#Western authorities

[indizombie]

The Syrian government says its aid effort has been hampered by the economic sanctions that Western powers imposed in response to alleged human rights violations and other abuses committed during the country's 12-year civil war. The US, UK and EU deny this, saying trade in essential goods and humanitarian assistance are exempt from the sanctions. However, even though exports of medical supplies to Syria are not specifically sanctioned, international and regional banks fearful of being punished by Western authorities have in the past been reluctant to approve the financial transactions needed by Syrians to purchase them. On Monday, Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad called for the lifting of all "unilateral coercive measures" during a meeting with the UN Special Envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

‘Syria earthquake: Aleppo hospitals overwhelmed by victims’, BBC

[larkingame]

hello friends! the first version of larkins demo is up and ready to play!

features:

create your character

chase vampires through the city of saint laurent

interrogate guild hunters after you

meet wyatt and a vampire character that really bites <3

a note: this is the last version of the game that has me as the sole person working on it (as is a good chunk of this has been edited by the lovely @gwaha) i really hope you enjoy :)

[crispyjenkins]

i don't know who needs to hear this today but the jedi would not be body-shy

especially during the war. some would be uncomfortable, sure, or even heavily dislike being nude and/or bathing around others, but the point of that is that would be respected as a choice. there is a very large difference between preferring not to be nude around others, for cultural religious or personal reasons, versus being ashamed. nothing you can do can convince me jedi would be ashamed or embarrassed of their or others' bodies.

why. why would the jedi think nudity undignified. why would they turn their noses up at it as unseemly, rather than a choice and preference

[nevermeyers]

There's absolutely no way people are now saying that all the gege-hate train is just an internal joke of the fandom. There's no way you're this out of touch with what has been happening.

I've been in the fandom since 2020 and it doesn't take a lot of smarts to see there's been a change in tone in the way some people say that in the last year. Since this new arc of history began, destructive criticism, massive hate and threats have overflowed into hundreds of profiles. It's no longer "oh, I hate Gege akutami" now and for a while now it's "I hate Gege akutami - his manga is horrible I'm gonna drop it (they never do) - he doesn't deserve popularity - he doesn't know how to write - he pretends to have an illness."

And yet, it's not normal to make jokes about wanting to kill someone, hon. Go check yourself if you find that funny, you're no better than let's-joke-about-sensitive-issues reddit incels

[hussyknee]

If anyone has a problem with saying "rest in power" to the white man that self-immolated himself and yelled "Free Palestine" till he burned to death then I want you to block me right the fuck now. You are so morally bankrupt and brainwashed by western neoliberal identity politics that you aren't worth spitting on. There's nobody resting in more power than that kid.

[a-very-tired-jew]

I was just reminded that the art collective Forensic Architecture exists and once again I’m disgusted.

For those of you who don’t know, it’s a collective of various artists who play at forensic science, conduct “forensic investigations”, and then make art exhibits of their “results”. Their reports and exhibits will make statements such as “the evidence shows that X is linked to Y” but the statistical output that they share will show something like a 5% confidence in the match.

That's right. They make art exhibits of their "investigations".

You want to talk about fandomizing tragedy? Making “forensic investigations” into art exhibits is the bougiest version I can think of, and it's only to serve an echelon of people who enjoy that kind of stuff. If any of the people in this art collective had a background in forensic science they would have taken ethics courses that would tell them how horrid putting on an art exhibit like this actually is. You don't honor the victims by putting on an art show for the rich and powerful to gasp and faint over so that you can fundraise for your next show.

Their founder has even stated that they’re not in forensics but “counter-forensics” and "counter-investigation". They eschew the practices and norms of the scientific community for telling their own version of investigative “truth”. They’ve even gone so far as to quote post-truth philosophies in their work and the controversial Nietzsche quote about there being no facts, only interpretations. Both are dangerous philosophies to hold in forensic science as it presents the evidence as subjective rather than objective. This is why they're an art collective and not a forensic science research group as they purport, they're rejecting objective scientific outcome for subjective interpretation.

You can go to the group's website and they have profiles on all of their team members. Almost every person is labeled as a "researcher", but once you click on their profile it quickly tells you that they're an artist, designer, activist, or some combination of the three. No mention of any scientific background whatsoever. That indicates their ability to actual conduct forensic science research is not great as they don't have any training or education on the methods involved. In fact, their entire program and personnel are out of an arts college with no science programs or faculty outside of anthropology.

That's weird, right?

A group that supposedly made a new discipline of forensic science, according to them, has no members with actual backgrounds in forensic science or scientific disciplines relating to it?

None of the team member profiles detail any scientific background that would be relevant to forensics outside of a few people with engineering and computer science degrees. Neither of the aforementioned disciplines typically train you in forensic practices anyway unless you take certain courses. Because these profiles are public you can go and checked LinkedIn profiles and find the CVs for each member as well. Guess what? No forensic science or relevant scientific backgrounds listed there as well.

But for some reason this art collective has received funding from governments and NGOs for "creating" a new discipline of forensic science. They're a "trusted" source for forensic investigations. That's worrying. That's terrifying.

I'm a forensic scientist and to make an objective field based upon methodology and empirically supported practice into one that is subjective and throws out the empirical aspects is terrifying. Everyone should have klaxons going off in their head whenever they see Forensic Architecture's name appear in a publication. I've reviewed a few of their "investigations" and they are rife with bad practice, manipulation, and misinformation. In fact, it appears that they present their work in art exhibits more than they testify to it in court due to their methods being questionable and their intent being not to help the investigation but to be a "counter-investigation" that can be judged by the court of public opinion. What do I mean by this? In many of their investigations the collective does not actively have personnel at the scene. Meaning they are not getting first hand physical evidence and measurements. Now, it's not always possible to be there personally and as such you rely upon crime scene techs, investigators, and other personnel to collect this stuff. Typically if you're a consultant or outside firm you are getting the evidence after it has been collected for analysis. You want the physical evidence in your hands as much as possible so that you can analyze it properly. Sometimes you have to request going to the scene yourself to get the measurements and evidence you need. The worst type of evidence to receive is honestly digital images of the scene as you are now having to analyze something a general investigator, who likely does not have specialized training, took a picture of.

In situations where you cannot have the physical evidence for analysis and you are left with only photographs then a forensic expert should be tempering their responses and conclusions. You cannot confidently come to conclusions based simply on looking at photos. This is something that is hammered home repeatedly in forensic programs and professionals.

In the case of warzone crime scene analysis, as FA typically does, they are, typically, not collecting evidence first hand from the scene, nor are they receiving evidence secondarily from actual trained investigators (when they are there first hand they also rely excessively upon expensive technology instead of best practices). They rely upon third party photos and satellite imagery to do their analysis.

Time and time again, forensic experts who rely solely upon digital photos and media to make their analysis get ripped apart by a good lawyer. Being confident in conclusions based upon photographs is the easiest way to lose your credibility. But again, the art collective playing forensic scientist primarily puts their work in art exhibits where they are not scrutinized by experts. Hell, I don't think I've ever seen them present at one of our professional conferences nationally or internationally (I would love to be a fly on the wall when that happens).

And finally, if this was an actual credible scientific group that produced credible investigations and had created a brand new field with methodology that stood to scrutiny there would be publications in the forensic journals detailing this. Especially from the "creator" of the field Eyal Weizman.

Guess what there isn't?

But in the end all they’re actually doing is crime scene reconstruction from people who want to cosplay as forensic scientists.

(for more reading on the group see this article that highlights issues with FA from another perspective https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/forensic-architecture-fake-news-1234661013/)

[werewolfetone]

I hope gay cowboy settler jakey dies too

[ravelqueen]

KaiShin being cousins is whatever because it doesn't add any spice to it that isn't eclipsed by the spice of detective/thief

Weird puriteens losing their shit over it though? Hilarious, absolutely amazing.

They didn't even grow up together, they have none of the "guilt over wanting to fuck someone you grew up with as family" or anything and it's not like it's gonna impact some kids genetics lol

How were you shipping those two anyway if your incest squick is that self debilitating, their designs make this pairing almost functionally self cest.

Anyway please send me your Kaishin djs/ fic recs im suddenly invested

[jesncin]

In a recent post, you talk about how certain media will have QPOC characters that "feel white." Are you willing to explain more on how that happens? I'm a QPOC person that writes a decent amount of QPOC characters, and it's always interesting seeing other people's takes on how to handle that in stories.

Sure! Most of the time when I say a QPOC character "feels white" is that it lacks intersectionality. Intersectionality is about acknowledging how different marginalized identities manifest in a person, creating a unique experience. Most writers assume QPOC are just "white queer person with a palette change" instead of "we go through similar things but in an entirely different way".

A good example is Heartstopper (A show I like btw!! I can only speak for the tv show and season 1!). It's often incorrectly dismissed as fluff/escapism when it's actually a show that talks directly about marginalization (transphobia, homophobia, etc.) specific to Britain, and some really dark topics come up sometimes. But I was surprised at how little (if not at all?) racism was brought up as something QPOC struggle with. The plot with Tara (a Black girl) and Darcy (a white girl) coming out as a lesbian couple but Tara ended up struggling with the backlash was the perfect opportunity to talk about how she deals with compounded racism, sexism, and homophobia (perhaps even from her own community). But it wasn't brought up at all in that season. I'm sure this gets expanded on in future seasons but it did feel like a huge missed opportunity to me, especially since the show was so open to directly talking about queerphobia. It ends up looking selective about what issues the writer is comfortable talking about.

Intersectionality connects with everything, including joyful stories. A queer paradise to me is a world where we reclaim indigenous queer culture that was suppressed by colonialism, a place where we don't have to cut our cultural ties and end up embracing a westernized version of queer identity, where our language expands to include queer people, where we acknowledge that things like "body positivity" and disability acceptance are inherently linked with racial justice, where we can be whole. In these narratives with QPOC that "feel white", something is always lost. Whether that be culture, language, religion, anything. In She-Ra, the QPOC are just that. We get a dumpling once and a while as "representation" but that's it.

[communistkenobi]

reading this article about how climate change denialism is a way to express a hypermasculine anxiety to protect the continued western usage of fossil fuels, a “petro-masculinity” tied to the violent act of burning oil and gas as an expression of USAmerican sovereignty

[bullet-prooflove]

My New Short Story Has Just Gone Live!

My new short story 'The Coast' has just gone live on Amazon!

It's available on Amazon for free until Sunday afternoon so make sure you get it while you can: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D7WCW9KW

If you love it don't forget to leave me a review on Amazon or Goodreads!

The Coast is a lead in to my upcoming novel Alabama Pines.

Find out more a Alabama Pines & Changing of the Seasons here at my website: www.donna-costello.com

[feroluce]

So I went to the wiki page for the henghill Bullet & Brain mission of 2.2 looking for some dialogue I had missed and

a) I found something incredibly tasty that slotted into some other thoughts I'd been having, more on that on another day, and

b) I saw this super fun little trivia at the bottom, which!

I knew Penacony characters like Boothill took a lot of inspirations from old movies, but I didn't realize it was even in his and Dan Heng's relationship, that's so cool!!

It fits them very well, it's such a fun reference. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" was an old buddy Western film (from 1969- nice) about a pair of outlaws. Butch Cassidy was the leader of a gang, and described as clever, affable, and talkative. Meanwhile, his closest companion, the Sundance Kid, was known as a man of few words.

Cassidy's original birth name was much more plain, but similar to Boothill, he took on a new moniker when he became an outlaw. "Cassidy" had been the last name of his beloved mentor, who taught him how to shoot and ride. And Sundance Kid was known as he was because Sundance was the name of his hometown, and it was the only place that had ever managed to catch and jail him, back when he'd been younger (also similar to Dan Heng, but ouch).

These two stick together like glue throughout the length of the film- through Cassidy's leadership of the gang being challenged, through a train robbery gone wrong, through being pursued by mercenaries, and even through fleeing to Bolivia and trying to start over together.

I don't want to say too much more, since the mission title is referencing one specific movie that I've never seen. I kinda wanna watch it now, though, just to see the inspiration that went into Boothill and Dan Heng and how they get along. I just think it's really sweet that these two were literally made to be the best of bros, how lovely is that. 💕

[deancaspinefest]

Of Dust, Gunpowder and Holy Water

Author: melancholictearz | Artist: kireadraws

Posting on Saturday March 16

Castiel is a vampire hunter tracking the creature that doomed the rest of his family to damnation. He crosses paths with Dean Winchester, a cocky outlaw wanting to escape from his mysterious past. They travel together all around the country to fulfil Castiel's revenge, at the cost of Dean's life. But he comes back… wrong. As one of the bloodthirsty threats Castiel always swore to kill.

Keep reading for a sneak preview!

“You mind telling me what you were doing by the waterfall?” Dean strikes a match, burning the end of the needles he is going to use. The silvery metal turns dark.

“I was being chased by people.”

With the remaining flame of the match, Dean removes the cigarette tucked behind his ear and lights it. The stranger narrows his eyes at the plume of smoke stretching between them.

“Pinkertons,” Dean rectifies in the huff of a laughter, cigarette hanging loosely on his lips. “Running from debts or somethin’?”

“Something. You?”

Dean stops in setting up his stuff to glare at the injured man. He’s already patching him up, he’ll better not push his luck too far. “Not quite your business. What was your plan?”

He squints. “Quite chatty, aren’t you?”

Dean shrugs, cocking his head to one side while he exhales the tobacco smoke from his nose. “Well, I’m distracting you from the pain and trying to make sure you won’t kill me if I turn my back to you. So?”

He is standing a few metres away from the bed, chin tilted at the stranger. The man considers the knife and needles in his hands, before nodding at Dean and moving his legs away to let him sit down on the bed.

“Running away. Was planning to go to the Independence mountains.”

“Why?” The smoke from Dean’s lips crashes onto the fallen angel’s cheek as his hands unravel the bandage around his neck. Dean’s voice rumbles quietly in the shell of his ear.

“Got someone waiting for you?”

“Maybe.” The stranger glances at him from the corner of his eye. “Going to ask for a ransom?”

The bandage is removed from his neck. The cold air on the raw gunshot wound makes him shiver. Dean laughs at the man’s self-assured suggestion.

“Nah, not worth it. I’ve never seen your face around. Not even on the wanted posters.”

“I’ve seen yours.”

“Have you?” Dean tenses. Their eyes meet and he studies his guest carefully.

“You have the name of that rifle. Remington? No…” He frowns, having a hard time thinking with his foggy mind. “Winchester. Quite a mouthful.”

“What’s yours?”

The stranger holds Dean’s eyes. His eyes flicker to Dean’s hands around his neck, the slight pull of his eyebrows. His lips part and, for a second, he remains silent. Maybe it is time he starts trusting Dean and proves himself not to be dangerous. “Novak.”

“Father Novak it is, then. How come you survived the bullet? Prayed the Lord to spare your sinful life or something like that?”

The man, Novak, glances at Dean passing the thread through the needle. “Because you are one shitty shooter, that is.”

“You lucky bastard.”

(continue reading on Ao3 on Saturday March 16)

[stereknation]

Moon Chaser by pandabomb

Summary: "I need to find a wolf," said the sheriff's kid, voice full of gusto. Derek set his cigarette in his empty whiskey glass. He let the silence between them settle, though it was drowned already by the band tinkering away by the bar. He waited until the boy was blushing, unsure and tense, before responding, slow and languid: "You found one."

Rating: Teen

Main Character(s): Derek Hale

Additional Character(s): Stiles Stilinski, Scott McCall, Sheriff Stilinski, Laura Hale, Peter Hale, Kate Argent, Allison Argent, Chris Argent, Victoria Argent, Isaac Lahey, Erica Reyes, Vernon Boyd, Original Characters

Pairing(s): Derek Hale / Stiles Stilinski, Allison Argent / Scott McCall, Erica Reyes / Vernon Boyd

Tags: Western AU, Alternate Universe - Western, Rated For Violence, Slow Build, Sharing a Bed, Possessiveness, Pack Dynamics, Cuddling, Loss of Innocence, References to Homophobia, Addiction, Minor Character Death, Stiles Blushes a Lot

Words: 24,246

Chapters: 1/1

[hussyknee]

Seeing characters in romance stories just jetting between countries at a moment's notice with no thought for visa; seeing airports as sites of triumphant climaxes and romantic denouements instead of places of fear and danger where a sword hangs above your head— it all breaks off little pieces of my heart. They're constant reminders that my people will never be human enough in the colonial world order to be allowed to move freely around it. No matter what your race, those non-refugees living in the Global North will never understand what it's like to be part of a global ghetto where your passport is nothing but a trembling supplication and humiliation.

[hell-river]

Hey! Look!

I wrote a book! I finished writing a book! I got these printed through Lulu as a celebration, one copy to edit (again) in and one to send to a friend. It’s unreal to hold it, I keep walking past it and just picking it up and looking at it and grinning. I wrote a book! It’s real!

I’m also really impressed with Lulu as a printing option. The paper quality is great, the book looks amazing, and it was really easy (and cheap) to use. You don’t need any ISBNs or barcode or anything for one off prints like these were (which also means they’re not available for sale but Lulu does do that as an option) and you do all the book formatting (cover and pages) yourself, so yeah some of it is a bit janky but that’s on me not them. But most of all: book!