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The flag of Syktyvkar, the capital of Komi Republic in Russia, gave me a neuron activation when I saw it
(thelemmy.club)
The bear motif is apparently lifted from the city's coat of arms from 1780 (back when it was called Ust-Sysolsk). A bear also appeared in the Soviet-era coat of arms^[As far as I understand, in the USSR most city "coats of arms" were basically just tourist trinkets, unofficial designs used for pins and badges rather than actual official symbols of the city government.]. The bear is connected with Komi people's arctolatry of Osh, the bear in Komi mythology. Osh appears in this flag symbolically guarding the traditions of the Komi people, represented by the spruce tree symbol from traditional Komi embroidery. The bear itself appears to be drawn in a style influenced by traditional arts and handicrafts, I found a cool-looking painting by a Komi artist depicting a bear in a similar style, but then I looked into it and found out that that painting was apparently connected to a lot of really rancid far-right crap, so… woof. I originally attached that painting to this post but I edited it out now.
I also found this Permyak amulet with a strikingly similar bear design, the Permyaks being closely related to the Komi people, both speaking respective versions of the Komi language.
Image from the Komi Permyak museum in Kudymkar, former capital of the now-abolished Komi Permyak Autonomous Okrug, now Perm Krai.
Going back to the Syktyvkar flag, there's also a sun symbol from Komi embroidery above the bear. The sun symbol is called "Shondi" or "Shondiban". Syktyvkar is a place where the sun can be visible for up to 19 hours at a time, so I guess that figures.
The blue, green, and white colors come from the flag of the Komi Republic itself, Syktyvkar being the republic's capital, as said; and the colors are intended to evoke 
AURORA BOREALIS. Which TBH kinda feels like it's overselling how northern the city is, like you don't see cities at the same latitude in other countries making a big deal out of how they very occasionally see the northern lights… But hey, I guess seeing northern lights at all, if only infrequently, is a pretty special thing, right?
So yeah. Cool flag. Main.
You should watch SPARKLE ON RAVEN: The Life of DrillGirl; it is a very good show. {Cēterum|Furthermore} {cēnseō|I think} {iūs auctōris|copyright} {esse dēlendum|must be destroyed}.
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"Comrade its time for another committee meeting "
enjoying a friend's baby shower but has to find a quiet room now "okay comrade see you in a few"
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Navajo Wikipedia is the only edition of Wikipedia where its maps show an Indigenous homeland or reservation separately from its colonizer
(thelemmy.club)
As far as I'm aware, all maps on Navajo Wikipedia include the borders of the Navajo Nation filled in with pink. This includes maps of countries not just in Abya Yala but also in Afro-Eurasia (more zoomed out the further away from the Navajo Nation you get), and maps showing the locations of cities. Also as far as I'm aware, no other Indigenous-language edition of Wikipedia has this practice: they simply use the same maps as most other Wikipedia editions.
It sort of figures that of all the Indigenous-language Wikipedias, it would be Navajo Wikipedia that would show its country's borders separately from those of Seppoland: the Navajo Nation has the greatest number of enrolled members of any federally-recognized Indigenous group in Canada and Seppoland; it has the most spoken Indigenous language in Canada and Seppoland; it has the largest Indigenous reservation in Seppoland by area; its reservation encompasses its traditional territory to a much greater extent than most Indigenous reservations in Canada and Seppoland; it has a single, largely contiguous polity and government to represent the entire nation, rather than multiple, fragmented reservations; and >99% of the inhabitants of that reservation are Indigenous, with the majority of the enrolled members living on-reservation. This points to a different state of Indigenous struggle and consciousness in the Navajo Nation compared to other Indigenous nations.
Put simply, it's a lot easier for a Navajo mapmaker to say "here's my country" than, say, an Ojibwe mapmaker. Ojibwewaki/Anishinaabewaki is a huge country, but do you represent it on a map as the hard borders of current reservations, as the hard borders of treaties signed by the Ojibwe, as the approximate extent with a blurry border, or as a mosaic of all of the above? How do you decide which Indigenous groups to count as Ojibwe subgroups versus as separate nations? The answers aren't always easy.
Edit: Also, yes, wááshindoon, in reference to Washington, D.C., is Navajo for "government; administrative headquarters, capital; official". Neat!
Edit 2: Main.
You should watch SPARKLE ON RAVEN: The Life of DrillGirl; it is a very good show. {Cēterum|Furthermore} {cēnseō|I think} {iūs auctōris|copyright} {esse dēlendum|must be destroyed}.
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It's in German, is titled "The Russian colonial empire, extractivism, indigenous peoples and the war", and the lecturer seems to be an adherent of Aktionsethnologie (translated as action anthropology, but I think activist ethnology might be a better translation).
It starts with some history of Russian colonialism and such, I don't know that much about it, but I assume he's not making this shit up. The real 
moment is at the end of the talk, where he preemptively asks himself the question "What can we do about it?", to which the answer is:
"Support Ukraine's war effort!"
The first question from some guy in the audience is how exactly does supporting Ukraine in the war help indigenous peoples in the Russian Federation, and hats off to that guy. The activist at first basically admits to having no idea or plan, then refers to his NGO fucking colleagues who all agree on that (for some unexplained reason, which you can probably already guess, but more on that later), then basically goes enemy of my enemy and fantasizes about breaking up the RF. Which sure dude, a Western protectorate on top a bunch of gas fields is definitely going to lead to self-determination. If only the colonialism expert could think of historical examples of how that is going to work out.
Earlier in the talk, he mentions a cause of his: Two women (and friends of his) which Russia arrested for separatism or something like that. He dismisses these charges as nonsense, because these ethnic groups are just too small to form a state anyway. Sooo... which is it guy? You want the RF to be broken up and think this leads to self-determination, but also that idea is just nonsense and there can be no self-determination. Sign me up for the trenches for such a worthwhile cause!
At some point in the talk he complains about how he knew some indigenous activists that are now collaborating with the Russian government and he accuses them of receiving money from the resource extraction industry. Also complains that Global South indigenous rights and anti-colonial activists disagree with him and listen to those guys apparently. He also complains that he and that whole fucking event has been accused of being NATO shills, which is obviously laughable according to him.
Well, wouldn't you know, at no point does he mention his conflict of interest during the talk, but in the notes he discloses affiliation with two NGOs, one funded (according to Wikipedia) by the EU and the foreign ministries of Scandinavian countries. Which explains why he and his colleagues are such supporters of leading Ukrainians to the slaughter.
And oh yeah, he also manages to put an off-topic Holodomor genocide mention in there. Guy said he studied Ukrainistik btw.
Anyway, here's the link, but it's in German, and I can only recommend listening to it if you like punching yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FOgKJlNrgU
Also, shame on the Chaos Computer Club for being affiliated with this shit.
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João Paulo Ampessan's 2015 master's thesis, which I'm pretty sure is the only ever master's thesis written (yes, written!) in sign language. Federal University of Santa Catarina.
(repositorio.ufsc.br)
There have been a number of other master's theses in sign language^[For instance, Maria Kopf - "Geschlechtersensible Formulierungen in der Deutschen Gebärdensprache. Eine Bestandsaufnahme" (2020); there was also Renatha van Reenen's thesis from this year, but I can't find the thesis itself, just news articles about its existence.], however these theses were made via video recordings. Curiously, none of the extant theses in sign language come from Gallaudet, the world's only university designed specifically for Deaf signers.
João Paulo Ampessan's thesis, "A escrita de expressões não manuais gramaticais em sentenças da libras pelo sistema SignWriting" (official English translation: "The Writing of Grammatical Non-Manual Expressions in Sentences in LIBRAS Using the SignWriting System"), represents an interesting third option between Deaf signers writing master's theses in a second language (the local oral language), or presenting their master's theses as recorded videos (which can be time consuming): Ampessan chose to write in his native language of Libras (Brazilian Sign Language), using Sutton SignWriting, a Unicode-supported featural transcription system for sign languages. A few other academic articles before and since Ampessan's thesis have utilized Sutton SignWriting as well, however those articles only ever used the system to represent snippets of sign language whereas the articles themselves were in an oral language.
Abstract:
This research investigates the written form of non-manual expressions (ENM) in sign language, drawing on research by Ferreira-Brito (1995), Quadros and Karnopp (2004), Stumpf (2005) and Quadros, Pizzio and Rezende (2008). It discusses the visual-spatial nature of sign language, describing its parameters as a way to consider ENM. It then focusses explicitly on the system of Sign Writing, more specifically the symbols for ENM. The method of data collection was to apply two written tests with students on the Brazilian Sign Language Studies course at the Federal University of Santa Catarina. In the first test, students were asked to connect columns in phrases that did not contain ENM symbols in the SignWriting system. In the second test, the symbols were present. Thus, it was possible to verify differences in understanding because of the existence or not of ENM in the system. The analysis and discussion considers the results from the tests, in which students were asked to connect the column showing which sentence category the written signs belonged to. These included affirmative, negative, interrogative Y/N (S/N), interrogative WH (QU), interrogative expressing doubt and suspicion, interrogative WH (QU) appearing in subordinate sentences without non-manuals, conditionals, constructions with topics or focus, and sentences expressed by the direction of gaze. A total of 45 questions with ENM and another 45 in the second test without ENM showed the number of errors and correct answers in both tests, demonstrating the need for the use of ENM symbols in SignWriting system. Generally, students made more errors in tests without ENM, whereas, there were more correct answers with ENM, indicating that the use of grammatical expressions symbols in writing is required. There may be other variables that have influenced this result, but nevertheless, we can infer that the data indicate the need for ENM usage in writing sign language.
Regrettably, I cannot find an English translation of the thesis, although there is a Portuguese translation included in this PDF.
Main.
You should watch SPARKLE ON RAVEN: The Life of DrillGirl; it is a very good show. {Cēterum|Furthermore} {cēnseō|I think} {iūs auctōris|copyright} {esse dēlendum|must be destroyed}.
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On October 7th, 1949, the German Democratic Republic was formed under the Socialist Unity Party of Germany with Wilhelm Pieck being it's first General Secretary.
The GDR may have been annexed by the western fascist descendants of Hitler, but their legacy still continues to this day as living proof that a better Germany and a better world is not only a dream but an achievable and tangible goal.
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cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/9714188
Before the war, my dream was simple: I wanted to continue my education, build a future, and one day be able to support my parents, my brother, and my sister. Like millions of young people around the world, I believed that with hard work, determination, and education, I could build a better life.
Then the war came and everything changed.
For nearly three years, my family and I have been living in a displacement camp. Every day has become a struggle just to survive:
Severe Heat & Harsh Winters: Summer heat turns our tent into an oven, while freezing winter winds make living conditions unbearable.
Water Scarcity: Clean water is extremely difficult to find, requiring long walks carrying heavy buckets. Every liter matters.
Food & Resource Shortages: Food is scarce and basic items have become far too expensive.
Medical Care: Healthcare is extremely limited, making even simple illnesses frightening.
Winter is Approaching — The Struggle with Smoke & Woodfire:
Our children’s eyes are exhausted and burning from the constant smoke of burning wood used for cooking and heating. As winter sets in, the thick smoke makes breathing difficult, hurts their eyes further, and increases the need for eye drops and basic medicines.
We urgently need $1,700 to renovate our tent, buy essential firewood (🪵) for heating and cooking, purchase warm winter clothes to protect us from the cold, and secure necessary food and medical supplies.
Despite everything, I still refuse to give up. I have received an official acceptance from the University of Glasgow. For me, this is more than an academic opportunity—it is a dream I have carried for years to study in Europe, gain knowledge, build a career, and return that opportunity to my family by creating a better future for them.
Financial Requirements:
Tuition Fees (University of Glasgow): £33,000
Winter Shelter, Firewood & Emergency Needs: $1,700
We have no one left to turn to but kind-hearted people like you. I am not asking for luxury; I am asking for survival, health, and a chance to study and rebuild our lives. Even a small donation of $10 makes a huge impact—every single cent counts and helps protect our family from the harsh winter.
How You Can Support:
GoFundMe Campaign: https://www.gofundme.com/f/surviving-an-onslaught
Bitcoin (BTC) Address: 15hhENX79tZy7MSxSJekewhdSN8jh92kRr
TRON (TRC20) Address: TBjNGTPXxC93wHvj8zyPpyfRciEy2Qykf3
Every donation, no matter how small, brings us one step closer to warmth, medical relief, and education. If you are unable to donate, please consider sharing this story. One share could reach someone who can make a difference.
Thank you for taking the time to read my story and for giving us hope when hope feels so far away.
With gratitude,
Soliman
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