#20th of 75

[brian-in-finance]

Gif: @clairelizfraser

S02E04 La Dame Blanche • 30 April 2016 Transcript

Outlander Rewatch 2023 Countdown To Season 7

Favourite Word

We need to stage the occasion to undercut Charles, lead him to make a mistake in front of the duke and expose himself for the delusional popinjay that he is. — Jamie

Favourite Line

I'm fascinated by things not of this time. — Master Raymond

Photo: Starz

Favourite Image

Glass shatters. Men fight. Men grunt…

Gifs: @geillisduncane

Remember I told you I was lost?… Well, I think... perhaps you've built me a lean-to... at the least. And a roof... to keep out the rain. — Jamie Fraser

20th of 75 • Saturday, 22 April 2023

#Tait rhymes with hat #Good times #Outlander #Rewatch 2023 #Countdown To Season 7 #20th of 75 #S02E04 La Dame Blanche #Aired 30 April 2016 #Rewatched 22 April 2023

[agallimaufryofoddments]

Checking the Fate/strange fake TV special again, and that PV from 2019 again, and wow, yep, two hours later and it’s still surreal that these are characters written by Narita who are speaking audible words against mainstream J-Pop music for a megafranchise with more fans and money that any original Narita IP could ever conceive of.

Narita characters...who are speaking and will in two months be speaking dialogue Narita has written for light novels he has published. Narita’s name in huge typeface for a TV special which may or may not be a prelude for a summer anime that mainstream audiences are going to care about.

The TV special teaser is frankly underwhelming only because the first two thirds of it is just a build-up list of Fate anime until now (2004...F/sn! 2010...title! 2012...title etc.!), except of course it’s building up to, this, “the next Fate,” Fate/strange fake, and that, I concede, is hyping F/sf up. It is treating F/sf like a big deal, or at least worthy enough to be included in the line-up of all those other notable Fate entries. 

I can see why people think it’s portending a summer TV anime. Sawano as composer, teaser as self-important for a self-important franchise...what I’m getting at is... The teaser is treating F/sf like such a big deal in a way that Baccano! never quite got (and, hell, Durarara!! was popular enough, but just...not this popular), so it leaves me with slight bittersweet wistfulness over what could have been with Baccano!

“Wow...  Imagine a 2023 twentieth anniversary Baccano! anime treating the source material with this much magnitude. wheeze”

(No, hype and magnitude never guarantee the actual product will be well-executed, but c’mon, it’s not worth being spitefully pessimistic when what the hell, that’s Narita being treated like a big deal right there.)

#Fate franchise #Fate/strange fake #F/sf #Even if 75% of people don't notice his name in the credits! #Imagine a B! anime website made in 2023 what the gee willickers. #I think I've said this before but if a miraculous anything happens next year for B!'s 20th anniversary and some B! website needs to happen #they had better go the Durarara!! route and preserve the 2007 anime website exactly how it is—thereby showing it with some goldang respect. #how about treating his original works with more respect than his secondary works rabblerouse rabblerouse #No I am not so silly as to think F/sf will cause a Narita renaissance where people actually read something besides Durarara!! #The 2023 Narita Renaissance / Year of Narita is just a nice little fantasy I like to entertain myself with #and I'm not about to let a little big thing about F/sf being animated do the opposite of crushing that dream. #No no no. The majority of F/sf viewers will likely be only marginally aware of Narita and not bother to look into him f*rther #and I'm going to keep my expectations low—I'm going to put them right next to my expectations for B! Vol. 23 and Vamp! VI and EB 5656! II

[quirkeduptransguy]

Oh BOY I got 80 dollars you know what this means!!!!!! (blow most of it on blood brothers stuff)

#evil neighing compilation #yeah. yeah #what else was I gonna do #I’ve been eying up a signed young machetes cd and iirc it was like 75 bucks or smth?? yeah #so maybe not that but I’ll have to think about it #sooo much stuff in the world #im refraining from acquiring a crimes vinyl currently since it’s the 20th anniversary of that thang #so I’m hoping they come out with a deluxe edition 4 that too #and if I got a crimes vinyl before that. that’d not be good #and I know they’re def coming out with a crimes vinyl cause like. come the fuck on #if they don’t release one I’d be genuinely shocked #miiight buy an as brass and satin cd i saw but I’m hoping to buy it through. not Amazon #but that’s gonna be hard since yknow it’s. a very obscure album #SIDE NOTE if anypony sees any listing for anything blood bros related that I’d probs be interested #SEND IT!!!!!!!!!!!

[devotedlystrangewizard]

ALSO i tried studying for my history exam tomorrow and my brain was screaming mama sč all day happy holy shit im failing my exam because of anti-war drag grandpas

#listen ok i tried #but the british empire is NOTTTT a fun topic to learn about #its not interesting. i dont CARE. fuck them #idk HOW im remembering the germany in the 20th century terms (dawes plan trumandoctrine etc) but they are there! #its all so... much #half the shit we need to know is just holy wars. 'they didnt like that those people were catholic so they made war about it' #and thats like. 75% of what i need to know #but also when i had to explain the separation between west & east europe to an american friend #for a moment. #i was grateful for my education #like the us was partially behind the divide and you??? didnt know???

[i-am-aprl]

'GERMANY'S LOST PLOT OVER GAZA

Why can't Germany or any country in the EU call out Israel's genocide in Gaza? Irish MEP Mick Wallace asks the question as he rips into the bloc with this thumping speech at the European Parliament.

After rattling off the grim Palestinian death toll, he wonders how Berlin can stay silent, given its role in World War Two's holocaust and its little-known genocide in Africa. That saw over 75% of Namibia's Herero and Nama people killed, with their skulls shipped to Europe. Historians regard it as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Listen to Wallace's fiery soundbite. There were a few claps but mainly silence afterwards. Says it all.

#Germany #palestine #gaza #free palestine #israel #jerusalem #فلسطين #free gaza #israel is a terrorist state #i stand with palestine #eu #europe #Namibia #berlin #wwii #israel is committing genocide #israeli war crimes

[mornington-the-crescent]

The Poll

So, for those who don’t know, I put up a poll of, “Who was the worst American President?” The list was FDR, Woodrow Wilson, Lyndon Johnson, Herbert Hoover, and Richard Nixon. It got up to about 13k notes before I deleted it, because I was tired of the notes clogging up my feed. And the results were... telling.

About 75-80% of all the notes were, “Where is Reagan/Andrew Jackson?!?” Many of the rest, though, can be seen below:

What this tells me is that more than ten thousand people didn’t have an education; they had an indoctrination.

You want to hear it? All right, buckle up, because it’s time for a stroll down memory lane.

Why was FDR a bad president?

It is almost hard to know where to begin with this. Let’s start with one of the most basic ones: The belief that FDR got us out of the Depression.

Point of fact, No the fuck he did not.

Making American Depressed

If you ask almost any historian or economist, they will tell you flat-out that not only did the New Deal not end the Great Depression, but that it made it significantly longer and worse than it would have been otherwise. Hoover bears some of the blame for this, but the pseudo-socialist dogshit that was the New Deal bears the brunt of the blame for this one.

The stock market crashed in late October, 1929. Two months later, unemployment peaked at 9%. Over the next several months, unemployment started to fall, down to 5-6% by the spring of the next year. Half a year after the crash, unemployment had not hit double digits. Hoover’s intervention, though, did cause unemployment to reach double digits. Roosevelt was elected in 1932 and took office in 1933, and unemployment did not fall out of double digits for the remainder of the 1930′s. The thing that actually pulled the US out of the Depression was the second World War; turns out that removing roughly 12 million people from the labor force to go and fight does wonders for unemployment numbers. FDR even said that Doctor New Deal was replaced by Doctor Win-The-War.

This was hardly the first economic downturn in American history. For the first 150 years of this country, there were downturns all the time. And what the government did was nothing, and the economy recovered on its own. But Roosevelt represents the first massive large-scale intervention in the economy. And government intervention in the economy slows economic recovery; when you have no idea what the government is going to do tomorrow in regards to the economy, it’s hard to make smart financial decisions, so you just don’t bother. After all, why do anything if tomorrow, the rules of the game are going to change?

Separation of Powers Who?

FDR issued more executive orders than any other President of the 20th century. He may, in fact, have issued more than all the other Presidents of the 20th century combined. Rather than letting Congress, the legislative branch of government, you know, legislate, he preferred to try to do everything himself.

The President is supposed to be the weakest branch of the government, but Roosevelt did everything he could to try to establish its supremacy over the other branches. When Congress didn’t give him his way, he used executive orders. When the Supreme Court challenged some of his acts as unconstitutional, his response was to threaten to have them replaced, or to simply pack the court with judges more sympathetic to his aims. This is a man who was openly contemptuous of the concept of the rule of law.

Here’s a fun entry from the notes:

Hey, you want to talk about fascists? Actual, honest-to-goodness Fascists, not just the modern definition (i.e. anyone a nanometer to the right of Noam Chomsky)? Let’s talk about the originals. Let’s talk about the inventor of Fascism, Benito motherfucking Mussolini. And how FDR openly admired him, and was “deeply impressed by what he has accomplished”, calling Fascism the “cleanest, most efficiently operating piece of social machinery [he had] ever seen”, and that it made him “envious”. And Mussolini, for his part, said of Roosevelt that, “Reminiscent of Fascism is the principle that the state no longer leaves the economy to its own devices … Without question, the mood accompanying this sea change resembles that of Fascism.”

When the guy who fucking invented Fascism is saying that he thinks that you are also doing Fascism, then maybe you’re not a good person.

Concentration- I Mean, Internment Camps

And just like his buddies on the other side of the Atlantic, right when World War 2 kicked off, Roosevelt thought it would be a good idea to take “undesirables” and throw them into prison camps. Roughly 20 thousand Italian- and German-Americans, American citizens, were thrown into camps, simply for the crime of having ancestors from countries we were at war with. And then, of course, there’s the 120 thousand Japanese-Americans who were likewise rounded up and put into prison camps, two thirds of whom were natural-born American citizens.

Almost 150 thousand American citizens, thrown into literal concentration camps, without the bother and expense of due process, stripped of their constitutional rights simply on the basis of race.

As for the concentration camps set up in Europe by the Nazis, however? Despite being told of their existence by people who had escaped, as well as journalists and lawyers from Germany, once American planes gained the ability to attack those camps, to shut them down? FDR refused to grant them permission to do so.

Commander in Thief

Executive Order 6102 outlawed the private ownership of gold, allowing the government to confiscate all of it. Once that was accomplished, the Gold Reserve Act allowed him to change the value of gold, debasing America’s currency (which was on a gold standard at the time), which permitted him to steal literally billions of dollars from American citizens, without any compensation.

World War, Too

There is evidence to suggest that Roosevelt knew about the imminent attack on America by Japan in December of 1941. He discussed with several high-ranking people in the War Department, and in his own cabinet, how to get Japan to fire the first shot in the war, so that he could get America involved. It would make sense: His oil embargo was designed to provoke a Japanese response, so as to draw America into the war. And once America was in the war, ordered the Philippines to be abandoned, outright lying that there was an army waiting to retake it once it had been conquered by Japan.

And as the war dragged on, he got quite cozy with Uncle Joe, Stalin himself. He helped to repatriate two million people to Russia, who very much did not want to go back, many of them ending up either in the gulags, or simply killed outright. And his constant concessions to Stalin helped the Soviet Union hold on to eastern Europe, setting the stage for the Cold War. Even when he was informed of Soviet spies within the American government, and provided evidence of their disloyalty and subversion, he simply let them keep at it.

Racism, Racism, and more Racism

Remember how you cheered when lynching was made a federal crime a few months ago, and asked why it hadn’t been done before now? Well, the main reason was good ol’ FDR himself. A bill was proposed in the Congress which would have made lynching a federal crime, and Roosevelt refused to pass it.

Or what about during the Olympic games in Berlin, when black athletes from America took home multiple gold medals? Roosevelt invited the white athletes to the White House, but not a single black one. Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals, said, “Hitler didn’t snub me --- it was [Roosevelt] who snubbed me. The president didn’t even send me a telegram.”

And then there was his nomination of a KKK member to the Supreme Court; Hugo Black, who had zero judicial experience, was nominated simply because he supported the New Deal.

He also was of the opinion that America was, and ought to remain, a white and Protestant country, and that too many Jews was inherently a bad thing, because of how distasteful he found them. He boasted that there was no Jewish blood in his veins, as a mark of pride. He even went so far as to turn away ships of Jewish refugees, fleeing Nazi tyranny in Europe.

In conclusion

FDR was a massive piece of shit. He massively overstepped his constitutionally-appointed bounds at every available opportunity, massively expanding the power of the Presidency at the expense of all other parts of government, and at the expense of individual liberty. He was openly racist and anti-Semitic. His economic policies brought ruin upon the American economy. He openly praised fascism right up until the moment that it was no longer politically expedient to do so, and switched to deferring to authoritarian communism instead. Almost everything that you hate about the modern United States can be traced directly back to this one man.

The fact that he is remembered as not just a good President, but one of the best Presidents, shows how utterly broken American education is.

[makairodonx]

Real. Big. Stories. 75-70 million years in the making.

Poster for my upcoming up-to-date webcomic remake of “Dinosaur Planet” which will use the 20 years’ worth of paleontological knowledge that has passed ever since the old Discovery Channel show first aired in December 2003. Having watched the show a long, long time ago, I personally believe that with its unique approaches to the dinosaur-documentary genre, such as having character-based storytelling and showcasing creatures from different geographic areas, Dinosaur Planet is worthy enough to have a remake like this for the occasion of its 20th anniversary.

#paleoart #dinosaur #dinosaurs #paleontology #cretaceous #daspletosaurus #pyroraptor #bonatitan #velociraptor #dinosaur planet #dinosaur planet remade #late cretaceous

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

Panhard Dynavia, 1948. Presented at the Paris Motor Show 75 years ago this week, the Dynavia was a radically aerodynamic concept designed by Louis Bionier. It featured a streamlined, teardrop-shaped body, a single central headlamp and was powered by a small, air-cooled engine that was capable of 67.2 mpg (3.5 litres per 100km). It never entered series production but remains a symbol of automotive design experimentation from the mid-20th century

#Panhard #concept #prototype #1948 #75 years ago #aerodynamic #experimental car #air cooled #Panhard Dynavia #teardrop shape #Paris Motor Show

[jjbatarotdeck]

Preorders for Starline, A JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Tarot Deck, are now open from the 8th of December to the 20th of January!

✨ Grab your copy here: https://jjbatarot.bigcartel.com/

Bundle details below!

✨ Full Bundle (£75 GBP) ✨

This full bundle contains a fully illustrated 78 card tarot deck and guide booklet, along with:

✧ Two acrylic charms ✧ Two A5 prints ✧ One sticker sheet ✧ One enamel pin ✧ PDF guide booklet and full art book

This bundle is eligible for the early bird bonus print!

✨ Deck Bundle (£40 GBP) ✨

This full bundle contains a fully illustrated 78 card tarot deck and guide booklet, as well as a PDF version of the guide booklet and a PDF of the card's full artwork.

This bundle is eligible for the early bird bonus print!

✨ Digital Bundle (£15 GBP) ✨

This full bundle contains the PDF version of the guide booklet and a PDF of the card's full artwork.

This bundle is not eligible for the early bird bonus print!

✨ Early Bird Bonus ✨

The first 50 orders of any physical bundles will receive a free The JoJoLands mini print by @koidoodles!

#jojo's bizarre adventure #jjba #zine preorders #tarot cards

[diioonysus]

in 1937, a fire broke out in the fox vault at 20th century-fox storage facility, destroying more than 75% of their films made before 1930. 1917's cleopatra, was considered partially lost with only small parts remaining, but recently a man discovered even more footage of the movie staring theda bara

#THIS IS LITERALLY SO EXCITING BECAUSE LOOK AT MY WIFE #cleopatra #theda bara #old hollywood #silent era #movies

[fatehbaz]

On April 21, Ali Hussein Julood, a 21-year-old living in the Iraqi town of Rumaila, on the outskirts of one of the world’s largest oil fields, died from leukaemia. He was told by doctors that pollution from gas flared in the nearby field, which is operated by British Petroleum (BP), had likely caused his cancer. “Gas flaring” is a low-cost procedure used by oil companies to burn off the natural gas expelled during drilling. [...] [I]t also contributes to global warming [...]. Some of the pollutants released during this process, such as benzene, are known to cause cancers and respiratory diseases. Ali, who had been battling cancer for six years when he died, was only the latest victim of the environmental degradation caused by international oil companies like BP in Iraq.

In towns and villages near the country’s vast oil fields, thousands of other men, women and children are still living under smoke-filled skies and suffering avoidable health problems because company executives insist on putting profit before lives. [...]

[A] confidential report from the Iraqi health ministry recently obtained by the BBC blamed pollution from gas flaring, among other factors, for a 20 percent rise in cancer in Basra, southern Iraq between 2015 and 2018. A second leaked document, again seen by the BBC, from the local government in Basra showed that cancer cases in the region are three times higher than figures published in the official nationwide cancer registry.

Like many other problems and crises that are devastating the lives of ordinary Iraqis today, the chain of events that led to the poisoning of southern Iraq’s skies by international oil companies also started during colonial times.

---

In the early 20th century, as its navy transitioned from coal to petrol, Britain found itself in increasing need of oil to run its empire and fuel its numerous war efforts. [...] In 1912, Britain formed the Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC) with the purpose of acquiring concessions from the Ottoman Empire to explore for oil in Mesopotamia. Following World War I, it brought modern-day Iraq under its own mandate [...]. By 1930, the TPC was renamed the Iraqi Petroleum Company (IPC) and was put under the control of a consortium made up of BP, Total, Shell and several other American companies. Together, they pushed for a series of “concession agreements” with the newly formed Iraqi government which would give them exclusive control of Iraq’s oil resources on pre-defined terms for long periods. By 1938, the IPC and its various subsidiaries had already secured the right to extract and export virtually all the oil in Iraq for 75 years. These concessions were granted to the IPC and its subsidiaries while Iraq was ruled by British-installed monarchs and under de facto British control. Thus the state had almost no negotiating power against the British-led consortium [...] In 1955, the Iraqi government started to voice its desire to use the gas being flared in Rumaila and Zubair for electricity generation. In 1960, while negotiating a concession with the IPC, then-Iraqi Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim formally asked the company to let Iraq exploit the gas that it was not using. The same demand came up again and again [...], but IPC and its subsidiaries repeatedly turned the Iraqi government down. [...]

Following the 2003 invasion, the Iraqi oil industry was once again privatised as a result of pressure from the US and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). As was the case in the early 20th century, any negotiations on oil extraction rights took place when Iraq was still under foreign occupation [...]. When the process of auctioning off oil fields in southern Iraq began in 2008, the Iraqi government offered foreign oil companies long contracts of up to 25 years, reminiscent of the early concessions agreements with the IPC. These included stabilisation clauses, which insulated foreign companies from legal changes that might emerge over the course of their contracts. This meant that the companies were, and continue to be, unaffected by any environmental regulations passed by the Iraqi government to reduce pollution [...].

---

Looking back at the development of the oil industry in southern Iraq makes apparent that the kind of pollution that killed Ali has been in the making for some 70 years. His death – like the deaths of many others who succumbed to pollution-related cancers in his country – was not an unavoidable tragedy, but the natural consequence of a long history of colonial violence and extractive capitalism.

Predatory colonial practices that began over a century ago caused southern Iraq’s vast oil reserves to be left under the sole control of foreign companies today – companies that over and over again put profit before the lives of the Iraqi inhabitants of the lands they exploit.

Ali’s death is yet more proof that colonial violence is far from over and that it has many different faces.

---

Text by: Taif Alkhudary. “Southern Iraq’s toxic skies are a colonial legacy.” Al Jazeera (English). 12 June 2023. [Some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[my-names-angel-but-im-not-one]

Replaced or not?

Part -1 Part-2 Part-3 Part-4 Part-5

For summary n details check out part-1

Pairing: Obey Me Characters x Mc!

"You cannot go!!" MAMMON screamed at you for the 20th time this morning.

You decided that you'll visit Lucien and try to negotiate with him or maybe find a way to remove the damned mark by find something in his house. But mammon don't understand shit and don't want you to go.

"Mammon shut up I'm going and no one here can stop me" you said as you dust your dress and headed downstairs.

"Mc i still think you should not go-"

"What you think is none of my damn businesses Lucifer stop interfering "

"I'm going"

"um....y/n can i....can i talk to you for a minute" run hai said in a squeaky high pitched voice.

"No"

" y/n that is not a way to talk to a fellow student" belphegor said seething with anger.

'oh right how dare i talk like that to their fucking toy' you thought to yourself.

".....okay"

Run hai grabbed your arm and took you to her room. Her room ws filled with bright jewels and skin products 'the brothers do spoil her a lot'.

"You bitch are you trying to take my place!! How dare you act like a whore and get a damn noble's eye on you and now you even made 2 pacts!!! Why the fuck are you interfering between me and the brothers!!"

'this bitch' you thought

"Look i don't have time for this i need to go to the damn noble house plus you should know that aren't they your dogs?" You said and got out of the room only to find the brothers in suit dressed up and ready to go.

"Run hai sweety! I have a dress laid out for you get dressed quick were going to Lucien's too" asmo said dressed in pink.

"what the hell why are y'all going?"

"well we need to discuss a-about my o-ocean Lucien w-wanted to buy it a-and i think it'll be good t-to g-get it o-over with" Levi said .

"ugh whatever, Satan you coming with me"

"i can go with you-"

"yes I'm coming"

__________________________

"Welcome darling- what the fuck are they here for!!!" Lucien said

"Hello Lucien we're here to discuss things" Satan said smirking.

"um hii! I've heard about you and this mansion looks great would you mind showing me around!?" Run hai said in a pitched voice

"Why is that pest here!!" Lucien said enraged .

"pffft-" 'oh shit not like i could've controlled it '

I looked up to see Lucien softly smiling watching me . Ahem no.

"why did you called me here"

"well why don't we go inside we can talk there" Lucien said grabbing my hand

As we went inside i noticed that he do surely live in a fucking mansion . We reached the dining hall much later than I expected. We finally sat around the table and Lucien sat me at the chair beside him .

"so tell me now why did you called me here"

"well i have a proposal for you darling"

"I'm listening"

"I'll give you anything you desire clothes , jewels , money, unlimited luxury, even 75% of my possessions and in return you'll only have to give me one thing..."

"......and what's that.."

"You"

[A/N]: *hides behind Thanos* okay i know i was gone for a bit (lot) but i was giving my exams . So sorry for making y'all wait .

Btw run hai is actually based on somebody in my life I'll tell y'all if ya wanna know.

If you want to be tagged then drop a comment, no ask or DM about being tagged will be taken.

...

TAGLIST:

@obeymediasimp @c4xcocoa @gatorcatally @trisharay13 @candydreamer122

#obey me shall we date #obey me short fic #yandere #obey me gn!reader #obey me leviathan #obey me barbatos #obey me mammon #obey me angst #obey me fluff #obey me mc #obey me yandere #obey me asmodeus #obey me satan #obey me oc #my ocs tag #lucifer obey me #obey me belphegor #obey me drabble #obey me fic #obey me replaced mc au

[opencommunion]

On October 11th the occupation cut off electricity and water from many of the prisons where it incarcerates Palestinians, including children, often without trial or charge, while denying them legal representation. Long before October 7th the occupation tortured Palestinians in these prisons — again, including children — on top of the inhumane conditions that are torturous in themselves. The conditions are getting worse every day, and every day the occupation is abducting dozens or hundreds of Palestinians from the West Bank and occupied interior. The number of abductions since October 7th has reached 1000. The number of abductions since January 1st has exceeded 6000. 25% are minors, disabled, sick, or elderly, and sick prisoners are being denied medical care. Additionally, after forcibly transferring 18,000 Gazan workers to the West Bank, the occupation is now rounding up these same workers and detaining them in existing prisons or new camps, giving the excuse that "it is not possible for them to return to Gaza." The Palestinian Prisoners' and Ex-Prisoners' Affairs Commision estimates, based on occupation reports, that 4000 people are trapped in these camps. In their nightly raids, the occupation targets Palestinian journalists, activists, and representatives of the Palestinian Legislative Council. They also abduct the family members of targets to pressure those targets to surrender themselves. During these raids Palestinians are beaten, teargassed, and shot with rubber and live bullets. Then they are dragged to prisons where conditions are worse than ever. Today, October 20th, Qadura Fares, head of the Prisoners' and Ex-Prisoners' Affairs Commission, wrote:

"Developments in the scene inside the occupation prisons compel us to expose the injustices committed against the prisoners. Many prisoners have had their limbs, legs, and hands broken, and after the beatings, their comrades could no longer recognize them. The Naqab prison has become like Abu Ghraib prison, a center of brutality and savage treatment towards the heroic prisoners. 'Israel' is making the Palestinian prisoners pay the price for its failures, acting solely with a spirit of revenge. We call upon all the countries of the world to raise your voices in support of the principles you claim to uphold, or have you returned to your history as colonial powers?"

In short, in the past two weeks the occupation has: - Made the already brutal conditions in their prisons deadly - Created new camps where they trap displaced Gazans - Doubled the total number of detained Palestinians - Kidnapped numerous Palestinian journalists, activists, and elected officials

Given the occupation's practice of "administrative detention," occupation prisons have arguably met the definition of concentration camps for decades, and now detained Palestinians are being deprived of basic survival necessities. I do not know how to describe these facilities except as death camps. A regime does not need to build death camps in order to qualify as genocidal, and the Zionist occupation has been committing genocide by various means for 75 years. That being said, these are death camps or are on the verge of becoming death camps, and I don't think we have time to waste being squeamish about applying that terminology.

Please follow RNN Prisoners to stay informed about what Palestinian detainees are facing.

#palestine #colonialism

[stargazerbibi]

[ 20th february, 2024 • DAY 9/145 ]

woke up super tired today for some reason, but worked fairly well and went to bed early (hopefully the start of a good habit?👀)

-> classes (total: 4h00)

-> driving lesson (total: 2h00)

-> started SD lab03 but i'm not understanding much tbh :/ (75% done)

-> meeting to discuss SD project

#stargazerbibi #study #studyblr #100 dop #100 days of productivity #studyspo #studygram #student #stem #uniblr #uni #studyspiration #studystudystudy #aesthetic #productivity #student life #studying #studies #study blog #study motivation #college life #college #uni life #university #stem studyblr #stemblr #stem girls

[centrally-unplanned]

Doing some tab closing and I enjoyed this piece a lot; it has a clean thoroughness on investigating each of the different possible causes of the Baby Boom of the mid 20th century.

For those who don't know, the Baby Boom, despite what is often taught, probably had little to do directly with World War Two - it was not a phenomenon of soldiers "coming up" and releasing their pent-up baby-making drive. This is most easily proven by the fact that countries that didn't participate in the war had the same boom! And that the boom was already starting in the 1930's.

Its cause is still unproven, but the article makes a solid case for it primarily being a product of affordable housing (which itself is connected to WW2 in some ways) and more importantly medical technology, as maternal mortality declined between 1930 and 1960 by ~90%:

Which is another classic case of the 'short' being made by time into the 'long' - most people probably think of safe pregnancy as this gradual process of improving sanitation & medical technology throughout the 19th and 20th century, but in fact the lion's share of the decline was the invention of antibiotics that could treat sepsis over the span of 20 years. The "price" of having a child, combined with the housing boom creating the space for it, induced a fertility bump.

The article ends by stating that these forces could, in some way, be reproduced - that if today you make pregnancy safer and childcare cheaper again, you can get a similar rise. I think this is the false, solutionist optimism that only a concluding paragraph can bring, however. For one, if that was the case, you think you would evidence along the income spectrum of that - for a 75% income band couple in Sweden or the US, housing is more plentiful then ever, and pregnancy safer than ever, but in the main fertility continues to decline across every band (the super-rich in some countries are a tiny exception).

But more importantly, I think it mistakes why this happened. If you portray it as a cost-benefit calculation, as "oh the price of kids is way down now, lets shift our consumption basket", then sure it sounds replicable. I don't think that is right, however - you should instead look at this as a cultural revolution induced by rapid change.

The role of women in the workplace & wider society was undergoing a ton of flux in this era, and it was in a period of "contestation" - these changes were not settled or agreed on by society at large. What a woman should "do" with her life was very open, and many factions still pushed for a form of family traditionalism. The counter-forces to that 'benefited' from things like maternal mortality as counter-arguments; women (and their husbands) both desired the old way but feared the price, one they no longer had to bear due to no longer being mass farmers. That was the equilibrium of the 1920's.

Then technology came along and throw the whole game into whack, changing the equilibrium. It was so rapid, so sudden, it induced a culture shift. You can metaphorically think of it as like a consumer rush, buying the hot new toy - in this case the hot new thing was safe pregnancy and houses to raise the kids in. Everyone wanted a piece of that *new* possible life, different from the old. It was, in a sense, a fad.

Which you cannot replicate - its done. We have the tech, we have the wealth, it didn't last. The culture shift that began of the 1960's was absolutely a response to new equilibrium of the 50's, its gender roles were never stable. Radical new technology (like exo-wombs) could change that, sure, create a new hotness. But 5% reductions in maternal mortality or slightly cheaper childcare won't cut it. It could shift the margins, but it can't make a boom.

Or so I predict at least. Its certainly hard to quantify that dynamic, but I think if you study how people saw themselves & family in that time, this comes out from the narratives of the time - with no equivalent today.

#the fertility transition

[thethirdromana]

Mina's journey across Europe, in pictures

I started writing this post with great intentions, because normally when there are train journeys in this book, they dovetail beautifully with the actual details of contemporary railway timetables.

That does not happen here. @spider-xan shared that in Bram Stoker's original notes, Mina's letter on the 24th was instead dated to the 26th, which would make a lot more sense. But I still thought it would be fun to try to illustrate and plan out the journey that Mina takes.

Here's what Bram Stoker tells us:

19 August - Mina gets Jonathan's letter 20 August - Mina sets off 20-22 August - Mina travels via Hull and Hamburg 23 August - Mina reaches Budapest

And here's my attempt to figure out her journey.

20 August - Whitby to Hull

I think the quickest route from Whitby to Hull would have been via York. There were several direct trains from Whitby to York every day (a journey which took about 2 hours), and more changing at Malton. York to Hull was another 2.5 hours.

It might also have been possible to go via Scarborough, but despite being a much shorter route, Whitby to Scarborough also took 2 hours. Either way, Mina should easily be able to get to Hull by the evening of the 20th.

Whitby

Hull

There was a steamer from Hull to Hamburg every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, by assorted different companies (p181). Unfortunately I can't find timetable details for this either, but Leith to Hamburg took 48 hours (p76) and from Hull is 75% of the distance (422 miles vs 561 miles). The steamers seem to have left with the evening tide as a rule.

21 August - at sea

22 August - Hamburg to Berlin

Hamburg

Assuming the steamer takes around 40 hours, then Mina arrives in Hamburg around midday.

I think Berlin is Mina's likely next destination, though there are different routes she could choose. There are lots of possible trains to Berlin, but if she leaves around 1pm, she's likely to get there around 8pm (p46, my reference for the rest of this post).

Berlin

Mina's next destination is Vienna. There's a night train that leaves Berlin at 9.35pm, using the fastest route via Prague.

23 August - Vienna to the night train

Mina's train would reach Vienna at 8.19pm the next day - it's a journey of nearly 24 hours. Hopefully the restaurant car is decent.

Vienna

I then stop being able to match Bram Stoker's timeline. (And bear in mind that I'm already being optimistic in terms of how quickly I'm assuming Mina is getting through customs and crossing borders.)

The next train to Budapest from Vienna is at 9.06pm, and the one after is at 11pm. Neither of them arrive in Budapest until the next day.

24 August - the night train to Budapest

The earlier train reaches Budapest at 2.10am. Or if Mina only gets the later train, then she reaches Budapest at the more reasonable hour of 7am.

Budapest

... where she is reunited with Jonathan <3

Mina's journey in numbers:

5 trains

1 boat

1,200 miles

4 and a bit days (sorry Bram)

and 1 brand new husband!

#dracula daily #long post #train fiend