Go to bed, Gen

Laura Boswell（British）

Mangrove forests used to be considered one of the world's most threatened ecosystems. However, recent analysis of satellite data shows that mangrove forests are no longer in decline and in fact the global coverage of mangrove forests has been increasing over the last 16 years due to restoration and natural habitat expansion.

“Oh, I just adore oysters,” said the Duchess of Arclis, reaching for her oyster fork. “Don’t you?” Josiah glared down at his plate, dotted with shells dressed in mignonette sauce. “We didn’t eat them often in Lienne,” he replied, truthfully enough.

Illustration of Josiah and Antavia from my ongoing short story "A Pleasant Talk" by the ever-amazing @scarvenartist!

There were thirteen of the artifacts in total, ranging from a grimoire to a footstool, and the two larger pieces, a cello and a rocking chair, were on the ground next to the table. They all had one thing in common: they were made using the skin and bones of the victims.

"It's awful stuff," said Kimmer, who had already been looking at it.

"That's the job," said Jones. "Seeing the worst of the worst."

"I mean, look at the stitching on this grimoire," said Kimmer. He picked it up with blue-gloved hands. "Look at the tanning job he did."

"That's a woman's skin," said Jones.

"Yeah," said Kimmer. "And you know, human skin is probably not the easiest thing to work with, I'm sympathetic to that, but you're going to kill a woman, flay her alive, and then make this?"

"You're upset by the shoddy craftsmanship?" asked Jones.

"I mean, was this the first grimoire he ever made?" asked Kimmer. "There's just no respect for craft here. It's like those morons who say 'I could do that' to everything they see, and at least this guy did try, but look at this, look at how bad all of it is! What he should have done is focus on just one thing and gotten better at perfecting it, but it's like he made one rocking chair out of bones with ribs for the runners and it's fuck-ass dogshit -- sorry, I'm getting worked up."

"He said he targeted people with soft skin," said Jones.

"Yeah, he's like one of those people who buys a bunch of yarn and then makes one disappointing sweater before moving on to the next thing," said Kimmer. "No commitment to actually learning a skill, no dedication to a craft, just this constant desire to leap on some new project. That's the sickness of the modern era, Jones."

"I think maybe it's the murder, Kimmer," said Jones.

"Nah, the murder has always been around, we're in the safest time in human history, fewest serial killers there have ever been," said Kimmer. "I'm talking about something deeper. It's TikTok, it's 24-hour cable news, it's doomscrolling, these people who just want the quick dopamine fix, who couldn't make a proper chair if their lives depended on it."

"Things going okay with the wife, Kimmer?" asked Jones.

The Craftsman Killer sat with his soft hands folded in front of him on the table, unperturbed by the manacles whose chain ran down to the floor.

"We've got you dead to rights," said Jones. "We've got your computer, we have the photos you took, we have DNA evidence tying you to the crime scenes, and we have the recovered artifacts. It's all over except the trial, and my guess is that you're going to want to avoid that. The best way is to confess now."

"Hello, detectives," said the Craftsman Killer with a wide smile. "It's something of a relief to finally have someone see my work."

Kimmer lunged forward. "Is it?!" he asked. "Is it nice to have people see that shit?!"

"Your partner is worked up, detective," said the Craftsman Killer.

"Don't mind him, he's going through some things," said Jones. He turned to Kimmer. "Do you need to step out?"

"We got the lab reports back, you sick son of a bitch," said Kimmer, leaning in.

The Craftsman Killer grinned. "Yes?"

"You used wood glue to join two piece of bone together," said Kimmer. He threw up his hands.

The Craftsman Killer's smile faltered, and when Kimmer saw the confusion, he slammed his fists down on the table.

"You can't use wood glue on bone!" he shouted. "It's designed for cellulose fiber! Your standard PVA wood glue is going to be repelled by the oils and won't form a strong bond, asshole! Your mortise and tenon, which was shoddy work, I have to add, would fall apart within a week!"

"I," began the Craftsman Killer.

"Bone is a composite of collagen protein and calcium phosphate," said Kimmer. He leaned in. "Two. Part. Epoxy. You donkey's asshole. You, you, amateur."

"He didn't mean that," said Jones.

Cnetizens: Why the thousand-year-old stone statues at the Northern Song Mausoleums aren’t covered with glass enclosures.

The director of the Cultural Relics Bureau replies: "They’ve stood here largely intact for over a millennium. Why add extra barriers?"

Visitors worry wind, rain and sunlight in the farmland will wear them down. The director explains:

Glass covers speed up decay—it’s like locking the statues in a sauna. Trapped heat and moisture create sharp temperature shifts. Salt crystals inside the stone expand and crack the carvings far faster than open-air exposure.

These statues blend naturally with the farmland landscape. Glass barriers would destroy the sense of scale and historical atmosphere.

When first built, the mausoleum complex was a restricted royal compound ringed by walls, palaces and pine trees—no farmland at all. After the Song fell, protection systems collapsed. Wars and weather destroyed buildings. Local residents gradually dismantled the abandoned structures, reusing timber and bricks in nearby villages.

By the Ming and Qing dynasties, villagers turned the empty grounds into farmland, leaving stone figures scattered amid crops.

Few people damaged the statues for three reasons: each weighs several tons and is impossible to move; folk belief held that anyone who damaged the guardian statues would be cursed with misfortune; every later dynasty passed laws punishing those who vandalized former imperial mausoleums.

Once an exclusive imperial burial ground, now ordinary farmland—this shift tells the story of history. Glass covers would only be unnecessary. As an old Chinese poem puts it: 旧时王谢堂前燕，飞入寻常百姓家

The swallows that were wont to grace the halls of Wang and Xie, Now seek the humble roofs of common men.

(cr 大鹅呀eyaeyaeya，陈帆fotochen，摄色📸，腾腾兔兔🐰)

LIVE WALLPAPER: wallpaper engine. only thing on here that costs any money (its like 5 bucks on steam). im sure theres free alternatives but this one has a lot of presets and stuff so its less hassle and its what i use. might be a bad idea for lower end pcs tho

CUSTOM TASKBAR: retrobar on github (lots of different options)

CUSTOM CURSOR: theres a lot of places to find these, but rw-designer open cursor library is a good place to start

DISCORD: betterdiscord, im using the clearvision v7 theme with a custom background

EXTENSIONS (these are for firefox, might or might not exist on other browsers):

tabliss for the new tab theme

stylus for tumblr -> specifically the 'tumblr - custom dashboard pallette' theme for colors + bg, and this for the pre-twitterifcation layout

enhancer for youtube for custom youtube colors

Portrait of a Young Woman, 1480, Sandro Botticelli