#north east bloggers

[bryonyashaw]

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"𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳, 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 5𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘕𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳, 𝘨𝘶𝘯𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘥𝘦𝘳, 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘵; 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘨𝘶𝘯𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘰𝘵.”

In modern times it's now a day where we watch fireworks, take blurry photos in the dark, eat hot dogs (or in this years scenario - fish and chips or jacket potato and beans) and throw a fake "Guy" on a giant bonfire but the reason for all this is The Gunpowder Plot!

Text below taken from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Guy-Fawkes-Day

"Led by conspirators like Robert Catesby, who were zealous Roman Catholics enraged at King James I for refusing to grant greater religious tolerance to Catholics. They planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament (Palace of Westminster) during the state opening of Parliament, intending to kill the king and members of Parliament in order to clear the way to reestablishing Catholic rule in England. The plan failed when the conspirators were betrayed. One of them, Guy Fawkes, was taken into custody the evening before the attack, in the cellar where the explosives to be used were stashed. The other conspirators were all either killed resisting capture or—like Fawkes—tried, convicted, and executed. In the aftermath, Parliament declared November 5 a national day of thanksgiving, and the first celebration of it took place in 1606.

Today Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated in the United Kingdom, and in a number of countries that were formerly part of the British Empire, with parades, fireworks, bonfires, and food. Straw effigies of Fawkes are tossed on the bonfire, as are—in more recent years in some places—those of contemporary political figures. Traditionally, children carried these effigies, called “Guys,” through the streets in the days leading up to Guy Fawkes Day and asked passersby for “a penny for the guy,” often reciting rhymes associated with the occasion, the best known of which dates from the 18th century.

Fireworks, a major component of most Guy Fawkes Day celebrations, represent the explosives that were never used by the plotters."

[theeastcoastblogger]

Missin N.C....

Missin N.C….

Flying into Asheville on a cool June day was just what I expected it to be. I’ve been living in New York for almost six months now. My brain is still in disbelief that we would actually pick up and move over 500 miles away from what I have been calling home since 2006. I had the honor of sitting next to the perfect airplane buddy. A yellow Lab belonging to a young woman who was visually impaired…

[bleachbleachbleach]

[Bleach e312]

Snake Wines and Beer Steins*: An Anthropology of West Rukongai

* I learned this morning that is not a stein, but I’m keeping it for the assonance!

Really down the rabbithole with this episode and cannot put it down, but this cap is such a completely fascinating glimpse at potential Rukongai cultures and trade routes! 

The first thing that caught my eye, naturally, was the snake, which when this scene first came up I thought was just a completely undressed snake on a plate. But when I went to take the cap, no! It’s a snake in liquid! Which led me to believe it was a pickled snake. 

But then my co-blogger brought up snake wine, which it definitely is. According to Wikipedia, the liquid part of habushu, snake sake from the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa), is mixed with herbs and honey, which is why it has a yellow tint. The Habu snake is a pit viper viewed as both a menace (it can launch itself and bite you from pretty far away) and as a god, bestowing health and virility. (Contemporary Ryukyuan/Okinawan literature sometimes includes habu snakes as an anti-colonial metaphor, such as Medoruma Shun’s 1999 short story, “Hope.”)

1. Increased Importance of Medicinal Food vs. Sustenance Food in Rukongai

Makes all the sense in the world to me that Rukongai would have virility wine. If you don’t need to eat to survive, I imagine the value of virility wine is quite high. ...I mean, what else is there to do out there?

2. Climate Profiles Suggest Far-Reaching Trade Networks

Because the Gate Guardian who shows up in this episode is Jidanbou, this means the village Oomaeda encounters is in West Rukongai somewhere—probably close to the gates, since Soi Fon expected him back after a day trip. (But per the Bount arc, Renji can apparently run to the ass-end of Rukongai to the Seireitei and back in a few hours, so there’s some wiggle room here.) 

Nothing we’ve seen from West Rukongai suggests it’s climatologically similar to the Ryukyu Islands (or to southeast Asia, where similar pit vipers live), which are subtropical. Soul Society always gives the impression of being fairly temperate. At least, it snows in the Seireitei without mountain elevations being involved (Winter Fireworks chapter). West Rukongai is where Hokutan is, the mountains where Kaien and Rukia trained, which gave the impression of being pretty temperate. West Rukongai is also where Junrinan is—where Hitsugaya and Hinamori are from. Judging by Hitsugaya’s behavior in the Beach Episode, if Junrinan was anything like the Ryukyu Islands, he’d have perished long ago.

So… DID THEY TRADE FOR IT. DID THEY GET THE SNAKE WINE FROM ELSEWHERE. How far away is that elsewhere? How many different owners’ hands did it pass through to make it to this village, to this feast? Snake wine is intended to age fairly substantially, which in Rukongai could mean quite a bit of time. How old is this snake wine? What is its provenance?? Potential evidence of complex and far-reaching patterns of trade and shared ascriptions of value, is what I’m saying. snake wine snake wine snake wine

In my mind, I’ve mostly transposed Japan over Soul Society and imagine  North Rukongai as northern Japan, West Rukongai as western Japan, etc. Except in my mind sometimes south is southern Japan and sometimes it’s northern New Mexico lol. East Rukongai in my mind is "idk, New Jersey?" Maybe the snake wine is from the version of southern Rukongai where Pirate AU Soi Fon lives, dominating the high seas…

3. Evidence of Glassworking and Alcohol Production Characteristic of the late 19th/early 20th Centuries

[For reference, Soul Society is typically described as being similar to the Edo Period of Japanese history, which spanned the 17th-19th centuries.]

The second standout beverage here is the beer stein, which I called a stein and then learned that the original beer steins came from the Bubonic Plague era and had tops, for plague reasons, and were made out of wood and leather and then pewter. What do I know, I don’t drink, LOL.

That is more technically a ten-sided handled glass pint, which became popular in the early half of the 20th century in England, though some sources place it in Austria a few decades earlier. Drinking beer out of various forms of glass predates that, and there was a whole period of ceramic drinkware and trade with China and Japan thrown in the centuries between, blah blah. But two things are probably true if there’s a glass beer mug: 

 1. Glassworking has developed enough to make this workable/not a holy pain, production-wise. But again, this is Rukongai—maybe this is the one mug in all existence in West Rukongai and not something intended for mass production. They’re toasting the once-in-a-lifetime event of a Gotei captain slumming it with them, after all. Heck, maybe they got it from the Seireitei, which definitely has more than one of these, though after a cursory look at two places I thought they’d appear, neither does. LOL. Welp. 

2. Beer production has developed enough that it’s filtered and there’s not unseemly gunk floating around in it (made obvious by the fact that you’re drinking it out of a clear glass mug). This could mean Rukongai is pretty with the times with is alcohol production.

Not that that begins to touch why ten-sided handled glass pints from late 19th/early 20th century England and/or Austria are in West Rukongai, a place less likely to have them than the Seireitei, where weird anachronistic stuff seems like it would come into circulation with more regularity.

I love the idea that even if souls don’t remember their previous lives, there’s still imprints and rogue dreams and strange images floating around in their heads, their muscle memories. But like, specifically the version where sometimes the rogue dream is just a gigantic, bomb-ass cup that Some Guy then proceeds to spend his entire afterlife re-developing. He is a VISIONARY. A GENIUS. A rare mind inventing something the likes of which have never been seen is this world but that exist in his mind so clearly it is as though he has seen it in his hands before!!

[scotianostra]

Aberlady Bay’s midget submarines.

I took a trip out to Aberlady last night to catch the low tide where these relics from World War Two are left decaying as the tide comes in and out.

In the spring of 1946, two midget submarines were towed to Aberlady Bay and tethered on either side of an anchor point made of one old concrete anti-tank block set on top of four others. There, over two days of trials in the first week of May, they were fired at by aircraft including Mosquitoes and Seafires (the naval version of the Spitfire) in an experiment to judge the effectiveness of 20 mm cannon shells against the submarines’ steel hulls.

The story of the Aberlady Bay midget submarines was uncovered brilliantly by a researcher named Alison Boutland in a report for the Nautical Archaeology Society. She was able to identify the submarines as XT-craft, a training variant of the X-craft mini submarine.

X-craft were about 16 metres (52 ft) long and powered by a diesel engine when on the surface and an electric motor when underwater. They had a crew of four: a commander, a pilot, an engineer (known as the engine room artificer, or ERA) and a specialist diver. They were used in September 1943 in a daring raid on the German battleship Tirpitz in a fjord in the far north of Norway – a mission that inspired the 1955 film ‘Above us the Waves’, starring John Mills.

The XT submarines, built by Vickers Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness, were used not just for training X-craft crews, but also to stand in for full-size submarines in training exercises in which they were hunted from air and sea. The XT-craft were simpler than X-craft, since they did not need as much equipment. In particular, they did not have a retractable periscope; the periscope was fixed in a fin-like housing on the top of the submarine. The distinctive eye-shaped attachment point for this periscope housing was clearly identified by Boutland on the two Aberlady Bay wrecks.

Six XT-craft were built, named Extant, Sandra, Helen, Excelsior, Extended and Xantho. When the war in Europe drew to a close, they were no longer needed, and in June 1945 all six were sent to the Naval Construction and Research Establishment in Rosyth. Boutland was not able to figure out which of the six were used for the target trials, although she did conclude that the better-preserved wreck is probably not XT-5, Extended, which, as its name suggests, was modified to be a little longer than the others.

The cannon-fire trials took place on May 1, 1946 and, after the subs were patched up and re-floated, May 6, 1946. The website East Lothian at War, which has the dates as May 2 and May 7, says that the first trial involved armour-piercing shells and the second high-explosive shells, and that the latter proved more effective. Surviving documentation includes annotated photos of the subs showing the damage after the attacks.

Aberlady Conservation and History Society was recently given movie footage of the trials, filmed by a naval officer from the deck of a boat from which the operation was observed, and in 2019 the footage was digitised and posted on YouTube, the footage, although in colour, is not great, I will post it below for you to have a wee look at.

An interesting addition to the story of the submarines comes from Coastkid, a local blogger and Surly fat bike enthusiast, who has evidence that the subs continued to be used as targets for live firing practice by aircraft based at Drem. He recalls working as a greenkeeper at Gullane in the 1980s and finding dozens of spent 0.5 inch shell cartridges as well as 20 mm cartridges, and he was told by a retired tractor driver that aircraft used to line themselves up using a marker pole behind the seventh tee on Gullane No 3 course, and fire when over the rows of anti-tank blocks, near the green of the twelfth hole on No 2 course.

[ukrainenews]

Daily Wrap Up April 21-24, 2023

Under the cut:

A Russian Sukhoi-34 fighter-jet has accidentally bombed the Russian city of Belgorod, around 40km (25 miles) from the border with Ukraine on Friday. The bomb left a 20m (60ft) crater and caused an explosion so large it blew a car on to the roof of a nearby shop. Three people were injured and several buildings were damaged.

Ukrainian authorities say Russian forces are “forcibly evacuating” civilians in the area of the Kherson region that they still occupy, a day after it was claimed Ukrainian forces had established a bridgehead on the east bank of the Dnipro River.

Ukraine’s military have set up positions on the eastern side of Dnipro river near Kherson city, the Institute for the Study of War reported, citing Russian military bloggers.

Russia on Sunday said its forces had advanced in Bakhmut while a top Ukrainian commander said his troops were holding the frontline through the city, all but destroyed in some of the bloodiest combat of the 14-month war. The Russian defence ministry said its forces had secured two blocks in western districts and airborne units were providing reinforcements to the north and south. Russia sees Bakhmut as a stepping stone to more advances in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow is threatening to terminate the Black Sea grain deal, viewed as critical to addressing the world hunger crisis, if the Group of Seven nations ban exports to Russia.

Russian troops shelled the village of Shakhtarske in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast on the morning of April 24, reported the regional prosecutor's office. Two men aged 43 and 66 were killed in a house's yard, and their neighbor suffered shrapnel injuries, according to the prosecutors.

A Russian Sukhoi-34 fighter-jet has accidentally bombed the Russian city of Belgorod, around 40km (25 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

The bomb left a 20m (60ft) crater and caused an explosion so large it blew a car on to the roof of a nearby shop.

Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said authorities had ordered the evacuation of a damaged nine-storey block of flats as a precaution.

Three people were injured and several buildings were damaged, he said.

Video posted on social media showed the impact of the blast, lifting a vehicle on to the roof of a supermarket as traffic streamed along Prospekt Vatutina, close to the centre of the city.

In a brief statement, the Russian defence ministry admitted that one of its Su-34 fighter bombers had "accidentally discharged aircraft ordnance" at 22:15 local time (19:15 GMT) on Thursday.

It was a bureaucratic way of saying that the jet had mistakenly fired a weapon. It didn't specify which one.

The bomb landed at an intersection of two roads not far from the city centre and next to residential buildings.

Two women were taken to hospital for treatment, according to the governor. But with a Russian bomber hitting a busy residential district the consequences could have been far worse.

"Thank God no one was killed," he said on social media.

-via BBC

~

Ukrainian authorities say Russian forces are “forcibly evacuating” civilians in the area of the Kherson region that they still occupy, a day after it was claimed Ukrainian forces had established a bridgehead on the east bank of the Dnipro River.

“I have information that the evacuation starts today [Sunday] with an excuse of protecting civilians from the consequences of heavy fighting in the area,” Oleksandr Samoylenko, the Ukrainian head of Kherson’s regional council, said. Russian troops were “trying to steal as much as they can” as they withdrew, he added.

The claim cannot be verified, but it comes amid an apparent increase in Ukrainian military activity in the south of the country which some analysts have interpreted as a potential precursor to Kyiv’s long anticipated counter-offensive.

Serhiy Khlan, another Ukrainian official in Kherson, said over the weekend that Wagner group fighters were helping Russian occupation officials impose control over the civilian population on the east bank of the Dnipro.

Ukraine’s southern military command meanwhile reported airstrikes in Kherson region by four Russian Su-35 jets. Ukraine said buildings were hit with guided bombs, but did not specify the location of the strikes.

Attention has focused on Ukraine’s southern front around the key city of Kherson since Sunday’s report from the Institute for the Study of War, a US-based thinktank, which suggested Ukrainian forces had established positions on the east bank of the Dnipro, opposite Kherson in the area of a settlement called Dachy. The ISW made the claim after geolocating reports from Russian sources.

Analysts at the thinktank came to the conclusion after examining text messages and photos posted by “Russian military bloggers”.

The ISW also suggested Russian forces may no longer control islands in the Kinka and Chaika rivers, less than 500 metres north of Dachy.

The apparent Ukrainian progress follows months of low-level conflict in the Dnipro delta and along the Kinburn spit, a narrow sandy peninsula. Both sides have deployed crews in rigid inflatable boats in often unreported fights over the small islands that dot the river mouth and surrounding marshes.

The handful of reports that have emerged since the beginning of the year about the delta have painted a picture of bitter fighting for small and mainly uninhabited islands, some of which have changed hands several times. With the islands and the river threatened by artillery strikes from both sides, Russian and Ukrainian forces have lost boats in the fighting.

The Ukrainian military has asked for “patience” on reports of a possible offensive. A large-scale advance over the wide river under the threat of Russian strikes would be a large and difficult undertaking.

“The conditions of a military operation require silence until it is safe enough for our military,” a Ukrainian military spokesperson said, adding she could not confirm or deny the ISW’s report.

The reports of a potential Ukrainian advance in the south come nearly six months after Ukraine liberated Kherson city and the west bank of the Dnipro in November 2022.

According to the ISW’s most recent update, Kherson may be the most vulnerable area of Russian occupation along the long frontline.

“The Russian grouping in Kherson oblast is likely the most disorganised and undermanned in the entire theatre, highly likely mainly comprised of badly under-strength remnants of mainly mobilised units,” the thinktank said.

Speculation over Ukrainian advances in the south came as Russian authorities said they had repelled a drone attack on the port of Sevastopol in Moscow-annexed Crimea, adding that there was no damage or casualties.

It also came as audio emerged of the head of the Wagner mercenary group threatening to kill Ukrainian prisoners of war. Yevgeny Prigozhin was reacting to a Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel posting of an alleged recording of what it said were two Ukrainians deciding to shoot a Russian prisoner of war.

The channel did not say where the recording came from and there is no way of verifying its authenticity.

“We will kill everyone on the battlefield. Take no more prisoners of war!” Prigozhin said in an audio recording on Sunday “We don’t know the name of our guy shot by Ukrainians,” Prigozhin said, adding that under international law his group was obliged to “take care, treat, not hurt” any prisoners of war.

-via The Guardian

~

Ukraine’s military have set up positions on the eastern side of Dnipro river near Kherson city, the Institute for the Study of War reported, citing Russian military bloggers.

Infiltrating the area could be a first step towards trying to dislodge Russians from positions they are using to shell and shoot at Kherson.

The constant attacks have made it impossible for residents to return to normal life, months after Ukrainan troops liberated the city from Russian occupation.

Ukrainian military forays across the river could also mark the first tentative steps towards launching a long-awaited spring offensive.

The think tank said in an update on the war:

This is the first time ISW has observed reliable geolocated imagery of Ukrainian positions on the east bank along with multi-sourced Russian reports of an enduring Ukrainian presence there.

The Russian military bloggers said Ukrainian forces had established stable supply lines to their positions and “regularly conduct sorties in the area”, the ISW said.

The reported positions were in marshy territory of islets and tributaries, near the settlements of Oleshky and Dachi, the report said. Russia still holds the settlements.

A Ukrainian military spokeswoman for the southern region declined to comment on the reports that Ukrainan troops had achieved a foothold across the river.

Natalia Humenyuk told TV channel 24:

There is an ongoing military operation that requires informational silence. And when it is allowed we will be sure to notify you.

Government officials and Ukrainian commanders have signalled for months that when the weather and troops are ready, they will try to dislodge Russian forces from the south.

An autumn campaign liberated swathes of northeastern Kharkiv and pushed Russian troops out of Kherson, at the time their last stronghold on the western banks of the Dnipro.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday he is “confident” Ukraine is prepared to retake more of its territory in the next offensive.

-via The Guardian

~

Russia on Sunday said its forces had advanced in Bakhmut while a top Ukrainian commander said his troops were holding the frontline through the city, all but destroyed in some of the bloodiest combat of the 14-month war.

The Russian defence ministry said its forces had secured two blocks in western districts and airborne units were providing reinforcements to the north and south. Russia sees Bakhmut as a stepping stone to more advances in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi shared images on the Telegram messaging app of him poring over a map with three other uniformed men, with the caption "Bakhmut frontline. Our defence continues."

"We hit the enemy, often unexpectedly for him, and continue to hold strategic lines," he wrote.

Reuters was unable to verify battlefield reports.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the private Wagner military force which is leading the Bakhmut assault, has claimed 80% control of the city. Kyiv has repeatedly denied claims its troops are poised to withdraw.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed to keep defending the city.

"It is impossible for us to give up on Bakhmut because this will [help] expand the battle front and will give the Russian forces and Wagner chances to seize more of our lands," Zelenskiy said in an interview with Al Arabiya news channel published on Sunday.

Also on Sunday, the Russian-installed head of Ukraine's southern Kherson region denied a report by a U.S. think tank that Ukrainian forces had taken up positions on the Dnipro river's eastern bank.

"There is no enemy foothold on the left (eastern) bank of the Dnipro river … our military completely controls that territory," Vladimir Saldo wrote on his Telegram channel.

Citing Russian military bloggers embedded with Moscow's forces, the Institute for the Study of War said Ukraine had "established positions" on the eastern bank, though it was not clear "at what scale or with what intentions".

Russia withdrew forces from the western bank last year as part of a series of withdrawals that signified a shift in momentum in Kyiv's favour.

Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine's southern command, neither confirmed nor denied the report, which she told Ukrainian television foreshadowed "very powerful shelling" in districts around the west bank cities of Kherson and Beryslav.

"Reacting to such information, the enemy has significantly intensified its attacks on the opposite bank," she said. Civilians had been injured and about 30 buildings destroyed, including a school, she said.

-via Reuters

~

Moscow is threatening to terminate the Black Sea grain deal, viewed as critical to addressing the world hunger crisis, if the Group of Seven nations ban exports to Russia.

Such a ban could be part of the ever-evolving set of sanctions the allies have leveled against Moscow for its war in Ukraine.

Ukraine normally supplies about 45 million metric tons of grain to the global market every year and is the world’s top exporter of sunflower oil. Together with Russia, it accounted for about one-quarter of global wheat exports in 2019.

On Sunday, Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and deputy chair of Russia's security council, implied in a Telegram post that Moscow would answer a new G7 export ban by halting the flow of "goods that are the most sensitive for G7."

Alliance response: The G7 called for the “extension, full implementation and expansion” of the Black Sea grain deal in a statement published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan on Sunday.

Moscow has pulled out of the deal before: Russia had suspended its participation in the UN-brokered agreement in October 2022 after drone attacks on the Crimean city of Sevastopol, Ukraine.

Shipments have been stop-and-start during the deal, with each side accusing the other of sabotaging the operation at times.

Origins of the deal and impact: Turkey, alongside the United Nations, helped broker the deal in July 2022. The agreement established a procedure that guaranteed the safety of ships carrying Ukrainian grain, fertilizer and other foodstuff through a humanitarian corridor in the Black Sea.

Under the deal, all vessels coming to and from Ukraine’s ports were inspected and monitored by international teams made up of officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN.

-via CNN

~

Russian troops shelled the village of Shakhtarske in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast on the morning of April 24, reported the regional prosecutor's office.

Two men aged 43 and 66 were killed in a house's yard, and their neighbor suffered shrapnel injuries, according to the prosecutors.

Shakhtarske is located in the Volnovakha district, about 75 kilometers from the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk.

Earlier the same day, Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said that Russian attacks had killed two civilians in the region and wounded two more over the previous 24 hours.

Ukraine's eastern Donetsk Oblast bordering Russia is the site of the war's fiercest fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces as Moscow seeks to occupy the entire region.

-via Kyiv Independent

[hsmsongtournament]

Welcome to the High School Musical Song Tournament!

For March Madness, I thought tumblr could celebrate our favorite basketball team, the East High Wildcats, by deciding on the best song from the High School Musical trilogy.

Round 1 will be starting on Tuesday, March 21st at 8pm EDT (east coast in North America for simplicity's sake for this American blogger). Please note the seeds were completely randomized.

Masterlist (all voting can be found here)

Credits:

icon

header

bracket template

randomization done by @circlejourney

[sunspira]

you're fighting for your life in that post and god damn you're an idiot. like completely oblivious to everything everyone is saying. dumb idiot american indeed

nah i honestly think it's getting weird and unhealthy the level of hostility and vitriol like finnish dannish and Belgian tumblr (three nationalities i saw posting with the most disdain) has for americentric posts about something as innocent as if watching foreign movies is a rare thing for you vs the norm. And the way foreign is defined differently based on different economies. I think the frustration of like "man some of you guys really forget non americans are on here" is very fair and warranted. especially with a level of humility too it since you live in America part 2.

if you're a white fandom blogger in finland I kinda think the frustration at americentrism should be rooted in the knowledge it harms others more than you. that it frustrates you on behalf of the rest of the world, while also knowing you benefit from it. it should frustrate you primarily as an ally, not really as a victim. and sometimes it feels more like you're claiming you're being oppressed. there's layers to it, like the potential loss of your native language into english that should be framed as actual marginalization and indigenous culture worth preserving. but idk, there's a lot of "jumping at the chance to be hostile and holier than thou online and justify it to myself as telling off my oppressor" in north and west european tumblr toward american users. when the dynamic is not as clear cut as the situations you're imitating, like the tone of justified disdain and hate when people from the global south make fun of american ignorance, their undeniable oppressors. and sometimes these american users aren't even white, so they're actually far more oppressed by america than you could ever be.

i've seen enough of turkish twitter bullying black americans online with vicious superiority for their perceived connections to american imperialism making them fair game in some international users minds. but not all international users are equally oppressed, are they? some of you guys ARE the oppressors. arguably the turkish person is the more privileged individual in the room. with racial privilege as a turk in an imperial country that committed genocide on minorities for not being turk in order to establish a turk ethnostate. and in terms of international relations turkey is one of the most powerful natjons in the middle east / west asia. this person is the primary oppressor class of the middle east just after white europeans. the idea they have some plight under black americans for being technically brown and middle eastern and using that misconception to make anti black jokes (rampant in their country as well) under the guise of ANTI IMPERIALISM tbh nauseates me. so seeing any kind of largely misplaced co-opted rage for cool comeback fuckery from actual white europeans against the vague sense of "american bad" (yes of course america bad, but to who BUT TO WHO?? like i'm sure we've done Belgium wrong. fair. but is it right to make this americentric conversation always SOo much about you and your danish neighbors?? and with THAT holier than thou attitude with what belgium has done?? like there's limits to the validity vs hypocrisy of frustration about americans forgetting europe exists. the leftist analysis of power imbalance of american culture and media over yours is very good. but in your place of privilege it's very easy for the hostility and condescension to cross over into person with nationalistic ego complex interpreting different life experiences mentioned in polls as an affront on your experiences and proof of american ego and ignorance) it just gets under my skin as of late!

ive thought here and there about the levels of disdain condescension and bitterness from western europe tumblr users to the idea of americentrism and it started off as quite justified and understandable (i think to some level it still is) but some of you guys kind of inappropriately mimic and co-opt the level of anger people actually oppressed my american imperialism do and should have. especially cause you benefit from it. and the clarity and humility and nuance in that is important! especially when many americans are not white, it becomes even more inappropriate as any kind of leftism against a power imbalance and more and more with features of like nationalism/xenophobia

I saw a popular post the other day about how "ancient people were just hammered all the time lol. they drank more beer than water". that's only true for ancient europeans. no one thought to question it let alone insult OP over it. so many posts on here are ethnically eurocentric (revolving around europeans or european americans, european australians etc) as well because eurocentrism and americentrism are so deeply tied and linked.

the discourse on western european tumblr is just getting to a weird place tbh where it's actually getting a bit overblown. and i hate to tell you not to make jokes at our expense or criticize oblivious posts. i definitely don't mean that!! i don't want this to come off as like "europe stop making fun of america or criticizing american ignorance or you're RACIST" but i feel like some of you guys aren't even using americentrism the term and theory correctly anymore and are just using that term for some very mild nuanced situations with actual hate and disgust, like the way foreign films are defined differently. maybe that shouldn't inspire that level of hatred especially when you yourself are not oppressed by the "First World" powers, and you ARE the privileged First World. that post in particular snotty and white fragility laden feeling like it was because of like an ego injury rather than real oppression.

[mariacallous]

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has appeared to concede the severity of the Kremlin’s recent military reversals in Ukraine, insisting Russia would “stabilise” the situation in four Ukrainian regions it illegally claimed as its own territory last week.

Russia has suffered significant losses in two of the four regions since Friday, when Putin signed treaties to incorporate them into Russia by force, with Russian officials saying their forces were “regrouping”.

“We are working on the assumption that the situation in the new territories will stabilise,” Putin told Russian teachers during a televised video call.

With Ukraine pushing its advance in the east and south, Russian troops have been retreating under pressure on both fronts, confronted by fast moving and agile Ukrainian forces supplied with advanced western-supplied artillery systems.

As Russian troops have retreated, they have left behind smashed towns once under occupation and, in places, mass burial sites and evidence of torture chambers.

In the town of Lyman, which was retaken by Ukrainian forces on Sunday, more than 50 graves have been found, some marked with names, others with numbers, the Kyiv-based outlet Hromadske reported on Wednesday.

Putin’s comments comes amid increasingly gloomy commentary from Russian war correspondents and military bloggers over the severity of the situation that has seen a large-scale withdrawal from the Kharkiv region, the loss of the strategic town of Lyman on Friday and Ukrainian advances in the Kherson region.

The scale of the recent defeats was underlined by a report by the BBC’s Russian service that said an elite Russian military intelligence unit may have lost up to three-quarters of its reconnaissance manpower in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Ukraine’s southern command said it had extended its area of control by six to 12 miles in the Kherson region and the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, confirmed the recapture of a series of villages.

The territory recaptured is to the south of the city of Kryvyi Rih in the direction of Nova Kakhovka as well as west along the north bank of the Dnipro river towards Kherson.

“The Ukrainian army is making quite fast and powerful progress in the south of our country,” said Zelenskiy in his nightly address on Tuesday. “Dozens of settlements have already been exempted from the Russian pseudo-referendum this week alone … and this is far from a complete list.” He named eight villages in the Kherson region.

Some Russian propagandists and officials blamed the losses on Nato.

“We are regrouping [our forces] along the front, which means that we can gather strength and strike back,” Kirill Stremousov, the Moscow-appointed deputy head of Kherson region, told the RIA Novosti news agency. Stremousov said it was “impossible” for them to enter Kherson city.

A Russian war reporter for state TV, Roman Saponkov, wrote to his Telegram followers that Russia was losing in Kherson. “Friends, I know you’re waiting for me to comment on the situation. But I really don’t know what to say to you. The retreat from the north on the right bank is a disaster.”

The losses came as Putin ordered on Wednesday his government to take control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, but was met with the head of Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company saying he was taking charge and urging workers not to sign any documents with Russia.

Military experts say Russia is at its weakest point, partly because of its decision not to mobilise earlier and partly because of massive losses of troops and equipment.

About 15,000 of Russia’s best-trained troops are struggling to fight off Ukrainians on the western bank of occupied Kherson, despite movements of Russian troops from the eastern front to the south, which has thinned Russian forces elsewhere.

According to Jack Watling, a senior analyst at the Royal United Services Institute, Russian troops around Kherson have retreated to their second line of defence to shorten their frontline.

“There’s no evidence of surrender or collapse [of Russian forces] … like we saw in Kharkiv region,” said Watling, noting the political importance for Russia of holding on to Kherson city, the only regional centre it has managed to acquire since February.

But if Ukraine’s forces manage to break through Russia’s second line of defence, they will be able to cut the Russian supply lines with a wider range of cheaper artillery and trap them on the western bank of Kherson, he added.

“At the moment, the bridges are being hit by Himars [rockets], which are scarce and very expensive … [if they advance further] they can afford to open up against more incidental targets,” said Watling of the bridges supplying Russian forces on Kherson’s west bank.

Phillips O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at St Andrews University, added that Ukraine’s recent progress had been a product of a process, not a turning point.

“For months now, Russia has been getting weaker, it has been bleeding its army on the field, it’s been losing a huge amount of equipment. On the other hand, the Ukrainians have been getting stronger; they have better-trained forces and better military equipment.” He added: “This hasn’t happened overnight, this has been the way the war has been trending but now we can say it reached the tipping point in September.”

In the short term there is nothing Russia can do because they waited too long to mobilise, O’Brien said.

Russia, meanwhile, has continued to attack behind Ukraine’s frontlines, a mixture of military and civilian targets. On Wednesday morning, it launched a significant drone attack on Bila Tserkva in Kyiv region and fired rockets into Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro region.

But O’Brien doubted Russia had enough quality missiles to alter the situation behind the frontlines to affect the battlefield.

“It’s more of a question of, can they just hold on and hope that they can get a trained and re-equipped force back in the spring, but even then there’s a question about whether they can do that,” said O’Brien. He said Russia would need to produce more equipment and properly train troops but its system of mobilisation appeared “chaotic”.

Konrad Muzyka, an independent military analyst, said he had initially thought the war may last for years, but after the Kharkiv region, it could be much less.

“It does not look good for [Russia] … They are not able to defend properly, let alone conduct any offensives,” said Muzyka. “This Russian leadership thinks with [new] reservists they will be able to stop Ukrainian advances, but I’m not sure. The truth is, we don’t know how big an impact it will [have] on the frontline.”

[bedtimestoriesforbrokengirls]

Can you post more PoC girls? (I'm dark skinned South Indian, same as the Bridgerton S2 girls)

This way I can pretend my body has a chance with you even though I know my mind never will.

 I enjoy the stuff I post —I don't reblog anything that I don't love in some small way— but even I think it's too samey-samey.

I get asks like yours every few months, and I always think, "that's a reasonable request, I'm on it." Then I start diving into Tumblr search, looking for blogs focusing on BIPoC girls who fit my preferred body type, and I quickly find several issues:

It's easy to find blogs full of east Asian girls who are my type. Unfortunately, they're usually either raceplay-heavy, of full of cosplay and manga.

It's easy to find blogs full of black girls who are my type. Unfortunately, they're usually either thinspo for teenage girls, or vanilla celeb blogs I don't want to offend.

I've got followers from Sri Lanka to North Africa whose skin tones and ethnicities I haven't yet had a chance to objectify and encode into search terms, but I suspect I'll have similar issues with those as well.

(If Tumblr would make Instagram/Twitter embeds function properly on my blog across all clients, I'd pay for their monthly upgrade thingy. That would solve the problem right there... also, Tumblr would make money while increasing my IG usage. Rising tides, all boats, that sorta thing.)

Which leaves me wondering: are there no blogs that are basically "skinny/athletic girls of color"? If you're out there, blogger-person, let me know... you'll be in my rotation.

[bryonyashaw]

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𝐖𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞. 𝐖𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐜. 𝐖𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞. 𝐖𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐨𝐦.  𝐖𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬. 𝐘𝐞𝐬, 𝐤𝐢𝐝𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐬, 𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬, 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐮𝐝 𝐩𝐮𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐬. 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞.

𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥: 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞. 𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐝 - 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭. 𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞! 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞.

𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬; 𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐲.

𝐑𝐚𝐥𝐩𝐡 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐝𝐨 𝐄𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐝, “𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬 𝐠𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐞𝐰 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐭.” 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐮𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐨𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐮𝐬 𝐝𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐲 - 𝐰𝐞 𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 (𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞) 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐢𝐬𝐞. 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐰𝐞’𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐢𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐛: “𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐬.”

[vishbasilio]

VISH: As warm as the Sun! blog #1

The Sun rises. The light defeats the darkness. Its rays strike like flashes. Another day approaches.

My warmest greetings to everyone! I am Vish Gwyneth Basilio, your newest teen blogger in town. You can call me by my one-syllabic first name, “Vish”. Currently, 17 years old. I was born during the Summer season of 2005. Specifically, July 17. With a zodiac sign of Cancer, and a birthstone of Ruby, I am now ready to conquer the blogging community with the love to inspire others and a fiery passion to create a difference into your lives.

I am a Grade 11 STEM student in St. Paul University Philippines. All the way from City of Ilagan, Isabela, I came to Tuguegarao City in the province of Cagayan to pursue my Senior High School education. In a family of four, I am the eldest daughter. I value independence, humility, courage, determination and optimism so much that I would want to extend those and bring them into the next level. I desire that these attributes would be treasured by others as well – people of all ages, genders and race. Driven by Christ, I am now here to welcome a new milestone in my life. I believe that blogging would be the best way for me to share my influence to the society.

Through words, punctuations and spaces, I hope that I can motivate you to ponder your life’s essence. May I be able to create a collage of thoughts that would make you learn some life lessons. I hope that my works would paint a smile in your face so that you’ll be as beautiful as the flower in your vase. Hence, wherever you are right now – be it in the North, East, South or West, feel free to browse and read my future contents. Everyone, allow me to share my warmth to all of you!

Literature has always been my favorite form of art. The message or context that can be formed just by rumbling the letters of the alphabet, but of course, taking in consideration of the grammar is purely impressive. Just by looking at them, you’ll think that they are just a mere writing. Yet, when you actually understand and grasp the meaning that lies behind those text, the impact, the vividness and the realization would hit differently. For me, the beauty of literature can’t be compared to any. It is more than a masterpiece as Literature is totally perfect!

With the advancements of technology, I am glad that “blogging” was discovered and available for the public use. It is indeed a blessing especially to someone like me who loves to share their ideas to other people. I believe that blogging is the most suitable type of social media that I can use to post my content. Truly, I find blogging an awesome way for me to polish my skills, widen my potentials and expand my growth while bringing inspiration, shedding light and sharing warmth to others. Hence, I encourage you to stay and get to know me more. I’ll upload more contents soon. But for now, let me guide you to the maze of my life. Let’s go!

First of all, allow me to be futuristic. Just like the common Filipino phrase, “advance mag-isip”. Where do I see myself 10 years from now? Well, I think that I’ll be busy exploring my chosen career path. I’d like to be a Neurosurgeon. That is why probably, a decade from now, I’ll be attending various seminars, trainings and courses in order for me to become a better and more expert doctor. From my perspective, my learning in SPUP is vital as they are equipping me with the knowledge, skills, and values that are crucial to the path I am leading to.

As I mentioned earlier, I am a STEM student. Yes, it is a wise choice. After all, it is suitable and appropriate to the course I’ll be taking up in college if God permits, and that is Nursing. I chose this since it is very close to my heart. My father is a nurse and growing up, I was inspired by him. I witness how he provide care and concern to others. He is selfless and I admire him for that. Thus, I can say the he is my role model. Other than this, my love language is Act of Service. To be honest, I love giving services to other people especially to those who are in need. Lastly, I dream to be a doctor, and Nursing is the best pre-med course that I considered as it is more focused in application or the actual execution of tasks.

With all of these, I hope that I was able to give you an idea of what the ‘real me’ is. A glimpse of who I am has been presented to all of you. From the basic information about my identity, down to the plans I have in the future, I shared it to you with a hopeful heart that you’ll welcome me warmly and smoothly in this blogging world. Again, I am Vish, allow me to create a difference in you lives!

Good day, and may the gentle warmth and light of the Sun be with you always wherever you go!

[gungieblog]

In November 2013, a seafloor volcano in the western Pacific Ocean spewed enough material to rise above the water line. The new island, or Niijima, sprouted just 500 meters from Nishino-shima, another volcanic island that had last erupted and expanded in 1973–74. Four months later, the new and the old are now one island, and the volcanic eruption shows no sign of abating.

On March 30, 2014, the Operational Land Imager on the Landsat 8 satellite captured this image of Nishino-shima, which sits about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) south of Tokyo in the Ogasawara Island chain (approximately 27°14’ North, 140°52’ East). The enlarged inset photo includes a white outline depicting the extent of the new island on December 30, 2013.

The Niijima portion of the island is now larger than the original Nishino-shima, and the merged island is slightly more than 1,000 meters across. Two cones have formed around the main vents and stand more than 60 meters above sea level, triple the highest point of the island in December. Volcanic lava flows are reported to be most active now on the south end of the island. Volcanologist and blogger Erik Klemetti noted earlier in 2014: “This is a great example of how volcanic islands like this in the Bonin Islands grow over hundreds to thousands of eruptions.”

A plume of volcanic gas, steam, and ash rises from the island. Tiny particles in the plume are seeding the formation of fluffy cumulus clouds. The intermittent, pulsing shape of the cloud stream might be a reflection of the volcanic eruption itself. Strombolian explosions are essentially bubbles of lava and gas rising from Earth’s interior in pulses. Underwater, sediment appears to be stirred up in a green plume that stretches eastward from the island.

> More information

Image Credit: NASA/Earth Obsevatory/Landsat 8

[gladstones-corner]

Ritual Variants - Liber Resh vel Helios

Originally, this was a post on studying ritual variations to understand why adaptations are made and take your own adaptation to the next level.

Unfortunately I chose Liber Resh vel Helios as the example, and the post quickly became an investigation of this ritual's particular variants.

I've decided to keep the original analysis below as a step-by-step example of how studying and adapting can work, akin to my series on the LRP and SOP.

So let's dive in.

If you're not familiar with Liber Resh, it's a set of four solar adorations performed at the four stations of the sun: dawn, noon, dusk, and midnight.

Aside from some pronunciation differences, the verbal components don't vary. The material components also don't vary, as the ritual is designed to be done bare-handed. That leaves us with the somatic components, which can tremendously differ.

Crowley's original version states that magicians are to perform their adoration while "giving the sign of [their] grade". This assumes that the magician is a member of the A.'.A.'. and is given such signs.

What if you aren't a member of the A.'.A.'.? According to this Thelemapedia page, Crowley gives the following signs:

Dawn (East): The four L.V.X. Signs

Noon (South): The Fire Sign of Thoum-Aesh-Neith

Dusk (West): The Air Sign of Shu

Midnight (North): The Water Sign of Auramoth

These signs are reinforced by practicing occultist, magician, and fellow (read: better) blogger Maevius Lynn in her video on Liber Resh. The main difference is that she uses the Sign of Osiris Slain at dawn instead of the L.V.X. Signs.

Why are they done in this order? This is because the adorations align the magician with the stations of the sun:

Dawn (East): the L.V.X. signs for the rebirth of the Sun

Noon (South): the Fire sign for the zenith of the Sun's power

Dusk (West): the Air sign for the dispersing of the Sun's power

Midnight (North): the Water sign for the hidden aspect of the Sun

However, Donald Kraig significantly diverges from this pattern in Modern Magick:

Dawn (East): The Air Sign of Shu

Noon (South): The Fire Sign of Thoum-Aesh-Neith

Dusk (West): The Water Sign of Auramoth

Midnight (North): A Hailing Sign (right arm out sideways, elbow up at a 90-degree angle, palm flat and facing forward)

Why the difference? Kraig doesn't say for sure in Modern Magick, so I'm going to give an educated guess.

Note that (with the exception of the Hailing Sign), all the Signs match the elemental and directional correspondences given in the LRP. However, Kraig's Hailing Sign is not given in any of Crowley's ritual signs. Instead, there is the Earth Sign of Set.

So where does it come from? In Modern Magick, Kraig states that this Sign is an adaptation of an even older Sign given in some Golden Dawn documents. In my opinion, we can reasonably infer that this "older Sign" is similar to Crowley's Earth Sign of Set, which may now be considered an offensive gesture to make. A reasonable adaptation.

But why change the order of the Signs? I believe it's to reinforce the correspondences to the LRP that magicians following his course will learn before anything else. Again, a reasonable adaptation. After all, if you're working closely with those correspondences, it'll be easier to assimilate something new if it matches up closely.

But what if you aren't working with those correspondences? What if you're working with, say, astrological correspondences on a regular basis and want to align with those?

Take a look at the Lesser Rituals of the Hexagram as given in Crowley's Liber O. These rituals align the magician to the Fixed signs of the zodiac: Leo, Taurus, Aquarius, and Scorpio (but that's another post). Using this set of correspondences will net you the following:

Dawn (East): The Fire Sign of Thoum-Aesh-Neith

Noon (South): The Earth Sign of Set

Dusk (West): The Air Sign of Shu

Midnight (North): The Water Sign of Auramoth

And the changes are limitless. The point of the matter isn't to get it 100% right, 100% of the time, with no adulterations. Remember that magic is a living tradition. To understand where magicians of the past came from is critical, but to form your own tradition is just as important.

If you made it this far, thank you for bearing with me. Have a wonderful day/night, and until we meet again, blessed be~

[bloggerkunalthakur]

Top 5 Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) In India — Blogger Kunal

India, a nation on the rise, is harnessing innovation to tackle its wastewater challenges head-on. From the bustling streets of Delhi to the serene landscapes of Chennai, sewage treatment plants (STPs) are emerging as beacons of sustainable progress. Let’s explore five cutting-edge STPs revolutionizing India’s approach to wastewater management.

Read More: Top 10 Wastewater Treatment Companies In India

Okhla Wastewater Treatment Plant

Nestled in the heart of New Delhi, the Okhla STP is poised to become Asia’s largest, boasting a staggering capacity of 564 MLD. Beyond its sheer scale, this plant is a testament to technological prowess, harnessing advanced methods to convert sludge into 5 MW of green energy. Set to significantly reduce pollution in the Yamuna River, Okhla heralds a new era in eco-conscious urban development.

Read More: Top 20 Solar Power Plants In India

Koramangala and Challaghatta (K&C) Valley Project

Bangalore’s landscape is evolving with the K&C Valley Project, a trio of STPs with a combined capacity of 440 MLD. Beyond purification, these plants are transforming wastewater into a precious resource, replenishing groundwater aquifers and fertilizing local lands. With Supreme Court approval to transport treated water to neighboring regions, K&C Valley is paving the way for inter-regional water management.

Read More: Top Real Estate Companies In Noida

Coronation Pillar STP

North Delhi’s Coronation Pillar STP stands as a beacon of purity, treating a whopping 318 MLD of wastewater daily. Supported by the National Mission for Clean Ganga, this state-of-the-art facility sets new standards for water quality, equipped with advanced technologies for phosphate and nitrogen removal. As it undergoes a trial run, Coronation Pillar promises a cleaner, healthier future for the Yamuna River and its inhabitants.

Read More: Best Real Estate Developers In Pune

Kodungaiyur STP

Chennai’s metropolitan landscape finds solace in the Kodungaiyur STP, a sprawling facility with a capacity to treat over 270 MLD of sewage. Serving over a million residents, this STP plays a pivotal role in safeguarding Chennai’s water resources, ensuring purity before discharge into the sea. With its strategic location and advanced treatment processes, Kodungaiyur is a cornerstone of urban sanitation in Tamil Nadu.

Read More: Top 10 Real Estate Developers In Ghaziabad

Kondli Water Treatment Facility

East Delhi’s Kondli project is a testament to holistic wastewater management, encompassing both treatment and resource recovery. With a total capacity of 204 MLD, this facility boasts not only wastewater treatment but also a unique sludge treatment plant that manufactures pavement tiles. By closing the loop on waste disposal and bolstering the circular economy, Kondli exemplifies the symbiosis between urban development and environmental stewardship.

Read More: Best Residential Properties For Sale In Kharadi Pune

Conclusion

As India marches towards a greener, more sustainable future, sewage treatment plants emerge as pillars of progress. Beyond mere purification, these facilities embody a paradigm shift in wastewater management, leveraging technology and innovation to safeguard precious water resources. With each drop of treated water and every watt of green energy, India’s STPs are forging a path towards a brighter tomorrow.

[ontariocoldcasesthepodcast]

Ontario Cold Cases - The Podcast: Specials 12 & April 7 Trailer

Specials 12 & April 7 Trailer

Ontario Cold Cases - The Podcast, coming this Sunday, April 7th on the disappearance of Eric Larsfolk and John McCormick Jr.

Eric Larsfolk and John McCormick Jr. were last seen on the McCormick family farm on Horseshoe Hill Road driving a field car on August 24, 1981. They haven't been seen or heard from since.

Upcoming Episode on Philip Sit

Police are investigating a possible connection between the murder of Toronto teenager Phillip Sit in 2006 and the disappearance of three of his classmates.

Upcoming episode on the murder of Valerie Drew

On Sept. 25, 1970, Valerie Drew was walking back to her Wiley Street house in Kingston, Ontario, through a large wooded field.

Valerie never made it home.

Two nights later, her lifeless body was found in the wooded area in what is now the present-day Compton Street apartment complexes.

Upcoming Episode on the disappearance of Tammy Lamondin

In the evening of Friday, May 28, 1999, Tammy Lamondin, 20, was with friends on Main Street in Newmarket.

She was last reported seen in the Newmarket area near Fairy Lake.

She has had no contact with family, friends or her employer since that time.

Upcoming Episode on the murder of Helen Gillings

A sex trade worker named Helen Gillings was 19 at the time of her murder on Friday, February 17, 1995 in the area of King Street East and Emerald Street North in Hamilton.

Upcoming Episode on the disappearance of Erin McGonigal

Peel Regional Police said Erin McGonigal, who described working as a part-time model and go-go dancer in an online profile, was last seen by her husband on Oct. 6, 2015.

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