purplecat (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
purplecat) wrote2025-08-09 12:20 pm
purplecat) wrote2025-08-09 12:20 pm
kaberett (kaberett) wrote2025-08-08 11:58 pm
kaberett) wrote2025-08-08 11:58 pmvictory of the day
Today I have got Somewhat Caught Up on last event's lost property Situation. My GREAT TRIUMPH was, partway through the paperwork, going "... I'm sure that brooch in particular is... Oddly... Familiar..."
-- and indeed upon going back through my records it transpires that I HAD RETURNED IT TO ITS PERSON AT THE FIRST EVENT THIS YEAR.
So my spreadsheet is duly updated and they can have it back again at the last event of the year :)
(Some other victories: cut-price overripe strawberries. More of my mother's birthday cake. Rye and caraway and poppyseed bread. the elderly niter kibbeh in the fridge still being Definitely Food and substantially enlivening dinner. Shitposting in the PD crew Discord. Starting Solutions and Other Problems with A, and the cake, and the strawberries.)
Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (azurelunatic) wrote2025-08-08 03:44 pm
azurelunatic) wrote2025-08-08 03:44 pmDisbelief, suspension thereof / therein
Suspension of disbelief = I will not start verbally poking holes in the physics of this action movie until we are out of the movie theater
Suspension in disbelief = a frozen state of constant WTF
Suspension in disbelief = a frozen state of constant WTF
james_davis_nicoll (james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-08-08 06:21 pm
james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-08-08 06:21 pmSidewise Award Announcement
The Sidewise Award for Alternate History is looking for new judges to join the award committee.
This is the first time in the 30 year history of the award that they've made an open call for awards judges.
Apply here.
This is the first time in the 30 year history of the award that they've made an open call for awards judges.
Apply here.
oursin (oursin) wrote2025-08-08 06:02 pm
oursin) wrote2025-08-08 06:02 pmEntry tags:
I really, really would lay odds it does not say 'it's all more complicated'
People on bluesky have been sending up the claim that GPT-5 boosts ChatGPT can provide PhD-level expertise.
After all, if you ask me for Mi Xpertise, you are likely to get 'it's complic8ed' and your ear bent with perhaps TMI on the subject, and what the areas of uncertainty are.
Do we not think that it would be more like having an overconfident mansplainer in one's pocket?
This led me to the teasing memory of a quotation, which I have tracked down and found has been researched in considerable depth here: Quote Origin: I Wish I Was As Sure of Any One Thing As He is of Everything.
It's fairly reliably attrib. to Lord Melbourne about the historian Thomas Macaulay (not, we fear, a member of the discipline given to declaring IAMC, sigh). Though it's been ascribed to various about various (funnily enough, all blokes) over the years.
james_davis_nicoll (james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-08-08 10:22 am
james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-08-08 10:22 amEntry tags:
Five User-Friendly Rulesets for Tabletop Roleplaying Games
Not every gamer finds joy in wildly complicated, esoteric, hard-to-learn rules...
Five User-Friendly Rulesets for Tabletop Roleplaying Games
james_davis_nicoll (james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-08-08 09:48 am
james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-08-08 09:48 amAurora Award Livestream
Hosted by Mark Leslie Lefebvre and Liz May Anderson.
Sunday August 10 at 5 PM: Livestream broadcast of the 2025 Aurora Awards, Canada’s annual English-language Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards.
james_davis_nicoll (james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-08-08 09:28 am
james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-08-08 09:28 amHearts of Wulin by Joyce Ch'ng & Lowell Francis
Righteous characters pursue great justice in this wuxia TTRPG.
Hearts of Wulin by Joyce Ch'ng & Lowell Francis
radiantfracture (radiantfracture) wrote2025-08-07 08:36 pm
radiantfracture) wrote2025-08-07 08:36 pmMore from Okanagan Backroads Volume One
Old Fairview: White Lake Observatory
Mile 12.1 (4.4) – Half a mile further along, the access to White Lake Observatory turns right. (White Lake itself is the alkali pond opposite the Twin Lakes turnoff.)
Because of their electrical systems, which interfere with the operation of the radio-telescope, cars are not allowed on the road to the radio telescope. The big dish itself towers above the other installations, listening eternally to signals from outer space. The maze of poles and overhead wiring back towards Oliver are another form of radio-telescope, which pick up very long radio waves. The observatory is well worth walking the three-tenths mile; what's happening is completely incomprehensible to the layman, but fascinating nonetheless.
(1975/77)
* * * * * *
This observatory still exists, under the rather grander name of the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory. It is, so the government website tells me, "an internationally renowned facility for radio astronomy and leading-edge instrumentation." Until just now, I had no idea that it existed.
DRAO is still, naturally, a radio-quiet site, which must be more difficult these days than in 1975.
Dave Stewart, author of Okanagan Backroads, is quite right about its fascination. I am absolutely a lay person, and yet statements like this are weirdly thrilling: "The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) is Canada's largest radio telescope. ... CHIME has no moving parts, but the Earth's rotation allows the telescope to map all of Canada's visible sky every day. CHIME was designed to survey atomic hydrogen from the largest volume of the Universe to date." No real idea why that would be important to do (feel free to explain!), but I'm glad it's happening here.
They have a Perseids viewing party next week!
§rf§
Source: https://nrc.canada.ca/en/research-development/nrc-facilities/dominion-radio-astrophysical-observatory-research-facility
Mile 12.1 (4.4) – Half a mile further along, the access to White Lake Observatory turns right. (White Lake itself is the alkali pond opposite the Twin Lakes turnoff.)
Because of their electrical systems, which interfere with the operation of the radio-telescope, cars are not allowed on the road to the radio telescope. The big dish itself towers above the other installations, listening eternally to signals from outer space. The maze of poles and overhead wiring back towards Oliver are another form of radio-telescope, which pick up very long radio waves. The observatory is well worth walking the three-tenths mile; what's happening is completely incomprehensible to the layman, but fascinating nonetheless.
(1975/77)
* * * * * *
This observatory still exists, under the rather grander name of the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory. It is, so the government website tells me, "an internationally renowned facility for radio astronomy and leading-edge instrumentation." Until just now, I had no idea that it existed.
DRAO is still, naturally, a radio-quiet site, which must be more difficult these days than in 1975.
Dave Stewart, author of Okanagan Backroads, is quite right about its fascination. I am absolutely a lay person, and yet statements like this are weirdly thrilling: "The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) is Canada's largest radio telescope. ... CHIME has no moving parts, but the Earth's rotation allows the telescope to map all of Canada's visible sky every day. CHIME was designed to survey atomic hydrogen from the largest volume of the Universe to date." No real idea why that would be important to do (feel free to explain!), but I'm glad it's happening here.
They have a Perseids viewing party next week!
§rf§
Source: https://nrc.canada.ca/en/research-development/nrc-facilities/dominion-radio-astrophysical-observatory-research-facility
james_davis_nicoll (james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-08-07 09:30 pm
james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-08-07 09:30 pmThe Old World Character Generation
More details later but it seems the group is essentially Don Quixote in the form of a Brettonian knight's bastard who has completely bought into chivalric ideals despite the fact no true knight considers him worthy to have such ideals, and an assortment of hangers-on who see him as a meal ticket.
Which is to say, the group is centred on someone who will seek out adventure.
Which is to say, the group is centred on someone who will seek out adventure.
kaberett (kaberett) wrote2025-08-07 11:53 pm
kaberett) wrote2025-08-07 11:53 pmRedactle-related fact of the day
I did not, until a few hours ago, know that diesel was named after Rudolf Diesel, "... who invented the Diesel engine, which burns Diesel fuel".
(Some cheerful things, in brief: turns out shimmer inks really do work better when you thoroughly scrub the feed of your fountain pen clean at least occasionally; I am excited about tomorrow's bread; I was Greatly Honoured by the Toddler in a truly toddleresque fashion the details of which I shall not go into; I have finally got my act together to order a copy of the Roti King cookbook; glorious comfort reread of a thing I'd totally forgotten was even available for comfort reread, and for bonus points there are new bits!!!)
Rachel Coleman (rmc28) wrote2025-08-07 10:27 pm
rmc28) wrote2025-08-07 10:27 pmChoices choices
Work's "Active Staff" programme through the university sports centre is mostly dormant in August, but has just acquired a regular "give it a go" session for women's football on Thursday afternoons. (Hmm, I wonder what recent event might have prompted such a thing ...) Unfortunately this session clashes exactly with my favourite free exercise class, which has just rebranded from "yogalates" to "stretch and relax".
One of these activities will help my knee mobility and one of them is highly likely to mess up my knees further. Much as I want to be as tough as Lucy Bronze, I regretfully skipped the football and stuck with the stretches.
beatrice_otter (beatrice_otter) wrote2025-08-07 09:54 am
beatrice_otter) wrote2025-08-07 09:54 amEntry tags:
Signal Boost: Massachusetts Universal Voting Restoration
hermionesviolin posted: Massachusetts Universal Voting RestorationFor anyone registered to vote in Massachusetts -- you can sign up to get reminded when it's time to officially sign papers to put on the Massachusetts ballot a measure to repeal the Massachusetts constitutional amendment that took the right to vote away from people serving felony sentences.
From an email from Progressive Mass:Unlock Democracy in Massachusetts
In 2000, Massachusetts passed a constitutional amendment that took away voting rights from people incarcerated for a felony conviction. This stripping of rights was in response to political organizing happening in prison. The Empowering Descendant Communities to Unlock Democracy project and allies aim to get voting rights restoration on the statewide ballot. If you are a registered voter in Massachusetts, please take a minute to fill out our pledge form now: https://tinyurl.com/uvrpledge. Once the Attorney General approves the language, organizers will reach out to those who filled out the pledge with dates/locations for nearby signature collection efforts.
The EDC to Unlock Democracy is is committed to ensuring that democracy does not stop at prisons and jails in Massachusetts. It is a collaborative project between the Democracy Behind Bars Coalition, the African American Coalition Committee at MCI-Norfolk, Healing our Land, Inc., and more. To get in touch email EDCtoUnlockDemocracyMA@gmail.com.
turps (turps) wrote2025-08-07 04:48 pm
turps) wrote2025-08-07 04:48 pm(no subject)
I picked up my fruit and veggie box this afternoon, and look ( at the goodies )
I usually pick up from the Re-F-Use café, but this time, with it being a different day, it was a pickup from an address from Durham. It was a quick drive there, but then I stood knocking for ages. Finally messaged the person who runs the collections, and they said to just go down the drive and the boxes were under the car port and I could pick which one I liked the look of. Did that and yeah, there were four boxes to pick from, sheltered nicely out of the sun.
Once I knew what to do, it was so much easier than a café pick up. Now I have an excess of carrots to deal with, and yes, more lemons *g*
I usually pick up from the Re-F-Use café, but this time, with it being a different day, it was a pickup from an address from Durham. It was a quick drive there, but then I stood knocking for ages. Finally messaged the person who runs the collections, and they said to just go down the drive and the boxes were under the car port and I could pick which one I liked the look of. Did that and yeah, there were four boxes to pick from, sheltered nicely out of the sun.
Once I knew what to do, it was so much easier than a café pick up. Now I have an excess of carrots to deal with, and yes, more lemons *g*
oursin (oursin) wrote2025-08-07 02:56 pm
oursin) wrote2025-08-07 02:56 pmEntry tags:
The historical inaccuracy here is at a very high level
Okay, I suppose that maybe the model is 'Disney princess' rather than any princess in history ever, but even then, don't they display a certain degree of agency?
This is A Thing where apparently women display princessiness by performatively giving up agency - sitting in restaurants with castdown eyes being ordered for, not speaking until spoken to - also certain forms of helplessness which suggest they actually need a team of Ladies of the Bedchamber fighting over whose hereditary right it is to put on their stockings and whose to lace their stays....
This boggles the mind of someone raised in an actual monarchy in which there were two princesses around who did not, actually, model docility - I don't think Princess Margaret conceding to the strictures of the day and Giving Up The Man She Loved because he was divorced really qualifies as she'd been going around with him, as far as I can recall WITHOUT A CHAPERONE for some time.
Historian is obliged to point out that for centuries princesses - apart from bearing necessary heirs - quite often had to undertake regnal tasks, either as consort or regent, or at least aid in the general work of Being Royal, even if they did not actually take the throne themselves. Note here conference paper I heard on the preference for female regents in medieval Europe when there was a minor heir.
If you're going to Be a Princess, perhaps do not take Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst as your model, though on another hand, why not? Girl-Bossing It to the Max!
but we commend Princess Sophia Duleep Singh to your attention.
Observe also the daughters of Queen Victoria: e.g. Princess Alice, who married Louis, the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, was known for her commitment to philanthropic work, interested in nursing, met and befriended Florence Nightingale, and also set up military hospitals; Princess Louise who attended the The National Art Training School and designed a full-size statue of her mother as well as a memorial sculpture for the Boer War. No meek sitting about for them.
(I will cop to have read Alot of historical novels in my misspent youth very much contradicting the notion that princessing was sitting still and being silent.)
james_davis_nicoll (james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-08-07 08:47 am
james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-08-07 08:47 amEntry tags:
The Integral Trees (Integral Trees, volume 1) by Larry Niven
Climate change provides a tribal leader a pretext to dispatch his least favourite tribe members on an ill-fated expedition from which none will return.
The Integral Trees (Integral Trees, volume 1) by Larry Niven