🌟 What I'm Reading: 12-31-2023 🌟

A Weekly Roundup Highlight Reel of What I Have Been Reading

Dec 31, 2023

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Each week, I post a roundup of some of the highlights of what I’ve been reading.

I hope that you find this list to be useful, inspiring, interesting, and informative!

Sending my love,
Demi 🌟

What I'm Reading: 12-31-2023

A Convict's Perspective

Take A Punch

He had that cocky hood smirk as we circled each other on the prison yard. Why we were fighting was irrelevant. What mattered was that this was a public spectacle. Every man to the last in the crowd surrounding us had picked a side and howled for blood. This is because what had begun as a personal beef had become part of a larger war…

2 years ago · 35 likes · 20 comments · Justin Coleman

Arthur Firstenberg

Our Changing Earth

On December 19, 2023, in the journal New Phytologist, French researchers published a study on yet another aspect of the decline of life on Earth. The populations of bees and other pollinators have declined so much that flowering plants that required insects in order to reproduce efficiently have evolved in less than 25 years to become better self-pollin…

2 years ago · 57 likes · 59 comments · Arthur Firstenberg

Becoming Noble

Into the Waters of Being

by an old mooring a few steps carved out of rock go down to water as if you might step down into the sea into another knowledge wild and cold — Thomas A. Clarke, The Hundred Thousand Places…

2 years ago · 77 likes · 19 comments · Johann Kurtz

Boodicca

WHO ARE YOU?

2 years ago · 30 likes · 8 comments · Frances Leader

The Charlotte Pendragon Diaries by Charlotte Pendragon

Time Out of Mind

It was my intention to publish an article on “time” in this week's substack, but I decided to postpone it to springtime, which I feel is a better time to post. I've had a few complex challenges this week, so this one is shorter, and I am combining it with my first post on Substack from September, AMagical Beginning which marked the beginning of time for…

2 years ago · 70 likes · 58 comments · Charlotte Pendragon

Coffee Times

Word of the Day #5 - Serendipity

2 years ago · 20 likes · 5 comments · Winston

Dawn’s Writings

New Year - New Challenges!

Firstly, I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year - whatever challenges 2024 will bring - and to thank you for your support. 🙏 Some of the feedback I’ve received from my previous post showed me that many of you face difficult situations with your friends and loved ones because of the different ideas you hold about what’s going on in the world…

2 years ago · 18 likes · 7 comments · Dawn Lester

The Freedom Scale

The Virtue-Signaling Industrial Complex

I don’t know about you, but I am feeling pretty mellow this post-Christmas week. As such, it is tempting to stick to lighter fare. However, a thought occurred to me a couple of Christmases ago that I never really fleshed out, and I would like to so, briefly, here…

2 years ago · 34 likes · 25 comments · Christopher Cook

The Freedom Scale

'They all seem like game show hosts to me.'

Sting’s “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You” is, first and foremost, a love song. Yet right beneath that message is another… (Videos at the bottom of this post: Sting’s version and Disturbed’s cover)The Freedom Scale is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber…

2 years ago · 22 likes · 68 comments · Christopher Cook

From Brain to Mind

Social Media and a Deluge of Teenage Depression

In a 2019 report, British scientists evaluated more than ten thousand teenagers (fourteen year olds). The researchers discovered a strong correlation between social media usage and depression. The more that social media was consumed, the greater the likelihood of a teenager exhibiting clinically significant depressive symptoms. Although this association…

2 years ago · 22 likes · Marc Arginteanu

Global Sovereignty Solutions - Stay Free & Build Wealth

2024: The return of inflation

Intro Globally, but particularly in the US, the signal has been given that lag effects from central bank policies are finally hitting, and that the ‘printers’ will be turned back on. Why? The unprecedented flow of stimulus currency that flooded into the world since COVID, and the related rate hikes which followed, are just that …

2 years ago · 10 likes · 2 comments · Global Sovereignty Solutions

Historically Correct

Substack Does(n't) Have a Nazi Problem?

"Those who appear the most sanctified are the worst" -Elizabeth IWhenever I get time to dig in, I dig in deep. This work is link and research heavy. Buy me a yacht if you like it. (Edit: Coffee, even though he hates coffee.) Some time ago, Substack was aflame with drama relating to a particular circumstance. While some are sick of the drama, others are h…

2 years ago · 66 likes · 28 comments · Koltin Scott

How to Survive An Existential Crisis

The Art of Doing Nothing

There is a poem I sometimes share on social media which always ends up becoming a fascinating social experiment. It’s called How to Do Absolutely Nothing by Barbara Kingsolver and if you haven’t read it yet, I am sharing it below. How to Survive An Existential Crisis is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber…

2 years ago · 19 likes · 3 comments · Nikita Gill

I Am Here For It, Whatever It Is

An AI Extravaganza; Part Two.

Enter into the portal,Thanks for reading I Am Here For It, Whatever It Is! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. The human uses ideas and language and the AI makes the final art. It draws on art made by humans to make these things, as I stated in the last extravaganza post. That’s why it’s so beautiful, because of the…

2 years ago · 8 likes · 13 comments · What IS a name, really?

L5 News

1963 Year in Review

Sixty years ago there was a coup d’etat with the murder of John F. Kennedy, with the murder of his alleged killer, with the arrest of the killer of his alleged killer, and with the subsequent deaths of many investigators including Dorothy Kilgallen. Today I am following a leading of the Holy Spirit to begin a series of “year in review” essays with the …

2 years ago · 6 likes · Jim Davidson

L5 News

The Iconoclast on the Propertarian Family

Premises Imprimis Each individual owns his body, life, labor, and liberty from the moment of conception onward. Secundus Any particular property may have one or zero owners. Tertius All liberty derives from property. A few words on these premises The first of these premises is the most fundamental and necessarily the most controversial…

2 years ago · 9 likes · 4 comments · Jim Davidson

L5 News

It begins

“Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.” ~ Jack Kornfield, 1994 It begins with pie. Many good things do, and so I want to invite you to come visit, have a slice of pie, and we can chat. If you fly I will buy you a slice of pie…

2 years ago · 20 likes · 5 comments · Jim Davidson

The Library of Celaeno

The Blurring Test

NB: This essay was inspired in part by two essays, one by Arnold Kling and another by Andrew Smith . I should also thank Rachel Haywire , hostess of the salon I reference below. The Library of Celaeno is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber…

2 years ago · 147 likes · 88 comments · Librarian of Celaeno

The Library of Celaeno

The Managerial Games

Christopher Lasch once offered the paradox that the value of sports lay in their lack of immediate importance, and that as they were taken increasingly seriously they lost their true social purpose. The Classical age Greeks who invented athletics meant for their games to be a designated space and time wherein any victory was wholly arbitrary and had no…

3 years ago · 21 likes · 14 comments · Librarian of Celaeno

Lighthouse

A gang held a knife to my throat, a madman tried to kill me. Yet it was all a blessing?

A gang held a knife to my throat, a madman tried to kill me. Yet it was all a blessing? "Blessed is the crisis that made you grow, the fall that made you gaze up to heaven, the problem that made you look for God!"Lighthouse is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber…

2 years ago · 40 likes · 25 comments · Alexander Semenyuk

Lighthouse

Short poem/haiku prompt #2

Short poem/haiku prompt #2 Hey friends, Today is our next prompt. Just like last time I’ll take about a week to share winners for poem and haiku. Last time I loved all of them, you are so talented. Our prompt #2 is “war”. A subject that’s very relatable right now…

2 years ago · 46 likes · 40 comments · Alexander Semenyuk

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Making Soup

Sheep

The drone circled high above the rugged Yorkshire countryside. It was stealthed, painted the colour of a cloudy sky with ultra quiet props and coated glass in the camera lens to stop any telltale glints. Not that the lone hiker below would have noticed it. He was focussed on the field of sheep blocking his path. The camera lens zoomed in to show him beg…

2 years ago · 6 likes · 1 comment · Forkbeard Jon

Maximum Disclosure

FISA Court, the ACLU and FOIA

Background…

2 years ago · 3 likes · 1 comment · Max Eichelberger

Memento Mori Alchemy

Pleasant Surprises

Sometimes the experiences of our past can create self-fulfilling prophecies in the present and future - often ones we don’t want, when our energy is fear and apprehension. There is something to be said for pushing yourself through the barrier of resistance and showing up to new experiences. There is something to be said for getting out of the inertia of…

2 years ago · 21 likes · 12 comments · Tesstamona

Postcards from the Abyss

Substack über alles

I recently wrote a piece exploring the emergence of calls for censorship on Substack. A group of individuals had joined the platform from the mainstream media and social media sites. They quickly assessed the blogs here and concluded Substack was a hotbed of Nazi content driven by fascists…

2 years ago · 57 likes · 55 comments · Spaceman Spiff

Project Lazarus

The Failure of Credentialism

There's a fantastic video going around showcasing a group of young adults who are told to rate eachother based on what they think each others IQ tests are. Two of these individuals stand out. One of …

2 years ago · 5 likes · 5 comments · Project Lazarus

Solarah Speaks

WORD FOR YOUR DAY With Solarah

Time to stop resisting our own greatness. What lies are we still holding onto about our perceived limitations that aren’t true? Where are we capping off our own potential based upon pictures that external energies painted of us, and that we unknowingly came into agreement with…

Listen now

2 years ago · 24 likes · 4 comments · Solarah

Solarah Speaks

WORD FOR YOUR DAY With Solarah

Taking a quick look at today’s astrology, and what the planets are assisting us with on our journeys home to self. We have both the Moon and Mercury at 22 degrees of Leo and Sagittarius respectively - this is a Capricorn degree of mastery. The energies today are opening the doors to levels of self-mastery that we may not have had access to since the prev…

Listen now

2 years ago · 22 likes · 3 comments · Solarah

Sol Luckman Uncensored Updates & Uploads

🎄 How the Deep State Stole Christmas

Sol Luckman 🌲 Feel free to sing along to this censored video to the tune of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” written by yours truly and brilliantly performed by fellow Substacker Brendan D. Murphy. 🎤 If you’d like to record a song or make a music video using these lyrics, you have my permission to do so provided 1) you keep the title and text as is; 2) yo…

3 years ago · 17 likes · 7 comments · Sol Luckman and Brendan D. Murphy Official

Startle Magazine w/ Ratio Bradbornius

Hold Them Close MEMEs

Greetings Earth Frens! Ratio here… Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all on this beautiful planet Earth, round or as flat as it may be. I have been on a much needed break from both work and substack so that I could spend time building memories with my family. I flew my Mom and Sister out and we have been spending time with my wife and stepson get…

2 years ago · 85 likes · 43 comments · Ratio Bradbornius

The Stone Age

Out With The Old...

Hello, gentle reader. As we lay to rest the shitshow (I mean really, what else can one call it?) that was 2023, let us observe a moment of silence to mourn… Okay, that’s long enough - now, let us WELCOME 2024! While I know many see darkness on the horizon - and yes, it…

2 years ago · 16 likes · 8 comments · Stone Bryson

The Stone Age

Pen And Sword

As I mentioned previously, I have been working behind-the-scenes on The Stone Age over this holiday break, testing out different features and whatnot. As I want to give you - the valued members, subscribers and visitors to this page - the best possible experience, I must explore the various bells-and-whistles Substack has to offer…

Listen now

2 years ago · 50 likes · 44 comments · Stone Bryson

Words and Pictures by Pamela Leavey

Food For Thought: Apathy

A few years ago I had a friend who was struggling with a lot of personal—family problems and struggles. It seemed more like a landslide of troubles for this friend. A landslide that had been ongoing for a few years. Each time he tried to get his footing, another rock tumbled in his path…

2 years ago · 33 likes · 36 comments · Pamela Leavey

Stone Bryson

Once again, you make me smile by including my humble words with so many fantastic wordsmiths... and a few brand new ones as well! ☺️

Thank you so much for doing these, Demi - your support of fellow writers is greatly appreciated by many, myself included 🥰

3 replies by The Starfire Codes and others

Forkbeard Jon

Ooh, thank you for the shout out. It's very exciting to me that other people like eldritch weirdness too!

1 reply by The Starfire Codes

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The Starfire Codes by Demi Pietchell

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