@cstross@wandering.shop
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

cstross

@cstross@wandering.shop

Scottish resident SF/F author (he/him/they/them). Three times Hugo Award winner. Does not play well with Nazis. Abolish the monarchy!

@cstross.bsky.social on Bluesky

blog at: https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/

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paezha, to random
@paezha@mastodon.online avatar

@cstross

Where did you write the following?

"Most of what passes for tech journalism is stenography"

I would like to cite this in a report I am working on. Cheers!

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@paezha I have no idea. (In case you hadn't noticed, I write lots!)

feorag, to random
@feorag@wandering.shop avatar

Of course United were completely fucking useless.

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@feorag Whose baggage have they lost this time? ✈️✈️✈️

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest that the extremist settler movement in Israel is rooted in the USA and culturally has a lot in common with US white supremacist/settler ideology—there's a reason Netanyahu is so comfortable with Republicans who dine at the Christian Nationalist table.
https://mastodon.social/@cmonagle/112462865808610948

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@Steveg58 The kibbutz movement had its origin in European socialist movements and went into steep decline post-1967; the modern "settlers" are not kibbutzim and are clearly mostly American.

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@ravenonthill It has been a very long time sinew Theodor Herzl started the Zionist movement in Austria-Hungary and what has happened since then is neither inevitable nor even an anticipated outcome: but Zionism grew out of 19th century European ethno-nationalism and colonialism and shares their failure modes.

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@ravenonthill Don't forget the naval logistics fallout from Admiral Rozhestvensky's excellent adventure: sailing a battle fleet from the Baltic to the Sea of Japan—on coal!. Which caused the British Admirality to get religion about bunker oil (because: refueling at sea was so much easier with oil) and then a rush for Black Gold in, first Persia, then the Arabian Gulf (which was conveniently close to the Suez Canal, the carotid artery of the British Empire).

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@ravenonthill The time frame fits—from the Russo-Japanese war of 1905-06 to the WW1 carve-up of the Middle East was just over a decade, and the RN war experimenting with oil-burning steam turbines from the turn of the century on.

Some fun nautical history here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbinia

adapalmer, to random
@adapalmer@wandering.shop avatar

Prototype sustainable, biodegradable wind turbine blades have been installed on a turbine. https://reneweconomy.com.au/worlds-first-wooden-wind-turbine-blades-installed-in-germany/?ref=sparkofgenius.org

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@adapalmer "World's first wooden wind turbine blades" ignoring every windmill in mediaeval Europe, of course!

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@RoyBrander @adapalmer They're both wind powered (by blades rotating in the breeze and driving a shaft to something that does work).

ManyRoads, to Bulgaria
@ManyRoads@mstdn.social avatar

"NATO's Failure"

Op-Ed

"Nato’s failure to save Ukraine raises an existential question: what on earth is it for?"

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/18/natos-failure-to-save-ukraine-raises-an-existential-question-what-on-earth-is-it-for

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@ManyRoads @hannu_ikonen Politely, this is arrant nonsense that ignores two salient facts: (a) Ukraine is NOT A MEMBER OF NATO (yet—can't join while open hostilities are in progress), and (b) If NATO gets DIRECTLY involved then that puts NATO at war with Russia at which point it can potentially escalate to a strategic nuclear exchange.

Less important point: US aside, NATO armed forces were unready for war in 2022, and US Republican party is a wholly owned subsidiary of Trump/Putin.

cstross, (edited ) to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

WHAT—

(The European potato crisp singularity intensifies)

(UPDATE): Aaagh! They taste of egg yolk! This is totally bizarre!

Dianepatterson, to random
@Dianepatterson@wandering.shop avatar

Yes, people really refer to “a war on cars” when any other transportation option gets the slightest bit of attention.

War on cars? Why San Francisco drivers say they feel under siege - San Francisco Chronicle https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/sf-drivers-say-war-on-cars-vs-safe-streets-19451511.php

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@vfrmedia @Dianepatterson I vaguely remember a figure to the effect that the car industry (as of a decade or two ago) spent an average of £600 on advertising and marketing for every vehicle sold.

A tiny bit of that will buy an awful lot of haters and conspiracy theorists who believe the "15 minute city is an anti-car conspiracy" bullshit.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

New blog entry: Harmless Fun! https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2024/05/harmless-fun.html

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@graydon "Conspiracy theories are, without exception, the product of demography that's already lost" … except the Blood Libel, and anti-semitic conspiracies in general (eg. the Protocols of the Elders of Zion).

cstross, (edited ) to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

#WordWeavers 18: What kind of dragon would your MC be?

The kind who studies for their PPL and instrument flight rating, never flies without an airband scanner, GPS, and transponder, and stays well out of controlled airspace. Also spends a lot of time looking over their shoulder nervously and tries not to fly through clouds in air traffic corridors.

Remember: there are old dragons, and bold dragons, but in the age of 250 ton jet airliners flying at 500 mph there are no old, bold dragons!

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@angusm To be fair, I think any human-mass or larger dragon strike would most likely be a fatal accident for any plane much smaller than a 747, and a brown-pants emergency even for a wide-body: I've seen photos of what hitting an eagle does to a Boeing, and dragons[*] would plausibly be 1 to 3 orders of magnitude more massive ...

[*] Assuming large enough to carry off a fair maiden, eat an entire cow, or successfully battle a knight.

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@A_C_McGregor So they're just mincing around with the helicopters? Sounds dicey!

ernie, (edited ) to random
@ernie@writing.exchange avatar

How I fixed Google so it doesn’t shove AI into my face anymore.

https://tedium.co/2024/05/17/google-web-search-make-default/

new @tedium

EDIT: Nobody cares if you use DuckDuckGo, you do you

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@sbi @ironicsans @ernie @tedium I use DDG as my first resort, but it's less comprehensive than pre-borked Google.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

UK government adviser on disruptive protest accused of conflict of interest:

John Woodcock, whose review proposes bans for protest groups, has lobbying links to firms in arms and fossil fuel sectors (and is recommending bans on protests against both those industries)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/17/government-adviser-on-disruptive-protest-accused-of-conflict-of-interest

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

The only folks for whom house arrest isn't a punishment are those who live in palaces with attached infinity pools and golf courses.

(Silvio Berlusconi fought off the inevitable guilty verdict until he aged past Italy's 70 year old limit for prison: then he served two years under house arrest—in his bunga-bunga mansion.)

Just as fines (with no alternative sentence) are the ticket price of wrongdoing for the wealthy rather than the punishment they are for ordinary folks.
https://universeodon.com/@georgetakei/112451843395290411

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@rubinjoni He wasn't the only one who was collecting kompromat. It's not just a Russian thing, it's standard practice in politics; the Whips' Offices in the House of Commons are believed to have spent decades collecting blackmail material on MPs and ministers to keep them in line, for example.

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@quinn Yes, but the happy shut-ins are generally less likely to go out and about engaging in behaviour likely to pull a custodial sentence of any kind! They're too busy reading all the books and wearing out the sofa cushions.

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@quinn Yeah, that's a thing this century. Bank robbery from the bathtub …

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

UK government planning nuclear site in Scotland

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9eze1dzy5no

This is pointless: Scotland is already self-sufficient on renewables. What we need is a new grid interconnect between Scotland and England so we can export our surplus energy to the south!

It's all about the lobbyists, of course:

"Its ambitions for up to a quarter of all electricity to come from nuclear power by 2050 are being led by government-backed body Great British Nuclear." (Who?)

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@elmadagdale They haven't announced a site yet, just a proposal to run rough-shod over the wishes of the predominantly-anti-nuclear Scots. (Alister Jack hates devolution and this is another political stick to bash Holyrood with, while paying off lobbyists down south.)

Hint: if the USA decided to site its new nuclear reactors in Canada, without the consent of the Canadian government, you might smell a rat. This is much the same.

Adam_Cadmon1, to random
@Adam_Cadmon1@mastodon.online avatar

Also, England didn't have police until the 19th century. Whole civilizations existed, rose and fell, without the GD police.

cstross, (edited )
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@Adam_Cadmon1 @encthenet This is true, but what England had instead of police prior to the 1830s was worse. (Duels for the nobs, paid thief-takers for the rich, beatings for the poor.) Also, the English policing tradition is very different from the American one (even though the USA has exported its model everywhere, including the UK)—an unarmed public constabulary, not a heavily armed externally-imposed gendarmerie. In particular, the Peelian Principles are sound:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_principles

yurnidiot, to random
@yurnidiot@mstdn.social avatar

peer-to-peer Cat6 cabling

cat connected to wire walks under floor of deck and appears at other end where person is holding treats

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@yurnidiot This is actually how Hutchinson Telecom broke BT's de-facto monopoly on phone service in the UK in 1983—they bought the rights to use the disused pneumatic power pipes under the Square Mile in London, then trained ferrets to drag cable between sites. This let them sell non-BT leased line service to City trading desks, and was the first crack in British Telecom's post-privatization national monopoly.

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