#US recession 2023

[ittvglobal]

software recession 2023 telugu | recession 2023 | us recession 2023 | IT...

[pharosproject]

Federal Reserve stuck between a rock and a hard place

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

President Joe Biden will press House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for a detailed list of spending proposals when the two meet at the White House on Wednesday, officials said ahead of the meeting.

Biden advisers Brian Deese and Shalanda Young said in a memo to reporters Tuesday that the White House would release its own budget in early March.

“It is essential that Speaker McCarthy likewise commit to releasing a budget, so that the American people can see how House Republicans plan to reduce the deficit,” Deese and Young wrote.

A Republican budget proposal, the advisers said, should specify whether Republicans would pursue savings through cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, health insurance subsidies, research or public safety spending.

Republicans should also specify “how much their budget will add to the deficit with tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and large corporations, as in their first bill this year.” House Republicans approved a symbolic bill cutting IRS funding for tax enforcement, which the Congressional Budget Office said would boost deficits by more than $100 billion.

Republicans have signaled they want a major spending showdown with Biden, and that they would use the so-called “debt ceiling” as leverage. The federal government is already butting up against a legal limit on how much it can borrow in order to cover expenses, and if Congress fails to raise the limit, the government would default — potentially triggering a financial crisis and a recession.

Biden has said he would refuse to negotiate over the debt limit, but has nevertheless engaged in a back-and-forth with Republicans, skewering them for suggesting they’d cut spending on popular retirement programs and demanding they be specific about what they want.

Republicans have struggled to define what they’d like to see cut from the federal budget. Some have proposed vague across-the-board cuts to discretionary spending, while others have suggested that it is Biden and the White House who should identify spending restrictions. A top House Republican on Monday said the GOP would seek to cut the “woke agenda” in negotiations with Biden.

Since last week, McCarthy has claimed that Republicans would not propose changes to Social Security or Medicare as part of their spending demands. GOP lawmakers typically sidestep political blowback over such proposals by promising to “strengthen” or “save” those programs instead — with changes for future beneficiaries.

Deese and Young noted Tuesday that the Republican Study Committee, a policy-focused group of House lawmakers, last year proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare through higher eligibility ages and reduced benefits for some recipients.

McCarthy insisted Sunday those programs should be “off the table” for now and that it was a shame congressional Democrats had refused to produce a budget.

“They won’t even negotiate,” McCarthy said on CBS. “I want to make sure we have something responsible, something that we can move forward on and something that we can balance our debt with. So I’m looking [forward to] sitting down. That’s exactly what I’ve been asking for.”

The White House is expected to submit a budget proposal to Congress in the coming weeks, as mandated by federal law. But such plans are often ignored on Capitol Hill. It’s unclear whether the divided and narrow House GOP majority will also produce a budget of its own.

Asked Monday what his message was for McCarthy ahead of their sit-down this week, Biden told reporters: “Show me your budget, I’ll show you mine.”

[centrally-unplanned]

55% believe the economy is shrinking, and 56% think the US is experiencing a recession, though the broadest measure of the economy, gross domestic product (GDP), has been growing. 49% believe the S&P 500 stock market index is down for the year, though the index went up about 24% in 2023 and is up more than 12% this year. 49% believe that unemployment is at a 50-year high, though the unemployment rate has been under 4%, a near 50-year low.

My new calling card/mantra: You cannot policy tweak your way around this

[hope-for-the-planet]

Previous similar drops in emissions were due to periods of economic stagnation or recession--this is the first significant drop in emissions that has coincided with GDP growth.

The majority of this decline is due to changes in energy use and generation. Coal demand has dropped nearly to 1900s levels, while use of renewables grows significantly--for the first time renewables accounted for half of the energy generated in "advanced economies" included in this analysis.

[collapsedsquid]

The Office for National Statistics said U.K. gross domestic product shrank by 0.3% in the final three months of the year, notching the second consecutive quarterly decline.

It's funny that we live in a globalized economy but Britain is entering recession while the US hits 5% GDP growth.

[dystopianam]

THE SIMS 2 TRACKER TEMPLATE V.1.4 (NOTION)

- UPDATE (07/31/2024)

V.1.4 UPDATE (07/31/2024) - I updated the properties: PERSONALITY, HOBBY STATS, INTERESTS & SKILLS AND ADDED THE RECESSIVE DNA IN THE SIMS TRACKER & UPDATED THE DEFAULT REPLACEMENT TRACKER. NOW THE BARRETT CLIP HAIRS ARE SPLIT.

V.1.2 UPDATE (09/06/2023): FIXES, SMALL CHANGES, NEW VIEWS FOR THE PERSONAL DEFAULTS TRACKER AND MORE! SEE BELOW!

GET THE TEMPLATE HERE

V.1.2 UPDATE (09/06/2023):

#Fixed some pages where I forgot to remove my stuff to test things.

#I changed the property "Do I have a default?" from checkbox to "Status". Now it looks like this:

Why did I do it? Because I noticed that sometimes I wasn't sure about the defaults I downloaded, so I wanted to have… more options to mark things. One check wasn't enough for me.

#I've added four new views, taking advantage of the new property, to help you to better group the defaults you have and don't have. See the screens here.

#I have added other list compilation for cc and mods which may come in handy.

#I added the "Camera Mod" section in the "Graphics" section.

V.1.1 UPDATE (09/04/2023): PERSONAL DEFAULTS REPLACEMENT TRACKER ADDED!

Small clarifications:

# I also added some optional proprierties to fill in in case you use some mods. I made sure they are hidden because not everybody use those mods. So to see them click on “more proprierties”.

These options will only remain visible if you fill their box.

These are:

1. Height (If you use Lazy Duchess’s Height Mod here)

2. TS3 Traits (If you use the Trait System here)

3. The favorite color and the disliked color (if you use the color mod here)

Also, In ”Life States” I took the liberty of also adding midgethetree’s custom occults, but if you don't use them you can delete them.

# Some properties are hidden because not all sims have info for those properties. So to see them click on “more proprierties”. These options will only remain visible if you fill their box.

These are:

1. Death Cause (Don’t all sims are dead)

2. Business (OFB Business, it can be a shop a bakery etch)

3. Role in Business

4. All school/university-related properties, if your sim doesn't attend it.

# Some properties are hidden and cannot be made visible even if you fill their boxes. These are for the template filters, so please don't touch them. This property is literally called "Filters”.

My tracker has many more proprieties than a classic tracker and I filled it with ready options so you don't have to write everything by hand yourself (that's why it took me a long time)

ALL the properties have ready options, you just have to choose without the trouble of writing anything (unless you want to insert custom options yourself)

The tracker has also a lot of different views and I'll let you discover them yourself!

I didn't want to add extra options for gender identities and sexual orientations because I don't want to forget anyone, so you can add whatever you want!

And as a last thing to say I can say that for the "currently played family" view, I copied the idea from this template from @skittlessims-deactivated2023082 / @skittlesplays

[mariacallous]

This is dated 12-29-2023, for the record.

It was a nightmare scenario that Ukrainian and Western officials had feared for months. Western officials have watched as Russia stacked up precision-guided munitions to launch targeted attacks on Ukrainian critical infrastructure in the winter while keeping up the pace of strikes on cities using unguided “dumb” bombs. 

And on Friday morning, it became a reality. Russia conducted a hailstorm of strikes across Ukraine, hitting Kyiv, Dnipro, Lviv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, and Kharkiv. There were at least 158 drone and missile strikes in all, which damaged hospitals, a shopping mall, and schools, killing at least 31 people and injuring more than 160. 

The numbers are still going up as search and rescue teams pick through the rubble. Russia fired its missiles with so much abandon that the Polish government confirmed one of the Kremlin’s projectiles entered its airspace. In the chaos that engulfed the Kyiv streets, one man tried to stop the fires from spreading by driving his burning car away from his neighbors. 

The renewed barrages have Ukrainian officials and U.S. experts questioning how long they’ll be able to keep the lights on during winter—or hold territory—especially with the long tail of U.S. military aid running out, unless Congress acts soon. 

Ukrainian officials believe that Russia’s capacity to strike is even greater than what it just showed off: The Kremlin can fire off about 300 Iranian-made suicide drones in one attack on Ukraine and about 150 ballistic missiles in one shot on Kyiv, said Sasha Ustinova, a Ukrainian lawmaker.  

And with the Ukrainian counteroffensive stalled and fresh weapons not flowing until January at the earliest, how resilient will the Ukrainians be? 

“The Ukrainians are heading for a tough winter, for obvious reasons,” Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson said in an interview earlier this month. “But I think that the Ukrainian morale is much, much higher than the Russian morale. What is crucial right now, of course, is that we all will step up support.”

But that morale is now getting tested, as Ukrainians were shaken out of bed by dozens of air raid alerts that lit up their phones. And the aid isn’t coming—at least until the U.S. Congress gets back from recess in the second week of January, and maybe for even longer. 

“Ukraine needs funding now to continue to fight for freedom from such horror in 2024,” Bridget Brink, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, wrote in a tweet screenshotting the numerous air raid alerts sent to Kyiv residents.

U.S. officials have seen movement across the nearly stagnant front lines slow considerably in recent weeks, a trend that is expected to continue. The weather in Ukraine has hit subzero temperatures and piles of snow have mostly halted forward movement along the 600-mile front, underscoring the prospect of several months of attrition warfare. Ukraine is already making moves to lower the draft age to get more men onto the battlefield.  

Ukraine doesn’t need any silver bullets, experts say. It just needs the regular kind. 

“We’re clearly past the ground counteroffensive now,” said Peter Rough, a senior fellow and director of the Center on Europe and Eurasia at Hudson Institute. “Since it won’t get large numbers of longer-range precision fires, Ukraine probably needs to entrench and defend right now—and absent Congress passing the supplemental, even those defensive lines may not remain stable.” 

Still, Jonson said the Ukrainian military has been getting some access to more long-range strike weapons, which has forced Russian ships and aircraft to move farther away from the front lines. But Ukraine has had to build its military while fending off the invasion: Jonson said that Kyiv is operating about 600 types of Western weapons systems, while ferrying fuel and spare parts across the front line. All that on roads that will be coated with sleet, snow, and ice. 

Even with its limited arsenal of Western-provided long-range weapons like British-made Storm Shadows and the cluster variant of the U.S. Army Tactical Missile System, Ukraine has still made a dent, knocking out a Russian tank landing ship in Crimea on Tuesday. And experts believe that Russia’s fragile logistics system—which was never designed for continuous military operations across Europe’s second-largest country—is a good target.  

“If they had longer-range weapons, they could completely wreck the logistics system,” said Ben Hodges, the former head of U.S. Army Europe. “I think they know this is a real vulnerability for the Russians, particularly in winter.” 

But Ukrainians fear they are already running out of munitions—and time. Though Western-provided air defenses blanket much of Kyiv, they are not enough to defend against far-flung Russian attacks that could dot the country during winter. As much as Ukraine needs more air defenses to blunt attacks like Friday’s firestorm, Ukrainian officials have indicated that the falling temperatures have already shifted their priorities: Attrition warfare means a premium on artillery fire, and Europe is far behind on its target to produce a million artillery shells by March 2024.

“The biggest problem we’re going to run into is when they start shelling us heavily,” Ustinova said. “Because we will not have enough munitions.” 

But Ukraine has been forced to cut military operations as aid has dried up. Ukrainian Brig. Gen. Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, who heads up a group of forces in the southern push, told the BBC this week that Ukraine is facing particularly acute shortages of Soviet-era 122 mm and 152 mm shells, which still make up a large portion of Kyiv’s military arsenal. And if the Ukrainians want to apply forward pressure in spite of the snow, they have to clear entire minefields in front of them, only for the Russians to reseed the deadly explosives from the air. 

The Russian war chest is still heavily stocked. Hanno Pevkur, the Estonian defense minister, said in November that Russia still has about 7,000 to 8,000 tanks in reserve. Meanwhile, Russia has turned its sanctions-battered economy into a war economy. The Kremlin plans to spend 6 percent of GDP on defense next year. And Russian President Vladimir Putin’s deals for drones with Iran and ammunition with North Korea have indicated to Western officials that Russia’s game is quantity, not quality. 

“It doesn’t matter. As long as it fires, as long as it unfortunately kills Ukrainians, it is good for Russians,” Pevkur said. “They are increasing their production, especially ammunition. They don’t care about the quality. They care about the quantity.” 

Western officials believe that there are 300,000 to 400,000 Russian troops on Ukrainian soil, across a swath of occupied territory that is about the size of the contiguous Baltic states. Russian casualties have totaled about that many troops in the 22 months since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion began. But experts caution that the cannon fodder won’t last forever. It might not have to last that much longer, though.

In November, Russian forces claimed to gain ground around the eastern city of Avdiivka, where Western officials believe the Kremlin is trying to make a pincer move to encircle the town, the site of a major coke fuel and chemical plant. They’ve also set their sights on the important railway junction of Kupyansk. 

“They just keep pushing these guys into a meat grinder to convey the sense that they have endless resources,” Hodges said. “They don’t have endless resources.” 

For now, though, absent Western aid, Russia’s focus on eastern Ukraine could lead Kyiv to cede more ground. 

“That’s very painful for us, because we pay thousands of lives to get every single kilometer,” Ustinova said.  

“They are already taking more territory,” she added. “Look at the map.”

[wangxianficrecs]

Rewind 2023 - Follower Recs Part II

WangxianFicRecs - Rewind 2023

Before the year ends, we want to share more recs of your favourite stories that were published this year. All these recs were submitted to WangxianFicRecs anonymously and most of them without further comments, so you will have to check them out yourself~

Rewind 2023 - Follower Recs Part I

~*~

After I Met You

by Amandyalmonds

M, WIP, 78k, Wangxian

Summary: "They’re not going to go through with the marriage proposal though, right?” Jiang Cheng reasoned. “You’re ours. And surely the Lan sect wouldn’t want a huli jing, let alone the famed Hanguang-jun.” “Exactly," Wei Wuxian said with a grin. "The Lans are too stuck up to know how to handle someone like me, and they won’t risk forcing their precious Hanguang-jun into such a marriage.” Or, after the end of the war, Wei Wuxian is offered as the last known huli jing to marry into the Lan royal family. The only problem is that Wei Wuxian has never met the man he's marrying, and he's not sure he'll survive in a palace with over three-thousand rules.

~*~

it rains, it pours

by jublis

Not rated, 130k, Wangxian

Summary: Wei Wuxian dashes across the distance that separates him from his husband, like a child running through the dark as if that would lessen its existence. He grabs Lan Zhan’s hand and holds the arm close to his side, to a soft breath of laughter. “Come on, Hanguang-jun,” he half-whispers, because the atmosphere seems to call for it. “Light the way for us.” (Wei Wuxian has scarcely known fear to be gentle — and still. It's as if there’s something murmuring down the hallway, behind the closed door, next to the window in this howling storm: I’m here, I’m here, I’ve always been here…) Or, as Wei Wuxian starts to look into the reasons behind the unsettling notion that something is not quite right, something else starts to look back.

~*~

Take My Pieces, Make Me Whole

by InTheGreySpaces (@inthegreyspaces)

M, WIP, 203k, Wangxian

Summary: Lan Wangji reunites with Wei Wuxian in Yiling only to discover that their union in Xuanwu's Cave nearly three years ago had an outcome he never could have anticipated. Instead of leaving the Burial Mounds that evening, Lan Wangji stays, and his actions set in motion a series of events that will save Wei Wuxian and the Wens. But first, he must battle Wei Wuxian's own lack of self-worth, the clutching hold the resentful dead are determined to keep on their champion, the greed of Jin Guangshan, Jin Guangyao's machinations, his own Uncle's unbending disapproval, and the hatred of the Cultivation World. However, friends and allies are found in the least likeliest of places, and eventually, there is a light at the end of the single-log bridge.

~*~

The Housewife's Guide to Causing Chaos

by dvasva (@dvasva)

M, WIP, 127k, Wangxian | Kay's Rec

Summary: “Of all the rotten luck I could have!" Outside, in between the gentle embrace of an imposing misty mountain and the caress of soft wind, stood the Cloud Recesses. It wasn’t a section that Wei Wuxian had recognized from his time in the sect, but the motifs of clouds and cranes in the buildings, the impeccable feng shui and carefully manicured paths, and the utter silence as the sect members slept peacefully, all burned themselves into Wei Wuxian’s eyes. No wonder the curtains were so firmly nailed to the walls! Any bit of demonic energy escaping the room could call down a veritable army of righteous cultivators! What sort of person in their right mind would dare to summon a spirit into their own body using resentful energy in the Cloud Recesses of all places? What kind of person would scoff so rudely at the Lan Clans most important rule, ‘Do not fraternize with evil?’ After being dead for four years, Wei Wuxian wakes up in a body he doesn't really feel comfortable with, in a place that he's sure wants him dead, and married to a man who surely hates him.

~*~

A Hop, Skip, and a Jump

by Prince_Enby (@enbiart)

T, WIP, 47k, Wangxian & LSZ/OYZZ

Summary: Two years after the events of Guanyin Temple, the Junior Quartet unknowingly walk into an array during a night hunt, and walk out into the middle of a war. None of them are even slightly prepared to deal with the opportunity dropped into their laps - and yet, despite it all, Ouyang Zizhen's biggest concern is somehow still the fact that everyone thinks he and Lan Sizhui are married.

~*~

fans for hanguang-jun

by saltyfeathers

M, 21k, Wangxian

Summary: “What I mean,” Wei Wuxian repeats with as much gravitas as he can muster, “is that every single day in their marriage bed, the Yiling Laozu sp—spears open the most esteemed Hanguang-jun on his—his mmmmmmonster cock!!!” wei wuxian gets kidnapped by a team of belligerent bottoms.

~*~

not wx in the fic

ruin this on me

by loosingletters (@loosingmoreletters)

E, 2k, MXY/WWX/XY

Summary: Mo Xuanyu raises his head from Wei Wuxian’s shoulder to mouth at the exposed skin at his neck, leaving bruises and red stains from his lip balm. He forewent the white foundation today; it is more of a hassle in bed than an enhancement, and he carefully avoids the delicately painted huadian from smearing. Wei Wuxian exhales, not quite a moan yet, and Mo Xuanyu grins against his skin before biting down. The Yiling Laozu is a kind master, sweet to his heir and family, but he is not a gentle man. His breathing hitches at the sudden pain, an approval on its own. Or, Mo Xuanyu pays special attention to his sect leader and shixiong.

~*~

💕

the past drifts away with the waves

by thelastdboy (@thelastdboyy)

E, WIP, 28k, Wangxian

Summary: The next time Wei Wuxian became aware of his surroundings and was able to form semi-coherent thoughts, Wen Zhuliu had just finished tying weights to his feet. Both his arm and his back were still bleeding and he felt as if he had been flayed. “Should I make it quick?” Wen Zhuliu asked him, offering a small mercy. But Wei Wuxian shook his head. “Give me your worst,” he snarled, his teeth coated in blood from where he had bitten his tongue at some point. “I will come back to end you all,” he promised darkly. “Very well,” Wen Zhuliu merely said and drowned him. Or: Yu Ziyuan cuts off Wei Wuxian's hand to appease the Wens. He gets drowned in the lake behind Lotus Pier and resentful energy transforms him into a river spirit. After avenging his own death, he finds his way to Yiling.

~*~

this story plus the lovely podfic

if this one could be ransomed

by harborshore

T, 2k, Wangxian

[podfic] if this one could be ransomed

by jennisaisquoi (@jennisaisquoi79)

T, 10-20 Minutes, Wangxian

Summary: Lan Wangji is too late to save A-Yuan. Sick with grief and pain, he throws himself back in time to try again. But he goes back too far.

~*~

a thousand lifetimes

by SapphyreLily (@sapphyrelily)

G, 2k, Wangxian

Summary: Immortal Sizhui doesn't always go looking for the reincarnations of his fathers, but they always find him, in the end.

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for these hard-working authors if you like – or think others might like – these stories.)

[woso-fan13]

Sicktember 2023: 9

White Coat Syndrome

“Y/L/N,” Dawn shouts across the locker room, “my office, now.”

“Oooh,” your teammates say sing-songily together, “Y/N’s in trouble.”

It’s like you're instantly transported back to primary school, the principal calling your name over the loudspeaker. Without a doubt, your peers would tease in the exact same way. The only real difference is that your teammates are adults and should definitely know better than second graders. The punishment would almost definitely be the same too- missing out on recess is pretty much the same as missing practices and games. 

With a hot blush across your cheeks, you quickly head to Dawn’s office. You knew better than to keep her waiting. You knock lightly, waiting for a response before you enter. 

“Hey, Dawn, how are you? You look great, you’re absolutely glowing. Are you using a new skincare routine, you’ll have to tell me your sec-“

Dawn cuts you off by clearing her throat. 

“Hello, Y/N, it’s been awhile since we’ve had some good one-on-one bonding. I was thinking we could play a game,” Dawn says, surprisingly meeting your energy and excitement. 

“Ummm,” you hesitate, confused, before sitting down and nodding, “okay, yeah! It’ll be fun! Which one do you think?”

“How about 20 questions? It’s one of my favorites.”

You know Dawn must have an ulterior motive, but you can’t figure it out.  

“I know that one, I’ll start. Dawn, what’s your favorite color?”

“I like light blue. Y/N, who was your soccer idol growing up?”

“Oh, that’s easy: Mia Hamm. If you played on the team, what position would you play?”

“Probably goalie, less risk of an ACL injury. How about this, if you could be any member of the staff, who would you be?”

“Coach, I love all of the tactics behind it. Oh, it’s hard to think of questions. Umm, what’s your favorite drink?”

“Water,” she answers bluntly, “do you think I’m an idiot?”

“What?” you respond, about to continue when she interrupts. 

“Y/N, you’re supposed to answer the question before you ask one. So, again, do you think I’m an idiot?”

“No, no of course not. What are you talking about?”

“Well, I’m not sure if you remember, but you missed camp two months ago because you had covid. And you missed camp last month because you developed asthma from covid and you had to go to the emergency room multiple times. So, my next question, did you think I would forget that you’re required to have a full work up from a pulmonologist before you’re allowed to train or were you simply hoping to avoid me?”

You freeze, eyes wide. You knew that you were supposed to see the doctor, but the doctor scared you. The only reason that you had even gone to the emergency rooms those times was because you couldn’t breathe and one of your teammates had to drag your blue-lipped form in. 

So you put off the appointment, hoping that everyone would ignore your lack of medical approval if you played really well. Besides, you had brought the emergency inhaler that you had gotten at your most recent emergency visit, so you would be fine. 

Dawn sighs, “go get your bag, you’ve got an appointment in 30 minutes. If you get the all-clear, you can practice tomorrow.”

You know better than to protest, going to grab all of your things. You stop for a moment and watch your teammates warming up, jealousy filling your body. 

You walk back towards Dawn’s office, expecting her to pass off car keys and directions. Instead, you find her standing with her bag, keys in hand. 

“Are you ready to go?” She asks. 

“You’re coming with me?” You question, “I thought you would have to stay for practice.”

“I thought you would like the company, but I could be wrong. I guess I’ll go back to practice and you can go alone.”

It was almost comical the way your face instantly paled, the blood draining. Your hand reached out automatically, trying to stop her from leaving. 

“Please, no” you say quietly. 

“Alright, come on then. We have to go.”

You quickly follow Dawn as she begins heading towards the exit, afraid that you would be left alone. You couldn’t decide which was a worse option- having to go to the doctor alone or never being able to play soccer again. 

[towns-end-bindery]

The Night Circus

By Erin Morgenstern

🎪

A rebind that I will be gifting to a friend as a Christmas present.

I read this book when I first started college, I think. The thing that stuck with me since reading it has always been the beauty and magic of the circus itself. Normally, I’d get lost or bored of extensive detail or descriptions about the setting, but the Circus of Dreams was an ✨aesthetic✨ that stirred my imagination. I was surprised at how much I loved it.

🎡

Regarding process:

So I recently rewatched the DAS video about paper labels, and creating a “well” for the label to sit in. And I thought to myself, what if I made the entire cover design the “label” and centered it on the cover?

The design was printed on vinyl adhesive paper, and it’s pasted right in the center of a large recess on the cover. Spine and back was hand foiled.

🎠

Well, it’s seems I’m on a roll. There will be many more rebinds to come before the end of the year, if I don’t lose momentum. I’m excited to see my projects take flight, but it’s also honestly quite daunting as well. 😮‍💨

As a side note…

When I first started this hobby, I was ambitious to achieve a level of quality comparable to many IG and tiktok bookbinders I’d been seeing out there. Many of them were binding fanfiction or doing rebinds of popular fiction, fantasies and romance.

And a LOT of them (or at least the popular accounts) were using special cutting machines like cricut, and heat transfer vinyl to create clean, professional looking designs. Shiny and metallic seems to be a highly sought after look, and admittedly it is attention grabbing for many casual viewers who stumble upon these videos. The same can also be said of the more traditional binders who make leather books and use special techniques for embossing and foiling.

While those beautiful machines and materials and tools like htv or leather-working aren’t NECESSARY for the hobby, it’s clear that any simple amateur bookbinders trying to build their accounts and show people their work really won’t be getting as much reach without making books that are as shiny and attention grabbing in the same ways.

And trying to achieve those looks of metallic vinyl, or beautifully embossed leather, felt pretty inaccessible to me. I’m sure many other amateur binders feel same the way.

That’s why I’m glad I can demonstrate how to achieve beautiful, high quality looking books in alternative ways. Feel free to reach out and ask me about my techniques! I’m no expert, but I’d be happy to help you find solutions and new methods.

12/15/2023

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

She’ll be even loonier if she gets to go to Washington and mingle

Nothing is stopping her from doing that now.

Oh, wait. Except:

That time she bungled paid parental leave by calling senators on personal private lines.

The time she sent lemons to Jill Biden and then blabbed to everyone about how she was a close confidante to the First Lady.

The time she tried to use President Biden and Air Force One as her own personal Uber.

The time she crashed Michelle Obama's event at the London O2 arena and broke a bunch of protocol rules.

The time she gaslit the world into thinking she was besties with Michelle Obama by telling us they were having lunch and eating fish tacos, when really it was an email exchange.

The time she made public comments that the Obamas were personally advising her and Harry during Megxit and the Obamas had to put out a press release saying "no we are not."

The time she tried to access secure spaces in the United Nations headquarters without authorization and with private camera crews in tow.

The time she booked it to Uvalde with a private camera crew in tow to merch her grief as a mother while even the President knew to stay away from the community to let them grieve privately.

The time she, and her husband, used their British titles for a motivational commercial about voting.

Plus a few others like:

All the times she lied about the BRF, the family of the UK's head of state. (US government officials will prioritize the US/UK special relationship over the whines of one single woman.)

The time she was NFI to the US/UK state dinner, held at Buckingham Palace. (It was explained as maternity leave but yeah, she wasn't invited. If she was frothing at the mouth to wear a tiara in Fiji, she would've done the Trump State Visit for a tiara.)

All the times she hasn't been invited to the White House for state dinners or advocacy since 2021 since she has COVID vaccinations, motherhood, and supporting military veterans/families in common with Jill Biden.

The times the White House sent the Secretary of Transportation, the NASA Administrator, and other not-well-known government officials to represent them at 2022 and 2023 Invictus Games.

The time Nancy Pelosi's office laughed when a reporter asked them about Meghan's political prospects.

The time she aligned with the unimportant side of the Kennedy family (versus the "real" Kennedy).

And that's just the stuff that's been confirmed. We haven't even scratched the surface of the alleged gossip (like her work to lobby Newsome for Feinstein's recess appointment or her manipulations of Gloria Steinem).

So all that considered...makes one think that the establishment doesn't like Meghan and won't engage with her. Which says a lot about her standing in political Washington.

She loves the idea of Washington IG in theory, but she's gonna hate it once she's here. And that's just the dignitaries attending the ceremonies. We haven't even started to talk about the weather and what the humidity is going to do to her appearance (since the brief sounds like it's going to be a spring/early summer event).

[ymechi]

The Naiad au (Scrapped)

EDIT: 17/11/2023 I have decided to rework this series, so this story won't continue, instead there will be a new one with the same concept.

-slight idv and genshin crossover, the mc is an OC and has female pronouns

-english is not my first language

TW: SAGAU, Cult au, imposter au, mentions of death, drowning

this is part 1 , part 2

The warm embrace of the water did not soothe her as much as she had thought. She was flailing, panicking and scared out of her wits. She was doing anything to rise up again to the surface but the net and anchor would not let her go, using their imaginary claws to sink her deeper and deeper into the ocean floor. Her lungs were burning and her rational mind was screaming at her to remain calm. She was wasting precious resources and making things worse yet her instincts were louder trying to fight the descent into the watery prison below.

Was this how things were going to end?

Stranded in a new world alone, confused and branded as an impostor for a god she did not know?

"With your death may All-Mother cleanse us of your sins."

What sins? What did she do? Who was All-Mother?

But no one would be there to answer her. The only answer was the silence of the water.

She looked up one final time. she could still see the sun above shining ever so brightly reflected on the water above, she tried reaching it with her hand but it was in vain.

The net still clung to her like the villagers arms as they apprehended her and tied her. The anchor was heavy she saw as it took three grown men to carry and she was just one weak untrained girl, it was futile to fight.

The anchor continued to pull her down.

In the back recess of her mind she thought how weird, how familiar this scene was. Once upon a time she remembered watching the same scene but through a third view another girl just like her was killed in the same manner.

For something she had no control over.

Unlike that person would she just drown quietly, would a miracle happen and she too would grow fins, gills, the ability to breathe underwater? That would be most ideal if she did not want to end as a corpse underwater. Alone in the dark ocean being killed for a crime she did not commit.

If only she could be like that girl.

with that one final thought her body betrayed her and she ended up breathing the ocean water. She closed her eyes for the last time as the water filled her lungs.

. . .

. . .

. . .

There was a small sound she could hear. She did not know where it came from. It sounded what she thought a star would sound like, small, sparkly and floaty . Softly it hummed and swayed creating a sweet melody. It hummed once again and she could not help herself but to hum along.

The sound stopped for a second after she hummed along but resumed its melody a bit faster, perhaps it was cheerful she joined along? She opened her eyes to look.

What greeted her was not a person, not a creature but the sun still shining down on the ocean floor.

How?

It should not be possible for the sun to still be visible all the way down here. . .

Wait.

She was still alive?

Realization dawned on her and her eyes widened in shock, she looked around frantically. She was definitely on the ocean floor, the anchor still attached to the fishnet she was stuck in.

Yet.

She was alive?

She hesitantly took a deep breath when she expected water to fill her lungs. Nothing happened. She was speechless for a moment bringing a hand towards her chest and she looked down. What shocked her was the sight in front of her.

Her arm- her hand.

 Despite being so deep into the ocean she could see her previous skin color was gone, something akin to a blue-ish tone took its place. Her hands were now webbed as well with the tip of her fingers having sharp nails and a deep purple hue.

What had happened to her.

She touched her face but it still felt the same. She doubted she could find a mirror All the way down here.

She wanted to try to get out of the fishnet first Before planning anything else.

After finally having a concrete plan she pushed herself upwards and tried to pry the fishnet away from her but it was mostly in vain. She looked at her sharp nails and wondered if she could try to cut it off with them.

She took one hand and tried to pull the net with her nails while the other was holding it in place. It took some while to get the process right before the net started to tear down.

Neat!

Finally sensing some hope in this situation she managed to bring out a smile. After some more flailing around and tearing the net she managed to tear it out enough that she could get away from her "net-prison".

After she was finally out from the fishnet she relaxed her shoulders in relief. Finally she had a moment of peace to herself.

. . .

Perhaps that was the scary part as well, the peace allowed her to think but thinking of what happened. Waking up in a strange land, being captured, treated like some criminal and then dying. Except she did not die. She looked down on her webbed hands. She traced her fingers with her other hand, over the sharp nail, over the visible veins and in between the webbed parts. It felt too real to be a dream. She pressed her finger deeper into the palm of her hand. her sharpened nail accidentally cut into her flesh but she only felt a sting. What surprised her was the golden liquid that flew out of her hand.

Perhaps she did really die and was reborn as something else because she certainly was no longer a human.

She watched in fascination as her skin healed itself in merely a few seconds.

Yeah, definitely not a human anymore.

She sighed but then was shocked to see bubbles leave her mouth. A neat reminder she was very much at the bottom of the ocean, alive and all.

[mysticstronomy]

CAN SPACE EXPAND FASTER THAN LIGHT??"

Blog#346

Saturday, November 4th, 2023

Welcome back,

This is a really good question, and one that a lot of people – including professional astronomers – have a hard time wrapping their head around.

The quick answer is yes, the Universe appears to be expanding faster than the speed of light. By which we mean that if we measure how quickly the most distant galaxies appear to be moving away from us, that recession velocity exceeds the speed of light.

However, it’s not really that simple, because the expansion of the Universe does not have a “speed.” The confusion stems from the fact that we know the Universe is expanding because of measurements of the velocity of galaxies.

When Hubble did this in 1929, he found that almost all galaxies seem to be moving away from us, and that the most distant ones are moving the fastest, a result that has since been confirmed with better data.

To understand why this implies that the Universe is expanding, you can picture the Universe as the surface of a balloon covered in dots.

As the balloon inflates, each dot moves away from every other dot, and the further apart two dots were to begin with, the faster they appear to move away from each other.

However, the dots themselves are not actually moving, it’s the space in between them that gets larger.

Similarly, what we measure as velocity in galaxies is not actually the galaxies moving, it’s the space in between them getting larger. There’s nothing actually traveling faster than light, hence Einstein’s theory of relativity – which tells us nothing can move faster than light – is not being violated.

Originally published on https://askanastronomer.org

COMING UP!!

(Wednesday, November 8th, 2023)

"HOW MANY DIMENSIONS EXIST??"

[disneytva]

Variety Interviews Ayo Davis, Meredith Roberts And Emily Hart On Disney Television Animation's 40th Anniversary And What To Expect On From The Past, Present And Future

40 years ago, Disney TVA was founded on the heels of challenging outcomes with features “The Fox and the Hound” and “The Black Cauldron.”

Initially, Disney TVA was restricted from using established Disney legacy characters, but nevertheless had huge successes with new shows like “The Wuzzles” and “Adventures of the Gummi Bears,” both of which became popular in syndication. As time went on, DTVA was able to use its limited rights to create shows like “DuckTales” and “TaleSpin,” which featured Disney characters. Today, the slate has evolved to include shows that travel across Disney’s streaming, linear and digital platforms, including Disney+, Disney Channel, Disney Junior and the Disney Parks

Over the 40 years of the studio has collaborated with Walt Disney Imagineering to bring beloved Disney Afternoon characters to the parks as well Mickey And Minnie's Runaway Railway and AquaMouse for the Disney Wish and Disney Treasure cruises from the Disney Cruise & Ships Line as well collaborating with Disney Yellow Two Shoes Team to redesing some heritage characters for the WDW Passholder Magnets.

Disney TVA characters also have gone to the realm of live action. In 2019 Disney Channel brought Kim Possible to the live action world as a Disney Channel Original Movie in 2019. In Spring 2022, Walt Disney Studios brought Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers to a new generation of fans trought a meta-driven live action/animated hybrid film which won an Primetime Emmy Award for Best Feature Film.

In April 2024, it was announced that Kiara from The Lion King II: Simba's Pride created at Disney TVA will make her live action debut on the motion capture/computer animated film "Mufasa The Lion King" with the character being voiced by Blue Ivy Carter. In Fall 2023, it was announced that Blumhouse Television and Atomic Monster where developing a live action reboot of Gargoyles for Disney+.

The future of the studio looks bright as the studio is slated to debut it's 100th show overall "StuGo" in 2025, as well new interations of beloved classics like The Proud Family, Phineas And Ferb, Sofia The First and Darkwing Duck trought revivals,reboots and spin-offs in the coming years with early talks of new interations of TaleSpin, Kim Possible and Recess since Early 2023.

“We have a wildly diverse development slate because we don’t have a house style,” says Meredith Roberts, executive vice president, television animation, Disney Branded Television and CEO of Disney Television Animation “Our styles are creator-driven, so that allows for real support of the artist or creator to fulfill his or her vision. Anything is possible, whether it's CGI. (“Monsters at Work”), hand-drawn 2D (“Big City Greens”,"Primos","Hailey's On It!"), rig-based 2D (“Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur”,"Kiff") and stop-motion (“Mickey Saves Christmas”,"Rhona Who Lives By The River".). Roberts continues, “We really try and solve all the problems and develop it. We look at the scripts and the story arcs. Every project has to have a strategy behind it that will complement the slate and separate it from other things. Each project has a distinct swim lane to attract an audience. And we’ve learned to meet the kids where they are, in terms of streaming and YouTube.”

Co-viewing, the viewership that happens when adults sit down to watch a DTVA show with the kids in their lives, is part of the studio’s secret sauce and long-term strategy. Many of the shows are written with jokes and plot points for both audiences so both groups will return.

“We double down on the kids and family space,” says Roberts. “We’re not just dipping a toe in the water. We’re diving in. I think we’ve seen a lot of churn with the competition, who just don’t have the patience to develop and are for this audience, which is a very specialized kid audience and co-view audience.” ("The Witchverse", "Rhona Who Lives By The River","InterCats","Fantasy Sports") Roberts reflects: “I think one of the things I’m most proud of is how stable Disney TVA has been for the last 40 years despite a lot of outside churn of the animation industry. Many of our crews feel that Disney is their forever home. I think the excitement they have to illustrate and create with this brand has been terrific because it’s harder to be funny and clean. And nowhere are we tearing down people to get that laugh. I think that’s the beauty of a Disney animated show.”

DTVA also sought to meet kids where they are by making their audience — which is made up of the most diverse generation in history — feel seen, with series such as “Elena of Avalor,” which featured Disney’s first Latina princess, and “The Proud Family,” franchise focused on the life of a teenage Black girl.

“We do have an amazing insights team that are constantly in the field, giving us general information about how kids are watching content, what they’re into,” Emily Hart (VP of Current and Development - Disney Junior) says. “Some of those things are evolving, as we know the ways kids consume content is changing. But there are some universal truths about kids, and it’s great to have that reinforced. Kids still like a lot of the same things that we like. So, there’s a combination that we’re always tracking with every new idea, and we do pilot testing. We get to sit down and talk about the content, and we invite our creators in so they can see the kids talking about it because they’re the audience and they’re the truest test of if the story is going to work.”

Ayo Davis, president of the Disney Branded Television and VP of Current and Development at Disney Television Animation says the division is a “driving force” for memorable kids and family entertainment.

“All of us at Disney Branded Television are so proud of the studio’s 40-year legacy as it continues to entertain future generations with shows like ‘Kiff,’ ‘Big City Greens’ and ‘Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 2.0" --- Davis says.

Those creators who come to DTVA often stay for a long time, partnering with the studio on a variety of different projects or expanding on a hit and reimagining it for the next generation of viewers. “The Proud Family” was a standout in 2001 on Disney Channel. Creator and executive producer Bruce W. Smith is now working on the Emmy-winning “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder,” which is based on the original series. The show follows Penny Proud as she navigates family life and her own childhood.

“Being at Disney TVA has allowed me to realize all my artistic dreams,” says Bruce W. Smith. “As a kid, you always have hopes, thoughts, dreams, ideas and characters that can help lay out those ideas in your head. Disney has allowed me to really tap into my creative instinct, at the end of the day, you have to learn how to trust yourself. Meredith Roberts has been a true shepherd for me in all of this, allowing me to stretch my wings. Because of her belief in me and my ideas, she’s really allowed me to blossom as an artist. All that happened at DTVA.”

“They really seem to be a place that welcomes your ideas,” Dan Povenmire says of Disney TVA. “They want to find people with real strong ideas of the stories they want to tell, and then they let them tell those stories for the most part. They seem to put storytelling and characters over anything. With [‘Phineas and Ferb’], we would write jokes for the kids and the adults in the room because we knew the adults would be there too. We were just careful not to do any double entendres.”

[partisan-by-default]

On Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee announced it would be holdinginterest rates steady in November as it continues its efforts to bring inflation down. This follows a pause in September, as well, and comes on the heels of promising economic data — inflation in September held steady from August at 3.7% year-over-year, the US added 336,000 jobs the same month,andGDP growth came in at a two-year high of 4.9% in the third quarter.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated during the September press conference that the economy is moving toward the Fed's inflation target of 2%, and following ten consecutive interest rate hikes since March 2022, he said it makes sense for the central bank to slow down its aggressive inflation-fighting efforts.

"We need to get to a place where we're confident that we have a stance that will bring inflation down to 2% over time," Powell said. "That's what we need to get to, and we've been moving toward it. As we've gotten closer to it, we've slowed the pace at which we've moved."

The Fed's latest move, coupled with the economy's recovery, have also cast aside recession concerns for 2023. The White House's Council of Economic Advisors, for example, released a blog on Tuesday stating that "the US economy has proven to be consistently resilient."