@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-10-27 03:00:46
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
@jtk@infosec.exchange2025-12-26 17:23:20
@detondev@social.linux.pizza2025-12-27 12:40:05
*kneels down to small autistic child with a wide gentle smile on my face* not literally a million times! i know its hard to understand, but its an expression, exaggerating to convey that i saw it so much on reddit in 2022 that it became permanently uninteresting and "reddit" in my mind, and-
*agiant flying saucer swoops by the building, blowing out the windows into teeny little glass specks and giving the place some much needed light these bitches vampires* MY NAME ITH OVERWO…
@v_i_o_l_a@openbiblio.social2026-01-26 13:00:42
@cjust@infosec.exchange2025-11-27 15:05:57
OpenAI discloses API customer data breach via Mixpanel vendor hack
Mixpanel reported that the attack “impacted a limited number of our customers” and resulted from a smishing (SMS phishing) campaign that the company detected on November 8.
OpenAI received details of the affected dataset on November 25 after being informed of Mixpanel’s ongoing investigation.
The AI company notes that the exposed information may include:
- Name that was provided to …
@presseportal_pol_NDS@frawas.de2026-01-26 13:30:22
POL-HK: Munster: Vorfahrt unter Einfluss genommen; Bad Fallingbostel: Einbruch in Einfamilienhaus; Soltau: Scheibe eingeworfen Heidekreis (ots) - 25.01.2026 / Vorfahrt unter Einfluss genommen Munster: Ein 34-jähriger Autofahrer nahm am Sonntagabend gegen 21:45 Uhr an der Kreuzung Breloher Straße Ecke Hindenburgallee beim Linksabbiegen einem Streifenwagen die Vorfahrt. ... <…
@Techmeme@techhub.social2025-11-20 16:45:47
Nano Banana Pro is great at following instructions, generates interim "thought images", and makes full infographics with well-rendered text from a short prompt (Simon Willison/Simon Willison's Weblog)
https://simonwillison.net/2025/Nov/20/nano-banana-pro/
@rberger@hachyderm.io2026-01-25 03:32:43
The non-exodus of California billionaires
The media says they’re fleeing a wealth tax. Except, they’re not.
Nary a day has passed of late that hasn’t seen stories about the billionaires’ flight from California, lest they be subjected to a proposed wealth tax that hasn’t yet gathered the required signatures to qualify for the ballot. The fact that there is no billionaires’ flight from California hasn’t impeded the flow of such tales.
https://americanprospect.bluelena.io/index.php?action=social&chash=28f7241796510e838db4a1384ae1279d.3942&s=a25f328e944fec8e9462e7b6d554a892
@cdarwin@c.im2026-01-25 15:37:25
Unlike his predecessors,
Trump does not even pretend that his imperialism serves any purpose nobler than American domination
For Trump, “America first” didn’t imply any legal or moral opposition to foreign invasions.
To the contrary, he criticized Bush for not seizing Iraq’s oil.
He denounced regime change and nation building because they allegedly expended American blood and treasure on behalf of non-Americans.
Instead, Trump promised short wars in which onl…
@Techmeme@techhub.social2025-11-20 15:11:00
Google launches Gemini 3 Pro Image, aka Nano Banana Pro, with more control, improved text rendering, and enhanced world knowledge, for free in the Gemini app (Abner Li/9to5Google)
https://9to5google.com/2025/11/20/gemini-3-nano-banana-pro/
