@drbruced@aus.social2025-12-17 03:35:43
My plans to hike the Tongariro Alpine Crossing were derailed by two days of rain and high winds, so we made a plan B: the Tama lakes track, which has somewhat less exposure but still gets up over 1400m. We’re lucky we didn’t try Tongariro given how tough the conditions were at Tama lakes – driving snow and winds on the ridge. But we were rewarded with good views and improving weather on the return trip. #hiking
@castarco@hachyderm.io2025-11-16 12:05:17
I have the distinct impression that we could use most American "sci-fi" TV series (which seem to have a kink for post-apocalyptical scenographies) as a diagnostic tool for the autism spectrum.
For a moment, let's leave aside the tons of right-wing propaganda "hidden" in plain sight, and their excessive reliance on boring & worn out tropes (religious & cultish bullshit, irrational lack of communication & excess of anti-social behaviour, all vs all, ultra-low-iq characters*, psychotic & irrationally treacherous characters*, ultra-inconsistent character development used to justify "unexpected" plot twists, rampant anti-intellectualism...).
What could be used as a diagnosis tool is the incredible amount of strong inconsistencies that we can find in them**. It throws me out of the story every single time; and I suspect that it takes a certain kind of "uncommon personality" to feel that way about it, because otherwise these series wouldn't be so popular without real widespread criticism beyond cliches like "too slow", "it loses steam towards the end of the season", etc.
Many of those plots start in a gold mine of potentially powerful ideas... yet they consistently provide us with dirt & clay instead, while side-lining the "good stuff" as if it was too complicated for the populace.
Do you feel strongly about it? Do you feel like you can't verbalize it without being criticised as "too negative", or "too picky", or an "unbearable snob"? Do you wonder why it seems like nobody around shares your discomfort with these stories?
* : I feel this is a bit like the chicken & egg problem. Has the media conditioned part of American society to behave like dumb psychopaths as if it was something "natural", or is the media reflecting what was already there? Also, could we use other societies as models for these stories... just for a change? Please?
** : Just a tiny example: a "brilliant" engineer who builds a bridge out of fence parts and who doesn't bother to perform the most basic tests before trying it in a real setting and suffer the consequences: the bridge failing and her falling into the void. Bonus points for anyone who knows what I'm talking about.
@jake4480@c.im2025-10-18 03:54:35
Naomi Watts got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and usually I don't even follow things like that, but I dig her so much and she deserves it like crazy. Wow, she's been in 97 films. Most people like her in the Lynch stuff. But for me, I mean.. King Kong, The Ring, and I ❤ Huckabees ALONE 🔥
@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-09-18 01:52:43
Just finished "The Melancholy of Summer" by Louisa Onomé. It's an excellent book about parental abandonment, rejecting and accepting help, and friendship, set in Toronto. There were a few threads that didn't quite get wrapped up by the end, but the ending wasn't dissatisfying, and the writing is excellent, particularly TV gee dialogue and the narration of Summer's thoughts. I felt like the strategic use of stutters both gave the main character extra vulnerability, but also helped subtly clue the reader into moments where Summer's perception of her interlocutors doesn't match their real feelings. Between this and "Like Home", I feel like Onomé's novels are a bit rough around the edges, yet they're still some of the most enjoyable books I've been reading, probably because she's pours so much humanity into her characters and lets their honest desire for something better rub off on the audience.
#AmReading
@raiders@darktundra.xyz2025-11-18 05:22:32
Mark Davis Under Fire Following Latest Raiders Embarrassment vs. Cowboys https://heavy.com/sports/nfl/las-vegas-raiders/mark-davis-sell-cowboys-loss/?adt_ei=[email]
@Techmeme@techhub.social2025-12-17 10:30:43
Ankar, which develops LLM-powered AI tools to streamline the process of drafting patent applications for patent attorneys, raised a $20M Series A led by Atomico (Jeremy Kahn/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2025/12/17/exclusi
@primonatura@mstdn.social2025-10-17 16:00:40
"The World Is Failing to Slow the Loss of Its Forests"
#Trees #Forests #Environment
@kurtsh@mastodon.social2025-11-18 05:07:05
Did you know Trump repeatedly lied lied LIED & bankrupted an entire sports league all because the NFL hurt his feelings?
▶️ One Man’s Ego vs. the NFL: Donald Trump and the demise of the USFL - Press Box Chronicles
https://youtube.com/watch?v=lCjWo9A_51E&si=LGdbd7…
@Techmeme@techhub.social2025-12-15 06:11:06
Filing: Oracle signed ~$150B of data center leases in the three months ending November 30, raising its total data center and cloud capacity commitments to $248B (Martin Peers/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/o
@primonatura@mstdn.social2025-10-16 15:00:40
"Growing cocktail of medicines in world’s waterways could be fuelling antibiotic resistance"
#Water #Pollution #Environment
