Reading

Current Mood: content
Current Location: couch
Current Music: this video

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Featured Mind: Hypatia

Hypatia[a] (born c. 350–370; died 415 AD) was a Hellenistic Neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, she taught philosophy and astronomy. She is the first female mathematician whose life is reasonably well recorded. Hypatia was renowned in her own lifetime as a great teacher and a wise counselor. She is known to have written a commentary on Diophantus's thirteen-volume Arithmetica, which may survive in part, having been interpolated into Diophantus's original text, and another commentary on Apollonius of Perga's treatise on conic sections, which has not survived. Many modern scholars also believe that Hypatia may have edited the surviving text of Ptolemy's Almagest, based on the title of her father Theon's commentary on Book III of the Almagest.

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Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia
https://www.academia.edu/3652339/Hypatia_of_Alexandria_Quotes
https://historyandartifacts.com/hypatia-of-alexandria-a-beacon-of-knowledge-in-ancient-egypt/

Emergency fund

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UC_XMEN FIC MEME > PROMPTS NEEDED

UC_XMEN FIC MEME > PROMPTS NEEDED

Event Info: Help is needed for

uc_xmen new fic meme/drabble-a-thon for X-Men unconventional ships. So in the style of the various fic memes and oxoniensis' Porn Battles - comment with prompts & I'll post a masterlist by July 6th. That gives us about two weeks for prompts and then a free-for-all to grab the prompts and start writing.

Important Dates: Collecting Prompts until July 6, 2025, which is when a new post with all the prompts will be organized and viewable for anyone to grab and start writing! No time limit after that!

Notes/Other Key Info: PROMPT AS MUCH OR AS LITTLE AS YOU WISH! THE MORE THE MERRIER! You want a full sentence or song title or whatever go ahead, or you can just do simple one or two worded prompts. If you have more than one prompt for a pairing, please separate by a comma (such as Cyclops/Rogue - bed, kiss, butterfly kisses) Comment as many times as you want, or just edit your comments before July 6th. I'll make a Masterpost for all the prompts that day and start the challenge then. If it happens where no one comments, I'll try to make up my own list up with various pairings, not just everything I ship.

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"The Witness for the Dead" by Katherine Addison

You know that feeling where you're enjoying inhabiting a book so much you don't want to reach the end? This week I finished The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison, and that's how I felt.

Witness is a companion novel to Addison's breakout novel, The Goblin Emperor (TGE), which I read for the first time last year and never got around to reviewing. You don't need to have read TGE to enjoy this one at all; Witness focuses on a minor character from TGE and his adventures after the events of that novel. Thara Celehar is a prelate of the god Ulis, and his role in elven society is something like a cross between a priest and a private detective. He has the ability to commune, in a limited fashion, with the dead, and he is employed by the city to provide this service to the people. This may involve reporting a deceased's last thoughts to a mourner, asking a deceased to clarify a point on their will, or seeking answers from a murder victim to bring their killer to justice.

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adult_content

Kink Hub Theme of the Month: "Sex on the Beach"

Kink Hub: A Sharing & Reccing Community for Kink Fics

Links:

kinkhub | Community Rules | Posting Guidelines | Monthly Themes & Free-For-All | July: Sex on the Beach

Description: Kink Hub is an 18+ comm for anything kink fic, where you can self-promote, share and rec fanfics of all fandoms and original works. RPF is welcome.

For the month of July, the theme for all shared fics is "Sex on the Beach", which means any kinks related to outdoor fun (no actual beach required) and/or alcoholic beverages (no cocktail required). If you've written or read fics featuring any related kink, you're very welcome to share the links to them in this comm.

Current Mood: okay

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books

How do you decide what to read?

I just finished watching John Green's latest video, in which he talks about the vagaries of the NYT bestseller list and how you will miss out on a lot of excellent books if you use that as your primary source of book recommendations. So that got me to wondering how other people discover the books that they want to read.

Personally, I am such a F/SF devotee that a huge number of the books I end up checking out are sourced directly from Tor's lists of new releases. They publish the lion's share of my current favorite authors and seem to be responsible for the majority of recent Hugo nominees.

I also rely heavily on my local libraries. There are two in particular with good F/SF sections and I am able to find most of the books that I want to read in their collections instead of having to purchase them. I also regularly browse their nonfiction new releases and recommendations for younger readers.

The other major source of recommendations for me is social media - mostly you all here on Dreamwidth, but also Bluesky, Facebook, and Discord. I'm always paying attention to what my friends are into.

Occasionally I'll see an interesting book on the shelf at Target or Barnes & Noble, but I'm not located near any independent bookstores, alas.

Current Mood: busy

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recurring posts

July Monthly Post

What are your planned crowdfunding projects for June? What did you accomplish during May?

The June

crowdfunding Creative Jam will run Saturday 19-Sunday 20 with a theme of "Heroism -- Real or Perceived."

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boulder boulder

something I learned at climbing today

It is possible to use your entire forearm against one of those giant sloping holds where there's basically nothing to grab its just an awkward orb bigger than your head and you're praying to the gods of friction to keep you there. You do get a lot of friction, laying an entire forearm on it! So much that, after moving your feet up, you're in a terribly awkward position with no good way to move your forearm without losing a bunch of skin or falling off the wall.

I'm better at sloper holds than I think I am, but, confidence & lack thereof adds its own difficulty.

Rebuilding journal search again

We're having to rebuild the search server again (previously, previously). It will take a few days to reindex all the content.

Meanwhile search services should be running, but probably returning no results or incomplete results for most queries.

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"I Already Decided" for Bases

Title: (I'm supposed to win!) I already decided!
Credit to:

ceu
Base style: Bases (Tropical)
Type: CSS
Best resolution: 1200x800 | Desktop only
Tested in: Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox
Features: Two column, fixed width, supports only custom text & navigation, custom background

live preview/usage @

blackthorncity

(fake cut for instructions and code)

20 Zoe Saldana icons

I am a storyteller and an artist and I love what I do.

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work

AI is making my job worse

At work I have acquired two junior devs who heavily use AI when writing code. I don't mind the AI, but I do mind that they're too junior to know what good code looks like and AI accelerates their bad choices to stratospheric levels. One dev told me he that "AI couldn't fix the bugs" in his new unit test so he let AI rewrite it in a completely different test framework at four times the length and still with bugs. The other dev asked me to review 1k LOC he had not read himself that was a nightmare of bad choices and code that had no business being added to the existing service. For both, the initial review wasn't even a review, it was me eyeballing it for two minutes then bailing and telling them to rewrite it entirely.

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tv: couple of mirrors

New Vid: To Hell & Back | Couple of Mirrors

Title: To Hell & Back
Fandom: 双镜 | Couple of Mirrors (2021)
Music: To Hell & Back by Maren Morris
Summary: 'lucky for me, your kind of heaven's been to hell and back'
Notes: Premiered at Escapade 35.5.
Warnings: quick cuts and flashing lights, violence

AO3 | bsky | DW | tumblr | YouTube

Babylon White

Babylon White by Kit Sun Cheah

The grand conclusion! Spoilers for earlier books ahead.

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Current Mood: busy

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Allbingo and Crowdfunding

allbingo provides a space for creative people to share their work, using bingo cards for inspiration.

crowdfunding is a community for creators, patrons, and fans of cyberfunded creativity.

Further details below ...

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communication,
news

Science, Skepticism, and Engineering Netcasts

Let's make a list of multimedia resources! News websites, journals, and publications can be separate.

twis.org

One of the oldest netcasts out there! Live every Wednesday night (US timezones). Check them out on YT or subscribe via Antennapod or any other podcatcher. Subscribe to their newsletter. Weekly news by Dr. Kiki, Blair Baz The Zoologist who has her Animal Corner segment, and Justin Jackson who's a science writer and funny dude. They also broadcast on FM radio in California from UC Davis.

Skeptoid

Since 2006, the weekly Skeptoid podcast has been taking on all the most popular urban legends and revealing the true science, true history, and true lessons we can learn from each. Skeptoid is a listener supported501(c)(3) nonprofit. Learn more

The Skeptics Guide to the Universe

Another one of the oldest netcasts out there on critical thinking and science. Featuring Dr. Steven Novella, Dr. Cara Santa Maria, and a few others. Tune in for the weekly "Who's That Noisy?", "Science or Fiction?", and other segments.

Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria

Conversations with interesting people about interesting topics.

This Week in Space

Hosted by Rod Pyle, Tariq Malik
The new space age is upon us, and This Week in Space leaves no topic untouched. Every Friday, join Editor-in-Chief of Ad Astra magazine, Rod Pyle and Managing Editor of Space.com, Tariq Malik as they explore everything related to the cosmos.Join Club TWiT to remove ads. New episodes every Friday.

Science Friday

Covering the outer reaches of space to the tiniest microbes in our bodies, Science Friday is the source for entertaining and educational stories about science, technology, and other cool stuff. Also on most public radio stations in the US.

Unbiased Science

Hosted by Dr. Jessica Steier and Dr. Sarah Scheinman. Together they debunk health science myths and break down complex topics - without oversimplifying them. Combating disinformation with expert discussion.

The Naked Scientists

Based at Cambridge University's Institute of Continuing Education (ICE), the Naked Scientists are a team of scientists, doctors and communicators whose passion is to help the general public to understand and engage with the worlds of science, technology and medicine.
They have a whole bunch of netcasts!

Well There's Your Problem

We're making a podcast about engineering disasters and systemic failures, from a leftist perspective.

Science In Action

Brought to you by the BBC every week covering the latest science news.

Singularity.FM

The world's first podcast dedicated to exploring AI and the technological singularity. Dive into thought-provoking interviews where cutting-edge technology meets deep ethical discussions. We focus on exponential tech, accelerating change, and the critical choices shaping our future. Our mission is to uncover unprecedented dangers and opportunities, empowering you to create a better future and a better you.

Microbe.tv

They host a bunch of weekly science news netcasts on microbology, viruology, and others. They're blocking my VPN IP currently so I can't really get ya any more info right now! Search in your podcatcher.

What do you guys listen to that's science-y.

Current Mood: contemplative

Took a personality test

And the results are:

"Your toxic trait:
The Drama Llama
I'm a Drama Llama. I think I am deeper and more unique than most people, but am actually just high-maintenance. Self-awareness is the first step!"

Well, I try not to be.

Current Mood: weird

Messing with AI stuff

So I'm trying some of those AI art generators here and there, and while some think this may well be an alternative to actually pick up your pencil and create your own thing...it isn't.

Sure, some results look nice, especially with likes of Pokemon and other well known IPs. But mostly something tragic spews out the results, which comes to the equivalent of sheer nightmare fuel with characters sprouting extra limbs, fingers, eyes, etc...or becoming a melty mess to the point you have no idea WTF you're looking at.

So if anyone believes they could use such "generated" content for the sake of becoming a better artist, I'll tell you that it could potentially make your skills a whole lot worse.

I'm not that skilled at drawing, but I at least know where eyes on a face are placed.

Just saying.

Still, its amusing to see what mess it shoots out whenever I try and poke it.

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astronomy

NASA APOD 25/06/28 - Lunar Farside

Image Credit: NASA / GSFC / Arizona State Univ. / Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Explanation: Tidally locked in synchronous rotation, the Moon always presents its familiar nearside to denizens of planet Earth. From lunar orbit, the Moon's farside can become familiar, though. In fact this sharp picture, a mosaic from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's wide angle camera, is centered on the lunar farside. Part of a global mosaic of over 15,000 images acquired between November 2009 and February 2011, the highest resolution version shows features at a scale of 100 meters per pixel. Surprisingly, the rough and battered surface of the farside looks very different from the nearside covered with smooth dark lunar maria. A likely explanation is that the farside crust is thicker, making it harder for molten material from the interior to flow to the surface and form dark, smooth maria.

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astronomy

NASA APOD 25/06/27 - Messier 109

Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Eder

Explanation: Big beautiful barred spiral galaxy Messier 109 is the 109th entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog of bright Nebulae and Star Clusters. You can find it just below the Big Dipper's bowl in the northern constellation Ursa Major. In fact, bright dipper star Phecda, Gamma Ursa Majoris, produces the glare at the upper right corner of this telescopic frame. M109's prominent central bar gives the galaxy the appearance of the Greek letter "theta", θ, a common mathematical symbol representing an angle. M109 spans a very small angle in planet Earth's sky though, about 7 arcminutes or 0.12 degrees. But that small angle corresponds to an enormous 120,000 light-year diameter at the galaxy's estimated 60 million light-year distance. The brightest member of the now recognized Ursa Major galaxy cluster, M109 (aka NGC 3992) is joined by spiky foreground stars. Three small, fuzzy bluish galaxies also on the scene, identified (top to bottom) as UGC 6969, UGC 6940 and UGC 6923, are possibly satellite galaxies of the larger barred spiral galaxy Messier 109.