some good things

Oct. 18th, 2025 11:36 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett
  1. Spontaneous(ish) brunch at the localish Gail's, in that it's a thing I have been meaning to do for A While and the weather will shortly be getting cold enough (and likely damp enough) that their outside seating loses its appeal. Underwhelming hot chocolate but I really liked the sesame-cardamom bun -- think Kardemummebullar With Bonus Sesame; I got the last one and it was way better than I was expecting. (Millennial Avocado Toast also tasty.)
  2. Successfully acquired Discount Bread from the supermarket this evening, for the purpose of tomorrow's dinner (a recipe from Salt Fat Acid Heat which will use the cavolo nero from the fridge + some of the Seasonal Squash in a panzanella).
  3. And I was nearly back to baseline on the walk home from same, which is a very welcome development (I have been Lingeringly Ill for the last four weeks).
  4. Successfully read a chapter of The Old Guard comic (on loan from library) on my laptop as a Shared Activity. Consequently we are about a fifth of the way through. I prefer the film.
  5. I think the chilli plant I lost track of the label for might plausibly, finally, be a Trinidad Perfume??? Fingers crossed for it managing to usefully set fruit (and I really do need to bring All the chillis in from the greenhouse...)
  6. I am listening to Cornish waves while I get ready for bed. Is good. <3

a comic exists

Oct. 18th, 2025 01:01 pm
yhlee: a stylized fox's head and the Roman numeral IX (nine / 9) (hxx ninefox)
[personal profile] yhlee
Proof copies.

Candle Arc #1 comic proof copies

Meanwhile, I've obtained a secondhand wide-format color printer locally so we'll see how setup goes.

ETA: Wide-format printer (up to 13"x19") is go! (See comments for test printouts.) I'm currently (still) setting up via Ka-Blam + Indyplanet for print on demand because I refuse to deal with fulfillment because my health is f*cked, but for DIY home zines + comics for friends & family or or prototypes or for selling locally, this should be more than sufficient.
oursin: Cod with aghast expression (kepler codfish)
[personal profile] oursin

When I glanced through Mr J Jones' review here of Sami artist Máret Ánne Sara’s Turbine Hall installation (spoiler alert: he did not like it), my thought was, there is no point in asking Mr Jones for an opinion on anything which does not feature nekkid laydeez, because I can remember him being snotty about a Barbara Hepworth exhibition. (And we are not that keen on his opinion on the nl's, either.)

Anyway, two correspondents take to the letters column to have a go at him:

completely misses the point. The land the Sámi live in is “quite big”, just as the Turbine Hall is in Jones’s words, but the Sámi do not take over the entirety of their landscape. They live within it. The “fort” is not a place to “hide”. That is a city-boy reading rather than a deeper understanding of the ancient methods that Sámi families use for herding reindeer in the vastness of their lands, combined with the political realities that surround them. Jones is too close to playgrounds and not close enough to the realities of the Sámi and northern political history.
***
I was appalled by Jonathan Jones’s review.... There is something incredibly unique and, in the end, pristine about existence in these Nordic villages. Maybe it is the ultimate quiet that falls upon the forests at times. Everyday life is not silent, but the forest silence after a day’s work is peace. Is art not art unless it includes some gore, an exhibit of violence? The artist has captured the ordered existence necessary for survival in harsh conditions and the peace that comes from living with nature rather than against it.

james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Seven books new to me. Well, six and one replacement. Four fantasy, one historical, one horror, one science fiction. Two appear to be part of series.

Books Received, October 11 to October 17


Poll #33737 Books Received, October 11 to October 17
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 30


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

Boys With Sharp Teeth by Jenni Howell (July 2026)
3 (10.0%)

Behind Five Willows by June Hur (May 2026)
11 (36.7%)

Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher (August 2026)
19 (63.3%)

Heir of Storms by Lauryn Hamilton Murray (June 2026)
1 (3.3%)

City of Others by Jaren Poon (January 2026)
14 (46.7%)

Starry Messenger: The Best of Galileo edited by Charles C. Ryan (November 1979)
6 (20.0%)

How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days by Jessie Sylva (January 2026)
11 (36.7%)

Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

Cats!
19 (63.3%)

Just One Thing (18 October 2025)

Oct. 18th, 2025 01:31 pm
nanila: me (Default)
[personal profile] nanila posting in [community profile] 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!

(no subject)

Oct. 18th, 2025 12:32 pm
oursin: Brush the Wandering Hedgehog by the fire (Default)
[personal profile] oursin
Happy birthday, [personal profile] tavian!

Interesting Links for 18-10-2025

Oct. 18th, 2025 12:00 pm

in the air

Oct. 18th, 2025 12:37 am
house_wren: glass birdie (Default)
[personal profile] house_wren
Yesterday a flock of starlings filled the trees at the edge of the gravel road. The most amazing and wonderful thing was the pointillistic sound - pops, squeaks, twitters. It was mechanical, as if there was metal involved. Then a car came down the road and the birds lifted out of the trees and swirled around for a while before returning.

Today I went to the local yarn shop, forgetting that their staff are not into helping the customer. Also, almost every time I've been, they criticize a choice I'm making. Once it was that what I wanted was not ecological enough and ironically, another time it was because I didn't want to use superwash wool. Huh. I may just order yarn from Schoolhouse Press instead.

The lilacs are still suffering damage from an insect. They are blooming, and have small, sad clusters of flowers. The leaves have withered and fallen. I haven't seen one healthy lilac this year.

The tall grass in the prairie around the house is noisy when the wind blows.

Write Every Day: Day 18

Oct. 18th, 2025 05:51 pm
china_shop: Guo Changcheng writing in his notebook (Guardian - rookie taking notes)
[personal profile] china_shop
"I used to wonder if it wouldn't be better just to haul off and quit hoping. Just protect my own inner brain, my own mind and heart, by drawing it up into a hard knot, and not having any more hopes or dreams at all. Pull in my feelings, and call back all of my sentiments... and, yet … the pleasures, and the displeasures, the good times and the bad, are really all there is to me.

[They] are the yeast that always starts working in your mind again... and then, all at once, no matter what has happened to you, you are building a brand new world again, based and built on the mistakes, the wreck, the hard luck and trouble of the old one."

– Woody Guthrie, in A Race Of Singers by Bryan K Garman

My day 18: My routine falls apart at the weekend (which is fine). I wrote a short meta post for [community profile] sid_guardian and left a meta comment on it. That'll do. Having a quiet night tonight, too.

The tally
Day 16: [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] cmk418, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] trobadora

Day 17: [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] cmk418, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] goddess47, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] trobadora

When you check in, please say what day(s) you’re checking in for. You can join in or take a break at any time; you’re always welcome back. And please let me know if I’ve missed you.

First date

Oct. 17th, 2025 11:10 pm
[personal profile] cosmolinguist

A couple weeks after Gary died, back when I still looked at Facebook (I gave it up early this year), I got a Facebook ad for Borrow My Doggy. I told V it's like tinder for dogs) and they were like "oh that might be a good idea actually" so I've signed up.

Filling in the profile was kinda funny: since I was doing it on behalf of all of us, I felt like I was saying "hey, my metamour and our boyfriend and I saw you from across the dog park and we like your vibe..."

Like I understand dating apps for humans to work, results have varied. One person ghosted on us once we got to the details of where we live and stuff, one person's timing wasn't good (my professed ability to host was stymied by the request coming only a couple weeks after Mr. Smith joined the household which was deemed too much for the little blind cat so soon after his second move this year).

Someone great got in touch -- a couple that were moving to the area and both they and their dogs needed friends; they described the dogs as possibly a little bit of a handful but it sounded like, uh, a walk in the park after the intensity we'd gone through in the last couple years of being Gary's humans. Still I much prefer owners who go "my dog(s) can be a lot, it's fine if you don't want that inflicted on you!" and it ends up feeling like a little bit of an exaggeration...rather than vice versa: the ones who tell you "my dog is so perfect and he's never misbehaved" and then the dog is an ill-trained nightmare.

I assured them that we'd be there whenever they'd gotten moved and settled in and whatnot. And then I didn't hear for a few months and I forgot. Until the other day, the person got back in touch full of apologies for how long it had taken. Which is fine of course, we're still here and life is a lot and I was still delighted to meet her and her dogs.

And we arranged a date! Today after work V and I met her and her dogs at the park nearest us and it was brilliant. The dogs, standard wire-haired dachshunds Rufus and Coco, were so fun and their human was full of the kind of details I'd have offered so of course I think this is what conscientious owners should do, heh: how to manage their weaknesses (they get very excited about squirrels) and enjoy their strengths (Rufus loves everyone and he also loves treats). Coco isn't allowed off-lead right now because of recent Naughtiness; Rufus is better from an operation on his spine but not as spritely as he was before. She and her partner haven't been going out a lot since they moved here because they don't like to leave the dogs on their own for that long even though she knows the dogs are fine and I could tell her I was exactly the same with Gary. (There was a lot of "we were like that with Gary" -- but not as much as there was "oh Gary was way worse.")

We had a great time, and I'm sad D wasn't well enough to join us but I want there to be more visits. It made my heart feel full in a way I haven't been able to access in the last ten months. Dogs are so good.

By the time we got home, I already had a new message:

Hey thanks so much for coming to meet us. You were a big hit! Just message me if you want to meet again. As I said though, no pressure whatsoever.

Bless her, we were so effusive with praise for her and both dogs, and she's still like "it's fine if you cannot face these nightmares again."

did some errands

Oct. 17th, 2025 10:53 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett

Debit card in amended name theoretically on its way to me. Two sets of Objects belonging to Players are now OUT OF MY HOUSE and IN THE HANDS OF ROYAL MAIL. And on the way back up the hill, when I was in less of a hurry, I paused to Observe Some Plants.

Ergo: Some Plants.

grey brick container merging seamlessly with floor, dark green hebe, firey autumnal decorative maple

spiralsheep: Sheep wearing an eyepatch (Default)
[personal profile] spiralsheep
My answers to this week's Friday Five don't feel enough for a post, but three things proverbially do make a post so...

- Current reading quote i: "There was no burial save in the ruins of the houses, or in the bellies of the beasts and birds."

- Eat all the things! I saw a Strawberry Tree, Arbutus unedo, in fruit while I was out for my daily constitutional so I ate one of the red spiky-but-soft fruits but "I only ate one" as is reputedly traditional. It was sweet with a mild flavour and a creamy + grainy texture. The fruit bruises easily enough not to be worth collecting except for preserves or same day stewing (although I don't know how that would turn out - possibly good for a crumble because of the texture unless the pippy bits soften when stewed?). The local birds, who appear to be spoiled for choice, have left the fruit alone even after it dropped, which made me double check for edibility before I tried it. 8/10 would eat again, but only one.... Feeling MOLTO ITALIANO now, obv. Or possibly Spanish: it me. ;-)

- Current reading quote ii: "When we ride to the Fairgreen on the Friday evening led by My Lord Whipman, we ride with ghosts beside us."

- This week's Friday Five is stalking you on LJ / DW !!1!! )
[syndicated profile] lemire_feed

Posted by Daniel Lemire

Many view scientific research as a public good. I consider this naive and indefensible. Scientific progress hinges on people and culture, not on research results as public goods.
What do they mean by a public good? A public good is non-excludable: Once a scientific discovery is made anyone can access it at low cost.
If true, why bother innovating? Just wait and adopt others’ discoveries.
History tells us that it does not work. The British Empire’s technological edge took decades for others to match, despite eventual diffusion—at great cost.
Consider the most significant advance of the last 20 years: large language models (LLMs). Papers, code, and breakthroughs are freely available online.
Yet firms like OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI pay millions in salaries to top talent. Why? Can’t others just study the papers and replicate?
Most organizations and countries can’t capture this “new knowledge.” Europe lacks an OpenAI equivalent for a reason.
Knowledge is not a fluid, infinitely replicable like Jesus’s loaves.
Scientific progress as cultural evolution. Adopting discoveries requires cultural updates—and it is far from easy. Einstein’s papers are public, yet reading them won’t make you Einstein. He wasn’t a public good; he thrived in a specific culture. It’s unclear if he’d fit in today’s universities.
We defend government funded research, often claiming markets can’t price public goods. But markets price large language models effectively now. Innovators capture only a fraction of the value, but resources do flow to productive entities regardless of credit.
In fact, I believe that the current relative scientific stagnation stems from government intervention. Pre-1970s laissez-faire policies served scientific progress better.
But even if you disagree, please do not spread the naive view that knowledge and scientific progress are public goods. It is not. It is very much a private good as it is a cultural artefact. It is all about people, specific people, and how they think. Cultural artefacts can and will spread, obviously, but there is nothing free about it. And will definitively not spread equally everywhere.

Random Neolithic Stones on a Friday

Oct. 17th, 2025 07:29 pm
purplecat: Averbury Stone Circle.  A large stone close by and smaller markers leading away. (General:Prehistory)
[personal profile] purplecat

Me, taking a selfie with a large stone at my back.
Avebury (not that you could tell)

Round 180 Theme Poll

Oct. 17th, 2025 09:50 am
runpunkrun: combat boot, pizza, camo pants = punk  (punk rock girl)
[personal profile] runpunkrun posting in [community profile] fancake
Poll #33735 round 180 theme poll
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 80

Pick the next theme of fancake:

Mystery & Suspense
36 (45.0%)

Protest & Revolt
25 (31.2%)

Whump
19 (23.8%)

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Oct. 19th, 2025 12:29 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios