Riven
Well, I sort of stalled out on The Skinner by Neal Asher so I could read this instead. It’s very exciting and so far it’s taking up all my valuable Zelda playing time. Just kidding–I make time for the important things, and saving Hyrule is pretty far up there. But don’t ever study for the FINRA exams, kids. Not even once. At least I have this to read for leisure, thanks to a certain Swiss Servator who drew my name in the Christmas gift exchange. It’s actually been very interesting in the first four chapters, as there has been no mention of schtupping yet, nor any guides or the like. Truly, it’s all philosophy in the first four or five chapters; namely, the importance of that particular aspect of your life. There was an entire chapter on what women should learn (and continue to learn with the consent of their husbands, once they use these skills to attract and retain one), and it was definitely not what you would expect. “Magic (sorcery), carpentry, architecture, chemistry, knowledge of war, the art of cock fighting,” and many more that you really would expect–singing, danging, playing instruments, and doing all three at the same time, for examples. I’ve not finished it yet, since is strictly “wind-down-before-bed-after-abusing-my-eyes-with-S65” material, but based on what I have read so far, I’d say it’s worth picking up. Get yourself an illustrated guide and give it a look! (Who knows, you might even read it one day.)
Gojira
I’m currently reading The King in Yellow, by Robert Chambers, and The Three Imposters, by Arthur Machen. I picked up this fantastic annotated volume of Lovecraft, and was in the mood for more weird fiction. Seriously, if you love Lovecraft, this is the one you need. The annotations are so detailed you sometimes lose yourself reading several pages of run-on notes and forget where you were in the actual story. And the forward is by noted magician, author, anarchist, and complete maniac Alan Moore!
Old Man With Candy
I’m reading a slick piece of non-fiction called Metalworking Fluids, by Jerry Byers. This shows you what an exciting life I lead. The chapter about anticorrosion additives warmed my heart, but I found the chapter on contact dermatitis somewhat irritating. Beg, borrow or steel a copy.
Joe Haldeman rarely disappoints, but The Coming did. When you get to the surprise ending, you’ll think, “That’s what I figured out on Page 10.” It’s set in Future Florida, where everything is fucked up because of global warming and has a few interesting characters tossed into a totally formulaic story. Haldeman does a cute writing gimmick bypassing of the POV between characters in a sequential way (i.e., A has the point of view and interacts with B, the next chapter has B’s POV as he or she interacts with C, and so on). Not enough to rescue a limp effort.
And guilty pleasure: I hadn’t read The Sum of All Fears in about 20 years, so I thought, “Let’s see how this has aged.” Not well. Still, it’s a technical gem from an assembly standpoint that must have taken a massive effort to plot out and in true guilty pleasure fashion, I admit that I’m enjoying it.
JW
I’ve branched out in my reading and am now including fruit juice jars. OMWC sent me a bottle of Dr. Bronner’s soap, but after 5 minutes or so, my lips got tired.
SP
I’m working semi-diligently on learning Italian. HM pointed out that I already learned one language, so I can, in fact, learn a new language…in spite of my previous failures to learn a second language. I’m using Duolingo. It seems to be working. I no longer need to translate the social media posts from my Italian art-world friends and I have recently found myself dreaming in Italian.
So this month I’m reading Italian Short Stories for Beginners. The first story is about a businessman who frequents saunas after work.
I’m also tackling the chaos in the non-public areas of my home. Again. This time, I’m trying the advice of Real Life Organizing: Clean and Clutter-Free in 15 Minutes A Day. It’s inspirational, really. “You don’t have to actually be an organized person to live like one.” Most horrifying tip: take “before” photos of your space to really see how bad it is since we become inured to the reality over time and block stuff out. This is eye-opening. And, did I mention, horrifying? I’m making some progress, though!
Also dipping into Idiot’s Guide to Plant-Based Nutrition, 2nd Edition prior to starting GlibFit next week. I really like co-author Ray Cronise and read pretty much everything he writes. So, this will be my second try at a plant-based way of eating, for health reasons. Hope it sticks this time; it really did help me feel somewhat better the last time I was doing it. (This is not medical advice of any kind. I am not a doctor, nor do I play one online. YMMV.)
mexican sharpshooter
At the suggestion of another Glib (HT: Sour Kraut) I picked up How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe’s Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It. Sorry about insulting the Scots. Honestly, if they didn’t want to be insulted, they wouldn’t talk so funny.
jesse.in.mb
Accidentally read a cursed scroll of confuse monster over Thanksgiving weekend, and will be functionally illiterate for at most another 32 turns.
SugarFree
I worked my way through the massive, exhaustive Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960s by Kim Newman. Updated twice since its initial publication in 1984, Newman’s deep dive into horror, thrillers and hybrids like SF-horror eschews well-examined films like Alien and Halloween to focus on smaller niche moves and grindhouse fare. Newman’s prose is breezy yet not flippant and keeps the sub-genre focused chapters moving along to contextualize and critique styles like giallo and Hammer Films gothic horror well-enough for even a casual horror fan to understand. Much like his Apocalypse Movies: End of the World Cinema (1999), I came away with dozens of movies added to my watch list and just as many to re-watch. Newman does come at horror from a British perspective; for a more American (and especially grindhouse) focused work, try Nightmare USA: The Untold Story of the Exploitation Independents by Stephen Thrower.
I didn’t care for “Llama Llama Red Pajama”.
My daughter likes the colors in “Following Papa’s Song”, that one went over much better.
Went back to a classic, “Hop on Pop”, but she has misinterpreted it, as standing on my belly is now a favorite thing.
I use several of the Llama Llama phrases to calm my 3 year old down.
Llama Lama too much drama!
My son always seems concerned when we get to “what if Mama Llama’s…gone?”
It’s not a threat; it’s a promise.
*looks over at mom*
Last time I was over, he threw a shitfit when she went to the bathroom without him. Well-adjusted kid you got there.
As you well know, the problem isn’t with the kid.
I only showed him the tip.
Maybe she will prefer this version.
SP, if your Italian is strong enough, The Leopard is a great book. It has to do with the unification of Italy in Sicily.
Thanks, JS. I’ll add it to my list for when I’m at more than “60% fluency”!
You could watch the Burt Lancaster movie.
I would also highly recommend Belfagor by Machiavelli. Briefly, the devil wants to know what marriage is all about so he sends Belfagor to take a wife. She spends all his money and he leaves town to escape his creditors. A farmer hides him in a haystack as the creditors ride by, and Belfagor returns the favor by possessing someone’s daughter so the farmer can be paid to exorcise him. After that, it gets pretty crazy. It’s a very short novella and will provide many laughs.
I concur with “The Leopard” as well. Interesting characters about a turbulent time in the fairly recent past. The 1963 film version is also worthy of a view.
Currently reading “Fool’s Errand : Time wo End The War in Afghanistan” by Scott Horton, and have “Cities of The Red Night” by William S Burroughs next in the que.
I’ve been really busy with my new job, getting the house ready for an impending arrival, and battling the usual existential crises, and as such, consistent reading (or even commenting here) has been elusive.
Also doing some research for my next submission.
Happy Friday, Glibs.
How is the Scott Horton book? I read his article summarizing his thoughts in the American Conservative
It’s super detailed and thick with a play by play of the entire American occupation there. I’m not all the way through it yet, but so far, so good, especially if you are a details geek and want to find most of the story left out by the media.
“Cities of The Red Night”
“do lots of drugs before reading to preserve sanity, or as excuse”
Just finished The Lion’s Gate by Pressfield based on the (((recommendations))) of some Glibs. Good book, although it got a little hard to follow when he switched narrators every third sentence. Also, the imagined Moshe Dayan testimony got a little melodramatic at times. But overall, worth a read as it gives a different perspective of the Six Days War.
I actually started reading jordan petereson maps of meaning but it in not exactly a light read so don’t know if i will finish it
Any plans on picking up his new book, ‘12 Rules for Life – an Antidote to Chaos’?
I would think that most people here are relatively successful, well adjusted, and have ‘cleaned their rooms’, so I don’t know how much use any of us would get out of it. Seems like Peterson’s message is aimed at the youth crowd, in an attempt to innoculate them against the stupidity dominating academia and the wider culture at present.
and some of us aren’t most people. Stop othering me!
I am not well adjusted really but i got maps of meaning when he offered it for free on his site 12 rules seems to cost money. then again I am Romanian so I could just torrent it.
I just ordered that Peterson 12 Rules book, on Audiobooks. and will be listening to it this weekend as I hike…
I mentioned an old Batman comic I was reading the other day where a British vigilante named Hood was busting guys for smuggling cigarettes. Well, in the next issue he’s attacking British Aristocrats for fox hunting (he’s the blonde guy that gets unmasked, Bruce Wayne is in disguise as the guy who unmasks him.) I’m still not sure if they were making fun of these ideas or idolizing them.
The cigarette thing for folks who missed it.
The Hood sounds like a real asshole
Just finished reading the first two Dragonriders of Pern series by Ann McAffrey. They did *not* age well. Part of the problem is that her “low tech” paradise is utterly Marxist, and the whole thing is layers of contrivances and deus ex machina plot twists.
I also finished reading Lost in Shangri La by Mitchell Zukoff. It’s a history of the rescue of the survivors of a U.S. transport plane that crashed on a remote valley in Papua New Guinea in the spring of 1945. The author interviewed people who were there, American survivors as well as natives, and it’s both sad and funny at the same time. The comedy comes from the mutually miscomprehending interactions between the Americans and the natives who try to treat each other decently and benevolently but are so alien from each other that almost everything the other group appears completely insane. Oh, and the U.S. press corps of the era comes of just as moronic and tabloidy as they do today.
The big heroes are the survivors of the plane crash and the the Philipino-American paratroopers who parachuted into the jungle to provide medical care and security. The native chiefs who, unknown to the Americans, had decided to put their permanent war on hold with a truce and to give safe conduct to the Americans through their territories come off pretty admirably.
Next up, Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules of Life.
I loved the Dragon Riders of Pern series when I first read it back in the late 80’s. Couple of years ago I found coppies of all 3 books at a used book store and bought them.
Man did the suck fairy visit them hard.
There were tons of things I could have sworn were actually in the books that were just absent. It read like a half formed attempt at a story written by a high school student just learning how to write
I tried to read the first one a long time ago and I was like, what is this fucking shit? Never even tried to read anything else. It might have been the beginning of my hatred of science-fantasy.
I did read shamefully deep into the Xanth series, though…
You can read a Xanth book in one bowel movement. It’s entertaining schlock, why wouldn’t you?
I will admit to enjoying the Adept series when i was a kid. That alone probably makes me an awful person.
I recently revisited the Xanth series – and didn’t bother after the second book.
Even when I really liked it as a young’n’ there was a point where it just seemed silly and more of a cash cow for the author.
I have a soft spot for piers anthony, so i totally understand.
Anne McCaffrey only ever wrote four characters. But I will admit to liking the Crystal Singer trilogy.
Thanks for the flashback. I think I read a couple of them waaay back in high school, when virtually any good SF was hard to come by, but eventually I just couldn’t get past the bone-deep stupidity of “evil things are falling from the sky, and could fall anywhere on the entire planet, but we will save the planet by stopping them in this one tiny area.”
“Over there can handle its own problems” -Superman
Still working on:
– Human Action by Mises (it’s a lengthy one, ya know)
– Mein Kampf. I thought this would be interesting from a historical standpoint, but it’s dreadfully boring and difficult to follow.
– Shadowbosses: How Government Unions Rob Taxpayers Blind by Mallory Factor. The thesis of the book is something that every libertarian probably knows already, but it’s both informative and maddening to see just how many policies are in place to funnel public money into these unions’ coffers.
– The Decameron by Giovanni Boccacio.
I also got the complete works of Shakespeare the other day, which I plan on reading just because it’s so influential. I already read A Midsummer Night’s Dream and enjoyed it, especially the part where that goofus is portraying a wall as though it were a character.
“he killed 10 million people and all i got was this boring lecture”
and difficult to follow
Hitler would be a tough opener for any comedian. He kills, how are you supposed to follow that?
*narrows gaze*
I think I’ve had this discussion with someone else here before, but if you think Hitler is turgid and incomprehensible, try reading Alfred Rosenberg’s The Myth of the 20th Century. I had to read sections of it for a college class, and it made me want to slam a car door on my head. Always enjoyed this bit from Wiki:
So bad, even Hitler didn’t want to read it.
How is the Decameron? I bought it a while back, but have not had a chance to start it.
There are some boring stories in there, but many of them are really funny, especially considering the time period they were written in. There are also tragedies in there. I think I just got to the first story of the eighth day.
Awesome. It sounds like the kind of book (which is how I planned on treating it) that you can take your time with. Read one story here or there. Thanks!
Don’t you people work?
Yes.
I DON’T EVEN WORK! FINE! ARE YOU HAPPY!?
No.
Happiness is for children and women.
at 8 30 pm on a Friday? I don’t get payed enough for that
booooooooooooo
“Temporal and Spiritual Authority” by St. Robert Bellarmine
Keeping it light and breezy I see
He always does this. Makes me look like a retarded tree sloth.
I can out retard you any day of the week. The book I read before this was “Based on a True Story” by Norm MacDonald. Therefore, I am less edumacated
Was it any good?
Excellent. Norm MacDonald is the best Canadian import since Hockey
I’m listening to “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?” by Agatha Christie.
I’m still reading “Dark Imperium” by Guy Haley
I’m writing “Red Card” “Liberator” “Absolution*” “Mightier than the Sword*” and “Port Strov*”
Of these, one should be finished in the near future.
*working title
“Red Card” – what are ya a commie?
The BHA (Bureau of Hero Affairs) expanded its regulatory remit to cover all powered individuals. A powered individual who is required to get insurance, but does not have a hero licence is issued a red BHA card, as opposed to the blue hero licenses. Since a lot of supervillains fall into that category “Red Card” became slang for supervillain.
interesting. let me know when your book makes it on piratebay
thats cold.
Worse: a football referee.
I get all my news from the glibs.
I get all my fiction from the glibs.
I am a sad old man.
So…a lot of your fiction is written by…SugarFree?!
*shudders*
That says it all, doesn’t it.
When then nice people with the sleeveless jacket come for you, please don’t inform that there are others like you.
Think about his emotional fortitude at this point though.
‘Sad Old Men’ was the original working title of the site.
Hey, we got wimmenz too!
Sad (Mostly) Old People
I’M NOT READING ANYTHING! FINE! ARE YOU HAPPY!?
Actually I’m kinda waddling my way through Closing of the American Mind during toilet breaks, but it’s a .pdf on my phone and I start getting a headache before long.
And Bloom’s prose is a bit tedious to begin with.
yes.
read Ravelstein after it. there is no better time.
Showoff!
I don’t think there will be an after until I get hold of a paper copy. You’d think a proper ebook would be easier to
piratefind.i googled, “Alan bloom, showoff” and got this
I’ve found ebay is good for paying $1 for beat up old paperbacks. i’ve never not found what i wanted.
i liked that book. however, i read it during college, so it was mostly like an antidote to a lot of the conventional wisdom that people were trying to pour in my ear.
the art of cock fighting
You may have just caused one of the commenters to have a cardiac event, Riven.
Just one?
🙁
I am disappoint.
I thought you guys were talking about this…
The only funny part of that movie.
The logical extension of dick measuring?
This is just further proof that there are no Libertarian Women, and that Riven is just Siv in drag.
‘Would’ SIV in drag?
Pre op or post op?
Post-op, but I’m just going off a picture here. I’m assuming the plumbing is in order
Last book I read for pleasure was the collected works of Arthur Machen. That was… several months ago? I need to make more time for reading things that aren’t technical documents.
I banged through Andy Weir’s Artemis and Brandon Sanderson’s Oathbringer this past week. Both are probably deserving of a more leisurely re-read at some point.
I’m waiting on Oathbringer to drop in price. I’m not paying $17 for a digital book.
Same here, though for the print version.
What can I say, I’m a huge Sanderson fanboi. Oathbringer was particularly good, too. Without spoiling anything, it would be a good idea to have a copy of Arcanum Unbounded handy, just to refer to…
Also a large Sanderson fanboi…I even enjoyed his closing out of the Wheel of Time.
I just read F. Paul Wilson’s The Tomb. Thanks for the recommendation, Rhywun. A really fun book!
The Keto Reset Diet by Mark Sisson. Some good information, but nothing you can’t get on his site. Save your money.
Just started Andre Agassi’s autobiography, Open. Interesting dude.
I’ve read the entire Adversary/Repairman Jack cycle, which Wilson reworked some to integrate better. Loved it, but was a little disappointed in the finish.
2 books I read recently:
Inside the KGB, by KGB defector Aleksei Myagkov
Very entertaining- a world filled with misery, paranoia, alcoholism, and violence
KGB: The Secret Work of Soviet Agents by John Barron
It’s an anthology of various KGB agents- their selection, training, exploits, and how they either defected or were caught.
Fun fact: many Soviets at the UN were KGB agents. Since the US provided a large chunk of the UN’s funding, the US govt was unwittingly paying the KGB to spy on the US.
a world filled with misery, paranoia, alcoholism, and violence
Coincidentally the title of Steve’s Bannon’s forthcoming autobiography.
It’s alway’s tho’se pe’sky apo’strophe’s that’s get’s you in the end.
the US govt was unwittingly paying the KGB to spy on the US
It’s not a bad move if you know where the KGB is located.
I just finished The Storm Before the Storm – a history of The Roman Republic before it’s death at the hands of Julius Caesar and Augustus & company. It’s a compelling story with factional rivalries that are common to what we see today. Well minus the mass executions, assassinations, and civil wars…. oh wait.
Currently reading:
To the Last Cartridge: essentially short true stories about heroic last stands; the men who fought until the last against all odds.
and
The Ascent of Man by (((Jacob Bronowski))): published in 1973, it’s an examination of what makes Man, well, Man and different from the animals. Short version: Animals are a product of their environment, and have a difficult time outside of that environment. Man, on the other hand, understands and controls their environment. Early popular science.
I just picked up The Storm Before the Storm on Kindle. I haven’t focused on reading something long-form in too long.
It can get a bit confusing. It seems that everyone was named Gaius, Sulla, Tiberius, or Marius.
Roman Romans only had a half dozen names. They had to import the rest from the provinces later.
Just finished rereading the Legacy of Herot and Beowulf’s Children. Very interesting but not a big fan of the sequel. Could use a couple trained grendels around here.
I’m also reading the user manual of a heavy duty statistics program in an attempt to teach myself how to use said program better than semi-retarded monkey could. I’m experiencing limited success so far.
Yeah I thought Beowulfs Children was only meh. Some interesting xenobiology in it but the humans were not as interesting or believable as they were in Legacy of Herot
Most recently, I read this temper tantrum over how awful the Constitution is because it’s keeping Top Men from doing Very Important Things.
Open call for mob rule if I ever saw one.
And this sentence reveals that the author is an ignorant retard.
The filibuster is part of the Senate Rules and has absolutely nothing to do with the Constitution.
***
Throw the entire Constitution in the garbage. One of the biggest problems with the Constitution as written is it makes changing anything nearly impossible.
***
Feature, not bug.
And doesn’t this sound appealing?
Hey, just change the Constitution every year or two like those banana republics do. Just think of all the amazing things the Top Men will get done without having to worry about that pesky constitution!
Who needs stability?
+1 South African Constitution
/rbg
All I can think of is the Simpson’s parody of I’m Just a Bill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSANTRnEBgg
“Why can’t we just make a law against flag burning?”
“Because that law would be unconstitutional, but if we change the constitution….”
“We can make all sorts of crazy laws!”
“Now you’re catching on!”
I was going to note this. If you read, say, the Federalist Papers, you get to understand very, very, quickly that the guys who actually wrote the Constitution wanted the government to only be able to change things very slowly with very broad support. They understood that you can’t run a continent-spanning state where decisions on how everyone would live could be made at the discretion of 50%+1. To do something at the Federal level is supposed to require a broad and deep national consensus.
When you read these guys telling us how terrible the Constitution is, you quickly realize that that protection is precisely what they want to get rid of., They want to be able to impose their will by virtue of a simple majority. But, they never stop and ask themselves how they’d propose to hold the country together under those circumstances. It’s a recipe for disaster as competing agendas become an all or nothing proposition.
I could sort of respect the mob rule types if they were consistent. But no.
“A majority of Americans favor stricter gun laws.”
“And a majority of Americans also oppose gay marriage.”
“[fumes] That doesn’t count!”
Uh they’re very consistent: punish your enemies, reward your friends.
No principles, just principals.
And sometimes, they’re even willing to reward their enemies and punish their friends. I think the overall thought process among fanatics is:
***
What I want is good; what you want is bad.
I’m right; you’re wrong.
***
If that is the only constant, then no wonder they can flip from a belief to its opposite so quickly. The truth is whatever helps the cause.
Anti-federalist papers > federalist papers
Both are good, but the anti-federalists identified inherent flaws in the system
It’s falling prey to dipshit government officials who think it’s a “living document” with “penumbras and emanations” that basically render it a dead letter.
Translation: “Republicans only cave to the Democrats some of the time! Waaaah!”
I mean, we’re only the oldest functioning democratic republic in history. Never let the facts stand in the way of a good rant, though.
At least the masks are off the mad ones. Insanity over Trump have forced them to reveal their true face, like some demented Scooby Doo bad guy.
Working on my portraiture craft at the moment, so nothing of any intellectual depth: One Face 50 Ways by Imogen Dyer and Mark Wilkinson, and The Photographer’s Guide to Posing by Lindsay Adler. Adler’s book in particular has some good info on posing yer not-so-average “curvy” (euphemisms abound in portrait photography — means “fat”) or THICC model. Neither of these volumes are earth-shattering or revolutionary, but Adler’s in particular helps with some posing problems that many photogs nibble around the edges of but never really face head-on. A worthy tome.
The other photography book that I recommend everyone who takes a photo should get and study is Light Science & Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting by Fil Hunter, Steven Biver, and Paul Fuqua. This book will exercise your intellect, since it talks all about the physics of light and the math (mostly geometry, natch) involved in lighting an object with various surfaces etc., all from the perspective of someone who wishes to capture an image that evokes the original scene. It’s particularly useful to read through if you’ve got a small studio setup, ’cause then you can screw around with many of the examples and discussions in the book, take the shot, and learn from it. An absolute rarity in the world of photographic books, it’s already in its 5th edition, and just keeps getting better and better. Read this, and stop using the “P” setting on that camera of yours!
How do I improve the images I take of inidivdual minis? (roughly 1.5 inches tall) I don’t have a great deal of workbench space for a complicated setup.
Depends on what your goal is. If you want to show it in isolation, you should create a simple softbox setup.
The lampshade one is almost premade…
An artist friend of mine who does small sculpture was really enthused with a simple DIY lightbox… I think it was something like this. She prefers to embed her work in some kind of nature scene for photographing, but the in-studio stuff she did she got great results without much effort.
I love seeing DIY solutions like this. Sometimes you can’t avoid using honest-to-God purchased equipment in a studio, but much of photography is about directing the camera so that the intended audience never sees the man behind the curtain. Rocky Nook (one of my fave photo publishers) published a book called Low Budget Shooting: Do It Yourself Solutions to Professional Photo Gear by Cyrill Harnischmacher, wherein lots of gear substitutes are discussed and demonstrated. You can do a lot with a little, once you puzzle out what you’re trying to achieve.
That is very similar to the one I built; large cardboard box and a few yards of muslin (I also refastened many seams with Velcro so as to be able to fold it flat when not in use).
Diffusion boxes are cheap.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/386542-REG/Impact_DLS_S_Digital_Light_Shed.html
I use one with three CFL lamps (top and sides) for product photos. Small tripod and you’re good to go.
Slow your shutter way down to avoid the inherent flicker from the bulbs. As everyone else said, use a timer.
Bah, I need to charge the battery on my camera and take it back out. I’ve gotten lazy now that phone cameras aren’t awful.
Phone cameras are awful, I can’t hold the frame on my target and tap the “take picture” control at the same time. Classic camera, held in both hands with a steady grip and a finger right atop the shutter control. Much easier.
If you do want to use a phone camera, get a small “gorilla” tripod and a bluetooth remote shutter control. Super cheap and very efficient.
I like my Nikon. Better focus control, easier zooming, and I already own it.
That last part is probably a big factor…
I’m not dismissing you, I just don’t know the best qay to phrase it.
That typo seems kinda homophobic.
What SP said. If you don’t shoot a “regular” camera with studio strobes but want tack-sharp images, you’ll need some form of tripod. If you have a point-‘n-shoot, there’s dozens of inexpensive “table-top” solutions out there, of which I own several. And for taking decent pics of your minis, build yourself a small backdrop setup that curves upwards like a “cyc-wall,” or a roll of photographic backdrop paper that’s often used in studios. You can do it with an 8.5″ x 11″ sheet of paper, with the object on one end and the other end supported by anything that can get the sheet to curve upwards. Then just use any portable light to light it until it’s pleasing to your eye and has reasonable shadows to show off the depth of the item.
The major problem with taking pictures of small objects is depth-of-field — you need as much as possible (and you get a lot from a phone camera ’cause of the physics of extremely small lenses/imaging chips), but you also need a lot of light to keep the imaging chip’s inherent electrical/shot noise from overly-contaminating the image.
What BEAM said.
A roll of baking parchment paper works for a backdrop.
Or, you can ship them to me and I will shoot them in my professional product photo studio. For a small consideration, of course. 😉
Sinc ehte pictures I take include in-progress images for, say, the upcoming Glib submission, that is not the most workable answer.
Agregating the avice, it seems the consensus is I should put the Nikon on a tripod and diffuse the light being cast by the twin LED work lamps.
Yep.
That oughta work. Be wary of how the LEDs are powered, however: if they’re being supplied by a switching power supply, then, depending on the frequency of said supply, you might trip the shutter at the precise instant when the LEDs are on the downward portion of the power cycle, in which case your pic will be inexplicably dim. Keep shooting. (You may also have a supply with a high refresh rate, say around 500kHz or so, in which case you probably don’t need to worry about this.) If you’re using incandescents, this isn’t a problem.
And turn off auto image stabilization and use a timer.
Yep. Auto image stabilization, counter-intuitively, actually makes your image worse when the camera’s being mechanically stabilized by a tripod or somesuch.
Unfortunately, they’re on mains power (60Hz). But it’s not unusual for me to take two or three shots and pick the best one as it stands now.
The mains power isn’t important — all LEDs are ultimately powered by “drivers,” which are small circuits (in a variety of configurations) that lower the voltage, rectifies it (from AC to DC) and keeps the LEDs from “demanding” too much current and frying themselves. Your LED lamps will have this circuit in ’em somewhere, and if there’s no transformer involved, it’s a “switching” circuit, meaning it pulses current to the LEDs, many times a second. Usually (in my limited experience) from a few thousand times a second up to around 500,000 times a second or so. The slower the pulsing, the more likely it is you can see the effect of a dim LED during a shutter triggering. Not that much different from trying to take pictures of old cathode-ray tube TV images.
“Drivers” are also the reason why, on old episodes of Top Gear when they show those beautiful slow-mo shots of the cars rounding a curve, their headlights or running lights appear to be pulsating. You don’t perceive the effect in real-time, but the driver circuits in those vehicle lamps are running at a fairly slow frequency.
Duh, I should have remembered that.
Don’t suppose it’s information written on the bulb?
Not that I’m aware of. I try to buy high-frequency drivers from eBay when I’m building stuff, but even there the info isn’t disclosed very often.
Jesus, get a minitripod and use a timer like an adult. For either your phone or your classic camera. just pushing the trigger button introduces some camera shake. Your results will improve dramatically just from that. Also your phone can definitely be run off a timer and probably with a voice trigger.
You should get the classic “Photograph Me Like One Of Your French Girls”
Nah. That one’s written by a creeper.
I took a portrait posing class from Adler. She’s very good.
Have you looked into Peter Hurley’s headshot book/classes? He has some good ideas.
I always figure I get value if I walk away from a photo course with one “go-to” tip that will save me time/money or give me better results. I came out of a “strictly natural light” background, so the first artificial lighting courses I did were truly life-changing.
Hurley’s work causes a lot of angst in the photog community here in the Lower Rainland™. Some people love him, others despise him with the white-hot hatred of ten thousand suns. At least one portrait/headshot photog of my acquaintance is a shameless acolyte. I’m sorta on the fence — the stuff I’ve seen from him was good, but I didn’t find myself feeling enlightened afterwards.
I’ve realized my craft needs improvement in the social aspect more than anything else — a lot of getting the best out of your subjects is psychology, and I need to think faster on my feet and work harder to make ’em feel comfortable and “worthy” of being photographed. Goes against my natural instincts to just yell “Suck it up, buttercup!” and take the resulting shot. 😉
I am really good at getting people to relax for the camera. It helps that I myself HATE having my photo taken (that’s why I’m a photographer…so I’m on the right side of the camera) so I can usually joke around about that and get them to chill.
Yeah, there is definitely a school of Hurley worship. As with all things, I take what’s valuable to me and ignore the rest.
Maybe we should start a Glibs gallery. Hmmm.
Master and Commander about the odd-couple relationship and mischievous hi-jinks of two lovable early 19th century characters and the impossible forbidden love that blossoms betwixt them.
I’m currently reading “Half Life” by Shelley Jackson. It is about a conjoined twin (in a world where conjoined twins are more common than now) who really wants to be a singleton. Although not the point of the novel, it is relevant to today as she lives in San Francisco surrounded by SJWs that are pushing ‘twofer’ pride and trying to get others to use the pronoun ‘tyou’ or say ‘everytwo’ etc. It is weird and funny and, I think, kinda wonderful.
OT: I’m sure the Wynn’s customers are going to care
There are days when I love #metoo
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/us/politics/hillary-clinton-chose-to-shield-a-top-adviser-accused-of-harassment-in-2008.html
WASHINGTON — A senior adviser to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign who was accused of repeatedly sexually harassing a young subordinate was kept on the campaign at Mrs. Clinton’s request, according to four people familiar with what took place.
#metoooknotreallyespeciallyifitsademocrat
#ItsOkWhenWeDoIt
Mr. Strider, who was Mrs. Clinton’s faith adviser, a co-founder of the American Values Network, and sent the candidate scripture readings every morning for months during the campaign, was hired five years later to lead an independent group that supported Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 candidacy, Correct the Record, which was created by a close Clinton ally, David Brock.
Fun fact: many Soviets at the UN were KGB agents. Since the US provided a large chunk of the UN’s funding, the US govt was unwittingly paying the KGB to spy on the US.
I’ll try to conceal my astonishment.
For fiction I just finished “Brittania” by Simon Scarrow. Yet another volume of fiction about two legionaries during the reign of Claudius. Leaving aside the usual problems of historical fiction, this is a pretty good series.
For non-fiction I just finished “The Lion’s Gate” about the 1967 war in the style of Cornelius Ryan. Somehow the same (((side))) wins in the end.
I am wading through, slowly and painfully, “Celestial Navigation” since I will have some navigator duties on a Pacific Cup boat this summer. I want to make sure that if the GPS systems fail I can find where we are and not end telling the skipper we should be seeing Omaha off to port. My at best middling skills with a sextant and tables need a tune up.
I will soon start to re-read “The Mandibles” since I have convinced the woman that I am seeing to read it and I want to be sure that I can follow her discussions with me.
For Fun reading I am about to start a book on the geology of the Martian Tharsis reagion. I have also started to re-read the three volume US Army commissioned history of the Ost front. I am working on “Berlin to Moscow”.
Well knock me over with a feather.
Hillary Clinton protected ’08 campaign adviser accused of sexual harassment: report
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/01/26/hillary-clinton-protected-08-campaign-adviser-accused-sexual-harassment-report.html
***
Hillary Clinton reportedly helped protect a senior adviser to her 2008 presidential campaign after accusations that he repeatedly sexually harassed a young subordinate.
The New York Times reported Friday on the incident, revealing how Clinton allegedly intervened to help keep the adviser, Burns Strider, on board.
According to the Times, the complaint was made by a 30-year-old Clinton staffer who shared an office with Strider. She reportedly told a campaign official that Strider had rubbed her shoulders inappropriately, kissed her on the forehead and sent suggestive emails.
Clinton’s 2008 campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, reportedly recommended Clinton fire him. But sources told The Times he was kept on the campaign at Clinton’s request.
Instead, Strider was ordered to receive counseling and lost several weeks of pay, while the young woman was shifted to a new role.
***
you are late
Pregnant eh? Who’s the daddy?
Remember when the Dems used to make fun of the fact that prostitutes made more money at the GOP conventions? That Republicans were sooooo uptight about sex?
Turns out the only problem Dems had with it was that it was a commercial transaction between consenting adults. Dems have a problem with both the transaction and the consent.
Strider had rubbed her shoulders inappropriately, kissed her on the forehead
Not defending this behavior, but she just sat there while he did that? How the hell did he get close enough to her forehead to kiss it without getting a stapler through his eye socket? Oh right, lie back and think of a Clinton presidency.
It is hard to deny favors to the future and rightful King of Gondor.
Well, if Amazon ever gets it back in stock, I’m supposed to be getting a copy of Why Liberalism Failed.
I read ‘What Happened’ via pdf because fuck giving that woman any money and it has made me disgusted with the very concept of the written word. Not even Zoolander’s book managed to make me do that.
You read Zoolander’s book?
Respect, d00d. Reading that would’ve made me permanently overdose on derp.
You and Pan need to read it to share in my pain.
I’d love to, but I think I’ve got a thing that day that I have to attend instead.
Goddammit, Pan said he was washing his hair too.
I read ‘Shattered’ and that was bad enough. They were clearly trying to write an apology for Clinton, but reality kept poking through.
Plus it made me realise that the left viscerally believed (and believe) that they could do a find and replace on “black” to “woman” to get Clinton elected. But identity politics is a harder sell for sex than race, because men have more and more varied relationships with women than white people do with black people.
Oh, how I laughed.
George Soros slams Google, Facebook, says they’re a ‘menace’ to society
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/01/26/george-soros-slams-google-facebook-says-theyre-menace-to-society.html
***
He likened the platform companies, including Facebook and Google to casino companies and gambling, saying they may damage society irrevocably.
“Something very harmful and maybe irreversible is happening to human attention in our digital age,” Soros said. “Not just distraction or addiction; social media companies are inducing people to give up their autonomy.”
He continued: “The power to shape people’s attention is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few companies. It takes a real effort to assert and defend what John Stuart Mill called ‘the freedom of mind.’ There is a possibility that once lost, people who grow up in the digital age will have difficulty in regaining it.”
…
Soros also noted that Facebook, which has grown to a market cap of over $500 billion by creating one of the biggest advertising platforms built on a wealth of data and knowledge about its user base – which has surpassed 2 billion – would soon run out of users to add.
“The network effect is truly unprecedented and transformative, but it is also unsustainable,” Soros continued. “It took Facebook eight and a half years to reach a billion users and half that time to reach the second billion. At this rate, Facebook will run out of people to convert in less than 3 years.”
…
As these companies continue to grow richer and their dominance increases, Soros said that regulation and taxation would soon crimp their efforts, with European Union competition chief Margrethe Vestager becoming “their nemesis.”
***
Soros knows exactly what regulation and taxation are for.
“It took Facebook eight and a half years to reach a billion users and half that time to reach the second billion. At this rate, Facebook will run out of people to convert in less than 3 years.”
Uh, Soros is aware that Facebook is a no-go in China right?
Also, he’s not entirely wrong, but probably in ways he doesn’t like.
The only difference now is that they’re not the companies he would prefer / or has any influence over
When it was media-elites in NYC, he was super-kosher with that.
Currently reading The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam by Barbara Tuchman of Guns of August fame. Liking it so far. Renaissance Popes were assholes.
Finishing up listening to the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell for the second time. Good enough for a replay.
Ah I knew I forgot something – I just stared in on Guns of August – like I need to read three books at a time.
Just finished The Cuckoo’s Egg. Written by an astronomer, so he probably should have had it ghostwritten, but the story is interesting enough.
Was that the one about finding hackers in the university mainframe?
Yep…it could really, really use an update, just for the changes in language alone. He says “electronic mail”, FCOL.
Oh, and it wasn’t the university mainframe – it was Lawrence Berkeley Labs’ UNIX system.
It’s been a few* years since I read it. Some details got muddied. I may not have a copy anymore.
*over fifteen
I saw Cliff Stoll speak around 20 years ago when his Silicon Snake Oil book came out. I can’t remember now if I got Cuckoo’s Egg signed or not. Both are sitting in a box in storage, along with a shitload of crap I can’t bring myself to part with but haven’t used in a while. Getting ever closer to the part with end with each passing day.
Yeah, well, the FBI wouldn’t have to worry about minding Clinton’s toes if Republicans didn’t make such a big deal about her emails. File under NOTHING TO SEE HERE and CONSPIRACY NUTS!!!
Just finished Hayakawa’s Language in Thought and Action, and am working up the courage to try Korzybski, Science and Sanity. That may take a while to get through – if I can.
Also reading A Book of Voyages, which Patrick O’Brian edited. Deals with travelers’ stories from the 17th and 18th centuries. For dessert, I’m working on W. E. B. Griffin’s Honor Bound series.
https://www.barstoolsports.com/boston/barstool-local-smokeshow-of-the-day-abbie-from-uri
She’s reading a book in one of these pictures, so technically this is still on topic
I’ll be in my bunk
The old school girl uniform. The best way for an adult woman to get a man’s attention
Wowsers.
I am too old for “schoolgirl”, but Naughty Librarian (same hairdo and glasses) works for the Mr.
I was polled during the last election and the semi-literate pollster asked if I’d be voting for Greg Johnston of The Librarian Party, and I thought “Sure, I’d vote for that.”
If Gary Johnson dressed in an outfit like that I think I would have taken him a bit more seriously
And Lisa Loeb glasses. If you’re not wearing Lisa Loeb glasses, you’re not part of the Librarian Party.
So you say.
YES! Thank you. See, Jesse gets it.
Fucking cosmos always wearing those Malcolm X glasses. Those are nice, but not very librarian. How can you call yourself a librarian without having a pair of Loeb glasses?
Never too old to go back to school. 😉
Ask SP. She got herself some dirty librarian glasses which, dammit, she knows gets my (((engine))) revving. No idea why I have that kink. It wasn’t her intention, but it was the result.
There is no such thing is too old for schoolgirl
Turns us all into OMWC
Notice I specifically said “adult woman”
Oh, of course, but the fantasy is a teenaged girl.
And I don’t know how to close italics 🙁
I just started The Greatest Empire: The Life of Seneca. Pretty good so far despite the admittedly limited sources.
Sorry to link another one of these, but you inadvertently tripped a reflex
New potential employer HR bots have requested 5 professional references to put into a canned e-form. I reached out to two former employees of my current company (one who retired, one who told them to get bent years ago), and also one who still works there (He added only “Take me with you!!”). One from the new potential employer who is not part of the hiring process. They all agreed, no problem.
I also sent emails to a bunch of farther distant managers/colleagues but no answers yet; could even be bad email addys, it’s been so long.
Not sure where to get ref # 5. They want them in 24 hours!!
I’ll do it.
Yeah, but you’d probably thwart me for “my own good”.
It is pretty silly to ask a person with 17 yrs at their current employer to cough up relevant references from past employers.
And I here I thought I was a long timer with over 10 years at my present job.
Ten and Seventeen are nothing.
/State Employee.
Ten and Seventeen
are nothingtoo old./OMWC
LOL.
No shit. That’s like the new guy in some industries/companies.
Does the name on the sign out front changing mean changed employers? Or do title changes count, even if the position really hasn’t?
I’ve had two job titles and one change of agency in my tenure. My responsibilities have evolved so slowly that there are no discrete cut-off dates to say that my job changed. I’m still supporting the first project I ever did at the state, but have divested others, and so on.
I’ve moved from help desk up to the voice department in the same company. My length of time with me current company is one of the first couple of questions that all of my interviewers have brought up.
I started my current job March of 1999.
Five?!
I have trouble finding three.
Admittedly, most of my references would be people who retired and then bailed for points unknown, severing all ties to their former existance.
And, yes, five seems a bit much.
I have one who retired, one who flipped them off on his way out, one who still works there but is discreet, and one at the new place but is not part of the interview process.
Where to get #5 is the real question. Not worth sounding the alarms at {current employer} over.
Why not use one of the people who knows your work and is part of the hiring process? Did the HR email ask for those to be excluded or are you adding that because you want a more neutral reference?
I assumed I shouldn’t ask the guys who are doing the formal hiring process, but I did ask the guy who recused himself from the interview process because he was my “referror” and has been my unofficial coach through the whole deal, and he agreed.
I think I’ll go with church IT/Audio Video guy and call it good.
I’d just put one of them down, especially if HR wants 5 names.
Putting down religious/extracurricular references on a job app is a red flag for me. Unfortunately it’s been borne out recently by an idiot hire (looked good on paper) that I had no part of.
These guys are all-in on hiring me (as long as we can get the numbers right) so this 5 references thing is a formality. I can’t imagine what new grads go through to get them.
The three guys from my current employer will give solid references, as will the Offeror, and the 5th guy just checks a box. My employer from 2000 would probably be OK with it too, but he’s in Germany and hasn’t returned my call. (We talk a few times a year just to catch up and occasionally do business, and I know he likes me, but he’s busy/flakey.) My 1999 employer hasn’t gotten back to me either, and frankly she doesn’t know my experience and skills since then so it’s pointless.
I did go ahead with the church guy before I read your post. I can’t imagine them cancelling over such a thing. The guys who want to hire me already know I lead the church council. (They think it’s hilarious because of what a foul-mouthed practical bitch I am, but they understand that someone has to do the business end of church running.)
Most references (provided by the applicant) are next to useless in a hiring decision. HR is just filling in the blanks. That sort of stuff ticks me off.
Right??! The interview schedule includes all the guys who actually want to hire me. The attendee list pretty much reads like a fan club membership. The rest is COA as far as I can see. I am thinking about asking the guy who helps run A/V at church for person # 5.
It’s pretty silly.
Good luck!!
Thanks! Exciting times.
The creator of the pop-up ad is very sorry.
***
In an Atlantic article in 2014, programmer Ethan Zuckerman, the principal research scientist at MIT’s Media Lab, apologized for his role in creating pop-up ads in the 1990s.
“I wrote the code to launch the window and run an ad in it. I’m sorry. Our intentions were good,” he wrote.
***
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/11/09/ex-facebook-chief-warns-site-was-built-to-exploit-people-s-weaknesses_a_23272438/
You know who else thought they had good intentions…
The Animals?
That son of a bitch should be sorry.
I always imagine the finger breaking scene from The Hustler for these guys.
Yeah no one else would’ve come up with that.
Goddammit, I went and tried to read that imbecilic “Scrap the Constitution” excrescence at the Week. I got this far:
To fix the problem, America should aim to make itself more like a proportional parliamentary democracy, by far the most successful and road-tested form of government.
Let’s be more like Italy, right? Because when I think successful and effective government, that’s who pops into my mind.
England (pop ~55 million)? What sort of buffoon believes the English Parliament could *just* be scaled up to govern a nation of 350million people?
Also- Gerrymandererz! – Politically homogeneous populations which trend strongly progressive in coastal and large metropolitan areas don’t seem to be a problem for them.
“What sort of buffoon believes the English Parliament could *just* be scaled up to govern a nation of 350million people?”
Me.
Scaling things up would grind government to a halt, which is why I support the idea.
The end result of that is less libertopia and more a Totalitarian Bureaucracy as the few acts they do pass offload parlimentary authority to the permanant civil service.
This is the problem that we are running into with current gridlock. Decisions are being made by the executive and the bureaucracy. This is the dystopian future that we face. I love gridlock, but the gears of government keep turning- just not the elected gears of government.
The gerrymandering thing is a little overblown. Population density varies greatly, and districts must contain equal numbers of people. So even if there was no attempt to lump similar voters together, there would still be wacky shapes.
An alternative- have a mass election with the top 435 forming the House.
One pro of that system would be that there would be no point in pork barrel spending because reps would have to appeal to voters across the country. It would also make it easier for smaller, decentralized constituencies to get representation.
The main con would be reps would not be representing a specific area with a specific population.
The main con would be reps would not be representing a specific area with a specific population.
I’m not convinced they do now. In any system where elected officials can be “whipped,” most of the representatives elected don’t seem to do anything that the Grand Poobahs don’t want them to.
My elected reps, both at the provincial and Federal levels, don’t appear to be doing anything at all ‘cept warming a back-bench.
One pro of that system would be that there would be no point in pork barrel spending because reps would have to appeal to voters across the country.
Not necessarily. Choosing the top 435* leaves plenty of room for regionally popular candidates to win. If everybody gets 1 vote, and 100 million people are voting, then a candidate’s got a better than even chance of winning with as little as 230,000 votes. Since there’s no requirement for votes to be geographically distributed like there is with the electoral college, why would you even bother campaigning nationwide if you can get 500,000 votes just from campaigning locally? Although, it would probably be a bit more lopsided in practice, with a few candidates getting millions of votes.
Missing * = there is nothing special about the number 435, it’s just the number that 62nd Congress chose and nobody has revisited since.
New Zealand sort of combines electorates with something similar to what you posted:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_lists_in_the_New_Zealand_general_election,_2017
And the Left hates that idea. They want total dominance by New York, Chicago, and California voters. They like anything that deprives those “cousin-humping hicks in flyover country” of their part in the electoral process.
The voters outside of the largest 100 cities would have no say.
But it’s the same number of voters electing the same number of representatives.
And more suceptable to localised fraud.
Just stuff more ballot boxes in your strongholds, and rack up more seats. No need to context areas you don’t want to visit to gain control of the legislature and shut down fraud investigations.
America should aim to make itself more like a proportional parliamentary democracy, by far the most successful and road-tested form of government.
I’m pretty sure monarchy is the most “successful and road-tested” form of government, looking at all of human history. The ancient Chinese and Egyptians had millenium-spanning empires built on monarchy.
The U.S. has had more or less the same system of government since 1789. The only country of any size that’s had its present form of government for longer than the U.S. is Switzerland, which has a different system than the U.S. but is not a “proportional parliamentary democracy” either.
I’m not saying we should install a King of the United States, but at least if we were a monarchy, people would be more wise to the grifting that goes on in government since there would not be this pretense of it being derived from the “will of the people”.
Monarchies (and dictatorships) have their own pretenses (divine right, mandate of heaven, class consciousness, defense of culture/tradition).
I wasn’t endorsing monarchy, only noting that, when you look at human history, it’s the most common and enduring system of government.
Actually, scratch most of what I said about Switzerland. Its current form of government arguably started either in 1999 (when the current constitution was adopted), 1874 (when a constitution similar to the current one was adopted), or 1848 (when the first federal constitution was adopted). All of those dates are well after 1789.
The most successful form of government is ours, considering that it hasn’t fundamentally changed since 1787. Nobody else has that kind of streak going right now. I love how they reference governments that transitioned from military dictatorships within the last 50 or so years and say how wildly successful they are.
And that is in spite of massive technological changes.
The US electoral system is undemocratic, which is a good thing. The whims of the general populace cannot swing to far, because of how undemocratic our system is. Good bless our presidential federal (quasi-federal at this point) form of government
Not sure where to get ref # 5. They want them in 24 hours!!
Invent one, and see if they even follow up.
Genki I for a class. Not being sufficiently masochist in taking (spoken) Mandarin, added Japanese on top. Maybe it’s the pace but seems easier even with kana thrown in. Bunch of millennials and whatever comes after that generation in the class. Most are fine, but several just need a beat down. I’m embarrassed by their behavior.
Threshold by G.M. Ford 3 stars
Troubled cop/missing people/psychic who can wake coma victims/crooked politicians
IQ and Righteous By Joe Ide 2.5 stars
Encyclopedia Brown meets Boyz in the Hood
A Dark so Deadly by Stuart Macbride 4 stars
Funny/Dark. Scottish police hunt serial killer
The Man in the Crooked Hat by Harry Dolan 4-4.5 stars (80% done, as long as he doesn’t screw up the ending.)
Ex Cop searches for wife’s killer.
G.M. Ford? Was his mother’s maiden name Dodge?
Anyway, that reminds me – yet more stories reinforcing the notion that Tesla is in way over its head.
Second OMWC on “The Coming” – my least favorite Haldeman book.
I haven read it but I recently read Forever Peace and forever Free. Huge letdown as followups to War and the short stories of his I’ve read. Heck not as good as the Trek book of his I read.
I’m still working my way through Basic Economics. My Kindle says I’m 78% of the way through, but I think I’m almost finished since the next chapter is titled Closing Thoughts. Guess most of the remaining percentage must be the thousand references in the book. After I finally finish it I’m thinking I’ll pick up Black Rednecks and White Liberals next. I’m thinking that will be a fun read.
Economics in One Lesson is also good.
He even compresses the main idea in to one sentence: the root of economic fallacies is to evaluate based on their specific, short term effect while ignoring the general and long term effects.
What I read recently:
New Evidence for a Way to Raise Your IQ
New studies show that practising your “relational skills” will make your smarter
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/iq-boot-camp/201606/new-evidence-way-raise-your-iq
***
The study by Hayes and Stewart (2016) employed a sample of 28 children aged between 10 and 11 years. The group was split in half, and matched for baseline IQ and gender. One group was randomly assigned to online relational skills training (called SMART: Strengthening Mental Abilities with Relational Training) in which they learned to derive complex relationships between nonsense words across thousands of exemplars and using trial-by-trial feedback (e.g., Cug is the same as Vek, Vek is opposite to Mer, Mer is opposite to Gew, Is Cug the same as Gew?).
…
Participants were administered an extensive battery of intellectual and attainment assessments before and after training, comprising of the WASI brief IQ test, the WIAT-II subtests for Reading, Spelling and Numerical Operations, the WISC-IV subtests for Letter Number Sequencing and Digit Span, and a standardized scholastic aptitude test called the Drumcondra Primary Reading and Mathematics Tests (Revised). The relational skills training group showed significant increases in WASI Full scale IQ and increases on all but one of the other tests and subtests administered.
…
These findings further implicate relational skills as a core feature of intellectual ability. More importantly, however, because relational skills can be so easily trained, interventions designed to enhance these skills offer the best hope yet of developing “brain training” interventions that actually work in increasing intellectual skills across a wide range of domains. To really appreciate the significance of this advancement, the children in this study, for example, experienced significant improvements in standardized reading and spelling tests, even though there was no reading or spelling trained at all as part of the SMART intervention. This is true “transfer of effect,” as has been sought after as the holy grail of brain training.
***
Reminds of a book called “Intelligence Can be Taught”.
Just finished “Stars and Bars Over Philadelphia: by Jed Hotchkiss. It’s a cleverly written alternative history novel based on an actual plan by Stonewall Jackson to invade Pennsylvania, burn out the coal country and capture Philadelphia. Lee and Jackson are successful, win independence, and carry out a plan – with the help of foreign intervention – to gradually emancipate the slaves of the Confederacy. None of the b.s. that was found in fantasies like Turtledove’s “Guns for the South.”
Guns of the South involved time travel. I wouldn’t call it BS, but any time travel history alterations are going to end up weird.
Death’s End the last (and best book in the Three-Body Problem trilogy. Less cringey bad science than the earlier novels, and a different (if depressing) narrative structure of the hero wiping out quite a lot of the human race, the human race making some sort of comeback, then the hero wiping out even more of them. Sort of like if the attitude of ASoIaF was applied to the Foundation series.
I couldn’t stand that retarded Chinese chick. At least the American had a kickass plan win.
I read Asher’s Spatterjay series a while back based on some recommendations from people here, then started reading his Agent Cormac series. Currently in the middle of book 5 (Line War).
I’m currently reading The Night Land by William Hope Hodges.
The main con would be reps would not be representing a specific area with a specific population.
I have hatched a scheme in which Congressional representatives are voted on as they are now, but randomly assigned a district different than the one in which they were elected to represent. Suddenly, throwing money at local problems becomes much less effective as a means to get re-elected.
In my fantasy universe, Congressional representatives become more fiscally responsible, and restrict their activities more to big picture issues, instead of horsetrading federal checks for distribution to the folks back home.
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vinge. I’m about halfway in and enjoying it so far.
It is excellent.
I named my plant Greenstalk.
Good one.
I recently read through the Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow series I remembered fondly as a kid. Man that series really falls apart in the middle, it becomes Card’s shitty philosophical musings while the plot is handled by deus ex machina style.
It’s just a rip-off of The Last Starfighter, which is just another version of the Hero’s Journey, as seen in Star Wars and Dune.
Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow were fun, but the rest of the series is pretty boring. I never read the books you listed, but aren’t most stories rip-offs of other stories? Especially in science fiction.
You can find echoes and inspirations in all works of fiction.
The question is whether or not it was a rip-off, or simply playing a similar harmony.
Everything is a rip-off of Gilgamesh.
To me the series really goes off the rails with Children of the Mind.
Yeah at that point the series becomes complete garbage. Things really started to go downhill fast around the end of Xenocide though.
I’m reading Raising Steam, which is the last normal Disc World book by Terry Prachett. I just finished the four regular Tiffany Aching books (His YA foray that ties into Disc World)
I really enjoyed them and laughed out loud, like reading Hitchhikers Guide, but it was also rather melancholy because of his recent death involved with Alzheimer’s.
I have The Shepard’s Crown queued up to finish the last Disc World novel, which appears to be Tiffany Aching in the full world.
I’m apprehensive about finishing, because I’ve been reading these books for more than 20 years.
The Selfish Gene, Dawkins, old SIFI anthology The Space Magicians, just finished Chindi by Jack McDevitt and reading Be Prepared, a baby field guide. Next up will probably be a Scalzi book.
I’m finally reading some of the classics.
Road to Serfdom has been much more interesting than I expected. It has quite a lot more historical references and justifications than I expected.