer games overall (last year I finished 32) but a huge part of that is going to be because I didn’t play many of the Edutainment Point And Click Games. Here’s the games I completed:

But wait! That’s 12, not 15! I count slash track seasons of Fortnite if I participate in them even a little. So I have some seasons of Fortnite that I played but didn’t play much so it felt silly to make a graphic for it (all of the marvel-focused seasons are so boring) but because they’re time-based they just kinda end on their own so basically if I played it enough to put a “started” date on my tracking spreadsheet I still counted them when the season ended as ‘finishing’ but don’t put them onto that sideblog unless I felt I really participated in it. So far I’ve tracked 14 seasons of Fortnite that I have participated in enough that I counted a ‘start’ date. Wild!

Didn’t finish a lot of games overall I guess but did enjoy the ones I did. And it feels really strange to have finished more video games than books.

Zelda I and Zelda II are both really difficult. Playing on an emulator on a modern console at least allows a person to essentially have a rewind time ability which is not a part of the intended experience but I also do not care, those games are hard. Zelda II especially so. I cannot honestly say I enjoyed playing Zelda II and at this point I feel like it’s really rare that I play a game I just… don’t like. Most games have something good about them, it’s hard to make a game these days without some aspect of it being good, running into a game that was actively aggravating was surprising. I know a lot of people get really frustrated at games but I feel like I largely don’t so running into a game that was making me frustrated in a not-fun way was an interesting experience. (And this is different from a game being frustrating in a “supposed to be hard” way, there’s a huge difference in the frustration I felt playing Zelda II than the frustration I felt playing the secret boss in Splatoon 2 to get the hairstick cosmetic item.)

I did start The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and while I have yet to finish it it’s incredible how fun it is and how they really settled into that “Zelda” pattern so early. The first game obviously has a lot of the ground work for the entire franchise (and the second game… doesn’t) but the third installment feels like a modern Zelda game—it just has the same overall feel and beats as the majority of the other entries in the series. It feels like Zelda even though there’s so many games following it. It really feels like the first to realize the ‘language’ (I’m not sure how to describe it) that the Zelda franchise still has to this day. It was just really interesting to play two games that are Zelda games but don’t “feel” like it and then have no real transition period, it went from two games where yeah the aesthetics and title are Zelda but they don’t “feel” like Zelda games to suddenly have “oh this game feels exactly like a Zelda game”. Hopefully that makes sense!

100%ing Plate Up! was a fun challenge which I mostly had done by the end of last year and finished up at the beginning of this year. Great little game with some really fun modes with some challenging but fun to get achievements.

Firewatch, Folklore, Resident Evil 5, and Rule of Rose are all games I’ve played before, but not for a long time and they were all fun to revisit. Firewatch is still a wonderful game, though it did leave me reflecting a lot on game preservation as some aspects of the game were weirdly buggy. Not unplayable but some things just didn’t work quite right anymore (the main one was the protagonist having issues moving at all on some terrain, I guess the camera or character model was getting stuck on something). I love my PC, and I love PC gaming, but there’s something depressing about knowing some games can’t or won’t be preserved in a way that lets them be played indefinitely. And while console allows games to be preserved to an extent because they’re no longer in print without a means of replicating and preserving them a game becoming totally unplayable is kind of inevitable. (Especially given that things like emulation aren’t strictly legal.) Consoles will break down over time, as the technology advances some pieces to repair might become totally unavailable or prohibitively expensive and the games themselves can wear down or break or warp over time. It doesn’t help that even with modern consoles online stores will eventually go offline making a digital library that hasn’t been downloaded inaccessible, and if a game was deleted from a modern console to make space reinstalling it later may not guarantee it has all the files necessary to run correctly as the disc data will be missing the day one and beyond patches. We’re in an era of gaming where our current (and recent) generation of games feel more prone to failure or being lost in the future than the older games are simply because eventually those servers and storefronts that host all the updates and patches will be turned offline. At some point the only method to play a game you bought at some point may to be to risk piracy. (And I am all on board with piracy but I am lamenting the fact that preserving a complicated form of art is basically illegal, unless you are the holder of the copyright but those who do seem largely uninterested in preserving these things. If the game was popular enough they’ll just re-release a remaster later!) Didn’t mean to start babbling about that but I am leaving it here because it’s something I think about pretty regularly so may as well put it in the New Years Post Time Capsule.

But on that note Folklore is a game that gets me particularly stressed out on this concept and was another game that made me think about game preservation. I still have a massive soft spot for the game, visually it’s impressive for the time, the combat is interesting if a little strange at times. It can also be a massive slog, and the story makes no sense and for the life of me I have no idea if that’s because it was translated poorly or just made no sense to begin with. I do think it’s interesting enough to be preserved, but the game is only available on PS3. PS3’s are, currently, cheap, as are their games, but the lack of love for the console has made emulation for it scarce if not entirely nonexistent. I genuinely do not know if emulators for it exist—I know of emulators for basically every other console with the exception of our more modern ones (excluding the Switch) probably because 99% of the games on them are cross-platform so it makes more sense to just crack the PC version than emulate the console one. PS3’s are basically worthless right now, but games that were stuck on that console and not popular enough to get upgraded and remastered out to PC or PS4 are eventually going to get lost in limbo and almost already are.

Anyway! Folklore was weird as fuck and made no sense at all but I still kind of love it? And the OST still fucking slaps. Rule of Rose also has an OST that rules so hard some youtubers out there use it as background music in their videos and it throws me off every time. I re-played it just to get a grasp on all the things I needed to warn my friends for before I streamed it to them (the game is real weird and messed up) (and to get the optional cosmetics, of course, because I could not find my save on the 8 different memory cards I have) and it got me reflecting on how before stable, fast internet connections were guaranteed for most people games just wouldn’t get finished, but would be polished—unfinished content being cut in favour of releasing the game in a functional state. Extremely interesting in a totally different way to the current landscape of endless patches. I will not get as into that, but there’s so much to reflect on in the gaming industry! I can’t play a video game out here without ruminating upon the context in which it exists in the real world apparently. Speaking of the real world, a few months ago a sealed container or shipment of the PAL version of Rule of Rose were found significantly dropping the price in that market, which is neat because due to a lot of fear around the game being basically Evil (it’s a game about childhood trauma and bullying) it never got officially released in Europe.

Resident Evil 5 I played with Steph! It was fun and exactly as nonsensical as I remembered it being, but it was fun and has its moments. The PC version luckily lets you completely turn off cutscene QTEs and defaults to them being off which is wonderful because the QTEs were brutal especially playing co-op.

I played through and fully completed the Splatoon 3: Side Order DLC and I was really pleasantly surprised! It’s a rogue lite and at first I was feeling a little ‘ugh’ about it (not sure why, guess I just wasn’t in the mood for that style of game) but Nintendo is really good at taking a concept and making a really fun, really functional version of it.

And finally The Case of the Golden Idol I think is the only game I started and finished this year which was just, completely new. Like technically the Splatoon DLC is new, I hadn’t played it before, but I had played the base game’s campaign and plenty of multiplayer, Zelda I and II I hadn’t played before but I’ve played plenty of Zelda games before. Plate Up! I started last year. Fortnite is ongoing and never changes that much. And the rest were all replays. The Case of the Golden Idol was the first fully new game I played, not familiar to my brain at all.

And it was really freaking good. I was playing it with friends but it was really scratching an itch for me. It’s a really satisfying puzzle game with a wild but very fun story. After we played it it got an update with a version that had different menus which I think were supposed to be controller friendly but were way less friendly for connecting the pieces, it obfuscated things in a really weird way which made it a little more difficult to play when I was showing it to some other people after my friends and I played it. If you like figuring things out, solving things in a ‘narrative’ way I would absolutely recommend this game. Haven’t played the second one yet (it just came out recently) but I am very much looking forward to it.

I might not have played much of my PS4 but I did play on CurseBreaker (my PC) plenty so my steam recap is still fun to look at and includes the games I started but didn’t finish.

As you can see, Phasmophobia has basically taken over my life. I feel like I have pretty quickly gone from having zero fucking clue how to play the game and barely understanding how it works to being able to identify ghosts reasonably well with no evidence. I’m working on levelling up and the more challenging modes right now. I am maybe a little bit worried that getting so aggressively into the game has made me mildly to moderately annoying to play the game with but people are still willing to play it with me so hopefully that’s just in my head! Really hoping to 100% this one I’m having a blast with it. Included the graph for it because I think on steam it’s the only game I played on my PC in December (on steam, anyway) and I find that amusing.

Started Dead by Daylight this year which is a game I never really thought I’d get around to playing. I’ve had a few friends who played it over the years and for the most part those who played it seemed largely pretty ‘meh’ on it? Like, played it a lot, or at least frequently, but never actively recommended it. Finally got into it and was enjoying it! Unfortunately then Phasmophobia came along and I basically haven’t touched DBD since. Ah well I’ll get back to it eventually.

And I have finally been playing Control with Vin. Been one of those games I’ve been meaning to play for ages, and Vin really likes it so we’ve been playing! We kind of dropped off in December just due to December being the month of things always happening at all times but we’ll pick it back up soon. I am really excited to play more we kinda stopped at a really interesting point in the plot.

Oh, and there is the Nintendo recap but it feels a little weirder since I basically only played the NES emulator and the Splatoon 3 DLC with a little bit of Splatoon 3 multiplayer, and then Fortnite is there because I use my switch to idle-grind levels. But here it is anyway:

The 134 hours in Fortnite is wild that was all just, idling for levels. And I didn’t even bother with like two of the seasons this year at all.

Overall good year for gaming for me, I think. I didn’t really touch any of the goals I had at the end of last year for it but like I said I am over being stressed about not meeting arbitrary goals. Especially for things that are supposed to be fun.

I have listened to podcasts for years! And because so many of the ones I’ve listened to are serials—they just keep going—it never occurred to me to track them. Then one of my friends recommended an audio drama and I had no idea how to track it. It’s audio-book-esq… but without it being a published book. It’s a story, that I experienced, so I wanted to track it—and so I decided to start tracking podcasts. The end of the year as a time to start tracking this wasn’t the best call because I am currently trying to decide how to track the various serial shows I listen to that don’t make up their own seasons (I’m thinking of doing it as each year is a season since most of them will do different kinds of shows at the end of the year or new years wrap ups so that feels like a clean way to do it, but it also means that suddenly I have a lot of shows to add to my tracking spreadsheet all at once.)

So this tracking segment is kind of a WIP but here’s what I did listen to that I’ve tracked so far this year:

The entire top row there is one series, The White Vault, which so far is very intriguing! I’m excited to listen to more and learn what’s going on. It’s an isolation horror audio drama with weird ancient cult or religion things going on with maybe eldritch beasts or gods or something. Not sure yet, not sure if it’ll get explained, but it’s very cool so far and the voice actors are really good! Badlands Cola is in a similar vein of being a horror audio drama, but it strays more toward that surreal-space kind of horror where there’s eldritch slash unknowable beings affecting the world and people trying to use it to their own ends. Also very neat, and I was totally shocked when pretty early on it was clear it was actually taking place in Alberta’s badlands. I always get really excited when stuff takes place in Canada. Both of those were recommended by the same friend and when I have time I absolutely plan to take more of their recommendations.

The final one there is The Legend of SwordQuest which is a reporting podcast talking about the contest surrounding Atari’s Swordquest series of games released on the Atari 2600 in the ‘80s. It was this massive thing Atari was doing during that early video game boom but the contest fell apart as the industry did and as Atari changed ownership with the final Swordquest game never being released (and possibly never being made) and the prizes that were not given out have long been a mystery. Some things are still left up in the air by the end of the show but it is extremely interesting if you like video game history at all, and even has a bonus episode on the landfill where so many Atari games (not just E.T.) were buried.

Would absolutely recommend any of these, but I haven’t finished The White Vault yet so for something shorter and more digestible, if you’re looking for a podcast, I’d recommend Badlands Cola for fiction and The Legend of Swordquest for non-fiction.

I have never really tracked music in these things before, but with Spotify Wrapped being a thing and the wild amount of new music I got into this year I figured why not. I’ve already really enjoyed occasionally putting on older CDs in the car and being surprised by what songs have remained favourites for months and which songs I haven’t listened to in a hot minute, so why not do it in this recaps, too? My Spotify Wrapped feels weirdly inaccurate, it’s basically entirely from when I was building a playlist for my D&D character and her twin as well as another character playlist I was making for an RP server but WHATEVER HERE IT IS ANYWAY:

I have a suspicion that my “Top Artists” has more to do with how many songs I listened to from an artist (rather than how much I actually listened to that artist) and, as you can see from my songs to artists ratio being almost 2:1 I don’t really listen to a lot of songs from just a few artists. (Like that’s the average, I listen to roughly two songs per artist I listen to.) So because I was going through the entirety of Within Temptation’s and Florence + The Machine’s discography (of which there are many songs) that skewed my top artists. That’s my theory. Anyway I really enjoy spotify’s weird little summaries of the genres or styles of things you listened to. I was particularly delighted by “Cottagecore Ukulele Forest phase” because I am not sure anything I listened to this year even had ukuleles in it. I do wish they’d show what songs made them pick those titles, though.

For the fun of looking back later here’s my current “On Repeat” playlist on Spotify. I am way, way, way too lazy to type these out (and if I did that I would also feel compelled to link to them) so enjoy another giant image.

Most of these I associate with my characters but there’s also a lot of songs I associate with one of my friend’s characters which is also very fun. Will I remember who belongs to who in the future? No clue, guess we’ll see. Or I’ll see. It is also fun how many of these songs are new to me as of this year. Not all of them are, but I think the majority are. This is really weird for me that I have so many new songs to me that I listen to consistently.

For years I was starting to think that the time of finding new music that I like was largely over—just thinking about my parents (and older people in general) and how they’ve been listening to mostly the same tracks over and over again since I was a kid. Was starting to think it was kind of inevitable that your brain ‘sets’ or solidifies around certain songs and then that’s it. For years I’d be lucky if I found maybe a handful of new songs I liked over the course of a year, finding a new artist who I like the majority or even more than two songs in their discography is extremely rare for me so to have found (largely in thanks to one of my friends) so many new songs and artists is just… completely wild to me. And a big factor in why I even thought to include music this year.

Absolutely bonkers year for music for me!

As I mentioned, I started playing D&D again, my last group kind of fell apart a few years ago and I have been craving that table top role play ever since and finally the stars aligned! And I fell into a really wild rabbit hole of making five billion documents for it. (Have I mentioned I love excel?)

For the campaign I’m in I have made: A searchable character & location glossary; Session summaries; Transcripts of scenes; Saved written role-plays; Made a timeline of events on a broad and local scale (which includes a tracker for upcoming events); Made a document for my thoughts, my character’s thoughts, and my conspiracy theories; Made a ciphered letter to another character; Made two massive playlists and then wrote out explanations for every single song and I still am not done and have not shared that; Made my character sheet, of course, but started modifying it to make it easier to use and track things; Session note documents of course (rough and unshared); Made a functional cipher translator that steps through two different ciphers to get the result; Made three supplementary documents to go with said cipher (explaining the ciphers, how they work, how they should work, what it would take to break them, etc.); Our DM’s spouse would sometimes give us trophies so I also made a document to track that because that’s my idea of fun (spreadsheets); and started recording sessions (we were using a bot before but the folks in charge of it were getting swamped by work and my set up I used to us to record our former dnd sessions still works and is easy for me to do so I just kinda took over).

Which is a lot of documents on its face but the cipher required me learning a lot of new things in Sheets (which was delightful and aggravating at the same time) which took me a lot of time and my thoughts, character thoughts, and conspiracies make up over 100 pages of text, and I don’t even want to look at how many pages the session summaries are (I did not write all of them, but have written the majority). I have been thriving but it also takes up a lot of time. I’m currently behind on all of those because work was kicking my entire ass for a while, but that’s okay. I’ll get back into the swing of it. And when I do I will make my DM expire. My DM and two of the guest players cannot believe the shit I manage to guess because of the way in which I put things together, and I still have no clue what things I’ve guessed correctly. My partner, who is one of those guests, has mentioned wanting to throw up several times at this point from the things I have guessed right. Unfortunately my guesses are basically essays so I can’t even use these reactions as confirmation of anything because they’ll say I got something right except I just dropped like ten pages of unhinged rambling so I have no clue what. It has been really fucking fun, though.

I haven’t drawn my character yet for this campaign, and most of the art I’ve done this year has just been little things for my mom, but I have drawn my snakesona Lichen a few times (including the meme redraw above). So there’s that:

And I’ve still been wrapping things! It’s always fun to scroll through photos at the end of the year, I go from “I feel like I did barely anything at all” to “holy shit look at all the stuff I did!” It was so easy to feel like nothing ever happened ever before we had the ability to document every stray little thing we did.

Anyway for wrapping, as I mentioned previously: There’s my sister’s new-used car after the one I wrapped last year died, there’s a PS5 slim I did which I love the colour blue on, there’s the interior of my 3DS XL which I did do last year but wanted to do better since the creases weren’t laying quite right. I also wrapped my two decade old keyboard (as of the new year it is genuinely two decades old, this thing still has a PS/2 plug). Re-wrapped the trunk of an acquaintances vehicle with some spare wrap I had hanging around (the wrap we used before was… shrinking? I’ve never seen car vinyl do that before so we re-did it because the clear coat underneath is looking really rough). Wrapped my sister-in-law’s kobo as well, she chose a really great metallic green for it. Mostly happy with how it turned out but the buttons were tricky. Also made a bunch of vinyl stickers, a bunch of a character from our D&D group (most went to our DM’s house, I kept some though and I don’t remember who else I gave them to) and Vin graciously made me more sticker designs of our goober characters so I was able to make those for our stuff. And for posterity: There’s Button! She still says hoi! (She, and I, had our first ever flat-flat tire this year, wouldn’t pump up, so had to jack her up, put on the spare, and get the tire repaired.)

Did a little of re-shelling and tech repair this year as well! Re-shelled Steph’s Nintendo Switch Pro-Controller, and re-shelled some of my joycons because the ‘soft’ plastic of the shells was getting dirty but more than that they were getting these weird red speckles? Had zero clue what it could be and it wouldn’t come off and it was kind of skeeving me out so I just went for a reshell and while I am sad to not have that seafoam green, sky blue, and white colour combo I do really like the transparent shells for joycons so it worked out. Also reshelled an old DS Lite I had but accidentally mucked up the top screen in the process so had to get a new upper screen and then learn how to solder the speaker wires back into place. (And I did a little clefa decal on it for my friend, too.) 

Not pictured but I also cleaned a friend’s PS5 earlier this year and was utterly mystified when all of the “dust” that came out of it was laundry lint. Like. It smelled like fresh laundry, and was that blueish gray fluffy stuff you so often see in the lint trap of a drying machine. It wasn’t dust. It was clothing fabric. Which really explained why the PS5 kept shutting down on her it basically literally had a blanket on the heat sinks. Wasn’t regular dust, was clothing fibers. Absolutely bizarre. That’s the first and only time I’ve ever seen that before.

And I helped bring TWO computers into the world this year! The first is Moonstone (born Jan 29th, 2024) that I also did decals for, for fun. I built it for one of my best friends so they’d have a PC that could do some more demanding tasks and gaming. She’s not cutting edge but she’s a solid little machine with loads of storage and I’m happy with how she came out. Had a hilarious mishap building though where I just completely failed to plug in the CPU’s power connector on the motherboard and could not figure out why it wouldn’t boot to BIOS. Everything else had power so fans spun to life, LEDs turned on, but CPU had no power so it just hung like that. And you know that CPU power connector is crammed up in a dark corner so it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize I just failed to connect it. Oh well, shit happens and I figured it out.

The second is Vibes! (Born Oct 4th, 2024) So named after the fusion name of my and Vin’s strangest and most unhinged character pairing. I put together the parts list, kept an eye on sales and bundles, and walked Vin through putting it together because I could not be there in person. She turned out beautifully though and I am sooo envious of the little display screen Vin’s got on that case. (Even if CurseBreaker had a screen like that I wouldn’t see it, it’d be facing the wall—unless I reconfigured where my PC sits but who wants to do that.) Supposed to be making a decal for the tempered glass on Vibes at some point but we’ll get to it. The bottom pic is my midwife set up for Vibes—I was on call drawing on pictures of Vin’s motherboard and case for where things were supposed to go (using a rigged up webcam controlled model of Lichen that Steph made for me).

Really happy with both of these! But also when I was looking through photos I could not believe I made Moonstone at the beginning of this year, it feels like ancient history. Time moves in such strange ways.

Also had some nice just, organizing this year. Nothing major but it is something I sort of pick at as time goes on and it makes me happy. This year I realized I could put itty bitty drawers into the cubbies on my desk and while I do not have stuff to put in all the drawers this has greatly increased my happiness with how my desk looks and feels to sit at. I turned one of the drawers into a dice rolling tray by lining the bottom with some foam and felt because the foldable trays I have keep getting wrinkles and making rolls weird, and if I was going to get a bigger dice tray I wanted it to look nice for when it would be stored and the nice ones are expensive. So I very much like my converted mini-drawer solution. It is not the most aesthetic but it is the most neat and tidy which I like very much.

Also figured out some cable management for my TV area, I’ve been doing a lot of streaming things to my computer (since my PS4 is a hideously expensive blu-ray player at this point) so I figured out a way to make it easier to unplug and plug my systems into the TV set up and my computer set up without having to fish around the back of the console for the HDMIs.

This one is so minor but I saw this Tallneck lego set early this year and felt a mighty urge to have it. So I made my first “adult” Lego build. It has not sparked an overall Lego addiction but it was very fun to build, the Lego design works great for the Horizon creatures and I would absolutely buy more if they made more. Luckily they have not so my wallet is safe, but I did enjoy making this one and looking at it makes me happy. Not a full blown hobby, but still!

And this isn’t technically a hobby but dang the solar eclipse was this year it feels like it happened a nebulously long amount of time ago! I was able to drive down into the path of totality it was extremely cool. It went totally dark and then got light again, I have a video that I will cherish forever. (The last photo is not mine, the first two are, but I do not know if the final photo was published anywhere as it was a friend of a relative that took it.)

As always I must show off all the cool art I got from my cool friends.

Which I normally try to condense more than this but I got so much good art this year and there’s MORE that I didn’t include because I didn’t want to stretch the image into forever. I’ve settled into a kind of pattern with the order but first is the @refundtheticket section! They did a bunch of YCHs this year which I fully took advantage of and I adore them all. The 3D model of my sneksona was on my last year one, too, but after Steph got Moonstone they rigged it up for me and now I can control it via webcam and it’s one of my favourite things. I don’t use it often but when I do it brings me joy. They also made me a physical, 3D printed version of one of my favourite drawings of Lelia they’ve done and now it sits on my desk and I look at it every day like :) Steph also does commissions! Their info is here!

Then we get into the @auyamx section which I could have just completely flooded with my character Myosotis but they did so much good art this year. I was absolutely spoiled with pictures of Myosotis, but they also gave me plenty of Lelia, Vai and Bernie, a little Veene and Kohra sticker, some silly Osuna’s even though I haven’t drawn a reference yet (sorry to everyone), and while the other characters are either theirs or our friends (and DM) I love Dove, Aepeiros, Pidge/Harle, Naexidor, and Peirs so fucking much I couldn’t not include them. SO many good, fun drawings this year I go absolutely feral over all of them.

And then the bottom section with the very intense looking green lady is by @mossrotts! I gotta a widdle wewia and a werewolf wewia and a super fucking cute Myosotis and a very intense Osuna (sorry about the lack of ref I love you). He also does commissions which you can find information on here!

I adore all the art I got this year and continue to be lucky to have the coolest and most creative friends in the world.

All right so! Winding this down with looking toward the new year. Last year was my first time trying out, “yearly themes”. Here’s a video about it. The short version is: Instead of making a ‘resolution’ or a ‘goal’ with a fail state (i.e. Exercise Every Day) you make a broader idea that you’ll work toward which may not wind up as you envisioned it but can change with you and isn’t something you can ‘fail’ at. (Like instead of exercise every day, which if you miss once you then fail, your ‘theme’ can be ‘health’ so then any exercise more than you would have done normally counts, or if you break a leg or suddenly become ill your theme of ‘health’ can still be applicable just addressing the more urgent issue.)

In 2024 my theme was “Enjoying what I have” and I originally envisioned it as not buying new things, not indulging in new hobbies, so that I could focus on catching up on things (books, games, etc.). But then life happens and I’m not going to turn down the opportunity to play D&D when the stars align for it, and my sister’s car broke down and she needed the new one wrapped. So my theme warped from the intended purpose to a broader appreciation (or enjoyment) of my skills and even though I fell head over heels in love with our D&D campaign and made five billion documents for it that was me enjoying and flexing what I have—being my love and skill with spreadsheets and babbling endlessly about characters and connections. The car wrapping, too, got to be an enjoyment and appreciation of a skill I’ve been building for the last few years. It was also my first year trying out a theme and I’m still working out how best to make it work, the fact that I consistently remembered it and thought about it is honestly more than I expected given how resolutions and goals have gone for me in the past. They usually slip my mind entirely and then oops! It’s been six months and I forgot all about it five months ago!

I did start a ‘Theme Tracking’ spreadsheet and wasn’t sure if I would keep up with it but… shockingly I have! I’m becoming a big believer in just… figuring out what works for you. Apparently for me (right now) that’s spreadsheets. I can remember this ‘Theme Tracker’ spreadsheet in a way I have never been able to remember any agenda or planner or notebook or app in my life. (My partner found Notion this year and that seems to be working for them in a similar way.) I already have ideas for how I want to change up that Tracking spreadsheet but since I made it in February I’ve been slowly iterating on it month by month to make it work better for me, just as I think of it, which is maybe the beauty of a spreadsheet for me, personally. I can start with the barebones because I have enough literacy to slap together something simple, and then as I go “it would be nice if…” I can add it.

So! All that said I think 2025’s theme is going to be: Catching Up. I’m going to intend it in much the same spirit as I meant “Enjoying what I have” originally but hopefully the reframing of it will help me focus on it better. I have no illusions that I’ll ever be “caught up” on everything. There’s too much stuff in the world and that’s not really how my brain works, but some things I think I could be caught up on, and some things are okay to remain a “catching up” forever, but I’d like to reduce some of my lists, some of my piles of tasks, et cetera. Books are probably the biggest itch since I have a physical, in person to-be-read pile but it kinda goes for anything. I want to get all my spreadsheets back in order (so many of them, D&D and personal tracking, are in a bizarre half-overhauled limbo), I want to shave down my “on the go” games to just one (excluding social games), I just want to reduce the mental and physical clutter a little. That’s all. So that’s what I’m gonna try!

Overall once again I think it was a pretty good year! We’re ignoring global events in that assessment. In my little corner of the universe things are mostly okay. I went to three weddings this year, which was wild, I have never gone to so many weddings in a year before. I got to see old friends, my partner came up to visit, I got to know some people who have been kind of on the outskirts of my life, just outside my social bubble, for years now and they are a delight. I did do a lot of cool stuff this year! Got to do so much creative writing and role-playing with friends! It’s been pretty good!

I mentioned at the end of my post last year about how different things might have been if I had left the farm sooner, and about a person in a similar situation to me and luckily she has left now! She just did about a month ago and we’re all proud of her and happy for her!

Happy New Year everyone! If you do a similar write up please tag me or link me or drop me a message, seriously I don’t really go on my dashboard in the way any social media platform intends. I use tumblr in the strangest way possible which is likely why I like it so much, but it does mean I’ll miss out on everyone’s new years stuff unless it’s brought to my attention.

Thank you for reading! Here’s a cozy Frunk to see you into the New Year!

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Lisa Britton

Published: Jun 25, 2024

On May 28, 2024, Melinda French Gates made a groundbreaking announcement in a New York Times opinion guest essay, revealing her commitment to investing in gender equality and women's empowerment. French Gates has been advocating on these issues for some time. As part of her initiative, French Gates established grantmaking funds, offering 12 individuals whose work she admires their own $20 million grant-making fund to distribute as they see fit.

The majority of these funds will support women working on various issues related to female and LGBTQ issues, both domestically and internationally. What caught many by surprise, however, was French Gates' decision to allocate resources toward addressing the challenges faced by boys and men.

My friend and renowned advocate Richard Reeves of the American Institute for Boys and Men and the Brookings Institute, along with Gary Barker of Equimundo, a gender equality organization focusing on boys and men, are two of the individuals who have been entrusted to direct these funds.

For six years, I have advocated for greater attention and resources to be directed towards the struggles of boys and men. I am encouraged by French Gates' new investment in this area. While the support for girls and women remains substantial, this step toward addressing the unique needs of boys and men is significant progress.

Reeves is the perfect choice to lead this effort. His unwavering dedication to raising awareness about the challenges faced by boys and men has been both inspiring and transformative. He has succeeded in changing the narrative and approach to addressing these critical issues on a global scale.

As someone who has devoted her life to advocating for the well-being of boys, men, and fathers, I urge our problem-solvers to prioritize the urgent issue of the health of our boys and men. The suffering and mortality rates among them demand immediate attention and action. It is an issue that cannot be ignored any longer. Areas such as education need to be addressed, but the mental, physical, and metaphysical health of our boys and men should be the top priority. Here's how we can help.

Boys and Men Need Our Help

The average life expectancy for men has been steadily decreasing over the years, resulting in a widening gender gap. On average, women now live six years longer than men. Yet, this concerning trend is often met with jokes rather than a genuine effort to find solutions and support.

It’s widely acknowledged that America is facing a significant mental health crisis, and finding effective solutions remains a challenge. Men, in particular, require our urgent attention and support. Numerous factors have contributed to this crisis. The most alarming evidence of our failure to address men's mental health is the disproportionately high number of men succumbing to deaths of despair. 70% of accidental drug overdoses and alcohol-related deaths are men. Boys and men are four times more likely to die by suicide compared to girls and women.

Boys and men today face challenges in their metaphysical health due to distractions, external influences, addictive behaviors, and a lack of a greater calling. These factors hinder their growth and prevent them from finding purpose and fulfillment in life. Prioritizing your metaphysical well-being is crucial for a more balanced and meaningful life, however in today’s fast-paced world, it’s often overlooked or underestimated. So many are lost.

Men and the Mental Health System

We must act, but the question remains: where do we begin?

First and foremost, we must humble ourselves and acknowledge the shortcomings in our approach to men's health. We have not been effectively addressing this issue, and while governments allocate initiatives, resources, and funding to address the health needs of women and girls, the struggles faced by men and boys are often overlooked. It’s time that we bring attention to this undeniable reality: Our boys and men are in need of our support, and we are letting them down.

In recent decades, there has been a societal focus on addressing men's mental health. We should question whether the approach taken has been truly beneficial though. Instead of empowering men, the prevailing narrative has often placed blame on them, suggesting that they are inherently problematic because of their biology. This perspective implies that men need to conform to a mental health system that primarily caters to the needs of girls and women. Perhaps it’s time to reflect on whether shaming men who need help into changing is the way to go or whether it’s the mental health system itself that needs to adapt in order to effectively support men. We need innovation within our mental health system along the lines of alternative male-led and male-focused support for boys and men. Rather than just telling men to change for our mental health system, how about we change up our mental health system to better address their needs?

Men and women are inherently different. When addressing the critical matter of mental health, we must recognize this biological reality. Lives are at stake. Broadly speaking, men have distinct approaches to processing emotions and confronting challenges, which differ from those of women. Instead of admonishing men for their methods and demanding change, it’s essential to acknowledge the existence of these inherent sex differences, which are not solely products of societal constructs. We must develop tailored approaches to address mental health concerns that specifically cater to the needs of boys and men with understanding and compassion, not blame and shame.

For example, a family member of mine needed mental support and guidance but was hesitant to seek help through traditional means. He felt discouraged and unsure about the typical therapist-patient dynamic, but he realized that delaying his journey to recovery could have detrimental effects on his family. Motivated by this realization, he took the initiative to find a male therapist who offered a unique approach to treatment. Instead of the conventional office setting, this therapist took his male patients on therapeutic hikes. This alternative method of care has had a profound positive impact on both my family member and his loved ones. We could greatly benefit from more innovative approaches to mental health support like this.

Male representation in the field of psychology has significantly decreased from 70% to 20% in the past 50 years. To successfully address men's mental health, it’s crucial to have more male psychologists available for support. Achieving equitable representation in fields like psychology is paramount. Funding should be allocated to programs in schools that promote and prepare young boys for careers in psychology, mirroring the initiatives seen in STEM programs for girls and young women.

Male Suicide Rate

If the suicide rates for males and females were reversed, society would undoubtedly be in an uproar. Closing the gender gap in suicide rates would become our top priority. However, because the current rates are as they are, we tend to ignore this alarming disparity. But the statistics should shake every mother and father to their core. We need to do more for our boys.

More funding is needed to establish comprehensive support programs specifically tailored to assist men navigating the difficult experience of divorce and family court, where men face a significantly higher risk of suicide. The family court system has been criticized for its biases against men, and this issue is being actively addressed by various advocacy groups, including some feminist organizations. It’s important to ensure that men and fathers are treated fairly and equally in court. This alone would save lives.

To reduce the rate of male suicide, it’s important for us to be honest, humble, and acknowledge that collectively, we have not been adequately supporting our boys and men. It’s time to embrace and love them, and we must demonstrate compassion and provide them with the resources and care they need. 

“Toxic Masculinity”

In today's social climate, boys and men are bombarded with conflicting messages. On one hand, we encourage them to express their emotions and "open up!” On the other hand, we tell them to “shut up!” and "act like a man." This contradictory messaging has contributed to the significant mental health crisis among boys and men today. The prevailing anti-male sentiment in society has played a detrimental role in exacerbating the issues. We must recognize and address the systemic and normalized discrimination against men in society, which is unjust and has a detrimental impact on them. We need to approach this issue with humility and actively work towards creating positive change with an inclusive environment that nurtures and supports everyone, including our boys and men.

The concept of "toxic masculinity" has largely had negative consequences rather than positive. While some may argue that it simply refers to harmful behavior, the term has been misused and manipulated to serve various agendas, creating the perception that masculinity itself is inherently toxic. This has unfairly stigmatized men and created the false narrative that they’re inherently toxic and are in need of change. Ironically, a term that was supposedly intended to support men's mental health has actually contributed to their declining mental well-being.

Fortunately, there is a growing awareness and a shift in mindset. It’s encouraging to see that almost everyone is now aligned in recognizing the need to discard the term "toxic masculinity." However, the harm caused by this concept has already taken its toll. There is a lot of damage control to be done.

A recent groundbreaking study published in the prestigious International Journal of Health Sciences revealed some fascinating findings. According to the study, viewing masculinity positively has a profoundly positive impact on the mental well-being of young men. The researchers found that messages like mine, "We love our men!" have the power to uplift and empower young men, promoting their mental health and overall well-being.

On the other hand, the study also shed light on the detrimental effects of messaging using the term “toxic masculinity.” The researchers discovered messages that perpetuate the notion of "Toxic masculinity! Men are inherently bad!" can have a significantly negative impact on the mental health of young men. Needless to say, I don’t think we needed a study to confirm this.

The Drug Epidemic

The United States is facing a devastating drug epidemic, with an average of 295 drug-related deaths per day. These losses are primarily attributed to synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Tragically, the year 2022 witnessed a staggering increase in drug overdose deaths, with 107,941 Americans losing their lives. This represented the highest annual total ever recorded.

But there is an alarming truth that often goes unnoticed. Opioids are disproportionately claiming the lives of our men. In fact, American men are more than twice as likely as women to succumb to overdose, and it’s men between the ages of 24 and 34 who face the highest risk of dying from drug-related causes.

Reports indicate that the recent surge in overdose deaths has disproportionately affected black men. In fact, black men have now surpassed American Indian or Alaska Native men and white men as the demographic group most at risk of dying from overdoses.

Funding is needed for the development of more programs dedicated to aiding men who are battling addiction. These programs would not only provide support to those in need, but also work to raise awareness about the heightened vulnerability of men to these tragic outcomes. The programs can help family members and friends become educated on the signs to watch for and know where they can seek assistance when needed.

Physical Health

But the decline in life expectancy and deteriorating health among men cannot be solely attributed to deaths of despair. Studies indicate that men generally have poorer health compared to women, and many suggest this is primarily due to their tendency to neglect self-care. 

If we collectively care more for men and their health, perhaps they will care more for their health in turn. We need our men to care about themselves as much as we care about them! They are our partners, fathers, sons, nephews, and our friends. 

Surprisingly, there are no federal offices of health dedicated to men in the United States, while there are seven federal offices of women’s health and numerous initiatives and ample funding for women's health. Does that seem like balance, fairness, and equality?

We must prioritize men's health as well as women’s health and establish initiatives to address their unique healthcare needs. It's disheartening to witness the lack of global support for men's health, and it should prompt us to reflect on who this world truly serves most.

Metaphysical Health

Boys and men today are not only facing significant challenges in terms of their physical health and mental health, but also their metaphysical health.

In today's fast-paced world, men often find themselves easily swayed and distracted by various external factors. The allure of social media, technology, porn, and other forms of entertainment can divert their attention away from personal development. The overwhelming influx of information and opinions from the media, influencers, peers, and society at large can make it increasingly difficult for them to stay true to their own beliefs and values. This susceptibility to external influences can impede their growth and hinder their ability to seek inner wisdom and knowledge.

Another significant concern is the excessive reliance on instant gratification and the growing influence of video game culture and AI. The desire for immediate satisfaction can hinder individuals, particularly men, from dedicating their time and energy to engaging with nature, exploring spiritual practices, engaging with the opposite sex, and delving into literature for deeper understanding. Rather than seeking fulfillment through meaningful experiences and genuine connections, they may resort to temporary solutions and virtual realms.

Boys and men greatly benefit from exploring and immersing themselves in nature for their well-being and personal development. Venturing out into nature seems to be a thing of the past in our modern world. Nature provides a unique and rejuvenating environment that allows individuals to disconnect from the pressures of daily life and reconnect with their inner selves. Spending time in nature offers numerous physical and mental health benefits, like reducing stress, improving mood, and increasing overall happiness. It also encourages a sense of adventure, curiosity, and exploration, which are essential for personal growth and development. Nature provides a space for boys and men to challenge themselves, develop resilience, ponder universal connection, and gain a deeper understanding of their own capabilities. Whether it's hiking through forests, camping, or taking a walk in a park, the beauty and tranquility of nature have a profound impact on the well-being and development of boys and men, as well as girls and women.

There seems to be a lack of a calling for something greater than themselves among many young men today. The pursuit of material success and individualism often takes precedence over seeking a higher purpose or contributing to the well-being of others. This absence of a greater calling can leave men feeling unfulfilled and disconnected. Even the concept of inner work has been distorted by our materialistic society, where the emphasis is now often placed on acquiring possessions and fulfilling personal desires. This obsession with status and abundance has infiltrated the realm of meditation and personal growth, overshadowing the true purpose of inner work.

It is of the utmost importance to address these issues and to empower men to prioritize their metaphysical well-being. By doing so, they can lead more harmonious and meaningful lives, which will have a positive impact on society as a whole.

Male Spaces As a Solution

One of the most effective ways to address all three areas of men’s health is by embracing the concept of male spaces. Unfortunately, over the past few decades, male spaces have been dismantled for various reasons, such as promoting inclusivity and addressing negative behavior. However, this approach has proven to be misguided. As a result, men today are experiencing increased loneliness and isolation, with many reporting that they lack meaningful friendships.

To rectify this, we should actively encourage the creation of male spaces and foster friend groups in every possible way, both as individuals and as a society. It is crucial to support the men in your life and encourage them to spend quality time with other men. I believe society should endorse, promote, and even provide funding for male spaces and programs. This would be a great place to start with the funding provided by Melinda French Gates.

The interconnectedness of mental health, physical health, and metaphysical health cannot be overlooked. When one aspect is disturbed, it has a ripple effect on the others. It’s important to address all three dimensions simultaneously, as neglecting men's declining health will not lead to self-correction.

For far too long, we have overlooked the challenges they face, and we are now witnessing the consequences of this neglect. It’s our responsibility to prioritize the health and happiness of men, ensuring that they are valued, loved, nurtured, and empowered to live fulfilling lives. We must promote a culture of support and inclusivity, where every individual, regardless of gender, receives the love and assistance they need to thrive and enjoy a long, happy, and healthy life.

Closing Thoughts

I am thrilled to hear that someone as influential and powerful as Melinda French Gates has recognized the importance of supporting boys and men in addition to girls and women. I have long stated that our well-being is interconnected and that neglecting one group will ultimately harm us all. This is a significant step forward, and I hope to see more leaders follow suit. By investing more love and resources in our boys, we have the potential to address a wide range of societal issues, from crime and addiction to violence and homelessness.

[mariacallous]

In the 1990s, London built the Ring of Steel—a network of concrete barriers, checkpoints, and thousands of video cameras around the historic City of London—after bombings by the Irish Republican Army. The idea was to monitor everyone entering and leaving the Square Mile, what the The New York Times later called “fortress urbanism.”

After the September 11, 2001, attacks, city planners looking to defend New York from terrorism turned to London and fortress urbanism for inspiration. Fusion centers, where US law enforcement agencies share intelligence at a federal level to be analyzed and build a bigger picture of crime, had been around for a few years. But officials began asking, what if fusion centers could be localized? What if local law enforcement could analyze and gather masses of intelligence from one city?

In 2005, they answered with the first “real-time crime center” (RTCC), a sprawling network of CCTV and automatic license plate readers (ALPR) linked to a central hub in the New York Police Department headquarters costing $11 million. Since then, from Miami to Seattle, RTCCs have steadily expanded across the US. The Atlas of Surveillance, a project from the digital rights nonprofit the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which monitors police surveillance technology, has counted 123 RTCCs nationwide—and that number is rising.

Each RTCC is slightly different, but their function is the same: gather surveillance data across a city and use that to build a live picture of crime in the city. Police departments have an array of technologies available to them that span from CCTV, gunshot sensors, and social media monitoring to drones and body cameras. In Ogden, Utah, police even floated the idea of a 30-foot “crime blimp.” In many cases, images that police systems collect are run through facial recognition technology, and the data gathered is often used in predictive policing. In Pasco County, Florida, which operates an RTCC, the sheriff’s office’s predictive policing system encouraged officers to continuously monitor and harass residents for minor code violations such as missing mailbox numbers and overgrown grass.

Erik Lavigne is a detective at the Fort Worth Police Department in Texas and communications director at the National RTCC Association. He says there has been a boom in RTCCs over the past year because officers believe they help with more precise policing. He likens the scattered approach to policing in previous years to throwing out a fishnet and hoping to catch something. “For what we had at the time, that worked. But what inevitably happens is, you end up alienating the community because you're not just stopping the bad guys, you're also stopping innocent people that are just trying to live their lives,” he says. “A real-time crime center is a scalpel. We aren't catching the wrong people anymore.”

Lavigne says RTCCs are also a cheaper alternative to hiring more boots on the ground because each camera becomes, in effect, a stationary officer keeping watch over an area. Lavigne says this has proved so effective that analysts at RTCCs have been recording more crime than they can deal with, and  the Fort Worth RTCC has significantly helped decrease vehicle thefts.

Most evidence for RTCC effectiveness, however, is anecdotal, and there is a real lack of studies into how effective they really are. In Detroit, a National Institute of Justice study concluded that Project Green Light—a part of the Detroit Police Department RTCC that established cameras at more than 550 locations, including schools, churches, private businesses, and health centers—helped decrease property violence in some areas but did nothing to prevent violent and other crimes. But police departments argue they do work.

Few people know RTCCs even exist, let alone the extent of the surveillance they entail, so they can receive little public scrutiny and often operate without much oversight. There have long been concerns around how surveillance technologies could affect First and Fourth Amendment rights in the US, but Beryl Lipton, an investigative researcher at the EFF, says RTCCs “hyper-charge” these worries by collating all this data in one place.

“It’s perpetuating this mass collection of people's private information from a whole bunch of different video streams,” Lipton says. “They're really lowering the bar on the ways police can access that information … When there are these types of large databases without proper audit and oversight mechanisms, law enforcement officials and individuals can use them for their own purposes, which can be very scary.”

Regulations around the storage and usage of this data are patchy at best. For example, RTCC-collected data may be shared across jurisdictions because third parties contracted for the hardware or software will also collect data and share it, Lipton says. “Some of these companies will, in good faith, delete data in accordance with retention schedules, but we've seen them not do that,” she says. “With large databases like license plate reader databases, that information is sometimes shared without police departments realizing it and in violation of jurisdictional rules.”

While companies will argue this data is being stored securely, this is no guarantee. In 2020, hackers stole internal memos, financial records, and more from over 200 local, state, and federal agencies from web development firm Netsential, which provided data storage for fusion centers across the US. The trove of leaked data later became known as #BlueLeaks.

“There are real concerns around having this amount of information stored somewhere,” says Lipton, “I have no reason to believe these are somehow more secure systems than we have in other situations. And we know that those get breached all the time, law enforcement agencies in this country get hacked all the time.”

Lipton’s biggest worry is that this ability to follow people remotely and share that data across state lines could instead be used to target people involved in protests and political organizing, which has already happened, or those accessing reproductive health care. “Those issues become compounded because there’s the frightening ‘real time’ element to it,” she says. “That means that if you leave your house, there’s a very good chance that law enforcement could jump into a feed that is just following you around.”

In addition to police setting up their own technology, RTCCs draw on wider existing surveillance networks. Cooperation of public institutions like schools and colleges and privately owned cameras have been crucial to developing RTCCs by giving officers access to cameras that might otherwise need a warrant. In Atlanta, which has seen the number of cameras integrated into their RTCC treble to 15,329 in the past year, four higher-education institutions—Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College, Morehouse College, and the Morehouse School of Medicine—installed $700,000 worth of cameras, including five ALPRs, that were linked to the Atlanta RTCC.

Fusus, which claims to be “the most widely used & trusted Real-Time Crime Center platform in U.S. Public Safety,” sells hardware that can be connected to private CCTV cameras and linked up to the local RTCC. Fusus sells a solution that brings all the various technologies under “a single pane of glass,” as the company describes it. Through partnerships with companies that provide surveillance technology, including a $21 million investment from Axon, which produces Tasers and body cams, Fusus promises to integrate these technologies into one RTCC platform for analysts.

Police departments that use Fusus, like the Memphis Police Department, have been encouraging homeowners and local businesses to purchase fususCORE bundles—hardware that connects cameras to an RTCC—ranging from $350 to $7,300, plus an annual $150 subscription. Fusus has even gone as far as developing technology that allows Amazon’s Ring doorbells to livestream to an RTCC.

Amid a push for policing to harness new technologies and become “smarter,” Lipton is quick to point out that more technology doesn’t necessarily equal smarter. “It almost always just means that they're going to keep heavily policing poor and minority areas,” she says. Despite Lavigne’s claims that RTCCs mean the wrong people aren’t getting arrested anymore, in a recent lawsuit, the New Orleans Police Department was sued for arresting a Black man after watching him for 15 minutes through their RTCC and wrongly concluding he had a gun. The department ultimately settled for $10,000 in damages.

Lipton believes relentless surveillance is an infringement of citizens rights and would like to see the use of these technologies limited—aside from facial recognition, which she says should be banned. “There are certain elements we just shouldn't be using at all,” she says. “We should never be applying facial recognition to almost anything … As soon as you apply any really individualizing technology like that, I mean, it's kind of over for people's privacy.” Communities and organizations like EFF and ACLU have been arguing for Community Control Over Police Surveillance (CCOPS) laws that bring surveillance technologies under the control of elected officials and communities. Cities like Oakland have found success with this, but without nationwide restrictions, the rise of RTCCs will likely continue on the periphery of the public eye.

[strongerwu]

Korean Film Industry

SOUTH KOREAN FILM INDUSTRY & TOP BEST KOREAN FILMS

One salient feature over the past decade has been the increasing success of Korean films on the screens, where they have proved capable of attracting new spectators - a phenomenon similar to that witnessed in some European countries, according to what emerged during MEDIA Salles' Focus on Europe event at Cinema Expo International 2002, in Amsterdam.

Considering all these points, the following two reflections on the Korean film industry, especially from the 90s up to the present, may be offered to European movie concerns.

Increasing market share of Korean movies

From 15.9% to 45.2% within 9 years, the Korean film market share increased..Until 1993, the Korean movie had a very small market share, because of its low quality, due to the limited budget for production and the lack of a well-developed system compared to the mighty Hollywood majors, which had been present on the Korean market since 1988. Accordingly, the market share of Korean movies had been steadily decreasing for the above mentioned period, finally dropping to 15% and threatening its very existence.

However, in 1999 the film Shiri brought a positive turning. It was the first Korean blockbuster movie, recording around 5 million spectators: it catapulted to the top of the South Korean box office and ended up toppling the record previously held by Titanic. This exceptional event was enough to initiate large-scale fund-raising and the creation of a production system by SEG (Samsung Entertainment Group). Shiri's success, representing the opportunity for the market share to soar to 39.7%, inspired many Korean film-makers and convinced them that Korean productions could be successful if they were based on a good financial support and a selected, quality background.

Subsequently other Korean movies, like Joint Security Area and Friend were of great impact in the Korean film market, so that in 2002 the market share settled at 45.2% in terms of admissions and at a higher 46.7% in terms of box office. It should be remembered that, at the end of the nineties, the number of foreign movies released in Korea was six times higher than for domestic movies.

Apart from the development of the Korean movie in itself, the spread of multiplexes, mainly belonging to the Orion Group and CJ, and the legislation on the "five-day working week" have tempted the Korean people to visit theatres more during their longer weekends. As a result the Korean film market has continued to expand by 17% to 18% each year and total audiences in 2002 amounted to over 100 million.

In addition, major distributors of Hollywood movies, such as Warner Brothers, MGM, and Dreamworks began to obtain the copyright for remakes of several movies that had been big hits on the Korean market. Fox, Walt Disney and other direct-distribution companies also started to take Korean movies on board their global distribution runs. Most recently, Columbia signed a contract on world distribution and investment with a local production company.

[yourlunarspice]

This hurts my heart so much, but I see it too in my own stories. The first stories I ever posted on AO3 were far from the best I have written, and yet they were perhaps the most engaging. I had dedicated Readers who'd comment whenever I updated a story, and it always made me feel happy. Since then, comments have steadily decreased until a story I was very proud of, with 10 chapters and over 40k words, barely received any comments. It was disheartening to see something that my free time revolved around for months receive hardly any recognition. (I do love and appreciate my two dedicated Readers, though! They gave me the motivation to finish the story when I almost gave up.) Like it is for so many writers, feedback is treasured. I keep every email about a comment in my notifications for as long as possible, just so I can see it throughout the day and be reminded 'Hey. Someone liked what you made and wanted you to know about it.'

If I found a group of people raving about my story without even considering leaving a single comment, I think I would be heartbroken. It would kill my passion for writing, despite being a hobby that I love dearly and that I've been doing for as long as I can remember.

I am writing story number five in a series of nine fics. Right now, I've posted 36 chapters in the series in total, clocking in at almost 133,000 words. It has taken me nearly a year to write this much (not including the four other stories I've posted during the same time). I can hardly stand to think about all the time I would have wasted if I found something like that. Months upon months of planning, researching, outlining, and scheduling chapters, usually multiple at a time! All while writing, editing, and posting. All wasted. And the series would just die, never to be completed.

My heart goes out to OP's friend. I hope they are recovering from this as they mourn, not only the loss of an ending for their story, but for the loss of all potential subsequent stories as well. It's not something anyone would want to go through.

A writer friend told me something that broke my heart a little bit today; they're going to quit publishing their fanfic.

My instant thought was that they had been trolled or attacked or that something terrible had happened in their life because this person is so passionate about their writing. It wasn't any of that. Engagement with their works has been going down, as it has for many of us. Comments are like gold dust a lot of the time, and just looking through the historical comment counts on old fics on ao3 demonstrates this trend very clearly. It was not simply the comments dropping off which caused them to decide to stop posting, however.

My friend came across a discord server for their fandom (I should point out here that their fandom interest and mine diverged a couple of years ago, we stay in touch but don't currently read each other's posts because I'm not into their fandom and they would rather gouge their eyes out with a wooden spoon than read anything Star Wars) and specifically to share fic in that fandom. They joined, because we all love a good fic rec, only to discover that their latest multichapter fic, which has almost no comments and very few kudos, is being hotly discussed in this server as one of the best stories ever. Not one of these people has bothered to say this to them on the fic. When they asked, none of participants could see the point in telling the author of the fic they apparently loved so much that they love it.

This discovery has absolutely destroyed my friend's love of sharing fic. They share because they love seeing other people's enjoyment, and fic writers do that through comments and kudos/reblogs/likes because we don't get paid. There is no literary critic writing a blog post/article about how amazing the story is for us to copy and keep/frame. There is no money from royalties. All we have are the words of the people reading our works.

Those people on that server could have taken five minutes of the time they spent gushing about how amazing my friend's story was to other people and used it to tell the one person guaranteed to want to hear that praise how much they loved it. They could have taken a moment to express their opinion to the person who spent hours upon hours plotting, writing, editing, and posting those chapters. Instead, they deprived my friend of thing that keeps them sharing their writing, and in the process have killed their love of it. My friend now feels used and unmotivated.

I won't be sharing a link to their fic, they said I could share their experience but not their identity. I know they plan to post one final chapter. I know they intend to express their hurt at being excluded from the praise for the thing they created, and I know they intend to announce that as a consequence they will not be posting for a long while, if at all.

So please, I beg you, don't hide your love of a story from the writer. It's just about the only thing we have.

[farepayer]

https://www.farepayer.com/goas-tourism-under-fire/

GOA’S TOURISM UNDER FIRE: VIRAL CLAIMS VS GOVT. RESPONSE

Goa, India’s crown jewel for coastal tourism, is in the line of fire after viral social media posts highlighted the problems tourists face. The complaints about overpriced services, local transport issues, and a decline in foreign visitors have cast a shadow on Goa’s tourism industry. However, the state government is actively addressing these concerns to make sure travelers can still enjoy their dream vacations with affordable Goa tour packages and international tour packages.

Decrease in Foreign Tourist Arrivals

A recent report by CEIC Data reported an unprecedented shrinkage in the number of foreign tourists flowing into Goa—from 8.5 million foreign visitors in 2019 down to 1.5 million this year. While the state’s Department of Tourism disputes these figures, one thing cannot be denied: that Goa gets really stiff competition from international destinations.

The reasons may include low or reasonable costs as many tourists from Europe shifted to destinations like Sri Lanka and Thailand because these have international tour packages comparable to that offered by Goa, India.

Goa Tour Package

‘Taxi Mafia’ and Overpricing: A Growing Concern

Some of the biggest complaints tourists in Goa have are with the ‘taxi mafia,’ who overcharge and intimidate people. A lot of tourists get irritated with these incidents. In support, one tourist mentioned paying ₹1,800 for a 37-kilometer drive, and other experiences include harassment from groups of taxi drivers for traveling in private vehicles or offering rides to friends.

The absence of affordable travel options, including ride-hailing services like Ola and Uber, added to the irritation. Services like these have been resisted from the beginning by local taxi unions, hence making traveling inside Goa costlier than many international destinations.

In view of this, most of the travel companies these days include pre-arranged transport in their tour packages to Goa so that tourists may not have to face any hassle.

Domestic Tourism on the Rise

Even with decreasing numbers of foreign arrivals, it recorded a steadily rising graph regarding domestic tourism. Domestic travelers also make their way to Goa along with Delhi and Bangalore as people of the nation are choosing this in many flights packages along with resorts or hotels plus conveyance.

For example, Farepayer Travels has introduced elaborated domestic tour packages, soothing to the purse, ensuring that for a budget-conscious tourist in search of sea beaches, nightlife, and heritage sites, travel to Goa is within his reach.

International Destinations: A Threat to Goa’s Allure?

Also, more and more numbers of Indians are going on international tours against Goa due to issues in cost and accessibility. Destinations like Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia have taken turns which promise affordability and feasibility.

“Post-COVID, once people discovered Southeast Asia and its visa-free options, Goa started losing its edge,” shared a traveler on X. More and more domestic tourists prefer international tour packages, with all the luxurious experiences included in them, at reasonable prices.

Affordable Goa Tour Packages: The Key to Reviving Tourism

To remain competitive, Goa must focus on offering value-driven tour packages. Travel companies like Farepayer Travels are stepping in with customized options such as:

Goa Tour Packages from Delhi: Including round-trip flights, airport transfers, hotel stays, and guided tours of major attractions like Calangute Beach and Old Goa.

All-Inclusive Goa Tour Packages: Covering accommodation, meals, local transport, and excursions.

Budget-Friendly Domestic Tour Packages: Perfect for families and solo travelers seeking affordable getaways within India.

Government’s Assurance on Tourism Revival

In response to these criticisms, Goa’s Department of Tourism has released an official statement highlighting that over 4.5 lakh foreign tourists visited the state in 2023. The government has also pledged to modernize infrastructure and explore solutions for affordable transport, ensuring a positive experience for all visitors.

How to Plan Your Next Trip to Goa

If you���re considering Goa for your next vacation, here are some tips:

Book Comprehensive Tour Packages: Choose trusted providers like Farepayer Travels for all-inclusive packages, including flights, hotels, and local sightseeing.

Research Transport Options: While local taxis are costly, many tour packages include private transport.

Compare Goa with International Destinations: Evaluate the cost of a Goa trip versus an international tour package to destinations like Thailand or Sri Lanka.

The Road Ahead for Goa Tourism

As the competition from international destinations grows, Goa’s tourism stakeholders must innovate and adapt. Affordable Goa tour packages, better infrastructure, and addressing traveler concerns like transport issues are critical to maintaining Goa’s status as a top destination for both domestic and international tourists.

Plan Your Perfect Trip with Farepayer Travels Whether you’re seeking a relaxing beach holiday or an adventurous international tour, Farepayer Travels offers a variety of options tailored to your budget:

Goa Tour Packages from Delhi

Comprehensive Domestic Tour Packages

Affordable International Tour Packages

[citynewsglobe]

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of working with the specialists who will help you rent for particular industries whereas sustaining compliance along with your space’s rules.  [ad_2] Supply hyperlink

[tutor-helpdesk]

Gender Role Reversal in Workplace: Sociology Case Study for Students

 

Introduction: Women Redefining Workspaces

In the modern-day business environment, women are not bound to conventional roles and responsibilities only. They are overcoming traditional mindsets, getting promoted to managerial posts, and occupying positions of leadership across sectors hitherto believed to be reserved for men – engineering, technology, and finance, to mention but a few. Women are swapping men and taking their rightful place in various industries as CEOs, top executives, and even construction labor and mechanics. The latest trend of gender-role reversal in organizations does not just represent the myriad manifestations of the sociological transformation of the work environment; it symbolizes the breakdown of the conventional portrayal of gender and work.

Traditionally, the composition of the workforce has often been influenced by gender stereotypes. Men were previously viewed, primarily as breadwinners, being expected to dominate leadership roles and undertake demanding physical work. On the other hand, women continued being confined to the roles of caregivers and nurturers or simply being housewives. However, with the feminist liberation movements of the twentieth century, women began to take jobs in large numbers, gradually rise through corporate hierarchies, and redesign success in their ways.

Over the past few decades, however, this transition has steadily advanced at a rather impressive rate. Women are becoming the sole breadwinners and more so, they are preferred for higher roles by firms. Women in America engage in paid work in greater numbers than ever before and comprise 50.7% of the workforce in the United States. There is a growing number of organizations that aim to decrease the gender diversity gap at the top management level. Currently, the percentage representation of women in senior management has stood at 29% in the global market and has been rising over the years .

But why is the shift happening, and why, too, this Gender Role Reversal in Corporate Culture is being taught in sociology courses? By looking at the society these changes occur, students can understand questions of power, privilege, inequality, and the fluidity attached to social roles. Sociology students involved in gender role reversals at the workplace are probing highly integrative social constructs that have traditionally shaped their labor markets, leadership models, and gender expectations. In this light, students may seek help from our sociology assignment help experts extending academic support to write insightful and evidence-based papers. By availing of our service, students get access to academic resources, databases, and expert views that should give them the understanding to contextualize the evolution of gender roles within the broader context of sociology.

A Historical Analysis of gender role reversals in corporate culture

Gender role reversal began at the relatively early stage of the Industrial Revolution when women for the first time appeared at factories and industrial occupations in small numbers. This was supported more by the two world wars where men were called to join the military while women had to go to the industries to carry out production jobs.

However, the most vital events that contributed to reforms were the women’s movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Women’s ability and right to work equally with men and get promotions became a topical issue which led to enacting or changing many laws regarding the workplace. In the 60s in the U.S., there was the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that banned discrimination in employment on grounds to gender, race or color, and ethnic origin. Women started to enroll themselves in higher education and other professional fields in great numbers in the 1970s.

Fast forward to the 21st century, women seem to have risen to the top of the corporate hierarchy. For example, In 2023 women received 10.4 percent of all CEO opportunities in Fortune 500 companies, rising from 8.2 percent in 2020, and it has been the highest in history. While the numbers are still skewed in favor of men, the trend is clear: Women are gaining popularity in the employment sector, and cultural barriers are gradually being reversed.

Why Study Gender Role Reversals in Sociology? 

In sociology learning about gender role reversal is important because it encompasses some of the sociological perspectives including socialization, social control, inequality, and social change. By studying how some of the roles are assigned to males and females, the learners understand how societal structures determine the flow of power and access to resources. This is particularly important in making sense of further or larger societal patterns of inequality and progress.

Sociology courses that analyze gender in the workplace allow the learner to understand why some professional roles were gendered, and what happens when the genders are reversed. Students learn about how gender is constructed and how it co-constitutes with other axes of differentiation including race and class, and how it shapes individual opportunities and identities in a professional context.

Also learning gender role reversal enables students to understand how managerial cultures are responding to these changes. Given the fact that more and more businesses care about the problem of gender and diversity these days, knowing the sociological implications of gender dynamics is vital for future sociologists, human resource managers, and policymakers.

Students who are studying such topics may require sociology assignment help online which would offer writing case study solutions, peer-reviewed articles, and expert assistance. These resources are useful for constructing more profound papers and when trying to analyze a number of sociological concepts and tenets.

Why Corporate Employers Are Given Preferences to Women

The traditional patriarchal model is challenged and altered does not merely mean filling quotas or being progressive. Most management gurus are advocating for hiring women workforce as they indeed bring out different perspectives that can boost organizational performance.

1. Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Style

Research findings have consistently shown that females tend to score higher on EI when compared with men. Emotional intelligence is crucial in leadership for team management, building quality relationships, and a positive working environment. Studies indicate that women tend to adopt a transformational leadership style: that is, those that emphasize collaboration, mentorship, and empathy, all of which are very important in today's workplace. This gives rise to the preference for appointing women in leadership positions, for these are positions in which qualities such as nurturing talent and team management are of utmost importance.

2. Improved fit to diversity and inclusion initiatives

D&I strategies are a hot topic for many organizations globally, demonstrating that increasing diversity and inclusion is vital for the success of a business. This is perhaps why women leaders are among the best in creating and supporting diversity in the workplace as they bear the brunt of discrimination at the workplace. Their firsthand experiences help them to lead D&I initiatives, so many companies are trying to find women to lead such transformations.

3. Work-Life Balance and Flexibility 

In today’s diverse corporate world where most firms are adopting new organizational cultures, which include flexible employment, women are valued due to their love for multitasking more so in the current and post-COVID reality. Largely, women are more capable of balancing different tasks and duties along with personal commitments which makes them a valuable asset to a company. Research also points to the fact that firms with female top executives pay more attention to work-life balance policies than those without women in top management .

4. Higher Education Attainment Rates Among Women 

In general, women have become more educated than men with references to the increases in university education most especially in business courses, law, and medical courses. It gives women the educational background to go for and succeed in top jobs in corporate settings. Presently, for college graduates as of 2022, females represent 57% of the whole and this has seen female representation increase in the professional workforce .

Struggling with Sociology Assignments? Get Expert Help for Strong, Unique Papers 

Sociology can be quite an arduous course of study, with the student having to think beyond the surface of societal constructs and theories in trying to understand how the roots of those theories translate into the world today. For the majority of learners, it is challenging to compose argumentative and analytical sociology papers or theses working on different topics like gender, power, or social injustice. Understanding sociological theories, conducting research, and presenting unique perspectives demands profound understanding and good arguments.

Sociology assignment help serve the purpose of students seeking the best professionals in sociology assignment writing. Sociology requires the formulation of proper arguments, critical thinking, or development of unique perspectives and many students encounter challenges in these areas. These issues are handled by our service by providing the student with original and informative writing, which complies with the university requirements while providing a deeper understanding of complex sociological issues.

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We offer assistance across a wide range of sociology topics, including:

Gender studies

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Social theories and their application

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Conclusion: Implications of Reversal of Gender in Workplaces: Sociology

The reversal of gender roles in corporate culture as portrayed in business media is arguably a significant sociological transition veritably disrupting gender, power, and work. Scholars who learn sociology can also use such changes and understand how and why social roles can change and affect the culture of workplaces. With the correct source of information and the help of the best sociology assignment help services, such topics can be widely researched and analyzed to give the best results as seen above.

Just as it’s important not to take any course for a ride, do not stress up your sociology assignments. The best academic writing assistance online will help you create an outstanding paper along with guidance on understanding the topic better to succeed in the course!

Useful Resources for Sociology Learners

For students studying gender role reversals in corporate culture, several resources and textbooks can provide valuable insights:

1. "The Second Sex" by Simone de Beauvoir – A review of the works of Simone de Beauvoir categorizing women as the Second sex.

2. “Gender Trouble" by Judith Butler -Butler's work on gender performativity is essential for understanding how gender roles are constructed and maintained in society. 

[the-library-alcove]

Here's the deal with this graph. It's basically two bar graphs set on their sides, one for males, sorted by age, and one for females, sorted by age. They're fairly simple to read. From this, we can see that the Gazan population has an annual birth rate of about 70,000 babies born per year, with approximately 280,000 children between 0 and 4 years old, and similar numbers between 5 and 9, and 10 and 14, and about 250,000 between 15-19*, and the adult population steadily decreases from there, due to lower birth rates when they were born, plus normal adult mortality rates.

The thing is, the adults are a smooth and steady decrease; there's no significant surplus of either gender in any age bracket, nor are there "dents" that signify a major mass death event or other event that inhibits births.

Compare that to Russia's population pyramid, or Ukraine's, where you can clearly see the effects of WWII even 80 years later due to the loss of so many men on the battlefield, and in the case of Ukraine, the Holodomor.

You can see that both Russia and Ukraine lost a lot of people, especially men, during the period between 1920 and 1950, and that had knock-on effects further downstream (like that dip around the 1960s), where the decreased cohort of new parents, as they came of age, had resultingly smaller families than their predecessors or followers.

Rwanda has a distinct dent in its pyramid due to the Rwandan Genocide in 1994, both due to people being killed (with babies being the most vulnerable) and people not exactly having children in the middle of a war and genocide.

But Gaza, and the Palestinian population more generally?

No dents, no major losses of cohorts, just steadily large families, with a marked increase in their population growth in the 1980s. This is not the population pyramid that shows any effects of genocide or really any major fatalities--so the claim that they've been under the effect of genocide since 1948 isn't supported by the facts in any way, shape or form.

~~~

*It is worth highlighting that this fairly clearly means that the high birth rate dates from nearly exactly when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip--and remember that they're fundamentalists who basically view women as being breeding stock and that any form of birth control or family planning is sinful and verboten. These two points are correlated.

You know, for a population that has, ostensibly, been under continuous genocide for 75 years...

It's pretty impressive that the Gaza Strip has the 40th highest population growth rate in the world, and the 6th highest in the Middle East, with 70,000+ births per year, and no visible "dents" in their population pyramid that would be expected if they'd, yanno, suffered a mass death event over generations:

It's almost as if, instead of "Israelis are the New Nazis", instead, it's closer to "The amount of effort Nazis spent on hunting down and killing Jews is equal to the effort Israelis are expending to keep Gazans alive."

[terrorismvictimsday]

Trends in Terrorism.

Deaths from terrorism are now at their highest level since 2017. However, they are still almost 25 per cent lower than at their peak in 2015. The largest falls in terrorism since 2007 have occurred in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Nigeria. In Iraq, total deaths from terrorism have fallen 99 per cent since 2007. The epicentre of terrorism has shifted from the Middle East and North Africa into sub-Saharan Africa, concentrated largely in the Sahel region. This region now accounts for almost half of all deaths from terrorism globally. Terrorism has become more concentrated over the past decade. The number of countries recording at least one death from terrorism fell to 41 in 2023, down from 44 in 2022 and 57 in 2015. In the West, terrorist incidents dropped to their lowest level since 2007, down by 55 per cent from 2022, with 23 attacks and 21 deaths recorded in 2023. Attacks in the west peaked in 2017 with 176 attacks recorded in that year. South Asia has the highest regional average impact from terrorism, although it improved over the past year. Over the past decade the average impact of terrorism has only increased in two regions: North America and sub-Saharan Africa. Every other region has recorded a decrease in the average impact since 2013. Total deaths from terrorism are now considerably higher in sub-Saharan Africa than any other region. Sub-Saharan Africa has recorded the most deaths from terrorism for the past seven years. Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia have far more deaths from terrorism than any other regions. Collectively they accounted for just under 94 per cent of deaths from terrorism in 2023. In 2023, 98 per cent of terrorism deaths occurred in countries experiencing some level of conflict. Most of these occurred in countries at war, but the number of deaths in countries involved in minor conflicts has been steadily rising. In the US since 2007, there have been 60 politically motivated attacks compared to 14 religiously motivated attacks. Five out of seven attacks in 2023 were linked to people with far-right sympathies or connections.

[industryinsightsandanalysis]

Li-Ion Battery Recycling Market: Current Analysis and Forecast (2022-2028)

According to a new report published by UnivDatos Markets Insights, the Li-ion Battery Recycling Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 20% from 2022-2028. The analysis has been segmented into Battery Chemistry (Lithium-Nickel-Cobalt-Aluminum Oxide, Lithium-Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt, Lithium-Titanate Oxide, Lithium-Manganese Oxide, and Lithium-Iron Phosphate); Recycling Process (Pyrometallurgy Process, Hydrometallurgical Process, and Physical/mechanical Process); End-Users (Automotive and Non-Automotive); Region/Country.

The li-ion battery recycling market report has been aggregated by collecting informative data on various dynamics such as market drivers, restraints, and opportunities. This innovative report makes use of several analyses to get a closer outlook on the li-ion battery recycling market. The li-ion battery recycling market report offers a detailed analysis of the latest industry developments and trending factors in the market that are influencing the market growth. Furthermore, this statistical market research repository examines and estimates the li-ion battery recycling market at the global and regional levels.

Market Overview

The growing demand for electric vehicles across the world due to the environmental concern such as global warming, carbon emission, etc. along with the use of lithium-ion in other electronics such as laptops, phones, and watches with other propels the demand for the lithium-ion battery which in turn increase the demand for the li-ion battery recycling. With the increasing use of li-ion batteries in different applications such as automotive, electronics, and industrial with other staggering demand for li-ion batteries across the globe, it is anticipated that the global lithium-ion battery recycling market will expand steadily owing to increasing demand. The government incentives and support for the battery recycling plant will propel the market in the coming time. It is expected that the decrease in the battery price of the li-ion would make it more feasible for the recycler by lowering the overall cost of recycling and reproduction.

Factors such as technological advancement coupled with the growing number of industries and manufacturing units along with the new product launches in the market are some of the prominent factors that are positively influencing the market growth globally.

Some of the major players operating in the market include Ganfeng Lithium Co. Ltd., American Battery Technology Company, Accurec Recycling GmbH, Akkuser Oy, Duesenfeld GmbH, Fortum Corporation, Retriev Technologies Inc., Li-Cycle Corp., Neometals Ltd, and Umicore.

COVID-19 Impact

The recent covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the world and has brought a state of shock to the global economy. The global pandemic has impacted the manufacturing industry along with supply chain disruption, regulatory and policy changes, labor reliance, working capital management, and liquidity & solvency management. The li-ion battery recycling market has been significantly affected during these times owing to the gap between supply and demand.

The global li-ion battery recycling market report is studied thoroughly with several aspects that would help stakeholders in making their decisions more curated.

Based on end-users, the market is categorized into the automotive and non-automotive segments. The automotive sector has shown significant growth over the last few years and would remain the same during the forecast period owing to the increasing demand for the EV across the globe and government incentives for electric vehicles. Moreover, the rising awareness of the individual toward cleaner fuel and cost-effectiveness of the EV propels the demand for the EV and in turn which increase the demand for lithium-ion batteries. For instance, according to the IEA, the demand for the li-ion battery has doubled and reached approximately 340 GWh for the year 2021 compared to 160 GWh for 2020, globally.

Based on chemistry, the market is segmented into lithium-nickel-cobalt-aluminum oxide, lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt, lithium-titanate oxide, lithium-manganese oxide, and lithium-iron-phosphate. The lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt segment is expected to show higher market growth in the forecasted period owing to higher energy retention time compared to the other segment. The LNMC batteries have a longer life span than the other four types.  In lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt batteries, nickel hydroxide is used as the active material for the cathode which is mainly used for the hybrid electric vehicle. In these batteries the cathode combination ratio of the nickel is 60%, for manganese, it is 20% and for cobalt, it is 20% respectively which significantly lowers the overall cost of the batteries.

Li-ion Battery Recycling Market Geographical Segmentation Includes:

North America (United States, Canada, and the Rest of North America)

Europe (Germany, United Kingdom, France, and the Rest of Europe)

Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, India, and the Rest of Asia-Pacific)

Rest of the World

North America is anticipated to grow at a substantial CAGR during the forecast period. This is mainly due to the increasing demand for electric vehicles coupled with the increasing demand for li-ion batteries in the second life application and government support and regulation in the region. Additionally, it is anticipated that the presence of important recyclers such as Call2Recycle, Aqua Metals, Enersys, and Battery Solutions, Inc. will fuel demand during the forecast period along with the rising demand for UPS systems in commercial infrastructure and the rising popularity of electric vehicles. Due to an increase in foreign investment, Central and South America is predicted to experience significant market expansion. For instance, the Cochrane Coal-fired Power Plant in Chile had a sizable lithium-ion battery storage system installed by GS Yuasa Corporation in 2017. During the projected period, large-scale passenger and commercial vehicle production in Latin America is anticipated to fuel lithium battery demand. The U.S has registered significant growth in the demand for electric vehicles in the year 2021 which in turn increases the overall market size for li-ion battery recycling in the near future.

Request Free Sample Pages with Graphs and Figures Here  https://univdatos.com/get-a-free-sample-form-php/?product_id=27928

The major players targeting the market include

Ganfeng Lithium Co. Ltd.

American Battery Technology Company

Accurec Recycling GmbH

Akkuser Oy

Duesenfeld GmbH

Fortum Corporation

Retriev Technologies Inc.

Li-Cycle Corp.

Neometals Ltd

Umicore

Competitive Landscape

The degree of competition among prominent global companies has been elaborated by analyzing several leading key players operating worldwide. The specialist team of research analysts sheds light on various traits such as global market competition, market share, most recent industry advancements, innovative product launches, partnerships, mergers, or acquisitions by leading companies in the li-ion battery recycling market. The major players have been analyzed by using research methodologies for getting insight views on global competition.

Key questions resolved through this analytical market research report include:

• What are the latest trends, new patterns, and technological advancements in the li-ion battery recycling market?

• Which factors are influencing the li-ion battery recycling market over the forecast period?

• What are the global challenges, threats, and risks in the li-ion battery recycling market?

• Which factors are propelling and restraining the li-ion battery recycling market?

• What are the demanding global regions of the li-ion battery recycling market?

• What will be the global market size in the upcoming years?

• What are the crucial market acquisition strategies and policies applied by global companies?

We understand the requirement of different businesses, regions, and countries, we offer customized reports as per your requirements of business nature and geography. Please let us know If you have any custom needs.

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[parasparivaar]

India's Current Climate Situation

Paras Parivaar Charitable Trust Climate Programs:

From the bottom of our hearts, we extend a warm welcome to you in the Paras Parivaar Charitable Trust family. In our Sanatan Dharm, this Parivaar was founded and is now being maintained by our Mahant Shri Paras Bhai Ji of Sanatan Dharm to contribute to the welfare of the underprivileged and needy people. Because he consistently states, "The happiness of Maa is behind their smile." This idea of Mahant Shri Paras Bhai Ji has become the focus of our family's daily activities.

The Paras Parivaar Charitable Trust works 365 days a year to lug our Paras Guru's vision forward. We have helped more than 10 lakh needy people, and thanks to Maa and our Mahant Shri Paras Bhai Ji of Sanatan Dharm, this number is steadily rising. And it is the grandeur of Sanatan Dharm that we strive to assist those who cannot afford to pay for their education or who are food insecure.

India is ranked sixth among the countries most affected by climate change. Despite having 17% of the world's population, it produces about 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The country emits around 3 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent per year, or around 2.5 tons per person, which is less than the global average.

Temperature increases and severe weather

Since the early twentieth century, India's temperature has risen by around 0.7°C (1.3°F). This increase has been linked to more frequent and intense heatwaves, with temperatures hitting record highs, such as 51 °C in May 2022. According to estimates, heatwaves that were once expected to occur every 312 years may now occur every three years due to climate change.

Furthermore, changing rainfall patterns have been seen, with monsoon rainfall decreasing since 1950. Extreme weather occurrences, such as catastrophic floods and droughts, are becoming more common, endangering the country's agriculture and water supplies.

Effects on Food Security and Agriculture

Paras  Bhai ji started Tree planting programs. Agriculture, which employs over 56% of the Indian population, is particularly vulnerable to climate change. According to studies, essential crop yields like rice and wheat are expected to plummet significantly by 2100. For example, irrigated rice yields could fall by 7% in 2050 and 10% in 2080, while wheat yields could drop by up to 25%.

This reduction in agricultural output jeopardizes millions of people's food security and livelihoods, especially the rural poor, who rely heavily on agriculture for survival.

Threats to Ecosystems and Water Resources

Climate Change is also impacting India's water resources. The retreat of Himalayan glaciers jeopardizes the flow of major rivers like the Ganges and Brahmaputra, which are vital to millions of farmers. According to reports, these alterations could cause the Indus River to run dry.

Furthermore, rising sea levels harm coastal regions, potentially causing displacement and a refugee crisis if low-lying settlements are flooded. The Sundarbans, an important natural region, have already lost a lot of land owing to increasing sea levels.

Financial Repercussions

Climate change has far-reaching economic ramifications for India. According to projections, climate change might cost the country between 3% and 10% of its GDP every year by 2100. The social cost of carbon in India is among the highest in the world, indicating that the economic burden of climate change will be borne disproportionately by the poorest people.

Public Knowledge and Reaction

A recent survey found that 85% of Indians are influenced by climate change, with many considering relocation in reaction to extreme weather events. The public is more aware of the need for action, with a huge majority supporting India's goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2070.

[newsalertusa]

Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Is Stepping Up Efforts to Preserve Memories

The pictures are haunting: black-and-white prints of a snow-covered barracks and paintings bordered by wire fences and skeletal trees, grim depictions of a World War II camp in France where Jews were interned before being transported to concentration camps.The artist, Jacques Gotko, created one picture using a background of crushed eggshells glued to a wooden board; for others he used a piece of old tire as a printing block. Those were just some of the few materials available to him at the camp where he was held before being transported to Drancy, another camp in France, then Auschwitz-Birkenau, in Poland, in 1943.Fragile and rarely displayed, these works are part of a massive repository of Holocaust-related artifacts — among them millions of pages of documents, tens of thousands of pages of testimony, artworks and personal belongings and more than half a million photographs — collected over the years by Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.Most of the artifacts had been scattered around Yad Vashem’s vast campus, but they will now be housed in a new center that will allow easier access for researchers and provide the most advanced technological conditions to safeguard them for future generations. The center was recently completed and was inaugurated Monday.The task of preserving the artifacts has become all the more urgent as the Holocaust becomes an ever more distant episode, with the number of survivors steadily decreasing, at a time when antisemitism and extremism are resurgent around the world, Yad Vashem officials say.“These are the crown jewels of the Jewish people,” Dani Dayan, the chairman of Yad Vashem, said of the collections. “There is no Judaism without historical remembrance.”The new David and Fela Shapell Family Collections Center is opposite the Hall of Remembrance, which was established more than six decades ago at the core of the campus, and where an eternal flame burns above a stone crypt containing the ashes of Holocaust victims from extermination camps in Europe.It is mostly subterranean, reaching five stories underground, blending in with the landscape and housing the artifacts in a protected space.More than 150 staff members will be working at the site, gathering more names of victims and artifacts, and conserving and cataloging the objects. A video installation along the wall of the entrance hall runs in a 44-minute loop showing thousands of fragments of documents and objects kept in the center’s vaults.“We are not looking for a Mona Lisa,” said Medy Shvide, the director of the Yad Vashem archives, museums and collections. “We look for things that tell the story of the people of the time — who was this family, and what happened to them.” Those remnants, or clues, could be as seemingly unremarkable as a hairbrush or a glove.State-of-the-art labs are upgrading the process of digitizing and treating documents and other paper artifacts; textiles, such as decorative ritual garments; and oil paintings.Many objects are not restored to their former state, intentionally. Yad Vashem’s curators say the imperfections, or damage such as charring from a fire, can often best convey the stories of the Jewish communities decimated in the Holocaust, of Jewish life before World War II or of survivors.The art collection is housed in a vault with an oxygen-reduced atmosphere for fire prevention. Most of the works created during the Holocaust were on paper and are kept in boxes. Many are not by famous artists. “It is our duty to commemorate them,” said Eliad Moreh-Rosenberg, Yad Vashem’s art collections director; otherwise, “they will be forgotten.”Some of the works in the art vault will go on display as part of a rotating exhibit in Yad Vashem’s gallery.Since the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, Israelis have been wrestling with a new tragedy and questions of remembrance and commemoration. About 1,200 people were killed that day, most of them civilians, according to the Israeli authorities, making it the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust.Yad Vashem’s mission is to emphasize the uniqueness of the Holocaust as a singular historical event and educate the world about it. Mr. Dayan, the chairman, takes issue with direct comparisons between the terrorism of Oct. 7 and the Nazi genocide and says a distinction must be made.“Oct. 7 was not the Shoah,” he said, referring to the Holocaust by its Hebrew name, adding that modern Israel has a strong army that can exact a toll from its enemies.Still, he said, for many people the associations were inescapable: Mothers muffling their infants — trying to keep them quiet while hiding in their safe rooms as gunmen hunted them down and set their homes ablaze — recalled Jews hiding from the Nazis in barns, basements or attics in Europe.In the years before the assault of Oct. 7, antisemitic incidents had been on the rise around the world. The shooting in October 2018 at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in which 11 worshipers were killed was the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history. In Europe, synagogues in Germany and France were targeted in attacks, sometimes fueled by anger over strife between Israel and the Palestinians.After the Oct. 7 assault, Israel’s devastating offensive in Gaza unleashed mass protests in foreign capitals and on college campuses, at times with antisemitic overtones.Israel has found itself accused of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza — where more than 38,000 people have been killed in the war, according to Gaza health officials, who do not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths. Israel denies committing genocide.For Mr. Dayan, preserving the Yad Vashem collections is crucial to building a solid, authoritative foundation of evidence, data and knowledge to counter Holocaust deniers and distorters as the aging generation of Holocaust survivors dies out.That means commemorating artists whose creations came to stand as their last wills and testaments — like Jacques Gotko, who died of typhus in Auschwitz-Birkenau, he said.Using the scrap of tire, Gotko created a series of linocut-style prints of the barracks where Jews were kept at the Nazi transit camp at Compiègne, in France. The signed works are numbered and labeled Front Stalag 122, as the camp was designated, and dated 1942.Born Jakow Gotkowski in Odesa, in what is now Ukraine, Gotko moved to Paris in 1905 as a child with his family. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, and his paintings were exhibited in prestigious Parisian art salons.He continued painting after he was taken with other Jews to the transit camp in 1941. In the camp, a still life that is being stored in the new facility was among his creations.In a twist on the traditions of the old masters, instead of sumptuous displays of exotic fruit and vivid flowers, the still life he painted featured a crust of bread, a spoon, a tin cup and a matchbox. His backdrop was a wire fence and trees, some bare and skeletal, some with leaves, in the world beyond the camp.Mr. Dayan has a quotation etched on the wall of his office written by Gela Seksztajn, a Polish artist who died in the Warsaw Ghetto. Knowing that she was doomed, she wrote: “My works I bequeath to the Jewish museum to be built after the war.”Many of her works were hidden in a secret archive in the ghetto and survived the war. Most are now kept in the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. A few are in the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and one is in Yad Vashem.“We are approaching a watershed moment in Holocaust remembrance,” Mr. Dayan said. “We are entering the post-survivor era where we are going to be the messengers.” israels-holocaust-memorial-is-stepping-up-efforts-to-preserve-memories Read the full article

[the-global-housing-slump]

The global housing slump and its latest developments

Is it a mirage or a tangible reality? Or in other words, is the global housing slump nearing its end? This has been a question that has been looming over many economies for longer than they would have liked. Thanks to the pandemic that seemed to have left no stone unturned, the outlook for most major housing markets had looked extremely bleak following the year 2020. House prices spiked at a staggering and quite scary pace where in some instances it rose more than 50%. However, it appears that despite the setbacks the housing market (although not in all countries alike) is cooling down. Slowly, but surely. 

First things first, what exactly is a housing market crash? 

A crash course on ‘housing market crash’

This refers to a significant and sudden decline in the value of real estate properties which then leads to a severe downturn in the housing market. A housing market crash will witness a sharp drop in property prices, a decrease in the demand for homes, and the supply of available houses exceeding the number of potential buyers. And then comes the housing bubble burst. The aforementioned chain of reactions will end in property prices overinflating as a result of speculative buying and unsustainable lending practices. 

The consequences of a housing market crash leave no party unaffected. Both homeowners and the overall economy will suffer. Homeowners will experience a decrease in the value of their properties. This means that they will be paying an outstanding mortgage balance that is higher than what their home is currently worth. This is also termed negative equity. 

For the broader economy, a housing market crash can contribute to a downturn in consumer spending, a sluggish pace in construction activity, decreased lending and investment in the real estate sector. This will inevitably lead to job losses, a stagnated economic growth and could even result in broader recession. So the big picture, to put it simply, is stormy with a chance of an economic tsunami. 

How does the weather in the housing market look like now?

Recent trends in the housing market indicate that even amidst grey clouds and rains, the sun seems to be shining on it. For instance, if we consider the U.S. and its trajectory, right after the pandemic the country saw an all-time low in mortgage rates and an all-time high in home prices. After such record-breaking numbers, towards the tail end of 2022, the housing market got some breathing space where it started seeing a turnaround. 

While the U.S. was well on its way to a housing market crash, home values started to increase steadily for four months in a row, starting from May 2023. As The Economist states, their indexes indicate that the housing values have increased by 1.6% from where it was in January. Profit margins had revved up to 47.7% in the second quarter,  from 43.9% in the first quarter. Furthermore, the national median home price was pushed up by 10% quarterly to US$350,000, making the nationwide profit margin and the median home price look much better in comparison to the previous quarters. 

Even with a positive comeback as such, according to Bankrate, in comparison to the numbers in May 2022, it is still down by 0.5%. Some numbers that were mentioned by Shrey Dua in  InvestorPlace hinted that “[W]ith mortgage rates still trending around 7%, relatively strong home sales have been the major stopgap to a wider real estate recession”. Therefore, it is evident that concerns are still at large.

In Australia, house prices have been experiencing growth since late February-early March 2023 A strong indicator of how well the country is doing is auction clearance rates. Even despite each state functioning at different values, the bidding for most properties is wild. One that would have you raising your eyebrows is a recent auction that happened in Double Bay, a suburb on Sydney’s harbour. A double-bedroom bungalow which opened bidding at A$4m dropped its gavel at A$6m. The numbers speak for themselves. Additionally, as of the latest statistics, the national capital city quarterly median house price has increased by 0.7% over July in comparison to June- rising to $1,055,252. 

However, it is not all unicorns and rainbows. New Zealand has seen one of the most troubled housing markets over the last 18 months or so. Both homeowners and investors have experienced significant financial losses, amounting to billions of dollars. This was a result of the sharp decline in property prices that had surged in an unthinkable manner during the pandemic. Exacerbating the situation, mortgage rates have also increased causing a negative economic impact on individuals and investors alike. It is not news that the pandemic took a swing at the housing markets in several countries. Amidst those, New Zealand stands out as one of the most affected, experiencing an especially volatile fluctuation. Recently (June 2023), the country even slipped into a recession. Home sales have fallen where houses sit on the market for an average of 47 days and some remain there for months.

If we continue speed-reading the situation worldwide, this would more or less be the picture. While some seem to have averted the crash, some seem to still be struggling. However, the consensus is that on average, most economies appear to be doing fairly better than how they used to during the pandemic, or immediately after it. Even though that is a low bar, countries seem to have built a surprising housing resilience. When juxtaposed with previous housing slumps, there is no indication that the decreasing or increasing house prices are leading to financial contagion. Banks don’t seem to be up in arms about sudden increases in bad mortgages. This could very well be because housing markets have adopted a more cautious approach where they are exposing themselves to fewer high risk-loans and avoiding overindulgence in risky subprime securities. 

As Shakespeare famously said “All the world’s a stage and  we all have our entrances and exits”. Housing slumps sure seem to have very grand entrances, but they do not seem to have their exits. Although the fear of falling back on a crash has not completely left the scene, the current market is not necessarily treading on eggshells. Because a housing market crash occurs when the value of homes decreases significantly. Making it difficult for homeowners to afford their mortgages. So they try to sell the houses, but at a value that will leave them with a colossal loss. This does not seem to be the situation right now, at least not as far as numbers indicate. So when people say the housing slump is nearing its end, in other words, it means that the housing slump has calmed down, is not flirting with recession, and is certainly not throttling economies.