* An interesting, fun, and very strange article and comment thread, courtesy of Charles Stross. From the intro: “I am working (for reasons of my own) towards a comprehensive list of plausible techno-thriller plots from 2010 where the MacGuffin is named Satoshi Nakamoto.”
* Homecoming: How Afrofuturism Bridges the Past and the Present is an excellent article.
* Once upon a time I was a fan of Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth books. Then he starting carrying water for Ayn Rand, and the decent-but-not-great quality of his interesting-but-not-innovative stories declined sharply. Now he has distinguished himself as a jackass by publicly insulting the cover artist of his latest book. The internet, of course, is having none of this and is doing an excellent job of roasting Mr. Goodkind. It appears his behavior has cost him spots at a couple of conventions, and will likely make future business with the publishing industry more difficult for him. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
* Since students are protesting their presidentially (45) approved murder at the hands of NRA-backed second-amendment fetishists and other terrorists, members of the mainstream conservative fascist and fascist-adjacent community are sending them death threats and accusing them of being crisis actors, etc. This has not stopped the students from protesting, and indeed seems to be reinforcing their will and message. To that point it is important that students (and enforcers of student-affecting rules) know which rights are in play. The ACLU has helpfully published a page which clarifies students’ rights.
* Voyages in Sentence Space is a wonderfully strange tool which “bridges” the space between two arbitrary sentences with additional sentences along a “gradient” of meaning. From the example:
- I went looking for adventure.
- I went out on a mission.
- I shouted awkwardly.
- I stared incredulously.
- I feel desperate.
- I never returned.
- I never returned.
Sentences 1 and 7 are user input. Sentences 2 through 6 are generated to “fill the space” between 1 and 7. Here is an example I generated:
- His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god.
- His features seized his mistressmaker, and then.
- True Bailey leaped through little branches at them.
- Send Clayton taking off his shot.
- No more pictures stood in things.
- It has returned close to none.
- And none returned alive, save I.
Interesting and fun in an absurdist, surrealist way. The full article details the thought and technology behind the experiment.
* At the time of the publishing of this post, I have 1,091 books cataloged at LibraryThing.