#holition

[girlactionfigure]

Hayim Katsman was a DJ, a philosophy PhD, a car mechanic, farmer and a peace activist. He especially loved Arab music and would use it in his DJ sets - he thought it could bring people closer together. He also volunteered to drive sick kids from Gaza to hospitals in Israel. On Oct 7 he awoke to the sound of gun shots from Hamas terrorists who infiltrated kibbutz Holit where he lived, and went from home to home to see who he could help. He ended up staying in the shelter with his neighbor Avital and shielding her with his body when terrorists shot through the door. He absorbed all the bullets and she survived.

afshineemrani

[jewishvitya]

972mag is a publication by Palestinian and Israeli journalists.

Quotes from here:

In a eulogy for her brother Hayim, an anti-occupation activist who was murdered in Kibbutz Holit, Noi Katsman called on her country “not to use our deaths and our pain to cause the death and pain of other people or other families. I demand that we stop the circle of pain, and understand that the only way [forward] is freedom and equal rights. Peace, brotherhood, and security for all human beings.”

Ziv Stahl, executive director of the human rights organization Yesh Din, and a survivor of the hellfire in Kfar Aza, also came out strongly against Israel’s assault on Gaza in an article in Haaretz. “I have no need for revenge, nothing will return those who are gone,” she wrote. “Indiscriminate bombing in Gaza and the killing of civilians uninvolved with these horrible crimes are no solution.”

Yotam Kipnis, whose father was murdered in the Hamas attack, said in his eulogy: “Do not write my father’s name on a [military] shell. He wouldn’t have wanted that. Don’t say, ‘God will avenge his blood.’ Say, ‘May his memory be for a blessing.’”

And people there talk about breaking the cycle, which has to mean us. We must be the ones to do that, we have the power and the freedom to allow us to do that. We keep Palestinians trapped and dying and give them no path out of this way of life.

Peace should not mean quiet subjugation. It should mean stopping the genocide, and it should mean no occupation, no apartheid, no ethnic cleansing, undoing whatever we can from the colonialist tactics Israel has been using from the start.

And it has to mean us.

[kocourmokroocko]

Pravidla života a smrti v našem paneláku

(schválená a prosazená Výborem Vlastníků)

Teplá voda se zapíná v sedm ráno a vypíná v osm večer. Chtěl ses osprchovat teplou vodou před spaním? Seš kretén a máš chodit spát v sedm. Běž si dát ledovou sprchu, nebo přestaň zabírat místo na svý evoluční větvi.

Po desátý večer nesmíš jet výtahem. Nesmíš jet výtahem, protože jinak budeš muset vysvětlovat paní O., proč jezdíš výtahem, ačkoliv ti ještě nebylo šedesát, a když musíš mluvit s paní O., máš abnormální delikventní pohnutky. Paní O. za abnormální delikventní pohnutku považuje už fakt, že jezdíš výtahem, ačkoliv ti nebylo šedesát, nedejbože po desátý večer. Máš těžký tašky a bydlíš v šestým? Seš kretén a máš bydlet v jeskyni, jak to Nietzsche a Bůh pro tvou socioekonomickou třídu zamýšlel.

Topení se zapíná v tu samou dobu, co teplá voda, vypíná se odpoledne, opět se zapíná kolem sedmé večer a vypíná se v devět. Tyto časy se mění na bázi cen za plyn, postavení hvězd, jak moc je manžel paní O. nasranej na mladý lidi v paneláku a jestli si ten den někdo vzpomněl, že se mělo zapnout. Je ti zima po tvý ledový sprše? Chcípni, nemáš si holit nohy a podpaží, měl bys vrstvy.

Na trávník se nesmí. Zahradnice a nejlepší kamarádka pani O. tvrdí, že trávník je pouze pro malé děti, aby si na něm mohly hrát. Žádné malé děti si na něm nikdy hrát nechtějí, protože je to hnusnej anglickej trávník, na kterým nic neroste ani nežije, včetně dětí, a děti jsou omezeny miliony pravidly pro hry, co na něm mohou hrát, ale ty na něj nesmíš vůbec. Kvůli dětem. Píše se to tak v Bibli. "Jananáš, syn Ajajáše, smrdutou hnátou na trávník vstoupil, a tu všechny děti v přilehlém panelovém domě kobylky spásly. A prázdnotou zely pak trávníky Jananášových synů..."

Tvůj pes taky nesmí na trávník. Mrňaví psi kamarádek pani O. a zahradnice na něj smí, a velmi často na něj kálí. Ačkoliv tvůj pes v životě na trávníku nebyl, protože na něj nesmí, vždy bude vina za kriminální hovno hozená na něj. Tvé vysvětlení, že tvůj pes nesere sběratelský miniatury, padne na posolenou, podusanou a malými psy pokálenou půdu.

Lavička před domem bude sklizená od babího léta do začátku dalšího léta, a k dispozici bude pouze v těch nejúmornějších, nejteplejších měsících, kdy se na ní nedá sedět, protože zaprvý umíráš, zadruhý je přímo v centru kovbojský přestřelky mezi zahradními rozstřikovači, a za třetí nepotřebuješ mít dozlatova upečenou prdel al dente.

Piknikový stůl a lavice, stojící ve stínu malebné magnólie a bezpečně mimo dosah rozstřikovačů, uklizené nebudou nikdy, ale zato na nich nesmíš sedět, protože je to pižmem označené teritorium paní O., zahradnice, jejich kamarádek a armády mrňavých psů. Ne nepodobné teritoriím tygrů a červenek obecných, vstupem se automaticky měníš v jídlo. Pokud si tam dovolíš páchnout, je stoprocentní šance, že zažiješ prvních 40 minut Carrie od Palmy (POV: Carrie). Akorát je to horší, protože šikanizéři v Carrie neměli vládu nad přívodem teplý vody a plynu. (Skutečným hororem je kapitalismus, který jsme nalezli po cestě.)

Velká Placatá Korková Tabule Křivd ve vestibulu je výhradně na věšení ztracených klíčů a veřejné popravy:

Veřejné popravy mohou zahajovat pouze paní O., zahradnice a jejich kamarádky. Účastnit se jich zjevně taky, protože ani po měsíci a půl, co tam ta cedule visela, nepřibyla jediná čárka, načež byla potupně a v tichosti sňata. Jsem pyšná na tuto republiku.

S kamarády můžete psychicky přežívat prostřednictvím humorných žertíků a radovánek:

Pokud osobně skončíš na Velké Placaté Korkové Tabuli Křivd, nezoufej. Akorát to znamená, že o tobě na schůzi výboru vlastníků odhlasovali, že jsi kretén a nezasloužíš si kyslík, teplou vodu a plyn. Taky pravděpodobně zavolají majiteli tvého bytu, jako kdyby to byl tvůj rodič, a řeknou mu, že seš kretén. Majitel tvého bytu, kterému se před tebou rapidně vystřídalo šest podnájemníků a ten poslední skončil v nemocnici s kompletním psychickým zhroucením po hádce s paní O., si kdesi v Německu hlasitě povzdechne a ukončí hovor. Nes své umístění na Velké Placaté Korkové Tabuli Křivd jako metál slávy, kterýmžto je.

Na chodbě před bytem nesmíš mít koloběžku. Nesmíš jí tam mít, protože by mohla shořet. Koloběžka je kovová. Botník před dveřmi paní O. je dřevěný. Chcípni.

Pokud v bytě soukromě doučuješ angličtinu, budeš obviněn z provozování ilegálního airbnb. Pani O. ví, že tam ilegálně provozuješ airbnb, protože chodí poslouchat za dveře. Ty zase víš, že chodí poslouchat za dveře, protože občas něco divnýho slyšíš, jdeš dveře otevřít, dveře naproti se mezitím velmi rychle zavřou a kolem tvého prahu je opar nesnesitelně silného parfému eau de shnilá broskev a kuličky proti molům (od Avon Lady TM). Užij si zasloužené místo na Velké Placaté Korkové Tabuli Křivd a neser.

Pokud se kdekoliv v domě objeví na zdi škrábanec, mohou za to nejbližší mladí lidé v orbitu paní O. Pokud jsi nebyl ten týden doma, mohou za to klienti tvého ilegálního airbnb, které sice neviděla, ale paní O. moc dobře ví, jak jsou klienti ilegálních airbnb tiší, prohnaní a PLÍŽIVÍ. (Chcípni.)

To, že nejsi majitelem bytu, ale pouhým špinavým, odporným, ilegálním podnájemníkem, ti bude vmeteno do tváře jako argument od všech členů výboru vlastníků, kdykoliv, kdekoliv, v jakékoliv situaci. Řeknou ti i, že jejich byt má nyní hodnotu sedm milionů, aby byl jejich argument pádnější. Skrz dlouhodobý kvalitativní sociologický výzkum jsem přišla na to, že správnou odpovědí NENÍ "Někdo z nás dvou pracovat a platit ten plyn musí, holt". Paní O. tě totiž přestane zdravit. Už dva roky. Odmítne s tebou promluvit slovo. Nevěnuje ti JEDINÝ pohled, a její kamarádky a zahradnice to samé...

................................................a to je tragédie.

[shlufim]

Moshe Ridler z"l, a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor, and his 35-year-old caretaker, Petro Boscov (Bosko) z"l, were murdered in Kibbutz Holit, by hamas terrorists, in the brutal attack on southern Israel, on October 7th, 2023. May they rest in peace. May their memory be a blessing.

Moshe was a beloved father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. Petro was a beloved husband, and father of three young girls.

משה הרש רידלר ז''ל, ניצול שואה בן 91, והמטפל הסיעודי שלו, פטרו בושקוב (בוסקו) ז''ל, בן 35 ממולדובה, נרצחו על ידי מחבלי חמאס בקיבוץ חולית, במתקפת הטרור האכזרית ב7 לאוקטובר, כ''ב תשרי, תשפ''ד. יהי זכרם ברוך. ת.נ.צ.ב.ה.

פטרו השאיר אחריו אישה, אליונה, ושלוש ילדות בנות תשע, שבע ושלוש. משה רידלר היה אבא, סבא וסבא רבא אהוב.

[afledglings-guideto-witchcraft]

Updated Post. Imma be real for a sec, some of the new information that was brought to my attention is amazing and, in fact, very helpful, so I'm making an updated post to this one here.

A Beginners Guide to Crystals.

How to spot fakes (typically glass) and dyed crystals, Crystal Shapes, and Crystal Color Associations are the topics in this post.

How to spot glass, resin, and other types of fake crystals. (You can still 100% use them in witchcraft, but if you want genuine crystals, then this guide may help you do just that!)

If you think that your crystals are fake, here are some things you can look and do to tell.

Rubbing your crystal with a finger should reveal tiny pores on the surface of the crystal. If it does not have any pores and is instead completely smooth, then it's possible that it's glass or resin.

While some crystals can have naturally formed air bubbles in them, it is rare and may just be glass that was shaped into the crystal.

You can easily search up "fake crystal name" vs. "real crystal name" and compare the two pictures.

You can also look up "dyed crystals" vs. "undyed crystals" to see what a natural coloring of crystals should look like.

If you're worried that your turquoise is fake, then you can take the tip of a hot pin and press it into the crystal, if it burns then it's real, however if it starts to melt its a fake.

Opalite and Goldstone are glass crystals, man made.

9/10 times if your Crystal looks very brightly colored it could have been dyed.

I'll put in some pictures of glass/resin crystals next to the real crystals to show the difference.

Natural coloring of crystals occurs because of the different metals and other minerals that are absorbed during the creation of the crystal. Quartz is just silica and oxygen, so it's appears colorless, but when iron is absorbed, it creates purple or yellow, depending on how oxidized the iron was in the creation of the crystal.

Natural citrine does form, but it's not going to look burned or splochty.

Splotchy color in crystals usually means that it's been dyed, as you can see in the first two images. Dyed crystals also very obviously look dyed because of how brightly they are colored.

Even in Malachite, the green in the fake malachite is brighter than the genuine malachite. You can also look at the unnatural banding on the fake and compare it to real malachite.

Real opal is not see-through like Opalite is. Real opal is more clouded with spots of color, while opalite will have streaks of color or look like the see-through ones above.

Real turquoise is going to have brown or black webbings and cracks or chips, while dyed howlite is going to be smooth with brown or black inclusions. You can take a swab of acetone and rub it across the crystal to see if any coloring comes off. If the color does come off or the crystal looks lighter in the spot, then it's more than likely dyed howlite. You can also do that hot pin trick mentioned above.

The picture on the left is dyed howlite, while on the right is the natural turquoise. You can see that the natural crystal has deep webbing into the stone, very obvious cracks while the holite doesn't have cracks, only webbing that looks like it but it's going to be smooth along those lines.

Crystal Shapes in witchcraft

Double pointed- absorbs and emits energy.

Cluster- Radiates energy.

One point- concentrates and directs energy.

Raw- Strong open energy.

If the crystal is more round then the energy is going to be calmer

If the crystal has multiple points, then the energy is directed off of each point.

The size of the crystal doesn't dictate the amount of energy it gives off.

Different crystals have different energies that they give off. The ones most commonly used in witchcraft and their properties are listed below.

Clear quartz- Clarity

Amethyst- Grounding

Citrine- Happiness

Rose quartz- love

Black Tourmaline- Protection

Obsidian- also protection

Aventurine- luck

Tigers eye- money

Labradorite- aura healing and protection

There are many other crystals that give off similar energies that can be used. As stated, these are just some of the more commonly seen ones.

Now, different crystals can give off different energies depending on the person using them. Some people may see use amethyst as protection rather than obsidian or black tourmaline. Some may use aventurine for money spells over tigers eye. That's 100% okay.

Crystal Color Associations.

Color associations can depend on how the witch feels about a color. This is the general association plus how I use colors in my path.

Red- Anger/passion

Orange- Courage (or in my case repulsion)

Yellow- Happiness

Green- Luck and money

Blue- Calming or sadness (depending on the mood)

Purple- Spirituality

Brown- grounding

Pink- self love

Grey- solemn, seriousness.

With some crystals, the color is also associated with the things listed above. However, again, not all witches will use the color associations of crystals this way, and that's 100% okay. Each witch has a different path and different associations when it comes to the tools they use in their path.

If you're interested in learning about what energies different crystals give off, often just googling "what is crystal name used for in healing" and you will receive an answer.

Though with any type of research, please look at 3-5 other sources that say the same or similar thing. Though it may take more digging to come to a conclusion.

Thank you for reading the updated post, and let me know if I missed anything or if you'd like to add anything. A big thanks to everyone who has corrected the previous post on this subject and any posts that may have contained misinformation in them.

[jedi-lothwolf]

June of Doom Day 3: Ambushed

Fandom: The Bad Batch

Summary: we're resting in a village before continuing with their mission, the batch faces an unforeseen event.

    "Thank you." Hunter told the Tagrutan lady as his squad entered her home. They had been in the woods near her village as night felt. While Tech tried to stabilize Crosshair's broken leg, the women and her wife had stumbled upon them. Then she invited them back to her home, offering to let them stay the night so that they could take care of Crosshair's injuries and rest.

    "Of course, anything to help out our troops."

    Walking into the living room, they found that one of their hosts had pulled out a pull out coach. There were light sheets on the mattress and a few small decorative pillows.

    "Stay still." Tech told Crosshair. "You have broken your Tibia, I need to stabilize it so you don't make it any worse."

    Crosshair just scowled. Tech instructed Wrecker to move their brother's leg into the mattress. The batches host brought them some water and bread. She handed them out to each clone before informing them that her and her wife would be heading to bed. "Wake us up if you need anything or before you leave."

    "We will." Hunter sat in one of the corners of the sofa bed and ate his bread. The soldiers talked about their next move and how to complete their mission.

    As Tech finished wrapping Crosshair's leg, Hunter spoke. "We have a long day ahead of us, get some rest."

    It was a few hours later when Hunter woke up. Tiredly, he went to find what was making the noise. Walking to the door of the house, he looked out the window. There seemed to be nothing there. However the rhythmic clanking of battle droids was the only thing Hunter could hear.

    It wouldn't be the first time that the man heard something that wasn't there.  Maybe he should wake up Tech to get his opinion. Walking back over to the living room, he gently shook Tech awake.

    "Do you hear that?"

    "What should I be hearing?"

    "Droids."

    "I do not hear any droids, however you hear better than in do. I think it best we check." Standing from the corner of the sofa be occupied, Tech grabbed his shoes and put them on. Falling his brother's lead, Hunter grabbed his shoes and put them on. Quickly, as he had done a million times before, he tried them.

    Standing back up, Hunter walked to the door. Tech stood beside it. They had never bothered taking off their armor, just in case they needed to leave quickly.

    The air outside was vastly different from the warth of the house. It was a chilly night, one where the cold air bit you. Tech made sure Hunter was okay with the quick temperature change. He was more sensitive to fast changes the environment. After his brother nodded, the two walked into the surrounding woods.

    The pine trees stood tall around them. The night sky was dark with stars littered across it. The clones walked towards the sound of the noise until they no longer heard the sound. It hadn't faded, just holited. Tech and Hunter looked at each other and they came to the same realization.

    They were surrounded.

    Hunter had been so sure that he was imagining things; so sure it was just his mind playing cruel jokes on him, that he hadn't thought to wake up Wrecker. Now they had to hold off an ambush on their own.

    Just as they thought, the droids revealed themselves as the two soldiers drew their blasters.  Ducking behind a tree, Hunter took out the droids that had landed on the clear side of the tree. The pleasant scent of the pine trees was taken over by the smell of oil and melted metal.

    Grabbing Tech, Hunter pulled him behind the tree. "Wrecker, come in."

    While waiting for a reply from their younger brother, they started to take out as many droids as they could. More droids just seemed to replace the others.

    As Tech leaned over the tree, he remembered the empty space from where the droids Hunter had taken out had stood. More than likely, others would take their place. Of course, he was correct. Shooting the one that was about to kill Hunter, he caught a bullet to his left shoulder blade. Hunter disposed of the droid before asking "are you okay?"

    "I was shot in the left scapula at an approximate distance of fifty feet" Tech hissed, "I am not okay."

    "Wrecker, now would be a good time!"

    Waking up, Wrecker looked down at his comm, then over to the empty corners of the sofa. Finally registering the panic in Hunter's voice, he answered.

    "What's going on?"

    "Droids. A lot of them. Tech's been shot but he's still conscious, just in pain."

    Already walking out the door, Wrecker asked "where are you?"

    "Just follow the sound of blaster fire." Hunter sighed. It shouldn't take long for Wrecker to find them. It had taken 20 minutes to get out as far as they had and they hadn't been running.

    "Okay. Be there soon." With that, Wrecker turned off his comm.

    With more droids coming from all sides, Tech tried to think of a plan. The pain in his shoulder seemed to be getting in the way of forming many coherent thoughts. They needed a plan, nothing would change that.

    Breathing began to be more complicated. Tech looked over at Hunter. "We need a plan."

    "You don't have one?" Hunter asked, shooting another few droids before turning to face him. Most of the time, it was almost impossible to tell what Tech was thinking based on his facial expression; however, currently all that Hunter could see was pain and fear.

    "No. It is getting very difficult to form cogent thoughts." His voice was shaking as tears had started to form in his eyes from the pain.

    "Okay." Shooting some more droids down, Hunter tried to put together a plan. While the batch came up with strategies together and Hunter worked on them often, it was sort of like a hobby for Tech. "We wait." Wrecker would be there soon.

    "Okay."

    Wrecker ran through the forest. Briers caught on his ankles and rocks stabbed into the bottom of his feet. The sound of blaster fire was getting closer and closer.

    As the droids closed in, Hunter looked over at Tech. "How much longer do you think we have?"

    Tech shot a droid on their side of the tree, "maybe five minutes. There is only so much we can do. I would" he hissed as he rose his left arm to shoot another  droid. "I would comm Wrecker."

    "Okay."

    The droids cornered them, forcing their backs as far into the tree as they could. The two brothers looked at each other. They had an understanding that they had done all they could. "I'm sorry." Hunter said.

    "It is not your fault."

    As they prepared for death, they heard a large amount of rustling in the bushes. Hunter sighed as he realized Wrecker had made it in time.

    "Raaahhhhhh!" Wrecker burst through the bushes he was around. Plowing through the droids, Wrecker grabbed his gun and started shooting them down. Hunter pulled Tech up and the two helped Wrecker dispose of the rest of the droids.

    "I wish you had arrived a moment earlier." Tech sighed, "however I am aware you likely did your best and I am solely talking out of pain."

    Gently, Wrecker picked up Tech and the brothers made their way back to the house. When they arrived, Tech informed Hunter of what to do for his shoulder.

Wrecker sat on the couch, pulling his feet onto the bed. "Wrecker" Hunter started, "where are your shoes?"

"I didn't put them on."

"Are you okay?"

Pulling a thorn out of the bottom of his foot, Wrecker said, "yep. I'm good."

"Okay." After finishing taking care of Tech's shoulder, Hunter walked over to Wrecker and bandaged his feet.

The sun would rise soon and the batch would have to continue on with their mission. It would be a success, even with the injuries that had proven to be a challenge for the batch.

[clarabosswald]

Dr Hayim Katsman, 31, was murdered on October 7th in Kibbutz Holit, his home, in the Gaza Envelope. Katsman, born to a religious Zionist family in Petah Tikva, was a lecturer with a PhD in Philosophy, a peace activist, and a DJ with the stage name Dr. 3ABass (his Spotify playlist is embedded above). Growing up, he became distanced from religious Zionism and more affiliated with leftwing politics and peace activism. As a DJ, he played exclusively Arab music - Palestinian, Syrian, Lebanese. He performed at the Psyduck party - 10 minutes from the Nova rave, and another location which later also suffered a massacre - on the night of October 6th. On October 7th, as terrorists infiltrated Holit, Katsman risked his life and went outside, going from door to door and helping where he could. He eventually reached the home of his neighbor, Avital Alajem. They've hid together in her house's shelter until the terrorists broke into it and murdered him (Alajem was kidnapped and had a pretty insane story of her own). Katsman dedicated his life to peace. His dissertation discussed it. He studied and spoke Arabic. He believed that the lack of familiarity between cultures led to division, conflict, and polarization. With his music, he tried to bridge over those differences. Additionally, he volunteered driving Gazans to get medical help in Israel, and conversed with them during the drives, looking to make friends. He also volunteered helping Palestinian farmers south of Hebron. Asked if he thinks the events of October 7th would've changed Katsman's mind on peace, his friend, Akhi Sitbon, said "Like I knew Katsman - not a chance, even that wouldn't have changed his belief in humans and humanity's goodness."

May his memory be a blessing.

[n0thingiscool]

And then there's the Bedouin People no one's covering in the IDF/Hamas News

"Wahid al-Huzail is exhausted. For the past two months, the 51-year-old has been leading the Negev Bedouin Casualty Forum, a newly-formed NGO that was set up to support the families of Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel who were killed, wounded, or kidnapped during the Hamas-led October 7 assault. For all the extensive coverage in Israeli and international media on the plight of the hostages in Gaza and the communities most affected by the massacres, these victims have largely been forgotten. Seventeen Bedouin citizens from the Naqab (Negev) desert were killed that day, both as a result of rockets fired from Gaza and after being shot by militants who breached the fence that encages the Strip. A further six Bedouins were kidnapped and taken to Gaza; two of them were released as part of a hostage-prisoner exchange during last week’s temporary ceasefire, while the other four remain captives. “Do you understand that nobody is considering us?” al-Huzail asked, with desperation in his voice." "The youngest Bedouin victim, 5-year-old Yazan Abu Jama’a, was killed when a rocket fired from Gaza exploded close to his home in the village of Arara al-Naqab during the first hours of the war. Another victim, 50-year-old Abd al-Rahman Nasasra, was shot dead while trying to rescue people from the Nova music festival that was attacked by Hamas gunmen. Construction worker Amer Odeh Abu Sabila, a 25-year-old father of two, was also shot while trying to save a Jewish family near the Sderot police station. The list goes on and on. Then there are the abductees. Four of them were from the same family: Yousef al-Ziadna (53) and his three children, Hamza (22), Bilal (18), and Aisha (17), were all kidnapped while working at a barn on Kibbutz Holit (Aisha and Bilal have since been released). The other two Bedouin hostages are 53-year-old Farhan al-Qadi, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Magen where he works as a guard at the packing house; and 22-year-old Samer al-Talalqa, who worked at Kibbutz Nir Am."

[takovanormalnielie]

6.3.2024

Už jsem to nedokázala vydržet a musela jsem se oholit. Prohledala jsem Reddit a zjistila jsem, že by to snad nemělo vadit. Na klinice mi sice říkala, že se 10 dní nemám holit, ale všude jsem se dočetla, že stačí jen počkat, až se uklidní pokožka. Myslím, že jen chtějí, abych viděla ten efekt, byla ohromená a šla si opět za 3k zvesela nechat ublížit. Zatím se ale žádná ohromná euforie z hladkejch tváří nekoná.

[dchan87]

June 27, 2024. (Gianluca Pacchiani/Times of Israel) Bashir Ziyadne, 28, has spent the past nine months campaigning for the release of his relatives, still in the hands of Hamas: his second cousin, Youssef Ziyadne, 53, and Youssef’s son, Hamza, 22, who were abducted to Gaza while working in Kibbutz Holit on the Gaza border on October 7. The Ziyadne are a Bedouin clan from the Negev Desert in southern Israel. Youssef’s two teenage children, Bilal, 18, and Aisha, 17, were also taken hostage, but were freed on November 30 after more than 50 days in Hamas’s captivity, in a ceasefire deal that saw the release of a total of 105 hostages, mainly children and their mothers, the elderly, and foreign workers. Since that tragic day, Bashir Ziyadne has come forward as the family’s English-speaking spokesperson. At least once a week, he is involved in public advocacy activities to lobby for the release of his hostage relatives, meeting with international press, diplomats, or groups of foreign visitors. His involvement has become increasingly outspoken and political. Two weeks ago, he took the podium at a rally calling for an immediate deal to release the hostages, and for elections to replace the Netanyahu government. “On October 7, like countless families in the south and the north, my family and I woke up to a nightmare that, in my opinion, a responsible government could have easily prevented,” he said at the outset of his speech, to cheers from the crowd.

A reminder: hamas do not represent all 1 billion Muslims

[girlactionfigure]

Nineteen children anxiously await the return of their father, Yussef Elziadana, a 53-year-old Bedouin Arab Israeli currently held captive by Hamas in Gaza. 

Yussef, who dedicated 17 years to working at Kibbutz Holit, left his home on October 7th to tend to the cows, only to be kidnapped at 7:50 in the morning along with his children Hamza, Bilal, and Ayasha. While Bilal and Ayasha have been released, Yussef and Hamza remain in captivity.

Yussef is recognized as a beloved, noble, and peace-loving man who often mediates disputes between people. His passion for life, human connections, and social interactions is evident through his initiative to organize gatherings. Additionally, Yussef tends to his garden, raises sheep, and expresses a deep love for nature and agriculture.

It's crucial to note that Yussef, who is diabetic, requires insulin for his health. The urgency lies in reuniting him with his family, as 19 children yearn for the return of their father. Yussef Alziadana's situation demands immediate attention and action to bring him back to his loved ones.

melissaschapman

[tleeaves]

you're into homeopathy, right?? i find the internet is getting worse and worse at being able to find homeopathy writings from actually half decent sources. and it's really annoying bc we use it to help out with medical stuff for the guinea fowls when avian vet things are still in their infancy, and my grandma is the most knowledgeable in the family but i think mental health stuff has been influencing her intuition and idk what to do for her but also i really want to learn as holitic healing fascinates me. so where do you find yours?

In a sense, yes. More like I hate taking more pills and drugs than I need to since I've been having them heavily on and off since I was ten years old and it's taken a toll on my digestive system, and so I turned to some more natural remedies in my diet, and recently I've taken a dive into herbalism history and theory. The most I know is about herbalism, really, and just the things that are good for certain ailments. I'm no expert at all, so I'm always looking to other sources.

So, for holistic healing, or for looking for a place to start in that direction, I recommend several things from how I've gone about it in my experience:

Start online with any questions you have about foods/drinks. For example, you want to know the health benefits of chamomile or chamomile tea (the latter, in my view, being the best way to consume it anyway, and many sources agree), so you search it, and you also find out its uses. I recommend going to sites like healthline and Dr. Axe (I mostly use and trust healthline though, and I recommend always seeking out more than one source). Always seek the more medical sources, in my opinion.

If you don't know precisely what foods and things to begin, I would usually start then with a problem: ie. "foods to help with anxiety" and go from there (you'll see chamomile come up, as well as green tea (I'm very into tea-related remedies particularly)).

Go to your local library and borrow books on homeopathy, herbalism, and other related topics. You don't need to overload yourself -- I've only just started with herbalism books since I had the seeds of knowledge about it and wanted to expand a bit out of curiosity (I was led down the rabbit hole when looking into paganism and witchcraft, funnily enough).

Some towns have a specialty business for alternative medicine, or you can occasionally find what you're looking for (say, bottles of ginger pills or something) in a regular pharmacy. Otherwise, many ingredients are things you can find in your supermarket or garden, and be incorporated into dishes and brews.

As you seem to know, a fair amount of this tends to be passed down as families have their own variants of "home remedies". I know of one where my yiayia would use vicks but apply it to the sole of your foot before putting socks on to help with colds, and occasionally things to do with potato slices at night in your socks, or lemons in your mouth for other things -- I could ask her about it, but I haven't since I mostly have stuck to other things I know (I am not ready to coat my feet in goop). And I think everyone knows the eucalyptus steam trick for nasal congestion. But anyway, I would recommend asking someone whose knowledge you trust. I'm also lucky to know a few pharmacists, and I tend to check with them on everything, just in case. A pharmacist I would trust over a doctor in terms of medicinal cures, and I would encourage you to check with them at the counter on anything if/when you buy.

Anyway, I will always most strongly recommend books on the subject. Get a few so you can cross-reference the advice and information. Trust your gut as well, weird as that may sound. Know the herbs that can have adverse affects, try to stick with the safer items first. Definitely just learn more about how your diet affects your health holistically.

And that's all I've got! Hopefully you got something out of that, idk if my advice is all that good. Please don't sue, I do not claim to be an expert in anything at all. Homeopathy is not quite my area, I just think of it as "things humans can eat or drink that benefit their health" and work off that.

[vyorei]

We have rumors of a ceasefire

Also link to the full article with the kibbutz cleanup:

[myzetauniverse]

Ultra trashy fanservis, ale nemohla jsem si pomoct...:-D Mizernou náladu jsem měl už od probuzení, a skoro se podříznout břitvou během ranního holení když uklouzla po tuhé jizvě pod bradou, mě rozčílilo ještě víc. Přitiskl jsem si na ránu čistý kapesník, který jsem naštěstí měl v kapse, a dost mě zamrzelo, že krabička s kamencem byla prázdná. A do téhle prošedivělé nálady přišel Vinnetou a hned se chtěl starat o zakrvácenou látku. „Nech mě! Nebýt tebe, tak se tohle vůbec nestalo!“  Nepoznával jsem se, ale najednou mi došlo, že si o tom musíme promluvit. O TOM. O tom jak mě bodl, že to bolelo, že chci za tohle omluvu, že to nijak nenaruší a nepoškodí naše bratrské a láskyplné pouto, ale že zkrátka ta slova chci slyšet od něj.  Místo slov se však můj Vinnetou chopil břitvy, a začal mi holit nedokončenou, zarostlou část obličeje. Když byl hotov, zbýval už jen ten kousek, který jsem si tvrdošíjně tiskl kapesníkem. Mám mu dovolit přiblížit se ostřím na místo, kde mě zranil minule? „Šárlí, omlouvám se.“  Nechal jsem kapesník kapesníkem a užíval si láskyplné doteky na kdysi bolavém místě.

[tanadrin]

Last thoughts on Cambell & Poser

@elancholia I was mistaken about Pama-Nyungan; they actually name check that as a specific example of a long-range family that has good support in the last chapter

Despite the title, the book is mostly about what not to do in language classification. There’s also an interesting chapter critiquing various holitic proposals about how language change works, including Joanna Nichols’ approach involving residual/accretion zones and spread zones, attempts to apply a biology-inspired punctuated equilibrium approach (what did I say about biology-envy!), David Nettles’ “ecological risk” hypothesis (which is the idea large language regions are linked to extended networks of support to hedge against economic/ecological risk; interestingly this theory overlooks both the possibility of small enclaves surrounded by large languages, and the ways in which support networks have historically often transcended language barriers, especially with, e.g., clan systems in Eurasia), and linking language spread to agriculture (ignores ways in which agriculture often spreads without language change; there are some particularly good recent examples of this in Mesoamerica. Not surprisingly, this is a big thing for Colin Renfrew and his Anatolian Hypothesis, which most Indo-Europeanists think is wrong).

One thing these holistic theories seem to neglect is sociocultural factors: in short, language is closely tied to identity in a way that is very difficult to reduce to pure materialist concerns. It’s a big challenge for anybody with a strongly materialist bent in their approach to history! A priori, something like the ecological risk model feels very appealing, and the simplified narrative we tell about the rise of agriculture and settles states vs the barbarians also flatters those biases. But clearly they’re missing something, because in this most visible dimension of historical shifts in culture and identity, we don’t see these materialist forces closely reflected.

Zompist’s Proto-World essay is, I was delighted to see, directly referenced in the book! (as Rosenfelder, 1999).

The book seems to just predate Edward Vajda’s “Dene-Yeniseian” proposal; but in the list of longer-range proposals which aren’t directly evaluated they name-check a “Yeniseian-Na-Dene” grouping by Merrit Ruhlen. Ruhlen is a close follower of Greenberg, who’s attempted to come up with “Proto-World” etymologies, and Cambell & Poser are also pretty critical of Na-Dene as a grouping AIUI, so this doesn’t fill me with a ton of confidence about Dene-Yeniseian. But AFAIK Vajda didn’t use lexical mass comparison. It would be interested to read a close analysis of the pros and cons of Vajda’s proposal in light of this book.

[jcmarchi]

The Most Important Algorithm for Transformers

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/the-most-important-algorithm-for-transformers/

The Most Important Algorithm for Transformers

FlashAttention has a new version. Plus some important research milestones and major funding activity in AI.

Created Using Ideogram

Next Week in The Sequence:

Edge 413: Our series about autonomous agents continues with an exploration of semantic memory. We review Meta AI’s MM-LLM research to augment video models with memory and we dive into the Qdrant vector DB stack.

Edge 414: We dive into HUSKY, a new agent optimized for multi-step reasoning.

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📝 Editorial: The Most Important Algorithm for Transformers

There are few algorithms that have had as much impact on the recent generation of transformer architectures as FlashAttention. Originally developed by researchers from Princeton University, including the renowned Tri Dao, FlashAttention and its successor FlashAttention-2 were able to improve the performance of attention mechanisms in GPUs by minimizing read-writes. Almost immediately after the original publication, FlashAttention was rapidly adopted within the new generation of transformers. There were not many complaints about FlashAttention, but one of the few was that it was unable to take full advantage of new hardware architectures. For instance, FlashAttention-2 is only able to achieve 35% utilization of max FLOPs in H100 GPUs.

But now we have a new version.

Last week, a group of AI researchers from Meta, Princeton University, NVIDIA, and other AI labs published the paper and open-source code for FlashAttention-3. The new version of the method uses several techniques to speed up attention in H100 GPUs, exploiting the asynchrony of the tensor cores. The result is simple: FlashAttention-3 is blazing fast. The new model achieves 75% theoretical max FLOP utilization in H100, which results in practical 1.5-2x performance improvements. The new algorithm is also able to use lower precision numbers, which reduces the memory footprint.

FlashAttention-3 is an exciting development in generative AI algorithms. This method will almost certainly lead to improvements in large context windows in LLMs and better inference performance on modern GPU architectures. Impressive progress!

🔎 ML Research

FlastAttention-3

A group of AI researchers from Meta, Princeton University, Together AI, NVIDIA and others published a paper unveiling the new version of the famous FlastAttention algorithm. FlashAttention-3 takes advantages of the latest GPU advancements achieving 2x the performance of its predecessor and also exceling in long context LLM tasks —> Read more.

Sub-Billion Parameter Models for Mobile

Meta AI published a paper introducing MobileLLM, a sub-billion parameter model optimized for on-device scenarios. MobileLLM uses a specific structure of embedding and attention layers that optimizes its efficiency relative to its size —> Read more.

Generative Teaching for Agents

Microsoft Research published a paper unveiling AgentInstruct, an agentic framework for creating syntethic data. Specifically, AgentInstruct focuses on datasets used for instruction tuning of base models —> Read more.

Evaluating Multimodal Foundation Models

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University published a paper introducing the holitic evaluation of multimodal models(HEMM) framework . HEMM sets the primitives to systematically evaluate multimodal models across different tasks such as basic skills, information flow, and real-world use cases —> Read more.

A Unified AI Database

Microsoft Research published a paper proposing VBase, the foundation for a unified database for vector, relational and scalar data types. The core of VBase is based on a property called relaxed monotonicity that enables the unification of the different data types models —> Read more.

Contamination in Code Generation Benchmarks

Researchers from Cohere published a paper providing evidence of the levels of contamination of code generation benchmarks in major LLMs. The paper also proposes a Less Basic Python Problems, a new benchmark more resilient to contamination —> Read more.

Autoregressive Models for Text-Image Generation

The team bedhind the Generative AI Research Lab(GAIR) published a paper unveileing ANOLE, an autoregressive multimodal model for image and text generation. ANOLE is based on Meta AI’s Chameleon which guarantees a data and parameter efficient fine-tuning strategy —> Read more.

🤖 Cool AI Tech Releases

Claude High Quality Prompts

Anthropic released some features to evaluate and generate high quality prompts for Claude —> Read more.

MInference

Microsoft released some demos of its MInference method for optimizing LLM inference performance —> Read more.

AutoGen Models

Microsoft AutoGen added support for non OpenAI models —> Read more.

🛠 Real World AI

Ad Inference at Meta

Meta shares some details about the AI inference architecture powering its ad serving system —> Read more.

📡AI Radar

Hebbia, a platform that uses AI to analyze large documents, raised $130 million in new funding.

OpenAI and Los Alamos National Laboraty announced a strategic alliance for bioscience research.

Defense AI startup Helsing raised $487 million to expand to countries neighboring Russia.

AI video startup Captions raised a $60 million Series C.

Enso raised $6 million to bring AI agents to SMBs.

Hayden AI, an AI vision platform for smart cities, raised $90 million in a new round.

NeuralFabric, a platform focused on micro-foundation models, unveiled a new small LLM for sustainability.

Fireworks AI raised $52 million to lead the shift to compound AI systems.

OpenAI and Arianna Huffington launched Thrive AI, a new AI health coach.

Groq unveiled new performance improvements to its fast inference LLM-engine

Amazon released a standalone Guardrails API in its Bedrock platform.

Enterprise AI startup Writer unveiled an impressive set of capabilities .

Microsoft and Apple dropped their plans to join the OpenAI board.

Amazon announced a new challenge to advance coding LLMs.

Exein announced a $15 mission Series B for robotic security.

Medal raised $13 million at a $333 million valuation to build a contextual AI assistant.

AI construction startup Buildots raised $15 million from Intel.

TheSequence is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.