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nerdofspades · 2 years

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Okay. DP x DC idea. What if the League met Fenton before they met Phantom. Not in a ghost fight. Not doing anything particularly weird. Just Danny Fenton trying his best.

When they first notice the ghosts of Amity Park they all get a little worried about it, but no one can beat out Batman's paranoia. Ghosts may not have caused too many problems outside of Amity yet, but he doesn't trust that to stay that way. So he researches.

He, of course, finds out about Phantom, but shelves his usual just-in-case-he-turns-evil plans until after he can get some ghostly experts to brief the League. He does some cursory research into Phantom's history and abilities, which of course drags up everything in the Amity News cycle and some references in both Ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome. (So Batsy gives up on the idea of finding out a human civilian identity. Kid's dead and his "life" has been lost to time until he decides to say something.)

But, more importantly, there are no good options for who to ask for lessons in ghost hunting.

First option: the GIW. Absolute morons who have never caught anything stronger than an ectopus, cause more damage to property than the ghosts, and have security so lax it doesn't even take Batman ten seconds to get in. Absolutely not. Not for the watch tower.

Second option: Vlad Co. Owned and operated by billionaire Vlad Masters who runs in the same social circles as Lex Luthor. He has better security than the GIW but the question with him is not whether or not he *could* keep the secret, but whether or not he *would.*

Third option: Dr.s Fenton of FentonWorks. They have the most cutting edge ghost hunting technology and the most published papers. But. Well. A brief survey of the town makes it very clear they are biased at best and bigoted at worst. Not something the League wants to associate with, but they are still the best of the bad options.

Or so they think until Bruce Wayne goes to open contact with them and notices the Fenton children. He knew about them before coming of course. Jasmine Fenton, top of her class with a full ride to Harvard and plans to major in psychology. Has historically been vocal about her distaste for her parent's work. Likely because of Danny. Daniel Fenton is a trouble maker barely scraping by in his classes that had an accident in his parents lab a year ago. Not the brightest and not well behaved, but by all accounts he's got a good heart.

And neither of then are very enthused about his presence in their home. Neither of them seem to care for their parents anti-ghost rhetoric either. Jazz tries to reason with them and Danny just rolls his eyes behind their back. And casually takes apart and fixes one of their inventions.

Bruce quickly makes a minor investing deal with the elder Fentons as cover and a quick way to keep and eye on their research and finds an excuse to get the kids out of the house to talk. Once out, he extends the Justice League's request for training with ghost hunting gear and a project to install anti-ecto security measures in their base(s). Danny is hesitant but agrees.

And Danny is so tired and so done with this crap when he's in the Watch Tower. (He's enamored with the space station for several minutes, but once he gets on track, the League think he's a mini Bruce. All business and telling them not to be idiots.)

He gives them a basic run down of what each item is and how to use it. Common ghostly abilities and power scaling. (Do not call him to consult on a blob ghost, ectopus, or other weak ghostly animal. But they are not to try and fight several of the stronger ghost. A fair amount of this tech will make their afterlives miserable, but won't actually do much beyond annoy them. Superman in particular should stay away from anything strong enough to overshadow. No one wants to fight a possessed Kryptonian.) He gives them plenty of thermoses, guns, nets, and specter deflectors plus some odds and ends for them to test out. And then he starts working on the shield, which he worked on with Tucker to upgrade so it would recognize his ecto signature as friendly (and a couple others like Clockwork, Pandora, Frostbite, and Wulf) so it wouldn't shoot him on the spot.

It would probably take several trips to get everything working properly, by which point Danny has likely made friends with a few League members. And a few of them have probably noticed something weird about him, but they ignore it cause he's a good kid and it's just a little weird. Won't hurt anything.

Constantine takes one look at the kid and is not seen again until months after he finally leaves.

But now they have working ghost defenses and they can protect people if a ghost tries to attack anywhere outside of Amity! (Yes, several ask Danny to install a shield at their personal hideouts as well. Batman tries to figure it out on his own and decides to just ask Danny for now. He'll figure it out eventually, but Fenton schematics are a pain and the power source doesn't look like anything he's ever seen before.)

Eventually everything is done and Danny goes back to his life with a large chunk of cash in his new bank account and a secure line just incase the league needs to consult with him again. Danny thinks that's the end of it until Batman shows up decked out in Fenton gear looking for Phantom.

Continue

#dp x dc #danny phantom #dc comics #batman paranoia #fanfiction #danny is so done with this and the league is not going to leave him alone #but he got to see the bat cave #and only the bat cave bruce will handle the manor personally once he figures out how the shield works

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lunar-lumi · 10 months

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so fucking conflicted about oceangate. one one hand, yeah, that was such an incredibly stupid thing to do. why would you spend a fucking insane amount of money to get in an iron-lung-esque death trap controlled by a repurposed video game controller to visit a gravesite where so many people, the poorest of them especially, horrifically died? the things that billionaires do. the whole situation just seems surreal to me.

but also, what a horrible way to die. stuck in a cramped tin can, suffocating, lost in the depths of the ocean. one of the passengers is allegedly only a teenager. no matter how stupid and hubristic those billionaires were, no one deserves to suffer through or die from such a horrific event.

important addition: the oceangate disappearance has gotten way more news coverage and attention than the greek migrant mass drowning. 700 migrants or more from syria, egypt, and pakistan were on that ship. the greek coast guard did nothing when the ship sank under their watch. the people aboard that ship are much more deserving of our sympathy. i hope everyone who died can rest in peace. i hope their loved ones can get the support and care they need. i hope all survivors recover physically and emotionally.

i urge you to read more about it yourself. here’s an article.

#oceangate #titanic #tw claustrophobia #fucking hell.

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memecucker · 3 months

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Remember when medievalpoc cited a racist Mormon book written by a Mormon billionaire arguing that Ancient Israelites colonized the Americas and indigenous Americans are their degenerated descendents that fell to sin to back mpoc’s claim that Ancient Egypt imported cocaine

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kaibacorpintern · 1 year

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On the topic of Atem vs modern concepts, what do you think his mental process would be like if he took over Yugi's body with at least some of his pharaoh memories in tact. Like imagine the only clothing you wore/knew of being tunics made of one(1) piece of fabric held together by a string and the next minute you find yourself in Yugi's outfit with 10 belts that don't really have a purpose

(sorry for the long ask)

you've activated my "i have an anthropology degree" trap card!!

in any culture, clothing (and the complexity of clothing) is used to signal power and prestige - so atem as a pharaoh is still likely to have clothing more complicated than tunics and belts, even though the technology of zippers and buckles and such might be totally different. like here's a dress that was almost definitely worn by a very wealthy/noble lady - your average ancient egyptian is 100% not able to afford the materials and labor of a dress like this:

as pharaoh, atem is probably wearing things that are AT LEAST as valuable or complex in their design as this dress. and it's important to note that ancient peoples also wore things "that didn't have a purpose" - i.e. fancy belts and shawls and jewelry and etc. etc. etc. (their purpose being to signal power/wealth/prestige, while yuugi's 10 belts signal that he is a goth; sometimes you wear things just because you think they're cool. in other words, everything you wear is a signal of SOMETHING #indexicality)

so: i don't think atem would be THAT baffled by things like buckles or zippers (how they work or what they're for) but he might be absolutely mystified by how democratic clothing has become, in the sense that both billionaires and baristas can go around wearing jeans, sneakers, and t-shirts, and the power/prestige difference is signaled through quality of materials, brand, or craftmanship - which are often not obvious at first blush.

for example, if you judged him entirely on his clothing, mokuba doesn't look like the world's wealthiest middle schooler. and coming from new kingdom egypt, where peasants might walk around wearing their one simple shendyt and noblemen would be decked out in elaborate pleated kilts and sleeves with the highest-quality fine jewelry, this is what might register as truly strange to atem.

#thanks for the ask <3 #intern memo

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1americanconservative · 3 months

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Arab countries citizens are waking up

1. Suddenly we discovered that Gaza, which is inhabited by 2 million people… has 36 hospitals There are Arab countries with 30 million citizens and do not have this number of hospitals.

2. Suddenly we discovered that Gaza was getting water, electricity, gas, and fuel for free from Israel. Of course, there is no Arab citizen who does not pay water, electricity and fuel bills.

3. Suddenly we discovered that Gaza was receiving $30 million a month from Qatar alone, and $120 million a month from UNRWA, and $50 million a month from the European Union, and 30 million dollars a month from America. There are Arab countries drowning in debt and cannot find anyone to help them, even with one million dollars.

4. Suddenly we discovered that Gaza was not besieged, and all goods were entering it, as were foreigners and people of foreign nationalities. Its residents were traveling to Egypt and from there to the rest of the world, and Mr. Fafo is the biggest example.

5. Suddenly we discovered that Gaza was living better than many Arab countries…and its people were living better than many Arab people.

6. Suddenly…we discovered that our minds were besieged by a programmed lie…by the (Muslim) Brotherhood media.”

7. Suddenly we discovered that the children in Gaza are not children as we usually think, but children of terrorists with machine guns and suicide belts who underwent special training by Hamas.

8. Suddenly we discovered that the schools, hospitals, and mosques in Gaza are organized terror headquarters and ammunition warehouses with Hamas’ underground tunnels.

9. Suddenly we discovered that in Gaza there is an underground “metro” of Hamas that stretches for 500 km, which Israel can only envy.

10. Suddenly we discovered that the supposedly doctors and teachers in Gaza turned out to be active Hamas terrorists.

11. Suddenly we discovered that rockets and mortars are kept in children’s rooms in Gaza homes.

12. Suddenly we discovered that Hitler and his book “Mein Kampf” were very popular in Gaza, and its translation into Arabic was in almost every home in Gaza, or a portrait of the author.

13. Suddenly we discovered that Gazans live a life of luxury, with multi-story mansions with swimming pools and premium German cars.

14. Suddenly we discovered that there is no Israeli siege on Gaza because it still borders its Muslim sister Egypt.

15. Suddenly we discovered that most of the “citizens” in Gaza support Hamas and other terrorist groups, elected Hamas in democratic elections, and celebrated the massacre on October 7th.

16. Suddenly we discovered that what is called journalists in Gaza who work for Western media like CNN, AP, Reuters, and others turned out to be Hamas terrorists who participated in the massacre on October 7th.

17. Suddenly we discovered that what is called ‘peace activists’ and ‘workers of international human rights organizations’ of the UN, the Red Cross, and WHO, turned out to be terrorists and corrupt people of Hamas.

18. Suddenly we discovered that each of the leaders of Hamas is a billionaire and richer than President Trump, with a net worth of 4-5 billion dollars each.

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hambor12 · 8 months

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i like the implication with the Warframe 1999 teaser that Orokin Society, beyond the highest ruling classes, was basically just like "The 90's but with about 75% more gold accessories"

and the High Class Orokins were just Like That (Space Roman/Ancient Egypt) because the Comically Rich tend to do gaudy, tacky shit like that

see: the many gulf state vanity projects like Dubai or The Line, the antics of various tech billionaires

#warframe #tennocon 2023 #warframe spoilers #warframe 1999

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gallusrostromegalus · 2 years

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Might we get a partial tour of the more...interesting rooms in Castle Pegasus, before the Shadis and our protagonists wreck the place, or anything there TK'd want for his personal collection while he's there?

Don't worry, TK will get the opportunity to do a bit of Looting while On Assignment

Highlight Reel of Pegasus' Castle:

Topiary Maze: The rear 3/4ths of Pegasus' castle are surrounded by an extensive topiary garden and hedge maze. He was considering ripping it out and starting over with a more navigable and colorful French garden or perhaps a vineyard, but then he managed to hire the most FABULOUS topiary sculptor and his hedges have never looked better. He hopes Mr. Howard Kieth is alright with long-term employment on his island (Spoilers: he's not)

Wine Cellar: Maximillion's father was one of Nihofornia's finest Vintner's and it was the ONE thing Max and his dad agreed on. Pegasus has an extensive (and extremely good) collection of wines, ports and even some whiskeys. He's actually a bit of a menace among sommeliers because he does have the palette to recognize really good wine, and the balls to call a highly-rated wine out when it sucks, once ruining an entire winery in the now-infamous "Bottle Bat Piss" incident.

Personal gallery: he has a public gallery of his greatest works for visitors, but his Personal Gallery is filled with Other People's Art- comissioned works, fanart from artists he admires, works he personally collected, the one drawing he has that Cecellia did, and two of his earliest works, which are very dear to him, and Too Personal for Public Viewing.

Studio: Maxmillion is a painter and he still very much has his hand in the craft. While he hasn't personally painted much in the last few years save a few choice 'commissions' from On High, he still keeps a Studio at his castle, and he's even recently been playing with a composition recently- It's fighting him though, he can see the subject- glimpses of a visiting muse, how he moves with a violent sort of grace and rests with a sculptural magnificence, but the face keeps changing on him and if he focuses too hard, The Eye starts to hurt and he gets the Jitters. Whether that's a warning from the millennium item or a sympathetic pain from the one feature he's sure The Muse has- a huge scar over one eye- is unclear. He's covered the portrait in an old silk robe that his models could use for now. Maybe he'll be able to see things more clearly after the tournament.

Pool: He's a billionaire in Sun-drenched, drought-ridden Fantasy Southern California, of course he's got a pool he never uses.

The Folio: Master copies of Pegasus' most important legal documents, passwords, duel monsters artworks, game rules and other "DO NOT FUCKING LOSE THIS" paperwork lives here. It's got a zillion locks, cameras, climate control, lasers, neurotoxin canisters, fun booby traps that Pegasus learned about while tomb-diving back in Egypt, and 24/7 armed security. You know, all indicators that this is where The Good Stuff is kept.

The Outdoor Arena: The minute Maximillion saw Seto's Hard-light hologram technology, he knew the little shit was going to figure out how to make them portable, and- unsure of precisely when he was going to end up taking the tech from Seto, he told the builders to make a sort of turreted arena with dangerous drop-offs with the idea he might get to watch some unfortunate bastards Duel for literally high stakes in the fine outdoor weather.

The Indoor Arena: Max does know to hedge his bets though, and took the Indoor pool that was in the architect's original design, and with a lot of very excited hand-waving, told him to install a giant holographic arena and extremely dangerous moving walkways in that space instead. The architect was just relieved it wasn't a real blood sports arena because he saw some sketches for something called "Death-T" from the other billionaire he was considering bidding on but CHRIST ON A MUFFIN he's got some standards.

About 80% of the Castle's room is devoted to the stuff that a For-Real Castle's space is devoted to- Dormitories for the Staff and Security, Kitchens, laundry, Janitorial supplies, Guest Rooms and Amenities, Presentation halls and all the other crap that you have to have around when you're actually in the business of ruling.

Pegasus DOES have a room that is functionally a Bouncy Castle within his Regular Castle, because of course he does.

#TPOFATGIF #The Power Of Friendship (And This Gun I Found!)#Yugioh #Yugioh Fanfic #Maximillion Pegasus

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mtlupy · 10 months

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I've been seeing articles decrying the lack of empathy for the OceanGate victims, and you know what? The only one of the lot who deserves any empathy is the 19 year old kid. They paid a quarter of a million dollars each for a masturbatory glimpse at a 111 year old graveyard in a knowingly unsafe submarine. They could've helped real, living people with that $1,250,000, but chose not to. I'm a very empathetic person, but the real tragedy is the up to 500 presumed dead in the Messenia migrant boat disaster. That's right, 100x the amount of victims. Which, I'll add, was totally dwarfed in the media because poor Brown people matter less I guess. 🥴

#eat the rich #fuck billionaires #we can do more #what about the migrants #pakistan #egypt #syria #palestine #afganistan #social justice

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str8aura-no-not-that-one · 9 months

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I've gotta wonder what it must feel like to be a normal human who lives in the housepets universe. You move into the neighborhood and you're put next door to an entire pack of wolves. They invite you to a barbecue and give you an entire deer carcass. It is not cooked. Multiple times a week you turn on the news to find increasingly baffling stories about developments the billionaire ferrets up the hill have poured their money into funding. The 24/7 news cycle cannot move fast enough to follow their internal whims. A team of news reporters swarm your street because apparently someone plopped an entire Ancient Egyptian temple in the woods behind your house and nobody noticed for decades. An entire week of your memory goes missing. You go to the zoo and get cursed out by gay kangaroos. The fox exhibit is empty and when you ask why they say the ferrets bought its only resident and they let him go because he kept heckling the gators. You wake up the next morning, drive to work, clack at your computer for a few hours and suddenly realize you've been a panda the entire morning. They still expect you to come to work. You realize everyone else are also pandas. They havent noticed yet. You open your phone to check the news and find out that death is a two hundred foot tall woman and has been spotted in Egypt. You put your phone back down and go back to work.

#my posts #housepets

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xtruss · 8 months

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Mohamed al-Fayed, Tycoon Whose Son Died With Diana, Is Dead At 94

An Egyptian businessman, he built an empire of trophy properties in London, Paris and elsewhere, but it was all overshadowed by a fatal car crash that stunned the world.

— By Robert D. McFadden | September 1, 2023

Mohamed al-Fayed in 2003 outside the Court of Session in Edinburgh, where a judge was asked to consider whether the car crash that killed Diana, Princess of Wales, and his son Dodi, was caused deliberately. Credit...David Cheskin/Press Association, via Associated Press

Mohamed al-Fayed, the Egyptian business tycoon whose empire of trophy properties and influence in Europe and the Middle East was overshadowed by the 1997 Paris car crash that killed his eldest son, Dodi, and Diana, the Princess of Wales, died on Wednesday. He was 94.

His death was confirmed on Friday in a statement by the Fulham Football Club in Britain, of which Mr. Fayed was a former owner. It did not say where he died.

The patriarch of a family that rose from humble origins to fabled riches, Mr. Fayed controlled far-flung enterprises in oil, shipping, banking and real estate, including the palatial Ritz Hotel in Paris and, for 25 years, the storied London retail emporium Harrods. Forbes estimated his net worth at $2 billion this year, ranking his wealth as 1,516th in the world.

In a sense, Mr. Fayed was a citizen of the world. He had homes in London, Paris, New York, Geneva, St. Tropez and other locales; a fleet of 40 ships based in Genoa, Italy, and in Cairo; and businesses that reached from the Persian Gulf to North Africa, Europe and the Americas. He held Egyptian citizenship but rarely if ever returned to his native land.

Mr. Fayed lived and worked mostly in Britain, where for a half-century he was a quintessential outsider, scorned by the establishment in a society still embedded with old-boy networks. He clashed repeatedly with the government and business rivals over his property acquisitions and attempts to influence members of Parliament. He campaigned noisily for British citizenship, but his applications were repeatedly denied.

“It’s the colonial, imperial fantasy,” Mr. Fayed told The New York Times in 1995. “Anyone who comes from a colony, as Egypt was before, they think he’s nothing. So you prove you’re better than they are. You do things that are the talk of the town. And they think, ‘How can he? He’s only an Egyptian.’”

Mr. Fayed at a party at the venerable London department store Harrods in 1989. His takeover of the store in 1985 struck many Britons as akin to buying Big Ben. Credit...Fairchild Archive/WWD, via Penske Media, via Getty Images

He reveled in the trappings of a British aristocrat. He bought a castle in Scotland and sometimes wore a kilt; snapped up a popular British football club; cultivated Conservative prime ministers and members of Parliament; sponsored the Royal Horse Show at Windsor; and tried unsuccessfully to salvage Punch, the moribund satirical magazine that had lampooned the British establishment for 150 years.

His takeover of the venerable Harrods in 1985 struck many Britons as shameless brass, something akin to buying Big Ben. A year later, as if securing a jewel in the crown of British heritage, Mr. Fayed signed a 50-year lease on the 19th-century villa in Paris that had been the home of the former King Edward VIII of Britain and Wallis Warfield Simpson, the divorced American woman for whom he abdicated his throne in 1936.

But Mr. Fayed’s triumph as an Anglophile was the made-for-tabloids romance between his eldest son, Emad, known as Dodi, and the Princess of Wales, who had recently been divorced from Prince Charles (now King Charles III) and alienated from the royal family. It began in the summer of 1997, when Mr. Fayed invited Diana and her sons to spend some time at his home on the French Riviera and on one of his yachts. Dodi was there too.

The Egyptian-born nephew of the Saudi billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, Dodi was a notorious playboy who gave lavish parties, financed films, dated beautiful women and was once briefly married. He and Diana had been acquainted, but by many accounts they fell in love on the Mediterranean sojourn. As their romance bloomed, the British press pounced. Paparazzi hounded the couple everywhere they went.

A cameraman filmed the site of the car accident in Paris that killed Diana, Princess of Wales, and Mr. Fayed’s eldest son, Dodi al-Fayed, in 1997. Mr. Fayed declared that they had been murdered by “people who did not want Diana and Dodi to be together.”Credit...Jacques Demarthon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

In the early hours of Aug. 31, 1997, a Mercedes-Benz carrying Diana and Dodi and driven by Henri Paul, a Fayed security agent who was drunk and traveling at a high speed trying to elude carloads of pursuing paparazzi, slammed head-on into a concrete pillar in a tunnel in Paris. All three were killed.

Controversy exploded over the cause of the crash and the implications of the affair. Some tabloids suggested that an immigrant had been an unfit suitor for a princess. But friends said that the couple had planned to marry, and that the Fayed family had offered Diana and her sons a warmth that contrasted with the way Britain’s royal family had shunned her after the divorce.

As rumors and conspiracy theories swirled, Mr. Fayed declared that the two had been murdered by “people who did not want Diana and Dodi to be together.” He said they had been engaged to marry and maintained that they had called him an hour before the crash to tell him that she was pregnant. Buckingham Palace and the princess’s family denounced his remarks as malicious fantasy.

The deaths inspired waves of books, articles and investigations of conspiracy theories, as well as a period of soul-searching among Britons, who resented the royal family’s standoffish behavior and were caught up in displays of mass grief. In 2006, the British police ruled the crash an accident.

And in 2008, a British coroner’s jury rejected all conspiracy theories involving the royal family, British intelligence services and others. It attributed the deaths to “gross negligence” by the driver and the pursuing paparazzi. It also said a French pathologist had found that Diana was not pregnant.

Mr. Fayed called the verdict biased, but he and his lawyers did not pursue the matter further. “I’ve had enough,” he told Britain’s ITV News. “I’m leaving this to God to get my revenge.”

Mr Al Fayed, with his wife Heini, at the funeral of Princess Diana in 1997. Diana, Princess of Wales, 36, Dies in a Crash in Paris. August 31, 1997.

Mohamed al-Fayed was born Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed in Alexandria, Egypt, on Jan. 27, 1929, one of five children of a primary-school teacher, Aly Aly Fayed. Details about his early life are murky.

His accounts of growing up in a prosperous merchant family were discounted by British investigators. He sold sewing machines and joined his two younger brothers, Ali and Salah, in a shipping business. In the early 1950s, Adnan Khashoggi set the brothers up in a venture that exported Egyptian furniture to Saudi Arabia. It flourished.

In 1954, Mr. Fayed married Mr. Khashoggi’s sister, Samira. Dodi was their only child. They were divorced in 1956. In 1985, he married Heini Wathén, a Finn. They had four children, all born in Britain: Jasmine, Karim, Camilla and Omar.

Information on survivors was not immediately available.

The Fayed shipping interests profited handsomely from an oil boom in the Persian Gulf in the 1960s. Acting as middlemen for British construction companies and gulf rulers, they helped develop the port of Dubai, the Dubai Trade Center and other properties in what is now the United Arab Emirates.

Mohammed Al Fayed stands in front of the east stand of Craven Cottage, home of Fulham. Photograph: Kieran Doherty/Reuters

Mr. Fayed at the Craven Cottage stadium in London in 2012 before an English Premier League soccer match between Fulham and Sunderland. Mr. Fayed was Fulham’s owner and club chairman. Credit...Alastair Grant/Associated Press

Mr. Fayed, who made all his family’s major investment and financial decisions, moved to London in the mid-1960s. He added “al-” to his surname, implying aristocratic origins. After buying the Scottish castle, he expanded its estate to 65,000 acres; after acquiring the Fulham Football Club, he built it into a top team in a nation infatuated with the sport. (He sold the team in 2013 to a Pakistani American businessman.) A heavy contributor to the Conservative Party, he nurtured relationships with members of Parliament and Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

In 1979, the Fayed brothers bought the fading Ritz Hotel in Paris for under $30 million and, with a 10-year, $250 million renovation, turned it into one of the world’s most luxurious hotels. Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed dined in the Imperial Suite before their fatal crash.

In 1984-85, in their greatest commercial coup in Britain, the Fayeds paid $840 million for the House of Fraser, the parent company of Harrods and scores of other stores, and invested $300 million more to refurbish the chain’s flagship, in London’s exclusive Knightsbridge section.

After the sale of Harrods to Qatar in 2010 Mr Al Fayed stayed on as honorary chairman for six months

Mohamed Al Fayed in the Harrods food halls. Photograph: Mark Richards/Daily Mail/Shutterstock

Prodded by a business rival, the government investigated the Harrods deal and in 1990 concluded that the Fayed brothers had “dishonestly misrepresented” themselves as descendants of an old landowning and shipbuilding family. The government report said the money for Harrods had probably come from the Sultan of Brunei. The sultan denied it, and Mr. Fayed, who was not accused of wrongdoing, called the report a smear.

In investigative reports by the press and the police, Mr. Fayed was accused by many women of unwanted sexual advances, job-related sexual harassment of female employees at Harrods, and even sexual assault involving teenage girls. He denied the allegations and, although he was questioned by the authorities in Britain, he was never prosecuted on such charges.

Mr. Fayed was bitter about being stymied in his quest for British citizenship, although all his children by his second wife held that status. As he noted, he had lived in Britain for decades, paid millions in taxes, employed thousands of people and, through his enterprises, contributed mightily to the economy.

Mohamed Al Fayed leaves the High Court in London, after giving evidence at the inquest into the death of his son, Dodi, and Diana, Princess of Wales. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA

“They could not accept that an Egyptian could own Harrods, so they threw mud at me,” he told reporters. He sold Harrods in 2010 to Qatar Holding, the sovereign wealth fund of the Emirate of Qatar, for more than $2 billion, and announced his retirement.

— Robert D. McFadden is a Senior Writer on the Obituaries Desk and the Winner of the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for spot news reporting. He joined The New York Times in May 1961 and is also the Co-Author of Two Books.

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theinconvenientlifestyle · 4 months

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The UK government and pro-Israel lobby groups are funding a UK-registered charity to indoctrinate schoolchildren against recognition of Israel’s occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

‘Solutions not Sides’ (SNS) has received increasing amounts of cash to carry out literal ‘bothsidesing’ of the grossly asymmetrical situation in Palestine, treating Israel’s occupation, apartheid, oppression and now mass-murder of Palestinians as equivalent to Palestinian resistance.

The charity’s website claims to run a ‘non-partisan programme’ to ‘prepare students to make a positive, solutions-focused contribution to debates on Israel-Palestine’. However, its ‘Mission & Values’ page states that it opposes ‘advocacy’ and ‘partisan solidarity'(!) a value that rules out support for the Boycott Divestment and sanctions campaign, rejects ‘blame culture’ and believes that:

both sides bear responsibility for bringing about a resolution to the conflict.

Israel is currently engaged in mass slaughter of Palestinian civilians and is making plans for the deportation of Gazan Palestinians to Egypt, the Congo and other African destinations. It faces allegations brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) by South Africa of what experts consider to be a ‘textbook case’ of genocide. The victims of war crimes clearly do not ‘bear responsibility’ for ending the crimes – and minimising Israel’s guilt for its illegal actions and Palestinian suffering while treating Palestinians’ acts of resistance as equivalent is inherently partisan. In this context, the group’s claim to be fighting Islamophobia as well as antisemitism looks like mere window dressing.

According to Palestine is still the issue and 5Pillars, SNS has its origins in – and receives around thirty percent of its funding from – ‘One Voice’, a billionaire-funded pro-Israel lobby group. SNS has been backed by pro-Israel groups, as well as figures well-known from their eager participation in smears of the left.

An attempt by Palestine Declassified to visit the SNS office to obtain comment on analysis of SNS’s activities found that no one was based at the charity’s registered address. It did not respond to the programme’s requests for comment.

Campaigners are asking teachers and parents to complain to schools urgently if this group is brought in.

#ukpol #uk politics #palestine

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theparanormalperiodical · 2 years

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The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide To Tarot Cards: A Brief History, How To Read Them And Choosing A Spread feat. Cheat Sheets

Cast your mind back to 2020. Well, if you can. I’ve blocked most of it out.

The national lockdowns were a hellish period for us all, unless you were one of the few billionaires able to profit from the global peril. But aside from OCD, I did take away a few things from that time.

And that was my love for tarot cards.

I’ve had my deck since my first year of university, so for about five or six years now. At first, I struggled to shuffle them, I found it hard to understand them and I just never really knew what to do with them. They were an ornament, not a hobby.

But it was only about three years later, when we all had to stay inside for months on end, that tarot became a crucial part of my weekly routine. Every Sunday I’d light a candle (preferably sandalwood or sage), put on the Life is Strange soundtrack and have my iPad on standby to help me research the meanings of the cards.

Then, I’d pull out my Rider Waite deck, take a few deep breaths, and call on the spirits to communicate with me through the deck. I’d pick up the deck and just hold it in my hands, inhaling, exhaling, inhaling, exhaling. I’d envision my energy rising from my chest up into my shoulder down through my arms, pulsating through my fingertips and right into the deck. And the energy from the deck would be pumped back into me. I became one with the cards.

And then, to complete this holistic, peaceful ritual I’d chuck ‘em on my bed and mix them together before compiling them back into a deck. Then, I’d lay them out in front of me (only now, when writing this sentence, do I realise that I don’t know any card terms, like I kind of put them in a stack and then smush them in one line so they’re fanned out?).

I close my eyes, hold out my hand, and let my fingertips select the cards representing my past, present and future. I collect the other cards into a deck and lay my selected cards in front of me. One by one I turn them over, using the booklet to help me decode my subconscious and messages from the spirits. I’d then use my iPad and a very helpful tarot website to help understand them even more.

Despite having a personal process that I’ve practiced many times now, there’s still so much I don’t know. I want to be able to read them without the assistance of a personal device, and ask for more than my past-present-future.

Why not tag along and join me on my tarot journey?

In today’s blog post, we are going to find out what tarot cards are, where they came from, the best ways to use tarot and how to read them.

Let’s start with an easy one: what is tarot?

So, tarot is a pack of playing cards used since the mid-15th century. Today, they normally consist of 78 cards which are split into Major and Minor arcana. Originally, they were used in “trick-taking” games (to be honest, I don’t really get what this means, it’s a type of card game that’s hella complex, kk) in Europe, but in the 18th century, the occultists got involved.

They started using it to read the future. That being said, they’ve always been surrounded by occult themes, from a Dominican preacher calling out their inherent evil in a sermon - which we think is related to their use in gambling - to the introduction of astrological symbols in Florence at the turn of the 16th century.

The word “tarot” is derived from “tarrochi”, an Italian word which basically means “foolishness”. This was probably due to its association with the drinking, gambling and debauchery that surrounded them.

However, according to some spooky weirdos, tarot really began all the way back in ancient times and has links to Egypt and the Kabbalah (a critical school of thought that informed occultism).

"The origin of this pack of cards is very obscure. Some authorities seek to put it back as far as the ancient Egyptian Mysteries; others try to bring it forward as late as the fifteenth or even the sixteenth century ... [but] The only theory of ultimate interest about the Tarot is that it is an admirable symbolic picture of the Universe, based on the data of the Holy Qabalah."

- Aleister Crowley, probably the most famous occultist ever

They even say the first tarot deck exclusively used was derived from the Book of Hoth, and it was chockful of references to ancient Egypt. It’s still one of the most common decks used by occultists, alongside the Tarot of Marseilles and the Rider Waite deck.

So, what’s tarot card reading?

Tarot card reading is a type of cartomancy where people try to gain insight into the past, present n’ future. Or is it? Some believe it’s really about getting in touch with ourselves; our subconscious and our intuition. Somehow this helps us understand where we are coming from and going better, thereby “predicting” our future.

How you use them is completely up to you.

Each card has its own images and story, with the major arcana representing spiritual lessons and the minor representing our daily trials and struggles.

Personally, I call upon the spirits and believe they communicate with them by selecting the cards, giving me insights not only into myself but also my future.

The basic tarot card reading process

There are plenty of decks and ways to read the cards to pick from. But let’s start with a basic set of steps to get you started.

Set the scene: I like to create a calm, relatively tech-free environment and kick things off with lots of deep breathing. If I was cool enough to meditate, I would, but normally I grab a diet coke, put on some soothing music and just sit quietly for a mo.

Clear the deck: shuffling the cards is critical. Not only does it give you a fresh set of answers every time, it gives you a chance to connect with the cards. At the same time, think about what you want to ask the deck, or in my case, the spirits. I like to visualise this energy flowing between my arms and hands into the deck and back into me.

(If you’re doing a spread) Do your spread - aka how you lay out cards: pull out the cards for your spread one-by-one until you’ve completed it. For each card, look up in the little booklet that comes with your deck the basic meaning of the card and think about what it could mean for you. Look at the card and see how the symbols relate to you. You could even consider researching meanings online as they can offer more depth into other perspectives.

Complete the spread: When you’ve finished going through the cards one-by-one, take in the meanings of all the cards collectively, like how your life might progress from past to present to future.

Finish up with some questions: ask a question, pull a card from the deck and decode the answer.

Here’s a couple of different spreads to try

One of the most off-putting things about tarot is how much there is to take in. It’s not just this set of weird-looking, multiple-meaning cards in front of you, it’s what you’re supposed to do with them. Most occultists would tell you to start with asking some simple questions and pulling a card - the answer - from the deck. But what’s stopping you from getting your hands dirty and tryin’ out a spread?

I still only do one spread - the past, present and future. Now, I want to see how else I can up my tarot game.

So, what are the best spreads for novice tarot readers to start with?

Celtic cross: this 10 card spread highlights not just the past, present and future but also external influences and outcomes.

Five card spread: here, you stick with the basic past-present-future spread but add a card above and below the three cards, one which represents what’s driving this situation, and the other which is a potential outcome.

Horseshoe: this spread takes into account advice you should follow, obstacles and gives you an optimal action to resolve the problem at hand. This is great for tough decision-making.

How to read individual cards: the meanings of key symbols, images and themes

I’m a basic w*tch, k?

I still gotta use the booklet and use my trusty tarot site to properly uncover all the potential meanings of the cards. I’ve never taken the time to really learn how to read the cards myself, but it’s actually not that difficult. Tarot cards, particularly the Rider Waite deck, share themes, symbols and images that make reading the meaning of individual cards pretty straightforward.

Let’s run through them, shall we?

Cups: this suit is all about your emotions, openness and imagination

Wands: these cards represents your energy and your creativity

Swords: this one’s about your mind, so how you think and solve problems, and even communicate

Pentacles: this suit represents the physical world and how we interact with our work, homes and money

The court cards (King, Queen, Page and Knight): if multiple ones come up in a reading, you can interpret a progression as you move up or down in terms of authority. The Page and Knight often represent youth or inexperience, whereas the Queen and King represent adulthood and mastery. But they can also have more specific meanings, too.

King: leadership; success; attainment

Queen: empathy; compassion

Knight: taking action; mature energy; moving forward

Page: youthful; service

Each number has a specific meaning, too:

New beginnings; unity

Relationships; balance or duality

Creativity

Stability; structure

Conflict and change; growth

Harmony

Spiritual growth; life lessons

Understanding; accomplishment

Success; coming up to the completion of a cycle

Completion; enlightenment

The colours used in each card have different meanings:

Black: protection; negativity; illness; darkness

Red: safety; passion; anger

Pink: love; forgiveness; femininity

Orange: creativity; optimism

Brown: stability; earthliness; lack of boundaries

Yellow: opportunity; spontaneity

Gold: mastery; divinity

Green: healing; harmony; envy

Blue: peace; sadness; judgment

Purple: intuition; spirituality; reason

White: higher self; newness; birth

Silver: emotion; sensitivity

There are also a few critical symbols to watch out for:

The moon: change; passage of time; reflection

Keys: knowledge; discovery; opportunity

The ocean: possibility; emotion

Ship: personal journey; transformation

Tree: shelter; regeneration

Flag: pay attention for a major change

Major arcana: they represent big events or figures, or major influences and revelations

Minor arcana: they represent everyday events and influences

I know, I know - it’s a lot to take in!

While I recommend you review this regularly and use this list when doing tarot so you can “actively revise”, it might be easier to have a cheat sheet on-hand to begin with.

So, here’s some links to the best-rated tarot cheat sheets: Cheat sheet 1 Cheat sheet 2 Cheat sheet 3

Ready to get your tarot on?

You should now be ready to take your first steps into the world of cartomancy. Ya welcome.

But before you grab your deck and start shuffling, I want to leave you with one final tip: find the process that works for you. Tarot is all about self-reflection, as much as it is about being a spooky bi4tch. Take your time, try different things and make it your own!

If you liked this post, make sure you like and reblog to let me know. Want to hear something spooky uhhh okay not every weekend but like every fortnight, okay, I’m getting back into it? Hit follow.

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