Book 21 of 2024 was Neil Stephenson’s Seveneves. As always for the author long and detailed, but What a fun read! But i feel part three was almost a second book. Even the style was subtly different. Far too many lengthy descriptions of the technology distracting from the narrative. As if Skylark had returned, but instead of Seaton dazzlingly making everything happen just because, Stephenson had to prove to us that these things were quite possibly not some wild shit he had made up such as Smith did a century ago
Still though, who needs a moon, and why would we think capsules in the ocean might be any different from capsules in space.
Natasha Brown’s Assembly is quite the Novella. “I've watched with dispassionate curiosity as this continent hacks away at itself: confused, lost, sick with nostalgia for those imperialist glory days - when the them had been so clearly defined! It's evident now, obvious in retrospect as the proof of root-two's irrationality, that these world superpowers are neither infallible, nor superior. They're nothing, not without a brutally enforced relativity. An organized, systematic brutality that their soft and sagging children can scarcely stomach - won't even acknowledge. Yet cling to as truth. There was never any absolute, no decree from God. Just viscous, random chance. And then, compounding.” @bookstodon#bookstodonhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58600914
@mlawton and yet, having watched Jarrel stride forward recently, Matip/Hansen/Gillespie style, I'm optimistic the young fella has learned from the best
@franksting that’s the second Hansen reference I’ve heard today. And I’ve since been lost down a rabbit hole watching highlights of his. He predates my love of the club, as there simply wasn’t a broadcast or recording to he found in the U.S. back then. (And who knows if I’d have fallen for Liverpool if there had been?)
I can see why people see a similarity. Watching him play a looping pass to himself to break a Man United trap? Unexpected genius! 🤣
I’m watching #3bodyproblem and reading EE Doc Smith’s Skylark at the same time. And the similarities are striking, even if the timescales are a less realistic in the century old books. #scifi#bookstodon@bookstodon
@franksting citric acid works extremely well too - it’s about 98% of what’s in espresso machine cleaner, and costs about 1/10th as much. Squirt of dishwashing detergent to get the other 2% of stuff
Another #breach of customer privacy because of poor customer data #security. Why is an energy company storing this information? There will be no accountability for this sort of nonsense from corporates until we start sending execs to gaol “Sumo said that the following customer information was compromised by the breach: names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, credit scores, as well as either passport, Medicare, or driver’s licence details.” https://www.cyberdaily.au/security/10565-exclusive-australian-energy-internet-provider-sumo-confirms-customer-data-breach
@jonoabroad@franksting For sure. TBH, it'll be a bit of everything - that's how most of this stuff is going to work out.
Some will do the numbers and arrive at battery trucks, others will do the same and probably arrive at hydrogen. It's all about finding the best solution for any particular need.