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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-09-19 10:21 am
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Bad News From Alpha Centauri A…



There's a planet in the habitable zone... but not an Earthlike planet.

Bad News From Alpha Centauri A…
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-09-19 10:14 am

Sabrena Swept Away by Karuna Riazi



Sabrena's life is full of struggles already. The last thing she needs is an other-worldly adventure. Life is, alas, not considerate of a teen's preferences.

Sabrena Swept Away by Karuna Riazi
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firecat (attention machine in need of calibration) ([personal profile] firecat) wrote2025-09-18 12:12 pm

ADHD research

From the “You don’t say!🙀” files
(Content note: The article uses language that frames ADHD as a problem)

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/adhd-advantage-hypercuriosity
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Tucker McKinnon ([personal profile] jazzfish) wrote2025-09-18 09:30 am

france travelogue IV: rognes (2/2)

marseille, ochre, Lacoste )

Next: return to Paris, mostly cathedrals, and home.
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-09-18 08:47 am
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Elise Matthesen ([personal profile] elisem) wrote2025-09-17 08:46 pm

silly body continues to be silly, yet I trudge forward, for I am frikkin' stubborn

 In the course of dealing with silly body stuff with which I will not bore you, my sleep cycle got turned upside down again, so I am busy with various attempts at precessing back to a more manageable situation.

Somewhere in some book or other, a character said something about the phrase for having a hangover in a certain language was "my eyes are not opposite the holes." It's not a hangover, but when my sleep schedule is deeply out of synch and I'm trying to do stuff connected to the outside world's schedule, I kind of feel like my life is not opposite the holes.

How's your life matching your hours of access lately?
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Sam ([personal profile] l33tminion) wrote2025-09-17 08:36 pm
Entry tags:

As Big as the Sun

Erica seems to have entered an absurd questions phase, and her preferred question is "what if there was a [type of object] as big as the sun?" I do not understand her new obsession with solar-scale constructs. (What brand of toothpaste does the sun use? Solgate!)

The Somerville primary election was yesterday, so we have the pretty exciting news that we're going to get a new mayor. The current mayor got absolutely wrecked in the primary and didn't manage to make the cut to top-two. The general will be between two challengers who are both current city councilors. It will be really interesting to see how they present their ideas as they campaign head-to-head, much more interesting than if the general were mostly a referendum on the incumbent.

I finished (the first season; apparently it's renewed for a second and I can't wait, but the first season also feels like it stands on its own) watching Common Side Effects, that show is spectacularly great. It's an animated sci-fi story centering around a mushroom that can cure anything. Reminds me a hair of King of the Hill (no coincidence, Mike Judge is a producer and one of the voice actors) and Scavengers Reign (Joseph Bennett is also one of the creators), but also reminds me a lot of Pulp Fiction and Paranoia Agent. It's not a comedy, but it is quite funny in addition to dramatic. It has a somewhat caricature-esque sketch-artist style for the character designs, in addition to some lush scenery and creative psychedelia and a bit of surreal horror. Apparently a good way to do comedy drama is just have all of the characters be huge weirdos in one way or another. There are lots of interesting ways to be weird, and no one is really normal, after all.
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Elise Matthesen ([personal profile] elisem) wrote2025-09-17 08:28 pm

Om nom: food combinations, or, playing with what's here

 So a little while back, for. my birthday I got various tasty things to nibble. One of them was salmon skin and salted egg crisps, with curry leaves in the mix, and some spice. Extremely tasty. When I got down to the bottom of the bag, there were a lot of little shards and crumbs that were particularly spicy. A mental note was. made for possible future uses.

Today was a future use. There wasn't a fresh vegetable in the house, but I wanted something with both softness and crunch, and wanted it to be in something that had umami plus. The last of the bread gave me toast. There was some braunsweiger (liver paste, Nueske's in particular) which went onto the toast, cut pretty thinly. (I am from people who like thick slices of braunsweiger on toast or bread, and normally I do too, but this was a special application, part flavor and part structural adhesive.) Then I spooned out some of the fragments from the bottom of the bag of salted egg and salmon skin crisps, laying them on top of the liver paste and pressing them in with the back of the spoon, and had it open-faced. 

Big win. Big tasty win. Especially the way the curry leaves went with the braunsweiger. 

Must remember this and make it again.

Part of the idea for this one was looking at the braunsweiger and wishing I could magically make a banh mi from the place in Global Market appear. So some of the taste combo came from that. Lettuce or bok choy or other green or variously colored thinly sliced vegetables, with vinegar or not, would have been great, but there was no such suppy in the house, alas. Although hey, there is a little new kraut in the back of the fridge which should get eaten up. Hmmm. Although we are out of bread now. Hmm. I wonder how it would be on top of ramen noodles. Pity that the boiled eggs are all et up.

Do you have any tasty kludged-together food that you are fond of? What gave you the idea?  

(My term for kludged-together food is "cream of refrigerator soup," which explains the tag. No actual soup was generated in this particular instance.)
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Redbird ([personal profile] redbird) wrote2025-09-17 02:42 pm

Massachusetts has updated covid vaccine guidance

I am happy to see that "should receive" the covid vaccine or booster includes infants; children and adolescents who haven't already been vaccinated; anyone with a medical condition that puts them at higher risk of severe covid; and all household contacts of anyone at higher risk.

Everyone aged 65 or older should receive two doses, six months apart.

All healthcare workers "should" receive the vaccine, as should anyone who is pregnant, contemplating pregnancy, or has recently been pregnant, and a few other groups.

Everyone else "may receive" it.

https://www.mass.gov/doc/massachusetts-2025-2026-respiratory-illness-season-covid-19-vaccine-recommendations/download

What I saw is Massachusetts-specific, but it says it is aligned with the recommendations of the new Northeast Public Health Collaborative, which includes New England except for New Hampshire, plus New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-09-17 09:00 am

The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike



The Central Plaza Mansion tower offers palatial 900 square foot apartments for a mere ¥35,000,000. It is a deal too good for the Kano family to turn down... although they should have.


The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike
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duskpeterson ([personal profile] duskpeterson) wrote2025-09-16 04:59 pm

FIC: The High Court (Tempestuous Tours)

OTHER PUBLIC PORTIONS OF THE ROYAL PALACE

The High Court

The rest of the Koretian palace is more easily accessed than the royal residence, rewarding visitors with many hours' worth of sights. I can only touch here upon a few of the more popular places to visit.

A visit to Koretia's High Court is the goal of most visitors. Here Koretia's ruler holds important court cases. In the moment of judgment, he transforms into his godly form. Thus the High Court doubles as a place of worship for most Koretians.

A tip: Although the Jackal considerately wears a mask to hide the most terrifying features of his transformation (which the mask itself barely hints at), it is still wise not to look directly upon the Jackal at his moment of judgment. A few sidelong glances are reasonable enough; the Jackal does not – as one rumor insists – strike down anyone who sees him in divine form. But looking for too long at the Jackal in judgment can have unfortunate effects on viewers. For this reason, a healing woman remains in attendance to assist any visitors who may pass out.

In olden times, court cases were heard privately by Koretia's Kings. The current court, like all of the palace except for the royal residence, was built by Emor during its occupation of Koretia from 961 to 976. During that period, the palace served as the home for the dominion governor, and the court was used by him for trials. A memorial to the Koretians who are thought to have been innocent when they were executed or tortured to death upon the governor's orders has been placed near the entrance of the court. The memorial was paid for by the Chara, at the time that he freed Koretia. It is believed that the Chara had his late father were unaware during that time period of the crimes being committed by the governor in the name of the Chara.


[Translator's note: The Chara's discovery of his governor's offenses is described in Blood Vow and Law of Vengeance.]

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Redbird ([personal profile] redbird) wrote2025-09-16 04:43 pm

vaccinated

I just got this year's covid booster, as a walk-in at CVS. I'm glad I called first, because the CVS closest to our house doesn't have the vaccine; the one where I get most of my prescriptions does.

The pharmacist asked me if I wanted to get the flu vaccine at the same time, so I told her I'm waiting, on my doctor's advice. The actual injection was faster than I expected and didn't hurt much, so that's good.

The pharmacist gave me a coupon for $10 off a $20 purchase (with the usual list of exclusions). Kitchen trash bags were on the shopping list, so I picked those up, then added a box of envelopes and a bottle of dish soap to get the total up to $20. I got home and saw we may have too much dish soap, given limited storage space, but we will use it.
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-09-16 11:19 am