Update from Ukraine as the latest outrageous insult and threat are proposed as an absurdist "peace" plan.
Giorgio is on the ground in Ukraine, publishing when he gets access to electricity and an internet connection.
He shares the friend link so we can all help fight the information war by sharing truth and shining a light on the darkness that masquerades as human hearts within Trump and Putin.
Please support his work, truth, and the people of Ukraine - share the โฆ
Sonnet 027 - XXVII
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head
To work my mind, when body's work's expired:
For then my thoughts--from far where I abide--
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see:
Save that my soul's imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightlessโฆ
Ukraine Update: The USA betrays Ukraine with PURL process for military aid.
Trump helps Russia to use saturation and time to overwhelm Ukraine while US bureaucratic delay and capitalist extortion result in fewer supplies for Ukraine, and less frequently delivered.
Fight the evil of Trump, support Ukraine, support journalism and the heroes who bring the truth of darkness to the light of day.
Share the friend link to bypass the paywall:
Happy Yuletide.
Weโre still here.
Still standing.
Darkness recedes. Eventually.
Mass attack that plunged Kyiv into darkness cost Russia over $130 million, Ukrainian intelligence says: https://benborges.xyz/2026/01/23/mass-attack-that-plunged-kyiv.html
๐ถ When I find metal three features are blurring
'plied Materials comes to me
Flatten out my wafer
CMP
And in my hour of darkness
Ceria flows out onto the pad
Flatten out my wafer
CMP
CMP, CMP
CMP, CMP
Flatten out my wafer
CMP
"The Metro is alive. It breathes, it listens, it waits. It is not just tunnels and darkness, but a living, breathing entity that holds the souls of those who walk it and reveals truths only to those who are willing to see."
-- ะกะตัะดะฐั ะัะบะฐะฝะดะตัะพะฒ
#MetroLastLight #Metro2033
Moody Urbanity - In and Out of the Shadow ๐ค
ๆ
็ปชๅๅๅธ - ้ดๅฝฑ็ๅ
ๅค ๐ค
๐ท Nikon FE
๐๏ธ ERA 100, expired 1993
#filmphotography #Photography #blackandwhite
Cold front arrives late tonight and the wind was certainly keen to hasten its arrival. Spitting rain at times, but happily any serious downpour never arrived.
Ran a quiet, pensive 7.5 km on the HS track. Heart โค๏ธ and lungs ๐ซ felt great, but legs ๐ฆต were less willing. In all, the 4/1 run/walk intervals are helping. I look forward to being further along, but in the interim I can feel progress.
7.51 km in 59:30 for an average pace of 7:55/km.
Good Morning #Canada
There have been many dark days in Canada, from natural disasters to personal tragedies. And there are also emotional dark days like when Doug Ford was elected Premier.... twice.
The most mysterious darkest day in Canadian history occurred on November 7, 1819, when the sun refused to rise over New Brunswick. And it wasn't even a Monday. Although 1st person accounts described it as an unusually dreary day, later newspaper accounts were slightly more sensational. Reporters documented that a "black veil" or intense, unnatural darkness descended upon New Brunswick. The sky remained so dark that residents were forced to light candles in the middle of the day. Apparently the phenomenon caused widespread alarm with many believing it was the apocalypse or a divine awful visitation. According to newspaper reports there was mild hysteria, outright madness, and praying and searching for cover. Just like the day after Ford was elected.
#CanadaIsAwesome #Meteorology
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/201-years-since-new-brunswick-s-darkest-day-1.5791283
"... and the darkness takes over"
(Original title: Abyssal)
https://thesecretknots.com/comic/abyssal/
Sources: the US cyberattack that plunged Caracas into darkness during the Maduro mission shows its offensive capabilities; Senators plan to question officials (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/us/poli
On a very few occasions Iโve had #dreams while my eyes are open. Iโm asleepโa couple times when napping on an afternoon, a few more at night, in the dark. My dream self is involved in the dream action but my eyes are seeing the room in front of my face. Or darkness. The dream scenario is happening, but I canโt see it. What my eyes see is superimposed over the dream. At some point I recognize this. Bโฆ
As the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals when it was checked by a violent gust of wind that swept up the streets, Stark checked his Thieves Guild tag (for it is in Ankh-Morkpork that our story lies) and glanced along the street where a magically illuminated sign flickered futilely against the darkness, causing him to comment to his companion, "You know, Dormy, I think this is going to be our night!"
This system captures solar energy and, rather than converting it into electricity, uses it to produce hydrogen fuel on demandโeven in darkness.
The new system provided twofold benefits: it made solar energy available even when the sun isn't shining, and it eliminated the need to transport hydrogen in dangerous, high-pressure tanks.
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-demand-hydrogen-fuel-production-dark.html
This Nebraska mom's ordeal points to the darkness awaiting us all under Trump - Raw Story
https://archive.ph/TLO8X
Right now, stood where I am on the worn stone steps looking down into the darkness of the crypt
at St. Mary, Lastingham in Yorkshire,
you could say that this is the loneliest place on earth
-- Andy Marshall
https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/andy-maโฆ
Life Inside The Salad Bowl
This is a space for honest conversations about navigating reality, celebrating recovery, and finding light after darkness...
Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: https://www.greataustralianpods.com/life-inside-the-salad-bowl/โฆ
Figured out a cheap trick to blur a smartphone's camera:
1. Cut a piece of transparent adhesive tape.
2. Sandpaper it.
3. Attach on top of the camera.
Wanted to blur instead of covering the camera, because the phone interprets full cover as darkness and dims the screen.
#privacy #diy
Not exactly โracingโ the darkness, but perhaps more โpursuedโ by way of anguished plodding.
Theyโre doing construction on the school track I like to run on after dark, so now I have to be more intentional about when and where I run. ๐โโ๏ธ ๐
#Running
I must admit, it gives me joy to be able to order the following article from my university library: ยซChannelling the darkness: Group flow and environmental expression in the music of Black Sabbath and Joy Divisionยป
Thanks to The New World Paper, I'm listening to Mong Tong, a Taiwanese ambient band that uses a Creative Commons Licence, the album is Sun Moon Darkness.
It's very cool and rhythmic.
A long way from the romantic ballads of the early 90's in Piano Bars.
#Music #NewMusic<โฆ
"Everything Iโve feared would happen is happening.
America has fallen. NATO is teetering. Europe is on the brink of some new darkness. The Silicon Valley tech companies are now in an alliance with the worst people on the planet" -- @…
When you find yourself overwhelmed, overcome by the darkness of the world: recognize that opportunity to be the light and bring a different reality into being.
You'll be glad you did...
#unsolicited #compassion #community
And then your news feed suddenly goes so dark, that Shadowrun and the World of Darkness comparably look like fluffy utopias.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3epygq5272o.amp
๐จ๐ช๐ฒ ๐ท๐๐๐ ๐ด๐ผ๐ ๐ถ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐น ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ด ๐๐ผ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ผ ๐ถ๐ ๐ต๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ฟ๐น๐ผ๐๐๐ฒ ๐๐ผ ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ฒ๐ฒ ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐บ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฑ-๐๐ฝ ๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐๐ฃ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐. ๐ช๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ป๐ผ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด.
A Liberty Van is rolling to Charlotte this morning.
When tips come in, weโll be there in minutes with a war reporter and a camera to make sure ICE does not go unseen and create a permanent public record of whatever unfolds.
This is exactly what Operation Liberty was built for:
turning darkness into daylight,
in real time, where federal powโฆ
Great darkness is coming ... huge #sunspots galore rotating onto the disk now as in https://jsoc1.stanford.edu/data/hmi/images/latest/HMI_latest_Int_4096x4096.gif from 25 minutes ago. We knew what was in store: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10236046194988615 and https://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=26&month=11&year=2025 - Perseverance on Mars has a view of the 'far side' right now and saw the groups a few days ago with its non-astronomy camera.
"Those who are bold enough to spend their life facing the darkness are the first ones who will spot the light"
-- Khan, 2033
This sitting in the darkness starts to get to me.
I miss the sun.
#mood #winter #sunlight
The second album by the Darkness is a criminally underrated masterpiece, and a monument to the grandiosity of Rock.
20th anniversary special edition is out!
#music #rock #classic
Our pick this week is a suitably heavy slab of darkness from Sinsaenum, returning at last with their long-awaited new album. Just what you need as we roll into the last month of the year.
Check it out and see what we had to say about the track, the album it's from and the band behind it.
Don't forget to follow us as we showcase and write about one awesome track from across the epic world of #rock
Finished "Exiles" by Mason Coile, the nom de plume for Andrew Pyper who, sadly, passed away earlier this year.
A crew of three humans is enroute to Mars to help build a future human colony when the robots sent ahead of them to assemble their base and help them land go dark. Figuring out what has happened slowly transitions this story from sci-fi to horror and it's a great blend.
4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 โญโญโญโญโญ
Darkness draped Crans-Montana,
a ski resort in the Swiss Alps with a reputation for posh luxury.
Le Constellation, however, had few pretensions:
a cavernous venue with TV screens on the top floor to watch sport,
and a basement with low lighting, loud music and a dancefloor.
It attracted a young crowd, including under-18s, mainly from Switzerland and continental Europe,
and early on Thursday morning hundreds thronged the venue to see in 2026.
Many woโฆ
Peculiar SN Ic 2022esa - an explosion of a massive WolfโRayet star in a binary as a precursor to a BHโBH binary? #BlackHoleBinary: https://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/research-news/2026-01-13-2
Cold, drones, shelling and darkness: how Ukrainian servicemen can survive where it seems impossible: https://benborges.xyz/2025/12/05/cold-drones-shelling-and-darkness.html
๐บ๐ฆ #NowPlaying on BBCRadio3's #NightTracks
Judith Weir & VOCES8:
๐ต The Darkness Is No Darkness
#JudithWeir #VOCES8
๐บ๐ฆ #NowPlaying on #BBC6Music's #HuwStephens
The Darkness:
๐ต Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)
#TheDarkness
#Christmas)
โIn this moment of political darkness, New York will be the light.โ
Careful... this guy might give you hope. This Democratic Socialist might have ideas you like and want. This might be what progressive politics and politicians should be.
#Mamdani #NewYorkCity #NYC #Hope #EndHate #HousingCrisis #DemocraticSocialist
https://youtu.be/kOQT_4A1eb8?si=jDFkQrabW6I6nx0p&t=840
@hippyjo@c.im
