Technofeudalism is real.

I do something similar, except on the Kobo I run KOReader which can interface with Calibre-Web over OPDS

Yes, Jeff Vandermeer directly cites it as an inspiration! https://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/jeffvandermeer

I wish Carl were still around. He had a knack for cutting through bullshit we could really use right now

The Fifth Season. I’m currently on the second book The Obelisk Gate so can’t attest for the quality of the whole thing but it’s geological fantasy and I find it quite fascinating. The scale of the world and conflict keeps getting bigger and bigger. It’s very dark but also really draws you in as things ramp up. Themes of the paradox of tolerance, and the challenge of preparing for future crises. The magic system she came up with also feels very fresh to me

The show is also excellent

Demon Haunted World is very timely

I think the point is to be easier than frigate. Eg a full image like home assistant, not needing to fiddle with docker.

I totally get what you’re saying. Nextdoor really is an unpleasant view into how unintelligent everyday people are. I’ve seen it too. I try to be a humanist but they make it hard.

If we prioritize education they fail. That’s why they attack public education with everything they have.

On the other hand, during Jim Crow they had poll tests that were weaponized to keep black people from voting.

The median voter will never realize. They will always forget and eventually get scammed again. I haven’t made peace with this, and feel a kind of grief about it, but it’s the truth. We are trapped in this cycle of idiocy.

I would vote for a candidate that begins the process of devolving the Union so we can eventually divorce into separate countries. I think we are doomed for civil war either way. As a Californian, when they’re doing stuff like systematically disenfranchising us, withholding our Medicaid dollars and attacking our public universities despite us contributing more to the treasury than we take back, it’s hard to feel like an American. I’d prefer to be a citizen of California than share a country with these freaks. Winning elections won’t make me feel any better after seeing how they despise and want to destroy us.

Beat me to it

Eh maybe not that, careful about the tan clam man with the van

Best mascot ever, tied with the banana slugs!

Oh, all the time!

Yosemite actually is a Miwok phrase meaning “those who kill”, referring either to the Ahwahnechee people who were feared by the Miwok, or to European colonizers themselves. Colonialism produces a lot of misnomers.

Clam expert here. It comes from the Salish word gʷidəq, a word whose exact etymology is not well understood. Why that became anglicized as “geo-”, I am not linguistically experienced enough to know!

Franchises where the second film is more broadly acclaimed than the first: Star Wars, The Godfather, The Dark Knight, arguably Alien, Terminator, Star Trek, Paddington, Rocky, James Bond, The Pink Panther, Mad Max. Ones where the third film is the most acclaimed: arguably Indiana Jones, maybe Toy Story, LOTR (kind of all a merged movie so doesn’t count), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Star Wars prequels

As a scientist, yes, it is a horrible scam. The scientists give them rights to the paper for free. The reviewers review for free. Then they charge other people to look at it. And now they came up with open access where the scientists have to pay out of pocket (aka usually with public funds) for the whole process. Meanwhile the review process gets worse and worse, and their profit margin gets bigger and bigger. Last time for a ‘high impact’ journal, I had people in Sri Lanka copy editing my article writing messages to me in broken English. It is all a horrific scam

Nvidia Shield. Years old but still the best.