SF Boswell
Researcher, quasi-academic, nerd, gymnastics fan. I always flip to the back of the book.
- This thread is right on the money.
- Andor spoilers through 2x09, in rot13: V svaq zlfrys onssyrq ol gur furre onqarff bs Ovk'f fgbelyvar orpnhfr Naqbe jevgref frrz qrgrezvarq gb fgrc ba rirel "ubj gb jevgr n srznyr punenpgre onqyl" enxr va gur lneq. Ng gur fnzr gvzr, gur Naqbe jevgref XABJ UBJ GB JEVGR JBZRA.
- Can I just say I don't understand using Baldwin as the example here at all? She's the Senator from Wisconsin. Baldwin is actually a really strong example of a progressive Senator who *consistently wins over conservative voters.* Her counterpart is Ron Johnson, for crying out loud.
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View full threadWisconsin also has elected Tony Evers not once, but twice! If you'd told me in 2017 that the man to take down Scott Walker would be a deeply uncharismatic, staunchly progressive, former school superintendent, I would have *laughed* at you.
- (Seriously I love Tony Evers and I'm deeply grateful he's the Wisconsin governor, but the man is not wining a charisma award anytime soon).
- Tammy Baldwin originally represented Madison for the House of Reps. Madison's nickname is "77 Square Miles Surrounded by Reality." It's a deep blue, progressive city in a pretty conservative state. For that reason, there's often an assumption that Madison politicians are DOA in Wisconsin politics.
- And yet! And yet, Tammy Baldwin, a lesbian woman who made her bones representing Madison, has won the Wisconsin Senate seat three times. There is a lesson to be learned here.
- I think that the fitness pendulum swinging towards resistance training/ lifting is, in general, a good thing. I also think that a lot of pro-lifting influencers tend to overdownplay injury risks. People do get injured - quite badly - while lifting. This isn't a Big Cardio conspiracy theory.
- Good advice for all of us
- Some people might say that two patisseries does not a lunch make but that's why we fought the French revolution baby
- Am I a boulder bro now?
- Me: yes, it's a good idea to go outdoor bouldering with your little brother. It'll be fine Also me: Yes, fine that 90% of the food you eat while bouldering consists of carbohydrates even though you get a migraine the second you don't eat enough protein and fat This morning, waking up:
- The #1 cure for my low-blood sugar/ exercise-induced migraines is to "fucking eat something" Meanwhile, my body experiencing the migraine is like "if you so much as look at food, I will make you so nauseated -"
- anyway cut to me eating a spoonful of yogurt every two minutes while chanting "it's going to be fine. yogurt will make you feel better." ten minutes later: oh my god I'm cured
- Real tensions arising between me and my mother because sometimes I will turn on the overhead light. My mother, walking in: oh my god. what have you done.
- Me, five minutes later: *turns on another overhead light because my mom can't see* My mother: AGAIN???? This is a stubborn instinct that speaks of - *long pause*- evil
- Day 1 in Paris: went to the market with my mother, who introduced me to her friend, a 98 year old anarchist who fought with the french resistance Also bought cheese
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View full threadSo the Musée Carnavalet in Paris (my favorite, you should go there) has a thing where children can submit reinterpretations of historical objects anyways here's an antislavery carafe and a kid redrawing it as an owl
- Genuinely, props to 7-year-old David who sees the carafe and writes "the two circles remind me of an owl" You know what, David? Fair play! Good point!
- All right lads, we're all meeting at the Bad Boy Street (tm)
- In a Parisian church, graffiti from *either* the three glorious days or the Paris commune (we had a lot of revolutions) that says "the French republic or death"
- My mother: it's so good that the cleaning person is coming today, because the apartment is a mess Me: *gazes upon an apartment cleaner than any home I've ever been in* oh yeah, it's a disaster
- I did the finger gun maneuver around my mother, and needless to say, she was extremely confused. "Oh." *raises eyebrows in french way.* "I've never heard of that one"
- Sorry, did Hamish McArthur just do two V17s in the last MONTH? And he completed the second climb in a single session???? What the everloving fuck
- For context, V17 is the highest-known bouldering grade. Only about 15 people have ever climbed a V17 boulder, and of those 15, most have "only" climbed one or two. To climb two V17 boulders in the space of a month is absolutely astonishing.
- These are boulders that the best climbers in the world spend months-to-years working. Not "single session" Anyway, my apologies to Hamish McArthur, I was not familiar with your game
- Stumbled on this fantastic essay about the cultural and medical history of electroshock therapy + shock survivors. I think I was aware of electroshock therapy's rehabilitation campaign, and the reality behind it is quite dark. www.thebeliever.net/a-brilliant-...
- I mean any article that combines an analysis of Hemingway, Bucky Barnes, Harley Quinn and the mental health system is excellent stuff
- Despite the unending physical and emotional despair, I did manage to write 5,500 words this week so:
- Speaking of WorldCon, I present to you: the Bermuda Triangle WorldCon Bid (1988). This is not a joke! It STARTED as a joke, but then it became a full-fledged attempt to make WorlcCon a *multiple day cruise around the Bermuda Triangle*
- At their very best, WorldCons are a love letter to SFF creators and the fan community. At their very worst, they are a betrayal of that same community.
- Statement From Worldcon Chair: We have received questions regarding Seattle’s use of AI tools in our vetting process for program participants. In the interest of transparency, we will explain the process of how we are using a Large… seattlein2025.org?p=3859
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View full threadAnd you see this divide too, during the Chengdu 2023 WorldCon, where *a lot* of the interest by the ConCom was in promoting the Chinese science fiction *industry* and its technological outputs.
- By all accounts, Chengdu 2023 was very successful in promoting the industry of science fiction. It was an abysmal failure in almost every other way. Some kind of lesson to be learned there for Seattle 2025.
- The thing I keep coming back to about Seattle's WorldCon AI usage is that (as a million people pointed out), they didn't NEED to use AI to sort through panel participants. There were alternatives: So either they: 1. are very stupid or 2. Were genuinely excited to use LLMs to automate this task
- Since the dawn of modern SF fandom (pulp era onward), there's been a core tension between science fiction as a cultural/ narrative product *about* technology, and science fiction as technological boosterism. The AI controversy with WorldCon speaks to that divide.
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- I'm sorry but that laundry room belongs to the snake now
- this is by the New York Times editorial board?? I assumed it was by some conservative crank
- Why on earth would a protest movement against the worst president in US history begin by acknowledging that he's not so bad www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/o...
- What the fuck did I just read
- I was 28 in 2016 and this is an insane characterization of what growing up as a white man in my cohort was like. Demonstrative of how out-of-touch the cultural right is with actual American life www.theredneckintellectual.com/p/right-wing...
- Every three years or so, I'm in a rush or I'm in a hubris, and I take a taxi to get around Manhattan. I have ALWAYS regretted it. Which is saying something, given the state of the subway.
- this is so goofy
- This is praxis, to me
- Like when the French resistance sent the Vichy government a very strong letter asking eight very strong questions
- it's a dirty little secret that a lot of colleges (including private ones) rely heavily on international students paying full tuition to keep the budget afloat
- I mean sure, it's bad, but the good news is that there are no more careers in higher education, so -
- “Finally, scholars from JHU & AEI have designed a program, the Graduate Student Intellectual Diversity Initiative, that aims to encourage conservative, libertarian & heterodox students & graduates to consider a career in higher education, & to support them_” hub.jhu.edu/2025/04/21/j...
- Oh, we're doing the Islamo-gauchisme witch hunt in the United States now?
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- because this is the volume on contemporary world lit?
- The pulitzer board in clearing Diaz basically seems to have decided that sexual misconduct *only* includes egregious sexual assault, and does not include sexual harassment. [All of this is from Jude Ellison S. Doyle article "Ben Smith, Junot Díaz, and How the Anti-#MeToo Sausage Gets Made"]
- The real story here is that Díaz almost certainly harassed women, many of whom were women of color, several of whom were his students. And the media + many academics rebranded this as a racist "cancellation" because they can't be bothered to read the actual evidence.
- One of the most depressing parts about the Junot Díaz saga is how the media rebranded the accusations as fake when the investigation "clearing" him was extremely sloppy, did not contact several of his most prominent victims, and adopted a bizarre definition of sexual misconduct
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- There are authors in the Norton Anthology of World Lit who would be quite hard to find for a professor if they weren't anthologized (they're out of print; they're not often translated etc.) Junot Díaz is just not one of those writers.
