ckd | Network

(crossposted from my journal)

I want to get back into posting about the anime I'm watching, especially since I wanted to check out a bunch of things this season.

Snowball Earth looks likely to become the show I keep desperately recommending to my fellow Worldcon members until Hugo nominations close next spring. Episode 1 speedruns an entire mecha show about a teenager with a special gift and his special robot fighting off an alien invasion, until things go disastrously wrong and the protagonist finds himself back on Earth after a very sudden climate change. Worse, he was planning to make up for his social isolation and awkwardness by making a bunch of friends after the final battle, and the population of Earth seems to have dropped precipitously.

It's about 75% comedy, 20% earnest mecha action, 5% horror, and all good so far. It's also like someone saw Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet and set out to prove that the premise had a much better show hiding in it.

Rooster Fighter has a pretty thin premise (tough-guy fighter except he's an actual chicken) and yet it's so well executed that I keep deciding to watch one more episode. At some point I think I'll hit a wall and suddenly not care anymore, but today is not that day.

Daemons of the Shadow Realm has managed to conceal a very important piece of its information about its setting from its trailers, which makes for a pretty big shock in the first episode. Congrats to the marketing department, except had I known that piece of information from the beginning, I would have been more interested. Anyway, the last Arakawa Hiromu adaptation I saw felt meh (Arslan) but this is going very well so far.

Mao is the other big adaptation of a manga by a famous long-running author, and um... if you like Takahashi Rumiko's work, this is definitely another Takahashi Rumiko work. I was not gripped.

Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun! season 4 inspired me to finally finish season 3, where I'd gotten bogged down in the Harvest Festival arc. Hoping the Music Festival goes better. So far, so good.

Kujima: Why Sing When You Can Warble? is about a boy who meets a migratory anthropomorphic bird-thing and invites it home to live with him. Mildly heartwarming things ensue. This was billed as a "horror comedy", and I feel like the premiere could have used more of both. OTOH, there is some delightfully demented voice acting. I'm going to give this one one more episode.

Killed Again, Mr. Detective? had an interesting-sounding premise, but it's very, very much a light novel adaptation full of light novel tropes that I'm sick of.

Witch Hat Atelier had an excellent first episode featuring the rare anime fantasy world where it all fits together, unlike the usual visual mishmash. Then episode 2 introduced a few characters I feel like I've seen in a million other school and school-like shows, and I was a lot less excited. I'll see how the rest of the season goes.

petrea_mitchell

I want to get back into posting about the anime I'm watching, especially since I wanted to check out a bunch of things this season.

Snowball Earth looks likely to become the show I keep desperately recommending to my fellow Worldcon members until Hugo nominations close next spring. Episode 1 speedruns an entire mecha show about a teenager with a special gift and his special robot fighting off an alien invasion, until things go disastrously wrong and the protagonist finds himself back on Earth after a very sudden climate change. Worse, he was planning to make up for his social isolation and awkwardness by making a bunch of friends after the final battle, and the population of Earth seems to have dropped precipitously.

It's about 75% comedy, 20% earnest mecha action, 5% horror, and all good so far. It's also like someone saw Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet and set out to prove that the premise had a much better show hiding in it.

Rooster Fighter has a pretty thin premise (tough-guy fighter except he's an actual chicken) and yet it's so well executed that I keep deciding to watch one more episode. At some point I think I'll hit a wall and suddenly not care anymore, but today is not that day.

Daemons of the Shadow Realm has managed to conceal a very important piece of its information about its setting from its trailers, which makes for a pretty big shock in the first episode. Congrats to the marketing department, except had I known that piece of information from the beginning, I would have been more interested. Anyway, the last Arakawa Hiromu adaptation I saw felt meh (Arslan) but this is going very well so far.

Mao is the other big adaptation of a manga by a famous long-running author, and um... if you like Takahashi Rumiko's work, this is definitely another Takahashi Rumiko work. I was not gripped.

Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun! season 4 inspired me to finally finish season 3, where I'd gotten bogged down in the Harvest Festival arc. Hoping the Music Festival goes better. So far, so good.

Kujima: Why Sing When You Can Warble? is about a boy who meets a migratory anthropomorphic bird-thing and invites it home to live with him. Mildly heartwarming things ensue. This was billed as a "horror comedy", and I feel like the premiere could have used more of both. OTOH, there is some delightfully demented voice acting. I'm going to give this one one more episode.

Killed Again, Mr. Detective? had an interesting-sounding premise, but it's very, very much a light novel adaptation full of light novel tropes that I'm sick of.

Witch Hat Atelier had an excellent first episode featuring the rare anime fantasy world where it all fits together, unlike the usual visual mishmash. Then episode 2 introduced a few characters I feel like I've seen in a million other school and school-like shows, and I was a lot less excited. I'll see how the rest of the season goes.

cosmolinguist

I e-mailed the HR inbox with a question at work this morning, and the response I got was a name I recognized asking when she could call me to chat through the answer. It was the name I recognized from being cool about me being trans when I started this job.

I didn't think she'd recognize me, but as soon as we got on the call she said "Long time no see!" My smile, which felt both surprised and a little shy in response, hopefully gave her a good look at all the facial hair I didn't have last time we talked -- I hadn't even started testosterone yet.

elf

I ran a Whole Game Scenario, more than a single session, for the first time in more than 20 years. Maybe 30 years.

...Brindlewood Bay is the first game I've actively wanted to run in decades. Played in someone else's game first to figure out the mechanics, and established that

1) Wow, I did not like how they ran the game
2) No, I mean... they ignored the base starting premise of the game, which is "you are retired old ladies." (They decided you can be retired old men instead. I very much do not like this; retired old men are treated very differently from old ladies. It changes how the cozy aspects of the game works.)
3) Aside from that, did not like the GM's call about what actions we were taking, and didn't like that he pushed us into some actions.
4) It was an entirely new experience for me to think "I could run this better."
5) So the next time one of my groups was kinda between games, I said "I, uh, have been kinda wanting to run a thing..."

( And I stole the plot from The Untamed )

olivermoss

Watch on YouTube

I don't know how the movie will be, but that was an amazing trailer.

oliviacirce

I am posting this in honor of tonight's season finale of The Pitt, because I simply would not be me doing poetry month if I did not draw fandom poetry parallels. I'm a couple of episodes behind, though, so no spoilers. I also just really love the things Jack Gilbert does with language, and although I was initially going to post a different Gilbert poem this year, this one snuck up on me. I love a poem about place.

( Searching for Pittsburgh )

shipperslist

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

rinue

Dashed across the street between programs to drop off sheet music for an accompanist at the music school. Had to dodge a screaming turkey on the way back. To any kid who fantasized about what it would be like to live among dinosaurs: similar to jaywalking. Silly noises.

chazzbanner

This morning I texted j-wat about my travel woes, and he said to let it go and make the plans. He agreed that going through AAA is a good idea. So.. see title (I feel better). (not perfect, better)

Back to the shift and slide of everyday life.

I'm trying to alternate tv show episodes, as opposed to bingeing. These are on Prime or my trial-run Apple TV:

Young Sherlock
Hirayasumi
The Man in the High Castle
Slow Horses

I'm trying out a C-drama, too. Hirayasumi was a live-action series on NHK, based on a manga. (There's also an anime version.). It's a charming little slice of live, and I mean little: 20 episodes, each 15 minutes long.

Amazon won't let us download books onto Very Olde Kindles, starting sometime in May. I only have one that old, and I haven't been able to purchase from it for some time. I'd just download previously-purchased books from the cloud. No more of that.

I use it only to listen to (Kindle-speak), either when I'm on a walk (earbuds) or when I'm at loose ends and doing things around the place.

It was two collections on it, one fantasy* :-) and one science fiction. Aside from these I have some Alcott (no Little Women!), the collected Thornton Burgess, Heidi, and the collected Five Little Peppers series. Oh, and The Lord of the Rings. :-). Jane Gardam (The Old Filth trilogy), a couple of Mary Wesley novels. Also: many Georgette Heyer and Elizabeth Goudge.

*Kindle-speak never pronounces the names right!

As you can see, these are in one way or other comfort reads. I just downloaded a couple more Heyer novels and four by D. E. Stevenson.

I also have the complete poetical works of John Donne, the collected works of Edward Thomas, and A Child's Garden of Verses (RLS). I suppose I could delete them, as of course I have access to them on other devices..

I probably won't download any more from my library, but I have a little time to think about it.

-

arstechnica_feed

Posted by Ryan Whitwam

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/04/gemini-can-now-create-personalized-ai-images-by-digging-around-in-google-photos/

Google began rolling out "personal intelligence" in Gemini early this year, giving AI subscribers the option of a more customized experience when using the company's chatbot. Today, it's using personal intelligence to tie its image-generation model to Google Photos. If you opt in, generated images will have access to your photos and associated labels to simplify prompts and produce more accurate AI images.

This change essentially streamlines an existing workflow. Google's Nano Banana 2 is among the best AI image generators available, and it was already possible to feed it images of yourself or others to use as context for creating new AI content. Adding personal intelligence to the mix makes that process smoother by turning the image bot loose on the content of your photos, if indeed that's something you want to do.

It is generally true that adding more personal data to an AI prompt results in a better output. Google offers a few examples of how connecting Nano Banana to Photos can help in this way. You won't have to pack as much context into your prompts—you can just refer to "my family" or "my dog" to let the robot find useful images in your Photos library.

Read full article

Comments

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/04/gemini-can-now-create-personalized-ai-images-by-digging-around-in-google-photos/

arstechnica_feed

Posted by Beth Mole

https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/04/rfk-jr-forces-fda-to-reconsider-12-unproven-peptides-after-2023-ban/

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday announced meeting dates for advisors to discuss lifting restrictions on 12 unproven peptides that the agency deemed to pose significant safety risks in 2023. The meetings are scheduled for two days in July, with another in February 2027.

The scheduled meetings do not appear to be accompanied by any significant new safety or efficacy data for FDA advisors to discuss. Rather, the FDA is being pushed to ease restrictions on these peptides at the behest of anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has described himself as a "big fan" of the unproven drugs.

Peptide drugs are simply those made of short chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. FDA-approved peptide drugs include insulin for diabetes and GLP-1 drugs for obesity. But online, peptides typically refer to unproven drugs, often given by injection, that are peddled without evidence as treating various conditions, reversing aging, and improving appearance. This category has seen a boom in popularity among wellness influencers, including Kennedy and many of his allies.

Read full article

Comments

https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/04/rfk-jr-forces-fda-to-reconsider-12-unproven-peptides-after-2023-ban/

arstechnica_feed

Posted by John Timmer

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/04/first-look-alsos-upcoming-e-bike-disconnects-the-pedals-and-wheels/

E-bikes have started to blur what was once a basic feature of cycling: you push the pedals, which turns the wheels. Now, with throttles, you only have to pedal some of the time. And in mid-drive motors, the force you generate through pedaling is routed through a complex set of gearing and is merged with a motor's output. The once-direct connection between your legs and the rear wheel has become much less straightforward.

An electric bicycle startup called Also wants to obliterate that connection entirely. When you pedal its bike, you're turning a generator. The power you produce, perhaps with additional juice from a battery, is sent to a motor, which turns the wheels. How much this feels like a normal bicycle is determined entirely by software, which controls crank resistance and converts the force you're generating into motor power.

Also says its software will convince you that you're just pedaling a regular old bike most of the time. And when it doesn't feel like that, it's because the software can provide a better experience.

Read full article

Comments

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/04/first-look-alsos-upcoming-e-bike-disconnects-the-pedals-and-wheels/

prisca posting in

fic_promptly

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

wwdn_feed

Posted by Wil

https://wilwheaton.net/2026/04/i-will-miss-her-forever/

https://wilwheaton.net/?p=9954

Fourteen years ago, Anne and I went to Pasadena Humane Society to see some of the construction our fundraising supported. While we were there, we chatted with Kevin, who was our adoption coordinator for our dog, Seamus.

Seamus had been part of our pack for about a year, and we were talking with Kevin about how much we loved him, what an incredible dog he was, and how happy and grateful we were to have met and adopted him.

I remember saying, “I don’t think I will ever have another dog who isn’t a pittie. He is so sweet, and affectionate, and so gentle, and …” I stopped because I saw a volunteer walking a puppy toward us. She was tiny and underweight, but she had the biggest smile. I knelt down to meet her, and she did a somersault into my lap, wagging her tail so fast I couldn’t see it.

“Well, they are just like this!” I concluded. Then I loved on that puppy until Anne gently told me it was time to let her walk into the shelter.

I was completely in love with her, that fast. She reached into my heart and never left. The next day, it was Anne’s birthday. We went down to the beach for a long walk, as is tradition. We were approaching the Manhattan Beach pier when I said, “I just need to confirm with you that we are not adding another dog to our pack, because I can’t stop thinking about that puppy.”

Anne told me that she didn’t pet her, because she knew that she’d fall in love, too, if she did. I don’t recall what we said to each other, but Anne called PHS and asked them to put us on a waiting list to adopt her.

A few days later, Marlowe came home with us, and she was my baby girl for over a decade. Even when she was an old lady, she was my little girl.

Just over a month ago, we found out Marlowe had lymphoma. It was so aggressive, it moved so quickly, we couldn’t stop it. We did everything we could for her, but we had to say goodbye to her last month.

I miss her so much, my heart hurts. It’s been a month, and I still look for her everywhere in the house. I’ll be okay, and then something will remind me of her and I am sobbing in a heap on the floor.

This is the first time in my life I have experienced this kind of grief, this kind of loss. When we lost Seamus, at least Marlowe was here for both of us while we grieved (and we were here for her, when she grieved). Now there’s just a big empty house and my broken heart.

I will miss her forever, my sweet little girl.

https://wilwheaton.net/2026/04/i-will-miss-her-forever/

https://wilwheaton.net/?p=9954

heleninwales

A film company was filming in town yesterday and today. It's not a TV company. It appears to be a feature film starring Anthony Hopkins. Apparently it is based on a story by Dylan Thomas and will be called "A Visit to Grandpa's".

We knew that some streets in town would be closed during the filming, but what we hadn't been aware of was that the cafe where we meet every Wednesday to chat in Welsh would also be closed. Late night emails flew around informing everyone and we decided to move to a different cafe, Y Sospan (The Saucepan).

( More photos here... )

The shop fronts had had old-fashioned signs erected over their normal shop fronts. All except for one. I actually laughed out loud when I zoomed in on the photo and saw that Siop Hughes was completely unaltered, apart from the items in window display, which were slightly more old-fashioned than usual.

I could have done with this a few weeks ago when the weekly alphabet theme was "Jalopy"!

I made my way round the back streets to the entrance to Y Sospan and looked inside. None of our group were seated at any of the tables on the ground floor, though by then it was past 10 a.m., our nominal start time. I climbed the steep and rather uneven stairs (it's a very old building) to the upper floor and found myself surrounded by extras in costume!

I made my way back outside and, after hanging around for a few minutes, met a group member who said that she couldn't join us but that M was now in the cafe. We ordered our pots of tea and took them upstairs where, ignoring the extras, we bagged a table at the far end. So it was rather a surreal meeting. There were six of us sitting around a table chatting in Welsh while extras came and went, summoned by youths with walkie-talkies and taken off somewhere, only to return to help themselves to a drink and snack later.

Then when it came time to leave, a youth wouldn't let us out through the door until we heard the word, "Cut!" issuing from his walkie-talkie.

Today the local Facebook groups were full of photos of Anthony Hopkins who was shaking hands and having his photo taken with people. But as I said, we were walking in the forest, so missed all that.

billroper

As soon as Amy arrives, we will pack up and head for FilkOntario. Gretchen is being good enough to stay home with kids and dogs so that I can go.

See some of you there on Friday.

templefugate posting in

comment_fic

Hi, everyone! I'm templefugate, and I'm back with one last set of alphabetical prompts.

As a reminder, we are using a new posting schedule. Sundays are for Lonely Prompts and sharing the fills that you completed during the week, Tuesdays and Thursdays are for new themes and prompts, and Saturdays will remain a Free for All.

Today's theme is the letter "d". All prompts should center around a word or words starting with "d".

Just a few rules:
No more than five prompts in a row.
No more than three prompts in the same fandom.
Use the character's full names and the fandom's full name
No spoilers in prompts for a month after airing, or use the spoiler cut option found here.
If your fill contains spoilers, warn and leave plenty of space, or use the above-mentioned spoiler cut.

Prompts should be formatted as follows: [Use the character's full names and fandom's full name]
Fandom, Character +/ Character, Prompt

Some examples to get the ball rolling...
+ DC, any villain, deviant
+ DC, Wally West, daredevil
+ Any, any, drifting along

We are now using AO3 to bookmark filled prompts. If you fill a prompt and post it to AO3 please add it to the Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2025 collection. See further notes on this new option here.

Not feeling any of today’s prompts? You can use LJ’s advanced search options to limit keyword results to only comments in this community.

While the use of LJ's advanced search options is available, bookmarking the links of prompts you like might work better for searching in the future.

If you are viewing this post on our Dreamwidth site, please know that fills posted here will not show up as comments on our LiveJournal site but you are still more than welcome to participate.

If you have a Dreamwidth account and would feel more comfortable participating there, please feel free to do so…and spread the word! [community profile] comment_fic

tag=theletterd

ysabetwordsmith posting in

birdfeeding

Today is mostly sunny and mild. Last night we finally got a good soaking rain. :D

I fed the birds. I haven't seen any yet.

I put out water for the birds.

4/16/26 -- We stopped by Whiteside Garden again. This time I picked up a holly.

Then we went to Rural King for an extension cord. I also got two pastel poppies, two 4-packs of pinks and one of dusty miller artemesia, a curly parsley, and a flat parsley.

4/16/26 -- I opened up some of the water jug greenhouses with big plants to let them get more sun. I also brought some of my indoor flats outside.

4/16/26 -- I planted the holly in the Midwinter grove on the south side.

.

Current Mood: busy

argument_q

Сибіга заявив Ізраїлю про неприпустимість ввезення зерна з ТОТ України
Міністр закордонних справ України Андрій Сибіга звернувся до свого ізраїльського колеги Гідеона Саара через ситуацію із заходом російського судна до порту Хайфи.
Сибіга наголосив, що незаконний експорт української сільськогосподарської продукції є частиною ширших воєнних дій Росії.
За його словами, торгівля викраденими товарами не повинна допускатися на міжнародному рівні
https://censor.net/ua/n3610592

Україна вимагає від Ізраїлю арештувати судно "ABINSK", яке доставило до порту Хайфа партію зерна, ймовірно вивезеного з тимчасово окупованих територій.
https://censor.net/ua/n3610870

heleninwales

15/52 for the group 2026 Weekly Alphabet Challenge

This week's theme was: O is for Oddity

Buildings made of brick may be the norm in many towns and cities, but I think this is the only one where I live. It's name is Tŷ Brics (Brick House). All the other buildings are of stone, or, if modern, of breeze blocks with a rendered finish.

leiacat

The Arenal Volcano tour guide had pointed at a ridge in the distance: "Do you know what that is?" He liked to quiz us on what we thought of the features, and inevitably we got it wrong, so he explained: that is the Continental Divide. Caribbean to this side, Pacific to that side.

( Days 8-9: Cloud Forest )

( Days 10-11: Pacific beaches )

( Days 12-13: the way back - with bonus El Salvador! )

mdlbear

Today I am thankful for...

My families (chosen and birth). Mostly my chosen family right now.
My health problems not being worse. That's a very low bar, though.
Tax filing extensions.
Good weather (unlike Seattle yesterday).
Support groups.

NO thanks for brain weasels, procrastination (brain sloths?), and companies that don't answer their damned email.

Current Mood: grateful
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: maybe tonight?

brickhousewench

According to the New York Times Wirecutter:

Because Kindles are durable devices that can’t do much, they tend to last a long time. Many people have used the same model for years — and some Wirecutter staffers have used their Kindles for more than a decade. But some Kindle owners may end up having to upgrade to a newer version — or ditch their Kindles altogether.
Earlier this week, Amazon notified its customers via email that, starting May 20, it will end support for Kindle and Kindle Fire devices released in 2012 or earlier. That means you’ll no longer be able to download new content to your e-reader via Amazon’s Kindle Store.

So it’s safe to say that this move will brick a not-insignificant number of e-readers.

If you own one of the affected Kindles, you’ll still be able to access all of the books that are already downloaded to your device. However, you’ll no longer be able to purchase, borrow, or download books to your device from the Kindle Store.

So I had a poke through my journal, and it looks like I bought my Kindle for Christmas 2011. I kinda figured it was getting old, as the plastic on the charging cord is really starting to crack badly. I don’t read on my Kindle very often, so I’m really going to have to think about whether or not I want to add another screen to my life or not.

leiacat

For our 10th wedding anniversary we went to Japan, so for the 20th I felt obligated to plan us something no less epic. But also I was getting overwhelmed with my customary planning of all the details, and so decided to experiment with a packaged tour. As always the March-to-April timing limited our options. The closest new-to-us warm place that offered a variety of packaged tours turned out to be Costa Rica. Most tour itineraries and costs were relatively similar; we chose amongst multitudes of well-reviewed options based on date availability.

The package included hotel bookings, bunches of guided activities with hotel pick-ups, and shuttles to deliver one between destinations every other day, which is a pretty good pace for my travel preferences. One can WhatsApp the agency for clarifications and issues, and they respond reasonably promptly, even if there's not a whole lot they can actually do since all they do is book third-parties. Which is no small logistical feat, and on the whole while I might have chosen a few things differently, I appreciated the result. Also, I probably would have hesitated to book all the individual activities at their published rates if I knew what those were in advance, but somehow the package which rolled it into reasonable-compared-to-a-cruise pricing seemed reasonable, even if no doubt it added up to much the same thing plus a bit of overhead for the agency.

For a summary: a tropical paradise is a fun way to spend a couple weeks. The terrain is gorgeous. The cuisine is tasty - especially if you like tropical fruit. The folks are friendly, and their catchphrase, used liberally and unironically, is "Pura vida" - literally "pure life", serving as a mix of "aloha" and "hakuna matata" - hi, bye, life is good, don't sweat the small stuff. Which somehow comes across as charming and grows even on this curmudgeon.

( Day 1 - Arrival in San Jose )

( Days 2-3: Tortuguero )

( Days 4-5 - Caribbean Coast )

( Days 6-7 - Inland on Carribean side )

scalziwhatever_feed

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/04/16/the-big-idea-cameron-johnston-2/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60229

The Scientific Method is immensely helpful, but so is literal magic. Would the power of science prove to be more powerful than the power of wizardry? It’s tough to say, but author Cameron Johnston certainly speculates on the idea in the Big Idea for his newest novel, First Mage on the Moon. Read on to see how the Space Race might’ve happened with the help of a wizard’s staff.

CAMERON JOHNSTON:

For a bunch of wise folk that meddle with reality and break the rules of standard physics on a regular basis, wizards and mages in fantasy media seem a remarkably uncurious lot. Sometimes magic users are far more interested in other dimensions and eldritch creatures than in the mortal world they themselves inhabit. How many of them look up at the stars and wonder what they are, or gaze at the moon and ponder what that shining silver disc really is…and how they might get there?

First Mage On The Moon was born from a single Big Idea (OK, OK…the idle thought of a fantasy-fan): Without science, how would wizards describe gravity? Inevitably, that grew arms and legs and tentacles and thingamabobs into: What would they make of outer space? How would they breathe in a spacecraft when they don’t even know what oxygen is or why air ‘goes bad’. What about aerodynamics? and a whole host of other questions I didn’t then have answers for. When you only have a magical understanding of the world and the closest thing to science is the semi-mystical and secretive practice of alchemy, well, then things get complicated if you want to build something to visit the moon. Magic is not going to solve everything if you fly straight up and try to hit a moving object like the moon, and don’t factor in the calculations for orbits, gravity… or indeed the speed/friction of re-entry.

Science is an amazing and collaborative process and Earth’s 20th-century Space Race was a species-defining moment, but what if that happened in a fantasy world of mages, golems, vat-grown killing machines and grinding warfare. What if a group of downtrodden mages sick of building weapons of mass destruction for their oligarch overlords decided to go rogue and divert war materials into building a vessel to go to the moon, the home of their gods, and ask for divine intervention in stopping the war. When you have no culture of shared science, where do you even begin?

All those thoughts and ideas stewed away in the back of my brain while I was writing my previous novel, The Last Shield. As all authors know, there comes a stage of writing a book when your brain goes “Ooh, look at the shiny new thing!” Very helpful, brain, coming up with magical rocket ships when I’m trying to write a book set in a fantasy version of the Scottish Bronze Age – thanks very much! That idea of wizard-science and magical engineering lodged there, immovable, and my next book just had to become First Mage On The Moon. Which was handy, as I was contracted to write another standalone novel.

While the US/USSR Space Race and modern science of our very own Earth was inevitably a huge influence on my novel, so too were the theories and writing of its ancient thinkers. Around 500 BCE, Pythagoras proposed a spherical world, and Aristotle later wrote several arguments for the same theory, such as ships sailing over the horizon disappearing hull-first and different constellations being visible at different latitudes (all of which may have given the Phoenician sailors and navigators certain thoughts too). And then comes Eratosthenes, Chief Librarian of Alexandria, and a very smart dude who was able to calculate the circumference of Earth by using two sticks in two locations and comparing the angles of their shadows. If those ancient Earth scholars could calculate such things, then surely fantasy mages, with all the magic at their disposal, could do more than fling fireballs at each other. There had to be some among them with the desire to explore beyond the bounds of myth and magic, gods and monsters, and given the opportunity to work with like-minds to build something that has never been done before, they would surely take it…despite the risks.

Found family, magical engineering, and mad ideas of actual science in a magical world all came together to form First Mage On The Moon. As much as I love my morally grey characters in realms of swords and sorcery, it was deeply satisfying to write something that little bit different, a hopeful story about human ingenuity in an increasingly fraught world.

Author socials: Website|Bluesky|Facebook|Instagram

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/04/16/the-big-idea-cameron-johnston-2/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60229

runpunkrun posting in

fancake

Poll #34481 round 186 theme poll

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 33

Pick the next theme of fancake:

Collaborations & Remixes
10 (30.3%)

Journey/Travel
13 (39.4%)

Whump
10 (30.3%)

disneydream06

I use to think the Hollywood Walk of Fame was super cool.

Then I heard that the stars given to special people.
They are basically bought by whoever wants one.

And now this story really sums up how laughable the Walk of Fame really is.....

Aaron Carter's mom launches GoFundMe to get him a Hollywood Walk of Fame star

The "I Want Candy" singer died in 2022 at age 34.

By Raechal Shewfelt

https://ew.com/aaron-carter-mom-launches-gofundme-for-hollywood-walk-of-fame-star-11951109?hid=7f1109a25d2362f31854399df255b82ba78f015e&did=23074797-20260416&utm_campaign=ewk-dispatch_newsletter&utm_source=ewk&utm_medium=email&utm_content=041626&lctg=7f1109a25d2362f31854399df255b82ba78f015e&lr_input=758ad690760192cf49795c3f52223721cac5324e3e862e41c5d4db73a4d43f32&utm_term=send1

arstechnica_feed

Posted by Jennifer Ouellette

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/04/meet-the-quantum-kid/

Scientists are often advised to explain their work in terms that a child can understand—a task that is particularly challenging when it comes to such complex topics as quantum mechanics. It's easier when the interviewer is an actual child, like 9-year-old Kai Moskvitch, aka the Quantum Kid. Kai and his mother, theoretical physicist and science communicator Katia Moskvitch, co-host The Quantum Kid podcast, which recently crossed the 100,000 subscriber mark and has been nominated for a Webby Award. (Public voting ends tomorrow; you can vote here.)

Katia Moskvitch got the idea for a podcast after her precocious son—who loved scrolling through YouTube science videos and has been programming in Python since he was 6—kept peppering her with big questions about the origins of life and the universe. And, of course, quantum physics. Moskvitch found it challenging to answer all Kai's questions, despite her training, and when she asked if he wanted deeper answers via his own YouTube channel, Kai responded with an enthusiastic yes.

The duo started the podcast last summer, producing about one episode per month. It certainly helps that Moskvitch has plenty of contacts within the quantum physics community, both in academia and in industry. For instance, Kai interviewed Peter Shor about his seminal quantum algorithm, as well as University of Texas, Austin, physicist Scott Aaronson about time travel.

Read full article

Comments

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/04/meet-the-quantum-kid/

lsanderson

Critical Atlantic current significantly more likely to collapse than thought
Scientists say finding is ‘very concerning’ as collapse would be catastrophic for Europe, Africa and the Americas
Damian Carrington Environment editor
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/15/critical-atlantic-current-significantly-more-likely-to-collapse-than-thought

Rural health care in Minnesota is at risk of becoming a medical wasteland
Without a statewide strategy to support rural health care, large parts of Greater Minnesota could lose life-saving inpatient and specialty care.
by Barb Stinnett
https://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2026/04/rural-health-care-in-minnesota-is-at-risk-of-becoming-a-medical-wasteland/ ( Read more... )

glitteryv posting in

recthething

Every Thursday, we have a community post, just like this one, where you can drop a rec or five in the comments.

This works great if you only have one rec and don't want to make a whole post for it, or if you don't have a DW account, or if you're shy. ;)

(But don't forget: you can deffo make posts of your own seven days a week. ;D!)

So what cool fics/fanart/fanvids/other kinds of fanworks/fancrafts/podfics have we discovered this week? Drop it in the comments below. Anon comment is enabled.

BTW, AI fanworks are not eligible for reccing at recthething. If you aware that a fanwork is AI-generated, please do not rec it here.

disneydream06

April 16th.....

A Termite Walks Into A

Bar And Asks,

"Is The Bar Tender Here?"

chickenfeet

https://operaramblings.blog/2026/04/16/opera-ateliers-pelleas-et-melisande-is-a-very-mixed-bag/

cakewrecks_feed

Posted by john (the hubby of Jen)

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/barking-up-the-wrong-cake-2026

So there I was, looking through thousands of awful wedding cake pics - as one does on a typical Tuesday night (WHAT) - when I started to notice an odd trend: tree cakes.

I don't mean the beautiful blossoming vines we see so often:

Loverly.

And I don't mean stump cakes, which Jen has devoted a whole tag to in iPhoto because we have that many:

Stumperly.

No, I mean a dead tree plastered up the side of a wedding cake.

Like this:

We really don't get enough opportunities to eat things the color of wet concrete.

Sometimes, in an effort to make the tree look slightly less dead, a baker will add "leaves":

Or "flowers":

"It just so happens this tree is only mostly dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead... and all dead.

"Now hand me that knife, and we'll split the difference."

My favorite, though, is the baker who opted to liven up a dead tree with polka dots:

They're just so festive. In a pox-like kind of way. (Pox-ish?)

Like a festival of pox.
Woowoo!

Tell you what, bakers, why not stick to what we know? Simple, beautiful, blossoming vines.

Okay, maybe these could use a few polka dots.

Thanks to Amy L., Allison N., Daniel & Kim, Katy G., Layne L., Jon D., & Linda N. for branching out.

*****

And from my other blog, Epbot:

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/barking-up-the-wrong-cake-2026

princessofgeeks

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: shocked

paradisedinermod posting in

paradisediner

Please feel free to justify your answer or provide supporting examples in the comments.

Poll #34480 What is the ideal group size?

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11

View Respondents

What is the ideal number of members for a group?

View Answers

1 - a soloist is all you need
1 (9.1%)

2 - a pair is perfect
1 (9.1%)

3 - a structurally sound triumvirate
0 (0.0%)

4 - a classic. also they can double date
2 (18.2%)

5 - they can do some nice dance formations
5 (45.5%)

6 - comfortably fits in 2 cars
3 (27.3%)

7 - they can do some fancy dance formations
6 (54.5%)

8 - they can double date twice over
2 (18.2%)

9 - they can also play as a baseball team
3 (27.3%)

10 - no need to hire back up dancers ever
0 (0.0%)

11 - they can also play as a football/soccer team
0 (0.0%)

12 - one for every month of the year!
0 (0.0%)

13 - one for every month AND a spare
1 (9.1%)

over 13 members - the sky is the limit
0 (0.0%)

badly_knitted posting in

fan_flashworks

Title: Another Challenge
Fandom: The Fantastic Journey
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Scott, Fred, Willaway, Varian, Liana.
Rating: PG
Setting: After the series.
Summary: Entering a new zone, the travellers find there’s now a huge mountain in their path. What are they going to do?
Word Count: 1604
Content Notes: Nada.
Written For: Challenge 512: Obstacle.
Disclaimer: I don’t own The Fantastic Journey, or the characters. They belong to their creators.

( Another Challenge... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

osprey_archer

“Self,” I told myself, as I circled the bookstore display of Asako Yuzuki’s Hooked, “self, you must de-hype yourself. Yes, this is the new book by the author of your beloved Butter, and yes, Yuzuki has teamed up once again with all time favorite translator Polly Barton, but you must not expect to love it as much as Butter! That is too much weight to place on a book!”

And indeed I did not love Hooked as much as Butter, but it’s still a fascinating book and just as propulsively readable, even as it went off the rails a bit at the end.

Hooked begins with our heroine Eriko arriving at work early. She is a successful employee but otherwise struggling in life. She’s thirty years old, still single, keeps getting dumped by her boyfriends, and doesn’t have a single female friend.

This last fact is the one that torments her. She believes (despite the solid counter-evidence of all those dumpings) that she’s good with men, but she’s terrible at female relationships and she knows it. In fact, sometimes she laments that she’s never had a female friend, although once again - solid counter evidence - she keeps running into her old friend Keiko in the apartment halls. But Eriko destroyed that friendship when she was 15, and hasn’t had a friend since.

However, Eriko has achieved a pleasurable parasocial relationship with her favorite blogger, Hallie B, who bills herself as The World’s Worst Wife. She has neither a job nor children, just stays home all day neither cleaning the house nor cooking, just loafing about and occasionally updating her blog.

Oh, and Hallie B seems to have no female friends either. This makes Eriko feel extremely seen.

Then one day, Eriko catches sight of Hallie B having lunch at a local neighborhood spot. She introduces herself as a big fan of the blog, Hallie B introduces herself by her real name Shoko, and they make plans to have dinner at a nearby Denny’s.

Dinner is a blast! They super hit it off! Eriko rides home on the back of Shoko’s bike, like they’re in a high school anime, amazing. Eriko concludes that her friendship problems are OVER because she has now found a BEST FRIEND FOREVER and they are now going to hang out, like, ALL THE TIME.

Shoko thinks they had a nice evening and hopes they can continue to hang out occasionally.

You can see where this is going. Soon Eriko is sending Shoko lengthy strings of texts promising that she is NOT a stalker, and also stalking the Denny’s where they hung out that one time in case Shoko comes back so Eriko can tell Shoko to her face that she is not! not! NOT! stalking her!

Eriko has some of the same energy as Izzy in The Appeal, except somehow simultaneously more deranged and more self-aware. It seems like these two qualities should be contradictory, and indeed there are times when Yuzuki doesn’t get the balance quite right, and instead of seeming fascinatingly, complexly batshit, Eriko just seems incoherent.

( spoilers )

umadoshi

Our planter is here! Getting it wasn't actually a saga, but it felt a bit like one. ( TL;DR: delivery service annoyance )

We also both took yesterday off (and I'm off the rest of the week, but got up at my usual workday time today in hopes of getting a fair amount of manga work done), and ventured out to buy veg seeds for the planter. (We also still need to get soil/fertilizer/etc., but want to read up on it more first. I think I might order a hard copy of The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, which I got on sale in ebook recently and like so far.)

Yesterday's important lesson: when noting down which seed varieties we like the looks of, include the source, because our local store, at least, has separate displays for each originating company, and knowing that would make it much easier to check for the various varieties. Anyway, here's what we wound up with (descriptions are in my last post):

Basil: Devotion.

Cabbage: Early Golden Acre (green) and Serpentine F1 (savoy).

Spinach: Bloomsdale and Renegade.

Lettuce: Brighton (Butterhead), Black Seeded Simpson (green leaf), Red Salad Bowl (red leaf), Grand Rapids (green leaf), Freckles (romaine), and Drunken Woman.

Current Mood: busy

lucy_roman posting in

fan_flashworks

Title: Perfect
Author: lucy_roman
Rating: Teen and up
Summary: George and John are on their way to a crime scene. Some sheep get in the way.
Pairing: George Gently/John Bacchus
Word Count: 326

( Perfect )

antisoppist

On Radio 4 Extra the other week, I heard a repeat of an edition of Good Reads in which Harriet Gilbert made Patrick Grant read Penelope Lively. Patrick Grant said his mother's book group read a lot of Penelope Lively but he hadn't ever read any and now he would go and read lots more* (Listen to your mother!). Then I saw a Penelope Lively book in a charity shop and thought I should read it. It turned out that the book in the programme was Heatwave (which I haven't read) and the one I got was Consequences. Consequences is always an ominous title but fortunately this one does not live up to the trauma of E M Delafield. The blurb and the cover make it sound terrible "privileged misfit Lorna meets the love of her life", "a penniless and bohemian artist" but "the coming war takes Matt - and with him Lorna's dreams - away" but it is lovely - and goes on through 2 more generations and then it comes full circle and made me cry.

Here I admit that much of its appeal for me came from it being set near where I live. This is understandable because Penelope Lively spent a lot of her childhood with her grandparents at Golonscott House in West Somerset. Here is a piece about Penelope Lively's aunt the artist Rachel Reckitt with a picture of the house at the end. I now need to go on a Rachel Reckitt local tour.* But the book is also about odd families of choice and people making their own decisions and being a bit out of step with their times. Though it is a pity characters have to keep suddenly dying. But it is also a book that loves West Somerset.

The cottage stood beside a lane. At the front, it looked out over the high hedge bank of its garden, across the lane and the sloping field beyond to a wooded valley that reached up into the Brendon Hills. Behind, fields and copses rolled away down to the Bristol Channel coastline; there was a long, thin slice of pewter sea and, on a clear day, the distant shore of Wales. Square and squat, cob and thatch, dug solid into the red Somerset earth, the small building had seen out generations of farm labourers. People had been born here, died here, had heard rumours of wars, had achieved the vote, had sweated over the same patch of landscape and stared at the same sky. Now, the place stood empty, bar the mice and the black beetles and the spiders. Empty and two pounds a month.

And here is Ruth, Lorna's granddaughter:

"The M4. The M5. Comfort stops at teeming motorway service stations through which flowed the August crowds. The nation was on the move and the west country was the place to which it moved.

[...]

And now the directions sent her off sharply into the hinterland. You burrowed into this landscape, she saw. The motorways rushed through it, and the A this and the B that, but as soon as you abandoned those dictatorial highways you had slipped off into another sphere. You were in the lanes, you were in narrow tunnels between high hedge banks, routes that also knew quite well what they were about and where they were going but that was their own immemorial business, and you were now in their domain. You went where they went, and that was that."

Shortly after this she has to reverse for a tractor and scrapes the side of her car on a raised rock. It is the way of things. Then she gets very lost in the lanes and "horror of horrors" ends up back on the A39 again before being able to turn round. That is also the way of things. My favourite quote though in the narrow, high-hedged lanes is "here and there a glimpse through a gate of blue and green distances like the jewelled vistas in medieval painting". Something so familiar here, put into words that make you see it differently.

Otherwise, the album of the current Broadway production of Chess is out. Obviously I am not going to New York to see Chess but I would really like to know what the production did with it this time. Youngest and I have been listening to the album and going "why did they put that song there" and "why is Florence singing Someone Else's Story and why is it at the end?" and Eldest keeps saying "I don't know, take it up with Jonathan from Buffy the Vampire Slayer" because Danny Strong wrote the book. He has in fact done a YouTube video about how he fixed the problems with Chess but it doesn't actually tell me what he did other than that it was very difficult to create scenes that used the existing narrative in the song lyrics to join them all up presumably in a different way? Nor does he mention the Swedish production, which did solve the problems with Chess and I would like to know if he knew about it and what he decided to do differently. This production includes "He is a Man, He is a Child" (sung by Svetlana which is presumably why Florence gets Someone Else's Story) and that originated in the first Swedish production so you would have thought so? The new overture is very good though. I liked that. I assume it hasn't had one before because often people put The Story of Chess at the start instead because it doesn't fit anywhere else unless you are trying to give the audience something to listen to while people play chess.

*He also said reading it had given him an insight into what it must be like to worry about things and be introspective, which is something people close to him have struggled with. I feel probably Patrick Grant should listen to the people he knows rather than what, not believe them until someone puts it in a book? I like Patrick Grant on Sewing Bee but the inside of his head must be so different from practically everyone I know.

**I would also have liked to have seen the exhibition at the museum had I known it was on ~~and had my daughter who works for the heritage trust happened to mention it~~.

Profile

blue shark of friendliness

January 2026

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Page Summary

petrea_mitchell in anime_manga - Spring premiere thoughts
petrea_mitchell - Spring anime premieres
cosmolinguist - Long time
elf - I ran a game!
olivermoss - (no subject)
oliviacirce - forged by the heart
shipperslist - We Have Always Been Here by Samra Habib
rinue - G. F. Handel's fault somehow
chazzbanner - better
arstechnica_feed - Gemini can now create personalized AI images by digging around in Google Photos
arstechnica_feed - RFK Jr. forces FDA to reconsider 12 unproven peptides after 2023 ban
arstechnica_feed - First look: Also's upcoming e-bike disconnects the pedals and wheels
prisca in fic_promptly - Thursday, April 15 - Free for All
wwdn_feed - i will miss her forever
heleninwales - Excitement in town!
billroper - On the Road Again
templefugate in comment_fic - Thursday: The Letter "D"
ysabetwordsmith in birdfeeding - Birdfeeding
argument_q - Україна вимагає арешту судна з краденим зерном у Хайфі, – МЗС
heleninwales - Tŷ Brics (Brick House)
leiacat - Trip Report, Costa Rica - Pt 2, Pacific Side
mdlbear - Thankful Thursday
brickhousewench - Kindle
leiacat - Trip Report - Costa Rica, Pt 1 - Carribean Side
scalziwhatever_feed - The Big Idea: Cameron Johnston
runpunkrun in fancake - Round 186 Theme Poll
disneydream06 - In The News.....
arstechnica_feed - Meet the Quantum Kid
lsanderson - 2026.04.16
glitteryv in recthething - Community Recs Post!
disneydream06 - Isn't It Punny.....
chickenfeet - Opera Atelier's Pelléas et Mélisande doesn't quite hit the target
cakewrecks_feed - Barking Up The Wrong Cake
princessofgeeks - news? I think?
paradisedinermod in paradisediner - Poll: What is the ideal number of members for a group?
badly_knitted in fan_flashworks - The Fantastic Journey: Fanfic: Another Challenge
osprey_archer - Book Review: Hooked
umadoshi - Planter and seeds acquired!
lucy_roman in fan_flashworks - Inspector George Gently: Fanfiction: Perfect
antisoppist - Reading/Listening

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