reddragdiva | Reading

Books:

19 Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, Jack Weatherford. ( Read more... )

And then I got caught up with stress about doing taxes for two countries with two different due dates and ran out of steam. I've currently got my kindle off wifi to see if I can eke out another book before it gets returned to the library since the loan period is almost up, oops.

sabotabby

I have had this one open in a tab most of the week so I would remember to tell you about it. Podside Picnic's "Minnesota NoICE" interviews

naomikritzer ,

lydamorehouse , Marissa Lingen, and J.R. Dawson about their experiences during ICE's occupation of the Twin Cities during Operation Metro Surge.

Look. I think these people are heroes. I think every single person who fought back against a fascist paramilitary that was abducting people from their homes and workplaces, torturing them, putting them in concentration camps, sometimes gunning them down in the streets, is a hero. Any act of resistance that throws sand in those gears is worthy of celebration, and there were a lot of those acts.

The thing is as you can tell by the tagging, I know two of these heroes as people. That to me is what really blew me away listening to this episode. I am currently reading a book about resistance to the Nazis that does amazing work humanizing each and every character, but I don't know any of them personally, so it's easy to imagine that they are somehow larger than life, special people who have qualities that I can never possess. Whereas the folks interviewed in this episode are people basically like me (well, more successful in their writing careers lol) and it was genuinely empowering listening to people just describing what they did. Because it's absolutely heroic but it is heroism that required no particular special skills or background or even executive functioning. A thing needed to be done, they did the thing, they are still doing the thing. It's enough to make you weep.

You still need to do the laundry when the fascists roll in, and this is a podcast episode about that, and everyone should give it a listen.

tamaranth

2026/065: Renaissance — E H Lupton

“Ulysses?”
When he looked back, Eli said, carefully, “It’s pull the lever, not throw yourself in front of the trolley to save everyone.”
Ulysses exhaled. “It’s a thought experiment, Doc...” [loc. 3320]

Fifth in the 'Wisconsin Gothic' series which began with Dionysus in Wisconsin: in this instalment, Sam and Ulysses are planning a quiet summer, until ( Read more... )

Current Mood: calm

sabotabby

maevedarcy is posting a meme a day for 3 Weeks 4 Dreamwidth and well, of course I had to.

This week I'm reading: Here Where We Live Is Our Country by Molly Crabapple

My favorite book of all time is: I don't really have one. I have favourites for different purposes, like Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy for turning me into, alas, a comedic speculative fiction writer, or Vita Nostra for rewiring my brain, or Moby-Dick for becoming my entire personality for two years, or or or.

My current favorite book (read or re-read in the last 3 months) is: The River Has Roots, Amal El-Mohtar

The last book I bought was: It's on pre-order, but Obstetrix by

naomikritzer .

The first book I bought with my own money was: I honestly have no idea.

The first book I received as a gift was: It would have been a children's book? Maybe The Little Prince or Alice's Adventures In Wonderland or something, both of which I was always pretty obsessed with.

The last book I received as a gift was: Always On by Helena Trooperman

The last book I borrowed from the library was: Grendel by John Gardner

The book physically closest to me right now is: There are no books physically close to me because nearly everything is on ebook. The closest paper book is Wake Up! (Book Winter) by R Merey, because tRaum books are beautiful and I paid a dumb amount to get the pretty edition from Germany.

This or that
Physical book or e-book: e-book. I'm a traitor, I know.
Used or new: Library
Fiction or non-fiction: Fiction, but a good non-fiction will engross me
Read at a coffee shop or at the park: Traditionally, a coffee shop, but with covid, park.
Paperback or hardcover: E-book, but if it has to be physical, paperback.
Romance or Crime: Best when combined, not a big fan of either on their own.

Yes or no
Stream of consciousness? Fuck yes
Poetry? Yes
Memoirs? No
Philosophy? Sure
Thrillers? Nah
Chronicles? Nope
Travel logs? Big no
Dialogue heavy? Sure

wildeabandon

I am resisting the temptation to get into an argument on the book of face, and instead coming here to observe that it irks me when people say things like, "You shouldn't blame violent behaviour on people's mental illness. Mentally ill people are more likely to be the victim of violence than the perpetrator." As though it's not possible for the same factor to increase both vulnerability to and propensity to commit violence. The overwhelming majority of the violence that I've been on the receiving end of occurred whilst I was in psychiatric hospitals, surrounded by other mentally ill people.

Of course there's nuance to the conversation. Some varieties of mental illness, particularly the most prevalent ones of depression and anxiety, probably have little to no effect on violent tendencies, whereas others like addiction which have a major effect on impulse control almost certainly do, and still others literally have aggression and violence as part of the diagnostic criteria. It's also important to think carefully about how we assign culpability for violence committed by mentally ill people, and about the impact of speech which uncritically conflates all mental illness with violence. But the idea that violence committed against mentally ill people means we shouldn't speak about the link between mental illness and that which they commit, or even that no such links exists has absolutely none of that nuance. Thank you for listening to my TED Talk :)

tamaranth

01MAR26: Secrets of the Thames -- Museum of London, Docklands
( Read more... )
05MAR26: The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014) -- Netflix
( Read more... )
07MAR26: The Bride! (Maggie Gylenhaal, 2026) -- Greenwich Picturehouse
( Read more... )
12MAR26: Lionheart (Nnaji, 2018) -- Netflix
( Read more... )
21MAR26: Project Hail Mary (Lord/Miller, 2026) -- Greenwich Picturehouse
( Read more... )
22MAR26: A Child of Our Time (Tippett, 1941) -- Blackheath Halls
( Read more... )
26MAR26: Life of Chuck (Flanagan, 2024) -- Netflix
( Read more... )
28MAR26: John Proctor is the Villain (Belflower, 2022) -- Royal Court Theatre
( Read more... )

Current Mood: tired

andrewducker

Can you guess how old she is?
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

tcpip

This Saturday at 2 pm I'm giving a presentation entitled "The United Colours of Jürgen Habermas: A Life's Work" (link in comments), who recently died. Habermas was, from the 1960s onwards, he was Europes's most influential social theorist and philosopher whose works combined linguistics, communication, rationality, and pragmatism. I readily admit that I have been a follower of his work for around 35 years and have been impressed by his commitment to an emancipatory modernism. I have also agreed with his criticisms of positivism, hermeneutics, systems-functionalism, and post-structuralism (c.f., my recent talk on French philosophy). Anyway, for those who enjoy listening to me go on a passionate philosophical-political rant for an hour, or who have never had the opportunity, please do come along; I promise it will be at least entertaining and sincere.

In my other, more formal scholarly activities, I've smashed through the University of Chicago's course on science and climate modelling, completing the material in about half the expected time. Mind you, it does help if one is pretty familiar with the content, though one should recognise that some of it could be updated. I will also say that the user interface of the professor's models could be improved. With these caveats, however, the content is quite excellent and what one would hope for from someone who has been a professor of geophysical sciences for almost 35 years. I admit I am intrigued by the follow-up make-your-own modelling course.

On a somewhat related manner, I have also organised multiple researcher talks at work involving a variety of researchers who have used our supercomputer and have some publications as a result; one has the charming title of "CRITTERS: Climate, Resource, and Image Tracking in Tiny, Ecologically Representative Systems". The second, "Threshold-Calibrated Word Sense Disambiguation: Semantic Broadening Without Sense Redistribution in Schizophrenia", and the third "Skuas as sentinels of high pathogenicity avian influenza H5N1 on the Antarctic Peninsula in the 2024/2025 austral summer" (my own recent trip to Antarctica in the same area witnessed more than a few of these well-travelled birds). All quite different but equally important subjects that, in their own way, needed the processing power we could offer to model and verify theories and to seek matches with empirical data; this is how real science progresses.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: The Rookery
Current Music: U2, "The Unforgettable Fire"

sabotabby

Just finished: Nothing.

Currently reading: Still working my way through Here Where We Live Is Our Country by Molly Crabapple. I'm now up to the Warsaw Ghetto, so of course it's bleak stuff, with our protagonists having increasingly fewer less-bad choices as the Nazi regime closes in on them.

Of course a lot leading up to this is the question of "when do we flee?" a question that definitely bears no relevance to anyone today. The answer is more or less implied in the title and, well, we know what happened with the Warsaw Ghetto. A few activists were deemed too valuable to let die and were smuggled out. Many had left before. There was never going to be any way to save everyone, or even most people.

It's a weirdly good way to connect with my heritage. I relate to the fact that even in the worst moment in history my people have ever known, we still found time to fight with Zionists and tankies. There is light even in the darkness.

tamaranth

2026/064: Silent Spring — Rachel Carson

...genetic deterioration through man-made agents is the menace of our time, the last and greatest danger to our civilization. [ch 13]

Published in 1962, this book had a massive impact on the environmental movement -- indeed, may be said to have kickstarted it. Silent Spring inspired the creation of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, as well as influencing scientists, naturalists and politicians, from David Attenborough to Al Gore.

Carson relates, in horrific and exhaustive detail, the damages done to the natural world by pesticides such as DDT. ( Read more... )

Current Mood: sad

andrewducker

Shortcut home through the cherry blossom
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

rdm

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: geeky

tamaranth

2026/063: Queen James — Gareth Russell

...given how obvious James’s affection was in public, nobody at court doubted what was happening in private. George [Villiers]’s contemporary Sir Henry Rich allegedly turned down an advantageous post in the King’s Household because he did not want anybody to assume he owed his position to his looks or an intimate relationship with the King. [loc. 5901]

A biography that doesn't shy away from James' homosexuality, but treats it as an integral part of his character. Becoming King of Scotland at the age of 13 months, his childhood was full of trauma:( Read more... )

Current Mood: good

tamaranth

2026/062: My Beloved Brontosaurus — Brian Switek

'Going the way of the dinosaurs' should really mean becoming undeniably awesome, rather than sinking into inevitable extinction.

Subtitled 'On the Road with Old Bones, New Science and our Favourite Dinosaurs', this is Switek's^* account of various dinosaur-related trips across the United States. Along the way, the author discusses the demise of Brontosaurus, deemed a misclassification of an Apatosaurus fossil (a decision that was reversed in 2015: My Beloved Brontosaurus was published in 2012); reveals their childhood fascination with dinosaurs; discusses dinosaur fighting, mating and parenting; dinosaur physiology, and why those old accounts of dull, slow-moving brutes is probably wrong; dinosaur vocalisation.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: cheerful

the_siobhan

Note to future self, don't bother booking time off work in April if working on the house is the goal. It never seems to work out the way I want it to. (This time because of the weather.)

I did get one day that was merely damp and so the upper part of the yard is now graded and seeded.

And I discovered that at some point the rain and wind had pulled down two of the dead phone lines that cross my yard. They are now sagging from the poles and cross the yard at chest height. That means I have to deal with Bell again. Joy.

***

Lord Brock went back in for bloodwork and the numbers that concerned the vet show much improved. I never did get the urine sample because he flat-out refused to enter his litter box while it had the medical litter in it. It's basically tiny plastic beads so I can't entirely blame him, they would be slippery and uncomfortable.

So he goes back to the vet for a $60 hanging-out-until-he-pees session on top of the $30 I paid for the kit. This fucking cat. Maybe they'll reimburse me for the kit if I bring it back.

***

I think I've mentioned in here that my sister and I have been trying to gently persuade my dad's wife that it's time to move out of their house into a place with no stairs. It came up again this week because my dad climbed over the gate in front of the basement stairs and then couldn't get back up. (How he did this nobody can figure out, the man can barely walk.)

Sister found a link to a really nice condo for sale in their neighbourhood and it turns out it was in a building where they have friends. And they stayed there briefly while their bathroom was being renovated and their friends were on vacation. MIL was still hemming and hawing about it and apparently I said the magic words, "If you are worried about the work of packing and downsizing, I will come over and help." Next thing she called her realtor and two days later her offer was accepted.

So Friday Daughter and I went over and helped pack. Y'all, they have So Much stuff. There are two full-size book cases in the basement just for shoes, and that's not counting the two shoe-racks on the ground floor for the shoes they actually wear. A dresser AND a wardrobe AND two clothing racks for clothes, and that's just in the basement. There are three bedrooms on the top floor all will full closets and dressers.

Well, between the three of us we got 7 full contractor bags out of there just of stuff that has to go away. Today four more family members descended on the place to continue packing. The real estate agent wants to get the place on the market ASAP because apparently sales drop off when the weather gets good. So we've been strategizing ways to get as much stuff out of the house as possible as fast as possible, even if it means doing the actual purging at the other end. This is probably going to suck up all my free time for the next month at least.

The actual possession happens in August so fingers crossed she can keep my dad from going down the stairs bucket-first until we can get them moved.

***

Saturday Daughter and I took a taxidermy class. Not the best timing, given everything else that was going on, but I had already paid for it and I was looking forward it to it, so we went. I now have a stuffed rat in my living room. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot about the practice - including what I will do differently the next time I try to do any taxidermy.

***

Back to work this morning and I was interrupted by a knock on the door. Three people on my porch asked me for permission to take a picture of the front of my house - one of the women had grown up here, the second had grown up across the street, and woman #1 had met her husband when he was boarding with woman #2's family. The couple had just celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary.

I invited them in so I could show them around the house and described what it looked like when I bought it 20+ years ago. They were super sweet and told me stories about what the area was like when they lived here 65 years ago.

Hilariously, she is a big Elvis fan. (Ex housemate loved Elvis and we still have a sticker on the door.) So we also talked about Graceland.

This is the second time somebody has knocked on my door because they grew up in my house. Advantage of having a house over 100 years old I guess.

divabot

April books

podcast friday

Interesting Links for 01-05-2026

2026/065: Renaissance — E H Lupton

Book meme from thatjustwontbreak

Interesting Links for 30-04-2026

Mental health and violence

Monthly culture, March 2026

Photo cross-post

Habermas Presentation and Other Scholarly Activities

Interesting Links for 29-04-2026

Reading Wednesday

2026/064: Silent Spring — Rachel Carson

Photo cross-post

Swancon 50 is nearly upon us

Interesting Links for 28-04-2026

2026/063: Queen James — Gareth Russell

Interesting Links for 27-04-2026

2026/062: My Beloved Brontosaurus — Brian Switek

time is calling name by name

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March 2022

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