I’m still seeing this as an active posting, linked on other UN pages e.g.,
https://dppa.un.org/en/gazas-new-terror-booby-trapped-cans-of-food-unwary
However, a similar claim in January was found to be false by fact checking news orgs.
Startide Rising is the best of them all.
Sundiver is quite good too.
The later books were deeply marred by Brin’s giving into pressure from his editors to centre them on a group of adolescent males of diverse species because his publisher was of the view that the average scientific fiction reader was a 14 year old male. Brin has written about this and how difficult it was for him to write outside his natural quite adult style. His fantastic characters from Startide Rising are pushed into the background and only get to step forward and shine again at the very end.
The StarTrek.website instance has nontoxic and active community with views - and of course one of the longest running franchises to discuss.
There’s even a great where to start post along the lines you’re looking for.
Now naturally other stuff exists, and we even have a place to discuss that over at /quarks.
I’ve recently become aware of mulesing, an appalling practice used on Merino sheep in Australia and NZ due to a specific fly problem. The problem is that most merino wool is from those countries.
Also, most fabric generically labeled ‘wool’ is mostly merino from mulesinged sheep.
Ethics conscious knitters, crocheters and weavers are aware, and merino yarns certified as mulesing-free are on the market now.
Knowing country of origin and wool type is another reliable way to avoid endorsing this practice, but again most manufactured clothing or even fabrics will not give the necessary information.
Yoon Ha Lee really plays with fun math concepts. Great stuff. The Ninefox trilogy was a real entry point for me to begin to appreciate Korean mythology.
Yup, lack of advanced science concepts and an accumulation of errors despite a pretension to working problems for the audience.
Even some basic geography errors - early in the book, he claims that the sample had to be landed in Saskatchewan for a high latitude to match the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Baikonur is at 45 N latitude, about the same as the border between North and South Dakota. Everywhere in Saskatchewan is North of the 49th parallel and south of 60. Sigh.
I have to say that I just don’t get the hype about this book.
Project Hail Mary is really targeted at a middle grade reading and maturity level. I would have happily given it to our kids to read in middle grade (as I did The Martian).
It’s a Robinson Crusoe meets a buddy in space boys-own-adventure tale (although Weir insists on male gendering a hermaphrodite when ‘they/them’ is well understood). There are clear indications that the story was told to pull in immature readers - starting with the ludicrous scene where Grace has spent days waiting for zero G without stowing any of his lab equipment or supplies.
It’s a compellingly written ‘work the problem’ read but anything beyond high school science concepts isn’t really there. Once again, I feel like we’re seeing more overhyped STEM based on concepts that haven’t advanced beyond what a mid 20th century bachelors degree would cover.
It held my attention as an easy read while fighting a bug, I can’t see picking up another of his books for myself.
There are a few very odd ‘too much information’ references to sexual relationships and use of alcohol that seem almost awkwardly placed to bump up the level, but there’s not really enough in there to even warrant the ‘school edition’ treatment that ‘The Martian’ got. Otherwise nothing stretches past middle grade emotional maturity.
All told, I was expecting more.
Appreciated sincerely!
The moopsy appears in Star Trek Lower Decks S4E2 ‘I have no bones, yet I must flee.’
Working through ‘Ten Low’ by Stark Holburn now. My partner is through the sequel already and recommended.
Love Scalzi but wish he could vary his voice more. I find I have to spread out reading his books as the snark will all blur after a while.
The orgy in The Diamond Age isn’t much better.
Stephenson got a pass on a lot of his weird stuff.
I found The Sea of Tranquility a bit dry but whimsical nonetheless.
In a genre overburdened by books with two dimensional characters and core dumps of exposition, it was an interesting puzzle but it also isn’t making me want to reread it either. 7.5 or 8.
Hugely disappointed by The Diamond Age after Snow Crash. It really lost the plot.
Sorry She-Hulk didn’t work for you.
Won’t ask what put you off but suggest seeing it through to the end.
As someone who read the comics it felt very comic-accurate while adding in the clearly feminist perspective of its creator/showrunner. Basically, it took a female action hero created by men and gave her ownership by women.
All of these platforms skew male, white, heterosexual, older etc.
It’s a major concern when AI’s are using them for training data. Or, when studio executives take them into account in decisions about what to greenlight.
Reddit is actually relatively better balanced at 2/3s male. Review aggregator sites like Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb are more heavily male.
I’m finding the conversation on Lemmy more civil, but unconscious bias is a thing.
For me the feeling happened first when I saw Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley was going to be the survivor in the original Alien.
Now, movies conceived and produced by men starring female action heroes are their own trope and don’t have the same impact.
She-Hulk however gave me that joy. I hope Marvel looks at the actual viewership numbers of She-Hulk and the success of Barbie when making a decision on a second season.
I believe we’ve seen the same analysis.
The old cable model made Comcast the arbiter of an ecosystem, with streamers competing against one another, the model fell apart. It’s interesting that smaller players like Paramount and others are collaborating in some markets (e.g., SkyShowtime).
StarTrek.website is an instance dedicated to the Star Trek franchise.
It is a solid, well functioning medium-sized instance, and the largest one specific to a particular show, movie or franchise. It was created by mods of related subreddits.
It’s communities cover Star Trek television shows and movies as well as tie-in books, comics, games and merchandise. It also has a general discussion (off topic) community.
Unfortunately, there’s increasing evidence that the streamers are saving cash and reducing net streaming losses by not producing new content, while not having to worry that their competitors are out producing them.
For AMPTP, this is a deus ex machina that gets its members out of the trap of dreadnaught-like extraordinarily expensive competition.
Eventually, they won’t be able to buy existing content to fill their schedules and subscribers may find other things to do without new content, but for the moment there are incentives for them to drag out the strike.
This is also raising questions of foreign interference/influence in democratic process.
In Canada, the federal Elections Commissioner has been called on to investigate the source of bot campaigns for the leading opposition party: Online bot campaign backing Pierre Pollievre prompts call for probe.