Looking for something to read while you’re cozying up next to those chestnuts roasting on an open fire? Look no further than The Big Picture! https://buff.ly/3H8DiRF

#Caturday Palate Cleanser

http://mockpaperscissors.com/2024/12/21/caturday-palate-cleanser-25/

Wait what? I thought lampshade dude died. #KungFuSat

Economical Druthers

A local volunteer community encourages people to donate knitted or crocheted squares that can be made into blankets. Those blankets are then given to people who need them, often to people in shelters and temporary housing.



As someone who likes to crochet while watching TV, I saw this as a beneficial use of both my time and miscellaneous leftover yarn. Accordingly, last winter I donated a couple of blankets I had made and I also put together squares that others had made.

This winter I happened upon some very inexpensive yarn at a thrift store and used it to make squares that I hoped would one day become a blanket. I also used up my remaining supply of leftover yarn and these together created 68 squares.

As I looked at the instructions I had received from the volunteer group, I realized I didn’t have enough squares for a queen-size blanket which was their preference. A queen size requires 90 eight-inch squares and a twin size requires 54. When I first asked about this, my assumption was that they would need more twin-size blankets but it seems that there are more families in need than single individuals. So, the polite suggestion was that the larger blanket would be of more use.



My dilemma, then, was what to do with my inadequate supply of squares. Should I make more squares or donate what I had? I decided to donate what I had, but when I got to the volunteer centre I was told that they no longer accepted donations of squares! They already had lots of squares in storage and, instead, needed volunteers to put squares together. I said I would be happy to do that and they said they would be in touch when they had taken a batch out of the storage facility. They also said that they no longer had a supply of yarn that they could give me; the yarn fund had been exhausted.



My 68 squares, which were not quite enough for a blanket, still needed additional squares so I visited a couple of local thrift stores to see if they had any yarn I could use to finish the project. Unfortunately, I was surprised to find that the price of the donated skeins was quite high. It was too high to be a bargain and almost as much as I would pay for yarn on sale at a local department store. I was torn. I wanted to finish the blanket and I wanted to support the thrift store, but I didn’t want to pay so much for miscellaneous yarn. I would rather pay a little more and choose the texture, weight, and colour than I preferred.

I went online to find out the sale prices for yarn at the local craft stores and I also checked out Amazon. My preference is to shop local when possible, but when you are trying to put together a blanket out of leftover yarn, you lean towards the least expensive option. I ended up ordering from Amazon, even though I would much rather have bought from a local charity or craft store.

Sometimes, your druthers are just not economical.

#blanket #blankets #charity #community #crochet #druthers #economical #grannySquare #knitting #thriftStore #volunteer #yarn

https://www.europesays.com/1706205/ 5 killed in strike amid campaign targeting Kurdish forces – Firstpost #Conflicts #geopolitics #SyriaNews #SyriaTurkeyKurdistan #SyriaTurkeyNews #TurkeyKurdishCampaign #TurkeyKurdistan #TurkeySyriaDroneStrike

Oh, man, someone misspelled "because of," as "d-e-s-p-i-t-e."

Oh, jolly good show, I’m simply astounded by this unexpected turn of events.

Google is killing ChromeOS and migrating all those Chromebooks to Android. Not much outrage here because ChromeOS was absolute garbage. And I know, I used Chromebooks for years.

People chastise Google for all the products in its graveyard and they deserve it. But in ChromeOS’ case—good riddance.

But I don’t have much confidence in Android as a desktop OS either because one thing you want when buying a laptop is confidence it will last you for five years. And I don’t think Google has the cojones to do that.

https://www.androidpolice.com/google-not-good-os-ui-chromeos-to-android-editorial/

Wow - strong words from Scientific American on #birdflu

“…Experts say they have lost faith in the government’s ability to contain the outbreak.

“We are in a terrible situation and going into a worse situation," said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. “I don’t know if the bird flu will become a #pandemic, but if it does, we are screwed…”
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bird-flu-has-spread-out-of-control-after-mistakes-by-u-s-government-and/

#solstice in Southern California (on the LA River)

#Solstice #LichenSubscribe #Mosstodon

https://www.europesays.com/1706203/ Ukrainian drones smash into skyscraper in deep Russia #Conflicts #DroneAttack #drones #Russia #RussiaUkraine #RussiaUkraineWar #RussianInvasionOfUkraine #RussoUkrainianWar #Ukraine

Albanien schaltet Tiktok für mindestens ein Jahr ab

"Vor einigen Wochen war in Tirana ein 14-Jähriger bei einem Streit zwischen Schülern getötet worden – davor war offenbar ein Streit zwischen ihnen auf Social Media eskaliert."

https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/albanien-schaltet-tiktok-fuer-mindestens-ein-jahr-ab-100.html

#TikTok

https://www.europesays.com/1706199/ North Korea friendly fire disaster as Kim’s troops turn guns on each other | World | News #autoplay_video #Conflicts #ctp_video #drones #KimJongUn #kursk #NorthKorea #Putin #Russia #RussiaNorthKoreanSoldiers #Ukraine

https://www.europesays.com/1706197/ Despite missing deadline, Congress avoids government shutdown by passing spending bill without Trump's debt ceiling raise – Fortune #america #congress #DebtCeiling #DonaldTrump #GovernmentShutdown #JanetYellen #RepublicanParty #U.S.GovernmentShutdown #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #US #USNews #USTopics #USA #USANews

Madison Students March To The Capitol For Gun Safety https://crooksandliars.com/2024/12/madison-students-march-capitol-gun-safety?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

#QRcode

Pejac´s ‘The world going down the drain’ – In Santander, Spain.
-
When Art Meets Activism: 7 Powerful Street Art Pieces Fighting for the Planet: https://streetartutopia.com/2024/12/20/street-art-that-echo-environmental-awareness/

Why are ethics questions always:

“Is it ethical to steal bread if your family is starving?”

And not:

“Is it ethical to hoard a million loaves of bread when other families are starving?”

Jan. 6 report leads to false claims of FBI setup | AP News

https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-capitol-riot-fbi-justice-department-598b775804bdcef9cb065a67a4236033

Dark energy 'doesn't exist' so can't be pushing 'lumpy' Universe apart | ScienceDaily

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/12/241220133038.htm

Don't forget your learning today ... Hugz

Hugz & xXx

This Week in Science – The Kickass Science Podcast: What Will TWISmas Bring?

Episode webpage: https://www.twis.org/18-december-2024-episode-998-what-will-twismas-bring/

Media file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/twis/TWIS_12_18_2024.mp3

Camping is the answer. Who cares what the question is.

#Europa #Großbritannien #Northumberland

#Wiedereröffnung #Bahnlinie #60JahreZug

Großbritannien -

Wiedereröffnung der Northumberland-Linie nach 60 Jahren:

https://www.lok-report.de/news/europa/item/55117-grossbritannien-wiedereroeffnung-der-northumberland-linie-nach-60-jahren.html

In August 2023, the Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBS) announced that Masha Gessen was the winner of the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought.

In December, days before the award was due to be presented, the HBS said that it was withdrawing its support because it objected to Gessen's December 9 New Yorker essay
"In the Shadow of the Holocaust"
on German Holocaust memory and the Israel–Hamas war.

In the essay, Gessen argued that Germany's remembrance culture regarding the Holocaust was being used as a "cynically wielded political instrument"
by the Alternative for Germany (AfD)
to target Muslim immigrants.

Gessen was also critical of the Israeli bombings of the Gaza Strip, which they considered to be highly destructive and comparable to
an Eastern European ghetto "being liquidated" by the Nazis.

On December 16, 2023 Gessen received the Hannah Arendt literary prize award in a scaled-down ceremony.
https://apnews.com/article/germany-hannah-arendt-prize-masha-gessen-1923648579baea413c8b35cc436375fe

https://www.europesays.com/1706195/ ‘She won’t disappear’: Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyers on what she will do next | Gisèle Pelicot rape trial #News #world #WorldNews #WorldTopics

„Winter is coming…“

#winter #schwarzwald #radfahren

https://www.europesays.com/1706193/ ‘Resistance was not a choice’: how Syria’s unlikely rebel alliance took Aleppo | Aleppo #Conflicts #Syria

#bikepunk ma libraire ce midi quand je commande Bikepunk : ".. Mais il se passe quoi avec ce titre???" (Ellipses, Toulouse)

https://www.europesays.com/1706191/ A road accident in a remote part of western Iran left 9 dead and 14 injured | World #ap_world #Conflicts #GeneralNews #Iran #IranRoadAccidentNineDead #WorldNews

Update: Five people were killed and dozens seriously injured after a car drove into a crowd at a busy outdoor Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg. https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/12/21/magdeburg-christmas-market

Ambientalistas e autarcas não querem construção de novo açude no Tejo https://omirante.pt/sociedade/2024-12-21-ambientalistas-e-autarcas-nao-querem-construcao-de-novo-acude-no-tejo-935386b2

Apparently I lied about staying off of social media for a week... but this is too good not to share. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-american-oligarchy-is-out-of?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share

Lese gerade wieder vermehrt Texte, wie erschreckend es ist, welche "normalen" Männer, normal aussehend Frau Pelicot vergewaltigt haben. Und dann auch noch Männer, die gerade erst Vater geworden sind oder schon Töchter haben.

Aber ich verstehe diese Texte nicht. Wer soll das denn sonst sein?

https://www.europesays.com/1706189/ Prince Harry And Meghan Are Jealous Of Prince William And Kate’s Success? #ACTORS #ACTRESSES #BritishRoyalFamily #catherine #CatherineMiddleton #celebrities #directors #Films #Hollywood #KateMiddleton #movies #News #PrinceOfWales #PrinceWilliam #PrincessOfWales #RoyalFamilies #RoyalFamily #stars #television #tv #William