Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

Today being (US)Thanksgiving, I will try to extend this back over the last year, more-or-less. I am thankful for...

• Having survived what is now almost 13 months here in the Netherlands, making this my second Thanksgiving here. (And my fifth without Colleen, for which I am NOT thankful, but sad.)
• Finally having gotten the kitchen and other parts of the house re-stocked to a useable level, if not exactly where we left off.
• 220V house wiring, for electric kettles, other appliances, and vehicles.
• Frame.work.
• Having successfully signed up for health insurance and gotten reasonably-priced health care. Including for the cats, who don't have insurance.
• While I'm on that subject, a vet who makes house calls.
• Having, with N, started our (required for immigration) business, and thanks mainly to N's book, actually made some money at it.
• Living in a country that has both good public transit, and excellent bike paths (which work just fine for mobility scooters).
• (Tin)Lizzy and Scarlett-the-carlet, our folding mobility scooter and micro-car respectively.
• Fuzzy blankets. NO thanks for whatever health problem makes me feel cold in the evening no matter what the ambient temperature.
• Finally getting screen rotation working on my Frame.work convertible laptop. Whether it's automatic depends on the window manager, and possibly the phase of the moon. But it should be usable.
• Walks, and occasionally st/rolls.
• Compression socks. (No thanks for the condition they're supposed to improve.)
• Hydrocortizone ointment.
• The filk community.

Last year's Thanksgiving entry is mostly still applicable, but a few plans for what was then the coming year have, predictably, gone by the wayside again, and my health isn't holding up as well as I would like. I'd be thankful for executive function if I had any. I'll be thankful for good drugs once we get my BP and psych meds figured out.

Again, happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it. (That includes us, but we're having the feast on Saturday to accommodate j's school schedule. Including the annual American Thanksgiving celebration in Leiden,)

1. The Budget - what it says

(tags:tax budget economics uk )

2. The Pope is not in favour of AI

(tags:ai pope )

3. British children shorter than other five-year-olds in Europe (since austerity)

(tags:uk europe austerity children hunger food height )

4. How a flawed idea is teaching millions of American kids to be poor readers

(tags:reading children epicfail USA OhForFucksSake )

5. Man offended by NatWest Pride flags told to use online banking

(tags:LGBT bigotry )

6. Voters back restricting trial by jury (but not for themselves)

(tags:law polls uk )

There had always been Puttis -- round and soft, made for children. She had kept hers because it was the last thing her mother had made... Puttis were four-legged and tailed. Their heads were round, with shining eyes made of buttons or beads, upstanding ears, whiskers above the small mouth. Puttis were loved, played with, adored in the child world; their origin was those brought by children on the First Ships. [loc. 2219]

This was the first science fiction book I remember reading, from Rochford Library, probably pre-1975. I don't think I've read it since, though I did briefly own a paperback copy. Apparently the blurbs of newer editions mention 'university complex' and 'epidemic virus': aged <10, I was hooked by the cat on the front.

1. How Ferrari's Formula One Pit Stop Team saved the lives of thousands of children

(tags:safety process driving mechanics children healthcare )

2. EU's Top Court landmark judgment: Member States Must Recognise Same-Sex Marriages from Other EU Countries

(tags:Europe LGBT marriage GoodNews law )

3. Suicidality dropped for transgender youth receiving hormone therapy by nearly 70%

(tags:suicide children LGBT transgender hormones research )

4. Justice secretary wants most jury trials scrapped

(tags:law UK labour )

5. Lammy Furiously Backed Campaign for 'Vital' Jury Trials 'To Prevent Bias and Ensure Justice' - before deciding to get rid of them

(tags:law UK labour hypocrisy )

6. Concept Art for Characters That Ended Up as Blonde White Women

(tags:design games racism )

7. BBC accused of censoring Trump line from historian's lecture

(tags:bbc censorship corruption usa politics )

“... they began to exhibit afflictions.”
“Apophenia being the worst, and most notable,” said Ghrelin. “An uncontrollable, debilitating impulse to spy patterns in everything.”
I glanced at Ana, but she only smiled and wryly said, “Oh, I’m familiar with that one..." [loc. 3361]

Sequel to The Tainted Cup, and second in Bennett's 'Shadow of the Leviathan' trilogy. While this didn't wow me quite as much as the first book -- which was so utterly novel in setting and ambience -- it's still a marvellous read. Bennett continues to explore the Empire of Khanum, in this case by venturing outside it. ( Read more... )

1. Britain is one of the world's richest countries. So why do a third of its children live in poverty?

(tags:uk poverty children )

2. Brexit costing the UK up to £90bn in lost tax a year, new analysis shows (People are around £3k per year worse off)

(tags:uk europe OhForFucksSake )

3. Footage of Japan's new train zooming down the track at 310mph leaves spectators speechless

(tags:trains magnets Japan video )

4. Five pivotal ages in your brain's development revealed in new scientific study (0-9, 9-32, 32-66, 66-83, 83+)

(tags:development brain age )

There are many Turks who believe that the capture of Constantinople was a just vengeance for the fall of Troy. The Greeks were at last made to pay for their perfidy. [loc. 2376]

Reread: my review from 2010 is here. I remembered nothing at all about this novel! Apparently I purchased a paperback copy in 2007: as with almost all of his other novels, no Kindle edition is available.

Ackroyd bases his novel on the life of Heinrich Schliemann, who first excavated Troy, and his marriage to a much younger woman, a Greek (famously chosen on the basis of a photograph and 'Homeric spirit'). Ackroyd's fictional archaeologist is named Heinrich Obermann, and he has all of Schliemann's flaws and more:( Read more... )