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Tomoko Kubo’s Hiragana Embroideries Double as Japanese Language Learning Devices

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This cracks me up!

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The practice of buying votes in so called Rotten or Pocket Boroughs was outlawed in the UK Reform Act of 1832. ( under the Conservatives) Perhaps it’s time America !😆

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Source

Source

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Beautiful.

Borys Humenyuk🇺🇦 Ukrainian writer, poet, soldier. Member of the National Writers' Union of Ukraine since 2006. His works are not in the Project Nedopysani because he has been MIA since Dec. 2022.

Read his "Zapovit" ("Last Will") that I translated into English:

Today, we dig the earth again,

This hateful Donetsk earth,

This hardened, unyielding earth.

We press against it,

We hide inside it,

Still alive.

We shelter behind the earth,

Sit quietly in it,

Like little children behind their mother’s back.

We hear its heart beating,

Its weary breath.

We are warm and safe,

Still alive.

Tomorrow, we will be dead.

Many of us, maybe all.

Do not take us from the earth,

Do not tear us from our mother.

Do not collect our remains from the battlefield,

Do not try to piece us back together.

And—please—we beg you,

No crosses, no memorials, no stone plaques.

We do not need them.

They are not for us—they are for you,

The grand monuments you build in our name.

Do not carve our names anywhere.

Simply remember:

On this field,

In this earth,

Lie Ukrainian soldiers—

And that is all.

Do not return us to our parents.

We do not want them to see us like this.

Let them remember us as children,

As mischievous boys

With slingshots and bruised knees,

With bad grades in school,

With pockets full of apples from a neighbor’s tree.

Let them hope we will come home one day,

That somewhere, somehow, we still exist.

Do not return us to our wives.

Let them remember us as handsome men,

The ones many girls liked,

But who belonged to them alone.

Let them remember our burning lips,

Our hot breath,

Our passionate embraces.

Let them not touch our cold foreheads,

Our frozen lips.

Do not return us to our children.

Let them remember our warm eyes,

Our warm smiles,

Our warm hands.

Let their trembling lips never touch

Our lifeless fingers.

Here, in these trenches,

Which today are our shelter

And tomorrow will be our graves—

Bury us.

No farewell speeches.

In the silence after battle,

They always seem misplaced,

Like shaking a fallen soldier

And begging him to rise.

No requiems.

We already know where our resting place will be.

Just cover us with earth,

And—go.

It would be good if a field grew there,

If the rye swayed in the wind,

If a lark sang in the sky,

And the sky—

So much sky—

Can you imagine what kind of bread will grow

On a field where soldiers lie?!

(In our memory, eat the bread from the fields

Where we fell.)

It would be good if there were meadows,

With many, many flowers,

A bee over every bloom.

If in the evening, lovers came,

Weaving flower crowns,

Making love until dawn.

If during the day, young parents

Came with their children.

(Do not stop the children from coming to us.)

But that will be tomorrow.

Today, we are still digging the earth,

This dear Ukrainian earth,

This sweet, gentle earth,

Writing together, with our entrenching tools,

On its body—

The last poem of Ukrainian literature.

Still alive.

(Project Nedopysani - i.e. Project Unfinished Writing Works - is a volunteer project that collects works of Ukrainian writers and poets that died in Russia's war against Ukraine. Most of those writers have not yet been recognized or even published anything yet. So they become known only after they are KIA - when their relatives or comrades pass their writing notes to volunteers who run the Project Nedopysani. The Project was created to forestall something that has been happening for centuries when Russians attacked Ukrainian lands before, murdering the indigenous population and burning and destroying all works in Ukrainian language - thousands of Ukrainian artists and writers and their works lost to history)

Listen to the work in Ukrainian, read by Borys Humenyuk:

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Russia invaded Ukraine.

Any "deal" which rewards Russia in its mass butchery, rape, and slaughter of Ukrainians is not a peace plan, it is a capitulation. It is a green light to Russia that they are free to murder their way through Ukraine as much as they please down the line, bringing 19th century style colonial warfare forward to the 21st century. This behavior by Russia has historical precedence stretching back centuries--longer than the U.S., in fact, has been a country. Ukrainians understand this. They have lived it, generation upon generation. They know what happens when you make a "deal" with Russia.

For any Westerner, and this includes the President of the United States, to lecture Ukrainians about peace is an abject disgrace to the sacrifices Ukraine has made for democracy and freedom. We in the U.S. should be thanking Ukraine, lest our soldiers be the ones dying in the fields for freedom. To those Americans who object to us supporting Ukraine by sending our decades-old tech, which sits unused in bone fields, to Ukraine so that they might survive another day, ask yourselves: Would you rather pay with your blood? Every civilian butchered, every Ukrainian child stolen, and every inch of Ukrainian land torn away incurs a debt to both justice and righteousness. What we don't pay in dollars now, we will pay with bodies later. Ask the Ukrainians what that means, for they have already been paying the ultimate price for over ten years straight.

I have been to Ukraine before and after the war; I have seen their beautiful town squares filled with flowers replaced with the long bulletin boards of portraits of soldiers who died defending liberty. There is no American alive today who bears the tired eyes of Ukrainians waking up to the sound of sirens every day, for three years straight, because their homes are under threat of bombardment and destruction. What happened to the America of my grandfathers, the lauded "Arsenal of Democracy", who would have stood unflinchingly behind a people fighting for their freedom and ours and been proud of it? Are we truly okay with voting alongside the real murderous, bloody dictators like Vladimir Putin, Alexander Lukashenko, and Kim Jong Un, who achieve their goals in this world by crossing mountains made from the bodies of slaughtered innocents?

To my Ukrainian friends, I'm so sorry. I'm ashamed beyond words to watch the President of my country berate yours in what is supposed to be the People's office. Please know that millions of Americans do not stand for this: We stand behind you and we stand with Ukraine, even if our country has abdicated its role in defending liberty. May America rediscover her priorities and recover from the disgrace of the words said today by men who have no shame, and may Russia lose this bloody, murderous, genodical war. It could end today if Russia simply went home. It is that easy, it always was, and it always will be, no matter how the powerful may try to rape the truth.

Слава Україні, until the very end. 🕊💙💛

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Highly recommend this whistle-stop history of Ukraine. It was broadcast at the start of the Russian Invasion. Among the comments made by these hugely popular historians: Putin’s actions would be akin to Britain re-invading Ireland on the basis that some Irish people speak English and have some shared heritage. It’s sobering to listen to this 3 years on. Right at the end, they express their dismay, that after all the terrible things Ukraine has endured, once again it’s under attack and having its nationhood denied. Of all the countries in the world, it should not be happening to them.😢

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For three years, Ukraine and the Ukrainian people have fought against Russia's war of aggression defending the freedom of us all.

Ukraine deserves our unwavering support and a just, lasting peace based on the core principles of international law and the UN charter. There must be no negotiations in Ukraine without Ukraine and no negotiation on Europe without Europe.

Be assured, Finland does its best to assist Ukraine on its path towards peace and EU and NATO memberships. We will continue to support Ukraine with as much defence materiel as possible and we encourage others to do the same. So far Finland has provided Ukraine with defence materiel worth €2.5 billion.

Ukraine remains our biggest development cooperation partner and the largest recipient of humanitarian aid. Also, the whole country, the Government, and the business sector alike, are eager to help Ukraine with the reconstruction.

Ukraine needs our help. Russia systemically attacks civilian targets. Finland continues to provide extensive civilian materiel assistance to strengthen the resilience of Ukraine.

Finland stands with Ukraine. Today, tomorrow, and in the future. For as long as needed.

Alexander Stubb, President of Finland Petteri Orpo, Prime Minister Elina Valtonen, Minister of Foreign Affairs Antti Häkkänen, Minister of Defence Ville Tavio, Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Mari Rantanen, Minister of Interior

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Indeed. Putin knows how to manipulate Trumps vanity. Give a gift of his portrait - and the tyranny, murder, torture, rape, child-snatching by Russian forces is conveniently forgotten about. Also the fact that the USA has obligations to defend Ukraine under the terms of the Minsk agreement. Ukraine is the only signatory that fully complied, and yet here we see two countries who reneged passing the blame on her and now its European allies. 😣Let’s be clear: the Kremlin are not afraid of NATO or Europe. The Kremlin is afraid of democracy. I hope one day America will once again be on the right side of the fight.

Russia has been the main enemy of the US for decades. We had a nuclear arms race with them to see who could destroy the world 100s of times over.

Russians decided to groom the Republicans.

They obliged.

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So heartbreaking. Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦

1993/2025

Ukraine war

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Odessa, Ukraine

Ukraine war

20 March 2025

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A disposable protest. There are worse ways of expressing your rage. This sofa has been dumped here for weeks on the canal side. It will be a long while before it gets taken away. In the meantime it’s getting lots of views.

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I’ve started watching this excellent documentary about how Zelenskyy became president of Ukraine and the historical context of his - and his country’s fight for freedom. As a Brit, I cannot understand how the current US administration, isn’t 💯 percent behind Ukraine, whose values, so much reflect America’s own. This includes, of course, the notion that an ordinary “Everyman” could be the perfect leader for his people… why not?! One of the most remarkable things (which directly contradicts the Kremlin’s narrative) is that Zelenskyy was the presidential candidate who argued for peace and diplomacy with Russia. He tried - but Putin wouldn’t negotiate (and whatever Trump claims) he isn’t negotiating now. 🇺🇦

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Monday evening in Odesa:

21:29 explosions

21:33 explosions

21:35 explosions

21:37 explosions

21:40 explosions

21:42 explosions

21:43 explosions

21:45 first reports of fires in the city

21:48 explosions

first reports of power outrage

21:52 explosions

21:59 explosions

22:07 explosions

22:14 explosions

Or should I write “the loud sounds of putin wanting peace” instead “explosions”? 🤔

Nothing says “I want peace” more than daily attacks on critical infrastructure and people’s houses.

Same shit every day for years

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There seems to be a competition now to upgrade tags to abstract art. 🙂