“[The solar-powered streetlights] can identify potential problems before an outage occurs, identify current outages without the need for customer reporting, and allow for remote control of brightness settings. The streetlights are built to remain operational even during widespread power outages.”
“"Federal funding to institutions that provide gender-affirming care continues to be available, irrespective of President Trump’s recent Executive Order,“ the attorneys general say. […] “Health care decisions should be made by patients, families, and doctors, not by a politician trying to use his power to restrict your freedoms.”
“[India has protected] the big cats from poaching and habitat loss, ensuring they have enough prey, reducing human-wildlife conflict, and increasing living standards for communities near tiger areas.”
“There are thought to be fewer than 20 red wolves left in the wild[…. S]tate agencies and nonprofit groups [plan to] rebuild a 2.5-mile section of the highway with fencing and a series of culverts, or small underpasses, to allow red wolves – as well as black bears, white-tailed deer and other animals – to pass safely underneath traffic.”
“[… C]ollecting fares [used to] cost MeVa about $300,000 a year to maintain fare boxes, pay staffers and afford insurance. Since going fare free in 2022, the report found ridership increased 60% from pre-pandemic levels[….] The program is now funded by state allocated funds, including money from the so called “millionaire’s tax.””
“[The new law] requires all states to provide medical and dental screenings to Medicaid- and CHIP-eligible youths 30 days before or immediately after they leave a correctional facility. Youths must continue to receive case management services for 30 days after their release.”
“Scientists have for the first time in 185 years confirmed the presence of the Asian small-clawed otter in Nepal[….] The last time the […] the smallest of the world’s 13 known otter species, was recorded by scientists in Nepal was in 1839.”
“The Kwiakah Centre of Excellence will be the base for a dedicated research station, an experimental kelp farm, the nation’s regenerative forestry operations and its territorial Indigenous guardian, or Forest Keepers, program[…. R]esults will include a 100-year management plan that integrates climate, salmon, kelp, and soil research to protect territorial waters and remaining old growth forests.”
“The students at the Glades County school district will directly benefit from the cleaner, quieter rides, and operational cost savings that electric school buses provide[, as well as] the addition of much-needed air conditioning in the new school buses. Until now, only three buses in the district provided air conditioning[….]”
“The cosmetics company recently held that it would not nix its DEI initiatives[….] "Our mission is to make the best of beauty accessible to every eye, lip and face,” [CEO] Amin said. “One of the best ways we know how to live that mission is to have an employee base that reflects the community that we serve."”
January 22-28 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)
in light of Trump’s inauguration speech declaring multiple national emergencies that require him to take god-knows-what executive actions immediately, I’d like to remember this chapter of “On Tyranny” by Timothy Snyder:
how the bloody hell did you get this skill? i think its natural talent, but i want to be able to do this too??? #i love talented & passionate people
Thank you very much for the compliments.
As for where I got this skill: practice! You may start out as crappy but with a bit of time it will become much more natural. For me it helped that I’ve been obsessed with writing for more than a decade before starting to learn calligraphy and lettering so I was already kind of used to pay lots of attention on how I wrote and I had already a higher than average control and understanding of movements and strokes but don’t let that discourage you.
I don’t really believe in natural talents, inclinations perhaps, but talent is obtained much more through dedication and practice than from something innate, I’m sure @theshitpostcalligrapher will back me up on this.
so fucking truuuuu bestie- i’ve got over 10k cards under my belt and there’s still improvement to be made every single day, ya gotta just keep burning through the paper! for me it’s the fact that i discovered calligraphy tended to be one of the rare forms of art i can do for prolonged periods of time without burnout or psyching myself out for something being ‘not good enough’ so it was a workaround on the obstacles i’ve got in my various other mediums
also idk if it’ll help folks in a “wow if she sucked at this THAT bad a handful of years ago i can definitely do this” kinda way but uh. this is the-
these are calligraphy i ever posted (not the first i’ve ever written, just thought it was actually good enough to be posted):
I hate when I say things like “oh I want an ipod classic but with bluetooth so I can use wireless headphones” and some peanut comes in and replies with “so a smartphone with spotify?” No. I want a 160GB+ rectangular monstrosity where I can download every version of every song I want to it and it does nothing except play music and I don’t need a data connection and don’t have to pay a subscription to not have ads and don’t have popups suggesting terrible AI playlists all over the menus.
Gimme the clicky wheel and song titles like “My Chemical Romance- The Black Parade- Blood (Bonus Track)- secret track- album rip- high quality”
Tangara is an open source iPod clone, which includes bluetooth:
Fun fact! Saint Valentine was beheaded, and here is a photo of his supposed skull! (which is kept in a reliquary in rome because catholics are freaky that way)
I can never ever leave this website actually
I see a reference to the Sedlic Ossuary, love the decor in that place.
this is a church that supposedly had holy ground or something that let people rot really fast, Idk what that’s about, but people really wanted to get buried there, and so they had overflow of dead people. so they exhumed old bodies and stored the bones in the church, before someone eventually said ‘hey, this would make a cool fucking chandelier.’ and then they started using the bones to decorate. this continued for several generations.
Looks like he’s sharing space with a bit of St. Patienta…maybe these are catacomb saints
I love the Sedlec Ossuary
what happened was, some dude from that town (it’s in the Czech Republic) went to the Holy Land in 1278 and brought back some dirt. he spread it in the churchyard, and then EVERYONE wanted to be buried there. because Super Extra Holy™. eventually they ran out of room, so they started exhuming old bodies and storing the bones aboveground instead. that’s what an ossuary is, so you have a Fun Vocab Word for the day
in 1870, the church leaders were like “these bones are kind of disorganized and just collecting dust. can anyone stack them better?”
and one František Rint, woodcarver and apparent prior incarnation of Guillermo del Toro, said, “MY TIME HAS COME”
and he. did that.
he also signed it
the church leaders must have been okay with it, because I imagine he ran the plans by them and also they didn’t immediately burn the place to the ground. but I still like to picture them looking over the initial sketches with Rint watching, and roughly these expressions on their respective faces:
ALT
ALT
ALT
amhrancas 