#widespread famine and drought

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

The Basket of Ripe Fruit

1 Thus hath the Lord Jehovah shewed me, and, lo, a basket of summer-fruit. 2 And He saith, ‘What art thou seeing, Amos?’ and I say, ‘A basket of summer-fruit.’ And Jehovah saith unto me: ‘The end hath come unto My people Israel, I do not add any more to pass over to it. 3 And howled have songstresses of a palace in that day, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, Many [are] the carcases, into any place throw — hush!

4 Hear this, ye who are swallowing up the needy, To cause to cease the poor of the land,

5 Saying, When doth the new moon pass, And we sell ground corn? And the sabbath, and we open out pure corn? To make little the ephah, And to make great the shekel, And to use perversely balances of deceit.

6 To purchase with money the poor, And the needy for a pair of sandals, Yea, the refuse of the pure corn we sell.

7 Sworn hath Jehovah by the excellency of Jacob: ‘I forget not for ever any of their works.

8 For this doth not the land tremble, And mourned hath every dweller in it? And come up as a flood hath all of it. And it hath been cast out, and hath sunk, Like the flood of Egypt.

9 And it hath come to pass in that day, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, I have caused the sun to go in at noon, And caused darkness on the land in a day of light,

10 And have turned your festivals to mourning, And all your songs to lamentation, And caused sackcloth to come up on all loins, And on every head — baldness, And made it as a mourning [of] an only one, And its latter end as a day of bitterness.

11 Lo, days are coming, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, And I have sent a famine into the land, Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water But of hearing the words of Jehovah.

12 And they have wandered from sea unto sea, And from north even unto east, They go to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah, And they do not find.

13 In that day faint do the fair virgins, And the young men, with thirst.

14 Those swearing by the guilt of Samaria, And have said, Live doth thy god, O Dan, And, Live doth the way of Beer-Sheba, And they have fallen — and rise not again!’ — Amos 8 | Young's Literal Translation (YLT) The Holy Bible: Young’s Literal Translation is in the public domain. Cross References: Genesis 6:13; Genesis 21:16; Exodus 31:13; Leviticus 13:40; Numbers 28:11; Deuteronomy 33:26; Deuteronomy 33:29; 1 Samuel 3:1; 1 Kings 12:28-29; 2 Chronicles 15:3; Job 5:14; Job 24:4; Psalm 14:4; Psalm 18:7; Psalm 60:2; Proverbs 29:18; Isaiah 9:17; Isaiah 24:20; Isaiah 41:17; Jeremiah 24:1; Jeremiah 24:3; Lamentations 1:18; Lamentations 2:10; Ezekiel 20:3; Amos 2:6; Amos 3:9; Amos 4:1; Amos 5:16; Amos 7:17; Matthew 24:29

[deadboyswalking]

I hate the covertly fascist take "Haha Luffy and the Straw Hats destabilize entire countries because they just got hungry or met a single sad child! The citizens must really hate them for the property damage!"

Like did you fucking forget that at least half the population of Dressrosa was literally enslaved??? And that the other half lost even their memories of their loved ones? That the entire country saw their true king forced to slaughter his own people? That the people of Alabasta were being held hostage by a tyrant orchestrating a drought and famine? That the people of Wano were starving to death and poisoned by Kaido's factory, cruelly experimented on and physically unable to even grieve their dead?

And those are just his biggest hits!

Everywhere Luffy goes, there is one consistent theme: widespread human suffering. Yes, Luffy destabilized these islands, but is slavery and starvation the "stability" you think those people deserved??? Actually, "cruel order above all else" is NOT the message of One Piece! How did you miss the point this badly???

[forsoobado137]

I like thinking about what a check-up at the doctor's would be like for a nation. Like they get their knee hit with that little reflex mallet and the doctor is like "hmm, yes, something is up with the railroads in the south."

No but fr it's probably exactly like a normal physical except the doctor has to take into account the state of the economy or politics or any recent natural disasters. I feel like certain symptoms are like this:

Blizzard/cold wave = low body temp, mild frostbite, hypothermia in extreme cases

Capital crisis= cardiac arrest, fast pulse, high blood pressure

Disease outbreaks = whatever disease is widespread

Drought = dehydration, dry and flaking skin, rashes

Economic troubles/recession = common cold/fever, lethargy and fatigue

Flood = vomiting, kidney issues

Famine = malnourishment, hunger pains, eternal hunger

Earthquake = convulsions, dizziness, muscle cramps

Heatwave = heatstroke

Hurricane = dizziness, nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath

Political unrest = dizziness, nausea, headaches, stomach aches, mood swings, high blood pressure, auditory hallucinations, psychosis if severe

Tornado = dizziness, confusion, nausea, shortness of breath

Tsunamis = vomiting, dizziness, muscle cramps,

Volcanic eruptions = severe burns, high fever, coughing smoke, shortness of breath

Wildfires = burns, sometimes actual fire is visible, coughing smoke

And if there are any fatalities, other symptoms will show up depending on the death toll. symptoms such as PTSD, nightmares, hallucinations, and a profound sense of loss.

[morbidology]

In the annals of photojournalism, few images have the power to evoke the profound mixture of emotion and reflection as starkly as "The Vulture and the Little Girl." Captured by South African photojournalist Kevin Carter in March 1993, this harrowing photograph became a symbol of the Sudan famine and a stark commentary on the world’s response to human suffering.

In 1993, Sudan was gripped by a severe famine, a result of civil war and drought. The famine devastated the country, leading to widespread starvation and death. To bring global attention to the crisis, Carter, alongside other journalists, traveled to Sudan. It was in a small village near Ayod that Carter took the photograph that would become one of the most iconic and controversial images of the 20th century.

The photograph shows a frail, emaciated child collapsed on the ground, too weak to move, with a vulture ominously perched in the background, seemingly waiting for the child to die.

Published by The New York Times on March 26, 1993, the photograph immediately drew international attention. It became a catalyst for a global outcry and increased awareness of the Sudanese famine. However, the photograph also sparked significant controversy and ethical debate within the field of journalism and beyond.

Critics questioned Carter’s role and responsibilities as a photojournalist. Many were outraged that Carter had taken the photograph without helping the child. The photographer later stated that he waited about 20 minutes, hoping the vulture would fly away, and that he eventually chased the bird off. He left the scene after the child resumed her struggle towards a nearby feeding center.

Nevertheless, the moral dilemma persisted in public discourse: Should Carter have intervened rather than capturing the image?

Carter's photograph won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in 1994, cementing its place in history. Yet, the acclaim came at a significant personal cost. Haunted by the memories of his experiences in Sudan and the criticism he faced, Carter struggled with depression. On July 27, 1994, just months after receiving the Pulitzer, Carter took his own life.

In his suicide note, Carter wrote about the intense pain he experienced witnessing so much suffering and his inability to reconcile the horrors he documented with his role as an observer.

[v4narana-w0nderl4nd]

Aranara Mafia AU

-> Pt. 3

It was a normal day in Inazuma. Ever since the Impostor disappeared, the sakoku decree was re-established. Ever since then, Ei has been meditating in her Plane of Euthymia even more, while the Raiden Shogun puppet patrols around the entirety of Inazuma, killing any monsters that pose a threat to the people.

Aside from the sakoku decree, there's also a widespread drought, it even reached Inazuma despite the great distance.

The land became course, and sandy, while the waters around there also became violent and unpredictable, with waves coming through and sinking ships.

Unfortunately though, because of the sakoku decree and the famine, Naganohara fireworks isn't doing too well, as people aren't buying fireworks.

In fact, they've been losing fireworks, neither Yoimiya nor her father knows who's been stealing them.

So one day, Yoimiya decides to ask the Tenryou commission for an investigation. But after days, even weeks of investigating, nothing was found except for a leaf with a weird drawing and a sentence..? At the bottom saying

"Do not get involved with Children of the Forest."

A few weeks since the incident, Naganohara Fireworks got a customer, a rather odd one at that.

But, they requested a large amount of fireworks that cost lots of money, so they happily, albeit confusedly complied.

----------------------------------------------------------

Ei was meditating in her Plane of Euthymia when she heard a loud "BOOM".

She decides to ignore it, but another loud explosion follows.

So, she decides to go out and investigate,

Only to find Tenshukaku left as nothing but rubble and ash.

She runs to the city, panting and screaming out in both fear and confusion.

The entirety of Inazuma city is on fire, some houses are merely ashes on the ground now.

The sky is red, not from the setting sun but from the amount of explosives used. There's smoke everywhere and rubble.

The people have evacuated, while the shogun puppet remains missing.

Ei got on her knees and slapped herself, hoping that this is all a nightmare. But if this isn't a nightmare, then she regrets not hunting down the Impostor.

She feels as if this is divine punishment for failing to hunt the Impostor.

Suddenly, she heard a sound behind her.

A radish..? Holding a gun and pointing it directly at her head was staring right at her.

She collapses due to the fumes from the remains of her city.

She woke up, feeling relieved that that was all just a nightmare.

Until, she tries moving her body.

She finally opens her eyes and sees that she's no longer above ground.

Rather, her body's covered in tightly packed soil, with her head being the only part above ground.

She tries wiggling free until she feels water hit her hair.

She looks above and sees a cabbage??? Watering her.

She stares at it and it stares back

It then leaves and comes back with around 10 other cabbages.

Ei is now confused. She looks to her right and left and she sees..

Morax..?

-> Pt. 4

[fatehbaz]

Ecologies of Imperialism in Algeria, by Brock Cutler, begins with an account of food poisoning in nineteenth-century French Algeria. A deep rural crisis of drought and famine in the late 1860s had reduced the amount of fuelwood coming into the city of Algiers, leading one baker to use construction debris shipped to the colony from Paris to fire his bread oven in early 1869. The lead paint on that metropolitan rubble, product of Baron Haussmann’s transformation of the French capital, became a toxic element in the bread that sickened settlers in the colony. The author [...] treats this small episode as a microcosm of the divides, the unruly circulations, and the nonhuman actants and processes that characterized the early decades of colonial rule in Algeria, which the French invaded in 1830.

These divisions and circulations include those between metropole and colony, between modern and not modern, between person and environment, between human and nonhuman, and across the colonial frontier with Tunisia. [...]

---

The first [of three major narrative veins in Cutler's study involves] [...] bread [...], the consumption of wheat grown on the Mediterranean plains of Algeria [...]. The toxic bread affair of 1869, however, was a reminder that the distance between metropole and colony was not so great. [...] The second vein examines the production of new ecosystem relations [...]. [T]he violence of decades of uneven conquest and the confiscation, appropriation, and enclosure of land and its reorientation toward regional and international [European] markets between 1830 and 1870 thoroughly destabilized rural Algerian life. This fragility turned lethal in the final years of the 1860s, when a series of environmental crises - locust plagues and drought - caused widespread famine and ultimately the deaths of up to eight hundred thousand Algerians. [...] The emptied land and cheap labor that were outcomes of the environmental crises enabled [France] to complete the capitalist transformation of rural Algeria [...]. Another outcome of the environmental crisis was an increase in the number of rural Algerians migrating to cities, where they were perceived as both a threat to public order and a reservoir of potential labor energy. [...]

[D]ivisionary logics, including the line between city and countryside and the modern gendered subject, were being performed, produced, and reproduced in the context of environmental crisis.

---

[Another] major element [in Cutler's scholarship] [...] is an exploration of the complex politics of policing French Algeria’s eastern border with Tunisia, in the era before French colonial rule began in the latter polity in 1881. [...] [T]his border, officially demarcated in 1846, was only integrated into local ecosystem relations over the course of subsequent decades. Repeated performance of sovereignty through patrols and taxation of pastoral communities that lived and worked in the frontier commons instantiated the border, but the border region remained resistant to the forms of modern statecraft, such as standardization, bureaucratization, and written transactions, that French authorities preferred. [...] [Cutler] draws on intentionally “mundane” examples to show how they were critical to the steady reproduction of a modern imperial border (p. 47). [...] [A specific] episode of transborder [dispute] [...] in 1869 [...] became a referndum within the settler community on the virtues of military rule and a reminder for that [European] community of [supposed] indigenous incompatability with modernity. [...]

[T]he various divisions illuminated by the story - between modern and not, between inside and outside, and between European and Algerian - were performances staged at various times and places, not eternal features of the society or landscape. The repetition of “divisionary logics,” in the author’s telling, were at the heart of French colonial modernity (p. 149). [...]

---

[T]horough reading of the French colonial archive, from official sources as well as memoirs, newspapers, and periodicals [...], [t]he first two narrative threads, on bread and disaster, demonstrate the significance of moments of crisis [...] in actually changing the course of history [...] [and] longer-term [...] ecological transformations. The other thread, however, examines how the mundane performance of modern sovereign power and its divisionary logics, over time, made real or even naturalized the new imperial frontier between Algeria and Tunisia. Both [...] society-wide crises or the steady performance of the mundane logics of power [...].

---

All text above by: Jackson Perry. "Review of Cutler, Brock. Ecologies of Imperialism in Algeria". H-Environment, H-Net Reviews. April 2024. Published online at: h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=59842. [Text within brackets added by me for clarity. Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[marzipanandminutiae]

Hi! I’ve seen you mention it in passing (not sure if you’ve discussed it at length), but could you either drop some knowledge about the mini ice age of the Victorians (Edwardians?) and/or share any sources you may have about it? I find it fascinating (and also dream of living through a mini ice age instead of the boiling hellscape we live in now), but can’t seem to find much information about it. Much appreciated if you’re able to help!

Oh yeah, the little ice age! You’ll find more about it if you search using that term – it has a whole Wikipedia page. It seems to be kind of complicated. Scholars can’t really reach a consensus on when exactly it happened (the most common dating seems to be from the 16th to the mid-19th century?) And many now believe that it was actually several smaller periods of colder than average temperatures interspersed with relative warming.

I’ve also found that people tend to be very quick to ascribe historical fashions in particular to much colder temperatures. While that was a thing in some places and it sometimes, I’ve also looked into, say, the oldest recorded temperature records for here in Boston (1890s) and found that yes, they did in fact have to deal with many of the same summer temperatures that we have today. The probability of intense heat was different, and most notably the nights got much cooler than they tend to do in modern summer, so don’t mistake me for a climate change denier. But it’s not always as simple as saying “oh, it was colder back then, so they could wear all those layers!“ Sometimes they wore all those layers when it was exactly the same temperature as it is today

Also, while it does sound vastly appealing from our current perspective, don’t feel too nostalgic – the Little Ice Age did cause widespread drought, crop failure, and famine.

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

Is This the Last Dance Before the Lights Go Out?

I hate to say it, because it’s not very solarpunk, but it feels a bit fin de siècle here right now. Like we’re in the last days of normality before we fall off the cliff. Every time we have a nice moment—in the late spring splendor of the garden, for instance, or even just when walking the dog through the fields—we stop, Spouse and I, and tell one another to enjoy it. Because feels like that in the midst of the cataclysms that are about to strike us, we’re going to look back at these little things and wonder how we could have taken them for granted.

And it’s not just us who’s feeling this way. Lately, when we have dinner with friends or chat with our neighbors, at some point, the group converges suddenly upon such thoughts. Be grateful for these moments, we murmur to each other, where we can relax together on our backyard patio, drinking cold white wine, and watch the sunset. Understand that they’re a luxury. Such days are numbered and once they’re gone, not all of us, and maybe not even any of us, will see their likes again.

Who can blame us for seeping in this bittersweet gloom? A perfect storm doesn’t just seem to be looming, it feels like it’s adding elements to itself all the time.

At first it was just the global warming we are still failing to address. But now it’s clear that this global warming is not just bringing deadly heatwaves, droughts, bigger and more frequent storms, sea level rise, and flooding, it’s also threatening to collapse patterns of ocean circulation within the next decade or two such that northern European temperatures will drop to resemble those in Anchorage, Alaska, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, and Kamchatka, Russia. On top of all the other disastrous effects this would have—including sudden massive heating of lower latitude areas along the Atlantic—just imagine what would happen if farming were no longer possible in such heavily populated places like Britain, Ireland, northern Germany (where I live now!), Poland, and all of Scandinavia. Food prices soaring all over the world, anyone? Plus widespread famine (and not just in Europe) and the collapse of major economies? If we were young enough to start over again and had the money to move, I’d say we decamp back to my home state of California before climate change turns us into actual refugees. I’m sure I’ll kick myself in five, ten, or fifteen years when saying our garden full of potatoes and the neighbor’s Muscovy ducks and alpacas will be what gets us through the winter here without starving is not just a matter of gallows humor.

Meanwhile, we’re balking at getting the renewable energy revolution going fast enough soon enough to avoid environmental disaster. And why are we balking? Because it’s “too expensive” or because we just don’t want to change anything about the way we live, although these arguments are ridiculous because the cost of doing nothing is astronomically higher and the changes are coming anyway.

We’re also refusing to reverse the widening wealth gap that’s ultimately what’s driving people into voting for the far right, neo–Nazis, and other politicians with authoritarian urges and the desire to destroy democracy… even though these people and political parties will only add fuel to the fires that need to be put out.

Then there is all that misinformation and all the conspiracy theories that seem so perfectly constructed to stop us from working sensibly together to tackle the existential environmental, economic, and social problems that are making it increasingly harder for us to thrive, or often, even to survive.

On top of all that, here in Europe, we have the added issue of the political failures of the post–Cold War period that have had us sleepwalking into a dangerous situation with a resurgently imperialistically hungry Russia. After the Wall came down and the Iron Curtain opened, European politicians thought we could just be friends and trading partners with Russia. Because Russia’s interest in selling us natural gas and crude oil would weave them into our economic world and make them value our markets enough for them never to want to wage war on us ever again. Thus would we lull them into peaceful capitalist prosperity and democracy.

Cozy in that lazy thinking, Europe dropped its guard, domesticating itself rather than its enemy. Its armies grew thin and its stocks of weapons and military machinery thinner. Today, countries like Germany would need the greater part of a decade to build up enough weapons, equipment, and trained manpower to wage even a strictly defensive war. It’s not much different for any other country in Europe. Which is not the position you want to be in when one of your neighbors starts dreaming of their glorious imperialistic past.

To hear politicians and analysts tell it, unless some political miracle convinces Putin to remove crush western democracy from his bucket list, we have three to five years to prepare for war. Such a miracle might be as simple as a heart attack. More likely it involves a sudden splurge in funding to beef up European defenses ASAP plus upcoming elections handing power over neither to the far right in Europe nor to the raging danger that is Donald Trump nor to the Republicans party that has been taken over by people who’ve lost their tether to common sense, compassion, and reality. In other words, yes, we really are talking about a miracle.

I’m no professional, but from my little perch here in Northern Germany, having as long as three to five years feels optimistic. Ukraine is all that is standing between Putin and the massive expansion of his war. If Trump and the Republicans roll into the White House, that’s got to bump up the war is coming to us timeline to... sometime next year or the one thereafter. Seems to me, anyway, because Trump & Co will pull US support out from under Ukraine faster than you can say God damn the electoral college and then she will fall.

Won’t that be the start of the wider war, for the next stops will be Baltic states, like Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Sweden, and Poland, plus neighboring countries like Moldova? Or maybe it won’t even wait that long. Knowing this danger for Estonia, Estonia’s current leader has already more or less said that, in order to save Estonia, they’ll give everything the country has, in terms of funding and military support, to stop Russia from taking Ukraine. And since Estonia is a member of NATO, as soon as they do more than send funding and equipment, doesn’t that drag a huge chunk of Europe straight into the war, even before Ukraine falls entirely to Russian aggression?

Again, I’m no professional on this front, I just live here. But likewise, it’s also hard to see how it will be as long as three to five years before we’re all at war, given how zealously Russia is working to undermine peace, prosperity, and political stability in the West and how feebly we’re counteracting this. Russia takes a mile for every inch we give them, spreading misinformation, causing destabilizing political problems, and committing not even terribly covert acts of sabotage. This sowing of dissent aims to weaken western countries and coalitions ahead of the overt war Russia plans to wage on us. We totally know this! But our politicians are too frightened to retaliate against this hybrid war against us , lest it trigger a real war between us. You can all but hear Putin laughing into our timid faces. Real war is coming anyway!

All of that (plus a bunch of other equally dismal stuff that I haven’t had room to mention) is why living in Europe right now feels like the last dance before the lights go out.

Is it any wonder my thoughts have also recently frequently turned to how such a war would unfold?

Will tanks speed down the little lane we live on? (Honestly, actually, I’ve seen that already, because I think back in summer of 2022, they were training Ukrainian soldiers to drive Marder armored vehicles around here. There was a week when every time I looked out the window, one was zipping by… and let me tell you, it’s amazing how fast these things can race by.)

Will bombs flatten our house?

What can I do to prepare for what is coming? I live in Germany, a couple of hours from the Polish border. So, there is somewhat of a buffer there, but not a huge one. It isn’t inconceivable that there might be fighting here, or that we’d be the target of drones.

I don’t mean to be self–centered about this. There’s a whole lot of destruction and carnage that has to happen to other people and other countries before battles happen here. But it’s not right to just shrug this looming war off by thinking oh, well, it won’t happen here.

I feel like, at my age, I’d make a terrible solider. Never mind that I’ve never been great at blindly following orders, I’m small, middle aged, out of shape, and full of asthma and allergies and chronic injuries, the battle scars from too much fun and soccer playing in my twenties, too much swilling of diet soda, and too much stress in my career. Yet, wouldn’t it make more sense for me to go and fight than it would for someone in their late teens or twenties (or even thirties), who has so much more of life in front of them? Spouse says, well, it would be our jobs to do all the jobs that wouldn’t be getting done if a good chunk of the young men were off fighting. We’d be farming, or helping out in hospitals, or riding around in garbage trucks. I don’t know if that would really feel like doing enough. Part of me thinks he’d be among the first to sign up if Germany gets invaded, even the current work that he’s doing would be critical to maintaining Germany’s renewable energy infrastructure.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about how we live about 100 miles from the nearest city that would likely be hit by nuclear weapons, should things get that bad. I think that means we’d be the ones to die of radiation sickness, unless we could stay in a fallout shelter for the couple of weeks it takes the most acutely dangerous radionuclides to decay away. But, of course, like everyone else here, we haven’t got one in our backyard. We don’t even have a cellar. And I don’t want to die in an old abandoned local potato cellar or in one of the dank cubbyholes that passes for a cellar under some of the neighboring houses.

So, I haven’t just started thinking, whelp, even though I finally let us work down the supplies of toilet paper and canned goods I began hoarding in February 2020, it’s time to build up the collection again. I’ve started wondering how I could maybe turn our downstairs guest bedroom into a fallout shelter. It’s already got brick walls and a concrete ceiling. They’re not thick enough, but it’s a good start. What if I bricked up the window and then lined all the walls with another layer of bricks? Would that do, so long as I solved the issue of the flimsy wooden door? Also, could we rejig our solar panels to use them as an island, isolated from the grid, so that we’d have lights and could run a pump a few hours a day to bring air in through a Hepa filter? We could pee into buckets and poop into ziploc baggies, but how would we deal with the dog? With paper, pens, pencils, and maybe even our laptops, and maybe even something as decadent as an exercise bike, at least we wouldn’t die of boredom. Oh… a radio! And batteries. I’d better add that to my mental list.

Then, the dilemma. We have our anniversary coming up. Should I buy him a Geiger counter? Or would it be better to wait until Christmas? Or his birthday early next year? Or can I put it off even longer than that? I don’t want to buy one if I don’t need to buy one, but I don’t want to wait until it’s too late and be unable to get one and then die because we left the fallout shelter too soon, or didn’t realize we had a leak that was letting in dusty radioactive fallout.

But, honestly, argh! I have never in my life been afraid of the future. I even made it through the entire 1980s without having more than the occasional flicker of anxiety about dying in a nuclear war. But now thoughts like these are tying my stomach in knots and keeping me awake deep into the night.

As much as I love solarpunk, and as much as I believe in solarpunk’s vision of a great future that doesn’t require that we go through an apocalypse first, it’s hard to be optimistic about that right now. I cannot shake this feeling that our systems have been so broken and the changes we need to make to the way we do everything are so great that the only way forward is for it all to fall apart. It is hard to shake the feeling that we truly are about to go over that cliff.

That doesn’t mean I won’t stop fighting for the changes we need to make to avoid catastrophe on our way to a sustainable future. But I’m still stuck with the melancholy of these very possibly being the last nice days I will see for either a while or the entire rest of my life.

[jkl-fff]

(I'm just gonna keep using stickers till I find a real dumb one)

Congrats! Your superpowers developed and you've been classed as a super hero!

To make it official, the paperwork needs to be filled out, including the answer to what your weakness is.

(don't worry, we'll keep it safeguarded behind top notch security. It's just a failsafe in case you turn evil/have an evil doppelganger or twin/get cloned (evilly).

Ah, but your bureaucratic regulations failed to take into account one thing: I never signed on to be a superhero pawn of this capitalist oligarchy we call modern society.

In fact, I think I'll inaugurate my entry into supervillainy* BY REFUSING TO FILL OUT THE OFFICIAL PAPERWORK! MWAHAHAHA! TREMBLE BEFORE ME, THE ... um ... ICONOCLAST! (working title)

*Is it not more villainous to uphold an oppressive status quo? What truth is there in governments that deny humanitarian crises (genocides, climate change and pollution, humanmade droughts and famines, etc.) and wallow in corruption? What justice in systems built on exploitation, widespread disenfranchisement, and systemic prejudice? What good comes from enforcing "the American Way"?

I shall be branded a villain by those in power, no doubt. But hopefully the downtrodden and oppressed will see I fight for them.

[pakkiyick]

The Great Archer and the Moon Goddess

Once upon a time, the God of the Eastern Heavens had ten unfilial sons. All ten Sun Children were too naughty to be disciplined and they disobeyed their mother’s order to go into the sky together. The irresponsible deeds of the spoiled urchins set off a catastrophe of epic proportions. Everyone in the mortal world was suffering from scorching heat. The prolonged blistering heat led to widespread droughts and crop failure. Humans were on the verge of death from famine.

Hou Yi was one of the gods living in Heaven who was good at archery. He was a heroic deity with strong determination. With his superb archery skill and formidable willpower, Yi was crowned as Lord Archer and was trusted by the Supreme God of All the Heavens. Chang E was Yi’s wife, who was a goddess with breathtaking beauty beyond description. Alongside her cherished spouse, she led a contented life in heaven.

The Supreme God of All the Heavens sent Lord Yi to teach the mischievous kids a lesson and save the people from untold miseries. Yi lived up to people's expectation and shot down nine suns in a row, left only one sun in the sky. From then on, common people were free from sweltering heat of multiple suns, and enjoyed light and warmth from the only sun.

Though the problem of searing heat was solved for good, people's lives had not yet returned to normal. There were three ferocious monsters kept ravaging every corner of the territory and caused terrible disaster to all citizens. Again, Yi successfully killed those fierce beasts and bring peace to the land.

Hailed as a hero on earth for the contribution to the country, Yi irritated the God of the Eastern Heavens since he murdered nine of God’s sons. As a result, Yi and his wife, Chang E, were banished from the Heavens forever. The couple lost their immortality and had to face the fate of dying as mortals. In order to avoid death and return to heaven, Yi set out a dangerous journey to find the Queen Mother of the West, who was the one who knew how to make the Elixir of Life.

Recognizing his considerable contribution to the mankind, the Queen Mother of the West awarded Yi with two phials of the Elixir of Life. Anyone who took one of the phials would become immortal on the earth, while taking two phials at the same time would enable the taker to return to the Heavens alone.

Yi originally planned to have an immortal life with his beloved wife together on earth, but Chang E betrayed her husband and drank all the phials on her own. The moment she took the elixir, her body was growing lighter and lighter, and eventually flew to the moon. Once landing on a deserted realm, Chang E found herself was in a cold and desolate place. Since then, the selfish goddess dwelled alone forever in the Palace of the Moon, with only a jade rabbit to keep her company.

To remember Chang E, Chinese people worship the moon by eating moon-shaped desserts called Mooncakes on the fifteenth day of the eighth month when the moon is at its fullest and brightest.

Entering the 21st century, China has launched a series of lunar exploration programs, sending multiple robotic spacecrafts Chang’e and robotic rovers Yutu ("Jade Rabbit") to land on the moon’s surface for scientific research. With the success of space program, China became the third country to set foot on the moon after the former Soviet Union and the United States.

[lifeofresulullah]

The Life of The Prophet Muhammad(pbuh): The Battle of Khandaq and Afterwards

The Expedition of Is

(6th year of the Migration, the month of Jumadalula)

It was heard in Madinah that a trade caravan belonging to the Qurayshi polytheists was going to Makkah from Damascus.

The Prophet sent a group of cavalrymen consisting of one hundred and seventy people under the command of Zayd b. Haritha in order to capture that caravan and to leave the Qurayshi polytheists in a difficult situation economically.

The mujahids confronted the Qurayshi caravan in a place called Is. They captured the goods in the caravan and held the people captive. Abu���l As b. Rabi, the husband of Hazrat Zaynab, the daughter of the Prophet was among the captives.

The mujahids took the goods and the captives to Madinah. The Prophet divided the goods among the mujahids.

Abu’l-As is Released

Abu’l-As said to Zaynab, “Ask your father to free me.”

Zaynab told the Muslims that she took Abu’l As under protection. The Prophet said to his daughter, “We also took under protection the person that you took under protection.”

Hazrat Zaynab asked the Prophet to return the goods of Abu’l As that were taken as booty. The Prophet asked the mujahids to return them. The mujahids returned all of the goods that they had taken to him.

Abu’l-As Declares that He is a Muslim

Abu’l As returned to Makkah with the goods that were returned to him. He gave the goods to their owners. Then he said, “O Qurayshis! Does anybody have any goods or rights to take from me?” They said,

“No. We have no goods or rights to claim from you.”

The spiritual mood of Abu’l As had changed due to the generous treatment of the Messenger of God, his wife Zaynab and Muslims. He explained it to the Qurayshi polytheists as follows:  

“By God, the only thing that prevented me from becoming a Muslim was my concern that you would rumor, ‘He became a Muslim to take our goods.’ However, I have delivered your goods to you now. I witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the slave and Messenger of God!”

Then, Abu’l-As returned to Madinah having the honor of being a Muslim. The Prophet married Zaynab off to him again.

ABDURRAHMAN B. AWF IS SENT TO DUMATU’L-JANDAL

(6th year of the Migration, the month of Shaban)

In this month, the Prophet prepared a company of seven hundred people under the command of Abdurrahman b. Awf. The duty of the company was to call the people of the land of Dumatu’l-Jandal to Islam.

When the Messenger of God gave the standard to Abdurrahman b. Awf, he addressed the mujahids after praising God:  

“Fight in the way and in the name of God! Fight the unbelievers! Do not betray the goods of booty! Do not violate your agreements! Do not cut off the noses, ears and similar organs of the people that you killed! Do not kill small children!”

Then, the Prophet preached Muslims in general as follows:

“O people! I take refuge in God from five misfortunes that will hit you:

When ugly acts become widespread and are committed openly in a community, unprecedented diseases, pains and agonies will appear.

When a nation deals in fraud and gives less than due when they give by measure or weight, they will suffer famine and drought, financial difficulty and oppression.

If a nation does not pay zakah (alms) for their goods, they will lack rain.

If a nation violates the treaty of God and His Messenger, their enemy will attack on them. The enemy will take some of their possessions.

When the rulers of a nation do not act in accordance with the Quran, when they avoid applying the decrees of God, God will cause discord and battles among them.”

After that, Abdurrahman b. Awf set off toward Dumatu’l-Jandal together with the Muslims under his command. When he arrived there, he called them to Islam. He repeated his call for three days.

On the third day, Asbagh b. Amr al-Kalbi, their leader, who was a Christian, became a Muslim. Many people embraced Islam with him.[7]Those who did not become Muslims stayed there on condition that they paid jizyah (a kind of tax paid by non-Muslims).

When the Prophet saw Abdurrahman b. Awf and the mujahids off, the Prophet had said to him, “If they embrace Islam, marry the daughter of their leader.”

Upon this order of the Prophet, Abdurrahman married Tumadir, the daughter of Asbagh, their leader; then, he returned to Madinah together with her and the Muslims.

THE FIRST RAIN PRAYER OF THE PROPHET

There was a big drought and famine in the 6th year of the Migration.

While reciting the sermon on a Friday in the month of Ramadan, the Messenger of God was asked, “Pray God to send us rain.”

Thereupon, the Prophet prayed, “O God! Send us rain! O God! Send us rain! O God! Send us rain!”

All of a sudden, the sky which was as clear as a mirror, became full of clouds and it started to rain.

Then, the Prophet prayed, “O God! Make it rain heavily and make it beneficial for us.”

Anas b. Malik says,

“It rained so much that we could hardly go to our houses. It rained that day, the next day, the day after that day until the next Friday.”

While reciting the sermon on the next Friday, the Prophet was asked to pray God to stop the rain this time. They said:

“O Messenger of God! The houses started to collapse; the roads were blocked. Will you pray God to stop the rain?”

The Messenger of God smiled, opened his hand by raising them and prayed, “O God! Send the rain around us not on us.”

Anas b. Malik says,

“While the Messenger of God was praying, the parts of the sky to which he pointed became clear, and Madinah became like an open square. It was raining around Madinah but not even one raindrop fell on Madinah. The people who came from outside Madinah said it was raining a lot there.”

It was the first rain prayer performed by the Messenger of God. He performed five more rain prayers at different times after that.

[ecowarrior-1]

1.Climate Catastrophes: Failure to address climate change could lead to extreme weather events like severe hurricanes, droughts, floods, and heatwaves becoming more frequent and intense, disrupting ecosystems and causing mass displacement of populations.

2.Biodiversity Collapse: Continued habitat destruction, pollution, and overexploitation of resources may result in a rapid decline in biodiversity. This could lead to the extinction of numerous species, disrupting ecosystems and affecting food chains.

3.Water Scarcity: Mismanagement and overuse of water resources could lead to widespread water scarcity, affecting agriculture, industries, and communities. This could trigger conflicts and humanitarian crises in regions already facing water stress.

4.Food Insecurity: Environmental degradation, loss of arable land, and disruption of agricultural patterns due to climate change may lead to food shortages, malnutrition, and famine, particularly in vulnerable regions.

5.Oceanic Collapse: Continued pollution, overfishing, and ocean acidification could lead to the collapse of marine ecosystems, affecting fisheries, livelihoods, and the balance of life on Earth as oceans play a critical role in regulating climate.

6.Resource Depletion: Unsustainable consumption of finite resources, such as fossil fuels, minerals, and forests, could result in their depletion, leading to energy crises, economic instability, and loss of essential natural habitats.

7.Health Crisis: Environmental degradation and pollution contribute to various health problems, including respiratory diseases, contamination of water sources, and the spread of infectious diseases, impacting human health on a global scale.

8.Irreversible Damage to Ecosystems: The destruction of vital ecosystems such as rainforests, coral reefs, and wetlands could lead to irreversible damage, disrupting crucial ecological processes and accelerating the loss of biodiversity.

9.Rising Sea Levels: Melting polar ice caps and glaciers due to global warming could lead to a rise in sea levels, threatening coastal cities and low-lying areas with flooding, displacement of millions, and loss of valuable infrastructure.

10.Global Instability: The cumulative effects of these environmental crises could lead to social and political instability, triggering conflicts over resources, mass migrations, and a breakdown of global econ

Addressing these challenges requires immediate and concerted efforts towards sustainable practices, renewable energy adoption, conservation of natural resources, and global cooperation to mitigate the potential catastrophic consequences of unsustainable living.

omies and governance systems.

[xipiti]

The aerosol fallout from wildfires that burned across more than 70,000 square miles of Australia in 2019 and 2020 was so persistent and widespread that it brightened a vast area of clouds above the subtropical Pacific Ocean.

Beneath those clouds, the ocean surface and the atmosphere cooled, shifting a key tropical rainfall belt northward and nudging the Equatorial Pacific toward an unexpected and long-lasting cool phase of the La Niña-El Niño cycle, according to research published today in Science Advances.

Aerosols from wildfires are basically fire dust—microscopic bits of charred mineral or organic matter that can ride super-heated wildfire clouds up to the stratosphere and spread across hemispheres with varied climatic effects, depending on where they’re produced and where they end up.

In the new modeling study, the scientists quantified how aerosols from the Australian wildfires made clouds over the tropical Pacific reflect more sunlight back toward space. The cooling effect was equivalent to switching off a 3-watt light bulb over every square meter of the ocean region. And that cooling, their data showed, shifted the cloud and rain belt called the Intertropical Convergence Zone northward.

Combined, the effects may have helped trigger the rare three-year La Niña, from late 2019 through 2022. The impacts of the La Niña rippled around the world, intensifying drought and famine in Eastern Africa, and priming the Atlantic Ocean region for hurricanes, as 2020 became the most active tropical storm season on record with 31 tropical and subtropical systems, including 11 storms that made landfall in the US, including four alone in Louisiana.

More at link

[student-on-the-run]

Okay I know absolutely nothing about dungeon meshi aside from what I've seen on Tumblr. So y'all can crucify me if u want.

From what I know Laios is a Best Boi (TM) good and kind and everything, with kindness being a defining trait of his.

And the fandom seems to be so feral about Kabru that I pretty much have his entire backstory pop up on my dash on five different occasions.

Something that would work in a modern AU, with the same "monsters are not bad or evil, they simply are" logic.... It would not be animals or insects or whatever....

It would be genome manipulation/ disease/ etc.

Hear me out.

We've come far enough that genome manipulation is more widespread than we'd like. It has horrific economical, political and ecological ramifications (companies patenting a genome, but the crops are still crops and pollen goes through the air and the genome contaminates random farmers' lands.... Which leads corporations to sue farmers to bankruptcy because "PaTenTeD" and basically create absolute monopoly. Original crops disappear but we realise that the GMO ones are invasive/aren't viable in certain parts of the worlds etc.... Bear with me, this was a big part of my field of study but I didn't study it in English so my domain-specific lingo isn't translating well)

ANYWAYS. So imagine this : Kabru comes from a country that was struck with famine, due to droughts etc (hello global warming), and rich countries aid came in the form of GMO crops. Basically "too bad we can't get your original crops and agriculture to continue because we as humans fucked up the planet, but we can give you this lab-gown stuff"

Except that GMOs (some of them) are still experimental. They react differently to the environment, and to the bodies that ingest them. A diet consisting of GMO crops that we're never before introduced to his community actually caused a deadly plague to spread way too fast. He was the only survivor of his community, and the death toll in his country is horrifying.

He leaves and decides to fight this with all he has. The politics of it, the science of it, the economy of it, everything.

Laios works in a bio-engineering lab and is a part time chef. For him, GMOs, while they may do a lot of harm if done wrong, can save so many starving people. Stronger crops, less pesticides, more resilient land.... It could help regrow near-extinct species that our ecosystem desperately needs. It could help so so so much. And he is so full of hope.

And as a chef, he tests every single crop on himself.

Anyways, they meet, and whatever shenanigans you want ensue. I don't know enough about the story to continue. I just spent years in bio-engineering (scientific+ legal + political POV) and had this idea.

lrt (rb?) labru is such a nightmare couple when transposed to a modern au. in canon there are Reasons for kabru's fixation and their fascinating dynamic, including: concern for the island's political future, kabru's trauma lending to a particular world view that laios challenges, and post-canon power dynamics. in a modern setting?? what could these guys possibly have going on. poli-sci student obsessed with the guy who mops the floor at the nearby corner store

[ainews]

In 1649, Gabon found itself in an unprecedented crisis. After two years of drought, a widespread famine was devastating the region, claiming hundreds of lives. With no way to generate what little food was available, the people of Gabon were in desperate need of a miracle.

Enter the knotty naga, an old talisman said to possess many magical powers. Worn around the throats of the people of Gabon, this knotty naga was believed to bring fortune, luck, and, importantly, rain.

Desperate to save their people, the Gabonese government officially requested that a member of the royal family, Prince Mawillu, wear the knotty naga. Prince Mawillu accepted the profound honor and wore the naga with great dignity.

Shortly after, due to an unlikely, but welcome, amount of rainfall, the famine was put to an end. This was seen as a sign of the naga’s power, and the knotty naga remained in the royal family ever since.

Throughout the years, the knotty naga has become an important symbol of Gabon. It is seen as a reminder of the resilience of the Gabonese people and has proved a sign of their strength and survival. Indeed, even today, the knotty naga is presented to new generations as a reminder of the country’s hard-fought journey.

[nsfwhiphop]

Fun Fact about Somalia.

Question:

Has Somalia become a globally significant nation in recent years due to its ongoing political instability, terrorism, and foreign interventions, similar to how Cuba was during the Cold War?

ChatGPT Answer:

Yes, Somalia has gained global significance in recent years, much like Cuba during the Cold War, though the context differs. Somalia has been at the center of international attention primarily due to its prolonged political instability, security challenges, and strategic location in the Horn of Africa.

Political Instability: Since the collapse of its central government in 1991, Somalia has faced decades of internal conflict, clan-based fighting, and weak governance. Efforts to establish a stable central government have been met with challenges, drawing attention from regional and global powers.

Terrorism and Extremism: The rise of the terrorist group Al-Shabaab, which has carried out attacks within Somalia and across the region, has made Somalia a focus of global counterterrorism efforts. The U.S., African Union, and neighboring countries like Kenya and Ethiopia have been deeply involved in military operations against the group, making Somalia a frontline in the fight against extremism.

Foreign Interventions and Geopolitics: Somalia’s strategic location along key maritime trade routes in the Gulf of Aden has made it a point of interest for global powers. Piracy off its coast became a major international issue in the 2000s, leading to naval patrols by the U.S., NATO, and other nations. Additionally, foreign powers like Turkey, Qatar, and the UAE have become involved in Somalia’s political and economic spheres, creating a complex web of foreign influence.

Humanitarian Crisis: Years of conflict, combined with drought and famine, have led to a severe humanitarian crisis in Somalia. Millions of people face food insecurity and displacement, leading to international relief efforts and widespread concern over the country's future.

Somalia’s strategic location, the threat of terrorism, and the involvement of global powers in its affairs have made it a country of international importance, much like Cuba during the Cold War, though driven by different factors.