Winter lights

I think this is the closest I'm going to get to carnivorous plants. 

It warmed up to 25 degrees tonight. In Celsius that would be quite comfortable. 

By next weekend it will be warm again. 

Now, I have a question. When I took a picture of this with my regular camera it had black sideways streaks each time. I got this picture with my cell phone. Why would a regular camera not be able to take a picture of it? It takes pictures of everything else just fine.

[Maybe this is flicker? And I need to turn on flicker reduction?]

It was extremely cold last night, so the governor of Texas thought it would be funny to take a bunch of migrants and dump them on the street outside our Vice President's house. We ask when Putin will realize that he is losing, that every evil thing he does increases opposition against him. Some people are just evil and can't figure out when it isn't working for them. 

You heard that Putin called it a war. Did you hear that someone in his parliament suggested he be arrested for calling it a war?

The International Energy Agency's Government Energy Spending Tracker says that government clean energy spending this year was driven by concerns over energy security and the spike in the cost of commodities, i.e. the war. As a result, coal use will peak within the next few years and then decline and natural gas demand will plateau by 2030. Total renewable energy capacity will double in the next five years and overtake coal as the largest source of electricity generation. 

A traditional Ukrainian Christmas dish is made of sweetened grains and is called kutia. The switch to celebrating Christmas today has been going on for a while but the head of the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine thought it would take 10 years. Then Russia invaded again.

Things keep falling apart in Russia. That may sometimes be because of angry people reacting to the draft. It may sometimes be partisans. It is often because Russia just doesn't run itself well. It is likely to be more frequently blamed on sabotage, which will make it seem like they are everywhere and hopefully further reduce support for the war. It is also true that, combined with the draft and killed and injured friends and family, it will further reduce people's tolerance of the Russian government. A few weeks ago sewage problems led to citizens in Pervouralsk bringing buckets of fecal water to the offices of the local water council. Every day there are accidents in housing and utilities. As sanctions inhibit the import of spare parts, expect Russia's infrastructure problems to worsen. Danii Chebykin founded a group for the Siberian city of Omsk. He said, "When a huge amount of money is spent bombing the infrastructure of Ukraine, and with this money it is possibly to gasify all the housing in the city, of course discontent is growing." 

Many experts are surprised by how strong support for Ukraine has been and how long we've stayed united. I remember at the event I spoke at that many people there dismissed the idea that Europe would actually get off Russian gas, they knew that all that mattered was price. Look, people don't like being held hostage and I guess we have better leaders than we did when Hitler was around and we all rushed to appease him. 

Chef Ievgen Mykhailenko is from Kyiv. He went to culinary school in Los Angeles and then worked in a restaurant. He returned to Ukraine in 2014 for the Ukrainian Revolution. He began opening restaurants and shops and now is a volunteer chef feeding soldiers. He is working on making sure they get the right nutrients and uses guides developed by the US Armed Special Forces. However, he also makes do with what he can get. Military food hasn't changed since the USSR ran things and now his soldiers are excited about the food. 

Ukraine is using artificial intelligence in its fight. Software highlights probable locations of Russians and their equipment and learns and gets better at identifying material. Ukrainian soldiers have tablets and use the info to direct their fire.