Reading

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Interesting Links for 10-07-2025

1. Let Kids Be Loud: (tags:children noise )
2. Fascinating essay on photography lighting techniques that predate AI and why they are confused for it (amongst other things): (tags:lighting photography )
3. What if you Threw a Paper Airplane from the Space Station?: (tags:space paper airplanes viaPatrickHadfield )
4. Cellos totally belong in rock bands: (tags:music video awesome )
5. Time keeps on slipping - literally. Why today might have been the shortest day you'll ever experience: (tags:time earth )

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bundle of holding

Bundle of Holding: Pyramid 2

The latter half of Pyramid's ten-year run, the issues published from November 2013 to December 2018, sixty-two issues in all.

Bundle of Holding: Pyramid 2

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Five Books About Aliens Who Are Fed Up With Humans

Yelling "Get off my lawn!" on an interplanetary scale...

Five Books About Aliens Who Are Fed Up With Humans

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Kowloon Generic Romance, volume 1 by Jun Mayuzuki (Translated by Amanda Haley)

In a city with over a million people per square kilometre, real estate firms will never lack for clients. Good news for the employees of the Wong Loi Realty Company!

Kowloon Generic Romance, volume 1 by Jun Mayuzuki (Translated by Amanda Haley)

Right wing coup foiled

Tepid remake of the Fenian Raids fails to launch.

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The Squares of the City by John Brunner

Arrogant traffic analyst Boyd Hakluyt is just a pawn in the struggle for Ciudad de Vados' future.

The Squares of the City by John Brunner

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Interesting Links for 08-07-2025

1. 7 Engineers Suspended After $2.3 Million Bridge Includes Bizarre 90-Degree Turn: (tags:architecture design epicfail India )
2. Edinburgh Airport liquid limit increased from 100ml to two litres: (tags:airport security Technology )
3. The Time Someone Plagiarized Calvin & Hobbes and Nobody Noticed or Cared: (tags:comics plagiarism history art ai )
4. Turns out a great way to get children to want to learn their times tables is to set them to pop songs: (tags:numbers video music )
5. Employers to be banned from silencing harassed or abused staff: (tags:regulation abuse work UK law )
6. Some English children are living in 'Dickensian' poverty, says commissioner: (tags:england poverty children OhForFucksSake )
7. Electricity from large solar arrays with batteries now cheaper than from fossil plants in Germany: (tags:electricity solarpower batteries germany GoodNews )
8. O Fortuna Misheard Lyrics: (tags:music hearing words illusion funny video )

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bundle of holding

Bundle of Holding: GURPS 4E Essentials (from 2022) & Pyramid 1

Everything you need for your own GURPS 4E tabletop roleplaying campaign.

Bundle of Holding: GURPS 4E Essentials (from 2022)

Volume 3 (Nov 2008 - Dec 2018) of Pyramid, the Steve Jackson Games magazine for tabletop roleplaying gamers. Sixty issues and more!

Bundle of Holding: Pyramid 1

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Five Dangerously Impatient Heirs and Successors

Why wait around for the throne or the cash when murder can deliver it immediately?

Five Dangerously Impatient Heirs and Successors

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clarke award

Clarke Award Finalists 2004

2004: Labour spares no effort to liberate Britons from human rights, UKIP's electoral successes surely do not reflect fundamental flaws in the British psyche, and London voters are heartbroken to discover the Livingstone who was just elected mayor isn’t the Livingstone who co-wrote the Fighting Fantasy books.

Poll #33332 Clarke Award Finalists 2004

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 41

View Respondents

Which 2004 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
20 (48.8%)

Coalescent by Stephen Baxter
5 (12.2%)

Darwin's Children by Greg Bear
15 (36.6%)

Maul by Tricia Sullivan
5 (12.2%)

Midnight Lamp by Gwyneth Jones
2 (4.9%)

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
19 (46.3%)

Bold for have read, italic for intend to read,, underline for never heard of it.

Which 2004 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
Coalescent by Stephen Baxter
Darwin's Children by Greg Bear
Maul by Tricia Sullivan
Midnight Lamp by Gwyneth Jones
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson

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The Steel, the Mist, and the Blazing Sun by Christopher Anvil

Can the American King's uncanny military genius best an enemy so cunning the enemy loses every battle?

The Steel, the Mist, and the Blazing Sun by Christopher Anvil

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Interesting Links for 06-07-2025

1. Forced participation in religious activities to be classified as child abuse in Japan: (tags:religion abuse children Japan )
2. 'Positive review only': Researchers hide AI prompts in papers: (tags:ai research )
3. Xi Has Spent Decades Preparing for a Cold War With the U.S.: (tags:china USA trade )
4. Seine reopens to Paris swimmers after century-long ban: (tags:France Paris water pollution sewage )

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wild cards

Wild Cards checklist

This is much easier for Martin's New Voices series....

( Read more... )

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books received

Books Received, June 28 — July 4

Four works new to me. One is SF, two fantasy, and the magazine (which I have not yet looked inside) likely both. Two of the novels are series novels, one does not seem to me.

Books Received, June 28 — July 4

Poll #33326 Books Received, June 28 — July 4

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 36

View Respondents

Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

FIYAH No. 35: Black Isekai published by FIYAH Literary Magazine (July 2025)
18 (50.0%)

Aces Full edited by George R. R. Martin (November 2025)
3 (8.3%)

Only Spell Deep by Ava Morgyn (March 2026)
6 (16.7%)

The Damned by Harper L. Woods (October 2025)
3 (8.3%)

Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

Cats!
29 (80.6%)

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The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Ninety years after her grandmother's family was stalked by a witch, international student Minerva Contrera's studies land her in a similar position.

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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photos,
pixelfed

Photo cross-post

Got halfway to the bus stop to go to the pool and realised I didn't have my shoulder bag. Sprinted home, got it, and made it to the bus.

Got off the bus at the other end, realised Sophia's bag didn't have her swimming costume in it. Got a bus home, grabbed it, now in a taxi.

Fingers crossed that nothing else comes between me and drop-off and work!
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

Every time I run something

I embrace new tools. In Fabula Ultima, for example, the order in which characters go in combat varies. I found it hard to keep track of who'd gone, so I went out and got poker chips and little round labels. Now, I can just toss the chips representing characters into a bowl once they've gone. Order!

OK, except it turns out I can't tell blue from green under the ceiling light in the room where I DM and the names on the labels need to be bigger.

Interesting Links for 10-07-2025

Bundle of Holding: Pyramid 2

Five Books About Aliens Who Are Fed Up With Humans

Kowloon Generic Romance, volume 1 by Jun Mayuzuki (Translated by Amanda Haley)

Right wing coup foiled

The Squares of the City by John Brunner

Interesting Links for 08-07-2025

Bundle of Holding: GURPS 4E Essentials (from 2022) & Pyramid 1

Five Dangerously Impatient Heirs and Successors

Clarke Award Finalists 2004

Interesting Links for 07-07-2025

The Steel, the Mist, and the Blazing Sun by Christopher Anvil

Interesting Links for 06-07-2025

Wild Cards checklist

Books Received, June 28 — July 4

Interesting Links for 05-07-2025

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Interesting Links for 04-07-2025

Photo cross-post

Every time I run something