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sepublic · 8 months ago

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Adding to the possibility of Eda’s Requiem being the last “natural” TOH episode written where the writers didn’t have to worry about the shortening, where it was the intended pace and flow… It makes me think because in Hunting Palismen, we get our first proper glimpse at the coven heads, all nine! And then in the very next episode we see them again, this time without their cloaks, and are introduced to three.

I understand that with the shortening, the writers had to prioritize wrapping up pre-existing characters (with the Collector introduced as a second immortal friend for King when he outlives everyone else). And they tried to fit in Terra and Adrian where they could!

But man, if the writers didn’t have to worry… Makes me wonder if the next episode after Eda’s Requiem, if it wasn’t Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door, would’ve introduced another coven head; Maybe another three, per the previous episode, and the episode after that, the final three! Or at least two, one. Subsequent episodes having some coven head debut until that’s all nine.

I do speculate that Vitimir was slated next, given his presence alongside Terra and Adrian and nobody else; And not to get into conspiracy territory, but when asked about dropped coven head plot lines, Dana was able to remember Hettie Cutburn’s name, but not Osran’s, even if she talked about both. But she did name drop Vitimir even if she had nothing else to say. Which makes me believe he and Hettie were the most recent ones in Dana’s mind, due to being planned next!

After that is Osran and/or Mason; The storyboards for Any Sport in a Storm actually show Mason as one of the Penstagram accounts that Darius is scrolling through, showing off his grandkids! Seems like setup for Mason to make a proper debut with his family as a plot point. Makes me wonder if ASIAS and a few other episodes were also planned prior to the news, but had to be reshuffled and/or got left relatively intact.

(Did the writers also originally plan to include Mason before realizing they had no room, as they went through the process for 2B? Or was it just a cameo crumb they changed their mind on?)

After all, Clouds on the Horizon has storyboards depicting Amity with the portal key around her neck, despite that being lost long ago; Could just be a mistake by the storyboarder, I forgot which one. But what if that was going to follow up shortly after Eda’s Requiem, not Eclipse Lake, and would’ve been where Amity lost the key?

Of course, this implies that Alador would’ve gotten his act together even sooner than canon, or that CotH was changed quite a bit with some select moments still remaining the same, but the context around them being different due to the shortening forcing storylines to be reorganized. It’s amazing the end product turned out quite comprehensible and pretty satisfying!

With the original S3 plans involving the protagonists, Abomination mechs, and a desert, this all makes me think of Kikimora with Roka and her home of Palm Stings. And with Osran as someone who knew her mother and got her a position because of it, maybe his debut episode would’ve been there instead? Or he’s introduced around the end of S2A, and comes back for Kikimora’s backstory.

And since Odalia provides Roka the Abomatron, that whole bit wouldn’t have been there in the original version of CotH, maybe… Since Kikimora is there to kidnap Luz, which leads to her confronting Belos and Kikimora helping stop the Day of Unity in revenge. Or maybe she would’ve delivered the key to Belos, not Hunter. Oh to interrogate one of the writers over all of these things…!

#the owl house #speculation #meta

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kimyoonmiauthor · 11 months ago

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I thought it might be fun to list "Best cultures for", imo, BTW, doesn't include SK in most cases.

So using my Anthro degree for something. This is Academic interest. I'm only giving the loose reasons why. I'm not particularly promoting fetishization here. I'm saying, do the research into this specific culture for this specific cultural aspect. rather than blind worship.

Agriculture

Of the three major regions, (West Asia, Southern China-ish, Meso America/Northern South America) hands down, The Americas.

I mean, if you look at the genetics and origin of the potato, that itself is super impressive. Through domestication alone, they managed to make the potato grow in all environments, AND changed the amount of genes the potato has. !@#$ What? Really? And then you have things like Amaranth, corn, squash, beans of different kinds, quinoa, tomatoes which is related to nightshade, which is used more than eggplant worldwide, and Sweet Potatoes which they gave to Polynesians. Also single handedly through the Potato and Sweet Potato saved China, Korea, Ireland, and several other places from famine, thus also helping to end the slavery cycle in Korea, China and Japan. I mean... who are you going to rank the highest in that case?

Second place ranking I have to give to Western Asia. Daaaaamn, you have wheat, oats, barley, sheep, goats, cows, horses (supposedly), pigs. That's pretty impressive.

Third place Southern China—rice production, most of the world's commercial flowers, soybeans, a lot of the fruits including citrus. You also get honey.

Honorable mention to South Asia for Chickens. (Indonesia and India specifically)

Despite this, apples are my favorite fruit. lol I need to eat a Courtland apple please. I can eat them by the bushel.

Sea navigation

Hands down, Polynesians, beats the pants off of everyone else by a nautical league. When you can feel sea currents with your hands, be able to get your people first to the South Pacific from China, and then navigate ALLLLL the way to the Americas and beat Europeans, Yes, definitely they get the crown several times over. I mean... think hard about it. When you memorize stick charts, casually and then don't have them at sea and sometimes your tattoos are only brief reminders, FLOORED.

Make Europeans in the same time period look terrible.

House design

I'm looking at passive solar, specifically rather than aesthetics. For me, this is kinda toss up. Indigenous peoples rocked it pretty hard, especially in the South West US into Mexico region. They were exceptionally good at regulating air flow. But Koreans invented underfloor heating. And Chinese figured out Feng Shui which is just Passive solar+ a bunch of other stuff that's practical. (Such as your bathroom shouldn't be above your kitchen). But I have to admit I also admire some of the Indian Passive solar efforts (subcontinent). This one is hard to decide. But if you're researching, I'd look there.

Gender

My favorite to point to is Bugis people of Indonesia. 5 different genders. Freaking awesome. Of course it's a bit disciplined these days by the government, but it's worth investigating.

As I wrote before East Asian gender systems of the past were often more fluid and flexible and still are compared to European ideologues.

Clothing?

No one has impressed me that much, tbh. It's a pick and choose. I can choose the most impractical, but not the one that wins my heart for inventiveness.

Crakows, though, crack me up every single last time. Especially for the Phallic nature and that they were associated with men. But that's on the impractical list. That's also why I submitted it for review on History Hit's fashion list. I haven't gotten over it since I first saw it, I think it was on a Dan Snow documentary about British kings. I mean look at them and resist laughing your butt off.

Religion

I personally think that real Voudoun is much cooler than what's in the movies, which is really racist 98% of the time. It is a Synchronized religion, and it is Christian-based in some ways, but c'mon, look it up and be impressed.

BTW, I really dislike the conflation of zombies with Voudou, granted as an outsider, since it belongs to Bokor and is a warning against *becoming a slave* not about white people trying to shoot zombies with grey and darker faces because OMG, slave uprising psychology.

Zonbis, are cooler than zombies since it's about overcoming and resisting masters, rather than about masters mass killing their slaves, which is what the later meaning seems to say. Ad Zombie movies are at their best when they symbolically get the original concept and meaning. So like becoming a work drone.

^^ I still have a soft spot for Muism as a Korean, but ya know, Korean. I lean towards liking shamanism, probably because of the historical acceptance of LGBTQIA and disability.

Shamanism is also appealing in some ways because often shamanism says that if everything in your life is going wrong, then that might be a sign of powers or spirits calling to you, rather than saying in the old Christian ideology that you've sinned deeply, so you need to repent.

But this is usually not what people are asking about when they are thinking about religions. They usually want the polytheistic, Jade Emperor, Greek, Roman, Egyptians, Norse route. Or Monotheism. Kinda dull, really. Where are the other types in fiction. I mean, Druids?

Give me some totemism for once.

Government System

Look up Wigan Council. I might also be biased towards it because of Gaya, but it's a way to play with things and also allow for more LGBTQIA royalty. Royalty without autocracy?

Inventions?

Hands down, no doubt, Islamic Empire. I mean, when you have Automatons without electricity, you're winning without question. When your people are inventing surgery, calculating the size of the Earth, allowing women to read, learn and write, inventing the lens, which is the cornerstone of so many inventions, and you got Europe's Bacon by inventing the Scientific Method first, historical crush does't cut it. I mean, when you can calculate a pointed arch, do geometric mosaics with mathematical principles, I am floored beyond reason.

Conclusion

This isn't to say I'm not impressed by specific things from other cultures as well, but this is broad strokes. Vedanta Hinduism, for me, is impressive from India. And I really like the practicality of Hanbok. (Why hanbok over hanfu is a long, long post) And I've raved over kimchi before multiple, multiple times, more than you know (quora... I think I have the most answers and I also answer with the food science of Kimchi down to the bacteria.) BTW, dumplings are damned clever.

What are your favorite culture for specific things from those cultures? Would you choose different cultures for each of these things? If so, why? What impressive things have I missed that have floored you?

#writing advice #worldbuilding tips

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mariacallous · 1 year ago

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Shortly before noon on Aug. 19, 2023, a Russian cruise missile sliced past the golden onion domes and squat apartment blocks of the Chernihiv skyline in northern Ukraine. The Iskander-K missile slammed into its target: the city’s drama theater, which was hosting a meeting of drone manufacturers at the time of the attack. More than 140 people were injured and seven killed. The youngest, 6-year-old Sofia Golynska, had been playing in a nearby park.

Fragments of the missile recovered by the Ukrainian armed forces and analyzed by Ukrainian researchers found numerous components made by U.S. manufacturers in the missile’s onboard navigation system, which enabled it to reach its target with devastating precision. In December, Ukraine’s state anti-corruption agency released an online database of the thousands of foreign-made components recovered from Russian weapons so far.

Russia’s struggle to produce the advanced semiconductors, electrical components, and machine tools needed to fuel its defense industrial base predates the current war and has left it reliant on imports even amid its estrangement from the West. So when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, major manufacturing countries from North America, Europe, and East Asia swiftly imposed export controls on a broad swath of items deemed critical for the Russian arms industry.

Russia quickly became the world’s most sanctioned country: Some 16,000 people and companies were subject to a patchwork of international sanctions and export control orders imposed by a coalition of 39 countries. Export restrictions were painted with such a broad brush that sunglasses, contact lenses, and false teeth were also swept up in the prohibitions. Even items manufactured overseas by foreign companies are prohibited from being sold to Russia if they are made with U.S. tools or software, under a regulation known as the foreign direct product rule.

But as the war reaches its two-year anniversary, export controls have failed to stem the flow of advanced electronics and machinery making their way into Russia as new and convoluted supply chains have been forged through third countries such as Kazakhstan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, which are not party to the export control efforts. An investigation by Nikkei Asia found a tenfold increase in the export of semiconductors from China and Hong Kong to Russia in the immediate aftermath of the war—the majority of them from U.S. manufacturers.

“Life finds a way,” said a senior U.S. intelligence official, quoting the movie Jurassic Park. The official spoke on background to discuss Russia’s evasion of export controls.

Some of the weapons and components analyzed by investigators were likely stockpiled before the war. But widely available Russian trade data reveals a brisk business in imports. More than $1 billion worth of advanced semiconductors from U.S. and European manufacturers made their way into the country last year, according to classified Russian customs service data obtained by Bloomberg. A recent report by the Kyiv School of Economics found that imports of components considered critical for the battlefield had dipped by just 10 percent during the first 10 months of 2023, compared with prewar levels.

This has created a Kafkaesque scenario, the report notes, in which the Ukrainian army is doing battle with Western weapons against a Russian arsenal that also runs on Western components.

It is an obvious problem, well documented by numerous think tank and media reports, but one without an easy solution. Tracking illicit trade in items such as semiconductors is an exponentially greater challenge than monitoring shipments of conventional weapons. Around 1 trillion chips are produced every year. Found in credit cards, toasters, tanks, missile systems, and much, much more, they power the global economy as well as the Russian military. Cutting Russia out of the global supply chain for semiconductors is easier said than done.

“Both Russia and China, and basically all militaries, are using a large number of consumer electronic components in their systems,” said Chris Miller, the author of Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology. “All of the world’s militaries rely on the same supply chain, which is the supply chain that primarily services consumer electronics.”

Export controls were once neatly tailored to keep specific items, such as nuclear technology, out of the hands of rogue states and terrorist groups. But as Washington vies for technological supremacy with Beijing while also seeking to contain Russia and Iran, it has increasingly used these trade restrictions to advance broader U.S. strategic objectives. For instance, the Biden administration has placed wide-ranging prohibitions on the export of advanced chips to China.

“At no point in history have export controls been more central to our collective security than right now,” Matthew Axelrod, the assistant secretary for export enforcement at the U.S. Commerce Department, said in a speech last September. U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has described export controls as “a new strategic asset in the U.S. and allied toolkit.”

Russia’s ability to defy these restrictions doesn’t just have implications for the war in Ukraine. It also raises significant questions about the challenge ahead vis-à-vis China.

“The technological question becomes a key part of this story and whether or not we can restrict it from our adversaries,” said James Byrne, the director of open-source intelligence and analysis at the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank.

In the Russian city of Izhevsk, home to the factory that manufactures Kalashnikov rifles, shopping malls are being converted into drone factories amid a surge in defense spending that has helped the country’s economy weather its Western estrangement. Arms manufacturers have been urged to work around the clock to feed the Russian war machine, while defense is set to account for one-third of the state budget this year.

“We have developed a concept to convert shopping centers—which, before the start of the SMO [special military operation], sold mainly the products of Western brands—to factories for assembly lines of types of domestic drones,” Alexander Zakharov, the chief designer of the Zala Aero drone company, said at a closed event in August 2022, according to the Russian business newspaper Vedomosti. “Special military operation” is what the Russian government calls its war on Ukraine. Zala Aero is a subsidiary of the Kalashnikov Concern that, along with Zakharov, was sanctioned by the United States last November.

Defense companies have bought at least three shopping malls in Izhevsk to be repurposed for the manufacture of drones, according to local media, including Lancet attack drones, which the British defense ministry described as one of the most effective new weapons that Russia introduced to the battlefield last year. Lancets, which cost about $35,000 to produce, wreaked havoc during Ukraine’s offensive last year and have been captured on video striking valuable Ukrainian tanks and parked MiG fighter jets.

Like a lot of Russia’s weapons systems, Lancets are filled with Western components. An analysis of images of the drones published in December by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security found that they contained several parts from U.S., Swiss, and Czech manufacturers, including image processing and analytical components that play a pivotal role in enabling the drones to reach their targets on the battlefield.

“The recurring appearance of these Western products in Russian drone systems shows a keen dependence on them for key capabilities in the drone systems,” the report notes. Lancets are not the only drones found to contain Western components. Almost all of the electronic components in the Iranian Shahed-136 drones, which Russia is now manufacturing with Iranian help to use in Ukraine, are of Western origin, a separate analysis published in November concluded.

Early in the war, the Royal United Services Institute analyzed 27 Russian military systems, including cruise missiles, electronic warfare complexes, and communications systems, and found that they contained at least 450 foreign-made components, revealing Russia’s dependence on imports.

One of the principal ways that Russia has evaded Western export controls has been through transshipment via third countries such as Turkey, the UAE, and neighboring states once part of the Soviet Union. Bloomberg reported last November that amid mounting Western pressure, the UAE had agreed to restrict the export of sensitive goods to Russia and that Turkey was considering a similar move. Kazakh officials announced a ban on the export of certain battlefield goods to Russia in October.

Suspected transshipment is often revealed by striking changes in trade patterns before and after the invasion. The Maldives, an island chain in the Indian Ocean that has no domestic semiconductor industry, shipped almost $54 million worth of U.S.-made semiconductors to Russia in the year after the invasion of Ukraine, Nikkei Asia reported last July.

Semiconductor supply chains often span several countries, with chips designed in one country and manufactured in another before being sold to a series of downstream distributors around the world. That makes it difficult for companies to know the ultimate end user of their products. This may seem odd—until you realize that this is the case for many everyday products that are sold around the world. “When Coca-Cola sells Coca-Cola, it doesn’t know where every bottle goes, and they don’t have systems to track where every bottle goes,” said Kevin Wolf, a former assistant secretary for export administration at the U.S. Commerce Department.

While a coalition of 39 countries, including the world’s major manufacturers of advanced electronics, imposed export restrictions on Russia, much of the rest of the world continues to trade freely with Moscow. Components manufactured in coalition countries will often begin their journey to Moscow’s weapons factories through a series of entirely legal transactions before ending up with a final distributor that takes them across the border into Russia. “It starts off as licit trade and ends up as illicit trade,” said a second senior U.S. intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The further items move down the supply chain, the less insight governments and companies have into their ultimate destination, although sudden changes in behavior of importers can offer a red flag. In his speech last September, Axelrod, the assistant secretary, used the example of a beauty salon that suddenly starts to import electronic components.

But the Grand Canyon of loopholes is China, which has stood by Moscow since the invasion. In the first days of the war, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo warned that Washington could shut down Chinese companies that ignored semiconductor export controls placed on Russia. Last October, 42 Chinese companies were added to export control lists—severely undercutting their ability to do business with U.S. companies—for supplying Russian defense manufacturers with U.S. chips.

But as the Biden administration carefully calibrates its China policy in a bid to keep a lid on escalating tensions, it has held off from taking Beijing to task. “I think the biggest issue is that we—the West—have been unwilling to put pressure on China that would get China to start enforcing some of these rules itself,” said Miller, the author of Chip Wars.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) said: “Due to the restrictions imposed by the United States and key allies and partners, Russia has been left with no choice but to spend more, lower its ambitions for high-tech weaponry, build alliances with other international pariah states, and develop nefarious trade networks to covertly obtain the technologies it needs.

“We are deeply concerned regarding [Chinese] support for Russia’s defense industrial base. BIS has acted to add over 100 [China]-based entities to the Entity List for supporting Russia’s military industrial base and related activities.”

Export controls have typically focused on keeping specific U.S.-made goods out of the hands of adversaries, while economic and financial sanctions have served broader foreign-policy objectives of isolating rogue states and cauterizing the financing of terrorist groups and drug cartels. The use of sanctions as a national security tool grew in wake of the 9/11 attacks; in the intervening decades, companies, government agencies, and financial institutions have built up a wealth of experience in sanctions compliance. By contrast, the use of export controls for strategic ends is relatively novel, and compliance expertise is still in its infancy.

“It used to be that people like me could keep export controls and sanctions in one person’s head. The level of complexity for each area of law is so intense. I don’t know anyone who is truly an export control and sanctions expert,” Wolf said.

Export controls, experts say, are at best speed bumps designed to make it harder for Russia’s defense industrial base to procure Western components. They create “extra friction and pressure on the Russian economy,” said Daniel Fried, who as the State Department coordinator for sanctions policy helped craft U.S. sanctions on Russia after its annexation of Crimea in 2014. Russia is now paying 80 percent more to import semiconductors than it did before the war, according to forthcoming research by Miller, and the components it is able to acquire are often of dubious quality.

But although it may be more cumbersome and expensive, it’s a cost that Moscow has been willing to bear in its war on Ukraine.

Western components—and lots of them—will continue to be found in the weapons Russia uses on Ukraine’s battlefields for the duration of the war. “This problem is as old as export controls are,” said Jasper Helder, an expert on export controls and sanctions with the law firm Akin Gump. But there are ways to further plug the gaps.

Steeper penalties could incentivize U.S. companies to take a more proactive role in ensuring their products don’t wind up in the hands of the Russian military, said Elina Ribakova, a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “At the moment, they’re not truly motivated,” she said.

Companies that run afoul of sanctions and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a U.S. federal law that prohibits the payment of bribes, have been fined billions of dollars. Settlements of export control violations are often an order of magnitude smaller, according to recently published research.

In a speech last month, Axelrod said the United States would begin issuing steeper penalties for export control violations. “Build one case against one of the companies extremely well, put out a multibillion-dollar fine negotiation, and watch everybody else fall in line,” Ribakova said.

And then there’s the question of resources. BIS has an annual budget of just $200 million. “That’s like the cost of a few fighter jets. Come on,” said Raimondo, speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum last December.

The agency’s core budget for export control has, adjusted for inflation, remained flat since 2010, while its workload has surged. Between 2014 and 2022, the volume of U.S. exports subject to licensing scrutiny increased by 126 percent, according to an agency spokesperson. A 2022 study of export control enforcement by the Center for Strategic and International Studies recommended a budget increase of $45 million annually, describing it as “one of the best opportunities available anywhere in U.S. national security.”

When it comes to enforcement, the bureau has about 150 officers across the country who work with law enforcement and conduct outreach to companies. The Commerce Department has also established a task force with the Justice Department to keep advanced technologies out of the hands of Russia, China, and Iran. “The U.S. has the most robust export enforcement on the planet,” Wolf said.

But compared with other law enforcement and national security agencies, the bureau’s budgets have not kept pace with its expanding mission. The Department of Homeland Security has more investigators in the city of Tampa, Florida, than BIS does across the entire country, Axelrod noted in his January speech.

On the other side, you have Russia, which is extremely motivated to acquire the critical technologies it needs to continue to prosecute its war. The Kremlin has tasked its intelligence agencies with finding ways around sanctions and export controls, U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Brian Nelson said in a speech last year. “We are not talking about a profit-seeking firm looking for efficiencies,” the second senior U.S. intelligence official said. “There will be supply if there is sufficient demand.”

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lunarscaled · 5 months ago

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🫴 for when they stop listening to his explanations on CE.

TILT THEIR CHIN UP TO LOOK AT YOU

-> In regards to the preservation of history, there is little better a source than one which has lived through the curation and development of Sorcery itself. A breathing relic, looming over them like a monolith with his hulking form even when seated on the engawa. The chilly air of late winter does not deter Lyric, and they doubt it affects him much either; he seemed such a size and bulk that even the seasons and weather could not move him, only serve him. He speaks in a low, bass-heavy drone of the ebbs and flows of cursed energy in sorcerers——something Lyric has but doesn't understand despite this. They don't understand the reserves or the natural affinity or the given strength he speaks of; whether Lyric had high or low cursed energy was unknown to them, because their skills lay in gaining things from others with greater strength than them. Their speaking and persuasion was more important than harnessing their cursed energy like a well sharpened blade.

-> As he speaks, Lyric's mind and eyes begin to gradually wander. In the corner of their eye they see a buzzing, zipping shape approaching the rippling pond at the edge of the garden. The glint of it's carapace snags their attention, eyes widening ever so slightly at the shape of a dragonfly winding itself about. How the little insect perseveres in the earliest hour before oncoming spring; perhaps it is a sign of good luck for them, or for him. A metal flipping through the ecology of the region has them pondering if it is a golden dragonfly, one of the biggest species to be found in Asia. Ahh... they wonder if they could go over there and catch it to examine it? Maybe a bit of walking would be good; they could follow it around the yard and draw a sketch in their journal——

-> As they grow distracted, it must become clear to him; both sets of eyes upon them. They have almost completely tuned out his tutelage, nothing more than a mere murmuring in the background as their eyes swivel back and forth following the trail of the dragonfly. ———until a broad palm comes to rest under their chin, his fingers easily curled up over the sides of their face. It doesn't register immediately, until the warmth of his skin seeps into theirs and their attention is pointedly redirected. Both sets of eyes watch them sharply and Lyric abruptly becomes aware: he could take their head off like this. It would be easy, not an ounce of extra effort, and they'd bleed out like a gasping fish over the polished wood and him with no chance to recover. Not that the Reverse Cursed Technique they use was theirs to begin with. Maybe if they had been listening more to his explanation they could figure out how to do it themselves——

"——I was listening."

-> Kind of. Sort of. A hot flush of shame starts to creep up the back of their neck and into their ears as they try not to look away. His hand could close around their throat and crunch it and they would claw it out just to breathe. The pressure of his presence is palpable along their spine the same way being watched by a great beast is.

"I was."

#malxshrine #* questions and answers.#⋇ NOTHING WILL SAVE YOU FROM CALAMITOUS EMBRACE: JUJUTSU KAISEN #lyric seeing a new insect: hyperfixation activated

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for-yoongi0309 · 2 years ago

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SUGA | Agust D ‘D-DAY’ world tour report

A liberation journal of SUGA, Agust D, and Min Yoongi

SUGA became the first in BTS to go on a solo world tour with “SUGA | Agust D TOUR D-DAY” (We will refer to it as “D-DAY” from now on). Just as the title suggests, the tour showcases the Agust D Trilogy, consisting of Agust D (2016), D-2 (2020), and D-Day released in April this year. The concerts serve as a record of SUGA’s life over the past seven years or more. It is a page that transparently reveals his current self and also “a very honest performance” according to his words. With only the encore shows remaining, we have drawn up a “D-DAY” tour report including detailed behind-the-scenes and comments from SUGA about how he put his concert together.

SUGA kicked off his tour with a two-day concerts in New York on April 26 and 27. He successfully completed 11 shows in 5 cities across North America before returning to Asia to hold 12 more shows in Jakarta, Kanagawa, Bangkok, and Singapore. The tour concluded with two shows in Seoul June 24 and 25, successfully completing a total of 25 shows in 10 cities. Despite the tight schedule involving flying between multiple cities in a short span of time, SUGA added an additional show in both Bangkok and Singapore, managing to perform three shows per week in each of his tour stops in Asia. About the demanding schedule of touring ten different cities in a limited time, BIGHIT MUSIC’s head of Performance Directing Team 1 Lee Byung Eun, who directed the show’s performance and choreography, said that it reflected “almost 90% of [SUGA’S] will” to “continue on with the flow.” The tour holds significance as it marks SUGA’s return to arena-sized venues after a long period of performing in stadiums as a BTS member. Ha Jung Jae, Lead Professional at the HYBE 360 Concert Production 1 Studio, the group that directed the concert, said the main advantage of performing in an arena is being able to get closer to the audience, adding that, “indoor arenas with a ceiling allowed for a different type of performance (compared to previous BTS performances). “The arenas I’ve visited during the tour are places I’d been to at least once before, so it brings back a lot of memories.” says SUGA, adding, “I felt a strong sense of how well we’ve been doing for a long time”. The grand finale of this long journey will be the encore shows scheduled for August 4-6 at Seoul’s KSPO Dome.

“Through this performance, SUGA aims to eliminate all the different personas that exist in the world he created and be reborn. In that sense, “D-DAY” can be interpreted as the end of everything, or the beginning, like a birthday”. According to Ha Jung Jae, “D-DAY” is where “the end and the beginning coexist”. The second VCR “Kill Them All” scenes depict the intertwined relationships between SUGA, Agust D, and Min Yoongi, leading to their killing each other, symbolizing the end of the “Agust D Trilogy”. On the other hand, in the “Thanks to” letter section of the album D-DAY, SUGA writes, “The intense struggles I had in my head had no clear answers, and after a long time, I am reborn as the present me, on that D-DAY.” This is why Ha Jung Jae named the last VCR “Re Born” and strategically placed “D-Day” as the next song.

“I wanted to make a two-hour show that flowed organically from start to finish like a single, cohesive entity,” says SUGA. Ha Jung Jae says he put in efforts to select only the “absolutely necessary songs” and arrange them densely together in the setlist. BIGHIT MUSIC’s A&R 1 Team Leader Shin Daye, who planned the arrangement direction of the setlist, explains “although it was his first solo concert, he had enough repertoire to perform because he had already released three albums,” adding that the arrangement was directed to “make all songs flow organically” following the dramatic development. Ha Jung Jae said that the setlist composition from “Haegeum” to “The Last” represents a process of reaching from D-100(%) to D-0(DAY), explaining that “if the opening act is at 100%, as in it is perfectly produced, things get closer to “zero (O)” towards the end of the show.” According to Lee Byung Eun, this is why spectacular and eye-catching performances like “Daechwita” are placed at the beginning of the show, “to keep the tension as high as possible without giving the audience a break.” As the performance heats up with the second VCR “Kill Them All” and “after the stage created for the show and the many personas that SUGA had created in the past all burn down,” the flow transitions into the one that showcases his voice and determination. After performing “AMYGDALA”, the last song before the encore, SUGA collapses on stage and is carried away by his dancers. According to Ha Jung Jae, this signifies being reborn after erasing everything and dying, with the last VCR “Re Born” as the turning point. This is also the reason why the following encore performance, consisting of “D-Day”, “INTRO : Never Mind”, and “The Last”, primarily feature songs where the reborn SUGA “can share his personal stories of what’s on his mind with just a microphone”.

“Whether it’s SUGA, Agust D, or Min Yoongi, I think this performance embodies the essence of who I am as a person.” SUGA refers to the show as “the integration of all the data I’ve accumulated since I first stepped on the stage 15-16 years ago.” Considering that Agust D’s music is based on documentation of SUGA’s personal life, the show had to start out from the “person” SUGA is. “While preparing for the concert, I had many conversations with SUGA. It was a process of synchronizing myself to SUGA as a person. We talked about past memories, current thoughts, and the future.” says Ha Jung Jae. According to Lee Byung Eun,“It was impossible for the stage setting, production, and direction to move separately” and that is why the entire staff, including SUGA, “had to work together from the very beginning.” Before the first song “Haegeum” starts, SUGA is supported by the dancers as he ascends to the stage, and after “AMYGDALA”, he collapses and is carried offstage

According to Ha Jung Jae, “It all started with wanting to break the mold.” The tour itself was a process of constantly breaking the mold. Ha Jung Jae explained the intention behind the stage production, stating, “In BTS concerts, there is an unspoken rule that the stage should have a 17-meter-wide and 10-meter-long space to accommodate a minimum of seven members and 20 dancers. So this time, we thought we’d eliminate the performance area required for synchronized choreography.” Starting with “give it to me”, a portion of the stage panels becomes entangled with wires and begins to ascend to the ceiling, and as the show progresses, more panels disappear. By the end of the show, there is only enough space for SUGA to stand still. Lee Byung Eun says, “Limitations in using the stage space made the performance design not very easy, but I saw the space under the stage as available, considering that the audience had a 360-degree view.” That is why during “Interlude : Shadow”, the dancers use the floor beneath the stage to perform and create a mirage-like backdrop around SUGA during “People Pt.2 (feat. IU).” All of this is part of the journey toward liberation. When asked about his intention of designing the stage in a way that exposes its rustic steel structure that gives an impression of being built crudely without a graceful or flashy appearance, Ha Jung Jae said, “I wanted to build a conceptually driven stage, a stage born out of necessity. By the time the show reaches near the end, I wanted everything to be destroyed, burned, erased, and reduced to the primordial stage of “zero (O).” He also explained that the staff’s action of seemingly dismantling the stage as “The Last” performance comes to an end is intended to make the audience perceive the stage devices as “unnatural, created elements” and convey the desire to “eliminate everything unnatural.”

“A production trying to break with the past”, as Lee Byung Eun says, is a reflection of the intention of SUGA’s voluntary elimination and liberation of all the personas created by SUGA himself. This is why Ha Jung Jae compares the storytelling of the VCRs where SUGA’s many personas kill each other to a potter “repeating the process of making and breaking the pottery.” For example, the hand with chains in the visual playing behind SUGA during “give it to me” belongs to the 3D-modeled SUGA that appears on the screen during “Agust D,” implying that another SUGA is watching over the performing SUGA from outside the stage. This is to convey the message that everything offstage and onstage are done by SUGA himself. As for SUGA’s calm exit without any ending remarks or farewells immediately after performing “The Last”, Ha Jung Jae says, “the moment the song ends, we cut off everything even before SUGA exits the stage. So, there’s no background music, and lights are turned on immediately, cutting off any lingering emotions from the performance. And as SUGA turns around and walks away at that moment, those three seconds show the real SUGA. We wanted the audience, staff, and SUGA to just be themselves for that fleeting moment.” The “fleeting moment”, as described by Ha Jung Jae, seems to embody the liberation from the obligation to show and convey something in a performance. By the end of the performance, which shows SUGA’s present self through the beauty of empty space, SUGA finally reaches a moment of liberation where he breaks free from the names he has created in the past and is reborn. “Through this ‘D-DAY’ tour, I was able to release my pent-up passion and love for performing, which have been suppressed during the three years of the pandemic. And I feel that this tour itself is a ritual and act of forgiving all my past selves.”

“Bringing back the music from seven years ago and performing it on stage again was made possible thanks to the love and support from so many people who have been waiting for me. It’s all because of them.” As SUGA says, the songs in the setlist “Agust D”, “give it to me”, and “The Last” are from his 2016 mixtape Agust D and they were given a new life through the tour. “This tour has been a long time in the making, so all I could think about was how much I wanted to actually start the tour,” said SUGA, recalling his anticipation before his first show in New York. “It’s been so long since the last tour. One reason I started a music career was because I loved performing on stage. So, I wanted to put the stage before anything else,” says SUGA on why he chose a tour as the main promotion for his new album, D-DAY.

For “Life Goes On”, SUGA plays the “brown piano” with a calm expression and sings, “Fortunately, our relationship hasn't changed all along / Let's greet each other, not with a bye, but hello.” The “D-DAY” tour is the moment of SUGA’s reunion with ARMY that he longed for in BTS’ “Life Goes On” and Agust D’s “Life Goes On.” “People who love his music still came to see him even though it’d been a long time since SUGA had performed there last time. It was sort of proof that ARMY was alive and well,” said Ha Jung Jae, recalling the atmosphere of Jakarta. “Thinking how much fans must have wanted to see me perform, I wanted to show them everything they wanted to see,” said SUGA. He tirelessly moved around the stage, interacting with the ARMY, and played the guitar signed by BTS members while singing “Trivia 轉 : Seesaw.”. “I wanted to show how much I’ve transformed over the last three years”, says SUGA, by playing “the guitar I took up during the pandemic.”

SUGA talked about the joy of “having a strong connection with the audience during a performance.” “During this tour, I realized that the audience should always have fun and enjoy themselves. And for that, I have to do my best on stage.” Lee Byung Eun says that it was “a performance that both the audience and SUGA enjoyed,” noting that he could sense SUGA’s happiness, joy, and freedom even from below the stage. “Before the show, we had concerns about performing tracks from Agust D that contain personal stories and unfiltered expressions. But after seeing the audience from different countries and regions enjoying the performance in their own way, I realized that more than half of the show is created by the audience.” As Shin Daye says, during the show, SUGA sings the music of Agust D, an alter-ego he created to express his inner anxiety and anger, but with a smile and together with the audience. He passionately sings songs that contain his extremely personal stories throughout the two hours, yet there is no longer a sense of sadness or anger in his demeanor. Today’s SUGA taps lightly on his shoulder, sings, “my shoulder shattered thanks to the accident I met during my part-time job as a delivery guy” (“The Last”) and casually walks out of the stage as if nothing has happened. When asked in Suchwita about which part of his life “D-DAY” represents, SUGA replied, “I think it’s about now.” His subsequent comments about his current state of mind suggest that the “D-DAY” world tour is perhaps the clearest representation of SUGA’s “now.” “I feel more content and carefree than ever before. I’m just so happy to be able to relax and have fun during the show as if I’m going to hang out and have fun with the audience.”

To ARMY for coming to the concert SUGA: In many ways, I’m glad I decided to do this tour. I remember every moment vividly. I always try to remember every single moment when I perform, but this time, in particular, no matter which city or country I visited, the audience was so welcoming and greeted me with loud cheers. I tried my best to match that energy. Whenever the instrumental for “Haegeum” comes on and the band starts to play, and the audience screams, I get so much energy to sing that I feel like I’m almost a new person. I think that’s why every moment stands out in memory. Thank you so much for your love and support for the tour. I felt and learned a lot through this tour. I can’t wait to go on a tour again with all seven of us. Maybe if I just close my eyes and open them, the seven of us will be on tour together. (laughs) Please wait a little bit, holding on to the good memories and positive feelings from this tour. I would appreciate it.

Article. Song Hooryeong

Design. paperpress.kr

Visual Director. Jeon Yurim

#ultkpopnetwork #mgroupsedit #idolsincedits #maleidolsedit #yoongi #suga #min yoongi #bangtan #bts #i. weverse magazine interview

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peterrrei · 1 year ago

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I saw you said you were watching g gundam and liking it!! what do you think abt it so far, what is resonating abt it with u? it’s one of my fav shows and means a lot to me so im always excited to see someone else enjoying g fighter. I always feel like despite its silliness there’s a lot more There than ppl give credit for but that’s just my experience

hi!! thank you for this question!!

first of all, i only watched 19 episodes so im almost halfway through it. im really enjoying it! and i love seeing a similar art style to victory gundam ❤️ it gives me major afternoon cartoons on tv vibes… (idk if thats the case for other countries, but italy’s tv has so. much. anime. typical early afternoon of my childhood would consist of dragon ball z - early one piece - sailor moon - and some other 90s anime)

as im getting older i’ve realized more and more just how much seeing media created with passion moves me. id say that ive put my“critical” eye on the background. although of course i can be critical depending on whqt i have in front of me 🤷🏼 but g gundam just hypes me so much! some aspects feel very stupid sometimes (my bf always question “where did the shining gundam pop out from? it was just there waiting to be activated?” WHO CARES LETS GO WITH THE VIBES!!!!) but it has so much goodness. first of all, it’s pretty! not even just the art style, but the direction in general is very well done and interesting and it’s clear that the people who made it are cinema lovers. that i just admire so much!

it’s a good and interesting story that keeps you engaged. im amazed that it is sold as “the au gundam that has a fighting competition with all countries being represented by a gundam made of stereotypes” like… okay. but then it’s just not. that. well i can imagine there might be more focus on the competition later in the story but it went to kinda monster (country?) of the week to a manhunt to a martial arts movie to etc. theres so much variety and it flows SO WELL.

so yeah… i like the characters. cant wait to see more of kyoji (well i have suspicions that he is SXXXXXX… and i love that. i love chibodee and his girlies. i love RAIN and i was so 👀👀👀 during the episode with her ex. i thought master asia was a completely different character before watching the show. i like being surprised and this show makes me feel like a kid :3

#i hope this is coherent its hard to write long thoughts while at work 🙆🏼#probably more ruminations to have but i wanted to be general about it #asks

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frank-olivier · 1 year ago

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Intertwined Cultural History and Language Development in East Asia

The cultures and languages of China, Korea, and Japan are closely intertwined through a long, complex history of mutual exchange and influence. China, as one of the earliest advanced civilizations in the region, exerted an immense influence on the development of Korean and Japanese cultures due to its geographic proximity, sophisticated statehood, and technological innovations.

Both Korea and Japan adopted the Chinese writing system - Korea used Chinese characters until the 15th century, while Japan still uses a mix of Chinese characters and indigenous scripts. The Chinese philosophy of Confucianism was adopted as a governing principle for state and society in both countries. Architectural styles, clothing, hairstyles, music, and aesthetics in Korea and Japan were heavily influenced by China during the Tang Dynasty. Technologies ranging from agriculture to civil engineering were transmitted from China.

Korea played a crucial role in mediating the cultural exchange between China and Japan, incorporating major Chinese elements into its own culture before passing them on to Japan. Buddhism, for instance, was introduced to Japan via Korea.

Although the flow of cultural influence was primarily from China, there was also a reciprocal exchange, with China absorbing innovations from its eastern neighbors over time. The shared use of Chinese characters also allowed for some degree of mutual intelligibility between the languages.

Despite these close connections, the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese languages developed into separate, mutually unintelligible idioms due to their distinct origins. While their vocabularies contain many Chinese loanwords, their grammars and pronunciation systems are markedly different, as following comparison of Korean and Japanese sentence structures with Chinese shows.

Similarities with Chinese:

- All three languages follow a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) word order at the basic level.

- They use particles/markers to indicate grammatical roles like subject and object.

- Adverbs generally precede the verb they modify.

Differences from Chinese:

- Korean and Japanese have more complex systems of particles/markers compared to Chinese.

- Korean allows frequent omission of subjects when implied by context, which is less common in Chinese.

- In Korean, adjectives are conjugated like verbs following the SOV order. In Chinese, adjectives precede the nouns they modify.

- Japanese adjectives also precede nouns, similar to Chinese, but verbs still come last following SOV.

Unique Aspects:

- Korean has an extensive system of speech level markers built into the grammar to indicate formality/honorifics.

- Japanese uses different particles (wa/ga) to indicate the topic/subject in a nuanced way.

- Chinese relies more on word order than case markers to convey grammatical roles.

So while the three languages share the core SOV typology, Korean stands out with its flexible subject omission and verb-like adjective conjugations. Japanese sits somewhere between Korean and Chinese in its sentence structure. The similarities arise from millennia of Chinese linguistic influence in the region.

Neneh Cherry - Twisted

youtube

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

#east asia #language development #Youtube #music

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nothingunrealistic · 2 years ago

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The concluding season of “Billions” is a case of “Axe” and you shall receive.

One of the series’ most prominent characters returns as the drama set in the upper levels of New York law and finance begins its seventh and final season Friday streaming on Paramount+ With Showtime, and Sunday on the linear Showtime channel. (Subsequent weekly episodes will maintain that release pattern.)

A good amount of the show’s history is incorporated into its victory lap, a particularly notable aspect being the return of founding cast member Damian Lewis as Bobby “Axe” Axelrod, the former hedge fund king who relocated to Europe to avoid a prison term engineered by his longtime nemesis, federal attorney Charles “Chuck” Rhoades Jr. (Paul Giamatti).

With the empire that Axe built now under the control of tycoon Michael Prince (Corey Stoll), who has designs on winning the U.S. presidency, changes are looming … something that “Billions” is known for, which included Lewis’ exit at the end of Season 5 and Stoll’s promotion to full series regular. Still very much rooted in the flow of the saga is Maggie Siff (“Sons of Anarchy”) as psychiatrist Wendy Rhoades, who has stayed on as performance coach at the company, despite the misgivings she has about Prince.

Wendy continues to have a confidant for her concerns in Mike “Wags” Wagner (David Costabile), Axe’s former deputy who also remains on Prince’s staff. Still present as well is Taylor Mason (Asia Kate Dillon), the non-binary financial wizard who often posed a major challenge for Axe, and whose skills also have been retained by Prince.

Siff has spent the past month starring in an Off-Broadway staging of Tennessee Williams’ “Orpheus Descending,” which she terms “quite a swerve” from the “Billions” work that she finished recently. Despite the writers’ strike, the show was able to complete its last season, and Siff allows that it was “a labored process. Everybody wanted to be respectful and honor picket lines, and it was really a matter of taking it day by day for the final month, but we finished it.” (Note: This interview took place before the SAG-AFTRA actors’ strike.)

The coda that “Billions” puts on Wendy’s story satisfies Siff: “There’s always been this thing of her being caught between two forces: Chuck and Axe. I think the beautiful thing about Michael Prince coming in, and the time she really was given to be with herself, it allowed her to carve a different kind of path. I do feel really good about where she’s able to end, and I’ll just say that I think Wendy (ends up) sort of her own person … truly independent of all of the forces she’s been knocked around by, despite her best efforts.”

Created by executive producers Brian Koppelman, David Levien and Andrew Ross Sorkin, “Billions” is scheduled to have several spinoffs: “Billions: Miami,” “Millions” and “Trillions.” After being a regular on FX’s “Sons of Anarchy” previously, Siff isn’t necessarily looking to jump into another series, though the right material could alter that thinking (“I just don’t know how to answer that right now,” she says). However, she has confidence that the makers of “Billions” know what they’re doing in expanding that concept’s universe.

“I think Brian and Dave could spin this thing many, many different ways if they want to,” she says. “There’s certainly lots of story to tell, and there are great characters who can come back or circle through. (‘Billions’) has carved out a niche and a style, and it’s got such a good, smart spirit. And there’s a lot of room in our culture to be talking about finance and money, and what people are doing with it, and what it looks like from the inside. I think they could spin this off as much as they want. It’s just a question of how much of an appetite they have for it.”

#billions #wendy rhoades #maggie siff #good for wendy i guess. now tell me about taylor's ending

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kpop-bg-roleplay · 2 years ago

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"Ay, the Mexicanas of Bovilia decided to bomb one of our warehouses to the fields of Marijuana, burning everything to the ground. Given, it was their negligence and my lack of authority to push the right person for the job. We're having difficulties because of that.", he explains and crossing his arms over his chest after drinking his hot beverage as usually. "We ordered to change location, in three days we're finished moving in and organizing, ya know?", he continues further to clear up the following questions Mingi might ask, "Once we finished with that, usually it takes up to 9 days to ship it across the continent if the Chinese don't want something also. They don't like being told no, you see. We currently have 5t in this block, multiple customers and never received bad review so far."

At Mingi's deal offering, I eyed him from the side. That would be news to me: How far has KQ spread in the globe and how will I escape to one country that they don't have influence over?

As the men discussed further, I slipped away from them when I asked for the bathroom of one of the bodyguards without disturbing the flow or attract too much attention on me, I was soon escorted out. To the literal bathroom that is surprisingly hygienic compared to the rest of the restaurant. Ripping one of the last pages out of my sketchbook to write a message before slipping it into the pockets of one of the henchmen after finishing my business, I returned back to my seat as if nothing happened.

Except, I sat down closer to Mingi, especially when the Mafioso thinks we're a couple and would sell it to us cheaper even. So I placed a hand on his lap understand the table to prevent our knees from touching as good as possible despite sitting close together for comfort. 'Play along', I managed to say with just my eyes as I looked at Mingi, faking a smile afterwards as the mafioso began to wager the price a little bit.

KQ's global reach had been expanding, a rapid growth secured by the heads of Ateez. It had already started reaching most of South East Asia, and was soon creeping onto land in South Americas held by cartels Mingi grew up learning about. He sighed, a content sound leaving his lips as the coffee slipped past his lips.

If there was something Mingi was famous for among KQ's ranks, it was his diligent drill trainings.

His expression morphed into something soft, a gentle smile in your direction that could have made anyone watching falsely believe he held affections for you, before he turned back to the man opposite him. Just how much training did Ateez have in maintaining a cover?

"I can supply you with men on the ground until you reorganise the marijuana fields, and Ateez can provide forces on the ground to prevent further destruction. Your product's quality is a marvel, and we'd like to help you ensure it stays that way. In return, I'd like to offer you £2050 for each kilogram of your cocaine."

#thisisnoteuropeanstyle #ateez #ot8 #oc #x y/n #mafia au

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khnouman-blog · 23 days ago

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A Journey of Faith and Love: Amar & Simran’s Sikh Yatra in Pakistan

For Amar and Simran, marriage was not just a union of hearts — it was a union of shared values, roots, and a deep connection to their faith. When it came time to plan their post-wedding journey, they didn’t want beaches, luxury resorts, or mountain escapes. Instead, they sought something far more meaningful.

“We want to walk where Baba Nanak walked,” Simran had told their families.

And so, their honeymoon became a pilgrimage — a journey of love and devotion through the sacred Sikh heritage sites of Pakistan. With carefully crafted Sikh Yatra tour packages, Amar found an itinerary that covered all five Takhts in Pakistan, along with several gurdwaras steeped in Sikh history.

The couple landed in Lahore, greeted by the sweet smell of spring and warm smiles from the tour coordinators. Their first stop was the majestic Gurdwara Dera Sahib, built at the site where Guru Arjan Dev Ji was martyred. Standing under its white domes, listening to kirtan echoing through the marble courtyard, Simran was overwhelmed with emotion.

“It feels like our souls have returned to their origin,” she whispered.

They spent the day visiting Gurdwara Shaheed Ganj, Gurdwara Guru Ram Das Ji’s birthplace, and walking the old streets of Lahore where Sikhism once flourished. Amar, an avid history buff, was thrilled to see preserved manuscripts and relics in the gurdwara libraries. “These bricks remember more than books,” he said.

The next leg of their journey took them to Nankana Sahib — the birthplace of Guru Nanak Dev Ji. The moment their bus rolled into the city, they could feel the reverence in the air. Locals waved at the group with open hearts, shopkeepers offered free fruit and tea, and even non-Sikh residents extended heartfelt welcomes.

At Gurdwara Janam Asthan, Amar and Simran bowed their heads and sat together for a langar, serving with their own hands before eating. It wasn’t just a spiritual moment — it was a reminder of humility, equality, and the unifying power of seva. “Here,” Amar said, “there is no difference between a newlywed couple and a saint — everyone is a servant of love.”

In Panja Sahib, near Hasan Abdal, they touched the rock where Guru Nanak’s handprint is believed to still rest — preserved as a miracle of his compassion. The stream nearby, said to have been created when Guru Nanak brought water to the thirsty, still flows gently. Simran dipped her fingers in it and smiled. “This water healed more than thirst — it healed hearts.”

One of the most unforgettable experiences came in Kartarpur. Traveling through scenic countryside, the couple reached the international corridor connecting India and Pakistan — a symbol of hope between two divided worlds. At Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur, they spent hours walking the grounds where Guru Nanak lived his final years.

“It doesn’t feel like we’re visitors here,” Amar said. “It feels like we’ve come home.”

The architecture, the peace, the simplicity — everything about Kartarpur felt like a message. A message that despite borders, faith flows freely, and love recognizes no walls. In the langar hall, they met Sikh yatris from Canada, the UK, and even Malaysia. Each had a unique story, yet all shared the same sparkle in their eyes — the joy of walking where the Guru once walked.

Throughout the tour, they were guided by experts who explained the stories, meanings, and spiritual significance behind every site. The food was pure, the logistics seamless, and the experience far beyond what they had imagined when booking the Sikh Yatra tour packages.

On their final night in Lahore, Amar and Simran stood quietly at the steps of Gurdwara Dera Sahib once again. The sun was setting behind the minarets, casting a golden glow on the marble floor.

“We came here for a spiritual honeymoon,” Simran said softly. “But what we found was a deeper understanding of each other, of our faith, and of this beautiful land.”

Back in India, their stories moved friends and family to tears. The photos of them in traditional attire, serving langar, bowing at the sacred sites, and smiling with locals — told a tale more powerful than any ordinary vacation.

Amar later wrote in a blog post:

“Our Sikh Yatra in Pakistan wasn’t just a journey across borders — it was a journey into the soul of Sikhism. These places aren’t just historical. They are living, breathing reminders of our roots.”

And Simran? She keeps a small vial of water from the stream at Panja Sahib on her bedside table. “Every morning,” she says, “it reminds me — that love, faith, and peace can still flow, even in a divided world.”

#Sikh Yatra Pakistan #Pakistan #Sikh #Yatra #Tours #Tourism #Nankana #Sahib #sikhheritage

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britcision · 1 year ago

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Fun fact, despite the size difference, England alone has 40 different accent categories and almost every county has a distinct dialect

You can get drastically different accents and slangs between neighbouring cities

America does have the advantage of having some more distinct accents than Canada but to a kid from central England with family in the south, north, and Welsh border y’all barely have accents at all

(The Ontario Canadians INSIST they have midwestern accents but they don’t, Newfoundland has an accent, the prairies have Newfie Lite, Quebec has an accent, the rest of y’all are just homogenous with mild regional slang)

And do you know why this is? Because there is a reason!

The ease of travel and communication between towns and cities as North America was colonized. The more isolated a community is, the more they build up their regional dialects and slang, and the more they develop a distinct accent

When people couldn’t easily travel between cities in less than a week, let alone another county, certain regional slangs and habits became more and more entrenched and evolved along their own lines, still related to the overall language but following local patterns

The more you communicate with people over a wider area, the slower these kinds of patterns evolve, and the less likely they are to break from the main flow; the “dominant” dialect has to be understood by everyone you’re talking to day to day

As communication and transportation technologies exploded, suddenly people were talking to each other across countries and continents every single day; there’s no point developing a regional dialect for a single city when your neighbouring state is an hour’s drive away - you’re not only talking to people in your city, so you’d have to keep stopping to translate

This is why Europe and Asia have a lot of areas with highly regionalized dialects and accents; we’re still speaking to the same cultures in the same languages that were used before the telephone, internal combustion engine, and train were developed

(I’m less versed with The Entire Rest Of The World and obviously there’s a couple other factors around developing accents, like colonization, cultural identity, class, and socioeconomic shenanigans, but basically language evolves in much the same way animals do

Small, isolated groups are much more adaptable and change much quicker, developing highly specific shorthand

Large, connected groups have access to more resources and less need for instant adaptation, but you gotta be able to understand each other)

Sadly, this does mean that as we get more and more connected, we’re going to see less divergence in regional accents and dialects

Regardless of the truth, the “American accent” outside of America usually means one of three, total: Hollywood, New York, or Southern (honourable mention to Boston, decidedly less common)

Comparatively, listen to an American idea of the “English accent” (exaggerated RP, primarily southern upperclass) and then browse youtube for the Scouse or Cockney

it is literally almost 2am and im sitting here being scared of the united states like what the fuck there are so many people there!!!!! and they're all just speaking with their american accent like hello??? how do you not just laugh all the time. americans wake up and go to their american jobs and american schools that's so fucking weird. i imagine it as a fake place because it's where everywhere on tv is.

#america #accents #language is a beautiful and magical thing #your country is so large and your accent pool is tiny #neil gaiman had a funny story when he was signing for good omens around the states #and multiple americans confidently told him all the other ‘american accents’ in the book were wrong #theirs was always right of course #but clearly none of his other regional variances were a real thing

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batteryrecyclingcompany · 2 months ago

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Powering a Greener Future: How LOHUM is Leading the Charge in Lithium-ion Battery Recycling and Sustainable Mobility

The global shift toward electric mobility and renewable energy is accelerating—and at the heart of this transition is the humble lithium-ion battery. These batteries are powering everything from smartphones and laptops to electric vehicles and grid storage systems. But while demand for Li-ion batteries is growing exponentially, challenges such as raw material scarcity, supply chain dependency, and environmental degradation are mounting just as rapidly.

At LOHUM, we believe that the solution lies not just in innovation—but in circularity.

The Rising Demand and the Recycling Imperative

Over the next decade, the battery market is projected to grow tenfold, driven primarily by the explosive adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and the global energy storage revolution. But existing mining operations are already struggling to keep pace. In fact, all of the world’s current mining capacity is insufficient to meet projected lithium demand. Adding to this pressure, establishing new mines is not only costly and time-consuming—it also raises serious environmental concerns, including water depletion and soil contamination.

This is where advanced battery recycling plays a game-changing role.

Despite the clear need, lithium-ion battery recycling has only recently begun gaining commercial traction. Traditional pyrometallurgical recycling methods are energy-intensive and produce toxic emissions, while early hydrometallurgical processes often require extensive re-refining of recovered materials before reuse. This reduces both the economic and environmental viability of recycling.

However, direct recycling techniques—which preserve the cathode structure and refunctionalize it—offer a breakthrough. By avoiding intensive refining and resynthesis, direct recycling can reduce the environmental impact of battery production, while recovering high-value materials like cobalt, nickel, and lithium with improved efficiency.

New Science, Better Batteries

Recent research has revealed that recycled cathodes can not only match but outperform those made from virgin materials. Scientists have found that the porous structure of recycled cathode particles allows for faster charging and longer life cycles due to better ion flow and reduced cracking—major pain points in battery degradation. With more surface area and structural integrity, these recycled materials enhance battery performance while cutting costs.

This technological leap is especially relevant for sectors like electric three-wheelers—a rapidly growing segment in India and Southeast Asia. At LOHUM, we see the 3 wheeler EV battery segment as a critical frontier for sustainable urban mobility. These vehicles play a central role in last-mile connectivity and micro-logistics, but their widespread adoption hinges on cost-effective, long-lasting batteries. Our advanced recycling methods are directly addressing this challenge by enabling high-performance, low-cost battery solutions.

Policy and Infrastructure: The Road Ahead

For battery recycling to become truly sustainable and scalable, policy frameworks need to keep pace with technology. One major step in this direction is Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)—a system where manufacturers are responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products, including disposal and recycling.

In India, regulatory mandates around EPR paperwork for Li-ion battery are becoming increasingly stringent. At LOHUM, we see this not as a compliance challenge, but as an opportunity to build traceability, accountability, and innovation into our processes. Our robust EPR management systems ensure that all recycled materials meet regulatory standards and are traceable through every stage of reuse and remanufacture.

This alignment of technology, regulation, and purpose is paving the way for a truly circular battery economy.

The LOHUM Advantage: A Circular, Sustainable Ecosystem

At LOHUM, we aren’t just building better batteries—we’re building a better future.

Our unique approach combines battery recycling, reuse, and second-life repurposing into a vertically integrated circular economy. By recovering critical minerals, extending battery life, and developing advanced materials from recycled feedstock, we reduce reliance on virgin mining and lower the carbon footprint across the battery value chain.

Up to 95% of cathode materials can be recovered through direct recycling techniques

Cobalt, nickel, and lithium contribute to nearly 50% of the cost of a lithium-ion battery

Prices of these critical materials can fluctuate by as much as 300% in a single year

Recycling and reuse could reduce battery-related landfill waste and avoid supply chain shocks linked to geopolitical tensions

Moreover, as battery technology evolves to use less cobalt—currently the most expensive component—the recycling model also adapts. While lower cobalt content reduces manufacturing costs, it can reduce recycling profitability. Our innovation pipeline focuses on optimizing material recovery even from low-cobalt batteries, ensuring economic sustainability as the market evolves.

Envisioning a Greener Tomorrow

California has already set a precedent by mandating that 100% of EV batteries sold in the state must be recycled or reused at end-of-life. India is not far behind. With policy momentum building and market needs growing, now is the time to invest in scalable recycling infrastructure, smart logistics, and collaborative ecosystems.

At LOHUM, we envision a future where every EV battery—whether from a luxury car or a humble 3 wheeler EV battery—is reused, repurposed, or reborn through advanced recycling. Our work ensures that the materials powering our transition to clean energy don’t end up in landfills or cause further environmental harm, but instead form the foundation for the next generation of batteries.

We’re not just closing the loop—we’re transforming it into a springboard for innovation, sustainability, and inclusive growth.

Join Us

As we scale our capabilities and expand our reach, we invite partners, policymakers, and innovators to collaborate with LOHUM. Together, we can unlock the full potential of lithium-ion batteries while keeping our planet safe, our supply chains secure, and our mobility systems efficient.

Visit us at: Critical Minerals

Originally published on: Penzu

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