Tootfinder

Day 30: Elizabeth Moon
This last spot (somehow 32 days after my last post, but oh well) was a tough decision, but Moon brings us full circle back to fantasy/sci-fi, and also back to books I enjoyed as a teenager. Her politics don't really match up to Le Guin or Jemisin, but her military experience make for books that are much more interesting than standard fantasy fare in terms of their battles & outcomes (something "A Song of Ice and Fire" achieved by cribbing from history but couldn't extrapolate nearly as well). I liked (and still mostly like) her (unironically) strong female protagonists, even if her (especially more recent) forays into "good king" territory leave something to be desired. Still, in Paksenarion the way we get to see the world from a foot-soldier's perspective before transitioning into something more is pretty special and very rare in fantasy (I love the elven ruins scene as Paks travels over the mountains as an inflection point). Battles are won or lost on tactics, shifting politics, and logistics moreso than some epic magical gimmick, which is a wonderful departure from the fantasy norm.
Her work does come with a content warning for rape, although she addresses it with more nuance and respect than any male SF/F author of her generation. Ex-evangelicals might also find her stuff hard to read, as while she's against conservative Christianity, she's very much still a Christian and that makes its way into her writing. Even if her (not bad but not radical enough) politics lead her writing into less-satisfying places at times, part of my respect for her comes from following her on Twitter for a while, where she was a pretty decent human being...
Overall, Paksenarrion is my favorite of her works, although I've enjoyed some of her sci-fi too and read the follow-up series. While it inherits some of Tolkien's baggage, Moon's ability to deeply humanize her hero and depict a believable balance between magic being real but not the answer to all problems is great.
I've reached 30 at this point, and while I've got more authors on my shortlist, I think I'll end things out tomorrow with a dump of also-rans rather than continuing to write up one per day. I may even include a man or two in that group (probably with at least non-{white cishet} perspective). Honestly, doing this challenge I first thought that sexism might have made it difficult, but here at the end I'm realizing that ironically, the misogyny that holds non-man authors to a higher standard means that (given plenty have still made it through) it's hard to think of male authors who compare with this group.
Looking back on the mostly-male authors of SF/F in my teenage years, for example, I'm now struggling to think of a single one whose work I'd recommend to my kids (having cheated and checked one of my old lists, Pratchett, Jaques, and Asimov qualify but they're outnumbered by those I'm now actively ashamed to admit I enjoyed). If I were given a choice between reading only non-men or non-woman authors for the rest of my life (yes I'm giving myself enby authors as a freebie; they're generally great) I'd very easily choose non-men. I think the only place where (to my knowledge) not enough non-men authors have been allowed through to outshine the fields of male mediocrity yet is in videogames sadly. I have a very long list of beloved games and did include some game designers here, but I'm hard-pressed to think of many other non-man game designers I'd include in the genuinely respect column (I'll include at least two tomorrow but might cheat a bit).
TL;DR: this was fun and you should do it too.
#30AuthorsNoMen

PG-rated movies dominate the US Box Office, driven by films like A Minecraft Movie; an NRG study finds kids want a social experience with friends and family (Ben Cohen/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/business/media/wicked-

Hollywood Is Reeling—and PG Movies Have Never Been So Popular
The PG rating has become the king of the box office. The entertainment business now relies on kids dragging their parents to theaters.

Angor is a crowdfunding protocol for nostr and bitcoin.
Dan here is building it. Kickstarter without middle men.
Accountability is key. What stops the fund raiser just fleeing with the coin?
Funds are programmed to be released in stages, time locked in a multisig.
So if they aren't meeting milestones, investors can withdraw. If the founders are buying lambos instead of building, just cash out at that point.
Permissionless and decentralised, no servers except nostr relays and bitcoin nodes. No third party's claiming 30 percent fees. The system is a nostr client scanning relays for investment object types. Allowing investment into the funding contracts and subscription to updates.
#nostr #nostrshire #angor

China’s CO2 emissions have been flat or falling for past 18 months, analysis finds.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/11/china-co2-emissions-flat-or-falling-for-past-18-months-analysis-finds

China’s CO2 emissions have been flat or falling for past 18 months, analysis finds
World’s biggest polluter on track to hit peak emissions target early but miss goal for cutting carbon intensity

In a proposed settlement, the US FTC says crypto bridge Nomad must repay victims of a 2022 cyberattack that led to $186M worth of funds being stolen (Connor Jones/The Register)
https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/17/nomad_ftc_settlement/

Blockchain company Nomad to repay users under FTC deal after $186M cyberattack
: Regulator makes various additional demands over alleged cybersecurity failings

Welcome to Duckburg / Willkommen in Entenhausen
Fredsprisen han nå skal få lyder mest av alt som om vi en gang for alle har beveget seg inn i Walt Disneys Andeby-univers, der man finner på fantasifulle navn og deler ut skinnende medaljer ingen andre enn Donald egentlig bryr seg om.
😂😂😂
https://www.

Fifas fredspris: Velkommen til Andeby
Fifas nye «fredspris» kan ikke betegnes som annet enn det flaueste stykke smisking idretten noen gang har sett.

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts
-- under fire for a video he posted defending Tucker Carlson for his friendly interview with white supremacist talker Nick Fuentes
-- has reassigned his chief of staff to another position.
In an email to the conservative think tank’s staff on Friday,
Roberts announced that Heritage’s executive vice president, Derrick Morgan, had been tapped to replace Ryan Neuhaus as chief of staff.
In the controversial video posted on X …

Exclusive: Heritage Reassigns Chief of Staff Following Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes Fallout
The conservative think tank’s executive vice president, Derrick Morgan, has been tapped to replace Ryan Neuhaus as chief of staff.

Just a reminder:
Each of you ought to take a look at your state's "unclaimed property" website. You may find something owed to you or to someone you know.
The amounts can be trivial or they can be large - and you won't know until you check.
Usually getting the funds owed to you is as simple as filling out a government form on a web page (and perhaps submitting something that proves you are who you say you are.)
Here is the link for California:

Mike Schultz, the same weirdo from Hooper, Utah who thought he should have a say in my Millcreek representative choice by creating and funding a PAC that tried to trans scare people out of voting for the progressive candidate.
Thankfully, my neighbors and I like trans people and voted for a candidate that does, too.
Now, it appears Mike is using public funds to attack a judge who is following the law and upholding the power of the people, from whom the legislature gets its power…

Utah House Speaker spends taxpayer money to attack judge
Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz uses taxpayer funds to produce video attacking judge who struck down the state's gerrymandered congressional map.

If you are an anti-fascist, you are against petroleum. Petroleum funds fascism globally. It is at the heart of the military industrial complex driving global imperialism, from both the US and Russia. Motonormitivity is fascist, both in it's elitist roots and in it's ties to historical fascism (Hitler hated bikes, just on principle). Oil is militarism.
Oil is the dominant resource which drives war, both in terms of it being the primary spoil wars are fought over and in terms of fueling the military vehicles and weapons that carry out those wars. Practically every war since (and including) WWII has been over oil. Genocides are carried out to secure oil. Gaza is over oil, in more ways than one.
Oil is the absolute enemy, and AI is simply an extension of that: an attempt to atomize us so we can't resist the oil-centric global order, one last grasp at the control over our lives oil has given to those whose power is now threatened by a solar punk future.
"I haven't written for a few weeks now. As I write the closing chapter and begin rewriting previous sections, everything feels both more distant and more immediate. The working title [Kairos] has only continued to feel more and more resonant, both during the writing and during my pause."
Now is the time to resist by making something different, by creating a world fundamentally opposed to these systems of oppression.
This is the last in my Kairos series. From here on out I'll be editing to try and make it more of a book than a series of posts. Thanks to everyone who has helped so far. All editing is welcome (typos, spell checks, questions and challenges). Between ADHD and dyslexia, it's always hard for my brain to notice mistakes in my own text so I always appreciate the support of those who can.
https://anarchoccultism.org/building-zion/kairos