#emergency household power supplies

[toopeanutcrown]

LING DYNAMICS LTD

Over a decade ago, we began our journey as All Lamps International Ltd, specialising in LED strips and lighting solutions. Two years back, we expanded our repertoire to include EV vehicle wall chargers.Ling Dynamics Ltd, we’ve broadened our horizons even further, introducing innovative products like Solar Power Stations, or as we like to call them, Portable Power Stations.

[prismatic-bell]

IMPORTANT REMINDER TO MY EUROPEAN FOLLOWERS AND OTHER TUMBLR DENIZENS FROM AN AMERICAN DESERT-DWELLER:

Climate change is a bitch and summer is coming. If you don’t already have an air conditioner and/or fans, NOW is the time to get them.

THINGS YOU SHOULD BE SHOPPING FOR NOW:

—clothes made of cotton or linen

—air conditioner

—fans

—frozen meals that can be cooked in the microwave

—potable bottled water; you want five days’ worth per person and pet in your household

—bottled fruit juices; it does not matter if these are sugar-added because you’ll want the electrolytes

—electrolyte drinks

—electrolyte pills (you can get these online, I get mine from Amazon)

—popsicle molds to use with fruit and juice

—ice cube trays

—nonperishable salty snacks like peanuts

—one charger brick per adult in case of rolling blackouts or power outages; charge these at the beginning of May, and drain them via use once a month if they’re not needed

YOUR TO-DO LIST:

—check your home’s HVAC system if you didn’t do it at the beginning of winter. Make sure all the filters are clean and replace them if needed

—check the seals on your sinks and bathtub in case you have to run water to handle shortages

—make and freeze meals you can cook in the microwave or simply defrost. Remember to select light summer fare, not hearty winter soups and gravies

—purchase and freeze lunch meats and cheeses you can defrost and use this summer for sandwiches when it’s hot

—assemble your check-in list: elderly, pregnant, disabled, and immunocompromised friends and relatives who may struggle to get things they need when the heat wave hits. Have this list posted and ready to go through daily once the heat gets high. DON’T JUST ASSUME YOU WILL REMEMBER. WRITE IT ALL DOWN.

—create a list of emergency contacts in case of fire, heat stroke, and other heat-related emergencies. This should include your local version of 911 (I think in most of Europe it’s 112, but don’t rely on me as an American, LOOK IT UP NOW before you need it), your doctor’s phone number, and two emergency contacts. Keep it in a place where it can be easily found if someone needs to make these calls on your behalf.

—ask your doctor for an additional prescription for any medications you take, and fill it now. Extreme heat can cause disruptions in the supply chain. Make sure you cycle these meds; that’s to say, always use your oldest bottle first so you don’t end up with expired meds in an emergency.

—stock your first-aid kit. If you don’t have one, now is a good time to make one.

—if you own a car, get your yearly maintenance done now. You don’t want to be dealing with an inoperable vehicle if you need to evacuate.

Staying safe this summer starts now. Get your prep done.

[odinsblog]

Dear President Biden,

We come together as artists and advocates, but most importantly as human beings witnessing the devastating loss of lives and unfolding horrors in Israel and Palestine.

We ask that, as President of the United States, you call for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza and Israel before another life is lost. More than 5,000 people have been killed in the last week and a half – a number any person of conscience knows is catastrophic. We believe all life is sacred, no matter faith or ethnicity and we condemn the killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians.

We urge your administration, and all world leaders, to honor all of the lives in the Holy Land and call for and facilitate a ceasefire without delay – an end to the bombing of Gaza, and the safe release of hostages. Half of Gaza’s two million residents are children, and more than two thirds are refugees and their descendants being forced to flee their homes. Humanitarian aid must be allowed to reach them.

We believe that the United States can play a vital diplomatic role in ending the suffering and we are adding our voices to those from the US Congress, UNICEF, Doctors without Borders, The International Committee of The Red Cross, and so many others. Saving lives is a moral imperative. To echo UNICEF, “Compassion — and international law — must prevail.”

As of this writing more than 6,000 bombs have been dropped on Gaza in the last 12 days — resulting in one child being killed every 15 minutes.

“Children and families in Gaza have practically run out of food, water, electricity, medicine and safe access to hospitals, following days of air strikes and cuts to all supply routes. Gaza’s sole power plant ran out of fuel Wednesday afternoon, shutting down electricity, water and wastewater treatment. Most residents can no longer get drinking water from service providers or household water through pipelines…. The humanitarian situation has reached lethal lows, and yet all reports point to further attacks. Compassion — and international law — must prevail.” – UNICEF spokesperson, James Elder

Beyond our pain and mourning for all of the people there and their loved ones around the world we are motivated by an unbending will to stand for our common humanity. We stand for freedom, justice, dignity and peace for all people – and a deep desire to stop more bloodshed.

We refuse to tell future generations the story of our silence, that we stood by and did nothing. As Emergency Relief Chief Martin Griffiths told UN News, “History is watching.”

Alia Shawkat

Alyssa Milano

Amanda Seales

Amber Tamblyn

America Ferrera

Andrew Garfield

Anoushka Shankar

Aria Mia Loberti

Ayo Edebiri

Bassam Tariq

Bassem Youssef

Cate Blanchett

Channing Tatum

Cherien Dabis

Darius Marder

David Cross

Dominique Fishback

Dominique Thorne

Elvira Lind

Farah Bsaiso

Fatima Farheen Mirza

Hasan Minhaj

Hend Sabry

Ilana Glazer

Indya Moore

James Schamus

Jeremy Strong

Jessica Chastain

Joaquin Phoenix

Jon Stewart

Kristen Stewart

Macklemore

Mahershala Ali

Margaret Cho

Mark Ruffalo

May Calamawy

Michael Malarkey

Michael Stipe

Michelle Wolf

Mo Amer

Oscar Isaac

Quinta Brunson

Ramy Youssef

Riz Ahmed

Rooney Mara

Rosario Dawson

Ryan Coogler

Sandra Oh

Sebastian Silva

Shailene Woodley

Shaka King

Susan Sarandon

Vic Mensa

Wallace Shawn

Wanda Sykes

👉🏿 https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/hollywood-demands-gaza-israel-ceasefire-joaquin-phoenix-cate-blanchett-1235763646/

[bisquid]

As of 2025, UK citizens who have an emergency in a blackout may not be physically able to call 999

As some of you may or may not be aware, the UK telecoms companies have decided that maintaining phone and internet infrastructure is too much effort, so they're getting rid of all the copper wired telephone infrastructure, and moving everyone to VoIP, or 'just sending phone calls over the internet'. I find this moronic for a bunch of reasons, but especially because VoIP needs power to work. Which in turn means that unlike standard landlines, a power cut also renders your phone useless. Obviously your mobile will still work - provided it has signal. If it doesn't have signal, then congratulations! You literally cannot make any calls, even to emergency services!

You know the places most likely to have bad phone signal?? Rural places. Which are also the places most likely to get powercuts.

This will literally kill people

The government has responded to this demonstration of screaming irresponsibility by mandating that telecoms companies provide 'at risk' households with a backup power supply lasting 'at least an hour'. How generous, how kind, how.... absolutely fucking useless for the people this move puts most at risk.

There are places - particularly in rural Scotland - where the only reason power companies know there's a problem is because affected customers call up and tell them.

Imagine it. You're living alone in rural Scotland. There's a storm overnight that knocks out your power at, say, midnight. Your Government Mandated Backup Power Supply (let's imagine your telecom company is extra generous and gives you one that lasts FIVE TIMES longer than the mandated minimum) kicks in when the power goes. You wake up at 7am. You have no power. Your backup power supply (let's. Just call it a ups) ran out two hours ago. You can't call the power company to tell them the power's gone. No one can call you to tell you anything, to warn about additional bad weather or check you're okay, nothing. You head into the kitchen to make breakfast in the predawn light. You trip over something you didn't see in the gloom and break your leg (if you're an older person, more likely your hip). You can't call an ambulance. If you're badly injured and can't get up, you lay there on the floor until - hopefully - someone comes round to check on you. Or you struggle upright and - what? Walk to the nearest bus stop, neighbour's house? If there's one in walking distance. Or - and this will be the most common outcome for the elderly without regular visitors - you lie there until you die.

There are houses in Scotland that don't have power, just phone lines, holiday cabins and some static caravans and so on. What are those people going to do? Or people who can't afford to pay their power bill? Are they now at risk of being unable to call an ambulance?

[blueangeldreamland]

Donate!

UNICEF

Note: Keep sending emails and calls to congress to ask for a ceasefire as aid is not being allowed in Gaza by Israel.

UNICEF has been working in Gaza since the 1980's. It is one of 13 United Nations agencies implementing and scaling up humanitarian interventions in response to the immediate needs of children and families caught in the conflict.

"Children and families in Gaza have practically run out of food, water, electricity, medicine and safe access to hospitals, following days of air strikes and cuts to all supply routes," said Elder. “Gaza’s sole power plant ran out of fuel Wednesday afternoon, shutting down electricity, water and wastewater treatment. Most residents can no longer get drinking water from service providers or household water through pipelines.

"At least six water wells, three water pumping stations, one water reservoir and one desalination plant serving more than 1 million people have been damaged by air strikes."

In every war, children suffer most

Responding to urgent needs for safe drinking water in Gaza, UNICEF has provided water treatment reagent to sustain the UNICEF-supported desalination plant providing water for 75,000 people. UNICEF has further released medical supplies prepositioned in the Gaza Strip to hospitals, including medicines for at least 1,600 people, and is delivering essential mental health and psychosocial support.

“Humanitarians must be able to safely access children and their families with lifesaving services and supplies — wherever they may be," said Elder. “In every war, the ones who suffer the most are children. This is tragically true today.”

*Designate to children in Gaza and West Bank

Charity rating (view more>)

UNICEF, originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund,[a] is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide.[3][4] The agency is among the most widespread and recognizable social welfare organizations in the world, with a presence in 192 countries and territories.[5] UNICEF's activities include providing immunizations and disease prevention, administering treatment for children and mothers with HIV, enhancing childhood and maternal nutrition, improving sanitation, promoting education, and providing emergency relief in response to disasters.[6]

UNICEF is the successor of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, created on 11 December 1946, in New York, by the U.N. Relief Rehabilitation Administration to provide immediate relief to children and mothers affected by World War II. The same year, the U.N. General Assembly established UNICEF to further institutionalize post-war relief work.[7] In 1950, its mandate was extended to address the long-term needs of children and women, particularly in developing countries. In 1953, the organization became a permanent part of the United Nations System, and its name was subsequently changed to its current form, though it retains the original acronym.[1]

more

+ continue working:

Tell congress to vote for a ceasefire.

PROTESTS

CEASEFIRE.COM for more info>

[liminalweirdo]

actually useful new years resolutions

If you never make New Years Resolutions, or are thinking about what you can do that’s actually going to be worthwhile:

Learn CPR and first aid. Depending on where you live and what season it is, ambulances are taking too long to reach emergencies because of pandemic-related staffing shortages. In some cases, this means several hours. NHS data released last week showed ambulance crews could not respond to almost one in four emergency calls because so many ambulances were waiting to hand patients over. Also, it looks good on a resume, if you care about that.

Start a garden (yes, even indoors). This should be self-explanatory considering inflation and the cost of food these days, but even one or two swiss chard or napa cabbage plants can go a long way in providing you with greens for the season. Microgreens are also a great way to go, because they’re ready to eat in just 1-2 weeks. If you have a balcony (or south-facing windows) tomatoes and bush-variety beans are a great vegetable to plant as well that should produce a pretty good harvest. Also, it’s good for you and the bees! If you want to try a garden but don’t have an outdoor space, microgreens will grow beside the window. Green onions, living lettuce, herbs, and celery are also possible to grow from cuttings. (Just be careful to keep toxic plants away from your pets, including tomatoes, green onions/chives.) If you need any advice on growing your own food, please feel free to send me an ask, I’d love to help you out.

Stock up on emergency supplies and learn basic emergency preparedness. Stuff like this should be normalized. I’m not telling you to start digging a bunker, I mean having things like enough bottled water, candles or a battery-powered lantern, dried goods (rice, granola bars, instant noodles, rice, pasta, tinned soup, canned veggies, canned fruits in your house (and a manual can opener, not an electric one). This will be useful for power outages and bad weather, both of which are increasing. Stock up on medication like Tylenol/Advil/Pedialyte or Dioralyte etc. for colds, flu, and general illness. I know it’s hard sometimes, but please try to keep your prescribed meds up to date. If bad weather is coming, see if you can get more. 

This doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Put $5-$15 towards emergency supplies each grocery run and that should be enough to have a good amount of emergency supplies within a month or two. The best time to start is now. Having a supply of bottled water is great for power outages. Filling your bathtub or a bucket to flush your toilet in power outages is a great idea. If your water expires you can use it for cleaning household surfaces and flushing the toilet in a power outage. (Please be careful of small pets and small children if you have buckets/bathtubs filled with water uncovered/attended)

BUY A FIRST AID KIT. Buy two if you can. Keep one in your house and one in your car and replenish it as you use it.

Please feel free to add to this list. Feel free to send me an ask if you want/need any advice on how to prepare for emergencies. I can’t promise I’ll have all the answers, but I will try to help.

Stay safe out there i love you all

[tracybirds]

So @squiddokiddo and I got to chatting about aroace Gords bc it's super fun to play with and thus a fic was born :D

This be fic no.2 to say happy birthday Gords and a big thank you to Squiddo for both reading over said fic and for making a wonderful piece of artwork that accompanies it <;3

Enjoy and hope you're having a lovely day celebrating Gords, celebrating your family and friends and however else you like to love those around you!

---

There was a certain irony to the day, Gordon knew that. People had expectations about your love life when you were born on Valentine’s Day after all and sometimes it felt like he’d never escape it. It grew tiring explaining over and over that romance had never really clicked for him, having to endure the same reassurances he’d never asked for again and again and again.

It was easier if he just treated it like the great joke of his life, eyes brimming over with mirth when he told people.

“Yeah, Valentine’s Day. I know right! But think about it – right? – the day was already stuffed to the brim with romance, they’d run out by the time it came to giving me some attraction, you know?”

Laughing about it, laughing at it gave him a certain power over the day and one he’d happily exploit.

It didn’t hurt that any new partner in romance that joined their family soon learnt that there was no such thing as Valentine’s Day in the Tracy household, his family binding around him to celebrate a much more important occasion in Gordon’s entirely unbiased opinion.

His birthday gave him a chance to focus on all the people in his life that he loved, no need to create a meaningless hierarchy of relationship.

Still, there was something about Valentine’s that appealed to Gordon, an expectant pause as the world held their breath and believed (just a little more than usual) in love.

He could get behind that at least, even if the whole romance thing didn’t really sit right.

Much more important, in his opinion, was the ever-enduring holiday tradition of making garish homemade cards for all his friends just in case they needed a Gordon Original to remind them of his love.

Gordy was the name and gaudy was the game.

He looked down at the stack of cards he’d made already – an explosion of reds and pinks and paper snowflakes cut into hearts – and narrowed his eyes.

The gold lettering had been a nice touch but really, he knew he needed more sparkle.

“Virgil!” he yelled, darting from the kitchen table and racing the steps two at a time.

His socks slid across the slick floor, sending him careening into the wall more that once before he burst into his brother’s studio.

“Virg, I need your glitter glue, it’s an emergency.”

“Would it kill you to knock,” grumbled Virgil good-naturedly, still poring over his own artwork, not sounding remotely surprised to see Gordon.

“The door was open,” said Gordon with a shrug. “That means you’re available.”

“Not for ‘glitter-glue’ emergencies, I’m not. You’ll have to wait.”

Virgil’s words began to trail off even as he spoke, a deep frown line evident between his brows.

Suddenly he looked up, frowning for a new reason.

“I’m sorry, ‘glitter-glue’?”

“For my valentine cards,” said Gordon impatiently. “Kayo said she and Grandma were flying to the mainland tomorrow morning so long as there weren’t any rescues going and…”

“And it’s already ten p.m. Gordon,” said Virgil with a groan.

“Virgil, please!” squeaked Gordon, hopping up and down on one foot. “I know I’ve left it late, but I didn’t mean to – there was that caving group in Mexico, then there were the seamount explorers last week, and that lab, what was going on there did we ever find out?”

“No, we did not,” said Virgil.

He stood and stretched, his joints cracking loudly as he yawned and peered around the dimly lit room.

“Alright, I’ll go find it, just don’t touch anything.”

“Red or pink if you’ve got it,” called Gordon, but Virgil had already disappeared into the towering storage that held his art supplies.

He looked around the room more out of habit than curiosity, taking in the neatly stacked canvases and the bright floral arrangement at the centre of the room. Virgil had clearly been working it into one of his larger pieces; scattered papers displayed pencil sketches of the bouquet from a variety of angles and now that Gordon was looking for them, he could see glimpses of the flowers all around the room.

Gently he tugged the thick card Virgil had been working on towards him and his eyes widened to see the delicate and crinkled petals of roses beautifully displayed before him in dreamy watercolour.

“I thought I said not to touch anything,” came Virgil’s voice from behind him and Gordon spun on his heel, trying not to look guilty.

Virgil looked more exasperated than angry however, as he handed the supplies over, and Gordon felt himself relax.

“Sorry,” he said, the corner of his mouth twitching upwards in a sheepish grin. “They’re beautiful. Almost alive.”

Virgil said nothing, only cocked his head to one side as he assessed the work himself.

“Almost,” he said at last. “But not quite.”

“Well the day your painting resurrects someone, let me know. I reckon we could make good money out of that.”

Virgil didn’t crack a smile, barely seeming to listen the Gordon.

He was beginning to feel awkward, glitter-glue in his hands – red and pink as he’d requested and more colours besides.

The urgency of his own task beckoned but still, he couldn’t help but linger.

“When did you pick up watercolour again?” he asked, trying to prod his brother into conversation.

“I’ve been taking some classes,” said Virgil, quietly. “Online, at your own pace.”

“Ooh, that sounds like fun,” said Gordon. “Do they have live get-togethers at all?”

There was a beat of silence that stretched out just long enough for Gordon to sit up and pay attention.

The slight uptick in breathing, the distinct pink undertones to his skin, the way his brother’s eyes slid down and avoided his gaze.

“Yes,” he admitted.

“Who are they?” said Gordon, only too delighted to have something to weasel out of him. “Go on, what’s their name? What have you talked about? Do they know you’re an internationally recognised hero who could sweep them off their feet?”

“It’s none of your business, Gordon,” groaned Virgil, burying his face in his hands.

“It is too my business,” he retorted. “We need a new relationship to root for, none of you’ve been dating anyone for months and I need something to gossip about with Grandma.”

“Well, you can keep your mouth shut for now, I’m not telling you anything until I’ve had a chance to talk to the guy.”

“Oh, so it’s a guy,” said Gordon, cackling in delight. “Someone artsy, likes working with his hands maybe, has a good appreciation for nature, perhaps?”

“Oh, yeah right, like you could know any of that.”

Gordon reached down and tapped the watercolour card.

“You’re painting him flowers Virg, and you clearly care that they’re the best you can do.”

He grinned suddenly. “Plus, I know your type.”

“And you can leave now," announced Virgil, his cheeks burning as he pushed Gordon out of the room. “Go make your friends their cards.”

“Thanks Virgil,” called Gordon, waving the glitter-glue as the door was promptly shut in his face.

He grinned and opened his comm.

“Hey, Grandma? Want to help me make my Valentines?”

“If that means you have dirt on your brothers, then say no more kid.”

[zvaigzdelasas]

Bloomberg - "Ideas that were once unthinkable are starting to gain traction among experts looking at how to solve the UK’s energy crisis."

With natural gas prices 10 times above their average over the last decade and millions of households facing a choice between paying for heat and food, government officials are starting to draw up options to get through the winter.

Suggestions from politicians, former ministers, energy analysts and economists echoing the solutions of the 1970s include nationalising industry, fixing prices, rigging wholesale energy markets and even telling industry to shut down.

With UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson due to leave office on Sept. 6 and Conservatives weighing whether to replace him with Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak, officials aren’t commenting.

But the severity of the crisis – “more than half of UK households will likely be in fuel poverty by January,” said Philippe Commaret, a senior executive at the power generator EDF Energy UK – has sparked talk of previously impossible options.[...]

Following are some of the policies that are emerging on the political agenda:

Freezing energy prices

Britain’s energy regulator, Ofgem, caps the amount that utilities can raise consumer bills and adjusts that restriction twice a year.

The next announcement due Friday is likely to allow annual bills for electricity and gas to surge to £3 500 a year, more than triple where it was before the pandemic and well above the current level of £1 971. Analysts at Citigroup see it reaching £5 800 in January.

The opposition Labour party under Keir Starmer supports a freeze and would subsidize energy distributors at an estimated cost of £29 billion for the six months through April.[...]

Scottish Power Chief Executive Officer Keith Anderson has suggested freezing household energy prices for two years, with the estimated £100 billion cost of doing so funded by a surcharge on bills from late 2024.

Labour would extend a windfall tax on North Sea energy producers to help pay for the subsidies. Former Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable opposes a freeze, saying “if the war in Ukraine goes on you are stuck with a very expensive government subsidy.”

UK leadership contender and former chancellor Rishi Sunak has also warned about “the affordability of these things given the scale and the duration of the challenge.”

Nationalizing energy suppliers

Gordon Brown, who served as Labour prime minister through the global financial crisis a decade ago, was the first senior figure to propose freezing the price cap but he would nationalize energy suppliers as they inevitably went bust. The idea is backed by Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey. [...]

[the] head of oil and gas research at Investec, warned that nationalising suppliers would be legally messy, financially costly and an administrative distraction from the immediate crisis.

Even so, the idea has won the support of Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon as it becomes increasingly clear the government will have to act. “The cap is getting to levels that the consumer can’t pay and the taxpayer will have to step in,” said Piper

Collective buying

A more radical idea, though enormously problematic, would be to rig global energy markets to reduce prices. In theory, a cartel of countries agree on a limit for what they would pay for natural gas.[...]

A buyer’s cartel would essentially be the mirror image of what the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries does in the oil markets, limiting production to manage the oil price. Capping purchases could stabilize the gas markets and reduce the money flowing into Putin’s war machine.

There is precedent for such a mechanism. In both World War I and World War II, the UK government intervened with price controls in the copper market to prevent profiteering and ensure supplies for munition factories. The European Union used collective buying in the pandemic to secure Covid vaccines.

Yet the idea may be politically unworkable. The EU first proposed the plan in March, when leaders agreed to “work together on voluntary common purchase” of gas to make “optimal use of the collective political and market weight to dampen prices in negotiations.”

Kathryn Porter, founder of energy consultant Watt-Logic, said for the cartel to have real market power it would probably need to extend beyond the EU to include the Group of Seven nations.

However, the US is unlikely to enforce a price cap on its commercial energy producers and collective buying breaks EU competition rules. Various nations in Europe and the UK may even turn protectionist, locking in domestic supply for the national interest.

Orchestrated blackouts

The UK could take a leaf out of Edward Heath’s 1974 Conservative government and cut industry back to a three-day week. By destroying demand, emergency rationing would potentially reduce the UK gas price for consumers. It would also cause a deep recession.[...]

Voluntary “demand destruction” is the softest form of rationing. Centrica’s Conn has said further action is needed and called for deliberate “demand reduction.”[...]

Porter said the government needs to prepare for vulnerable households self-rationing this winter by creating “warm hubs” at local libraries and other public spaces. Last year, stories about pensioners using their freedom passes to keep warm riding public transport all day were a reminder of how far some people have to go to ensure they can afford to heat their homes at night.

Tax incentives for suppliers

Europe’s energy crisis will only really be resolved once alternatives to Russian gas are flowing. Speeding up the process of bringing through new supply would require a host of unpopular decisions, though, and would not resolve the crisis this winter.[...]

Relaxing green regulations may help, and ladling out tax incentives for new fossil fuel projects would also spur work. Porter said the UK could also reexamine its reluctance to allow hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, of unconventional reservoir rocks, something that horrifies environmentalists. It could also permit controversial oil and gas projects like the Cambo field in the North Sea.

Peace deal with Russia

Business leaders speaking privately at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos in May suggested a ceasefire with Russia. Giving Putin an “off-ramp” to end the war, restoring relations and bringing plentiful supplies of Russian gas back to Europe would halt the energy crisis in its tracks.

But it would leave Russia’s military closer to the heart of Europe and destabilize the security of Poland and Hungary, pillars of the Western alliance.

Politically, there seems little chance of détente.[...]

A dismal winter for Europe economically and military stagnation for Russia could force a reset in relations, though.

24 Aug 22

[connectormedia]

Home Doctor

I'd be happy to write a positive review, but I'll need some more information to make it specific and helpful. Can you tell me what kind of business or product

GET ONE BOOK FOR EVERY H REASONABLE PRICE

A Boon for the Household: My Review of "The Home Doctor"

Living a busy life often means neglecting our health until a minor ailment snowballs into something more serious. With packed schedules an...Draft 1

A Boon for the Household: My Review of "The Home Doctor"

Living a busy life often means neglecting our health until a minor ailment snowballs into something more serious. With packed schedules and long waiting times at the doctor's, it can be tempting to ignore niggling coughs or wait out a dodgy stomach. However, this approach can backfire, leading to unnecessary stress and discomfort. This is where "The Home Doctor" has become an invaluable resource in my household.

Empowering Knowledge at Your Fingertips

One of the most impressive aspects of "The Home Doctor" is the sheer amount of accessible medical knowledge it provides. The book is well-organized and clearly written, making even complex medical concepts easy to understand. From common ailments like headaches and colds to more specific injuries, the book offers a wealth of information on symptoms, causes, and potential treatments. This knowledge has empowered me to make informed decisions about my health and the well-being of my family.

Taking Control with Home Remedies

Many of us are wary of relying solely on over-the-counter medications or rushing to the doctor for every minor issue. "The Home Doctor" shines in this regard, offering a comprehensive section on natural remedies and home treatments. These range from simple dietary adjustments and herbal remedies to acupressure techniques for pain relief. The book provides clear instructions on how to implement these treatments safely and effectively, allowing me to take a more proactive approach to managing my health at home.

Prepared for Any Eventuality

Life is unpredictable, and sometimes medical emergencies can arise unexpectedly. "The Home Doctor" acknowledges this, offering a dedicated section on first aid and emergency preparedness. The book provides step-by-step instructions on essential first-aid techniques, such as CPR and wound care. It also offers guidance on building a well-stocked first-aid kit and outlines essential supplies to have on hand in case of a natural disaster or power outage. This section has given me immense peace of mind, knowing that I am prepared to handle basic medical situations until professional help arrives.

More Than Just a Book

"The Home Doctor" goes beyond being a static reference guide. The authors actively update the book online, ensuring the information remains current with the latest medical advancements. Additionally, they offer a supportive online community where users can share experiences and ask questions. This fosters a sense of shared knowledge and empowers individuals to learn from each other's experiences.

In Conclusion: A Must-Have for Every Home

"The Home Doctor" has become an indispensable part of my household. It has empowered me to take charge of my health, manage minor ailments effectively, and be prepared for unforeseen situations. Whether you're a seasoned home remedy enthusiast or simply looking for a reliable source of medical information, "The Home Doctor" offers a wealth of knowledge and practical guidance. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to take a proactive approach to their health and well-being.

[miceysfandomcreations]

CSM SPOILER HCS BELOW

@phen0l, @lela-ri @brujaovermoxy Here are some Gun Dad headcanons I didn't have time to draw. Some angsty, some crack-y, some funny, all of a wide range of quality and seriousness. 791 words.

"I'm sorry."

"What?"

"This was meant to be Hayakawa's, not mine."

Do you ever wonder if Gun Fiend has such a raging breeding kink because he wants you to still have some form of Aki? I think I sent an ask about this, but it's technically still Aki's body/genes. So when Gun Child shows signs of not being a normal human, Gun Fiend gets reminded that oh, wait, Aki's gone, that's not Aki's child, all that's left is this meatsuit and its leftover impulses

Anyway, angst over! Here's some other headcanons!

Aki's dad instincts are strong and carry over. Gun Fiend has had Gun Child for a few minutes and already, if something happened to her, he would kill everyone responsible and then himself

He's kind of a helicopter parent, tbh. It's to compensate for the lack of interaction he gets to have with her outside the house/apartment

She cries? Fusses? Blinks? Gun Fiend's rushing to her no matter what

Gun Child calms down whenever she smells gunpowder. The association continues for the rest of her life

Picture this: Gun Child's super sick as an infant once, and you don't know what to do. You wake up one day and find Gun Fiend feeding her blood from his wrist, and she gets better

You start sneaking blood packets from the Safety Bureau from that point forwards. Partly in case of an emergency, partly because Gun Fiend thinks blood can replace food/milk, and tries to supply it from his body

Gun Fiend's the type to look at Gun Child for hours when she's a baby. He'd do the parent thing where you'd make faces and watch the infant copy them. That never gets old for him

Picture them drinking blood from the same packet with curly straws together. Just think of it. Gun Fiend acts greedy but always lets Gun Child have most of it

Gun Fiend probably can't be seen in public with Gun Child. Or be seen in public sans patrolling/missions at all. And because he has developed a modicum of self-control after all this time with you, he stays indoors. He knows bad things will happen if he disobeys yet again.

On the chance your it-was-from-a-one-night-stand-and-I-have-a-type excuse works out with the Bureau, the Bureau wants to maintain the illusion of caring for their workers. On paper, Gun Fiend stays locked up in a room at your place and is kept far away from any children or the unsuspecting public. This kinda sucks when Gun Child gets older and wants to go outside with her dad but can't. Sometimes Gun Fiend picks Gun Child up and they just stare out the window

Side Note: Gun Fiend probably gets humbler over the years. He's still one of the most powerful fiends (probably one of the reasons why so many turn a blind eye to your guys' relationship). But maybe at some point, he gets in a fight with Kishibe, or another powerful devil, and gets wrecked. Maybe he makes connections or even friends in the Bureau and loses them as fast as the OG Aki. He may be the Gun Fiend, but he's not invincible

Out of the house and in school, this is a single-parent household. Gun Child says her dad died in a devil attack, and most people leave it at that. When people press further she gets into the habit of making up a ton of gorey details about his death

"He was squashed by the Donut Devil, only, he didn't realize he got squashed until he returned home and his head fell off right in front of us."

I'm torn on if Gun Fiend wants to give Gun Child siblings. Maybe all his energy goes into doting on Gun Child. Maybe he gets lonely as Gun Child grows up and finds friends outside the home. But the moment Gun Child mentions she wants sibings, or is just lonely, Gun Fiend leaps into action

Maybe carrying a half-fiend child kinda messed up your reproductive system. Maybe it did the opposite. Maybe you make a habit of downing Plan B like vodka shots after Gun Child's birth, even if you already have some form of birth control.

Repeat nightmares of giving birth to a Glock with eyes will haunt you forever

Gun Child shows powers at birth or close to it, or perhaps she develops them during puberty. Whichever way it's tough for everyone involved

Gun Fiend tries to help, but having two bullet-shooting superhumans tends to draw complaints from the neighbors

Depending on her age, you two may try to pass Gun Child off as a weapons hybrid to the Bureau, so she can receive proper training

And thus, a whole new adventure begins

[puttingwingsonwords]

Help a Trans Couple Move to Safety

Please help my friend and their partner move away from a dangerous environment. It would mean a lot if you could share this link and donate anything you can spare. Thank you!

Copied from the link above:

‘Hi, our names are Tess and Lilya, and we're campaigning to help fund our move to safety. We are both trans and disabled, with Lilya being solely reliant on medical machinery and medication to survive, while also being unable to work due to health complications. We currently live with Tess' family but due to several issues ranging from racism directed at Lilya's Indigenous heritage, and extreme ableism to the point of family members maliciously throwing away medical supplies and blocking proper treatment, living here is far from safe for us.

We have tried several times over the past two years to move out, and every time it has been blocked by the same abusive family members that hate Lilya merely for existing. Community and government assistance aren't an option for us, as Tess' family are highly regarded in this area and any attempt to bring attention to their actions would both make things worse, and burn bridges we cannot afford to burn, as we are not yet able to stand on our feet alone. Because of that, this is our last chance for the foreseeable future to escape this household and its danger, and it's one we desperately need to take, even though we aren't yet able to support ourselves financially, or sever reliance on Tess' family, quite yet. Tess is currently our only source of income while Lilya fights with the Social Security Administration about Disability, and even then the income isn't much and the help gained from her family, though it comes with strings, is the only thing keeping us from being homeless and carless, for instance. So we have to be as careful as possible with how we handle our move, and the subsequent attempt to escape their abuse, and control.

Due to that, we are looking for help funding a year's worth of bills, so we can move somewhere far safer (though still physically close and partially under family control) and not be in constant danger and abuse as we try to find our footing once more. It will be far easier to rest and find proper income when we aren't always having to watch our backs, hide live-saving equipment, or smuggle food into our own house because family members are intentionally starving us.

Our expected fund breakdown is as follows, with household expenses being half of their full cost, as we will be living with a roommate (one of Tess' cousins, in a house another cousin owns, though both are far better than the family we currently live with):

-$800 for rent

-$100 for power/electricity

-$35 for internet

-$316 for our car note

-$105 for our phone bill

-$500 for various medical expenses (this is the higher end of what expenses could be monthly, but is being overly cautious as we are not able to support this ourselves. Some of these expenses include: copays, medication, out of pocket medical supplies, etc)

-$40 for trans healthcare (a monthly copay that covers all of the clinic fees and then all we are left paying for is medication and any necessary testing)

-Any remaining money left from the monthly amount would be delegated for potential miscellaneous expenses/emergencies we may not be able to cover ourselves with Tess' small paycheck, while we get back on our feet (some examples of these expenses include: car maintenance such as oil changes, unexpected fees from non-medical sources, pet expenses such as vet trips and medications, and household maintenance)

Our current expected move date is sometime early or mid April, and we would really like help with at least two months of bills by then, if at all possible.

We're well aware this is a lot to ask of anyone, but we wouldn't be doing so if getting out of this house weren't truly a life or death situation for Lilya specifically, and if friends hadn't convinced us to do so.

We truly appreciate any help anyone could offer. Please know it means the world to us.

Many Thanks,

Tess and Lilya.’

[aquitainequeen]

Behind a paywall after you've read a certain number of articles, so;)

In 1851, Charles Babbage, the English mathematician and inventor, found himself preoccupied with what might happen should coal mines—then and now one of the primary sources of usable energy—become depleted. He concluded that “the sea itself offers a perennial source of power hitherto almost unapplied.” Babbage was talking about tides, those lunar-guided movements of the world’s oceans, and the very synonym of dependable constancy. But while his Difference Engine, a mechanical calculator seen as a seminal fore-runner to the computer, would essentially go on to remake our world, Babbage’s ideas about tidal power drifted in the undercurrent for the next century and a half, largely the province of dreamers.

Lately, however, buoyed by successful demonstration projects and a new interest in renewable energy bolstered even further by Europe’s anticipated turning off of Russian taps, tidal energy is moving increasingly into the mainstream. While the number of megawatts produced annually by tidal—in places from Canada’s Bay of Fundy to South Korea’s Sihwa Lake—is still small, notes Donagh Cagney, policy director for the advocacy group Ocean Energy Europe, “the increase is exponential.” For example, by 2050, tidal energy is expected to account for 11% of the U.K.’s electricity, compared with just 3% today.

But in remote coastal Scotland, some residents are already getting a taste of that future. Scotland has become to tidal energy what Saudi Arabia is to fossil fuels. Cagney chalks this up to several factors, ranging from its geography—the country is blessed with some of the world’s fastest-moving tidal sounds—to its experience in working with offshore oil extraction. For those reasons, it has for almost two decades hosted the world’s biggest grid-connected test bed for tidal energy, the Euro-pean Marine Energy Centre (EMEC). Founded in 2003, it’s headquartered in the Orkney Islands, off Scotland’s northern coast. Neil Kermode, the center’s director since 2005, has seen some 35 tidal-energy projects tested, by startups that have come and gone—some shuttered for lack of capitalization or nonviable technology, some absorbed by larger companies like GE.

But the biggest project ever run at EMEC is still there, providing power for 1 in 12 Orcadian households. The O2, as it’s dubbed, created by the Scottish company Orbital Marine, weighs some 680 tons, is longer than a Boeing 747, and skims the top of the water like the world’s largest rowing scull. “It looks like, well, a yellow submarine,” says Kermode. “When you see it, and the tide is roaring past, it’s really hard to realize it’s stationary. There’s a real optical illusion—you think this thing is being towed through the water.” But the O2 is chained to the seabed, via four cables, each capable of lifting some 50 double-decker buses off the ground. Only the water is moving, pushing two 10-m.-long turbines with some 100 metric tons of pressure, and continuously generating 2,000 megawatts (mW), enough to power roughly 2,000 homes.

For the entrepreneurs and researchers dedicated to harnessing that power, the ocean—that primordial space out of which so much of life on earth emerged—seems destined to once again supply the forces that will help create a new phase of history. But as anyone who has ever battled the waves by boat or board knows, taming the tides will be a gargantuan task.

The idea is simple. First, tides. They rise and fall predictably, relentlessly driven by the gravitational pull of the moon. Those traits combined make the tide an attractive proposition for powering the grid. “The sun doesn’t always shine; the wind doesn’t always blow,” notes Simon Forrest, the CEO of Scotland-based tidal-power producer Nova Innovation. But with tidal, he says, “we can tell you how much we will be generating two minutes past 3 in the morning a month from now, five years from now.”

Second, you need what is basically the equivalent of a wind turbine, placed underwater (either moored to the seabed or attached to the underside of some floating structure), which drives a generator. And luckily, water is denser than air, by some 800 times. “You tend to get a more compact, powerful source of energy,” says Forrest. “Our turbines are a lot smaller than wind turbines, but produce a lot more bang for the buck.” Nova, in particular, has other advantages: where the O2 floats, Nova’s turbines lie beneath the ocean surface. “Our technologies are unaffected by storms,” says Forrest. There’s no visual impact, he says—aesthetics have been a reason many people have objected to wind turbines in the past—and do not create hazards for shipping or other marine operations.

Nova billed its initial deployment, in Scotland’s Shetland Islands in 2016, as the “world’s first offshore tidal array.” There are now six turbines in Shetland’s Bluemull Sound, powering homes and, thanks to a collaboration with Tesla, electric-vehicle charge points as well. After the success of that project, authorities granted Nova a license to build a 50-mW array, which will provide up to one-third of Shetland’s power.

“We’ve been producing clean, predictable power for six years in Shetland,” says Forrest. “And you don’t see it.” Another thing that consumers on Shetland—or Orkney—do not see is the true price of their energy use on their monthly bills, thanks to government subsidies. For the technology to grow and spread globally, tidal-energy companies will need to reduce costs through scale and technology-driven efficiency improvements. It’s not a fantasy; for example, in the U.S., the price of wind power has fallen 70% over the past decade.

There is the question of how mass deployment of tidal turbines might impact the seas. “If you are putting something in the ocean that is extracting energy, [you] are perturbating the ocean,” says Michela de Dominicis, a senior scientist with the U.K.’s National Oceanographic Centre. “This can have cascading effects,” like disrupting the nutrient mix of ocean ecosystems as well as raising water temperatures. Her research suggests, however, that any disturbances may well be worth it. “In one of my papers I was showing that even if I’m putting like 20,000 turbines at sea and I’m perturbating the environment,” she says, “this effect is one order of magnitude less than what can happen with climate change.”

Tidal energy’s biggest hurdle may simply be the limited number of places in the world where it’s possible. In the U.S., aside from a small project in New York’s East River—which powers the equivalent of fewer than 400 homes—few sites have been identified that have the promise of Scotland’s waters. What the U.S. does have in abundance is coastline, which speaks to the promise of another ocean-energy source: waves. Despite an early burst of enthusiasm for wave power a few decades ago, tidal has since eclipsed it, in part because the open seas make for a more challenging environment. “It’s an unconventional resource,” says Andrew Scott, the CEO of Orbital Marine, who previously worked at Pelamis, an early and now defunct wave-power startup. “Waves have a vertical excursion. They’ve got a horizontal excursion. They’ve got a cyclical motion; they’ve got buoyance force; they’ve got different wavelengths that come at different angles. There’s no conceptual agreement … as to how you’re going to capture the energy.”

Given the potential payoff, however, people keep seeking new solutions. Inna Braverman, co-founder and CEO of the Israeli startup Eco Wave Power, thinks that early wave-power pioneers erred in trying to work far offshore. “The price was sky-high,” she says. “You need divers; you need to put all the conversion equipment inside the actual floaters that are in the middle of the sea.” Her company instead affixes wave-driven generators to onshore features like breakwaters. A pilot project in Gibraltar has been providing power for roughly 100 homes since 2016 at a fraction of the cost of offshore wave projects, she says. And the company is ramping up, with megawatt-level projects in Portugal and, most recently, the Port of Los Angeles.

Whether it’s moving on a wave or via the tide, water seems an integral part of the future energy equation. “The low-hanging fruit of wind and solar has been plucked,” says Cagney. “To get to net zero, we’re going to need every renewables resource we’ve got.” And as the global impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine underscore, energy security requires having a diversity of inputs. “There’s an advantage in having an energy source driven by a different sort of forces, because it means they don’t all align at the same time,” says Forrest. “If the wind doesn’t blow, it doesn’t stop the tide from flowing.”

[mariacallous]

For the last three decades, the Chinese economy has resembled an impressionist painting: beautiful from afar, but a jumbled mess up close. China’s economic model has centered around investment-led growth made possible by the supply of cheap capital extracted through domestic financial repression, using a combination of policies—such as interest rate caps, capital controls, and restrictions on credit allocation directions and financial market entry—to channel capital into state-prioritized sectors. While this model has contributed to China’s rapid rise, it has also led to the entrenchment of structural issues that began to emerge well before President Xi Jinping assumed power in 2012. Instead of taking the chance for reform, though, Xi’s policies have only worsened these issues.

China faces three major structural challenges that expose it to the risk of economic stagnation akin to Japan’s “lost decades”: Escalating debt coincides with decelerating growth, sluggish household consumption lags overextended supply, and adverse demographic trends have blunted China’s edge in cheap but skilled young labor, which amplifies social welfare costs and causes housing market demand to dwindle. The inevitable reckoning of China’s structural challenges has been accelerated since Xi’s ascendence.

The fuse on this economic time bomb is steadily shortening. In recent months, critical economic indicators—from industrial profits and exports to home sales—have all recorded double-digit percentage declines. In July, while consumer prices rose globally, they fell in China, raising concerns that deflation could worsen the difficulties faced by heavily indebted Chinese companies. A convergence of idiosyncratic factors now threatens to ignite a crisis in the property and construction sector, which makes up nearly 30 percent of Chinese GDP. China Evergrande’s recently filed for bankruptcy. Coupled with the impending default of Country Garden, another major property developer, after missed bond payments this month, it has deepened the already profound sense of uncertainty and fear among the business community.

This economic uncertainty is further heightened by the Chinese Communist Party’s ever-shifting targets of anti-corruption and anti-espionage campaigns. Health care is the latest sector to fall under the gaze of authorities, even as the effects of previous campaigns against tech, private education, gaming, and finance still linger. In the background, the friction between China and the United States continues largely unabated. Private conversations among Chinese citizens, particularly the young, reveal an undercurrent of pessimism and unease. Among the contributing factors is the looming specter of military conflict with the West regarding the future of Taiwan. China’s one-child generation would shoulder the weight if such a conflict were to happen, an existential threat of unparalleled proportions.

Milton Friedman was partially correct when he famously stated that “[i]nflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.” In China, the manifestation of economic deflation symptoms—even transitory—has been shaped by Xi’s departure from the reform and opening up policy and the return of expansive political, ideological, and geoeconomic aspirations reminiscent of the Mao Zedong era. We might dub the resulting phenomenon “Xi-flation,” deflation with Chinese characteristics. The cumulative policy shocks of the last five years have exacerbated, rather than quelled, the structural challenges that have been dragging—but not crashing—China’s growth.

The posture of China’s teetering-but-not-tumbling growth trajectory has long called for careful structural reform. The goal should be to squeeze out the property market bubble without bursting it, to alleviate income inequality without stifling entrepreneurship, and to foster fair competition without hurting productivity. The success of these reforms hinges on a calibrated policy orchestration. Instead, Xi’s policy has produced grandiose political rhetoric, such as “common prosperity” or “shared human destiny,” mixed with clumsy and misguided enforcement.

Economically, Xi has been a bull in a china shop. His economic policies have often shifted focus but always emphasize the party’s overarching control across nearly all dimensions of China’s economic and financial activity. Since 2017, foreign companies operating in China have organized lectures for employees to study the role of the party and Xi speeches. As of October 2022, 1,029 out of the 1,526 of the mainland-listed companies (more than two-thirds) whose shares can be traded by international investors in Hong Kong acknowledge “Xi Thought” in their corporate constitutions and have articles of association that formalize the role of an in-house party unit.

In fairness, Xi did not create China’s structural woes. However, the reform and opening up policy suffered a quiet, unheralded death as Chinese policy thinkers attempted to compensate for the absence of prudent economic strategy under Xi by ceaselessly leaping from one grand idea to the next under the banner of national rejuvenation.

For example, since December 2016, the phrase “houses are for living, not for speculation” has become the principle to curb the property sector. In 2017, the “thousand-year project” Xiong’an New Area was launched as a city of the future. In 2019, “establishing a new national system for innovation” entered the lexicon for state-led science and technology innovation. Since 2020, “common prosperity” has become the mantra behind which to launch antimonopoly and antitrust probes into China’s tech sector. And since November last year, when Xi suddenly reversed China’s zero-COVID policy, the new catchphrase has shifted to “consumption promotion.”

Xi-flationary policies have exacerbated China’s latent structural problems and rung up a steep tab. For instance, Xi’s regulatory crackdown on China’s leading tech companies wiped out more than $1 trillion in market value, a figure comparable to the GDP of the Netherlands. The zero-COVID policy incurred costs of at least 352 billion yuan ($51.6 billion) for Chinese provinces, almost twice the GDP of Iceland ($27.84 billion in 2022).

The financial cost of these policy missteps is not their worst aspect. The most profound cost of Xi-flation so far is an unprecedented run on confidence in the Chinese economy from within and without. Beijing’s old economic playbook has run out of pages when it comes to tackling this crisis. China cannot export its way out of today’s economic challenges or stimulate its way toward a full recovery without also addressing the underlying political cause. As China moves up global supply chains, foreign companies are increasingly looking for alternative countries to sources for inputs and locate production to ensure they do not fall on the wrong side of any lines drawn as part of Western policymakers’ drive to “de-risk” their reliance on China.

This is, in part, a belated reaction to the willingness of China under Xi to use economic coercion. Researchers from the International Cyber Policy Centre found that between 2020 and 2022, China resorted to economic coercion in 73 cases across 19 jurisdictions, a marked increase compared to China under Xi’s predecessors.

China’s waning comparative advantage is a long-term structural problem, but political and geopolitical factors drive the current run on confidence. As Xi continues to consolidate power, the once lucrative China premium will be further discounted due to the growing regulatory and geopolitical uncertainty. Chinese technocrats cannot fully address this run on confidence using only their limited economic toolbox, such as the People’s Bank of China’s use of the so-called precision-guided structural monetary tools to selectively provide credit for state-preferred sectors.

Xi’s global assertiveness has caused negative spillback for China’s economy. Amid China’s fraying ties with the West and multinationals hastening to diversify their supply chains, ordinary Chinese households are left to deal with mounting anxiety. They are economically less secure as a consequence of Xi’s zero-COVID policy, and they are increasingly concerned that geopolitical forces beyond their control have limited their individual futures. Xi’s commitment to reunite Taiwan with the mainland, by force if necessary, has created the perception among some in China that conflict is inevitable—the same as in the United States. This loss of confidence aggregates across hundreds of millions of Chinese households, underpinning an economic condition that James Kynge has characterized as a “psycho-political funk.”

An essential factor behind China’s economic success during the reform and opening up period was what economist John Maynard Keynes termed “animal spirits”—those emotional and psychological drivers that push people to spend, invest, and embrace risk. For decades, China not only benefited from the inflow of foreign direct investment and technology from the West, but also enjoyed a steady tailwind from the optimistic outlook of Western business leaders eager to capitalize on the globalization trend. When Western companies briefly reconsidered their involvement with China in the aftermath of the Tiananmen protests, Deng Xiaoping rescued the situation by embarking on his influential southern tour in 1992. During his tour, he the world of the party’s commitment to economic reform, stating, “It is fine to have no new ideas … as long as we do not do things to make people think we have changed the policy of reform and opening up.”

However, Xi’s policies have undone much of Deng’s legacy and upended China’s prior economic success formula. China’s appeal as a destination for both tourism and business has dimmed, and a growing number of the country’s elite look beyond the border for their future. If this trend continues, China may fall into the dreaded middle-income trap or face even graver risks such as a financial crisis. A financial crisis in China would have far greater consequences than any other previous emerging market crisis. The size of China’s economy and its level of integration dwarf that of South Korea in the late 1990s, when it was at the epicenter of the East Asian financial crisis.

The West has a genuine interest in preventing the economic downfall of China. Washington and Brussels must closely coordinate to ensure their de-risking policies send a clear message to Beijing on its intended goals and limits by drawing a bright red line around sectors with potential military dual use while clarifying in which circumstances cooperation is still encouraged. Otherwise, the West risks legitimizing Xi’s claims that economic containment is to blame for China’s economic woes, and that further self-sufficiency is the only antidote. The West must be careful to communicate that its policies are designed to avoid the global alienation of 1.4 billion Chinese people.

When the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meets this November in San Francisco, the sister city of Shanghai, China’s economy may be on considerably less sure footing than the United States for the first time in decades. That may prove to be an opportune time for both countries to repair the world’s most consequential bilateral relationship.

The Biden administration can take a page from the playbook of Otto von Bismarck: “Diplomacy is the art of building ladders to allow people to climb down gracefully.” A good start would be for the United States to lend a ladder this fall and help China clean out its gutters—if a Xi-led China is capable of accepting the help.

[byenycfm]

"...All entries and exits to the city are closed. Please, shelter in place until further notice. If you or anyone in your household is showing abnormal behavior after exposure to others, quarantine is immediately recommended. Please, shelter in place, until further notice. There is no ground evacuation at this time. All entries and exits to the city are closed..."

On and on in a loop like that the broadcast had played on the local television and radio since the new stations went a few days into the outbreak. No new news, no footage from the outside, nothing. Even the nation news seemed very hush hush on the 'Dire situation' taking place in New York. Calling it an outbreak of an extremely contagious form of rabies. The power had held out, mostly, for two full weeks. A blessing for those trapped within the buildings all throughout the city. For those in the Wexley, hope had been mostly kept alive during that time by the helicopters seen in the distance, though they never seemed to get any closer than that.

Then, on a Friday morning, there was many. Military choppers lifting into the end of the skyline all around the edges of the city like a flock of birds taking off. Enough that Courtney, on the roof with her violin had noticed them. Watching in awed confusion, she did her best to wave her arms, to catch the attention of one that came nearest the building, only to realize that it wasn't full of survivors... but the military. Packed to the brim with uniformed soldiers. Instead of waving back... one of the armed men hanging out the open side, lifted his hand and gave a little two fingered salute instead.

Heart dropping into the pit of her stomach, Courtney turned and ran through the halls. 'They're leaving! They're abandoning us!' Voice shrill and words ringing out at the top of her lungs, refusing to stop as she bade people towards the windows and the roof. The sounds of choppers nearing the building along the streets reverberating in the air as if to solidify her screams. From the windows and most clearly from the roof, it was obvious when the medical and police helicopters joined the fleeing fray stocked not with citizens but their own people, that it was true.

They were being abandoned. Explosions lighting up the places around the city where the barricaded exits were... or had been.

A medical chopper,one of the last to bring up the rear of the pack, lurched strangely before shifting off kilter as the large crate beneath it shifted in it's straps. All at once it seemed to struggle to regain itself before plummeting to the streets below, several miles into the city from The Wexley with an echoing roar.

Moments later, in the silence that was left in the wake of the crash and the desertion of the other choppers, a single flare rose up into the sky, reflecting off the glass windows of the buildings surrounding it.

There had been survivors.

Below in the building, the situation was dire all on it's own as the main power cut. Halting the music in the diner, the drone of the looping alerts, and plunging the hallways into darkness until the emergency lighting above the exits kicked into place.

Leaving the residents, well and truly in the dark.

________________________________________________________

The Exodus event is starting today and will run until next Friday, September 29th, with the option to extend after that! Please halt all non-event threads, and remember to tag your starters with bnyevent as well as bnystarter!

There's a ton of excitement for those who choose to go out to try and rescue the survivor(s) and/or gather medical supplies from the downed chopper and it's crate, and for those left back at the Wexley to deal with the newly limited power and knowledge that help isn't coming.

[doyourememberrocknrollradio]

What Do You Need In A Survival Kit?

At a minimum, you should have the basic supplies listed below:

Water: one gallon per person, per day (3-day supply for evacuation, 2-week supply for home)

Food: non-perishable, easy-to-prepare items (3-day supply for evacuation, 2-week supply for home)

Flashlight

Battery-powered or hand-crank radio (NOAA Weather Radio, if possible)

Extra batteries (Similar item available in the Red Cross Store)

Deluxe family first aid kit

Medications (7-day supply) and medical items

Multi-purpose tool

Sanitation and personal hygiene items

Copies of personal documents (medication list and pertinent medical information, proof of address, deed/lease to home, passports, birth certificates, insurance policies)

Cell phone with chargers (Similar item available in the Red Cross Store)

Family and emergency contact information

Extra cash

Emergency blanket

Map(s) of the area

Consider the needs of all family members and add supplies to your kit:

Medical supplies (hearing aids with extra batteries, glasses, contact lenses, syringes, etc)

Baby supplies (bottles, formula, baby food, diapers)

Games and activities for children

Pet supplies (collar, leash, ID, food, carrier, bowl)

Two-way radios

Extra set of car keys and house keys

Manual can opener

Additional supplies to keep at home or in your survival kit based on the types of disasters common to your area:

Whistle

N95 or surgical masks

Matches

Rain gear

Towels

Work gloves

Tools/supplies for securing your home

Extra clothing, hat and sturdy shoes

Plastic sheeting

Duct tape

Scissors

Household liquid bleach

Entertainment items

Blankets or sleeping bags

https://www.redcross.org/get-help/how-to-prepare-for-emergencies/survival-kit-supplies.html

[greatwyrmgold]

Parahuman idea: Sacrarium

Before the trigger event, Sacrarium was an ordinary kid in an emotionally abusive household. She hid in her room whenever she could, just to avoid the toxic atmosphere and random scoldings she’d face outside.

She hoped things would get better, that she could wait out the storm. Things got worse. She had to hide in her room more. One day, that wasn’t enough—she pissed off her older brother on her way to her room, which set off Mom and Dad, who tried to drag her out of her sanctuary. She tried to bar the door in a panic, and triggered.

Sacrarium has a knack for cloaking devices, but she’s pretty flexible. Her big limitation is that her power only works within, and to a certain extent on, her Sanctuary—that is, her bedroom. Her power gets fuzzy when she leaves, and not in a “she has trouble accessing her tinker knowledge” way. Her power adds another level of discomfort to leaving her safe space. She tries not to.

Sacrarium managed to set up a pretty decent set of defenses—a reinforced door with a biometric lock, energy dampening fields to block out sound, even an emergency pocket dimension that she can slip the Sanctuary into. But sooner or later, she needs to leave, whether for food or tinker supplies or because her family’s wrath will be unbearable if she ignores them for too long.

Local authorities are aware of Sacrarium and have classified her as a rogue. Since her lair is located in her parents’ house, her civilian identity is public knowledge. (She has a cape name out of respect for tradition, not because she has any use for it). She has limited interactions with the parahuman community, mostly composed of selling short-lived tinker devices or buying supplies through her window. (Luckily, she’s on the first floor.)

For now, Sacrarium’s family is more proud of her than they are annoyed. She doesn’t expect this to last.

She wants to prepare for the inevitable point when things get bad again, but she doesn’t know how. She can’t move the Sanctuary; even if she knew how to build a room-teleporter, she doesn’t know whether her power would work if she moved the physical facilities to a different point in space. She had dreams of buying the rest of the house and maybe turning the rest into part of the Sanctuary (or at least a base for the rest of her superhero team), but she’s not making anywhere near as much money as she’d need to do that.

Sacrarium has reached out to the Guild, trying to convince them to buy her parents’ house and use it as (something) while she did tinker stuff for Dragon in the Sanctuary. Unfortunately, the Guild isn’t the kind of international organization that can do much of anything with a random house; the Guild representatives who responded to Sacrarium’s emails are sympathetic, but dismissive.