conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
Black and white and so friendly and tiny, too. Definitely not a feral!

******************


Read more... )

Creators Revealed

21 Sep 2025 20:00
justmarriedmod: (Default)
[personal profile] justmarriedmod in [community profile] justmarriedexchange
Creators for Just Married 2025 have been revealed! Many thanks to all of this year's participants, with special thanks again to our wonderful pinch hitters. We couldn't have done it without you!

If you have feedback for the exchange, you can e-mail marriageex@gmail.com or comment on this post.

Hope to see you again at next year's weddings!

(no subject)

20 Sep 2025 20:37
shadowkat: (Default)
[personal profile] shadowkat
Called in sick on Friday - and for the most part stayed off the computer, and just watched television and dozed. wrestling with vertigo and loss of balance - most likely due to allergies and sinus issues, also caffeine withdrawl )
***

Question a Day Memage - September continued:

[As an aside - there's an interesting spelling difference between British English and American English. In British English they use "u" in words ending with or. Examples include favourite vs. favorite, colour vs. color, or colouring vs. coloring, flavour vs. flavor. I pick up on it partly because spellcheck on my computer is US, and the meme is British spelling.
I remember when I sent the book I published to an editor - he told that I was using a lot of British spellings for things, which I didn't catch because I was busy interacting online with a people who lived in the UK and were utilizing those spellings. I wonder about that difference. And others. And what is the origin of the difference - when did the American version split off? And why? I'm not a linguist so I wouldn't know.]

18. Did you have colouring books as a child? Have you tried any adult colouring books?

Yes. I didn't like them and drew, doodled, and colored outside the lines.

19. Are you adventurous with your menus, or do you stick to tried and tested ideas for meals?

I play around. I also get into routines. I am not good with a lot of left-overs. I can't prepare food for a week and eat it. My stomach is picky and I have scant storage space. (Small one bedroom apartment, with a refrigerator and small freezer). But I'd say I'm adventurous and I like to experiment - to the degree in which my body can handle it? Which unfortunately is insanely limited. Celiac tends to branch into other food sensitivities, if caught later in life.


20. Do you have a favourite quiz show that you regularly watch on TV?

I'll watch Jeopardy every once and a while.

21. How is Autumn treating you? What’s the weather like?

The weather is beautiful and mild. Feels like early spring, actually. 60s and 70s, occasional 80 degree day, sometimes 59 degrees.

Sunny. Not a lot of rain. Still see flowers, and all the trees are green and fully leaved.

I've been having issues with allergies, sleeplessness, back/leg pain, depression, and digestive issues - so I have been ill. And trying to figure it out.

Feeling a little better right now. Hence this post. Best I've felt in the last four days at least. Not stellar but better.

Culinary

21 Sep 2025 19:46
oursin: Frontispiece from C17th household manual (Accomplisht Lady)
[personal profile] oursin

Last week's bread became really, really, dry, so I made a loaf of Shipton Mill Three Malts and Sunflower Organic Brown Flour: very nice.

Friday night supper: the ersatz Thai fried rice with red bell pepper, chorizo and salsiccon salami.

Saturday breakfast rolls: basic buttermilk, 3:1 strong white/rye flour, turned out very well.

Today's lunch: lemon sole fillets, which I cooked more or less as for the whole soles here - slightly shorter time and lower oven temperature, also sploshed a little wine in; served with La Ratte potatoes roasted in beef dripping, spinach according to recipe in Dharamjit Singh's Indian Cookery, and warm green bean and fennel salad (I included a little chopped red onion as there was one left over from last week as well as the fennel, and added additional tarragon to the dressing).

RIP: Bernie Parent

21 Sep 2025 14:32
dewline: A marker of my age and my sports interest (hockey)
[personal profile] dewline
Another piece of my childhood sports-watching life gone...

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/bernie-parent-obit-1.7639630

(no subject)

21 Sep 2025 14:14
maju: Clean my kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] maju
I left my daughter's just after 6:30 am and arrived home just after 1 pm after a mostly smooth trip. (My travel time included a short detour to the post office to clear my jammed mail box.) There was some very heavy and slow moving traffic getting onto I-495 (the DC beltway) from I-95, but once I was on the beltway the traffic was moving well. Actually there was quite heavy traffic all the way from some miles east of Baltimore, but it was moving quickly until almost to DC. I stopped three times, one time for an unplanned restroom stop. After that I was thinking of driving the final two+ hours without stopping, but I thought it would be prudent to stop and have something to eat at the final service plaza on my route which is about an hour from home in good driving conditions, in case there was very heavy and slow traffic in that last section and I took longer than an hour to do it. I didn't want to be driving tired if that happened.

It was quite cold in Connecticut when I left, about 49F/9C, but it warmed up a few degrees fairly quickly as I moved south. Here it's now about 69F/21C and feels very pleasant. There are a few more signs of autumn colours around here than when I left, but nothing very dramatic yet. I wouldn't expect anything really dramatic for another month or so anyway. However, there were a *lot* of dead leaves on my front path and one of the first things I did was sweep them up so the place wouldn't look so neglected.

I'm feeling somewhat daunted by the task in front of me of preparing to move, but today I'll just be unpacking and resting before starting in earnest tomorrow. So now I'd better go and start unpacking.
thewayne: (Default)
[personal profile] thewayne
I'm just going to copy the Slashdot summary, then comment on it: Fast Company ran a contrarian take about AI from entrepreneur/thought leader Faisal Hoque, who argues there's three AI bubbles.

The first is a classic speculative bubble, with asset prices soaring above their fundamental values (like the 17th century's Dutch "tulip mania"). "The chances of this not being a bubble are between slim and none..."

Second, AI is also arguably in what we might call an infrastructure bubble, with huge amounts being invested in infrastructure without any certainty that it will be used at full capacity in the future. This happened multiple times in the later 1800s, as railroad investors built thousands of miles of unneeded track to serve future demand that never materialized. More recently, it happened in the late '90s with the rollout of huge amount of fiber optic cable in anticipation of internet traffic demand that didn't turn up until decades later. Companies are pouring billions into GPUs, power systems, and cooling infrastructure, betting that demand will eventually justify the capacity. McKinsey analysts talk of a $7 trillion "race to scale data centers" for AI, and just eight projects in 2025 already represent commitments of over $1 trillion in AI infrastructure investment. Will this be like the railroad booms and busts of the late 1800s? It is impossible to say with any kind of certainty, but it is not unreasonable to think so.

Third, AI is certainly in a hype bubble, which is where the promise claimed for a new technology exceeds reality, and the discussion around that technology becomes increasingly detached from likely future outcomes. Remember the hype around NFTs? That was a classic hype bubble. And AI has been in a similar moment for a while. All kinds of media — social, print, and web — are filled with AI-related content, while AI boosterism has been the mood music of the corporate world for the last few years. Meanwhile, a recent MIT study reported that 95% of AI pilot projects fail to generate any returns at all.

But the article ultimately argues there's lessons in the 1990s dotcom boom: that "a thing can be hyped beyond its actual capabilities while still being important... When valuations correct — and they will — the same pattern will emerge: companies that focus on solving real problems with available technology will extract value before, during, and after the crash." The winners will be companies with systematic approaches to extracting value — adopting mixed portfolios with different time horizons and risk levels, while recognizing organizational friction points for a purposeful (and holistic) integration.

"The louder the bubble talk, the more space opens for those willing to take a methodical approach to building value."


The first bubble is obvious. Huge amounts of money is being 'invested' in AI/LLMs and the returns have been dubious and amusing, and sometimes lethal. Children and teens taking their own lives, a formerly well-behaved autistic child becoming violent, etc. The valuation of Tesla going up while its sales sales plunge is always an amusing example. The infrastructure bubble is tragic: coal and offline nuclear power plants are being planned to power data centers exclusively for these things, and along with them are their water requirements. And that is a really big problem with increasing climate change. I read an article that I'll post if I can find it that said that each simple AI query is the equivalent of the use of a small bottle of water. The ecological cost is really quite, quite staggering. The eco cost of bitcoin and its kin is trivial compared to this.

The third bubble is interesting. They've demonstrated that LLMs can do some very cool things when tasked into specific purposes and trained in specific bodies of knowledge, like researching new antibiotics or metal alloys with new properties that are needed.

I think the thing that I'm the most curios about is when the corrections/collapses will start taking place. Considering the valuations involved, the financial quake will make the Dot Com crash look like the merest tremor.

The author, Faisal Hoque, is a lot more optimistic about AI than I. He compares its development to such as Amazon and Google during the Dot Com era of the 90s. They had very long-term development timelines ('Moon Shots') that they were quietly pursuing that achieved their long-term survival. And while not all current AI companies are going to achieve those and remain largely in their current form, some may. He talks about Pets.com burning through $300mil before collapsing, which we now see as a trivially small amount of money in today's tech market.

Curious times. We shall see how things shake out.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91400857/there-isnt-an-ai-bubble-there-are-three-ai-bu

https://slashdot.org/story/25/09/20/1847246/there-isnt-an-ai-bubble---there-are-three

Photo cross-post

21 Sep 2025 10:25
andrewducker: (Default)
[personal profile] andrewducker


We went up the hill. There were roses. Nobody knows why. Gideon has theories involving dead people.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

Saturday at Capclave

21 Sep 2025 10:25
lydamorehouse: (Default)
[personal profile] lydamorehouse
Perhaps I should have taken the fact that the hotel's Starbucks' espresso maker was broken Saturday morning as an omen for the rest of my day. I was able to get caffeine by running across Rockville Pike to the Chateau again, but it was a very “??” and “!!” start to the day.

Naomi and I were both on a panel at 10:00 am entitled “Benevolent AIs. The moderator, Wendy Delmater Theis (formerly of Abyss & Apex), went down the row and introduced herself before the panel, which was fine. She asked everyone who they were and seemed very confused by my general existence. I’m not sure if it was the horror of, “Oh no, a name I don’t know how to pronounce?” or (something I’ve been getting on and off here, which is) "... and you are?”

I am admittedly sensitive to the latter. Much more than when someone flubs my name. It’s not a real microaggression against me when someone isn’t sure if my name is LIE-duh or LEE-duh or ends up calling me Lynda or Lydia. I’m a white lady. You mispronouncing my name is not a reflection on how you feel about my ethnicity or my heritage. It’s annoying to me when fear of mispronouncing my names stops people from calling on me on a panel or saying, “You, the end,” rather than trying and failing to say LIE-duh. But, like, it's just something I live with. 

However, the whole long stare of ‘hmmm, you have said you are an author, but clearly you are one I have not heard of. Whelp, I guess that means you’re not important” is something that feels much more like a microagression of a sort. I’ve been slowly getting used to it happening. It was always a crapshoot outside of my regional conventions if anyone had heard of me, and this has only increased as time wears on.

But, while I did get ‘the long stare’ and the ‘uh, YOU, at the end’ from our moderator, that wasn’t the real problem with this panel.

First, as expected with a panel about AI, it was somewhat unclear if we’d be talking about LLM and other so-called AI, like ChatGPT, that are operating in the real world as we know it right now or if we’d be talking about fictional versions. The panel description didn’t actually help. Neither did the moderator. Worse, she was one of those moderators that really just wanted to be the one talking. She’d pose questions, let us throw out a couple examples--scold us if we were not precisely on the format she set out (film, TV, books, series) and… I don’t really know because at some point my soul left my body after she shut down Naomi for starting to talk about the AIs in Murderbot Diaries (ART and Mickey) because those were AIs from a book series, not standalones and we were on standalones. Like, wow. We were in the book category why the distinction and is it really something to get cranky about? Whatever. I checked out.

It wasn’t bad in the “someone brought up Hilter” kind of bad (that would be my next panel-panel) but more a “WTF was that?”

Next up wasn’t exactly a panel, it was me interviewing Naomi. And this went fine--quite well, actually.

Scott Edelman, who published my first professionally published short story (in SF Age back in the 90s), chatted with me in the hall for a long time before the interview. We were waiting for Naomi to get out of the panel she was on and just sat on the hallway couch chatting about this and that. Scott did a lot for my ego by apologizing for not knowing that I was going to be at this convention as he would have had me guest on “Eating the Fantastic,” as well. (This is the podcast where he interviews writers over meals that I linked to in yesterday's post). He noted that couldn’t just slot me in because he reads everything the author has written in preparation and, I don’t know if you know this, gentle reader, but I’ve written and published sixteen novels. That would be a lot to just read in a matter of hours. And maybe he was lying, but 1) I don’t think so. He genuinely seemed to remember me. And 2) even if he was, it was a nice thing to say.

The interview was great. Naomi is easy for me to talk to, of course. We’ve been friends for decades.

At some point there was a run to get sandwiches for lunch at the local grocery store and.... then came the panel from hell.

I seem to have been cursed with moderators who really had points they wanted to make on Saturday. This panel was called “For the Love of Evil” and, ostensibly, was about villains we should hate, but secretly love (or perhaps that we love to hate.) I had a nice little list of names like Killmonger, Moriarty from Sherlock, (Milton’s Satan?), and Loki. Things started off well because Capclave is an East Coast con and East Coast cons have the culture of “list all your books and awards” and so I got a big laugh when I noted that ,when I won the Philip K Dick Special Citation for Excellence, I sent out a press release that said, “Lesbian wins Second Place Dick” (which I really did!) But, as things turned out, that might have been the high point of the panel?

Things went along for a while pretty well, but then for reasons known only to our mod, Larry Hodges, he decided that he needed to monologue about how various real life villains mapped to fictitious ones. This was already a bad idea because he was talking about Stalin and Mussolini (neither of which he could pronounce) and... of course, we could see where this was going.

Inexorably, he gets to Hitler, whom he likens to Thanos because “he thought he was doing what was right for the world.”

The author next to me, Diana Peterfreund, dropped her head to the table.

I full-body disassociated.

For me, it was a kind of decision paralysis. I was torn between grabbing the mic and just saying “no, no, no” until Larry stopped talking or faking my own death/dropping the the floor and marine crawling out the door.

Meanwhile, of course, Larry is still making his case that Hilter was just trying to right the wrongs of the world (in his own head, like how a villain thinks he’s a hero, but still, Larry, there’s no justifying this, so please just STOP.) But he didn’t stop, he kept talking, and so thank GOD for Diana who finally does manage to grab the mike and say, “SO! Change of subject, Loki sure is hot!” This allows me to finally return to my body and I grab my mike and say, “So hot!” We go back and forth like this until the bad feelings go away.

Why do people feel the need to EVER bring up Hilter? I feel like unless you're comparing the current presidential administration to the Third Reich, just don't. 

Anyway, Loki is not exactly what we talked about--Diana managed to be far more articulate, but I no longer remember anything other than SOMEHOW we managed to literally wrestle the panel back to something akin to squee about villains. And when I say “we,” I mean Diana, with some support from me. The panel was saved. It even, miraculously, snaps back to true and we end with some nice questions from the audience which aren’t just “WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST WITNESS?”

I did have some great things happen on Saturday, like the chat with Scott E. and running into some other folks I know like Carolyn Ives Gilman and Walter Hunt. I was the “comealong friend” to Naomi’s Scintilation Discord group dinner, which was delightful. Then, just before retiring upstairs, I watched the WSFA award ceremony which was nice in the classic small con award way, even though Marissa Lingen didn’t win.

No further mishaps.

But, the ones I had? Doozies.

Thanks to all the trauma, I retired early last night. As noted previously, I just don't really function all that well in social situations after dark any more. Naomi was apparently out until quite late. I woke up long enough last night to have a nice chat with her about it all (and catch her up on all my trauma). 

This morning we'd been invited to breakfast with Joe and Gay Haldeman at 9 am. The two of them are, of course, quite wonderful so we had a lovely time talking to them both for several hours over eggs and toast.

Today things wrap up in the early afternoon, so I've been put in charge of finding something fun for us to do this evening. Tomorrow we're still in DC for some sightseeing, and then it's home Tuesday afternoon.

(no subject)

20 Sep 2025 20:58
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly


The camera angles work really hard to make the dogs look vicious and dangerous, but they can't fool me! Those are some happy, friendly puppers!
hamsterwoman: (Taskmaster -- Munya)
[personal profile] hamsterwoman
Taskmaster s20e02 -- More, with spoilers )

Ania was apparently doing doodles in the downtime between tasks, and has doodled all of her tasks and the various in-studio tasks. She has been sharing these on her Insta, and they are also being linked to on Reddit: episode 1 and episode 2 so far.

I think I'm going to just finish TMNZ s6 after the current main TM series wraps up, like I did last time. 3 TM episodes + 1 rewatch with [personal profile] lunasariel proved a bit much outside of bingeing mode. I know who won TMNZ, and that also made me less excited to finish it, so it'll keep, and make the wait for the next thing (NYT, presumably, although according to people who went to s21 studio recordings this past week, CoC 4 is going to be filming studio in November, so that's probably also coming soon).

*

And finally, let me finish up the Worldcon write-up before I embark on the next set of adventures.

Earlier parts are here:
- part 1: Tues/Wed,
- part 2: Thursday
- part 3: first part of Friday
- part 4: rest of Friday, first part of Saturday (Ada Palmer motherlode)
- part 5: Saturday, Hugo awards and related thoughts

Sunday, Aug 17: panels and Dealer Room )

And that was the last of my panels for Worldcon -- and also the last of ALL panels for Worldcon, because I certainly got my membership's worth of panels :D

Dinner with queenlua )
Hotel and Monday morning flight )

A few final photos )

So, yay, a very successful Worldcon, despite the bonus Covid infection. No regrets on any panels or events I attended, just low-key frustration with not being able to be in two places at once, and warm "next time" feelings about hanging out with [personal profile] tabacoychanel in person for the first time, Doing a Con as part of a group that was living together, and getting to see/chat with authors/people whose stuff I didn't make it to.

Seriously tempted to do it again next year in LA...
pumpkinkingmod: (pic#8274963)
[personal profile] pumpkinkingmod in [community profile] trickortreatex
Assignments have been assigned! Find yours at the email address associated with your AO3 account. Alternatively, you can find it under the "Assignments" tab on the sidebar of your AO3 profile.

If you linked an unfinished letter, please try to complete and/or unlock it as soon as possible.

If your recip's letter is incomplete or locked, please wait to contact me about it until after Sept 27. (Or just work from the signup details.)

Assignments are due October 24, 23:59 UTC. Please note that there will be no extensions.

Initial Pinch Hits

To claim, please comment on this post with your AO3 name and the number or name of the pinch hit you would like. Comments are screened. Pinch hits are first-come, first-serve, and if you're the first to claim, you'll receive the assignment to your email.

You don't have to be signed up to Trick or Treat to claim a pinch hit.

These are due at the regular assignment deadline, October 24, 23:59 UTC.

PH #1 (all_ashes):
  • A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Don Giovanni - Mozart/Da Ponte, House of the Dragon (TV), The Decameron (TV)
  • https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/trickortreatex2025/user/all_ashes

    PH #5 (facethestrange):
  • 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018) RPF, 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018), 镇魂 | Guardian - priest, Crossover Fandom
  • https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/trickortreatex2025/user/facethestrange

    PH #6 (firsttraintovictoriaville):
  • Roots of Pacha (Video Game), The White Stripes, Pathfinder: Kingmaker (Video Game), Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop - Hwang Bo-reum
  • https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/trickortreatex2025/user/firsttraintovictoriaville

    PH #10 (MxKit):
  • Happy Halloween Scooby-Doo! (2020), The Nameless Game (Gameverse), The Spectacular Spider-Man (Cartoon)
  • https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/trickortreatex2025/user/MxKit

    PH #13 (plicate):
  • Head On (1998), Set It Off (1996), Succession (TV 2018)
  • https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/trickortreatex2025/user/plicate

    PH #14 (psychomachia):
  • Blood Son - Richard Matheson, The Devil You Say - Charles Beaumont, Blood Creek (2009), The Lawnmower Man (1992), The Fall of the House of Usher (TV 2023), The Sinner (TV)
  • https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/trickortreatex2025/user/psychomachia

    PH #15 (redgear):
  • Hallo itt Mátyás király! - Bogáti Péter, 15th Century CE RPF, Debrief (Paracelsus Games Roleplaying Game), Felvidek (Video Game), Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula (2000)
  • https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/trickortreatex2025/user/redgear

    PH #16 (rubylily):
  • Code Vein (Video Game), 神さまのいない日曜日 | Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi | Sunday Without God (Anime & Manga), Märchen Forest: Mylne and the Forest Gift (Video Game), Octopath Traveler (Video Game), Octopath Traveler II (Video Game), 刀使ノ巫女 | Toji no Miko | Katana Maidens (Anime), void tRrLM(); //Void Terrarium (Video Game), Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Video Game)
  • https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/trickortreatex2025/user/rubylily

    PH #18 (UnhinderedDreams):
  • Crossover Fandom, The Black Dagger Brotherhood (TV), Buffyverse (TV), I Kissed A Vampire (2010), Nocturnal Animals (2016), The Vampire Diaries (TV)
  • https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/trickortreatex2025/user/UnhinderedDreams

    PH #20 (wherewolf):
  • Dimension 20: Fantasy High, Do Revenge (2022), ウマ娘 プリティーダービー | Uma Musume: Pretty Derby (Video Game)
  • https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/trickortreatex2025/user/wherewolf

    PH #21 (ambiguously):
  • Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV), Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: Resistance (Cartoon), Crossover Fandom, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew (TV)
  • https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/trickortreatex2025/user/ambiguously
  • To claim PH21, please comment logged-in or email halloweenmod@gmx.com

    claimed! )
  • (no subject)

    20 Sep 2025 12:56
    maju: Clean my kitchen (Default)
    [personal profile] maju
    It's my last day here (for now). I've stuffed as much as I can into my suitcase, and all the last minute stuff will go into a smaller duffel bag tomorrow morning.

    The girls have gone to a birthday party so all is quiet here for a while. The party is for a little girl a few houses away who I think is turning 7, but she's friends with all the girls so they are all at the party. It's lucky she lives so close, because everybody thought the party was starting at 12 but then at about 11:30 their mother checked and discovered it started at 11. Luckily they were all already dressed for the party (and had been for at least an hour) but there was a mad scramble to get shoes on and get out the door.

    Touching grass

    20 Sep 2025 17:14
    oursin: Fotherington-Tomas from the Molesworth books saying Hello clouds hello aky (Hello clouds hello sky)
    [personal profile] oursin

    I was intending posting a link to a really depressing article in Guardian Saturday about an awful trolling site and the people who seem to have nothing to do but troll on it: but it's not currently online, you are spared.

    I was thinking about such people, who seemed to be spending hours of their lives being horrible about other people and trying to dig up dirt on them, did they not have lives? could they not be doing something else?

    Like, you know, bringing ghost ponds back to life: An expert team are resurrecting ice age ponds and finding rare species returning from a ‘perfect time capsule’:

    The two ponds returning on farmland are the 25th and 26th ice age ponds to be restored by Sayer’s team of academics, volunteers and an enthusiastic digger driver in the Brecks, a hotspot for ancient ponds and “pingos” formed by ice-melt 10,000 years ago. Over the past two centuries, thousands of such ponds have been filled in as land was drained and “improved” for crops. So far, most of the 26 ponds have been revived on land bought by Norfolk Wildlife Trust, which has supported the restoration effort with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Brecks Fen Edge and Rivers landscape partnership scheme.
    But the latest two ponds have been dug out thanks to a Norfolk farmer, who is one of an increasing number of private landowners reviving ghost and “zombie” ponds. New surveys by Sayer’s team have revealed that 22 of the ghost ponds restored since 2022 now support 136 species of wetland plant. This represents 70% of the wetland flora found in more than 400 ponds on Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Thompson Common, an internationally important nature reserve whose ponds have survived since the ice age.

    Admittedly this is not quite the sort of thing that I am up for myself, but this other thing struck rather a chord:

    The Hunt: Friction to feel. which is about the culture of searching for music before it was (theoretically) All Online:

    The hunt is built upon friction. Friction is good. Friction is healthy. Friction develops adaptation. The hunt is also born of curiosity. The desire to seek and discover something you don’t know, and might never know. In the pursuit of knowledge and experience, you teach yourself about empathy, other perspectives, and mold a person who is resilient and grateful. We lost something along the way in pursuit of efficiency and this idea of saving time for productivity.

    It certainly resonates with my own days of book-hunting, and these are not, in fact, past. Was having a discussion the other day in another venue about books (not even terribly Old Books) that we longed to see republished and available at prices less than £££/$$$.

    And, of course, as I am occasionally moved to point out on The Soshul Meedjas, most archives are not digitised and online (and mutter mutter a significant % of the ones that are were digitised by proprietary bodies and paywalled), and finding them can still involve Expotitions.

    In 1939...

    20 Sep 2025 08:47
    thewayne: (Default)
    [personal profile] thewayne
    "Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels today ended the professional careers of five 'Aryan' actors and cabaret announcers by expelling them from the Reich's Chamber of Culture on the grounds that 'in their public appearances they displayed a lack of any positive attitude toward National Socialism and therewith caused grave annoyance in public and especially to party comrades.'"
    -- New York Times, Feb. 3, 1939


    A friend of mine sent me a copy from the archive. Fun times, eh?

    profile

    karmicdragonfly: (Default)
    karmicdragonfly

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