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soon-palestine · 2 months

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Palestinian Territory - The Israeli authorities continue to enforce their ongoing arbitrary blockade of the Gaza Strip, refusing to allow humanitarian aid and necessities that are essential for survival—such as cleaning and personal hygiene supplies—into the Strip. This comes amid the spread of infectious diseases and on top of the precarious living conditions faced by the approximately 2.3 million Palestinians in the enclave, constituting a perpetuation of Israel’s comprehensive crime of genocide, which began on 7 October 2023.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor emphasises that the consequences of Israel’s intentional worsening of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, by blocking people’s access to cleaning and personal hygiene products, medical equipment, and sterilisation supplies, are dire. Nothing justifies subjecting the population to conditions that can cause widespread death, including by causing the spread of serious skin diseases and and infections, including hepatitis.

Israel continues to systematically and arbitrarily deny hygiene supplies and equipment to all Gaza Strip residents, exacerbating the catastrophic health crisis that Israel has caused there. This crisis has been made worse by the population’s forced, widespread, and repeatedly occurring displacement, as well as the lack of personal hygiene supplies and disinfectants in shelters and camps housing hundreds of thousands of displaced people. Israel continues to prevent and obstruct the entry of the most basic supplies into the Strip, creating conditions that are ripe for the spread of infectious diseases, water pollution, and the absence of sanitation services, as Israeli army forces have destroyed these facilities.

Since the beginning of the genocide nearly, Israel has arbitrarily closed crossings into the Gaza Strip, blocking the entry of humanitarian supplies and the flow of food and water. These actions have resulted in a dangerous accumulation of crises that directly threaten the lives and health of the Gaza Strip’s residents, most notably due to their lack of access to food, clean water, medicines, medical supplies, sanitary tools, and cleaning supplies.

Aya Kamal Ashour Abed, a 20-year-old displaced mother of two at the Deir al-Balah Preparatory School for Girls in the central Gaza Strip, spoke with the Euro-Med Monitor team. “We are more than 30 people living in this classroom for about nine months,” she stated. “A few months ago, we numbered roughly 70, but after some of the displaced individuals relocated to tents outside the school, our numbers dropped somewhat.

“We only receive cleaning and personal hygiene supplies in small quantities every two or three months, despite the fact that our number is very high and we require them constantly,” Abed continued. “Sanitation supplies, like tissues, soap, and shampoo, are extremely expensive [or] even nonexistent in the markets.”

Added Abed, “A bar of soap, for instance, now costs 30 shekels (roughly nine USD) while a bottle of shampoo costs 90 shekels (roughly 25 USD). We do not have anything to eat, so how can we afford these amounts for basic hygiene?”

Abed, who was displaced from her home in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip following its bombing last October, said that her two sons had become afflicted with allergies and bacteria, for which she is unable to provide ointments because they are unavailable in UNRWA clinics. “I showed my son to the doctor, and he told me that his entire body is seriously infected with bacteria due to poor hygiene,” Abed told Euro-Med Monitor.

Obtaining sanitary pads—which are pricey and hard to find in local markets—is one of her biggest challenges. “Even though my children’s diapers are completely unusable, I have to cut them into tiny pieces and use them as sanitary pads,” Abed explained. “During my period, I also have to use a single pad for the entire day, which has led to numerous infections and rashes.”

Approximately 680,000 women and girls in the Gaza Strip are of reproductive age. These individuals lack access to menstrual pads and other essentials, and also face other challenges such as inadequate access to water, toilets, various hygiene products, and privacy. Additionally, they must use contaminated or unsterilised materials, which puts them at risk of developing infections that can lead to infertility and uterine cancer.

Since Israel has cut off electricity to the Gaza Strip, there is a growing risk to all residents caused by waste accumulation and sewage flooding of roads and markets due to the inability to drain it. Israel has destroyed most of the Strip’s vital infrastructure, including sewage networks, and forced over two million people—the majority of whom have been displaced more than once—into shelters and tents that lack the basic necessities of life, personal hygiene, and health care.

Forty-two-year-old Mohammed Saad Abu Haitham said that his family of eight, which resides in a tent in the Mawasi neighborhood of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, is severely impacted by the lack of cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, and bar soap. Due to its scarcity, soap is unusually expensive and therefore difficult to purchase.

“We do not have the money to buy enough meals for our children, so we cannot buy cleaning materials and soap in light of their high prices and the lack of availability,” Abu Haitham told the Euro-Med Monitor team. “My spouse and kids’ hair has been infected with lice, and we all have skin diseases as a result of not washing and not using enough soap and shampoo.”

Food dyes are used instead of traditional dyes for making liquid soap and sterilisation products, which have not entered the Gaza Strip in months due to the Israeli closure of the crossings and the imposition of an arbitrary siege. These alternative and primitive cleaning products are made locally, are unsafe, and are generally insufficient in both quality and quantity when sold in the markets of the central and southern Gaza Strip.

Tens of thousands of cases of skin diseases, including eczema, have been reported to medical facilities as having cropped up in shelters and camps for displaced people living in tents. This is particularly concerning for women, as eczema often appears on the hands of people working to clean food utensils using antiquated and dangerous materials. Meanwhile, reports from the United Nations indicate that skin rashes and skin infections, especially among children, are sharply increasing in the Strip.

The Israeli authorities have placed an arbitrary and oppressive siege on the Palestinian people there, squeezing them into a tiny area with exceedingly limited resources; denying them access to food, clean water, and other necessities; and leaving them exposed to extreme heat.

The right to dignity is an internationally recognised human right that protects people from humiliation, among other forms of unethical treatment. It is meant to ensure fairness by providing the means for people to live in dignity, as well as other fundamental needs and rights, like the right to health and the right to water and sanitation. These rights are essential to maintaining human dignity and preserving the lives of the populace.

The only way to guarantee the rights of Gaza Strip residents is to put an end to Israel’s crime of genocide, lift the arbitrary siege on the Strip, and rescue what remains of the currently uninhabitable region. Delays will either cause the region to irreversibly deteriorate, or incur significant costs in terms of civilian lives and health.

The international community is required to guarantee the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, including the entry of non-food essentials needed to respond to the dire circumstances faced by the Strip’s entire population. Euro-Med Monitor stresses that swift and effective action must be taken to safely deliver aid to civilians across the entire Strip, including the northern section, which is particularly isolated right now. Additionally, the international community must prioritise providing adequate supplies of personal and family hygiene products, as well as products for menstruating individuals, plus sexual and reproductive health care services to prevent and mitigate further harm to women and children in particular, and the entire Palestinian population in general. These actions are mandated by international human rights law and relevant international obligations.

Pressure needs to be put on Israel, as the occupying force, to maintain sanitation facilities and services in the Gaza Strip, as well as to guarantee the safety of the technicians charged with repairing and renovating water lines and their various sources. The main water pipelines that enter the Strip need to be restored, particularly those that enter it from the north.

In addition to ensuring the entry of enough fuel to operate the Gaza Strip’s water and sanitation infrastructure, including desalination plants, water wells, and mobile toilets, it is crucial to exert pressure on Israel to permit the entry of materials required for repair work and rehabilitation of civilian infrastructure. These services are essential to the civilian population’s survival in the Strip, and will protect them from the threat of further health disasters.

#palestine #gaza #free palestine

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arimiadev · 10 months

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why does aniplex want mahoyo to fail

I love visual novels. being a long time fate/stay night fan and only having heard of mahoyo from hushed whispers about its cinematography, I was super invested when it was announced to be coming to the west and I could finally play an official version of it.

however, a lot of people interested in type-moon works had never heard of mahoyo, let alone it getting an official english translation. but how? aniplex is publishing the game and they're one of the largest anime distributors in the world.

with the console release of mahoyo being almost exactly a year ago and the steam release being just 10 days away, I want to look over some of aniplex USA's bizarre and nonexistent marketing for one of my favorite visual novels.

let's clear up a few things, first.

mahoyo is the shortened form of mahoutsukai no yoru (not to be confused with mahoutsukai no yome, i.e. the ancient magus bride), which has been localized as witch on the holy night. mahoyo was a linear non-eroge visual novel released by type-moon in 2012, being one of the first scripts kinoko nasu (co-founder of type-moon) wrote back in 1996 and adapted into a VN many, many years later.

in April of 2022, a console remaster (switch, playstation 4) was announced with HD assets and voice acting, to be published by aniplex. notably, this console release would contain an english translation and was later confirmed in June to be sold in the west via online retailers. this was huge news, as this meant mahoyo would be the first type-moon visual novel (not including gameplay-oriented titles like fate/extella or fate/grand order) to be officially released in the west, as despite numerous fan translations, their more recognizable visual novels tsukihime and fate/stay night still had not received a localization.

type-moon is the developer behind mahoyo and aniplex is the publisher, meaning that type-moon made the game and aniplex is in charge of distributing (and marketing) the game worldwide.

timeline:

April 11 2022: Mahoyo rerelease announced for consoles (Switch & PlayStation 4), including English translation

July 4 2022: Aniplex confirms Mahoyo will be available to the West, localized under the name Witch on the Holy Night

October 14 2022: 2nd trailer released, more voice actor info announced

November 3 2022: physical pre-orders launched, demo version available

November 18 2022: Aniplex attends Anime NYC with Mahoyo

December 7 2022: Mahoyo released digitally on Switch / PlayStation 4 (Dec 8th in Japan, Dec 7th in America)

December 12 2022: Mahoyo reaches 110k units sold worldwide

January 27 2023: Mahoyo physicals release

July 5 2023: Mahoyo reaches 150k units sold worldwide

September 10 2023: Mahoyo announced for Steam via a now unlisted Aniplex livestream

December 13 2023: Mahoyo will be released on Steam (Dec 14th in Japan, Dec 13th in America)

some of the dates might be a little fuzzy, especially the release dates, as some sources go by japanese time and some go by american timezones, so just be aware of that.

now, let's talk a bit about mahoyo itself.

mahoyo is a masterpiece. it's a niche game not meant for everyone. its cinematography is top notch among visual novels. its writing style can be off-putting to people who want faster-paced stories. it's one of my most beloved visual novels I've ever played, and I've been in this field for almost a decade and have played well over 100 VNs.

mahoyo is a completely linear visual novel—meaning it has no choices or gameplay—that follows aoko, a high schooler mage trying to balance her perfect school president facade with her secret life as a mage, something she has to keep secret at the risk of death. this is one of the lesser known type-moon works but it's well beloved because of the care put into it.

if you've ever heard someone talk about it, it's almost impossible for them to not mention the visuals. mahoyo is one of the most visually impressive visual novels I've ever seen, with its inspired use of artwork and in-game animations. I cannot recommend this VN enough if you like modern fantasy and don't mind linear VNs.

before we dive into aniplex USA's marketing, I want to clarify a few marketing terms for people who don't market visual novels as a job. marketing is not just advertising—it's everything related to how a product communicates with potential users, including its branding, its packaging, its everything. when marketing a game, you have several different avenues: social media, press & influencers, trailers, store pages, and more.

today I want to show you how, based off what I have researched after a long, manic day, aniplex USA has failed mahoyo on all of these accounts.

so let's go back to its western release.

mahoyo has a few official english channels:

website

twitter

facebook

aniplex also has an official english twitter with almost 500k followers where they shared mahoyo very rarely—only 9 tweets about the game ever.

well, surely their other pages are more maintained right—

both accounts stopped posting July 10th/11th, with their last post being about mahoyo going on sale on consoles. let's look at their posts prior to this, though, starting with the twitter.

we can see that the twitter account was made in december of 2022. if we scroll down far enough (it's not hard, given they only have 33 tweets), we can see that their first tweet was on december 6th 2022:

let's go back to our timeline. can you tell me when mahoyo's remaster released digitally?

yes they made both of the english mahoyo social media accounts the day before the game launched

we can very easily add up the entire social media posts for the game thus far:

mahoyo english twitter - 30 tweets and 3 retweets

mahoyo english facebook - 27 posts

aniplex english twitter - 9 tweets

aniplex english facebook - 2 posts

no other english social media accounts were tied to the website, so these are the only ones I looked at. this means in total, there were only 68 social media posts for the console release of mahoyo by the publisher for english audiences.

but what about the steam release? after the game sold over 150k+ units on consoles, surely aniplex was ready to market it a bit more for pc users—

neither account has made a post about the upcoming steam release.

if we look at the twitter, they have 3 tweets since July that do talk about the upcoming steam release- however, these are retweets from the japanese mahoyo account.

we know that this twitter and this facebook account are the official social media for mahoyo as they're linked on the website, so they're definitely meant to be followed for game updates in the west. well, maybe the english aniplex twitter has posted about it—

none of the english aniplex or mahoyo accounts have made a single post about the steam release

that's right, the social media posts I counted above are the only posts for mahoyo on their english accounts, all dating back before the steam release was announced. since then, they have not made a single original post even mentioning the steam release.

meanwhile, the japanese mahoyo twitter has been hustling hard to promote the upcoming steam release—reposting trailers, character bios, and more almost every day with pretty good numbers.

in fact, the japanese mahoyo twitter did such a good job at marketing it that the aniplex USA twitter never mentioned the english mahoyo twiter, instead only @ ing the japanese one in tweets (despite the english one being linked on the website).

why they even bothered making social media accounts and then not running them despite being one of the largest anime distributors in the world I have no clue.

well, maybe they didn't need to rely on social media presence. maybe they were going for the in-person approach and marketing it at conventions.

mahoyo had basically no anime convention presence

the only reference I can find to aniplex notably promoting mahoyo at any western convention is this tweet of them at anime NYC. from someone who was at anime NYC, I've been told that they pushed the game heavily at their booth with TV screens promoting the game.

however, anime NYC is only one anime convention. you cannot hope to sell a game by just attending one anime convention. mahoyo might have had a presence at other american conventions, but I'm unable to find any images or news about this.

maybe they don't understand type-moon

aniplex is the publisher for fate/grand order, one of the most successful mobile games ever created. they're also the distributor for a majority of type-moon related anime, ranging from fate to garden of sinners to side series. aniplex's marketing team should have lots of experience with type-moon properties.

maybe it was promoted in other aniplex titles

I was also unable to find a news post in fate/grand order related to mahoyo's release, despite news posts for other type-moon series (namely fate but also things like melty blood) getting news posts in fate/grand order. I might've missed the news posts when looking back through FGO but I don't believe there was one.

maybe it sold well in other regions but not western ones

(I'm going to be referring only to the console release for these stats, keep in mind)

mahoyo released December 7th/8th 2022 with an english, japanese, simplified chinese, and traditional chinese translations. at the end of the release week, mahoyo's japanese twitter announced the game had sold 110k copies worldwide and famitsu reported that 66,344 of these units were sold in japan. this means we have around 43k units unaccounted for.

we know the game was available in english, japanese, and chinese languages but we don't know what regions. mainland china has a very large visual novel playerbase (I say this as someone who sells visual novels), which means if it were sold there then it's easy to say that a big chunk of that 43k units could be attributed to them—this also means it would be easy to believe that aniplex saw mahoyo selling worse in western countries and took this as a sign to not promote the game any more there.

but was it ever sold in mainland china? from what I could tell—no.

looking at pricing charts for the nintendo eshop and the playstation store, china is not listed on either. furthermore, searching the game's chinese title on the chinese playstation store does not bring back any results. it looks like the only predominantly chinese-speaking regions that were able to buy it are hong kong, taiwan and possibly singapore (the playstation store page for it doesn't look like it's available for purchase anymore).

so what does this tell us?

without any other numbers it's hard to tell how many of the 43k launch week sales came from english-speaking players, but even if we conservatively say that only around 20k of the 110k launch week units were from western countries, that's still almost a million in revenue (and remember, the physical limited edition of the game was available in english for $60, which is $20 more than the digital base version).

maybe the store page is so good they don't need to market it

here's a little secret: store pages matter a lot more than you'd think. there are entire job positions dedicated to tailoring store pages (like a steam game page) to make it perfect for the game's target audience. there's a science to it that includes the artwork, descriptions, tags, screenshots, and more.

let's see what aniplex did for the steam page of mahoyo.

A tale told with vivid colors and rich sound in a classic TYPE-MOON visual novel.

I don't know how to describe this short description charitably other than to say it sounds like a person who's never heard of a visual novel has been tasked with describing a visual novel.

this tells me nothing about the game other than it's a visual novel. I hope you know what type-moon is, because if you don't then you've learned nothing else from this. alright, well, let's look at the screenshots—

there's only 1.

currently as of writing this, there's 10 images uploaded as screenshots (no trailers, they keep adding and removing the trailers for some reason). 9 of these images are just the full artworks from the game while 1 is an actual screenshot.

I really hate this, as you're not actually shown what the game looks like unless you look at the very last screenshot. this will absolutely lead to some people not understanding what they're getting into. what's worse is that some of these CGs are spoilers, especially one in particular featuring my wife touko.

why are we spoiling people instead of showing them screenshots? why not show people what mahoyo actually looks like??

there's also absolutely no use of the announcements section on steam. each game on steam can post announcements related to the game, including upcoming releases, new updates, and more. it's customary to post a steam announcement when a game has a release date announcement. mahoyo's steam page has none.

well they probably released the trailers in english for hype

I wish I had that much hope.

on mahoyo's english website, all of the videos listed are from the official type-moon youtube, which is their japanese channel. type-moon went through the effort to translate these videos. aniplex didn't upload these to their own youtube, where they already upload everything related to the fateverse and nasuverse.

searching up witch on the holy night brings up no results for the trailer—aniplex never uploaded the trailer to their channel.

maybe they got influencers to play it

according to steamdb, the max amount of viewers mahoyo streams have had on twitch was 71 viewers.

furthermore, if we check twitch and look for vods attached to mahoyo, we only find 4 videos total, all of which were posted in the past week. it looks like they didn't even reach out to streamers to play the console release, much less pay them.

over on the press side, it does look like they reached out to at least a few reviewers. for example, on the review by noisy pixel, they clarify that a review copy was provided by the publisher for review purposes. we can add that to the bare minimum of marketing—reaching out to press.

however, they did get for some other influencers to share the game! ...twitter game sale influencers, that is.

there's actually a lot more of these types of tweets for mahoyo than I was expecting when I searched it on twitter. as a friend pointed out, just because it says "#ad" doesn't necessarily mean these were paid for by aniplex—a lot of these links look to be referrals, which means they're getting a cut of any purchases.

let's recap

mahoyo released over 110k copies in the launch week for it's worldwide console release despite very, very limited marketing efforts from its publisher aniplex. now that the game has proven it can sell very well despite being a lesser known linear visual novel, aniplex has done no marketing for the steam release- no tweets, no influencer outreach, no localization of trailers, no announcements via steam, nothing.

so why?

why does aniplex want mahoyo to fail?

even after all of this, I still do not know why. to me, it's clear that the marketing team at aniplex were (most likely) given no budget for this game and just couldn't do anything with it, deciding to spend what little money they had on press outreach and an anime NYC booth.

but why? why didn't aniplex give them a budget, even a small one? why was their budget so tiny they couldn't even afford to tweet? to RT more posts from the japanese twitter? to share the already translated trailers to their own accounts?

I've heard a few excuses like "type-moon hates western fans and probably caused it" but this doesn't make any sense either. why would you authorize a translation of your game and allow your publisher to sell the game overseas but specifically make them not market the game (and what publisher would agree to that)? I've even heard excuses like "they just forgot it was coming out", to which I ask "how does an entire marketing team (a company the size of aniplex absolutely has a team(s) for marketing and not a singular person) forget a release for a game that's already sold over 150k copies?". the only excuse I've seen that I somewhat buy is that they did not have much faith in the game and relied almost entirely on fans doing word of mouth marketing for the game.

I don't think we'll ever get an answer. while I do believe the marketing team at aniplex was most likely given no budget for mahoyo, it still begs the question of why. why did someone at aniplex not want to give mahoyo a marketing budget? why are the japanese accounts for mahoyo and type-moon the only ones doing the marketing?

I hope the information I've provided here is accurate—if it's not, I'll try to update with corrections. I don't want this piece to cast hate towards the staff at aniplex or anyone involved with this projects, I'm just trying to assemble the pieces on what feels like a game being left to word of mouth. I've tried to include as many links to my sources as I could so you could come to your own judgements about what has happened regarding mahoyo's worldwide release.

mahoyo is a visual novel that's dear to me and will absolutely sell well on steam—with an estimated 50-80k wishlists, it's going to have a solid launch despite the zero marketing for its steam release. if you love other type-moon works or want to see an absolutely visually stunning visual novel, please check it out.

— arimia

#visual novel #visual novels #mahoyo #mahoutsukai no yoru #witch on the holy night #mahoyosweep #type-moon #visual novel game #anyway please play mahoyo #my articles

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moongirlwidow · 3 months

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File: Volkov, Anetka Vespera —> Notable Events

Aliases: Winter Widow

Status: Classified

File Last updated: July 6, 2023 AD

Status: Student

Age: 15

Class: 16ABX

Total Missions: 681

Missions completed: 671

Missions successful: 670

Mission failures: 1

Kill count: ~10k

The First Winter Soldier Incident

Date of occurrence: April 6, 2012

Age: 6 years

Summary: the Winter Soldier was brought to the academy for a pruning of classes and training session. After watching the elder classes fight and largely fail against the Soldat, Volkov faked unconsciousness. The objective of her class was to survive, however she laid limp for an hour before performing takedown 6AN19Y, a skill she had not been taught not previously seen. She proceeded to render the Soldat unconscious, the only Widow under the age of 11 to do so

Aftermath: following this, in consideration with Volkov’s other skills, statistics and mannerisms, she was selected to train as the replacement for the Iron Maiden, Melina Vostokov, alongside A. Dreykov, Taskmaster

Melbourne Playground 618

Date of occurrence: July 16, 2010

Age: 4 years

Summary: flammable gas canisters were placed in the playground at [redacted](Melbourne, Australia) by Volkov, Galkin and Zubov, lit with a dropped cigarette

Casualties: 29

Targets killed: 6/6

Myers Mountain Poisioning

Date of occurrence: October 16-31, 2022

Age: 13

Summary: Volkov infiltrated the Myers-Henderson Charity Gala in Salt Lake City Utah, seduced Messers. George Cawford and Issac Wells into her suite where she followed orders to lead them on in belief of a possible three-way encounter. She then put a heavy poison on her neck and lips which when oral contact is made knocks the victim unconscious, with the safety precaution of a powder which could be applied via [redacted]

Casualties: 2

Targets killed: 2/2

Retrieval of Archival Soviet Files from [redacted] Castle, Scotland

Date of occurence: August 12, 2022

Age: 15

Summary: Volkov alongside Taskmaster attended a fantasy-theme event in Scotland, using this as a cover to retrieve various Soviet files and archival items. Volkov created a contact with Nina Brown to gain na alibi for being out late, once again showing her skill in seducing women of a lesbian persuasion

Casualties: 0

Items Retrieved: 45/44

Graduation Test

Date of occurrence: July 28, 2023

Age: 15

Summary: following suit with N. Romanova, Volkov’s test included the retiring of her class. She was left blindfolded in a room with four of her peers, all of whom were shot at point-blank range, one shot to the heart and one to the throat. She then found herself in a laboratory chamber, and after moving through light gunfire she mixed chemicals to create toxic fumes, claiming the single gas mask for herself and climbing her to aid in avoiding the chemical.

The final room contained Katarina Yubkin and Olga Oborin, second and third ranked in the group. She eliminated Oborin without issue. Yubkin gave a fight, showing weakness as she begged for mercy before her death. Volkov then checked all bodies to confirm deaths and emerged for her assessment.

Score: 112/100

Time: 7 minutes, 26.751 seconds (record, beats Natalia Romanova)

Casualties: 28

#files from the past #the winter widow #vera volkov #marvel rp #mcu #marvel #mcu rp #marvel mcu #marvel ask blog #marvel cinimatic universe #lore drop

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zanderlisle · 10 months

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Because I struggled to find information on the Sudanese genocide, here's a collection of info I've found, complete with sources and ways to help.

Note: Most of these stats are coming from October of 2023, and numbers have climbed since. Content warning for genocide, war crimes, sexual violence, and more. Please correct me on anything you notice is incorrect.

In April of 2023, the Rapid Support Forces attacked Sudanese Armed Forces bases across Sudan. including the Sudanese capital Khartoum with a population of 6,344,348. While this was initially described as a war between the RSF & SAF, it quickly became a matter that murdered, injured, & displaced millions of civilians. The most notable of the casualties - actress Asia Abdelmajid, singer Shaden Gardood, and former football player Fozi el-Mardi with his daughter Alaa. el-Mardi's wife. Zeinat Ahmed Othman was also wounded by a bullet.

There have been over 9,000 deaths, 12,000 injuries, and 5.4M displacements. There have been a total of 55 foreign deaths from the countries of Ethiopia (15), Syria (15), Congo (10), Eritrea (9), Egypt (2), The USA (2), India (1), and Turkey (1). Journalists and humanitarian workers have been injured, killed, and/or detained.

As of July, there have been 88 reports of sexual assault against women in Sudan blamed on the RSF. Activist Hala al-Karib stated that war rape had become an everyday occurrence with both fighting parties participating.

Over 1.3M people have fled Sudan as refugees. "The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that 1,200 children had died from disease outbreaks in refugee camps in White Nile State since May. In Central Darfur, the head of the Hamidiya refugee camp said at least 43 children had died in the camp since July. UNICEF also estimated that the conflict had led to the number of children being out of school in Sudan to rise from seven million prior to the fighting to 19 million in October 2023." - War in Sudan 2023 Wikipedia

An imminent epidemic of cholera and a collapse of the healthcare system - How to help: donate to SAPA at https://sapa-usa.org

Women are at risk of sexual violence (especially in areas like Darfur) - The Darfur Women Action Group has a donation link AND sample emails to send to your officials They also accept volunteers with media experience

Menstruation doesn’t stop due to war. - Donate to provide Sudanese girls and women with menstrual products

Another IMPORTANT organization currently providing direct medical care in a few states including Khartoum

will hopefully update with more reliable links or resources Also check

@Hometaxsd on Twitter (X) and eyesonsudan.net for other reliable donation sites

https://bbc.com/news/world-africa-65284945…

https://bbc.com/news/world-africa-65467934…

https://bbc.com/news/world-africa-65585746…

https://apnews.com/article/sudan-war-military-rsf-conflict-khartoum-f12975eb72c830ed86ed6a7a49e9658d…

https://dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/violations-against-journalists-in-sudan-war…

https://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/dtm-sudan-monthly-displacement-overview-october-2023…

https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/4296896/diplomat-says-15-syrians-killed-amid-clashes-sudan…

https://theguardian.com/world/2023/may/07/eritrea-accused-of-forcibly-repatriating-civilians-caught-up-in-sudan-fighting…

https://abcnews.go.com/US/2nd-american-dies-amid-violence-sudan-state-department/story?id=98877370

dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/more-than-40-children-die-in-central-darfur-camps-as-fighting-escalates…

https://dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/19-million-children-in-sudan-are-out-of-school-says-unicef

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/turkish-toddler-killed-in-ongoing-clashes-in-sudan/2875179

bnnbreaking.com/breaking-news/egyptian-doctors-killed-in-sudan-conflict-buried-in-backyard/…

https://bbc.com/news/world-africa-65821597…

https://africanews.com/2023/09/19/un-raises-alarm-over-child-deaths-in-sudan-as-health-crisis-deepens/…

https://aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/2/fighting-reignites-between-sudan-army-rsf-in-khartoum

The linked source is a more detailed Twitter thread of Sudan's timeline starting in December 2018 by Kandakat_alhaqq.

#stop the genocide #sudan #free sudan #sudan genocide #sudan war #sudanese #eyes on sudan #sudan crisis #darfur

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tryan-a-bex · 2 months

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100 fics

Today I posted my 100th fic on Ao3!

My first was Pottery; or Function, Purpose and Heart on Mar 11, 2023. It was a retired Dreamling fic with Destruction (who I call Joe) as the main character.

I moved fairly quickly into my Spy x Family crossover series. Anya is so cute, and throwing her in with Dreamling and the Endless family led to a lot of fun shenanigans! (Generally you don't need to know Spy x Family canon to follow these.)

Next I started on my Sandman x Scooby Doo shenanigans! I really like the Scooby Gang, and there are definitely some mysteries to solve surrounding the Endless! (With awesome art by @sab-draws!)

Gaulcienne caught my eye next. Lucienne, my beloved librarian, and the shape-changing dream-fairy? Oh yes! A Quiet Love with Wings has most of my commissioned art, with pieces by @athymelyreply for Sometimes when You Fall, You Fly, @ibrithir-was-here for Fireflies and a Missing Person, and @designtheendless for The Dragon Rider!

King of Night and Prince of Day, for @nathanwonderwolf's wonderful art, has the second highest kudos of all my fics.

Then I invented an OC who is the preteen personification of the consciousness of humanity, aka Social Media. I thought this was pure crack but people liked it and now it's a series! Dinner and Play was created with @carnelianmeluha's food ideas in mind!

My Dreamling works tend to be short and sweet, often prompted by something on tumblr or discord, and are collected as Dreamling vignettes.

I have recently written (but not yet posted) my first honest to god smut, but early dabbles in the craft were mostly crack, like my Helm Fucking Crack series. I'm unreasonably proud of how cracked it is, and thank everyone who enabled me (notably @sleepsonfutons, @windsweptinred, @tickldpnk8, @zzoomacroom, read their fics!).

My obsession with Fuckboi Dream (mind the tags) is ongoing, and included creating a chapter index with notes so I can find things, a series about Murphy's childhood (somebody please read these, they are so cute), and others, fanart as well!

In The Dragon's Tongue, Lucienne takes on Titania! I commissioned @lostelfwriting to write the bdsm continuation of the scene, and she did a fantastic job!

A Reunion in the Dreaming (picnic recreated here) was the first fic in Walking with the Walkers, my series about Rose, Jed and Unity. It features Rose and Ara (Barbie transformed in Life is but a Dream), Rose and Jed meeting their Endless family members, Jed and Gault having adventures, and Unity throwing family parties in the Dreaming (with art by @ilya-halfelven).

Trials of a Shapeshifter in Love (in which Gault tries to surprise Lucienne with a romantic dinner) was my favourite fic from October 2023 -- Femslash weekend (by @sandmanfemslashfans ) and Monsterfucktober (by @seiya-starsniper and friends) made it a really fun month! I also wrote Chantal and Zelda, Johanna and Death, and zombie Lyta (my most angsty fic, I believe).

Just Get Me Off the Damn Mountain was written for designtheendless' contest and omg, I won! It is my most popular fic, at 185 kudos!

I also wrote an OG story for NaNoWriMo! At 23k, Wander Witch is by far my longest story (the next longest is under 9k).

After a bit of being stuck, I got started again by writing continuations of @gabessquishytum's asks! Thank you to Gabe and to all the anons and contributors who allowed me to post their parts of the story!

Asmi, @weirdly-specific-but-ok, argued that he does not have a fandom, so (with permission) I proved him wrong by writing fanfic where he meets Crowley and the Maggot Fam. I love you, Asmi and the maggots!

Heading on an Adventure, the story of Rose and Orpheus' road trip, led to a series of library adventures for Lucienne (often featuring Meowpheus), starting with The Library Cat and continuing in the Lucienne my Beloved series.

I wanted more Lucienne and Walkers content, so I started a side blog, @lucienne-my-beloved, and am open to prompts there! On ao3, the series is called ficlets for lucienne.

Hob Meets the Doctor June 7, 2389 and The line I will not cross and the line I will (Gaulcienne) are my space fics, and I am unreasonably happy about them!

I'm now writing for @augustwritingchallenge! (They got me over 100 in my wips a week or two ago!) I combined prompts so you'll see a fic every 2-5 days in various series and fandoms, including Good Omens (Aug 30) and Dead Boy Detectives (soon).

And my 100th fic! Why are you whispering? a Jed and Rose fic for the late night call prompts. Woohoo!

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported my fandom journey! I'm the least depressed one in my long covid cohort, due to your support and friendship! I cherish every kudo and comment and bookmark and reblog, and the art and fics you all create as well!

#shameless self-promotion #100 fics #feel free to share/reblog #tryana find it back

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apod · 1 year

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2023 October 11

NGC 1097: Spiral Galaxy with Supernova Image Data: Telescope Live (Chile); Image Processing & Copyright: Bernard Miller

Explanation: What's happening in the lower arm of this spiral galaxy? A supernova. Last month, supernova SN 2023rve was discovered with UAE's Al-Khatim Observatory and later found to be consistent with the death explosion of a massive star, possibly leaving behind a black hole. Spiral galaxy NGC 1097 is a relatively close 45 million light years away and visible with a small telescope toward the southern constellation of the Furnace (Fornax). The galaxy is notable not only for its picturesque spiral arms, but also for faint jets consistent with ancient star streams left over from a galactic collision -- possibly with the small galaxy seen between its arms on the lower left. The featured image highlights the new supernova by blinking between two exposures taken several months apart. Finding supernovas in nearby galaxies can be important in determining the scale and expansion rate of our entire universe -- a topic currently of unexpected tension and much debate.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231011.html

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probablyasocialecologist · 8 months

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Much is often made by people living now of how silly it was that medieval people didn’t manage to figure out that the Black Death was caused by the bacteria yersinia pestis. This is despite the fact that there were several often quite complex and intelligent suggestions of what might, in fact, be causing the plague. One of the most wide-spread explanations was probably miasma theory, which had been rather in vogue since your boy Galen had written about it back in the second century. Medieval people, of course, were mad for Galen, so it’s no surprise that they were quick to nod toward his theories in the midst of the plague. The Bishop Bengt Knutsson in Sweden remarked that bad air might cause plague, “as when we see a privy next to a chamber or any other particular thing which corrupts the air in substance and quality, which is a thing which may happen every day. … Sometimes it comes of dead carrion or the corruption of standing waters in ditches or in sloughs or other corrupt places, and these things are sometimes universal and sometimes particular.” Others in the German lands said that following an earthquake, a “corrupt and poisonous earthy exhalation [was released and]… infected the air in various parts of the world which when breathed in by people suffocated them and suddenly snuffed them out”. Others, like a physician in Montpellier, were even able to see that the plague had become air born, noting that “the air breathed out by the sick and inhaled by the healthy people round about wounds and kills them, and that this occurs particularly when the sick are on the point of death.” This isn’t a million miles off of actual factual germ theory, in that we do get sick from inhaling gross stuff, and from being around other sick people. It’s just that what makes us sick is usually odorless and also a tiny living organism that we can’t see. Interestingly a form of miasma theory being used to explain the prevalence of the Black Death also lives on and is repeated now in myths about the medieval period. I have repeatedly heard people now refer to the fact that “medieval streets were full of shit” to explain the spread of the Black Death. This is interesting because it is 1) not true – most medieval cities tightly regulated the disposal of human waste very strenuously and 2) would be irrelevant anyway even if it were true (it’s not) because that’s not how yersinia pestis travels. It needs to be introduced either through the skin via flea bites, or via inhalation because it has been breathed at someone – much as COVID is spread. So, shit in the streets (which again, I cannot stress enough, was not a thing) would just be gross – not an active way of spreading plague.

#medieval history #disease #conspiracy theories #black death #antisemitism

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breezingby · 9 months

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Notable Deaths in 2023 . . .

Tom Smothers (February 2, 1937-December 26, 2023)

Ryan O'Neal (April 20, 1941-December 8, 2023)

Legendary TV producer Norman Lear (July 27, 1922-December 5, 2023)

Sandra Day O'Connor (March 26, 1930-December 1, 2023)

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter (August 18, 1927-November 19, 2023)

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del Tredici (March 16, 1937-November 18, 2023)

A U.S. Air Force fighter pilot and instructor at West Point, astronaut Frank Borman (March 14, 1928-November 7, 2023)

College basketball coach Bob Knight (October 25, 1940-November 1, 2023)

As Chandler Bing, a quick-witted, sarcastic member of the coterie of "Friends," Matthew Perry (August 19, 1969-October 28, 2023)

As the star of the trailblazing 1971 action movie "Shaft," Richard Roundtree (July 9, 1942-October 24, 2023)

Actress Phyllis Coates (January 15, 1927-October 11, 2023) "Adventures of Superman."

Character actor Burt Young (April 30, 1940-October 8, 2023)

Irish-English actor Sir Michael Gambon (October 19, 1940-September 27, 2023)

Actor David McCallum (September 19, 1933-September 25, 2023)

The songs of Jimmy Buffett (December 25, 1946-September 1, 2023)

Singer Tina Turner (November 26, 1939-May 24, 2023)

Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot (November 17, 1938-May 1, 2023)

. . . And MANY More...I just couldn't post ALL of them.

NOTHING Last Forever...! (Remember That)

#Notable Deaths in 2023 #photography #memories #. . . Don't Let Go !!!

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mariacallous · 1 month

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Over the last 10 months, the world’s attention has been focused on Israel and the Gaza Strip. The war that began on Oct. 7, 2023, with Hamas’s attack on Israel has been cataclysmic. But the conflict has overshadowed another crisis enveloping the region: intense heat and water scarcity.

In mid-July, the heat index in Dubai was 144 degrees Fahrenheit. In late June, the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, registered a temperature of 125 degrees. This heat coincided with Hajj season. When it was over, more than 1,300 people had lost their lives. And in Egypt, temperatures have rarely fallen below 100 degrees since May.

It was actually hotter in the Gulf region last summer, topping out at an eye-popping real feel of 158 degrees in the coastal areas of Iran and the United Arab Emirates. That reading and the unrelenting heat this season exceeded the “wet-bulb temperature” at which humans, if exposed for six hours, can no longer cool themselves off, leading to heat-related illnesses and death.

The World Bank estimates that by 2050, water scarcity will result in GDP reductions of up to 14 percent in the region. In 2021, a UNICEF report stated that Egypt could run out of water by 2025, with the Nile River coming under particular stress. Water stress in countries such as Egypt is exacerbated by the upriver flow of the Nile being restricted because of the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Syria and Turkey have been at odds over many years because the Turks have built dams along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, cutting the flow south. And among the many issue that divide Israelis and Palestinians is water and who has the right to tap into the Mountain Aquifer of the West Bank.

In addition to the extreme heat’s significant threat to life and livelihood in the Middle East and North Africa, a hotter region has the potential to destabilize politics well beyond its borders.

Before going further, it is important to underscore that this is not a column about “climate conflict.” About a decade ago, there was a spate of articles on this issue, highlighting the Syrian Civil War as an example of what the future would look like as the globe warmed. Even though this idea captured the imagination of a variety of notables including then-Prince Charles, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, and others, the claim about Syria in particular was based on incomplete data, faulty interpretation of that data, over-generalization, and, as a result, erroneous conclusions.

As the October 2021 National Intelligence Estimate on climate change dryly noted, the U.S. intelligence community had “low to moderate confidence in how physical climate impacts will affect US national security interests and the nature of geopolitical conflict, given the complex dimensions of human and state decisionmaking.” Basically, the spies are saying it is hard to make a causal connection between climate and conflict because there are so many variables that contribute to conflict.

A clearer and more pressing problem is how people adapt to rising temperatures and water scarcity. They migrate to places with lower temperatures and more water. According to the World Bank, as many as 19 million people—approximately 9 percent of the local population—will become displaced in North Africa by 2050 because of the climate crisis. And for people in the region, the destination of choice is Europe.

A number of caveats are in order: First, the bank is extrapolating. It is possible that there may be political, economic, or technological changes that limit the number of migrants. Second, not every person on the move will be migrating because of the changing climate. And finally, some of those displaced people will remain somewhere in the region given the resources necessary to make it across the Mediterranean. (That presents its own set of problems, however. Internally displaced people, who generally settle in urban areas, will put pressure on the budgets and infrastructure of places whose resources and capacity to absorb migrants are limited.)

All this said, in the abstract migration is positive for countries in the European Union, which have aging populations and need workers to pay into generous social safety nets. Yet the claim that migration provides benefits to society remains unconvincing to a significant number of Europeans who oppose large (or perceptively large) numbers of newcomers into their countries.

France’s National Front party, which long flirted with fascism and a coy version of Holocaust denial and rebranded itself as the National Rally in 2018 in an effort to shed this ugly legacy, has become a major force in French politics in large part due to its opposition to immigration, especially from Islamic countries. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the avatar of European illiberalism, built his authoritarian system on fears of the threat that migrants pose to Hungarian society.

Brexit, which British voters approved in 2016, was about a lot of things, but immigration propelled the United Kingdom’s imprudent decision to leave the European Union. More recently, the proximate cause of the recent riots in England was the allegation that an immigrant was responsible for the murder of three young girls at a dance class in the seaside town of Southport. Despite the allegation being demonstrably false, the ensuing street violence suggests that simmering resentment toward migrants within a segment of the marginalized English working class stoked by, and combined with, right-wing populism is dangerous and potentially destabilizing.

Then there is Germany, where in 2015 hundreds of thousands of Syrians sought refuge from the violence enveloping their country. Then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel made the decision to grant Syrians entry. It was a decision that many Germans embraced, but it also produced a backlash that has helped drive the emergence of the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party. The AfD is different from other right-wing populist parties in Europe given its provenance. Although it began as a party based on Euro-skepticism, it has moved steadily toward embracing fascism, downplaying the atrocities of the Third Reich, spreading Islamophobia, and inveighing against foreigners in general. Of course, there is a whole host of reasons for the rise of the AfD and other fascist, illiberal, right-wing populist parties in Europe. But scholars agree that migration is the through line in this phenomenon.

The Unites States has a compelling interest in a Europe that is stable, whole, free, and prosperous. The emergence and success of xenophobic, fascist, or fascist-adjacent parties that make common cause with the enemies of Western liberalism are a threat to that core U.S. interest. That’s why Washington needs to help head off mass migration to Europe. There is not a lot that the United States can do about conflicts—such as the one in Sudan—that drive migration, but U.S. policymakers can help when it comes to the climate crisis, which will contribute to the increasing numbers of people seeking refuge in Europe.

This requires not increasing financial assistance or green infrastructure projects but something both more cost-effective and influential: creative diplomacy. High heat makes the problem of water scarcity worse, which is why people migrate. Using its own experience and technical expertise from managing resources in the increasingly hot western United States, the U.S government can play a useful role in helping countries in the Middle East do a better job managing what water they have.

The conflicts that span the region make assistance harder, given the fact that water sources often cross boundaries. But that is a challenge that can be overcome. Not only are there technical solutions to the problem of water scarcity, but there are also political incentives to come to agreement even across conflict zones.

Leaders across the region may disdain their citizens, but they have a political interest in satisfying at least their people’s minimum demands, including access to water. Even with all the nationalist huffing and puffing of their governments, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed have a strong interest in sharing the waters of the Nile. Without such an agreement, the political and economic problems of both countries will deepen, threatening both leaders.

Of all things, the maritime border agreement between Israel and Lebanon can be a template of sorts for the way U.S. officials approach the problem of water sharing in the region. There was a range of critics of the agreement in the United States, Israel, and Lebanon, but the actual substance is less important than the way U.S. diplomats brought it about. They separated Israeli concerns about Lebanon and Lebanese concerns about Israel and focused instead on the upside for each country. Once that became clear—the exploitation of gas deposits off the Israeli and Lebanese coasts—it was hard for the two countries that nonetheless remain in a state of war to not agree to a boundary. Despite 10 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the agreement has not been breached. That is important and suggests a way forward for negotiations over water.

It is tempting to want to place efforts to deal with water scarcity in some broader climate agenda for the Middle East. That is exactly what U.S. officials should not do. Washington should focus on issues where it has a realistic chance of making a difference. There is little the United States can do about the intense heat, and mitigation of greenhouse gases is not a pressing problem in the region because it does not actually emit that much greenhouse gas. Water, however, is critically important, and it is an area where the United States has expertise to bring to bear.

Indeed, helping strike agreements to manage water scarcity in the Middle East is a low-cost way the United States can mitigate the perversions of European politics and help shape the global order to come.

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gone2soon-rip · 1 year

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SUZANNE SOMERS (1946-Died October 15th 2023,at 76,Cancer).

American actress, author, singer, businesswoman, and health spokesperson. She was cast in the television role of Chrissy Snow on Three's Company from 1977 to 1981 and as Carol Foster Lambert on Step by Step from 1991 to 1998.

Somers later wrote several books, including two autobiographies, four diet books, and a book of poetry. Her book, Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones (2006), about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy and the Wiley protocol, controversial treatments for menopausal women, was heavily criticized.[1] Her book, Knockout (2009), which promoted alternative cancer treatments, was criticized by the American Cancer Society. Suzanne Somers - Wikipedia

#Suzanne Somers #American Actresses #Actresses #Notable Deaths in October 2023 #Notable Deaths in 2023 #Three's Company

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josielyndphotography · 10 months

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I Heard They KILL Live!

Ice Nine Kills in Indianapolis, IN

11-7-2023

Ice Nine Kills (INK) puts on, once again, a killer performance while on the Kiss of Death Tour. The Massachusetts “horror-core” band have just ended their month long tour with In This Moment, supported by Avatar and New Year’s Day on December 2nd.

The audience was electric when the first few notes of “Hip To Be Scared” started playing and the band hit the stage. Stage actor Michael Meaney contributed to this beginning energy with his role as Paul Allen from hit film “American Psycho”. The unity felt within the crowd when everyone shouted “HEY PAUL!” right before the breakdown was unmatched.

The setlist consisted of a healthy mix of new and old songs that catered to both the new and older fans. They started with songs off of “Welcome To Horrorwood” (2021) and “The Silver Scream” (2018), but added in a song from the 2014 album “The Predator Becomes The Prey”, as per fan request through the Psycho’s Only app.

The set consisted of many visuals that referenced horror movies, most notably the performance of the song “The Shower Scene”. This act visualizes the 1960 film “Psycho”, in which Amanda Sahr plays the role of Marion Crane, and INK’s frontman Spencer Charnas plays his own version of Norman Bates. The song is another tune in which crowd participation is incredible. Hearing everyone shout the chorus together during one of the music breaks is such a powering experience to hear as a fan.

Throughout my years of supporting INK, I have been faced with nothing but community in regards to interacting with other fans. Everyone seems to come together and share their common interests in heavy metal, horror, and performance art.

At this show, I was with a good friend of mine, Miko Puno. He is a fellow photographer based in Indianapolis, and was happy to come along with me to the show, despite not listening to metal.

“From a person who does not listen to metal, I enjoyed it significantly, and quite frankly, I’d go on to say I would do it again.” He says to me when asked about his thoughts on the show, “I was told Ice Nine Kills would be the highlight of the night, and they were correct. If I were to only talk about the ‘sights’ of Ice Nine, it was a sight to behold. Numerous horror movie references, as well as evident passion for their music and their role; it was clear to me that they loved their music, and their fans sure did too.”

My personal favorite song to see performed that night was the newest released song “Meat & Greet”. This song was released on October 13th of this year, and was the conclusion of the Horrorwood Saga as of now. The song consisted of many references to the film “Silence of the Lambs”, and the live performance of the song didn’t disappoint.

Lane Nobriga and FRANCO, two stage actors for INK, did an incredible job in bringing the song to life and creating intriguing and exciting visualities playing opposing roles as Hannibal Lecter and an officer.

I feel the conclusion to the show was one to remember. The band ended the set with “Welcome To Horrorwood”, containing an exhilarating guitar solo from Miles Dimitri Baker and fast paced drums from Patrick Galante. Normally, in other performances during this song, Charnas would climb into the crowd and be held up by fans during the last chorus, but given the set up of the venue, that didn’t happen this show. Though that didn’t take away from the head-banging, voice-losing, thrilling encore. With Ricky Armellino on guitar and Joe Occhiuti on bass, along with the rest of the band, the whole performance was one to remember. This makes the second time I’ve seen Ice Nine Kills, and I’ve been blown away by their production every time. If you’re a horror/metal fanatic that loves theatrics and passion for music, Ice Nine Kills is the band for you.

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good-old-gossip · 2 months

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Israel’s blocking of cleaning, hygiene supplies is another way it perpetuates its genocide in Gaza

A Palestinian mother bathes her child in a makeshift tent in the Gaza Strip (social media)

During my period, I have to use a single pad for the entire day, which has led to numerous infections and rashes - Aya Kamal Ashour Abed, a 20-year-old displaced mother of two in the central Gaza Strip

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beardedmrbean · 7 months

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A string of back-to-back deaths of Indian students at colleges across the country has left the South Asian community shaken, sparking anxiety in peers and parents.

In 2024 alone, seven students of both Indian and Indian American origin have died. All men 25 years old and under, two committed suicide, two died of overdoses, two were found dead after going missing, and one was beaten to death, according to police records in states ranging from Connecticut to Indiana.

In Indian communities both in the U.S. and abroad, many are looking for answers.

“It felt like a pattern, like, why was it another Indian kid?” said Virag Shah, 21, a junior at Purdue University in Indiana, where two of the seven deaths occurred. “It just felt traumatic.”

Shah is the president of the school’s Indian Students Association, and he says his peers are alarmed by the repeated incidents.

On Jan. 28, the body of 19-year-old Neel Acharya was recovered on Purdue’s campus. Acharya had gone missing after a night out, Shah said, and was found dead the next morning. Coroners say a cause of death still hasn’t been determined, but there was no trauma to the body.

Just over a week later, Purdue graduate student Sameer Kamath, 23, was found deceased in the nearby woods with a gunshot wound to the head. Medical examiners say he died of suicide on Feb. 5.

These two deaths followed a high-profile death at Purdue in October 2022, when Varun Manish Chheda, 20, was brutally stabbed to death by his roommate, according to police. In December 2023, his alleged killer, Ji Min Sha, was deemed incompetent to stand trial, local news outlets reported.

A Purdue spokesperson directed further questions to the county coroner.

To experts, the number of fatal incidents involving Indian men in the first few weeks of the year is cause for concern. Deaths have been mounting since Jan. 15, when the bodies of two Indian-origin students at Sacred Hearts University in Hartford, Connecticut, were discovered in their residence, authorities said.

Dinesh Gattu, 22, and Sai Rakoti, 21, both suffered from accidental overdoses involving fentanyl, according to the Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner.

A day later, on Jan. 16, 25-year-old Indian graduate student Vivek Saini was allegedly beaten to death in the store where he worked in Lithonia, Georgia. The Indian Consulate tweeted saying it was involved in the case and working to repatriate the body to India.

“It doesn’t take a lot when these gruesome things happen,” said Pawan Dhingra, a professor of American studies at Amherst College. “People will be like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this could have happened to my child, this could have happened to me. Is this really the place I need to go for my higher education?’”

Four days after Saini’s death, the body of Indian American freshman Akul Dhawan, 18, was found in subzero temperatures on University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus. He was reported missing by a friend after leaving their dorm at around 1:30 a.m., and though campus police said they did an extensive search, his body was found 10 hours later by a passerby, just 500 feet away from where he was last seen.

“It is so unimaginable that a kid can die in this day and age right on the university campus,” his father, Ish Dhawan, said.

At the University of Cincinnati, Shreyas Reddy Beniger, a 19-year-old student of Indian origin, was found dead on Feb. 1 from an apparent suicide, local police said.

“It’s just tragic,” Dhingra said. “People in India, you’re seeing these stories, multiple stories. You start to wonder, is this still the right pathway?”

Mental health and safety on campus

Yuki Yamazaki, a clinical assistant professor of counseling psychology at Fordham University, said it’s notable that all seven deaths were of young, Indian men. She said she can’t help but think about the fact that it’s a demographic that often doesn’t seek mental health help, and one that engages in riskier behavior.

“It’s so expensive to study in the States and there’s so much pressure to perform well,” she said. “And of course, to get a good job, to maybe obtain a visa. It just means as soon as you get here, you have endless amounts of pressure on you … Especially if your family has helped support you to get to this point.”

As a leader in his campus’ Indian American community, Shah says he’s seen firsthand the pressures that his fellow students face and the coping mechanisms they sometimes turn to. He said that, although motives weren’t clear in some of the incidents, he wondered about mental health as a factor.

“Everything is always driven by competition,” he said. “It’s a big detriment to mental health and it could also push you into, let’s say, drinking too much and going over the edge when it comes to that because you only have one or two days a week to have fun.”

When it comes to student safety, universities are operating within a limited scope, Dhingra said. And while campus might be a safe and happy place for minority students, a surrounding small town might not be.

“If you’re in rural Connecticut, or rural Indiana, that creates its own kind of concern,” he said. “‘Where do I feel safe?’”

Indians make up one-quarter of international students. Some parents might wonder about sending them abroad.

For those on the subcontinent, an American education has long been idealized, seen as a sure path to prosperity. And though experts don’t see that drastically changing, they say people are starting to ask questions: If it was their child, would their university keep them safe? Would they look for them if they went missing?

Indian media has picked up on this rising death toll, with prominent news outlets running stories that read, “Threat to Indian Students in U.S.?” and “American Dream or American Horror?”

Indians constitute more than 25% of all international students in the U.S., and Dhingra doubts headlines like these will lead to any significant drop. But for individual families, especially those who have to sacrifice so much to send their children overseas, America might fall lower on their list.

“Indians can go elsewhere for education,” Dhingra said. “There are other places that are safer … and people know that, that’s not a secret.”

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.

#nunyas news

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amugoffandoms · 11 months

Note

I FINALLY FOUND IT

@ozymandias5854

"Flowers: thank you to Puga and Oto in the MILGRAM Stanclub for identifying these!

Bird of Paradise: Paradise, freedom, joy. It can also symbolise faithfulness in romantic relationships and optimism. Wilted in the MV, which could suggest the absence of freedom, joy, etc, as well as a lack of faithfulness.

Dahlia: Elegance, inner stength, change, creativity, dignity. Alternatively, it can represent betrayal, instability, and dishonesty. It's also notable that in the Victorian era they symbolised a lasting bond/lifelong commitment between two people. Also wilted, which could suggest a lack of inner strength and a failed long-term relationship/committment.

ORCHIDS: There's a lot of orchids so I'm going to put their general meanings in here. Orchids are typically used at weddings and funerals and represent love, luxury, beauty and strength, as well as virility in Ancient Greece. They are very much associated with love, and their usage at funerals is often to represent everlasting love for the deceased. They can also be thought to bring good luck and fortune in love.

Elleanthus (orchid): It's sort of a purple/pink so: Pink orchids are the 14th wedding anniversary flower and convey pure affection. Purple orchids symbolise respect, and are generally given as a gift to show affection.

Egret orchid: Typically white, so they would normally symbolise innocence and purity, as well as elegance and reverence. However, the ones in the video are red, and red orchids typically symbolise fire, romance, desire, and passion. They're very rare in the wild, which is notable as in the tradition of gifting exotic flowers to show love and affection, the rarer the flower, the deeper the affection. (two seperate omori fans in the replies add: "My thoughts will follow you into your dreams.")

Dendrobium: Popular for use in weddings, particularly as corsages or in bridal flower arrangements to show the beauty of the bride.

Butterfly orchid: The most famous orchid species, they symbolise elegance, femininity and unity.

Cymbidium: Commonly known as a boat orchid, it represents morality and virtue, and in Asia it is an honour/gesture of respect and friendship to give a cymbidium.

Wilted: could represent a loss of morality/virtue.

Masterwort: Also known as astrantia. Can be a romantic flower, referred to in old folk tales as stars that have fallen to earth. Symbolic meaning is a strong, brave protector. Wilted, which could suggest that someone (probably Shidou) has failed in their role of protector.

Anthurium + Monstera: Anthurium signifies long lasting love and friendship, and it said to bring luck in your relationship. Known also as a flamingo lily, it's one of the most gifted plants on Valentine's Day due to it's heart shaped leaves and in Ancient Greece the flowers of anthurium were said to be Cupid's arrows. Monstera can represent suffocation, or long life and the honouring of elders.

King Protea: Named after the Greek god Poseidon's son Proteus, who would change his appearance to avoid detection. Generally thought to symbolise diversity, daring, transformation, and courage.

Calla lily: Symbolism varies by flower colour. However, they're generally used for occasions such as weddings and funerals due to their beauty and are also associated with purity, holiness, faithfulness. The 6th wedding anniversary flower. Dark red symbolises passion and intensity. Although calla lilies are not true lilies, lilies can symbolize that the soul of the departed has received restored innocence after death.

Roses: Love, romance, can also be linked to secrecy. Appears on four tarot cards: the fool, the magician, strength, and death. In Greek mythology, roses originated from Adonis.

Note: a lot of them have different features like not being fully bloomed, so keep that in mind. I'll update this later"

posted 2 years ago as of october 24th, 2023!

HELLO!! sorry i just remembered to respond to this but thank you!!

the meaning of the wilted cymbidium is so interesting woag…. loss of morality/virtue really hits with shidou to be honest

#mug answers #milgram #shidou kirisaki #kirisaki shidou

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