Nate Cull @natecull@mastodon.social

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That's it everyone, my timeline is now tuned (chef kiss) perfectly

@Gargron @enkiv2 @kitkat @eq

But some Earthstar things have me raising my eyebrows and going "what"

Eg.

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Four letters. Why four letters? Why exactly four letters?

Was this designed by humans, for humans?

We're already up to 5 versions of the Earthstar protocol, I see. I guess it's pretty hard to get the core basics right.

Still, it's good that this is happening.

The Earthstar project (a slightly, but only slightly, saner Secure Scuttlebutt) seems to be coming along.

I wish it wasn't so complicated though!

It's nice that it exists, as a proof of concept, but I still feel that we can do much, much better than even this.

But it's saying the right words, eg, "No blockchain. No tokens. Not Web3".

https://earthstar-project.org/

It really fascinates me how many people can read and then study Tolkien with all its sad fading aristocratic elves and born-evil orcs and ages-lost Kings whose only qualification for rulership is their Naturally Superior Genetics and come away thinking "well. if there's a Big Theme in all this work, there's certainly one thing it's Not about in the least: conservative early 20th century attitudes to Race. absolutely no racial essentialism, here, that's for sure"

https://www.reddit.com/r/tolkienfans/comments/xbbth7/charles_mills_the_wretched_of_middleearth_an/

Is it just me or has someone at Tor forgotten that an entire genre called "magical realism" exists, and has existed for many decades?

I suppose technically a book can only be Magical Realism if it's written in Spanish by a South American writer and wins a Booker Prize and is read by middle-aged suburbanite book-groupers who work in ad agencies and would never think of touching science fiction. Otherwise it's just sparkling fantasy.

https://www.tor.com/2022/09/26/what-is-curio-fiction-finding-a-name-for-a-fantastical-subgenre/

Honestly though the sharks do have a pretty solid constitutional case, they've done their research, and rigging the jury is going to be tough what with the saltwater pool and rainforest biomes that've been recently installed in the Supreme Court. So don't go into this one thinking that it'll be a walkover for the human species. The Old Firm are betting everything on you, and trust me when I say you do NOT want to lose because the Senior Partners will Cut Their Losses. If you get my meaning.

I'm just saying, if cinema is going to be saved, it's going to take out of the box thinking.

What if The Godfather, but it's also Jaws

Roy Scheider turns to Mario Puzo and says "You're gonna need a bigger subpoena"

Cut to the USS Seaquest rising out of the water. Kevin Costner, Brian de Palma and District Attorney Darwin the Dolphin climb out in a rubber dinghy, armed with harpoon guns and extremely serious briefcases.

Too many rugby teams think they're in there to put the ball between the goalposts, instead of making tough decisions that are unpopular with the ref and the supporters and don't win games

(I actually think yes, ban alcohol advertising in sports, but, PUT IT TO A VOTE AND MAKE SURE THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE WANT IT AND IF NOT, DON'T! We're not a freaking monarchy! Well okay we are, due to some very poor decisions in the past, probably involving alcohol, and we should also get on with fixing that.)

New Zealand rugby personage, advocating an unpopular policy, says "Too many politicians think they're in there to win a popularity contest"

but, but, but that's literally what politics IS, winning a popularity contest, it's called an "election", that's it, it's like the "ball" in rugby, you lose that and you don't get to make decisions

I'm really beginning to wonder just how deeply sports team owners have studied the theory and practice of representative democracy.

https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/10/02/inaction-on-banning-booze-ads-in-sport-deafening-sir-graham-lowe/

New pitch concepts for The Walking Dead spinoffs:

1. Grudgingly Respect the Walking Dead
2. The Walking Dead: Local Body Government
3. Hollywood Weddings of the Walking Dead

Lord of the Rings, but, with "orcs" replaced with "orcas" throughout

Also Gandalf's a whale and hobbits are clownfish

Today's found text:

Too many cooks in the kitchen, who all want to play in their own corner of the sandbox

The thing most elves still don't get about Mordor is that it's a kingdom built from the ground up on security. A purpose-built secure hardware facility, completely vetted in-house security staff with actual military training, multiple levels of task-focused management, and constant centralised overwatch by both Palintir (tm) and our proprietary Eye of Sauron (tm) threat detection and response. What I'm saying is that there's literally no safer place in Middle Earth to store your data.

Final Space was a very silly series and it had no right to affect me emotionally the way it did. It had no right.

Warner Brothers really seems to be going through a very strange patch right now. Beginning to wonder if it's deliberate sabotage from within.

Apparently "retroactively pulling an entire animated series (Final Space) from all streaming services and destroying it because tax write-off" is the future of TV or something.

Batgirl was one thing but Final Space...... ???????

https://collider.com/final-space-pulled-from-streaming/

I feel like it's not really appreciated enough that in JRR Tolkien's Legendarium, Sauron is "Lord of Werewolves", which means there must be a LOT of werewolves, and yet, we haven't seen even ONE decent Fifth Age urban police procedural / corporate espionage paranormal romance featuring a hobbit, werewolf, and orc love triangle in an upscale banking tower in the rapidly gentrifying former grimy industrial heart of Mordor.

Are "the salt of the earth" responsible for salting the earth? Because that salt didn't just get there on its own is what I'm saying. Someone put it there.