humanity
For better or for worse, relationships reveal the core of the human condition.
Winterborn(e). Runner-Up in The Ritual of Winter Challenge.
Every winter there's one tradition I can't shake: I turn another year older, complete one more rotation around the sun. February is not a kind month- the kindest thing about it is probably just that it's shorter than the others. I was born on the 9th, a day when a snowstorm always seems to be around the corner. This happenstance has always seemed a cruel irony to me: I hate winter- to be born in the dead middle of it is like a bad joke (and I'm not laughing). Over time, though, I've come to see it at least as a kind of marker- I've made it halfway across the dismal stretch of cold after the holidays’ end.
By Raistlin Allen2 months ago in Humans
Green Dome Islamic School: Faith-Based Education and Public Partnership in Calgary
Malik Ashraf is Vice Chairman of the Al-Madinah Calgary Islamic Assembly (Green Dome Mosque) in Calgary and a founding volunteer who has served the community for over 20 years. He helps lead the organization's education work, including Green Dome Islamic School, a Prairie Land School Division partner school that combines Alberta's curriculum with Islamic studies and community-based supports. In conversation, Ashraf describes education as guidance—moral, intellectual, and spiritual—anchored in the Qur'an's call to read and learn. He advocates for equitable public policy, sustainable funding, and community-built institutions that protect children and strengthen families. He documents progress publicly and invites dialogue.
By Scott Douglas Jacobsen2 months ago in Humans
Tesla Roboter and the Quiet Fear of Machines That Look Like Us
There is something unsettling about machines that walk like people. Not because they are loud or aggressive, but because they feel familiar. The idea of the Tesla Roboter does not arrive with explosions or dramatic promises. It arrives quietly, almost politely. A machine shaped like a human, designed to help, assist, and work beside us. Some people feel excitement. Others feel discomfort they cannot fully explain. This article is not about hype or speculation. It is about what the Tesla Roboter represents in everyday human life. The hope, the hesitation, and the slow realization that machines are no longer staying in the background.
By Muqadas khan2 months ago in Humans
The Common Colours of Christmas
Why are Christmas colours red and green? Red and green are the colours of Christmas, they have been for hundreds of years. Green represents eternal life with the presence of the evergreen tree and a hope for renewal that it will return green as ever after being dormant all winter. And that is how the fir tree came to be a central Christmas symbol.
By Neli Ivanova2 months ago in Humans
How Did It Come To This?
The bones of Saint Nicholas sit sopping wet somewhere in a chapel in Italy. You have no idea how this happened, and frankly, you don’t think any amount of money would be enough to get you to drink Saint Nick’s Bone Juice. You also have no idea how this happened, but as you sit in a primary school classroom in Oparany, someplace in Southern Bohemia, you hear the cacophonous tolling of a choir of handbells. You stare out the classroom door into the hallway just in time to watch a parade of preteen boys, faces caked in black makeup, horns sprouting from their scalps, meander past the classroom to the rooms where the younger students learn. Honzik peers into your classroom, calls out your name, comes sprinting up. He marks your forehead with the same black paint that’s on his face, says something to the tune of, “You’re one of us, now” in his thick Czech accent, and rejoins his hellspawn comrades as they terrorize the shitlings of their school.
By Steven Christopher McKnight2 months ago in Humans
