hesgen @hesgen@social.cleverlibre.org

Thanks to everyone who has been reading Days Like These over the last 12 months; it’s been a privilege to accompany you throughout the year.

Happy 2024 to you all.

A low carbon abundance in planetary atmospheres, detectable with #JWST, could be a signature of #habitability.

If a terrestrial #planet has substantially less carbon dioxide in its atmosphere compared to other #planets in the same system, it could be a sign of liquid water — and possibly #life — on that planet’s surface.

This signature of depleted carbon dioxide is the only sign of habitability that is detectable with current instruments.

#astronomy #astrobiology
https://news.mit.edu/2023/carbon-lite-atmosphere-life-terrestrial-planets-mit-study-1228

It will be a few days before we get official confirmation from the National Grid, but I’m calling it now: 2023 was the year renewables overtook fossil fuels as the largest contributor to British electricity generation. In the 12 years I’ve been running National Grid: Live at https://grid.iamkate.com electricity generation from fossil fuels has fallen from an average of 25.1GW to 10.2GW, while renewables have risen from 2.5GW to 10.8GW.

French painter Gustave Courbet died #OTD in 1877.

Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the Romanticism of the previous generation of visual artists. Two 19th-century artists prepared the way for the emergence of Cubism in the 20th century: Courbet and Cézanne. Courbet's importance was announced by Guillaume Apollinaire. Writing in Les Peintres Cubistes, Méditations Esthétiques he declared, "Courbet is the father of the new painters."

#art #painting

According to reports from WP, the Russian Federation is actively pursuing a strategy to diminish support for Ukraine within France.

Kremlin documents, acquired by European intelligence agencies, reveal instructions from Sergei Kiriyenko, Putin's deputy chief of staff, directing efforts to sow political discord in France.

This strategy involves leveraging social media, engaging French politicians, opinion leaders, and activists.
#AureFreePress #Ukraine️ #Russia #Putin #EU #NATO #France

So viele Krisen und Katastrophen in 2023, und 2024 wird wohl nicht besser. Aber: Bange machen gilt nicht, denn es gibt kein Schicksal. Wie meinte Alan Kay: "Die beste Methode die Zukunft vorherzusagen besteht darin, sie zu gestalten." Euch allen einen schönen Jahreswechsel und ein gutes neues Jahr!

Disney’s copyright on Mickey Mouse expires from tomorrow. This means we no longer have to pay royalties on our Mickey Mouse government.

Cross-border investigations backed by @ddosecrets' ranked First and Third in the Center for Cooperative Media's #top 10 #journalism collaborations of 2023! https://medium.com/centerforcooperativemedia/here-are-the-top-10-journalism-collaborations-of-2023-a4f62c68e18e 🏆

#DDoSecrets' work with ICIJ and OCCRP, including providing the data and foundational research, enabled both the #NarcoFiles and the #CyprusConfidential collaborations. The real world impact of these investigations is already being felt and will continue well into 2024

We're also proud to have worked with PPLAAF on another collaboration this year, in addition to ICIJ's other 2023 investigation, #DeforestationInc

More from:

Center for Cooperative Media: https://collaborativejournalism.org/

Distributed Denial of Secrets: https://ddosecrets.com/

Contribute to DDoSecrets: https://donorbox.org/ddosecrets-five-years-later

Sa bhaile.

Time to nail this.

#NewYear #blog #blogging #writing #FountainPen #coffee

🧵:

Fascinating interview with leading Chinese political scientist Yan Xuetong, giving a Chinese perspective on what lies ahead in 2024, and what he got right and wrong in his 2013 book. Putting it here not because I agree with all of it, but because it’s useful to see a very different perspective. You’ll have to run it through your translator of choice. Some quotes:

https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_25811704

Jesus: [holding up bread] this is my flesh

Guy Who Owns an Air Fryer: you can reheat that perfectly in an air fryer, I use mine for everything

2023: An ambiguous year.
Articles published within 48 hours by The Guardian
#climate #climatechange #climatecrisis