#Miss universe contestants from 2017 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

coochiequeens · 1 year

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An article from Thu October 27, 2022

CNN — A Thai media tycoon and transgender rights advocate has bought the Miss Universe Organization for $20 million, according to her company, which will now host the international beauty pageant.

Anne Jakkaphong Jakrajutatip is the CEO of JKN Global Group PCL, a Thailand-based media distribution company, though she’s perhaps better known for her role in Thai versions of reality shows including “Project Runway.”

She has also been outspoken about her experiences as a transgender woman, and has worked in advocacy for transgender rights in Thailand.

JKN Global Group announced the takeover on Wednesday, saying in a news release it planned to grow the Miss Universe Organization by expanding in Asia – and releasing new merchandise including skin care, cosmetics, lifestyle products, dietary supplements and drinks.

Jakkaphong said the company was “incredibly honored” to make the acquisition.

“We seek not only to continue its legacy of providing a platform to passionate individuals from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and traditions, but also to evolve the brand for the next generation,” she said.

In a joint statement, the CEO and president of the Miss Universe Organization said they were “excited to continue the evolution of the Miss Universe Organization with JKN.”

Our progressive approach continues to position us at the forefront of our industry,” they said.

The purchase makes Jakkaphong the first woman owner of the Miss Universe Organization, according to the JKN news release.

The Miss Universe beauty contest, one of the world’s most-watched pageants, has been running since 1952.

Like many other major pageants, it has had to reckon with growing public demand for greater diversity, representation and inclusivity over the past decade. It only lifted its ban on transgender contestants in 2012, after a Canadian competitor threatened legal action when told she would be disqualified due to her assigned sex at birth.

And though some critics argue the premise of a beauty pageant is inherently flawed, others say there has been significant progress in recent years.

Beauty pageants for transgender contestants have risen in prominence, most notably Miss International Queen, launched in 2004 and held this year in Thailand. Some countries have launched their own versions; in 2017, India held its first-ever Miss Transqueen India pageant,which aims to celebrate gender fluidity and raise visibility for India’s transgender community.

And in 2019, the winners of five major pageants – Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss America, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA – were all women of color, a remarkable milestone given black women weren’t allowed to compete in Miss America until the 1940s, and the first black contestant didn’t take that stage until 30 years later.

from November 10

Males can now enter traditional beauty pageants and win the scholarships meant for women AND they can have trans pageants.

#Anne Jakkaphong Jakrajutatip Is a man #JKN Global Group #Miss Universe

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denimbex1986 · 2 months

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Last month, “Oppenheimer” began its awards season romp with big wins at both the Golden Globe and Critics Choice ceremonies. Its next big test will be at the upcoming BAFTA Awards on February 18. That’s just four days after Valentine’s Day. And Universal Pictures‘ “Oppenheimer” will still be feeling the love.

Here are five reasons why it is 100% unbeatable in the BAFTA race for Best Film.

1. It’s the undisputed Academy Award frontrunner. BAFTA has unfortunately turned into just another awards show that seems determined to predict the eventual Oscar winner for Best Picture. Ironically, that’s meant rewarding films that ultimately went on to lose the top Academy Award – like 2014’s “Boyhood,” 2015’s “The Revenant,” 2016’s “La La Land,” 2017’s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” 2018’s “Roma,” 2019’s “1917” and 2021’s “The Power of the Dog.” You have to wonder if they finally surrendered last year when the German underdog “All Quiet on the Western Front” won the battle over the inevitable Oscar victor “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” This year, the stars in the motion picture multiverse seem universally aligned behind “Oppenheimer.” That bodes well for its BAFTA prospects.

2. Its 13 BAFTA nominations indicate broad support. Just like at the Oscars, it contends in a dozen-plus-one lucky categories. It didn’t miss anywhere. Furthermore, it’s expected to take home a number of those trophies. Some are above-the-line (Christopher Nolan for Best Director, Cillian Murphy for Best Actor and Robert Downey Jr. for Best Supporting Actor). Others are below-the-line (Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing and Best Sound, to name a few). Unless “Oppenheimer” seriously underperforms in its BAFTA bids, it’s hard to see it falter in its quest for Best Film.

3. It’s a UK-US production, but might as well be completely British. While the people and events depicted in “Oppenheimer” are obviously American, many of the names associated with it hail from the British Isles. Nolan and his producing partner and wife Emma Thomas. The Irish Murphy who plays the title role. Emily Blunt who portrays his wife. And additional assorted talents like Kenneth Branagh, Tom Conti, Florence Pugh and Gary Oldman. For most BAFTA members, voting for “Oppenheimer” will practically be a patriotic act.

4. Best Film and Director have generally been matching at BAFTA in recent years. As the Picture/Director split has grown more common at the Oscars, it has become a rarer occurrence at the BAFTAs. In the past decade, eight of the 10 films that claimed Best Film also earned honors for directing. (The exceptions were for 2013’s “12 Years a Slave” and 2017’s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri.” Directing prizes went to Alfonso Cuaron for “Gravity” and Guillermo del Toro for “The Shape of Water” in those respective contests.) With Nolan being a jumbo lock for Best Director at BAFTA, we have to view “Oppenheimer” as being the clear favorite for Best Film.

5. There’s simply no film that can take it down. “Killers of the Flower Moon” failed to score a Best Director nomination for Martin Scorsese and a Best Actress bid for Lily Gladstone, suggesting that BAFTA members aren’t exactly over-the-moon about the movie. Similarly, “Poor Things” was robbed of a Best Director spot for Yorgos Lanthimos as well as Best Supporting Actor citations for Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo. That makes “Poor Things” a pretty poor threat. ”Anatomy of a Fall” is likely to rise in other areas — like Best Non-English Film, Best Original Screenplay and perhaps even Sandra Huller for Best Actress. And as for “The Holdovers” — don’t hold your breath. That leaves “Oppenheimer” the last film standing — blasting away at BAFTA before continuing on a collision course with Oscar.'

#BAFTAs #Oppenheimer #Poor Things #Anatomy of a Fall #The Holdovers #Christopher Nolan #Cillian Murphy #Kenneth Branagh #Florence Pugh #Gary Oldman #Emily Blunt #Emma Thomas #Robert Downey Jr.#Oscars

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thebobby1432world · 1 year

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Divya Agarwal Wiki, Biography, Age, Height, Weight, Family, Net Worth

Divya Agarwal Wiki: Divya Agarwal is a talented Indian Actress, Model, Anchor, and Dance Choreographer, best known for her participation in MTV Splitsvilla 10. Born and raised in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, she attended St. Xavier’s High School and later earned a Master's degree in Journalism from Sanpada College of Commerce and Technology. Divya Agarwal Wiki Divya's passion for dancing led her to join the Terence Lewis Dance Academy during her college years, and she went on to establish her own dance academy named "Elevate Dance Institute." In 2015, she won the coveted "Miss Navi Mumbai" contest, followed by "Miss Indian Princess" (2016) and "Miss Tourism International India" (2016) titles.

Divya Agarwal Wiki

As a choreographer, Divya has worked on commercials for famous actresses like Ileana Dcruz and Shilpa Shetty, while also featuring in various TV commercials such as Head N Shoulders, Kellogs K, Loreal, and more. In 2017, Divya Agarwal participated in the popular reality show "MTV Splitsvilla 10" and showcased her skills and talent. She then went on to win the MTV show "Ace of Space" in 2018. WikiDetailsNameDivya Sanjay AgarwalProfessionActress, Model, AnchorKnown ForParticipating in MTV Splitsvilla 10Date Of Birth4 December 1992BirthplaceNavi Mumbai, Maharashtra, IndiaAge as In 202330 YearsHometownNavi Mumbai, Maharashtra, IndiaReligionHinduismNationalityIndianZodiac SignSagittariusSchoolSt. Xavier’s High SchoolCollege/UniversitySanpada College of Commerce and Technology Canadian University, DubaiEducation QualificationMaster in JournalismFatherNot KnownMotherNot KnownBrotherNot KnownSisterNot KnownMartial StatusUnmarriedDivya Agarwal Boyfriend/ AffairsPriyank Sharma Varun SoodHusband/ SpouseN/AChildrenSon- N/A Daughter- N/AHeightIn Centimeters- 171 cm In Meters- 1.71 m In Feet Inches- 5’6″WeightIn Kilogram- 55 Kg In Pounds- 121 lbsBody Measurements34-27-34Eye ColourBlackHair ColourBlackTelevision 2017Splitsvilla 10 Contestant2018Date To Remeber Mentor2018Ace Of Space Contestant (Winner)2019Travel With A Goat Participant2019Roadies: Real Heroes Roadies Insider2021Bigg Boss OTT ContestantFilms 2020Junglam Malvika (Not Released Yet)Music Video 2018Bob Marley Suyyash Rai and Star Boy2018Chance Bobby NewberryFavourite ActorHrithik RoshanFavourite ActressNot KnownFavourite SingerNot KnownFavourite SongNot KnownFavourite MovieNot KnownFavourite SportsNot KnownFavourite ColourWill Update SoonFavourite DestinationWill Update SoonFavorite FoodDark ChocolatesHobbiesDancing, Riding Bike In 2021, Divya Agarwal joined the Indian game reality show "Bigg Boss Season 15" as a contestant and gained massive popularity. Besides her successful career in the entertainment industry, Divya has a keen interest in dancing and enjoys riding bikes in her free time. She also has a fondness for dark chocolates. Read the full article

#Biography #DivyaAgarwal #DivyaAgarwalWiki

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ledenews · 1 year

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The Slaw Line, Fallout 76 and Other Stories We Need to Tell About West Virginia

(Publisher's Note: This article was published late last week on Moundsville.org, and with permission of the publisher, John W. Miller, we're re-publishing it this morning in case LEDE News readers missed it on the Marshall County blog.) West Virginia might be the most misunderstood state in the union. How can outsiders, and its own people, understand it better? The best answer, of course, is to empower and celebrate storytellers from West Virginia — like memoirist Neema Avashia, or Steve Novotney in Wheeling, WV and Brianna Hickman in Moundsville – who write about their home communities. Emily Hilliard, the state’s folklorist from 2015-2021, has written Making Our Future (UNC Press, 312 p., $24.95), a rich, witty, deeply-reported and impassioned survey of West Virginia folklife, and a plea for “collaborative ethnography”. That’s a way of reporting “in a place like Appalachia, where journalists and cultural workers have extracted stories and cultural resources without community input, benefit, or respect, employing narratives that frame the region’s faults as individual failures rather than systemic problems.” For her kinder, more human approach, amplified by a relentless and refreshing curiosity, Hilliard chose eight specific stories: the history of the Scotts Run coal-mining community and its museum; the inspiring, heart-melting songwriting of four working-class women; the food and culture of Helvetia, WV, a Swiss community of 59 people; the landscape of the stories of legendary fiction writer Breece D’J Pancake in Milton, WV; the West Virginia teachers’ strike; hotdogs and the so-called “slaw line”, which demarcates where coleslaw is added; independent pro wrestling; and the video game Fallout 76. The nature of her work as a public folklorist, she writes, “is to offer my assistance to local communities in recognizing themselves as collectivities with some shared identity and history (even if contested), communities that, through shared reactive expression, can together realize the power of self-determination in making their future.” (As University of Pittsburgh anthropologist Loukas Barton told me after we premiered our oral history film Moundsville in the town’s it’s about: Presenting a finished work to the subject “is about respect, but it’s also aboutinteraction, collaboration and growth. Self-knowledge can give a community political power.” When Hilliard moved to West Virginia from Washington, DC on Halloween, 2015, she discovered a wildly diverse state. Today there are still actively practiced African American, Serbian, Lebanese, Italian, Spanish, Swiss, Greek, and Polish traditions…West Virginia is also home to newer Syrian, Haitian, and Burmese refugees, and a quickly growing Latinx population. A new Hindu temple opened in Dunbar in 2017, and the Islamic Center in Charleston, a multiracial and multiethnic faith community, has over 400 active members. It is important to note that while West Virginia is declining in population overall, notably among its white population, communities of color in the state are growing. One of West Virginia’s most expansive exposures in the last decade has been the best-selling video game, Fallout 76, which takes place in post-apocalyptic West Virginia, 25 years after a nuclear war has decimated the world. Players emerge from a bunker in Flatwoods, WV, and are charged with fighting two-headed opossums, giant ticks and mangy beavers, and the Scorched, a zombie-like army, securing nuclear silos and making the world for rebuilding and repopulating. Rightly, Hilliard spends an essay exploring the game’s cultural significance. It is, after all, global. She quotes Norwegian Anders Isaken: “I have been playing Fallout 76 and I have to admit that I have developed a love for West Virginia. I have never been to the USA but if I were ever to get a chance to visit your wonderful country West Virginia is high on my list of places I want to travel to. Your local culture, folklore, nature and people seem absolutely lovely. Without the game you and your amazing state would just be a word on a map. Now it is in my heart. Country Roads take me home.” The game is full of West Virginia tourist sites, including Harper’s Ferry, the Mothman Museum, the Moundsville prison, New Vrindaban, and the Greenbrier resort. “The in-game portrayal of Helvetia, the remote mountain village of population 59, founded in 1869 by Swiss German immigrants, is particularly accurate,” Hilliard reports. “Though the game designers swapped a few building locations, the scale and aesthetic is impeccably simulated and everything is there, down to the hand-painted signs, the historic bootmaker shack, Cheese Haus, Honey Haus, Hutte Swiss Restaurant (called Freya’s Restaurant in-game), the Kultur Haus/general store/post office, mask museum, and even the assortment of instruments in the museum that belonged to the original members of the real Helvetia Star Band. Though I never played the game, when I watched a friend navigate through virtual Helvetia, I was able to direct him to where to go based on my familiarity with the town.” The world of Fallout 76 “is a West Virginia that has been returned to the frontier it once was.” Fallout 76, is also an example of extracting a cultural resource, and could possibly overwhelm the tourist capacities of small towns. It’s also expensive and difficult to play for people without decent incomes and good broadband. Hilliard argues that “as a next step beyond documentation, contextualization, and presentation, folklorists, myself included, should be more attuned to the future life of traditions beyond sustainability, and actively work in collaboration with communities to combat the outside destructive forces, such as privatization, extraction, and austerity, that disrupt them and block their agency to negotiate the transmission of their traditions.” The book shines brightest when Hilliard is on the ground: Leaving Charleston and heading southeast, the road is immediately hedged in between the mountains on the left and the Kanawha River on the right, with the railroad crossing back and forth over the course of the journey. In Malden, I pass the former location of the saltworks where Booker T. Washington worked as a boy. In belle, smokestacks and cranes stretch up into the sky, competing with the mountains for the view. A group of Black girls with new glittery pink bikes ride by a group of white girls holding signs advertising a yard sale. I drive past cinderblock auto shops and neat former company houses and churches (so many churches!)—Church of Christ, Church of God, Catholic, African Zion Baptist, First Baptist, Memorial Baptist, and the mysterious “House of Non-Judgement.” There’s an old three-story brick elementary school, Dollar Generals, and a barbecue restaurant, a couple Taco Bells, the beloved West Virginia chain Turdor’s Biscuit World, and a Shoney’s Buffet with a sign that reads “Reopening Soon.” Past Cedar Grove, hand-painted boards advertising a hot dog joint are stapled to telephone poles every few yards and campaign signs are scattered along the berm. In London, the transport system for the Mammoth Coal Processing Plant arches from the hillside over the road to a looming metal tipple, standing guard. The book’s title comes from a conversation Hilliard reports with a high school student while covering the West Virginia teachers' strike. She also quotes the poet Audre Lorde: “We are making the future as well as bonding to survive the enormous pressures of the present, and that is what it means to be part of history.” However West Virginia makes its future, I pray for more of what Hilliard lovingly demonstrates: encounters with neighbors close and far, not judging, just listening, noticing, and noting. The stories will come. John W. Miller Read the full article

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lboogie1906 · 1 year

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Kenya Summer Moore Daly (born January 24, 1971) is an actress, model, producer, author, television personality, and entrepreneur. She co-starred in The Real Housewives of Atlanta and was a member of the cast of The Celebrity Apprentice 7. She rose to prominence after winning the Miss USA contest which led her to compete in that year's Miss Universe pageant landing her among the top six. She has produced several film projects, had a book published, and starred in her exercise video. She is known for her involvement in entrepreneurial ventures and is the founder of the hair care brand, Moore Hair. She was born in Detroit to Patricia Moore and Ronald Grant and was raised by her paternal grandmother Doris Grant and aunt. She graduated from Cass Technical High School. She attended Wayne State University, where she majored in psychology and minored in communication. She had parts in television programs including The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Meet The Browns, Homeboys in Outer Space, Sparks, Smart Guy, Video Soul, Living Single, Damon, In the House, The Jamie Foxx Show, The Parent 'Hood, Martin, The Steve Harvey Show, Nubian Goddess, Men, Women & Dogs, The Parkers, Under One Roof, and Girlfriends. She has appeared on the covers of Glamour, Seventeen, Ebony, and Essence magazines and can be seen in the music videos for Jermaine Dupri's "Money Ain't a Thang", Nas's "Street Dreams", Shai's "I Don't Wanna Be Alone", and Tupac's "Temptations". She has appeared in several films: Waiting to Exhale, Senseless, Trois, Deliver Us from Eva, Brothers in Arms, Cloud 9, I Know Who Killed Me, and Trapped: Haitian Nights. She married businessman and restaurant owner Marc Daly (2017-2021). #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence https://www.instagram.com/p/CnzaFpwrkC7/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

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rocknews · 1 year

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Donald Trump Biography

Donald Trump (1946 – ) is the 45th President of the US. For many years he was chairman and president of the Trump Organisation, which has a diverse range of business and real estate businesses. Trump also rose to prominence through his appearance in The Apprentice (U.S.) a reality tv show where contestants bid for the opportunity to head one of Trump’s companies.

Early life

Donald Trump was born 14 June 1946, in Queens, New York to German immigrant parents. His father Fred Trump was a successful real estate developer. It is estimated Donald inherited at least $413 million from his father between the age of 3 and 58. A NYTimes investigation suggested this involve tax avoidance schemes.

Donald attended the private Kew-Forest School, Fordham University and then the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1968 with a degree in economics. He was eligible for the Vietnam draft but received deferments for being a student, and later a medical deferment, attributed to heel spurs in both feet.

After leaving university, he worked with his father in real estate development in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. In the 1970s, with help from his father, he then moved to Manhattan, where Trump created the Trump Organisation.

Net Worth of Donald Trump

In 2012, Trump declared his own net worth at around $7 billion. In 2015, Forbes estimated his net worth at $4 billion. When running for Presidential candidate in 2015, Trump claimed a net worth in excess of ten billion dollars, though he said it can fluctuate with markets.

Trump was given $40 million from his father in 1974 (1)

Other interests

From 1996 to 2015, Trump owned part of Miss Universe beauty pageants. Though Trump sold his interests in 2015, after a dispute over his presidential address on Mexican immigrants.

Television

In 2003, Trump became the executive producer of the NBC programme – The Apprentice. It was one of the most popular tv programmes, with Trump selecting a candidate to gain a job in his business. During the series, Trump would fire the unsuccessful candidates with the catchphrase “You’re fired”

Politics

2016 election

Despite losing the popular vote by nearly 3 million, Trump won the electoral college 306 – 232, after securing the swing states, such as Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Total votes

Clinton 65,844,610 – 48.20% Trump 62,979,636 – 46.10% Others 7,804,213 – 5.70%

2017 Presidential office

Trump took office on January 20, 2017. Among his first executive orders were an order to ban immigrants from Muslim countries, such as Syria and Iraq. He also sought to, unsuccessfully, repeal Obama Health Care and build a wall between US and Mexico.

Trump has courted controversy for supporting far-right organisations and appearing to be sympathetic to white supremacist groups. He has also frequently been accused of lying or giving misleading statements. Read More On..

#donald trump #biography

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your-dietician · 2 years

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Protests in Iran Spread, Including to Oil Sector, Despite Violent Crackdown

New Post has been published on https://medianwire.com/protests-in-iran-spread-including-to-oil-sector-despite-violent-crackdown/

Protests in Iran Spread, Including to Oil Sector, Despite Violent Crackdown

Defying a lethal crackdown in cities across Iran, protesters demanding the ouster of Iran’s Islamic Republic have driven their uprising into a fourth week, with workers from the country’s vital oil sector going on strike this week and activists calling for further work stoppages and protests on Wednesday.

Despite efforts by Iran’s security forces, including the feared plainclothes Basij militias, to crush the protests, they have only widened. Some have turned into chaotic street battles, with the security forces opening fire and protesters fighting back and refusing to give ground, according to witnesses, rights groups and videos of the clashes on social media.

The internet and popular communications applications in Iran have been disrupted for weeks, making it difficult to confirm the true toll of the government’s crackdown on the protests, which have been led and inspired by women from their start in mid-September. But human rights groups said Tuesday that at least 185 people had been killed, including 28 children, with thousands injured or arrested so far. The government said that 24 of its security forces had been killed and about 2,000 wounded.

The protests were sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police after they arrested her under the country’s rule requiring women to wear dress modestly and cover their hair in public. Iran’s security forces claimed she died of a heart attack, but her family said she had been killed by blows to her head and was healthy at the time of her arrest.

The government’s violent crackdown has been intense in many cities across the country, and in recent weeks it has escalated in the Kurdish region where Ms. Amini lived and the protests began.

One city there, Sanandaj, about 250 miles from Tehran, came under intense fire over the weekend, according to residents, rights groups and videos posted on social media. Security forces indiscriminately opened fire on residents and homes and threw tear gas into residential buildings, killing at least seven people and injuring more than 400, according to the Kurdish rights group Hengaw.

Since the protests began in September, two teenage girls have joined Ms. Amini as the faces of the uprising, appearing on posters and street art across the country, their names chanted as rallying cries and trending on Persian-language Twitter. The girls — Nika Shakarami and Sarina Esmailzadeh, both 16 but from different towns — went missing after they joined the protests in September, their families only learning their fates after the authorities suddenly returned their bodies.

The government claimed that the girls had killed themselves by jumping from buildings. But family members immediately rejected those accusations, telling the media and human rights groups that the girls had been beaten to death.

Last week, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, broke weeks of silence over the protests, accusing the United States and Israel of aiding the demonstrators, and voicing support for the security forces’ actions.

More on the Protests in Iran

But scenes like those this month at the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran — Iran’s most elite academic institution, where the authorities shot rubber bullets into crowds of young people and beat and arrested dozens, according to witnesses — have reverberated, outraging even some Iranians who had formerly supported the revolutionary government.

Iran has been rocked by nationwide protest movements before, most notably over contested election results in 2009, and over the economy in 2017 and 2019. Those also brought a swift and deadly reaction from the authorities.

But the current uprising has not only been able to survive weeks of crackdown attempts; it has also grown and taken a tone directly threatening the country’s theocratic leadership, with women burning their hijabs, campuses erupting into protest, and marchers chanting “Death to the dictator!” and “We don’t want an Islamic republic!”

Now nearing the month mark, the protests have taken on a rhythm. Larger demonstrations erupt across the nation every few days, including one this past Saturday. Those have been backed by smaller neighborhood-scale protests nearly every day, and by widespread daily acts of civil disobedience, including women walking with their hair uncovered, shops closing, and people chanting against the regime nightly from rooftops and open windows.

Activists called for another nationwide protest on Wednesday, and called for workers and businesses to join.

More professionals have been answering the call recently. Saeed Dehghan, a prominent lawyer, said a group of lawyers planned to stage a protest outside the judiciary building in Tehran on Wednesday to denounce “the state violating the rights of the people.”

The country’s main medical association issued a statement on Tuesday signed by 800 physicians condemning the violence and stating that they consider “the people as the real owners of the country, and we support their just demands.”

Workers in the oil and energy sector have staged strikes for two days. On Monday, workers from the Abadan and Kangan oil refineries and the Bushehr Petrochemical Project in Asaluyeh went on strike, and a video showed the workers in Asaluyeh blocking a road and chanting “Death to the dictator!” Eleven workers were arrested on Tuesday, but the walkouts continued, according to media reports, and more were expected on Wednesday.

Strikes that could further damage the economy, particularly those called by the unions representing the bazaar merchants and the oil and energy sector, carry a heavy weight in Iran’s history. During the 1979 Islamic revolution, strikes in those sectors were a powerful tool that accelerated the Shah’s collapse.

Amnesty International and rights groups sounded the alarm on Tuesday about the violence unfolding in Sanandaj, the city in the Kurdish region, which has a strong tradition of civil society and organized opposition parties.

Rebin Rahmani, director of the France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network, said that it had identified four demonstrators killed by security forces in Sanandaj since the protests began, including a man in his 20s who was shot in his car by a plainclothes security officer.

Videos posted on social media and supported by witness accounts were said to show the security forces standing in the middle of a road in broad daylight in Sanandaj, shooting at crowds. At night, people barricaded the streets with debris and bonfires, and fought back by throwing bricks at the security forces. One video appeared to show the forces lining up on an empty street at night and firing at the windows of homes.

Haider, a resident of Sanandaj in his 20s who works in sales and marketing and asked to only be identified by his middle name out of fear of retribution, told The New York Times that he had heard gunfire and the sound of protesters from his balcony on Saturday and Sunday night. “We were shocked, they were trying to kill people,” he said. When he and his family left for a farm just outside the city on Monday, they saw surveillance drones overhead, he said.

Iran’s interior minister, Ahmad Vahidi, traveled to Sanandaj on Tuesday and said in a speech that those protesting in the city were “the enemy of the Iranian nation,” according to Iran’s official media. The sound of gunfire continued even as the minister toured the city.

In Qom, a religious city that has traditionally been a power base for the state, young protesters blocked the streets and chanted for the downfall of Ayatollah Khamenei, videos on social media showed.

“We need to live in freedom!” said Haider, the Sanandaj resident. He said a friend of his had lost an eye after being shot by pellets. “The government shouldn’t chose what we wear or what we hear.”

A still image taken from a video showing employees blocking a road leading to the Asaluyeh Petrochemical Refinery in Iran’s southwestern Bushehr province on Monday.Credit…Ugc, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The official response has mostly been dismissive. President Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday compared protesters to flies and labeled them enemies during a speech at a university campus. Afterward, university demonstrations took on a new chant: “Raisi, get lost!”

The head of the country’s judiciary, the hard-line cleric Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, has played a central role in the crackdown on protesters, officials say. But on Sunday, he appeared to be attempting damage control, saying that he was ready for dialogue with protesters and that the government was willing to make “corrections” to policies.

But many Iranians viewed Mr. Mohseni Ejei’s gesture as insincere, and instead took it as a sign that the state was realizing that crackdowns alone might not resolve the current crisis.

The government is also facing increasingly vocal criticism for its handling of the crisis from its power base, including some conservative politicians. Mohammad Sadr, a member of the powerful Expediency Council that advises the supreme leader and has oversight over the government, said on Tuesday that Ms. Amini’s death had ignited “pent-up frustrations, demands and rage especially among the young generation,” and added that “you cannot rule by force.”

Sangar Khalil contributed reporting.

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preppernewstoday · 2 years

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This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today, a roundup on demographic shifts in The American Redoubt. National and Region-Wide Trends Most Conservative States 2022. o o o Americans are fleeing to places where political views match their own. o o o The 10 U.S. states where income has risen the fastest since 2019. o o o How the U.S. Electorate’s Ideology Has Changed Since 2017. A quote: “The share of the electorate identifying as “very liberal,” “liberal” or “somewhat liberal” on a seven-point scale has dropped over the past five years, from 34% to 27%.” o o o The ‘Red Wave’ Has Begun: More Than 1 Million Voters Across 43 States Switch to Republican. o o o And from a left-leaning publication: Commentary: Lesser Oregon and Greater Idaho. Idaho University of Idaho: Idaho’s demographics changing at unprecedented rates. JWR’s Comment: What this article fails to mention is that the great majority of the state’s newcomers are conservative and that they tend to have large families. o o o Idaho population projected to top 2 million by 2031. o o o Conservatives move to rural Idaho to escape liberal politics. o o o From a liberally-biased news outlet: ‘Republican and more Republican’: Idaho shifts ever rightward. o o o After being unfairly banned from most social media and hounded by liberal critics and web trolls, comedian Owen Benjamin has relocated to North Idaho — not far from tehe post office where I take my mail. His website: The Beartaria Times. Montana Montana’s fastest-growing city last year? It wasn’t Bozeman. An excerpt: “Montana as a whole, in comparison, posted 1.7% population growth overall, adding just more than 18,000 people between 2020 and 2021. Several rural counties in western Montana also posted eye-catching growth figures, adding hundreds of residents and growing even faster in percentage terms than Flathead and Ravalli counties: Mineral (Superior) and Broadwater (Townsend) at 6.5 percent each, and Sanders (Thompson Falls) and Lincoln (Libby) at 4.1 percent and 4.0 percent, respectively.” o o o Former state legislator dies while hunting in Bridgers. o o o In The Daily Mail: ‘We were used as puppets to put on a show’: Miss Montana slams Miss USA pageant organizers for ‘rigging’ contest to let Miss Texas win after giving her ‘more resources’. o o o This was posted back in 2021: New census data shows reshaping of Montana population. Central & Eastern Oregon Why Republicans Could Win Oregon’s Governorship For The First Time In 40 Years. o o o A Look at Population Trends in Eastern Oregon. o o o Politics permeate Pendleton Round-Up as Oregon governor’s race heats up. The article begins: “Every year, people from all over the world gather in Pendleton, a city of 17,000 in northeastern Oregon, for the Pendleton Round-Up, one of the largest rodeo events in the country. With that in mind, all three candidates to be Oregon’s next governor trekked to Pendleton last week to mingle with potential voters. As upwards of 50,000 people and their animals descend upon the city each year, so too do political candidates from across Oregon, eager to increase their exposure before the next election. This practice has lasted for decades but has taken on added importance this year. That’s because this year’s race to replace Democratic Gov. Kate Brown at the end of her final term could be the closest contest in years, with three candidates — Democrat Tina Kotek, Republican Christine Drazan and unaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson — vying for support.” Central & Eastern Washington Kennewick, Washington Will be Among the Fastest Growing Cities by 2060. o o o Tri-Cities population growth outpaces housing availability.

Wyoming Wyoming’s population growth outpacing other states. o o o Liz Cheney says she will do whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump from the White House, even if it means leaving the GOP. Send Your News Tips Please send your American Redoubt region news tips, event announcements, and American Redoubt-based companies worthy of a mention to JWR. You can do so either via e-mail or via our Contact form.

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happytheoristmentality · 2 years

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4th of July: A by-the-numbers seem to be at the American holiday

FILE - American flag is viewed on show at some point of the Doo Dah birthday celebration in Goodale Park on the Fourth of July in Columbus, Ohio, in 2021. (Photo by way of Stephen Zenner/SOPA Images/Light Rocket by using Getty Images)

The Fourth of July is an annual federal vacation that celebrates the day the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

That day, 246 years ago, there have been roughly 2.5 million human beings residing in the newly fashioned nation’s thirteen colonies.

Now the U.S. has a populace of extra than 331.8 million, and many of these American households will take part in a Fourth of July gathering or event.

JULY 4TH FAVORITES: HOT DOG AND HAMBURGER ECONOMICS

Here are 10 rapid information about Fourth of July meals and firework spending, celebrations and journey plans.

84 – The National Retail Federation’s (NRF) Independence Day projection predicts 84% of Americans sketch to have fun the day and spend $84.12 per individual on a variety of meals items.

59 – Of these who layout to have a good time the Fourth of July, 59% are planning to host a cookout, barbecue or picnic, in accordance to the NRF.

50 million – The National Hot Dog & Sausage Council estimates that Americans ate one hundred fifty million warm puppies in 2021. The council says if any person laid out these warm puppies in real-life, the mixed size would be "enough to stretch from D.C. to L.A. greater than 5 times."

GettyImages-808319178.jpg FILE - Competitive eaters Carmen Cincotti, Joey Chestnut and Matt Stonie at the 2017 Nathans Famous 4th Of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest with seventy two warm puppies at Coney Island on July 4, 2017, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by

2 million – Marketers at Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs record that almost two million human beings tune in to watch its annual Fourth of July warm canine ingesting contest. More than 40,000 humans cease by way of the Coney Island opposition venue in Brooklyn, N.Y. to see contestants consume as many warm puppies as they perchance can.

1 – The pinnacle excursion for at-home beer consumption is the Fourth of July, in accordance to the National Beer Wholesalers Association.

4TH OF JULY AND PETS: DOGS, CATS GO MISSING ON THE HOLIDAY MORE THAN ANY OTHER DAY

$262 million and $2.2 billion – A firework enterprise income file from the American Pyrotechnics Association exhibits that the show fireworks enterprise made $262 million in 2021, whilst the purchaser fireworks enterprise made $2.2 billion.

The affiliation says American use fireworks year-round to have a good time events, however "July 4th is nonetheless the ‘big day.’"

Weather performs a massive function in fireworks shows The climate is a huge factor of fireworks shows. George Zambelli, CEO, Zambelli Fireworks, explains what are the quality and worst climate stipulations for a fireworks show.

48,000 – Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks exhibit in NYC will fireplace off 48,000 shells this year, which is a close to 31% limit from the range of shells it fired off in 2021 (65,000). Supply chain and labor forces disruptions in the firework enterprise are contributing to a countrywide shortage.

GettyImages-1405850081.jpg FILE - Fireworks retail display, Costco, in Florida the place it is criminal to promote them direct to consumers. (Photo by: Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group by way of Getty Images)

47.9 million – The American Automobile Association estimates that 47.9 million humans will journey for the Fourth of July beginning from Thursday, June 30 to Monday, July four The association’s forecast predicts that forty two million Americans will journey by way of car, 3.55 million will tour via air and 2.42 million will tour by means of bus, educate and cruise.

$6.9 million – The range of imported American flags is estimated to be round $6.9 million every year, in accordance to a vacation record WalletHub – a non-public finance website. Domestically, the Flag Manufacturers Association of America estimates that there are one hundred fifty million American flags offered in the U.S. every year.

$10 – The American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual "Cost of July 4th Cookout" market basket find out about determined that contemporary inflation has made "Independence Day cookout foods" 17% greater steeply-priced than closing year, which is an extend of "about $10." The federation estimated Fourth of July ingredients value a complete of $59.50 in 2021. This year, it’s predicting $69.68.

Get updates to this story on FOXBusiness.com.

Commentary: This Fourth of July, have fun being American WE CELEBRATE the beginning of our united states at a time when many Americans appear to be out to smash our country.

We are a kingdom divided on so many fronts, from politics to race to sex. As for God, well, His identify can't be noted in connection with government.

We are in the midst of a wide variety of congressional hearings regarding the Jan. 6, 2021 storming of our Capitol, a day when seditionists attempted a coup and tried to disrupt the peaceable switch of power, an factor of authorities that is fundamental to our democratic way of life.

This week there had been malcontents who declared they would resign their citizenship due to the fact of the Supreme Court’s latest choice to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Football players, some of the best possible paid people in our land, kneel out of disrespect for our us of a when the National Anthem is performed earlier than games.

The president of the United States, no remember who he occurs to be at the time, is ridiculed, known as filthy names, and held in contempt with the aid of contributors of the opposing political party.

People are additionally reading…

We higher wake up, folks! We are dwelling in the biggest land on the planet and many of us don’t appear to respect it. But for the grace of God, we ought to have been born in the war-torn Middle East or in some drought-stricken phase of Africa the place simply getting a drink of easy water is a luxury.

Even the poorest man or woman in America is higher off than the “middle classes” in many impoverished nations. We have it good, and we don’t recognize it.

This Fourth of July we fuss about $5 a gallon fuel expenditures whilst many residents of Europe pay $9, $10, or more.

We cry about rising meals prices, however nonetheless we have masses to eat. And whilst we complain, there are these in different international locations who starve.

We stay in an economic system the place there are so many jobs that many can’t be filled. And we practice for these jobs on $1,500 phone telephones that fee us $100 a month to preserve activated.

Kids sporting $200 footwear shoot basketball on public courts furnished by using the authorities that they hate. We trip down public highways in $30,000 vehicles and $60,000 vans and bash the authorities if we hit one pothole.

We stay in $400,000 air-conditioned houses whilst many in Mexico and Central America sweat in cardboard shacks protected via corrugated tin roofs with pigs and bare teens taking part in collectively in a grime yard.

While bombs are falling in Ukraine, we stay in peace—with the exception of the conflict we make on every other. Not in view that the Civil War and the Indian wars has a hostilities performed out on American soil. We are lucky.

Our forefathers furnished a robust framework for freedom and greatness, however we need to continuously work to maintain what we have. Our device of authorities was once a longshot scan in the beginning, however one that has excelled a ways past all dreams. We have to make certain it doesn’t fade into records as so many different magnificent civilizations have done.

So, surrender your citizenship if you must, however simply comprehend that there are untold tens of millions who would provide all that they personal to be an American. Just ultimate week fifty three migrants have been located useless in the returned of a tractor trailer, perishing to get into the united states of america that the kneelers and the renouncers curiously despise.

No, we’re now not perfect, however if we’re all that terrible how come the relaxation of the world wishes to be us?

Enjoy this Fourth of July weekend and be grateful you have been born an American.

Get opinion pieces, letters and editorials despatched immediately to your inbox weekly!

03 This 4th of July, Celebrate American AND Ukrainian Freedom Press launch content material from Business Wire. The AP information group of workers used to be no longer worried in its creation.

https://apnews.com/press-release/business-wire/russia-ukraine-entertainment-united-states-fourth-of-july-747bb90845a440c5a8618fe6a8a39d8d Click to copy

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 29, 2022--

This year, Independence Day has a distinct that means for Americans and Ukrainians alike, as the world is stimulated through Ukraine’s protection of freedom, constitutional democracy and the proper to self-governance in the face of Russia’s unjustified invasion. Much like Americans had been aided in their combat for independence, the United States marks this Fourth of July by way of assisting Ukrainians in their battle to uphold their most cherished values: freedom and democracy. These shared values sit down at the coronary heart of the US-Ukrainian relationship and are why Ukrainians and Americans have developed a sturdy bond.

“At its core, the Fourth of July symbolizes the quintessential essence of what it capacity to be American. The day is a get together of the American spirit. It represents the root of our unending battle to retain our freedom as a united humans and as a united country,” stated Christopher Atwood, Razom Advocacy Fellow. “The Ukrainian spirit reminds us of our own, and the American spirit reminds Ukrainians of theirs.”

On this Independence Day, Razom’s Advocacy Team is encouraging these celebrating the four th of July to exhibit their team spirit with the Ukrainian human beings and the Ukrainian spirit via incorporating a little bit of Ukraine into celebrations. For greater information, please visit: https://www.ukrainianfreedom.org/

Razom will additionally be releasing a sequence of extraordinary activities and celebrations during the week main up to the four th of July including:

A special, curated Spotify playlist presenting well-known Ukrainian songs, along with the Ukrainian anthem; Ed Sheeran’s collaboration with Ukrainian band, Antytila; Pink Floyd’s collaboration with Andriy Khlyvnyuk; the Eurovision-winning song, Stefania, by means of Kalush Orchestra, and extra to jazz up any four th of July celebration The unveiling of famous, cult-favorite Ukrainian restaurant and East Village neighborhood staple, Veselka’s well-known quick rib pierogi recipe, which can be a exclusive new fixture at any four th of July fish fry or picnic company of all a while can enjoy A Twitter chat on the significance of celebrating Ukraine on the 4th of July this yr on Friday, July 1 at 1PM, hosted and moderated by means of main journalist and founder and host of the Black Diplomats podcast, Terrell Jermaine Starr The launch of a extraordinary video of Ukrainian troopers thanking the US for their support And greater to-be introduced distinctive movie star visitor appearances, surprises and events “Having simply again from Ukraine, I be aware of firsthand that the human beings of Ukraine are hostilities each and every day for their freedom. This unprovoked combat is their 1776—they are inclined to battle for their freedom, and sincerely they are hostilities and demise for freedom and democracy everywhere,” stated U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), rating member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who simply these days met with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in Kyiv. “This Independence Day, I hope others will be a part of me in questioning of the Ukrainian human beings and aiding them to the end. They have to win this, and we should assist them.”

ABOUT RAZOM FOR UKRAINE

Razom skill “together” in Ukrainian.

The company believes deeply in the big practicable of committed volunteers round the world united with the aid of a single mission: to constructing and preserving a democratic and affluent Ukraine.

Established in the United States, the non-profit corporation works in the direction of that mission by way of growing areas the place human beings meet, associate and do. In this time of need, they have created the Razom Emergency Response which is centered on buying scientific materials for quintessential conditions like blood loss and different tactical medicinal drug items, health facility supplies, and tech enabled emergency response elements that facilitate the transport of this aid. Razom’s procurement and logistics groups are made up of a depended on volunteer community they’ve nurtured due to the fact that 2014 and associate businesses worldwide. Razom is additionally working with governments and embassies on assisting to set up humanitarian corridors.

View supply model on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220629005295/en/

CONTACT: Nonna Tsiganok

Media Relations, Razom

[email protected]

KEYWORD: NEW YORK UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: MEN OTHER CONSUMER WOMEN CONSUMER

SOURCE: Razom for Ukraine

PUB: 06/29/2022 09:04 AM/DISC: 06/29/2022 09:04 AM

#4th july #america #findyourthing

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tyrantisterror · 3 years

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THE A.T.O.M. CREATE A KAIJU CONTEST 3-D!!!

YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE SAFE! YOU THOUGHT THAT THE TIME OF MONSTERS WAS AT AN END! BUT YOU WERE WRONG, FOR NOW YOU MUST WITNESS…

THE A.T.O.M. CREATE A KAIJU CONTEST 3-D!!!

That’s right, it’s back! Celebrating the publication of The Atomic Time of Monsters Volume 2: Tyrantis Roams the Earth! (which in turn completes The Ballad of Tyrantis arc for this series), I’m holding another monster design jam. The third of such jams, in fact!

Like the first A.T.O.M. Create a Kaiju Contest, the aim of this contest is to create kaiju that would fit within the setting of my big kaiju story series, The Atomic Time of Monsters. Think of it as me letting you into my sandbox to play with my toys for a bit, or like you’re being put in the director’s chair of a new ATOM-verse kaiju movie. That means your entry does have to fit into ATOM’s world, which in turn means that yes, there are limitations to your creativity here. But limitations can be good sometimes - they can make us explore options we wouldn’t consider when given completely free rein to do what we want!

(also you don’t have to make a three dimensional image or anything, the title’s just a pun on how the third movie in a monster movie franchise will often be a 3-D film)

Read below the cut to learn the rules and whatnot:

THE RULES:

1. You are limited to one entry per person. Work hard and make your entry count!

2. Your kaiju must have some sort of description of its physical appearance and its personality - you can submit a drawing or a written description (or both!) for the physical appearance depending on what you’re most comfortable with. Using the same template/format as my official ATOM Kaiju Files (https://horrorflora.com/monster-menageries/atom-kaiju-files/) isn’t required, but it was cool when people did it in the last contest, so feel free to do so this time too!

3. The kaiju you create must specifically be created for this contest - no repurposing characters you made for other, wildly different stories. This is not “trick TT into drawing/canonizing my main OC” time.

4. The kaiju must fit the setting and aesthetics of ATOM. I’ll explain this in more detail down below.

5. The kaiju should add something meaningful to the world of ATOM. The more unique and interesting your kaiju is, the more likely you will win the contest.

6. Don’t make your kaiju too dependent on pre-existing ATOM characters - no “Tyrantis’s long lost evil brother who’s the strongest kaiju in the world.” These should be to Tyrantis’s story what War of the Gargantuas is to Godzilla’s movies – heroes (well, monsters) of another story in the same world.

THE REWARDS:

I will make pencil sketches of the top 5 entries in the contest.

I will then make fully rendered illustrations (lineart, colors, & shading) of the top three entries.

The winning entry will be made into a model ala the ones I’ve been making for ATOM’s core 50 monsters, which can then be shipped to the person who created it (should they be able to cover the shipping costs). That’s right, your kaiju could be brought to life in THREE GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOR DIMENSIONS! (Hey, we worked the gag title in to the prizes!)

THE DEADLINE: All entries must be submitted by July 3rd, 2021. You can submit it here on tumblr, via the horror flora e-mail, or any other channel you know how to reach me through. I’m in a lot of places.

THE GUIDELINES (TO HELP YOUR ENTRY FIT THE RULES AND WIN):

The smartest thing you could do if you want to win this contest is familiarize yourself with the world of ATOM by, y’know, reading all the material I’ve published on the subject. In addition to the many kaiju files that are free to read on horrorflora.com, there are now TWO, count ‘em, TWO novels in this series for you to peruse, both of which establish many of the rules of the setting as well as its general themes and tone! You can get them in either paperback or e-book formatting (I’d recommend the former over the latter since I lack the technology to make a really nice ebook, but if money is an object, the kindle version is only $1). Here’s the links again if you missed them:

Vol. 1: Tyrantis Walks Among Us!

Vol. 2: Tyrantis Roams the Earth!

However, since I know reading a bunch of stuff is, y’know, not something everyone is inclined to do, I’ll jot some good bullet points for you in an attempt to outline how ATOM works in a brief, easily digested way:

ATOM is an homage to the monster fiction of the 1950’s and 60’s (i.e. the Atomic Age), and is set in those two decades, albeit an alternate universe version of them where, y’know, monsters and space aliens exist. If you aren’t familiar with the monster fiction I’m referring to, there will be some reference material provided at the end of this post along with some recommendations for further research.

Kaiju/giant monsters in ATOM work under very specific rules. There’s a full description of those rules at this link, but here’s the jist:

ATOM Kaiju are created created by the radiation of a mineral called Yamaneon, which naturally converts harmful radiation into its own unique energy. In natural circumstances, it takes hundreds of years of exposure to Yamaneon radiation for a creature to become fully transform into a kaiju (luckily, Yamaneon radiation slows the aging process while speeding up the healing process). However, an explosive burst of energy - such as the geothermal and kinetic energy released by an earthquake, or the blast of a nuclear weapon - can speed up the process, turning a normal animal into a kaiju within a matter of seconds.

All ATOM kaiju can heal grievous wounds within minutes or even seconds, are supernaturally strong and durable, and can convert harmful radiation to harmless energy that they then feed off of. Kaiju do not have an equivalent of old age, and can theoretically live forever (though their violent lifestyle means that few do).

ATOM Kaiju generally don’t need to eat unless they are severely injured, getting most of the energy they need from solar or geothermal radiation - but many still have instincts that drive them to seek out food from time to time.

Most ATOM kaiju stand roughly 100 feet tall (depending on their body shape), i.e. smaller than the original 1954 Godzilla. There are exceptions to this rule - younger kaiju can be smaller, while exceedingly old kaiju can be significantly larger, but these are rare.

In general, ATOM kaiju are significantly more intelligent and emotionally complex than people expect animals to be, though most are incapable of speech or complex tool use. There’s a reason ATOM Kaiju Files have a “personality” section.

Most ATOM Kaiju are tooth and claw fighters - ranged weapons are a rarity in this setting.

While the terrestrial monsters in ATOM look strange, they are intended to fit within the taxonomy of animals in reality - reptiles, mammals, fish, arthropods, molluscs, etc.

ATOM’s mesozoic era was dominated by a fictional clade of crocodile-relatives called retrosaurs, which are based on the outdated paleoart that one would find in the 1950’s/60’s fiction - i.e. when dinosaurs were viewed as trail dragging lizards instead of strange birds. You can learn more about retrosaurs here (https://horrorflora.com/2016/11/15/atom-kaiju-file-bonus-a-guide-to-retrosaurs/).

Kaiju appear on every continent in ATOM, but certain areas tend to be dominated by different types.

North America is mainly besieged by retrosaur kaiju and giant arthropods.

East Asia is technically also mainly plagued by retrosaurs and big arthropods, though they tend to look more fantastical and mythic - and, often, oddly well suited to being portrayed by a person wearing a monster suit.

Russia is beset by prehistoric monsters that seem to come from the Cenozoic, particularly the Ice Age.

Western Europe is plagued by creatures that vaguely resemble creatures from myth, if they were also prehistoric. Dragon-y lizards, fiery birds, etc.

Towards the mid-way point of ATOM’s timeline, earth is invaded by a coalition of aliens from different solar systems called the Beyonder Alliance, and as a result a bunch of alien monsters can be found on earth.

Mars and Venus both host (or hosted in Mars’s case) animal life. The surviving Martians colonized Venus, and sent some of their kaiju guardians to earth to help us fend off the Beyonders (who are responsible for the destruction of Mars’s ecosystem). Martian and Venusian kaiju have specific anatomical quirks, which you can see by looking at these kaiju files:

Venusians:

https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/03/atom-kaiju-file-29-karamtor/

Martians:

https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-39-kemlasulla/

https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-40-podritak/

https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-41-sombarvot/

https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-38-ullawdra/

Giant robots exist in ATOM, but are big, bulky, and incredibly expensive. Fancy beam weapons also exist, but are similarly clunky - there are no sleek, elegant machines in ATOM.

Since the fiction ATOM takes inspiration from was made at a time when interplanetary travel was only just beginning to be possible, its scope is significantly smaller than modern sci-fi. Alternate universes/dimensions were pretty uncommon because the idea of alien planets still held a lot of wonder to it. So, as a general rule, don’t try to go farther than the one galaxy.

ATOM is a setting for stories that are focused on humanity learning to coexist with monsters, rather than humanity destroying them. A certain level of sympathy is put into almost every creature of its canon, even the ones that are meant to be villains.

REFERENCE MATERIAL

Here is a playlist of 1950′s monster movie trailers.

Here is some reference material from various monster comics of the 50′s and 60′s.

Good movies to track down to understand ATOM’s inspiration and tone include Ghidorah the 3 Headed Monster, Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters, Them!, The Black Scorpion, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Gamera, The Giant Claw, and The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra.

And here’s the intro cutscenes for all the different giant monsters in the PS2 videogame War of the Monsters.

#The Atomic Time of Monsters #The ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3D

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Squid Game: Best of the Cast’s Shows and Movies to Watch

https://ift.tt/39n8nzK

This Squid Game article contains some spoilers, though not the outcome of the game.

There are so many things to like about Squid Game, Netflix‘s Korean-language series about a group of desperate people competing in a deadly game, but one of the major ones is the stellar cast. Featuring some well-known Korean actors, as well as some relative newcomers to the acting scene, Squid Game‘s ensemble is more than ready to elevate the clever script and sharp direction. If you’re interested in checking out other projects from this cast after finishing Squid Game, here are our recommendations!

Lee Jung-jae (이정재) as Seong Gi-hun

Squid Game character: Leading the cast of characters is Lee Jung-jae’s Gi-hun, a man who has fallen on tough times after losing his job and his marriage. We are first introduced to Gi-hun in the context of his gambling addiction, as he desperately trues to get out of crippling debt in order to be a better father, son, and friend.

What to watch next: Lee Jung-jae is a 48-year-old actor who began his career as a model before transitioning into TV and later film. Notable projects include Il Mare, the 2000 film on which Hollywood’s The Lake House was based and 2013’s historical drama The Face Reader, in which Lee has second-billing as Grand Prince Suyang.

Jung Ho-yeon (정호연) as Kang Sae-byeok

Squid Game character: Jung Ho-yeon plays Kang Sae-byeok (aka the one who looks like ENHYPEN’s Ni-ki), a North Korean defector who decides to play Squid Game in order to get the money to get her mother out of North Korea and to create a stable life for her younger brother, who is currently living in an orphanage.

What to watch next: Jung Ho-yeon will no doubt be one of the breakout stars of Squid Game. The 27-year-old actress is a successful model, and has previously appeared on Korea’s Next Top Model. Squid Game is her first on-screen role, so we’ll have to wait to see what she does next. In the meantime, you can rewatch Squid Game or check out Season 4 of Korea’s Next Top Model.

Park Hae-soo (박해수) as Cho Sang-woo

Squid Game character: Cho Sang-woo grew up with protagonist Gi-hun, and is the success story of his neighborhood after going to a prestigious university and making it big as a businessman. Unbeknownst to Gi-hun and Sang-woo’s mother, Sang-woo has stolen money from his clients and is wanted by the police. He enters Squid Game in an attempt to make back the money so that he can save his mother’s business and house, both of which he risked to back his illegal activities.

Squid Game Ending Explained

By Kayti Burt

Squid Game: What Could Season 2 Look Like?

By Kayti Burt

What to watch next: Park Hae-soo is a 39-year-old actor who is perhaps previously best known, especially to international audiences, for his starring role in 2017’s Prison Playbook (one of our Best Korean Dramas to Watch on Netflix). In the drama, Park plays a baseball player who unexpectedly lands himself in jail days before his major league baseball debut. The show follows his life within prison, along with the lives of other inmates and guards, including his former best friend, who is now a corrections officer. Prison Playbook is one of the most popular K-dramas ever.

Wi Ha-joon (위하준) as Hwang Jun-ho

Squid Game character: Wi Ha-joon plays Hwang Jun-ho, who is a bit of an outlier character in a series that mostly features characters in the game as protagonists. Unlike Gi-hun or Sang-woo, Jun-ho is a cop who is investigating Squid Game after finding one of the game’s calling cards in his missing brother’s apartment. He does a pretty good job too, infiltrating the operation in diverse ways.

What to watch next: Wi is a 30-year-old actor with a solid filmography. If you’re a horror fan, check out Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum, a 2018 found footage horror film that takes place in the former Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, considered to be one of Korea’s most-haunted places. You could also check out Midnight, a 2021 thriller in which Wi plays a serial killer. If you’re looking for something a bit softer, Wi has a supporting role in 2018 romantic drama Something in the Rain, in which he stars as one protagonist’s younger brother and the other protagonist’s best friend.

Oh Young-soo (오영수) as Oh Il-nam

Squid Game character: Oh Young-soo plays Oh Il-nam, the oldest contestant in Squid Game, and someone Gi-hun feels some responsibility for as the game progresses.

What to watch next: Oh Young-soo is a 76-year-old actor with a filmography that mostly includes monk roles. His previous work has mostly included playing supporting roles, but if you want to see him in something else, check out 2003 feature film A Little Monk, about a generation of three monks living in one temple, or Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring, a 2003 film about the life of a Buddhist monk.

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Heo Sung-tae as Jang Deok-su

Squid Game character: Heo Sung-tae plays Jang Deok-su, a gangster who enters Squid Game to settle his gambling debts, and who refuses to trust anyone in the process.

What to watch next: Heo Sung-tae is a 43-year-old actor with an extensive filmography. If you’d like to see him in a very different project, check out Racket Boys, a recent Netflix K-drama in which he appears as the coach of a boys badminton team in Episodes 10-12. If you’d like to see him in another dastardly role, check out 2021’s Beyond Evil, in which he plays a cold-blooded businessman.

Kim Joo-ryung (김주령) as Han Mi-nyeo

Squid Game character: Kim Joo-ryung stars as Han Mi-nyeo, a woman who will say or do whatever she has to in order to find her best chance at winning. Originally introduced claiming to be a new mother, we never actually learn that much about Mi-nyeo’s life outside of the game.

What to watch next: Kim Joo-ryung is a 45-year-old actress with an extensive filmography, though mostly in supporting roles. (Hopefully, her impressive turn in Squid Game will lead to more opportunities for the actress.) If you’d like to see her in a minor role in a successful drama, Kim appears in Episodes 16 and 17 of 2018 historical drama Mr. Sunshine. If you’d like to see Kim in a central role, check out 2012 feature Sleepless Night, in which she plays one half of a married couple working to get through daily life.

Tripathi Anupam as Abdul Ali

Squid Game character: Tripathi Anupam plays Ali, a 33-year-old Pakistani man who joins the game in order to get the money to support his family, including his parents and brother back in Pakistan and his wife and baby son, who traveled with him to Korea.

What to watch next: Tripathi Anupam is a 32-year-old Indian-born actor, who is another standout in Squid Game and a rare actor of non-Korean descent in the Korean TV and film industry. Anupam had a small appearance in Netflix’s Korean sci-fi feature Space Sweepers, in which he appeared as James Sullivan’s secretary. Most of Anupam’s previous roles have been minor, with Squid Game being a breakout role for the actor.

Lee Yoo-mi (이유미) as Ji-yeong

Squid Game character: Lee Yoo-mi plays Ji-yeong, a young woman who we find out entered the game immediately after having been released from prison for the crime of killing her abusive father. She becomes close with Sae-byeok, who recruits her to join her team for tug-of-war.

What to watch next: Lee Yoo-mi is a 27-year-old actress who has appeared in many TV shows and films, mostly in supporting roles. If you’d like to see her in another drama, check out 365: Repeat the Year, a time travel drama that sees 10 people given the chance to travel back a year to “reset” their lives, only to find themselves in danger.

Gong Yoo (공유) as The Salesman

Squid Game character: Gong Yoo appears in a minor role as The Salesman, aka the man who recruits Gi-hun into Squid Game by playing a game of ddakji with him on the subway

What to watch next: Gong Yoo is a very successful actor in Korea who is also known internationally. The 42-year-old actor’s most well-known movie role is Train To Busan, in which he stars as the divorced father and businessman protagonist trying to escape the zombie apocalypse on a high-speed bullet train. His most well-known TV role is in the uber successful Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, one of the highest-rated dramas in Korean TV history. In it, he stars as a 939-year-old immortal goblin and protector of souls. Longtime K-drama stans, however, probably know Gong from his starring role in Coffee Prince, a romance about a woman pretending to be a girl in order to get work and a young food empire mogul, played by Gong.

Lee Byung-hun as The Front Man, aka In-ho

Squid Game character: Lee Byung-hun plays the Front Man, aka the masked man who runs the day-to-day operations of Squid Game. He lives in a fancy apartment within the game’s facility, and maintains contact with the game’s supervisors via a landline.

What to watch next: If you’re looking to see more of Lee Byung-hun’s face than Squid Game offers, then you have a lot of options. The 51-year-old actor and singer has been a part of the Korean entertainment industry for decades, and has been one of the most successful Korean actors in that time, with five films on the 50 highest-grossing domestic films in South Korea list: Joint Security Area; The Good, the Bad, the Weird; Masquerade; Inside Men; and Master.

Lee is the only Squid Game actor to have some substantial Hollywood credits on his filmography as well. American audiences may recognize him from his role as Storm Shadow in the G.I. Joe franchise; he has also appeared in Red 2, Terminator Genisys, and The Magnificent Seven. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he was the first South Korean to present an Oscar at the Academy Awards.

Which Squid Game cast member were you the most impressed by? Let us know in the comments below…

The post Squid Game: Best of the Cast’s Shows and Movies to Watch appeared first on Den of Geek.

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somethingimworkingon · 3 years

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Zanele Muholi, Tate Modern

Walking into the Zanele Muholi exhibition at Tate Modern is like discovering another country.

In 2017 Muholi’s ongoing self-portrait series, Somnyama Ngonyama/Hail the Dark Lioness, was exhibited in London’s Autograph Gallery. In press reviews and posters on the tube that autumn, the images were unmissable and unmistakeable: stark black and white photographs of an impassive face crowned with Brillo pads or clothes pegs, festooned with vacuum cleaner hoses. At the time, Autograph wrote, the artist: “uses her body as a canvas to confront the politics of race and representation… Gazing defiantly at the camera, Muholi challenges the viewer’s perceptions while firmly asserting her cultural identity on her own terms: black, female, queer, African.”

Fast forward to 2020, and Tate Modern’s major Zanele Muholi exhibition. Visiting hours at the museum flicker in and out of existence as we navigate COVID lockdowns – now you can come! No, wait, sorry, you can’t. Try rebooking for a month’s time.

When I finally squeaked in, in early December, I expected more Dark Lionesses. I had a vague idea that Zanele Muholi was a bit like a South African Cindy Sherman.

I was wrong.

This exhibition shows the breadth of Muholi’s practice, of which the self-portraits are just one strand. The range and energy of the work is astounding. Especially given that in 2012 their studio was burgled and five years of work on hard drives was stolen.

Another mental adjustment: Muholi’s pronouns are they/them/theirs.

Born in Umlazi, South Africa, in 1972, at the height of Apartheid, Zanele’s father died when they were a baby and their mother, Bester, a domestic worker, had to leave her eight children for employment in a white household. Zanele was brought up by extended family. They started working as a hairdresser, then studied photography at Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg, graduating in 2003, and going on to be awarded their MFA in Documentary Media from Ryerson University in Toronto in 2009.

On returning to South Africa they started to document the lives of the LGBTQI+ community.

Aftermath (2004)

The exhibition opens with a group of deceptively gentle images. In the first, Aftermath (2004), a torso is cropped from waist to knees, hands modestly clasped in front of Jockey shorts, a huge scar running down the person’s right leg almost like a piece of body art. In another, Ordeal (2003), hands wring out a cloth in an enamel basin of water placed on a floor. A third image shows a cropped, seated figure, again waist to thighs, hands folded in their lap, plastic hospital ties around their wrists. These pictures have a softness and beauty which completely belies the fact that their subjects are all survivors of sexual violence and “corrective rape”.

As the caption to the last picture, Hate crime survivor I, Case number (2004) explains, “Corrective rape is a term used to describe a hate crime in which a person is raped because of their perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. The intended consequence of such acts is to enforce heterosexuality and gender conformity.” This horrific practice is by no means unique to South Africa, but the term seems to have originated there – feminist activist Bernedette Muthien used it during an interview with Human Rights Watch in 2001 – and its effects on the community resonate throughout this exhibition.

Ordeal (2003)

They don’t, however, dominate. While the exhibition starts by showing the evils of intolerance of gender nonconformity, Muholi goes on to reclaim, elevate and celebrate that same nonconformity.

With Being (2006 – ongoing) we move on to photographs of naked bodies entwined – again tightly cropped, again soft black and white, but now without outside interference. They are sensual, personal, and owned. A series of portraits of two female lovers, Katlego Mashiloane and Nosipho Lavuta (2007) switches to colour and full figures. The couple sit entwined, laughing: they kiss, and bathe side by side standing in an enamel basin, in a warm, defiant echo of the scene in Ordeal (2003) across the room.

Katlego Mashiloane and Nosipho Lavuta, Ext.2, Lakeside, Johannesburg (2007)

The series Brave Beauties, started in 2014, is “a series of portraits of trans women, gender non-conforming and non-binary people. Many of them are also beauty pageant contestants.” The queer beauty pageant is many things: a celebration – and redefinition – of beauty, a declaration of independence by contestants, a challenge to “heteronormative and white supremacist cultures,” and an attempt, as Muholi puts it, “to change mind-sets in the communities [the contestants] live in, the same communities where they are most likely to be harassed or worse.”

Melissa Mbambo, Durban, South Beach (2017). Melissa Mbambo is a trans woman and beauty queen, Miss Gay South Africa 2017

Roxy Msizi Dlamini, Parktown, Johannesburg (2018)

Akeelah Gwala, Durban (2020)

These portraits are made collaboratively, Muholi and the subjects choosing clothing, location and poses together. Some of them, like the picture of Roxy Msizi Dlamini (2018) have the quality of a classic glamorous studio shot. Others, like Akeeleh Gwala, Durban (2020), posing in a bikini against a scruffy brick wall in what seems to be a deserted brick alleyway, are a reminder of the vulnerability of the subject. Akeelah Gwala’s “Testimony” in the exhibition catalogue says: “I am 24 years old. I am a transgender woman. Growing up was very difficult because your parents think this is a boy… I was raped when I was 16 years old…” The rapist, a well-known pastor, threatened Akeelah’s family, forcing them out of their home. Akeelah refers to Muholi as “Sir Muholi” and says, “I have taken part in several beauty pageants. I perform because as a Brave Beauty, it is important to be visible and make others know about us and respect us as human beings.”

Miss Lesbian I-VII, Amsterdam (2009)

The theme of beauty pageants also features in the series of self-portraits Miss Lesbian I-VII, Amsterdam (2009), where Muholi casts themself as a beauty queen, an early identification with the wider community prefiguring Brave Beauties. The 2009 series brings together several of Muholi’s themes: the beauty pageant and the fashion/fashion magazine world; who gets to perform and who gets to watch; who gets to choose what beauty means? And, as an aside that may sound trivial but isn’t, kitchen utensils as headgear.

As the exhibition unfolds, we discover other projects. Muholi describes themselves as a visual activist, and they have a large network of collaborators, including the collective Inkanyiso (“Light” or “Illuminate” in isiZulu), a non-profit organisation focused on queer visual activism. We see images documenting marches and protests, weddings and funerals, and “After Tears” – gatherings held after burials to celebrate the life of the lost loved one.

Nathi Dlamini at the After Tears of Muntu Masombuka’s funeral, KwaThema, Springs, Johannesburg (2014)

Death is a constant presence in Muholi’s community and work. The largest space in this exhibition is given to Faces and Phases (2006 – ongoing), a collection of portraits – 500, and counting. The images “celebrate, commemorate and archive the lives of Black lesbians, transgender and gender non-conforming individuals.” People appear more than once. Some spots on the walls are empty, marking a portrait yet to be taken or a participant no longer there. One wall is dedicated to those who have passed away.

Not only is this a powerful and moving project, it’s an extraordinarily beautiful set of pictures. As are the last works in the show, the series that started in 2012: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness.

In this work, Muholi has darkened their skin and whitened their eyes, and composed the picture in the manner of a classical, perfectly-lit studio portrait, posing with found objects as “costume” – a footstool as a helmet, say. There is so much to unpick in these images – references to colonialism, Apartheid, to the politics of race and representation, to femininity and “women’s work”. Muholi presents us with a kaleidoscope of views of injustice, equal parts beautiful and brutal. The photographs were created in different parts of the world, at different times, combining what could almost be witty accessorising with intense cultural and political commentary.

Quinso, The Sails, Durban (2019)

The intellectual focus of every picture is slightly different. Zamile, KwaThema (2016) shows Muholi draped in a striped blanket, as used in South African prisons during Apartheid. In Quinso, The Sails, Durban (2019) Muholi’s hair is adorned with silvery Afro combs, a symbol of African and African diaspora cultural pride. In Nolwazi II, Nuoro, Italy (2015) their hair is stuffed with pens – a reference to the “pencil test” whereby, under Apartheid, if a pencil pushed into a person’s hair fell out they were “classified as white”.

Nolwazi II, Nuoro, Italy (2015)

As mentioned above, Muholi calls themselves a visual activist rather than an artist – though galleries, like Tate Modern, might beg to disagree. Walking through this exhibition, I came away with the impression that their work is on the intersection of art and documentary photography – but also that everything is documentary: everything is story telling, and bearing witness, and the place where “documenting the community” and “expressing oneself as an artist” is continually blurred.

Maybe it’s not just like discovering a new country: maybe Zanele Muholi is showing us a whole new world.

Zanele Muholi is at Tate Modern until May 31, 2021

#zanele muholi #tate modern

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thebobby1432world · 1 year

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Harnaaz Sandhu Wiki, Biography, Age, Height, Weight, Family, Net Worth

Harnaaz Sandhu Wiki: Harnaaz Kaur Sandhu is an Indian model who won the Miss Universe 2021 competition in Eilat, Israel, on December 12th, 2021. She is the third Indian to be crowned Miss Universe, having previously won the Miss Diva Universe 2021 title. Harnaaz Sandhu Wiki Harnaaz Sandhu Educational Qualification Harnaaz Sandhu Body Measurements Harnaaz Sandhu Major Titles Miss Universe 2021 Placements List Harnaaz Sandhu Favorite Things Sandhu was born and raised in Chandigarh, India, and completed her schooling at Shivalik Public School and the Post Graduate Government College for Girls in Chandigarh. Currently pursuing a master's degree in public administration, Sandhu began modeling in her teenage years, participating in multiple modeling and fashion events that ultimately led her toward the pageant circuit.

Harnaaz Sandhu Wiki

NameHarnaaz Kaur SandhuProfessionModel, ActressDate of Birth31 March 2000BirthplaceChandigarh, IndiaAge22 years (as of 2023)HometownChandigarh, IndiaReligionSikhismCasteUnknownNationalityIndianZodiac SignPisces

Harnaaz Sandhu Educational Qualification

SchoolShivalik School, ChandigarhCollege/ UniversityPost Graduate Government College for Girls, ChandigarhEducation Qualification– Bachelor of Information Technology – Master's degree in Public Administration (Pursuing)

Harnaaz Sandhu Body Measurements

Heightin centimeters: 176 cm in meters: 1.76 m in feet inches: 5’9″Weightin kilogram: 52 Kg In pounds: 115 lbsBody Measurements34-26-34Eye ColourBrownHair ColourBrown

Harnaaz Sandhu Major Titles

2017Times Freshface Miss Chandigarh 2017Miss Chandigarh 2018Miss Max Emerging Star India 2019Femina Miss India Punjab 2021Miss Diva Universe 2021 2021Miss Universe 2021 Other-Miss Beach Body -Miss Beautiful Smile -Miss Photogenic -Miss Talented

Miss Universe 2021 Placements List

ResultContestant NameCountryMiss Universe 2021Harnaaz SandhuIndia1st Runner-UpNadia FerreiraParaguay2nd Runner-UpLalela MswaneSouth AfricaTop 3Valeria AyosColombiaTop 5Beatrice GomezPhilippinesTop 6Thessaly ZimmermanArubaTop 7Clémence BotinoFranceTop 8Michelle ColónPuerto RicoTop 9Chantel O’BrianThe BahamasTop 10Elle SmithUnited StatesTop 11Emma CollingridgeGreat BritainTop 12Juri WatanabeJapanTop 13Brenda SmithPanamaTop 14Nandita BannaSingaporeTop 15Luiseth MateránVenezuelaTop 16Nguyễn Huỳnh Kim DuyênVietnam

Harnaaz Sandhu Favorite Things

Favorite Actor (s)Shah Rukh KhanFavorite Actress (s)Priyanka ChopraFavorite Musicians (s)Not KnownFavourite Song (s)Not KnownFavorite DancerNot KnownFavorite Movie (s)Not KnownFavorite Sports (s)Not KnownFavorite Colour (s)Not KnownFavorite Destination (s)Not KnownFavorite Food (s)Not KnownHobbies (s)Dancing, Cooking, Playing chess She won titles such as Miss Chandigarh 2017, Miss Max Emerging Star India 2018, and Femina Miss India Punjab 2019, placing in the Top 12 at the national pageant. Sandhu was chosen as one of the Top 50 semifinalists of Miss Diva 2021 on August 16th, 2021, and was announced as one of the Top 20 finalists during the televised Miss Diva competition on August 23rd. Sandhu was crowned Miss Diva 2021, earning the opportunity to represent India at the Miss Universe 2021 pageant. From a pool of 80 contestants, she advanced to the top 16, top 10, top 5, and full 3, ultimately earning the title of Miss Universe 2021. She was born under the Pisces sign, holds Indian citizenship, and has made her country proud with her impressive achievement. Read the full article

#Biography #HarnaazSandhu #HarnaazSandhuWiki

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seasurfacefullofclouds1 · 4 years

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Can we talk about Louis’ way of quietly defying toxic masculinity? Like Harry will wear “feminine” colours and bold fashion statements, but Louis defies it with his honest lyrics and heartfelt and genuine personality.

Some examples from Twitter!

How tenderly he holds this baby.

This thread on Louis ending toxic masculinity.

In Louis’ well-known love of cuddles!

Louis various photo shoots are full of moments that defy toxic masculinity. While he doesn’t wear women’s clothing (although he has), he often moves and poses in elegant, flamboyant ways balanced between strength and vulnerability, all the way to 2020.

Louis and kids !

Louis’ wonderful way of getting himself down to the children’s level— physically— even when he’s behind a desk!— so they feel at ease.

[[MORE]]

Remember this behind-the-scenes clip from Back to You, how respectful he was to Bebe, how he treated her as an equal and never as the “bigger name” (which, at the time, he was) or the “dominant artist.”

We can also talk about how Louis has co-written his solo songs with women, non-binary, and LGBT songwriters (Sasha Sloan for Just Hold On, Sarah Blanchard for Back to You, Asia Whitacre for Miss You, Jesse Thomas for Just Like You, Ali Tamposi for Always You, Wrabel for Don’t Let It Break Your Heart).

We can make an entire blog about Louis’ support of LGBT fans and the LGBT community.

We can also talk about Louis’ essential humility. Louis does not make support for social issues about himself, Louis Tomlinson the celebrity. There are no redirected links for engagement analytics. Louis attended the Black Lives Matter protest in London without fuss (we hardly saw his face), and his post focused on the cause. His support of the NHS and child hunger are about the causes. Louis made several music videos for the single Two of Us, and one of them is the remarkable “bucket list” video with Richard that focused entirely on Richard rather than on Louis himself— Richard’s memories and feelings about grief, his hopes and strengths. The video was linked to three charities close to Louis’ heart— which he has supported for years. “Louis Tomlinson has always said that it is important for him to remember where he came from.”

We can talk about the fact that Louis has always kept his heart open to emotions, from early 1D days when the boys agreed Louis was the “biggest mama’s boy” and nicknamed “Louis’ cry face,” to crying for his contestants on TXF, admitting that he’s the biggest crier— even in 2020:

“At anything that pulls at the heartstrings - I’m an easy crier.”

... such that Louis’ stance on emotions and vulnerability was cited by TMRW Magazine for #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek.

In 2017, talking about the difference between music he wrote for One Direction and his solo music:

Louis’ statement to O GLOBO on his real personality: “This is difficult. I think the natural stereotype of a musician or a celebrity is not always incredible. Sometimes, for various reasons, people expect me to be rude or bad, for example, when in fact, I just want them to understand that I’m a really nice guy.” And here he is again.

We can talk about Louis’ choice to cover a song like Beautiful War, singing with a raw honesty about difficulties in a relationship and arguing that love is “worth fighting for.”

Louis’ lyrical genius is in conveying strength and vulnerability at the same time, allowing his audience to hear his loss and sadness yet finding strength in it.

• In writing about his mother Jay (Two of Us), Louis discovers the way grief can sneak up in everyday situations: the way that we can no longer phone those who have passed, the way their voices and faces are preserved in our digital world. He sings about it in direct and honest ways, and makes the sadness relatable, universal.

But I'll leave a message so I'm not alone

The day that they took you, I wish it was me instead

I will be the best of me, always keep you next to me

Even when I'm on my own, I know I won't be alone

• In writing about the beginning of One Direction (We Made It), Louis shows how the anxiety, pressures, and uncertainty of those early days eventually lead to his happiness now. He doesn’t turn away from his own fears, his past insecurity about what could have been. “Oh God,” he sings, “what I could have become.”

Now we're saying goodbye/ Waving to the hard times.

Things we'd never say to someone else out loud/ We were only kids, just tryna work it out

Oh, God, what I could've become/ Don't know why they put all of this on us when we're so young/ Done a pretty good job dealing with it all

• In writing about feeling lost and deluded as a relationship came apart (Walls), Louis expresses little blame. “Nothing makes you hurt like hurtin' who you love/ And no amount of words will ever be enough.” The hurt he describes goes both ways, and came from both people. The epiphany of recognizing what was wrong with the relationship was on Louis— he saw something lost in himself.

I looked you in the eyes, saw that I was lost (saw that I was lost)/ For every question "why", you were my "because"

• In describing how he made the decision to pursue his career, even in a song that talks about being “addicted” to this life, the epiphany is within himself (Habit)— the focus is on what he can do for self-recognition and self-improvement.

I took some time 'cause I've ran out of energy/ Of playing someone I heard I'm supposed to be/ But honestly, I don't have to choose anymore

Louis has always tried to stay grounded. “Don’t get lost on the way up” is his expression of humility, as well as lyrics like “pub lunch every Sunday,” “I’m just like you,” “I’m crying like a fool.”

I come runnin' to you like a moth into a flame/ You tell me, "Take it easy," but it's easier to say/ Wish I didn't need so much of you/ I hate to say, but I do (Defenceless)

“You might be in an argument, and you’re feeling particularly vulnerable. It’s a bit of a cry for help, really. Lyrically— I’ve always said in the past it’s important for me to be honest, and I think, vulnerable at times, and I think this is definitely one of those songs with a lot of honesty in there.” — Louis for Track by Track

I hope that I'm not asking too much/ Just wanna be loved by you// And I'm too tired to be tough/ Just wanna be loved by you (Defenceless, in that glorious falsetto)

I'm sorry if I say, "I need you"/ But I don't care/ I'm not scared of love (Strong)

Moreover, Louis has been always consistent in equality and fairness, in urging protection for the most vulnerable in the community, in unity and humility, in keeping things real. His charity and generosity have been consistent over time. His album Walls treats the subjects of love and heartbreak with nuance, using gender-neutral pronouns and showing respect to his past and present partners. His music videos have been meaningful and intelligent, visually elegant and emotionally compelling, without the use of nudity. Louis and Charlie have treated the women actors (some of whom are fans) in his videos with care, and it’s wonderful to see.

Addendum:

2017: Modeling clothing designed for women in one of the first solo photoshoots.

2022: Louis’ gentle way with children on tour (x) (x) (x)

#louis and toxic masculinity #toxic masculinity #louis love #vulnerable #3 july 2020

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