JC 🇺🇦

"Forcibly displaced Lebanese are now gathering along the sea; they have nowhere to go; Israel has announced its intent to make conditions that render civilian life unsustainable. A second genocide. Now in Lebanon."(Philip Proudfoot on X) #Israel #Lebanon

Small ceramic sculpture of a white figure sitting cross legged with a daffodil for a head against a white background

Carolyn Clayton, UK Ceramic artist known for her figurative sculptures #womensart #Spring #FridayFeeling

Friday.

Some readers

Friday

A total sausage fest - 14/15th century, Cambridge Digital Library, MS Ff.1.27, p. 353

I can only quote the great Annie Dillard and her magnificent "Pilgrim At Tinker Creek: "Fish gotta swim. Birds gotta fly. And insects, it seems, gotta do one horrible thing after another."

Painting by Gavin Watson 'Duck Down' Oil on linen.
Size 76 x 81cm.

Can someone remind me again how many pay rises MPs have had in the past 15 years? 12? 13? Meanwhile, look at this (from the Nuffield Trust: www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/news-item/ho...)

Euston station - ‘hold my beer’

Ukraine's air defense shot down 111 of 141 Russian Shahed and other drones launched overnight from six directions including Oryol, Bryansk, and Kursk. 24 drones struck 16 locations. #Ukraine

GLORIOUS 🐣 🪶

Oh, the poor manager bloke!
Straight from central casting.

Friday

Rain tree in Little Narnia.

Reading @lyndseystonebri.bsky.social’s book on Hannah Arendt, I’m struck how meek our collective instinct for courage has become. There are many examples but I’m thinking today about the video of a US Senator breaking the hand of a marine & how the entire room sat quietly with their backs turned.

"Best of all will be those who know only one thing for
certain: that whatever else happens, as long as we live
we shall have to live together with ourselves."

-- Hannah Arendt

‘Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship’

"Release the wieners!"

Air pollution levels are expected to become very high overnight and through Friday morning across swathes of SE and East Anglia. Hazardous air for vulnerable groups.

A combination of pollution from mainland Europe and Saharan dust. Cleaner N winds will arrive later in the day

Huītzilōpōchtli could take the form ('nagual') of hummingbird or eagle, was always depicted in a hummingbird feather headdress. In fact, his name is huītzilin "hummingbird" and ōpōchtli for "south".

Aztec warriors who died in battle were reincarnated as hummingbirds.

A large grey lynx walks down a snowy road looking incredibly badass.

I'm celebrating half a century on this planet today and it's also #WorldWildlifeDay. I know there's a lot of darkness, but the world is still full of so much beauty. Let's celebrate it by sharing our favourite wildlife photos.

an image promoting a substack article titled ‘25 medieva manuscripts you can look at online right now’

i made a starter back of beautiful and unique manuscripts you can browse online! (with links) for anyone that wants a good way to spend an afternoon :)

open.substack.com/pub/weirdmed...

“Look, my lad, I know a dead parrot when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now.”

‘No no he's not dead, he's, he's restin'! Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, idn'it, ay? Beautiful plumage!’

“The plumage don't enter into it. It's stone dead.”

13th C, BnF Fra. 95, f.177v

Save the Brixton Blog & Bugle archive To preserve the Brixton Blog & Bugle as a permanent archive accessible to the local community and beyond

A crowdfunder for £3,000 has been started to preserve the Brixton Blog & Bugle's archive permanently after its editor Alan Slingsby died suddenly and it will no longer continue publication www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/save-the-b...

He traveled over 1,000 km and crawled under barbed wire to seek international protection. Now Kazakhstan wants to send him back.

‼️ If this case gains public attention, it could help Timur. Let's share as widely as possible.
📹: Current Time

I hope none of you were planning a trip to the Galapagos this year…

Fun Fact - 80% of Reform voters want Reform UK politician Zahawi to be deported.

You'll note that the options are all disabled by default, but when you view details for some of them they leave the legitimate interest options enabled.

In Cuba, relentless US pressure tells in human suffering Trump’s oil blockade has driven the island’s long-standing humanitarian crisis to a new level. Cubans are running short of coping strategies.

The US blockade on oil shipments to Cuba is collective punishment; creating a full-blown humanitarian collapse. Healthcare, food systems, electricity, and public services are deteriorating rapidly and simultaneously. It’s the elderly and children suffering. www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature...

I've always been fascinated by these Brutalist war memorials in the former Yugoslavia. They're featured heavily in Jóhann Jóhannsson's 2020 film, Last and First Men which is based on the Olaf Stapledon novel.