From the Freedom Flotilla, April 27 2024:

On Thursday afternoon, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition was contacted by the Guinea Bissau International Ships Registry (GBISR), requesting an inspection of our lead ship – Akdenez. This was a highly unusual request as our ship had already passed all required inspections; nevertheless, we agreed. The inspector arrived on Thursday evening. On Friday afternoon, before the inspection was completed, the GBISR, in a blatantly political move, informed the Freedom Flotilla Coalition that it had withdrawn the Guinea Bissau flag from two of the Freedom Flotilla’s ships, one of which is our cargo ship, already loaded with over 5000 tons of life-saving aid for the Palestinians of Gaza. In its communication informing us of this cancelation, the GBISR made specific reference to our planned mission to Gaza. It also made several extraordinary requests for information, including confirmation of the ships’ destination, any potential additional port calls, and the discharge port for humanitarian aid and estimated arrival dates and times. It further demanded a formal letter explicitly approving the transportation of humanitarian aid and a complete manifest of the cargo. Again, this is a highly unusual move from a flagging authority. Normally, national flagging authorities concern themselves only with safety and related standards on vessels bearing their flag, and are not concerned with the destination, route, cargo manifests or the nature of a specific voyage. Just like when you register your car, the authorities don’t require you to detail to them every place you are going to go with the car. Sadly, Guinea-Bissau has allowed itself to become complicit in Israel’s deliberate starvation, illegal siege and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Israel is showing the world the extent to which it will go to deny Palestinians the aid they need to stay alive, in direct contravention of International Humanitarian Law, UN Security Council resolutions, and two orders of the International Court of Justice. [...] without a flag, we cannot sail. But, this is not the end. Israel cannot and will not crush our resolve to break its illegal siege and reach the people of Gaza. The people of Gaza and all of Palestine remain steadfast under the most horrific, unimaginable conditions. We take strength from their incredible, inexplicable ability to maintain their humanity, dignity and hope when the world has given them no reason to do so. It is our responsibility to keep that hope alive. WE WILL SAIL.

The Freedom Flotilla, which was set to depart from Turkey on the 27th of April with 5000 tons of life-saving aid, has now been delayed because Israel and the United States has pressured Guinea Bissau to withdraw its flag from the Flotilla's lead ship.

Seeing as how their tactics worked on Guinea Bissau, organizers now fear that Israel and the US will exert the same pressure on whichever country the Freedom Flotilla attempt to register their ship under next.

To help the Freedom Flotilla reach Gaza, please keep an eye out for further updates from the organizers. Right now, as of April 27th, they're asking people to help boost their visibility, and to donate to their member campaigns.

For more info, see their webpage.

Dear Vector Prime,

I heard in some continuities, participants in the Beast Wars are known to eat each other, is it true?

Dear Grisly Gobbler,

There are unfortunately many cases in the history of the Transformers where combatants on both sides have been forced to subsist on the drained energon of their slain foes and allies. While there are chemical differences, the Cybertronian body can usually process the internal Energon of others. Typically this is done after a butchering process to minimize nausea and psychological rejection by serving the fuel in cubes.

As for the Beast Wars in particular, organs resembling hardy synthetic “stomachs” were added as standard during the Great Upgrade. Derived from Terrorcon technology, these gave Maximals and Predacons an enhanced ability to derive energy from organic and mechanical matter, extending to the synthetic flesh and fur used in contemporary beast modes. While not a total replacement for proper fuelling, it did allow for greater fuel efficiency in survival situations.

It should be noted that a strong stomach does not denote a strong appetite. While Cheetor and Rattrap both had the physical capacity for eating garbage, only one had a taste for it.

Anyhow, in iterations of the Beast Wars where the crews of the Axalon and Darksyde were much larger, both crews would occasionally sustain themselves on their slain foes. Such was the case with the two sides who fled the lifeless Cybertron ruled by Nemesis Prime; Tigatron in particular came to enjoy the sweet taste of Scorponok drone muscle.

You can leave at any time through the door over there. It's a Louisville door, so you'll need to find a compatible knob. No, don't be silly, that one is a Lexington knob! Of course it won't fit.

Haunted House [Explained]

Transcript Under the Cut

[Ponytail is casually talking to Cueball and Megan, who jump back from her in fear.]

Ponytail: Welcome! If you need to charge your phones, note that this house has Pennsylvania wiring, but we have New Jersey and Delaware adapters available.

Cueball and Megan: AAAAAA!

Caption: The haunted house at the ISO/ANSI office Halloween party

What Is ISO : International Organization For Standardization | 4C Consulting

ISO Overview - Benefits And Importance Of Iso Certification

ISO stands for International Organisation for Standardization. It is a non-governmental international federation of national standards bodies, at present comprising 140+ members, one in each country. The organisations aim to provide knowledge, develop organizations, inculcate innovation and provide solutions to global challenges.  Their objective is to promote standardization to seamlessly facilitate international trade.

A standard body is composed of representatives from various national standards organisations. These standards are crucial components that make things work effectively. It was founded on 23 Feb 1947 and promotes worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial standards covering almost every industry, from technology to agriculture and healthcare, to food, and more.

ISO comes the Greek word ‘isos’ meaning ‘equal’.

Understanding Iso – International Organization For Standardization

Let’s say a girl named Priya, who is 5 Year old, loves Belgium hand-made chocolates. Her mother, a nutritionist, is concerned about her well-being and thus carefully gives her selected chocolates once or twice a week.

Her selection of the chocolate depends on numerous factors, one of them being the place and conditions under which the chocolates are manufactured. She specifically orders handmade chocolates for her daughter after doing rigorous online research. She is a regular customer of a global brand named ‘True Belgium’. Her consumer loyalty stems from the fact that she has researched well-enough about the company and knows that they have ISO 22000 and HACCP certification—a necessary food safety certification. This strengthens her trust in the brand and she chooses to order from them only.

Almost everything you use today is manufactured by a company. The nuts or screws that hold the chair you are sitting must be chosen by your furniture manufacturer because they hold certifications of quality and durability.

An ISO certification enhances the credibility of an organization in the market. It certifies that the respective organization follows the right measures of manufacturing or doing a particular service.

Importance Of Iso Certification

To get an organization ISO certified, there are certain measures to be followed. Since it is about improving the quality and fulfilling the innovative gaps that elevate the organization, it requires a rigorous gap analysis, documentation, training and final implementation. The process sounds complicated, and sometimes even becomes complicated, due to the level of quality control required at a facility.

ISO is not concerned about the complication at your facility; it aims to ensure that the organization follows the pre-defined procedures and that the end product is optimum.

ISO Benefits An Organization Through:

It improves the efficiency of the organisations

Elevates the trust factor amongst the consumer

Makes the organisations globally ready for trade

Reduces the cost of quality

Improves consistency, customer satisfaction, and competitive advantage

Demonstrates your commitment to quality in the market

Strengthens the process of your organisation and market positioning

Empowered internal employees with upgraded training

Increase sales due to certification which means an increase in revenue

Increases credibility and recognition

All in all, ISO helps an organisation to move from local to the global level. It facilitates routes to trade internationally. Getting an ISO certification is a complete win-win decision.

If the process of getting the certification seems too tedious and cumbersome, 4C Consulting is here to help you throughout. We provide consultancy, training and implementation services to organisations for ISO across all industries.

We have a qualified, experienced and competent team working across India. Our team is IRCA certified ISO 9001 auditors for Consulting Services and have over 15 years of experience. We have successfully provided 30,000+ Man-days consulting and 20,000+ Hours training for multiple organizations in need.

Further, we have hands-on experience in implementing other Quality tools such as LEAN, TQM, FMEA, and PPAP that would help to gain early benefits. Today, we are working with more than 50 International & National Certification Bodies and have over 13000 happy clients.

Get ISO Certification

Facing difficulty in getting ISO Certification? Reach out to Legal Pillers. They help their clients who want to certified by their fast and reliable ISO Certification Services. To know more visit their website.

hi for the love of god hello

These guys have been dealing with the most dreadful week of their lives for three whole years and somehow haven't yet kicked it. I think that warrants celebration!

That is to say - this comic turns three today! Thanks to anyone out there who's ever given it a look. It blows my mind on the regular that literally anyone bothers with this absurdly niche thing, so if you've been following along...thanks!

Here's to the road ahead!

his little fanny pack on his desidia ghillie suit makes me giggle, him and his sniper are out on the field when they start feeling eachother up and he pulls back all excited like "wait!" then pulls out a condom and/or lube from it

oh my god

I like the idea that he has a lot of weird shit that couldn't conceivably fit in there but somehow does, so he's just prepared for every situation, yay us

South Africa’s genocide case has put the spotlight on a deeper fault line in global geopolitics. Beyond the courtroom drama, experts say divisions over the war in Gaza symbolize a widening gap between Israel and its traditional Western allies, notably the United States and Europe, and a group of nations known as the Global South — countries located primarily in the southern hemisphere, often characterized by lower income levels and developing economies.

Reactions from the Global North to the ICJ case have been mixed. While some nations have maintained a cautious diplomatic stance, others, particularly Israel’s staunchest allies in the West, have criticized South Africa’s move.

The US has stood by Israel through the war by continuing to ship arms to it, opposing a ceasefire, and vetoing many UN Security Council resolutions that aimed to bring a halt to the fighting. The Biden administration has rubbished the claim that Israel is committing genocide as “meritless,” while the UK has refused to back South Africa.[...]

As a nation whose history is rooted in overcoming apartheid, South Africa’s move carries symbolic weight that has resonated with other nations in the developing world, many of whom have faced the burden of oppression and colonialism from Western powers.

Nelson Mandela, the face of the anti-apartheid movement, was a staunch supporter of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its leader Yasser Arafat, saying in 1990: “We align ourselves with the PLO because, akin to our struggle, they advocate for the right of self-determination.”

Hugh Lovatt, a senior policy fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that while South Africa’s case is a continuation of its long-standing pro-Palestinian sympathies, the countries that have rallied behind it show deeper frustrations by the Global South.

There is “a clear geopolitical context in which many countries from the Global South have been increasingly critical over what they see as a lack of Western pressure on Israel to prevent such a large-scale loss of life in Gaza and its double standards when it comes to international law,” Lovatt told CNN.

Much of the non-Western world opposes the war in Gaza; China has joined the 22-member Arab League in calling for a ceasefire, while several Latin American nations have expelled Israeli diplomats in protest, and several Asian and African countries have joined Muslim and Arab nations in backing South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ.

For many in the developing world, the ICJ case has become a focal point for questioning the moral authority of the West and what is seen as the hypocrisy of the world’s most powerful nations and their unwillingness to hold Israel to account. [...]

Israel sided with the West against Soviet-backed Arab regimes during the Cold War, and Western countries largely view it “as a fellow member of the liberal democratic club,” he added.[...]

“But the strong support of Western governments is increasingly at odds with the attitudes of Western publics which continue to shift away from Israel,” Lovatt said.

Israel has framed the war in Gaza as a clash of civilizations where it is acting as the guardian of Western values that it says are facing an existential threat.

“This war is a war that is not only between Israel and Hamas,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog told MSNBC in December. “It’s a war that is intended – really, truly – to save Western civilization, to save the values of Western civilization.”

So far, no Western countries have supported South Africa’s case against Israel.

Among Western states, Germany has been one of the most vocal supporters of Israel’s campaign in Gaza. The German government has said it “expressly rejects” allegations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and that it plans to intervene as a third party on its behalf at the ICJ.

An opinion poll by German broadcaster ZDF this week however found that 61% of Germans do not consider Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip as justified in light of the civilian casualties. Only 25% voiced support for Israel’s offensive.

But it is in Germany’s former colonial territory, Namibia, that it has attracted the fiercest criticism.

The Namibian President Hage Geingob in a statement on Saturday chided Berlin’s decision to reject the ICJ case, accusing it of committing “the first genocide of the 20th century in 1904-1908, in which tens of thousands of innocent Namibians died in the most inhumane and brutal conditions.” The statement added that the German government had not yet fully atoned for the killings.

Bangladesh, where up to three million people were killed during the country’s war of independence from Pakistan in the 1970s, has gone a step further to file a declaration of intervention in the ICJ case to back South Africa’s claims, according to the Dhaka Tribune.

A declaration of intervention allows a state that is not party to the proceedings to present its observations to the court.

“With Germany siding with Israel, and Bangladesh and Namibia backing South Africa at the ICJ, the geopolitical divide between the Global South and the West appears to be deepening,” Lovatt said.

Traditionally, the West has wielded significant influence in international affairs, but South Africa’s move signals a growing assertiveness among Global South nations that threatens the status quo, says Adekoya.

“One clear pattern emerging is that the old Western-dominated order is increasingly being challenged, a situation likely to only further intensify as the West loses its once unassailably dominant economic position,” Adekoya said.

19 Jan 24

A Complete Guide on ISO 27001 Certification

Nestlé, the world’s largest consumer goods company, adds sugar and honey to infant milk and cereal products sold in many poorer countries, contrary to international guidelines aimed at preventing obesity and chronic diseases, a report has found. Campaigners from Public Eye, a Swiss investigative organisation, sent samples of the Swiss multinational’s baby-food products sold in Asia, Africa and Latin America to a Belgian laboratory for testing. The results, and examination of product packaging, revealed added sugar in the form of sucrose or honey in samples of Nido, a follow-up milk formula brand intended for use for infants aged one and above, and Cerelac, a cereal aimed at children aged between six months and two years. In Nestlé’s main European markets, including the UK, there is no added sugar in formulas for young children. While some cereals aimed at older toddlers contain added sugar, there is none in products targeted at babies between six months and one year. Laurent Gaberell, Public Eye’s agriculture and nutrition expert, said: “Nestlé must put an end to these dangerous double standards and stop adding sugar in all products for children under three years old, in every part of the world.” Obesity is increasingly a problem in low- and middle-income countries. In Africa, the number of overweight children under five has increased by nearly 23% since 2000, according to the World Health Organization. Globally, more than 1 billion people are living with obesity.

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ISO-3166-1:2006

The story of the surprisingly contentious release of the second edition of the ISO's country codes list.

Promote safety, quality and efficiency across the entire food industry.

ISO has more than 1,600 standards related to the food sector, with many more in development. The world population is growing rapidly and many food products repeatedly cross national boundaries to meet our rising demand for food. International Standards help to address this challenge in a safe and sustainable way, through guidance and best practice in food production methods and testing, to promote safety, quality and efficiency across the entire food industry.

UPA Standar Internasional, Kantongi Sertifikasi ISO 370001 dan 21001

UPA Standar Internasional, Kantongi Sertifikasi ISO 370001 dan 21001

BERITA.NEWS,Makassar- Universitas Patria Artha (UPA) terus perkuat kredibilitas sebagai Perguruan Tinggi (PT) Swasta. Hingga punya Sertifikasi Standar Internasional. UPA rupanya telah lebih setahun telah memegang dua sertifikat International Standardization Organization (ISO) 21001 kaitannya soal sistem manajemen mutu pendidikan. Adapun, ISO 370001 merupakan sistem manajemen anti suap уаng di…

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Okay so we know Oscar's type is big buff alien women but what is Ward's type? Asking for research purposes

The one that doesn't try to compromise the integrity of his internal organs. His standards have dropped a bit lately 👍