#in relation to more recent events

[iwonderwh0]

More like a headcanon, but I like this one

[xiaq]

I know it’s really hard to be hopeful right now, and I’ve shared a couple big-picture articles about “hey, people are doing things, people are fighting back, but legal and political shit takes time.” But if you want some small hope, some personal experiences of things changing, I can tell you about my FB timeline right now as someone who comes from a conservative Christian, southern background (and who typically avoids FB at all costs unless I’m looking to buy something on Marketplace).

People are angry. Trump voters are angry. About government layoffs that impacted people who they KNOW were performing their jobs with distinction, about the removal of support for their disabled kids in their schools, about the halt of cancer research, about food prices and recalls and the spread of disease, concerns about national parks’ longevity for future generations, about the suspension of aid.

People are angry. The same people that voted for Trump, or stayed silent about their political leanings until this point, are posting videos of Trump and Elon and calling them liars. They’re posting videos of impacted workers talking about the important, widely overlooked, jobs they do that contribute to the underlying foundation of American’s health and safety. I’ve seen reposts of Methodist, Baptist, and Catholic church statements condemning Trump’s actions and reminding him of the “moral imperative to assist those in need” that all humans should have regardless of faith.

People are angry and they’re saying “this isn’t what I voted for,” or, if they were of the quieter minority in these deeply republican communities, they’re saying, “Hey, look what you voted for. Look what you’ve done.”

This is a big deal. People are angry. And while I wish that this recognition could have come sooner, it reassuring to see that people are, at least, admitting that shit is on fire. Recognition is the first step.

[project-sekai-facts]

do we have a prsk iceberg 2025 edition

made by yours truly

[bluerose5]

Oh, yeah, if any of my mutuals or followers want to, find me on bluesky as bluerose05. Give me more of a reason to use it.

[wandering-wolf23]

Apparently I'm a "bad leftist" because I won't kill all of the special needs animals I care for with a friend. Because I "won't make hard choices"

[author-a-holmes]

Top 5 movies you've seen for the first time in the past few years?

Oooo! Tough one. I watch more tv series than movies, but I think I can probably grab five movies I've seen for the first time in the last 3 years...

Boss Level (2020) with Frank Grillo and Naomi Watts

The Lost City (2022) with Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum

Mr. Right (2015) with Sam Rockwell and Anna Kendrick (I picked this one up because I love Anna Kendrick, but I loved Rockwell in Mr. Right so much that I went and looked at other his other films, which led me too...)

The Best of Enemies (2019) with Sam Rockwell and Taraji P. Henson And last but not least, the film that helped spark the inspiration for the Kavians in my novel Changeling...

Dark Waters (2019) with Mark Ruffalo and Anne Hathaway

[anhonestdaysworkcomic]

i've done so much research on medieval farming and all it's gotten me is more questions

[clarabowmp3]

.

[c-infinity-83]

being in control has been fun but can someone else take the reigns now

[arolesbianism]

Me sitting and watching any oni discussion waiting for an excuse to bring up a seed is planted all like 🤓👉👈

[crowaes]

periodic reminder that im also on neocities and twitter. username is the same as here. lately ive been on twitter most since thats where most artists are.

im not planning on abandoning tumblr at the moment. but social media platforms in general have been volatile and frustrating lately. if any of them go down or i feel i need to move entirely, tumblr, twitter, and neocities are my main sites.

[wandering-wolf23]

Reddit is the one site where I can reliably be downvoted for pointing out completely normal facts about dogs. What are those completely normal facts about dogs?

1). Working dogs aren't pets. Working breeds aren't pets. Having a working breed and not allowing that dog to work is, in fact, cruel.

2). Free spay/neuter prevents dog bites. It should be free or very low cost for people to have their companion animals sterilized.

3). If you get a dog and don't train that dog, you are being extremely neglectful.

4). All dogs bite. Some breeds are far more prone to it than others and do more damage, but all dogs can bite. Acting like only one breed bites (and making excuses for non pit bulls that bite) is stupid.

5). Even if we went door to door and killed every pit bull type dog (barring the human mental health cost and the money needed to DNA test every dog in America), there will be another problem breed. My money is on Australian cattle dogs or Malinois.

6). It should not be controversial to legislate mandatory insurance, licensing, training, and sterilization of pet dogs.

7). Pushing for the natural extinction of a breed via mandatory spay/neuter is not being blind to the breed's issues. Nor is being fine with breeding for a look, while also breeding for a very docile temperament.

8). By acting like any solution short of mass culling is a crime against God and nature, you are, in fact, acting like an idiot and pushing people into a corner. Most folks would be fine with sunsetting a breed/mix if it was done humanely.

[reasonsforhope]

"As climate disasters strain state budgets, a growing number of lawmakers want fossil fuel companies to pay for damages caused by their greenhouse gas emissions.

Last May [2024], Vermont became the first state to pass a climate Superfund law. The concept is modeled after the 1980 federal Superfund law, which holds companies responsible for the costs of cleaning up their hazardous waste spills. The state-level climate version requires major oil and gas companies to pay for climate-related disaster and adaptation costs, based on their share of global greenhouse gas emissions over the past few decades. Vermont’s law passed after the state experienced torrential flooding in 2023. In December [2024], New York became the second state to pass such a law. 

This year, 11 states, from California to Maine, have introduced their own climate Superfund bills. Momentum is growing even as Vermont and New York’s laws face legal challenges by fossil fuel companies, Republican-led states, and the Trump administration. Lawmakers and climate advocates told Grist that they always expected backlash, given the billions of dollars at stake for the oil and gas industry — but that states have no choice but to find ways to pay the enormous costs of protecting and repairing infrastructure in the face of increasing floods, wildfires, and other disasters.

The opposition “emboldens our fight more,” said Maryland state delegate Adrian Boafo, who represents Prince George’s County and co-sponsored a climate Superfund bill that passed the state legislature in March. “It means that we have to do everything we can in Maryland to protect our citizens, because we can’t rely on the federal government in this moment.” 

While the concept of a climate Superfund has been around for decades, it’s only in recent years that states have begun to seriously consider these laws. In Maryland, federal inaction on climate change and the growing burden of climate change on government budgets have led to a surge of interest, said Boafo. Cities and counties are getting hit with huge unexpected costs from damage to stormwater systems, streets, highways, and other public infrastructure. They’re also struggling to provide immediate disaster relief to residents and to prepare for future climate events. Maryland has faced at least $10 billion to $20 billion in disaster costs between 1980 and 2024, according to a recent state report. Meanwhile, up until now, governments, businesses, and individuals have borne 100 percent of these costs. 

“We realized that these big fossil fuel companies were, frankly, not paying their fair share for the climate crisis that they’ve caused,” Boafo said. 

Recent bills have also been spurred by increased sophistication in attribution science, said Martin Lockman, a climate law fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. Researchers are now able to use climate models to link extreme weather events to greenhouse gas emissions from specific companies. The field provides a quantitative way for governments to determine which oil and gas companies should pay for climate damages, and how much. 

Vermont’s law sets up a process for the government to first tally up the costs of climate harms in the state caused by the greenhouse gas emissions of major oil and gas companies between 1995 and 2024. The state will then determine how much of those costs each company is responsible for, invoice them accordingly, and devote the funds to climate infrastructure and resilience projects. New York’s law, by contrast, sets a funding target ahead of time by requiring certain fossil fuel companies to pay a total of $75 billion, or $3 billion per year over 25 years. The amount each company has to pay is proportionate to their share of global greenhouse gas emissions between 2000 and 2024. Both Vermont and New York’s laws apply only to companies that have emitted over 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over their respective covered periods. That would include Exxon Mobil, Shell, and other oil and gas giants.

Maryland’s law is so far the only climate Superfund-related legislation to pass a state legislature this year, although Governor Wes Moore vetoed the measure late on Friday [May 16, 2025]. The original draft of the bill would have required major fossil fuel companies to pay a one-time fee for their historic carbon emissions. But over the course of the legislative session, the bill was amended...

Climate advocates decried the governor’s decision, calling it “an inexplicable reversal of a position that threatens to stymie Maryland’s climate progress for negligible budget savings.” In a joint press release by three environmental groups, Kim Coble, executive director of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, said, “This veto is not fiscal responsibility, it’s a definitive step in the opposite direction of our climate goals.”

In California, environmental groups are optimistic about the chances of a bill passing this year. This is the second year a climate Superfund bill has been introduced in the state, and the sponsors of the new bill have focused on building a broad coalition of environmental, community, and labor groups around the proposal, said Sabrina Ashjian, project director for the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the UCLA School of Law. This year’s legislation was introduced shortly after the devastating Los Angeles wildfires in January, which could amplify lawmakers’ sense of urgency. The bill has now passed out of each legislative chamber’s environmental committee and is awaiting votes in their respective judiciary committees. If passed, the bill will next move to the full Senate and Assembly for a final vote. 

In the meantime, legislators are keeping a close eye on ongoing legal challenges to Vermont’s and New York’s laws...

Climate experts told Grist that with huge amounts of money and liability at stake, lawsuits from the fossil fuel industry weren’t unexpected. Boafo said that given how much financial and political support the Trump campaign received from oil and gas corporations, it’s not a surprise that the Justice Department has sued New York and Vermont. Pursuing these laws invites inevitable opposition — but avoiding the growing costs of climate devastation is even riskier, advocates said. 

Lawmakers are “passing these bills because in writing budgets, in dealing with the day-to-day operation of their states, they’re facing really serious questions about how our society is going to allocate the harms of climate change,” said Lockman. “I suspect that the lawmakers who are advocating for these bills are in it for the long haul.”"

-via Grist, May 19, 2025

[novthirty]

CANDID | the picture he keeps of you vs. the picture you keep of him ੈ characters: zayne, rafayel, xavier, sylus, caleb

ao3 | masterlist | requests are open!

ZAYNE

He keeps a picture of you on your most recent anniversary in his wallet, a lovely picture of you under the dim restaurant lighting, dressed in an evening gown, holding the bouquet of flowers he had just gotten you. He switches it out each year, on every anniversary.

He is also definitely the type of doctor who keeps pictures of his family in his office. On his desk, he keeps a framed photo of your wedding day, a reminder of why he works so hard and to come home early to you. It also comes with the added bonus of warding off patients wanting to matchmake him with their daughters.

Meanwhile, you have him as your wallpaper, with a widget displaying the schedule of his surgeries for that week. It’s a candid picture of him from one of your cafe dates, making you another seal with his evol.

Even on mornings or nights where the two of you can’t be together because of work, he can still be the first thing you see after you wake up and the last before you fall asleep.

RAFAYEL

He has lots of pictures of you, but what he treasures most are the detailed sketches he’s made of your likeness.

He memorized every detail of your face, can draw you from memory from all the years you had been separated. He probably has hundreds of various art pieces inspired by you in his studio, from full-on paintings to cafe napkin sketches; you can see the love he poured into every line.

You, on the other hand, have that one goofy 0.5 picture you snuck of him looking up at you from the couch, the angle making him look like a blowfish 😭

Just to mess with him, you printed and laminated it, attaching it to a small acrylic guppy keychain. He gets irritated whenever he looks at it and tries to sneak it away, but whenever he succeeds it always gets replaced by an exact copy within the day.

It slightly appeased to see that he’s your phone wallpaper; this time, a more flattering angle of him (but that won’t stop him from trying to destroy that cursed photo)

XAVIER

Being a bit more traditional, he keeps a physical picture. It’s a polaroid photo of you sitting cross-legged on the couch with the most content look on your face, during one of your movie night dinners.

It’s a candid picture, where he took you by surprise as the flash went off, you scolding him right after for wasting film when you’re not dressed up whatsoever.

But he treasures it, thinks you look gorgeous and secretly loves the fact this is the only copy of this moment to exist and no one but him gets to see it.

Your picture is one of him sleeping, a really cute one where he’s bundled up in a blanket with the plushies you guys had just won that day.

(It had been the first time he succeeded in your lessons and won at the crane machine, where you had promised to reward him with a kiss.)

You have it framed on your work desk, and he gets embarrassed every time one of your coworkers comments on it.

SYLUS

Sylus is definitely the type to have an ornate square locket (probably expensive and made from real gold) always in his pocket.

The picture on one side being the most ethereal looking picture that’s ever been taken of you, wearing an expensive gown at one of the fancy events related to Onychinus.

On the other side, it’s a picture of you pouting in your sleep, drool on your chin as you snuggle up to the crow plushie he won for you on a date.

You’ve tried numerous times to get back at him for the picture of you sleeping (and the other silly pictures he’s collected in an album on his phone), but this man just keeps evading you.

Until one day, you decide to get revenge and put an adoringly captured picture of Mephisto in a necklace, showing it off in front of him.

It’s the last straw that finally makes him give in, letting you take a picture of him in the matching set of pink dinosaur pajamas you got for the two of you, with a bunny headband to boot.

He gifted you a matching locket to his, where you now keep that picture and one of him holding flowers on your anniversary.

(But you still keep that lovely photo of Mephie on your desk 💕)

CALEB

His picture of you is a time-worn photograph from before his “death.”

The two of you were on a picnic, with you wearing a sundress, wind in your hair, a big smile on your face as you look towards the camera— towards him.

It’s one of the only things he kept after the explosion, and he always keeps it with him; in his pocket, in his bedside table, a reminder of what keeps him going.

(It’s lowkey giving an action movie protagonist and the dead wife he’s trying to avenge)

Meanwhile, you have a double-sided top loader decorated with stickers, with one side being a picture of him in his colonel uniform, and the other a shirtless picture you snuck of him while he was working out,,

You always carry it in your bag; you don’t have a lot of public pictures of him as his status (of, well, being alive 😭) hasn’t been changed in Linkon yet, so something discreet like this is a silly way for you to still have a reminder of him even when you’re apart.

inspired by the toploaders i keep of my friends, i like collecting all their 0.5 pictures and saving them into one album :> like/reblog if you enjoyed!

[autistichalsin]

I hate that I have to give this PSA at all- that I do is a failure on the part of multiple governmental organizations. But it is important.

COVID damages a lot more than you think. It damages more than your lungs, and does more than give you digestive issues. And sometimes, those issues can last well after you get better, even if you're not a person you would otherwise think of as being sick with long COVID.

If you only remember these two things, please just remember that:

COVID can and does damage your heart.

COVID can and does damage your nervous system, particularly your brain.

If you have had COVID in the last 18 months, you are at a highly elevated risk of sudden cardiac death compared to someone who hasn't. In the first three weeks after getting sick, your odds of dying from a heart-related event are 81 times that of an uninfected person, and five times higher in the following 18 months. You are also at a higher risk of of developing nonfatal heart disease; 40% likelier. (Source for all claims in this paragraph)

If you develop ANY cardiac symptoms at all after getting COVID- heart palpitations, blood pressure issues, fatigue, fainting, getting out of breath easier than is normal for you- you need to see a doctor as soon as possible, and you need to tell them you've recently had COVID. You have long COVID until proven otherwise.

Similarly, your risk of neurological disorders remains heightened over a year after getting COVID; approximately 40% higher. (Source) This manifests in more ways than I have time to list, but includes a vastly higher risk of dementia of all types (doctors are particularly seeing this with the under-45 group that was previously extremely rare), memory disorders, sensory issues (like persisting loss or distortion of taste and smell), mental health issues like anxiety or depression, and even more.

These can manifest in a lot of ways. But if you experience new anxiety or depression, new behavioral issues (particularly for those under the age of 18), if you suddenly can't focus anymore or can't remember things anymore (ESPECIALLY words, COVID has been noted to cause extreme difficulty with word recall), if you have tremors, if you're tired all the time, if you have "brain fog", if you have trouble sleeping, I could go on... again. You have long COVID until proven otherwise. EVEN IF you aren't "that sick". Even if you have energy to do things and can mostly function but you just aren't doing well in school/at work anymore because you can't remember the things your teacher/professor is talking about/the new work protocols your boss went over with you.

If you hop over to the subreddits for teachers or professors, you will notice a lot of them noting their students don't remember basic things the teachers have been pressing for an entire semester, or that students can't sit long enough to focus through a movie. And sure, some of that is cell phones reducing attention span, or students just not paying attention- but they just can't seem to pick up the pieces there that they are seeing long-term sequelae (that is, a different illness arising from COVID infection) in their students. It is everywhere, but few people are connecting the dots.

Similarly, there is a huge wave of pilots being unable to pass their physicals and losing their licenses, or making mistakes due to brain fog (in some cases even leading to crashes) or falling victim to sudden cardiac death in the middle of a flight.

EVERYONE is at risk from this. No one is talking about this. I don't kn- well, actually, no, I do know exactly why, I just don't like it. People want to make COVID the new flu, but it just isn't. It is not and never will be the flu. And we are willingly inflicting cardiomyopathy and dementia and all sorts of awful things on people in the name of regaining a sense of normalcy that is gone, but ironically would be closer to returning if we had accepted for a while that things WEREN'T normal and acted accordingly. But that chance is gone now, COVID is never going away because people couldn't bother, but they still can't admit it, they can't face the consequences of their actions, so instead we're getting this attempted coverup of the real long-terms dangers of COVID that even "young and healthy" people have.

But pretending things are normal doesn't make sick people healthy. So instead, try to educate folks, because there is a very high chance you or someone you know is sick right now, due to COVID infections they had months ago, and doesn't know it because people are pretending COVID is just the flu but with tummy upset and a disrupted sense of taste/smell.

People NEED to know what the actual dangers are.

ALSO, sidenote: if you are masking, and ask your medical team to mask, and they respond by starting to suggest you are experiencing "COVID anxiety", find a new provider. Immediately. Don't even continue the appointment. They are not interested in helping you.

Signed, your friendly neighborhood epidemiologist.

[opencommunion]

recommended resources on Lebanese resistance and its context

this has been in my drafts for a long time bc I wanted to find more audio resources but in light of recent events I'm posting as is, and will add more later. pdfs for texts without links can be found on libgen ⭐ = start with these 📺 = video resource 🎧 = audio resource Hizballah ⭐ Lara Deeb, "Hizballah and Its Civilian Constituencies," in The War on Lebanon: A Reader, eds. Nubar Hovsepian and Rashid Khalidi (2007)

⭐🎧 Electronic Intifada Podcast with Rania Khalek, "Why Hizballah would deal Israel a deadly blow" (2024)

⭐🎧 Electronic Intifada Podcast with Amal Saad, "How Hizballah Aims to Deter Israel" (2024)

📺 Rania Khalek, Interview with Hezbollah's Second-in-Command Sheikh Naim Qassem (2023)

🎧 Rania Khalek and Julia Kassem, "The Hybrid War on Lebanon is All About Weakening Hezbollah" (2022)

Hassan Nasrallah, "Voice of Hezbollah: The Statements of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah," ed. Nicholas Noe (2007)

Judith Harik, "Hizballah's Public and Social Services and Iran," in Distant Relations: Iran and Lebanon in the last 500 years (2006) Sarah Marusek, Faith and Resistance: The Politics of Love and War in Lebanon (2018)

Abed T. Kanaaneh, Understanding Hezbollah: The Hegemony of Resistance (2021)

Karim Makdisi, "The Oct. 8 War: Lebanon's Southern Front" (2024) Political theory ⭐ Ussama Makdisi, "Understanding Sectarianism," in The War on Lebanon: A Reader, eds. Nubar Hovsepian and Rashid Khalidi (2007)

⭐ Rula Juri Abisaab and Malek Abisaab, The Shi'ites of Lebanon: Modernism, Communism, and Hizbullah's Islamists (2014)

Ilham Khuri-Makdisi, The Eastern Mediterranean and the Making of Global Radicalism, 1860-1914 (2010) Tareq Y. Ismael and Jacqueline S. Ismael, The Communist Movement in Syria and Lebanon (1998) 2006 war ⭐ Gilbert Achcar and Michel Warschawski, The 33-Day War: Israel's War on Hezbollah in Lebanon and Its Consequences (2007)

The Electronic Intifada with Dahr Jamail, "The world just sat by" (2006)

The Electronic Intifada with Bilal El-Amine, "Lebanon in Context" (2006) The War on Lebanon: A Reader, eds. Nubar Hovsepian and Rashid Khalidi (2007)

Civil war and 1982 invasion ⭐📺 Up to the South, dir. Jayce Salloum and Walid Ra'ad (1993)

⭐📺 Wild Flowers: Women of South Lebanon, dir. Mai Masri and Jean Khalil Chamoun (1987)

⭐ Souha Bechara, Resistance: My Life for Lebanon (2003)

Jean Said Makdisi, Beirut Fragments: A War Memoir (1990)

Bayan Nuwayhed al-Hout, Sabra and Shatila, September 1982 (2004) Ottoman era Charles Al-Hayek, "How, then, did you try to rebel?"

Lebanon Unsettled, "Lebanon's Popular Uprisings"

Axel Havemann, "The Impact of Peasant Resistance on Nineteenth Century Mount Lebanon," in Peasants and Politics in the Modern Middle East (1991) Ussama Makdisi, The Culture of Sectarianism: Community, History, and Violence in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Lebanon (2000)

Peter Hill, "How Global was the Age of Revolutions? The Case of Mount Lebanon, 1821" (2020) Mark Farha, "From Anti-imperial Dissent to National Consent: the First World War and the Formation of a Trans-sectarian National Consciousness in Lebanon" (2015) French mandate era ⭐ Kais Firro, Inventing Lebanon: Nationalism and the State Under the Mandate (2002) Sana Tannoury-Karam, "Founding the Lebanese Left: From Colonial Rule to Independence" (2021) Idir Ouahes, Syria and Lebanon Under the French Mandate: Cultural Imperialism and the Workings of Empire (2018)

Malek Abisaab, Militant Women of a Fragile Nation (2009) Misc ⭐📺 Leila and the Wolves, dir. Heiny Srour and Sabah Jabbour (1984)

⭐ Fawwaz Traboulsi, A History of Modern Lebanon (2007)

Karim Makdisi, "Lebanon's October 2019 Uprising" (2021)