#mineral wealth

[indizombie]

Back in the year 2000, when the Union Home Minister introduced the Bill in Parliament for the creation of the states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand, he solemnly announced that these states were being established so that the Indigenous Adivasi societies will be able to self-govern themselves as per their traditions and culture. It was also hoped that they would have a real say and a meaningful share in the mineral wealth being exploited in their land. However, what actually came to be was just the opposite. Multitudes of outsiders from neighbouring states poured in, took over all trade related and commercial activities, filled up most state government’s high and low bureaucracy, and the law-and-order forces became replete with unsympathetic non-Adivasis/Dalit. The giant corporate houses came marching in with full patronage of the central and state governments to plunder the natural and mineral wealth of predominantly Adivasi ethno-territories. The Indigenous people felt let down and cheated. Most of their own political leaders, instead of standing up for their cause, sold themselves off to power and money, some even joining hands with rightist Hindutva forces/parties to work directly against their own people.

Stan Swamy, 'I am not a Silent Spectator'

[bfpnola]

from red stream net

[crystallumcollective]

These crystals have historically been associated with wealth and prosperity: https://crystallumcollective.com/products/the-functional-handbook-of-crystals

[sea-owl]

Spring's Rebirth Chapter 8

AO3: Link

Francesca was not expecting to be greeted at breakfast that morning by walking in on her brother holding her sister in-law in his lap and attached at the lips.

"Really, in front of my eggs?" Francesca teased.

"Francesca!" Penelope exclaimed as she tumbled off Colin's lap, or almost tumbled off. Colin reclaimed his hold on Penelope before she could hit the floor.

Francesca wasn't sure what Colin and Penelope discussed that day they went around the kingdom together. Whatever was said though had certainly improved Penelope's relationship with not just Colin but the Court of the Underworld as whole as well.

Before Penelope would hide in the library or her room, never looking court members in the eye, and always made sure to use proper titles. Now Penelope has taken to exploring on her own around the castle and the castle grounds. Francesca has seen her trace things, and stare like she's trying to solve a puzzle.

Penelope still does not eat anything though, only drinks the healing potion when she needs it. Hopefully Phillip will be here soon and they can fix that. Now that Francesca thought about it the Guider of Souls is never this late. . .

"Ahem."

Francesca was brought out of her thoughts to see a blushing Penelope back in her seat on Colin's left side. Her eyes looking everywhere but at Francesca.

"How has exploring been?" Francesca asked.

"Interesting," Penelope said slowly, like she was still choosing her words. "It really does feel like a ghost palace sometimes. Especially when it wants to show you what it used to look like."

What it used to look like? Francesca shot her brother a look.

"Actually, I was hoping to join you two in the throne room today."

Francesca and Colin blinked. Penelope hasn't been in the throne room since that first day.

She's really made progress, Francesca thought. She remembers when she had to practically drag Penelope into the throne room that first day.

"I can help you find a dress for court," Francesca offered.

Penelope smiled. "Thank you."

Francesca finished her breakfast and the two made their way back to Penelope's room.

"Blue is the family color," Francesca said as she began digging through the clothes. "Each court just tends to take a different shade of blue."

Francesca herself was wearing a royal blue dress for court today. Her long chestnut hair tied in a loose braid with a headband.

Penelope shrunk in on herself. "How about a different color than blue."

Francesca nodded. "Perhaps it's too early." She dug through the dresses again until coming across a deep purple dress and a gold belt. "This one will be perfect." With the dress on Penelope began applying the dark eyeliner while Francesca worked on her hair.

While it would have been better to have Penelope wearing her actual crown, Francesca thought to herself, a braided one would do just fine.

A braided crown around her head, and the rest in a bun at the nape of her neck Francesca secured it with the ruby poppy hair pin.

"You're ready," Francesca said.

Penelope smiled up at the younger goddess. "Thank you. Now let us go."

Francesca cocked her head. "We have some time before the meeting starts."

Penelope stood and began walking towards the door. "I wish to see it before others arrive. Best to know what the palace will show me without Colin's whole court watching."

Francesca furrowed her brows, quickly following her sister. "What do you mean by what the palace shows you?"

The two goddesses walked down the hall, Penelope tracing her hand on different surfaces.

"I see things sometimes," Penelope said. "Of what the Underworld once was I believe. Like the Fields of Punishment, wheat should be growing there, correct? Instead of it being barren."

Francesca found herself nodding. Penelope wasn't wrong, that it what the Fields of Punishment used to look like before.

They entered the throne room. It was an open circular design. Pillars surround the edges of the throne room with three levels going up. There was no celling in the throne room. One nice thing about living in the Underworld is they didn't have to worry about the weather when Anthony or Benedict got into a mood. At the back of the ground floor was thrones of the Underworld on a raised dais. Below sat the judges' bench where three judges of the Underworld would be placed.

Penelope walked around, her hands tracing things that weren't there or maybe used to be there.

Penelope looked up. "The ceiling, it wasn't always open like this. The room itself used to be a lot more closed off. There was only one level with high walls. More private."

Penelope walked up the dais, her hands tracing the black marble throne. "The throne now is more relaxed, rounded like the room." Her hands tracing down the carved-out cornucopia around the base of the throne, jewels used to symbolize the food it holds. She giggled. "These definingly weren't here before. The throne used to be more . . . traditional, straight backed, like Anthony's. There certainly wasn't two either." Penelope looked over to the other throne. It matched Colin's in the more relaxed rounded style but does not have any of the decorations as his does.

Francesca stared in awe at her sister. "Penelope are you sure you haven't been to the Underworld before?"

Penelope shook her head. "Mama is a fertility goddess. She creates life in her plants, never would she come down here."

Francesca walked up the dais. "The throne room you are describing belonged to my father. He was much more private about the sins of the dead, never even let our mother come down here. Colin does not hold that same sentiment."

Penelope looked around the room again. "I can tell."

A door opened and Colin entered with three others, two men and a woman.

Francesca led Penelope off the dais and to the side. "The judges," she whispered. "The common man, Judge Will Monndrich, The king, Judge Friedrich, and the immortal, Judge Georgiana Rokesby, goddess of Truth."

Penelope recognized the name. "Your aunt?"

Francesca shrugged. "Aunt Georgie has been a judge since Father's time. She was essential when Colin first started ruling."

Penelope watched the judges discuss with Colin. "Wouldn't Colin count for two of them as the immortal and the king?"

"Colin is the High Judge in a sense," Francesca said. "He is usually the judge for the immortals' crimes. A soul's sins would have to be great and many to warrant his attention."

Aunt Georgie looked up just then. A smile broke out on her face as she took in Penelope. "Another red head for the family!" Aunt Georgie cheered. "Colin, I knew there was a reason you were my favorite nibbling."

The three men looked over as well, Colin gave a quick soft smile, while Judge Will and Judge Friedrich gave a bow.

"Let's get a look at you," Aunt Georgie said as she held Penelope's face, turning her this way and that. "Aren't you just adorable! I was wondering if I was ever going to see you. That little devil has been hiding you all to himself, hasn't he?"

"Lady Georgiana-" Penelope started but Aunt Georgie shook her head.

"No, no," Aunt Georgie said. "Aunt Georgie. You are officially family now. Oh, you must come to dinner with me and my husband soon."

Colin came up behind Penelope and wrapped an arm around her. "Of course, we will Aunt Georgie."

"Awww," Aunt Georgie sighed. "You two remind me of me and my Nicholas. A good old friends to lovers, except without the kidnapping."

Penelope chocked on a laugh; Colin squeezed her side.

The door opened again, and more member of the court began to file in.

"Well time to get to work," Aunt Georgie said. "Will! Friedrich! In your places!"

Penelope fell into a fit of giggles. "So kidnapping is a thing in your family?"

"A story for another time," Colin said, bringing the back of Penelope's hand up to kiss. "Is it too soon to ask you to sit beside me?"

Like an automatic response Penelope said, "I did not agree to be queen Colin."

Colin kissed Penelope's other hand. "Another day then."

King Colin sat on his throne, while Penelope and Lady Francesca made themselves comfortable in a corner.

One by one souls came in to be judged. The soul will plead their case while the three judges looked over their file. Judge Will and Judge Friedrich would debate between one another about where to send the soul and what punishment if any would be appropriate. If needed Aunt Georgie would hand the final vote. Colin watched from his throne, silently aiding in the support to his judges.

It was all standard procedure to Francesca, but it was interesting to watch Penelope absorb it all.

The latest soul was a man who had claimed he had killed his daughter in honor of the gods despite the fact that he loved her more than anything.

He was lying through his teeth. Francesca twirled the glowing gold truth potion on her belt, waiting to see if Aunt Georgie will need it.

"He's lying," Penelope said.

"Oh?" Francesca asked. "How are you sure?"

"He's talking too much," Penelope said. "His story was smoother until he said that one of the gods told him to do it. That's when Colin leaned closer because if a god did order that then he has to get involved. Now he's saying too much but the name of the supposed god who ordered him to do it." Penelope glanced down at Francesca's potions. "Plus you've been fiddling that truth potion for five minutes now."

"Observant as always," Francesca said.

Penelope turned those observant eyes fully at the magic goddess. "I have a question for you."

"Yes?"

"Whenever King Benedict or King Anthony hold court Lady Eloise and Lady Daphne are at their sides. Yet despite being Colin's right hand no one seems surprised that you are here next to me instead of by the king."

Francesca began to twirl the potion bottle. "A lot of my work is better done from the shadows. While taking Daphne for example is more of an advice giver to Anthony my work for Colin has to do with finding what souls try to hide."

"It sounds lonely," Penelope said. She thought for a moment before a giggle escaped her. "I should properly introduce you to Michael."

Francesca raised an eyebrow. "The wine god?"

Penelope giggled again. "If anyone can get a confession with just drink and a pretty smile it would be him. I think time together between you two would be good for both of you."

Before Francesca could ask what Penelope meant by that Aunt Georgie signaled Francesca to bring over the truth potion.

"You insist that a god ordered you to kill your daughter, but refuse to tell us which one," Aunt Georgie said to the soul. "We shall soon see how true your words are."

Francesca grabbed the soul's face and poured the drink down his throat. She held him for a moment longer until his eyes fully clouded over. The potion was in affect.

"He's ready for questioning," Francesca announced.

"Did a god order you to kill your daughter?" Aunt Georgie asked.

"No," the soul said. "She dared to question me, her father and king. Then ran off to marry that traitor's son. I told her if she did I would kill her, and I did."

Judge Will and Judge Friedrich both nodded to one another. "The Fields of Punishment."

Two guards came to drag the soul away. Francesca walked back to where she left Penelope.

The corner they were standing in was empty.

Left, right, up? Where cold have Penelope wandered off to? Did she see something again and decided to follow it?

Francesca was reaching near the entrance when she heard what sounded like relieved laughter.

"Pip!" Penelope laughed as she held tight to the guider of souls.

"Penny!" Phillip said, holding on just as tight to the queen of the Underworld.

[timmurleyart]

Ri¢h in just a few day$.🥇🏆⛏🌝(mixed media collage on canvas)💰🥇

[faultfalha]

A whispered rumor of vast wealth hidden deep beneath the earth in a Wyoming coal mine had passed from miner to miner, generation to generation. Little did they know that the secret store of wealth contained something far greater and more mysterious - an estimated $37bn worth of rare earth elements, giving the coal miners the power to shape the future in ways they never could have imagined.

[townpostin]

Hemant Soren Pledges Rs 1 Lakh Per Household if Re-elected

CM announces ambitious financial plan at Jamshedpur rally, criticizes opposition Jharkhand’s leader promises substantial aid to families, addressing resource compensation and employee benefits. JAMSHEDPUR – Chief Minister Hemant Soren vowed to provide Rs 1 lakh per household if his party secures victory in the upcoming assembly elections. During a public gathering at Uliyan ground in Jamshedpur,…

[vedikrootsall]

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[harrelltut]

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[soon-palestine]

𝗨.𝗦. 𝗖𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗧 𝗖𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗦 𝗧𝗘𝗖𝗛 𝗚𝗜𝗔𝗡𝗧𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗚𝗢 𝗔𝗕𝗨𝗦𝗘𝗦

Not guilty.

That's the verdict of a US federal appeals court in a case involving five tech companies accused of benefitting from child labour in Congolese mines. On 5th March, 2024, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia made a 3-0 decision in favour of (Google’s parent company) Alphabet, Microsoft, Dell, Tesla and Apple Inc. in a case filed by 16 former Congolese child miners and their guardians.

The plaintiffs accused the companies of "deliberately obscuring" their dependence on child labour, in effect abetting the exploitation of many children to ensure steady supplies of cobalt. Some of the complainants were the guardians of children who’d been killed in cobalt-mining operations.

The court ruled that buying cobalt in the global supply chain did not amount to "participation in a venture," and there was no proof that the tech giants had anything more than a buyer-seller relationship with suppliers or had the power to stop the use of child labour.

Cobalt is in high demand as competition for market leadership in Electric Vehicle sales kicks into high gear. Nearly two-thirds of the world's cobalt is mined in DR Congo. The country has 2-million artisanal miners working under horrible conditions, according to DelveDatabase, an online database. Four critical minerals - copper, nickel, cobalt and lithium - will generate $16 trillion in the next 25 years, according to the IMF.

DR Congo's vast wealth is the key reason for the country's long history of exploitation and conflict - from Belgian King Leopold II running the country as his private estate to Western tech firms churning out high-end goods using Congolese minerals.

Help raise awareness of the exploitation of Congolese children by sharing this video widely.

[theonegod420]

Sea Moss Is An All Natural Substance. Contains 92 Of The 102 Minerals Found In Our Body. Great For Immunity, Digestion, Blood Cell Cleaner, Detoxifying, Antioxidant, Promotes A Healthy Thyroid & Natural Energy Booster. You Take 1 To 2 Tablespoon A Day & Keep Refrigerated. Great Results After A Few Weeks. Really Feel The Effects On Ur Daily Routine !!! 🧠💪🏽📈

[blueiscoool]

Oldest Wine Ever Discovered in Liquid Form Found in Untouched Roman Tomb

A 2,000-year-old Roman funerary urn unearthed in southern Spain has been shown to contain the oldest wine ever found still in liquid form.

Discovered during home renovations at a property in Carmona in 2019, the contents of the urn were analyzed by a team of scientists from the University of Cordoba in a study published Monday.

Study lead author José Rafael Ruiz Arrebola, a professor of organic chemistry at the university, said that the urn was found to contain cremated remains, burned ivory thought to come from a funeral pyre and around 4.5 liters (1.2 gallons) of reddish liquid.

“When the archaeologists opened the urn we almost froze,” he said. “It was very surprising.”

The team then carried out a chemical analysis of the liquid and found that it was wine.

This was a big surprise, because wine normally evaporates quickly and is chemically unstable, Ruiz Arrebola said.

“This means it is almost impossible to find what we have found,” he said, explaining that the wine had been preserved by a hermetic seal that prevented it from evaporating, but it is not clear how the seal formed.

Further chemical analysis allowed the team to identify the liquid as a white wine, as it didn’t contain syringic acid, a substance only present in red wines, Ruiz Arrebola said.

It also has a similar mineral salt composition to the fino wines produced today in the region, he added.

“It’s something unique,” said Ruiz Arrebola. “We have been lucky to find it and analyze it – it’s something you only see once in your life.”

The researchers believe their discovery dethrones the current holder of the record for oldest wine in a liquid state, the Speyer wine bottle, found in Germany, which is thought to be around 1,700 years old. However, the age of the Speyer bottle has not been confirmed by chemical analysis.

The vessel was one of six funerary urns containing remains found in the mausoleum.

The discovery of a gold ring and other valuable artifacts suggest it was built by a family of considerable wealth, Ruiz Arrebola said.

However, little else is known about their lives, because cremation would have destroyed any DNA, he explained, adding that this means it is impossible to say whether the six people were related.

Ruiz Arrebola now plans to try to work out which modern-day local wine it was most similar to, although there are hundreds to work through.

By Jack Guy.

[dailyadventureprompts]

Deity: Dispater, Lord of those Below

No Kings Beyond Death

A god of riches and horrors beneath the earth, protector and jailer of the departed souls, grim Dispater rules many realms with a stern hand and an iron will. Often cursed and seldom praised by mortals, it is this god's cosmic lot to keep order in the underworld, where the caverns of the mortal plane intersect with the labyrinths of the underdark and the shadowed halls of the dead.

While his worship overlaps with many other gods of death, few pray to Dispater as his heart is thought to be as cold and unmoving as stone, hardened by the grim work of keeping the domains to which psycopomps and other terminal forces deliver souls, ensuring that they neither have the chance to escape nor that they are picked off by fiends or other malign spirits.

Judges and other arbiters sometimes swear by him, especially when handling matters of life and death, as do miners, bankers, and others who work in precious metals or stones, as Dispater has a connection to caverns and other buried places. His clergy collects tribute in the form of those soft, perishable things that cannot be found below the earth: grain and livestock, flowers and wine. Their sacrifices of these things are said to pass on to the dead themselves, after their lord has taken his due tithe.

Adventure Hooks:

A monstrous bat haunts the countryside, endlessly harrying a graverobber who pilfered from a cemetery consecrated in Dispater's name. The exhausted scoundrel just so happens to have taken refuge in the same country inn as the party, passing himself off as a peddler who was shaken down by bandits. When the bat attacks that night (as he knows it will) he hopes to use the chaos to shift some of his plunder into the heroes' packs, diverting the creature and the divine wrath it represents.

Rumour is, if you find a trail of archaic coins scattered along the road, following it will lead you to one of the mysterious grey merchants, traders from the underworld who deal in memories and mementos cast off by the dead. Woe to anyone who attempts to harry or cheat the merchant though, as they travel under the protection of the lord below.

Shortly after a resurrection of a partymember (that may or may not have gone wrong), the heroes are approached by a dour devil in clerk's garb who insists that they need to follow her into the underworld to help clear up some post-mortality paperwork, or else their friend's soul might be held in litigation for a literal eternity. "Clearing up" in this case involves helping to clear out a field office somewhere in the shadowfell overtaken by the unquiet dead, fending off hostile spirits while the devil and the deceased do a lightninground of signatures on the relevant forms.

Behind the scenes: Hades has fascinated me since I started learning a mythology, and that fascination has only grown as I've traced the idea of him through history and popculture.

Like all the other Greek gods, Hades gets a roman makeover in Pluto; god of earth, the underworld, and wealth. One of his titles "Dis Pater" literally means " Father of Riches", as the earth contains both mineral wealth and the wealth of good harvests.

Because of his association with the underworld Pluto/Dis Pater starts to get adapted into emerging Christian Mythology as the devil, as his realm of of Tartarus (and its punishments reserved for the most wicked) likewise becomes Hell (which exists to torture anyone who sins and doesn't believe).

Fast forward about a millennia and a half and you have the creators of d&d making all the different names for the devil into a rogue's gallery of different fiends. With Dispater's connection to greek mythology completely forgotten he gets sectioned off as the extra schemey member of hell's boyband, at once brilliantly adept at making plans and driven mad with his own paranoia. While this makes him a little more interesting than some of the other devils, it just wasn't enough for me in the end, so a revamp had to ensue.

I wanted to take things full circle and use Dispater's name to bring my own Hades analog into my game's mythology, a god not of death but specifically the underworld, fully drawing on the connotations of both afterlife and underground. Playing with motifs of kingship and a "death and taxes" sort of legalism also makes for unique themes when it comes to the subjectmatter of mortality: Dispater as death is owed tribute by natural and divine law, but that relationship also grants protections to the tributary. Imagine a paladin of Dispater saving someone's life from unlawful execution because they are owed a righteous death.

Thanks as always to @5ecardaday for the monster stats

Artsource

[mindblowingscience]

Most animals and plants never fossilize. For those that do, it's usually only hard parts such as bones and shells that preserve. However, in some exceptional cases, soft tissues such as muscles and gills survive the fossilization process and can present a wealth of information about the biology and ecology of ancient organisms. In a paper recently published in Palaeontologia Electronica, Dr. Adiel Klompmaker, University of Alabama Museums' curator of paleontology, and colleagues reported on a remarkable crab with multiple mineralized soft tissues preserved. This crab lived 75 million years ago during the Cretaceous in the area of present-day South Dakota in an ancient sea known as the Western Interior Seaway.

Continue Reading.

[sixteenseveredhands]

Prehistoric Figurine of a Harp Player, from the Cyclades (Greece), c. 2700-2300 BCE: this figurine was shaped from a block of solid marble and then slowly sanded into form using pumice and emery

The figurine depicts a musician with a frame harp, an instrument that originated in the Near East and then later spread to the peoples of the Aegean. A sound box forms the section along the base of the instrument, and a small protrusion can be seen near the top of the harp's frame; some experts have argued that this protrusion might represent an ornamental carving of a waterfowl's head, while others argue that it represents a musical extension that facilitates the projection of sound (a feature that often appears on the stringed instruments of the ancient Near East).

This piece measures 35.8cm (about 14 inches) tall.

Musical performances like this are rarely depicted in Cycladic artwork. Depictions of male characters are similarly rare, representing only 5% of the Cycladic sculptures that are known to exist. When male figures are depicted, however, they are frequently shown playing musical instruments, as seen here.

Figurine of a Harpist, c. 2800-2700 BCE: a similar example of a Cycladic sculpture that features a musician with a frame harp

The Museum of Cycladic Art provides a more detailed explanation of the process by which these figures were created:

As we can deduce from the few unfinished figurines that have been discovered so far, the first step in the process was to roughly shape the raw piece of marble into a figure by the impact of a mallet. Emery powder was then used to abrade the surface until it obtained the desired shape and size. Once the desired shape was achieved, the surface was smoothed carefully before the fine work of carving the details started. At the end, the figurine was polished to a high degree that is still amazing.

And according to The Met:

Many of these figures, especially those of the Spedos type, display a remarkable consistency in form and proportion that suggests they were planned with a compass. Scientific analysis has shown that the surface of the marble was painted with mineral-based pigments—azurite for blue and iron ores, or cinnabar for red.

The Cycladic Islands (also known as the Cyclades) are a group of about 30 separate islands in the Southwest Aegean, off the coast of mainland Greece. These islands contain a wealth of natural resources, including marble, emery, pumice, obsidian, and an assortment of precious metals. The prehistoric peoples of the Cyclades made use of these resources for many different purposes, but the marble figurines/sculptures that they crafted during the Bronze Age are perhaps their most famous creation.

The vast majority of these figurines are stylized depictions of the female form. The cultural significance of the sculptures remains unclear; they may have simply been created as decorative pieces/artwork, without any additional function, or they may have been used as fetishes, totems, religious idols, grave goods, or votive offerings.

Sources & More Info:

The Getty Museum: Figurine of a Harp Player

The Met: Cycladic Harp Player

The Met: Early Cycladic Art and Culture

The Museum of Cycladic Art: Techniques

[faultfalha]

The Ministry of Mines elected Secretary V L Kantha Rao. Their mandate was to issue twenty blocks of critical minerals to the highest bidder in the next two weeks. The rare minerals were kept tightly regulated, controlled only by a few with the resources and power to understand their incredible significance. Glittering promises were offered to those fortunate enough to be granted access - promises of untold wealth and glory. Yet history has proven that such resources come with a price. It remains to be seen what will come of this strange arrangement.