the-sacred-now

[the-sacred-now]

In a car-free zone, what would be absolutely necessary is to still have some forms of (public and private) transport that do not require physical effort, are relatively comfortable, and are sheltered from the forces of weather. It'd be great if it required less than a car, and were more comfortable, but it definitely could not require more effort, and definitely could not be less comfortable. Also, in a COVID world where we still live, full of people who get on public transit without masks, for many disabled people, having a space where you can breathe without fear is kind of a big deal.

Right now... a personal vehicle is the only thing that offers relative ease of transport for people and their bulky and heavy items, offers seating, heating, cooling, is weatherproof, and offers protection from airborne pathogens.

I don't want that to be the case. I see the benefits for many people, abled and disabled, of extensive car-free zones. But you can't say it's just absolutely better for everyone until you can also offer what a car offers disabled people, in those spaces.

Yes, workarounds can be rigged. "Rigging workarounds" is effort in and of itself. We're talking about city planning. Plan for this:

There's a lady at my work who asks to be driven to the grocery store. The grocery store is next to our building. She can walk, with a walker--but she knows she'll be walking all around the store, and then all around inside our building. She wants to be able to sit, and rest, for those ~400 feet between our front door and theirs, and back. A "walkable city" does not solve for her disability.

Show me one that does. This is not a gotcha. This is an entreaty. Please, I want to see it.

[the-sacred-now]

Here's the top 2 stories from each of Fix The News's six categories:

1. A game-changing HIV drug was the biggest story of 2024

In what Science called the 'breakthrough of the year', researchers revealed in June that a twice-yearly drug called lenacapavir reduced HIV infections in a trial in Africa to zero—an astonishing 100% efficacy, and the closest thing to a vaccine in four decades of research. Things moved quick; by October, the maker of the drug, Gilead, had agreed to produce an affordable version for 120 resource-limited countries, and by December trials were underway for a version that could prevent infection with just a single shot per year. 'I got cold shivers. After all our years of sadness, particularly over vaccines, this truly is surreal.'

2. Another incredible year for disease elimination

Jordan became the first country to eliminate leprosy, Chad eliminated sleeping sickness, Guinea eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus, Belize, Jamaica, and Saint Vincent & the Grenadines eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis, India achieved the WHO target for eliminating black fever, India, Viet Nam and Pakistan eliminated trachoma, the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness, and Brazil and Timor Leste eliminated elephantiasis.

1. The EU passed a landmark nature restoration law

When countries pass environmental legislation, it’s big news; when an entire continent mandates the protection of nature, it signals a profound shift. Under the new law, which passed on a knife-edge vote in June 2024, all 27 member states are legally required to restore at least 20% of land and sea by 2030, and degraded ecosystems by 2050. This is one of the world’s most ambitious pieces of legislation and it didn’t come easy; but the payoff will be huge - from tackling biodiversity loss and climate change to enhancing food security.

2. Deforestation in the Amazon halved in two years

Brazil’s space agency, INPE, confirmed a second consecutive year of declining deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. That means deforestation rates have roughly halved under Lula, and are now approaching all time lows. In Colombia, deforestation dropped by 36%, hitting a 23-year low. Bolivia created four new protected areas, a huge new new state park was created in Pará to protect some of the oldest and tallest tree species in the tropical Americas and a new study revealed that more of the Amazon is protected than we originally thought, with 62.4% of the rainforest now under some form of conservation management.

1. Millions more children got an education

Staggering statistics incoming: between 2000 and 2023, the number of children and adolescents not attending school fell by nearly 40%, and Eastern and Southern Africa, achieved gender parity in primary education, with 25 million more girls are enrolled in primary school today than in the early 2000s. Since 2015, an additional 110 million children have entered school worldwide, and 40 million more young people are completing secondary school.

2. We fed around a quarter of the world's kids at school

Around 480 million students are now getting fed at school, up from 319 million before the pandemic, and 104 countries have joined a global coalition to promote school meals, School feeding policies are now in place in 48 countries in Africa, and this year Nigeria announced plans to expand school meals to 20 million children by 2025, Kenya committed to expanding its program from two million to ten million children by the end of the decade, and Indonesia pledged to provide lunches to all 78 million of its students, in what will be the world's largest free school meals program.

1. Solar installations shattered all records

Global solar installations look set to reach an unprecedented 660GW in 2024, up 50% from 2023's previous record. The pace of deployment has become almost unfathomable - in 2010, it took a month to install a gigawatt, by 2016, a week, and in 2024, just 12 hours. Solar has become not just the cheapest form of new electricity in history, but the fastest-growing energy technology ever deployed, and the International Energy Agency said that the pace of deployment is now ahead of the trajectory required for net zero by 2050.  

2. Battery storage transformed the economics of renewables

Global battery storage capacity surged 76% in 2024, making investments in solar and wind energy much more attractive, and vice-versa. As with solar, the pace of change stunned even the most cynical observers. Price wars between the big Chinese manufacturers pushed battery costs to record lows, and global battery manufacturing capacity increased by 42%, setting the stage for future growth in both grid storage and electric vehicles - crucial for the clean flexibility required by a renewables-dominated electricity system. The world's first large-scale grid battery installation only went online seven years ago; by next year, global battery storage capacity will exceed that of pumped hydro.

1. Democracy proved remarkably resilient in a record year of elections

More than two billion people went to the polls this year, and democracy fared far better than most people expected, with solid voter turnout, limited election manipulation, and evidence of incumbent governments being tamed. It wasn't all good news, but Indonesia saw the world's biggest one day election, Indian voters rejected authoritarianism, South Korea's democratic institutions did the same, Bangladesh promised free and fair elections following a 'people's victory', Senegal, Sri Lanka and Botswana saw peaceful transfers of power to new leaders after decades of single party rule, and Syria saw the end of one of the world's most horrific authoritarian regimes.

2. Global leaders committed to ending violence against children

In early November, while the eyes of the world were on the US election, an event took place that may prove to be a far more consequential for humanity. Five countries pledged to end corporal punishment in all settings, two more pledged to end it in schools, and another 12, including Bangladesh and Nigeria, accepted recommendations earlier in the year to end corporal punishment of children in all settings. In total, in 2024 more than 100 countries made some kind of commitment to ending violence against children. Together, these countries are home to hundreds of millions of children, with the WHO calling the move a 'fundamental shift.'

73. Space exploration hit new milestones

NASA’s Europa Clipper began a 2.9 billion kilometre voyage to Jupiter to investigate a moon that may have conditions for life; astronomers identified an ice world with a possible atmosphere in the habitable zone; and the James Webb Telescope found the farthest known galaxy. Closer to Earth, China landed on the far side of the moon, the Polaris Dawn crew made a historic trip to orbit, and Starship moved closer to operational use – and maybe one day, to travel to Mars. 

74. Next-generation materials advanced

A mind-boggling year for material science. Artificial intelligence helped identify a solid-state electrolyte that could slash lithium use in batteries by 70%, and an Apple supplier announced a battery material that can deliver around 100 times better energy density. Researchers created an insulating synthetic sapphire material 1.25 nanometers thick, plus the world’s thinnest lens, just three atoms across. The world’s first functioning graphene-based semiconductor was unveiled (the long-awaited ‘wonder material’ may finally be coming of age!) and a team at Berkeley invented a fluffy yellow powder that could be a game changer for removing carbon from the atmosphere.

-via Fix The News, December 19, 2024

[the-sacred-now]

Yesssss low stakes low tension! 🙌 GBBO is definitely too stressful for me to watch most of the time. I love School of Chocolate not having eliminations even though it of course has a winner.

Also, some original fiction you might enjoy… definitely prickly—cozy meets gritty or something like that, lol. Specifics of tension and stakes fluctuate, but it stays in the lower zone imo.

^Recommended reading order here, with links to their Ao3 pages.

I'm honestly too tired to go picking a fight so I'm going to link instead of reblog but this post to me feels like another one of those cases where someone says something sweeping about what a certain writing technique does or doesn't do or where it does or doesn't leave readers, when what they actually mean is me.

Now to be clear: I don't inherently think there's anything wrong with looking at an overall genre that leaves you a bit cold and going "but parts of this seem fun, so what it is that I could shift where it would be still this playground but I would like it/have fun playing in it." That's legit. Shine on you creative diamond.

Nor am I in disagreement about the fact that tension and stakes are two different elements to a plot and you can have low stakes and not have low tension.

But I'm gonna make a gentle suggestion: just like low stakes, sometimes low tension is a fucking feature, not a fucking problem for you to solve. Not, at least, for "readers" in general. (It might be a problem for you! That's fine.)

Legends and Lattes has done fine. As far as I can see all the cozies that are being complained about here are also doing fine. That means there is in fact a significant and delighted audience for this. One of the posts notes that it feels like these stories are "epilogues" for a larger story that's already happened and I am here to tell you that actually that's probably the point for a bunch of the audience.

Stopping and looking at fandom overall for fiiiiiiive seconds! will tell you that there is absolutely a significant audience for low-stakes low to no tension stories. Curtain-fic is a subgenre for a reason. Slice-of-life vignettes (or . . . you know . . . .novels that are basically one long vignette) also do pretty well for audience.

Something that I have observed for decades in my own reading and rereading practice is that a lot of the time the parts of a novel that I come back to? . . . yeah it's the low-tension, low-stakes "here we are, building a thing/experiencing a learning process/creating a new idea" part and I end up reflecting that frankly, I could happily have like seven more chapters of this, but the "rules" have always insisted that no, You Must Have Some Tension Now, There Must Be Some Conflict of Some Kind.

That doesn't mean you (general you, anyone reading this) have to like the low-stakes-and-low-tension version. Taste cannot be disputed: we like what we like.

It doesn't even mean you can't go "but if I did it this way instead, I would like it more" and see if there are people who agree with you and want your execution.

But I am once again asking that people occasionally consider that sometimes other people just like a thing you don't and have in fact been waiting for someone to just write them a fucking fantasy narrative that is here for the vibes. And the vibes are chill. And they wanted a whole novel's worth of that. That they did in fact want a story where they were quite sure that if plan A didn't work out, then the characters would move on to a plan B, and that wouldn't represent a huge emotional wrench or catastrope, but in fact they were still interested in how the characters went about trying the shit they were doing.

Also some of us actually kinda fuckin' hate the tricks GBBO uses to ramp up tension, and that some contest shows are even worse about it, and enjoy it when other contest shows . . . don't. When an episode of the Zoo behind-the-scenes show has no "BUT WHAT WILL HAPPEN" tension and is instead "hey wanna watch us take care of these animals and talk about them really really enthusiastically and then show you how their husbandry care works?" and will, you know, accept some tension when it inevitably comes as part of the animal's life-story but mostly just wanna watch the zoo shit happen.

And so on.

Some of us do not want any more fucking tension; these authors and stories are answering that audience and they're doing FINE with that audience. They're leaving YOU cold, but you aren't "readers". You're YOU. You can speak for your taste and the tastes of people who hypothetically share yours, and that's all. (And me likewise; the dislike of low-tension stuff is also not a flaw.)

(Ironically the vibes for most cozy fantasy don't work for me, because they are in fact too much of the "adorable/cute/cottage-y/etc" end of the low-tension-vibes and that part is ugh; I will admit though that this does have me pondering if there's an audience for low-stakes-low-tension shit that is nevertheless somewhat PRICKLIER and more full of people who curse at each other or both are intensely cynical and cranky and also remain so throughout the story.)

(Tho come to think of it the relative success - for a tiny fandom and a many years old story - of my fic she who strives means there probably is; while it's definitely not of itself an example of cozy given how the plotline with the child works out, a lot of people noted what particularly drew and spoke to them and resonated with them was the stuff around that; was how Sarah ran her little home in the village and how the family worked together, despite being absolutely shatter-damaged. So those are some ponderings I'm having.)

[the-sacred-now]

Click through to see story links

[the-sacred-now]

thinking about anastasia trusova paintings again

[the-sacred-now]

fucking hate it when the stuff everybody says "actually works" does actually work.

hate exercising and realizing i've let go of a lot of anxiety and anger because i've overturned my fight-or-flight response.

hate eating right and eating enough and eating 3 times a day and realizing i'm less anxious and i have more energy

hate journaling in my stupid notebook with my stupid bic ballpoint and realizing that i've actually started healing about something once i'm able to externalize it

hate forgiving myself hate complimenting myself more often hate treating myself with kindness hate taking a gratitude inventory hate having patience hate talking to myself gently

hate turning my little face up to the sun and taking deep breaths and looking at nature and grounding myself and realizing that i feel less burdened and more hopeful, more actually-here, that i am able to see the good sides of myself more clearly, that i am able to see not only how far i have to grow - but also how much growth i have already done & how much of my life i truly fill with light and laughter and love

horrible horrible horrible. hate it but i'm gonna do it tho

[the-sacred-now]

New comic! (link)

Happy Solstice everyone. I hope you’re all doing ok.

[the-sacred-now]

I love these stories. Two years ago, our best guess of how many renewables the world woutld install next year was only 2/3 of how much we currently guess that we'll install next year. Our predictions of how much we're going to do to fight climate change keep being wrong, and they're wrong because we keep doing WAY MORE than we thought we were going to do.

Click through to see story links

[the-sacred-now]

and there is plenty to share!

[the-sacred-now]

[the-sacred-now]

So many people do not understand the relationship between climate change and cold weather.

[the-sacred-now]

asking "wait so what do you think I'm saying" mid-disagreement will replenish years of your life actually

[the-sacred-now]

“don’t eat honey because it exploits the bees and they can’t consent!!!” bees are literally unionized and will walk out if they don’t like being in the beekeeper’s hives

[the-sacred-now]

"We have an inborn need for our parents to be our heroes. And it is vital that we be able to know when, and how much, they have failed us, and to be angry at them for it. A child can't reconcile these things [...]

"As adults, we learn to hold both. To see simultaneously what they did for us, and what they did to us. To include the hero and the failure, or even villain, in the same person."

-Carl Buchheit

Your parents can love you and still be shitty abusive parents. They can mean well and still fuck up. They might fuck up without even knowing it's abuse.

Sometimes I think about how, when I was 5, my dad would make grilled cheese sandwiches and cut them into dinosaur shapes for me. Other times when I was hungry, he would refuse to feed me at all, because he decided that 5 was old enough for me to cook for myself when he didn't feel like doing it.

I think about how he taught me to swim, and fish, and (yes) throw a ball. In the summer, at night, he would wrap me in a huge comforter and carry me around outside to show me the constellations. But I hated being left alone with him because he was often bad tempered, mean to me for no reason, and I couldn't count on him for basic things like food.

Sometimes I think about how my mom raised hell in my high school principal's office in front of multiple faculty members because they weren't complying with my IEP (disability required accommodations). She always saw red if someone else laid a finger on me, even figuratively. When we were at home she screamed at me for things I had no control over and said I was using my illness to get my way.

I think about how she bought me art supplies and paid for lessons for all of my hobbies. She attended every single concert, performance, and game. I don't think I went a day without being told she loved me while growing up, and she constantly told me how proud she was. But I could never trust her mood and she could go from loving mother to terrorizing me before I knew what was happening.

My parents love me but I still flinch if someone in my vicinity washes a dish a little too aggressively. My parents never intentionally traumatized me, but my nervous system never knew the difference. Neither of my parents saw anything they did as abuse; they believed they were good parents. It wasn't until my mom was in her mid 60s that she grasped that her own childhood had been abusive, too.

They're not bad, irredeemable people. They're complex people with a lot of their own trauma who lacked many skills necessary for good parenting. I could hate them for it, but I don't. I'm not obligated to forgive them, and I don't think I have, and I don't know whether I ever really will. My parents damaged me a lot in ways that have affected my whole life, and I still have good memories with them.

[the-sacred-now]

counter fruits

[the-sacred-now]

21,000 labourers confirmed dead. Over 100,000 missing or unaccounted for/trafficked in building this thing.

[the-sacred-now]

The health insurance industry has a term for this sadistic practice. It's called "step therapy." If the choice is between a more expensive medication that works and a cheaper one that doesn't work as well and might have worse side effects, the insurance company requires that the cheaper drug be used first.

One benefit to the insurance company is that the patient on the cheaper drug might die before they get a chance to use the drug that works but is more expensive. That's money in the bank for the insurance company.

Or, the patient might be so worn down and harmed by the cheaper drug that they just give up the fight to get the drug that will help them. Again, that's bank for the insurance company.