ceoln @ceoln@social.cleverlibre.org

Al Gore is a tad more blunt. From the dumpster fire formally known as Twitter:

"COP28 is now on the verge of complete failure. The world desperately needs to phase out fossil fuels as quickly as possible, but this obsequious draft reads as if OPEC dictated it word for word. It is even worse than many had feared. It is “Of the Petrostates, By the Petrostates and For the Petrostates.”"

Democrats absolutely need to win the White House in 2024 and win majorities in Congress. But our party cannot be fully successful if we do not also make state legislatures a core part of our collective strategy.
https://www.democracydocket.com/opinion/democrats-secret-weapon-in-2024/

Wael Arafat, 28, is currently unable to walk but remains conscious and talking.
The British-Palestinian has lost nearly 20kg since starting a #hungerstrike 50 days ago.

He is demanding the #UK government act to stop Israel's two-month-long bombardment of the #Gaza Strip. He stopped eating and drinking on 22 October, after learning that his sister and her four children had been killed by an Israeli air strike on their home in Gaza City.

Report MEE: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-hunger-strike-family-killed-gaza

It doesn't happen for every reader (of course not!) but sometimes you can use the rhythms of sentences to change the pattern of a reader's breathing. So the story worms all the way into a reader's body & invites a deep emotional response. I think it can help shift a reader from the space of knowing to that of feeling.

Very useful for sex scenes or moments of suspense!

What other times is this useful?
Do you think about rhythm this way when you write?

#WritingCommunity #WritingConversations

The need for meaningful inheritance taxes -- steep ones above some heirs-are-still-absurdly-rich threshold -- has never been more clear.

Banker-for-the-rich UBS data shows that family dynasties are becoming the primary system by which the ultra-rich come about their money.

It is completely unearned income but they pay minuscule relative taxes.

https://www.ubs.com/global/en/media/display-page-ndp/en-20231130-the-great-wealth-transfer.html

There are 2.5 million ants per person. I like to think specific colonies are assigned to each of us. Your *particular* ants.

Perhaps you have been assigned just three massive colonies of leaf cutters. Perhaps you are assigned 100,000s of tiny colonies of many different species each with dozens to 100s of ants.

But, what is more remarkable is that *each* of your assigned ants has to her (or occasionally him) assigned about 22,800 nematodes.

How do the little girls keep track of them all?

tiny high pitched voice: "... two thousand five hundred and thirty eight..."

*it's hard to tell the source of the voice*

tiny high pitched voice: "... two thousand five hundred and thirty nine, two thousand five hundred and forty-"

*you look around*

*it's one of your ants!*

You: "What are you doing, little ant?"

Your ant: "Oh! Hi! I didn't notice you. You are so big! Well, I'm counting my nematodes!... oh no... I've lost track again. No matter. One, two, three ... "

#SilentSunday

Lots of birds from a boat trip around Craigleith in the Firth of Forth in June. (Pictures from Bass Rock will follow!)

https://patrickhadfieldphotography.wordpress.com/2023/12/10/a-boat-trip-around-craigleith-scotland-june-2023/

Good morning to readers, Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy.

But for mothers like Iryna, the empty table setting where her son usually sits overshadows all.

Her son, Yaroslav, is just one of 10k Ukrainians in Russian captivity.

He was captured at Azovstal and he has spent two birthdays so far as a prisoner of war.

She speaks longingly about him through tears: "My bunny, my heart, my boy.”

https://www.counteroffensive.news/p/christmas-without-yaroslav

#Ukraine
#Russia

Locus-specific proteome decoding reveals Fpt1 as a chromatin-associated negative regulator of RNA polymerase III assembly https://www.cell.com/molecular-cell/fulltext/S1097-2765(23)00908-5?rss=yes&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Col. Slingsby told me that it is expected that the Duke will marry the Lord Chancellor’s daughter at last which is likely to be the ruin of Mr. Davis and my Lord Barkley, who have carried themselves so high against the Chancellor.

cowboy hat levels are 46% and falling

(46%) ■■■■□□□□□□

For anyone interested, I'll leave the latest build for the Elon Musk smashing game here: https://musket.stux.me

I'll update as we go

Lots of gannets on and around the Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth, from June.

https://patrickhadfieldphotography.wordpress.com/2023/12/10/a-boat-trip-around-bass-rock-scotland-june-2023/

Mastodon seems like the place to ask. So I'm a little indie musician guy. I'm slowly replacing Twitter with here, I've been using Bandcamp but am unhappy with large corporations buying and selling it - so I got a Faircamp (no sales yet but I haven't been pushing it!). What are alternatives to other large sites. Is Peertube a good YouTube alternative? What about email? If there's one thing I've noticed about Mastodon -I know there's a whole world of ultra computer nerds on here, and I salute you.