Tootfinder

NYC folks: tomorrow night! It’s gonna be a good time, and we’re going to nerd out a little bit, but in a fun way. Come join us. https://ucbcomedy.com/show/not-in-my-backyard-11-26-25/

LLMs are basically a "Conversation Simulator" and just as useless as similar games like "Power Washing Simulator" or "Goat Simulator", only less fun

I've been playing a few of those Lego games (Lego Star Wars etc.) with my little one. It's fun though navigating 3D space while handling the camera is a lot for him (it _is_ not easy).
Sometimes I try to tell him where to go when he gets lost but it's really challenging to stay patient at times (because it's hard for him to translate the words into the complex actions necessary and because I don't want to do things for him while he's trying things). But it's…

Drug gangs in Ecuador and Peru also involved in shark fin trafficking: Report https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/drug-gangs-in-ecuador-and-peru-also-involved-in-shark-fin-trafficking-report/

Drug gangs in Ecuador and Peru also involved in shark fin trafficking: Report
Narcotrafficking gangs operating out of Manabí, a coastal province of Ecuador, are also involved in trafficking shark fins alongside their drug operations, according to a recent investigation by Ecuadorian news agency Código Vidrio. Evidence from wiretaps, surveillance and raids seen by Código Vidrio reporters suggests that gangs are capturing and finning sharks and transporting the […]

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

Metcalf suspended two games for fan altercation https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/47393000/steelers-dk-metcalf-suspended-two-games-fan-altercation

I was awake af chillin playing phone games and the MOMENT I was made aware that it's 3am my entire body just started shutting down
girl you were FINE

Eigentlich wollte ich nur das Muffin mit Ei und Speck aufgewärmt haben. Sie haben das Gipfeli dazu getan und es war eine gute Lösung. 🥰
Der Espresso auch ganz fein.
Chez Columbus Café & Co.
#CANEast25

Steelers WR DK Metcalf suspended two games for physically confronting fan in win over Lions https://www.nfl.com/news/steelers-wr-dk-metcalf-suspended-two-games-for-physically-confronting-fan-in-win-over-lions