#compared to their European counterparts

[etlu-yume]

being sufficiently nerdy that when double checking some information about ornamentals and their history and compendiums on the wikipedia that you discover you have one of the compendiums sitting on your bookshelf.

(Franz Sales Meyer, Handbook of Ornament. )

[radlymona]

Thinking about the previous hp post that I reblogged and how OP is mad that "things don't really change" after the series and first it's like are you really mad that a children's fantasy novel that ended in 2007 preaches "reform over revolution", but also it's a British novel??

Like Britain is well known for having very little revolutions (let alone ones that stuck) compared to its European neighbours. Violent overthrow is a lot rarer (I believe Cromwell is the only real example?), and so again it's actually a lot more unrealistic to be like "the teenage heroes of the series completely overthrew the existing gov and then things were good", rather than "the teenager heroes and their adult allies identified severe problems in the system and have been working tirelessly since to rectify these issues even if a perfect new society wasn't created."

Like JKR wrote hp to be a mirror of British society- and fundamentally Britain still has the strictest class system and the most powerful monarchy in Western society. It's utterly resistant to change and I don't think it's a bad thing that JKR took this into account whether consciously or subconsciously.

[arabian-batboy]

Its disturbing how Zionists are trying to so damn hard to convince the world that Palestinians are currently on a huge raping campaign on innocent women and girls everywhere, even though there are literally ZERO evidences so far of ONE case of a Palestinian raping or stripping any civilians (and I mean real evidence, not bigots saying its true on twitter), they simply willed it into existence by merely saying it over and over again and thinking that's enough to make it into a real concerning fact

But do you know what has been proven as a legitimate fact for decades on the other hand? Thousands of Palestinians men, women and children being systematically violated and raped on a regular basis by Israeli settlers with no consequences or sympathy from the international community.

Like we literally have videos of Israeli soldiers on camera laughing about how many Palestinian women they have raped and multiple photos and videos of Palestinians being stripped naked and beaten by soldiers. Right now there's even a video of Israeli soldiers pissing on a dead naked Palestinian man on twitter which isn't being shared around or talked about half as much as much that one video of one Israeli woman allegedly being "stripped" to a bra and shorts, even though it has already been debunked by now that she was already wearing just a bra and shorts when she was captured and that neither she nor any other Israeli hostages have suffered any kind of sexual abuse by Palestinians (as you can see by how good they're being treated in this video)

It's really remind me how White supremacists in Europe have started this propaganda that Muslim refugees shouldn't be allowed Asylum because they're here to rape European women and that rape rates in Europe will sky-rocket by their mere existence, even though again, there are zero evidence of refugees committing sexual crimes (or any crimes) on a higher rates than local citizens. In fact, in some European countries and the US, it has proven that Muslim-majority neighborhood actually have the lower crimes rate compared to their counterparts.

One thing is clear here, it seems that it doesn't matter where they live, all White supremacists (especially Zionists) have the same exact trick when shit hits the fan and its: claim that "savage brown men are coming to rape your delicate white women! So you need to kill them before that happens!" each time the people they're oppressing are standing up for their human rights.

-

Palestinians made a document that contains templates for letters to US, UK, & Canadian politicians, media outlets, and companies in relation to current events in Palestine as well as petitions & other resources. If you live in any of these countries then please select a template, edit it to your preference and send according to the instructions on the relevant page.

Here is a link to it (please share it): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-RUOHHiEtr7uoclQgWN-tCWOihnHIp5hym89aNePi_E/mobilebasic

Aside from that, please protest, support the BDS boycott and spread awareness as much as possible.

[canisalbus]

I do historical rapier fencing, and it is quite tough on the arms and legs! The classic rapier is around a kilo in weight, and maintaining precision while holding it out in front of you and thrusting is surprisingly taxing on the muscles. The concept of rapier being a light weapon is somewhat misleading - it only weights a little bit less (a few hundred grams at most) than an European longsword, and in my experience handling the rapier is actually tougher. In my first class I felt like my limbs were about to fall off because I had absolutely no stamina haha. :D

I've been trying to do some research on rapiers and fencing, mainly because Vasco (as a well trained nobleman of his time) is actually supposed to be a reasonably skilled swordsman and rapiers are the period accurate choice. They look very airy and light but it's still a significant piece of metal, and to my understanding the blade is comparatively long as well, for that maximum reach I suppose? It's always a little intimidating when I give a character a skill or a trait that is outside my area of expertise, because eventually someone who actually knows a lot about the subject will show up and I get scared of embarrassing myself with my limited understanding ´v`'

Modern Machete has the benefit of proper healthcare and better stress management so he's nowhere near as actively feeble as his chronically fatiqued 16th century counterpart. He's still twiggy and unsporty but if he really truly wanted to do fencing, I think it would be possible for him to gain the necessary physical endurance and fitness through persistent training.

[coochiequeens]

Men being the worst to women in war zones

Even as missiles pound Ukrainian cities and soldiers guard trenches, the war in Ukraine has maintained a stubbornly online element, as supporters from all around the world clash with Russian trolls and fascists. As someone who has refused to leave Kyiv amid the air raid alarms and kamikaze drone attacks and is chronically online, I find being Ukrainian in the age of social media simultaneously infuriating, uplifting, and just emotionally exhausting.

One of the oddest aspects of this is the focus on Ukrainian women’s looks. There has been a vigorous debate among Ukrainian supporters about why people tend to fixate on Ukrainian women’s physical appearances. That includes claims like “Ukrainian women are hot and good at cooking.” Personally, I haven’t found these remarks terribly offensive—although, perhaps, I’ve just got bigger issues to worry about at the moment. But the stereotypes concerning Ukrainian women (and Eastern European women in general) are troubling and potentially harmful—and they point to issues of gender and national identity that a postwar country will have to reckon with.

As in the case of any grassroots movement, the informal community of Ukraine supporters is prone to disagreements and internal debate. Discussions tend to be civil, even when the topics themselves are hugely complicated, such as whether Ukraine should have exchanged a Wagner Group mercenary for Ukrainian prisoners of war. Most of these discussions are purely theoretical: Ethical issues are discussed, military strategies are dissected in minuscule detail, and short clips of Russian President Vladimir Putin posing for the cameras are studied for clues on the state of the Russian president’s allegedly deteriorating health. But arguments over the descriptions of Ukrainian women are a little more personal.

Statements online range from well-intended but questionable generalizations to outright objectifying compliments comparing “naturally attractive” or “well-groomed” Ukrainian women to their “Western counterparts” (usually with the implication that Western women have somehow been ruined by feminism). The weirdest interaction I’ve experienced was a foreigner angrily reacting to my celebration of McDonald’s return to the Ukrainian market. He was adamant that Ukrainian women are good-looking because we live off a steady diet of fresh produce and simple, healthy, and home-cooked meals, and he even tried scolding me for enjoying the cheeseburger (and the brief illusion of normalcy) I had been dreaming of for months.

Users posting opinions such as these are also fond of sharing and reposting images of what a stereotypical Ukrainian woman apparently looks like—and although the traditional beauty standard for Ukrainian women has historically called for deep brown eyes, dark eyebrows, and tan skin, these images tend to portray buxom blonde and blue-eyed girls wearing heavy makeup. The men posting these compliments claim that they are simply appreciating Ukrainian women while supporting Ukraine’s struggle, but critics (many of whom are, coincidentally, Ukrainian women) call it creepy and perhaps even fetishistic. Complicating all this is that the most vocal foreign supporters of Ukraine online are mostly men.

Fetishizing women from other countries is common, of course, but behind all this is that the burden of lookism for Ukrainian women is one of the heaviest in the world—a reality rooted in the country’s post-Soviet history. Although vocal so-called appreciators of Ukrainian women claim they find Ukrainian women attractive because of their natural good looks, what they actually appreciate is the amount of effort Ukrainian women have learned to put into their appearances.

The fall of the Soviet Union brought along turbulent changes in both society and ideology—including gender expression. Although the Soviet idea of femininity demanded that women be flawless, resilient, and (in some ways) androgynous and asexual builders of the socialist utopia while remaining supportive wives and loving mothers, the 1990s brought along two new models of female gender expression. Hugely influential Ukrainian anthropologist and feminist historian Oksana Kis describes these two polar identities as the Berehynia (the hearth goddess, a pseudo-traditional model of femininity rooted in nostalgic nationalism and conservative ideas) and the Barbie.

As the name indicates, the Barbie identity adopted by women in young post-Soviet countries grew from a sudden influx of Western media and consumerism. It was also an identity borne out of sudden social change and an uncertain future. Millions of women, who had been an integral part of the Soviet workforce and who had at least been able to rely on state-provided child care and social support, ended up jobless in a largely lawless society where ruthless men were abruptly climbing to the top.

Although the Soviet ideology had convinced women that they had to carry the dual duty of being both comrades and mothers, the 1990s taught them that the surest way to build the life of their dreams (heavily influenced by suddenly available Western television and magazines) was to attach themselves to tough, aggressively masculine men on the rise to riches.

Looks became a widely accepted social currency—and, for a while, one of the only types of influence and power available to ambitious young women in Ukraine. Beauty salons rapidly opened up on every street while magazines—including the local versions of Elle and Cosmopolitan, which reached the Ukrainian market in the early 2000s—aggressively preached the importance of following the latest fads and keeping yourself thin and youthful-looking, pleasing your husband, and chasing away any real or imaginary rival. As women from Russia’s ex-colonies (and Russia itself) started traveling abroad more often and Western tourists discovered a new market, Slavic women became associated with sex work and a willingness to marry relatively well-off foreigners without asking too many questions.

Thankfully, the recent popularity of feminism (along with a general movement toward stability, democracy, and gender equality) has convinced Ukrainian women that they don’t have to limit themselves by choosing to be a traditional housewife or a glamorous gold digger constantly on the prowl for a husband.

Instead of telling their readers how to dress to find the man of their dreams, Ukrainian magazines have begun addressing matters such as politics, domestic abuse, sexual identity, personal finances, and wellness—although today, they are also forced to write about staying safe in the midst of a war or dealing with power outages. In turn, the women themselves are building impressive careers without having to bat their eyelashes at a perpetually horny boss. In fact, about 15 percent of the Ukrainian army is made up of women, as is more than 20 percent of Ukraine’s parliament.

Yet even this doesn’t deter people from objectifying Ukrainian women—just take a look at the comments under photos of Ukrainian servicewomen published online. The stereotypes are persistent—whether it’s in the relatively harmless form of Western supporters going googly-eyed or the far more disturbing language out of Russia. Online comments from “pro-Z” Russians on social media are packed with fetishistic sadism (for example, rape fantasies, queries about where to find a forcibly deported “Ukrainian refugee wife,” and just general leering comments) aimed at Ukrainian women and girls.

For Ukrainian women, this is hardly new: As with any colonial power, Russia has a long history of treating Ukrainian women as attractive but uncouth and naive provincials to be reeducated at best or exotic objects to be leered at in the worst-case scenarios. While 19th and 20th-century Russian poets treated Ukraine (or, as it was known to them back in the day, “Little Russia”) as an inspiring exotic locale populated by primitive but kind-hearted locals prone to superstition, not much changed after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

In the early 2000s, a Russian remake of The Nanny aired and instantly became a massive hit. The main difference between the American original and the Russian remake? In the remake, Fran (who was stereotypically American-Jewish and street smart in the original) became Vicka, a Mariupol-born Ukrainian migrant worker who found employment with a sophisticated Moscow family. Throughout the series’ seven-season run, Vicka was the butt of the joke because of her heavy accent, lack of education, gold-digging tendencies, and vulgar behavior. (This included stealing small items, which one of the characters on the show openly compared to “Ukrainians stealing Russian gas.”) But she was ultimately portrayed as attractive enough to marry the rich, intelligent male protagonist. Even in 2022, this colonialist mindset hasn’t changed much—just last summer, Kremlin propagandist Margarita Simonyan fantasized about “Russians visiting Kyiv after the war and enjoying the local cuisine and fresh produce from Ukrainian farms just like in the good old days,” adding that “Russian husbands would be once again breaking their necks to stare at the dark-browed Oksanas (a general term Russians occasionally use to signify Ukrainian women).”

But even pro-Ukrainian admiration for Ukrainian women’s looks comes with a potential price. Seeing Ukrainians as so-called perfect victims who are owed sympathy purely because they’re good-looking, predominantly white, and symbolize a certain type of femininity isn’t helpful. What happens if someone decides that Ukrainian women, as a whole, are not as pretty or docile as they thought they were? Would that be a reason to support Ukraine any less? And in the context of a war where the invader is using brutal sexual violence, fetishizing women seems particularly uncomfortable.

Of course, everyone is free to voice their opinions—and I’m definitely not saying you shouldn’t compliment a Ukrainian woman you find attractive or that you’re some kind of monster for saying Ukrainians are a good-looking bunch. But in a country where good looks have been, in part, a survival tactic, maybe find something else to praise.

Oleksandra Povoroznyk is a Kyiv-based journalist and translator.

[atamascolily]

Looking back over my screenshots again, I noticed something that bothers me: "Walpurgisnacht" is a name supposedly given to this witch by magical girls (and not what she calls herself, unlike the other witches we encounter), and yet that name appears in heavily stylized runes on her countdown signs in the original series. Why is that? Am I missing something?

The same runes are also in the Eternal movie, although they are a bit more legible. Nothing else appears to have changed overall, although the shading/contrast on the ring and "peacock tails" (probably stylized lotus flowers common in Buddhist mandalas?) is switched up.

The art style here is reminiscent of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European woodblock prints during the time of the original witchcraft trials. This movement was stoked in large part by the widespread proliferation of lavishly illustrated printed pamphlets, which detailed witches' misdeeds in lurid detail, and popularized many archetypes we now associate with witches, from brooms and black cats to deals and dances with the Devil.

Witches dancing with devils, featured in The History of Witches and Wizards (1720).

Similar woodblock prints, likely representing primary sources, can be seen in the background in Homura's apartment as part of her research into Walpurgisnacht, including several with dancing figures.

These figures can be seen as Walpurgisnacht is ultimately broken up in the final episode.

Just for some fun visual parallels, compare to this shot from the recap movies that wasn't in the original TV release. The main difference is that all of the figures of Homuras are the same, whereas the ones in Walpurgisnacht's circle seem to be different.

The woodblock print in Homura's apartment depicts all the dancers as identical, while the later shot makes them look more like Walpurgisnacht's individualized familiars--which they might well be. Comparison to the Clara Dolls--a large number of familiars repeatedly described as being a match for or counterpart to magical girls with individualized designs--is also inevitable.

Ironically, the Christian saint Walpurga was supposed to protect against witchcraft, but her saint's day (April 30-May 1) ended up being conflated with the witches because it occurred at the same time as Hexennacht (German for 'Witches' Night'), when witches were said to dance with/in honor of the devil on Mount Brocken--and thus when people were most in need of St. Walpurga's protection. Goethe draws on this tradition in Faust, Part One (a major influence on PMMM) for the scene where Mephistopheles takes Faust to the Brocken in order to witness the celebrations--which is also one of the texts depicted in Homura's apartment.

Another sheet reads "Ein Narr"--German for "the fool", another recurring motif associated with Walpurgisnacht (and also Homura).

Given the accuracy of these documents, these woodcuts are presumably based on eyewitness accounts (possibly magical girls, since ordinary people see Walpurgisnacht as a storm) where Walpurgisnacht appeared but was apparently not permanently defeated. Combined with Walpurgisnacht's ability to appear--and presumably disappear--without warning, and the fact that she's large enough to show up on radar as a storm, this suggests to me that Walpurgisnacht might be a time traveler or possess a similar ability to "exit the stage" and only reveal herself at the most dramatic moment(s) possible. Not only would this fit with her cog/stage motif, it would make her an even more fitting narrative foil for Homura, and add yet another parallel between them.

For both witches and ordinary humans alike, Walpurgis Night is traditionally celebrated with dancing and bonfires. Not only is Homura's name is a homonym for 'flame', Rebellion is chock full of ballet motifs, and she is last seen dancing alone in the moonlight late at night--presumably during the "witching hour" (which, depending on the source, is either between 3-4 a.m., or the hour immediately after midnight. Given the earlier scene of Homura becoming a witch as the clocks strikes midnight, I lean towards the latter interpretation).

Even more suggestively, Homura is now diegetically the Devil and appears to have taken on Kyubey's role as a contractor. If so, this strongly implies that she (and/or her double?) will have a personal relationship with magical girls as the one to whom they sold their souls to gain their power, just like historical witches were said to do with Satan. And given that these historical witches supposedly gathered on Walpurgis Night to honor the Devil... well, that does put Walpurgisnacht's likely (re)appearance in a new light, doesn't it?

...and if the 'Walpurgis' of Walpurgis no Kaiten is indeed the same Walpurgisnacht we saw before, then some timey-wimey/reality-bending/fourth-wall breaking shenanigans are afoot.

It's funny because "what were YOU doing at the devil's sacrament?" is usually meant as a tongue-in-cheek joke, but if PMMM continues to take these references seriously, we might actually get to find out!

[irithnova]

Notes on Empire of Care by Catherine Ceniza Choy

The scapegoating of Filipino nurse immigrants: Filipina Narciso and Lenora Perez are examples of two nurses who were scapegoated.

Filipino nurses with temporary work visas, H-1 visas, were exploited

Mass murder cases involving Filipino nurses included the 1996 Richard Speck massacre. Some of his victims were Filipino nurses and the only survivor was one of these Filipino nurses

The only survivor - Luisa Silverio

The victims

The 1975 Veterans administration hospital murders that happened in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and involved the previously mentioned nurses Narciso and Perez, bering initially convicted and then later acquitted. They were accused of poisoning and conspiracy

These cases reflect how US imperialism shaped the treatment that was levelled at Filipino nurses

During the late 1970s, Filipino nurse organisations emerged in order to combat the exploitation and discrimination that Filipino nurses faced

There is still a huge gap in the study of Filipino Americans. Quoted from Sucheng Chan's essay on Asian American historiography

"Despite the steady progress in Asian American historical scholarship, significant gaps remain. The most glaring is the absence of book-length studies on Filipino Americans"

American imperialism still shapes the way in which Filipinos - especially Filipino women are perceived

Jesse Ventura, an American politician in his autobiography "I ain't got no time to bleed" reminisces on his days as a Navy Seal stationed in the Philippines.

He talks about being young with a large libido, and how the abundance of Filipino women for him and his comrades to take home relieved that.

He spoke of going through less hurdles when he came to getting a Filipina to sleep with him compared to American women back home. In other words - Filipinas were easy.

This is a reflection of how US imperialism has shaped how the Philippines is viewed.

Filipino women are used in order to portray the Philippines as a feminised, hypersexual, always-willing paradise for the pleasure of Western men.

This depiction of so called "love" between Filipinos and Americans erases the long history of US violence, US domination, the colonial relationship between the US and the Philippines and the history of sexual violence perpetuated against Filipino women. Not to mention the destruction of the environment and spread of disease

US military presence in the Philippines also helped in influencing migration patterns.

By 1970, there were more Filipino men in the US navy than the Philippine navy. This was due to the active recruitment of Filipino men into the US military

Yet another example of how the US imperialist narrative erases truths about history and the lived experiences of Filipinos:

Filipino American organisations had to convince Minnesota legislature to correct a plaque commemorating the Spanish-American war.

The plaque stated that it was honouring the fact that the war was fought to free the Philippines from the tyrannical Spanish

This is unequivocally untrue and rings back to the concepts of American exceptionalism - The US being far more "benevolent" to it's colonies than their European counterparts.

The war was fought in order to defeat the Spanish - not to liberate the Philippines.

The Philippines then fought against the US for independence thereafter

America's so called "forgetfulness" when it comes to Filipino-American history continues to hurt Filipinos.

In particular, Filipino American war Veterans who struggle to fight for their access to veterans benefits.

[oumaheroes]

hi there! i'm new to your page so idk if you do this, but i was wondering if you had any headcanons about friendship between ludwig and alfred? thank you!! :)

Oh I do indeed, Anon! I just hope I haven't left answering this too long for you to find ;u;

I think that the friendship between Alfred and Ludwig is a strange one. On the surface, it should work! They're both young, powerful new nations, both raised by far older family members who were contemporaries together, and both feel somewhat estranged to them because of it

Arthur and Gilbert, long time friends, companions, and thorns in each other's side, had very similar childhoods and experiences to the rest of Europe. Very self sufficient individuals, they raised themselves and had to fight for even the clothes on their back and they trust slowly. They're and very strict on themselves and others and have more baggage than is healthy. They then raised younger children in a similar time period, Alfred older but Ludwig still not modern, and as parents they will have had similar struggles. Alfred and Ludwig will each have loads of stories of their bumbling older sibling/ parent clashing with modern life.

Alfred and Ludwig as friends then really should work. New men against older ones, new ideas and fresh blood with dreams of being something better. But, I think although they have a lot of foundational stuff in common and have similar positions in the world, there is one huge thing that comes between them

Alfred is the new world. Alfred has grown up under old world principles and is leading the charge of the new way of things, pushing away old constraints and traditions to make his own, but Ludwig? Ludwig is surrounded by the old world, and desperately tries to blend in. Ludwig wants those traditions, Ludwig envies the old familiarity and intimacy of his European counterparts, sees it every day, and feels very much like an imposter around them. At the core of himself, he knows that they don't see him as on their level in some unspoken, undefinable way, and despite the age of the culture that he wears Ludwig wears it like an baggy old coat- small boy in big shoes to fill, a child trying to age up to the man-shaped role Gilbert held in their part of the world.

Alfred however knows who he is. Alfred is proud of his difference to Europe and compares himself to the rest of the Americas, as part of the new age of man. Ludwig doesn't have this. He is surrounded by ancient ghosts, by the silent looks and nods to in jokes and memories that he doesn't share and he tries his best to be one of them. And this difference between the two of them is jarring. Ludwig both envies Alfred and resents him, whilst also looking down on him, believing himself to be different- to be of the Old World that Alfred so proudly denies

In short, despite being younger by far, Ludwig feels and acts far older. Alfred finds him stiff and awkward, and Ludwig finds Alfred far too carefree and arrogant and, although they can get along when Ludwig relaxes and Alfred empathises, they don't naturally come together

[gatheringbones]

[“Although they may seem only slightly related, fears about “race mixing” and queer people were intimately connected, flip sides of the same eugenic coin. Both fears, ultimately, were about preserving the “white race.” Black people represented an external threat to whiteness; queer people represented an internal one. After emancipation, white scientists, lawmakers, and doctors saw a looming threat of extinction, through the degeneration of white bloodlines via interracial relationships on the one hand, and through sterility and enervation via homosexuality on the other. Because these were ultimately sexual issues, it’s no wonder that American sexology, even more so than its European counterpart, was deeply racist. Some of the same eugenic scientists who were defining “homosexuality” in this era were also (re)defining whiteness, primarily by promoting the idea that black people were both a physical and existential threat to the so-called white race. They argued that ethnic differences among Europeans were nothing when compared to the differences between whites and blacks. Whiteness at this time was a less unified identity, with much being made over intra-European ethnic divisions. Irish people, southern Italians, and Jews of European descent were only tentatively considered white by most New Yorkers. Only once larger numbers of black Americans moved to the city during the 1920s did whiteness come to be understood as the pan-European identity it is today (and still today, European-descended Jews are often viewed as racially other). Sexologists would be integral to this unification of the “white race.”]

hugh ryan, when brooklyn was queer

[sparkylurkdragon]

Thesis: Small family sizes that seem atypical for Hyrule's apparent technology level are sustainable due to a couple of key factors that make their infant and child mortality rates extremely low compared to, for example, Medieval European Earthlings.

1.) The extreme age of the setting and its technological boom and bust cycles. Even in eras of relatively simpler living, Hyruleans have at least folkloric records of Shit That Worked Before, and that goes a long way. Advantages they might have over their Earthling counterparts might include even vague or rudimentary understandings of things like genetics (implied in Twilight Princess by the hawks), prion diseases (brains are poison, do not ingest), inoculation, electrolyte replacement, blood types, blood pressure, wound sanitation, and on and on. Hell, Wild-Zelda had a microscope before the Calamity; it's entirely possible that people in her era can directly confirm the existence of bacteria.

2.) But possibly even more significantly, they have healing magic. It obviously isn't perfect or else nobody would ever die, but having that in your back pocket for emergencies will go a long, long way.

[mariacallous]

Out of sight, out of mind. That’s the fate of global shipping, even though all of us depend on it for our daily supplies. Everything from bananas to toilet paper to iPhones travels by sea at some point. But we only pay attention when something goes wrong, whether that happens in the Red Sea, the Suez Canal—or underneath what used to be Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge. This week’s accident, which occurred when the container ship Dali lost power and headed straight into a support pillar, has delivered a reminder of the sheer overlooked scale of the shipping industry—and how unprepared many systems are to handle it.

Part of this is the massive size of today’s container vessels themselves. A few minutes before 1:30 a.m. on March 26, the Singapore-flagged container Dali issued a mayday call, which allowed construction workers on the Key Bridge to get a few cars to turn around. Down below, the Dali appeared to have engine problems; camera footage shows its lights flickering before smoke emerges and it hits the support pillar. Within seconds, the bridge collapses into the water. Some of it collapses onto the Dali, too, and with the bridge, cars plunge into the water. At the time of writing, six people are unaccounted for and presumed dead.

Now lots of ordinary citizens around the world are discovering marine websites such as vesselfinder.com and marinetraffic.com, which track merchant vessels. They will have learned that the Dali has a gross tonnage of 95,128 tons, a summer deadweight of 116,851 tons, and that it’s 300 meters (nearly 1,000 feet) long.

When it struck the Key Bridge, the Dali had 4,679 TEU (20-foot-long shipping containers) onboard and was crewed by 22 Indian seafarers, who had been joined by two pilots from Baltimore. Merchant vessels are predominantly crewed by relatively tiny staffs that are usually made up of people from India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Russia, and Eastern European countries. Indeed, it has been decades since it was common for Western Europeans and Americans to go to sea. Today’s seafarers are skilled, but they do hard and lonely work with long absences from home—and when disaster strikes, shipping can be extremely dangerous. Earlier this month, a Houthi attack in the Red Sea cost the lives of three seafarers—two Filipinos and one Vietnamese.

All this is in service of the goods that make our lives so convenient—and which require a vast and largely invisible ocean network to support.

Just consider the arrivals, off-loading, loading, and departures at the Port of Rotterdam, which is merely the world’s 10-busiest container port. Last year, Rotterdam handled 13.4 million TEU at its 14 terminals. That’s 36,712 TEU every day of the year. In the afternoon on March 26, 149 ocean-going ships were docked in Rotterdam, where cargo containers were being offloaded and new ones added. Another 132 were about to arrive, and another 161 had just departed. The expected arrivals included the Ever Living, a sister to the ill-fated Ever Given, of Suez Canal fame.

At a length of 335 meters (nearly 1,100 feet), width of 45 meters (145 feet), and with a deadweight of 104,653 tons, the Ever Living is almost as massive as the Ever Given. But only almost. With a capacity of nearly 10,000 TEU, it’s very similar to the Dali. The Ever Given, by contrast, has a capacity of just over 20,000 TEU, and it’s not even one of the world’s largest container ships.

Indeed, these days, the world’s fleet of ultra-large container vessels (ULCVs)—vessels of more than 14,500 TEU capacity—features a growing number of beasts that can transport 23,000 TEU and more. The MSC Irina, for example, can carry an astounding 24,346 TEU. Today, in fact, the Dali’s capacity of 10,000 makes it a midsize box ship. Compare that to container ships in 1972, when construction began on the Key Bridge: Back then, the largest container ship in the world had a capacity of a mere 2,984 TEU.

The shipping industry keeps making things more efficient—and thus more cost-effective and more attractive. It’s thanks to shipping that it has made so much sense to build a globalized economy: It’s so cheap to ship goods globally that people in wealthy nations can have them made elsewhere, transported across a few oceans, and still pay less than if they were made at home.

But the massive ships come with equally massive logistical demands. Ports have to be expanded to be able to receive and service them. The port service, for example, involves higher cranes with a wider reach: just imagine 24,000 containers stacked upward and sideways. The ports also need larger storage facilities to hold such vessels’ cargo until it’s picked up by trucks. The financial picture involving ULCVs is clear on the vessel-owner side, because buying a ULCV eventually pays off.

Ports are usually public-private partnerships, which means that investment often involves the taxpayer. The Port of Virginia in Norfolk, which the Dali had left just before its ill-fated call at the Port of Baltimore, has just allocated $1.4 billion to widen the port to make it accessible for two-way ULCV traffic. Norfolk is also currently being dredged to the tune of $450 million, after which it’s expected to have the deepest and widest channels on the east coast of the United States.

“This is a true advantage for anyone delivering to or from America,” said Stephen A. Edwards, the CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority, in an interview with World Cargo News. “Our wider channel sets The Port of Virginia apart by allowing for consistent vessel flow, increasing berth and container yard efficiencies, and further improving harbor safety.” It’s a competitive marketplace, and lots of Chinese ports are already set up for ULCVs. Ports and countries that can’t afford ULCV-worthy expansion are out of luck.

And as the Dali has taught the world, accommodating large vessels is not just about ports. They traverse oceans, sail under bridges, and sail through canals. Imagine if the Ever Given or another ULCV were to strike a bridge. Even a sturdier bridge than the Key Bridge (which received a rating of “fair” during its most recent federal inspection) would struggle to withstand such a blow.

Such calamities happen very rarely. It would be extraordinarily expensive for cities and countries to strengthen bridges and other infrastructure that a massive container ship might hit. The Dali’s crew and pilots appear to have tried their hardest to steer the ship away from the Key Bridge when the power supply failed, and they issued a mayday call to alert authorities to the fact that the ship was approaching the bridge. This, though, is unlikely to be the last time that machines fail man.

Even as ships get bigger and bigger, with more and more sophisticated technology, the human brain and hands are an indispensable backup. Giving crews a few more tools with which to manually counteract technology may be the best way of avoiding another Key Bridge disaster.

Shipping—an industry that involves ratings, officers, stevedores, crane operators, ship managers, insurers, and many others—goes on delivering your favorite consumer goods around the clock. It remains a miracle that mishaps involving their floating fortresses occur so rarely.

[gsirvitor]

@blogpostsofvariablequality

How much does it affect them today? The same amount it affects non Europeans at the hands of Europeans, you can fill in the blank.

See, this is why I dislike the umbrella term of white people, sure it's an apt descriptor of a racial group, but it hides the nuance, the complexity of European history, culture and baggage.

The entirety of Eastern Europe has a multi thousand year history of being invaded by Asians and Middle Easterners, from the Turks, to the Huns, to the Ottomans, then there's the Greeks who have beef with the Turks and a history of Persian invasion, the entirety of Mediterranean Europe with the Barbary slave trade, the Mongol invasions, the black death, the Muslim conquests, etc etc, I can go on for hours, and that's not even bringing up the origins of the term Slave, which referred to a certain squating peoples now at war with eachother.

Every group is advantaged and disadvantaged by the modern world, especially in the west, for instance, a black man from Nigeria who moves to America is more often a higher earner than his American counterpart, why? Well it isn't disadvantages built into the system, it's the culture, for the Nigerian man his is a boon while the American's is a drag, why? One is built upon hard work, morals and looking to the future, while the other is dead set on looking at the past and wallowing in it, blaming all failures, not on one's self but on a nebulous bogeyman, the same way the Nazis blamed the Jews.

The same goes for any race, Europeans are outcompeted in their own nations by Asians and Indians, not because they're actually at any disadvantage other than what is self imposed, and that's the crux, those who screech about being perpetually disadvantaged by the "white" man, never work to improve themselves, to create a better future for their descendants, no, they just whine and beg for free handouts, as the Greeks say; "A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in."

Your statements mean very little, yes, the world is colonized, it has been colonized since time immemorial, over and over and over again, yes, Europeans did that to themselves, and others did it to them, just as Africans, Asians, Middle Easterners, etc have all done it to themselves and others since time immemorial, same goes for subjugation, slavery, etc.

And no, European colonization, when compared to the conquests of the past, were some of the least violent conquests in history, sure the land area claimed is incomparable, but the savagery, the brutality etc, pales in comparison to even just the Mongols and Huns.

Yes, the plague brought many benefits, such as modern labor movements, improvements in medicine and a new approach to life, much of the Italian Renaissance, even Shakespeare's drama to some extent, is an aftershock of the Black Death. Today its effects can be seen in the resistance to AIDS seen in some European populations.

However, the black death was only a benefit to the descendants of those who survived one of the darkest pages in European history, its consequences were profound. Besides the immeasurable pain and grief, traditional Medieval society was thrown into chaos and turmoil, economies were fractured, the Church lost status, and art and literature took a turn for the gruesome and bizarre, and Europe lost 30-60% of its population.

Ah yes, racism and antisemitism, something about this post has made people act quite racist, from calling for the subjugation of the white race, to comparing me, someone of Jewish descent, to the Nazis, this post has been a magnet for the mentally compromised.

However, I don't expect any critical thinking skills from, as you put it, racist idiots, so I say again, I don't care about the suffering of your ancestors, for you don't care about mine.

Good Day.

[militarymenrbomb]

Ok, I'm going to try this again, facts about gingers. Less than 2 percent of the world’s population has red hair, making it the rarest hair color in the world. It’s the result of the mutated MC1R gene. If both parents carry that gene, their child has a 25% chance of getting lovely, red locks, even if the parents don’t have red hair themselves. Red hair will never turn grey. Instead, the pigment simply fades over time. Redheads usually end up with blonde or silvery white hair when they get older. Redheads have less hair on their heads. On average, someone with red hair has 90,000 strands of hair. Blonds have 110,000 strands of hair on average and brunettes have the most with 140,000 strands of hair. Being a man with red hair though could mean a lower risk for prostate cancer. A study from the British Journal of Cancer found men with naturally red hair were 54% less likely to develop prostate cancer, compared to other men with blond, brown or black hair.  Red hair isn’t the only thing that’s rare. A high portion of people who are left-handed are also redheads.

1. Red hair and blue eyes is the rarest combination in the world.

2. Redheads soak up more sun. It is because they usually have less melanin producing capacity in their skin and thus are more sun sensitive than are their dark haired counterparts, who usually have darker skin, more melanin, and therefore more sun protection capacity.

3. As reported by The Independent, the redhead gene could be on its way out because the gene is thought to be a response to cloudy weather in Scotland; something the country could see less and less of due to global warming. 

4. The Irish Central reported about a new US study at Penn State University. “They found out that Europeans’ light skin stems from a gene mutation from a single person who lived 10,000 years ago.

5. A redhead’s light skin is incredibly sensitive and can burn easily when in contact with lime juice. “I want to let people know about this type of burn because it is especially severe for people with fair skin, like redheads.” 

6. When the study by the Journal of the American Dental Association broke out in 2012 that redheads experience more pain at the dentist, many rumors began to develop: “Redheads have an extra (third) set of nerves in the mandible, which could explain why going to the dentist hurts more for women with natural red hair,” or “Redheads suffer more from toothaches.”

7. It has been proven that redheads need larger doses of anesthesia and are often resistant to local pain blockers like novocaine.

8. Natural redheads could be at greater risk of melanoma without sun exposure.

9. It is useful to know that if the red hair gene is in your family history, then even if you do not have red hair yourself, you do carry the gene.

10. Redheads bruise more!

11. Rocks those shades! A majority of redheads have light colored eyes, which has less pigment. This causes sensitivity to the sun’s harmful rays more than brown or black eyes. It’s very important that all redheads wear sunglasses to keep their eyes safe.

[blueiight]

What light do you see Loustat in? Some people see loustat in a grim light where the abusive aspects of their relationship are brought to the front but others see them in a way where they work through that and are happy in each other’s space. Though, I could never really pin how you see them.

i feel like this is a very flippant answer to what is a well thought out question but TLDR i l think lestat x louis are foundational to the western yaoi canon..

yk how bell hooks has a book all about love i dont feel like she was fair in some aspects namely in suggesting that ppl who harm u cant love u . love like anything else is a feeling, that does not always translate in the material. taking this to the head we can see in history how ppl can be galvanized into commiting the worst of deeds based off a ~belief~ or abstract notion of love or loyalty (that materially benefits them/the party theyre on). so i dont feel like love is inextricable from harm , ppl can hold feelings that do not always manifest in ideal ways. this goes both for my lesypoo would neva types & my lou dont love dat evil bitch types. love is complicated especially the love of immortals. cuz thats ultimately what monsters r. a rhetorical device in fiction to explore humanity’s capacity for evil. book leslou was fascinating in part bc louis was an old school bougie planter who got outdaddied by this noble land-poor european country lord.if the vampire prior to this was the fear of the exotic immortal east; then in book!iwtv& its response tvl , the roguish european hero imparts itself in creating the colonial planter (louis) & later… in a battle against the old east (twmbk). meta wise yes louis was bitchy to lestat in tobt bc anne at the time wanted david to be w les but even looking at tvl & qotd louis hes exceptionally tender to lestat in no small part bc he adored lestat’s inner strength as a man (using this to mean disposition here. very antifeminist of me), and struggled between acknowledging his longing for him .. and in tobt he struggled with the sort of subversion of dynamics . what could a weakened lestat do for him? what could he do to a weakened lestat? that scared him. he cared for a weakened lestat in mtd enough to claw at walls soo. who knows! and in both adaptations louis is lestat’s baby.(even if show lestat put louis in an A/C compressor) comparing this to show leslou, theres no need for an older lestat to cosplay being the gold digger here (or be viewed as such in louis’s narration?), especially in the face of a black younger louis. whos given an addled sort of anger / passion rooted in his encroaching disempowernment v the power he possesses intracommunaly as a creole bm .. lestat asking louis howd u get in here? XXX HOT EBONY—[is shot]. and the second interview louis is certainly more readily able? or willing? or ??? w/ his longing for lestat? if not himself in a moment (‘bled him like a pig’) then we as the viewers can deduce such (seeing past louis cry over a bleeding out lestat). thats the nature of adaptation baby. and going back to the love point, it reminds me it was either jacob or sam who said it its a shame my recall is failing atm cuz i rly liked the way they put it. leslou love eachother but dont really like eachother. of course people can syncretize aspects of the later books (s/o barbara and retirement in auvergne!) or even extrapolate a lot from their scenes in the show in hopes of seeing their show counterparts grow to like eachother in fan content irdgaf. the show has adapted what was priorly universally agreed to be the darkest period of lestat and louis’s relationship. where people diverge is in the semantics & decisions made in adaptation, but it serves a purpose to a story that is yet unclear to us! bear in mind this is the first cour of interview, 1 book of 15.. for example nobody was predicting that the show would weave in the wider chronicles by incorporating a second interview before s1 came out. i guess thats why my take on leslou (presuming the show vers is wym) is so unclear bc im an uncreative boor & can only look at whats given on text or in screen… this is sublime western yaoi

[deathlessathanasia]

"Zeus himself, the central character in Hesiod’s Theogony, bears some of the most easily recognizable Northwest Semitic features, in addition to those of the Indo-European Sky God inherited by the Greeks. It is not necessary, therefore, to discuss them at length. It suffices to recall that the Canaanite Storm God Baal and the homologous Greek god share a similar position in the succession of kings in Heaven, as well as the position of the youngest son. They both reign from a palace on a northern mountain (Olympos, Zapanu/Zaphon), and they wield thunder as their distinctive weapon. As with his Near Eastern counterparts, thunder, lightning, and the thunderbolt were the “missiles/shafts of great Zeus.” The position of his sister and principal consort Hera is like that of Anat, Baal’s sister and partner (though not consort). For some, this coupling “violates the incest taboo” in Greek myth but allows Hera to remain an “equal” partner according to her right of birth, as the daughter of Kronos. In Il. 4.59 she is the oldest daughter, in Il. 16.432,18.352 she is called “sister and wife” and in Hesiod Th. 454 she is the youngest daughter of Kronos, exactly as Zeus is the last son.

The list of similarities between Zeus and the different manifestations of the Canaanite god (either Baal or El or Yahweh in the later Hebrew theology) is long and has been the subject of much discussion by classicists, Semitists, and biblical scholars. Perhaps most interesting are the parallels noticeable at the level of their epithets, such as Zeus the “cloud-gatherer” (nephelegereta)or “lightener” (asteropetes), and the frequent characterization of Baal in Ugaritic poetry as the “cloud-rider” (rkb ʿrpt). Other epithets of the Northwest Semitic Storm God Adad (Haddad) are preserved in Akkadian hymns, such as “lord of lightning” or “establisher of clouds.” …

Zeus’ “high-in-the-Sky” position and Sky-nature are reflected in other epithets such as hypatos and hypsistos. At the same time, similar divine epithets meaning “the high one” (eli, elyon, and ram) are very common in Northwest Semitic religious texts, accompanying several principal divinities. For instance, this epithet is used in the Ugaritic epic for Baal, and different forms of the adjective are attested in Aramaic, as well as in the Hebrew Bible accompanying El, Yahweh, and Elohim. … The association of the Storm God in Syro-Palestine with the bull as a symbol of fertility is also present in the various mythological narratives involving Zeus, most clearly in the famous motif of Zeus’ kidnapping the Phoenician princess Europa and carrying her on his back after taking the shape of a bull.

The final fight of Zeus with Typhon (Th. 820-880) has also been compared to the fight between Baal and Yam (the Sea) in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle and to that between Demarous and Pontos (the Sea) in Philon’s Phoenician History (P.E. 1.10.28). As mentioned earlier, the Storm God’s struggle with a monster also (albeit more distantly) resembles the clash between the Hurrian Weather God Teshub and the monsters Ullikummi, Illuyanka, and Hedammu. The figure of Typhon in Hesiod can in fact be seen as a Greek version of a “cosmic rebel” repeatedly reimagined with different characteristics in the specific versions, who endangers the Weather God’s power and generally has both marine and chthonic features. The Levantine and Greek adversaries probably have more than a merely thematic resonance, as the very name of Typhon might have a Semitic origin. It has hypothetically but quite convincingly been associated with the Semitic name Zaphon. Mount Zaphon (Ugaritic Zapunu or Zapanu) is a central point of reference in the geography and the religion of Ugarit. Known by Greeks and Romans as Kasion oros/ mons Casius (today Jebel al-Aqra), this peak on the north coast of Syria (south of the Orontes River) was also mentioned in Hurrian-Hittite myths. The mountain occupies a central spot in both the fight between Ullikummi and Teshub (as Mount Hazzi) and in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle. In the Ugaritic epic, the fight against Yam (the Sea) is not described as taking place on the mountain, but the celebration of Baal’s victory is, as it is the god’s abode overlooking the Mediterranean: “With sweet voice the hero sings / over Baalu on the summit / of Sapan (= Zaphon).” Much later, Apollodoros locates the cosmic fight with Typhon on Mons Casius precisely, which indicates that the link between Typhon and Zaphon had persisted, even though the name known to Hellenistic authors was the Greek, not the Semitic one."

- When the Gods Were Born: Greek Cosmogonies and the Near East by Carolina López-Ruiz

[anonymousredactedconfessions]

The person hating on Porter so viscerally and then comparing the lack of hate he receives and the wildfire of hate for Alexis, as if we weren’t supposed to hate on the literal abuser… bad look.

I think it also goes to show you haven’t been paying attention to the hierarchy that’s been set up for us, nor the character you’re talking about. Vincent isn’t violent until violence is called for (saving Lovely from literal torture and to-be-death). He wouldn’t have ‘torn some of Porter’s limbs’ because he’s not sadistic and malevolent. He is someone who is being preened to become a figurehead of a well known vampire family. If he shows himself to be too hot headed, too quick to anger? Not only would he be completely contrasting his character, he would be showing the entire vampire world that he isn’t anywhere near ready to lead. He would be taken less seriously than he already is.

Now, an argument could be made that it’s not what he wants. Vincent doesn’t want to be a King. He doesn’t want to hold all that responsibility. But he also has been shown to be very loyal to William. Very eager to make William happy, and proud. He isn’t subservient but he’s less likely to question William’s decisions. He wants to stay in William’s good graces.

So being needlessly violent goes against Vincent’s morals, ethics, and goals. Sure, he doesn’t get along with Porter, but a punch-on is the MOST you’re going to get from Porter and Vincent, considering their conflict and how (frankly) mild it is. Because it is, their conflict and their fighting is nothing, NOTHING as compared to other conflicts we’ve seen (Alexis-Sam, Quinn-Darlin, etc.) which all feature themes of abuse, and breaking from these cycles (though my thoughts on Alexis-Sam has been made QUITE clear). Vincent is the bigger person in these situations because he is literally, THE bigger person. The one that is being set up to take over. That’s why the summit fell to him. Political warfare doesn’t allow much room for blatant violent and unchecked emotions.

Also, saying Porter is poorly accented is just so weird and definitely not as much of a slight on Porter as it is Erik himself. Porter may have a stranger combination accent than most (he is 100% a mix of European and Australian, from experience) but he’s not poorly accented. In fact, the enunciation on some of the words is done so well in Australian, in a way that is hard to come by. The dialect of European is one that doesn’t contradict the Australian counterpart but rather compliments it. If it was a shit accent, I’d say otherwise. But it isn’t.

I am happy to go more into detail because I love dissecting characters and the building of them, but let’s wrap this one up by saying - yes. You can be annoyed at Porter, and you can think he deserves to die or whatever, your opinions are your own. But to think that’s something Vincent should do is character assassination at it’s finest, and would only be a terribly confusing plot line for Vincent to enact and follow.

-😈❤️‍🔥

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