windbag
Feb. 9th, 2026 12:02 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
wordsmithdaily_feednoun: A person who talks pompously or excessively. verb intr.: To talk pompously or excessively.
wordsmithdaily_feedActive Sunspot Region 4366 Crosses the Sun
Feb. 8th, 2026 12:00 pmapod_new_feed
Explanation: An unusually active sunspot region is now crossing the Sun. The region, labelled AR 4366, is much larger than the Earth and has produced several powerful solar flares over the past ten days. In the featured image, the region is marked by large and dark sunspots toward the upper right of the Sun's disk. The image captured the Sun over a hill in Zacatecas, Mexico, 5 days ago. AR 4366 has become a candidate for the most active solar region in this entire 11-year solar cycle. Active solar regions are frequently associated with increased auroral activity on the Earth. Now reaching the edge, AR 4366 will begin facing away from the Earth during the coming week. It is not known, though, if the active region will survive long enough to reappear in about two weeks' time, as the Sun rotates.
Some quotes that I've gathered over the years about politics and stuff in general
Feb. 8th, 2026 08:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewayneI started collecting these decades ago. Amazing how apt many are and from people who have been dead decades, if not centuries.
* * * * *
Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect. -Frank Wilhoit
They are dismantling the sleeping middle class. More and more people are becoming poor. We are their cattle. We are being bred for slavery. -They Live (movie), 1989
We are each entitled to our own opinion, but no one is entitled to his own facts. -- Patrick Moynihan
The problem in our country isn't with books being banned, but with people no longer reading. You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. -- Ray Bradbury
The hands that help are better far than the lips that pray. -- Robert G. Ingersoll
We all live in a state of ambitious poverty. -- Decimus Junius Juvenalis
Many more under the cut...
( Read more... )
Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect. -Frank Wilhoit
They are dismantling the sleeping middle class. More and more people are becoming poor. We are their cattle. We are being bred for slavery. -They Live (movie), 1989
We are each entitled to our own opinion, but no one is entitled to his own facts. -- Patrick Moynihan
The problem in our country isn't with books being banned, but with people no longer reading. You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. -- Ray Bradbury
The hands that help are better far than the lips that pray. -- Robert G. Ingersoll
We all live in a state of ambitious poverty. -- Decimus Junius Juvenalis
Many more under the cut...
( Read more... )
(no subject)
Feb. 8th, 2026 09:10 pmskygiantsBy sheer coincidence, I ended up reading Alix Harrow's The Everlasting almost immediately after The Isle in the Silver Sea. Both books are ringing changes on the same big themes -- the narratives of nationalism, fate and tragedy, Spenser and Malory, depressed lady knights and evil girlbosses -- and from what I had previously read of both Harrow and Suri's work I was tbh quite surprised to find myself liking The Everlasting a bit better.
The premise of The Everlasting: it's more or less the second-world equivalent of the 1920s and we have just had a Big War. Our protagonist Owen has a radical pacifist alcoholic father that he doesn't respect, a war medal that he didn't really earn, a academic career that doesn't seem to be going places, and a face that makes it pretty obvious that at least one parent came from The Other Side. However, his messy relationship with the war has not in any way altered his ardent passion for the greatest figure of his country's nationalist mythology, the knight Una Everlasting, who fought at the side of the nation's founding queen a thousand years ago and died tragically to bring the country stability.
Then he finds a book that purports to be the True History of Una Everlasting, and gets summoned to a secret meeting with the country's minister of war, an evil girlboss who immediately sends him back in time to experience and document Una Everlasting's Last Quest first hand. He gets to write the nationalist myth himself! What fun!
Alas, it turns out that the great knight Una Everlasting is violent, brutal, and extremely burned out about all the people she's killed as part of the bloody process of nation-forging: at this point the citizens think of her as a butcher and she's inclined to agree. Nonetheless, fanboy Owen convinces her to take on this one last quest for the sake of her honor & kingdom & legacy &cetera, with the promise of peace at the end of it, knowing full well that the end of the quest will in fact mean her death.
This is the first section of the book and tbh I enjoyed it enormously. Owen is writing the narrative in first person and his voice is used to great effect: he's a twisted-up and self-contradictory character who shows the problems of nationalism much better as a guy who's genuinely trying to convince himself that he believes in it than he would if he started out already enlightened. I love his embarrassing radical pacifist dad and his judgmental thesis advisor, and, as heterosexualities go, I am absolutely not immune to the allure of large violent depressed woman/weaselly little worm man whom she could easily break in two who is obsessed with her but also fundamentally betraying her. If the book had ended at the end of its first section, I think it would have been a phenomenal standalone novella.
However, the book does keep going. I continued to have a good time, more or less, but the more it went on the more I felt that it had sort of overplayed its hand. Alix Harrow is extremely a Power of Fiction author in ways that didn't fully work for me in the other book of hers I read; I do appreciate that this book is the Power of Fiction [derogatory] but I still think that perhaps she is giving fiction a little too much power ... For the length of ninety pages I was willing to role with the importance of The Great Nationalist Myth, but the longer it went on and the deeper and more recursive it got with its timeloops the more I was like 'wait .... we only have one founding myth? changing the myth really directly and immediately impacts the future in predictable and manipulable ways and is in fact the only thing that does so? Hmm. Well."
Also I enjoyed the evil girlboss right up until it was revealed that every evil girlboss in the country's whole thousand-year-old history had been the very self-same evil girlboss and no other woman had ever done anything. You are telling me you have built up a whole thing about this country's founding myth of the Queen And Her Lady Knight from scratch and that didn't change the country's relationship to gender at all? NO other woman was ever inspired to do anything with that? I am not sure that's as feminist as you think it is ...
Anyway, I do think this book and The Island In the Silver Sea form a sort of spiritual duology and I'm glad to have read them back to back: for such similar books they have really interestingly different flaws and virtues.
The premise of The Everlasting: it's more or less the second-world equivalent of the 1920s and we have just had a Big War. Our protagonist Owen has a radical pacifist alcoholic father that he doesn't respect, a war medal that he didn't really earn, a academic career that doesn't seem to be going places, and a face that makes it pretty obvious that at least one parent came from The Other Side. However, his messy relationship with the war has not in any way altered his ardent passion for the greatest figure of his country's nationalist mythology, the knight Una Everlasting, who fought at the side of the nation's founding queen a thousand years ago and died tragically to bring the country stability.
Then he finds a book that purports to be the True History of Una Everlasting, and gets summoned to a secret meeting with the country's minister of war, an evil girlboss who immediately sends him back in time to experience and document Una Everlasting's Last Quest first hand. He gets to write the nationalist myth himself! What fun!
Alas, it turns out that the great knight Una Everlasting is violent, brutal, and extremely burned out about all the people she's killed as part of the bloody process of nation-forging: at this point the citizens think of her as a butcher and she's inclined to agree. Nonetheless, fanboy Owen convinces her to take on this one last quest for the sake of her honor & kingdom & legacy &cetera, with the promise of peace at the end of it, knowing full well that the end of the quest will in fact mean her death.
This is the first section of the book and tbh I enjoyed it enormously. Owen is writing the narrative in first person and his voice is used to great effect: he's a twisted-up and self-contradictory character who shows the problems of nationalism much better as a guy who's genuinely trying to convince himself that he believes in it than he would if he started out already enlightened. I love his embarrassing radical pacifist dad and his judgmental thesis advisor, and, as heterosexualities go, I am absolutely not immune to the allure of large violent depressed woman/weaselly little worm man whom she could easily break in two who is obsessed with her but also fundamentally betraying her. If the book had ended at the end of its first section, I think it would have been a phenomenal standalone novella.
However, the book does keep going. I continued to have a good time, more or less, but the more it went on the more I felt that it had sort of overplayed its hand. Alix Harrow is extremely a Power of Fiction author in ways that didn't fully work for me in the other book of hers I read; I do appreciate that this book is the Power of Fiction [derogatory] but I still think that perhaps she is giving fiction a little too much power ... For the length of ninety pages I was willing to role with the importance of The Great Nationalist Myth, but the longer it went on and the deeper and more recursive it got with its timeloops the more I was like 'wait .... we only have one founding myth? changing the myth really directly and immediately impacts the future in predictable and manipulable ways and is in fact the only thing that does so? Hmm. Well."
Also I enjoyed the evil girlboss right up until it was revealed that every evil girlboss in the country's whole thousand-year-old history had been the very self-same evil girlboss and no other woman had ever done anything. You are telling me you have built up a whole thing about this country's founding myth of the Queen And Her Lady Knight from scratch and that didn't change the country's relationship to gender at all? NO other woman was ever inspired to do anything with that? I am not sure that's as feminist as you think it is ...
Anyway, I do think this book and The Island In the Silver Sea form a sort of spiritual duology and I'm glad to have read them back to back: for such similar books they have really interestingly different flaws and virtues.
no. no, thank you.
Feb. 8th, 2026 09:50 pmwaterswordAnother 4 inches of snow? And high winds? And "arctic chill"? I cannot.
I am trying the applesauce loaf again, this time with some chunks of "Gold Rush" apples in the batter and making sure not to use lumpy brown sugar. Fingers crossed.
Amtrak's 2FA system is garbage and I may have to contend with Julie, my nemesis (Amtrak's phone customer "service" bot) to get to New York to see Dessa in March (and sneak out of a conference early); my splurge on Restaurant Week was kind of a waste of money (pasta oversalted, rosé weirdly bland); I am sick of all my clothes, no doubt because I have been wearing all of them at the same time for the past month, and the idea of acquiring different clothes is the epitome of exchanging money for bads and disservices.
THIS IS THE BAD PLACE.
Weekend reading
Feb. 8th, 2026 02:17 pmtroisoiseauxHave actually locked in on War and Peace, lately, although I feel like my thoughts on this book are basically just going to alternate between "this idiot (affectionate)" about Pierre and "this idiot (derogatory)" about Nikolai for the next however many months. (I'm 1.25 months and 20% in, so... six months?) As it is, the narrative has briefly checked in on all characters on the "peace" side of the plot: Pierre has had his head immediately turned by wealth and flattery and been social-pressured into a marriage with the beautiful but incompatible Helene Kuragina; on the Bolkonsky family estate, Vasili Kuragin tried to marry off his wastrel son Anatole to poor Princess Mary and Prince Andrei's poor, doomed wife Lise is having a bad time being pregnant and isolated with her husband's weird family while he's off fighting the French; the Rostovs received a letter from Nikolai and the younger ones had a conversation full of dramatic irony in light of their turns of fate later in the novel. Now we're back to the War, where Nikolai Rostov has racked up debts, keeps being rude to people for no particular reason, and has a raging crush on Emperor Alexander, while his childhood friend Boris Drubetskoy is busy networking.
10 Superb Owl Cakes For Super Bowl Sunday
Feb. 8th, 2026 02:00 pmcakewrecks_feedIt's Superb Owl Sunday, y'all!!
Though I have a confession to make: I only go to Superb Owl parties for the food.
(By Crazy Cakes, Czech Republic)
And yes, you can eat this owl. I mean, I suppose technically you could eat ANY owl, but this one is cake and therefore tastes better. Plus, look at the sculpting! The painting! Incredible.
(By Les Sucrés by Rose, Bangkok)
This one is still pondering the ramifications that all owls are technically edible. I like how his eyes glow when he's deep in thought on his Thinking Branch. So cute.
If we're talking superb owls, though, then one clearly flies above the rest:
(By Cakes By Ying, Malaysia)
HEDWIG! Best postal carrier ever, am I right? Though she misplaced a very important letter for yours truly a while back, and I'm still not over it.
This owl understands:
(By Klobouckovic Dortiky, Czechia)
See, she looks both snuggly and like she's about to say something devastatingly snarky, which is really the best combination.
And if I'm being honest, there IS an owl I love more than Hedwig, and that owl is... DAVID BOWIE.
(By Saccharine Obsession)
That line makes sense if you grew up in the 80s. Also this barn owl flew right out of Labyrinth to serenade me with As The World Falls Down, so give us a moment.
(And yes, cake! It's cake! AHHH-MAZING.)
This precious pastel patchwork is prettier than a peck of posies:
(By E Só Um Bolinho)
I dare you to read that line out loud and not spit all over your keyboard. I also dare you to find a better candidate for a plush toy - 'cuz YOU WON'T. (I want her as a pillow!)
Bringing it back to Harry Potter again because this cake topper is making me melt:
(By Tiny Plaid Sheep)
That seller only makes the topper part, not the cake, so I'm cheating by including this here.
Cheating, and not sorry. Look at the wands holding up the bunting! Eeee!
I noticed a lot of owl cakes look the same out there, so I made a point of specifically finding one with an owl wearing sneakers:
(By Cakes By Lorna, Slovakia)
You just don't see enough of those. Also the balloons are fantastic, I love the soft shading.
This pudgy lil' guy looks like a steampunk ringmaster, which is really the best aesthetic for an owl cake:
(By Bloom Cakes, Cambodia)
Buttons and bunting and bug-eyes, oh my! THIS IS SO CUTE.
And finally, the owl cake that will make you wish all owls - cake or not - came with bright teal and purple feathers:
(By Natalia Salazar, North Carolina)
Also Pixar eyes. And a one-to-one head-to-torso ratio. And itty bitty toesies. And a cutesy-pootsy widdle nosey-wosey OK sorry I'm done now.
Hope these make your Superb Owl Sunday a little more super, minions, and that your week is extra Sweet!
*****
P.S. This crossbody bag is one of my all-time favorite purses, and comes in 36 different colors:
It's surprisingly lightweight while feeling high-end, with a butter smooth zipper and beautiful crisp stitching. Most "medium" purses are too small for me, but this one is super roomy for all my gear, and has a handy front zip pocket I use for my phone. (Which fits even in my giant phone cases!)
The style works for dressing up or everyday, and I looove all the color options. I have the orange, which is currently sold out, but the kelly green and lemon yellow are next on my wish list. They also have hot pink, denim blue, red, and of course more neutral options. For less than $20, it's hard not to buy a bunch!
Nine Tomorrows by Isaac Asimov
Feb. 8th, 2026 08:57 amjames_davis_nicoll
An assortment of (mostly) SF from just before Asimov's Sputnik-inspired hiatus from SF.
Nine Tomorrows by Isaac Asimov
What does the word "grocery" mean, no, really? [econ, curr ev]
Feb. 8th, 2026 12:47 amsidereaHey, does anybody happen to know the answer to this question?
Back when Mr B and I started doing joint grocery orders, I started analyzing our budget like you do. In the course of doing so, I discovered something I hadn't realized: about a third of my "grocery" budget wasn't food. It was:
• Disposable food handling and storage supplies: plastic wrap, paper towels, aluminum foil, ziplocs, e.g.
• Personal hygiene supplies: toilet paper, bath soap, shampoo, skin lotion, menstrual supplies, toothpaste, mouthwash, Q-tips, e.g.
• Health supplies: vitamins, bandaids, NSAIDs, first aid supplies, OTC medications and supplements, e.g.
• Domestic hygiene supplies: dish detergent, dish soap, dish sponges, Windex, Pine-sol, laundry detergent, bleach, mouse traps, e.g.
None of these things individually needs to be bought every grocery trip, but that's good, because they can add up fast. Especially if you try to buy at all in volume to try to drive unit costs down. But the problem is there are so many of them, that usually you need some of them on every order.
This fact is in the back of my head whenever I hear politicians or economists or social commentators talk about the "cost of groceries": I don't know if they mean just food or the whole cost of groceries. Sometimes it's obvious. An awful lot of the relief for the poor involves giving them food (such as at a food pantry) or the funds to buy it (such as an EBT card), but very explicitly doesn't include, say, a bottle of aspirin or a box of tampons or a roll of Saran wrap. Other times, it's not, such as when a report on the cost of "groceries" only compares the prices of food items, and then makes statements about the average totals families of various sizes spend on "groceries": if they only looked at the prices of foods, does that mean they added up the prices of foods a family typically buys to generate a "grocery bill" which doesn't include the non-food groceries, or did they survey actual families' actual grocery bills and just average them without substracting the non-food groceries? Hard to say from the outside.
When we see a talking head on TV – a pundit or a politician – talking about the price of "groceries" but then say it, for example, has to do with farm labor, or the import of agricultural goods, should we assume they're just meaning "food" by the term "groceries"? Or it is a tell they've forgotten that not everything bought at a grocery store (and part of a consumer's grocery store bill) is food, and maybe are misrepresenting or misunderstanding whatever research they are leaning on? Or is it a common misconception among those who research domestic economics that groceries means exclusively food?
So my question is: given that a lot of information about this topic that percolates out to the public is based on research that the public never sees for themselves, what assumptions are reasonable for the public to make about how the field(s) which concern themselves with the "price of groceries" mean "groceries"? What fields are those and do they have a standard meaning of "groceries" and does it or does it not include non-food items?
This question brought to you by yet another video about the cost of groceries and how they might be controlled in which the index examples were the ingredients for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but, as usual, not the sandwich baggy to put it in to take to school or work.
Back when Mr B and I started doing joint grocery orders, I started analyzing our budget like you do. In the course of doing so, I discovered something I hadn't realized: about a third of my "grocery" budget wasn't food. It was:
• Disposable food handling and storage supplies: plastic wrap, paper towels, aluminum foil, ziplocs, e.g.
• Personal hygiene supplies: toilet paper, bath soap, shampoo, skin lotion, menstrual supplies, toothpaste, mouthwash, Q-tips, e.g.
• Health supplies: vitamins, bandaids, NSAIDs, first aid supplies, OTC medications and supplements, e.g.
• Domestic hygiene supplies: dish detergent, dish soap, dish sponges, Windex, Pine-sol, laundry detergent, bleach, mouse traps, e.g.
None of these things individually needs to be bought every grocery trip, but that's good, because they can add up fast. Especially if you try to buy at all in volume to try to drive unit costs down. But the problem is there are so many of them, that usually you need some of them on every order.
This fact is in the back of my head whenever I hear politicians or economists or social commentators talk about the "cost of groceries": I don't know if they mean just food or the whole cost of groceries. Sometimes it's obvious. An awful lot of the relief for the poor involves giving them food (such as at a food pantry) or the funds to buy it (such as an EBT card), but very explicitly doesn't include, say, a bottle of aspirin or a box of tampons or a roll of Saran wrap. Other times, it's not, such as when a report on the cost of "groceries" only compares the prices of food items, and then makes statements about the average totals families of various sizes spend on "groceries": if they only looked at the prices of foods, does that mean they added up the prices of foods a family typically buys to generate a "grocery bill" which doesn't include the non-food groceries, or did they survey actual families' actual grocery bills and just average them without substracting the non-food groceries? Hard to say from the outside.
When we see a talking head on TV – a pundit or a politician – talking about the price of "groceries" but then say it, for example, has to do with farm labor, or the import of agricultural goods, should we assume they're just meaning "food" by the term "groceries"? Or it is a tell they've forgotten that not everything bought at a grocery store (and part of a consumer's grocery store bill) is food, and maybe are misrepresenting or misunderstanding whatever research they are leaning on? Or is it a common misconception among those who research domestic economics that groceries means exclusively food?
So my question is: given that a lot of information about this topic that percolates out to the public is based on research that the public never sees for themselves, what assumptions are reasonable for the public to make about how the field(s) which concern themselves with the "price of groceries" mean "groceries"? What fields are those and do they have a standard meaning of "groceries" and does it or does it not include non-food items?
This question brought to you by yet another video about the cost of groceries and how they might be controlled in which the index examples were the ingredients for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but, as usual, not the sandwich baggy to put it in to take to school or work.
Crescent Enceladus
Feb. 7th, 2026 12:00 pmapod_new_feed
Explanation: Peering from the shadows, the Saturn-facing hemisphere of tantalizing inner moon Enceladus poses in this Cassini spacecraft image. North is up in the dramatic scene captured during November 2016 as Cassini's camera was pointed in a nearly sunward direction about 130,000 kilometers from the moon's bright crescent. In fact, the distant world reflects over 90 percent of the sunlight it receives, giving its surface about the same reflectivity as fresh snow. A mere 500 kilometers in diameter, Enceladus is a surprisingly active moon. Data and images collected during Cassini's flybys have revealed water vapor and ice grains spewing from south polar geysers and evidence of an ocean of liquid water hidden beneath the moon's icy crust.
Trophy
Feb. 8th, 2026 12:14 amjames_davis_nicoll
This detached from a car as it passed me. Missed me, hit a snow bank. When I returned from work, it was still there, so I collected it.
Not sure what happened, except the car's bumper also (mostly) detached.
thewayneThis is a really great thing! The ACM is one of the premier organizations for computer science, and for them to open up their publication library to open access is an incredibly huge deal.
In their statement released in mid-December, they announced:
We are pleased to share an important milestone for our field. Beginning January 2026, all ACM publications and related artifacts in the ACM Digital Library will be made open access. This change reflects the long-standing and growing call across the global computing community for research to be more accessible, more discoverable, and more reusable.
By transitioning to open access, ACM is supporting a publishing environment where:
Authors retain the intellectual property to their Work- All ACM authors retain the copyright to their published work while ACM remains committed to defending those Works against copyright and integrity related violations.
Published Work Will Benefit from Broader visibility and impact- Research will be freely available to anyone in the world, increasing readership, citations, and real-world application.
Students, educators, and researchers everywhere benefit- Whether at well-resourced institutions or in emerging research communities, everyone will have direct access to the full breadth of ACM-published work.
Innovation accelerates- Open access fosters collaboration, transparency, and cumulative progress, strengthening the advancement of computing as a discipline.
The world of research publication is tending towards increased lockdown and paywalls, plus corruption by AI slop. The ACM is fighting that by opening their doors and ensuring their authors maintain control of their IP. This is an incredibly cool thing!
There's a cool library tool that we use occasionally called Hathi Trust. They archive old material and they're a great reference place to find stuff. I was looking to borrow a book for one of our instructors, and Hathi had it online! You can download it! ONE PAGE AT A TIME. The book is 90 years old, in the public domain, and I can't find a free copy of it. So I literally started downloading it. One page at a time. I have the free time at work.
It costs $6,000 a year to become a member of Hathi. A YEAR. You have to be a pretty good-sized library to pay that, or have special needs to justify that outlay.
Fortunately my story has two happy endings. I was able to find a physical copy of the book, the United States Department of the Interior Library sent me a copy! But there's an even better ending. I was looking for something in our archive, sitting in the corner, pulling stuff down and buzzing through boxes. I happened to glance down and saw a three-ring binder in an area that I knew didn't contain what I was looking for. but the label on the binder caught my eye.
It was the same name as the book that the instructor had requested!
I pull the binder, and it was a facsimile of the book! So now I'll be able to scan the pages that I hadn't yet downloaded and assemble my own ebook! I had already assembled two sections of what I'd downloaded into ebooks: PDFs combined make HUGE ebooks!
Weirdest luck I've had in a long time. And no, it was not cataloged in our system.
https://dl.acm.org/openaccess
https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/12/19/168225/acm-to-make-its-entire-digital-library-open-access-starting-january-2026
In their statement released in mid-December, they announced:
We are pleased to share an important milestone for our field. Beginning January 2026, all ACM publications and related artifacts in the ACM Digital Library will be made open access. This change reflects the long-standing and growing call across the global computing community for research to be more accessible, more discoverable, and more reusable.
By transitioning to open access, ACM is supporting a publishing environment where:
Authors retain the intellectual property to their Work- All ACM authors retain the copyright to their published work while ACM remains committed to defending those Works against copyright and integrity related violations.
Published Work Will Benefit from Broader visibility and impact- Research will be freely available to anyone in the world, increasing readership, citations, and real-world application.
Students, educators, and researchers everywhere benefit- Whether at well-resourced institutions or in emerging research communities, everyone will have direct access to the full breadth of ACM-published work.
Innovation accelerates- Open access fosters collaboration, transparency, and cumulative progress, strengthening the advancement of computing as a discipline.
The world of research publication is tending towards increased lockdown and paywalls, plus corruption by AI slop. The ACM is fighting that by opening their doors and ensuring their authors maintain control of their IP. This is an incredibly cool thing!
There's a cool library tool that we use occasionally called Hathi Trust. They archive old material and they're a great reference place to find stuff. I was looking to borrow a book for one of our instructors, and Hathi had it online! You can download it! ONE PAGE AT A TIME. The book is 90 years old, in the public domain, and I can't find a free copy of it. So I literally started downloading it. One page at a time. I have the free time at work.
It costs $6,000 a year to become a member of Hathi. A YEAR. You have to be a pretty good-sized library to pay that, or have special needs to justify that outlay.
Fortunately my story has two happy endings. I was able to find a physical copy of the book, the United States Department of the Interior Library sent me a copy! But there's an even better ending. I was looking for something in our archive, sitting in the corner, pulling stuff down and buzzing through boxes. I happened to glance down and saw a three-ring binder in an area that I knew didn't contain what I was looking for. but the label on the binder caught my eye.
It was the same name as the book that the instructor had requested!
I pull the binder, and it was a facsimile of the book! So now I'll be able to scan the pages that I hadn't yet downloaded and assemble my own ebook! I had already assembled two sections of what I'd downloaded into ebooks: PDFs combined make HUGE ebooks!
Weirdest luck I've had in a long time. And no, it was not cataloged in our system.
https://dl.acm.org/openaccess
https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/12/19/168225/acm-to-make-its-entire-digital-library-open-access-starting-january-2026
Books Received, January 31 — February 6
Feb. 7th, 2026 09:15 amjames_davis_nicoll
With two books new to me, this just barely qualifies as books received. One SF, one fantasy and the SF novel is from a series.
Books Received, January 31 — February 6
Poll #34194 Books Received, January 31 — February 6
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 37
Which of these look interesting?
View Answers
A City Dreaming by Maurice Broaddus (June 2026)
16 (43.2%)
Lord of the Heights by Scarlett J. Thorne (July 2026
5 (13.5%)
Some other option (see comments)
1 (2.7%)
Cats!
28 (75.7%)
thewayneIn 2022, the bill that funded NASA extended funding for the International Space Station to 2030, and that was it. NASA started researching ways to end the life of the ISS at that point, and decided that a controlled deorbit was the best bet: lower it to a planned orbit where the increased friction with Earth's atmosphere will eventually cause re-entry and for it to crash into the Pacific Ocean's "space graveyard". That way it's controlled and theoretically won't hit land, potentially causing some really significant damage. The station would be shut-down in 2030 and the deorbit burn would happen in 2031, I'm a little unclear when it would actually re-enter the atmosphere.
Well, that plan might end up being scratched because of an effort being led by California Democratic Representative George Whiteside.
He's on the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology (vice-ranking member) and on the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics (according to Wikipedia). His career has involved a lot of the space industry, and he's worked at NASA, but the roles seem to be in management and as a director. His Masters degree is in GIS and remote sensing, not in engineering.
He attached a rider to the new NASA funding bill, currently in committee, for them to study boosting the ISS to a parking orbit rather than deorbiting the thing. He thinks it can have a longer life.
( Read more... )
Well, that plan might end up being scratched because of an effort being led by California Democratic Representative George Whiteside.
He's on the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology (vice-ranking member) and on the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics (according to Wikipedia). His career has involved a lot of the space industry, and he's worked at NASA, but the roles seem to be in management and as a director. His Masters degree is in GIS and remote sensing, not in engineering.
He attached a rider to the new NASA funding bill, currently in committee, for them to study boosting the ISS to a parking orbit rather than deorbiting the thing. He thinks it can have a longer life.
( Read more... )
(no subject)
Feb. 7th, 2026 12:53 amskygiantsFestivids reveals have SNUCK up on me they are happening TOMORROW and I have NOT had time to watch all the things I wanted to watch but! here are some things I very much liked anyway!
First, my own three (3!!!) beautiful vids:
Sharp Dressed Man, for Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born, a glorious celebration of Theatrical Fashion
Touch, for the film Phantom, tense & wistful lesbian tragic romance!
and Ready to Fight, also for Phantom, TRIUMPHANT KINETIC ACTION
I did not expect to receive vids for either of these sources and they are all beautiful and perfect to me!!
And now, an incomplete list of other vids I really really liked and/or was impressed by and/or laughed my ass off at:
who wants to live forever (17776: What Football Will Look Like In The Future)
Congratulations, You Survived Your Suicide (Disco Elysium)
Everything I Need and PC Dyke (Dykes To Watch Out For)
nothing and everything (Hamlet) (the SONG CHOICE)
The Man I Knew (Jesus Christ Superstar)
Here (Labyrinth) (THE SONG CHOICE!!!)
ASSHOLE (Looney Tunes)
Let's Get This Over With (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead)
Ya Ya (Sinners)
There Is No Ship (Steerswoman)
man (Victor/Victoria)
I hope some of you enjoy some of these as much as I did!
First, my own three (3!!!) beautiful vids:
Sharp Dressed Man, for Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born, a glorious celebration of Theatrical Fashion
Touch, for the film Phantom, tense & wistful lesbian tragic romance!
and Ready to Fight, also for Phantom, TRIUMPHANT KINETIC ACTION
I did not expect to receive vids for either of these sources and they are all beautiful and perfect to me!!
And now, an incomplete list of other vids I really really liked and/or was impressed by and/or laughed my ass off at:
who wants to live forever (17776: What Football Will Look Like In The Future)
Congratulations, You Survived Your Suicide (Disco Elysium)
Everything I Need and PC Dyke (Dykes To Watch Out For)
nothing and everything (Hamlet) (the SONG CHOICE)
The Man I Knew (Jesus Christ Superstar)
Here (Labyrinth) (THE SONG CHOICE!!!)
ASSHOLE (Looney Tunes)
Let's Get This Over With (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead)
Ya Ya (Sinners)
There Is No Ship (Steerswoman)
man (Victor/Victoria)
I hope some of you enjoy some of these as much as I did!
Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A
Feb. 6th, 2026 12:00 pmapod_new_feed
Explanation: Massive stars in our Milky Way Galaxy live spectacular lives. Collapsing from vast cosmic clouds, their nuclear furnaces ignite and create heavy elements in their cores. After only a few million years for the most massive stars, the enriched material is blasted back into interstellar space where star formation can begin anew. The expanding debris cloud known as Cassiopeia A is an example of this final phase of the stellar life cycle. Light from the supernova explosion that created this remnant would have been first seen in planet Earth's sky about 350 years ago, although it took that light 11,000 years to reach us. This sharp NIRCam image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows the still-hot filaments and knots in the supernova remnant. The whitish, smoke-like outer shell of the expanding blast wave is about 20 light-years across. A series of light echoes from the massive star's cataclysmic explosion are also identified in Webb's detailed images of the surrounding interstellar medium.
Out shopping this evening, and...
Feb. 6th, 2026 10:11 pmthewayneAmongst the things that I was purchasing was a set of replacement heads/brushes for my electric toothbrush.
The cashier rings them up and then, since it popped up on her register screen, ASKS ME IF I WANT THE PROTECTION PLAN FOR THEM.
WTF?!
We were both quite puzzled over that one. What exactly would a protection plan cover? If they wear out, I can get them replaced? THEY'RE EFFING DESIGNED TO WEAR OUT!
When I told it to Russet just now, she said 'Do they offer a protection plan on these paper plates?'
That would make just about as much sense.
The cashier rings them up and then, since it popped up on her register screen, ASKS ME IF I WANT THE PROTECTION PLAN FOR THEM.
WTF?!
We were both quite puzzled over that one. What exactly would a protection plan cover? If they wear out, I can get them replaced? THEY'RE EFFING DESIGNED TO WEAR OUT!
When I told it to Russet just now, she said 'Do they offer a protection plan on these paper plates?'
That would make just about as much sense.
2026 52 Card Project: Week 5: Maeve
Feb. 6th, 2026 03:28 pmpegkerrSo I have recently had something non-terrible happen. I have acquired a new car, a 2023 Hyundai Tucson. This has been an extraordinary leap forward in technology for me. In fact, I have remarked that driving it after years of driving my old 2000 Toyota Camry, I feel rather like I am piloting a spaceship.
It has seat warmers! It has a video console! You can move the side mirrors in before entering the garage! It has a backup camera!
This may seem like old hat to you--to anyone who is driving anything built in the last decade--but it is entirely wondrous to me.
I name my cars in alphabetical order, boy-girl-boy-girl. My last car was named Lafayette, so this one needed to be a girl's 'M' name.
Given recent events, I decided that I needed a warrior queen's name and settled upon Maeve.
Image description: Background: deep space, seen over the surface of a planet. A black car (Hyundai Tuscon) sits on the planet surface. A sleek spaceship hovers overhead.
Maeve
Click on the links to see the 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.
It has seat warmers! It has a video console! You can move the side mirrors in before entering the garage! It has a backup camera!
This may seem like old hat to you--to anyone who is driving anything built in the last decade--but it is entirely wondrous to me.
I name my cars in alphabetical order, boy-girl-boy-girl. My last car was named Lafayette, so this one needed to be a girl's 'M' name.
Given recent events, I decided that I needed a warrior queen's name and settled upon Maeve.
Image description: Background: deep space, seen over the surface of a planet. A black car (Hyundai Tuscon) sits on the planet surface. A sleek spaceship hovers overhead.
Click on the links to see the 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.
