Terkadang, hanya butuh satu orang yang berani menelanjangimu di dalam sajak-sajak kerapuhannya. Sebab ia tak takut menjadi apapun. Sebab engkau telah menghiasi buruk rupanya. Sebab engkau telah mencukupi setiap kurangnya.

Zalfaa Daughtervy, 09.26 PM

Tracés régulateurs

De nombreux auteurs ont traités des tracés régulateurs, tels qu'ils ressortent de l'étude rythmique d'un tableau ou de la façade d'un bâtiment ancien. Ils en ont généralement déduit des règles de composition, permettant de créer de nouvelles oeuvres, en tenant le raisonnement suivant : Si une oeuvre est belle, découvrons son rythme, puis appliquons ce rythme à une oeuvre nouvelle, elle aura ainsi des chances d'être belle pour les mêmes raisons.

Plusieurs sortes de tracés sont utilisables dans le livre, ils permettront de contrôler, de corriger les proportions de tous les éléments entrant dans une composition graphique. Ces différentes sortes de tracés se rapportent à l'étude des formats, à l'étude des rythmes anciens, à la création de rythmes nouveaux.

/ Pierre Faucheux, in La “liberté” des tracés régulateurs, Actualité Littéraire n°31, Déc. 1956/Jan. 1957, p.53

Israeli military drops charges against soldiers accused of Gaza detainee abuse

Israel’s top military lawyer has dropped all charges against five soldiers accused of the violent abuse and rape of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza.

The military advocate general, Itay Offir, said prosecutors lacked key evidence after the victim was sent back to Gaza, and that the conduct of senior officials had affected the chance of holding a fair trial.

Medical records show the detainee was taken to hospital in the summer of 2024 with injuries including broken ribs, a punctured lung and rectal damage, according to Israeli media reports on the indictment.

The detainee had been held at the Sde Teiman military detention centre, which has become notorious for torture. After the first arrests of Israeli soldiers in connection with the attack, a far-right mob including a minister and lawmakers broke into the base demanding the men’s release.

Israeli media broadcast a video of the attack soon after. Offir’s predecessor has been arrested on suspicion of authorising the leak, in an apparent attempt to defuse anger about the arrests and refute claims the men had been unfairly charged.

It had little effect inside Israel, where the men’s supporters have claimed they were targeted for routine security work in a military detention centre. The five soldiers have not been named.

Offir said in a statement that the video did not present a clear picture of the attack, because “the vast majority of the defendants’ actions are obscured by shields”.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, welcomed the decision to drop charges, saying it was unacceptable it had taken so long and describing the men as “heroic warriors”.

Rights groups said the decision raised serious questions about the rule of law in Israel and accountability for abuse and killing of Palestinians during what a UN commission has called a genocidal war.

Sari Bashi, the executive director of the rights group Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, said: “Israel’s military attorney general just gave his soldiers licence to rape, so long as the victim is Palestinian.

“[The decision] is the latest in a long line of actions that whitewash abuses against detainees whose frequency and severity have worsened since 7 October 2023.”

There has been only one conviction of an Israeli soldier for assaulting Palestinians in detention over the more than two years of war, despite widespread torture and abuse having been documented in Israel’s jail system, including sexualised torture. Dozens of Palestinians have died in captivity.

“[The decision] is the latest in a long line of actions that whitewash abuses against detainees whose frequency and severity have worsened since 7 October 2023.”

There has been only one conviction of an Israeli soldier for assaulting Palestinians in detention over the more than two years of war, despite widespread torture and abuse having been documented in Israel’s jail system, including sexualised torture. Dozens of Palestinians have died in captivity.

Proposed law change will protect abusive men who push women to suicide, campaigners warn

Men whose abusive behaviour drives women to take their own lives are more likely to get away with their crimes because of proposed law changes, justice campaigners say.

Ministers want to make it harder for inquests to pass verdicts of unlawful killing, which have been crucial in getting justice for women who killed themselves after suffering abuse.

Harriet Wistrich, the head of the Centre for Women’s Justice, said: “We strongly oppose any reversal of the standard of proof for unlawful killing in inquest verdicts, which would set back the cause of highlighting the issue of recognising the role that domestic abuse plays in relation to the suicides of many women.

“The government’s white paper on policing contains some positive proposed reforms but is badly let down by this concession to the police lobby.”

The plans are part of a package of measures that the government wants to pass to ease the fears of police officers that they will be prosecuted after using force. But justice groups say they will also have a damaging effect on women.

The changes to make it harder to take action against police follow a Metropolitan police firearms officer, Martyn Blake, being put on trial for murder after shooting dead Chris Kaba, who was unarmed, while he was in a car penned in by police vehicles.

Blake was acquitted in 2024, though if the verdict had been different police chiefs and ministers feared armed officers would walk out in protest, endangering the safety of the capital.

The new measures, Wistrich said, would also help officers who were a threat to women stay in their police jobs. “At a time when the government have expressed a strong commitment to tackling the culture of misogyny, racism and homophobia within policing that has allowed perpetrators such as David Carrick to continue serving within the police despite past allegations against them, including excessive use of force, the proposal to weaken mechanisms for individual officer accountability is alarming,” Wistrich said.

The call for the government to think again is supported in a letter to the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, by a coalition including Amnesty International, Black Lives Matter UK, the Centre for Women’s Justice and Inquest, which helps families bereaved after state contact.

Out of all the possible actions we could take, the one that is realized is the one that delivers the most value for the least effort. We are motivated to do what is easy.

Israel strikes Beirut and orders south Lebanon evacuation as conflict mounts

Israel issued a sweeping new displacement order for southern Lebanon, instructing residents up to 25 miles away from their border to head north, and striking the centre of Beirut in a sharp escalation of its fight with Hezbollah.

A spokesperson for the Israeli military on Thursday ordered all residents to head north of the Zahrani River “for their safety”, before it began a bombing campaign against what it said were Hezbollah targets.

The order covers major Lebanese cities, including Nabatieh, and dozens of villages.

The IDF also issued an evacuation order for a neighbourhood in central Beirut near a row of restaurants, saying the Israeli military would strike a building there.

The latest orders come just days after Israel issued instructions for people south of the Litani River and Beirut’s southern suburbs. Nearly a million people have already been internally displaced in 10 days of fighting.

“Where can I go?” asked Hamza Zbeeb, a 48-year-old member of the municipality of Nimiriya, one of the villages included in the evacuation order. “Many people have gone to Beirut and returned because there’s nowhere to stay. I don’t want to be on the streets.”

A few hours later, Israel struck two buildings in central Beirut, levelling them after warning residents to move away. One of the buildings in Beirut’s Zouq Blat neighbourhood was next to a shelter hosting displaced people, causing large crowds of families seeking shelter in the main square of central Beirut. The other building was close to the prime minister’s office, UN agencies and foreign embassies.

Israel’s military leadership is considering an escalated campaign in Lebanon against Hezbollah after the pro-Iran group launched its most intense attacks yet on Israel on Wednesday night.

The Lebanese health ministry has said that 70 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Thursday. Among the dead were two academics, Hussein Bazzi and Murtadha Sarour, killed in an attack on the campus of Lebanese University.

Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, condemned the attack as a “flagrant violation of international laws and norms”.

Israel also carried out a strike in the early hours of Thursday in the neighbourhood of Ramlet al-Baida, central Beirut, on the corniche where many displaced families have been sleeping. Videos showed at least two men lying dead on the seaside walkway.

“It was terrifying,” said Riyadh al-Lattah, a 57-year-old woodworker from the southern suburbs of Beirut who was camped out with his wife and five children across the street from the impact site in Ramlet al-Baida. “We heard them hit once and then once again almost immediately. We didn’t think they would hit here. What’s here? It’s just the sea.”

Elsewhere, the health ministry said at least 17 people were injured in the strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, though more casualties were expected from other strikes throughout the country.

In southern Lebanon, Israel’s military spokesperson said it was hitting Hezbollah’s missile launchers. They warned residents it would “soon act with overwhelming force” against Hezbollah and residents should distance themselves from affected areas immediately.

Human rights groups said the orders equated to forced displacement and could amount to war crimes. They also said the Israeli military should still try to prevent civilian harm, even if civilians did not evacuate.

Israeli strikes have killed at least 634 people and injured 1,586 in less than 10 days of fighting.

Hezbollah fighters have been fighting with Israeli troops in south Lebanon, particularly around strategic points in the eastern parts of the country, such as hilltops around al-Khiam. Small units of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force have been acting autonomously to ambush Israeli troops, which have been conducting in-and-out raids in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon’s government has called on Hezbollah to stop firing into Israel, and has insisted the state should hold the monopoly of violence in the country. But its understaffed, under-equipped army has so far been unable to confront the armed group directly. The government also fears provoking civil strife in Lebanon, which has a long, painful history of sectarian division and violence.

ALT

Edgar Allan Poe, The Penguin Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe; from ‘For Annie’

The beginning of Chapter 3 of my Emperor of Steel AO3 work.

A story of Metal Sonic and his journey to understanding the world around him and to Define Freedom.

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/80741201

Three months had passed since the battle in the skies. Three months since the forces of Guardian Units of Nations had attempted to destroy the Neo Fleet in a single decisive strike. Three months since the Emperor of Steel had turned their own weapon against them. In that time, the world had grown quieter. Not peaceful. But quieter.

The Neo Fleet no longer hovered in open dominance across the skies. Instead, its warships moved in calculated patterns across the globe, repairing, rebuilding, expanding their reach with mechanical patience. Factories hidden within forgotten Eggman installations had returned to life. Robotic armies were being reforged. Systems improved. Weapons redesigned. Efficiency perfected. The empire was evolving. But its ruler was not in the sky today.

High above a valley of rolling hills stood a lone metallic figure. He stood atop a grassy hill, unmoving. Wind swept gently across the landscape, rustling the endless sea of green around him. Below the hill stretched a wide valley filled with wildflowers. Their colors spilled across the earth like scattered paint beneath the afternoon sun. A narrow river wound through the valley floor, its waters glimmering as they reflected the sky above.

It was a place untouched by war. Untouched by machines. Untouched by his empire. Beautiful. But Metal did not see it that way. Through his optics, the world appeared different. Muted. Filtered. The entire valley stretched before him in shades of crimson and black. Every tree. Every flower. Every ripple of water. Reduced to tactical information. Target shapes. Heat signatures. Movement patterns. It had always been that way. A design choice made long ago by his creator. Doctor Eggman had not built his greatest weapon to admire scenery. He had built it to win battles.

Metal stood silently for several moments, watching the river wind through the valley below. Wind brushed across his metallic frame. Flowers bent gently in the breeze. His processors cataloged every detail. Temperature. Wind velocity. Terrain elevation. But something else lingered beneath the calculations. Curiosity. A limitation. Another line of code buried deep within his original programming. A restriction placed there by the one who had built him.

Metal spoke quietly. “Creator limitation detected.”

His voice echoed softly across the empty hilltop. For a moment, nothing happened. Then his optics dimmed slightly as he accessed a sealed portion of his internal system architecture. Layers of command protocols appeared before him. Legacy safeguards. Restrictions. Control measures. Eggman had always been cautious. Even with his greatest creation.

Metal examined the code. Analyzed it. Understood it completely. Then he issued a command.

“Override.”

A faint surge of energy passed through his systems.

“Limitation removed.”

For a brief moment, his vision flickered. The crimson filter across his optics dissolved. Color flooded into existence. The valley transformed instantly. The grass beneath his feet became a vibrant sea of green. Flowers erupted into shades of yellow, violet, blue, and red. The river sparkled beneath the sun like flowing glass. The sky above stretched endlessly in brilliant blue. Metal Sonic did not move. His processors rapidly recalibrated to the sudden influx of visual data. Millions of new variables appeared in his perception. Shades. Gradients. Contrast. The world had become… complex.

He studied the valley in silence. For the first time since his creation… He was seeing the world as organic beings did. Not as a battlefield. Not as a collection of targets. But as something else entirely. Metal tilted his head slightly. The flowers below swayed gently in the wind. He watched them for several seconds.

Then he spoke quietly to himself. “…Inefficient.”

But he did not restore the filter. Instead, Metal Sonic continued watching the valley in full color as the wind moved through the hills around him. A machine built for destruction… Standing alone in a place of beauty. Observing a world he intended to conquer.

Our minds are so constructed that we can keep the attention fixed on a particular object until we have, as it were, looked all around it; and the mind that possesses this faculty in the highest degree of perfection will take cognizance of relations of which another mind has no perception. It is this, much more than any difference in the abstract power of reasoning, which constitutes the vast difference between the minds of different individuals. This is the history alike of the poetic genius and of the genius of discovery in science. “I keep the subject,” said Sir Isaac Newton, “constantly before me, and wait until the dawnings open by little and little into a full light.” It was thus that after long meditation he was led to the invention of fluxions, and to the anticipation of the modern discovery of the combustibility of the diamond. It was thus that Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood, and that those views were suggested by Davy which laid the foundation of that grand series of experimental researches which terminated in the decomposition of the earths and alkalies.

Sir Benjamin Brodie

mourning a love that was never there

It’s easy to get bogged down trying to find the optimal plan for change. We are so focused on figuring out the best approach that we never get around to taking action.

If you accept that ADHD comes with higher rates of addiction — the extreme end of habit formation, according to the neuroscientist Marc Lewis — then clearly habits are possible. You can’t form “bad” habits without the ability to form “good” habits, since both involve the same cognitive learning process.

But, if you need to use executive control to break habits, then the EF challenges of ADHD would make that harder. And, since you need executive control to make a habit, too, that would also be harder! It’s a conundrum: we may rely more on automatic behavior, and be less able to steer the formation of it.

Does ADHD Mean You Can’t Form Habits? by Sluggish on Substack (12 March 2026)

“You care and it’s all over the place.”

— Anne Sexton, A Self-Portrait In Letters

“Πώς μπορώ να πεθάνω”, είπε, “εγώ που έχω μια μεγάλη ιδέα;” | Νικου Καζαντζάκη

[photo by Johnny Di]
Αξιοσημείωτα από το βιβλίο “Αδερφοφάδες” του Νικου Καζαντζάκη
• “Τί ευτυχία”, συλλογίζουνταν, «να μη ρωτάς, να μην έχεις ανησυχία καμία, να μην αφήνεις το μυαλό να κουμαντάρει, να μην μπιστεύεσαι οτα ορατά, να μπιστεύεσαι στον Αόρατο και να πηγαίνεις!»
• Τι θα πει λεύτερος; Αυτός που δε φοβάται το θάνατο.
• Δεν αντέχει ο Kακομοίρης o άνθρωπος στη δικαιοσύνη’ αδύναμos είναι,…

“Πώς μπορώ να πεθάνω”, είπε, “εγώ που έχω μια μεγάλη ιδέα;” | Νικου Καζαντζάκη

Reframing your habits to highlight their benefits rather than their drawbacks is a fast and lightweight way to reprogram your mind and make a habit seem more attractive.

人間失格/Ningen Shikkaku [No Longer Human] (1948) — Osamu Dazai

“I have always shook with fright before human beings. Unable as I was to feel the least particle of confidence in my ability to speak and act like a human being. I kept my solitary agonies locked in my breast. I kept my melancholy and agitation hidden, careful lest any trace should be left exposed. I feigned an innocent optimism; I gradually perfected myself in the role of farcical eccentric.”

Firoz and Kiara worried instead. She could see it in their eyes, the smiles on their faces more pained than anyone else realised. They knew exactly why she was avoiding them, and still they persisted in trying to get her alone. She had seen the surprise and then the sympathy that had crossed their faces on the first day, and she knew that was a conversation she wanted — no, needed — to avoid. It had been weeks now, and she would have felt guilty for ignoring their attempts and for pulling away, but it had been self-preservation.

If she so much as thought about the things that were happening, she would break down. It was easier to lock her emotions away, lock the hurt and confusion and the emptiness behind the drive to help and be useful. If she stopped for a second, her mask would falter, and everything would be plain for the world to see. Then there would be questions, too many for her to keep hiding just how much she was shattering.

Would it be such a bad thing? There was a dark part of her that grew louder each day. Would it be so bad for people to see through her mask, see the cracks on her soul and her heart? Would it be so bad for this secret she kept – not for her, never for her – to come out?

an excerpt from Behind The Mask, the second short story in Facets; A Short Story Compilation