necarion

[necarion]

As a related note, I'm very much enjoying the story. It's hitting many of the same story beats that ACoTaR and A Discovery of Witches do, but without annoying the hell out of me.

Amazingly, this story features a highly competent (professor of fairy studies at Cambridge), socially isolated woman caught up in magical adventures and a love story. And does not suddenly lose said competence the moment she gets into the smallest scrap of trouble. She is not getting bailed out of her problems by the love interest (although he is giving assists, and showing that they make a good team).

When she is in serious trouble, it is a result of fuckups entirely of her own doing. She has a key role in every time she gets out of those fuckups.

And she never once stops being a massive nerd doing a job she likes. (At least one of her major fuckups have been because scholarship. Which checks.)

Yes, somehow, someone has written a fairy/magical love story featuring a strong female protagonist who does not once give up her agency in the story.

I was summarizing Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Fairies (Heather Fawcett, 2023) to @jadagul and used the phrase "one of the village lesbians":

@jadagul: I'm amused by the phrase "one of the village lesbians". Like it's a standard job niche. Me: Every good village needs a blacksmith, idiot, and lesbian. Me: Some even extremely economical about it, even.

And now I think I want to read a story about that lady.

#emily wilde’s encyclopaedia of faeries #heather fawcett #this book reads like Fawcett was annoyed at ACOTAR too

[necarion]

I was summarizing Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Fairies (Heather Fawcett, 2023) to @jadagul and used the phrase "one of the village lesbians":

@jadagul: I'm amused by the phrase "one of the village lesbians". Like it's a standard job niche. Me: Every good village needs a blacksmith, idiot, and lesbian. Me: Some even extremely economical about it, even.

And now I think I want to read a story about that lady.

#Gideon is approaching that

[necarion]

I managed to keep the raspberries from getting moldy by the simple expedient of eating them all within an hour of buying them.

It was probably a close-run thing, too.

[necarion]

“If Creation is not mine, what need is there to be a Creation at all?” – Dread Empress Triumphant, First and Only of Her Name.

Top-Tier Villain Motivations

They will be safe. It doesn't matter who else or what else burns as long as They will be safe.

I will be safe. The hunger and the cold will never touch me again.

Fuck any bitch who's prettier(/cooler/better-liked/better at making dumplings) than me.

Yes, Master

Love me. Love me. Love me. Love me. LOVE ME!

I know the terrible things these so-called "heroes" will do if I don't stop them (<- is absolutely wrong)

I don't want a better future, I want a better past!

No other way to get performance art funded these days

[necarion]

I know we have the word "nationalize", but really, the opposite of "privatize" should be "generalize".

#puns #but also it works on its own merits

[necarion]

"The reason 'Maverick' is unrealistic is that nobody has a cool callsign like that. 'Maverick', 'Iceman'? You don't get callsigns like that. Every callsign is going to be unique or weird about you, or something you did that is embarrassing or borderline humiliating. If you went into someplace and said 'I want my callsign to be Maverick', you would be hazed to the point of death."

Source: Jag officer talks about laws broken in "Top Gun". (A lot of them...)

[necarion]

A "natural horn" is a brass instrument that relies almost exclusively on control of harmonics to change pitch, but were substantially replaced when instrument valves enabled greater pitch control.

Few know that there also exist sharp and flat horns, which are created through the judicious application of a whetstone and steam roller, respectively.

#Puns

[necarion]

I had a problem with that 'that that' post, until I had had a revelation that 'that' had had multiple grammatical functions within that 'that' sentence.

Now, I do understand that that "that that" that post complained about was upsetting to people.

But personally, I think that that "that that 'that that' that" that that "that that" post inspired was woefully insufficient.

Rather, I think that that "that that 'that that' that" that that poster posted should have been "that that 'that that' that that" instead.

[necarion]

My planetary scientist friends are as interested in Titan as they are in Pluto as they are in Mars (some are obviously easier to get to). For some reason, "planet" ended up as a value-laden term.

Mind you, I do call Pluto a planet to tweak my astro friends, but it is kayfabe. I generally think "Pluto is a dwarf planet" is more terminologically useful than "Ceres is a planet".

There is place to argue over semantics and terminology. The issue is that these things inexplicably end up as reified statements of "quality".

The IUCN criterion used to exclude Pluto and the other dwarf planets–that they don't clear their orbits–is very useful if you're studying how stellar systems form and evolve. From that perspective, the eight major planets really are in a different class from any other bodies in the solar system, and probably deserve their own name. But if you're doing "planetary" science–i.e. studying the bodies themselves–then it's completely irrelevant. As far as anyone knows, the size you have to be to clear your orbit doesn't form any kind of natural boundary where the dynamics of geology or atmospheric chemistry abruptly change. For that matter, one of the other IUCN criteria, that you have to be orbiting the sun directly, is also not that relevant.

This is the crux of why terminological conventions shouldn't be treated the same as other kinds of scientific knowledge. Even if you can make the claim that the convention is in some sense objective, it will still be contextual. Statements about utility always are. Statements of scientific fact, on the other hand, should at least be true (if not relevant) in any context, regardless of by what means or within what discipline they were discovered.

#Linguistics #Planetary science #Planets

[necarion]

Now for something completely 違う.

Fascinating analysis, (I wish I didn't have to look up quite so many of the furigana, although that is on me...). I definitely use it both like an adjective and verb without thinking about it.

違う is the only い-adjective in Japanese that doesn’t end in い

[necarion]

#Castor and Pollux #Cats

[necarion]

Yeah, but this is basically how politics worked in Imperial China.

[necarion]

Step 7: Reduce the sauce for ~15 minutes

Me: Honey, where the hell did I leave my cathode?

[necarion]

THEY CROSSED THE STREAMS. YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT HAPPENED NEXT!

THOM MERRILIN: MORE THAN A SIMPLE GLEEMAN? (Betteridge's law, obviously, says no)

And my favorite political attack ad:

SHOCKING REVELATIONS: BAYLE DOMON PUTS AGED GRANDMOTHER BEFORE PROFITS

IS MAZRIM TAIM A DARKFRIEND???? OR JUST A POWER HUNGRY NARCISSIST?

[necarion]

As America contemplates entering another Cold War, it's important to remember the lessons of the last one: supporting brutal, unpopular tyrants (as long as they're our brutal, unpopular tyrants) will always work out with no downsides whatsoever.

[necarion]

Fascinating video about how modern digital camera technology is much worse at handling rocket launch footage than old school film, because an oversaturated region in film will affect mainly that spot on film, where as an oversaturated digital pixel can cause the entire image to white out.

I bet the person who took this picture of Apollo 11 had a hard-on about it for weeks.

#Youtube

[necarion]

major spoilers for AMOL:

THE DRAGON STOLE MY BODY! EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH MAN WHO DENIES BEING RAND AL'THOR.

IS MAZRIM TAIM A DARKFRIEND???? OR JUST A POWER HUNGRY NARCISSIST?