Tootfinder

Just finished "Beasts Made of Night" by Tochi Onyebuchi...
Indirect CW for fantasy police state violence.
So I very much enjoyed Onyebuchi's "Riot Baby," and when I grabbed this at the library, I was certain it would be excellent. But having finished it, I'm not sure I like it that much overall?
The first maybe third is excellent, including the world-building, which is fascinating. I feel like Onyebuchi must have played "Shadow of the Colossus" at some point. Onyebuchi certainly does know how to make me care for his characters.
Some spoilers from here on out...
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I felt like it stumbles towards the middle, with Bo's reactions neither making sense in the immediate context, nor in retrospect by the end when we've learned more. Things are a bit floaty in the middle with an unclear picture of what exactly is going on politics-wise and what the motivations are. Here I think there were some nuances that didn't make it to the page, or perhaps I'm just a bit thick and not getting stuff I should be? More is of course revealed by the end, but I still wasn't satisfied with the explanations of things. For example, (spoilers) I don't feel I understand clearly what kind of power the army of aki was supposed to represent within the city? Perhaps necessary to wield the threat of offensive inisisia use? In that case, a single scene somewhere of Izu's faction deploying that tactic would have been helpful I think.
Then towards the end, for me things really started to jumble, with unclear motivations, revelations that didn't feel well-paced or -structured, and a finale where both the action & collapsing concerns felt stilted and disjointed. Particularly the mechanics/ethics of the most important death that set the finale in motion bothered me, and the unexplained mechanism by which that led to what came next? I can read a couple of possible interesting morals into the whole denouement, but didn't feel that any of them were sufficiently explored. Especially if we're supposed to see some personal failing in the protagonist's actions, I don't think it's made clear enough what that is, since I feel his reasons to reject each faction are pretty solid, and if we're meant to either pity or abjure his indecision, I don't think the message lands clearly enough.
There *is* a sequel, which honestly I wasn't sure of after the last page, and which I now very interested in. Beasts is Onyebuchi's debut, which maybe makes sense of me feeling that Riot Baby didn't have the same plotting issues. It also maybe means that Onyebuchi couldn't be sure a sequel would make it to publication in terms of setting up the ending.
Overall I really enjoyed at least 80% of this, but was expecting even better (especially politically) given Onyebuchi's other work, and I didn't feel like I found it.
#AmReading

The silo @… https://mastodon.online/@sjar/115351966099892463

sjar@itsmesjarlie (@sjar@mastodon.online)
Attached: 1 image The transmitter tower of Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, Flemish Brabant, Belgium, Sometimes also called the VRT tower This building is a freestanding concrete tower for radio & television transmission and was built between 1991 and 1994 for the VRT. The concrete tower with mast is 302 meters high, has a diameter of 27 m at the base and 1.3 m at the top and is the tallest structure in Belgium. De Gregorio & Partners was responsible for the architecture. #WindowFrid…

Amid US public media funding cuts, a look at how the model of private donations can lead to an audience that's older, whiter, and richer than average Americans (Sarah Scire/Nieman Lab)
https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/11/funding-c…

Funding cuts may make public radio more reliant on old, rich, white donors
After years of interviews, research, and writing, Laura Garbes submitted the final draft of her book on public radio in December 2024. By the time Listeners Like Who? Exclusion and Resistance in the Public Radio Industry published last month, a lot had changed. Following Trump’s election and fede…

These charts will shock you I am sure.
Travel to the United States for Europeans appears much less popular year-over-year.
Financial Times shows the steep drop (paywalled) since the new administration began.
https://flowingdata.com/2025/04/15/decline-in…

Decline in European travelers to U.S.
These charts will shock you I am sure. Travel to the United States for Europeans appears much less popular year-over-year. Financial Times shows the steep drop (paywalled) since the new administrat…

This Soviet SST-inspired bomber flying over Novaya Zembla does not exist. #AIArt #Sora

The next cold email that is „just following up to see if you’ve had time to look at our offerings“ I will send an automated email back once every 4 days telling them that I’m just checking in to make sure they know I’m not interested.

seemingly normal well adjusted software developers keep following me
actually now that I typed that I'm not sure if those actually exist

Give me your suggestions for "assassinated revolutionaries" missing from this #Wikipedia category.
#crowdsourcing

Currently setting up my new laptop (HP EliteBook X Flip G1i), and so far:
1. The device was delivered with a bundled warranty that already started 50 days ago
2. The supplier delivered a Battery Replacement Care Pack for 3 years instead of 5 years as ordered
Called HP for the warranty precox, had to send the invoice. Agent: "Yeah, it's gonna be about 2 weeks till we correct that."
(OK, Laptop won't leave the house until then)
Wrote the supplier for…

Big news for the energy transition!
And a nice little 'told you so' moment for yours truly :)
In the first half of this year, renewables produced more electricity globally than coal, for the first time.
And 2025 is the date I predicted for this to happen, back in 2016, in a blog post for Ecofys! The score was 23%-40% at the time, with most of the renewables share still coming from hydro, and the prediction was less than obvious.