Read [A Bug's Life]

I'm in Montreal for a few days, visiting Rysmiel. The trip up yesterday was ompressively smoooth. despite freezn rain the day before that caused some power outages: the sidewalks were ckear enough that taking transit from the airport worked fine.

It's decent weather for the tine of year for Montrea;, currently just below freezng withh snow not expected until well after dark, but that's not the sort of weather that encourages spedng extra time outdoors. Since I'm nr eating indoos in restaurants if I can avoid it, that means getting food delivered or eating sandwichs, but I'm here for the company, not the food or tourist ssuff.

Being someewhee that isn't actively at war is also good, but I bought my ticket a month ago, whicj feels like long time under the Trump regime). The stte of the world *gestures widely* is still stressugu, though.

Being here does mean I won't he able to go to the in-person memorial for

minoanmiss on Sunday. The funeral this afternoon is being live-steeamed and recorded, and I may watch that when I'm back in Boston.

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purplecat
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g7kwq1k11o

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2026/036: A Great Reckoning — Louise Penny

“Not every mystery is a crime,” said the Commander. “But every crime starts as a mystery." [p. 76]

Gamache has come out of retirement to take the role of Commander at the Sûreté Academy, which has lately been turning out new police officers who are aggressive, brutal and not up to Gamache's standards. He has to root out the source of the corruption, which -- in typical Gamache style -- he does by keeping on some known troublemakers on the staff, and recruiting his old friend-turned-nemesis Michel Brébeuf as another teacher. Of course everything goes swimmingly, ( Read more... )

Mood::

calm

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1. Hereditary peers to be removed from Lords as bill passes: (tags:uk houseoflords goodnews )
2. Wildlife conservation charity urges change to weather apps as misleading forecasts deter thousands of visitors: (tags:zoo weather Scotland )
3. Unite vote to cut Labour affiliation by 40%: (tags:unions uk labour )
4. Louis Therous's "Inside the Manosphere" exposes red pill men for the hypocritical grifters they are: (tags:men patriarchy hypocrisy documentary viaSwampers )

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Poll #34358

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 31

View Respondents

What's the soonest you can tell a new partner you love them?

View Answers

First date
2 (6.9%)

First few days
1 (3.4%)

First week
1 (3.4%)

First two weeks
2 (6.9%)

First month
4 (13.8%)

First two months
3 (10.3%)

First six months
5 (17.2%)

First year
2 (6.9%)

Longer than a year
0 (0.0%)

THEY MUST NEVER KNOW
1 (3.4%)

I don't do "Love"
1 (3.4%)

SEWIWEIC
7 (24.1%)

What's the longest you'd wait for a partner to declare love before giving up on them?

View Answers

First date
0 (0.0%)

First few days
0 (0.0%)

First week
0 (0.0%)

First two weeks
0 (0.0%)

First month
0 (0.0%)

First two months
4 (13.3%)

First six months
5 (16.7%)

First year
6 (20.0%)

Longer than a year
2 (6.7%)

I WILL WAIT FOREVER
3 (10.0%)

I don't do "Love"
1 (3.3%)

SEWIWEIC
9 (30.0%)

Triggered by a couple of things recently where people were shocked that people would tell them that they were in love within the first few months.

And my general view is that if you aren't incredibly excited to spend loads of time with me and wander around holding hands while grinning a lot within the first few weeks of dating then we are probably not compatible.

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https://xkcd.com/3218/

Aww, the oceanic crust and the continental crust are getting married!

https://xkcd.com/3218/

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Finished recently:

These are all parts of ongoing series, and all fantasy (in significantly different styles)

Testament of Mute Things, by Lois McMaster Bujold (a Penric novella)

Apt to be Suspicious, by Celia Lake

To Ride a Rising Storm, by Moniquill Blackgoose: this doesn't just leave room for a sequel, it ends on a cliffhanger. Strongly recommended. Definitely start with her first novel, To Shape a Dragon's Breath, for world-building and if you care about spoilers. (I think the Bujold and Lake books would both work as starting points for reading those series.)

I am currently partway through Ada Palmer's Inventing the Renaissance, which is chewy nonfiction.

We just finished our latest read-aloud book, Half Magic by Edward Eager. Adrian and Cattitude had read this before, I hadn't, we all enjoyed it.

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There's been a rant I have been meaning to turn into an essay for a while, but Ken White (Popehat) has done it better, so I direct you to his really well-written and referenced (though US-centric) article: The Fashionable Notion of 'Free Speech Culture' Is Justifying State Censorship, Ironically. Criticism. Is. Not. Censorship, and “Free speech culture” has a natural tendency to discount the speech rights and interests of people who criticize speech.

This is important in Europe too, not just in the US, because it's a deliberate, specific Russian infowar tactic to promote far right events at UK universities and claim censorship if anyone objects. A network based at [Cambridge] University and backed by Thiel, which it said was using the issue of free speech to “normalise white nationalism on UK campuses”. Neither Putin nor Thiel has anyone's freedom at heart, and they're all too successful at distracting people with a toddler-like notion of "freedom" where you get to say the naughty words without being told off.

( shorter version of my original opinion, building on White's piece )

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I've just finished the first season of 'For All Mankind'. Enjoyed it, but I'm puzzled by the season finale.

How did Ed manage to get upto the Apollo module and down to the moon again? And then up again!

Surely there's no way salvaged fuel could power two lunar take-offs, let alone give the course correction for the Apollo module as well?

and the way lunar landers worked was for the base part to be left on the moon, in any case.

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Went to see the diabetes nurse today to sort out medication.

I forget how it came up, but apparently iron deficiency can lead to blood sugar readings that look exactly the same as diabetes...

So, now booked in for an iron test, just in case it isn't diabetes at all.

Also, skinny people can sometimes get Type 2 diabetes, so I'm not even sure which kind of diabetes I have... But the treatment is the same either way in the early stages, so what the heck.

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1. The neurons playing Doom are actually testing a theory of intelligence: (tags:doom games intelligence ai )
2. Stay Classy (a history of the awfulness of Prince Andrew): (tags:royalty UK OhForFucksSake corruption )
3. How good are you at spotting colour differences? (I scored 0.006 - see if you can get yours lower): What was particularly interesting was that on some of them I had to let my eyes "settle". They'd see a wall of colour, get overloaded, and then after about 10 seconds I'd easily see the line. Oh, and I'm much better with shades of green than with shades of blue.
(tags:colour viamybrothermike )

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This is an 800 year old play based on events 2,500 years ago in China, the first Chinese play to be translated into any European language (about 300 years ago). The Royal Shakespeare Company commissioned James Fenton to adapt it for a production about 13 years ago, and a student theatre group are putting that adaptation on at the ADC in Cambridge this week.

I went to see it last night with Charles, and also Olivia, one of my friends from Womens Blues. (We then found two of my Huskies teammates in the audience so it became an accidental hockey social.) We saw a little first-night talk beforehand from the director and some of the actors, about why they chose this play and some of their favourite lines and aspects of the characters they play. The play itself was very good, very gripping, a revenge tragedy with a very high body count and an ending I didn't quite expect.

The kind of evening that makes me remember how much I like living in this weird little city in the fens.

(and, in further "wow I love living in walking distance of the ADC" news, here's what I'm hoping to get to between now and early May:

Into The Woods (famous musical)
Olympus Unscripted (improv show on greek myths theme)
Chekov's Four Farces (what it says on the tin)
Next to Normal (musical about mental illness)
The Ferryman (play about the Irish Troubles)
Medea (musical adaptation of Euripedes play)

)

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1. Grammarly Is Offering 'Expert' AI Reviews From Your Favorite Authors—Dead or Alive (without their permission): (tags:ohforfuckssake ai writing )
2. Google proposes an AI training datacenter that would use up to 8 million gallons of water *per day*: (tags:water google ai )
3. NHS England continues attacks on trans kids: (tags:uk transgender lgbt ohforfuckssake )
4. It is likely that the UK is still under-diagnosing ADHD: (tags:adhd uk )

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It's looking increasingly like a have a Frozen Shoulder. It's been getting more stiff and painful since around Christmas, my range of motion is decreasing, and neither physio nor Naproxen (from the GP last week) is making much difference. I am trying not to think too much about the fact this can take 2-3 *years* to resolve, and have now asked for a referral for a steroid injection, which I understand is the next phase of treatment. Though I may been to ring up and ask again. The webpage says to ring for urgent requests, or use the form. The form for non-urgent requests says after you've posted it that it can take up to 3 weeks to respond and if you need a response more quickly to ring. I think we have different ideas of urgent. (I'd class this as being non-urgent myself, but more urgent than 3 weeks given the Naproxen runs out tomorrow, and has no repeat option.)

https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/patient-information/frozen-shoulder/

Edit: Yup, I have a text message saying they'll review my form on 26th March - the Naproxen runs out on the 11th. Tried calling, and got the automated message which wants to know which of their practices I want to speak to, and then got stuck because I don't know! I'm based at Shelford, but the doctor I spoke to last week is based at Sawston.

Relieved edit: Called reception at Shelford, and they checked my notes, apparently Dr Hasan who will look at my form on 26th will probably ring to speak to me, but can do the steroid injection, so will probably arrange it then. And the receptionist will request some more Naproxen for the meantime. (Ring back in a couple of hours and ask how that's going). The SMS doesn't even specify which doctor it was! The receptionist even said she had it done and it was amazing :)

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2026/035: Cuckoo Song — Frances Hardinge

Trying to cling to the past, to the way things were, pretending nothing has changed. Everything changes and breaks and stops fitting – and we know that, even with our stopped clock. The world is breaking, and changing, and dancing. Always on the move. That’s how it is. That’s how it has to be. [p. 409]

Reread for book club: first read in 2014. I remembered very little except Triss' true nature and the scissors. That said, I find that my Kindle highlights match quotes from that earlier review... And I'm not sure I have much more to say about it, other than ( Read more... )

Mood::

good

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https://xkcd.com/3217/

As always, you are permitted to call one person for guidance, but that person must be a grandparent.

https://xkcd.com/3217/

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This is a bundle of material for Age of Ambition, an RPG about a fantasy world trying to modernize and adapt to technology and rapid social and political changes following an alien invasion:

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Ambition

I'm not familiar with the rules system, but it looks reasonably playable and layout is good. If you get the complete bundle you're getting a lot for your money including numerous worldbooks and adventures, and the setting is novel enough that players ought to find it interesting.

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1. Persistent attenuation of lymphocyte subsets after mass SARS-CoV-2 infection: (tags:immune_system pandemic )
2. Huge fire shuts Scotland's busiest train station indefinitely: (tags:Glasgow Scotland fire trains )

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I was chatting to a couple of friends last week, and realised that I really fancied having one of those "bar chart race" videos for my links, showing what had been the most popular links over the last 21 years that I've been saving links (to Delicious, and then Pinboard).

So I downloaded the JSON blob of my whole link history, used some PowerShell to slice and dice it into a CSV, and uploaded it to a site that converts a bunch of data with dates into a bar chart race. And voila:

Watch on YouTube

Unsurprising to see "Europe" break the top 20 in 2017. Followed a year later by "OhForFucksSake".

Both files available here, for the very curious.

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A Bug's Life

in Montreal

Interesting Links for 13-03-2026

Two more lost Doctor Who episodes found

2026/036: A Great Reckoning — Louise Penny

Interesting Links for 12-03-2026

I need to know when it's okay to tell your partner you love them

Subduction Retrieval

recent reading

Freedom of speech

For All Mankind season 1

Diabetes and iron deficiency....

Interesting Links for 11-03-2026

The Orphan of Zhao

Interesting Links for 10-03-2026

What even are bodies?

2026/035: Cuckoo Song — Frances Hardinge

Home Remedies

Another RPG bundle - Age of Ambition

Interesting Links for 09-03-2026

Links Extra: More data than you ever wanted.

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