#Famine Pump

[gxlacticlove]

tbh I think that Made In America probably goes the hardest out of all of Starkid's songs and I don't think it gets enough attention

[diejager]

i saw the comments in one of the monster fics and if youre up to it- monster feast/mukbang with eldritch horror reader??? love you!!!

Finally, someone who wants to see as much blood and gore as me!!!! Muhahahahhahaha

Cw: cannibalism, gore, blood, horror, eldritch!reader, tell me if I kissed any.

It had lingered on your mind for the past months, an itch at the back of your mind whenever you ate. You remembered their curious glances, watching the black ichor pool at your feet, cold and potent in both strength and poison. It was brought back whenever you gorged on any kind of meat, teeth carving through hard flesh and pulling the fibers apart, strings of ligaments curling in your maw as you suckled on the blood, rich with flavour and filling with life. 

You knew the telltale signs of curiosity flash in their eyes, the flicker of hunger for the thick musk of power that clung to Eldritch flesh, the smell of drool pooling under their tongues and the tenseness in their shoulders. Unmoving and still as they watched you devour a young and inexperienced God in it’s strive to conquer, but you were more powerful, more knowing and more terrifying. You were simply more.

Then - you questioned if the enemy was as stupid as it was, to slave another Eldritch God to do their bidding, or were smart, had learned from their mistake and found someone more knowing - a city dwelling Horror appeared, a big rat-faced creature with puss and rot bubbling on the skin where matted fur and branching arms didn’t cover. You stepped into it’s domain, trampling in and announcing your darkened presence to it’s ravaging mind, a psyche fractured into hundreds in a body of one, each limbs moving with it’s own intention. They, you thought, a being deserving of being called a king with the strength and knowledge it wielded —a worthy enemy. 

You bled and bled them, returning every wound with another one until it eventually fell, it’s smell heady, driving you to the point of near famine, drool rolling down your beak as you crawled to it. You ripped into their puss filled flesh, pulling at the tender muscles and sweet fat that covered the lining of their bones, breaking bones under your claws to suckle on the healthy marrow and carved the organs out for the thickness of it. You tried to keep your feeding contained within a certain perimeter, your fight costing the city damage and the few lives you couldn’t protect from the erratic swing of the king’s many arms —or at least tried with your hunger driven mind.

“Crow.”

And you remembered the interest Ghost and König held for Eldritch meat, drawn in by the age of it, the power it held within every sinewy fiber of flesh and hard bones. You scoured the large body for a cleaner part, cutting away pieces of untainted meat, portions big enough to fill their stomach for a few days, but small enough to not dive them into madness. You let out a rumble, body shuddering and feather ruffling with it, a sound of approval toward both men.

Your tail curled around them when they stood by your feet, looking at both through a single beady eye, blinking owlishly while you appraised them for their fearlessness towards the unknown meat you had placed before them. Ghost had been faster in his consumption, his smoke drowning the king’s fat in his mass. He trembled, feet unsteady with every step he took, his body shook with the power that coursed through him from the feeding. A natural reaction to his first bite, while less common than in the past, you remembered reacting the same when you first tasted the flesh of your kind, the lingering adrenaline that mingled with newly acquired power, pumped through your body in a rush of energy. It was addicting.

König seemed to take it… more enthusiastically, lurching forward after his first bite, diving in with intent to take a bigger bite, making a mess of him and the ground he stood. You nearly preened at the bloody grin he sent you, eyes blown wide like he was in a high, drunk off the king’s strength even after their death. Such high could drive a man insane, corrupting a being’s conscience with madness, near crazed. You wouldn’t let that happen, you’d seen so many succumb to it, but with you by their side, none would die such a harrowing death. 

Taglist: @warenai @capricorn-anon @sae1kie @yeoldedumbslut @bvxygriimes @distracteddragoness @konigsblog @im-making-an-effort @daisychainsinknots @h0n3y-l3m0n05 @danielle143 @dont-mind-me-just-existing-sadly @tuttifuckinfruttifriday @notspiders @brokenpieces-72 @petwifed @randominstake @hayleybarnesx @shironasumi @sparky--bunny @bloobewy @cod-z @sweetnanah @aldis-nuts @evolutionarry @mxblobby @kaoyamamegami @cassiecasluciluce

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Insurance companies are making climate risk worse

Tomorrow (November 29), I'm at NYC's Strand Books with my novel The Lost Cause, a solarpunk tale of hope and danger that Rebecca Solnit called "completely delightful."

Conservatives may deride the "reality-based community" as a drag on progress and commercial expansion, but even the most noxious pump-and-dump capitalism is supposed to remain tethered to reality by two unbreakable fetters: auditing and insurance:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community

No matter how much you value profit over ethics or human thriving, you still need honest books – even if you never show those books to the taxman or the marks. Even an outright scammer needs to know what's coming in and what's going out so they don't get caught in a liquidity trap (that is, "broke"), or overleveraged ("broke," again) exposed to market changes (you guessed it: "broke").

Unfortunately for capitalism, auditing is on its deathbed. The market is sewn up by the wildly corrupt and conflicted Big Four accounting firms that are the very definition of too big to fail/too big to jail. They keep cooking books on behalf of management to the detriment of investors. These double-entry fabrications conceal rot in giant, structurally important firms until they implode spectacularly and suddenly, leaving workers, suppliers, customers and investors in a state of utter higgeldy-piggeldy:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/29/great-andersens-ghost/#mene-mene-bezzle

In helping corporations defraud institutional investors, auditors are facilitating mass scale millionaire-on-billionaire violence, and while that may seem like the kind of fight where you're happy to see either party lose, there are inevitably a lot of noncombatants in the blast radius. Since the Enron collapse, the entire accounting sector has turned to quicksand, which is a big deal, given that it's what industrial capitalism's foundations are anchored to. There's a reason my last novel was a thriller about forensic accounting and Big Tech:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865847/red-team-blues

But accounting isn't the only bedrock that's been reduced to slurry here in capitalism's end-times. The insurance sector is meant to be an unshakably rational enterprise, imposing discipline on the rest of the economy. Sure, your company can do something stupid and reckless, but the insurance bill will be stonking, sufficient to consume the expected additional profits.

But the crash of 2008 made it clear that the largest insurance companies in the world were capable of the same wishful thinking, motivated reasoning, and short-termism that they were supposed to prevent in every other business. Without AIG – one of the largest insurers in the world – there would have been no Great Financial Crisis. The company knowingly underwrote hundreds of billions of dollars in junk bonds dressed up as AAA debt, and required a $180b bailout.

Still, many of us have nursed an ember of hope that the insurance sector would spur Big Finance and its pocket governments into taking the climate emergency seriously. When rising seas and wildfires and zoonotic plagues and famines and rolling refugee crises make cities, businesses, and homes uninsurable risks, then insurers will stop writing policies and the doom will become undeniable. Money talks, bullshit walks.

But while insurers have begun to withdraw from the most climate-endangered places (or crank up premiums), the net effect is to decrease climate resilience and increase risk, creating a "climate risk doom loop" that Advait Arun lays out brilliantly for Phenomenal World:

https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/the-doom-loop/

Part of the problem is political: as people move into high-risk areas (flood-prone coastal cities, fire-threatened urban-wildlife interfaces), politicians are pulling out all the stops to keep insurers from disinvesting in these high-risk zones. They're loosening insurance regs, subsidizing policies, and imposing "disaster risk fees" on everyone in the region.

But the insurance companies themselves are simply not responding aggressively enough to the rising risk. Climate risk is correlated, after all: when everyone in a region is at flood risk, then everyone will be making a claim on the insurance company when the waters come. The insurance trick of spreading risk only works if the risks to everyone in that spread aren't correlated.

Perversely, insurance companies are heavily invested in fossil fuel companies, these being reliable money-spinners where an insurer can park and grow your premiums, on the assumption that most of the people in the risk pool won't file claims at the same time. But those same fossil-fuel assets produce the very correlated risk that could bring down the whole system.

The system is in trouble. US claims from "natural disasters" are topping $100b/year – up from $4.6b in 2000. Home insurance premiums are up (21%!), but it's not enough, especially in drowning Florida and Texas (which is also both roasting and freezing):

https://grist.org/economics/as-climate-risks-mount-the-insurance-safety-net-is-collapsing/

Insurers who put premiums up to cover this new risk run into a paradox: the higher premiums get, the more risk-tolerant customers get. When flood insurance is cheap, lots of homeowners will stump up for it and create a big, uncorrelated risk-pool. When premiums skyrocket, the only people who buy flood policies are homeowners who are dead certain their house is gonna get flooded out and soon. Now you have a risk pool consisting solely of highly correlated, high risk homes. The technical term for this in the insurance trade is: "bad."

But it gets worse: people who decide not to buy policies as prices go up may be doing their own "motivated reasoning" and "mispricing their risk." That is, they may decide, "If I can't afford to move, and I can't afford to sell my house because it's in a flood-zone, and I can't afford insurance, I guess that means I'm going to live here and be uninsured and hope for the best."

This is also bad. The amount of uninsured losses from US climate disaster "dwarfs" insured losses:

https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/hurricanes-floods-bring-120-billion-insurance-losses-2022-2023-01-09/

Here's the doom-loop in a nutshell:

As carbon emissions continue to accumulate, more people are put at risk of climate disaster, while the damages from those disasters intensifies. Vulnerability will drive disinvestment, which in turn exacerbates vulnerability.

Also: the browner and poorer you are, the worse you have it: you are impacted "first and worst":

https://www.climaterealityproject.org/frontline-fenceline-communities

As Arun writes, "Tinkering with insurance markets will not solve their real issues—we must patch the gaping holes in the financial system itself." We have to end the loop that sees the poorest places least insured, and the loss of insurance leading to abandonment by people with money and agency, which zeroes out the budget for climate remediation and resiliency where it is most needed.

The insurance sector is part of the finance industry, and it is disinvesting in climate-endagered places and instead doubling down on its bets on fossil fuels. We can't rely on the insurance sector to discipline other industries by generating "price signals" about the true underlying climate risk. And insurance doesn't just invest in fossil fuels – they're also a major buyer of municipal and state bonds, which means they're part of the "bond vigilante" investors whose decisions constrain the ability of cities to raise and spend money for climate remediation.

When American cities, territories and regions can't float bonds, they historically get taken over and handed to an unelected "control board" who represents distant creditors, not citizens. This is especially true when the people who live in those places are Black or brown – think Puerto Rico or Detroit or Flint. These control board administrators make creditors whole by tearing the people apart.

This is the real doom loop: insurers pull out of poor places threatened by climate disasters. They invest in the fossil fuels that worsen those disasters. They join with bond vigilantes to force disinvestment from infrastructure maintenance and resiliency in those places. Then, the next climate disaster creates more uninsured losses. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Finance and insurance are betting heavily on climate risk modeling – not to avert this crisis, but to ensure that their finances remain intact though it. What's more, it won't work. As climate effects get bigger, they get less predictable – and harder to avoid. The point of insurance is spreading risk, not reducing it. We shouldn't and can't rely on insurance creating price-signals to reduce our climate risk.

But the climate doom-loop can be put in reverse – not by market spending, but by public spending. As Arun writes, we need to create "a global investment architecture that is safe for spending":

https://tanjasail.wordpress.com/2023/10/06/a-world-safe-for-spending/

Public investment in emissions reduction and resiliency can offset climate risk, by reducing future global warming and by making places better prepared to endure the weather and other events that are locked in by past emissions. A just transition will "loosen liquidity constraints on investment in communities made vulnerable by the financial system."

Austerity is a bad investment strategy. Failure to maintain and improve infrastructure doesn't just shift costs into the future, it increases those costs far in excess of any rational discount based on the time value of money. Public institutions should discipline markets, not the other way around. Don't give Wall Street a veto over our climate spending. A National Investment Authority could subordinate markets to human thriving:

https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/industrial-policy-requires-public-not-just-private-equity/

Insurance need not be pitted against human survival. Saving the cities and regions whose bonds are held by insurance companies is good for those companies: "Breaking the climate risk doom loop is the best disaster insurance policy money can buy."

I found Arun's work to be especially bracing because of the book I'm touring now, The Lost Cause, a solarpunk novel set in a world in which vast public investment is being made to address the climate emergency that is everywhere and all at once:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865939/the-lost-cause

There is something profoundly hopeful about the belief that we can do something about these foreseeable disasters – rather than remaining frozen in place until the disaster is upon us and it's too late. As Rebecca Solnit says, inhabiting this place in your imagination is "Completely delightful. Neither utopian nor dystopian, it portrays life in SoCal in a future woven from our successes (Green New Deal!), failures (climate chaos anyway), and unresolved conflicts (old MAGA dudes). I loved it."

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/28/re-re-reinsurance/#useless-price-signals

[mayakern]

as a long time fan of supergiant games and as someone who was obsessed with greek mythology as a child, i am EXTREMELY pumped about hades II. but also very curious about the new main character’s design. i feel like sgg (really, jen zee specifically) usually does a really good job of telegraphing their designs so that if you know the most basic things about a god, you can recognize them on site based on their design.

from the shape language to the posing to specific visual elements, they make sure that even at a quick glance the characters are not only distinct from one another, but have enough references to their domain and mythology that they are very recognizable.

i think demeter is one of my favorite indicators of this and one of my favorite hades designs over all. she’s not interpreted in the way a classic demeter is, and that’s part of what’s perfect. she’s been built at with little hints and references in other characters’ dialogue that paint her as critical, overbearing and not exactly trustworthy. and when you see her you’re like, “what, this is the goddess of the harvest?” with the absence of persephone and her casting the earth into famine, it makes sense that she doesn’t look bountiful, that her cornucopia (still the classic visual reference to demeter) is empty, her wheat frozen.

but melinoë is different. melinoë is a bringer of nightmares, a goddess of ghosts. her mingled heavenly and infernal heritage manifests in her primary physical trait: a body that is split down the middle, half white and half black. this is basically her most defining physical characteristic (the other being that she wears saffron, which is bougie as hell but not the point), but here is her design from the hades II trailer:

i see the saffron, see reference to her ghostly/undead connections, and there is an element of her half-and-half complexion with those black moon armor (maybe?) coverings on her right arm and leg. but when i first saw this design i thought she was an original creation (like zagreus*), not an existing god. i’m interested to see if this means they’ll be changing core parts of her mythology (and to see if that’s reflected in her design) and to see what direction she’s headed in but really this whole long post has just been building up to me saying

WHY DIDN’T THEY GIVE HER SPLIT DYE HAIR

PLEASE IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO PERFECT

almost every visual interpretation of melinoë, even if they don’t split her body into white and black halves like a white and black cookie, gives her a split dye. and maybe they wanted to avoid what everyone else was doing, but i feel like melinoë is unknown enough that that isn’t really a big deal. idk. i just think it would be neat. that’s all.

(*yes i know there is a zagreus in greek canon that is the first iteration of dionysus and is the son of persephone and zeus but i feel like game zagreus resembles his mythological counterpart so little that he’s basically an original creation, and maybe they’re doing the same with melinoe! since she is also technically the child of zeus and persephone**)

(**depending on the canon it’s either zeus disguised as hades or zeus and hades are two aspects of the same being)

[bandgie]

Do Not Touch | Armageddon Event

Request: Death | Kim Hongjoong (ATZ) by ♠️anon! song!

warnings! MDNI18+, unconsensual exhibitionism!!, somno (reader isn't touched), fem!reader, masturbaiting (m!), cum on face, descriptions of blowjob but reader doesn't give one

notes!: Jesus fucking christ this was so hard to write omfg.

1.1k words

Even with one touch, Hongjoong is sure you’d be dead.

Quite an exaggeration on his part, but true nonetheless. The Horsemen of Death can kill with a touch, a stare, or a whisper. Any creature dead by him simply thinking it.

When Hongjoong was first personified, this power was great. It gave him the ability to wipe out life on Earth with ease. Not that it’s happened yet, he and his brothers are waiting for the signal to begin the apocalypse, but their Father has stayed silent.

So they wandered Earth. They explored the different lands on their own, coming to actually enjoy some aspects of humanity. But Hongjoong found what humans call a reason worth living for.

You lay asleep, breathing softly and steadily. Summer is hot so there's no need for a blanket to lay with. Your bare legs bend at the knee, creating a pretty curve with your hands tucked underneath your head on your side.

Death has a presence, it always does. That’s why even on this hot night, you shiver.

Goosebumps are raised on your skin by Hongjoong’s proximity. He can’t quite tell if he likes watching your human instinct react to him this way, but he doesn’t find himself hating it either. 

Your lips just look so cute, quivering. They pinken from the blood rushing, a subtle blush on your face.

Hongjoong has come close to touching you. Feeling how warm your skin may be. He’s stopped just mere inches from your face, curling his fingers into a fist and forcing them at his sides instead.

That’s happening again. Thoughts of tracing your lips and brushing his thumb against the bottom one almost make him reach out. It almost makes him do something he knows he could never undo.

So Hongjoong stares. He stares and stares until his thoughts turn darker and more sinful. He thinks about how pretty those lips would look wrapped around him, sleepily lapping your tongue on the head of his cock.

What if he just ran his tip on you instead? Guiding his cock around your lips over and over until it smears with pre-cum. You’d wake up, you’d have to. In his filthy imagination, you’d open your mouth eagerly. You’d take his length inch by inch, propping yourself on your elbow to make sure he can properly fit.

Something in him stirs. A feeling he can’t quite place but one he’s not unfamiliar with. It’s a pressure in his cock, a warmness in his stomach. He’s felt this when he watched you change. When he first saw the true differences between yours and his body. It felt personal, intimate, wrong. When he told his brothers about this foreign feeling, Famine had laughed.

You’re starving, Hongjoong.

He didn’t quite understand what he meant then, but Hongjoong knows now. This hunger is more than merely sustenance. It’s primitive and it makes him feel more alive than he ever has before.

He can’t stop himself from sneaking a hand down, fumbling with the zipper, and reaching for his erection to pull out between the slit of his boxers.

The new heart in his chest beats quickly. It drums in his ears and veins when he sees how close your face is to his freed cock. It’s almost as though it’s trying to scream at him, to tell him to stop and leave. But no matter how loud the blood rushing in his body shouts, it’s no match for the simple fact that this entire thing feels…good.

Pumping his cock feels good. Feeling your warm breaths waft over him feels good. A sound wants to escape his throat. Hongjoong bares his teeth, trying to keep himself at bay, but experiencing such pleasure makes it near impossible. 

“Fuck.” He whispers. His chest deeply expands with every inhale. Every exhale sounds more like a sigh. Hongjoong can’t help the rocking of his hips, trying to fuck himself into his own fists.

With a tight grip, he pulls his hand up. His knees buckle from the sensation of his tip being rubbed. It’s almost too painful, too much for Hongjoong to handle. Your mouth would make a much better substitute. He’s seen human kissing on the streets. He’s seen how the gentle smacks feel both uncomfortable and interesting to watch.

You must be able to do that with his cock, he thinks. Purse your lips just like he’s seen and place pecks on his shaft. Maybe you’d hold him at the base just to kiss under his cock, licking the sensitive part just below his head. Then, when his dick is shining with cum and spit, you’d part your lips and finally take him whole.

There are so many ways you could take him. Gently, slowly, roughly, quickly, and he’d endure it all. 

Hongjoong usually stops when he feels that high building. The orgasm bubbles in his stomach and makes him shudder, briefly stopping his motions to cup himself instead. He’s thinking about it now, stopping. But with you being under him, blissfully unaware and asleep, he can’t find it in himself to do such a thing. 

He pretends his hand is your mouth. Soft sounds of slickness fill the air, but Hongjoong keeps his pace. 

He imagines his tip touching the back of your throat. He can see the tears in your eyes, feel the convulsing of your throat on his cock. A small moan manages to escape through his clenched teeth, causing you to stir just slightly.

It doesn’t matter. Not anymore. Hongjoong doesn’t slow down in the slightest when spurts of cum land on your face. His release shoots in strings, wet and warm right onto your pretty, unknowing lips.

Unconsciously, you jerk back. Hongjoong stills in his place, covering his spurting dick with the palm of his hand.

Your eyes don’t open. You only turn to the other side, as if the cum of your face is nothing but a fly bothering you in your sleep.

Finally, Hongjoong breathes. His inhales are shaky - guilty. He has to shamefully tuck his cock back where it was and raises his hand to his face.

Cum drips down his wrist, trickling down his elbow until it will inevitably fall onto your floor. Hongjoong ignores the morbid curiosity of tasing his own release and wipes his hand on his shirt instead.

What’s worse is he doesn’t feel bad. Yes, he feels that disbelief and disgust with himself, but he doesn't feel it enough. What he feels is the desire to do it tomorrow night. And the next one after that. And after that.

Not being able to touch you only pushes him harder to try. He’ll come up with better plans, he’ll find loopholes.

After all, he has yet to discover the use of gloves.

[catcas22]

I have a new dream job -- the reverse-version of the evil vizier from every medieval fantasy. Like you walk into the throne room of the local just-and-benevolent-yet-easily-led king, and I'm the greasy haired, sunken eyed figure in black standing behind the throne and periodically leaning down to whisper in the king's ear. But I actually give good advice.

"Sire, your brother absolutely is planning to kill you. Let me have him followed, I guarantee he either buys poison or hires an assassin within the month."

"I know you've looked into the eyes of the Dark Lord and believe that we will have peace in our time, Sire. But let's pump the brakes on beating our swords into ploughshares. And please don't host the peace talks in the heart of our kingdom within spitting distance of our most precious magical artifacts."

"If you absolutely must raise your bastard/your vanquished enemy's child/a random orphan alongside your trueborn heirs, please give them a defined place at court and a respectable job. Don't let them hang around feeling like the odd man out and growing ever more resentful of your heirs. Trust me on this."

"Sire, your generosity is one of your finest qualities. But you absolutely cannot empty the grain stores our famers have been paying into all year to alleviate our neighbor's famine. Give me a week, I'll put pressure on the guildmasters to suspend our tariffs on grain exports and offer the farmers a tax break for any surplus they produce this year. We can help Nextdoorlandia without causing breadline riots this winter."

"I know you believe that no man is born truly evil, Sire. But offering Childeater the Necromancer a chance at redemption is not worth gambling with the lives of countless innocents. And if you are set in your decision to spare him, don't trap him in the Fate Worse than Death crystal. I promise it will only make him angrier when he is inevitably released."

"Sire, for the love of god, do not ask that your children rule wisely and justly together in a spirit of cooperation. Name an heir, put it in writing, and award appropriate consolation prizes to the others, or your funeral will be a bloodbath."

[workersolidarity]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 ☠️ 🚨 OXFAM: ISRAEL'S GENOCIDAL WAR IN GAZA THE DEADLIEST OF THE 21ST CENTURY

International humanitarian organization, Oxfam, released a statement Friday stating that Israel's genocidal war on the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip is the deadliest war of the 21st century.

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) are killing Palestinians at an average rate of 250 civilians per day, which "massively exceeds" the average daily death toll of any major conflict of the century, according to Oxfam.

“The scale and atrocities that Israel is visiting upon Gaza are truly shocking. For 100 days the people of Gaza have endured a living hell. Nowhere is safe and the entire population is at risk of famine," Oxfam's Middle East Director Sally Abi Khalil is quoted as saying.

“It is unimaginable that the international community is watching the deadliest rate of conflict of the 21st century unfold, while continuously blocking calls for a ceasefire," the Director added.

Using nothing more than publicly available data, Oxfam extrapolated that the average daily death toll in the war on the Gaza Strip is far higher than any other significant war of our time, including Syria (96.5 deaths per day), Sudan (51.6 deaths), Iraq (50.8 deaths), Ukraine (43.9 deaths), Afghanistan (23.8 deaths), and Yemen (15.8 deaths per day).

Oxfam points to how the Palestinian population of Gaza is being forced into ever-shrinking areas of the enclave by Israeli bombing raids, forced to flee from areas the occupation has previously told civilians was safe, however nowhere in Gaza is truly safe at this time.

More than one million Palestinians, more than half the population of Gaza, have been forced to seek shelter in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, with massive overcrowding and little in the way of food, water, fuel, or sanitation services, and few medicines left in the enclave's medical centers. Currently, Oxfam says, only 10% of weekly food aid is arriving in Gaza due to the occupation' siege, restrictions and violence.

Oxfam is also warning of the huge threat to life in the Gaza Strip as a result of hunger and disease, with colder weather making the situation even more critical as a shortage of blankets and no fuel for heaters or hot water.

According to the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC), a partner organization of Oxfam, the situation for Palestinian civilians sheltering in tents has become “worse than anything you could imagine”, with makeshift shelters letting in rain, being blown away in the wind and people resorting to desperate measures like selling precious food or water supplies in order to get a blanket."

Previously, in the Jabalia Refugee Camp located in the north of Gaza was heavily flooded with sewage after Israeli warplanes targeted pipelines and pumping stations in the camp.

Oxfam emphasizes the lack of clean water and proper sanitation, increasing the risk to life in the Gaza Strip, and points to cases of diarrhea, which have risen to 40 times higher than the previous year's number of cases.

“While the mass atrocities continue, lives continue to be lost and critical supplies cannot get in," Khalil, Oxfam's Director says, "Israel’s total blockade of the Gaza Strip is restricting life-saving aid, including food, medical supplies and water and sanitation facilities."

“On top of the already horrific death toll, many more people could die from hunger, preventable diseases, diarrhoea and cold. The situation is particularly worrying for children, pregnant women and those with existing medical conditions," Khalil added.

“The only way to stop the bloodshed and prevent many more lives being lost is for an immediate ceasefire, for hostages to be released and for crucial aid supplies to be allowed in.”

Oxfam ends its statement by pointing to the Genocide hearings at the International Court of Justice, which began yesterday to look into charges that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, and said it supports "all efforts to investigate and address all mass atrocity crimes and human rights violations, irrespective of the perpetrator."

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[cypric-rat-hyperfixation]

want us not to confiscate your fucking money? just follow these simple steps!:

1. Become part of the machine. Your lack of sales is money I am not receiving. Conform. Follow the algorithm. Mechanize your uploads. Do not disappoint me. Strategize your content. Create based on trend. Create what they want. Hop aboard popularity bandwagons. Embody the algorithm. Embody what they want. Capitalize on everyone else's successes. Churn out content swiftly and efficiently. Produce produce produce. Create what they want. Become what they want. Perform how they want. Do anything they will give you money to do. Be the algorithm. Commercialize. Profit. Obey. More. Roll out more. More content. More money. More money. Profit. Make me enough money to justify receiving your share. Prove yourself. Conform. Show me that I can make satisfactory money off your sales by frequency alone. Prove that you will be profitable enough to deserve a cut. Profit. Pump coin into me quickly and regularly enough that I am not forced to tear twice that away from your skin and bone to satiate my hunger. Profit. Prove yourself profitable enough to earn your earnings. Do not disappoint me. Become the algorithm. Quench my famine. Become part of the machine.

happy selling artists!! 😄💕

[deramin2]

So I'm playing Timberborn Experimental Update 5 that adds bad water. (City Builder as intelligent beavers after the hooman's caused catastrophic environmental damage and then wiped themselves out.)

Objectively I think it's an important mechanic because it creates new map challenges and a mix of disasters with competing ways to protect from them.

My biggest complaint is there is no tutorial to walk you through how to prepare for a Badtide and you have to figure it out on your own. I got absolutely walloped by my first one with no protection in place, lost all my crops and trees and by the time I pulled out of the ensuing famine had 11 beavers left to rebuild with. So uh, it's a very effective disaster. I had one water source and managed to dam some of it, and then the Badtide flowed in and contaminated all of.

There's a few things I should have done:

Drained the reservoir of clean water so I could capture the Badwater until the Badtide is over. Let the clean water flush the rest (when it comes) so it gets diluted and quickly flows through three rest of the system. It's now critical to get the floodgates and not just use dams. Badwater can get trapped behind dams and you have to remove them to flush the system.

Research Badwater pumps and fluid dumps to remove the accumulating Badwater, store it in tanks, and use a fluidpump to dump it into a safe channel. This will probably be an all hands on deck thing during a disaster.

Honestly it was pretty demoralizing having my existing skills and methods used against me by this new disaster. But I think that's ultimately going to be good because it turns sure bets into something you really have to manage. If we're talking about an environmental disaster management game, this makes a lot of sense and adds another dimension of realism. It does make the game a lot harder, but once I learn I think I'll be able to manage it okay.

Since the days of Sims City, city builders have got a lot more thoughtful about disasters, how to make them a challenge, and how to help you be resilient about them but not just be basic rebuilds.

[fictionwriter2015]

Daily death rate in Gaza higher than any other major 21st Century conflict - Oxfam

Published: 11th January 2024

Israeli military killing 250 Palestinians per day with many more lives at risk from hunger, disease and cold

Israel’s military is killing Palestinians at an average rate of 250 people a day which exceeds the daily death toll of any other major conflict of recent years, Oxfam said today, as the escalation of hostilities nears its 100th day.

In addition, over 1,200 people were killed in the horrific attacks by Hamas and other armed groups in Israel on 7 October and 330 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since then.

Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East Director, said: “The scale and atrocities that Israel is visiting upon Gaza are truly shocking. For 100 days the people of Gaza have endured a living hell. Nowhere is safe and the entire population is at risk of famine.

“It is unimaginable that the international community is watching the deadliest rate of conflict of the 21st century unfold, while continuously blocking calls for a ceasefire.”

15 January 2024 CLARIFICATION:  Using publicly available data, Oxfam calculated that the number of average deaths per day for Gaza is higher than any recent major armed conflict including Syria (96.5 deaths per day), Sudan (51.6), Iraq (50.8), Ukraine (43.9) Afghanistan (23.8) and Yemen (15.8). 

The aid agency is warning that people are being increasingly forced into smaller areas due to constant bombardment, as they are forced to flee from places they have previously been told are safe, but nowhere in Gaza is truly secure. Over one million people - more than half the population – have been forced to seek shelter in Rafah on the Egyptian border. Oxfam staff in Rafah report massive overcrowding, with very little food and water, and essential medicines having run out. This crisis is further compounded by Israel's restrictions on the entry of aid, closing borders, imposing a siege, and denying unfettered access. Currently, only 10 percent of the weekly food aid needed is getting in.

Oxfam is also warning of the massive threat to life, beyond direct casualties, from hunger and disease. The onset of cold and wet weather is making the situation even more critical, with a shortage of blankets, no fuel for heating devices and no hot water. One of Oxfam’s partner organizations, Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC), described the situation for those living in tents as “worse than anything you could imagine”, with makeshift shelters letting in rain, being blown away in the wind and people resorting to desperate measures like selling precious food or water supplies to get a blanket.

Mutaz, an engineer who has been displaced to Al-Mawasi with his family, said: “The rain was going down from all sides of the tent. We had to sleep lying over the bag of flour to protect it from the rain. My wife and three of my daughters use one blanket at night. There are only enough blankets for four people to share. We have nothing.”

Earlier this week, a camp in Jabaliya was flooded with sewage when pipelines and a pumping station were damaged by Israeli air strikes. The lack of clean drinking water and proper sanitation poses a huge health risk. Cases of diarrhoea are 40 times higher than this time last year, although in reality, the number of cases is likely to be significantly higher.

Sally Abi Khalil said: “While the mass atrocities continue, lives continue to be lost and critical supplies cannot get in. Israel’s total blockade of the Gaza Strip is restricting life-saving aid, including food, medical supplies, and water and sanitation facilities.

“On top of the already horrific death toll, many more people could die from hunger, preventable diseases, diarrhoea, and cold. The situation is particularly worrying for children, pregnant women and those with existing medical conditions.

“The only way to stop the bloodshed and prevent many more lives being lost is for an immediate ceasefire, for hostages to be released and for crucial aid supplies to be allowed in.”

The United Nations International Court of Justice is holding a hearing today on the legality of Israel’s prolonged assault on Gaza, and may issue an emergency order for the suspension of Israel’s military campaign. Oxfam supports all efforts to investigate and address all mass atrocity crimes and human rights violations, irrespective of the perpetrator.

[quills-of-freedom]

Erwin Smith ~ Relationship, Vibe & Various

💌

💯

💭

🧠

🍆

☕️

🥂

🌂

🎁

🥇

🧩

👔

👞

✒️

📈

Okay, so there’s a lot to unpack here with Erwin Smith. As you probably know, he’s a very complex individual. Extremely hard to get close to, due to how busy/committed he is to his job.

However, if you do manage, prepare to be swept off your feet like Mary Poppins caught in a storm. Funny to look at but an absolute whirlwind.

Erwin is the gentleman. He will be so respectful, patient and alpha that you’ll feel like nothing in the world could ever hurt you, not even the Titans.

However, he’s known to sacrifice all he can for answers so I wouldn’t rely on that too much. Not that I’m saying he’d happily throw you into the jaws of a sixteen foot monster or anything, because he wouldn’t. He will sometimes go silent for days as he buries himself into his work. Unfortunately its just something you’re going to have to put up with if you want to be in this mans life.

Ideal Dates

Fancy dining is something you can expect when you’re with Erwin. He knows life is short and enjoying life while you can is important. That and he’s experienced the shitty ways of military life and the slop they serve; not to mention famine. So, now he’s up on the commander ladder, prepare to be spoiled with candle lit dinners and fine wines.

Doesn’t make him a snob though. He’s so down to earth he has this power where he’ll make you feel like royalty, all while lifting up everyone else in the room too. Kind and polite, he never fails to make others feel good about themselves; just a nod, a smile and a “thank you” goes miles for anyone serving him food.

Is a sucker for late night walks - especially in parks. He’ll loop your hand through his arm as he takes slow strides, his entirety rumbling with each small laugh he lets out. With you, having managed to penetrate into his life, he’s found a new happiness he didn’t think he’d ever have in this lifetime.

Like Levi, Erwin always smells good. Fresh shower gels, cologne, you name it.

Picnic’s in the spring and summer are something else you can expect from this amazing human. He’ll feed you fancy cheeses, bites of cake and so on.

Modern AU

I can see Erwin having a few professions in a modern au. A professor, a business man with Levi as his partner, and even the owner of a fancy, swag car store.

It’s just in his DNA to rise to the top of things - that’s Erwin for you. Whatever career he has, he’s high up and earns a lot of money. He’s a workaholic through and through, no matter what universe you’re in, he’s going to struggle balancing his work life with his personal life. It’s a major issue you’ll have to tackle if you want to be romantically involved with him.

He takes Levi to get acupuncture to help with his insomnia. He’s open minded and also suggests Tai-Chi.

Espresso’s are basically pumped directly into this mans veins. None after 4 though, else he’ll be up all night.

Always at his desk when he’s home. Very rarely does he relax without intervention from you. You have to ask him to come watch some TV or read a book. He’ll happily spend quiet time with you, he just needs reminding.

NSFW

Oh boy.

I’ve always cannoned Erwin as having a magic cock. It’s so fat and big and shaped so beautifully ~ ahh.

I call it magic because it’s basically a mini orgasm with each drag along your walls. And when you reach your golden end - you’ll be knocked silly.

I’m talking eye rolls, drool, you’ll flop like a rag doll as he pumps you into heaven.

His cock is addictive. Once Erwin inserts himself into you for the first time no other cock will ever do. It’s just… magical.

A gentleman in the sheets too - unless you don’t want him to be.

His load is so thick, like - McDonalds milkshake thick. And there’s so much of it, he can fill you up until you’re leaking and pull out and cover you.

The noises he makes consist of heavy, deep and almost guttural panting. Has such a sly smile while he watches how well your greedy insides take him.

Can and will preform oral on you for hours. Until your legs are shaking and you’re begging for mercy.

Don’t expect to ever be able to walk properly after he’s done with you, ‘cause you won’t.

Kinks

There’s two main (yet huge) moods Erwin has.

One is his praise kink. He worships you and your body. He’ll tell you how gorgeous, strong, pretty, beautiful, perfect etc., you are. It really gets him going showing his king/queen how he sees you and making you feel good about yourself. Making you feel as good as you deserves is almost good enough to make him cum on the spot. But of course, he has amazing self-control and his stamina is second to none.

Then there’s the other mood he has…

Having you dry hump him, beg him to pleasure you gets his motor running from 0 - 90.

If he’s super busy he’ll have you dry hump his tree trunk of a thigh while he fills in paper work, your desperate and pathetic body just pleading for him to see to you, the way only Erwin can. It won’t last too long though - it turns him on too much and will end up throwing you on the desk and fucking you until you see stars.

Aftercare

No matter how busy he was when you started to fuck, he’ll always take time to look after you after he’s destroyed your insides.

Pillow talk, soft kisses, telling you how well you did and how you milk him dry so well.

Will get you a tray of food and a drink and will bring it up to bed for you. Fruits, croissants, yoghurt… mmm.

After a particularly long session, he’ll wrap you up in the sheet and carry you to the shower; changing the bedding to a fresh set while you’re in there. He’ll lay out clean Pjs and have that tray of food waiting for you.

Always, always wraps his arms around you to fall asleep, his satisfied sighs in your ear always a joyous sound to end your day to.

Dates 10/10

Thoughtfulness 6/10

Affection 4/10

Sex 10/10

Aftercare 10/10

[gxlacticlove]

tbh I think that Made In America probably goes the hardest out of all of Starkid's songs and I don't think it gets enough attention

[midnightfire1222]

It's been awhile since I've posted anything pony-related here. But I have something new! Introducing the Return AU version of Vinyl Scratch, created with help from my husband. This AU is inspired by a mix of Doctor Who and MLP. I've previously introduced what Dinky, Doc, and Derpy all look like, but Vinyl is a new face to the AU. She's a hybrid like Derpy, being half unicorn and half of an alien species my husband and I came up with that we called Lyquus. I'll include a bit about them and their planet below that we've come up with to shed some light on her alien half. (I'm making an appendix/glossary thing of sorts that we can refer to so we don't lose track too much and contradict too much.:

"Lyquus hail from the planet of Lyquuenist, a planet with a thick atmosphere that blots out the majority of light from its twin suns, casting the lands within in a perpetual twilight. The planet as a whole is also quite chilly, leading to all of its species both sentient and not to have thick fur coats. 

The planet’s main sapient species are equine in shape, but boast features that make them appear quite lupine as well: wolf-like ears that are extremely sensitive to sound, fangs that lend toward their meat-eating nature (though they can omnivorous in times of famine), and incredibly thick fur. Most are some shade of red in color and quite large both in height and in overall build. All pure-blooded lyquus boast two horns on their head, some curving back around the ears, some not, as well as red eyes with oval pupils that always glow, especially in little to no light. Their eyes evolved specifically to see in the low light of their home world, making them extremely sensitive to any sort of bright light source.

Lyquus are capable of basic levitation, but their magic is extremely tied to their emotions. If their tempers flare, their magic becomes extremely volatile and uncontrollable, and they can enter a frenzied state where they’ll attack both friend and foe alike in an animalistic fury until they either use up their energy or they’re brought down. Rarely, if a lyquus enters their frenzied state too much, they may never recover from it. They’re either killed as a result or forced to go live a life as a wild animal.

Culturally, they are considered a savage and dangerous warrior race by several other planets. Once they’d taken to the stars, it didn’t take long for them to start trying to conquer nearby worlds. They show little regard for races not of their own kind, and any deemed weak are exiled from their home world. 

But a lyquus does not do well alone. They need a family unit to feel truly whole, and the bigger their ‘pack’ is, the better. To be alone is like a living nightmare to a species with a pack mentality and most would rather die then be on their own for any extended length of time." As for Vinyl herself, she is quite laid back and very flirty. She doesn't care who or what it is she flirts with - be they male, female, or somewhere in between. She and Derpy are somewhat friends, and Vinyl likes to teasingly flirt with her on occasion because she thinks it's funny, even knowing full well that Derpy doesn't swing that way. This alabaster unicorn doesn't care what others think of her appearance. She'd very proud of her looks and only wears the opaque shades because her eyes are very sensitive to the sunlight of Equus (the name we gave the planet where Equestria in this AU is). Vinyl owns a night club called 'Pump It Up!' where she mainly DJs but also occasionally works the bar. She has a love for all kinds of music, though her favorites genres including dub-step and rock and roll, and is a great singer.

[wuxiaphoenix]

Worldbuilding: Practical Elements

A few thoughts on the application of elemental magic to everyday life.

Water magic: Ways to find, dig for, and purify water. A pump of some kind would be handy but it might be more efficient to use a windmill or hand pump.

It might also be good for irrigation, but the real lifesaver for farmers would be diverting water from floods. An old saying: “Drought’ll starve a farmer, but flood’ll kill him.” Dry plants may hold on with a little irrigation, but plants in waterlogged soil can’t get oxygen to their roots. They suffocate. Any magic that could move floodwaters somewhere harmless would save lives and stave off later famines.

Earth magic: Cleansing the soil of insect, mold, and bacterial pests. It might also be good for breaking up hardpan, bringing buried minerals up near the surface for crops to use, and shoving excess salts down out of root range. Or possibly extracting them for human use. Not to mention earth-moving might let you plow without draft animals. Granted, usually you want draft beasts for both power and fertilizer. But if you were a mage alone trying to survive, it might be worth it to plow magically. You’d have to consider your personal energy costs, and how much time you had to work with. Because even if the plowing spell exhausted you for a whole day, if that spell let you plow all the fields you needed so you could sow them the next day - it might be worth it.

(It’d be even better if you could plow and sow in the same round, but that’d depend on how your spells worked.)

Air magic: A little trickier. It might be good for sweeping pests away, crushing clouds of locusts, and diverting excess rainclouds somewhere else. You could shake trees to gather crops, or provide the best breeze for winnowing grain. On a fine-control scale, fresh air circulating around your seedlings would help prevent damping off. It’d also be a way to save flooded crops, dry laundry, and help desiccate meat and cheeses for storage.

Do not underestimate the value of drying laundry! All too often wash days had to be scheduled when there were both free hands for the work and a sunny day to dry it - or a freezing day, so you could crack the ice off clothing. Brr. If you have the air-drying part handled, all you need is any day with hands free. You can do the work in smaller batches, making it easier if people are worn out or busy, and you can do it more often. In cases of epidemic disease, such as smallpox, cholera, and yellow fever, enough clean laundry can make the difference between someone pulling through or dying in a stinking morass.

And if you realize malaria and yellow fever are carried by mosquitoes, and setup an air spell to ward them out - you could stop some epidemics cold.

Fire magic: Oh wow, the possibilities. First and foremost, spells to protect against fire. Lose your house or your stored fodder and grain, you can lose everything. Hay, straw, seed oils, grain, flour - all of those are too combustible for comfort.

Direct use of fire and heat? Sterilizing infested fields. Controlled burns to take off flammable brush and grasses, returning nutrients to the soil. Forge-fires for iron-working; there’s always something that needs to be repaired or improvised, down to straightening nails so you can hammer them in again. Heat to boil water, dry clothes, parch grain, season wood... so much of human history has revolved around getting sources of heat and learning to control them better. With enough heat you can make it through a lean winter; without it, even twice the food might not be enough.

All of this depends on how skilled your magic is, how often you can use it, and what it costs you (in time, materials, and personal energy) compared to just doing things with regular physics. It’s interesting to see worlds where magic is good for some things, yet others it’s easier to do it the “hard” way!

[veggieeats]

Why I became veggie

“If the slaughterhouse had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian” - Paul McCartney

Since leaving school, many of my friends converted to vegetarianism/veganism. We had numerous discussions surrounding the topic and, although it was something I had wanted to do for years, it was these discussions that solidified my views and the decision to change my diet. I was told to watch one documentary in particular called Cowspiracy. I was 16, in my bedroom, laying quietly in bed with my laptop in front of me. I pulled up YouTube, pre-warned by my friend that it would be a painful yet insightful watch into the animal agricultural industry. I hit play on the documentary and I knew within the first ten minutes that my entire perspective had shifted.                 

I was sickened by the idea of eating meat; the idea that, beneath all of the propaganda and lies, that animals suffered far more than we, as the consumers, are led to believe. We are often comforted by the “free range” and “grass fed” labels on the packaging of our food, blissfully unaware of what these words truly mean. As I sat and watched, I remembered some of my classes in school; the multi-coloured food diagrams and illustrated pictures of plates of food labelled “balanced diet” projected onto the screen in front of me. We are taught that meat and dairy are our main sources of protein, that in order to be healthy we must buy into these industries otherwise we will face all kinds of health issues and deficiencies. We are taught that our canines mean we are omnivores and that it is the circle of life; that consuming animal products is natural (despite the copious amounts of hormones and chemicals pumped into them) and that human beings are designed to consume this diet. As soon as I realised that the meat and dairy industry is a capitalist money maker for huge corporations, with very little regard for the mass public and the animals being harmed, I decided to make the change. I recommend that anyone who wants to understand the meat and dairy industry on a deeper level watches Cowspiracy, although I will do my best to shed some light on it in this blog.

Our Environment

It is predicted that, by 2050, the population will rise to 9.7 billion people. By consuming our planet’s resources at such a rapid rate, the earth will be unable to replenish them and we will face many issues such as water, land and forest shortages, damage to vital ecosystems, famine and financial crises. If this does not change by 2050, we will need the equivalent of three earths resources to sustain us. Global warming is a crisis that will lead to catastrophic events. Greenhouse emissions from mass produced cow farms (a single cow produces 220lbs of methane per year) and deforestation where the burning of vast acres of forests in order to make room for these cow farms are placing us on course for these events. We can expect to see catastrophic weather events such as hurricanes, droughts and floods and socio-political issues such as climate wars, all as a result of global warming.

So how can a veggie diet change things?

Animal agriculture is responsible for 51% of our greenhouse gas emissions, as opposed to transportation making up 16%. Just one day per week (52 days per year) of eating a vegetarian diet can save nearly 100kgs of C02 per year. The veggie diet produces 2.5x less carbon emissions than a meat diet. By eating a vegetarian diet for a year, we could save the same number of emissions as a family taking a small car off the road for 6 months!

Eye-opening statistics on the animal agriculture industry.

[starlitangels]

You're pumping out fics very fast, pls don't overwork yourself

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ not as fast as you might think. Back in January of 2022 I got COVID and had to quarantine for two weeks before I’d found a new job and I wrote like 2-3 one-shots everyday and queued them so that they’d post once per day. I had them queued for like a month

This is nowhere near as fast in comparison (like seriously. If you go to my archive and sort it by the #fic tag, January and February I basically posted almost every single day in 2022)

But don’t worry. I’m not overworking myself. Honestly I get more stressed if I don’t write. It’s basically my release. I write as much as I can because it soothes me. I share what I write because I like what I’ve written and hope others will like it too

Because believe me, Ryn, I write a lot more than the fics I share. I have original projects that I work on too. It’s mostly fanfiction but it’s not all fanfiction

Also I probably won’t be posting anything for like a week now although I hope that’s not the case so y’all get feast-or-famine with me. I post everyday for 3-5 days and then don’t write a single one-shot for two weeks or something lol