#task: chile

[sacredpit]

i am very sadly very unfortunately very disgustingly going back to school tomorrow so my activity is about to be very not hot and sexy ( not that it has been on this blog anyway lol but it’s about to get ✨ worse ✨ ) but of course i will do my best to be active here and get back to everyone as timely as i can 😭 i know i spend most of my time on giorno but honestly that’s just because i’m logged in there on the app on my phone lol. i plan to do some writing tonight but idek which muse i’m feeling the most since my mood has been fuckin weird so ,,, thank u in advance for ur patience!! i’m just a silly little guy attempting to keep track of all the silly little ideas careening through my brain at breakneck speed while my energy levels are consistently in hell uwu

[non-un-topo]

Bro how the fuck do I have roughly 16-24 readings (some 15-30 pages each, some webpages), a novel to read, 3 assignments, 3 forum posts, and some additional independent research all due in the next 4 days. I haven't even procrastinated????

[mindblowingscience]

Want to hunt for black holes, but lack access to a mountaintop observatory or deep-space telescope? There’s an app for that—and you can help out astronomers by using it. Developed by the Dutch Black Hole Consortium, an interdisciplinary research project based in the Netherlands, Black Hole Finder is a free program available both on smartphones and as a desktop website. After reviewing a quick tutorial, all you need to do is study images taken by BlackGEM, a telescope array in Northern Chile tasked with searching the skies for cosmic events called kilonovas. Although launched in March 2024, as Space.com noted on August 19, the project’s recently expanded from just English and Dutch to support Spanish, German, Chinese, Bengali, Polish, and Italian.

Continue Reading.

[dapper-lil-arts]

what are your opinions on the background six? I know they're well beloved but in the early stages of the show, they were more popular than the mane six lol

I had to google to figure out what you meant lmao

I hope you meant these? Ngl I never knew people actually thought of them as a group of 6 paralels, lmao. Dr whooves is just a reference, I shows how big fandom tying was at the time lmao, no thoughts on him Lyra and Bonbon being the casual gayass girls in the bg was always a fun gag to me in the show. I like the fact that bonbon was a part of a secret task force, I wish we had seen more shit like that lmao.

Hey uh why are you playing piano literaly cheek to cheek. whatsup with that (In my fics if I need a couple to be doing some gay shit in the bg I use them) Derpy hooves is simple, she's just cute, always has been. Kinda funny that she originated from a bug, and people just latched onto it. I think that the fan love maybe blew a bit out of proportion, (Aparently some people ship her with twilight lmao?) But for a bg character she is absolutely precious. Must cherish Octavia and the DJ are just fun. I like that they're basically the two pokemon fossils, the duality lol. Two musicians, oposing styles, just chiling in the bg.

[chilkookiepal]

Greedy

Pt.1

Pairing - lowkey yandere  Kim Taehyung x workaholic!Reader Kind of co-workers au Genres- yandere, comfort, angst, smut if you hold your breath

Summary ; co-worker Taehyung is the only person who makes reader feel safe in the office, he is the perfect gentleman that she falls in love with but what happens when the very trust you put in him is the one way ticket he will use to test your morals to their uncomfortable limits

note, miss gurl is terrible with summaries like I just end up spilling the entire tea whenever I try to invest into a summary 💀

Anyways This is going to be a mini series ,I pulled this one out of my 1am adrenaline and It feels like a personal attack Chile! Here's part one , I have no clue about the amount of chapters we're going to have

Word count: 900+

+. +. +.

MINORS!!GET OUTTA HERE OR IM CALLING YOUR MUM

he was daring…or unhinged who cares when the difference was all in the subtle shift in his set of behaviors towards you

the subtle way in which his dark eyes did not shy away from raking over every inch of you from head to toe

a once-over so subtle yet so affective on all parts of your being

it was as if his dark eyes knew stuff about you you had never shared with him , like the layer of clothes on your body were non existent in his eyes  , only his eyes in this room full of people

in this huge office where his girlfriend just happens to be the chippery conversationalist eager to form a friendship with you on regular work days

Hana ,she was the office crush

desired by half if not all men in the work building, she was hot , confident,outgoing ,friendly and she knew how to dress for the assets granted by her bloodline 

hell if you were a guy you'd line up as well

she was annoyingly perfect and new to your department ,endorsed by THE Kim Taehyung himself after a full year of running a different department brunch of the company , that is where the two met and formed a relationship.

YOU on the other hand had been acquainted with Taehyung the year before his initial transfer , you were an intern that year…he was your senior at work but on a dunken night you learned that you weren't so far apart in age

back then he was just your wonderful senior , he was always hot but you were never one to swoon over people who had no interest in you

so when did energies take this confusing twist?

you're not exactly sure but you can make out a vivid memory of when Taehyung took interest in the selfies you uploaded on your social media casually recommending you for image related tasks in boardroom meetings , you were pretty popular and adored around the office yourself

you were good at your job and rarely took off days , some would say you were a goodie two shoes and while you were beautiful your ability to handle hard tasks at work over shadowed your feminine value in the office .

you didn't  really know Tae out of his suit and ties while seemed to know a moderate enough about you not in a creepy manner ,he was attentive in a respectful manner that a friendly work senior would

the two of you felt far from friends hence you knew next to nothing about him

many of your male coworkers would try to make you feel less than or just attempt to reduce you to a bimbo in your early days but you had him , he was respectful and he spoke in your advocacy when it was necessary

you never felt ridiculed by him and maybe you began to like him ,

you were pretty obvious , warmed by his gentle gaze and the way he gave you all his attention , at other times you could swear you thought he felt the same and you would idiotically turn down guys to wait for him

for unspoken soft gazes sent your way by Taehyung

you're embarrassed for your pathetic self when you forget to transfer a file that needed to be reviewed over night in the office and have to go back after making it pretty close to home  

in your sweaty glory with your blouse stuck to your skin and your heart hammering in your ears you want to believe that your eyes are on a different level of tripping when you walk past the conference room where a nest of dark long hair hides the face of the woman being pleasured into moonlight and you are ready to tiptoe away when something about the man with his face hidden in the crook of her neck  keeps you rooted

and if you felt sick the next set of moments make you want to vomit projectile

the man raises his head eyebrows scrunched in concentration or pleasure…,damned dark eyes heavy with lone hairs from his usually gelled back jet black hair sticking to his forehead in a dangerous way that you did not need to know of , it's when he stares between himself and the woman in front of him that his lips curl in a heart wrenching smirk inflicting a mortal wound as his eyes meet yours that are getting teary for reasons unknown to you yourself .

….

to be continued.

[reasonsforhope]

"A net-zero power system is closer than we think.

New research, published by RMI, indicates that an exponential surge in renewable energy deployment is outpacing the International Energy Agency’s most ambitious net-zero predictions for 2030. 

That’s right: Surging solar, wind, and battery capacity is now in-line with net-zero scenarios. 

“For the first time, we can, with hand on heart, say that we are potentially on the path to net zero,” Kingsmill Bond, Senior Principal at RMI, said. “We need to make sure that we continue to drive change, but there is a path and we are on it.”

And that’s really good news.

Exponential growth in renewable energy has put the global electricity system at a tipping point. What was once seen as a wildly daunting task — transitioning away from fossil fuels — is now happening at a faster pace every year. 

Based on this new research, conducted in partnership with the Bezos Earth Fund, RMI projects that solar and wind will supply over a third of all global electricity by 2030, up from about 12% today, which would surpass recent calls for a tripling of total renewable energy capacity by the end of the decade. 

Global progress in the renewable energy sector

China and Europe have been leading the way in clean energy generation, but the deployment of renewable energy has also been widely distributed across the Middle East and Africa. 

Research from Systems Change Lab shows that eight countries (Uruguay, Denmark, Lithuania, Namibia, Netherlands, Palestine, Jordan, and Chile) have already grown solar and wind power faster than what is needed to limit global warming to 1.5°C, proving that a swift switch to renewable energy is not only feasible — it’s entirely achievable. 

In order to make that switch, globally, wind and solar need to grow from 12% to 41% by 2030. Denmark, Uruguay, and Lithuania have already achieved that increase in the span of eight years.

Meanwhile, Namibia, the Netherlands, Palestine, Jordan, and Chile have grown solar and wind energy at sufficient rates for five years...

The economic impact of climate progress

Not only is this an exciting and unprecedented development for the health of the environment, but this rapid transition to clean energy includes widespread benefits, like jobs growth, more secure supply chains, and reductions in energy price inflation. 

This progress spans both developing and developed countries, all driven to accelerate renewables for a number of different reasons: adopting smart and effective policies, maintaining political commitments, lowering the costs of renewable energy, and improving energy security. 

And with exponential growth of clean energy means sharp declines in prices. This puts fossil fuels at a higher, uncompetitive cost — both financially and figuratively. 

RMI suggests that solar energy is already the cheapest form of electricity in history — and will likely halve in price by 2030, falling as low as $20/MWh in the coming years. This follows previous trends: solar and battery costs have declined 80% between 2012 and 2022, and offshore wind costs are down 73%."

-via Good Good Good, July 12, 2023

Let me repeat that:

For the first time in history, we are on an actual, provably achievable path to net zero emissions

[aeolianblues]

For any Taskmaster-heads that want to hear John's take on the series, he and Elis discussed it in one of the latest episodes of the Elis and John show, Sophie Willan also joins them.

There are spoilers, obviously.

It's interesting to me that John brings up how the producers make people come across in the show: he says, the producers of the show have a narrative to follow and a story to tell, which is fair enough. He mentioned that even though he was laughing and joking throughout his time on Taskmaster, because he was in some ways filling the role of 'the Taskmaster nerd' who really wanted to win, he says there were a lot of shots of him looking serious spliced into places where he wasn't actually looking so serious behind the scenes.

It's a tiny detail, and truly they do have a show to run and people to typecast into a cohesive narrative to present, where the contestants are slightly exaggerated versions of themselves, and that's showbiz baybee, as an effervescent local band I quite like says often.

I guess I have a bit of a soft spot for John, from having followed his work on radio for what, half a decade now? And because I've heard people say that they didn't quite like John because he appeared quite serious and focused on Taskmaster, I guess I want people to give him a chance as a comedian! He is very funny, don't take Taskmaster at complete face value. Yes, I'm only saying this because I like him already. Whatever.

Here's the episode, which I think anyone who enjoyed the series and wants to know a bit more of what was going on in the contestants' heads (well, John and Sophie's at least), and also their take on carrying the results with you for 8 months, and thoughts on the next series' contestants.

[princesssarisa]

I've now reached the last of the main list of Cinderella stories from Cinderella Tales Around the World. The book is nowhere near over, though: after this it goes into the various "subtypes" of Cinderella, such as Donkeyskin.

The last few "official" Cinderella stories in this book are from Mexico and Chile. I was disappointed not to see more South American versions, and particularly that there were none from Brazil for @ariel-seagull-wings. But the Donkeyskin tales later in the book do include a Brazilian version, which I look forward to sharing!

Meanwhile...

*As in the versions from the Philippines, the heroine is named Maria in all three of these Latin American tales.

*The Mexican version is called Maria Cenzia, or "Cinder-Mary." The title character is a homeless orphan who lives in an ash-hole belonging to a household of black Moorish witches. They eventually discover her, take her in as a servant, and send her to the river with a black sheepskin, ordering her to wash it until it's white. But a lady appears and magically does the task for her, then gives her a magic wand to grant her wishes and puts a shining star on her forehead. When the jealous daughter of one of the witches sees this, she takes a black sheepskin to the river too, but the lady puts an ugly growth on her forehead instead of a star. Maria later uses her magic wand to give herself finery to wear to church and to give herself wings to fly home before the witches can catch her. She loses a shoe, of course, which leads to her marriage to the prince. But then the witches turn her into a dove with a magic pin. Yet one day, her father-in-law the king finds her and takes out the pin, breaking the spell, and when all is revealed, the witches are burned at the stake.

*The two Chilean versions, Maria the Cinder-Maiden and Maria the Ash-Girl, are nearly identical to each other and very similar to Maria Cenzia too. Maria persuades her father to marry a seemingly-kind widow with a daughter of her own, but is abused afterwards. She has a pet cow, which the stepmother spitefully has killed, but inside its body Maria finds a magic wand. She then has to wash the cow's organs in a stream, but they fall in and are swept away. An old woman comes along and offers to get them for her, and in return Maria cleans her house and cooks supper for her; for this, the old woman gives Maria a shining star on her forehead. The next day the envious stepsister has her own pet cow killed, takes the organs to the stream, and loses them on purpose, but she shows the old woman no kindness, and so she receives a turkey wattle on her forehead instead of a star. Some time later, there's a ball at the royal palace. Maria uses her wand to give herself finery and a coach, and of course she loses a shoe, and the prince uses it to search for her. The stepsister binds her own foot with tight bandages to make the slipper fit, but either a dog or a parrot alerts the prince, and Maria is found.

*It's interesting that the motif of the heroine receiving a shining mark on her forehead (a star, a moon, or a jewel) is found in Cinderella tales from both Latin America and Iran, yet rarely seen elsewhere. My guess is that the motif originated in the Middle East, was brought to Spain by the Arabs, and then traveled from Spain to Latin America.

*This is probably as good a time as any to discuss another recurring theme I've noticed. While around the world it varies whether the heroine's abusers are punished, forgiven, or neither, it seems that when they are punished, the worst punishment usually falls on the (step)sister(s), not the (step)mother. Just look at the Grimms' version: the stepmother is Aschenputtel's main antagonist, and she abuses her own daughters too by forcing them to cut off parts of their feet, yet in the end she goes unpunished, while her daughters' eyes are pecked out by birds. Yet even in versions where the (step)mother does get a punishment, the more brutal killing, maiming, or permanent disfigurement tends to be reserved for her daughter(s). Some versions try to justify it by portraying the sisters as abusing Cinderella more than their mother does, but most don't bother. In many versions, the simple "crime" of being Cinderella's rival is treated as if it were worse than being her chief abuser.

@ariel-seagull-wings, @adarkrainbow, @themousefromfantasyland

[seoul-bros]

Jikook Week 34 Complete (30/07 -06/08/2024)

Their thirty fourth week in the military is now complete and time to celebrate this milestone with a look back at this week in 2015.

BTS were in the middle of the Second Half of the Red Bullet Tour. On the 29/07 they had a concert in Mexico and on the 31/07 in Brazil.

After the concert, they went live in excellent spirits with JK being particularly chaotic and Jimin was drinking it all in.

In the post for Week 32, Jimin was listening to Chris Brown while doing his vlog. Here JK is singing Hold You Down featuring Chris Brown. 2013-2015 Jikook really did love them some Chris Brown.

JK also sings Touch My Body by Sistar. Interesting choice of songs.

On 02/08 they performed in Chile and finished the US and South American leg of the tour.

All seven went live in one of the most chaotic lives I have ever seen them do. They were all princes in this live and JK was still singing Hold You Down obviously his song of the moment.

They barely got back to South Korea before they had to get back on the plane on 06/08 for the next leg and next show in Thailand.

Yoongi wanted to do a live at the airport. Very short and undeniably sweet ending with JK complementing Jimin on his looks. The way to a man's heart and all.

The other major milestone this week was the very first episode of Run BTS (01/08/2015). Funny that Run Jin should be revealed this week in 2024 getting me all nostalgic for the show.

The first few episodes are pretty cringe and if I had started to watch then I might not have continued but knowing what the show morphed into later I'm happy to cut them some slack for the early episodes as they found the formula that really worked. Episode 1 is basically the promo for the series, a glimpse of what is to come.

Episode 2 The Greatest Man came out on 02/08/2015. The premise is that they have to demonstrate the characteristics of the best man

but when it comes down to it, the tasks bear no relation to that.

Patience - how long can you hold water in your mouth while people tickle you? 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

JK's competitiveness was clear even from this initial episode. He was basically stripped and still refused to spit out the water. Jin had to call a halt to proceedings so Jungkook to do his buttons back up.

He lasted 65 seconds and Jimin lasted 4. Obviously JK won round 1.

2. Sexy Lips - put lipstick on and then kiss a piece of transparent acrylic to see how wide your mouth is💋💄💋💄💋💄

Jimin and JK put up a fight but no one could beat V's impressive 9.5 cm. What this has to do with being the Best Man your guess is as good as mine.

3. Strength and Agility - which is basically musical chairs with cushions 🪑🎶🪑🎶🪑🎶

They really cut to the chase for this last game speeding through the rounds to announce Jungkook as the final winner of both this game and the whole show.

Run BTS had arrived in earnest

Post Date: 06/08/2024

[mysticstronomy]

CAN A GALAXY BE INVISIBLE??

Blog#373

Wednesday, February 7th, 2024.

Welcome back,

Finding new galaxies is a tough task. But a group of researchers from the International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA) say they’ve discovered a new galaxy in a relatively young universe, all thanks to Albert Einstein’s enduring theory of relativity.

“This was a very special celestial body,” Marika Giulietti, who studies astrophysics and cosmology at SISSA, says in a news release. “It is very bright.”

The galaxy’s celestial body was so dark and compact that it was almost invisible, the researchers write in their new study, published in The Astrophysical Journal.

“Very distant galaxies are real mines of information about the past and future evolution of our universe,” Giulietti says. “However, studying them is very challenging. They are very compact and therefore difficult to observe.” Add in the distance away, the weak light we get from them, and the prevalence of interstellar dust, and we have a hard time observing these unknown galaxies.

While scientists have discovered several distant galaxies in recent years, they generally appear “completely invisible even to the most powerful optical instruments, such as the Hubble Space Telescope,” the SISSA scientists write.

So that’s where gravitational lensing comes in. This technique shows that mass bends light, as first predicted with Einstein's theory of relativity. The gravitational field of a large object in space, like a star or a planet, will bend incoming light.

Because these large bodies have gravitational fields that extend into space (like how Earth can also control the moon), incoming light can get refracted at a large distance. That can distort large regions of space. The bigger the object, the more dramatic the bending

“In this way," Giulietti says, “large celestial bodies act as a kind of enormous cosmic lens that makes the ‘background’ galaxies appear larger and brighter, allowing them to be identified and studies.”

So far, observation programs using this approach have discovered about 100 celestial bodies. The latest, though, was special, mostly thanks to the brightness. Using a modern sub-millimeter interferometer located in the Atacama Desert of Chile, scientists determined the features of the complex galaxy.

“Our analysis showed that this object is very compact, presumably young, and forming stars at an extremely high rate,” Giuletti says.

Originally published on www.popularmechanics.com

COMING UP!!

(Saturday, February 10th, 2024)

"WHERE DO COSMIC RAYS COME FROM??"

[krispdreemurr]

if youre wondering what productive tasks i spent my sunday on: did a whole bunch of the dark fountain outlining for the deltarune project on r/place

(the heart on the left is because we're on chile's flag and it's a little overlapping collab thing. the heart on the right just refuses to be removed and keeps intruding, which i personally feel suits deltarune perfectly. also theres at least one amogus)

[penelopepitstopp]

This week's episode of Elis and John is basically wall to wall Taskmaster, including some congratulatory messages from previous champions and a very special guest!

[covid-safer-hotties]

COVID-related loss of smell tied to changes in the brain - Published Aug 19, 2024

A new study of 73 adults recovering from COVID-19 finds that those who lost their sense of smell showed behavioral, functional, and structural brain changes.

Researchers in Chile conducted cognitive screening, performance on a decision-making task, functional testing, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results with 73 patients after mild to moderate COVID-19 infection and 27 COVID-naïve patients with infections from other pathogens. Two follow-up sessions were conducted 15 days apart.

The patients were recruited from public and private hospitals in Santiago an average of 9 months after diagnosis from February 2020 to May 2023. The average age was 40.1 years. The team used loss of smell and need for hospitalization as proxies for potential markers of neurologic involvement and disease severity, respectively.

The results were published late last week in Scientific Reports.

"Given the significant global incidence of COVID-19, identifying factors that can distinguish individuals at risk of developing brain alterations is crucial for prioritizing follow-up care," the study authors wrote.

Role of loss of smell as marker Twenty-two of 73 COVID-19 patients (30.1%) reported having differing degrees of attention and memory problems. Seven patients said they had headaches, six reported fatigue, and four had a persistently impaired sense of smell lasting, on average, 1.3 months. Of these patients, 68% experienced a total loss of smell, while the rest had an altered sense of smell.

In addition to self-reported changes in smell, 6 of 43 patients who lost their sense of smell during the acute infection could identify at most four of six odors on olfactory testing, suggesting persistent dysfunction.

The COVID and non-COVID groups were similar in age and cognitive performance, but patients with a loss of smell showed more impulsivity and were more likely to make different a choice given a negative result when performing a behavioral task (game), while those who were hospitalized displayed less strategic thinking and made the same wrong choice repeatedly.

On MRI conducted during the game, loss of smell was associated with decreased functional activity during decision-making, loss of white-matter integrity, and thinning of the outer layer of the cerebrum in the parietal regions (responsible for processing sensory input, understanding spatial relationships, and how to navigate).

"Only six patients present indicators of persistent olfactory deficit; thus, our results are not due to actual deficit," the study authors wrote. "Hence, anosmia could serve as both a potential marker of virus-induced damage to neuronal tissues and a marker for individuals susceptible to brain damage."

Research is needed into the extent that loss of smell reflects COVID-related brain damage, whether it is a marker of patient susceptibility to different neuropathologic mechanisms, the mechanism of the link between loss of smell and brain changes, and treatment targets, the researchers concluded.

Study: www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-69772-y

[mariacallous]

Last month several women rose to the top echelons of international politics. Kamala Harris emerged as the lead presidential candidate of the U.S. Democratic Party, Ursula von der Leyen was elected to serve a second term as president of the European Commission, Kaja Kallas was appointed foreign policy chief of the European Union (EU), and Rachel Reeves became Britain’s first female chancellor.

And yet feminists, while generally pleased, were not particularly jubilant. Every success counts, they say, particularly if Harris becomes the U.S. president and acquires the most influential political office in the world. But there’s little reason to think that the arrival of a few women in top positions will change how international affairs are conducted in a male-dominated world.

According to the United Nations (U.N.), at the current rate it will take nearly a century and a half to achieve gender equality in the highest positions of power and almost four more decades to achieve gender parity in national legislative bodies. There are simply not enough women in top jobs to give the concerted, collected push needed to implement a feminist foreign policy and usher in the radically different global order that feminist intellectuals desire.

“Often the narrative is that all we need is a woman leader and everything will change, but we know this isn’t true,” said Miriam Mona Mukalazi, a fellow at European University Institute’s Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies and a scholar in feminist foreign policy. “They are still in the same system; they can only disrupt it a little; and it also depends on how far they are willing to go [to jeopardize their career in pursuit of a better world].”

Scholars said that whenever women are rulers—from queens to prime ministers—they are expected to act like men and display “strength,” a euphemism for their ability to sanction bloody wars and maintain state borders at all costs.

“Something about foreign and security policy is linked to men and masculinity in a way that female leaders have had to justify whether they were warriors or not,” Ann Towns, professor of political science at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg, told Foreign Policy over the phone. “It’s a significant feature, centered around conflict resolution by violence rather than collaboration and peace.”

A feminist foreign policy, however, prioritizes human security over state security and calls for a radical rethink of the current system. It focuses on eliminating the root causes of conflict, demilitarization, a multilateral approach, and diplomatic interventions.

In conversations with Foreign Policy, many scholars suggested that a step-by-step approach is the only way to move forward and representation of women in top ranks, while a necessary condition, is only a start. They said the idea is to achieve gender parity across the board in public life and push for policy change at home and abroad. Once the current power imbalance has been sufficiently corrected, the practice of international affairs can be fundamentally reworked. Policymakers could even discuss the cons of the nation-state concept.

A decade ago, it seemed some feminist ideas were taking a hold. Sweden was the first to adopt a feminist foreign-policy (FFP) framework in 2014; Canada followed in 2017; France two years later; and then Mexico, Spain, Luxembourg, Germany, and Chile. But all these policies were a work in progress factoring in political realities of the day and did not reflect the goals of FFP as a whole.

Experts said the adopted frameworks lacked vision and ambition. Furthermore, their implementation was made harder by various factors. While it has always been a daunting task to make progress in patriarchal societies and power structures, experts said, an ascendant far-right ideology and political parties further impeded progress. For instance, Sweden’s feminist foreign policy was reversed when a government supported by a far-right party came to power. And Russia’s invasion of Ukraine further strengthened the argument of state security at the expense of pacifist movements that contribute to FFP ideas.

Sweden was the torchbearer. Towns said she witnessed “increased gender mainstreaming” in all government departments and a feminist approach to diplomacy and bilateral trade. “They had to start thinking about foreign trade—what does a FFP look like in trade?” she said. Sweden’s efforts also led to the passing of a resolution in the U.N. Security Council that included sexual and gender-based violence as grounds for sanctions.

On the other hand, Sweden exported arms worth billions of dollars to Saudi Arabia between 2015 and 2021 despite reports that it had ended a deal with Saudi Arabia over the country’s suppression of human rights, according to non-governmental organization Svenska Freds.

According to a 2017 report by CONCORD, a group of 19 civil society organizations, Sweden continued to sell arms to non-democratic countries, including Saudi Arabia in 2016 and 2017 when it was carrying out airstrikes against Yemen.

Towns said she thought the defense industry was too big a beast to take on, even for the government. “That would be challenging both huge companies and their large profits and proponents of national security all at once,” she said. “I think they thought of starting with easier stuff,” such as more representation for women.

Canada emerged as one of the biggest international donors toward female welfare and reproductive health, with an emphasis on gender equality projects between 2021 and 2022. But failings have been exposed: Canada did not show how it chose donation recipients and whether it improved outcomes for women and girls.

In 2023, Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Svenja Schulze launched the German version of a feminist foreign policy amid much fanfare. They included FFP guidelines for everything from conflict resolution and aid delivery to green policies and directed 85 percent of aid to projects with a gender equality dimension.

“We couldn’t use the ‘F word,’” said Mukalazi, of feminism, until the FFP guidelines were launched. “The conservatives wanted us to call it gender-positive policy, and even the liberals were opposed to the German translation feministische Außenpolitik.”

But the German FFP came in for its fair share of criticism, too. First, it was adopted by two ministries, not the whole government. Second, the chancellor’s position on the policy was unclear, leaving doubt among experts “whether the agenda [would] be implemented at the highest level.”

Barbara Mittelhammer, a Berlin-based analyst of FFP, said Germany’s feminist foreign policy has succeeded in a limited context. “There is a lot of value in more gender programs and instruments and more representation,” she said, “but it’s not a feminist foreign policy in the sense of having a different political priority.”

Feminist scholars contend that German foreign policy has gone in the opposite direction owing to the Russian threat looming over the European continent. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s 2022 Zeitenwende (“turning point”) speech called for an unprecedented investment in Germany’s defense sector, and the country is considering relaunching conscription.

While there is no debate among feminist scholars over ending weapons sales to authoritarian nations, the conversation gets trickier when it turns to territorial integrity or a smaller state being threatened by a bigger, authoritarian nation.

“Its difficult to understand what a feminist foreign policy contributes to understanding the biggest security threat we are facing,’’ said Kristi Raik, deputy director at the International Centre for Defence and Security, an Estonian think tank. Kallas, the new EU foreign policy chief and former Estonian prime minister, is expected to push for feminist policies in her new position while her country faces imminent threat from Russia.

Political guidelines from Von der Leyen’s campaign mention the word “equality” seven times, while “defense” is used on 30 different occasions. Von der Leyen’s focus will also be on defense in the wake of Russian aggression. The guidelines noted that combined EU spending on defense increased by 20 percent from 1999 to 2021; in that same period, Russia’s defense spending increased by almost 300 percent and China’s by almost 600 percent. Von der Leyen wrote that European spending is “too disjointed, disparate and not European enough.”

Harris’s challenges, if she becomes president, would be even more severe. Women and girls not just in the United States but across the world would expect her to improve their lives in a more substantial way than handouts through aid organizations. While experts believe she wouldn’t drastically change U.S. policy, Harris has adopted a feminist tone on several issues including the Israel-Hamas war and women’s rights in Iran. Israel has “a right to defend itself, and how it does so matters,” she said. “We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent.”

Harris voiced support for women in Iran during mass protests in 2022 over women’s rights in the country. But Iranians in exile and women’s rights activists expect more. They say she should use her influence to encourage the U.N. to criminalise gender apartheid.

Taghi Rahmani, the husband of imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi, said his wife and other activists have called for gender discrimination to be made a criminal offense at an international level. “Ms. Harris can contribute to this issue,” he wrote to Foreign Policy via encrypted communication from Paris.

“I believe that in the broader context of [U.S.] foreign policy and the composition of the Congress, it is unlikely that a Harris administration would apply the feminist label to their foreign policy,” Fonteini Papagioti, deputy director, policy and advocacy, at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), wrote. “However, I do believe a Harris administration is an opportunity to advance gender equality globally and at home—particularly with regards to sexual and reproductive health and rights.”

Activists say a feminist foreign policy only makes sense if feminist principles are applied at home on domestic policy first. Harris’s first challenge, then, will be to protect women’s rights regarding their own bodies at home in the United States.

[alexhornefan]

Nice Things People Say About Alex Horne

Updated: 21/09/2023

 Alex is the nicest guy ever. -Lucy Beaumont, Series 16 Contestant Interviews

It’s all from Greg and Alex, it’s the synergy between them. It sounds corny, but they are really lovely guys. -Lucy Beaumont, Series 16 Contestant Interviews

It’s a strange role he has because he’s the clever one, but he’s also the inferior one compared to Greg. -Julian Clary, Series 16 Contestant Interviews

He's ever so nice. -Julian Clary, Taskmaster, Series 16, Episode 1 (11.00)

I love Greg and Alex so much. -Sue Perkins, Series 16 Contestant Interviews

He is generous, down-to-earth, and always willing to go out of his way to make others feel like they are important and valued. -Dr Ali Struthers, creator of School Tasking and co-founder of Taskmaster Education who nominated Alex for his Honorary Doctorate from Warwick University

Alex, it’s genuinely difficult for me to think of anyone who more closely embodies what I want to see on television. I think you’re perfect. -Victoria Coren Mitchell on Taskmaster series 12 outtakes

Alex is very, very sweet. -David Baddiel, Taskmaster Series 9 Outtakes, part 1

I've never met Alex before the show, but I'd watched the show as research. And I thought he'd be this weirdo, he would be really aloof and stuff. And then he was just like, the nicest person! But I was so shocked that he was like a totally different person. He's one of the best people I've ever worked with. -Fern Brady on her Taskmaster Reddit AMA

(Thanks to @hleonaa for sharing these above two quotes)

He's one of the most trustworthy, lovely guys I've ever met. -Lou Sanders, Taskmaster Podcast, Episode 60.

I was aware of Alex because I really like the Horne Section. And he's a really, really, really funny boy. -Hugh Dennis, Taskmaster Podcast, Episode 41.

I've got to be honest, Alex is a lovely man, an absolute comedy genius. I think within the next decade we'll see him approaching national treasure territory. -Ed Gamble, Off Menu Podcast, Episode 175

And Alex Horne is just great. God, I wish I could work with him again. He’s so, so lovely. -Fern Brady

Alex Horne is so pure and I don't want him to read things that are dirty- Fern Brady, RHLSTP

Ed Gamble and Kerry Godliman talk about how nice Alex is.

And of course anyone who knows Alex Horne knows that he is one of the nicest, loveliest souls in comedy, so it is hard to say no to Alex Horne- Doc Brown/Ben Bailey Smith, Taskmaster Podcast, Episode 21

When I first got asked to do Taskmaster, I agreed because I loved Alex and I still do. I was just so excited to do his show. -Romesh Ranganathan, Taskmaster Podcast, Episode 18

The reason I said yes without knowing much about it was because it had come from his twisted little mind, and I knew it would be clever. -Greg Davies

I absolutely love the guy, as you know. One of the few geniuses in television, in my opinion. -Richard Osman, Taskmaster Podcast, Episode 23

Alex immediately establishes a really warm relationship without any exception, every single person who's been on that show which is kind of the life-blood of doing the tasks. It's beautiful. -Tim Key Taskmaster Podcast, Episode 14

I think we're unlikely friends. I don't think, if it wasn't for Taskmaster, I don't think we'd have found each other necessarily, but I'm ever so glad that we did. -Greg Davies (Taskmaster, People's Podcast with Greg Davies)

He really is [so nice]. He doesn't have a side to him. He really is just nice. -Greg Davies (Taskmaster, People's Podcast with Greg Davies)

He's one of the nicest people in the world. He's just so nice. -Lou Sanders. (Taskmaster, People's Podcast with Greg Davies)

I feel nothing but affection for Alex. -Greg Davies

He's got a very interesting, gentle persona. It's nice to spend time with him. -Adrian Chiles

He's a magnificent human being. I don't know whether I'm supposed to say that. And he's so charming and so funny -Claudia Winkleman

He was really good, and he was also one of the nicest people I've met in these showbiz things, because he came in and chatted to you in between tasks. We had some really good chats, actually, and got along. He's such a cool guy. -Jonnie Peacock

Also, I really like Alex. I hosted Montreal Just for Laughs [in 2010] and he was on the bill so for a week we did a show and I got to know him then, I thought he was great. So that's the main reason I did it. -Noel Fielding

Alex is a very thoughtful, self-effacing, humble man. -Greg Davies

And I love Greg and Alex, I love their rapport. So to me, I've got a front row seat for one of the best double acts on television. -Kerry Godliman

There was one moment where a paramedic was called, and Alex was useful in that moment. He seemed genuinely worried that I might have broken a bone. -Jessica Knappett

I admire him greatly and I think that's what I put it down to: an underlying admiration. -Greg Davies

He's the sweetest boy in all the world and he has the sweetest little face. -Rose Matafeo

I adore Alex. I feel like it's having a calm therapist there. I often used to start a task by hugging him, but he didn't want to do that. I thought it was nice but he didn't like it. -Katy Wix

Greg does really tease Alex but he has a really fondness for him. -Jo Brand (link below)

He's such a tremendously likeable person. I hope my relationship with him is just a friendly one, really. He's so genuinely helpful. -Jo Brand

I'm a fan of Greg Davies and Alex Horne, both of whom I've known for a long time. -David Baddiel (See below)

But with Taskmaster, I'm always confident the tasks will be funny - properly funny, not local-news funny. Mainly because of the genius of Alex Horne. I have a lot of faith in Alex. -David Baddiel

Alex is genius at coming up with ways for people to prove their ineptitude. -Richard Herring

I think Greg and Alex are such a team. -Katherine Parkinson

Obviously, Alex is very talented at devising games and frameworks for people to be funny and ridiculous in. -Mike Wozniak

I love him! I love little Alex Horne. He's just so sweet! He's a smiley face on a rainy day. A bunch of flowers in this hellhole. I loved him, and his sweet little face. We're pack animals, and you get a bit lonely doing the tasks on your own. He's always there for you. -Morgana Robinson

Well Alex is a much more kindred spirit for me. On the Only Connect team, Alex would be captain. In my house, Alex would be the most capable person. It would be, "Let's get Alex in to fix things". So it was odd to see him as the junior. Greg is to Alex what Alex is to me. -Victoria Coren Mitchell

The thing is with Alex, he goes into everything in a full-throttled manner. -Greg Davies (see below)

We've such an unlikely friendship, Alex and I, but it's crept along nicely. I'm more than happy for it to be made public that Alex and I have been camping together. I never thought him and I would spend a night under the stars, but we did. It was pre-lockdown, and it was even voluntary. The fact that I did is progress for our friendship. Beneath the insults, you can sense a new warmth. He's a clever bugger, isn't he? -Greg Davies

Alex Horne is just a delightful person. -Greg Davies (Taskmaster Podcast, Episode 11)

**Greg Listing 5 things he likes about Alex Horne from The Horne Section Podcast**

[leftistfeminista]

The Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (in Spanish: Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez, FPMR) was a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla organisation officially founded on 14 December 1983 as the military wing of the Communist Party of Chile in the context of this party policy denominated as the "Política de Rebelión Popular de Masas", created with the goal of a violent overthrow of the civic-military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.

Sandra Trafilaf, popular communicator, Mapuche poet, popular educator in organizations of peasant women and indigenous peoples, member of the Network of Free and Popular Media, when speaking, stated:

"The publication of this book is very necessary, a debt to our sisters, especially to our fallen sisters, those who have offered their lives, who offered their dreams and their unfinished projects to a libertarian cause.

(...) Before commenting on the book, I would like to share with you some words from another combatant, one of our combatants whom we greatly admire, who is Fabiola, the only woman who participated in one of the most important actions of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, the tyrannicide, and she also wanted to be present on this occasion with some words, through the following audio that I am letting you listen to: "June 16, 1987, Cecilia Magni, Camila and I shared an apartment in the center of Buenos Aires. That morning, through the press, we learned of some confrontations in Santiago de Chile. Everything was confusing, there was no certainty of what had happened, the numbers disturbed us, like 12, that was too much, there must be some mistake. Those three women, each with their peculiarities, different missions, different origins, and so were our destinies, but all three united by the same dream.

Each one of us in our world broke the rules established by the patriarchal and mediocre society of the time, we were not what was expected of a "young lady." I don't think any of us cared much about that detail. 24 years later our dreams are still alive. Every time I see a Primera Línea, I am overcome with emotion and I know that nothing was in vain."

After listening to the audio sent by fellow combatant Fabiola, Sandra Trafilaf continues with her story: "For this book I also took on the task of talking with some of my surviving sisters, some of my combatant sisters, because I believe it is a great responsibility, and this book, "Revolucionarias," is a great debt to the role of women in these liberation struggles.

It is an honor to be able to speak for my surviving sisters who today preferred to remain anonymous, leaving behind a testimony of their time in the FPMR, but we must also assume the tremendous responsibility of speaking for those sisters who today we carry in our memories, as Fabiola said, who are part of the collective and popular history, whose lives were cut short when they led the fight against the dictatorship.

This book is appreciated as it gives an account of the participation of women in the battles fought by the FPMR. We always speak, commonly, of the heroic combatants, masculinizing the struggles in a cultural imprint that is certainly part of the dominant patriarchal ideology.

The colonization of the peoples in these territories called Latin America also brought this practice of making invisible the role of women in the community, their political, strategic and economic role.

Of course, the FPMR was not exempt from this colonization of thought and supremacy of the patriarchy, however we are grateful that there was a Latin American context that preceded the creation of the Front, and we can count on the feats of Cuban, Salvadoran, Nicaraguan, Guatemalan, Mexican, Uruguayan, Brazilian, Colombian women, who paved the way to avoid this destiny that necessarily led us to become "good ladies." Instead, we were able to join the armed struggle without being burdened with pejorative stigmas.

Today, three or four decades later, it is natural that women serve a purpose other than just distributing bread and tea in the party structure. Gender inclusion is debated and rights are fought side by side, but three or four decades ago, it was not so easy to assume roles historically reserved for men in politics.

If we look at the revolutions and liberation processes in different territories, there will always be women taking up arms. However, for some reason we end up relegated, made invisible or subsumed when it comes to making the epic account.

How and why did we take up arms and join the armed struggle during the dictatorship? Discussing this issue with some of my sisters from the FPMR, we have concluded, in these formal, informal and telephone conversations, that class consciousness is fundamental, because it reaffirms the conviction of liberation. However, early childhood education, experiences of the environment, the transmission of information and our place in our respective homes are also an important part of the basis of this determination. We grew up and reached adolescence in the midst of the most brutal dictatorships in recent history in the territories of the continent. We left childhood with horror stuck in our eyes. Murders, disappearances, torture, concentration camps, prisons, poverty and the precariousness of the populations made the rebellion grow. We said enough!, as recently happened on October 18, 2019.

At some point, you reach a point where there is no turning back. Injustices were overwhelming the enslaved people and we moved forward to end the barbarity. We could no longer continue turning the other cheek and we saw that there was no possible future if the dictatorship continued. Dreams, the certainty that there is the possibility of changing reality and realizing projects to be happy, was undoubtedly the driving force. We did it scared shitless, because it is not possible not to be afraid, especially those who had already been mothers and had the courage to expose their whole world to think of another future.

As combatants, in my case fulfilling the role of integrating the Operative Groups, militancy in the Front was a step that also shaped our character. Obviously, we always had to prove that we could accomplish the task and that is why we had the respect and recognition of our comrades, who became brothers in the heat of the struggle. In some cases, our youth was vital, the courage of youth, at 17, 18, 19 years old, we fulfilled missions that always meant risking our lives.

Women were in all the structures of the FPMR, in health, exploration, intelligence, logistics. Without that work and without assistants, who were mostly women, the heroic feat of the FPMR would undoubtedly not have been possible. That great infrastructure was moved by women and men who, in every task, however simple it may have seemed, meant risking their own lives and those of their families.

As women, it is also necessary to pause to emphasize that repression brutally punishes the decision to be part of armed groups, and at the time of being captured by the enemy, we were mostly subjected to political sexual violence, under the logic of patriarchal domination, of taking our bodies to humiliate us and leaving a psychological scar that will forever remind us of the audacity of invading that world, from this perspective of repression, of this military, of this macho. However, we never pigeonhole ourselves into the category of victims, we will never pigeonhole ourselves into that category either; we do not put our fallen sisters in that place either, they are and will be protagonists of a history that was sealed with blood, as people who rebel and rise up always do.

In fairness we can say that although we saw sexist behavior within the Front, we always had the respect and recognition of our brothers and sisters and for that reason, in particular, we send a special greeting to all those who trained us on that path, transmitting their knowledge and experience, so that we could become what we are, a Rodriguista combatant.

In this idea of ​​reconstructing this collective historical memory, crossed by the colonization of thought, but also by the ups and downs of traditional politics, the FPMR, although it was born as another disposable structure that the PC, the Communist Party, put on the scene to bang the table, became an autonomous entity that was recreating its own existence. It was an unprecedented project in our territories, it was a national project. Apart from the Mapuche resistance, no other structure with similar characteristics had been maintained in the dictatorial context, and over time. The MIR was quickly dismantled, Lautaro was born with a rebellious and libertarian proposal, and the Front maintained its pace in the armed struggle, building a new path, installing new capacities, which moved away from traditional militancy, in a party whose elite always denied its paternity; it was a landowner denying its offspring. Leaving it adrift in moments of having to endure the repressive attacks.

And today we can see it again in an arrogant and overbearing attitude of its main presidential figure, who shamelessly denies the status of political prisoner of our brother, Commander Ramiro, Mauricio Hernández Norambuena, leaving him helpless before the thirst for revenge of the right, who would only like to be able to feast watching our brother dry up in a jail, like a hostage of his captors, subjected to permanent torture.

To finish, I would just like to make it clear that we are not and will not be beings endowed with a special or supernatural gift. We were young women of different ages, women from poor, precarious families, with few resources or with resources, who came from homes where the fundamental thing was to transmit values ​​and principles with a sense of class, and with the conviction that we had to end barbarism, but also with the conviction that we deserved a future full of rights, that we deserved to be happy, to live in a better world, and that we undoubtedly had the right to have it all.

The anti-dictatorial struggle has not ceased, because injustices, the model, the Constitution, the laws and businessmen thirsty to fill their pockets at the expense of the lives and energies of the working class are still present. The pandemic today is a clear example, they have imposed restrictions, curfews, safe-conduct passes, health passes, only after the objective of social control, without caring about our lives, our recovery, our health. They open quarantines if they want to sell, they close the communes if they want to control. Without going any further, June 30 is the deadline to end the State of Exception and Congress must make a decision whether to continue with the repressive path or finally respect and honor the lives of the inhabitants.

Life is meaningless for those who govern us today and offer us candy to sweeten slavery; they make us consume morning shows, trash programs, they mutilate us, they murder us, they imprison us and they continue with their jingles and rainbows to make you think that something is changing, to change nothing. Winning elections is one thing and governing is quite another. It seems to me that more dialogue is needed, more reflection with Salvador Allende, to learn from his experience and how we came to the coup d'état. Short-term memory cuts off our analysis, the ruling class will never give something in exchange for nothing. The people must learn this lesson to avoid being blinded by social Peace Pacts that only seek to crush rebellions.

The political situation has been focused on different changes and today women are once again raising their flags, once again making themselves present in the streets of dignity, in the squares of dignity. Today women, in the last three decades, have made progress in different struggles and today talking about the role of women in politics evidently has another perspective and another connotation. Our daughters, our granddaughters, have undoubtedly arrived in a different world, with more progress and with more conquests and rights in their bodies, in their minds and that lets us know that we have made progress and have traveled the right path, which is the liberation of the peoples.