A few pics
Nov. 14th, 2025 09:52 pmThe time to get me Christmas orders? October. September would be even better.


















I got to sleep in this morning.... Nor shall I say what objects of vision must be agreeable or disagreeable to it; for from what I have already said about the other senses, it is easy to grasp that light that is too strong will injure the eyes and moderate light must refresh them; and that, amongst the colours, green, which consistss in the most moderate action (which by analogy one can speak of as the ratio 1:2), is like the octave among musical consonances, or like bread among the foods that one eats, that is, it is the most universally agreeable.40
40 What the basis of this remark is is unclear, and although various writers have made suggestions about the relations between colours and sounds, the attempt to quantify green on a par with an octave certainly cannot be sustained. It is worth noting that Descartes will later advice Elizabeth to rid her mind of sad thoughts by reflecting on the greenness of a wood (Descartes to Elizabeth, May/June 1645, AT iv. 220).
(trans. and footnote courtesy of Stephen Gaukroger.)
I am endlessly amused that V and my mom have the same birthday. This is all the proof I need that astrology is unreliable: I could hardly imagine two more different people.
V liked the present I got for them, a t-shirt that says "All done" on it, under a sheet ghost who is apparently doing the bsl sign for that thing? I didn't even know that, V told me. I already thought sheet ghost (which they love) plus sentiment they find very relatable was good enough, but they're even more delighted with it than I expected.
And the flowers I ordered for my mom actually did turn up (doing this kind of thing internationally when you're sending them to the middle of nowhere is always an ordeal and I had to use a new company this year so I worried)!
Mom sent me an email thanking me. I even got what was clearly meant to be a photo attached, but is instead a two-second video of the flowers sitting on their kitchen counter. Which is even cuter if anything.
(I only get like one photo from my parents a year, because in between they forget how to attach them to emails.)

AO3 is turning 16! It’s been another year of growth for AO3. Since this time last year, we passed both eight million and nine million registered users! We also passed 14 million, 15 million, and 16 million fanworks on the site, including one million works in Mandarin Chinese—the first non-English language to reach this milestone!
AO3’s committees have also done a lot of important work this year! Accessibility, Design, & Technology published multiple important code releases, including security improvements like sending you an email when you or someone logged in to your account changes your username, password, or email as well as new features like allowing you to use CSS custom properties in site skins or add tags to your collections!
AO3’s Tag Wranglers published four updates on “No Fandom” tags, which are tags that are not associated with any particular fandom. Many of the new tags they’ve made canonical (marked common) include commonly requested ones like Breeding Kink, Mind Break, and Rivals to Lovers. Check out the full list of new and modified No Fandom tags!
OTW Open Doors announced the import of five fanwork and two zine archives to AO3, including fanworks related to fandoms such as Harry Potter, Inuyasha, and Star Trek: The Original Series. You can look through all old import announcements by browsing AO3 news for the Open Doors tag.
Policy & Abuse published a series of important Terms of Service (TOS) Spotlight news posts that answered common questions about violations of AO3’s TOS. Check them out here:
We’re so excited about all the wonderful things that have happened this year and we can’t wait to see what future years bring!
To celebrate AO3’s 16th birthday, we want to prompt you to post a fanwork featuring 16 in some way! This could be a work about Season/Series 16 of a show, or a character with 16 in their name like Android 16 (Dragon Ball), or even a character celebrating their 16th Birthday. We encourage you to get creative! When you post your works on AO3 or social media, tag them #AO3Celebrates16!
If you don’t feel like creating a work, that’s okay! Instead, celebrate this anniversary with us by commenting on 16 fanworks and recommending your favorite in the comments!
Thank you for celebrating 16 years of AO3 with us!
This paper came out Nov 10th. Pretty simple: they compared HCW (health care worker) blood samples between April 2020 and April 2021, and of 181 people working with covid (or suspected-covid) patients, only one showed signs of SARS infection, and he had plausible exposure outside the workplace. Hopeful message: PPE works, very well!
( But )
tl;dr: ditch your surgicals (if any), wear respirators.
I don't think we actually have to claim she invented science fiction, because to the best of my recollection and without going and looking it up, various people in the C17th were doing similar things. Also, honestly, why can we not claim women among the Great Eccentrics of History? What we like about Margaret Cavendish is that she appears to have heartily embraced this identity rather than having it plonked upon her by a judgemental world: The Duchess Who Invented Science Fiction.
Though I am slightly muttering under my breath about the women of the time who were also Doing Science and Being Intellectual in a rather less flamboyant fashion e.g. Lady Ranelagh, and indeed women in the Evelyn circle....
***
Quiet persistence and a lucky combination of first husband dying after a few years of marriage and sympathetic second husband (see also Mrs Delany): Mary Somerville – the first scientist - she taught Ada Lovelace, plus she lived to be 92. (You know, I am sorry for those women in science who died tragically young, but we hear a lot less about the ones like Dorothy Hodgkin who had a long and spectacularly effective career in crystallography while suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and actually GOT THE NOBEL. I also mark her up for persistence in humanitarian concerns.)
***
Okay, Amy Levy did die, by her own hand, distressingly young: but her personal archive, up till now in private hands, has now been acquired by the University of Cambridge Library: The archive of enigmatic 19th-century writer Amy Levy has a new home at Cambridge University Library
Even with having so much time between then and now to think on it, Jake was never able to answer the question of whether the pain of being with Silva outweighed the pain of being without.
The guilt of what she had done still hit her hard.
A year after everything, Lee Dongsik starts talking to plants. Juwon listens, and learns.
After surviving the death-trap of Planet 4 together, Walter and Daniels make a start on the cabin by the lake.
Neville stumbled out blindly, uncaring, unthinking of where he would go, only knowing he could not remain in Lily’s garden with its atmosphere of oppressive joy, a place where he was so clearly not wanted.
Houston, NASA, and the years of Margo's life
The purpose of a time loop is supposed to involve the person realizing they're in one.
After watching Narumi play Coffee Talk, Naoya is inspired to open a café that specifically caters to an evening crowd. In order to get an idea of what's out there, he invites Narumi to visit various cafés with him to better understand the coffee scene outside of the [off-brand Starbucks] chain in which he's currently employed. (Narumi... maaaayyyyy use this as an excuse to take him to various collab cafés and get more of the collectable goods, but hey! They're still technically cafés, right?) Oh, and also, Naoya is planning on proposing to Kou after beating her at a video game, despite being the worst gamer ever. Which means Narumi needs to find a way to help him out. Too bad that Hirotaka's clearly not working on the same excuse.
Expect a lot of café culture, tons of nerdiness, and the occasional burst of romance and introspection as Narumi helps her future little brother in law make his dreams come true.
Catherine learns earlier of Sir Robert's sacrifice - a discovery that has surprising results.
The staff had suggested that the bridge crew who had been so miraculously rescued by the Jedi meet their rescuers, which Hedda would have been far more enthusiastic about had she been able to have any peaceful sleep or feel anything except the crushing guilt of being alive. The least she could have done was go down with her ship. The least she should have done.
A wedding between subtlety majors was going to result in multiple subtle plots being advanced, whether they be for amusement or to begin taking over Washington. Blaine Jeffries really, really wished that Scotch was on menu when Nick Campbell came over to "network."
“I think Kot-nim’s sick,” Bubs said.
Sure, Liz had expected Megan to be all in on Christmas: especially on getting to experience it as Megan, not just 83. But in at least one aspect, Megan was already one step ahead.
With every blow she strikes, the Empty Set sings back to her with her own voice.
Dys has come to say goodbye, but Sol is nowhere to be found.
Hal processes at lightning speed, but what can only seem like a second in human time, can feel like an eternity to him. After all, he can record, replay and recount every single miniature motion of someone’s expression, someone’s words and the cadence of their voice.
Thaniel did tell Keita about being able to see sounds - he just didn't think that comment would be remembered. As if Keita hadn't been planning for this for decades.
Catherine and Sir Robert find themselves on the same train, but travelling in quite different directions.
Instead of killing Aaron, Josef decides to take him.
Shang Bu Huan falls sick from a cold, and Lang Wu Yao awkwardly helps Mu Tian Ming take care of him while Ling Ya sits back and enjoys the show.
Diana Taverner's admiration for Jackson Lamb's intelligence is matched only by her disgust for his appearance and general air of filth. When Lamb agrees to go undercover for her, however, he gets a new suit, has a shower and is given a shave and haircut, which complicates matters somewhat. Since he's going to be her joe, Diana visits his undercover hotel room digs. They review files and speak of country matters.
Uncertain how to ask Dan Fei to marry him, Juan Can Yun draws on the wisdom gleaned from his travels with the One-Eyed Impaler, the Enigmatic Gale, and the Edgeless Blade.
A newspaper article detailing the shootout from "Now or Never".
Lin Xue Ya knows how to please his audience.
Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die".
Noted as of interest a day or so ago, ‘I don’t want anyone to suffer like I did’: the intersex campaigners fighting to limit surgery on children - am a bit gloomed to think that this is Still An Issue because I look back and surely this was brought to wider attention, oh, at least twenty or years ago?
Ah. A little delving shows me that the person I remember as doing pioneering research on the subject, published around the late 90s, and also involved in intersex activism, has become A Figure of Controversy and I think we probably do not mention them.
But quite coincidentally this emerged today: who, according to work done by A Very Reputable Scientist sequencing DNA which does appear to be his, had a Disorder of Sexual Development (as intersex conditions are sometimes termed)? Did Hitler really have a ‘micropenis’? The dubious documentary analysing the dictator’s DNA.
Here is a thoughtful and nuanced piece by an actual scientist taking issue with some of the more tabloidy accounts A slightly different take on the news that Hitler’s DNA reveals some genetic anomalies. The most interesting thing to me is that history has a profound capability for irony.
That Hitler himself had a condition that was discovered and named by a Jewish man who also held some responsibility for the scientifically misguided murderous policies of the Nazis is at least a reflection that history is often imbued with a sense of complex and confusing irony.
D and I were walking home from an errand when we ran into Pickle, a little French bulldog, and her human (whose name of course I have no idea of). We were near one of our old dog-walking destinations, and she recognized D and I right away -- she called out "where's your dog?"
We stopped and chatted, shared the sad news about Gary, and she was really sweet about how you alway miss them and them and the company they provide. She said her mum's birthday is soon -- or has just been, recently? -- "and even though she's been gone six years I still miss her."
It was really nice to run in to her, and I'm impressed that she recognized us without the dog; I don't know that I'd recognize her without Pickle!
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