If you’re an avid film watcher, you’ve probably come across some rather odd urban legends and myths. What’s amazing is that often times real-life occurrences of mass hysteria, spurred on by mass psychogenic illness or collective obsessional behavior are much more bizarre and scary than fictional myths. These anomalous phenomena occur just like other natural phenomena and have long-lasting psychological and often fatal effects on the victims. Unusual as they are, similarly absurd phenomena are observed in animals and plants as well.200+ Years of Witch Hunts, Trials and ExecutionsMost common in the Early Modern period (1480 to 1700) in Europe, witch hunts were one of the most popular and widespread forms of mass hysteria, resulting in legally sanctioned witchcraft trials and mob lynchings of many unfortunate people. The practice was so widespread that in later years absurdity of these accusations caused the term to adopt a connotation of malicious false accusations and persecution such as the anti-communist accusations during the McCarthy era.The Dancing Plague of 1518In July 1518 in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, a large number of people spontaneously started dancing for days without rest over one month. Most of the people ended up dying due to heart attacks, strokes, or exhaustion. The plague started with one woman, in a matter of a few days that number increased to 34, and within a month to 400. To this day the cause of the mass hysteria is unknown.The War of the Worlds Martian InvasionAdapted from H. G. Wells’ famous novel The War of the Worlds, a Halloween radio broadcast on October 30, 1938, directed and narrated by Orson Welles caused thousands of listeners to believe that an actual Martian invasion was taking place (the fact that the environment was already generally hostile, leading up to the war, didn’t help). The hour-long radio broadcast was narrated in a news bulletin format, without any commercial breaks, causing many in the audience to be afraid while many others actually panicked, reporting that they could smell poison gas or see lightning flashes in the distance. According to some historians, approximately 6 million people heard the broadcast, 1.7 million thought it was true, and out of those, 1.2 million were actually frightened.The Tanganyika Laughter EpidemicThis laughter epidemic started in a Tanzanian village in 1962. Starting with an innocent joke in a boarding school, the resulting laughter is said to have perpetuated itself and spread to thousands of people. The laughter, some people claim was incapacitating. Other symptoms included respiratory problems, fainting, pain, and weirdly enough, crying attacks. The phenomenon lasted for about 18 months.The Halifax Slasher IncidentIn November 1938, in Halifax, England, a week-long scare was started after 2 people falsely claimed to have been attacked by a man with a mallet. In the days that followed, more reports of attacks by this ‘mysterious man’ started popping up. The situation got so serious that the Scotland Yard had to step in to help the police and get to the bottom of these reports. Several people were mistakenly identified as the slasher and consequently beaten up by angry mobs and matters escalated to a point where most businesses in the city were shut down and people were afraid to leave their homes. On November 29, one of the original alleged victims admitted that he had made the story up, causing many others to also confess and leading to 5 people being charged with public mischief out of which 4 were eventually sent to prison.Strawberries With Sugar Soap Opera DiseaseMorangos com Açúcar is a famous Portuguese youth soap opera that was popular, predominantly among children and teenagers because of its depiction of the adventures of Portuguese youth. In May 2006, over 300 students across 14 different schools began reporting symptoms matching those of the characters on the show, including rashes, respiratory difficulties, and more, causing many schools to shut down. The ‘disease’ was ultimately dubbed mass hysteria by the Portuguese National Institute for Medical Emergency.The Misanthropic Monkey-Man of DelhiThe story of this monkey-man is widespread in India though still remains a cryptid. Starting in May 2001, people started reporting that a strange monkey-man was attacking them at night. Descriptions of the monkey-man vary a great deal, with some believing him to be an avatar of a Hindu god, while others believe he is an Indian version of Bigfoot, and some even believe that he is a cyborg that can be deactivated if you throw water on its motherboard. The alleged victims include numerous people attacked by the monkey-man, including one pregnant woman, and a few others who were attacked by an angry mob that believed them to be the monkey-man.The Revenge of Kuchisake-OnnaKuchisake-onna, or Slit-Mouth Woman, is a Japanese mythological legend that tells the story of an unfortunate woman whose face was mutilated by a jealous husband, and who returns as an angry spirit hell-bent on taking revenge by inflicting similar wounds on others. As with any good urban legend, rumors started circulating in 1979 about Kuchisake-onna sightings, then again in 2004, and again in 2007.The Hindu Milk MiracleThe Hindu milk miracle was first observed on September 21, 1995. A worshiper in a south-Delhi temple made a routine offering of milk to a statue of a Hindu god, and the liquid disappeared from the bowl, apparently sucked in by the trunk of the statue. In a matter of few hours, the word spread that a similar phenomenon could be replicated with statues all over North India. Similar ‘miracles’ were also reported on in 2006.Genital Retraction SyndromeGenital Retraction Syndrome is a form of mass hysteria where people are overcome with the belief that their genitals (most commonly penises and breasts) are shrinking, or retracting into the body. Sometimes people even believe that they may spontaneously disappear. Such panics have occurred in many different places in the world, but most commonly in Africa in Asia. The panics are noticeably more common in places with lower standards or provision of education and where the local understanding of science and biology is lacking.The 2006 Mumbai Sweet Seawater IncidentIn 2006, residents of Mumbai claimed and began reporting that the water at one of the most polluted creeks in India, the Mahim Creek, had turned sweet. The claim, as ridiculous as it sounds considering that the creek receives thousands of tonnes of raw sewage and industrial waste every day, caused many to drink the water and save it in plastic bottles for later consumption.NOTE: I have written about some of these syndromes or phenomena, and there are a lot of people who still believe most of these incidents to be fact. For instance, the Monkey-Man of Delhi encounters most likely occurred, it's just a case of identifying what the phenomenon was. Many more lesser-known oddities could have been added to this list. LonOutbreak! The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social BehaviorHysteria: The disturbing historyWhy People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our TimeSalem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft**********GIANTS! LEGENDS BASED ON TRUTH? LIVE Chat | Q & A | Join Us! (HISTORICAL & EYEWITNESS REPORTS)PHANTOMS & MONSTERS VIDEO LIBRARYPOLL: WHAT DO YOU THINK? Vote & comment on paranormal, cryptid & unexplained mysteries!LISTEN TO NARRATIONS OF PHANTOMS & MONSTERS REPORTS & CASES - PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, LIKE & SHAREPHANTOMS & MONSTERS RADIO Podcasts on SpotifyPHANTOMS & MONSTERS READING LISTCHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube PlaylistHave you had a sighting or encounter?Contact me by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. LonOUR SOCIAL MEDIA LINKSBigfoot and Other Cryptid Videos on YouTubeLYCANS! - PENNSYLVANIA'S CRYPTID CANINES UPDATE'KILLER BIGFOOT' HUNTED BY U.S. SPECIAL FORCES / GLIMMER MAN / MANTIS HUMANOIDSCRAWLER HUMANOIDS - GRUESOME INVADERS! (REAL EYEWITNESS ENCOUNTERS!)WEREWOLVES: DO THEY EXIST?'DOGMAN IN OUR YARD!' - AN OHIO FAMILY'S 12-YEAR SAGA WITH CRYPTID CANINESHey, folks. Thanks for the congrats on 'The Mothman Revisited' episode on Unsolved Mysteries. As a result, we are receiving more sighting reports and are very excited and grateful for the new information!I sincerely thank the Unsolved Mysteries team and Netflix for allowing us to tell the world about this phenomenon.If you have information about this or any other cryptid or unexplained sighting or encounter, please feel free to contact me by email or at 410-241-5974. Thanks again! LonCHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube PlaylistChicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive MapHey, folks. Please feel free to share your thoughts & comments on the recently uploaded video of the CHICAGO MOTHMAN. I'm interested in what you have to say. Thanks. LonEXCLUSIVE VIDEO of CHICAGO MOTHMAN RECORDED----------Become a Phantoms & Monsters Radio Insider - just $2.99 monthly, and receive these perks. Thanks for your support!-Members-only live chats-Exclusive members-only videos-Priority reply to members' commentsHave perks suggestions? LMK-----YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED! THANKS

Over the years, we've heard and read about a variety of cryptid sightings in Fayette County, PA, which includes a supposed underwater beast in the Cheat River known as the 'Monster of Seltzer's Hole.' The Cheat River is a 78-mile-long tributary of the Monongahela River. The following account appeared in the Philadelphia Times on July 31, 1893:"For months past farmers living near the Line Ferry have been missing sheep, lambs, pigs and even young calves, to say nothing of innumerable chickens, turkeys and geese, and until a few days ago they blamed the Italians and other laborers engaged in grading the State line road with stealing the missing animals. Not a night since early last spring has passed without some farmer waked up in the morning to find that he had been robbed of a fat pig, a young calf, a sheep, two or three choice lambs, or half a dozen of his finest barnyard fowls. Effort was made to catch the thief, but every attempt proved a failure and everybody had about settled down to the belief that the laborers along the railroad were doing the stealing.But the mystery has at last been cleared up to the minds of at least three of the most reputable farmers of the neighborhood. They will not at present allow their names to be made public, and it was only after assuring the correspondent to keep their names out of print that they told him what they knew about this "Monster of Seltzer's Hole", as it is called. They each saw the monster on different occasions, but at about the same hour in the morning, and give about the same description of it."I first saw the monster,' said one of the farmers, "just at daybreak last Tuesday morning. I got up very early to go to Uniontown, and started out to the pasture field to get the horses, and just as I opened the barnyard gate I heard a terrible racket down by the calf pen, which was immediately followed by the stampede of every living object in the barnyard in the direction of the house. The chickens and turkeys flew with loud cries of distress into the trees in the yard and to the roof of the house, and the cattle and pigs crowded around me trembling with fright and uttering pitiful outcries of terror."Something down at the calf pen had given them a terrible fright, but what it was I could not imagine. But I resolved to find out, and pushing my way through the trembling animals I started down to the calf pen. When I got withing twenty yards of the pen the most horrible looking monster the mind could conceive clambered over the strong rail fence that surrounds the calf pen, carrying in its mouth a 3-days-old calf."I tried to turn and fly to the house for protection, but if the monster had been within a foot of me I could not have moved an inch. I tried to cry out, but not a sound escaped my lips. My tongue seemed to be made of lead, and my eyes were fixed on the awful-looking creature that was slowly moving off toward the river, still carrying in its mouth the calf it had stolen."It looked to me to be the size of an Alderney cow, although its legs were very much shorter and its body was somewhat longer. Its back was ridged and humped in the centre, and from behind each shoulder protruded something which was neither a wing, fin, arm nor claw, though it resembled each of them. Its tail was long and thick and resembled that of a crocodile, except that the end was forked, resembling that of a monstrous fish. Its feet were webbed and resembled those of a bear in outline, and were as large as a peck measure. The body was covered with big, heavy scales, which moved as the monster walked."But the head of the dragon was the most fearful looking part of all. It was as large as that of a horse and covered with large warty knots. Directly in the forehead and just below the eyes was a monstrous, jagged, horn-like protuberance, and just back of the ears were two similar-looking horns, though somewhat smaller. The eyes were as large as a teacup and stuck out from their sockets at least an inch and a half. The mouth of the beast I could not see very well, for the struggling calf was in it, but it must have been exceedingly large, for the monstrous jaws reached almost across the calf's body."The monster had traveled at least 100 yards toward the river before I recovered sufficiently to move. I was not asleep, but as wide awake as I ever was in my life. I resolved to follow the monster at a safe distance and see where it went. Rushing into the house I seized by double-barreled shotgun, and without waking the rest of the family I started after the ugly beast and again caught sight of it just as it reached a clump of bushes on the cliff which overhangs the river near Line ferry. It was broad daylight by this time, and with both barrels of my gun cocked I followed in the monster's wake."When I reached the cliff I looked down over it and saw the monster just crossing the road and making for the big rock in the water's edge, alongside Seltzer's Hole. It turned around when it reached the river's bank and glared back at me, and then with something between a growl and bellow leaped into the water and disappeared from sight. I went down to the bank and watched for sight of the monster for over an hour, but as it did not again show itself I went home."I did not tell my folks what I had seen, but simply said that somebody or something had stolen one of the calves during the night. Neither did I say anything about it to any of the neighbors until this morning. I knew they would not believe me, and might start a report that I was going crazy."But this morning, Mr. --- came over to my house and after fidgeting about for an hour or two took me out to the barn and said that he was bound to tell me something. After swearing me to secrecy he told me that the monster that I had seen on Tuesday morning- for it was evidently the same one- had carried off one of his finest sheep this morning and that he had followed it to Seltzer's hole, where it disappeared in the river. Mr. --- and I then went up to Mr. --- and told him what we had seen, and he told us that he had seen it twice last week, but was afraid to tell anyone about it for fear they would not believe him. I can't imagine what kind of animal it can be or how it came to be in Seltzer's Hole. We are going to keep a lookout for the monster to-night, and if he comes out will try and give him a good dose of buckshot."A number of people of the neighborhood have reported that they has seen a strange-looking beast at night on the hills neat Cheat Haven during the past three months, but no one paid any attention to the stories, thinking them the creature of an imaginative brain, but if the word of the three farmers referred to can be believed the reports are true."Astonishing Encounters: Pennsylvania's Unknown Creatures, Casebook 3Monsters of Pennsylvania: Mysterious Creatures in the Keystone StateSupernatural Lore of Pennsylvania:: Ghosts, Monsters and Miracles (American Legends)Strange Pennsylvania Monsters**********GIANTS! LEGENDS BASED ON TRUTH? LIVE Chat | Q & A | Join Us! (HISTORICAL & EYEWITNESS REPORTS)PHANTOMS & MONSTERS VIDEO LIBRARYPOLL: WHAT DO YOU THINK? Vote & comment on paranormal, cryptid & unexplained mysteries!LISTEN TO NARRATIONS OF PHANTOMS & MONSTERS REPORTS & CASES - PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, LIKE & SHAREPHANTOMS & MONSTERS RADIO Podcasts on SpotifyPHANTOMS & MONSTERS READING LISTCHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube PlaylistHave you had a sighting or encounter?Contact me by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. LonOUR SOCIAL MEDIA LINKSBigfoot and Other Cryptid Videos on YouTubeLYCANS! - PENNSYLVANIA'S CRYPTID CANINES UPDATE'KILLER BIGFOOT' HUNTED BY U.S. SPECIAL FORCES / GLIMMER MAN / MANTIS HUMANOIDSCRAWLER HUMANOIDS - GRUESOME INVADERS! (REAL EYEWITNESS ENCOUNTERS!)WEREWOLVES: DO THEY EXIST?'DOGMAN IN OUR YARD!' - AN OHIO FAMILY'S 12-YEAR SAGA WITH CRYPTID CANINESHey, folks. Thanks for the congrats on 'The Mothman Revisited' episode on Unsolved Mysteries. As a result, we are receiving more sighting reports and are very excited and grateful for the new information!I sincerely thank the Unsolved Mysteries team and Netflix for allowing us to tell the world about this phenomenon.If you have information about this or any other cryptid or unexplained sighting or encounter, please feel free to contact me by email or at 410-241-5974. Thanks again! LonCHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube PlaylistChicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive MapHey, folks. Please feel free to share your thoughts & comments on the recently uploaded video of the CHICAGO MOTHMAN. I'm interested in what you have to say. Thanks. LonEXCLUSIVE VIDEO of CHICAGO MOTHMAN RECORDED----------Become a Phantoms & Monsters Radio Insider - just $2.99 monthly, and receive these perks. Thanks for your support!-Members-only live chats-Exclusive members-only videos-Priority reply to members' commentsHave perks suggestions? LMK-----YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED! THANKS

Picture it: you’re happily sitting aboard a plane and the pilot falls over unconscious. It’s the stuff of nightmares and Hollywood movies, but for one Californian, it was all too real. On what was supposed to be a flight from Las Vegas to Monterrey, the twin-engine aircraft was diverted to Bakersfield before the pilot went […] The post Hero Passenger Lands Plane After Pilot Suffers Cardiac Arrest appeared first on Good News Network.

Movies & TV the Penguin “I don’t regret what I got” — The Penguin’s “Bliss” By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on October 7, 2024 Credit: Macall Polay/HBO Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Macall Polay/HBO One of my favorite stories is about a baseball player named Rickey Henderson. When a Major League Baseball team makes it to the postseason, the teams get a percentage of the revenue generated by the postseason games they play in. The members of the team get to decide how that money is divided amongst the players, staff, etc. According to Mike Piazza’s memoir, when the New York Mets were deciding how to divvy up the shares they got as National League Champions in 2000, and they got to the marginal folks—like a minor-leaguer who was only up for a few games or the parking-lot attendant or some such—Henderson would say, “Full share!” When someone tried to argue, he’d say, “Fuck that! You can change somebody’s life!” I thought of that story when watching the third episode of The Penguin, specifically the scene where Penguin and Sofia discuss the circumstances under which the latter was sent to Arkham State Hospital. Penguin was Sofia’s driver, and he’s the one who revealed to Carmine Falcone that she was behind the Hangman murders, which resulted in Carmine sending her to Arkham. In their conversation toward the end of “Bliss,” Penguin semi-apologizes, as he thought he was doing it to help Sofia—he didn’t expect her to be sent to Arkham. (The trailer for next week’s episode indicates that at least part of it will be flashbacks to flesh out this storyline. It should also be added that Sofia says in this episode that she isn’t the Hangman, which is an interesting twist. In the comics, Sofia was the Hangman murderer in the Batman: Dark Victory miniseries by Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale.) But what Penguin doesn’t apologize for in the least is what he got after she went away. The Penguin that we were introduced to in The Batman, who ran the Iceberg Lounge and was the guy who ran the drops operation for the Falcones, got there after Sofia was committed. He has no regrets about attaining a bit more success. Sofia nastily points out that he’s not a capo, he’s not a made man, and Penguin knows that, but it’s a huge improvement on what his life was like as a driver. As he said back in “After Hours,” the Falcones were “born full.” Penguin just wants more than he was born with. “Fuck that! You can change somebody’s life!” That theme runs throughout the episode. “Bliss” opens with a flashback that is contemporaneous with the final forty-five minutes or so of The Batman. We see Vic meeting up with his girlfriend Graciela (whom we saw texting him last week) and then we’re introduced to his immediate family: his mechanic father, his home-care specialist mother, and his little sister. Both Vic and his sister think their Dad should be asking for more money for his boss given the work he does, but their father is content with what they have because it’s still way more than they had before. (In the after-show, executive producer/showrunner Lauren LeFranc says that Vic is half Mexican and half Dominican; LeFranc herself is half Mexican, and Vic actor Rhenzy Feliz is Dominican.) Vic pushes back against that with his father, unsuccessfully, and later on we see him realizing that Penguin is going to pay him a thousand dollars a week. When Penguin tells him that he needs to ask for what he wants, not just sit and wait for it, the first thing Vic does is ask for two thousand. Penguin congratulates him on that, and then says no way. The flashback ends, of course, with the bombs going off that destroy the firewall and flood the city. Vic and Graciela are on a roof with their friends (some of whom we saw with Vic trying to boost Penguin’s car in “After Hours”), and they have to watch as their building is destroyed, their families killed. Penguin continues to show his ability to verbally tap-dance and talk his way out of things. When Sofia realizes that Penguin doesn’t know the specifics of the new drug that she and Alberto were going to unleash on Gotham, Penguin doesn’t miss a beat: Al wasn’t big on details, he just said it was a new drug and he would have Penguin handle distribution. (The first two parts are true, though the third obviously is not.) The drug in question, Bliss, comes from a rare strain of mushroom. Said drug was used as a pacifying agent in Arkham, and Sofia viewed it as the perfect thing to supplant drops as the big moneymaker in Gotham. Now even more so: the people of Gotham are hurting, badly. They need a something to take them away from the misery of their lives. That is, in fact, the argument that Sofia and Penguin make to Zhao (the eternal character actor François Chau), the head of Gotham’s Triad gang. (Digression: the drug being called Bliss threw me for a loop, as I had a magically enhanced drug called Bliss in my high fantasy novel Goblin Precinct back in 2013. I mean, it’s an obvious name for a drug, but still, it amused me…) They field-test the drug for the Triads because they’re the best bet to distribute without the Falcones or the Maronis knowing about it. But the only way to get the meeting with Zhao is for a high-ranking member of the Falcone family to vouch for them. Without hesitating, Penguin says that Johnny Viti will make that call. Sofia is confused, then learns that Viti has been sleeping with Luca Falcone’s wife, the blackmail that Penguin has had on Viti since the opening of the first episode (information he’s already sold to the Maronis in exchange for them not killing him), and he leverages that to get Viti to call Zhao. Viti, however, is dangerous to both of them. He dismisses Penguin pretty thoroughly (which gets a cell phone shoved in his mouth in anger by the Penguin), and he also wants nothing to do with Sofia, having followed through on Luca’s suggestion last week that she go to Italy by actually buying her a plane ticket. (Cristin Milioti plays it beautifully: “Aw, did you print this out yourself?”) However, he can’t afford for Luca to know about the affair, as the nicest possible response from Luca will be a bullet in his brain, so he plays ball for now. But this will come to a head in some way… Credit: Macall Polay/HBO Meantime, Vic is presented with a difficult choice. After being homeless and reduced to scavenging cars for parts, he’s now in a thousand-dollar-a-week job with a place to stay and everything. But then he and Graciela finally touch base for, apparently, the first time since the flood. She’s going away to California to start over, since her family’s dead and her school is destroyed. She wants Vic to come with her. The problem is that Vic doesn’t think he’s free to go. Penguin, after all “hired” him at gunpoint. The conflict rages in Vic all episode, and comes to a head when they’re field-testing Bliss at his club. Vic is the bag man for the women who are selling the drug in the club, and at one point the sound system plays some explosions and Vic has a massive PTSD flashback. (Kudos to director Craig Zobel, who has the spilled vials of Bliss rattling on the dance floor visually resonate with the pebbles on the roof vibrating from the explosions in Vic’s flashback.) It’s only when Penguin sees the text messages from Graciela asking why he isn’t at the bus station yet that Vic realizes the truth: he could have left any time. Penguin initially did virtually kidnap him in order to help dispose of Alberto’s body, but not after that. He was trying to give Vic the better life that his father never strove for. Penguin pulls out a gun and points it at Vic’s head, and asks if this is what being with Penguin felt like. And then he lets Vic go. Vic makes it all the way to the bus depot, but finds that he can’t get on the bus with Graciela. He can’t run away from the opportunity that has been presented to him. While Graciela is more to him than “a piece of ass,” as Penguin dismissively says, going with her means leaving his home, even if it’s not much of a home these days. And there’s that thousand a week. “Fuck that! You can change somebody’s life!” When he returns to the club, he finds that Sofia and Penguin’s heart-to-heart has been interrupted by Nadia Maroni, who is not happy that Penguin has double-crossed them. Sofia is not thrilled at the news that he was in a position to double-cross the Maronis, but Vic drives his car into the melee before anybody can get into any detail on the subject. Vic and Penguin drive off—Penguin specifically saying to leave Sofia behind—and now Penguin’s verbal tap-dancing skills are going to get their biggest workout. But that’s for another episode, as “Bliss” ends on that flip-the-table moment.[end-mark] The post “I don’t regret what I got” — <i>The Penguin</i>’s “Bliss” appeared first on Reactor.

Books book review The West Passage by Jared Pechaček Is a Fairy Tale With Modern Sensibilities A review of Jared Pechaček’s new fantasy novel By Alexis Ong | Published on October 7, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share There is something comforting in watching a couple of little guys making good in a bigger world, and following in this tradition, Jared Pechaček’s debut novel The West Passage delivers a warm, lovingly-crafted adventure built on the narrative bones of fairy tales, classic bildungsroman, and surrealist fantasy. The most obvious blueprint for the former would be hobbits being gently but firmly booted out of the Shire to save the world; it is, for better or worse, the best known example of its kind in fantasy and arguably broader popular literature. It makes perfect sense, then, that Pechaček is a Tolkien enthusiast, and has clearly studied the blade when it comes to the minutiae of hierarchical, ritualistic life from past ages. But The West Passage is very much its own well-formed creature, shepherded into being by a bright, confident hand to stand on its own two feet (or even three, in the world of palace anatomy). The West Passage is told primarily through the journeys of Pell and Kew, two teen apprentices from Grey Tower—the central node of a vast, rambling palace complex, that, for its inhabitants, may as well be the whole world. Pell belongs to Grey House, an order of women charged with the rituals of life and death, while Kew was most recently the apprentice to the Guardian of the West Passage, who dies just before the book begins. While Pell and Kew—both of whom have been groomed to inhabit very specific roles in their respective institutions—are the dual heart of the story, what I loved was how well Pechaček chose to expand these core narratives into a larger ensemble story, dipping a strategic toe into the different waters of each palace tower without losing focus on the two protagonists’ development.  Pechaček is meticulous in his attention to detail, painting complete pictures of these Grey-led caretaking scenes with generous attention to scent and texture and sound. It’s easy to see that this is a place of tradition, held together with obedience and hierarchy in the familiar way that foreshadows an inevitable upheaval; small little things, almost inconsequential, begin to snowball slowly, steadily, into the shape of a serious omen. But while Grey Tower is an ancient, crumbling core that takes its load-bearing duties very seriously, it’s balanced out nicely by smart, understated levity. In tandem with bleak, remorselessly matter-of-fact moments of despair, Pechaček’s use of lightness—dramatic indulgences, fleeting glints of droll pettiness, relatable wryness in the strangest places, the dry humor in his chapter names—elevates the palace world into something far beyond the average “ sheltered kids make good” adventure. Buy the Book The West Passage Jared Pechaček Buy Book The West Passage Jared Pechaček Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget People aside, the most compelling character for such a setting-centric story like this is, of course, the palace itself—five fragmented towers, Grey, Black, Red, Blue, and Yellow—which sits in an unknown place in an unknown world. Pell and Kew each venture out (quite independently of the other) into a landscape that neither knows much about beyond hearsay and books; Pell, who stands to inherit the responsibility of running Grey Tower, has never really needed to think beyond her order’s cloisters, while Kew, whose life has revolved mostly around elder knowledge and books, has no material experience with the world he was trained to defend. But rather than having these sheltered souls traverse across a static landscape, Pechaček reminds us in every scene that this pseudo-sentient palace is both a living, breathing horror, as well as a Kafkaesque layer cake of senseless bureaucracy (truly, at times, the same thing).  The Ladies, for instance, are inextricable parts of this palace landscape—the terrifying rulers of each tower, with Black Tower and its ruling Lady serving as the first among equals (though it becomes clear that the Ladies are very much not on the same footing). Each is a unique, unknowable universe marked by their own peculiar surreal motifs; the lasting impressions I had of each Lady were the overwhelming architectural qualities of their presence and presentation. Not only are they enormous—Pechaček’s approach to characterization has fun playing with scale and geometry—they are distinctly structural, stylized beings made of (and this is an important distinction, as opposed to being clothed in) specific materials, embellished to the hilt like sinister, sociopathic skyscrapers. The result is an unholy marriage of what stems from (clearly) Pechaček’s great love of formal costuming, architecture, and baroque aesthetics, and it works extremely well.  In some ways, the Ladies reminded me of the witches from Puella Magi Madoka Magica—inscrutable, fantastical, unreachable, and inevitable parts of the world they live in. What Pechaček did with each Lady was to cultivate a tangible sense that our protagonists were up against a concept or a feeling or at times, a fucking mountain, rather than a cogent entity capable of negotiation and logic, which makes perfect sense when you consider the Madoka Magica witches as the personification of bad vibes. But it’s also the chimeric nature of the witches—in the case of Ladies, what I felt was a technicolor patchwork of competing wills—which brought me to this comparison. The Ladies are, if anything, monstrously constructed spectacles that are inextricable from the land and towers that they dominate; there is a profound sense that to confront them is to confront the quiet, rotten truth at the core of one’s reality.    The West Passage, at least for me, was a lovely return to a genre I haven’t visited in some time, the fairy tale, though this one has more modern sensibilities focused on broader structural social commentary than folklore-centric fairy tales that tended to speak to issues around morality and related social phenomena (historically often things like child abandonment, poverty, changing family structures, and so on). Most of all, though, it reminded me of forgotten gems from the past (albeit ones that were far less horrifying), above all Nicobobinus, by Terry Jones, which remains one of my favorite childhood books for its unabashed joyfulness and sense of wonder; there are set pieces from Nicobobinus that remain engraved permanently in my mind despite not having seen (or heard anyone talk about) the book for almost three decades. The West Passage is similarly striking, a wonderful balance of mirth, matter-of-factness, and mystery in a wholly original setting that will stick with me for a while longer.[end-mark] The West Passage is available from Tordotcom Publishing. The post <i>The West Passage</i> by Jared Pechaček Is a Fairy Tale With Modern Sensibilities appeared first on Reactor.

Although the Federal Emergency Management Agency told Congress last month that it had $4 billion in its Disaster Relief Fund, officials also warned that the fund could have a shortfall of $6 billion by year’s end, a situation FEMA says could deteriorate in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. While FEMA is expected to ask Congress for new money, budget experts note a surprising fact: FEMA is currently sitting on untapped reserves appropriated for past disasters stretching back decades.  An August report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General noted that in 2022, FEMA “estimated that 847 disaster declarations with approximately $73 billion in unliquidated funds remained open.”  Drilling down on that data, the OIG found that $8.3 billion of that total was for disasters declared in 2012 or earlier. Such developments are part of a larger pattern in which FEMA failed to close out specific grant programs “within a certain timeframe, known as the period of performance (POP),” according to the IG report. Those projects now represent “billions in unliquidated appropriations that could potentially be returned to the [Disaster Relief Fund].” These “unliquidated obligations” reflect the complex federal budgeting processes. Safeguards are important so that FEMA funding doesn’t become a slush fund that the agency can spend however it chooses, budget experts said, but the inability to tap unspent appropriations from long-ago crises complicates the agency’s ability to respond to immediate disasters. ‘Age-Old Game’ “This is an age-old game that happens and it doesn’t matter what administration is in,” said Brian Cavanaugh, who served as an appropriations manager at FEMA in the Trump administration. “It’s unfortunate how complex disaster relief has become, but it’s skyrocketing costs.” Cavanaugh said neither action from Congress nor an executive order from the White House would be required to tap those funds because FEMA is operating on the sort of continuing resolutions Congress routinely authorizes. If the money is part of “immediate needs funding,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas could draw from the billions in untapped money to help the victims of Helene and then inform lawmakers he was compelled to do so, leaving elected officials facing charges they sought to pinch pennies when Americans were desperate. FEMA did not respond to a request for comment about whether it could access the earmarked funds. Mayorkas, whose department oversees FEMA, stressed the agency is not broke, and both he and other FEMA officials said last week there was enough money in the Disaster Relief Fund to meet the needs of victims of Hurricane Helene, which with a death count of more than 200 stands as the most lethal storm to hit the U.S. since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Most of Helene’s bills will come due in the future, and Mayorkas said FEMA can meet the day-to-day needs of operations right now in afflicted states but might be hard-pressed if another storm like Helene were to hit this year. Hurricane season officially lasts until the end of November, but historically, September and October have been the months in which the occasional monster smites the U.S.  “We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have,” Mayorkas told a press gaggle Oct. 2 on Air Force One. “We are expecting another hurricane hitting. We do not have the funds. FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season and … what is imminent.” On Oct. 3, FEMA, which handles state and local government relief aid as well as the federal flood insurance plan and individual emergency requests, said it had spent at least $20 million in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida—three of the states that bore the brunt of Helene as it ripped ashore. The figures FEMA provided did not include Georgia, another state hard-hit by Helene, which made landfall in Florida on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 hurricane. Longtime FEMA critics said the looming shortfall is not surprising, given its main job is to use federal taxpayer dollars to reimburse state and local governments for recovery costs, in addition to more immediate money it provides to victims on an individual basis. “It doesn’t strike me as too weird,” said Chris Edwards, policy scholar at the conservative Cato Institute. “Right now, $20 million is peanuts, but it’s not necessarily unreasonable to think the upcoming bills will be much, much higher.” Skyrocketing Costs The skyrocketing costs associated with disaster recovery are one of the main drivers of FEMA’s predicted budget woes. Last year, the U.S. saw a record 28 storms that caused more than $1 billion in damages, and the $1 billion threshold has been reached 19 times thus far in 2024. Since 2001, there have been nine times that FEMA nearly ran out of money in its Disaster Relief Fund, forcing it to pause hundreds of non “life-saving services” the agency runs. The price tag on some of those services, such as those associated with assistance to immigration, has seen an unprecedented surge due to millions of illegal entrants during President Joe Biden’s term. FEMA has spent more than $640 million on those programs in 2024, leading to criticism this week from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, and others. FEMA rebutted the claims by insisting those sums did not come out of the Disaster Relief Fund. Yet as Cavanaugh, Edwards, and others noted, the relief fund isn’t the main driver of FEMA’s expenses, which are primarily reimbursements to state and local agencies that handle things like debris removal, road and power grid repairs, and the like. Thus far, FEMA has been getting mixed reviews from elected officials for its response to Hurricane Helene in afflicted states. While five state officials in North Carolina’s hard-hit Buncombe County did not respond to questions from RealClearInvestigations, some Tar Heel residents have complained in media reports about the agency’s invisibility. While FEMA rarely initiates or administers contracts to clean debris, restore power, or search for survivors, the agency does provide emergency cash to storm victims who apply for it. Flood insurance protection comes not from private homeowners policies but from a federal program run by FEMA. ‘Crazy’ Numbers Generally, FEMA, along with state or local officials and a neutral third-party civil engineer, will estimate the cost of such work, and then the final figure will come through negotiations. But given those settlements are far in the future, they should not have any bearing on FEMA’s current budget. “It’s just crazy how expensive the numbers have gotten,” said Jeremy Portnoy of OpenTheBooks, a nonpartisan watchdog of government spending. “They’ve been warning for months now they are running out of money.” Portnoy first called attention to FEMA’s unspent funds in conversations with RealClearInvestigations on Sept. 8. He said it seems bizarre that federal officials would have a pot substantial enough to cover a projected shortfall while adding billions to the Disaster Relief Fund but fail to draw on it. “There is all that money just sitting there,” Portnoy said. “They’re saying they don’t have enough money but when you juxtapose it with the more than $8 billion, well, why not use that right now in Florida and other places?” The “unliquidated obligations” have stayed on FEMA’s books because it “subjectively” extended the deadlines on some projects. The deadline for 2012’s Superstorm Sandy has been extended to 2026.  “As a result, the potential risk for fraud, waste, and abuse increases the longer a program remains open,” a DHS report concluded. Although DHS could probably reach into such unliquidated obligations to help restore order in areas devastated by Helene, experts note that bureaucracies are loath to resort to such tactics when budget negotiations are near, as they are when the fiscal year ends this month. “The bridges that have been washed out, that’s not something FEMA will have to pay tomorrow,” Cavanaugh said.  This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire. The post Untapped Relief: FEMA Is Sitting on Billions of Unused Disaster Funds appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The Alexandre de Moraes vs. X saga continues. It seemed it might be over, and that the ban in Brazil might get lifted after the social media company complied with the demands of the country’s Supreme Court. And that included paying fines, which X owner Elon Musk last Friday said had been done. But now Justice Moraes claims that the payment was made to the wrong bank and needs to be transferred to the proper one – and besides, even when that issue is settled, the prosecutor general will have to be consulted before making a decision on restoring X in Brazil. The first time X asked the Brazilian Supreme Court to allow it to resume business was on September 16, but Moraes at that time said that the fines still had to be paid. The platform was blocked in August, as a result of an ever-escalating clash, always with Moraes as the main protagonist acting on behalf of Brazil. Since early 2024, X and Musk tried to resist censorship requests coming from Moraes and revealed some of the mechanisms behind it that were supposed to be kept from the public. Those requests targeted the accounts of many prominent figures opposed to Brazil’s current government. But over the past weeks, X started to comply by blocking a number of accounts that the Supreme Court is investigating for alleged misinformation and hate speech. Another demand was for X to appoint a legal representative in Brazil, which has also been done. The issue of the fines, equivalent to $5.24 million, was the last remaining, but Moraes decided to further prolong the story by declaring that the money went to the wrong bank. X, on the other hand, is denying that, with its lawyers continuing to ask that the platform be unblocked. They also don’t believe that the prosecutor general’s involvement is needed. While the supposed mix-up regarding the money transfer is a delay tactic that only goes so far, bringing the prosecutor general into the picture could potentially complicate X’s attempts to return to Brazil in a more serious way – should that official, for example, come up with some new demands. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Elon Musk vs. Brazil’s Moraes Just Got Messier and the Drama Isn’t Done Yet appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Looking for a tonic syrup recipe to beat winter cold and flu? This classic tonic syrup can do wonders for our body. Forget the cold and flu commercial medicines and serve this delicious homemade remedy instead! RELATED: Homemade Cough Syrup Tonic Syrup | All-Natural Homemade Remedy for Cold & Flu How to Make Tonic Syrup for Winter Cold and Flu No matter what fun and beauty winter brings, sometimes you can't avoid feeling down especially when you have a cold and flu. Rather than having fun with the beauty of the winter season, you get some rest and stay in your bed all day. Well, I cannot allow that in my homestead. I cannot miss the fun winter brings. That's why I always have a classic tonic syrup ready to serve in winter to ensure nobody catches a cold or flu! Before we begin, make sure all your ingredients are natural extracts. What You’ll Need: Ingredients: 2 Limes or Lemons 1 sprig Rosemary 1 sprig Mint 1 sprig Tarragon 1 dropper full Echinacea Extract 1 dropper full American Ginseng Extract 1 dropper full Digestive Bitters Splash of Elderberry Extract Splash of Cranberry Juice Distilled Water Supplies: Quart Container Knife Chopping Board   Eat well this winter, homesteaders! See our top 10 healthy dehydrated fruit recipes today! ???????????????????? https://t.co/0hnwDUNVUq — Homesteading (@HomesteadingUSA) December 27, 2016 Step 1: Slice the Limes Slice the limes into halves. You can also use lemons or use both. Step 2: Squeeze the Limes Give your limes a good squeeze to extract the juice. This will be your liquid base at the bottom of the jar for mixing the rest of the ingredients. Step 3: Bruising the Herbs One by one, bruise or twist the rosemary, mint, and tarragon to release its natural oils and flavor. Add it to the jar with your lime juice. Step 4: Add the Rest of the Ingredients Add the rest of the ingredients, 1 dropper full echinacea extract, 1 dropper full American ginseng extract, 1 dropper full digestive bitters, a splash of elderberry extract, a splash of cranberry juice, and give it a good mix. Step 5: Top It off With Distilled Water Top it off with distilled water until your jar is filled. Then, that's it! Your very own all-natural tonic syrup to fight off winter cold and flu! Watch this video by Bon Appétit on how to make an anti-cold health tonic:  Isn't that quick and easy? Everything looks great when you feel great, my fellow homesteaders! Catching a cold or flu is the last thing we want to happen. Prepare this tonic syrup and don't allow cold and flu to beat you this winter. Happy homesteading! Do you know other homemade tonic syrup recipe? Let us know in the comments section below! Up Next: 26 Homemade Recipes For Cold And Flu Season Natural Antibiotics To Have Around The Homestead How To Build A Tiny House | A Step-By-Step Guide Fellow homesteaders, do you want to help others learn from your journey by becoming one of our original contributors? Write for us! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter! Editor’s Note – This post was originally published on January 2017 and has been updated for quality and relevancy. **Disclaimer: All content on this site is for informational purposes only. Please read our full disclaimer here.**

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