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folklorespring · 15 days

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I still can't process the fact that russians kidnapping Ukrainian children, adopting them in russia, changing their names and other personal information from Ukrainian to russian, "re-educating" them and raising them as russians is our reality.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_abductions_in_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War

BBC article

https://www.politico.eu/article/save-ukraine-children-abduction-russia-war-rescue-operation/

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spite-and-waffles · 1 year

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I always wonder whether Batfam fans really get just how fucking rich the Waynes are. Like of course we shy away from thinking about the fact that we're talking Musk and Bezos money, and focus on how Bruce funds the freaking Watchtower and has what is functionally a high-tech military base and lab and the world's most expensive vehicles. But this is the one time you don't have to factor in the implications of wealth-hoarding, so there's nothing preventing y'all from understanding exactly how much money we're talking about here.

For instance, there doesn't seem to be any concept of how palatial Wayne Manor is, simply going by the outer facades of it that appear in the comics and movies. Or how decadent the lifestyles that accompany that kind of ancestral home. Alfred couldn't run that place on his own even if he had super powers, which is why even the movies occasionally show a rotating probably-temporary staff in the background. The house probably has like 3 hundred-foot pools. Their garden is a protected heritage park.

The Waynes are 10x richer than Crazy Rich Asians. They buy and wear the jewelry worth hundreds of millions that belonged to royalty. They own private islands. The art in the house alone is worth more than the GDP of a small country. They went to school with like every US President since Teddy Roosevelt and still think the Rockefellers are new money. They're personal friends with Beyonce and can get her to perform at private parties. They can rent out an entire three-star Michelin restaurant and fly out to one for every date. They have top-line penthouse apartments in every major city in the world. They can buy a luxury sportscar instead of hiring a vehicle anywhere they visit and then just toss the keys to the nearest person on their way out (Arab royalty is known for this appearently. There's been some very lucky parking valets in the UAE iirc).

Bruce is as rich as Ra's Al Ghul, regularly make social calls to heads of state and his family has a history of being king-makers. Every one of Bruce's children, from Dick to Jason to Cass, is poised to inherit one of the largest and most powerful empires in the world. That means every time Bruce adopts an orphan off god-knows-where, the entire global elite is thrown into consternation and horror. Even Tim is barely acceptable to these people because he doesn't have the pedigree. I don't follow the reboot comics so Idk if Duke is adopted, but it would be so fucking funny if he was because they'd react a lot like the British establishment did to Meghan Markle (except the family and WE would have Duke's back completely). As for Damian, the fact that he's not white would get him snubbed if everyone who's anyone didn't 100% know who Ra's Al Ghul is. And they're fucking terrified because, for maximum hilarity, they probably figure that Bruce doesn't.

I just find it incredibly fucking funny when I'm reading fics that the writers can only imagine Bruce and the kids's civilian privileges extend only to "big house", "a lot of cars" and "Gotham famous". Lol. Lmao even.

...

Edit: Explanation for people justifiably skeptical that Bruce could be rich as Ra's (scroll down)

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copperbadge · 3 months

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Hey Sam. If you're so inclined, could you recommend a few 'must eat' places in Downtown Chicago? My hotel will be near the Red Line (Grand station) and I'm fine walking a good 10 minutes for awesome food. I'm planning my trip and trying to put together a few food places for lunch and dinner and such. Pizza, burgers, bbq, donuts, steak, sushi..., I'm flexible!

You know, honestly, I don't eat out much anymore so I'm not sure where the best places to get a bite are. I'm going to make some recommendations but they're about to be a mixture of "If you come to Chicago this is somewhere everyone goes" and "This is somewhere Sam personally likes to eat but which you may not go for." :D

So, if you're at Grand, you are pretty much on top of the Weber Kettle Grill. Weber Kettle Grill does GREAT grill food and my parents always want to eat there when they come into town. If you ask to sit at the chef's table, you'll be seated at what looks like a bar, but it also looks all the way down the row of giant indoor grills the chefs use to cook the food. If you want something quieter and less busy they also have a fairly large dining room.

If you want a real Chicago experience, there's a Portillo's pretty close to you (that one's called "Portillo's & Barnelli's"); Portillo's is a local chain that does burgers, dogs, and crucially Italian Beef. Italian Beef is my go-to Chicago food for people who (like me) don't want to eat Deep Dish Pizza. It's a crusty roll filled with shredded braised beef; you can get it with sweet peppers, hot peppers, or no peppers (they might call it "giardinera" which is the local term for the pepper relish they use). If you get it "dipped", once the sandwich is made it's dunked in a flavorful jus before being wrapped up; if you don't like wet bread I'd skip this, but I love it. If you REALLY don't like wet bread, maybe get a Chicago Style hot dog instead. Portillo's is also famous for being The Place Where they make you a milkshake with an entire slice of chocolate cake in it. You can also just get a slice of cake, which is fantastic.

There's also an Al's Italian Beef near you if you want a more local experience. Locals absolutely can and will eat at Portillo's, the food's not better at Al's, it's just a bit more tourist-friendly than Al's tends to be.

If you want that true authentic Chicago deep dish experience (pie crust filled with cheese and then topped with sauce) Pizzeria Uno and Pizzeria Due are very close by; they vie for the dubious honor of having invented the deep dish pizza. I can't recommend it, but if you want it, hit one of those.

If you're not from the midwest and would like to sample a decent approximation of Detroit style deep dish (thick bready crust topped with cheese and then sauce) Jet's Pizza likely delivers to your hotel. I can't recommend going to a Jet's, many of them don't have anywhere to sit and eat, and for a pizza joint they're a bit costly, but it's very good pizza. My Detroit friends say it's a perfectly acceptable pie by their standards.

Volare Ristorante is a nearby hidden gem if you're in the mood for upscale Italian; I really like their pasta, but they are on the pricier end. If you're walking east on Grand to get there, you do have to go under Michigan, and you will likely fear that you will be stabbed and left for dead in this weird underground cavern, but I promise you, it's smelly but safe.

Goddess And The Baker and Beatrix are both good places to pick up breakfast. If you wish to glimpse Hell, the Starbucks Roastery at Michigan and Erie is one of the largest buxes in the country (possibly the world?) and is a FUCKING NIGHTMARE to navigate, but it's certainly an experience.

If you're venturing into the Loop, Russian Tea Time is a fun place to have afternoon tea and the a la carte food is also quite good; they're very close to the Art Institute. There's not much to eat if you're going to the museum campus, and my favorite Greek place closed down, but Minghin Cuisine is a good Chinese place (I've eaten there) and AO Hawaiian Hideout is supposedly some of the best Chinese in the city (I have not eaten there).

If you are craving Chinese, you can also catch the Red Line directly to the Chinatown stop and browse, I've never had a bad meal in Chinatown. When you get off the train, if you go north to the station exit with only stairs, you can exit, look left, and see the "new" Chinatown that's basically an outdoor mall; if you go south to the escalator exit, once you leave turn right and you'll see the big pagoda entrance to "old" Chinatown, which is more shops than restaurants. New Chinatown has some excellent bakeries, and also a Korean fried chicken place, Bonchon, that's extremely good. Usually when I take friends we go to Joy Yee which has a huge menu and also bubble tea.

As a final plug I'll list The Berghoff, which is in the loop (off the Jackson Red Line stop); it's pretty hefty German cuisine, all excellent food, and also is a top notch place to take anyone with gluten issues -- the owners have a kid with a gluten intolerance and the restaurant has an exceptional gluten-free menu with unusually strict protocols to prevent cross-contamination in the kitchen.

And if you want to get a little baked first, you are pretty close to Sunnyside dispensary, which is a very nice dispensary with super friendly people. If you take the Red Line to Roosevelt or are in the area, Grasshopper Club is less expensive, just as friendly, and Black-owned, and they've been my go-to for a couple of months now. At either one you can walk-in to speak to a budtender about what you'd like, or you can preorder online, but be aware that there are limitations on what out-of-staters can purchase. Having sampled most of the gummies out there, I'd recommend Mindy's (any flavor is good but the black cherry is my preferred). Do bring ID, you will be carded.

I hope you enjoy Chicago! If you have more questions feel free to hit me up here or at [email protected] if you'd like to have more of like, a dialogue :) Have fun and eat well!

#chicago #chicago food #food #dining

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fatehbaz · 1 year

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The Chacoan peccary is so elusive that scientists believed it was extinct until its “discovery” in 1975. Today, only 3,000 remain in the [...] forests and lagoons of the Gran Chaco region, which stretches across northern Argentina, Paraguay and southern Bolivia, and comprises more than 50 different ecosystems.

Micaela Camino, who works with the Indigenous Wichí and Criollo communities to protect the animals and their land rights in Argentina, knows how difficult to find they can be. She has only seen one Chacoan peccary, or quimilero, in 13 years [...], but has fallen in love with the critically endangered mammal [...]. “I was told that the Chacoan peccary was extinct outside protected areas when I first started,” says Camino. “So when we found it, I thought it was great. We set up monitoring to find more in one of the most isolated parts of the dry Chaco. But then the loggers started to come.”

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The Gran Chaco, South America’s second-largest forest after the Amazon, is one of the most deforested places on Earth.

Every month, more than 133 square miles is lost, cleared for vast soya farms and cattle ranches that export to markets in the US, China and Europe – including UK supermarkets, according to a joint Guardian investigation in 2019. However, the loss is largely ignored on the international stage, receiving little conservation money or celebrity attention in comparison with the Amazon.

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The area is home to charismatic species such as the maned wolf, the giant armadillo and the jabiru, many of which are not found anywhere else on Earth.

At current rates of deforestation, the mosaic of life in the Gran Chaco could collapse entirely. The loss of the Chacoan peccary would be guaranteed this time. Unlike the Amazon, there are few academic studies on tipping points and the forest’s waning ability to support itself as the climate changes and land is cleared, but people who live here are seeing the changes. [...]

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In Paraguay, the success [of farming and ranching] [...] has transformed the country into one of the most important beef producers in the world, largely at the expense of the forest, dubbed “the green hell” by early settlers from Canada.

“The Gran Chaco has been at a crossroads for a long time,” says Gastón Gordillo, a professor of anthropology at the University of British Columbia. “The 2007 forest law in Argentina did manage to slow some deforestation, but it also created the paradox by establishing legitimate ways of destroying the forest.” [...] However, a new motorway in Paraguay appears likely to open up more of the region to ranching. “The agribusiness sector in Argentina is very powerful,” says Gordillo [...]

For the Chacoan peccary, research indicates there are only 30 years left to save the species, with current deforestation rates meaning all of its habitat outside protected areas will have gone by 2051.

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Headline, images, captions, and text by: Patrick Greenfield. “Deforestation piles pressure on South America’s elusive Chacoan peccary.” The Guardian. 31 January 2023. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks added by me.]

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shuttershocky · 2 months

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actually this is a good chance to get to know you a bit better. top 3 animals, top 3 colors, top 3 games

Top 3 Animals

1) Crocodiles — There used to be many saltwater crocodiles back in my mom's province. These are the largest reptiles in the world so just seeing them (from a very far, safe distance away) is pretty awe-inspiring. One of these was so gargantuan we put a replica of its skeleton on display in the national museum in Manila, hung over the lobby. We also have Philippine Crocodiles which are endemic to the country, but I've only seen juvenile ones at a zoo since they're endangered and all.

2) Turtles — There are very few experiences like being on the beach and seeing a sea turtle in the wild. One time we were on a fishing boat and someone screamed, I thought for sure it meant someone spotted a shark, but when I leaned over to look, there was a sea turtle poking its head out right above the coral reefs to watch us. There's not many perks to living in the tropics, but this is one of them.

3) Kulasisi — These are very tiny parrots (I think the smallest in the world even?) that aren't common, but can be found virtually anywhere. One of my favorite classes back in college was birdwatching, where one of our sessions found a couple nesting pairs right outside one of the buildings. It was because of that class that I realized it was a Kulasisi that was making the bird calls I would hear when getting up in the morning to go to class

Top 3 Colors

1) Purple — My grandmother's favorite color, and mine eventually. I used to be a blue person until I shifted to darker purple and violet as I got older

2) Blue — I still like it

3) Black — I really liked the Matrix

Top 3 Games

I'm a big gamer (enough that I went into gamedev for a living despite everything) so this is probably the most malleable list. I'm not difficult to please and generally like a lot of stuff, so a top 3 favorite games list could look very different each time, barring one game.

1) Dota 2 — I have over 5000 hours in my favorite game of all time. Picked it up in 2012, and then it was all over for me. I can go stretches of up to 6 months without touching the game, but when I reopen it, the hype comes flooding back.

2) Devil May Cry 5 — I continue to hold the opinion that DMC5 hit the platonic ideal of stylish action game design, V's lack of depth notwithstanding. The game has been out for 5 years and people are still uploading new runs, finding all these tricks and secrets in the game just as they did with DMC3 and 4 before it. If Dante only got wall running and Wild Stomp back from 3, it might be as close to perfect as you can get. Devil Trigger and Bury The Light are also among my favorite video game songs of all time, among the likes of Killer Instinct's or Metal Gear Rising's

3) Metal Gear Solid 4 — MGS3 is the better game, MGS1 and 2 are more iconic, but MGS4 rescued the PS3 from irrelevancy before Uncharted 2 made it big. Holy shit that game looked unbelievably good when it first came out. The way Snake would lie still and camouflage into the floor while bullets sprayed the ground right in front of him while mooing mechs and soldiers were mere feet away blew my mind.

Games like Resident Evil 4 three years earlier really popularized making cinematic cutscenes that were rendered in-game rather than pre-rendered, but I didn't realize the possibilities behind it until MGS4's Raiden vs Vamp. A complex action scene where Raiden and Vamp had a sword duel would always be cool, but what pushed it over the top was that you kept playing the whole time it was happening. MGS4 would split the screen, playing the cutscene in one half, while in the other you had to carry on with your mission, and goddamn that sure was a moment of thinking "Wow this really is next gen"

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mysteryshoptls · 1 year

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SSR Epel Felmier Bloom Birthday Personal Story: Part 1

"Happy Birthday"

Part 1 (Part 2) (Part 3)

[Pomefiore Dorm – Birthday Party Venue]

Epel: Vil-san gave me a final once over earlier, so I should be looking my best… I think?

Epel: Whew… Interviews make me so nervous. I gotta watch how I speak…

???: Kufufu, don't be so stiff. You're today's birthday boy, after all.

Lilia: So… Happy Birthday, Epel! Relax, and enjoy yourself today.

Epel: So, you're my presenter, Lilia-san? I might feel a bit better now that you've said that. Thank you!

Lilia: Right. Then, I'll read you the first question.

Lilia: "If you could use flight magic to go anywhere, where would you like to go?”

Lilia: You don't have to consider your magical prowess whatsoever. Just answer with wherever you want.

Epel: Well, if I don't have to think about my own magical power… Then I'd like to go to the capital city of the Shaftlands.

Lilia: Oho. I've been to that city ages ago. It was a bustling, crowded city.

Epel: Well, that's because it's the capital city of the world's largest country.

Epel: I'm from the Shaftlands, but the capital is so far from my little hometown, so I've never been…

Epel: But, back in middle school, there were a ton of students who were looking into going to school or work there.

Epel: A lot of the people in my hometown also apparently left to go live in the capital, or the cities near it…

Lilia: Hm… But it doesn't seem to me like you yearn to join the city folk that much.

Epel: Of course not!

Epel: The folks who left my village and my classmates all had the same thing to say, that there was nothing to do around there…

Epel: 'OW RUDE CANYA GIT!?

Epel: …Uh, I mean, I thought it was pretty rude of them to say. And sure, we don't have a popular department store, or any tourist attractions, but…

Epel: But we have bountiful nature, and delicious apples… My hometown has so many wonderful things to offer.

Lilia: Kufufu, sounds to me like your dialect is rather charming in and of itself, too.

Epel: Eheheh…

Lilia: So if it's not that you're yearning for city-life, then why are you wanting to go to the city?

Epel: You said it yourself, Lilia-san. That city is bustling and crowded.

Epel: I think it'd be nice to be able to look down from my broom and watch the busy, congested streets.

Lilia: Oho, that's not a bad idea.

Epel: Eheheh! I mean, of course, I'd like to walk the streets with my own two feet, too.

Epel: So many people'll say that "You can find whatever you want in the capital city of the Shaftlands," but…

Epel: I'm certain there's some stuff that Harveston has that the capital doesn't. That's what I want to find!

Part 1 (Part 2) (Part 3)

Requested by Anonymous.

#twisted wonderland #twst #epel felmier #lilia vanrouge #twst epel #twst lilia #twst translation #twst birthday #mention: vil

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thelukesalvez · 7 months

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Mass Shootings in Lewiston, ME

Hi all, I just wanted to pop on & say a few things about the recent tragedies unfolding in Maine. This post was not made with the intent of polarization. But as many of you know, I'm a writer. And as I remain locked down, helpless while businesses and schools close, helicopters fly over my apartment and cop cars surround my community, writing this felt like the only reasonable outlet for me. Normally, I would keep something like this private. But coming together right now felt important, and this blog has historically been a place where I have been able to receive some engagement. I realize that this is not my usual content, but I write this with hopes that it will reach at least a few of you grappling with the same grief and loss that I feel and elicit some sort of connection in such dark times.

*Trigger warning for mentions of gun violence, mass shootings, and death*

I've lived in Maine my entire life. This state, it's people, & everything associated with it has been my home & heart for nearly 27 years. The entire state has a population of 1.3 million people. That's 1.4 less than the city of Chicago, 2.5 million less than Los Angeles, and 7.2 million less than New York City. Lewiston is the second largest city in Maine with a population of 35,000 people. For some perspective, Gillette stadium in Foxborough, MA can hold nearly 66,000 people, and SoFi stadium in Los Angeles can hold about 70,000.

My point with all the statistics is that Maine is small. Our communities are tight knit, and I truly mean it when I say that everybody knows everybody.

And last night, a man walked into Schemengees Bar and Grille and the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine and opened fire with an automatic rifle, killing 18 people and injuring 13 others. The impact of this tragedy will extend across the state- and probably all of New England.

And as the manhunt for the mass shooting suspect unfolds around me, I have many emotions flowing through my body. I am terrified, I am angry, I am grieving. I am frustrated, confused, and sad. I am disgusted, I am stressed, I am worried. But mostly, I am heartbroken; heartbroken for the community I love. Heartbroken for the victims and lives that were lost last night. Heartbroken for humanity.

I have been absolutely appalled to watch the act of violence committed in Lewiston last night unfold in front of me for the last 24 hours. I grew up in Turner, a small town neighboring Lewiston/Auburn and have many friends and family members still living in the area. I struggle stating this because my intent is not to make this tragedy about me. Because it is certainly not. But I'm writing this from my perspective as someone who was indirectly impacted, and I feel like it's important to remind everyone that gun violence and hate does not discriminate.

For the entire year of 2022, Maine had 29 reported homicides. It is statistically one of the (if not the) safest states in the country (to the point where I don't even lock my door most nights). Maine has always had this aura of innocence. Despite the state of the world and the way gun violence has been steadily increasing for my entire life, I have always found some solace and comfort in the fact that I live in Maine. Because despite the sorrow and grief I felt when I learned of Sandy Hook, Route 91, Virginia Tech, Pulse night club, Uvalde, Sutherland Springs, El Paso (you get the point), I could move forward and live my life. Because as awful as those shootings were, things like that didn't happen in Maine.

Until, of course, they do.

In a single evening, in a span of 24 hours, one man has completely ripped away that layer of safety from me and everyone else I know and love. Because a mass shooting did happen here. And it can happen anywhere.

I could write about how it's easier to buy a gun than Sudafed in Maine. I could write about how I feel about politicians who support the NRA with corrupt intentions despite how many lives have been lost to gun violence in America. I could also write about how Maine has high gun ownership, but extremely low firearm death rates, which makes me wonder if maybe our focus to blame is a bit off. I could write about how no matter what the crime rates in a state are, no one should have access to an AR.

But the truth is, I'm tired. I'm tired of pretending like these are new conversations. I'm tired of having the same debates every time this happens. Liberals vs. Conservatives, Republicans vs. Democrats, the second amendment vs. gun control. I'm tired of conversations about the mental health crisis- about politicians blaming gun violence on symptoms of mental health but then proceeding to vote against policies that would increase access and funding to mental health programing. I'm tired, tired, tired.

And 18 people are dead.

18 people whose lives mattered and deserved to be lived.

18 people who were parents and siblings and children.

18 people who were friends and coworkers.

18 people who were human beings.

And in addition to those 18 lives lost, there are even more injured. Some physically- even more emotionally. A little girl grazed by a bullet was brave enough to go on national TV and ask why? Why do people do this?

Why, indeed? In times of tragedy, our brains crave answers. Why did this happen? Who let this happen? Were there warning signs? The answer is almost always yes. And in this case, based on current reports, it sounds like in addition to active mental health symptoms, direct threats had been made by the suspect in the past about intent to harm. That makes it easy to point fingers. How did his family miss this? Why didn't mental health professionals act? Why was he released from the hospital if he was thought to be dangerous?

But the tragic truth is that this is so much deeper than those questions pose. And as much as our brains and hearts crave answers, playing the blame game will do nothing for us.

Stricter gun laws and removing access to AR-15s is a good start that I fully support. So go ahead and sign the petitions, write to your representatives. I certainly have, and will continue to do so. But don't be surprised if that only places a band-aid over the gaping, hemorrhaging wound that is humanity in America right now.

The truth is, I don't know what the answers are. Is it eliminating access to AR-15s? Monitoring who can buy and own weapons based on stricter background checks? Is it increasing access to mental health services? Increasing incentives for people to become mental health providers? Is this all just the unfolding, unstoppable result of human suffering and toxic stress in America?

What I do know is that my community, my home, has experienced the nation's tenth worst mass shooting in modern history. Lewiston, Maine and the lives lost last night are more than just another tragic story of gun violence in America. It's more than the 565th mass shooting in America this year, to be followed by a 566th and 567th. It's more than just a statistic. Right now the news is buzzing. People are talking, stories are being shared. But a few weeks from now, that will inevitably die down.

Lives will go on, because it didn't happen to you. It will never happen to you.

Until, of course, it does.

So please take care of yourselves, take care of your loved ones, take care of your friends and neighbors and acquaintances. And most importantly, have empathy and compassion for all.

#i know this is not my usual but i really needed a place to share and express #thoughts are welcomed but any sort of criticism about the investigation is not #gun violence #tw mass shooting #lewiston maine #tw mass murder #tw gun violence #lewiston #lewiston me #mass shooting #Lewiston shooting

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runwayrunway · 11 months

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No. 25 - BWIA

@international-nerd asked me to discuss BWIA! I was very excited about this request when I first read it, and now I'm very excited while I write this. BWIA's 2000s livery, which is what I'll be focusing on here, is one that definitely stood out on the tarmac.

It's rare that I can emphatically say this about an airline livery, but it's sort of in a category of its own. If more carriers approached livery design like BWIA, I probably wouldn't have been frustrated enough with the state of things to make this blog in the first place, because their livery is the polar opposite of the timid, corporate, and generic design we expect from airlines.

I like this picture a lot because it looks like she's saying hello to you. Like a cat approaching to sniff your hand.

First taking to the air in 1940 under the name British West Indian Airways, BWIA was also known at various points as BWIA West Indies Airways, BWIA International Airways, or 'Bee-Wee'. Its website was bwee.com. I have begun saying 'bweeeeee......' to myself under my breath now whenever I'm alone.

BWIA was founded as a private company, then became a BOAC subsidiary, and then was rapidly acquired by the government of Trinidad and Tobago. From 1961 until its ultimate demise in 2006, BWIA was the flag carrier of Trinidad and Tobago and became the largest carrier in the Caribbean, serving destinations in North America, South America, the Caribbean, and Europe.

Back in the day they had this...boring standard thing, but by the 80s they expanded their horizons to the other half of the color wheel, picking up a recognizable teal-and-bright-yellow color scheme. Its various jets continued to wear this livery until around 2000.

Sure, one image could have sufficed, but I'm far too weak to resist the allure of putting a really cobby-looking plane next to a comically long-looking plane.

The yellow and teal was a step in the right direction, but in 2000 BWIA decided it was time to unleash their true power on airports across the world. And the result is the subject of this post.

Now there's a livery worth talking about.

Seeing images of this livery makes me feel temporally strange. This is an airline which I technically overlapped with, in the sense that I was alive while BWIA existed, but I'm just inherently too young to remember that. There's definitely a chance I saw one of these striking planes in person and just don't remember it because I was five or so years old, and that's a very strange thought. I wish I had managed to see one, and had held onto the memory somehow, because I love these planes.

Do I miss the hot pink lettering from the previous livery? Yes, a little bit. I won't deny that. But if I hadn't known it was there I wouldn't have had that thought, so I don't think that's anything to hold against them.

I think BWIA is a really good place to pick up after this week's first post, Icelandair, where I discussed flag carriers' branding and the fact that it should reflect the country it represents. Trinidad and Tobago's contributions to music are gigantic. It's the birthplace of calypso, though calypso is far from the only genre and far from the only tradition which originated there.

BWIA's logo is a stylized steelpan, a musical instrument invented in Trinidad and Tobago which I could talk about on its own for quite some time if I weren't insisting to myself that this post has to be about airplanes and not music, but it's a choice of logo that makes it immediately clear that this is an airline which represents a group of people rather than just a flag. If the culmination of a flag carrier's mission is to make a case for why it's flying to a place you should visit, this is an incredibly effective way to do that. Trinidad and Tobago is a place where music is born. It's not just islands with beaches, it's islands with people and if you go there you will have experiences you could never have anywhere else.

In terms of flag carrier logos, it's up there among my favorites. The older 2D version is a little harder to immediately identify as a steelpan but the 2000-onward 3D version is very clean and very uniquely BWIA's. It adds more detail but it never becomes cluttered. The steelpan shape and the teal-and-yellow colors are both distinctive on their own, and combined they make planes that are impossible to mistake for any other airline.

The steelpan logo is prominent both on the tail and wrapped around the bottom of the fuselage, starting about midway down the ventral fairing and ending just below the nose. I really admire BWIA's choice to go with white-on-blue rather than the blue-on-white any other airline would have chosen. It instantly elevates the livery from doing something interesting with the placement of its shapes to doing that and also stubbornly refusing to even approach Eurowhite.

The use of white where it is used is very nicely executed, though. It allows the overall design to maintain a lightness by avoiding black outlines, while preventing the sort of overt eyestrain that comes from putting yellow directly on this sort of light teal. Instead, it elegantly uses the yellow as an accent on the back half of the fuselage. It's difficult for me to even articulate why this works so well, but it just does. The colors look harmonious together despite never mixing, and it's not the sort of place a secondary color would normally be isolated, which I think might be why it's so brilliant. It's a really nice accent to the rest of the plane, preventing the flatness which could result from a livery made entirely of a light color and plain white, while not impinging on the steelpan logo. It draws the eye and then takes a step back to let it experience the rest of the plane, and when you take a step back and appreciate the livery as a single unit it prevents any of that detail from being lost in a blue-and-white blur.

As with many liveries, I think BWIA's looks its best on a TriStar. That might be because the larger empennage lets you see more of the steelpan logo, but there's something so nice about the way the yellow peeks out from under the wing that reminds me of birds with bright yellow underbellies.

I think the main thing that sticks with me after looking at BWIA planes from every angle I can find images for is that this livery exemplifies a style of design that is the exact opposite of what makes most liveries so disappointing. This feels like a livery designed by someone who had never seen another airline livery before, who was sat down with some pencils, a color scheme, a logo, and an identity, and told to find a way to reflect it in the shape of the airplane. In so many of my other posts I compare liveries to each other, with the worst cases merging into uninspiring slop of aughts Delta clones and late 2010s Lufthansa clones and so forth. BWIA just didn't participate in any of that. This livery is hard to put words to because it's nearly impossible to compare to any other livery - in a good way. Most airlines' special occasion liveries don't have a fraction of this excitement.

This might sound a little lofty, and I don't mean to say that BWIA is what airlines should strive to directly emulate (in fact, by doing so they would sort of be doing the opposite of what BWIA did when they released this into a world full of Air France and United), but BWIA here has done what general relativity did to physics. Not so much a different equation, but a different state of mind. Taking what has always been treated as numbers and saying that it makes a lot more sense to think of it as fabric. And what I ultimately think is the most important outcome of these choices is that I can imagine any number of people watching other planes on the tarmac, bored out of their minds, snap out of their stupor to get a closer look when they see a BWIA plane roll by.

We unfortunately lost BWIA in 2006. It was for regular boring financial reasons, a similar situation to the more recent death of Alitalia where the government simply can't keep pumping money into something which has never turned a profit and has to start over with a new airline. I'm not going to talk about its successor, Caribbean Airlines, except to say that obviously I think it's a gigantic downgrade. Frankly, I could really like Caribbean Airlines and it wouldn't matter. If an impeccably designed livery is equivalent to someone who can answer any question you have about the body of physics scholarship, BWIA is equivalent to the sort of theorist who gets fundamental laws named for them.

A+, and goodnight.

#tarmac fashion week #grade: a+#era: 2000s #region: caribbean #region: trinidad and tobago #bwia #flag carriers #defunct airlines

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whatevergreen · 1 year

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This. Again.

Recently we've had Rowling comparing the LGBTQ to Nazis, Grover suggesting that the LGBTQ are benefitting from Nazis, and Hitchens claiming that the Nazis were left-wing.

If you or anyone believes that the Nazi's - who oppressed, imprisoned and murdered trade unionists, socialists, and communists - was socialist because the party called itself socialist and borrowed a few trappings in order to fool the public: then congratulations, you are an idiot or worse who is still falling for Nazi propaganda 78 years after Hitler shot himself. You are probably a Nazi now, and certainly would have been back then.

If you or anyone are trying to compare trans people or any of the LGBTQ+ with the Nazis when they/we defend ourselves, then you are engaging in mirror politics to excuse and distract from your own actual agenda of hate, oppression, and death.

Above: some of the Nazi concentration camp prisoner badges including the red triangle for political prisoners: communists, socialists, anarchists, trade unionists, liberals. The pink triangle was of course for anyone we would now classify as LGBTQ+.

And to imply - as some terfs apparently are - that trans activists are in a sense benefiting from the reaction to increasing far-right involvement (supposedly but clearly not unwelcome) in radical anti-trans feminism... is such a convoluted, desperate, and shameful attempt to distance publicly from the toxic stench of your own fascism - and blame your victims.

The original Nazis persecuted, imprisoned, and murdered nearly any LGBTQ+ they could find. And today's Far-Right, political or religious, are clearly no better.

Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Research in Berlin (which included the world's first trans clinic) was raided by the Nazis in 1933, and its vast collections of books and research torched in the largest (and among the earliest) of the book burnings. Trans people were sent to the death camps. Magnus Hirschfeld (who was himself gay and Jewish) was out of the country at the time, and never returned, sadly dying of a stroke in 1935.

Above: Nazi supporting civilians load Communist publications onto the back of a truck as police look on during a raid of the KPD headquarters in Berlin, 1933. These were later burnt.

The Nazis never were socialists or anywhere on the Left, and never have been and never will be a friend or a benefit to the LGBTQ+

This is not opinion, it is fact, for which there is so much evidence both past and present that it beggars belief that I'm having to write such as this in 2023. But people enjoy cherry picking facts and using them grossly out of context - or just make up nonsense altogether - to feed to the ignorant, the gullible and the hateful.

Anyone believing in or repeating such misinformation and outright lies must be challenged if it is a product of ignorance. If however they persist then they must be dealt with by any means necessary. Peoples wellbeing and lives depend on it.

#politics #lgbt #lgbtq

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rjzimmerman · 7 days

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Amid roadkill epidemic, California builds world’s largest wildlife bridge. (Washington Post)

The 10-lanefreeway that slices through this part of Southern California is one of the busiest in the country, ushering more than 300,000 cars acrossthe greater Los Angeles area every day.

For drivers, it’s a nightmare: This stretch of Highway 101 is known as the “highway from hell,” the infamous host of the nation’s worst commutes.

But if the 101 is bothersome for bipeds, it is downright disastrous for the wildlife that alsocalls the region home. The 101 cuts like a chain saw throughavibrant natural ecosystem of coastal sage scrub and oak trees interspersed with suburban neighborhoods, disrupting the movement of animals and threatening their survival.

Now a massive infrastructure project is underway to suture together the vast tracts of fragmented wildlife habitat that have been separated by the highway for decades. Construction on a key phase of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing — a $100 million structure funded by a mix of public and private money — began last month and it is expected to open in early 2026.

The bridge will be the largest of its kind in the world, spanning the highway at roughly the size of a football field,and it will reconnect the undeveloped sections of the Santa Monica Mountains with those of the Simi Hills. The new pathway will be a boon for the rare and struggling species that are trying to subsist amid the sprawl, especially mountain lions, whose local population could perish without it, say the scientists who study the animals.

The crossing has inspired an influx of government and philanthropic investment for similar ventures across the country, and it has become a beacon of cohabitation during an age indelibly shaped by human activity, when many of Earth’s vulnerable species are facing the prospect of extinction propelled by a roadkill epidemic. If a wildlife crossing can work in the cradle of American car culture, proponents say, then it can work anywhere.

“When the number one threat to wildlife worldwide is the loss of habitat, we can’t write these places off,” Beth Pratt, the project’s lead fundraiser and chief spokesperson, said of urban areas like Los Angeles. “Environmentalists like me usually don’t like bulldozers, but this is the world’s most hopeful construction site.”

#wildlife crossing #Los Angeles #Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing

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mariacallous · 5 months

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The Red Sea might just be history’s most contested body of water. It has been the site of imperial or great-power competition for at least 500 years, from the Portuguese search for the sea route to Asia all the way to the Cold War. It remains the most important trade link between Asia and Europe. The Suez Canal at its northern egress has been displaced by the Singapore Strait as the world’s most important chokepoint, but it’s still the second-most vital; 30 percent of global container ship traffic moves through that canal. Container ships are to globalization what eighteen-wheelers are to the United States—the workhorses of trade. And there are important energy flows here: 7.1 million barrels of oil and 4.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas transit the Bab el-Mandeb (the southern entrance to the Red Sea) every day, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

So attacks by Houthi forces on “Israeli” shipping in recent days have the potential for major disruption. “Israeli” is in quotes because commercial shipping ownership is complicated and opaque: Ship ownership, ship operation, and flag of registry often differ, and none necessarily has any bearing on the ownership or destination of the cargo on board or the nationality of the crew. What’s more, Houthi attacks have quickly morphed from semi-targeted at ships nominally linked to Israel to more indiscriminate. The world’s most important container shipping firms—including MSC, Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd, and Cosco—have paused on sending ships through these waters for fear of loss of life or damage.

Enter a new U.S.-led task force with the somewhat on-the-nose moniker Operation Prosperity Guardian, a naval coalition to protect commercial shipping from Houthi attacks. It will operate under the aegis of a preexisting mechanism, the Combined Maritime Forces, a counterpiracy and counterterrorism naval coalition (the world’s largest, by far) that operates out of Bahrain. So far, nine countries have signed up officially (though some with very modest contributions—Canada, for example, is sending three staff officers and no ships yet); there are reports that others have quietly agreed to participate or contribute. India, which has a lot at stake here (especially in the disproportionate number of Indian nationals among the crews of major commercial lines), is not part of the coalition but is independently contributing two vessels to the effort.

The United States and France have long had bases in Djibouti to project power across the Red Sea, recently joined by Japan and China, and the European Union operates out of the French base to support Operation Atalanta, a counterpiracy task force that protects trade in the nearby Gulf of Aden (alongside the U.S.-led Combined Task Force 151, which has the same mission). But this skirmish is an astonishingly asymmetric fight. With a handful of missiles and drones, the Houthis have succeeded in placing at risk one of the most important arteries of the global economy.

The asymmetry has caused some of the debate to focus on the cost of the drones versus the cost of the missiles being used to defend the ships. It’s the wrong metric. The right calculation is cost of the missile versus cost of the target. If a drone attack succeeds, it could wreck a ship worth anywhere upwards of $50 million and carrying trade goods likely in the $500 million range—and in some cases, roughly double those amounts.

The real problem of volume is a different one. The primary ships being used for these operations—for the United States, Arleigh Burke-class destroyers; for the United Kingdom, the Daring class—sail with an arsenal of roughly 60 missiles that are useful for shooting down drones or missiles. (They carry other types of missiles as well, rounding out the complement of armaments, but not ones germane to this fight.) At the pace at which the Houthis have been conducting attacks, a single ship would expend its relevant armaments in a couple of weeks and need to be rotated out; there’s no way to replenish these missiles at sea. If the Houthis keep up the pace of attacks and have a steady supply of drones and missiles (which seems likely), the cost of maintaining a naval escort operation—including the costs of operating the ships at distance—will rapidly rise into the tens of billions of dollars.

The West faces three options, all with serious downsides.

First, reroute the shipping. For now, until the task force is assembled, shippers are switching routes between the Red Sea and the long voyage around the Cape of Good Hope off southern Africa. It’s been done before, when the Suez Canal was closed as a result of Arab-Israeli wars in the late 1960s and early ’70s. But global trade then was a fraction of global trade now. Rerouting via the Cape of Good Hope would add roughly 60 percent of the transit time (and fuel cost) from Asian ports to European ones, not just adding costs to shippers (who would pass those costs onto consumers) but more importantly gumming up the works in global just-in-time manufacturing. While this is an acceptable option for a week or two, any longer and the disruption to global sea-based supply chains would be significant.

Second, attack the missiles and drones at the source, either to eradicate the armaments or deter the attacks. Already there’s a drumbeat of criticism that U.S. President Joe Biden hasn’t yet authorized this course. Easily said but less easily achieved. It would not be too hard for Houthi forces to hide both themselves and a stockpile of drones and missiles from U.S. targeting, so any attacks—from two U.S. carrier strike groups in nearby waters—would have to be pretty wide-ranging and even then are likely to miss pockets of weaponry. Would Iran—the Houthis’ primary backers—be thus deterred? It’s unclear how or why; Iran is surely willing to allow the Houthis to sustain substantial casualties for the “win” of harassing “the West” in the Red Sea. Attacking Iran itself is the next logical step and may prove necessary, but that carries its own major risk of escalation while Israel is grappling with the missile threat from Hezbollah on its northern border with Lebanon.

Third, widen the coalition. So far, Germany has not joined in, to some criticism but with good reason. There are mounting demands on Germany’s modest navy in Northern European waters, where the Russians are flexing their subsea muscles. Australia was asked to join but made the counterargument that its modest naval capacity is better deployed in the Western Pacific. Japan could contribute, especially since it has a base in Djibouti. Another potential contributor is China, which has a base nearby and a long track record of contributing to counterpiracy operations in the Indian Ocean. There’s a dilemma here for the West, though: Do the Western powers prefer to (a) pay the price of protecting global sea-based trade, of which China is the largest source and arguably primary beneficiary, or (b) help facilitate China’s growing capacity to project naval power across the high seas?

The entire episode highlights this point: There’s a deepening contradiction between the reality of globalization, heavily dependent on sea-based trade and on China, and the reality of geopolitical contest, in which naval power is rapidly emerging as a central dimension. Tensions and bad choices abound in the Red Sea—but they are also a harbinger of tougher choices and turbulent waters ahead.

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hostilecityshowdown · 8 months

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posted to twitter by dean muhtadi on october 13, 2023. image transcript below and in ALT text.

"I am Palestinian. My father was born in Jerusalem. I have family that lives in Jerusalem and Gaza. Family members have been killed. Their homes reduced to ash. My family are not terrorists. They do not want war. They want to live their lives in their homes with their families peacefully. On the other side of the wall, many Israeli people feel the same way. While they may not be my blood family, it is as horrifying to see innocent Israeli citizens killed.

I will never support the murder or brutalization of innocent people anywhere. I condemn the terroristic acts of last week, I condemn the terroristic acts that are currently unfolding in present time, and I condemn all future terroristic acts no matter who commits them.

Right now, over 2 million Palestinians are being denied the right to food, water, energy, and fuel in the world’s largest open air prison. More than 2 million Palestinians, half of whom are children. No aid or support of any kind is being allowed to these peaceful civilians.

They are unable to flee Gaza. They will be killed if they try. There would still be no place they could go. Even if there was, they stay put knowing that if they leave now they will never have a country to call their own ever again. Eventually then, the Palestinian people would be totally eradicated. The thought that very soon I may no longer have a people or an ancestral home is unimaginable.

To my fellow Palestinians, my thoughts and prayers are with you. I will forever be inspired by your will to survive and endure. To the Jewish community, my thoughts and prayers are with you. I am a better person today for the impact my Jewish friends have had on my life. I hate that the past week has caused a greater divide in all of our lives. My heart breaks for the Palestinian and Jewish communities.

Every person deserves the right to exist.

Every person deserves the right to be free."

#long post #eye strain #dean muhtadi #mojo muhtadi #[ colour commentary ]#wwe

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harrysfolklore · 7 months

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i love that he’s in canada but everyone is just like he’s in ‘canada’ like it’s not the second largest country in the world lol

this is one of my pet peeves lol it’s stupid but it annoys me sm when ppl say “harry in canada” or “harry in sweden” as if there aren’t cities inside??? like everywhere else they say the city but nobody cares to put the city lol

canada is so big if you say in canada you’re talking over 9000 squared km like he could be anywhere lmfao

this isn’t supposed to be attacking u or anyone at all it just annoys me 😭😭 idk why i’m sending this im sorry lol

hehehe it’s okay love rant if you want

#anon

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abhishekpandey123 · 1 month

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Elections in India

India’s national election will take place in phases over 44 days. Here’s why it takes so long

Nearly 970 million people or over 10% of the global population are eligible to vote in India’s general elections. The mammoth exercise is the biggest anywhere in the world and will take 44 days before results are announced on June 4.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is aiming for a third consecutive term in office. He is set to compete against a diverse yet faltering coalition of opposition parties who are finding it difficult to counter his popularity. The majority of polls forecast a comfortable victory for the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, solidifying his position as one of the most prominent and influential leaders in the country.

WHY DOES IT TAKE SO LONG?

Two primary factors contribute to this situation: the vast expanse of India, the most populous nation globally, and the intricate logistics required to enable each eligible voter to participate in the electoral process.

Over the years, the duration of voting has wavered. It took nearly four months to complete the vote in India’s first elections in 1951-1952, after it gained independence from British rule, and just four days in 1980. In 2019, voting took 39 days, and this year’s election is the second longest.

With 969 million registered voters, the size of India’s electorate is bigger than the combined population of the 27 European Union member states. This includes 18 million first-time voters, and around 197 million who are in their 20s.

The vote to choose 543 lawmakers for the lower house of Parliament takes place over seven phases. India’s 28 states and eight federal territories will vote at different times. Each phase is one day, with the first held on April 19 and the last on June 1.

Some states may complete their voting process within a day, while others might require more time. For instance, Uttar Pradesh, the largest state in India with a population of 200 million, equivalent to the size of Brazil, will conduct voting over seven days. This extended duration of the voting process in India's general elections has been criticized by Modi's opponents, who argue that it provides an advantage to the prime minister in terms of campaigning and travel, particularly in states where his party is not as strong.

EVERY VOTE COUNTS

The Election Commission of India is responsible for ensuring that a voting booth is accessible within a 2-kilometer radius of each voter. Chakshu Roy from PRS Legislative Research emphasized the extensive efforts election officials must undertake to enable every voter to cast their ballot. Around 15 million election officials and security personnel will travel across deserts and mountains, utilizing various modes of transportation such as boats, walking, and even horseback riding, to reach all voters.

It can be especially arduous. In 2019, when India last held elections, a team of polling officers trekked over 480 kilometers (300 miles) for four days just so a single voter in a hamlet in the remote state of Arunachal Pradesh, which borders China, could exercise their right.

Officials also traveled to a village tucked away high up in the Himalayas in 2019 to install a booth at 15,256 feet (4,650 meters), the highest polling station anywhere in the world.

This time too, polling stations will be installed in remote places, including one inside a wildlife sanctuary in southern Kerala state and another in a shipping container in western Gujarat state.

TIGHT SECURITY

Security is cited as a significant factor behind the multi-phase elections in India, according to experts. In order to ensure safety, a large number of federal security forces, who typically guard borders, are mobilized and work in conjunction with state police. Their primary responsibilities include preventing violence, escorting electoral officials, and transporting voting machines. Previous elections in India have been marred by deadly clashes between supporters of rival political parties, particularly in West Bengal. However, the presence of heavy security forces has contributed to a decrease in such incidents over the years, resulting in relatively peaceful voting. The geographical diversity of the country, with its rivers, mountains, snow, and jungles, poses challenges for the movements of security forces. Despite these obstacles, the chief election commissioner, Rajiv Kumar, has emphasized their commitment to ensuring a smooth voting process by going the extra mile for the convenience of voters.

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umichenginabroad · 2 months

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New Zealand Part 1 (Week 11)

One of the beautiful things about studying at UNSW is that during week 6 of our studies, we get a flexibility week where the majority of courses don’t hold class and students are given the chance to catch up with schoolwork, get ahead, or do nothing and just relax! My hostel-mates and I knew about this opportunity from the day we got here, so a big trip was always in the works. We even knew that we all wanted to spend the time in New Zealand. The only problem? There’s 18 of us living in the hostel together and we’ve had enough trouble planning trips for just 5 or 6 people, let alone 18. Everyone had a different vision of what a trip to New Zealand could look like between camping, or renting cars and staying in AirBnBs, or living out of campervans. Needless to say, the trip planning was procrastinated all through the 4 weeks of summer and another 4 weeks of term 1. Once in a while someone would say, “Guys, we really have to plan this. Plane tickets are getting expensive!” and they’d be met with more approval and support than a professor who has suggested extending a homework deadline. But, as expected with our group, no action would be taken. Until one person sits down and buys themself a roundtrip flight to New Zealand, nobody is going anywhere. Soon enough, after intense procrastination and discussion, tickets were bought, plans were made, the group of 14 (four couldn’t make it) had divided into two campervans and two cars (who would be staying in AirBnBs), and I was sitting on a plane to Queenstown.

^^ Landing in Queenstown

Queenstown may not be among New Zealand’s 20 largest cities, but it is renowned for its adventure sports and stunning scenery, earning it the nickname "Adventure Capital of the World," as my friend Elizabeth would say. Our adventures in Queenstown, however, were put on hold until the end of the trip as we had a road trip planned that would take us up north to Christchurch and then back down to the Adventure Capital. So, on our first day there we picked up our car rentals and headed to Fiordland National Park for a quick hike. The greenest plants, mossiest rocks, and most colorful mushrooms riddled the paths and made our short hike one of the most memorable.

^^ Some New Zealand Flora

I also felt a lot safer hiking in New Zealand compared to Australia. New Zealand has none of the snakes that Australia is infamous for and has an almost negligible amount of dangerous spiders compared to the numbers Australia boasts! With our glow worm cave tour waiting for us in Te Anau, we had to get back on the road quickly. Lucky for us, there are worse places to be driving than one of the most naturally beautiful countries in the world where mountains surround you in every direction and lakes bluer than the sky itself pop up out of the blue (pun intended) every few moments. We weren’t allowed to take pictures in the glow worm caves, but imagine yourself sitting on a boat in a pitch black cave with little blue/green specks scattering the ceiling. That was pretty much it! It was interesting to learn about the glow worms themselves – they glow brighter the hungrier they are (to better attract flies) and they’re actually larvae, not worms, so they just need to survive long enough to turn into gnats and reproduce. You may be wondering why I’m sharing so much detail about random worms. Well, as a recent trivia night attendee (two weeks in a row), I see every random fact as a future topic in trivia. You can thank me later.

^^ Just the average roadside view while driving along the west side of the South Island!

Milford Sound was next on the list. Just a two hour drive from Te Anau with the option of a bus service to shuttle you there and back, Milford Sound is a large fiord stretching 9 miles (or, 15 km should I say) to the open sea. Once there, a boat cruise takes you down to the ocean and back while passing waterfalls, dramatic cliffs, and some popular scuba diving destinations. Milford Sound was highly recommended as an activity on our itinerary, and it truly lived up to the hype! From the stops on the bus ride to the scenic cruise, I was in a constant state of awe that I will never forget. The rest of the trip was just as exciting, but I’ll cover it in the next post! Until then, Cheers!

^^ The car gang on our way to Milford Sound

^^ A snippet of Milford Sound

David Bayer

Biomedical Engineering

University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia

#umichenginabroad #ipewinter24 #ipeunsw #australia #davidbayer

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notwiselybuttoowell · 6 months

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At this year’s UN Cop28 climate summit the issue of air conditioning will be at the forefront of discussions as some of the world’s largest economies have signed up to the first ever global cooling pledge, led by the UN environment programme.

So far, more than 50 signatories have signed on to cut their cooling emissions by 68% by 2050.

India, however, is not expected to join. The country’s market for ACs is growing faster than almost anywhere else in the world. Higher incomes, rising temperatures in an already hot and humid climate and increasing affordability and access are driving more and more Indians towards buying or renting one as soon as they can afford it – and sometimes even when they cannot.

Between 8% and 10% of the country’s 300m households – home to 1.4 billion people – have an AC, but that number is expected to hit close to 50% by 2037, according to government projections. A report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that by 2050, India will have more than 1bn ACs in operation.

It could have significant implications for the global effort to keep temperature rises within 1.5C. Around the world, ACs are still largely inefficient and use a huge amount of electricity mostly generated by fossil fuels.

En masse, they can drive up outside temperatures as they pump out heat from indoors to outdoors. They contain chemical refrigerants which, if leaked, can be almost 1,500 times more environmentally destructive than CO2.

The vast amount of electricity that India’s growing number of ACs will require presents a significant challenge. Already during peak summertime hours, ACs have accounted for 40% to 60% of total power demand in the cities of Delhi and Mumbai.

According to the IEA, by 2050, the amount of power India consumes solely for air conditioning is expected to exceed the total power consumption of all of Africa.

Most of this electricity is produced by burning coal, and while India’s capacity from renewables such as solar power is expanding, it is happening nowhere near as fast as the growth of the AC market, which will soon outpace all other household appliances.

X

#cop28 #climate change #refrigerants

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