Maybe I'm Just A Dumb And Bitter Atheist But I Don't Really Want To Hear All The Takes About How "good"

Rashists hit Kryvyi Rih

«14 dead as of now, including 6 children, according to updated data,» — Minister of Internal Affairs.

Over 50 people injured, this number is growing - they continue to seek medical help.

Deliberate attack on the center of a residential area. Terror in its purest form.

People in the yard were burning alive in their cars.

TW: photos of victims of the russian attack.

I have a lot of complaints about THG, even more about SOTR. But I really, really appreciate Suzanne Collins making orange the colour of the revolution.

sooooo

A few days ago, I put on a video of a girl watching Anora as a background. I'm Ukrainian, so watching the movie itself is not an option; too much exposure to the russian culture makes me wanna explode à la Soldier Boy.

And the only point that made the reviewer pause and talk for several minutes?

It wasn't the stereotypical "a girl from Eastern Europe is a stripper / an escort / a mail-order bride". It wasn't the way the russian oligarch-junior treated the main character. It wasn't the scene in which russian oligarch-senior's goons completely destroyed someone's small business.

Nope.

The watch-along girl was indignant because the main character used a slur while arguing with the goons. You know, the people who called her a whore, attacked her and tied her up.

Now, I'm usually the annoying woke friend who would tell you to avoid using people's nationality or sexual orientation as a means to offend them. But if the person in question is attacking you - you don't fucking owe them anything. You have no obligation to be polite or respectful towards a guy who tries to tie you up or a guy who calls a slur based on your profession.

I'm starting to understand how Mr "Why aren't you wearing a suit?" got elected though...

yep, how about trying to have a normal working week (from home or from the office) while getting like 8 hours of electricity per day (4 of them during the night, btw). also, keep in mind that water supply in some buildings depends on electricity as well, and modern apartment complexes don't have gas, so heating and cooking become a huge problem.

and all of that while being under constant barrage of rockets and shahed drones, the average Ukrainian experience :)

if I see another "how i survived the worst power outage in Europe", I will throw hands

Since being angry about Severance seems to have turned me from a lurker into a poster, here, have a very cursed HP theory*.

Slughorn has tried to create a horcrux - and failed miserably at that. The idea is that Slughorn is "deeply ashamed" because he taught metaphorical Hitler how to create metaphorical nukes, but it doesn't work. By the time Voldemort asked Slughorn about horcruxes, he had already done all possible research and was clearly intending to do some soul-splinching. So a much closer analogy would be a Hitler asking a scientist: "Look, I'm definitely gonna nuke one city, do you think I would be able to nuke one more after that?"

And Slughorn's reaction was more or less "Dude, what the fuck". And then the infinitely charming little orphan Voldemort managed to convince Slughorn that his interest was exclusively theoretical.

So why the hell is Slughorn "deeply ashsamed", then? Ginny Weasley has done worse when compelled by Voldemort, but she seems to be able to shake it off.

So, my guess would be that Slughorn (who is an incredibly vain and self-serving character**) has tried to create a horcrux for himself. Maybe out of the stupid hourglass we see in the movie. But something didn't work. Slughorn is a potion master, so I suppose he would try to incapacitate his potential victim first. And then he either miscalculated the potion proportions or chickened out in the last moment. Third, much sinister option - he did manage to kill somebody but didn't have enough magical prowess to actually create a horcux. Now, that's something to be ashamed and shady about.

The potential horcrux:

*this should go without saying, but I do not support jk's horrible transphobic beliefs.

**this is not a criticism against the character or the actor, I actually love Broadbent in this role, he is one of the two good things about the sixth movie.

so, in case anyone is curious about the whole "Easter Ceasefire" thing putin promised...

yep, that's an app that notifies us about air alarms. 21:52 means 9:52 pm for those who use am / pm system, weeell after 6 pm.

oops, that's some rocket danger!

Today is the anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster and I have found this short, but insightful article by Oksana Semenik on how this disaster is depicted in Ukrainian art.

https://artslooker.com/en/five-minutes-for-the-chornobyl-disaster-2/

What gets me is the implication that none of the previous children on their way to die never reminded Haymitch of the people he used to know strongly enough to care about them.

Like, was he waiting for a specific combination of features?

"This kid is from the Seam, she's got pigtails but no pin, whoops, gonna go do shots with Chaff, then!"

It is totally unintentional, but a sad implication that Suzanne Collins established is that Haymitch was never too present, nor cared a lot about the other tributes. The tributes he mentored before Katniss and Peeta, so wholly unconnected to his personhood, who didn't remind him at all about the people he cared for, didn't get the Haymitch we see in the og trilogy. The implication, in the end, is that they get a mentor who's constantly drunk blubbering about his 16 year old dead girlfriend.

Maybe that's why I can never forgive Suzanne Collins when it comes to the retconning of his characterisation. The narrative gives him no chance but to love Katniss and Peeta, but the fact that virtually all of his problems lead to Lenore Dove and not to the kids he had to see die... not only does it take so much of his depth, but tells you that the other kids never had a chance in the first place. Haymitch losing hope on getting his tributes home year by year is one thing, but never having cared in the first place makes his character so one dimensional, and takes away so much about the importance of every tribute despite their loss in the Games.

the Guardian

‘Numerous signs of torture’: a Ukrainian journalist’s detention and death in Russian prison

The Guardian, working with media partners, has tracked down first-hand accounts to reconstruct Viktoriia Roshchyna’s final months

"Sources close to the official investigation have also disclosed that the hyoid bone in her neck was broken. It is the kind of damage that can occur during strangulation. However, the exact cause of death may never be known because when her body was returned during the exchange on 14 February, certain parts were missing, namely the brain, eyes and larynx."

I noticed that a lot of people writing up this story or commenting on it online are confused about why she was returned with missing organs, some speculating that it was because her captors wanted to conceal her true cause of death or extent of her torture. I think that really shows that most of the world can't wrap their minds around a state that operates like the mob. Her captors took her eyes, her voice, and her mind, because she was a journalist, specifically to punish her by taking the organs that symbolize her vocation, so all journalists are afraid.