beachlass | up the shoreline

renay posting in

We're counting down until mid-year!

Myy May TBR turned out to be more of a suggestion.

The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo
Loud: Accept Nothing Less Than the Life you Deserve by Drew Afualo
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I read What Moves the Dead because I managed to read What Feasts at Night. And although I didn't get to The Brides of High Hill, I did reread The Empress of Salt and Fortune and grab When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain on my way to it. :D

( Read more... )

andrewducker

My brother Mike got me this for my birthday, and it just takes a weight off my mind being able to say "bring the steam temperature up to 95 degrees and hold it there"

(Control over oil temperature when frying eggs is also awesome.)
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

andrewducker

I spent the day feeling bad for lacking focus, and wondering why I couldn't get anything done.
And then I slept for an hour on no notice.
And now I'm very wobbly and all of my muscles gently ache.
So I think I'm going to chalk it up as "The Plague" and hope I feel better tomorrow.

andrewducker

I see we're back at the "Labour attempt to introduce a mandatory ID card" stage of history*.

My feeling last time, was that the main problem that they always have is that they *start* with the cards being mandatory.

If you start with "Here is a thing that makes your life much easier, that you can carry about if you like." then that will get you 85% of the way there. And then, once you have a voluntary ID card that's not causing any problems for anyone, and that 85% of the population is using to make their life easier, *then* you move in and say "The only people who don't carry an ID card are weirdos and troublemakers, and they're causing friction in the system, we could make it all run more smoothly if only they *had* to carry one."

But no, they always try to go instantly from "Nobody has an ID card." to "Everyone must carry one at all times." - which forms a coalition of all sorts of people from across the political spectrum, and ends up being far more politically costly to them than if they'd just boiled their frog slowly.

(None of which should be taken as me taking a position on ID cards. I'm just constantly bemused by their inability to get things done by trying to rush them through in the most authoritarian manner possible.)

*Younger readers may not remember the fuss in 2006 (repealed in 2011)

andrewducker

1. Craftlings - Lemmings meets Settlers meets Terraria: (tags:games video trailer )
2. Autonomous drone from TU Delft defeats human champions in historic racing first: (tags:automation drone ai race )
3. What are people doing right now?: (tags:people humans visualisation viaLinkMachineGo )

esteefee

So, I sympathize with John Sheppard, because one time they took us to Joshua Tree National Park and tried to make me use a compass and a map and I got us so lost even the troop master couldn't get us found and we were 3 hours late getting back to the bus.

luna_moon posting in

gardening

Hello! My name is Luna. I am new to this group and also somewhat new to Dreamwidth! I keep a small backyard garden of mostly veggies and herbs. I grow most of my plants in containers. I use a variety of pots, grow bags, and upcycled totes for growing. Helps keep weeding a lot easier and I don't have to bend over quite as much/often (I have POTS). I live in the middle of the city, close to our downtown district. I don't have a lot of yard space, or the space I have may not be suitable for growing in ground. I am still working on them, but I have a few ideas for posts about composting and upcycling in the garden that I hope I can share in the future!

Below the cut is a small garden tour! This isn't everything I have, and I am still working on adding a few more things. :]

( Garden tour! )

esteefee

people, I have heard many things about growing old: that it sucks, that it's not for the weak, that it sneaks up on you, but never have I heard it turns you English.

and yet, here am I: a lifelong coffee drinker and lover of the brew, yet recently I've started to crave...tea?

I know! yet slowly but surely, I more often reach for a tea bag than my trusty beans. it's a pure mystery!

so, having long since found my favorite coffee, I'm now on the hunt for the perfect decaf tea.

hit me with it, my fine tea friends!

John Sheppard lifts a cup to his lips and then makes a face and wiggles his tongue in disgust. The slight smile on Teyla's face behind him might indicate she monkeyed with his beverage.

John Sheppard lifts a cup to his lips and then makes a face and wiggles his tongue in disgust. The slight smile on Teyla's face behind him might indicate she monkeyed with his beverage.

GIF by

happycabbage

andrewducker

Terribly comfy under these trees.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

andrewducker

British Voters are happy that UK net migration is down. But they still think it's too high. Sadly, there is no information about how much immigration voters would like, but I suspect that they think that zero is good. And probably that negative is better.

And a fair chunk of this is because Labour and the Conservatives are both backing the idea that immigration is a bad thing. Lib Dems are in favour of being more humane about it than either of them, but only the SNP seem to have a policy that recognises that if immigration doesn't go up the economy is fucked.

Britain is aging. With serious economic consequences, with insufficient people entering the workforce to make up for the people leaving it, and increasing healthcare costs.

If we want the economy to function then either we will have to have more children or to bring more people in to work here. Those are the two options. And nobody has successfully managed to get a developed society to do the former*. So either we deal with an insupportable economy or we increase immigration. But neither of the big political parties wants to deal with the Daily Mail screaming at them, so we're going to spend the next few years doing the economically** stupid thing.

* Except Israel. Who we are unlikely to emulate.
** Obviously I haven't touched on the moral case here.

andrewducker

1. What are the effects of congestion pricing in New York City?: (tags:newyork transport )
2. What Democrats sound like trying to appeal to young men right now: (tags:politics USA democrats video satire funny )

sisterofbloomerjunior posting in

unclutter

Well, the main thing is we’re staying at our current house for the foreseeable future, which is good since we still have quite a bit to clean up before we could ever move. I’m not 100% sure about the Buick, though.

So as far as the garage is concerned, the only thing I’ve gotten rid of is a pitchfork. I know I’ve donated something else from there, but I can’t remember it anymore. I should go through our toolbox before July 21st when Ridwell will collect hand tools. 🧰 Unsure if I’m going to have to wait until it’s cooler to possibly clean out the playhouse. The deck for it is rotting.

I’m contemplating whether I should go through my CD collection. I rarely play them anymore because I don’t have a player near my nightstand or one with a remote like I did decades ago. I could also take the holder over to where the Giving Tree is. I’ll probably try hunting down vinyl versions of most of my CDs, though.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Upstairs
Current Music: Minnesota Twins - Seattle Mariners game

andrewducker

I occasionally see people complaining that Edinburgh Council hate cars. And, to be fair, I suspect that some of the council members do dislike them (The Green Party are not known for being big car fans). But the Green Party don't run the council (it's currently Labour supported by the Tories and Lib Dems - but their policies about cars vs buses are very similar to the SNP administration), so why is it that people think the council as a whole hate cars?

It's because the council has very little choice.

In a very rural area cars make total economic sense and buses make very little. There aren't enough people travelling between any two points at a given time to make it worth running buses that often, so buses either don't exist, or only connect larger areas rarely. And because they don't run that often, you can't just wander out and leap on to one to get where you need to. So you pretty much *have* to have a car.

Once you more urban you have a situation where buses are running regularly on key routes, so if you live on them then you'll be able to rely on a bus to get too/from work/school. And if you're doing that enough that you're paying for a bus pass, or that you're able to get to most of the places you want then a chunk of people don't need cars any more.

And then, as you get even more urban, you reach a key point where there are *lots* of buses. And to manage the concentration of people in the city you run out of space on the roads, at least at key parts of the day. You now have traffic jams at rush hour. And that's because you have vehicles that are 4.5m long that are carrying one person and other vehicles that are three times that length that are carrying 100 people. If you want to keep those 100 people moving then one of the most efficient ways of doing it is to get the incredibly wasteful vehicles carrying only 1 person out of the way.

Now, this is problematic. If you do it before you have decent bus routes set up for people to switch to then there will be a lot of resistance. You clearly need to hit a critical point to make it doable. And obviously you need some exceptions. But *something* like it is inevitable as people get more concentrated together. You simply cannot fit everyone in the roads if they are using cars, you need something more compact than that.