Interesting Links for 12-06-2025
Jun. 12th, 2025 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrewducker- 1. EU puts Monaco on money laundering blacklist
- (tags:fraud money Europe )
- 2. Steven Universe Sequel Series Heads to Prime Video
- (tags:TV animation scifi GoodNews )
- 3. Houseplants Do Not Purify the Air
- (tags:air pollution plants )
- 4. Solar Orbiter offers first glimpse of the Sun's poles in breakthrough mission
- (tags:sun astronomy space solarsystem )
- 5. Cthulhu's ABCs: A Heavy Metal Muppet Parody Song about the Alphabet
- (tags:muppets language funny video cthulhu viaKirsty )
- 6. Book burning is a modern free speech test for Labour
- (tags:uk freespeech religion )
Contemplating July activities
Jun. 11th, 2025 11:57 pmsholioAfter a couple of years of really struggling with mood and creativity, between burnout and family issues and god knows what (and I know I've been hard to deal with in fandom, at times), things are suddenly ... good! I can write again, I'm signing up for exchanges, whatever has been blocking me has gotten a whole lot better.
July is my birthday month, therefore Best Month, obviously, and I would really like to try to do some kind of "post a short fic every day" thing if I can make it work. Unfortunately I'm suffering a dearth of appropriate challenges, because of course now that I want one and have the mental bandwidth to do something with one, daily month-long prompt challenges and/or bingo card challenges for July are nowhere in sight. The closest thing is July Break Bingo, but I've asked for cards for this before, and I just ... never really do anything with them; I appreciate that it exists, but I think I need more of a - I don't know, social element to it, I guess? Less open-ended, more directed? Their cards just don't really click with me somehow. And I can't find a Tumblr prompt/whump/whatever themed promptfest thing for July.
So I'm kicking around a few different ideas. Why not throw it out to a completely nonbinding poll?
July is my birthday month, therefore Best Month, obviously, and I would really like to try to do some kind of "post a short fic every day" thing if I can make it work. Unfortunately I'm suffering a dearth of appropriate challenges, because of course now that I want one and have the mental bandwidth to do something with one, daily month-long prompt challenges and/or bingo card challenges for July are nowhere in sight. The closest thing is July Break Bingo, but I've asked for cards for this before, and I just ... never really do anything with them; I appreciate that it exists, but I think I need more of a - I don't know, social element to it, I guess? Less open-ended, more directed? Their cards just don't really click with me somehow. And I can't find a Tumblr prompt/whump/whatever themed promptfest thing for July.
So I'm kicking around a few different ideas. Why not throw it out to a completely nonbinding poll?
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 23
What should I do for July?
View Answers
A custom bingo card/prompt list created (by me) from all my favorite tropes
12 (52.2%)
A personal challenge to finish older inbox prompts/unwritten prompts from past fests
7 (30.4%)
Find a prompt list from a previous (non-July) fest that I didn't do at the time, and use that
4 (17.4%)
Ask my flist for new prompts until I get 31 of them for fresh inspiration
8 (34.8%)
Run a comment fest over at the Biggles comm
6 (26.1%)
Something else that I will suggest in comments
0 (0.0%)
Daily Happiness
Jun. 11th, 2025 11:02 pmtorachan1. We're still having to close the downtown store early, but as of last night a curfew is in effect in the area, which actually makes it easier since we can at least plan the early closing. And despite what the media would like everyone to believe, the protests overall have been peaceful, with little property damage (mainly graffiti). Any danger is from the police and really only in that one small area.
2. I have to go to San Diego again tomorrow, which I am not looking forward to because when I made plans to go it was because I had received one complaint that needed to be dealt with, and in the week and a half since then have received two more unrelated complaints, so now there are three things I have to deal with. But I am planning to go to Disneyland on the way home, since it's pretty much on the way, so at least that will be a nice way to end the day.
3. I finished another puzzle today. This is another 500 piece one.
4. When my Switch 2 came the other day, I put the empty box on my bed and boy were the cats intrigued about this new phenomenon. It seemed like every time I turned around a different cat was in the box checking it out.
2. I have to go to San Diego again tomorrow, which I am not looking forward to because when I made plans to go it was because I had received one complaint that needed to be dealt with, and in the week and a half since then have received two more unrelated complaints, so now there are three things I have to deal with. But I am planning to go to Disneyland on the way home, since it's pretty much on the way, so at least that will be a nice way to end the day.
3. I finished another puzzle today. This is another 500 piece one.
4. When my Switch 2 came the other day, I put the empty box on my bed and boy were the cats intrigued about this new phenomenon. It seemed like every time I turned around a different cat was in the box checking it out.
Time Bandits!
Jun. 11th, 2025 10:47 pmcofax7Well I watched the Apple+ show Time Bandits, and it was hella fun! I particularly liked Bittelig and Penelope. But now I'm sad because it's been cancelled.
I am desperately trying not to get stressed out about The Omnishambles, but it's kind of hard.
Be safe, y'all!
I am desperately trying not to get stressed out about The Omnishambles, but it's kind of hard.
Be safe, y'all!
Oregon Trip, Days 7 through 13
Jun. 11th, 2025 06:56 pmyourlibrarian1) The next day we were headed to Eugene by way of a stop at Silver Falls Park. This was our first bust of the trip, in that the falls required a walk to get to them. We had not found the entrance to the waterfall area easy to find either as we were looking for the wrong name. However the drive into the forest had been quite nice and we had time before check in at the hotel anyway.
Finding the hotel in Eugene proved a challenge due to one way streets, blocks and blocks of dividers preventing turns, and similar names, or streets that changed name on each side of the boulevard. When we finally arrived at our hotel (where even the entrance wasn't easy to spot, confusing our food deliverer as well as us!) we were amused by the painting in our room which seemed to echo the driving experience. ( Read more... )
2) When I returned to the room, M and I made some microwave popcorn and settled in to watch Captain America: Brave New World. My two takeaways were that Anthony Mackie did a good job as Sam, anchoring the film and giving it heart, as well as no doubt influencing Sam's perspective on the world. The second is that the overall plot mirrored Winter Soldier in many ways. I didn't mind that, as I thought that the changes both said something about our present time compared to CA:WS, and it also made both the similarities and differences between Steve and Sam stand out more clearly. ( Read more... )
3) After, we watched The Eternals, which was new to M as she was curious about the adamantium source in the sea in Captain America. I continue to think that it's a pity this film didn't do well. I liked the story, as I like using the MCU as a framework for different kinds of tales. I figured my friend would like it too as she's fond of origin myths. And she did, appreciating the variety of characters in it, even though this is also a sort of weakness in that we don't have time to explore them all properly.
It's also a shame that we probably won't have a follow up to either credit scene.
4) On the last day of the trip, M and I drove down to L.A. together. We passed a lot of nice sights during our crossing of the CA-152 West. Some were entertaining, such as all the garlic farms in Gilroy advertising things like garlic ice cream and garlic honey (also 10 avocados for $1!) Some were just pretty. One was the San Luis reservoir, which was huge. ( Read more... )
5) My week+ since the trip has been fairly occupied with catching up on things, dealing with the bed issue, and frankly just being tired. I thought it was interesting that both my friends took an extra day off work after their return than they'd planned. I had less to jump into than they did but felt so draggy my first day back I feared I'd managed to pick up a bug, despite consistent masking. But nope, just tired.
Finding the hotel in Eugene proved a challenge due to one way streets, blocks and blocks of dividers preventing turns, and similar names, or streets that changed name on each side of the boulevard. When we finally arrived at our hotel (where even the entrance wasn't easy to spot, confusing our food deliverer as well as us!) we were amused by the painting in our room which seemed to echo the driving experience. ( Read more... )
2) When I returned to the room, M and I made some microwave popcorn and settled in to watch Captain America: Brave New World. My two takeaways were that Anthony Mackie did a good job as Sam, anchoring the film and giving it heart, as well as no doubt influencing Sam's perspective on the world. The second is that the overall plot mirrored Winter Soldier in many ways. I didn't mind that, as I thought that the changes both said something about our present time compared to CA:WS, and it also made both the similarities and differences between Steve and Sam stand out more clearly. ( Read more... )
3) After, we watched The Eternals, which was new to M as she was curious about the adamantium source in the sea in Captain America. I continue to think that it's a pity this film didn't do well. I liked the story, as I like using the MCU as a framework for different kinds of tales. I figured my friend would like it too as she's fond of origin myths. And she did, appreciating the variety of characters in it, even though this is also a sort of weakness in that we don't have time to explore them all properly.
It's also a shame that we probably won't have a follow up to either credit scene.
4) On the last day of the trip, M and I drove down to L.A. together. We passed a lot of nice sights during our crossing of the CA-152 West. Some were entertaining, such as all the garlic farms in Gilroy advertising things like garlic ice cream and garlic honey (also 10 avocados for $1!) Some were just pretty. One was the San Luis reservoir, which was huge. ( Read more... )
5) My week+ since the trip has been fairly occupied with catching up on things, dealing with the bed issue, and frankly just being tired. I thought it was interesting that both my friends took an extra day off work after their return than they'd planned. I had less to jump into than they did but felt so draggy my first day back I feared I'd managed to pick up a bug, despite consistent masking. But nope, just tired.
Poll #33242 Kudos Footer-526
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Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5
Want to leave a Kudos?
Five Things Make a Post, TTRPG edition
Jun. 11th, 2025 03:06 pmelfI have been reading the TTRPG space on bluesky.
1) Everything is commercial. Soooo much "buy my thing." You might think there'd be a mix of "buy my thing" and "hey come watch/listen to our playthroughs" but no. It's all "buy my thing."
2) It's really, really hard to avoid D&D and Pathfinder.
3) I had managed to forget how wank in TTRPG spaces goes down. It's never just "D&D has taken over the hobby and that sucks." It has to include "people who play D&D are stupid/cowards/wimps/conformist shills." Possibly with a side of, "if people were paying attention to what's good, they would buy my thing..."
(I do not like D&D. I do not play D&D. I have thought many negative things about D&D, and about D&D evangelists. I have never thought the only reason people play D&D was because they were too stupid to look at other game systems. I am damn well aware there is a ton of inertia involved, plus the hassle of convincing your entire gaming group to try something different.)
4) We don't have any shared vocabulary and this is a problem. Or rather: We have some words - crunchy, rules-lite, narrative game, OSR, "role-play vs roll-play," meta-gaming, RAW, probably a few more - but we have zero agreement on what they actually mean, on which games or play styles fall under which term.
5) Unlike the fanfic communities, there has been no serious meta looking into what's changed when a former on-paper hobby went digital. There are blog posts and such, but they're scattered as hell. And 2/3 of the discussion is weird hand-wringing about what people will or won't buy, not about how the hobby itself changes when the rules are on a screen rather than paper.
+1) If there are discussion groups about TTRPGs-as-a-fandom, I can't find them. Dammit.
+2) Don't get me started on the gleeblor.
1) Everything is commercial. Soooo much "buy my thing." You might think there'd be a mix of "buy my thing" and "hey come watch/listen to our playthroughs" but no. It's all "buy my thing."
2) It's really, really hard to avoid D&D and Pathfinder.
3) I had managed to forget how wank in TTRPG spaces goes down. It's never just "D&D has taken over the hobby and that sucks." It has to include "people who play D&D are stupid/cowards/wimps/conformist shills." Possibly with a side of, "if people were paying attention to what's good, they would buy my thing..."
(I do not like D&D. I do not play D&D. I have thought many negative things about D&D, and about D&D evangelists. I have never thought the only reason people play D&D was because they were too stupid to look at other game systems. I am damn well aware there is a ton of inertia involved, plus the hassle of convincing your entire gaming group to try something different.)
4) We don't have any shared vocabulary and this is a problem. Or rather: We have some words - crunchy, rules-lite, narrative game, OSR, "role-play vs roll-play," meta-gaming, RAW, probably a few more - but we have zero agreement on what they actually mean, on which games or play styles fall under which term.
5) Unlike the fanfic communities, there has been no serious meta looking into what's changed when a former on-paper hobby went digital. There are blog posts and such, but they're scattered as hell. And 2/3 of the discussion is weird hand-wringing about what people will or won't buy, not about how the hobby itself changes when the rules are on a screen rather than paper.
+1) If there are discussion groups about TTRPGs-as-a-fandom, I can't find them. Dammit.
+2) Don't get me started on the gleeblor.
Interesting Links for 11-06-2025
Jun. 11th, 2025 12:00 pmandrewducker- 1. UK sanctions Israeli ministers over Gaza comments
- (tags:uk israel gaza )
- 2. Rough sleeping to be decriminalised in England and Wales
- (tags:homelessness England law )
- 3. The pictures that show why the UK has run up a £49bn repair bill
- (tags:UK infrastructure OhForFucksSake austerity )
- 4. Krakencoder predicts brain function 20x better than past methods
- (tags:brain algorithms )
Whumpex reveals!
Jun. 10th, 2025 11:19 pmsholio![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
whumpex revealed tonight! (And H/C-ex is supposed to in a few days, if it's not delayed. All the hurtcomfort all the time.)I got:
Staying Power (Babylon 5, Londo & Vir, 4200 wds)
I asked for (among other things) Londo reacting to something bad happening to Vir, or Vir taking a hit for him, and my Mysterious Gifter took me up on it most delightfully!
As usual, there is a fic or two of mine running around loose in the collection as well.
Daily Happiness
Jun. 10th, 2025 11:45 pmtorachan1. A lot of times when Carla goes back to visit her folks, she doesn't get time to hang out with her cousins aside from specific family gatherings where they're just hanging out at the house, but this time she went into Chicago today with one cousin and they went to a museum and got lunch, and yesterday she went with both cousins to a record store.
2. Work was kind of stressful today (just when I think the drama and issues at this one store are finally dealt with, I have three more issues pop up today) but I had a nice evening at Disneyland to make up for it.
3. Chloe and Gemma and Ikea Shark are having a party and you're not invited.
2. Work was kind of stressful today (just when I think the drama and issues at this one store are finally dealt with, I have three more issues pop up today) but I had a nice evening at Disneyland to make up for it.
3. Chloe and Gemma and Ikea Shark are having a party and you're not invited.
2025 Disneyland Trip #39 (6/10/25)
Jun. 10th, 2025 11:17 pmtorachanTook an after work trip to Disneyland for dinner. Traffic was not bad at all getting down there (and even better getting home) and as of this week both the lower level pass holders are blocked out, so the crowds are lighter. Nice weather, too!
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
The advice in the UK over teachers and AI is baffling to me
Jun. 10th, 2025 08:31 pmandrewduckerReading this article on advice to teachers in the UK about using AI, they suggest using it for things like "marking quizzes" and "generating routine letters".
And what really annoys me about this is that it's a perfect example of where simple automation could be used without the need for AI.
The precise example in the article is "Generate a letter to parents about a head lice outbreak." - which is a fairly common thing to happen in schools. So why on earth isn't there one standard letter per school, if not one standard letter for the whole country, that can be reused by absolutely everyone whenever this standard event happens? Why does this require AI to generate a new one every time, rather than just being a standard email that gets sent?
Same with marking quizzes. If children get multiple-choice quizzes regularly across all schools, and marking them uses precious teacher time, why is there not a standard piece of software, paid for once (or written once internally) which enables all children to do quizzes in a standard way, and get them marked automatically?
If we're investing a bunch of money into automating the various processes that teachers spend far too much time on, start with simple automation, which is cheap, easy, and reliable.
Also, wouldn't it be sensible to do some research into how accurately AI marks homework *before* you tell teachers to use it to do that? Here's some research from February which shows that its agreement with examiners was only 0.61 (where 1.00 would be perfect agreement). So I'm sceptical about the quality of the marking it's going to be doing...
And what really annoys me about this is that it's a perfect example of where simple automation could be used without the need for AI.
The precise example in the article is "Generate a letter to parents about a head lice outbreak." - which is a fairly common thing to happen in schools. So why on earth isn't there one standard letter per school, if not one standard letter for the whole country, that can be reused by absolutely everyone whenever this standard event happens? Why does this require AI to generate a new one every time, rather than just being a standard email that gets sent?
Same with marking quizzes. If children get multiple-choice quizzes regularly across all schools, and marking them uses precious teacher time, why is there not a standard piece of software, paid for once (or written once internally) which enables all children to do quizzes in a standard way, and get them marked automatically?
If we're investing a bunch of money into automating the various processes that teachers spend far too much time on, start with simple automation, which is cheap, easy, and reliable.
Also, wouldn't it be sensible to do some research into how accurately AI marks homework *before* you tell teachers to use it to do that? Here's some research from February which shows that its agreement with examiners was only 0.61 (where 1.00 would be perfect agreement). So I'm sceptical about the quality of the marking it's going to be doing...
Not just hayfever
Jun. 10th, 2025 07:55 pmhunninghamI have a cold. It's horrible. I am headachy & full of snot & my ears hurt. But there's some relief in saying "yes, a cold" and having a reason for why I was feeling so very very tired yesterday & why slept so badly. It's not just hayfever. Today I have spent rather a lot of time on the sofa & eaten many oranges & not fussed about work.
I hope himself doesn't catch it; he always gets feverish and sick for at least a week and ends up with a cough dragging on & on.
I hope himself doesn't catch it; he always gets feverish and sick for at least a week and ends up with a cough dragging on & on.
Doctor Who: The War Doctor
Jun. 10th, 2025 03:56 pmselenakAbout a month ago, I bought the Big Finish episodes around the War Doctor in which the late John Hurt reprises his role. They're basically three episode storyarcs - "Only the Monstrous", "Infernal Devices", "Agents of Chaos" and "Casualties of War" - all set during the Time War. Now, because of the setting, the usual Doctor-Companion combinations are out, though the Doctor meets a likeable idealistic person in each of these three episode adventures (and can save some though not all). But the great charm of any Doctor Who tale are those relationships. So what did Big Finish do? It had the inspired idea of pairing up John Hurt with Jacqueline Pearce, playing, no, not Servalan, but a ruthless female politiician nonetheless, a member of the Gallifreyan War Council named Cardinal Ollista. She and the Doctor are the sole characters in all the four story arcs I've listened to, and the way their relationship develops was probably my favourite aspect in these stories.
Because this is the Time War, and this regeneration of the Doctor specifically is on a self loathing maximum while fighting it, Ollista is initially a good foil because she, who really does only prioritize Gallifrey and initially sees everyone not a Time Lord as expendable, shows that despite what he's telling himself, he is still the Doctor, he still has ethics and lines he won't cross and will fight for and have another way. But Ollista isn't simply an Evil McEvil megalomaniac, either, hence me saying "Gallifrey" and not "her personal power", and so the Doctor in the course of those stories develops a grudging respect for her while she while denying she does so finds herself defending, in the last story arc, precisely the kind of (non-Gallifreyan) people she in the first story arc would have dismissed as necessary casualties of war. Whether they argue or work together, all the Doctor-Ollista scenes are golden, and with both John Hurt and Jacqueline Pearce now gone, I am really glad they had the chance to work together near the end of their lives and create two more remarkable characters for us to appreciate.
Because this is the Time War, and this regeneration of the Doctor specifically is on a self loathing maximum while fighting it, Ollista is initially a good foil because she, who really does only prioritize Gallifrey and initially sees everyone not a Time Lord as expendable, shows that despite what he's telling himself, he is still the Doctor, he still has ethics and lines he won't cross and will fight for and have another way. But Ollista isn't simply an Evil McEvil megalomaniac, either, hence me saying "Gallifrey" and not "her personal power", and so the Doctor in the course of those stories develops a grudging respect for her while she while denying she does so finds herself defending, in the last story arc, precisely the kind of (non-Gallifreyan) people she in the first story arc would have dismissed as necessary casualties of war. Whether they argue or work together, all the Doctor-Ollista scenes are golden, and with both John Hurt and Jacqueline Pearce now gone, I am really glad they had the chance to work together near the end of their lives and create two more remarkable characters for us to appreciate.
Interesting Links for 10-06-2025
Jun. 10th, 2025 12:00 pmandrewducker- 1. This seems like a reasonable overview of how Labour are doing on the economy
- (tags:economics labour uk )
- 2. The Trump Administration's Nasty Campaign Against Trans People
- (tags:lgbt bigotry usa transgender OhForFucksSake )
- 3. The Allegory Of The Cave - Further Details
- (tags:comic philosophy funny )
- 4. Fiber Optic Bird's Nest Heralds A Fiber Drone Summer In Ukraine
- (tags:Ukraine fibreoptics drone war nature birds technology )
- 5. World fertility rates in 'unprecedented decline', UN says
- (tags:fertility population )
- 6. Civil servants told to consider quitting if they disagree with policy over Gaza
- (tags:uk gaza government )
- 7. Give new dads six weeks off work at nearly full pay, MPs say
- (tags:uk parenting fatherhood )
- 8. Uber brings forward trialling driverless taxis in UK
- (tags:automation taxi uk driving transport )
A quick note for me and others
Jun. 9th, 2025 11:32 pmsholiojustmarriedexchange nominations close tomorrow (the 10th).I will almost certainly be signing up for this one, I'm just saying. And you do need three distinct fandoms for this exchange.
*my existing assignments side-eye me*
Daily Happiness
Jun. 9th, 2025 10:54 pmtorachan1. A few months ago I started having problems with itunes where every time I tried to add a song to a playlist it froze. I tried a few solutions I found online and nothing worked, so I just stopped listening to music at my desk and basically only listened to it in the car through Apple Music. Finally the other day I just gave up and uninstalled itunes and reinstalled it again, and at first I was really regretting my decision because even after logging in, it wasn't showing any of the music I'd downloaded over the past few years from Apple Music, only my library on my HD, but then I logged out and logged in again and everything showed up, and adding songs to playlists seems to work again, so maybe now I'll actually get back to listening to music at home.
2. There is DLC for Sea of Stars, a whole new quest that I've seen a few reviews say is about eight hours or so of gameplay. I started it the other day and am enjoying it so far. Sea of Stars is definitely one of my favorite games from the past year or so, so I'm excited to be able to play more of it. (In between Mario Kart World, of course.)
3. Our Little Tokyo store is right next to city hall, so things have been kind of rough down there the past couple days with the protests. Both yesterday and today the store had to close early so employees could get home safe. This morning there was a ton of graffiti (all varities of "fuck ICE") along the windows of one side of the building, but thankfully no actual damage to the store and the property manager was able to get it cleaned up easily.
4. Chloe also says "fuck ICE"!
2. There is DLC for Sea of Stars, a whole new quest that I've seen a few reviews say is about eight hours or so of gameplay. I started it the other day and am enjoying it so far. Sea of Stars is definitely one of my favorite games from the past year or so, so I'm excited to be able to play more of it. (In between Mario Kart World, of course.)
3. Our Little Tokyo store is right next to city hall, so things have been kind of rough down there the past couple days with the protests. Both yesterday and today the store had to close early so employees could get home safe. This morning there was a ton of graffiti (all varities of "fuck ICE") along the windows of one side of the building, but thankfully no actual damage to the store and the property manager was able to get it cleaned up easily.
4. Chloe also says "fuck ICE"!