Brained

In my view, it is less a case of not trusting kids, and more a case of parents' themselves being afraid of the world; so they adopt a 'anything bad that can happen, will happen' approach and try to shelter their children as much as possible. The problem is reinforced by children behaving as children, not as stakeholders, which is the position you want to come to. You need to allay your parents' fears, implicitly, and take up more responsibility when it comes to dealing with the outside world, but do it tacitly e.g: accompany your parents outside more often, have mature conversations etc. The idea is to gradually shift your parents' perspective about you from being a child to a mature person. Don't take them head on and demand independence, you must not appear rebellious as this will put them on the defensive and reinforce current behaviour. If possible, get someone else, perhaps a family elder to talk to talk to them.

The Laundromat. Insight into the world of money laundering.

Trauma is adversity that we did not respond well to. The scars that we come across once in a while, triggering a flood of bad memories, that is trauma. It hurts to think about it. Adversity is just that the situation. If dealt with well enough, it will not produce trauma, oddly enough it might even result in some good memories.

This. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51369410

Selective outrage is inevitable, people will show more anger/outrage over things they care more for/have an agenda about, or things they believe their outrage will actually have an affect on. As a general principle, fruits that are easier to pick will get picked first, e.g. easier to criticize Iran than China, because they're just more powerful. Fact is, there's nothing you or I can do about it. There is just too much injustice in the world for a single person to cover. That is true for everyone, including Shias.

I think the evidence was there, and was ignored. Iran is attributing it to 'human error', which basically means some SAM operator couldn't hold it together and let his nerves get the better of him. The reason, I suppose is the all-in attitude that had gripped everyone, preparing for WW3 and the ultimate showdown. The differential in military capabilities between the US and Iran means every dust-up is to be treated by Iranis as a potential all-out war, because they can't really be resting if/when the time comes. In a such a scenario, the cost of a bomber over Tehran, the operator perhaps thought, was greater than the weight of the evidence in front of him. To bring in Pakistan again, here's how it reacted when an Indian civilian jet with a military signature crossed the border. https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/dgca-s-clerical-error-forced-Pakistan-to-chase-spicejet-aircraft-119101801416_1.html

An Iranian admission was a wholly unexpected outcome. Most would have sat on the information and vehemently deny any wrongdoing even with leaks proving otherwise. Not sure what happens next. Perhaps some compensation and such, but long term damage to the sympathy it had gathered post-Soleimani has been done. The global focus has shifted and no amount of guilt admission would bail Iran out of this. For the Iranian military though, some soul searching is perhaps required. A lot can happen in the fog of war, still the lack of coordination, and the unpreparedness with which it appears to have approached premeditated military action is clear. Contrast this with Pakistan, which closed its airspace for a whole 5 months or something, as long as there was even an inkling of immediate threat from India.

hilarious, ftw, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism

Lol.. Reminds of the time I was staying in hostel and this exact scenario happened. A friend was too lazy to look out towards the mosque for the qibla and downloaded a mobile app for it instead. Ended up praying in the exact opposite direction. We used to joke that his prayer would circumvent the planet before reaching Makkah from the other side :p

On the other hand, the state goes a long way in accommodating Shia presence. Nothing gets state machinery moving as azadari does in Muharram. And its not just because of Shia presence in the upper circles of power, but because everyone recognizes the damaging potential a minority so scattered presents. If there is anything Pakistan's establishment is afraid of, it is the Shia-Sunni fault-line.

The Greta Thunberg Helpline, for adults who feel angry at a child : [na mehram ladies and sound warning]

Came across this story a while back: and https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/12/world/middleeast/Iraqi-spy-isis.html This gave me goosebumps. Imagine being surrounded by men who'd kill you without hesitation if your identity were known. He was later discovered and killed, but not before he had foiled dozens of attacks. Other stories on the guy: https://www.hstoday.us/subject-matter-areas/terrorism-study/the-isis-spy-who-saved-baghdad-from-30-bombing-missions/ https://alshahidwitness.com/Iraqi-spy-infiltrated-daesh/

Things Pakistanis do (found on twitter):

Greta Thunberg seems to invoke the same sort of reaction in western countries among the right-wing crowd as Malala does in Pakistan. What's with the right-wing hating on teenage girls