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matan4il · 6 months

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Daily update post:

Yesterday, there were a lot of unofficial initiatives and ceremonies across Israel to commemorate one month since the massacre. It wasn't official, because the state is still in the middle of a war, but regular people felt the need to connect with the Jewish custom of marking 30 days since the death of a loved one. In many places, people stood, wherever they happened to be, for a minute of silence at 11 in the morning (myself included), or held up posters or yellow balloons in honor of the hostages and the missing persons:

This girl is absolutely awesome:

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Rashida Tlaib has been rebuked for using the hateful chant "From the River to the sea, Palestine will be free." Here's a link to explanations on why it is indeed a call for, at the very least, the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the Jewish ancestral homeland.

On a personal note, I just discovered that another colleague of mine has a sister and BIL held hostage in Gaza. I said before that every Israeli has a "list" of those they know and love affected by this, and it just keep getting longer as we find out more about people's fate on Oct 7, and as the list of fallen soldiers in this war gets longer, too.

I saw a new lie being pushed, that the majority of people in Israel who were killed during Hamas' massacre were soldiers (implying the civilians were never specifically targeted, that they were collateral damage). But the numbers are very different. Out of over 1,400 people murdered on that day, only 348 were soldiers. That's before we get to the confiscated documents showing instructions that clearly stated the goal was civilians, the Hamas terrorists who were captured alive and confirmed this, or the fact that if those terrorists weren't interested in abducting and killing civilians, why take over entire civilian communities? There were no military bases in kibbutz Be'eri, kibbutz Nir Oz, or kibbutz Kfar Azza, there was no army outpost at the Nova music festival. Hamas' terrorists set up blockades on the only road leaving that festival and gunned down anyone trying to escape. Over 260 young people. Not one was in army uniform, driving an army car, or even just... armed. That's targeting civilians intentionally. A baby being placed in the oven, or being beheaded, or tied with wires to an adult and then both being burned alive, or a 14 year old girl being raped and then shot in the head in her bedroom, or firing thousands of rockets into cities, that's not "collateral damage."

The UN general secretary said it's clear something's wrong with Israel's military activity, based on the number of civilians killed in Gaza. Based on the numbers released by the highly unreliable terrorist organization Hamas, the perpetrator of a massacre, an actual crime against humanity, which doesn't allow any external inspectors come into Gaza to verify the numbers.

After Israel has been asking for European countries to send hospital ships, Italy is sending one. Israel is also working with the United Arab Emirates on the UAE being a field hospital next to the Gaza border. As many Gazans have been heeding Israel's call to evacuate from the north, Israel has prolonged the route it's securing against Hamas, to allow them an even safer passage.

Manor Salomon, a successful Israeli soccer player, was criticizing UEFA (the European soccer federation) for their refusal to denounce Hamas. For this, his IG account was closed. Prominent Israeli voices ARE being silenced.

This is 19 years old Yoav Mellev, who on Oct 7 was fighting on the Zikim beach, where Hamas terrorists landed in boats, and were massacring civilians. After he got badly wounded, he left a note, in which he said (as conveyed by his mom) that it was the best 20 minutes of his life, because he got to defend people. He died of his wounds. May his memory be a blessing.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

#israel #israeli #israel news #israel under attack #israel under fire #israelunderattack #terrorism #anti terrorism #antisemitism #hamas #antisemitic #antisemites #jews #jew #judaism #jumblr #frumblr #jewish

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girlactionfigure · 25 days

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🔅Thu morning - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

🔻AIR ATTACKS..

.. North - Hezbollah

ROCKETS at Keshet

.. South - Hamas

ROCKETS at Sderot, Ibim, Nir Am

🔸WHATSAPP IS HAVING PROBLEMS WORLDWIDE.. subscribe to us on Telegram just to be sure! -> https://t.me/Israel_Realtime_Updates

▪️GPS & WAZE & RED ALERT apps - WARNING..

Heavy GPS jamming active in central Israel, meaning apps such as Waze, Google Maps may get the wrong location. Take it into account in travel planning.

BUT, the RED ALERT apps also use GPS, in particular the HOME FRONT alert app. You need to go into the app settings and SET YOUR CITY instead of “nearby alerts” or “my location”.

▪️COUNTER-TERROR.. large IDF operations in Jenin overnight and this morning. Extensive activity of IDF forces all over Judea-Samaria. Activity was carried out, among others, in the Jenin refugee camp, in Qabatiya, in Nablus, in Qalqilya, in Daisha, in Tubas, in the Amari refugee camp in Ramallah and more.

Explosive charges were fired at the forces in Jenin and Qalqilya.

▪️RED SEA - US NAVY SHIP ATTACKED.. by the Houthis, via anti-ship missile and 2 suicide drones. Shot down. The US then took out a launch site.

▪️CEASEFIRE LEAKS.. Al-Mayadeen: The meetings of the Israeli side with the mediators did not lead to substantial progress. There is no particular progress in the cases of the withdrawal from the Strip, and the return of the displaced to their homes.

▪️EU EMBASSIES IN LEBANON.. Urgent appeal of European embassies to their citizens staying in Lebanon ... "Be ready”, and have begun distributing instructions to all their citizens in Lebanon detailing an action plan for immediate departure from Lebanon in the event of war.

▪️WAS BITUACH LEUMI HACKED AND CITIZEN INFO STOLEN? Pro-Palestinian hackers say yes, Bituach Leumi says no - the attack slowed down operations but did not penetrate.

▪️IRANIAN SHIA MILITIAS THIS TIME MISS ASHDOD AND RAMAT DOVID BASE.. The Shia militias in Iraq claim that they attacked the Ramat David base and another target in Ashdod in the early morning using drones. If sent, they didn’t arrive.

▪️BRAZIL SAYS.. Brazilian President Lula da Silva: "12.3 million children died in the Gaza Strip and Israel as a result of the war”. (( Wow, just wow. ))

▪️EXPLOSIONS EXPECTED IN SHA’EL.. Mine clearing, controlled detonations in the 9 am - 1 pm time range.

IDF SPOKESPERSON ANNOUNCES TEMPORARY PAUSE IN LEAVE FOR COMBAT UNITS

"In accordance with the situational assessment," stated the IDF spokesperson, "it has been decided that leave will be temporarily paused for all IDF combat units. The IDF is at war and the deployment of forces is under continuous assessment according to requirements."

#Israel #October 7 #Hamas Massacre #Gaza #Israel/HamasWar #Real Time Updates

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iwocean · 3 months

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Day 284 - I recently watched a video about how many Americans (and I think Europeans as well) believe that the war is far-fetched or exaggerated, while also showing videos from cities where people relax, go to cafes or movies. You can probably say the same from my blog...

But no...I created a blog to look for beauty in the ordinary, something joyful in every gray day. Perhaps I will come back to this photos and remember that I survived and that I tried to live a normal life. We're all trying! And cafes and cinema are a means of distraction from reality, because we don’t know where the rocket will fall tomorrow. We can’t do much and put it off until later because it’s not time.

I try to live here and in this moment. I see my family once a year because they fled the country because of the invasion of their city, I lost my orphanage, a place of power, I don’t see the sea, I live in a gray city because I can’t move, but the worst thing is - this is news that your friends are no longer alive. So I ask all people in the world to be understanding and not to forget where is black and where is white. Thank you!

#iwocean #365photoproject #photoblog #365daychallenge #winter #war #ukraine #support #believe #thoughts

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hometoursandotherstuff · 2 years

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Everybody knows the iconic Godzilla. But, let’s explore the other campy Japanese Kaiju (Japanese genre of films and TV featuring giant monsters, or Kaiju can also refer to the monsters, themselves.)

We all enjoy a nice B movie monster in the world of tokusatsu, or “special effect filming” in Japanese. The term is short for a genre of live action films bursting with heavy handed special effects, and a slew of freaky, giant creatures.

Godzilla crossed over into the mainstream media and pop-culture of the Western world, but we missed out on the ones that didn’t. That’s Eiji Tsuburaya, a pioneer of special effects, and a master at making kaiju monsters.

Like Dada, a humanoid alien inspired by the post-WWI European art movement, Dada, that also spread to Japan by the 1920s.

Dada made appearances in the 1960s-70s TV show, Ultraman, with a thirst for world domination and a suit evocative of the art movement’s inspiration from African tribal art. He’s gone thru many face changes over the years.

At one time, Tsuburaya was making a new monster a week. Let’s look at some of them. Several are really goofy, like Garamon, here, from the series “Ultra Q.” He emerged from a meteorite and emitted a strange clanking noise when he walked.

Next, is Balloonga, also from “Ultra Q,” that adhered to a rocket on its return from Saturn. It absorbed the rocket's energy, causing it to crash into the sea, then it absorbed Tokyo’s energy leaving in constant darkness.

Alien Varduck from “Return of Ultraman.” That’s “ice breath” shooting out, b/c he’s also know as “Snow Boy.”

Henpai Sentai, the Molester of the Sea.

I feel so stupid, I never knew that Mothra was Godzilla’s wife. This is getting weird, now.

The Shobijin, two tiny priestesses or fairy twins, that speak for Mothra always fascinated me. Talk about weird.

Would you believe that the flower blossom monster from the 1970s-80s Japanese TV show “Gosei Sentai Dairanger,” was the basis for the American Power Rangers? It fired a round of petals when attacked.

Check out this actor in half a Godzilla costume. It was so heavy, it could only be worn for a few minutes at a time.

They even have an action figure.

Behind the scenes shots of tokusatsu monster movies show the delightfully miniature sets such suited monsters trampled.

fandom.com/wiki/ & https://www.messynessychic.com/

#japanese movie monsters #godzilla #kaiju monsters #campy japanese monsters #long post

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thepastisalreadywritten · 8 months

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TOKYO, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Japan launched its lunar exploration spacecraft on Thursday aboard a homegrown H-IIA rocket, hoping to become the world's fifth country to land on the moon early next year.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said the rocket took off from Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan as planned and successfully released the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM).

Unfavourable weather led to three postponements in a week last month.

Dubbed the "moon sniper," Japan aims to land SLIM within 100 metres of its target site on the lunar surface.

The $100-million mission is expected to start the landing by February after a long, fuel-efficient approach trajectory.

"The big objective of SLIM is to prove the high-accuracy landing ... to achieve 'landing where we want' on the lunar surface, rather than 'landing where we can'," JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa told a news conference.

The launch comes two weeks after India became the fourth nation to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon with its Chandrayaan-3 mission to the unexplored lunar south pole.

Around the same time, Russia's Luna-25 lander crashed while approaching the moon.

Two earlier lunar landing attempts by Japan failed in the last year.

JAXA lost contact with the OMOTENASHI lander and scrubbed an attempted landing in November.

The Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander, made by Japanese startup ispace (9348.T), crashed in April as it attempted to descend to the lunar surface.

SLIM is set to touch down on the near side of the moon close to Mare Nectaris, a lunar sea that, viewed from Earth, appears as a dark spot.

Its primary goal is to test advanced optical and image processing technology.

After landing, the craft aims to analyse the composition of olivine rocks near the sites in search of clues about the origin of the moon. No lunar rover is loaded on SLIM.

Thursday's H-IIA rocket also carried the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) satellite, a joint project of JAXA, NASA and the European Space Agency.

The satellite aims to observe plasma winds flowing through the universe that scientists see as key to helping understand the evolution of stars and galaxies.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (7011.T) manufactured the rocket and operated the launch, which marked the 47th H-IIA rocket Japan has launched since 2001, bringing the vehicle's success rate close to 98%.

JAXA had suspended the launch of H-IIA carrying SLIM for several months while it investigated the failure of its new medium-lift H3 rocket during its debut in March.

Japan's space missions have faced other recent setbacks, with the launch failure of the Epsilon small rocket in October 2022, followed by an engine explosion during a test in July.

The country aims to send an astronaut to the moon's surface in the latter half of the 2020s as part of NASA's Artemis programme.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/japan-launches-rocket-carrying-moon-lander-slim-after-three-delays-2023-09-06/

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Japan launches 'Moon Sniper' mission | AFP

7 September 2023

Japan's "Moon Sniper" mission blasted off Thursday as the country's space programme looks to bounce back from a string of recent mishaps, weeks after India's historic lunar triumph.

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ccohanlon · 6 months

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from my bookshelf

Pytheas of Massalia was a Greek geographer, explorer and astronomer from the ancient Greek colony of Massalia — modern-day Marseille, France. In the late 4th century BC, he voyaged from there to northwestern Europe, but his detailed account of it, On The Ocean, survives only in fragments, quoted — and disputed — by later authors such as Strabo, Pliny and Diodorus of Sicily. The Extraordinary Voyage Of Pytheas the Greek by the noted British historian of ancient maritime Europe, Barry Cunliffe, attempts to draw out the reality of what was an extraordinary sea journey, from the Western Mediterranean north along the Atlantic coast of Europe to the British Isles, then even further north, to the near-mythic land of Thule. Cunliffe makes a strong case for Pytheas being “the first European explorer”, while identifying the most likely locations of Thule, sought so avidly by 19th and early 20th century adventurers and artists.

James Hamilton-Paterson’s Seven-Tenths: The Sea And Its Thresholds, published in 1992, more than two thousand years after Pytheas’s On The Ocean, is an ambitious, expressive exploration of the vast aqueous wilderness that covers three-quarters of our planet by a writer of remarkable literary accomplishment (he was one of Martin Amis’s professors at Oxford). Plumbing humanity’s complex, multi-faceted relationship with the sea, Hamilton-Paterson writes vivid, meditative passages about, well, everything — fishing, piracy, oceanography, cartography, exploration, ecology, the ritual of a burials at sea, poetry, and even his own experiences living for extended periods on a small island in the Philippines.

Tom Neale’s autobiography, An Island To Oneself: Six Years On A Desert Island, describes an altogether smaller, more solitary world: the island of Anchorage, part of the Suwarrow Atoll in the South Pacific. Born in New Zealand in 1902, Neale spent most of his life in Oceania: after leaving the Royal New Zealand Navy, he worked for decades aboard inter-island trading vessels and in various temporary jobs ashore before his first glimpse of his desert island home. He moved to Anchorage in 1952 and over three different periods, lived in hermitic solitude for 16 years, with rare visits from yachtsmen, island traders, and journalists. Among the last was Noel Barber, a close friend of my late father: he gave my father a copy of Neale’s book, in Rome, shortly after it was published in 1966 (I still have it). Neale was taken off his beloved island in 1977 and died not long after of stomach cancer.

The Starship And The Canoe by Kenneth Brower, published in 1978, is an unlikely dual biography of a father and son that draws intriguing parallels between the ambitious ideas of renowned British theoretical physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson — who, in the early 1970s explored concepts for interstellar travel, settlements on comets, and nuclear rockets that might propel mankind to the outer reaches of the universe — and his wayward son, George, who lived in a self-built tree house 30 metres up a Douglas fir overlooking the Strait Of Georgia, in British Columbia and devised large canoes based on Aleut baidarkas in which to paddle north to the wild, uninhabited littoral of southern Alaska. Brower’s descriptions of long passages with the younger Dyson in the cold, sometimes fierce tidal waters between Vancouver Island and the Canadian mainland are gripping and I have read them again and again. It is, unarguably, my favourite book.

The late, New Zealand-born doctor and sailor, David Lewis, is not as widely known as he was half a century ago, even by avid readers of sea stories, but from his earliest memoirs in the 1960s — of his participation in the first-ever singlehanded trans-Atlantic race (The Ship That would Not Sail Due West), and of incident-prone voyages to far-flung coasts with his young family (Dreamers of the Day, Daughters of the Wind, and Children Of Three Oceans) — to his practical, first-hand studies of instrument-less ocean navigation among South Pacific islanders, (We, The Navigators and The Voyaging Stars) in the 1970s, Dr. Lewis was not only the late 20th century’s most remarkable and intelligent writer on the sea and small-boat voyaging but also one of its most adventurous. My favourite of his several books: Ice Bird, published in 1972, an account of a gruelling, almost fatal voyage from Sydney, Australia, in an ill-prepared, steel, 32-foot yacht to achieve the first singlehanded circumnavigation of Antarctica.

It’s said that spending time anywhere with Lorenzo Ricciardi, late ex-husband of Italian photographer Mirella Ricciardi, was an adventure. A film-maker and former senior advertising executive, once described by a British writer as “a penniless Neapolitan count”, he gambled at roulette to raise enough money to buy an Arab dhow, which, in the 1970s, with little seafaring experience and plenty of mishaps, he sailed from Dubai to the Arabian Gulf, and from there down the Arabian to coast of Africa, where the dhow was shipwrecked among the Comoros Islands. The Voyage Of The Mir El Ah is Lorenzo’s picaresque account (illustrated by Mirella’s photographs). Astoundingly, several years later, Lorenzo and Mirella Ricciardi completed an even more dangerous, 6,000-kilometre voyage across Equatorial Africa in an open boat — and another book, African Rainbow: Across Africa By Boat.

Italian madmen aside, it used to be that you could rely on surfers for poor impulse control and reckless adventures, on the water and off. Back in the late 1990s, Allan Weisbecker sold his home, loaded his dog and a quiver of surfboards onto a truck, and drove south from the Mexican border into Central America to figure out what had happened to an old surfing buddy — in between checking out a few breaks along the way. In Search Of Captain Zero: A Surfer's Road Trip Beyond The End Of The Road is a memoir of a two-year road-trip that reads like a dope-fuelled fiction but feels more real than William Finnegan’s somewhat high-brow (and more successful) Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life.

Which brings me to Dana and Ginger Lamb. In 1933, these newly-weds would certainly have been looked at askance by most of their middle-American peers when they announced that they weren’t ready yet to settle down and instead built a 16-foot hybrid canoe-sailboat and set of on what would turn out to be a 16,000-mile, three year journey down the Pacific coasts of Mexico, Guatemala, Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica to the Panama Canal. Dana’s 415-page book, Enchanted Vagabonds, published in 1938, was an unexpected New York Times best-seller and today is more exciting to read than the ungainly, yawn-inducing books produced by so many, more commercially-minded, 21st century adventurers.

First published in Sirene, No. 17, Italy, 2023.

#sea #seafaring #travel #books #adventure #biography #history

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fromthedust · 1 year

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Hergé (Belgian, May 22, 1907 - March 3, 1983)

Belgian author and artist, 1907-1983. Translated into over thirty languages, Hergé’s adventure stories about the brave and resourceful young reporter Tintin are popular with both children and adults throughout the world In twenty-four book-length comic strips, Tintin and his faithful fox terrier, Snowy, embark on a series of thrilling global adventures set in remarkably detailed, meticulously researched landscapes.

Hergé. whose real name is Georges Remi (he devised his pen name by inverting his initials to R.G.), published the first Tintin adventure in Le Petit Vingtième, the children’s supplement to Le Vingtieme Siecle, in 1929. Published in book form in 1930 as Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, this primitive work is the only one of the series that was not later translated into color, with the exception of Tintin and the Alpha-Art, a work unfinished when Herge died and left in sketch form at his request.

The second adventure, Tintin in the Congo (1931), reflects a contemporary European view of Africa based on ignorance and portrays the African people as gullible and naive. Neither Congo nor the fanatically anti-Communist Soviets has yet been published in the United States.

In Tintin in America (1932), Tintin takes on Chicago mobster Al Capone, and Hergé’s sociopolitical satire becomes more sophisticated as he depicts the National Guard driving the Blackfoot Indians away from their ancestral lands. But it is probably The Blue Lotus (1936) that marks Hergé’s refinement of detail and concern for accuracy.

After befriending a young Chinese student who urged him to avoid common stereotypes, Hergé began to delve further into research of the physical and cultural landscape. The story is a clear protest of Japanese expansionism on the Chinese mainland and of the treatment of the Chinese people by many Westerners. Hergé’s friend appears as young Chang in The Blue Lotus and later in Tintin in Tibet (i960), a story of true friendship Hergé claims as his favorite.

Ostensibly a journalist, Tintin is seen reporting to his editor only once in the series and follows his sense of adventure and justice rather than any particular assignment. In the course of his adventures he encounters a colorful cast of characters who become his cohorts: The bumbling, ineffectual detectives Thompson and Thomson, the rough old sea dog Captain Haddock with his legendary penchant for drinking whiskey and hurling passionate but innocent insults, and the absent-minded but ingenious Professor Cuthbert Calculus provide both help and hindrance throughout Tintin’s travels.

All of these characters find their way aboard the first manned rocket bound, for the moon in Destination Moon (1953) and Explorers on the Moon (1954), in which Tintin, Snowy Captain Haddock, and Thompson and Thomson set foot on the moon fifteen years before Neil Armstrong landed in Apollo 11.

Hergé constructed a detailed scale model of a German U2 rocket to create the drawings, and his extensive scientific research gives the books remarkable accuracy and foresight. While most of the Tintin stories are noticeably devoid of women, opera singer Bianca Castafiore takes center stage as a strong female character in The Castafiore Emerald (1963).

Charles de Gaulle once remarked, “My only international rival is Tintin.”

source: Children’s Books and their Creators by Anita Silvey.

Hergé’s Tintin books in chronological order:

Tintin in the Land of the Soviets – (Tintin au pays des Soviets) (1929–1930)

Tintin in the Congo – (Tintin au Congo) (1930–1931)

Tintin in America – (Tintin en Amérique) (1931–1932)

Cigars of the Pharaoh – (Les Cigares du Pharaon) (1932–1934)

The Blue Lotus – (Le Lotus bleu) (1934–1935)

The Broken Ear – (L’Oreille cassée) (1935–1937)

The Black Island – (L’Ile noire) (1937–1938)

King Ottokar’s Sceptre – (Le Sceptre d’Ottokar) (1938–1939)

The Crab with the Golden Claws – (Le Crabe aux pinces d’or) (1940–1941)

The Shooting Star – (L’Etoile mystérieuse) (1941–1942)

The Secret of the Unicorn – (Le Secret de la Licorne) (1942–1943)

Red Rackham’s Treasure – (Le Trésor de Rackam le Rouge) (1943)

The Seven Crystal Balls – (Les Sept boules de cristal) (1943–1946)

Prisoners of the Sun – (Le Temple du soleil) (1946–1948)

Land of Black Gold – (Tintin au pays de l’or noir) (1948–1950)

Destination Moon – (Objectif Lune) (1950–1953)

Explorers on the Moon – (On a marché sur la Lune) (1950–1953)

The Calculus Affair – (L’Affaire Tournesol) (1954–1956)

The Red Sea Sharks – (Coke en stock) (1956–1958)

Tintin in Tibet – (Tintin au Tibet) (1958–1959)

The Castafiore Emerald – (Les Bijoux de la Castafiore) (1961–1962)

Flight 714 to Sydney – (Vol 714 pour Sydney) (1966–1967)

Tintin and the Picaros – (Tintin et les Picaros) (1975–1976)

#art by others #other's artwork #Tintin #Hergé

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herrlindemann · 1 year

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Metal Hammer - February 2002, part 1

Thanks to ramjohn for the scans!

Freiburg, Messhalle 2

What a week in Freiburg! First the Rotterdam hooligans attacked the city (result: twelve arrests), and then, to all the hardships, came the Rammstein fans. In the run-up to my little company outing, I often had to hear that Freiburg is such a beautiful city - with great architecture, an old town and everything that goes with it. It may well be that the Black Forest metropolis with its 200,000 inhabitants is " beautiful ", after my visit I can only say that firstly the inside of the McDonalds in the main station looks the same as in any other place, and secondly I couldn't understand a word of the friendly gentleman at the train information desk. Also, before my visit, I would never have imagined, even in my wildest dreams, that Freiburg could rock. But when I stand in the sold-out exhibition hall in the midst of 10,000 Rammstein crazies, even I am a little amazed.

The actually everywhere uncompromising Rammstein audience already makes it clear with the support Clawfinger that the slogan on this Friday evening is "celebrate", and that's why the Swedes are thrown applause instead of cat shit. The good half hour of play is peppered with old and new hits: 'Nigger', 'Do What I Say' or 'The Truth'. And because of 'Nothing Going On': Instead of lounging around at the bar, a good three quarters of the hall moves legs or arms to support the Swedes with a loud clapping. That pleases - and shows once again that those who are said to be dead live longer. After a short break for conversion, the air is on fire: there is a bang, a crash, an explosion - the exhibition hall, in which philatelists and shipbuilders otherwise stroll up and down, sinks into a sea of flames for a few seconds. All the fire protection officers present suffer a brief cardiac arrest because Rammstein asks them to. Construction worker Iro Lindemann rumbles, ‘Mein Herz brennt’, and the motley crowd, made up of parents with children, motorcycle rockers, pimply high school students, bodybuilders and standard metalheads, erupts in the first adrenaline rush. Rammstein only have half the firecrackers and early New Year's Eve rockets with them for their only Germany appearance on the European tour, and yet even with this stripped down version there are still enough things to light without actually burning. Flames lick out of every imaginable opening: whether it's a keyboard, guitar or human being - Rammstein take no prisoners, spare nothing and nobody. Not even himself. Lindemann bends over and over again to bring the martial lute out of the depths of his vocal organs to the surface, while the back team whips him forward with powerful metal marches. Without much communication with the audience, it all happens in quick succession: 'Links 2 3 4', ‘Sehnsucht’, 'Feuer Frei'. And always another show effect. Whether with exploding ball lightning flying across the hall or blatant face flamethrowers like in 'Feuer Frei!': Rammstein put on big cinema with a small screen. The sound fits, and when it comes to the hits 'Du hast', 'Bück dich' and 'Engel', the border triangle dances in circles. As an encore, there is another fiery encore and the rest of the arsenal of pyros is let out for 'Rammstein', 'Sonne' and 'Ich will', the thunderbolts crack in time, and for 'Stripped' there is the obligatory boat trip over the heads of the fans. Slimmed down show? Not one bit of it to be noticed, on the contrary: After the many concerts this year, Rammstein is as well-rehearsed as the crew of the armored cruiser Aurora, celebrating their own little revolution night after night. As I said: Freiburg won't be forgotten in a hurry this week.

#Rammstein #Till Lindemann #Paul Landers #Christoph Schneider #Flake #Oliver Riedel #Richard Kruspe #review #translation #2002 #*scans #*

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tomorrowusa · 7 months

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For anybody still desperately clinging to Twitter/X in the empty hope that it may soon return to its glory days: IT WON'T. It's just getting worse.

The recent terror attack on Israel and the Israeli response have highlighted the continuing descent of Twitter.

[T]he platform now called X has become a vortex of false claims and doctored footage. It’s a fog-of-war machine. That’s been the unmistakable reality in the days after Hamas’ deadly terrorist attack on Israeli civilians—a land, air, and sea operation that has killed at least 1,200 people in Israel and led to another 900 deaths in Gaza following Israel’s military retaliation. Musk’s changes to the foundation of how Twitter works have not only rendered Twitter useless as a means of making sense of the conflict as (or even hours after) it unfolds, but made it actively counterproductive for users trying to figure out what’s going on. As Musk and Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino have rolled back the platform’s rules of engagement and rid their ranks of the content-moderation teams and tools that actually keep X trustworthy, they’ve also put in place a system that fundamentally incentivizes the spread of misinformation during times of mass panic and confusion, in part because X is now a platform that pays for viral content. The end result is that Twitter, more so than any other platform right now, is fertile ground for a new kind of war profiteering.

A few debunkings – relatively minor ones. It would be an exhausting effort for somebody to keep up with them all. A problem with debunkings is that they can sometimes continue to spread the lies which are debunked. But here are some which don't do that.

On Oct. 8, the day after the initial Hamas attack, an account called @AGCast4 posted a video supposedly showing a Hamas rocket attack in Israel. The BBC journalist and fact-checker Shayan Sardarizadeh debunked it: The footage wasn’t from the ongoing conflict or any real-life war but from the video game Arma 3. The account was—and still is—verified with a blue check mark. Two days later, the investigative outfit Bellingcat, known for its visual forensics work, had to debunk some fake news … about itself. A doctored “BBC” video was circulating on social media, claiming that Bellingcat’s journalists had confirmed Ukrainian weapon sales to Hamas. “We’ve reached no such conclusions or made any such claims,” Bellingcat’s official account wrote on Twitter. In a screenshot, Bellingcat showed that a Twitter account called Geopoliitics & Empire had shared the video. Like the account that posted video game footage, this account was also verified with a blue check mark. (The account owner deleted the post and called it an “honest mistake,” simultaneously posting a meme captioned “We are going to be famous.”)

Those blue check marks have lost all meaning.

But now anyone who pays for Twitter Blue—recently renamed X Premium—can just buy a blue check mark for $8 a month, along with the veneer that they are a notable person or a legitimate source of information. Just last week, X removed headlines from linked news articles, making the site exponentially more confusing to scroll through.

“There is a difference between platforms that take steps to mitigate harm, platforms that have not yet started taking these steps, and platforms that take steps to undo processes that mitigated harm,” Chinmayi Arun, the executive director of Yale Law School’s Information Society Project, told me. “Users who are accustomed to a different version of X may not know how to process or understand what they are seeing now.” It’s been mere days since the war broke out, but European regulators are already peeved with what they’ve seen. In a posted letter to Musk, European commissioner Thierry Breton asked the X owner to comply with the continent’s sweeping Digital Services Act. He urged the billionaire to respond within 24 hours with assurances that he’s taking the spread of “illegal content and disinformation” seriously or face legal penalties.

I wish the European regulators luck. But the best move is for people to abandon Twitter/X. You feed the trolls and the disinformation machine by remaining there.

Musk may want to prioritize “free speech” and being “open source,” but millions of people rely on his platform for reliable information. And, as it’s played out time after time, there are often very scary real-world consequences when conspiracy theories and fraudulent stories are allowed to run rampant. The only thing that’s transparent is the owner’s inattention.

Seriously, those people need to stop treating Twitter/X as a news source. The best way to do so is to simply leave. Get the word out!

#social media #twitter #x #elon musk #disinformation #fake news #israel #terror attack on israel #gaza #debunking twitter claims #thierry breton #leave twitter #quit twitter #delete twitter

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mightyflamethrower · 6 months

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There is something surreal, even sick about the current Gazan war.

Throughout European and American cities and campuses, tens of thousands of Middle East immigrants and students, and radical leftists chant nonstop “Free Palestinian from the River to the Sea.”

More recently, they are also yelling, “Israel, you can’t hide, we caught you in genocide.”

Consider the hypocrisy of that dual messaging.

Hamas and its supporters are openly and eagerly calling for the genocidal end of Israel by wiping it out from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

Yet at the same time they also claim it is Israel that is committing genocide—the very current self-described agenda of Hamas and its expatriate community of devotees!

The war has become crazier still.

Hamas and its megaphones abroad also blast Israel daily for retaliating for the October butchery of some 1,300 Israeli infants, children, women, and the elderly.

They further demand Israel must be selective in its airborne targeting of the Hamas killers, who burrow beneath hospitals, mosques, and hospitals and use civilians as shields.

Hamas takes for granted that a supposedly heartless Israel nevertheless will be reluctant to strike the Hamas terrorists when and if they are surrounded by civilians.

Indeed, Gazans are put in more danger by Hamas than they would otherwise be by the Israel Defense Forces.

Yet the world accepts that Israel itself would never employ such a ruse of using civilians to shield its cities from indiscriminately fired Hamas missiles.

The world further knows that if Israel ever employed such a barbaric tactic, Israeli civilian shields would attract—not deter—Hamas rockets.

Hamas’s apologists insist that Israel warn in advance civilians to keep clear of Israel bombs.

Yet at the same time, daily Hamas launches rockets into Israel. And no one in the international community lectures Hamas first to drop leaflets or text Israeli civilians that Hamas rockets are on their way into their vicinity.

Instead, the only purpose of Hamas rockets is to indiscriminately strike and kill Israeli civilians.

So the real issue is not about the principle of civilian deaths—given Israel is damned when it tries to avoid noncombatants and Hamas is cheered on when it deliberately targets them.

Instead, the asymmetry is explained by the efficacy of the Israeli response and impotence of the Hamas rocketry.

In other words, Hamas cannot stop the IDF from hitting its targets, while Israel can knock down far more Hamas rockets than blow up Israeli citizens.

And so Israel is being blamed for being too effective—or “disproportionate”— in its bombing, Hamas rewarded for being too ineffective in its rocketing.

There are other sick paradoxes in this war.

Hamas started the conflict by sending death squads of 2,000 killers into Israel at a time of peace to surprise murder more than 1,000 Israeli civilians.

There was no precivilizational, unspeakable atrocity that the butcherers did not commit—torture, beheading, rape, mutilation, and necrophilia.

The terrorists were followed into Israel by a multitude of opportunistic Gaza civilians, who in turn joined in the violence and looting.

Back in Gaza crowds reviled and tried to harm Israeli captives bound as hostages to trade for jailed terrorists in Israel.

In sum, the population that once elected Hamas into power, and cheered on its bloodletting—as long as there was yet no Israeli response—now claims to have no connection at all with Hamas. Yet the world assumes correctly that the people of Israel are inseparable from its military.

The surreal paradoxes of this war still do not end there.

In its mass murdering spree of October 7, Hamas butchered more than 30 American citizens, and perhaps another 13 still are unaccounted for—and are likely hostages inside the tunnels of Hamas in Gaza.

Yet the Biden administration has not forced Hamas to return kidnapped Americans, much less responded to its killing of U.S. citizens.

Why then despite all the rhetoric of solidarity, is the United States constantly pressuring Israel to be measured in its retaliation against the Hamas terrorists in Gaza, pressure that will only make things easier on Hamas?

Why are we seeking to restrain those who are trying to destroy the killers of Americans, and indirectly aiding those who murdered them?

And why is the global elite community siding with the murderous aggressors and not those seeking justice for the murdered?

Lots of reasons.

There are 500 million Arabs in the world, and nearly 2 billion Muslims—but only 9 or so million Israelis.

Nearly fifty percent of the world’s oil reserves are found in the Muslim Middle East.

Westerners, like tiny Israel, are considered too rich and powerful, while non-Westerners are romanticized as blameless, victimized underdogs.

But the best way of understanding this sick war is that Israelis are Jews and the ancient plague of anti-Semitism is again sweeping the globe.

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papillon82fluttersby · 6 months

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Famous Five Art Nostalgia #LC02 – Part 1

Introductory post

Introduction to ‘Les Cinq’

Les Cinq au bal des espions – The Famous Five in Fancy Dress

Original publication date: 1971 (France), 1983 (UK)

(Cover by Jean Sidobre, 1976)

Today the Five take a trip to Switzerland and get to enjoy a masked ball while uncovering a spies’ nest!

~~~~~~

Plot summary:

(Disclaimer: All provided translations are my own.)

Siblings Julian, Dick and Anne join their cousin George at Kirrin Cottage for a glorious two months of summer holidays.

(The Five celebrate their reunion in true Kirrin fashion: with a tasty snack followed by an energetic swim in the sea!)

[TRANSLATION: Narrative: Once reinvigorated with their snack, the Five concluded their first afternoon together with a swim in the sea.]

That evening, Uncle Quentin announces that a scientific conference that was planned in Geneva in the fall has been moved to the summer. As a result, all the family goes on a trip to Switzerland: Uncle Quentin and Aunt Fanny will be at the hotel where the conference is held, while the children get to enjoy two weeks at a youth camp near Lake Geneva.

(Arrival at the youth camp)

[TRANSLATION: Narrative: Upon arrival, Mr and Mrs Kirrin settled at the hotel... The Five took a bus to the youth camp where a counsellor welcomed them. Counsellor: My name is André Sandry. Please, follow me.]

Over the next few days, the Five get to know their fellow campers, who all range from age 10 to 17 and hail from various European countries such as France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy or the UK. Most everyone is very friendly, except for one 17-year-old named Rudi originating from a small Central European country, who acts surly and aloof.

There is an announcement that all campers are invited to attend a masked ball that will be held the next week in Geneva, at the same hotel where the scientific conference is hosted. Over the next few days, the campers are all in a frenzy to find the best costume – George will be disguised as a cat burglar, Julian as a musketeer, Dick as a buccaneer and Anne as a shepherdess.

(Excitement at the camp!)

[TRANSLATION: Narrative: Over the next few days, small groups would meet to discuss their costume ideas in secret. One evening, George received a phone call from his parents. George: Everything's fine, Dad. We're being invited to a fancy dress ball. It's going to be fantastic. Quentin: I'll send you some money for your disguises.]

One night, George catches Rudi making light signals to a man called Malik, and conversing with him. She discovers that Malik is a member of the secret service of a foreign country and that Rudi is being paid to steal the plans for a rocket created by Professor Lancelot, a scientist who’s currently attending the international conference in Geneva. Rudi is supposed to steal the plans the following evening around midnight, during the masked ball that will be held at the hotel. After Malik and Rudi have gone their separate ways, George reports what she has discovered to her cousins.

During the night, a fire breaks out in the camp and George bravely rescues a young boy trapped in the flames. As a reward, the camp’s head counsellor gives her permission to bring Timmy to the masked ball – dressed as a sheep to go with Anne’s shepherdess costume! Unable to reach Uncle Quentin by phone that day due the upheaval following the fire, the Five decide to warn Professor Lancelot the next evening at the masked ball.

(Panic at camp!)

[TRANSLATION: Julian: Let’s go help with the bucket line. Female camper: Patrick! My little brother… He’s in there... George: There’s no time to lose.]

Once at the hotel for the party, the children try to contact Professor Lancelot but to no avail.

(Fancily-dressed Five!)

[TRANSLATION: Narrative: A few moments later, in the large ballroom... George: We must get to Professor Lancelot quickly. Every second lost could be fatal. Dick: It's a shame, really. I'd have gladly boarded the buffet. Julian: We should ask the hotel receptionist to announce us [to the professor].]

Dick goes up to the professor's room but the door is locked. George suggests climbing up the front of the hotel and walking along the stone ledge to reach the scientist's room through the open window, after which she opens the door to her cousins. Professor Lancelot has been drugged and is fast asleep. The Five soon find his briefcase and replace the rocket plans with worthless newspapers. Rudi arrives around midnight and grabs the briefcase. George follows him and clings to the back of the car that picks Rudi up. The car brings Rudi (and, unbeknownst to them, George) to an isolated house in the woods, where he has a meeting with the spy chief, a blonde man. The spies discover that the rocket plans have been swapped for newspapers and are clueless as to what might have happened. The blonde man sends Rudi back to the camp with orders to keep his eyes open.

(George out-spies the spies!)

[TRANSLATION: Narrative: Rudi explained to the man what happened at the hotel and the interference from Dick and Anne*. Rudi: Maybe they stole the plans? What should I do? Spy chief: Strange, really strange… For the moment, keep an eye on those kids and wait for my orders.]

[*Note: This refers to a commotion that happened earlier at the hotel: Julian, Dick and George had been hiding in the bathroom while Rudi entered the professor’s room, but Dick’s impulsiveness won through and he could not resist trying to capture Rudi – Rudi managed to lock them all up in the room and fled, after dodging Anne who made him trip with her shepherdess’s crook.]

George tries to warn her father about the plot against Professor Lancelot, but he is too busy with the conference. Closely watched by Rudi, she dares not reveal all her recent discoveries in a phone conversation for fear that Rudi will find out. The next day, the children learn that Professor Lancelot has been abducted in the street. Then, during a diving lesson organised for the campers, Rudi takes his chance and surreptitiously pushes George into the water, believing that she cannot swim. Despite George’s being none the worse for wear, the Five are more determined than ever to warn Uncle Quentin. They find their opportunity that same afternoon during a “treasure hunt” activity that sees all the young campers scattered around the camp. Julian had planned to take a bus to Geneva to warn Uncle Quentin in person, but the plan changes when they see Rudi conversing with the blonde man in the latter’s car. After Rudi leaves, the Five approach the car and introduce themselves as hitchhikers requesting a lift to Geneva. The man grumbles but agrees to take them part of the way, which helps the children locate the spies’ hideout.

(A crafty plan…)

[TRANSLATION: Narrative: On leaving Thiviey*, the car stopped to drop off the Five. Then it drove off again. Anne: We need to get the licence plate number. Dick: Impossible, the plate is too dusty. Julian: The car is turning down an alley. George: The spies’ hideout must be nearby. George (second panel): I swiped this glove from the car. After giving it a sniff, Timmy will lead us to the spies’ house. Let’s go!]

[*Note: Thiviey is the name of a village located near Geneva in the book. This seems to be a fictional village as I couldn’t find evidence that it exists in real life.]

Dick and Anne make their way to Geneva where, after some difficulty, they manage to locate Aunt Fanny and Uncle Quentin who, in turn, call the police. Seeing Rudi lurking at the hotel, Dick jumps on him and locks him up, gagged and tied up, in a broom cupboard. Meanwhile, Julian, George and Timmy reach the spies’ hideout and manage to gain access to the professor, who is being held in an underground chamber. The villains discover them and a fight ensues, but the police soon arrive and arrest the spies, including Rudi.

~~~~~~

Fun lines:

Trying on the costumes before the ball:

« Tu es ravissante ainsi ! déclara Claude à sa cousine pendant l’essayage. Mais tu devrais emmener avec toi au bal une bonne douzaine de moutons pour faire plus naturel ! »

François, de son côté, se trouvait magnifique avec l’épée au côté. Mick lui fit remarquer que « ce truc en fer-blanc » allait le gêner pour danser.

« Je m’en moque bien de danser ! répliqua François gaiement. Ce qui m’intéresse, moi, c’est le buffet !

— Un mousquetaire ne va pas au buffet ! fit remarquer Claude. Il doit monter la garde devant la porte.

— Tu as raison ! Pour empêcher les souris d’hôtel d’entrer ! »

Translation:

“You look lovely like this!” George said to her cousin [Anne] during the fitting. “But you should take a dozen sheep with you to the ball to look more natural!”

Julian, for his part, thought he looked magnificent with the sword at his side. Dick pointed out to him that this “tin thingie” was going to get in the way while dancing.

“I don't care about dancing!” replied Julian cheerfully. “What interests me is the buffet!”

“A musketeer doesn't go to the buffet!” remarked George. “They have to stand guard at the door.”

“You're right! To stop the cat burglars getting in!”

~~~~~~

Cover art through the ages:

(Disclaimer: This is not an exhaustive list; sometimes the dates are difficult to pinpoint; and I have purposefully not included editions that re-used similar cover art, with differences only in layout and font style.)

(Cover by Jean Sidobre, Hachette, 1976 – the Five in their fancy costumes!)

(Paul Gillon, Hachette, 1993 – George plays action hero!)

(Munch and Prunier, Hachette, 2003 – a cat burglar on a mission…)

(Frédéric Rébéna, Hachette, 2010 – all Five in their fancy dresses, including Timmy the sheepish dog 😂)

~~~~~

Thanks for reading!

#papillon82 reads #famous five art nostalgia #famous five #le club des cinq #les cinq #claude voilier #illustrations #jean sidobre #never miss a chance to see Julian holding a sword 😉

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libertariantaoist · 6 months

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News Roundup 11/2/2023 | The Libertarian Institute

Here is your daily roundup of today's news:

News Roundup 11/2/2023

by Kyle Anzalone

Russia

Ukraine and some European countries are ramping up a lobbying push in the US to get Americans to back more aid to Kiev. Ukrainian officials are seeking new long-range rockets and accelerated training programs. The propaganda push comes after a Time magazine article portrayed Kiev in disarray and a hotbed for corruption. The Institute

China

Chinese and Japanese coast guard vessels faced off near the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea on Monday, The South China Morning Post reported on Wednesday. AWC

Israel

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said on Tuesday that there should be “no limit” on how many civilian casualties Israel incurs in its bombardment of Gaza. AWC

The UN’s Human Rights Office said Wednesday that Israeli airstrikes on the Jabalia refugee camp could be a war crime due to the high number of civilian casualties. AWC

After weeks of enduring a vicious bombing campaign, some dual nationals and severely wounded Palestinians were allowed to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt. AWC

The Israeli military has said 16 Israeli soldiers have been killed fighting in Gaza since Israel launched its invasion of the besieged enclave. AWC

A trio of South American countries, along with Jordan, have downgraded ties with Israel over the onslaught in Gaza. According to Palestinian sources, the Israeli military operations in Gaza have killed nearly 9,000 people, half of which are women and children. The Institute

#kyle anzalone #libertarian institute #news roundup

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heliosphoenix · 4 months

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State of the Planet: 2023 Edition

Here we are once again. Hours to go until the new year is upon us. Even though when you read this you may very well be in the future, it's time once again to use the few hours we have left in 2023 to take a look at the state of the planet. And...what a state it is. I said last year that 2022 may have very well been the inflection point for this decade, the moment that the 2020's truly began to come into their own. I think that's held true for this year, even though it still feels like folks are trying to find their feet in some aspects. But even in all this confusion and uncertainty, there is still progress to be had. So let's take a look back at some of the good things that happened this year:

The European Parliment commited to ending the sale of petrol and diesel fueled vehicles in the EU by 2035 in an effort to push the adoption of electric vehicles.

The High Seas Treaty was signed by the member states of the UN, this treaty commits to the conservation of 30% of the world's oceans by 2030.

The ozone hole continues to shrink, projections have it on track to recover to 1980's levels by 2050.

Finland became the 31st member of NATO.

The World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 and Monkeypox are no longer a global health emergencies.

The first synthetic human embryo was created from the use of stem cells.

The African Union became the 21st permanent member of the G20 (wouldn't it be G21 now?).

Katalin Karikó & Drew Weissman won the Nobel Prize in medicine for their contributions towards the development of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.

The FDA approved of a treatment for sickle cell disease involving the use of the gene-editing technique Crispr.

Scientists announced the ability to use AI to decode people's thoughts from brain scans.

King Charles III ascended to the throne in the UK.

Pope Francis decreed that Roman Catholic priests would be allowed to bless same-sex marraiges.

Mexico decriminalized abortion at the federal level.

Despite projections of a recession, the United States economy experienced it's biggest growth since before the pandemic, adding 2.5 million jobs and inflation decreasing to 3.1%.

Spain won the Women's World Cup for the first time in a 1-0 victory over England.

SpaceX's fully stacked Starship flew twice this year, the largest rocket to ever fly (now if only they can get it to stop exploding).

The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) was launched by the European Space Agency, it's expected to arrive at Jupiter in 2031.

The European Ariane 5 rocket flew its 117th and final mission.

India's Chandrayaan-3 landed at the Moon's south pole, the first spacecraft to do so.

Oppenheimer and Barbie released the same day in theaters and the internet had a lot of fun with that.

Michigan went 13-0 agian and won their third straight Big Ten championship (BEAT BAMA!)

The Pistons actually won a game before the end of the year.

Remember all that? It's okay if you didn't. But once again, this is where I'm at right now.

You are in the future. Every single word on this post is already confined to the history books. How you remember this year is ultimately up to you, but keep in mind that the reason I make these posts is a counterpoint to the many forces out there who have a lot to gain if everyone is under the impression that everything is always terrible all the time.

And that leads me to my word of the year. It's a bit unusual but I think it fits:

The word of the year is: Perception.

At our core, all of us are truth seekers. Whether it's objective truth or personal truth, we all want to find it. One of the benefits of the internet age that, in my opinion, gets taken for granted is that we now have more information available to us than at any time in human history. Our ancestors had to deal with incomplete and contradictory information, but now we can find out pretty much anything in a matter of seconds.

But with that information comes a host of issues. We unfortunately live in an age where a commitment to objective truth is being overshadowed by a desire for personal truth. We're putting less emphasis on what is true and more on what we want to be true. Unfortunately, as Carl Sagan once said, our preferences do not determine what is true.

And there are those who seek to exploit this. There are people in this world that are willing to alter your own perception on how things are. But not to benefit you, but to benefit them. They wish to take advantage of your desire for your own beliefs to be validated for time evermore and turn that against you, so that they can create a better world for themselves even at your own expense.

But you can stop them. All you have to do is be aware that perception doesn't always equal reality.

2024 will be a consequential year. For one thing, it's an election year in the United States which means the stakes are high enough as is. There will be a lot of consequential events over the next 366 days (yay for leap years!), and a lot of people that you've never met will be trying to tell you how to think and what to believe.

Remember that at the end of the day, the most important values are the ones you hold dear. Just because something gets a lot of engagement on your socials doesn't mean it's the best way to contextualize something. Don't allow your beliefs and values to be compromised for the sake of fitting in with trends or trying to cash in on some vague notion of importance; especially when there's people trying to exploit that at your expense.

The first step to healthy civic engagement is a body politic that is informed and questioning. It will do you no harm to read up on whatever topic is trending on the socials. It will only make you informed and then you will be able to decide if a position or a policy is truly the right one for you, based on what you hold to be important.

Knowledge can be scary at times. It may cause us to reevaluate our position, as well as come to realize that something we felt or believed or even wished to be true now has to be totally re-examined in a new light. But all that is what helps us grow, that's what helps us evolve and become stronger.

They used to tell us that "knowledge is power." I can tell you that knowledge only makes you better.

Remember these words as you head into the new year. Rather than wishing for your perception to be reality, base your perception on reality. And then those who thrive on the exploitation of ignorance will have no power over you.

Have a great New Year's Eve, friends. And I'll see you all in 2024.

Helios.

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