All posts tagged: land

‘This Land Is Yours’ | Nell Irvin Painter

‘This Land Is Yours’ | Nell Irvin Painter

Published by skeptic

Leaving home in Essex County, New Jersey, I drive north from the metropolitan region. On the New York State Thruway, I-87, I stop just beyond exit 21B, Coxsackie and Ravena, at the Capital Region Welcome Center. I pee, eat a hulking Taste NY sandwich, and watch a video on a giant screen touting the region’s glories. On-screen I see only White people. Only White people paddling pristine lakes in impressive kayaks. Only White people in appropriate footwear climbing picturesque mountains and peering into stunning valleys. Only grinning White people drinking craft beer and reenacting the region’s history. At the “comments” kiosk I complain about the video for fortifying the erroneous, harmful assumption that New York state north of the city is for White people only. At the Adirondacks Welcome Center, near Glens Falls, I repeat my complaint in vain. There is something sinister about this presentation that, I fear, encourages White visitors to look askance at non-White visitors—or worse. I take the video personally. I’ve been coming upstate for twenty years, since my friend and …

The Shadowed Land by Signe Pike—Book Review by Bookish Elf

The Shadowed Land by Signe Pike—Book Review by Bookish Elf

Published by skeptic

Signe Pike’s The Shadowed Land, the third and final installment in The Lost Queen series, serves as a grand conclusion to a trilogy steeped in mysticism, history, and rich storytelling. Following the critically acclaimed The Lost Queen and The Forgotten Kingdom, this novel weaves the lives of historical figures who inspired Arthurian legends with bold imagination and meticulous research. In The Shadowed Land, Pike deepens the exploration of early medieval Scotland, blending historical facts with mythic undertones. The narrative spans the realms of politics, spirituality, and human endurance as the characters confront their destinies. Plot Overview: A Journey of Destinies Set in AD 580, the story begins with a momentary reunion between Languoreth, her daughter Angharad, her twin brother Lailoken, and the warrior Artúr mac Aedan. However, peace is fleeting, as each character is drawn into their separate trials: Artúr, called to Dalriada by his father, faces a test of endurance and leadership that delves into his psychological depth and moral compass. Languoreth, the wise and determined Queen of Strathclyde, navigates the fragile peace between …

Flash bombs fired at Netanyahu home land without injury, damage

Flash bombs fired at Netanyahu home land without injury, damage

Published by Sam

CAIRO —  Two flash bombs were fired toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in the northern Israeli town of Caesarea on Saturday and fell into the garden, police said. Neither Netanyahu nor his family were present and there was no damage reported, it added in a statement. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the incident crossed “all red lines” in a post on X early on Sunday. “It is not possible for the Prime Minister of Israel, who is threatened by Iran and its proxies who are trying to assassinate him, to be subject to the same threats from home,” Katz said. He also called on security and judicial agencies to take the necessary steps. Israel’s President Isaac Herzog condemned the incident in a post on X and said an investigation was under way. “The incitement against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu crosses all boundaries. Throwing a flash bomb into his house tonight is crossing another red line,” Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also said on X. In October, a drone was launched toward the premier’s …

I’m a Celeb live: First challenges already filmed as Oti Mabuse, Coleen Rooney and others land in Australia

I’m a Celeb live: First challenges already filmed as Oti Mabuse, Coleen Rooney and others land in Australia

Published by skeptic

Revealed: Meet the I’m A Celebrity class of 2024 For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails The 2024 cast of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! have arrived in Australia and filming is already underway ahead of Sunday night’s launch episode. ITV has shared a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the cast meeting for the first time on a sunny beach before they head to the jungle. Among the cast are N-Dubz singer and former X Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos, Coronation Street actor Alan Halsall and Strictly Come Dancing star Oti Mabuse. Others joining them are Coleen Rooney, McFly singer Danny Jones, and boxer Barry McGuigan. Sunday night’s launch show will see celebrities pair up and partake in several challenges, with the aim of finishing first to become camp leaders. The winning pair will be awarded the title of the first leaders of the series, which will win …

‘No Woman's Land’: Paris show spotlights Afghan women under Taliban rule

‘No Woman's Land’: Paris show spotlights Afghan women under Taliban rule

Published by Sam

Posing in a pink hijab in front of a window, 14-year-old Muska will soon be married “in exchange for a well and some solar panels”, explains the caption on her photograph. There are dozens of images of Afghan women and girls like Muska at the Paris exhibition “No Woman’s Land”, which offers a glimpse into their private lives, despair and rare moments of joy. Iranian-Canadian photographer Kiana Hayeri, 36, lived in Kabul for seven years and has regularly contributed to outlets including the New York Times and National Geographic. Source link

NASA is developing a Mars helicopter that could land itself from orbit

NASA is developing a Mars helicopter that could land itself from orbit

Published by skeptic

The Ingenuity Mars helicopter, the predecessor to Chopper NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA is working on plans to send another helicopter to Mars. The craft would land itself after screaming into the planet’s atmosphere at speed, before covering several kilometres a day while carrying scientific equipment. Several landers have safely touched down on the surface of Mars using parachutes and rockets to slow their descent. Some have even contained wheeled rovers that could explore the surface. Then came NASA’s helicopter drone Ingenuity. Although it was engineered on a shoestring budget, it managed to make a surprising 72 flights on the Red Planet,… Source link

T. S. Eliot’s Classic Modernist Poem The Waste Land Gets Adapted into Comic-Book Form

T. S. Eliot’s Classic Modernist Poem The Waste Land Gets Adapted into Comic-Book Form

Published by José

The phrase “April is the cru­elest month” was first print­ed more than 100 years ago, and it’s been in com­mon cir­cu­la­tion almost as long. One can eas­i­ly know it with­out hav­ing the faintest idea of its source, let alone its mean­ing. This is not, of course, to call T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land an obscure work. Despite hav­ing met with a deri­sive, even hos­tile ini­tial recep­tion, it went on to draw acclaim as one of the cen­tral Eng­lish-lan­guage poems of the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry, to say noth­ing of its sta­tus as an achieve­ment with­in the mod­ernist move­ment. But how, here in the twen­ty-first cen­tu­ry, to read it afresh? One new avenue to approach The Waste Land is this com­ic-book adap­ta­tion by Julian Peters, pre­vi­ous­ly fea­tured here on Open Cul­ture for his graph­ic ren­di­tions of oth­er such poems as Edgar Allan Poe’s Annabel Lee, W. B. Yeats’ “When You Are Old,” and Eliot’s own “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” It’s an adap­ta­tion, to be pre­cise, of the first of The Waste Land’s five sec­tions, “The Bur­ial …

Did Moses really die before entering the Promised Land?

Did Moses really die before entering the Promised Land?

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — I don’t normally quote two family members in one article, but since this is the season of forgiveness, I hope that you will forgive me. Especially because their insights into this week’s Torah portion are not only valuable, but they touched my soul quite deeply. The first family member is my oldest son. This Shabbat just happens to be the 25th anniversary of his becoming bar mitzvah. As he was writing his d’var Torah, my son did a little bit of research, and he figured something out. That long speech that Moses delivers — he delivered it on the last day of his life. That is probably why the most prominent word in the Torah portion is ha-yom — “today” — because Moses is feeling the claws of death around him, and he senses the urgency of now. Of saying it all today. That is the first insight. The words of the Torah portion were among Moses’ final words — to his people and to himself. The second family member is my late …

An Anarchist Politics of Land: The Importance of Klee Benally

An Anarchist Politics of Land: The Importance of Klee Benally

Published by skeptic

In 2023, shortly before his death, Klee Benally published No Spiritual Surrender: Indigenous Anarchy in Defense of the Sacred, a book of emancipatory thought that speaks to some challenging questions about land decolonization and anarchist politics. Benally’s work—writing, singing, talking, agitating, and antagonizing—comes out of the “crucible of the asymmetric slow burning war of resource colonialism” (16). There are many ways we could describe him: writer, artist, activist, agitator, liberation fighter, organizer, anti-colonialist, teacher, provocateur, punk, anarchist, Indigenous thinker. But what is important is to recognize that Benally has a unique ability to provoke our attention and, above all, our engagement with land struggles and resistance to ongoing patterns of settler colonialism. (One good way to engage with him is to listen to his many podcast interviews, such as “We Belong to the Earth: Against Settler Belonging,” from the Grounded Futures podcast.) In No Spiritual Surrender (hereafter NSS), Benally offers an account of human liberation. His thought is deeply rooted in his experience with Indigenous resistance, but it speaks to all of us, including us …

The ‘Law of the Land’ Has Been Replaced

The ‘Law of the Land’ Has Been Replaced

Published by José

The Dubai International Financial Center is home to thousands of companies from around the world. Some of them have organic connections to the emirate; others are merely taking advantage of the center’s business-friendly rules and regulations around tax, immigration, and labor. A third group of businesses have chosen the DIFC not for the office space, or the taxes, but as a home base for legal disputes alone. In the event of a lawsuit, the DIFC is where they want to have their day in court. That’s because Dubai’s financial center is not governed by Dubai—at least, not in the way most of us understand governance. The enclave is a special economic zone overseen by a board appointed by the city-state’s ruler, with its own bespoke laws drawn up for the benefit of its clients. The DIFC is also a shimmering shopping center with three hotels, luxury apartment towers, high-end restaurants, clothing stores, spas, beauty salons, and art galleries. There’s even a mosque, open 24/7. The 110-acre compound sits in the shadow of the Gate, a …