A new report from the Korean Institute for National Unification (KINU) provides eyewitness testimony that the Kim regime publicly executed violators of Pyongyang’s draconian COVID-19 quarantine measures.
Reports of shoot-to-kill orders for anyone attempting to cross the North Korean border during the pandemic were previously covered by NKNews in October 2020, but new testimony in the KINU report grants further credence to these dark realities.
Public executions have long been a feature of the Kim regime’s policies – ranging from public executions of Christians for being caught with a Bible to the purging of Pyongyang’s elites to tamp down on any semblance of revolutionary spirit. A 2019 report from the Transitional Justice Working Group put a finer point on the matter – of the 600 defectors interviewed, they documented “323 reports of sites of state-sanctioned killings”. According to the same report, 83 percent of North Koreans surveyed said they witnessed a public execution.
This is a combination of Agust Gudmundsson’s Satellite Map and the 2D quake map. I used Autocad to import each image and then known features to match the scales and orientations, but it’s still an approximation. Additionally, the satellite image is greyscale and low resolution so the perimeter of the lava field gets hard to discern in some areas with little to no color contrast.
The Fissures and Lava Fields
The two eruptive fissures (north[900m] and south[150m]) are shown in red. It ejected quite a bit of lava, but the experts say they were lucky that the eruption was as weak as it was. The new lava fields from each are in orange. The initial fissure to the north grew in its size as the eruption continued and extended itself underneath the original berm. This extension and the area where the berm crossed the highway allowed lava behind the ber.
The southern fissure was completely unexpected and it was heartbreaking to witness. While it released a smaller amount of lava at a lower pressure than the north, but due to its proximity to the village, it was enough to destroy at least (2) homes.
The Berms
The berms are shown in blue, both the original (lite blue) and the two new additional ones (medium blue).
The original 10-15 meter high [32-48 foot] berm held up strong and most likely saved the village from much more damage. However, it was not completely effective. A small portion of the berm at the highway had been left open for travel until the day of the eruption when emergency crews plugged it last minute.
During and since the eruption, the emergency crews have built (2) new berms on the west side of Grindavik to further deflect lava and protect the village.
The Infrastructure
The town is still under evacuation order due to the uncertainty of future eruptions and the dangers inside the village due to subsidence and instability.
Electricity seems to be back on in town.
The geothermal pipeline that runs tandem (a few meters west) to the north-to-south highway and was destroyed by lava. This is significant in that this supplies Grindavik it’s most abundant heat source, hot water. Homes that were not in harms way are still going to have moderate damage due to frozen pipes. [Edit Jan 21 2024] It was reported that just yesterday emergency crews bypassed the destroyed section of pipe restoring water both hot and cold.
Two of the reported three homes that were destroyed by lava are shown in white. The north home does not appear on many maps. It was reported to be a new home that was yet unoccupied. The south home was occupied and appeared to be a complete loss. I am still unsure about the third home.
The greenhouse, shown in green, survived seemingly undamaged thanks the the original berm. It was reported to have had all of its equipment removed prior to the eruption.
I heard a report that the local government is probably going to be able to offer Grindavik residents a buyout for their homes and property but all I can find is a report that it may be possible.
250 abandoned sheep were reported to have been rescued and removed on Tuesday Jan 16.
The Next Chapter
The future of Grindavik is not looking so good. The data seems to point towards yet another eruption, and likely within the next few weeks.
The Svartsengi GPS Station is near the power plant (north of Grindavik). This is the region where the experts suspect the ultimate source of the magma. It is feeding the magma chamber under Grindavik which is where the eruptive fissures from both December and January formed. It will take months or years of inactivity for this to cool and plug itself. While the system is fed, the pressure will increase. As the pressure builds, the chances of the magma moving or erupting increase. There is no real way known to man as to what exactly is going on down there.
Earthquakes have been very quiet in the area which is to be expected after the balance of pressure. They have ramped back up through the week but are still low in frequency, size and depth. During the eruption, there were numerous mini-clusters of earthquakes near Grindavik (Locations with a high concentration of earthquakes). One of these locations ultimately became where the southern fissure erupted. There were (2) other mini-clusters south of that fissure well inside of Grindavik. Both of these areas of mini-clusters are above the magma chamber and could be places of a future eruption. With the damage to the area, it could just be stress related fractures.
Send hope and prayers to the great and brave people of Grindavik.
Lot of talented highly educated people as well. There are some difficulties though, namely in regards to how… complicated the legal situation is for companies and investors is. It’s very much a system where the bureaucracy is so thick that you need someone who has connections to get through it all.
This is not to say that laws in India should be changed to suit the needs of foreign investors, just that the internal complexities make it difficult market to work in as a foreigner. Perhaps that’s for the best given the history of foreign “investment” and “business interests” in India.
Oh Germany, how I love your rules. A protest against the AfD in Hamburg was dismissed by the police because of the announced 10,000 people between 50,000 and 100,000 actually showed up.
Chilling. Worst part is that this kind of thing gives a glimpse into humanities future. Technology is rapidly approaching a point where it will grow the power of fascism beyond the human ability to counter it.
It’s kinda good for humanity to shrink a bit though. We can’t keep expanding as we will eventually run out of space and natural resources. Most western countries aren’t really growing in population anymore either and I think that’s a good thing. We’re already suffering the consequences of too high growth in the past. Not enough housing, resource constraints, pollution.
Also, why spend your life raising babies if you can enjoy yourself. Yes, for some people that constitutes enjoyment, but not for everyone. Certainly not for me. Let them have at it. Humanity absolutely isn’t going to become extinct, plenty of people will want to have them. Not families of 6-10 anymore but that’s all good. It would actually be amazing if the world population declined a bit and stabilised at say 2 billion. Sustainability is not infinite growth but stability.
The problem is the inverse demography pyramid, less young people to take care of the old. The boomers have this issue and China will now too. But at least this problem is temporary and the world will be much more sustainable with a lower birth rate. Reducing economic issues, less risk of conflict as resources aren’t quite as scarce per person, less CO2 emitted etc.
Yeah, it’s almost as if people don’t want to have kids when life is complete dogshit and the future only ever looks worse. But hey, maybe that mandatory optimism thing they’re trying to enforce will turn it around. Don’t believe your eyes and ears, everything is wonderful!
Fuck it. Hope the great filter eliminates us with extreme prejudice before we get off this rock and ruin more fucking planets.
Everything points to humanity already having overcome the great filter, and for Elon’s family, bodyguards, and indentured serfs, to colonize Mars in the near future.
Bet good money to see a full court press from China discouraging turnout in the 2024 election.
A Trump win is far better prospects for them being able to invade Taiwan before the demographics of it become impossible to overcome than a Biden win, and white TikTokkers aren’t gonna be convinced to vote Republican, expect a LOT of disinformation about how Biden doesn’t do anything or how he’s exactly the same as Trump and any other crock of shit you hear the twits spit out whenever they want to explain why not voting isn’t handing Trump the win or why doing that isn’t a fucking first order act of betrayal of the disemprivileged.
The international situation is the biggest argument against Trump. Another 4 years of incompetence and self serving is something we cannot really have right now without huge consequences. Kind of feels like all the arguments in the US are just a distraction from the bigger issues.
Speaking at someone who actively tells you they’re not listening, while still handing them money and weapons and other resources, and then throwing up your hands and going, “They won’t listen! There’s nothing more I can do!” is purely performative.
Put the aid on the chopping block, or it’s just hot air.
The aid cannot be on the chopping block. You know why? Because it was guaranteed through Congress until 2028.
Usually these aid bills fly through Congress with 0 fanfare, so it’s not shocking that a long term aid package was passed in 2022 or some shit for a bunch of years.
If absolutely necessary I can figure out the dates. But it’s years.
All of a sudden everyone seems to know things about foreign policy without actually looking into any of it.
Biden has pushed for supplemental aid, and he doesn’t have to. He can signal that he’ll veto any additional aid. He can certainly put pressure on Democrats to repeal already-appropriated aid, and he’d even pick up a number of Republicans on that. I also seem to remember a thing where Trump was blocking delivery of approved aid to Ukraine (with the illegal part being that it was for a quid-pro-quo), so stopping aid is certainly possible for a president.
But instead he’s pushing for more aid to Israel’s military. So once again, performative.
I did not fully get from the article what exactly it is that makes marriage too expensive? Surely getting a marriage certificate is not prohibitively expensive? And shared / dual income would make it easier to stay on top of finances…
In order for a man to marry they need to own their own home & have a decent car. This is the societal norm in today’s China, without these things the women’s parents will not approve & they are still a confucianist society to a point, so eloping is quite rare. Now in Shanghai the home owning part is not so easy :-) Though the article is not great, because the “wealthy” part doesn’t make much sense.
(wealth starts with owning a large home, while driving a “Benz”)
This reluctance to tie the knot is worrying policymakers grappling with a decline in births and a rapidly aging population in a country that was once the world’s most populous, and where marriage rates are closely tied to birth rates as unmarried mothers are often denied child-raising benefits.
I heard the CCP wanted birth rates to climb. That’s not how you do it. The slowing economy doesn’t have to have this effect on young people. The Chinese government has a much stronger ability to manage these effects than democratic free market economies. I hope they would manage to use that.
Caususes are a way some state political parties choose to pick out their favorite party candidate for the November election.
In most states they have a primary which is just a normal election by US standards. In a few, including Iowa, they gather in a physical room and move from location to location to physically show who they support.
That means if I’m “caucusing for Bernie” I’d go stand next to the Bernie crowd. This ends when a certain candidate has a majority (I don’t remember the exact amount). So people move from candidate to candidate as they see theirs isn’t winning or as they are persuaded by others there.
Every state has their primary or caucus on a specific day, so yesterday was Iowa’s day, and it’s often very cold this time of year in Iowa. This year it’s pretty brutal, high of 3°F and low of -3°F today (-16C and -19.5C), and it was colder a few days ago.
The more I discover about US election system the more confused I am, lol. This is like some form of centuries old comedy and not like current event real president may come from.
news
Newest
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.