#desert bus for hope 2024

[cyclesprefectpress]

[image description: photos of a Breath of the Wild-themed hanafuda card deck, art rendered with hand-drawn inks and colors printed letterpress from linoleum blocks. hanafuda are a Japanese style of playing cards where the faces only use imagery, with no pips, ranks, or point values printed. there are 12 suits of 4 cards each, 48 total. in the classic deck design, suits are unified by particular flowers or plants; in this version the unifying elements for each suit are plants, creatures, or items from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. suits of horses, Guardians, koroks, dragons, ex. there are also photos of the small linocuts used to print each color, one cut for every color on each card. cards are about 1 3/8 inch by 2 1/8 inch. end description.]

🎊🎊 tadaaaaa 🎊🎊 here tis, my craftalong project for Desert Bus for Hope 2024! the event starts Nov. 8th this year, and this card deck is up for silent auction starting 6pm PST on Saturday the 9th.

hanafuda!! very very fun to get familiar with this card deck and its games. i think about doing other formats of card deck all the time and always just have to wait for a subject matter that compels me to intersect with a structure that interests me. nintendo started out producing card decks, and maybe they have made LoZ hanafuda in the past—i didn't find one but i'm truly bad at web research—anyway there isn't one available now, only a 52-card deck with alternate Zelda art.

i limited the scope to BotW for lots of reasons, big one being keeping the suits tightly defined to specific things and places, & utilizing one singular map type/environment interface. even adding TotK seemed like a nightmare for keeping suit assignments tidy. each place is a specific location in-game (with some adjustments for better composition, like, Akkala tower is there behind Foothill Stable, but i made the angles of the view cleaner), and wherever applicable, items rendered with surrounding context are done as a specific location where that item appears in-game (the sword in the rock is a real place, where you can pick up a rusty sword and see the Great Plateau Tower beyond). i'll admit to some extra heavy lifting on Satori Mountain but i only actually cheated once: Silent Princess flowers don't grow at the Springs around the statues of Hylia. but that's it!! everything else is real.

the Brights are the Master Sword, Hyrule Castle, the Blood Moon, Hylia, and the Dragons; tanzaku are shrines and towers; instead of Boar-Deer-Butterfly it's Rudania-Naboris-Medoh; instead of sakura-viewing and moon-viewing parties there are…………oh no and oh NO parties?? (guardian stalker + hyrule castle, stalker + blood moon.) in these photos, the suits are laid out in order, January to December. I made a little guide to go in the box based on the one for Nintendo's Mario Hanafuda, which also includes instructions for playing Koi-Koi.

8 colors, 88 blocks, +1 very simple reduction cut for the Sheikah eye on the back side. the classic deck is completely blank on the back, but if i hadn't done the eye i think the deck would've been missing some kind of unifying umbrella. and if you're asking yourself, hey, even with overage it’s only 5 copies of each card, why not hand color the cards? i also asked this. i tried some things and unfortunately did not like the texture at all. Only 88 little lino cuts would do for my brain worms. each card is two layers of 120# cover cross-laminated together. the drawings went down first on each copy; the back sides were printed on separate sheets before lamination. laminated, pressed, colors printed post-lamination, then each card die cut out of the 3x3 inch sheet. i very much like the color palate that came out of it; since the pen drawings went down before colors i printed the grey first to find the bottom end of the value range, bookended it with the yellow, and filled in the middle. my favorite color of the bunch turns out to be the soft brown, or maybe the "gold" with no metallic in it.

i would say this card deck was about as much work as last year's tarot deck but it wasn't all the same kind of work—i didn't have to trawl through a novel of text for excerpts and battle feelings of intellectual inadequacy to have confidence in my reading comprehension, for instance. i had to learn how to draw, like, 20 things i hadn't drawn before, and carve 88 little lino cuts, but it's just not the same kind of effort. long hours, but largely calmer. the tiny but thicc little cards are so nice to hold. i am quite happy with the style of the illustrations i found, trying to make them recognizable objects, so small, and two-color. all in all very satisfying!! (confession: i logged quite a bit of footage from my own BotW playthrough to get reference material but i still haven't actually finished Medoh myself. or fought Ganon. i keep putting it off to mess around and get armor upgrades instead. gotta get to that finally.)

wip

under the cut: the body of the little game guide that went in the box, with instructions for Koi-Koi and explainers on the yaku.

[xt1me]

Desert Bus For Hope 2024

I should post this before this years Desert Bus ends.

[knittinginbinary]

Second day in the new studio! It's pretty nice and I was spent the entire time relistening to Wizard Seeking Wizard.

I have two mugs that need to harden a bit more before I can finish smoothing out their rough edges and a few other weird shapes that will turn into my third attempt at a dice tower. This one is tree themed and I'm making sure this time that dice will fit.

I forgot my glow-in-the-dark glaze again and bucket for recycling clay. I won't be able to test the glaze until my first firing anyway, but it's nice to be able to store things on my shelf at the studio.

In progress photos are always weird, but I'm just glad to be working regularly again, even if my dog misses me.

[strikefourth]

THE GARAGES SIGN OFF @ DESERT BUS FOR HOPE 2024

Wednesday, November 13th, 1/4/9pm PST/EST/GMT

pre-orders available now. see you at the show!

[pennzance]

For anyone who needs some hope, please check out Desert Bus For Hope, starting up today over at

I'm not a part of this effort, but the team that puts this wonderful charity event on every year works their asses off and raises a whole bunch of money for Child's Play. It is legitimately one of the most heartwarming, wonderful things the internet produces and I implore you, especially in these soon to be even more trying times, to watch, maybe laugh, maybe even help out a little bit and put some good back into the world.

Thanks for your time.

[tiellaekitsune]

It's that time of year again!

Starting at 3PM PST (2300 GMT), Desert Bus for Hope rides again, raising money for Childs Play Charity.

It's a week of fun, positive vibes, being happy and generally having a good time. Come along to where it's streamed!

Things to remember for the year:

The run will carry on while you sleep, so make sure you do those selfcare things!

The VST puts up clips of the funny moments onto the youtube - enjoyment far after the end of the run!

Don't forget to eat and drink!

Sign up for/update your donor account on the website! Without a donor account you are not eligible for giveaways or auctions!

Be good to yourselves and each other!

And finally, enjoy it and have a good year!

[trialbystory]

I will write for *you* (if you donate a small amount to Child's Play)!

This is something I've been thinking about for...seven months now? This Friday marks the start of Desert Bus For Hope 2024. I like Desert Bus, and I'd like to encourage other folks to get involved. So if you'd like me to put my slightly-above-mediocre writing abilities to work on a scenario of your choice, here's what I'm asking you to do: 1. Go to DesertBus.org and register a Donor Account by clicking the Sign Up link in the upper-right corner (If you are privacy conscious, I can confirm that for the last 12 years they've had my info they've done nothing with it unless I win something).

2. At some point before the end of this year's run (which is likely to be sometime on Firday, November 15th), while logged in to your Donor Account from step 1, click the big green donate button (on desktop) or the Donate link at the top of the side menu (on mobile) and make a donation of $5(USD) or more. (This money goes directly to Child's Play, Desert Bus never actually touches it, they just track who donates through their link. Though that wasn't the case the first year, as they explained in 2017)

3. After the donation goes through, pull up your donation history by mousing over/tapping your username in the upper-right, then selecting Donations from the dropdown menu.

That page will show your donation history, so take a screenshot and send it to me either here on tumblr or (if it's really what you prefer) Twitter where you'll find me as TrialByStory. And if you're a Mastodon type you can instead 'Privately Mention' me on the Fediverse as trialByStory@Kind.Social. Also tell me what kind of thing you'd like me to write.

3.5. There may some back and forth as I clarify and/or gather my thoughts.

4. I will write the thing and give you a heads up when it's posted! Some final notes, these stories are likely to be on the short side. Somewhere between outright flashfiction and the average chapter length for SoC, unless something really yanks me in.

Also, I'm going to be limiting this to one story per person *for now*. That may change sometime during the run.

Finally (and this is not a requirement), I encourage you to poke around the Desert Bus website and hang out in chat once the run officially starts. I'll be there A LOT, mostly lurking but sometimes I chime in with stuff. And take a look through the prize lists to see if anything catches your eye. If you donate for a giveaway, that can count for this whole thing to make me write for you, so why not double dip if something catches your eye? That goes for winning an auction too, but be forewarned that both Live and Silent auctions at Desert Bus tend to go for multiple thousands of dollars, so please bid responsibly.

[iviarelleblr]

I've spent the last week watching a number go up and cheering and helping to document shenanigans and edit clips. Desert Bus for Hope 2024 raised over $1.25 MILLION US dollars for the Child's Play Charity, and I was a small part of that incredible team. I'm still gonna be processing that for a few days, I think.

When I finally got to sleep last night, I crashed like a cat. I slept in almost an hour past my usual wake time, until two minutes before my lamp timer turned on. I can now feel every bit of bad posture and poor grip from the last week. Note to self: next year do more letting go of the mouse between clip edits. Owie.

Still, it was all worth it to be part of something so magical, so hopeful, so damned human. Find a group doing something you care about, ask what openings they have for help, find something you can get out and DO for your neighborhood, your community, your world. There really is no feeling like it, and nothing that can restore your faith in the power of us mere humans to get things done, than getting out and doing.

[danpuff-ao3]

With Snarry AUctober fest wrapping up, with plenty of wonderful new creations, I decided to throw together a rec list of my Top 5 favorites (like I did with my Thon recs) to get you started. I plan to go through past years of AUctober fest to do this, too.

Synthesis

by armassy. Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 11,280. Muggle AU. College/university. Enemies to friends to lovers.

Severus is a brilliant but hard-to-work-with chemistry professor, who only teaches because he has to but would much rather spend all his time doing research. Harry is the grad student that either Albus or Minerva - the head of the chemistry department on paper, even though everyone knows Severus always gets what he wants - has assigned to essentially follow Severus around and tell him “no” when he’s being unreasonable. Harry is tasked with keeping Severus on budget and preventing all his students from quitting his class. Severus takes this as a personal affront.

After Spinner's End

by enoby_w. Harry/Severus. Rated: M. Words: 4,222. Paranormal. Pining. Angst. Happy ending.

When Harry left his aunt and uncle's he hadn't meant to end up in Cokeworth. But he'd fallen asleep on the bus; it was late, and now he needed somewhere to stay until morning. While the crooked, empty house on the corner looked like it would do just fine in a pinch, had Harry bothered to ask, the locals would have told him the house at Spinner's End might look empty, but it wasn't. Something lived there; whatever it was, it was best left alone.

Conditions to Bloom

by LoveCrumb. Harry/Severus. Rated: T. Words: 9,865. Mutual pining. Fluff and angst. Muggle AU.

Severus lets his gaze fall to the sagging aloe plant in front of him, and it hardly takes a cursory glance before he has his diagnosis. “Root rot,” he says. The man’s eyebrows shoot up on his forehead. “But how do you–I���ve hardly been watering it at all!” Supporting a drooping leaf with the tip of his pen, Severus eyes the unnatural lean of the stem and gives the customer a disbelieving raise of one eyebrow. Prompt 2024-11: Severus is a plant doctor who takes in people’s sick plants and nurses them back to health. Harry is a well-meaning plant dad whose poor plants are constantly on death’s door.

Mating for Life - Breeding Season in the Highlands of Scotland

by sillybeans. Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 3,332. POV Dudley Dursley. A/B/O. Alpha Severus. Omega Harry. Crack.

“Among the ruins of an ancient castle in the Highlands of Scotland lives a human species like no other.“ Dudley watches a very educational documentary out of boredom.

Flutter

by SquibNation10. Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 30,286. Muggle AU. Curses. Birds. Angst. Hopeful. Grief & trauma.

He said uselessly, "Sev, don't go." "I'm s-sorry-" Harry cupped Severus' face and gazed into his eyes. His eyes were dark brown, almost black, sad, raven, mine. "These stay the same," Severus said. "Remember that when you look at me. Remember, it's me.” Flutter does my heart, When you ask me to stay. I want to live in the moment But the past keeps me a prey. Prompt # 2024-76 Prompt: AU - Apartment Life Harry's been warned to steer clear of the 24th floor. Curiosity got the better of him and Harry checks it out. Its deserted except for apartment 2444. Harry notices signs of life—a faint light under the door, soft sounds of movement.

~ Bonus: Self Rec ~

She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not

fem!Harry/fem!Severus (Hyacinth/Sulpicia). Rated: E. Words: 11,875. Hanahaki disease. Curse-breaking. Language of flowers. Magical theory. Minor Hyacinth/Ginny.

There's an outbreak of Hanahaki, and Curse Breaker Hyacinth Potter is brought onto the case, to work closely with the Aurors and Unspeakable Sulpicia Snape. Snape doesn't have a romantic bone in her body, and Hyacinth is happily in love with Ginny Weasley. They have nothing to worry about...right?

[behind-the-veil-of-sanity]

I’ve never kept a diary, but I guess if I had, the entry for today would run something like this… September 5, 2024. It is summer again. Did summer actually ever leave? 21C and not a cloud in sight (teeny fib, the late afternoon turned hazy, but still warm). Shorts and T-shirt. Short socks in sneakers :D No response from real estate agent on web query. Wrote direct email re next possible viewing. Yay, a fast response! Viewing planned for today. In two hours time… find bus route and get there on time. Arrived on time, no agent in sight. Wait. Wait. Ah, eff it, I take a stroll around the property to get my bearings and make use of MY TIME! Apple trees, red and blackcurrant bushes. Nice. Pick up Newtonian apple (allowed!). Take a bite. Soft… pick a few red and blacks (don’t tell!). WHERE IS THE EFFIN AGENT??????? call agent. Auto response: can’t talk right now. What? Text agent: where are you, I’m here!!!! Out of town? Misunderstanding? Oh. Well yeah you didn’t spell that word right did you, but I also did not read that word properly. Next week you say. Okay. Fuck. (sneaks off the property hoping no one saw me). Now what? Stroll down the high street. Check out the local shops and dining places. Quaint, my final verdict of this village. Check bus time table, last bus an hour away. Hungry. Take aim at the local pizza place. 45 minutes later I roll out of the pizza place, one calzone and a beer lining my stomach. Buy orange fizz for desert (why? There wasn’t any coke!). Take last bus back home. Same driver as before. He recognised me… Get off bus, walk for 30 mins to get home, plus stopping off at the local grocery store. Note to self: always bring two bags for groceries. One bag makes life just so much harder. Arrived home. Sweating like a roasting pig. Huffing. Puffing. Watch warns me my pulse is too high for a sedentary position. Fuck #2. Feel stuffed two hours after pizza. Too much mozzarella I reckon. Also, too little tomato sauce. TV time. Watch TV. Time passes. The sun sets. Nice. Takes photo and posts to tumblr. TV. TV. Bang. Darkness. Power gone. Look out the window and realise the whole neighbourhood is dark. Get candles. Light candles. Get phone. Wait for cell service to be restored. Check power company website. Planned work? Power restored in 6 hours! The text to mum contains too many expletives to mention, but how the fuck can EON (electricity company) be allowed to run planned maintenance without telling their customers. Getting annoyed. Write complaint email to EON using even more colourful language. Press send. Feel no remorse. Fuck. (#3) I was supposed to enlist in the next uni course today. Today. The last day. But the power is off… I can access the computer with all the docs. Fuck (#3 still echoing in my head). Get phone out. 30% battery left. Might just work… Log on to Uni. Select course. Enlist. Proceed. Sorry? What? The online system can’t determine how much I’m supposed to pay cuz I’ve moved… BUT I DONT NEED TO PAY TODAY!!!!!! Contact Uni using web form. Write long explanations but try to ignore the frustration from the power fucking company idiot still bouncing in my head. Press send. Get automated reply immediately. Okay, that seemed to have gone to the wrong department. Try again. Contact student support. Sigh. Repeat the same info, adding a few extras and further queries. Press send. Fuck it. Walk to fridge. Open door. Get beer. Drink beer. Sigh. Gawd, I just feel the urge to whinge, into the void where no one can hear me. Huh, I know — Tumblr.

[enfyswanders]

Nottingham/Long Eaton: June 29-July 1, 2024

My day job has Slack channels for various geographical regions, and when I asked the UK-based folks months prior to the trip for recommendations for places to stay, my colleague David kindly offered the guest room in his home, and I happily accepted the offer!

David lives in the Nottingham metro area, in a town called Long Eaton, with his wife, teen daughter, and an extremely dapper and sweet kitty named Charlie.

David and his wife Jennie extended fantastic hospitality, picking me up at the train station and making me a traditional Sunday roast dinner my first night there. And then we all got to visit Nottingham Castle together!

As tourist attractions go, Nottingham Castle surprised me in its modernity. Most of the Robin Hood exhibits were interactive video-driven, many of them straight-up video games. You start your tour walking through a cave and emerge into this cavernous area with multiple video screens and pillars showing characters on more video screens who tell you the complex historical roots of the Robin Hood legend. And then you can branch off into vestibules with a life-sized archery video game, a life-sized quarterstaff battle game, a costume area, and other interactive entertainment options, mostly aimed at kids.

But your admission fee (which, by the way, gets you entrance to the castle for a full year!) gets you more than just the Robin Hood exhibit. You also get access to other historical Nottingham exhibits, including the history of the lace industry in Nottingham and the Luddites, and an entire art museum.

I was particularly moved by a series of murals in a stairwell that transitions you from the Robin Hood area to the Rebellion Gallery. The models are all people who live in Nottingham.

I also have to note that when we were in the gift shop purchasing tickets, one of the people working there admired my Desert Bus for Hope t-shirt and turned out to also be a Loading Ready Run fan. So that was a fun moment!

We also enjoyed some shopping in downtown Nottingham. I was sorely tempted by the huge selection of beautiful hardcover Discworld books at Waterstones, but managed to slap my hand away, since I knew they'd be heavy in my luggage. But, in the course of our conversations, David, Jennie and I discovered we're all fans of tabletop games, so I convinced David to pick up a copy of one of my favorites, Ganz Schön Clever (That's Pretty Clever), a roll & write dice game. It was really fun teaching them how to play it.

This week's Adventures in Doing Laundry were graciously provided by David, who let me use their machine. Line-drying proved to be a challenge, though, with shifting weather patterns and some of my clothes' fabric just being very stubborn and slow to air-dry. A few of my things were very slightly damp when I departed, but thankfully the place I stayed next had a heated towel bar that took care of that.

[newstfionline]

Thursday, January 18, 2024

Pacific Northwest hunkers down for ice and freezing rain, while other US regions also battle cold (AP) Parts of the Pacific Northwest were under an ice storm warning through Wednesday morning, threatening to add to the damage brought by a powerful winter storm that hit the region over the weekend. Area of southwest Washington and western Oregon—including that state’s largest cities of Portland, Salem and Eugene—were expecting to see a quarter-inch to an inch (6 to 25 millimeters) of ice, while freezing rain was forecast in the Seattle area. Schools were closed in many places, bus service curtailed and warming shelters opened while officials warned of continued treacherous road conditions and the chance of new power outages, even as crews struggled to restore electricity to thousands who have been blacked out for days.

What the Child Care Crisis Does to Parents (NYT) On a Saturday morning last May, Julia Sachdev, a mother of a 2-year-old and 4-year-old, woke up to an email from her children’s preschool. The school—which her children adored and had been in operation for over 50 years—announced that it would be closing in a month. In the following days, she and her husband scrambled to find an alternative that was a reasonable driving distance from their home. Most of the places they reached out to had long waiting lists. Some said their waiting lists were full. Some never even called them back. The Sachdevs’ experience is far from unique. For years, American parents—regardless of family roles, paid work status, geography or income—have struggled to find and maintain stable child care. Research shows that roughly half of Americans live in child care deserts, meaning that they have limited or no access to care. In September, federal relief funding put in place to support more than 220,000 child care programs during the pandemic abruptly expired. This steep drop-off in investment, which has been termed a child-care cliff, is projected to lead to the closing of thousands of preschools and child care centers around the country. Some families are already feeling the impact, and many more may soon find themselves in situations like the Sachdevs’.

Trump's rise sparks isolationist worries among US allies (Reuters) As Donald Trump strengthens his lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, some U.S. allies are worried about an American turn toward isolationism, a shift that would reflect an electorate largely focused on domestic issues. That was shown in polling in Iowa where Trump scored an overwhelming victory, with foreign policy the top issue for just one in 10 participants in the state's caucus. National polling provides a similar picture. When Americans have cited matters involving foreigners as the country's top problem, they most often have referred to immigration and not foreign conflicts, Reuters/Ipsos polling over the last decade shows. While domestic concerns have long dominated U.S. politics, isolationism has grown in recent years—particularly within the Republican Party.

French President Macron uses broad news conference to show his leadership hasn’t faded (AP) French President Emmanuel Macron made a point of showing his leadership hasn’t faded in more than two hours of answering questions at a news conference in which he promised a stronger France to face the world’s challenges. “I still have three years and a half in office,” he said, describing an ambition to both change the daily life of the French and tackle global crises. The 46-year-old centrist president promised “audacity, action, efficiency” in the hopes of strengthening his legacy through a series of reforms, starting with an economic bill meant to boost growth and tax cuts for middle-class households.

Ukraine needs money from the US and Europe to keep its economy running. Will the aid come? (AP) Ukraine’s hard-won economic stability is under threat again as the government faces a large budget hole and its two biggest allies and sponsors—the United States and the European Union—have so far failed to decide on extending more aid. Without pledges of support by the start of February—when EU leaders meet to decide on aid—and if no money arrives by March, that could risk the progress Ukraine has made against inflation. It has helped ordinary people keep paying rent, put food on the table and resist Russia’s efforts to break their society’s spirit. Ukraine spends almost all the money it brings in through taxes to fund the war. That leaves a huge deficit because there are other bills to keep society functioning, like old-age pensions and salaries for teachers, doctors, nurses and state employees.

Putin says Ukraine’s statehood at risk if pattern of war continues (Reuters) Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Ukraine’s statehood could suffer an “irreparable blow” if the pattern of the war continued, and Russia would never be forced to abandon the gains it had made. Putin made his televised comments a day after Switzerland agreed to host a global summit at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Putin dismissed “so-called peace formulas” being discussed in the West and Ukraine and what he called the “prohibitive demands” they entailed. “Well, if they don’t want (to negotiate), then don’t!” he said. “Now it is quite obvious, not only (Ukraine’s) counter-offensive failed, but the initiative is completely in the hands of the Russian armed forces. If this continues, Ukrainian statehood may suffer an irreparable, very serious blow.”

NATO official warns West: Be ready for ‘anything’ (Politico) NATO countries need to be on red alert for war and "expect the unexpected," the chair of the alliance's military committee of national chiefs Rob Bauer said Wednesday. "We need public and private actors to change their mindset from an era in which everything was plannable, foreseeable, controllable, focused on efficiency ... to an era in which anything can happen at any time. An era in which we need to expect the unexpected," Bauer said. “The tectonic plates of power are shifting,” he added. “And as a result: We face the most dangerous world in decades.”

Deadly Iranian Strikes in Iraq and Pakistan Inflame Regional Tensions (NYT) Iran hit its neighbors Pakistan and Iraq with missile strikes on Tuesday, prompting strong denunciations from both countries and raising fears that upheaval in the Middle East could spiral out of control. In both cases, Iranian officials said they were going after terrorists they accused of being behind recent attacks on its territory that have badly shaken Iranians. This month, suicide bombers killed 84 people at a memorial procession for a revered Iranian military leader, and in December, an attack on a police station killed at least 11 officers. The Iraqi and Pakistani governments rejected Iran’s justifications. Iran’s actions came amid widespread fears that the devastating war in Gaza could become a broader and deadlier regional conflict.

Gaza keeps losing communications (Washington Post) Israel’s war on Hamas has deprived people in Gaza of food, water, electricity and shelter. It’s also disrupted communications. Gaza’s cellphone network had struggled before the conflict. Now, under Israeli bombardment and the mass displacement of Gazans, it’s failing as people are trying to connect with loved ones and secure resources. Communications blackouts have also stymied aid organizations and emergency workers trying to coordinate with the local population and with each other. And for Gaza’s journalists, the blackouts are an impediment as they try to inform the world about suffering in the enclave. Israeli bombing has damaged cellphone networks, according to Mamoon Fares, director of corporate support for the Palestinian Telecommunications Co., or Paltel, one of two providers in the enclave. Most of the internal fiber connections that link to switches and street cabinets “are damaged and need to be fixed,” he said. Cellphone towers had also been damaged. “We have more than 550 towers inside Gaza,” said Fares, who is based in the West Bank city of Ramallah. “Most of them were partially or completely damaged.”

Qatar and France send medicine for hostages in Gaza as war rages on (AP) A shipment of medicine for dozens of hostages held by Hamas was en route to Gaza on Wednesday after France and Qatar mediated the first agreement between Israel and the militant group since a weeklong cease-fire in November. The medicines arrived in Egypt and were on the way to the border. A senior Hamas official said that for every box provided for the hostages, 1,000 boxes would be sent in for Palestinians. The deal also includes the delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave. The agreement came more than 100 days into a conflict that shows no sign of ending.

U.S. Strikes Houthi Targets in Yemen for a Third Time (NYT) The United States carried out a new military strike against Houthi ballistic missiles in Yemen on Tuesday, the U.S. military said, but the latest salvo against the Iran-backed group left the White House grappling with how to stop a battle-hardened foe from disrupting shipping lanes critical for global trade. The strikes on Tuesday, the third overall against the group since a U.S.-led air and naval barrage hit dozens of targets last week, destroyed four missiles that the Pentagon’s Central Command said posed an imminent threat to merchant vessels and Navy ships traveling through the Red Sea and nearby waters. But the pre-emptive American strike also came on the third day in a row the Houthis have defied the Biden administration and its allies by firing missiles at passing ships, damaging a Greek-owned cargo vessel on Tuesday. The Houthis damaged a U.S.-owned commercial ship on Monday after attempting to hit an American warship the day before.

China’s population falls (WSJ) Births in China dropped by more than 500,000 last year to just over 9 million in total, accelerating the decline in the country’s population as women shrugged off the government’s exhortations to reproduce. The number of newborns has gone into free fall over the past several years. Official figures released Wednesday showed that China had fewer than half the number of births in 2023 than the country did in 2016, after China abolished the one-child policy. The latest number points to a fertility rate—the number of children a woman has over her lifetime—that is close to 1.0, a level considered by demographers as “ultralow.”

Invasive fire ants form ‘rafts’ as they spread on Australia’s waterways (Washington Post) An environmental group has issued a warning about the invasive threat posed by fire ants, which have been documented forming “rafts” in floodwaters to access new territory amid ongoing heavy rain and cyclone conditions in Australia’s northeast. Reece Pianta at the Invasive Species Council said the insects were “one of the world’s worst invasive species” and were known to be more active immediately before and after rainfall. They can be seen joining together in buoyant clumps pulled along the current in waters in the Gold Coast region of Queensland state this month, in video footage the council shared Tuesday. “They can form rafts and float on floodwaters and land in new locations to reestablish their colonies once the floodwaters recede,” Pianta said in a phone interview. “Quite remarkable, but also quite scary.” Fire ants are capable of a sting that can be painful for an hour and in rare cases can cause a life-threatening allergic reaction. They often attack in a swarm of ants stinging at once.

[xt1me]

I posted an animated gif for the 2024 Desert Bus For Hope yesterday and I posted one for 2023's last year but I just realised I never posted a yearless one.

I don't think I've seen a gif of the logo anywhere so if anyone wants one they can use this.

[omittedarcanum]

I know things have been really rough and depressing ever since Tuesday night, so if anyone is reading this before sometime around noon EST on Friday 12/15, you should check out Desert Bus for Hope for some much needed laughter and reminder that there is still so much good in this world. You can find it here: https://desertbus.org/2024/ Now, you may be wondering what Desert Bus for Hope is. Well, it's the world's longest running internet-based fundraiser where the world's worst game Desert Bus is played for as long as donations keep coming in while a group of amazing people do all sorts of crazy stuff in the background. All the money goes to the Child's Play charity, which is its own amazing thing. It's amazing and sure to put a smile on your face. I'm not able to give much this year due to my own circumstances, so I'm hoping I might be able to get one or two people to check it out with this. Anyway, here's a video explaining it all far better than I can: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvU3KXtOg8Q

[strikefourth]

Fourth Strike Oct-Nov Roundup!

Hey, y'all. Our live set at Desert Bus premieres today (or tomorrow, depending on your time zone). We've got a few things left in the pipeline for ya, but this is probably the last time you'll hear from "the garages" live... for now.

As we start focusing more on "being a music collective" and "supporting our artists," we thought it'd be nice for you all to know what we get up to while the garages/Fourth Strike are silent. Threaded here are our non-FS FSer endeavors--musical and not--from the last month. Check them out, and then check back in in December for more surprises!

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Resni made a game with over 50 original tracks:

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2. @thwackamabob's new band has their DEBUT EP OUT SOON!! (Nov 22) Three singles are already out if you want a sampler:

Yuppie Supper's last gig is also available on YouTube if you just can't wait until next week:

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3. Rosie's featured all over This Is The Glasshouse's new album, 867:

Full album stream on YouTube, here:

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4. Gabi did a cover of Hey Goodwin:

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5. Ceri teamed up with NOISE ARTIFACT on the single from their new EP:

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6. Sunny's band DROPPED THEIR DEBUT EP last month! See:

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7. Hot off the press, @girltentacles released a new song literally yesterday! You can't beat this for #news:

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That's all for this month! Future roundups will probably not land in the #the garages tag, so make sure to follow us or #beyond strike four if you want to keep up! We hope you poke around, and, regardless, see you later at THE GARAGES SIGN OFF @ DESERT BUS 2024!

[maximuswolf]

Looking for a certain music video

Looking for a certain music video I hope this is the right thread to post to, I'm looking for a music video I remember from like the early 2000's. I used to have it on this little dvd of music videos I made myself but it's long since gone and I can't remember the name of the song or artist. It was on a double (or triple) decker bus, at least a few scenes were in the desert. There was a mixed gender band, who were on the bus. The bus picked up someone at a bus stop in the middle of the desert and the world was all colourful after that. I think there might have been bubbles or rainbow coloured balls as well? I believe it was a pop song.It's really bothering me that I can't remember it, so any help from all of you would be greatly appreciated! Submitted June 16, 2024 at 04:24AM by Mushroomaya https://ift.tt/rlxaY9D via /r/Music