jack

I know I still owe some comments on my year-end book post (I'm really enjoying the discussions there! it's just been busy) but I wanted to let you all know that I have a story out! Actually, this one is a first for me: it's a graphic story! When I sent them my prose story about a post-post-apocalyptic soil remediation robot and the various lives of the polluted valley around it, they asked if I would be interested in adapting it to a script for an artist to create a graphic story from, and of course I was. It was a very cool experience, and I'm so impressed with Xiang Yata's art (done impressively fast, no less).

You can check out The Valley in Thaw here, and the whole issue at www.tractorbeam.earth.

muccamukk

Snowflake Challenge: A warmly light quaint street of shops at night with heavy snow falling.

Challenge #4: Rec The Contents Of Your Last Page: Any website that you like, be it fanfiction, art, social media, or something a bit more eccentric!

I do (semi) regular link lists, and thought about dumping one here, but then I saw this video, and wanted to talk about it.

lostrekkie /

jessiegenderafterdark5287: Starfleet Academy Is The Best Live-Action Star Trek We've Gotten In Years (Spoiler-Free Review) (Video: 43 minutes).
I braced for CW-core melodrama in space and instead got a Star Trek show that actually understands Star Trek.

Context on where I am with modern TV Star Trek, the TL;DR being: "Too old and tired to deal with this shit."

I remember watching the first two episodes of Star Trek: Picard, and deciding, "I don't have the energy to be angry at Star Trek." Which was similar to how I felt about pretty much everything in January of 2020, to be fair. But the feeling specific to Star Trek has stuck, and I haven't kept up with any of the modern shows. We did watch part of the first season of Discovery, and I enjoyed later episodes more than my first impression of the pilot (which I loathed). But then I just never cared enough to go back to it.

I probably should've watched Prodigy, which was more my speed (it sounds like, being a Voyager girl growing up). Then I bounced off Lower Decks, both tonally and in animation style. And I felt the same sort of continuity exhaustion towards Strange New Worlds as I do towards all of Star Wars and most of the MCU at this point.

(For the reboot movies: Enjoyed the first one, have forgotten every single thing about the second one, adored the third one, but then Anton died, and they never made any more. Tentatively interested in whatever the reboot of the reboot will be.)

This looks like something I might enjoy! I hope it doesn't rely too much on continuity from season three of Discovery, but otherwise I like the cast, I'm willing to put up with overly-hormonal youth, and I'd just... it'd be nice not to be angry at Star Trek for a change.

A few quibbles with the video:

Not personal to me, but if you're loving the current era of Trek... Jessie very much is not, and may harsh your mellow.

It's probably not as spoiler free as some people use with that term, but it didn't really give away any plot details.

I basically listened to it as a podcast, because while I very much enjoy Jessie's face, there's a lot of b-roll that's just the trailers over and over? Which I guess is a youtube thing.

But overall I liked her video! I will be tuning in to the new show.

AND THEN I SAW THIS VIDEO, so you get some Raye, too.

Watch on YouTube

Challenge #5: In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts.
I'm not really active in transformative works fandom right now (brain full, no room), but here's a couple broad wishes for rainbow chasers.

1. Copying a bunch of people asking for help with

fandomtrees. There's lots of great trees that need a few more decorations <3

2. Tell me your favourite album last year. Not song, full album you can listen to end to end. The album doesn't have to have come out in 2025; it can be from another year, and it was just your favourite to listen to in 2025.

3. Tell me your favourite tiny detail about your blorbo, and why you like it. Don't worry if I know/like your canon. I just want to roll around in some fandom positivity. Alternately, a small joke or funny moment from your blorbo's show (or novel, or whatever).

E.g.: this is more of a canon beat, but the thing in "Mr. Rowl" where everyone keeps mistaking the heroine's dad for the Duke of Wellington cracks me up every time I think of it.

ETA: 4. If you use Discord, please go fill out this survey and tell them to put AI integration where the Sun will never see it: We're exploring how people feel about AI—tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot—and what they'd want (or not want) from AI in Discord.

ETA 2: Survey appears to be down. Not sure if it got overloaded. Or if Discord decided they don't want user input after all. Or what. Let me know if it comes back on.

ao3_news_feed

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/33971

International Volunteer Day

Last November we asked the community to submit questions to our OTW volunteers in celebration of International Volunteer Day. In this series of posts we will spotlight some of our committees' responses.

The Translation committee's main responsibility is making content from the OTW and its various projects accessible to fans who don't speak English. This includes content for the organization's main site, FAQs on AO3, Open Doors import announcements, and AO3 news posts, among other things. They also collaborate with other OTW committees, for example to help them communicate with non-English speaking fans and users.

We asked the Translation committee for replies to your questions, and received a lot of feedback! Below you can find a selection of their answers:

Translation Committee Specific Question

Question: Is there a software required if one wanted to volunteer? Also, are there any specific devices required?
Committee answer:
While we have no specific software requirements for volunteering, we definitely recommend using a device with a bigger screen in general, like a desktop or a laptop, or at least a tablet, as that makes it easier to keep everything you need for your work on your screen. One of our requirements for any software we use is that it can run in a common internet browser on a computer, without any local installs, though they may require an app on mobile devices.

General Questions

How many hours a week do you spend on your OTW volunteer work?

It varies a lot week to week! Some weeks are very quiet and there's not a lot to work on, but when I do get an assignment, I tend to spend about a couple of hours on it, and that will usually be it for the week unless we're working on time sensitive tasks or projects, when things can get more hectic! Translation in particular sets generous deadlines to complete our assignments (5 or 7 days depending on what we're working on), which gives us plenty of time to work on it even after RL work hours and factoring in other real life things. I also sometimes help the Tag Wrangling team with their Spanish tags, but that accounts for a couple of minutes of quick work overall, I'd say. So... tl;dr, about 2-3 hours, give or take, depending on what we have to do for the week! (Saku)
It depends on the task, but an average of 2-3 hours per week suffices. (Nameless_ghoul_7)

How do you manage your volunteer time, and do you do the same thing every day like with a day job?

I usually find time for this during the weekend, considering my day job, so it's more of a weekend activity for me. And I prefer to do my translation in one go, and then go through it again afterwards in my free time post weekday work.
It's definitely taught me to be good at time management, because you can't predict how your week is going to go at any point. (Ana)
I use a time tracker to help me track the time I spend on OTW volunteer tasks, though that usually ends up working more in retrospective, where towards the end of each week I look at the hours I did to evaluate whether my current workload is adequate or whether I should delegate some of my work to other people (or if that's not an option, what I can deprioritise and put off until a bit later). I usually try to pick up some volunteer manager or chair trainee work every other day or so (unless I'm working on something that requires daily attention), just to avoid driving myself insane, because at the end of the day there's always more work I could be picking up still. (Rhine)

What's your favorite part about volunteering at the OTW?

My favourite part of volunteering at the OTW has been meeting several new people from around the world and seeing how our different POVs and experiences help with different understandings of life in different spaces and how independently of our differences, cultures and upbringing we're united by pure passion for what we do in and for fandom. Passion and compassion is often hidden or missing in "work spaces" and the OTW has been a positive space filled with positive learning experiences for me since the moment I started volunteering. It's an ever evolving space that takes every instance to be better. (CottonDuck)
I was going to say "the people!" and that is mostly true (I've met some wonderful folks as part of Translation, and it's been a great time overall!), but if I sit down to really think about it, I think my favorite part is that it feels very gratifying to be giving back to a community that has done so much for fandom and fan spaces. I don't read a lot of fanfiction myself anymore, much as I do occasionally write it, but fandom is still very important to me and I've made a lot of good friends thanks to it, so it feels good to be able to contribute my time and skills and do something for a space that has done so much for me in turn. It's good work and good people all around, and it feels good to be part of it through my work for the OTW and AO3. (Saku)

What's the aspect of volunteer work with the OTW that you most wish more people knew about?

How chill the Translation volunteer managers are! If we need something, be it a hiatus, more time on a task, or clarification on some part of the text, we’re pretty much always granted them! And having a full week to do the task is very nice too, I originally thought it was going to be much more hectic. (kati)
The sheer scope of work that is involved! There are so many volunteers, like, seriously, *so many*, and each of us have our own little roles to perform, thus helping everything run like clockwork. Having said all that, it's all strictly on a volunteer basis, which makes it probably the only “work place” I've seen where we all actually enjoy doing what we do. (Ana)

What does a typical day as an OTW volunteer looks like for you?

Mostly the same as any normal day. Only that I set apart one or two hours most days to translate what's been assigned to me. (ttom)
It varies a lot! As Translation volunteer managers, we handle several different tasks, depending on the time of year, and what projects are currently going on. For example, if I'm on duty for managing our email inbox and handing out tasks for the week—we alternate regularly—I'll set aside around 2-3 hours a day after work for that. When we are recruiting for new translators, I'll spend a chunk of time in a week holding interviews. There are also routine tasks that each of us rotates through, like preparing meetings or coordinating the upload of translated content to the OTW and AO3 websites. Independent of the task, I usually work through shorter items on my to-do list on weekday nights, and leave bigger tasks for the weekend. (Elin)

What is your favorite animal? Alternatively, do you have a favorite breed of cat/dog?

Cats... I love cats and I have one. (Nameless_ghoul_7)
Cats, giraffes, turtles, butterflies, and I can go on. As for cats, I love the Egyptian Maus that I currently have. (AnneHelena)
My favourite animal is the betta! I loved aquaculture a lot!! My favourite breed of dog is the Indian Pariah Dog. (Aditi Mandavgane)

Do you enjoy reading fanfic? If so, what's your favorite work on AO3?

I love reading fanfics and it's difficult to choose a favourite one. But among the recent fics I am reading, Bifurcation Sandbox by Gardenersnake8822 is a favourite. (Gloriosa)
I love reading fanfic! It's definitely become a hobby, and has been the brunt of my reading as of late (because books are expensive < / 3). It's really difficult to pick a favorite work, since I've read so many amazing fics, but if I had to pick one, I'd pick "The Lowlander" by user foxymoxy! It's a BTS-Dragon Age crossover fic that takes the captor/prisoner trope and really dissects and does something interesting with it. It's one of my all-time favorites, and I re-read it all the time. (Somber)

Do you write any fanfic yourself? What do you enjoy about it?

Yes! I have a writing account on some platforms like AO3 (ofc, duh), Twitter, Wattpad, and Medium. There are so many things I love about writing. But, I’m going to list 3 of them here:
1. I can finally read my ship in tropes that I really wanted to read.
2. The research process. I gained knowledge while doing my hobby. I learn how to write better, to portray the emotion better, to explore and experiment with my characters’ personality, discover interesting information, and so on.
3. It helps me clear my mind. (Keane)
I used to write original stories that never went anywhere and only started writing and publishing fanfiction in order to learn about AO3's user interface so that I could translate the tutorials more accurately. I like how freeing it feels not to have to worry too much about writing well enough for the general audience – it's just me and the five people (at most) who will ever see my silly little stories! (Slovenian Translation volunteer)

What fandoms are you (currently) in?

I’m currently obsessed with F1: The Movie and Ocean's Eleven Trilogy. (Cassie)
I've been in the Star Wars fandom for more than 20 years at this point, mostly on the Rogue One / Andor side nowadays. (Auré)

Do you feel glad or proud to see fanfiction in your mother tongue?

My answer is yes, absolutely! Especially on AO3 in particular, because Mandarin Chinese authors have been facing immense opposition in the form of censorship and takedowns of both digital and physical publications of our works. The 227 incident that resulted in AO3 being banned in Mainland China was a major turning point in the involvement of AO3 within Chinese fandom communities, so every time I see a new Mandarin Chinese work on AO3 I'm always grateful that one more author has found a safe avenue to share their creations with the rest of fandom. (Chinese Translation volunteer)
Absolutely! My first language is Portuguese and I always find it surprising when I see works on some fandoms that are definitely not popular in my country. It’s like an invisible thread suddenly connects me to someone I don’t know but share two things in common: a language and a love for a fandom that makes us want to spend time and effort creating something to share with that community. Funny enough, I usually like to read fanfics in the language my brain associates them with. For example, I don’t speak Korean, and I usually watch K-dramas with English subtitles to continue learning English, so that’s the language my brain associates that series with. When I see a work in Portuguese for that fandom, it’s like my horizons have suddenly been broadened. And if I get a chance to make an online friend because of it? Even better! (Amanda)
I translate English to Marathi, and I don't see a lot of Marathi fanfic on the site, but when I stumble upon one, my heart soars and I feel on top of the world! (Aditi Mandavgane)

Thanks so much to every volunteer who took the time to answer!

(For more answers from Translation volunteers, check out this work on AO3, where we'll collect additional replies to each question!)

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, OTW Legal Advocacy, and Transformative Works and Cultures. We are a fan-run, donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/33971

james_davis_nicoll

I am aware jamesdavisnicoll.com is down.

soemand

3c and walking a nearby beach. Trés beaux maintenant.

visualcapitalist_rss_feed

Posted by Bruno Venditti

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-the-average-annual-temperature-of-every-country/

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/?p=193147

See more visuals like this on the Voronoi app.

Use This Visualization

Mapped: Average Annual Temperature by Country

See visuals like this from many other data creators on our Voronoi app. Download it for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Key Takeaways

Africa has the world’s hottest countries, accounting for six of the top 10.
Temperatures in Canada and Russia, on average, are colder than several Antarctic islands.
Average annual temperatures vary widely by geography, from over 30°C in parts of West Africa to below −18°C in Greenland.

This map shows the average annual temperature for countries and territories around the world.

The data for this visualization comes from the World Bank Group via Wikipedia, based on Climatic Research Unit gridded climatology data. Average yearly temperature reflects the mean of daily minimum and maximum temperatures for each country from 1991 to 2020.

Important caveat: this is showing the geographical mean temperature, and it is not based on where people live in a given country. As an example, Russia and Canada have massive portions of remote, Arctic land that count towards this mean, even though population centers tend to exist in more temperate regions within these landmasses.

Africa Is Home to the World’s Hottest Countries

Burkina Faso tops the global ranking with an average annual temperature of 30.4°C. Mali, Senegal, Mauritania, Djibouti, and Gambia also rank among the hottest countries worldwide. In total, six of the 10 hottest countries are located in Africa.

Much of this heat concentration is driven by geography. Large portions of the continent sit near the equator or within arid and semi-arid climate zones, where high solar radiation and limited cloud cover push temperatures higher year-round.

Rank	Country or Entity	Continent	Temperature
1	Burkina Faso	Africa	30.40 °C (86.72 °F)
2	Mali	Africa	29.21 °C (84.58 °F)
3	Aruba	South America	29.17 °C (84.51 °F)
4	Senegal	Africa	28.90 °C (84.02 °F)
5	Mauritania	Africa	28.82 °C (83.88 °F)
6	Tokelau	Oceania	28.71 °C (83.68 °F)
7	Tuvalu	Oceania	28.62 °C (83.52 °F)
8	Djibouti	Africa	28.49 °C (83.28 °F)
9	Curaçao	North America	28.40 °C (83.12 °F)
10	Gambia	Africa	28.38 °C (83.08 °F)
11	United Arab Emirates	Asia	28.17 °C (82.71 °F)
12	Maldives	Asia	28.11 °C (82.60 °F)
13	Niger	Africa	28.04 °C (82.47 °F)
14	Benin	Africa	28.02 °C (82.44 °F)
15	Qatar	Asia	28.02 °C (82.44 °F)
16	Marshall Islands	Oceania	28.01 °C (82.42 °F)
17	Guinea-Bissau	Africa	27.98 °C (82.36 °F)
18	South Sudan	Africa	27.97 °C (82.35 °F)
19	Sudan	Africa	27.95 °C (82.31 °F)
20	Palau	Oceania	27.90 °C (82.22 °F)
21	Nauru	Oceania	27.83 °C (82.09 °F)
22	Cayman Islands	North America	27.82 °C (82.08 °F)
23	Guam	Oceania	27.81 °C (82.06 °F)
24	Kiribati	Oceania	27.77 °C (81.99 °F)
25	Anguilla	North America	27.71 °C (81.88 °F)
26	Saint Martin	North America	27.71 °C (81.88 °F)
27	Sint Maarten	North America	27.71 °C (81.88 °F)
28	Bahrain	Asia	27.69 °C (81.84 °F)
29	Singapore	Asia	27.68 °C (81.82 °F)
30	Ghana	Africa	27.66 °C (81.79 °F)
31	Oman	Asia	27.64 °C (81.75 °F)
32	Chad	Africa	27.63 °C (81.73 °F)
33	British Indian Ocean Territory	Africa	27.61 °C (81.70 °F)
34	Northern Mariana Islands	Oceania	27.60 °C (81.68 °F)
35	Samoa	Oceania	27.58 °C (81.64 °F)
36	Caribbean Netherlands	North America	27.47 °C (81.45 °F)
37	Saint Kitts and Nevis	North America	27.47 °C (81.45 °F)
38	Cambodia	Asia	27.41 °C (81.34 °F)
39	American Samoa	Oceania	27.38 °C (81.28 °F)
40	Togo	Africa	27.33 °C (81.19 °F)
41	Nigeria	Africa	27.30 °C (81.14 °F)
42	Wallis and Futuna	Oceania	27.30 °C (81.14 °F)
43	Federated States of Micronesia	Oceania	27.28 °C (81.10 °F)
44	Sri Lanka	Asia	27.25 °C (81.05 °F)
45	Antigua and Barbuda	North America	27.20 °C (80.96 °F)
46	Seychelles	Africa	27.09 °C (80.76 °F)
47	Saint Lucia	North America	27.00 °C (80.60 °F)
48	United States Virgin Islands	North America	26.98 °C (80.56 °F)
49	Brunei	Asia	26.95 °C (80.51 °F)
50	Somalia	Africa	26.95 °C (80.51 °F)
51	Thailand	Asia	26.85 °C (80.33 °F)
52	Dominica	North America	26.83 °C (80.29 °F)
53	Ivory Coast	Africa	26.80 °C (80.24 °F)
54	Cocos (Keeling) Islands	Oceania	26.79 °C (80.22 °F)
55	British Virgin Islands	North America	26.70 °C (80.06 °F)
56	Eritrea	Africa	26.63 °C (79.93 °F)
57	Barbados	North America	26.61 °C (79.90 °F)
58	Suriname	South America	26.58 °C (79.84 °F)
59	Trinidad and Tobago	North America	26.55 °C (79.79 °F)
60	Sierra Leone	Africa	26.54 °C (79.77 °F)
61	Grenada	North America	26.49 °C (79.68 °F)
62	Malaysia	Asia	26.38 °C (79.48 °F)
63	Kuwait	Asia	26.31 °C (79.36 °F)
64	Turks and Caicos Islands	North America	26.29 °C (79.32 °F)
65	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	North America	26.17 °C (79.11 °F)
66	Guyana	South America	26.12 °C (79.02 °F)
67	Christmas Island	Oceania	26.06 °C (78.91 °F)
68	Indonesia	Asia	25.96 °C (78.73 °F)
69	Saudi Arabia	Asia	25.94 °C (78.69 °F)
70	Solomon Islands	Oceania	25.92 °C (78.66 °F)
71	Jamaica	North America	25.91 °C (78.64 °F)
72	Nicaragua	Central America	25.88 °C (78.58 °F)
73	Guinea	Africa	25.86 °C (78.55 °F)
74	Cuba	North America	25.81 °C (78.46 °F)
75	Montserrat	North America	25.75 °C (78.35 °F)
76	Bangladesh	Asia	25.71 °C (78.28 °F)
77	Venezuela	South America	25.71 °C (78.28 °F)
78	Belize	Central America	25.70 °C (78.26 °F)
79	Panama	Central America	25.60 °C (78.08 °F)
80	Bahamas	North America	25.58 °C (78.04 °F)
81	Yemen	Asia	25.54 °C (77.97 °F)
82	Central African Republic	Africa	25.47 °C (77.85 °F)
83	Liberia	Africa	25.45 °C (77.81 °F)
84	Brazil	South America	25.44 °C (77.79 °F)
85	El Salvador	Central America	25.23 °C (77.41 °F)
86	Gabon	Africa	25.20 °C (77.36 °F)
87	Kenya	Africa	25.08 °C (77.14 °F)
88	Puerto Rico	North America	25.04 °C (77.07 °F)
89	Niue	Oceania	25.03 °C (77.05 °F)
90	Tonga	Oceania	25.01 °C (77.02 °F)
91	Colombia	South America	25.00 °C (77.00 °F)
92	United States Minor Outlying Islands	Oceania and North America	24.97 °C (76.95 °F)
93	Haiti	North America	24.95 °C (76.91 °F)
94	India	Asia	24.94 °C (76.89 °F)
95	Costa Rica	Central America	24.83 °C (76.69 °F)
96	Cameroon	Africa	24.80 °C (76.64 °F)
97	Vietnam	Asia	24.79 °C (76.62 °F)
98	Republic of the Congo	Africa	24.74 °C (76.53 °F)
99	Papua New Guinea	Oceania	24.74 °C (76.53 °F)
100	Honduras	Central America	24.72 °C (76.50 °F)
101	Cook Islands	Oceania	24.71 °C (76.48 °F)
102	Fiji	Oceania	24.68 °C (76.42 °F)
103	Equatorial Guinea	Africa	24.66 °C (76.39 °F)
104	Timor-Leste	Asia	24.57 °C (76.23 °F)
105	Dominican Republic	North America	24.55 °C (76.19 °F)
106	São Tomé and Príncipe	Africa	24.49 °C (76.08 °F)
107	Vanuatu	Oceania	24.44 °C (75.99 °F)
108	Mozambique	Africa	24.41 °C (75.94 °F)
109	Democratic Republic of the Congo	Africa	24.35 °C (75.83 °F)
110	French Polynesia	Oceania	24.30 °C (75.74 °F)
111	Laos	Asia	24.16 °C (75.49 °F)
112	Paraguay	South America	23.92 °C (75.06 °F)
113	Myanmar	Asia	23.82 °C (74.88 °F)
114	Comoros	Africa	23.73 °C (74.71 °F)
115	Guatemala	Central America	23.65 °C (74.57 °F)
116	Algeria	Africa	23.60 °C (74.48 °F)
117	Ethiopia	Africa	23.36 °C (74.05 °F)
118	Mauritius	Africa	23.33 °C (73.99 °F)
119	Uganda	Africa	23.25 °C (73.85 °F)
120	Egypt	Africa	23.14 °C (73.65 °F)
121	Philippines	Asia	23.1 °C (73.6 °F)
122	Iraq	Asia	22.95 °C (73.31 °F)
123	Tanzania	Africa	22.92 °C (73.26 °F)
124	Libya	Africa	22.81 °C (73.06 °F)
125	New Caledonia	Oceania	22.69 °C (72.84 °F)
126	Malawi	Africa	22.66 °C (72.79 °F)
127	Madagascar	Africa	22.64 °C (72.75 °F)
128	Cape Verde	Africa	22.53 °C (72.55 °F)
129	Zambia	Africa	22.23 °C (72.01 °F)
130	Botswana	Africa	22.09 °C (71.76 °F)
131	Australia	Oceania	22.05 °C (71.69 °F)
132	Zimbabwe	Africa	21.90 °C (71.42 °F)
133	Angola	Africa	21.77 °C (71.19 °F)
134	Bermuda	North America	21.67 °C (71.01 °F)
135	Ecuador	South America	21.43 °C (70.57 °F)
136	Pakistan	Asia	21.38 °C (70.48 °F)
137	Mexico	North America	21.31 °C (70.36 °F)
138	Bolivia	South America	20.76 °C (69.37 °F)
139	Eswatini	Africa	20.64 °C (69.15 °F)
140	Pitcairn Islands	Oceania	20.56 °C (69.01 °F)
141	Tunisia	Africa	20.53 °C (68.95 °F)
142	Burundi	Africa	20.51 °C (68.92 °F)
143	Namibia	Africa	20.45 °C (68.81 °F)
144	Israel	Asia	20.25 °C (68.45 °F)
145	Peru	South America	20.07 °C (68.13 °F)
146	Malta	Europe	20.06 °C (68.11 °F)
147	Jordan	Asia	20.05 °C (68.09 °F)
148	Palestine	Asia	20.04 °C (68.07 °F)
149	Rwanda	Africa	20.03 °C (68.05 °F)
150	Norfolk Island	Oceania	20.02 °C (68.04 °F)
151	Cyprus	Europe	20.01 °C (68.02 °F)
152	Syria	Asia	18.75 °C (65.75 °F)
153	Iran	Asia	18.34 °C (65.01 °F)
154	South Africa	Africa	18.23 °C (64.81 °F)
155	Gibraltar	Europe	18.15 °C (64.67 °F)
156	Morocco	Africa	18.14 °C (64.65 °F)
157	Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha	Africa	18.10 °C (64.58 °F)
158	Uruguay	South America	17.97 °C (64.35 °F)
159	Turkmenistan	Asia	16.66 °C (61.99 °F)
160	Argentina	South America	16.30 °C (61.34 °F)
161	Portugal	Europe	15.85 °C (60.53 °F)
162	Lebanon	Asia	15.45 °C (59.81 °F)
163	Vatican City	Europe	15.20 °C (59.36 °F)
164	Greece	Europe	13.17 °C (55.71 °F)
165	Spain	Europe	13.07 °C (55.53 °F)
166	Uzbekistan	Asia	13.06 °C (55.51 °F)
167	Monaco	Europe	13.05 °C (55.49 °F)
168	Afghanistan	Asia	13.04 °C (55.47 °F)
169	Italy	Europe	13.02 °C (55.44 °F)
170	Azerbaijan	Asia	12.96 °C (55.33 °F)
171	San Marino	Europe	12.83 °C (55.09 °F)
172	Albania	Europe	12.44 °C (54.39 °F)
173	Lesotho	Africa	12.38 °C (54.28 °F)
174	Jersey	Europe	12.27 °C (54.09 °F)
175	South Korea	Asia	12.22 °C (54.00 °F)
176	Guernsey	Europe	12.09 °C (53.76 °F)
177	Croatia	Europe	11.96 °C (53.53 °F)
178	Japan	Asia	11.78 °C (53.20 °F)
179	Turkey	Asia and Europe	11.66 °C (52.99 °F)
180	France	Europe	11.65 °C (52.97 °F)
181	Hungary	Europe	11.50 °C (52.70 °F)
182	Serbia	Europe	11.40 °C (52.52 °F)
183	Bulgaria	Europe	11.35 °C (52.43 °F)
184	Moldova	Europe	10.89 °C (51.60 °F)
185	North Macedonia	Europe	10.79 °C (51.42 °F)
186	Belgium	Europe	10.67 °C (51.21 °F)
187	Netherlands	Europe	10.49 °C (50.88 °F)
188	New Zealand	Oceania	10.46 °C (50.83 °F)
189	Bhutan	Asia	10.38 °C (50.68 °F)
190	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Europe	10.35 °C (50.63 °F)
191	Romania	Europe	10.18 °C (50.32 °F)
192	Kosovo	Europe	10.02 °C (50.04 °F)
193	Luxembourg	Europe	10.02 °C (50.04 °F)
194	Montenegro	Europe	9.93 °C (49.87 °F)
195	Slovenia	Europe	9.86 °C (49.75 °F)
196	Ireland	Europe	9.73 °C (49.51 °F)
197	Isle of Man	Europe	9.65 °C (49.37 °F)
198	Germany	Europe	9.59 °C (49.26 °F)
199	United States	North America	9.46 °C (49.03 °F)
200	Chile	South America	9.39 °C (48.90 °F)
201	Ukraine	Europe	9.27 °C (48.69 °F)
202	United Kingdom	Europe	9.24 °C (48.63 °F)
203	Georgia	Asia	9.01 °C (48.22 °F)
204	Denmark	Europe	8.90 °C (48.02 °F)
205	Slovakia	Europe	8.83 °C (47.89 °F)
206	Poland	Europe	8.78 °C (47.80 °F)
207	Czech Republic	Europe	8.60 °C (47.48 °F)
208	Andorra	Europe	8.27 °C (46.89 °F)
209	Armenia	Asia	7.82 °C (46.08 °F)
210	China	Asia	7.59 °C (45.66 °F)
211	Liechtenstein	Europe	7.55 °C (45.59 °F)
212	Belarus	Europe	7.45 °C (45.41 °F)
213	Austria	Europe	7.44 °C (45.39 °F)
214	Lithuania	Europe	7.38 °C (45.28 °F)
215	Kazakhstan	Asia	7.11 °C (44.80 °F)
216	North Korea	Asia	6.98 °C (44.56 °F)
217	Latvia	Europe	6.87 °C (44.37 °F)
218	Faroe Islands	Europe	6.60 °C (43.88 °F)
219	Switzerland	Europe	6.47 °C (43.65 °F)
220	Estonia	Europe	6.34 °C (43.41 °F)
221	Saint Pierre and Miquelon	North America	5.72 °C (42.30 °F)
222	French Southern and Antarctic Lands	Antarctica	4.11 °C (39.40 °F)
223	Tajikistan	Asia	3.85 °C (38.93 °F)
224	Sweden	Europe	3.23 °C (37.81 °F)
225	Kyrgyzstan	Asia	2.65 °C (36.77 °F)
226	Finland	Europe	2.46 °C (36.43 °F)
227	Heard Island and McDonald Islands	Antarctica	2.46 °C (36.43 °F)
228	Norway	Europe	2.21 °C (35.98 °F)
229	Iceland	Europe	1.85 °C (35.33 °F)
230	Mongolia	Asia	1.07 °C (33.93 °F)
231	Russia	Asia and Europe	−3.79 °C (25.18 °F)
232	Canada	North America	−4.03 °C (24.75 °F)
233	Svalbard and Jan Mayen	Europe	−6.78 °C (19.80 °F)
234	Greenland	North America	−18.68 °C (−1.62 °F)

Tropical Islands and the Middle East Follow Closely

Beyond Africa, several tropical island nations and Middle Eastern countries also record consistently high temperatures. Places such as Aruba, Tokelau, Tuvalu, and Curaçao average around 28–29°C annually, while countries like Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates post similar figures.

These regions experience relatively small seasonal temperature swings. Warm ocean waters and desert climates help keep average temperatures elevated throughout the year.

Cold Extremes Concentrated at High Latitudes

At the opposite end of the spectrum are countries located at high latitudes or with significant polar territory. Greenland has the lowest average annual temperature at −18.7°C, followed by Svalbard and Jan Mayen (Artic territories of Norway), Canada, and Russia.

European countries generally fall in the middle of the ranking, with average temperatures between 8°C and 15°C.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Ranked: G20 Greenhouse Gas Emissions per Capita (1990-2024) on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-the-average-annual-temperature-of-every-country/

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/?p=193147

soemand

Scene from the hike we did along the isle of skye, before the Covid times.

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c_ent

The weekly chat posts are intended for just that, chatting among each other. What are you currently watching? Reading? What actor/idol are you currently following? What are you looking forward to? Are you busy writing, creating art? Or did you have no time at all for anything, and are bemoaning that fact?

Whatever it is, talk to us about it here. Tell us what you liked or didn't like, and if you want to talk about spoilery things, please hide them under either of these codes:
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purimgifts

Please let us know if there's any issue! Happy creating!

oursin

Happy birthday,

falena and

houseboatonstyx!

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awesomeers

It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

cimorene

Maurice Mallace
Mr. Nutting
John Squance
Severus Grimsmead
Mr. Fogwill

daily_otter_feed

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/1/10/otters-contemplative-portrait

Via MTSOfan

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/1/10/otters-contemplative-portrait

tielan

Write a love letter to fandom. It might be to fandom in general, to a particular fandom, favourite character, anything at all.

A rewrite from 2021, updated for 2026.

( a woman called Maria )

soemand

This happens to me. Last night listening to Aretha signing “I say a little prayer” with a bout of insomnia. Whammo.

Experiencing musical frisson is associated with increased connectivity between the sections of the brain responsible for processing auditory information (specifically the anterior insula) and for reward processing: in other words, the greater the volume of white matter connectivity between those areas of the brain, the more likely an individual is to experience chills. Experiencing musical frisson is also associated with openness to experience.

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smallbatchicons

ursamajor

The horrors persist, so I have a pot of jambalaya bubbling away on the stove. We actually had chicken and shrimp and sausages in the fridge all at the same time, even if the sausages were technically brats instead of andouille, and the Bay Area's under some kind of historic extreme cold weather warning; a nice big warm pot of comfort food seemed called for. (Realfeel when I left the house this morning for coffee ride was 31F; I actually needed my full-finger gloves for biking.)

Re our jambalaya: red bell peppers, not green, I know that's blasphemy against the holy trinity. Celery, yeah yeah, I hear you and your passionate defenses of said aromatic,

kallmir2000 and

heathers. ;) But we did have some to use up from our produce box. And instead of chicken broth this time, we took advantage of having a bunch of crab and shrimp shells in the freezer and made shrimp broth instead.

I have so many things I want to make this year, as evidenced by my last post (artichoke cupcakes, Dubai chocolate ensaymada my way, sourdough starter, ricotta?!). And YouTube steered us the way of the pavé potato again this week, which we haven't yet made, so that is currently in progress as well.

But we're also, as a bigger project, going to try to cook our way through Pasta Friday this year as well, albeit as a weekend thing. We riffed on last week's "crispy chickpeas with cencioni and sausage" based on what we had in the pantry after being away the previous weeks, and ended up with "not-crispy white beans with strozzapreti and sausage."

hyounpark thinks it's because white beans have thinner skins than chickpeas that they didn't crisp up in the pan, but aside from that texture mismatch, the flavor profile of Italian sausage, a dry white wine (chardonnay my dad had brought over), butter, sage, and rosemary felt cozy for the endlessly rainy nights we've had lately. We also had to substitute parsley for arugula, but overall the results weren't bad considering what we had at hand, and we got a couple of actual vegetables in, go us.

Somehow, I have accumulated multiple pounds of strozzapreti (and cavatappi, probably my fave pasta shape), but have zero boxes of small shells on hand despite it being what we consider a baseline pasta for us to stock? (Our pasta pantry baseline: cappellini because it's fast, orecchiette or conchiglie because their shell shapes hold chunky sauces better than cappellini; anything beyond that is gravy. Other loved pasta shapes: bucatini (

hyounpark: "Italians finally figured out an udon counterpart!"), pappardelle (me: "pasta ribbons!"), cannelloni/manicotti for stuffing.)

Looking forward to next week's "garlicky conchiglioni with spinach and cheese." Though there will, again, probably be some swaps (see our current lack of shell-shaped pastas of any size, but more than enough pasta in general to make acquiring additional pasta feel greedy). But I appreciate Allison Arevalo offering alternate pasta shape suggestions that would go well with the sauce (in this case, paccheri, fusilli giganti, or rigatoni), even if ... yeah, once again we don't have any of those on hand. 99% certain I'll be using the cavatappi here. And I also appreciate her wine suggestions for both red and white each week, even if we may not necessarily keep up with them. (I don't even know what a barbera wine is besides it being red and Italian, but we probably have a pinot grigio around, and thankfully my recipe database has plenty of suggestions calling for a cup of the likely leftover wine!)

Just so you don't get the idea it's all cooking successes around here, I tried to bake a hazelnut-frangipane galette des rois for choir this week, and it was a massive fail; my puff pastry never decided to behave, and then when I baked it up, the whole thing smelled like cheese - in a bad way - despite zero cheese in the ingredients. Alas! I will try again, hopefully before Mardi Gras, probably when it's the sopranos' turn to supply snacks at break.

Current Mood: tired

frandroid

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

snickfic

It's been a minute!

The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling. IDK how you make a book full of starving, soon-to-be-cannibal lesbian nuns beseiged in a castle anything less than completely my jam, but man, I just wasn't feelng it.

The Incandescent by Emily Tesh. The superintendent of a private school for magic... sorry, I got at least fifty pages in and I can't even tell you what the premise was.

Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident. I tried this book about the mysterious deaths of a bunch of Russian hikers during my mountaineering disasters phase, but I just couldn't get over this American doc producer rocking up to Russia without speaking a word of Russian OR knowing anything about mountain hiking and deciding he was going to solve this decades old mystery. Half the chapters were about him bumbling around Russia hoping people would take pity on him and tell him things while privately complaining that they didn't tell him fast enough. God give me the confidence of a mediocre white man.

The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman by Niko Stratis. Trans woman narrates her gender journey through music. I'm interested in stories about rock music and people's relationship to it, but I struggled with Stratis's writing. I don't even know why.

Blacktop Wasteland by SA Cosby. A driver who's successfully escaped the life gets pulled in to do one last heist. I feel like this is the Cosby everyone recommends, but I couldn't get over how predictable the plot was. Maybe it had some surprises later, but I didn't get that far. Worse, I was supposed to be reading this with a friend and totally failed out, which I still feel guilty about!

Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop. Magic and gemstones and stuff, who can say. Guys, I'm sorry, I really wanted this to be trashy good fun, what I've osmosed about the series sounds so bonkers and great, but the writing was so bad. I couldn't do it.

Rotherweird by Andrew Caldecott. There's a town forbidden to learn history, and some new folks arrive. This sounds like the kind of bananas culty cloistered culture I'm into (eg Anathem), but in practice everything felt both artificial and not nearly weird enough. I felt like I was reading a toned-down Lemony Snicket novel for adults.

Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith. Two men fall in together on a train, and one proposes they each perform a useful murder for the other. I loved The Price of Salt, but this is a meaner novel, about two characters hopelessly, miserably, self-indulgently mired in their own perspectives. I didn't like how one-sided the whole thing was, with the one guy basically blackmailing the other into doing a reciprocal murder, and somehow once he's done it, you're only drowning even more in his self-centered misery. The weird thing is I kept being reminded of The Secret History and the aftermath of its central murder, but somehow I loved that book and found this one continually repellent. I stopped sixty pages from the end, and I should have stopped way sooner.

Penhallow by Georgette Heyer. The terrible family patriarch is murdered, or so the back cover promised, but I was halfway into this 500+ page novel and he hadn't even died yet. I gather from discussions that this is more of a literary novel than a murder mystery as such and that it gets really dark. I was enjoying it okay when I was reading it, but I took a break for Yuletide, and a month later I just don't care to continue. I still want to try one of her frothier detective novels, though.

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videogamefanworks is the place to post the following, for any video game or visual novel:
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story out!

Snowflake Challenges 4 & 5

IVD 2025 Volunteer Q&A—Translation Spotlight

Translation Committee Specific Question

General Questions

(no subject)

Currently.

Mapped: The Average Annual Temperature of Every Country

Mapped: Average Annual Temperature by Country

Key Takeaways

Africa Is Home to the World’s Hottest Countries

Tropical Islands and the Middle East Follow Closely

Cold Extremes Concentrated at High Latitudes

Learn More on the Voronoi App

Skye

Weekly Chat

Purimgifts assignments had been SENT!

(no subject)

Just One Thing (10 January 2026)

More names from Freeman Wills Crofts novels

Otter's Contemplative Portrait

snowflake challenge 2026 - day 3

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Modao Zushi

(no subject)

Podcast Friday: Viktor Orban

books I have DNFed

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