The new fabricated piece of Israeli atrocity propaganda, that Hamas baked a baby in an oven, is lifted directly from Palestinian survivor testimonies about what Zionist militants did during the Deir Yassin massacre of 1948.

[Warning, explicit descriptions of torture and violence.]

“I saw the Zionist terrorist soldiers ordering the bakery man of the village to throw his son in the oven and burn him alive. The son is holding the clothes of his father tightly and crying from fear and pleading to his father not to do it. The father refuses and then the soldiers hit him in his gut so hard it caused him to fall on the floor. Other soldiers held his son, Abdel Rauf, and threw him in the oven and told his father to toast him well-done meat. Other soldiers took the baker himself , Hussain al-Shareef, and threw him, too, in the oven, telling him, “follow your son, he needs you there”. - Testimonial from Othman Akel, recorded in Palestine Rising: How I survived the 1948 Deir Yasin Massacre (2010).

Like the saying goes, "every Zionist accusation is a confession."

It almost makes me wonder if it's part of a deliberate tactic to obfuscate search engine results. Because if you now search for something like say, 'Israeli solider put child in oven,' all the top results will be about Hamas, not Deir Yassin.

While we’re on the subject of names, is there an explanation for how traditional nicknames came about that are seemingly unrelated to, or have little in common with, the original name?

ie- John/Jack, Richard/Dick, Henry/Harry/Hank, Charles/Chuck, Margaret/Peggy/Daisy, Sarah/Sally, Mary/Molly, Anne/Nan, etc

I am actually over a week into researching a huge follow-up post (probably more than one if I’m being honest) about the history of nickname usage, so I will be going into this in much, much more detail at a hopefully not-so-later date - if I have not lost my mind. (Two days ago I spent three hours chasing down a source lead that turned out to be a typographical error from 1727 that was then quoted in source after source for the next 150 years.)

As a preview though, here’s some info about the names you mentioned:

The origins of a good portion of common English nicknames come down to the simple fact that people really, really like rhyming things. Will 🠞Bill, Rob🠞Bob, Rick🠞Dick, Meg🠞Peg.

It may seem like a weird reason, but how many of you have known an Anna/Hannah-Banana? I exclusively refer to my Mom’s cat as Toes even though her name is Moe (Moesie-Toesies 🠞 Toesies 🠞 Toes).

Jack likely evolved from the use of the Middle English diminutive suffix “-chen” - pronounced (and often spelled) “-kyn” or “kin”. The use of -chen as a diminutive suffix still endures in modern German - as in “liebchen” = sweetheart (lieb “love” + -chen).

John (Jan) 🠞 Jankin 🠞 Jackin 🠞 Jack.

Hank was also originally a nickname for John from the same source. I and J were not distinct letters in English until the 17th Century. “Iankin” would have been nearly indistinguishable in pronunciation from “Hankin” due to H-dropping. It’s believed to have switched over to being a nickname for Henry in early Colonial America due to the English being exposed to the Dutch nickname for Henrik - “Henk”.

Harry is thought to be a remnant of how Henry was pronounced up until the early modern era. The name was introduced to England during the Norman conquest as the French Henri (On-REE). The already muted nasal n was dropped in the English pronunciation. With a lack of standardized spelling, the two names were used interchangeably in records throughout the middle ages. So all the early English King Henrys would have written their name Henry and pronounced it Harry.

Sally and Molly likely developed simply because little kids can’t say R’s or L’s. Mary 🠞 Mawy 🠞 Molly. Sary 🠞 Sawy 🠞 Sally.

Daisy became a nickname for Margaret because in French garden daisies are called marguerites.

Nan for Anne is an example of a very cool linguistic process called rebracketing, where two words that are often said/written together transfer letters/morphemes over time. The English use of “an” instead of “a” before words beginning with vowels is a common cause of rebracketing. For example: the Middle English “an eute” became “a newt”, and “a napron” became “an apron”. In the case of nicknames the use of the archaic possessive “mine” is often the culprit. “Mine Anne” over time became “My Nan” as “mine” fell out of use. Ned and Nell have the same origin.

Oddly enough the word “nickname” is itself a result of rebracketing, from the Middle English “an eke (meaning additional) name”.

I realized earlier this week that my cat (Toe’s sister) also has a rebracketing nickname. Her name is Mina, but I call her Nom Nom - formed by me being very annoying and saying her name a bunch of time in a row - miNAMiNAMiNAM.

Chuck is a very modern (20th century) nickname which I’ll have to get back to you on as I started my research in the 16th century and am only up to the 1810s so far lol.

Amin Khazem speaks about the conditions of the prisons following his release, 7 April 24, via RNN Prisoners

Audio in Arabic; subtitles in English transcribed: "I've been imprisoned by the occupation for the last 11 months. Things changed dramatically after October 7th. I don't want to say they changed 90 degrees, but 3,800 degrees! The minimum I can describe of life inside occupation prisons is that it is living hell. Unfortunately, a lot of our youth are experiencing torture and pain, that some of them wish martyrdom so that their torture and suffering can end in the occupation prisons. The occupation limits their clothing and bed covers during bitter cold weather. For each hour of sleep, we're awake for two hours due to the coldness. For six months, the occupation has kept us hungry. How do they keep us hungry for this long? The amount of food they would give us would not satisfy a 7 year old. A lot of our martyrs in prisons were martyred due to excruciating beatings. Many of them would end up with internal bleeding and would not receive medical treatment. Instead they would be left to bleed in their prison cell until they're martyred."

“This one month felt like 100 years.”

Palestinians arrested by Israeli forces during Israel’s ongoing aggression on Gaza described the torture and abuse they were subjected to during the last month. They were brought to a Gaza hospital for treatment following their release.

The things you do are impressive. Who would work so hard to capture street dance like this? Who does that?

HOPE ON THE STREET EP.2

I just think it’s so silly and funny that in ace attorney, the defendant can go “I’m fucking guilty” and the judge can be like “nice, we’ll put in you in jail then. BUT if any DELUSIONAL, I mean, DETERMINED defense lawyer wants to give it a shot despite the defendant’s plea, I mean we’ll hear them out.” It makes no sense, it’s not supposed to, and I love it. AND it happened twice with Lana and Miles.

Literally like this:

Defendant: I’m guilty.

Phoenix: nuh uh

Defendant: stop

Judge: wait let him cook though

but if i’m gay and you’re gay then who’s channeling dahlia hawthorne

Six months ago, on the weekend of 7 October, I planned to go to the beach and swim with my friends in the sea. I lived by the beach and would go for a walk there most days to get fresh air. I also used to go to the gym every morning. Regardless of the 17 years of Israel’s blockade, I still felt some kind of security: I had my job, my home, my family, and I took care of my food and my health. Instead, that weekend in October, I woke up to the sounds of bombs. I went straight to the market to get food and basic essentials – I knew a war would be starting soon. I was only thinking about the coming days. For 200 days in Gaza, I’ve never felt safe or secure. When I go to sleep, I know that I might not wake up the next morning. My entire life has changed since October, and it will never be the same. Today, I don’t do a single thing I used to. Now, the only thing I have is my work. I constantly worry about those around me and try to take care of them. As a parent of two children, the worst feeling was knowing I cannot protect them. They can be killed at any time, and there is nothing I can do it about it. Before the war, I felt that I was the provider and protector of my family. Now, I just feel so powerless.I cannot secure the basic needs for me and family, like food, or gas for cooking. For the longest time in my life, I haven’t been able to eat any meat. I have lost around 13kg, I look like a completely different person. Any food that is available here is now too expensive. Finding transport in Gaza is impossible and there is no fuel available, so people can’t reach their families. I’ve lost so many loved ones. My best friend was killed. Another of my close friends was killed, along with his whole family. My friends who I used to see every day are all gone.

some homestuck sketches at varying levels of messiness. horseleather ranger design is originally by aoalmostdaily on twitter!

wrt your israel post, it's nice that you feel sad about violence and all but then what's your solution?

This is a llama blog, I have no solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Messages left by those who were besieged by the IOF inside Al-Shifa Hospital...

something that still makes me sick to my stomach is that nobody really needed any evidence for what they were accusing Amber Heard of, nobody bothered to verify anything, half of them didn't even know what the trial was about; they were just happy to unleash all the hatred they have against women once it was socially acceptable to do so. men wanted to torture a pretty female celebrity in a “kill the cheerleader” manner, prove that women are the actual abusers and liars and men are the poor victims who are never believed - conveniently after a wave of women no longer staying silent about the abuse and sexual assault they endured - and they succeeded, partially thanks to all the handmaidens who were happy to throw a woman they knew nothing about under the bus to prove that they are the good kind of feminist who fights for women and men alike and just cares so much about male victims. nobody cited anything else than the few tiktok viral clips that could have been easily disproven like Depp accusing Heard of cutting his finger off, or a few body language expert who were Just Some Guy concerned about their views and not the truth and who conveniently were able to make it seem like Amber smiling or crying or sitting and staring and doing nothing or moving her head by one degree to the side or looking at the jury when she's addressing them is a proof of her being the abuser. when asked what about Amber's testimony doesn't make sense, one of my friends just stared blankly for a good while and only came up with an answer like “oh, like when she said that her dog stepped on a bee”. yeah, we all saw that on a 20-second youtube short too. you'd think that before going on a crusade of death wishes towards someone and comparing her to serial killers people would learn anything about this woman at all, but they just knew NOTHING and it didn't stop them. hope the temporary validation you got from moids was worth all the women you scared into silence, hope it was worth all the rape victims you terrified with your “lol what is she complaining about that just sounds like a dream” tiktoks with Amber's testimony about Depp raping her used as an audio, hope it was worth what happened to Evan Rachel Wood and hundreds of other women, hope it will be worth it when you will just get mocked and called an Amber if you ever decide to stand up for yourself against your abuser.

Recently freed prisoner of 18 years Muhammad Al-Zitawi: "The Israeli occupation prisons are functioning like Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib."

The thing is I understand the idea behind "we're allowed to be angry at/criticize/pressure our leaders" but that doesn't change the reality of how elections work in the United States right now. We only have one party that's tethered to reality, so indulging people who say they don't want to vote for that party just feels fake. Especially when the alternative is worse on everything, including the issue they're angry about. Withholding your vote isn't a protest, it's just giving up your voice. I think maybe some people think of it like a boycott, like they're a consumer refusing to give a political party their business. But that's not exactly how it works, nor should it work that way. Party politics are not a brand identity and we don't want them to be.

Warrior Nun: The tender devotion of her hands ...

If this doesn't convince you nothing will 🤔