I go to the Cambridge Folk Festival every year with my dad, uncles, and various other family and friends. It's been cancelled for two years on the bounce due to the pandemic, and it was an absolute joy to return this year! I got back yesterday, and wanted to share a few musical finds with my fellow Tilderen :)

Afro Celt Sound System

These guys put on an absolutely fantastic live show. It's a great fusion of African, Celtic, and electronic music, although leaning more into the Celtic and electronic sides of things if truth be told. There were a lot of very cool percussion elements, and each performer took a brilliant solo. Fully enjoyable, although potentially better live than in recording. Have a listen to When You're Falling.

Show of Hands

Much more what you might think of when someone says "folk music," Show of Hands did two stunning sets. They're normally a three-piece, but their third member wasn't present for the festival. Even as a duo, they sang a load of incredibly heartfelt music, with wonderful harmonies and great stories. Have a listen to Roots and Cousin Jack.

Julie Fowlis

Julie did the soundtrack for the Pixar movie Brave, and while she didn't perform any of the tracks from the film in her set at the festival, she was still a really engaging performer, singing in Gaelic and playing some incredibly cool whistle and bagpipe tunes. Hùg Air A' Bhonaid Mhòir is worth listening to to get a feel for what she does.

Spiers and Boden

My daughter described these two as "giants of folk," a description which she may have stolen from the festival programme, but is very accurate all the same. The two founding members of the iconic modern folk band Bellowhead, their two-piece performance is as high energy and exciting as a Bellowhead live show. Old Maui is a great ear-worm, and Rochdale Coconut Dance is one of my favourite traditional tunes. I attended a tunes workshop with John Spiers (the melodion player) and picked up a couple of fun new tunes as well.

Chico Trujillo

My best friend and I danced for an hour straight to this set. Absolute 10/10 party music. They're a Chilean cumbia band drawing on all sorts of South American influences, as well as sprinklings reggae, ska, and punk. They're incredibly high energy, and definitely one to see live if you can. I didn't catch the names of any of their songs (they just played for an hour straight, and didn't waste any time chatting to the audience!), but have a skim through this live video to get an idea of just how excellent they are. My highlight of the weekend for sure.

The Young'Uns

I've seen these guys perform a couple of times before, and am always blown away by them. They were doing sea shanties before TikTok discovered their joys, and have absolutely top notch stage banter. One of their number is blind, but no less talented a pianist for it. Their vocal harmonies are crisp and clear, and all of the songs have a rich story to go with them. When I'm Cleaning Windows is a top tier parody, but also check out Tom Payne's Bones and Be The Man for some of their more serious stuff.

Elephant Sessions

All the way from the Scottish highlands, I only caught a couple of the songs from their set (my daughter wanted to see Passenger who was on at the same time), but they're astonishingly good. Real foot-stomping stuff. They play their tunes almost aggressively, and have an incredible light show to match. Sadly another band that aren't quite as exciting in recording as they are live. But check out Search Party all the same.

The Spooky Men's Chorale

They are men. They are a group. But They Are Not a Men's Group. Hailing from Australia and wearing an array of hats, they sing a mixture of silly songs and beautiful Georgian chants. More excellent harmonies, and a wonderful stage presence, they wowed particularly with Crossing the Bar and a pair of Ukranian traditional songs which I sadly cannot find links to.

The Trials of Cato

I'm still undecided on these guys. I was very excited to see them, but felt their set lacked a bit of energy (penultimate slot on the last day of the festival is always tricky, I suppose!). They have a new singer, and I'm not a huge fan of her singing voice either. With all that said, they had a whacking great sound, and added some fabulous electronic elements to their set. Fortunately, I think their recordings do do them justice, so give Difrrwch, Tom Paine's Bones, and Gloria your attention!

From Wikipedia

A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or excessively sentimental, rather than action. Characters are often flat, and written to fulfill stereotypes.

Contemporarily, we use the word melodrama for narrative works that go to great lengths to induce certain kinds of emotion at all costs, to detriment of the internal cohesion of both plot and characterization, often in a manner that some consider cheesy, corny, or excessive. All soap operas are melodramas, as are many movies and TV shows. Some melodramas are cheap and fail to achieve their effects, while others can be more rich and even sophisticated. In a way, many mainstream stories are, to some extent, melodramas, even when there are other, more salient genres. There's melodrama in action, crime, and science fiction.

Here are some examples of what I consider more or less contemporary melodramas:

• The Young and the Restless
• Grey's Anatomy
• The Color Purple
• Downton Abbey
• Dawson's Creek
• Avatar
• Gone with the Wind

And here are some stories that are not melodrama, but contain a whole lot of it:

• True Blood
• The Walking Dead
• A.I. Artificial Intelligence
• Pretty much every super-hero CW show
• Pretty much anything in the MCU

Going off of my recent Outer Wilds thread (spoiler warning on that topic), what are some games that you wish you could play again for the first time? What about the game makes you feel that way?

Feel free to talk about spoilers, but please flag them! The easiest way is to drop them in a details block. Markup below in case anyone needs to copy/paste:

<details>
<summary>Spoilers</summary>

Spoilers go here!
</details>

Long story short, I wiped my keyboard with a moist towel and I knocked out exactly 6 keys on my mid-2020 MacBook Pro (Magic Keyboard, A2251).

I'm now looking at either paying $300+ to have it serviced by a technician. But I have the tempting option of buying an aftermarket replacement keyboard for less than $100 and replacing it myself. That + I'm in the spirit of DIY repairs to keep my things going longer.

Has anyone attempted this before? Any tips and advice?

It seems slightly daunting because the keyboard is adhered to the aluminium body so I would have to literally tear the existing one off.

Cain and Abel

The Story you Might know:

Cain was Adam and Eve’s first son, Abel was No. 2. “in the course of time,” Cain, a farmer, brought an offering of his harvest. Abel, a “keeper of flocks,” also brought “the fattest part of the firstborn of his flocks.” Cain got a God Thumbs Down, Abel, a God Thumbs Up.” Cain was pissed, killed Abel. God exiled Cain and put a “mark” on him so no-one would kill him.

You Might not Know:

Cain goes on to found a city and have progeny, one of whom is the father “of those who play stringed and wind instruments,” another becomes the father of “all those who keep flocks,” another the father of those who make tools. So like, everything you could do in the ancient world except farming.

The father of these three is a guy named Lamech. Perhaps merely coincidentally, Lamech is the name of the father of Noah, the next story in the Genesis. Bible Purists obviously distinguish these two, but we’re talking about the Law Books of Moses here, seems like they would have chosen these sorts of things pretty carefully. I am not a Bible purist (or scholar, for that matter).

Something in this story dings a low-pitched gong deep down in my psyche. Granted, I was raised in a certain christian religious tradition where lots of time were spent on certain bible stories, of which this was one. But it was always presented as a simple morality tale: God wants animal sacrifices, and it’s wrong to kill your brother. Also don’t read anything past where God, who is clearly so merciful, put a mark on cain to save his life.

I turned to the internet, and most of the Christian exposition points to a few New Testament passages that clarify Abel was more righteous and had better faith. I found that wholly unsatisfactory. So I looked for Jewish exposition. One, an academic at a (presumably reformed) Jewish university, basically was like, God, wtf? (totally my summary). Others had various moral expositions, albeit far more eloquently reasoned and rhetoricized than the christians, but still unsatisfactory.

Questions based on the English text alone:

What was really wrong with Cain’s offering, and how would Cain know in advance? Sure, all the whole rest of the bible is about animal (and human) sacrifice, but at this stage? After all, God requires Adam to be a farmer, so Cain is just being a dutiful son, and offering what he has to offer. The implication from the text is not that it was wrong in kind, but that it wasn’t “nice” enough, suggested by the text’s additional detail about Abel’s offering being fat and firstborn.

Also, how can Cain’s descendant, born well after this incident, be the of father those “who keep flocks,” when that’s what Abel did?

How did Cain ditch his curse?

What other people were there to kill Cain? At this point, technically, there’s only Adam, Eve, Cain (and dead Abel). Also, where’d he get a wife? And don’t say Adam and Eve were busy. The text says their next child after Cain and Abel was Seth, born after all this mess.

Other than the nature of the offering and the curse, these questions are really only important to Ken Hamm and his pals.

Based on preliminary research:

The questions don’t easily resolve, as some scholars believe that what Cain offered was flax, which would have been the best of his crops. Also, what Abel offered was goats, when the best offering would have been cows. Conclusion: god doesn’t care what kind, so long as it’s the best of that kind. Or, God prefers a Chevy with full options over a base model BMW (better get that heated seat subscription now!).

Cain’s name might mean “blacksmith.” The father of tools is Tubal-Cain. “Abel” might be a transmogrifation of “Jabel,” the father of those who keep flocks.

Lamech is the same Lamech in both stories, what we are seeing is an attempt to include and combine two traditional sources into one text. Assuming that is true, would keeping the name the same be an effort to signal the reader needs to understand we are bridging two stories? I mean, if I were trying subterfuge, I’d change one of their names. If I were trying to be real, I’d add a footnote explaining it. But then again, I don’t have to write on papryus by hand.

Later interpretations:

In the late middle ages/early post middle ages, depictions of this story show Abel as clean shaven, smaller, with soft features, and wearing fine, aristocratic clothing. Cain is bigger, bearded, aggressively countenanced with sharp, angular features. He’s wearing the clothes of a field-hand.

Why I am writing this:

Like I said, it bangs a ceremonial gong. I feel like there is an important truth embedded here. It’s more spiritual, and important, than merely accepting it as an artifact of changing and competing cultures. There’s some talk of two traditions merging here, one priestly, the other “YHWH-ist,” especially when you consider the preceeding and succeeding texts (Adam <> Noah). The competing cultures are nomadic, pastoral (these two are not exclusive), and agricultural, and also urban “industrial.” Everything comes from Cain—nomadicism, agriculture, technology, music, animal husbandry. Some jewish scholars say Architecture is included in there, too.

My interpretation:

I deign to practice midrash. When Cain lets his displeasure at God’s judgment be known, God says something like, don’t you know if you do right, I will lift you up? I think what is being said here is that what Cain did was not good enough—for Cain. That is, Cain could do better. Abel did the best he could, he gave some juicy meat. But God had bigger plans for Cain. No offering of mere crops, or money, or even cows would have satisfied coming from Cain. No, Cain needed to literally found civilization. And following that path is when the blessings started to flow.

Side-note, In old Egypt, Osiris was the first-born brother of Set, and created culture for humans.

Abel the first capitalist.

I believe that medieval interpretations were attempting to perpetuate feudalism. The depictions of poor, innocent Abel, righteous and faithful servant of God, as aristocratic, against aggressive, crude, farmer Cain as a peasant, is meant to keep the judgmental finger of God pointed firmly and clearly at the heart of the serfs. God’s (through his faithful feudal Lord) is going to expel you if you act like Cain. Keep offering your crops to God (through your faithful feudal Lord) plus some phat veal.

It’s also possible that the story was holding up an early form of capitalism. I’m getting speculative (and casual) here. But whereas farming is a very labor intensive endeavor, flocking is very capital intensive (and also, like modern big capitalists, is very good at externalizing costs). Farming does require land-capital, a few tools, and seed, but mostly crops are grown through effort. Pastoral endeavors, otoh, require capital, namely, the flock. The inputs are externalized-water and pasture not owned by the shepherd. The flock largely persists, producing milk, wool, and babies (ROI!!), requiring much less effort to maintain than dirt. Don’t believe me? How do you think David had all that time to sing those psalms?

Thanks for reading.

Hello! I do a fair bit of my reading via Libby (I have memberships at the NYPL and Brooklyn Public Library) but I like to pick up some physical copies as well. I've spent some time in a couple of NYC bookstores but I'm curious about online portals folks here use to buy books. I've switched to bookshop.org for new books but what's the go to for used books?

Thanks!

Where do you go for decent reviews? Context-i was looking for a site to find good popcorn, and all the results on google for as far as i cared to scroll were fluff (pun intended).

Here’s what i use:

Rtings for stereo.

Wirecutter for appliances.

Reddit for everything else.

And my results are quite mixed, and involve a lot of scrolling.

Where do yall go?

Long story short I am a web developer that currently makes more money than I've ever made in my life to this point. The downside is that my benefits package is sub-par. Very few vacation days, no health insurance (though we do get $ on our checks to go toward costs), fairly bare-bones retirement plan, etc. I also feel kind of aimless at this job. There is no clear path for raises or promotions. It's too small of a company for that.

I got an offer today for a job with a company that a former manager of mine works at (We both left our previous jobs around the same time, so no poaching concerns there). It's an opportunity to change my specialty from backend development (databases, server-side code) to frontend development (HTML, CSS, JS). I've always enjoyed frontend development more than backend. Feel free to giggle about this terminology because it's definitely ridiculous. The job basically resolves all of my benefits issues. Unlimited vacation, pretty good health insurance, and a more robust retirement plan. There are also very clear paths for raises/promotions. In fact one of the first things you do when you get hired is sit down with your manager and department head and plot out a career track for yourself. So in my case I'm aiming for team management or something along those lines in a few years. So they would cater my training and promotions around that. There's a guaranteed yearly raise, plus a nice 5% bonus at end of the year.

So what's the problem? Because the second job seems perfect, right? Well the second job pays nearly 12% less a year. So what's the problem? Because that's an insane drop in pay, so clearly stay where I'm at, right? Well I was told by my former manager (and potentially new department head) that the plan would be to fast-track me into something closer to my current salary once I'm there for a few months and start excelling at my job. And I trust this guy because he fought for me to get raises twice when I worked under him before. It's rare to work under someone who will go to bat for you, and he was always that guy for me and I've no reason to think he wouldn't be again.

Because the way I see it, once I get a raise or promotion under my belt I should be pretty close to where I'm at now, but with substantially better benefits. And in a place with more of a future for me than my current job.

I just really don't know what to do here. I've "made a decision" in my head about a dozen times today, going back and forth between options. I kind of feel like it's worth taking the hit in the short term to be working at a place that will pay off better in the long term. Not just financially, but I'll get to broaden my skill set and actually have a concrete plan for progressing in my career.

Looking for any advice, or opinions, or whatever. I'm completely torn here.

edit -- Just wanted to thank everyone here. I decided to accept the job offer. My wife and I are working on a plan to weather the loss of income. Next step is writing the resignation letter....which always sucks. I hate disappointing people and it's a small company that I'm leaivng so my departure will be felt.

Thanks

After about a year-long absence I've hopped back on to Tildes again. There wasn't anything about the platform that made me "leave", it was purely external things in my life. With online communities, you really don't expect people to recognize you from day to day, but people here do and it's one of the things I love about Tildes.

What has absolutely shocked me is that after being gone for a full year people recognize my username. They have been incredibly kind and welcoming. They are happy to see me again. They remember the photography posts that I made and said they look forward to seeing them again. They remember the hard times my family was experiencing and have wished me well.

I'm not trying to be dramatic, but I'm being serious when I say that this reception has made me tear up. I've never experienced this before in any community, anonymous or otherwise. In all of the noise of the internet I never really expected my voice to be heard, much less be remembered by anyone. I never anticipated strangers to care beyond the time it takes to comment on a post.

I am completely overwhelmed by this reception. This is the kind of place that I thought had gone extinct on the internet. All of you have made me feel like I matter, and I don't think there's any way I can ever express my gratitude for this.

Since I'm posting anyway, I'll give a quick update for everyone.

Family

My family is doing amazing right now. Both of my sons have flourished and made so much progress. I've been around other foster/adoptive parents and the transformation that has happened for them in such a short amount of time is nothing short of a true miracle. Neither of them has needed inpatient psych care for almost two years now, and my oldest is now able to go to a special school that can meet his needs. My youngest who has struggled his whole life with social interaction now has several friends and even a best friend. My wife and I's relationship, which was on the verge of total destruction is now back on track and stronger than ever. I really appreciate the awesome support this community gave me during the worst year of my life.

Photography

I also fell out of photography during that time, but with the new stability I have rebuilt my darkroom in our new home and I'm picking it up again. It has gone from a fun hobby to a driving passion, and I'm now partnered with a mentor who has decades of experience. With his guidance, I hope to start producing gallery-quality material. I don't know that I'll ever submit to a gallery, it's really just a personal goal to start making things I can be proud of.

Again I can't thank everyone enough for all that you've done for me. I'm excited to be here and get plugged back into this awesome place!

Choose one album
that you love
that you think deserves more love

Tell us what it is, and why.

Previous posts in series

Additional Details

Covid finally caught up with me and I'm going to be living like a hermit for the next 2 weeks. It's been a stressful month here so I'm looking to melt my brain (or at least the bits covid hasn't already melted). I'd love to check out your easy watching, good time having, feel good suggestions!

Hi tildos. I am curious on your thoughts on the stability of the US in the short-medium term. What I'm worried about is the combo of a majority of Republicans having beliefs divorced from reality due to a sophisticated propaganda network, increasing "othering"/hatred of non-repubs, fascism becoming more popular among young people and the brazen mask-off takeover of the govt.

From my understanding these sorts of things (civil war, country breaking up) tend to happen very slowly, then all at once. I am very worried we are approaching the "all at once" stage. Is this reasonable? Is a civil war likely? Balkanization of the US? Something else?

What could be done to prepare? I have European-immigrant parents, so would getting citizenship in their country be prudent? Learning other languages? (I know english, mediocre grasp of birth-language, poor/middling spanish). Buying a rifle?

I am starting to regret choosing to attend a university in Texas haha with these prospects.

One thing about the bans on abortion that no one is talking about but is going to affect absolutely everyone is the current labor shortage we're experiencing in this country. From logistics to food service to retail and beyond, women are part of the workforce in the United States. Once women start being forced to carry to term and give birth in numbers not seen in half a century, those women will be removed from the labor pool. That means less people in every work field in a time when we're already seeing a shortage of workers. That's only going to get worse. Add to that the reduction in salaries and rise in expenses for basic necessities (baby food, diapers, baby clothes) and that's money taken out of most sectors of the economy.

We are headed for a massive labor shortage and a massive hit to an economy already weakened by a major pandemic. With this one ruling, the economic backbone of the American infrastructure may be dramatically weakened, and the number of jobs being filled are going to plummet.

This is all on their heads, and it isn't going to be pretty.

I'm considering making the switch to pipewire, as my current setup involving a bridge between JACK and PulseAudio is growing frustrating. Even on a fresh boot, Spotify won't play until Pulse has been killed and restarted, and the same goes for games through Steam. All the while, Firefox audio works perfectly without doing so, and I can jump straight into recording with reaper without any issues from the get-go.

I've been reading through the Arch wiki to get a feel for what the process should be like, and it seems like it'll be relatively straightforward, but given that I do a lot of music recording on my computer, I don't want to experience a total breakage of my sound setup. I'm planning to make a full backup of my system before making any changes, so I can roll it back if need be, but if anybody has any experience with switching to pipewire on a production system, I'd be grateful to hear about any pitfalls or problems that you ran into which I should be aware of in advance!

So I've seen some posts here and elsewhere about people making a home NAS setup, using it as a media server with jellyfin/plex/.arr to set up media + keep files/passwords/photos, and then managing it remotely. That sounds incredibly cool.

I also did some cursory searching that one way to do things without messing with port-forwarding is to look into Tailscale to network remotely.

I want to try this for my parents and I, especially since I will be training abroad for several years while they will be based in Asia.

The obvious problem is I don't have any experience with the process or even networking in general. I also do not know how to code in any capacity. I am in a decidedly non-tech field of work.

I've been googling but want to know if this a feasible idea at my skill level? Is this work for hobbyists or those in the professional field of computing? Am I going to potentially shoot myself security-wise if i try this? Should experiment with something smaller-scale first?

Preliminary "Research":

1. Watched Practical Networking on youtube to see what I was getting into (understood... lets say 45% of what he was talking about)
2. Plan to get a synology NAS with minimum 4 drive bays (Supposedly this is easiest for beginners?)
3. Connect to network via tailscale
4. Get a vpn
5. Install docker
6. Install apps
7. Connect it to PCs and smart tv at my parent's home in Asia
8. ???
9. Maintain it from Europe?

Any advice on how to start or any guides to recommend? (most of what I've found is 2021 or earlier so I am unsure if a lot's changed since then)

I received my Steam Deck on June 6th and have used it literally every day since then. Here are some assorted thoughts that might be of value to people either waiting on theirs or on the fence about ordering:

The Good

• I had no idea until I got it that there's an official Deck test game: Aperture Desk Job. It's essentially a cute test/tutorial for the Deck's controls, set in the Portal universe. Takes about half an hour, but it's a fun onboarding for the device.
• On the past two Saturdays, I have woken up and played Vampire Survivors with one hand while I held my morning coffee in the other. This is the way.
• The control remapping options are absolutely incredible. It is a very robust system. Even simple fixes (like putting A on a back paddle so I can play Vampire Survivors one-handed) can make a world of difference.
• I haven't run many heavy games on it, but I started up Bugsnax, and it was keeping a solid 60 FPS and looked great.
• Emulation on the device is a dream. I haven't done anything past OG PlayStation games yet, but the power of the device, the robust control customization, and the ease of installing emulators (adding Flatpaks in desktop mode) make this absolutely ideal for revisiting older consoles. I've spent probably 80% of my time on the device in PSOne games.
• Battery life is fine, but I don't really use it. I bought a long power cord and spend most of the time with it plugged in on my couch since it has passthrough. I thought the cord sticking out the top of the device would bother me, but it hasn't really been an issue.
• Game selection is increasing steadily (1700+ verified games currently). If you're buying it to play specific games you might be disappointed, as there's still a lot that doesn't work. If you're buying it for games in general though, there is plenty to keep you occupied.
• The grips are MUCH more comfortable for bigger hands than standard Switch joycons. Those would always cramp my hands, but the Deck feels natural and comfortable.
• The middle of the device gets warm to the touch during gameplay, especially on more demanding stuff, but the grips remain cool and you won't feel the heat at all unless you specifically move your hands to the back middle of the device.

The Bad

• The paddles on the back are a little awkward, and I accidentally click them more than I like. In most games they're not mapped to anything so it's fine, but in emulators I use them for save states. I had to set them to respond to long presses only so my accidental clicks didn't mess things up.
• The software is... still getting there. I get navigation issues on store and profile pages frequently, along with frequent UI lag. It's a bit unpolished at the moment.
• Don't know if it's specific to my hardware or a software bug, but sometimes it won't log me in to my Friends list and the only fix is a reboot.
• I wish the control sticks had deeper indents for your thumbs. They're pretty flat, and my thumbs tend to slip off on stick-focused games (most noticeable on my right (aiming) thumb during 20 Minutes Till Dawn).
• Bluetooth headphones have to be manually reconnected in the Settings menu each time. No idea why this is, but it's a bit of an inconvenience.
• Mid-game suspending is still clunky. I don't really do it, as I don't trust that it'll save like it should. It also still counts playtime while suspended but seems to have a rollback feature? I put the device to sleep with a game open that I'd played for 20 minutes and came back to it saying I'd played it for 3 hours. The playtime ended up dropping back down to 20 minutes, but only after I restarted the device.

The Ugly

• There isn't any ugly. I absolutely love this device. Despite my nitpicks above, I think it's nothing short of splendid. I'm more excited about this than I've been about anything in videogaming in a long time.

If anyone has any questions, ask away! Also if any other people here have their Steam Decks and want to chime in with their experiences (@Autoxidation), go for it!

As discussed and suggested here.

What are you learning? How is it going? Share your progress, tips and tricks. Ask other learners questions.

Writing in non-English languages is welcome in this thread if you want to practice, but please at least include a Google Translate or Deepl translation in a foldable paragraph, using <details>[your translation]</details>

Note: there's a number of disclaimers I feel I want to include regarding "miracle" diets, direct-to-consumer businesses, health benefits/risks of dieting, etc but it'd get too long to put them up here. I'll add a comment with that stuff. Also, no one is paying me to say anything here.

I decided to write about my experiences with different low calorie/diabetic-friendly/keto food options. Let me know if this is at all helpful to you :)

Magic Spoon

This is that unavoidable direct-to-consumer business; you may have been bothered w/dozens of promo codes for their cereal across various podcasts, YouTube videos, and Twitch streams. I have been on a ketogenic diet for a long while (and have had success with it*), and saw that Magic Spoon is low carb and comparably low in calories compared to other sugary cereals.

I bought a variety pack with 4 boxes for ~$40 including shipping w/promo code. $10/box is pricey, but since I used to be a cereal lover, I figured it might be worth having it to scratch the itch. All of these I had with Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Unsweetened Almond Milk (<1g carbs.) I can't really tell a flavor difference between almond milk and low fat milk. Whole milk sells for about $3 in my market where as almond milk is about $4. Note: I am easy to please, I definitely don't have a "refined" palate. Now to the boxes:

Peanut Butter

I think maybe my expectations were off for this. I'm not a sommelier, so I'll describe flavors best I can in common folk language. This is just not good. At all. The taste is peanut-buttery, but has an overwhelming salty flavor. There's also this off-note that tastes like artificial sweetener. Texture-wise really adheres to your teeth. I finished the bowel, only because I didn't have enough time to pour a new one before work. It's been a few weeks, and I still haven't touched the box (aside from a small bowel to write this review.)

Rating: 1/5

Fruity

I had pretty low expectations from the previous box, and some anxiety about having potentially wasted $40 on food I won't eat. The smell when I opened the box was immediately that of fruit loops. I noticed the shape of the cereal was the same as the peanut butter ones. Fortunately, these didn't glue themselves to my teeth in quite the same way that the PB flavor did, but I still used my tongue to dislodge it from a couple of molars at the end. This tasted quite close to fruit loops, but overall is a unique flavor. I quite enjoyed this flavor. This cereal can sit in the bowel for some time before becoming soggy; a good quality since I typically take my time and browse Reddit/HN in the mornings while slowly working on a bowel of cereal before work. Flavor is a half-step down from fruit loops, but a step up in consistency.

Rating: 4/5

Frosty

When I tried this, this was the best keto cereal I've tried. I'd say it's the best cereal I've ever had, but that title still belongs to Reese's Puffs. It's hard to describe the flavor, something like Lucky Charms if you had a high-number of mash-mellows, but far more substantial. It isn't an especially complex flavor; it's just a "frosted" flavor that seems perfectly balanced in both flavor and consistency. Following the trend of other cereals, it doesn't get soggy fast, which I appreciate. Doesn't really get stuck in the teeth.

Rating: 5/5

Chocolate

This will be a short review: not great. It tastes like Cocoa Puffs, if they very obviously had substituted artificial sweetener for sugar. Maybe that's your thing, but I wasn't a huge fan of Cocoa Puffs in the first place. Not offensive, I'll probably finish the box when I run out of other things to eat, but not great.

Rating: 2/5

Conclusion

This scratches that craving for cereal that you miss out on when you go on a low carb diet. If you are on keto, you should note the cereal is relatively high in protein (around 13g per cup) where total fat is only 8g per cup. I'll probably purchase again, but I'll do a custom bundle next time w/fruity, 2 frosty, and maybe a different interesting flavor as a fourth.

Pills from Guanajuato

The American Supreme Court wants to get rid of the right to an abortion. American
women now look for help in Mexico.

Written by Samiha Shafy and Amrai Coen, Wichita/Austin/Guanajuato, translated by @Grzmot

Updated on 2022-06-18, 16:02

Original: https://www.zeit.de/2022/25/schwangerschaftsabbruch-usa-mexiko-guanajuato/komplettansicht

Mark Gietzen was convinced, he wouldn't live to see this triumph. In his eyes, the USA is currently turning away from decades of atrocity to something good, and he says that he helped in a not insignificant way. Since twenty years he has been protesting on the streets because of it. He stands at the edge of a highway in Wichita, Kansas, in front of a simple building, that looks like a window-less warehouse from the outside. "Trust Women" is written on the gray-beige facade. On the inside is one of the last abortion clinics in the state.

"Let us say our morning prayer," Mark Gietzen says to the two older men next to him, that introduced themselves as Larry and Mike. Gietzen, sixty-eight years old, is the leader of the trio. He looks, like he just came from a film shoot: Cheek-beard, pilot glasses and a baseball cap with "U.S. Marine Veteran" written on it. The three are retired, but they still have work to do: Every day from 08:00 to 17:00 they stand in front of the clinic door, stopping cars, talking to people, handing out flyers. Next to them, a large truck, with gigantic images of dead infants, which Gietzen had specially printed. They want to stop pregnant women from going into the clinic. In his own count, Gietzen has "saved 584 lives of babys".

The three men form a cirlce for the prayer: "Dear God, please help us in stopping the violent murders through abortion against the youngest members of our human family... Amen."

Gietzen and his friends call themselves "Pro-Life". They want to close the clinic down, and even better, close all other clinics in the USA. According to the wishes of the Pro-Life movement, women should be forced under all circumstances to deliver the baby - even when the pregnancy is unwanted or the result of rape.

These days, the American anti-abortionists are as close to their target as they haven't been in five decades. "Roe v. Wade", the verdict of the Supreme Court of the USA, that guarantees the woman's right to decide about her own abortion, will most likely be annulled this month - by the same Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court today is as polarized and estranged as the rest of the country. But unlike the rest of the USA, the fight between the liberals and right-wingers is decided there: Because Donald Trump was able to fill three seats in his four-year presidency, the court has moved to the extreme right. Of nine judges, six are conservatives.

The court now supports a similar position as the Pro-Life movement. Even when surveys have shown since years, that about two thirds of Americans support Roe v. Wade. The anti-abortionists have, united with the Christian Right, demonstrated, how you can push through a minority position: With loud, well organized protests, the perserverance of activists like Mark Gietzen and a fine sense for pushing the borders of the doable and sayable again and again.

If Roe v. Wade falls, every state can decide for itself, how it's abortion laws will look. Some of them have already tightened their abortion laws and are waiting to make them completely or nearly illegal. In half of the fifty US states, especially in the conservative middle and south women would lose the access to safe and legal abortions permanently. The law would hit poor people the hardest, as they couldn't afford to travel to a liberal state to have an abortion. They'd be left with three options: Deliver the fetus, illegally and potentially under threat to their life, abort - or look for help in Mexico. Mexico, the supposedly backwards, catholic neighbour, where women were until recently, locked up after miscarriages under suspicion of having had an illegal abortion.

For the abortion doctors it's dangerous

It is as if the American half of the world had turned on it's head. Because Mexico and other latin American countries have, in a surprising move, legalized abortion.

While Mark Gietzen and his friends protest in front of the clinic in Wichita, the phone on the inside rings constantly. "Trust-Women clinic, I am Jessica, how can I help you?" A crying woman is on the phone, that doesn't have a possibility of abortion her state of Texas, and now wants to travel to Kansas, hundreds of kilometers away from her home. "We are sadly booked fully for the next three weeks," Jessica says.

Since it's clear that the Supreme Court is going to eliminate Roe v. Wade, thousands of women call on some days. 30 to 35 abortions the clinic can do in one day. "When I tell women, that we don't have space, I can hear the panic in their voices. Some are sad, some are angry, some beg me desperately", says the woman at the reception. "Recently a woman offered me 5000 dollars. But I sadly can't do anything."

Who wants to get inside the clinic, has to go through a security gate, past a guard, that is looking at multiple cameras on his screen. That the clinic is guarded like a max security prison, stems from history. In the 1970s a doctor called George Tiller took over the clinic. "Tiller, the Baby Killer!", protesters called him at the entrance. They fought Roe v. Wade and later the following verdict of the Supreme Court, that legalize abortions, until the fetus is able to live outside of the womb. The Pro-Choice movement celebrated those verdicts as the freeing of women. The Pro-Life movement mobilized massively.

1986 a bomb explodes in the clinic in Wichita. Head physician George Tiller continues. 1993 a woman shoots him in both arms in front of the clinic. Tiller continues. On Whit Sunday 2009 George Tiller visits his church. An anti-abortionist shoots him in the head from close proximity. The doctor died. For a short time, the clinic was closed - and then continued.

A visit in the clinic is only possible on the few days, where there are no patients - to protect the women. What remains of them, are handwritten notes, that they put on a pinboard in the waiting room to support each other. "Don't be embarassed that you are here." - "Only you know, what the best is for you and your life." On the wall is also a poster with different contraception methods, on the small table condoms and a magazine with the title "Family planning".

There are multiple ultrasound rooms, where it is determined far the pregnancy has progressed. In the first eleven weeks the patient can abort with a combination of two medications, After eleven weeks the fetus has to be removed operatively, for which there are two surgery rooms available.

The head physician of the clinic is called Christina Bourne and is 36 years old. She speaks with a deep, calm voice and a very earnest tone. One her lower arm she has a tattoo of a papaya, because while studying she practiced with the fruit on how to remove a fetus from the womb. Bourne is the only doctor in the clinic that also lives in Kansas. The others come every few months by plane, like doctors flying into a crisis area. Almost all abortion clinics in the USA are relying on these mobile doctors. They often feel like they couldn't live where htey work. They know what happened to George Tiller.

Christina Bourne is not intimidated. Every day, she passes the men with the large images of dead infants, that scream after her how she'll burn in hell.

By now, some Pro-Choice activists are considering to adopt the drastic methods of the opposition. No one is supporting militarisation, but there are discussions of playing videos of birthing women, who's life is threatened by the birth, in court rooms. Or printing photos of beds covered in blood or birth injuries like a torn Perineum on posters.

The head physician meets the polemic clear and openly. She says, that she also had an abortion. "I was just done with college, I felt too young, now education, no work. To become pregnant in the wrong moment can destroy your life and future." Some of the women, that come to her today, are in a similar situation. Many of them already have one or two children and can't support another. Some are pregnant after surviving a rape. Some have to abort due to medical reasons. The mortality rate of mothers in the US is the highest among all industrial nations. And of course, also religious and conservative women appear in the clinic, says Bourne, in their environment, abortion is a sin.

"As a doctor I'd like to practice medicine and not politics", Bourne says. Should she lose her job, because the clinic in Kansas has to close, she'll continue either way - Just in a different state.

Texas wants to punish abortion doctors with life in prison

If Joe Pojman had his way, Christina Boune would not be a physician anymore, she'd be in prison. He greets visitors in his office in Austin, Texas, 900 kilometres away from the clinic in Wichita. Pojman is 63, he wears suit and tie, a man with grey hair and a full beard, who chooses his words carefully and speaks eloquently. His appearance is so gentle, you don't even notice in the first moments, how radical his words are. He used to work as an engineer at NASA, until he felt like God was calling him to a different purpose. 34 years ago he founded the organization Alliance for Life.

Joe Pojman has the same goal as Mark Gietzen, the praying man in front of the clinic in Kansas, but Pojman's strategy is much stealthier, and much more efficient. In front of him on his desk is a law, that he designed. The Governor of Texas has already signed it. When Roe v. Wade falls, the law goes into effect 30 days later in Texas. It has the number 1280 and the title "Human life rotection law" In the text: "A person, that violates the ban on abortion, is committing a crime." A doctor like Christina Bourne would be accused of manslaughter in Texas and punished with life in prison, in addition to a fine of "at least $ 100,000 for every violation". And she'd lose her medical license.

Are there exceptions? "Yes", says Joe Pojman. "When the life of the mother is in danger because of the pregnancy." And because of rape or incest? Or when the child cannot live? "No."

In Texas people already live in a world, where Roe v. Wade has practically gone. Last September, when Mexico legalized abortions, Texas activated the so-called Heartbeat law, which bans abortions once the fetus has a detectable heartbeat, approximately after the sixth week. Many women don't even know that they're pregnant at that point.

What such a law can mean in real life, was showcased in April: A 26 year old Texan was arrested and accused of murder, because she allegedly "initiated a abortion by herself". The case was dropped, the woman came free. But defenders of the right to abortion see a dark future in the case, something that could soon be a new reality in the USA.

Joe Pojman himself isn't satisfied with the Heartbeat law. "Life starts at conception", he says. Unlike head physician Christina Bourne he never speak of a fetus, only "the unborn child". The choice of words shows, that behind the debate for an abortion there are complex answers: When does life starts? When does a fetus become a person?

Pojman agrees to a short thought experiment: If he was placed in a burning hospital and could save five embryos in petri dishes, or a newborn child. What would he pick?

Joe Pojmanm says, he can't answer that question. "For me, all human life is equally important - The unborn, newborn, a teenager or an adult." He has heard that recently women started leaving Texas, to get an abortion elsewhere. "It breaks my heart", he says. "My goal is, that no woman starts that journey."

But for now it is not illegal for Texan women to look for help outside of the state. For example in Mexico.

"The Americans are paralyzed by fear"

At first glance, the town of Guanajuato, 2000 meters over the sea, located in the Mexican state of the same name, looks like a magical cliche. At night, Mariachis travel through cozy alleys, by day there's always a bard somewhere singing about love. The colourful houses from colonial times are a world heritage site since 1988. Here, in one of the most conservative regions of Mexico, the women's revolution started.

That is tightly connected to her: Verónica Cruz, 51 years old, 1.60m tall, supplied with a apparently limitless energy. With her organization Las Libres, "The Free", the activist has been fighting since twenty years for women's rights in Mexico - For their right to make their own decisions to better protection from violence at home and sexual crimes. Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries for women, globally.

But it is also the country where the highest court last September announced the surprising decision to legalize abortions. In a kind of Mexican Roe v. Wade, half a century after the American verdict, that now shouldn't exist anymore. "Once I saw the announcement in TV, I thought: Now I can stop and travel the world." says Cruz. "But then the American women came."

Verónica Cruz sits on a couch in the office of Las Libres. At a conference table three women work on laptops. The head quarters of the organization is a two-story house on a hill, overlooking the city and surrounding mountains. Since autumn Cruz and her colleagues get daily calls from desperate pregnant women from the USA, that want to abort, asking if Las Libres can help them. "The Americans are paralyzed by fear", says Cruz, her look is pityfull and mocking at the same time. In the USA people fear the law, she says, differently than in Mexico, where they are used to fighting back.

Activists organize themselves in Mexico

And it's not without irony: From all the places in the world it's the south, of all the places in the world it's catholic Mexico that now becomes the country of refugee for American women. That Mexico, from which hundreds of thousands leave every year into the north, to find work, chances and a life in dignity in the richest country on earth. That Mexico, where man Americans think of drug cartels first.

What many Americans don't know: In the past few years, a feminist grass roots movement has been building in Mexico and other latin American countries, that are well connected and difficult to ignore. The activists organize mass protests in front of courts and parliaments, they sing, they dance, they fly green colours, the symbol for the "Green Wave", the Latin American women's movement. The right to bodily autonomy is one of their central demands - And they found open ears: Argentinia, Columbia, Uruguay, Cuba and Guyana have softened their abortion laws; Chile could soon be next.

When Verónica Cruz became an activist, a "green wave" didn't exist yet. She grew up as one of eight, went to a monastery school and was taught by nuns, that is it very important to help the weak and poor. For a while, she played with the idea to become a nun: They could travel, see the Vatican! "But my dad said no", she says. "What luck! When I became a feminist, I lost my faith in God." She studied organizational development and political science and decided, that she was going to help the poorer and weaker half of the population: the women.

Her goals were small at first: I wanted to improve the sexual education of teenagers. "Sexuality was an absolute taboo", she remembers. Again and again, very coung girls became pregnant, some of them only eleven or twelve years old and allegedly abused by male members of the family. As rape victims, they could've theoretically aborted in Guanajuato, but in real life they found no help. "And so the parents lived under the same roof with their daugther and their grand child, which at the same was the child of the father", says Cruz. "That for me is unethical, not the abortion."

But with her stance she was alone for a long time. Even her feminist allies avoided talking about abortion for a long time. "I head to remove the stigma from their heads first."

In that time she had always looked towards the USA with admiration, where women could decide themselves, if they wanted a child or not, while in Mexico, hundreds of women were in prison, because they had been accused of abortion after a miscarriage.

The turning point came in 1995, when conservative politican later president Vicente Fox was elected governor of Guanajuato, with the goal of removing the right to an abortion even for rape victims - with the threat of higher sentences. "There was protest", recounts Cruz. Fox pulled back. And Cruz, for the first time, had allies: A growing network of women, that accompanied rape victims to the few gynecologists, that conducted abortions. Soon pregnant women contacted Las Libres, that had not been raped. The activists decided to help them too.

Then Verónica Cruz heard of the pills. "A gynecologist told me of medication, with which you can initiate an abortion", she says. One of these medications - Misprostol - in Mexico legal against stomach and gut aches, you can buy without a doctor's not in the apothecary. the WHO recommends it for abortions until the twelveth week.

"The USA is a country of the insane"

The work of the activists became simpler. They watched, as women took the pills under the guidance of doctors, and they learned everything there was to learn about the pills. "At some point I thought: Now I don't need the doctors anymore", says Cruz.

She estimates, that her network between 2000 and 2021 accompanied about 10,000 women to abortions. They got the pregnant women their pills and supported them when they took it. "El producto" Verónica Cruz calls the result that women then press out under contractions and blood.

She herself could have never imagined to become pregnant, says Cruz. Maybe it has to do with her work, with the limitless tales of male violence and female sorrow. "With 15 I decided to never have children, and every ear I congratulate myself with that decision."

Cruz has been an activist for decades and has never been attacked by fanatical anti-abortionists. "The people here are more respectful than in the USA", she says. "The USA is a country of the insane."

She gets up and fetches a cardboard box from a cupboard. In it are pills, that Las Libres now smuggle into the USA, sometimes in Aspirin packaging, sometimes sown into brightly coloured dolls. Since the end of January the Mexicans have helped over a thousant pregnant women from US states like Texas, Florida, Oklahoma and Mississippi and Ohio with the pills. They support them when the women take the pills, over WhatsApp, phone or video-call. If the women want to be supported personally, they are welcome in Mexico. In the city of Moterrey, not far from the US border, allied activists
have opened a house they call "La Abortería".

Cruz knows, that she and her allies will attract the rage of the Pro-Life movement in America. "But we are not going to let fear paralyze us", she says. Additionally, the Americans hopefully won't always rely on the South-North-Help.

She still plans to travel the world, says Verónica Cruz. Probably in five years.

It can be anything, big or small! I think it's valuable to be able to change your opinions and not cling to them out of loyalty, so let's celebrate our flexibility! I'll go first.

I never used to listen to audio versions of books that I haven't already read, because I felt safety in the fact that I already knew what was going to happen and didn't feel concern over missing a passage from distraction. But in the past few months I realised that I listen to podcasts constantly, and that audiobooks (of the right kind) can be thought of as longer form podcasts.
So I've been jumping more into audiobooks for when I'm on long drives or commuting to university, and honestly it's great. I've been really enjoying Stephen Fry's Greek mythology series, and was finally able to finish "reading" the Hitchhiker's Guide series. As I have a bit of a mental block on actual reading that is unrelated to my masters, it's extremely cool to still be able to enjoy non-academic books without the feeling of guilt.

The concept

It's a box that contains a receipt printer and an interface with several buttons. A user would press a button that reflects their emotional state (happy, sad, anxious, etc.), then the machine prints out a more-or-less appropriate poem on a receipt printer, beautifully formatted and embellished with simple artwork.

It could be occasionally repurposed for certain themes, like Pride Month to print out queer poems.

I want to place it someplace public and well-trafficked, like Dolores Park or on Castro Street.

Feedback

I like poetry. The idea of a (free) vending machine that gives me a poem to uplift my day excites me. But I wonder if this appeals to others enough to be worth fully realizing. I don't want to spend time and money building something that'll go totally unloved.

Also curious about anti-vandalism measures or ideas. I'm sure some jerk will try graffiti-ing it or peeing on it.

Lastly, anyone interested in collaborating?

I'd like to know how you're all doing. Did you have any goals for this year? Have you achieved any of them? Given up on any of them? What are the top 3 things that changed in your life so far this year?

I think it would, that's something that interests a vast number of users. Things like construction, bridges, buildings, city planning, trains, etc. Right now they can go to ~misc or ~design which doesn't seem appropriate.

From Hacker News:

Founder of Atom here. We're building the spiritual successor to Atom over at https://zed.dev.

We learned a lot with Atom and had a great time, but it always fell short of our vision. With Zed we're going to get it right. Written in Rust, custom native UI framework, engineered to be collaborative. Just starting our private alpha this week, so the timing of this announcement feels quite fitting.

I'm a longtime Linux user, and I haven't used Windows in a while aside from just launching games from Steam on my living room computer, but my new work laptop is Microsoft's flagship Surface Pro 4 so I figured it'd be the best experience you can have on a Windows machine.

I got the laptop in yesterday, and here's the summary of my experience:

• I am required by IT to use Chrome. To install Chrome, I had to click through no fewer than three "Are you sure you don't want to use Microsoft's more secure, faster browser?" banners to do so.

• When I plug in my external monitor, by default, the two monitors were mirrored; when I went into display settings, it didn't show the external monitor until I closed and reopened the settings menu.

• I have an Apple Magic Touchpad 2, and I had some issues getting it set up on Ubuntu 20.04 when I initially got it. These problems are now solved on the latest version of Ubuntu, but I was expecting a nice contrast in a good plug-and-play experience on Windows. Instead, I had to install sketchy drivers from some random GitHub page to get it to work properly.

• I've had some minor annoyances with my audio interface (a Zoom R-22) not being set as the default when I want it to be on Ubuntu, and I was really looking forward to getting a smooth video calling experience with my nice mic and interface on Windows. Lo and behold, the R-22 audio input - the whole reason I have it - doesn't work at all, at least in the Zoom video calling app.

• On Ubuntu, I use QV4L2 to configure the framing, zoom, exposure, etc of my camera. It's a bit clunky, and I was looking forward to having a smooth experience with this on the premier business OS. Unfortunately, the camera on this laptop has extremely aggressive aperture priority mode enabled, and there is no first-party app to configure it! The documentation tells me to go to Settings -> Devices -> Camera but there is no such menu item. So, I just look either washed-out or ultra-dark in every video call.

• After running Windows Update and rebooting, I was greeted with a full-screen and quite annoying to exit tutorial for Microsoft Teams - an app I did not install, because my company uses Slack.

This in addition to some setup papercuts, but I think those were probably due to my corporate IT's process rather than Windows itself.

Is this common? Do people who use Windows just... put up with this kind of thing? Or am I having an exceptionally bad experience for some reason?

I know we already have more than enough launchers for the PC platform, but are there any recommendations for the one that can rule them all, with the controller functionality and presentation of Steam's Big Picture Mode, but also with the modularity and ease of setup of GOG Galaxy? Or is it pretty much one of the above as far as easy options go?

Edit: Took a look at Playnite, really impressed. Deeper impressions in the thread.

Choose one album
that you love
that you think deserves more love

Tell us what it is, and why.

Previous posts in series

Additional Details

Denmark

Commentary: A rock heavy selection coming out of Denmark for this month. So in typical fashion, I'm gonna skip over the generic guitar riffs and angsty lyrics this May and focus instead on the crisp pop voice of Sonic Girl. The track “hackerboy” is worth a listen just for the shoehorning in of antivirus and IP addresses!

Finland

Commentary: Where Denmark failed with rock, Finland might just have delighted this month. The country is synonymous with death metal, so imagine my surprise to find a source of surf rock in the band Mary Ann Hawkins. Their track “Hawkinsmania” is an espresso shot of frenetiscism.

Iceland

Commentary: Iceland is a small place, with 366,000 people and counting, so sometimes pickings are low. But they do say quality over quantity, and that's what we have here. The names behind NEVERNEVER have some real pedigree in the music industry and are led by the strong vocals of Klara Elias.

Norway

Commentary: In April Norway took the crown for the month's biggest and best release with Röyksopp's newest. They've done it again! Sigrid's follow-up to her debut album, “How To Let Go” is a real banger, with stand-out track “Mirror” destined for summer playlists all across the Nordics.

Sweden

Commentary: Four years since the previous album, it's great to have Lykke Li back. “EYEYE” is a brutally melancholic album, with heart-felt lyrics taking centre stage. Margaret Farrell at Pitchfork had this to say: ‘Her music is a companion to sorrow in the same way the sun is a companion to the morning.’

Previous months: March | April

With Top Gun: Maverick opening up to over 150 million for the four day weekend. I thought it would be nice to revisit the sudden shut-down of theaters and their road to recovery.

2020 movie theaters everywhere shut down. The only major Hollywood film to get a theatrical exclusive run was Tenet. Tenet ended up grossing 362 million dollars. What was seen as a disappointing gross at the time ended up being aspirational as theaters started to open up.

The only films that opened throughout 2020 were small genre and art-house films that would end up on PVOD sooner rather than later. Things like The War With Grandpa, Unhinged, and Freaky. December we got the release of a couple of awards films like Promising Young Woman and News of the World. Their grosses were small and largely insignificant. Mostly coming from a few states were theaters were opened at reduced capacity and Drive-Ins that stayed open throughout the winter to try to give people something to do before the roll-out of the vaccine.

While Disney sent Soul to Disney+, Warner Bros decided that they would release Wonder Woman 1984 on Christmas Day simultaneously in theaters and on HBOMax. Wonder Woman grossed a respectable 166 million world wide. That’s all we could expect at the time, especially for a film that wasn’t well received by either critics or audiences. Although it still grossed less than Tenet and The Croods 2 domestically.

And then, the big news happened. Warner Bros said that they would be releasing all of their 2021 films day-and-date with HBOMAX. While a big reason for this was due to the pandemic, the likelier reason this decision was made was in order to build up HBOMax. The launch of HBOMAX, which happened at the start of the pandemic, was an utter disaster. Confusion with HBOGo’s subscription, along with a variety of other factors, led to MAX not getting enough subscribers. So the day-and-date strategy was put into effect to boost subscription numbers (this plan indeed worked, although they were met with immediate backlash from filmmakers).

I won’t go over every film that released in 2021. More or less just the important ones.

January and February 2021: Wasteland

The only major movies that released in these months were awards contenders The Little Things, Judas and the Black Messiah, Nomadland and children’s film Tom and Jerry. The Little Things, Judas and the Black Messiah, and Tom and Jerry were all Warner Bros. films which means they also released on HBOMAX (which is how I watched all of them). This was an interesting period where theaters were actually grateful for the day-and-date release of these films. Vaccine rollouts were still low and restrictions were still in place. Warner Bros. releasing these films in this way meant that theaters were at least getting something that they could play. The films made some money, the highest grossing being Tom and Jerry, but nothing anywhere near we could consider normal.

March and April 2021: Uptick

In March Disney released Raya and the Last Dragon in theaters and on “Disney Premiere Access.” Unlike with WB you would both need a subscription to Disney+ and also pay an additional thirty dollars to watch the film at home. The film made a decent amount of money. In April, Mortal Kombat released, also making a decent amount at the box office.

But the true star of both of these months was Godzilla vs Kong.

At 32 milion, Godzilla vs Kong became the largest opening weekend of the pandemic era, beating Tenet’s 20 million. It beat all expectations. Despite being available to anyone with an HBOMAX subscription, people decided that this was the type of film you need to see in a theater. They wanted to see a big gorilla and a big lizard fight each other on the big screen. And while it wasn’t the first movie of the pandemic to gross 100 million at the domestic box office, it crawled its way to the finish line.

May 2021: A Quiet Place Part II

Exactly a year ago, A Quiet Place Part II opened. What was originally meant to premiere March 2020 ended up premiering Memorial Day weekend 2021. As a theatrical exclusive the sequel toppled Godzilla vs Kong’s opening weekend record to open at 47 million. Releasing in far better conditions than any movie had opened prior (this is actually the first time theaters in my state re-opened), it became the first film of the pandemic to cross 100 million domestic. Although it ended up grossing less than it’s predecessor (in normal times it would have out-grossed it), this became a watershed moment for the box office. Godzilla vs Kong gave them hope, but A Quiet Place proved that theaters were on their way to recovery.

Cruella also released on this weekend, having a Premiere Access release just like Raya, it ended up opening to 21 million and grossed 89 million. With how warmly received it was by audiences it’s fair to say it would have had a shot at making Maleficent numbers (700M WW).

Everything was on the rise at this point.

June - August 2021: Rocky Road

In The Heights. Poised Oscar contender, great critical acclaim, and seemingly great audience scores. It was supposed to be a star-making blockbuster. And it could have been, had the pandemic not happened. But the box office tells another story. Initial projections had In The Heights opening at over 20 million. Fantastic for a non-franchise film with no stars, and for a day-and-date film. But as the weekend went on those projections lowered... and lowered... and lowered. Until it opened at 11 million. The musical ended up grossing 29 million domestic. The disappointment of In The Heights told a story here, one of older audiences refusal to return to the theaters. But because it was the first, all people saw was a box-office bomb.

F9. Theatrical exclusive, opened to 70 millon. Again, breaking the opening weekend record for the pandemic. While its domestic reception was lackluster, it’s international reception was wildly better. It ended up grossing 721 million dollars World Wide. At the time, it was seen as a little bit of a disappointment. There was a chance that this could be the first 100 million opening weekend since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. It did not meet that, and it’s legs (that being how it performed week after week) were weak domestically. However, this can’t be seen as anything other than success thanks to grosses in Latin America.

Black Widow. Here we go. The first MCU to be released since Spider-Man: Far From Home. It was originally supposed to be the start of the summer season of 2020 but ended up getting pushed back several times. Disney decided to release Black Widow with Premiere Access. This would lead to Scarlett Johansson suing Disney but that’s a whole other thing. Black Widow, like F9, had a lot of hope of being the first 100 million opener of the pandemic. This seemed plausible all the way up to Friday. Its estimates lowered from 100 to 90, and then it kept lowering until the film opened to 80 million.

What was to blame? Audience reception? Perhaps, with an A- Cinemascore it didn’t have the greatest reception in the world (MCU films usually get an A Cinemascore). There’s a couple things we can blame it on actually. Black Widow released just as the Delta variant was making the rounds. More importantly, in my opinion, it was Premiere Access. Take that away Black Widow would have been the first 100 million opener of the pandemic. This also affected it’s legs. Premiere Access cut down on repeat viewings from fans, and audiences that would have waited to watch the film in later weeks decided to just watch the film at home. Still Black Widow grossed a respectable amount for the circumstances it was released in.

Jungle Cruise. Also a Premiere Access release. The 200 million dollar film opened to a decent 35 million but, somehow, was able to leg its way to 100 million. A rounding success for “original” movies. (The press would refer to Jungle Cruise as an original movie despite being based on a ride. Does that make it IP or Original? It’s been debated.)

The Suicide Squad. Bomb bomb bomb. My lord did this bomb. Not much to say on this. The general consensus is that this would have bombed regardless of the pandemic. Rated R, low audience reception, it just wouldn’t have been financially successful. Which is a shame because it’s such a good movie.

Free Guy. A through and through original movie. Free Guy opened modestly at 28 million, but because it was so well liked by audiences it managed to leg out to 121 million dollars domestically. The Ryan Reynolds comedy then got greenlit for a sequel. While Jungle Cruise didn't make a profit theatrically, Free Guy at least broke even. In normal times both of these grosses wouldn't have warranted sequels, but these weren't normal times. Crossing 100 million during the pandemic was the equivalent of grossing 200 million in pre-pandemic times. As a non-franchise, non-IP film, Free Guy was an important sign of movie theaters health.

Candyman. If there was one genre that was doing well under the pandemic it was horror. Due to low budgets the films were able to gross enough to not be box office failures. During the summer, Candyman ended up grossing the most. It was the 10th highest grossing movie of the summer domestically. At 61 million, it outgrossed The Suicide Squad. Ending the summer on a positive note.

September - November 2021: The calm before the storm

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Another MCU film. This time it was a theatrical exclusive. Disney actually used this as a test. It was to determine whether or not they would release the rest of their films as theatrical exclusives or keep doing the Premiere Access thing they did with Black Widow and Jungle Crusie. Lucky for us, Shang-Chi managed to beat expectations. Managing to open at 75 million and legging it out to 224 million domestically and 432 million World Wide. Again, in normal times this gross would be disappointing at the very best, and a bomb at the very worst. But 200 million was the equivalent of grossing 400 million in normal times. Shang-Chi became the first film of the pandemic to meet this threshold.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage. The second movie of the pandemic to reach 200 million domestic. The film managed to beat expectations on opening weekend. Becoming the highest opening weekend of the pandemic with 90 million. It took a big second weekend drop but it ended up stabilizing and ended up having pretty good legs. A pattern that would become common throughout the pandemic, and that continues to this day.

No Time To Die. While the latest Bond film could be considered a disappointment domestically, the film was aiming to open at 100 million for the weekend and ended up opening to half that with 55 million. What No Time To Die did was jump-start the box office in Europe. It broke records in the UK and ended up grossing 760 million world wide. Beating F9 as the highest grossing Hollywood movie of 2021 (at the time).

Dune. Since before the pandemic, Dune was always touted as a future box office bomb. It was too heady, too nerd oriented, in order to be a box office hit. And now it was releasing simultaneously on HBOMAX. There was no way it could do well. The film went on to open to 41 million. And went on to gross 100 million domestic and nearly 400 million world wide. People decided, like they did with Godzilla vs Kong, that this was the type of film that needed to be experiences in cinemas.

The Last Duel and Last Night in Soho. The Last Duel opened to a measly 4 million and grossed only 10 million domestically and 30 million world wide. Last Night in Soho had a similar performance but grossed less world wide with 22 million. This is around the time that the narrative became clear. Older audiences (those being over the age of 25) were not coming back to the theaters. The only things that were making money were movies aimed at younger audiences or (in the case of NTTD and Dune) big budget blockbusters aimed at older audiences. Adult dramas were struggling. This put the performance of In The Heights in an entirely different perspective.

Eternals and Ghostbusters: Afterlife. These are being grouped together because they were the biggest films released in November. Eternals, once again, was thought to be a possible 100 million opener. However, word of mouth came around and it was bad. The film ended up grossing 71 million on opening weekend and a total of 164 million domestically. International reception was a little better and it ended up out-grossing Dune with 402 million world wide. Ghostbusters: Afterlife opened at 44 million and with general positive audience reaction it grossed 129 million domestic and 204 million world wide. It actually out-grossed the 2016 Ghostbuster domestically, and because this one had a smaller budget (Ghostbusters 2016 had a 144 million dollar budget and Afterlife had a 75 million dollar budget) it was far more profitable for Sony. Considering Afterlife outgrossed 2016 which was released pre-pandemic and was a summer movie, it's fair to say had this opened in the summer of 2020 like it was supposed to it would have made a killing at the box office.

House of Gucci. Adult dramas, as I've said, were struggling. In comes Gucci. With Lady Gaga's star power and a Thanksgiving release, it beat all expectations and opened to 15 million for the three day weekend but 21.8 million for the five day weekend. Thank god for Gaga. Adults finally came back to at least one drama. Gucci ended up grossing 53 million domestically and 148 million world wide. While this gross would be considered a disaster for its 75 million dollar budget. Considering the state of adult oriented films at the time, this can't be seen as anything other than a success.

Encanto. On the other side of things. Encanto managed to score the best opening weekend for an animated film during the pandemic. Disney had sent their animated films either straight to Disney+ or Premiere Access. Encanto was the first animated film from Disney to be a theatrical exclusive. With a shortened window of 35 days before being put on Disney+, Encanto managed to gross 96 million domestically and 230 million world wide. The highest for an animated film during the pandemic. Had Disney given the film a longer theatrical window, there would be no question it would have hit 100 million domestically.

December 2021: Release the Spider

Before we get to the big one. Let's discuss some of the smaller releases.

West Side Story and Nightmare Alley. Two big award films releasing wide in December. West Side Story fared better than most adult oriented films. Opening to 10 million but out-grossing In the Heights to a 38 million domestic gross and a 75 million gross world wide. A bomb, technically speaking, compared to its 100 million dollar budget. But as we've learned, these grosses took on a different connotation during the pandemic. Nightmare Alley did not fare so well. A failed attempt at counter-programming opening the same weekend as Spider-Man. The Guillermo del Toro film opened to a shockingly low 2.8 million for the weekend. Grossing only 11 million domestically and 37 million world wide. Even in the context of the pandemic, this was nothing else but an utter disaster for the 60 million dollar film, the most expensive film from Searchlight. All of this signaled that older-audiences were still reluctant to come back.

The King's Man, The Matrix: Resurrections, and Sing 2. The long delayed The King's Man (originally slated for 2019 before being pushed to early 2020, then pushed again to late 2020, and then pushed a few more times due to the pandemic). Opened weak with 5.9 million for the three day weekend and but managed to stay around grossing a total of 37 million domestically and 121 million world wide. A commendable run for a film that wasn't well received and which lost audience interest due to the numerous delays. The Matrix: Resurrections grossed about as much as The King's Man. Difference was that it opened to twice as much. Word of mouth from audiences was toxic. The film fared a bit better internationally grossing 156 million world wide. It would be the last day-and-date release form Warner Bros. Sing 2 surprised everyone. Opening to 22 million, higher than The Matrix and having an incredible run. Due to being the only family film in the market for months. It grossed 162 million domestically and 402 million world wide. The highest grossing non-Spider-Man film that released in December.

Spider-Man: No Way Home. Here's the big one. People were expecting it to be big. But most people did not expect it to be this big. Despite an Omicron resurgence, Spider-Man opened to 260 million for the weekend. Beating the previous December record holder Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Spider-Man would go on to play week after week. Grossing 800 million domestically and a billion internationally for a total of 1.8 billion world wide. Had the film opened in China, it very much would have grossed 2 billion.

Spider-Man was the film that brought audiences back to the cinemas.

As much as I deride trickle-down economics, there might actually be some truth to that theory in terms of this specific example here. There's almost a clear difference between box office grosses before Spider-Man and after Spider-Man. As Paul Thomas Anderson said, "You know what’s going to get [audiences] back in movie theaters? 'Spider-Man.' So let’s be happy about that".

So let's see what the Spider-Man effect brought us.

January - February 2022: Not much

Scream. The only major release of January. The legacy sequel beat Candyman by opening to 30 million and grossing 81 million domestically, 138 million worldwide. Horror movies, especially R-rated horror film, rarely make 100 million domestic, and this getting close was a great sign. Both Scream and Candyman were well received horror films that were part of a franchise. Both films being so similar, shows us the direct difference between audiences pre-Spider-Man and after-Spider-Man.

Jackass Forever, Death on the Nile, and Dog. Jackass opened to 23 million, finished with 57 million domestically and 74 million worldwide. Despite sporting the best reviews for the franchise it did not outgross Jackass 3D. Which brings us to the fact that the Omicron spike started happening quickly around this time. While states had relaxed restrictions, cases were spiking. Depressing turnout for theaters. Death on the Nile grossed less than half of what its predecessor Murder on the Orient Express did, despite a similar reception from both critics and audiences. Another blow to adult dramas. In comes Dog, a PG-13 drama that is still debatable whether it was aimed at families or adults. Dog managed to beat the opening weekend gross of House of Gucci and legged out better domestically. Grossing 61 million, though had less international appeal, grossing only 74 million world wide. Still, this pointed towards a better direction for dramas.

Uncharted. Hot off the success of Spider-Man, Tom Holland drew in audiences for the video game adaptation. Opening to 44 million, getting positive reception from audiences, it legged out to 147 million domestically and 400 million world wide. Although those weren't Spider-Man numbers, it was the numbers that MCU movies were making pre-Spider-Man. This gross is more impressive when looking at other video game adaptations. Uncharted managed to beat Detective Pikachu at the domestic box office in order to become the second highest grossing video game adaptation. It beat Sonic the Hedgehog's world wide gross of 319 million. And is currently more than Sonic the Hedgehog 2's 385 world wide gross. Video game adaptations were never big money makers, but Uncharted manage to outgross several of them while cases were still on the rise. Had the COVID situation been better, there's a chance Uncharted would have unseated World of Warcraft as the highest grossing video game movie ever.

March 2022: He's here. Who? The Batman

The Batman. The DC film became only the second film of the pandemic to have an opening weekend above 100. At 134 million the film went on to gross 369 million domestically. Internationally the film was a disappointment, no doubt due to the situation in Eastern Europe and also the COVID situation in China. Early predictions had the film grossing between 800 and 900 million, but the film grossed 770 million instead. Still it beat No Time To Die, even as a disappointment. Not bad for the first installment in a Batman reboot that was also nearly three hours long.

The Lost City. The Sandra Bullock starring romantic comedy originally titled "The Lost City of D" was set as a test to see if adults, and specifically women, were still hesitant to return to theaters. It didn't disappoint. The film opened to 30 million and became only the second original film (or third if you count Jungle Cruise) to cross 100 million at the domestic box office. Signaling that both adults in general and adult women in specific were in fact coming back to the theaters.

Everything Everywhere All At Once. If there was something that was struggling more than adult dramas at the box office, it was the indie market. Licorice Pizza has done banger numbers while in limited release, but was ultimately a box office disappointment. Grossing less than 20 million domestic. In comes EEAAO. While not specifically targeted at adults, generally speaking it was targeted at young men between the ages of 18 and 25, it still suggests a return of the indie market. The film is still playing today, having small drops week after week. Beating Uncut Gems to become A24s highest grossing film domestically.

April 2022: Flop City

Before we get to the flops, let's talk about the successes from this month.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and The Bad Guys. Sonic 2 beat it's predecessors opening gross of 58 million by opening to 72 million. It has outgrossed the first both domestically and world wide (though the first film's theatrical run was cut short due to the pandemic). Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is currently the only film that opened in April that grossed over 100 million domestic. The Bad Guys opened at number 1 with 23 million. The Dreamworks film was warmly received by both critics and audiences. It's been holding well week after week, currently at 81 million domestically and 197 million world wide. While it likely won't hit 100 million domestic, it should get close.

Ambulance, The Northman, and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. All three films had at least somewhat positive reception from critics. Audience reception was good for Ambulance and was decent for The Northman and Massive Talent. All three are considered flops. Ambulance opened to 8 million for the weekend. While this is better than other adult films like The Last Duel, it still signaled that adults weren't coming out. A well received Michael Bay action-thriller would have been a hit a couple of years ago, but today people decided to stay home. The film grossed 22 million domestic and 51 million world wide. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent didn't fare much better. Opening to 7 million grossing 20 million domestically and 25 million world wide. The Northman was the most successful of all three films. Slightly beating expectations, it opened to 12 million. Grossed a total of 33 million domestically and 66 million world wide. Although with a budget of between 70 and 90 million it is considered a flop. Though all three films flopped at the box office, I think what they did was get at least some people, specifically some older audiences, back in the mojo of going to the movies. As James Gray puts it, these films were an investment to try to maintain broad base interest. Which is a big reason why something like Top Gun: Maverick was able to open so big.

Morbius and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbeldore. Here we have big franchise films. A Marvel film and a Harry Potter film. Both of them flopped at the box office, but their performances cannot be blamed on COVID. At the very least COVID is only a small reason as to why these films flopped. They are IP movies aimed at younger audiences, at the very least that's the case in Morbius, though Fantastic Beasts audience is slightly older. Morbius opened to 39 million. Originally it was looking to open at 60 million. But, word of mouth was incredibly toxic, so the film dropped dramatically. Had the movie been good it would have crossed 100 million easily. But the film was so bad it didn't even double it's opening weekend grossing a total of only 73 million domestically and 162 million world wide. Fantastic Beasts is a dying franchise. Crimes of Grindelwald, the previous installment, was poorly received by both audiences and critics. It grossed 600 million world wide, dropping 200 million from the first installment. The Secrets of Dumbeldore opened to an okay 42 million, but reception was so tepid it still hasn't crossed 100 million domestic and will not be crossing 100 million domestic. International reception was slightly better, but not by much in places that should have liked it more like the UK. Germany is liking the movie a lot though, so Fantastic Beast will be reaching 400 million worldwide. Though with a 200 million dollar budget, it will not be breaking even. Both of these films would have bombed regardless of COVID. They were bad movies, and they were always destined to flop.

May 2022: Back to normal?

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Benefiting from being the next installment in the MCU. The film opened to 187 million. Disney's first 100 million opener since The Rise of Skywalker (Spider-Man is distributed by Sony). Despite the film's large grosses, it was still seen as a disappointment. It was looking to open above 200 million but word of mouth was pretty bad so the opening weekend fell day after day. The film looked to be making a billion dollars (making it only the second film to hit that mark during the pandemic) but will now be looking to make around 900 million world wide. It's a disappointment through and through. But here's the thing, 1) it had no China or Russia or several Middle East countries, and 2) it's still going to be making 900 million dollars. 900 million dollars world wide being considered a disappointment is fantastic. In pre-pandemic times, it was almost normal to consider movies making this much a money a disappointment. Notable Pirates of the Caribbean 5 made nearly 800 million world wide but was still considered a disappointment. It shows us how far we've come when last year were happy when a movie barely made 100 million, that now a film that will gross 400 million domestic is a disappointment.

Top Gun: Maverick. Top Gun has re-energized older audiences. Being now the fourth film to open over 100 million in pandemic times. It's looking to gross over 400 million domestic (in fact it could outgross Doctor Strange). It is the highest opener for a Tom Cruise, beating War of the Worlds. And is a film that audiences have embraced both domestically and internationally.

Downton Abbey: A New Era also opened in May. The adult-oriented film took a big dive from the first. Opening to half of what that film opened to in 2019 and suffered a big second weekend drop (no doubt due to Maverick's success with older audiences). So older audiences are returning, but just to specific films. Will Maverick lead to older audiences coming back to other films made for them such as Elvis? Maybe. Hopefully.

Things are looking up from here on out. Grosses seem to be hitting pre-pandemic times. And while there's less movies being released in 2022 than there were pre-pandemic (due to the production problems caused by COVD). It's nice to see how much things have bounced back in the past year.

Things like Jurassic World: Dominion, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Avatar: The Way of Water, look to be making 500 domestically. In the case of Jurassic and Avatar we could be looking at 600 million+ domestic grosses and a potential 2 billion world wide grosser in Avatar. It is incredible the journey the box office has had.

So I had ordered this Pigeon Induction Cooker from Flipkart as it had great reviews and ratings, but mine arrived yesterday a damaged piece. The damage was that the device simply didn't turn on, it just gave a beep and then no display, nothing. There was also a slight surface scratch but since the major problem was electrical, I cited "Electrical Problem" as the reason.

I've been a Flipkart customer since almost a decade, so I thought they'll replace this damaged good for me without any fuss. However, this simple process is turning out to be a nightmare for me! Though my replacement request was approved, the Flipkart person who came adamantly refused to give me the replacement. He said since there was the surface scratch, you should've cited "Damaged Product" as the reason and not "Electrical Problem". Said he simply can't accept the return good as it was "damaged".

I then contacted customer support who cancelled my replacement request and raised another one citing "Damaged Product" this time. But this time, I had to take a snap of the product through Flipkart App and only once they approve the "damage" will it be processed further tomorrow. I just hope their verifiers will be able to see that tiny scratch on the image and won't cancel this request again!

Tried escalating by contacting their twitter support but to no avail. They keep following their usual bureaucratic process which is to keep assuring that this will be resolved soon.

I've somehow lost the sprit to live and faith on this world after this incident. I know it seems stupid having such attitude for a mere induction cooker costing 1500 bucks. However, I'm feeling that the world has become more and more "process oriented" and less human oriented or empathetic. It could be that I'm a bit selfish due to my own personal issue but I remember a time when humans cared about other humans, a time when humans were treated as such and not a mere number or statistic on the issue tracker.

Edit (Day 2 - 17-05-2022)

Still unresolved. They haven't yet approved my new replacement request or even done the image verification. Though the app says it should be done by today, God only knows how long this ordeal is going to last.

Edit: Day 3 - 18-05-2022

Still no luck. The image verification was going to happen yesterday but it didn't. The return order status is showing as "We are processing your request for return". Might call them in the afternoon if there is no update by then, though I'm not sure how helpful even that would be.

Edit: Day 3 (08:00 PM):

Just received a call from Flipkart Escalation Team's executive who approved my return request and assured me that it'll reach by 20th. I just hope it's replaced without any fuss this time! Once again, thanks for staying with me.

Edit-4 - 20-05-2022 (01:30 PM):

At long last, the replacement arrived today! It was a 5 day long ordeal which seems to have had some happy ending at the end. In an ideal world, I should have returned this piece too as it had a slight bend on the lower left corner - but obviously, I don't want to put up with the hassle all over again and the device is working perfectly otherwise. Thank you friends, for staying with me during this ordeal.

Sometimes you want to reply to a comment with a remark that may not be of interest to the wider Tildes audience, but posting that reply is going to bump the post up in the recent changes list anyway. It would be nice if a reply-to-a-reply had a checkbox allowing you to mark it as a non-bumping comment, like the “minor edit” feature on Wikipedia. The drawback is that it might enable more clutter in the form of off topic chatting. The advantage would be that it keeps the top of the recent changes list free of uninteresting updates.

One implementation detail regards the question of a non-bumping checkbox on replies to an already non-bumping comment. My sense is that once a comment has been marked “non-bumping”, all subsequent replies to it should be non-bumping as well.

About:

This is an updating resource of news articles on Finland and Sweden's path to potential membership of NATO.

The articles are sorted by publication date, with the most recent at the top. Feel free to recommend articles in the comments.

The thread title contains the date of the latest update to the main thread, for ease of use.

Articles:

NATO nations sign accession protocols for Sweden, Finland

The thirty NATO allies signed off on the accession protocols for Sweden and Finland on Tuesday, sending the membership bids of the two nations to the alliance capitals for legislative approvals — and possible political trouble in Turkey.

AP – Raf Casert – 5th July 2022

NATO summit: Sweden, Finland boost unity against Putin

NATO's ambitions are growing. Sweden and Finland are set to join and the alliance is strengthening its eastern flank with more troops. This is the right approach against Vladimir Putin, says Bernd Riegert.

DW – Bernd Riegert – 29th June 2022

Turkey says summit is not deadline for talks on Finland and Sweden's NATO bids

Discussions between Turkey, Finland and Sweden about the Nordic countries' NATO membership will continue and an alliance summit in Madrid next week is not a deadline, Turkey said after talks in Brussels on Monday.

Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But the bids have faced opposition from Turkey, which has been angered by what it says is Helsinki and Stockholm's support for Kurdish militants and arms embargoes on Ankara.

Reuters – 20th June 2022

Former Kurdish rebel has key role in Sweden’s NATO bid

When Turkey’s president rails against “terrorists” in the Swedish Parliament, Amineh Kakabaveh is convinced he is talking about her.

The former Kurdish rebel fighter turned Swedish lawmaker has emerged as a central figure in the drama surrounding Sweden and Finland’s historic bid to join NATO. Turkey opposes NATO membership for the two Nordic countries, accusing them of harboring Kurdish militants.

AP – Karl Ritter – 14th June 2022

Turkey threatens year’s delay to Swedish and Finnish entry to NATO

Turkey has said it is willing to delay Swedish and Finnish membership of NATO for more than a year unless it receives satisfactory assurances that the two Nordic countries are willing to address support for Kurdish groups it regards as terrorist organisations.

The Guardian – Patrick Wintour – 14th June 2022

Sweden to seek constructive progress with Turkey over NATO bid

Sweden will look to make constructive progress in talks with Turkey on Ankara's objections over the Nordic country's application to join the NATO defensive alliance, Foreign Minister Ann Linde said on Friday.

Reuters – 10th June 2022

Finland and Sweden prepare for large NATO naval drill, amid Turkish concerns

Finland and Sweden are preparing for an enlarged NATO naval exercise in the Baltic Sea on Sunday, amid Turkish concerns over their membership.

NATO's fortnight-long 'Baltops 22' is being hosted this year by Sweden, with the Finnish Navy and Air force also taking part.

Euronews – Philip Andrew Churm – 4th June 2022

Sweden's NATO bid: 'We are not naive,' defense minister tells DW

Russia's invasion of Ukraine "fundamentally" changed the way Swedes thought about joining the NATO military alliance, Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist told DW.

DW – Rebecca Staudenmaier – 1st June 2022

Finnish foreign minister optimistic that 'sooner or later' Finland and Sweden will be NATO members

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto expressed optimism that "sooner or later, Finland and Sweden will be members of NATO" and said discussions with the Turkish government would continue as Ankara threatens to block the two nations from joining the defensive alliance.

CNN – Jennifer Hansler – 27th May 2022

Finland, Sweden to send teams to Turkey to discuss NATO bids, Haavisto says

Finland and Sweden will send delegations to Ankara on Wednesday to try to resolve Turkish opposition to their applications for membership of the NATO military alliance, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Tuesday.

Reuters – 24th May 2022

Ukraine war: US fully backs Sweden and Finland Nato bids, Biden says

Sweden and Finland have the "full, total and complete backing" of the US in their decision to apply for Nato membership, President Joe Biden says.

Both countries submitted their applications to be part of the Western defence alliance this week, marking a major shift in European geopolitics.

To join the alliance, the two nations need the support of all 30 Nato member states.

But the move by the Nordic nations has been opposed by Turkey.

BBC News – 20th May 2022

Why some young Swedes remain uneasy about joining NATO

While the majority of Swedes are in favor of joining NATO, there are others who even took to the streets in protest. They warn the decision is rushed and that Sweden should better stick with its tradition of neutrality.

DW – Priyanka Shankar – 18th May 2022

Why has Erdoğan doubled down on threat to veto Nordic NATO bids?

After initial hesitation about the seriousness of Turkey’s objections, its president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has doubled down on his threat to veto Finland’s and Sweden’s applications for membership of NATO, saying there is no point in either country sending delegations to Ankara to persuade him otherwise.

The Guardian – Patrick Wintour – 18th May 2022

Finland and Sweden may join NATO – but even they can’t guarantee that will make them safer

For a long time, the Nordic countries saw themselves as sleekly humanitarian, peace-keeping powers. To an unusual degree, the national identities of Sweden and Finland are bound up with their foreign policy: Swedes identify with a centuries-old tradition of neutrality, whereas Finns point to their talent for realpolitik, making the best of their volatile geography, which includes an 830-mile border with Russia. As both countries now formally submit their applications to join the North Atlantic alliance, each of them will forgo this deviation from the European norm. Finland in particular now seems poised to adopt a more standard-issue foreign policy. But at what price?

The Guardian – Thomas Meaney – 18th May 2022

Finland and Sweden’s historic NATO bids, explained

Finland and Sweden are seeking membership to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a historic shift for two traditionally non-aligned countries and a major expansion of the Western alliance as war continues in Europe.

Vox – Jen Kirby – 17th May 2022

Finland's Parliament likely to vote on NATO application on Tuesday

President Sauli Niinisto and the government decided officially on Sunday that Finland would apply for membership but the decision is pending Parliament's approval, which is expected with an overwhelming majority.

Debate in the legislature began on Monday and the first session finished more than 14 hours later, after midnight, after members gave 212 addresses on the topic, the vast majority in favour of joining.

Reuters – 17th May 2022

Finland formally confirms intention to join NATO

“Finland is applying for NATO membership,” said the country’s president, Sauli Niinistö, at a press conference. “A protected Finland is being born as part of a stable, strong and responsible Nordic region. We gain security and we also share it. It’s good to keep in mind that security isn’t a zero-sum game.”

The Guardian – Jon Henley – 15th May 2022

Turkey won't block Finland and Sweden joining NATO, Denmark says

Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod believes the NATO alliance will prove united on the potential accession of Finland and Sweden, despite signals from Turkey suggesting Ankara is not ready to support the historic expansion.

Newsweek – David Brennan – 14th May 2022

Opinion: In keeping with its 1939 tradition, Finland is saying 'nyet' to Vladimir Putin

Finland's membership in NATO would signal the end of over 70 years of Moscow's most enduring policy. This is a humiliation for Vladimir Putin, writes DW's Konstantin Eggert.

DW – Konstantin Eggert – 13th May 2022

NATO: New challenges for the alliance as Finland and Sweden inch closer to membership?

Finland has announced its decision to join NATO as quickly as possible, Sweden is expected to follow suit shortly. What does this mean for the alliance?

DW – Priyanka Shankar – 12th May 2022

Sweden plans to send NATO application next week, Expressen daily says

Sweden's government plans to submit an application to join NATO next week, following neighbour Finland in re-writing its post-World War Two security policy in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, daily Expressen said on Thursday.

Reuters – 12th May 2022

Finland must apply for NATO membership "without delay", Finnish leaders say

Finland must apply to join the NATO military alliance "without delay", Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Thursday, a major policy shift triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Reuters – Anne Kauranen & Essi Lehto – 12th May 2022

Ukraine conflict: What is NATO and will Finland and Sweden join?

Boris Johnson has said the UK would support Sweden and Finland if they came under attack. Both countries are considering whether to join NATO, with a decision expected shortly.

BBC News – 11th May 2022

Is NATO's Nordic expansion a threat or boost to Europe?

Finland and Sweden, two neutral Nordic countries, are so alarmed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine that they are both now seriously considering joining NATO, as early as this summer.

BBC News – Frank Gardner – 9th May 2022

Scandinavian allies support Finnish, Swedish NATO bids

The Scandinavian members of NATO have given their full backing to the prospect of Finland and Sweden joining the intergovernmental military alliance.

"This is your decision and your decision alone. But be assured: If you decide to join, you have the full support from Denmark," Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on the sidelines of a summit between the five Scandinavian countries and India on Wednesday.

DW – 5th May 2022

Sweden’s ruling Social Democrats divided on decision to join NATO

The first signs of a backlash to a possible Swedish application to join NATO have emerged within the ruling Social Democrats, at the start of a critical month in which Sweden and neighbouring Finland are expected to move rapidly towards a decision.

The Guardian – Patrick Wintour – 4th May 2022

The NATO accession Sweden never saw coming

On May 17, President Sauli Niinisto of Finland is scheduled to arrive in Sweden. He’ll meet with King Carl XVI Gustaf and the Swedish government before leaving the next day. And sometime during his visit, Sweden and Finland are expected to announce they’re both applying for membership of NATO. Finland has—remarkably—taken the lead, and Sweden is likely to follow, simply because if Finland joins there’s really no reason to not to do the same. Sweden is, in fact, NATO’s luckiest-ever joiner, a country swept into the alliance without having to lobby for membership and without its government even expressing a desire to join.

Foreign Policy – Elisabeth Braw – 29th April 2022

Putin is pushing Finland and Sweden into NATO’s arms

Mr. Rasmussen is a former secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and a former prime minister of Denmark.

When announcing Russia’s imminent invasion of Ukraine back in February, President Vladimir Putin mentioned NATO 40 times. It was clear he wanted to present NATO as the devil — but it wasn’t always like that.

New York Times – Anders Fogh Rasmussen – 25th April 2022

Going Nordic: What NATO membership would mean for Finland and Sweden

As they watch Russia unleash total war against a European neighbor, Sweden and Finland seem to agree: It’s finally time to join NATO.

With public opinion turning strongly in favor, both countries are inching closer toward formally joining the Alliance. Just this week, their prime ministers publicly telegraphed their strong support for such a move, though Finland appears more certain than Sweden and likely to move first.

But what would that look like? For answers we reached out to Leo Michel, a nonresident senior fellow at the Scowcroft Center’s Transatlantic Security Initiative and the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, who previously served as director of NATO policy at the Pentagon. Check out his responses to our questions below.

Atlantic Council – 15th April 2022

Will Finland and Sweden join NATO?

The war in Ukraine may bring NATO new members. Finland and Sweden are closer than ever to ditching their neutrality and applying to join. Bernd Riegert reports from Brussels.

DW – Bernd Riegert – 14th April 2022

Sweden’s decision to join NATO isn’t just about security

Will Sweden join Nato? The country looks set to join Finland in applying for membership, but the debate in Stockholm is far from straightforward.

New Statesman – Megan Gibson – 14th April 2022

Finland is closer than ever to joining NATO

Since 1945, Finland has sought cordial relations with its vast Russian neighbor. But Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine has emboldened champions of Finnish NATO membership — and made things harder for left-wing critics of the military alliance.

Jacobin – Tatu Ahponen – 13th April 2022

Finland and Sweden belong in NATO

Though fundamentally geared toward defense, NATO looms as a mortal threat to Russia in President Vladimir Putin’s geopolitical imagination. Mr. Putin has grown increasingly agitated with NATO’s eastward expansion since the Cold War’s end three decades ago, which has brought most of Europe under the alliance’s mutual security guarantee. Mr. Putin cited the need to prevent NATO from reaching Russia’s borders via the inclusion of Ukraine as one of his reasons to invade that neighbor on Feb. 24.

Washington Post – Editorial – 13th April 2022

In Sweden and Finland, even the skeptics are coming round to NATO bids

In Sweden, support for joining NATO among the population as a whole has risen from around 35 percent to 46 percent over the past month. In Finland, it has spiked to over 60 percent.

Politico – Charlie Duxbury – 8th April 2022

Putin’s strategic error

When Vladimir Putin began laying the groundwork for his invasion of Ukraine, he pointed to what he regards as the existential threat posed by the West encroaching farther into the post-Soviet space. Nearly two weeks into Putin’s devastating and costly invasion, that fear has turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy: The once-remote possibility of Ukraine joining the European Union and NATO now seems more plausible, and even in historically neutral countries such as Finland and Sweden (both of which are already EU members), public support for joining NATO has surged to record levels.

The Atlantic – Yasmeen Serhan – 9th March 2022

Swedish PM rejects opposition calls to consider joining NATO

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson on Tuesday rejected opposition calls to consider joining NATO following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, saying an application now would destabilize security in Europe.

Reuters – 8th March 2022

Finland, Sweden brush off Moscow’s warning on joining NATO

Finland and Sweden have brushed off warnings from neighboring Russia that their possible joining of NATO would trigger “serious military-political consequences” from Moscow for the two countries.

AP – Jari Tanner – 26th February 2022

Finland and Sweden wait for the Baltic states

The Baltic States used to be a problem for Russia. Now they are a headache for their Nordic neighbors, Finland and Sweden. Likely membership of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in NATO is forcing Finland and Sweden to reconsider their commitment to military nonalignment. Traditionalists in Helsinki and Stockholm do not like it a bit.

The Baltic enthusiasm for NATO and the Finnish-Swedish distaste for the organization stem from the same source: a refusal to believe that NATO has changed in any meaningful way. The Baltic states see it as directed against Russia and want to join it for that reason. The Finns and Swedes share the perception and reach the opposite conclusion: They want to hear nothing about membership.

New York Times – Risto E J Penttila – 25th January 2022

Russian threats against Ukraine could push Finland and Sweden toward NATO

Russian military threats against Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s unpredictability are forcing Sweden and Finland to reconsider their policy of non-alignment toward NATO. If admitted, each would enhance security in NATO’s northeastern flank and put Russia on notice. NATO’s open door policy allows nation-states to initiate membership plans if they meet guidelines delineated in Article X of the North Atlantic Charter. Finland and Sweden are ideal NATO candidates.

The Hill – Chris J Dolan – 19th January 2022

Finland not negotiating about NATO membership, foreign minister says

Finland has no plans at present to join NATO, its foreign minister Pekka Haavisto said on Friday, amid heightened security tensions between Finland’s giant neighbour Russia and Ukraine.

“Finland does not discuss with NATO joining it, nor does Finland have such a project upcoming … Finland’s security policy remains unchanged,” Haavisto told reporters at a teleconference following a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in France.

Euronews – 15th January 2022

The hem and haw of Sweden’s relationship with NATO

To date, Sweden has looked at whether or not it joins NATO as a matter of identity and image rather than an existential security issue. After the end of World War II, Sweden chose to continue its policy of neutrality, which had served it well in both world wars and continued to do so during the Cold War. At the same time, it is a known fact that Sweden collaborated with Germany in World War II and has cooperated with NATO since the establishment of the Alliance. The essence and meaning of this cooperation have changed and it has now become a decisive factor in ensuring Sweden’s national security. There is increasing talk about joining the Alliance. The topic that has long been a taboo has entered the programmes of political parties.

ICDS – Riina Kaljurand – 22nd April 2019

This thought just popped into my head, so it's still quite nebulous, but I want to float it out here, see what other's have to say about it, before I really dive into it.

Superorganisms are things like ant and termite colonies and beehives ... and, for the sci-fi minded, the Borg. The theory/idea is that the individual ants/termites/bees are not actually independent living beings (or at least, not exclusively), but closer to cells in a larger, distributed body, with a distributed intellect driving the colony to thrive and reproduce, which only happens when, eg, the beehive throws a swarm that eventually becomes a new beehive.

The "Earth as Gaia" theory is comparable, suggesting that all of the life forms on Earth form an amorphous, distributed superintelligence that is trying to reproduce ... which would happen once humans colonize Mars, or meteor strikes on the Earth successfully transfer living organisms to another celestial body where life ultimately takes root.

So ... you see where I'm going with this? Is it a feasible idea to consider the Internet itself as a nascent AI superorganism, made up of both the humans (and, increasingly, the bots) that use it, as well as the assorted hardware and software that comprises it?

I'm confident I'm not the first person to entertain this idea, and I expect that, as soon as I start searching the 'Net for this topic, I'll find plenty on it. Just wanted to post the idea while it was still just my idea.

And of course, if I never post here again ... assume the Internet took me out.

I'm going to be building a simple blog for myself.

Partially I just want something really simple and customizable, and also it will be a fun little programming project.

I'll be using PHP and mySQL for the backend. I won't be using any sort of framework as it shouldn't be necessary for a very simple blog. I'm fairly comfortable with JavaScript.

What I'm imagining is some sort of JavaScript library I can just download, link to my html and then turn a textarea into a simple wysiwyg editor. It could be as simple as a markdown editor or something with a little more features.

It has to be free. Open source would be a plus.

If anyone has any recommendations or advice I would be very grateful. Thanks!

Choose one album
that you love
that you think deserves more love

Tell us what it is, and why.

Previous posts in series

Additional Details

Denmark

Commentary:
Six additional Danish finds this month for our second-ever NMN. Bättre! Astrid Nora is the eponymous name behind Where Did Nora Go. “Under” is their fifth EP, written largely during Covid19 lockdown, with songs crafted to be beacons of hope in a time of fear.

Finland

Commentary:
Ada Aik is a Finnish experimental pop musician. Their debut concept album is imagined around the story of a dollhouse, with each room representing an emotional state such as depression or fear. These themes extend beyond the music into visual media which can be further explored on their website.

Iceland

Commentary:
Indie folk band Seabear hold a special place in the hearts of many Icelanders. Ten years have passed since their previous album, so the cozy and imaginative folk sound of “In Another Life” has been warmly embraced. Their music video to “Parade” was posted to Tildes last week.

Norway

Commentary:
For the big release this April we turn to Norway, where it doesn't get much bigger than Röyksopp. “Profound Mysteries” has been released to stellar reviews, with reference made to a darker, more haunting sound from the band. The visualizer music videos by Jonathan Zawada certainly amplify this feel.

Sweden

Commentary:
We should really be talking about Swedish House Mafia's debut studio album, twelve years after the release of their debut single. But the real gem among the Swedish releases this month is the return of Slowgold. Their song “Väntar” from 2017 still sees regular rotation in our house...

Previous months: March

This may seem like an odd request and I'm not sure if I can properly explain this, but for some reason I dislike games that require me to drag things with my fingers. I prefer games that allow me to "click" stuff using my finger as a mouse, like Go (baduk), checkers, and other board games. Any genre. Any suggestions on Android? Thanks!