K‮ly‬e @khird@qoto.org

the far north burbs of chicago are a land of beautiful landscaping and elegant evening lighting shining onto massive homes.

surely the queen of landscaping & evening lighting in the north burbs is the baha'i temple of wilmette, one of my favorite places in chicagoland.

i got to visit it at night the other day. as you can see, it's extremely fabulous, with (extremely elegantly-lit) fountains and (extremely well-kept) gardens all around. i particularly like the herby/cedary smells in the gardens.

for an added bonus, i wandered into the wilmette yacht club (the dinky gate was literally wide open) & got a view of the temple from among the yachts. it seemed fitting for the north burbs (which is also a place of *private* landscapes).

as for the temple itself, my brother (a concrete enthusiast) tells me that it's made from white concrete with multiple kinds of quartz mixed in as aggregate so that it reflects light & shines.

coming from hawai'i to the flatlands of illinois, it seems obvious what they were trying to do: they built themselves a sacred, glowing mountain. they were like "well, no sacred mountains around here. let's build one!" and i think they accomplished their goal. people love it, gravitate to it, and it gives most people a feeling of awe. (in the language of hawai'i, i would say it has a lot of mana, or power). it's strange to have that toward a human-constructed object, but i guess it's something...

learn more about the temple: https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics/a-vision-in-concrete/

#architecture #concrete #chicago

#HamiBahadori ist inhaftiert,wurde gefoltert, ihm drohen 5 Jahre Haft. Weil er #Bahai ist.
Was macht er? Er schickt eine Nachricht aus dem Gefängnis an die Öffentlichkeit. Riskiert alles. Mut und Wut von einem, der sagt, Menschen wie er haben im #Iran keine Rechte. Das stimmt.

Quelle: https://nederland.unofficialbird.com/isabelschayani/status/1645160390953672704#m

The end of an era. Boeing delivers the final the 747, a beautiful plane, emblematic of a time when you could actually tell planes apart with just a quick glance. I'm glad I got to fly on one a few times but always wished I could have had a seat in the front row, where the hull curves in a bit and you could maybe, possibly, almost, look forwards.

https://apple.news/AIoj3hwZnSGq2s0hruw-Dsw

#Iran:
Dit zijn het stel #Pouya_Amri en #Nafisa_Saadatyar.
Ze behoren tot de Bahai-minderheidsgroep.
Ze werden vorige week gearresteerd door de RG in hun huis in Gorgan.
Ze zijn gemarteld.
Ze worden beschuldigd van handelen in strijd met de nationale veiligheid.
Wees svp hun stem

Dit is #Elmira_Rahmani (28), een professionele muzikant & lid vd Bahai-gemeenschap, een religieuze minderheid in #Iran.
Ze werd op 16 jan in haar huis in #Isfahan gearresteerd door repressietroepen & naar een geheime locatie gebracht.
Haar leven is in gevaar.
Wees svp haar stem >

"Iranian authorities have arrested a 28-year-old Baha’i musician, amid an intensified crackdown on members of the persecuted religious minority.

Armed forces raided Elmira Rahmani’s house in the central city of Isfahan on January 17 and took her to an unknown location. Her personal electronic devices and musical instruments were confiscated.

There was no information available about Rahmani’s whereabouts and the charges against her."

#IranRevolution
#IRGCTerrorists

https://iranwire.com/en/bahais-of-iran/112745-bahai-musician-arrested-in-iran-whereabouts-unknown/

Australian chapter of PEN International condemns detention of award-winning Baha’i writer & poet Mahvash Sabet in Tehran’s Evin Prison

Sabet in solitary confinement after she and fellow Baha'i member Fariba Kamalabadi given 10-year prison sentences on Dec. 10

#IranProtests2022

#Iran:
Het Iraanse regime onderdrukt systematisch de rechten v religieuze minderheden, m.n. de leden vd Bahai’s.
Deze grafiek toont het % meldingen over de schendingen vd rechten v verschillende religieuze minderheden in 2022.

meer informatie: http://ow.ly/WZsU50McKcu
#MahsaAmini

This is #idarasti. She’s an artist, a singer, a photogerapher and a musician with a beautiful soul. She’s of the minority #Bahai faith. She was arrested by government agents over 2 months ago for simply speaking up for women’s rights and freedom in #Iran.
#MahsaAmini
#OpIran

#Iran court imposes 10-year prison sentences on 2 leading members of persecuted Baha'i religious community

Mahvash Sabet, 69, and Fariba Kamalabadi, 60, sentenced on November 21 after 1-hour trial

Both women previously served 10-year prison terms

#IranProtests2022

A content warning is a literary device. Specifically it is a form of foreshadowing. To add a content warning is to change the story the way adding or removing any other information changes the story.

In this sense, preference for content warnings is a preference for a *way* of storytelling. Content warnings mark out a genre of writing.

Nice studio. Giving me #ESPN vibes.

#CBC #Canada #CFB #CoupeVanierCup

If you’re looking for an #Android weather app that’s actually beautiful, check out #GeometricWeather. It’s my favorite weather app ever; even though it isn’t prettier than #Apple’s weather app for #iOS (which I still really love aesthetically), it has a minimal live wallpaper feature that’s really awesome, changing your wallpaper to reflect the current weather conditions. And even better yet, it’s #FOSS!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=wangdaye.com.geometricweather&hl=en_US&gl=US https://f-droid.org/packages/wangdaye.com.geometricweather/ https://github.com/WangDaYeeeeee/GeometricWeather

Read this one the other day and it makes me think a lot about online interactions:

"O Son of Dust!
Verily I say unto thee: Of all men the most negligent is he that disputeth idly and seeketh to advance himself over his brother. Say: O brethren! Let deeds, not words, be your adorning."

www.bahai.org/r/646280975

I meant to share this earlier, #Mastodon peeps, you can mute words on #Mastodon too; if you're tired of hearing slurs and they're coming from too many instances, you can use the mute words feature. (I personally recommend not doing this, and either muting instances that seem to have racist folks and no bad apples, or just muting bad actors because racist folks won't always use slurs all the time, and hiding the posts with the slurs can make them hard to find. I mute racist folks after seeing them use slurs but hey that's just how I use the platform, you do you!)

#Feditips