Famine

A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, population imbalance, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Nearly every continent in the world has experienced a period of famine throughout history. Some countries, particularly in sub-Sahara Africa, continue to have extreme cases of famine.

History

The cyclical occurrence of famine has been a mainstay of societies engaged in subsistence agriculture since the dawn of agriculture itself. The frequency and intensity of famine has fluctuated throughout history, depending on changes in food demand, such as population growth, and supply-side shifts caused by changing climatic conditions. Famine was first eliminated in Holland and England during the 17th century, due to the commercialization of agriculture and the implementation of improved techniques to increase crop yields.

Decline of famine

Famine (Masterton novel)

Famine is a 1981 horror novel written by Scottish writer Graham Masterton. The story is about a nationwide famine that sweeps America, rendering all sources of food contaminated in one way or another.

The plot revolves around Ed Hardesty, a wheat farmer who owns South Burlington Farm, Kingman County, Kansas and his attempt to find out the cause of the blight that has stricken his wheat crop, as well as every other crop in the United States. Though there are numerous other characters, Ed is indeed the protagonist and is the focal point for the book's progression.

References

Famine (film)

Famine (also known as Stupid Teens Must Die!) is a 2011 horror film written and directed by Ryan Nicholson, and co-written by Jeff O'Brien.

Plot

At Sloppy Secondary High School, new teacher Ms. Vickers has put together a 24 Hour Famine (volunteers stay in the school gym and starve themselves for a day) for charity, the first famine held since an incident occurred during the last one five years prior. Ten students (Cathy, Sarah, Darren, Nick, Terry, Vanessa, Andrea, Katie, Jenny and Peterson) sign-up for the event, wanting the extra credit. Vickers asks Jenny what happened at the last famine, and is told that rumor has it the organizer, Philip Balszack, was accidentally disfigured by acid when he tried to have sex with Cathy in the chemistry lab. Balszack disappeared, and Cathy was supposedly briefly institutionalized.

Before the famine begins, Katie hides food in one of the gym washrooms, and while doing so is confronted by someone wearing the costume of the school mascot, a carpenter called The Nailer. The Nailer throws a knife into Katie's forehead, and hides her body. Hours later, with the famine in full swing, The Nailer picks off straggling students. Terry has his throat slit while sabotaging food in the cafeteria, Peterson is impaled through the head while having sex with a Swiss Roll, and Vanessa is thrown onto the spike protruding from Peterson's head.

Hod

Hod or HOD may refer to:

Places

Judaism

People

Hod (organization)

Hod (Hebrew: הו"ד‎) is an independent Israel-based organization run by and intended for Orthodox Jewish homosexuals. It is was established by the Orthodox Rabbi Ron Yosef in 2008. The organization opposes anal intercourse between men, following the prohibition in Leviticus.

Hod's goal is

Etymology

Hod (Hebrew: הו"ד, English:'Majesty'. An acronym for 'religious gays' in Hebrew) adopts its name from a social group that used to meet in Tel Aviv within the Israeli Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Association in the 90's. In the first decade of the 21st century it was dismantled. The name of the organization corresponds with the Hod (Majesty) Sephira (Emanation), which is connected to truth-telling.

Formation

Its beginning is in the Walla's "Religious Gays" Forum. The forum was the most important site for religious gays and lesbians in Israel at the time . But with time, as the forum grew older, the tensions between the various groups that wanted to navigate the forum to different directions according to their religious perceptions, widened. Eventually it became impossible to keep the forum in its original form and it was closed. One group became the Havruta which was supported by the Jerusalem Open House, while the other group evolved to the independent organization of "Hod". The two groups strived for preservation of the religious-homosexual identity, encouraged Coming out and opposed Conversion therapy. The Hod people supported unquestioningly orthodoxy, commitment to Halakha and the importance of the discourse with rabbis and educators alike, while the Havruta people supported a change of the current situation from the field and not via rabbis, coordinating social gatherings, abstention from expressing a religious stand regarding inter-sex relationship and sexuality and participation of some of its members in the Pride parade of Israel.

Höðr

Höðr (often anglicized as Hod, Hoder, or Hodur) is a blind god and the brother of Baldr in Norse mythology. Tricked and guided by Loki, he shot the mistletoe arrow which was to slay the otherwise invulnerable Baldr.

According to the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda, the goddess Frigg, Baldr's mother, made everything in existence swear never to harm Baldr, except for the mistletoe, which she found too unimportant to ask (alternatively, which she found too young to demand an oath from). The gods amused themselves by trying weapons on Baldr and seeing them fail to do any harm. Loki, the mischief-maker, upon finding out about Baldr's one weakness, made a spear from mistletoe, and helped Höðr shoot it at Baldr. In reaction to this, Odin and the giantess Rindr gave birth to Váli, who grew to adulthood within a day and slew Höðr.

The Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus recorded an alternative version of this myth in his Gesta Danorum. In this version, the mortal hero Høtherus and the demi-god Balderus compete for the hand of Nanna. Ultimately, Høtherus slays Balderus.