rax | Network

The Death of Robin Hood    HD720p 34MB
Action-adventure drama with a new take on an aging Robin Hood. Grappling with his past after a life of crime and murder, ~~Wolverine~~ Robin Hood (Hugh Jackman) finds himself gravely injured after a battle he thought would be his last. In the hands of a mysterious woman (Jodie Comer), he is offered a chance at salvation. Bill Skarsgård and Noah Jupe are also part of the cast. Written and directed by Michael Sarnoski (Pig, A Quiet Place: Day One).
Reminds me that I want to watch Robin and Marian.

The Testament of Ann Lee    HD720p 26MB
Biographical, historical musical drama about Ann Lee (Amanda Seyfried), founder of the devotional sect known as the Shakers. She was the irrepressible leader, who preached gender and social equality and was revered by her followers. The movie captures the ecstasy and agony of her quest to build a utopia, featuring more than a dozen traditional Shaker hymns reimagined as rapturous movements. Thomasin Mckenzie, Lewis Pullman, Tim Blake Nelson, Christopher Abbott and Stacy Martin are also part of the cast. Directed by Mona Fastvold (The World to Come) and written by Fastvold and her partner Brady Corbet, the couple responsible for The Brutalist.
Musicals and religious sects are not among my favourite topics. But the movie certainly seems unique and received very favourable festival reviews, especially praising the performance of Seyfried. A featurette about the Music & Movement of the film. And an earlier teaser trailer: HD720p 20MB.

They Will Kill You    HD720p 39MB
Redband trailer for this violent, comedic action movie in which a woman (Zazie Beetz) takes a job as a housekeeper in a NYC high-rise, unaware of the building's history of disappearances. She soon realizes the community is shrouded in mystery, causing her to survive the night at the Virgil, a demonic cult’s mysterious and twisted death-trap of a lair, before becoming their next offering. Myha’La, Paterson Joseph, Tom Felton, Heather Graham and Patricia Arquette are also part of the cast.
Looks a bit exhausting.

Hamlet     HD1080p 29MB
A reimagining of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, set in the world of a British South Asian family in contemporary London. Hamlet (Riz Ahmed) returns to London for the funeral of his father, but he is shocked when his uncle, Claudius (Art Malik), announces that he’s marrying Hamlet’s just-widowed mother (Sheeba Chaddha). After seeing his father’s ghost, who says he was murdered by Claudius, Hamlet becomes consumed by rage and revenge. Joe Alwyn, Timothy Spall and Morfydd Clark are also part of the cast.
Festival reviews are a bit mixed. But it looks visually good, and Ahmed gives another memorable performance.

Send Help    HD720p 26MB
Darkly comedic psychological thriller in which two colleagues (Rachel McAdams, Dylan O'Brien) who find themselves stranded on a deserted island after they are the only survivors of a plane crash. On the island, they must overcome past grievances and work together to survive, but ultimately, it becomes an unsettling and darkly humorous battle of wills and wits to make it out alive. Directed by Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, For Love of the Game, The Evil Dead).

oursin

Have this rather silly fun playlist:

Let's do

The Martian Hop

The Monster Mash

The Time Warp

With A Robot Man

And then maybe go and chill with Apeman

Watch on YouTube

laughing_tree posting in

scans_daily

It all stemmed from wanting to do something to celebrate Venom reaching issue 252–the number in which in Amazing Spider-Man Spidey started wearing the symbiote. When I suggested we put Venom in a red and blue costume, I was only kidding…but so many of the best ideas start as jokes! Everyone loved it. I got Luchiano to design it because hot damn he is great at that. There are so many great details in there. I then took that design to writer Jordan Morris, who came up with the character and story to go with it. That story will be a backup in the issue and introduce this new Venom to the world! But we weren’t done with the design yet–Al Ewing ALSO loved the look of it and the celebration, so he cooked up an excuse for MJ to rock that look in 616 as well! -- Jordan D. White

( Read more... )

cofax7

Currently reading: The Virgin in the Ice, Ellis Peters. Not really intentionally, but last week I discovered that Hoopla has at least a few Brother Cadfael novels, unabridged, narrated by Patrick Tull. Patrick Tull is one of my two favorite narrators -- the other being Stephen Briggs. Tull narrated the whole Aubrey-Maturin series, which is how I came to adore him. He's so VERY good. Anyway, listening to him describe Brother Cadfael riding a horse through a snowstorm is a good way to manage my stress these days.

I'm also rereading Acuteneurosis' Don't Look Back Star Wars time-travel AU, in which Leia goes back in time and gets adopted by Shmi just before the Clone Wars start. It's similarly soothing, even if so far unfinished.

... so many unfinished SW AUs. Sigh.

!!! but wait! somehow my subscription expired? there's a whole new story! YAY!!

Just finished: The Leper of St Giles, see above. Also, over the holidays I read Cahokia Jazz by Henry Spufford, and although I went in cautiously, I enjoyed it. It's very much a noir novel, and apparently I didn't read it carefully enough to figure out the trigger for the AU. And I thought throwing Kroeber into the mix was a bit too much. A real strong piece of worldbuilding about the city itself. Sadly the noirishness meant that the female characters didn't get as much development as I would have liked. I enjoyed it over all, though, and have recommended it to a few people.

Up next: Not sure. I may see if I can find a copy of The Women of the Copper Country, by Mary Doria Russell. I somehow missed it when it was published, and I have loved some of her work.

OTOH I bought A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine and The West Passage by Jared Pechacek over the holidays, so I may start one of those instead.

***

In other news, apparently it's a thing to reread LOTR and blog about it. Currently under way: Abigail Nussbaum at Asking the Wrong Questions, and Roseanna from Nerds of a Feather. Oh, and Jared Pechacek--but that's on his Patreon; it's $1/mo, so I joined, and if anyone cares I can report on whether I think it's worth it.

***

Everything is too horrible right now. Keep the lights on. Hug your pups and kittens. Make things. Sing. Dance. Drink water. Breathe deep. Lift heavy things. Remember you are not alone. Ask for help if you need it.

***

In other news, I think my boss is worried about me. In an I-am-making-my-stress-too-obvious way. I'm so grateful we have him, and I'm worried about what happens when he transfers this summer.

superfangirl1 posting in

scans_daily

( Read more, )

ysabetwordsmith

beavertech has posted the January batch of sponsored poems. :D

"So Many Words for Wood" on

first_nations_freaks

"The Infinity of Acorns" on

scienceworld

"Birds and Snow" on

the_magick_circle

"A Piecemeal Apocalypse" on

thefreaksclub

Current Mood: accomplished

sineala

What I Just Finished Reading

Nothing. Once again, it is migraines. I am getting some fic edited, though, so there's that.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( Nova Centurion #3, Ultimate Wolverine #13, Ultimate X-Men #23 )

What I'm Reading Next

IDK. I'm trying to find something short. I mean, clearly I'm being challenged by picture books here, lol.

Current Mood: nauseated

erinptah

People trying to use LLM/AI products earnestly, and getting scammy results:

“I renamed the file to mention Grand Cayman, and it told me how to book a flight to the Cayman Islands. Once I confirmed Copilot was just looking at the file name, I decided to try to trick it. I renamed the image “new-jersey-crystal-caves-limestone.jpg” and sure enough, the AI assistant was quick to tell me of the famous crystal cave of Ogdensburg, New Jersey. At no point did it correctly identify the location of the image.”

“I’m presently tackling a very pointed question: Did I ever get permission to wipe the D drive? This requires immediate attention, as it’s a critical issue.” (Reddit post…with a bunch of commenters saying things like “why didn’t you, the human, spot this obvious issue with the LLM’s code,” when this product is specifically marketed to as “if you don’t know code, don’t worry, our product will handle it all for you!”)

“The [fourth grade] class was told to design a book cover for Pippi Longstocking. Not using pencils and paper — no, this is the AI era! So this was an exercise to teach the kids how to prompt an image generator. […] What they got back was four pictures of a woman dressed in what looks like schoolgirl fetish or goth nightclub gear. One of them is wearing a leather bikini outfit. But, they all have long red braids. And stockings.”

“ChatGPT started coaching Sam on how to take drugs, recover from them and plan further binges. It gave him specific doses of illegal substances, and in one chat, it wrote, “Hell yes—let’s go full trippy mode,” before recommending Sam take twice as much cough syrup so he would have stronger hallucinations. The AI tool even recommended playlists to match his drug use.” (The 19-year-old died of an overdose after following ChatGPT’s instructions.)

People using LLM/AI products to deliberately run scams on you:

“report their comments to ao3 for spam—in this case, specifically, I think you may be able to report them for harassment too—and don’t pay attention to them, most importantly don’t delete your works, don’t feel discouraged by their comments. remember that they are bots and they mass comment something like this on people’s works at random to get people to delete their works.”

“DoorDash driver accepted the drive, immediately marked it as delivered, and submitted an AI-generated image of a DoorDash order at our front door.”

“I sell perfumes online. A customer ordered a set of 6 fragrances and requests a full refund claiming they arrived leaking/ broken. These are the 2 pics she sent me. I call BS”

Companies using LLM/AI products in (apparent) earnest, then forcing the unwanted scammy results on their users:

““Video Recaps marks a groundbreaking application of generative AI for streaming,” VP of technology at Prime Video, Gérard Medioni, explained in a statement. […] But as reported by GamesRadar, fans soon discovered it did a poor job on Fallout. For example, Amazon’s AI appeared to have been fooled by Season 1’s flashback scenes, which it said were set in 1950s America via a monotone text-to-speech-sounding voice. Of course, as all Fallout fans know, those flashback scenes take place in a retro futuristic 2077.”

“The language used in [Instagram’s LLM-generated post metadata] makes it sound as if I wrote it (“In this post, I share my personal journey…”). Because I have fiercely protected my authorship throughout my life and what my name is attached to, any generative AI writing that purports to be in my voice without my informed consent is a profound violation of my authorial voice, agency, and frankly it feels like fraud or impersonation.”

To end on a nicer note, here are some users scamming the AI/LLM products:

“ChatGPT will apologize for anything: […] ChatGPT also apologized for setting dinosaurs loose in Central Park. What’s interesting about this apology is not only did it write that it had definitely let the dinosaurs loose, it detailed concrete steps it was already taking to mitigate the situation.”

“Anthropic installed an AI-powered vending machine in the WSJ office. The LLM, named Claudius, was responsible for autonomously purchasing inventory from wholesalers, setting prices, tracking inventory, and generating a profit. The newsroom’s journalists could chat with Claudius in Slack and in a short time, they had converted the machine to communism and it started giving away anything and everything, including a PS5, wine, and a live fish.”

Here’s a Youtube video about that last one. Includes clips with an Anthropic sales agent, who insists “AI is coming and you have to be ready.” Even after this blatant demonstration that his product isn’t prepared for users.

wtfjht_feed

Posted by Matt Kiser

https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2026/01/07/day-1814/

Day 1814

Today in one sentence: An ICE agent fired three shots into a car and killed 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis during a federal immigration operation; the Trump administration will control Venezuelan oil sales “indefinitely”; U.S. forces boarded and seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic; Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Danish officials next week after Trump’s rhetoric about "acquiring Greenland"; the Trump administration issued new Dietary Guidelines that urge Americans to cut “highly processed” foods and added sugar while endorsing full-fat dairy and red meat; Trump said he was “immediately taking steps” to ban large institutional investors from buying additional single-family homes; and U.S. employers posted fewer job openings in November, with vacancies falling to about 7.1 million.

1/ An ICE agent fired three shots into a car and killed 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis during a federal immigration operation. Video shows Good reversing her car and then turning to drive away. The Department of Homeland Security justified the shooting, claiming that Good had “weaponized her vehicle” and tried to intentionally run over officers, and that the agent fired “defensive shots” in response to what DHS and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called an act of “domestic terrorism.” Mayor Jacob Frey called that account “bullshit,” saying video of the shooting contradicts the self-defense claim and instead shows “an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed.” Frey added: “To ICE: Get the fuck out of Minneapolis.” Gov. Tim Walz, meanwhile, posted on social media, “I’ve seen the video. Don’t believe this propaganda machine.” Walz also issued a warning order to prepare the Minnesota National Guard for a possible deployment. Minneapolis police, meanwhile, said there was “nothing to indicate” Good was the target of any law enforcement investigation, and the FBI and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said they are investigating the shooting. (Minnesota Public Radio / New York Times / Associated Press / NBC News / Washington Post / CNBC / Politico / ABC News / Axios / Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal)

2/ The Trump administration will control Venezuelan oil sales “indefinitely,” with Energy Secretary Chris Wright saying the U.S. will “market the crude coming out of Venezuela” and oversee both the flow of oil and the cash it generates. Wright said the oil will be sold by the U.S. government, with proceeds “deposited into accounts controlled by the U.S. government” so Washington can maintain “that leverage and that control of those oil sales.” He said the money can later “flow back into Venezuela to benefit the Venezuelan people,” but added that without “large leverage […] you don’t get change.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the approach as the first of a three-part plan of “stabilization, recovery and transition,” saying the U.S. will take and sell “between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil” and then “control how it is disbursed in a way that benefits the Venezuelan people, not corruption, not the regime.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, meanwhile, told lawmakers the oil quarantine and continued naval presence are meant to provide “leverage” during the stabilization phase. Officials declined to specify how long the arrangement will last or under what legal authority the U.S. would manage the funds. (New York Times / Bloomberg / NPR / ABC News / Wall Street Journal / Politico / Washington Post)

The Trump administration demanded that Venezuela’s interim government kick out and sever economic ties with China, Russia, Iran, and Cuba, and give the U.S. preferential, exclusive partnership in oil production and favor America when selling heavy crude. U.S. officials and lawmakers said the ultimatum is designed to use an “oil quarantine” and control of Venezuela’s tanker traffic to deny Caracas export revenue until it realigns its oil trade toward the U.S. (ABC News / Axios / Bloomberg / New York Times)

3/ U.S. forces boarded and seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic after a weeks-long pursuit. U.S. officials said the Coast Guard began chasing the ship after trying to stop it near Venezuela under a federal seizure warrant. They described it as a sanctioned “shadow fleet” tanker that had been deemed stateless for flying a false flag and linked to illicit oil shipments tied to Venezuela and Iran. Russia reportedly dispatched a submarine and other naval assets to escort the vessel, now called the Marinera (previously known as the Bella 1). Russia’s Transport Ministry said the boarding breached the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, and said contact with the ship was lost afterward. The U.S., meanwhile, also seized a second Venezuela-linked tanker, the Sophia, in the Caribbean. (Wall Street Journal / Associated Press / Washington Post / ABC News / NBC News / CNN / Bloomberg / Semafor / Axios / Wall Street Journal / Reuters / New York Times / The Hill)

4/ Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Danish officials next week after Trump’s rhetoric about “acquiring Greenland.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and his advisers were discussing “a range of options” and that “utilizing the U.S. military is always an option.” Rubio added that “every president always retains the option” of military force, but Trump preferred diplomacy. European governments, meanwhile, issued a joint statement that Greenland “belongs to its people” and that Arctic security must be ensured collectively through NATO with full respect for sovereignty and borders. Danish officials warned that a U.S. attack on a NATO country would mean “everything stops,” reiterating that the island is “not for sale” and calling the military talk “appalling.” Trump nevertheless publicly questioned NATO’s willingness to defend the U.S., posting that he doubted the alliance “would be there for us” even as he said the U.S. would still defend NATO allies. (Reuters / CNBC / Axios / Bloomberg / Politico / CNBC / CBS News / Associated Press / NBC News)

5/ The Trump administration issued new Dietary Guidelines that urge Americans to cut “highly processed” foods and added sugar while endorsing full-fat dairy and red meat. The 2025–2030 guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Agriculture Department told Americans to eat protein at every meal and target 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day, limit added sugar to no more than 10 grams per meal, and avoid sugar-sweetened beverages, and some artificial sweeteners. The guidelines also keep the existing cap of less than 10% of daily calories from saturated fat even as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the government is “ending the war on saturated fats.” The recommendations are expected to impact federal nutrition programs, including school meals, as agencies define a uniform definition for ultra-processed foods. (NPR / Politico / Associated Press / Washington Post / New York Times / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg)

6/ Trump said he was “immediately taking steps” to ban large institutional investors from buying additional single-family homes, framing it as an effort to address housing affordability. Trump said “people live in homes, not corporations” and blamed high inflation under the Biden administration for pushing homeownership out of reach, but he didn’t specify what legal or regulatory mechanism would implement the ban. The White House also didn’t provide details, and it’s not clear whether such a restriction could be imposed without congressional action. (Bloomberg / CNBC / The Hill / Politico / Associated Press / Wall Street Journal / Washington Post)

7/ U.S. employers posted fewer job openings in November, with vacancies falling to about 7.1 million. That was down from roughly 7.4 million in October and marked the lowest level since September 2024. The decline showed that hiring demand weakened across most industries as layoffs also eased. Together, the figures reinforced what the report described as a low-hire, low-fire labor market. The data also suggests that workers who already have jobs continue to enjoy relative security, but for people seeking work, however, opportunities remain limited, with hiring rates near decade lows. (ABC News / CNN / Wall Street Journal / Axios)

👑 PORTRAIT OF A PRESIDENT: The Wrath of Stephen Miller. The man who turns Trump’s most incendiary impulses into policy. (The Atlantic)

The 2026 midterms are in 300 days; the 2028 presidential election is in 1,035 days.

Today last year: Day 1449: "All hell will break out."
Five years ago today: Day 1449: "A horror show for America."
Six years ago today: Day 1083: "Historic nightmare."
Seven years ago today: Day 718: Prime-time.

Support today’s essential newsletter and resist the daily shock and awe: Become a member

Subscribe: Get the Daily Update in your inbox for free

https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2026/01/07/day-1814/

muccamukk

Watch on YouTube

Going back to Cry Cry Cry these last few weeks. I'm so obsessed with the storytelling in the music, especially the percussion (and some kind of drone?) around 2:54 to 3:20, before the mandoline comes back in.

senmut

I have caught up on my circle, but barely commented. Still digesting national news (rage) and unofficial anecdata via work (grief concerning mortality in children and this "cold" that seems to be nationwide).

That said, I will leave the comments open to anyone who wants to prompt me for a drabble in a fandom I know or for original concepts. I will, however, screen them.

Format something like "Fandom/Character(s)/Simple Prompt" or "Original Genre/Character Archetype(s)/Simple Prompt". Include your name on AO3, SquidgeWorld, Ad Astra, or CFFA if it is fannish and you want it gifted.

We Will Persevere.

loganberrybunny

Public

341/365: Kidderminster Town Hall and Rowland Hill statue
Click for a larger, sharper image
It's not that easy finding anything that isn't depressing in Kidderminster, which seems to fall apart a bit more every time I go. Post-industrial towns are often like that, and Kiddy is certainly one of those. The Town Hall, however, was built at a time when the place was thriving as a centre of the carpet industry. It's recently been refurbished, so it looks reasonable again. The statue is of Sir Rowland Hill (1795–1879) who was born in Kidderminster. He is probably best known today for having invented the adhesive postage stamp; the Penny Black's design is based on an idea by Hill.

Current Mood: tired

dialecticdreamer

Plans and Opportunities
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1501
[Monday, May 11, 2020, about seven a.m.]]

:: Aidan and Ed have a very grim conversation. Vic wakes early, and the trio begin planning in earnest. Part of the Edison’s Mirror universe. ::

Ed stared at the surface of his tea. Deliberately, he raised the mug, closed his eyes, and began drinking in a steady, even flow. Each time he swallowed, he tapped his right hand against his thigh. When he reached ten, he stopped. The mug hovered an inch above his knee. He repeated the same process, and when he set the mug down the second time, it was empty.

Aidan walked in, shaking his head. “Vic may be claiming to be ‘fine’, but when he sleeps, it’s clear that he’s touch starved, too. Once he explained the concept in modern terms, it was easy to see that he has been misdirecting you, in particular, which worries me. The two of you should have been sharing the trouble, not allowing one to minimize the same problem that the other is dealing with, just because one might be feeling more intense effects than the other.” He collected his own mug and drained it swiftly.

“Is Vic okay now?” Ed blurted.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: anxious

sixbeforelunch

Snowflake Challenge: A mug of coffee or hot chocolate with a snowflake shaped gingerbread cookie perched on the rim sits nestled amidst a softly bunched blanket. A few dried orange slices sit next to it.

Challenge #3: Write a love letter to fandom.

John Green says of going to home games for AFC Wimbledon, "I'm with 8,000 people whose love is oriented in the same direction as mine." That, to me, is fandom. It's a group of people who have oriented their love in a similar direction, whether that's toward a show or an actor or a band or a character or a hobby or something else entirely. (Honestly, love oriented in the same direction might be foundational to almost all human-built institutions, and the problem with some of them is that the object of their love doesn't inspire pro-social behavior, but that's outside the scope of this post.) It doesn't matter what the object of the love is so much as the way that all that love aimed at a similar place amplifies itself, like vector multiplication.

The funny thing is, the way I do fandom these days, It's almost less about the object of the fandom and more about the idea of fandom, the love and the passion it inspires. Which is not to say that I'm not in some fandoms. I'm very active in Star Trek fandom, and love hanging out with people who love it with me. It's always fun to find people who share some of my other current interests like Sherlock Holmes, Murder She Wrote, Superman, and Jane Austen, or to reminisce happily with people who remember the loves that I'm less active in but still remember fondly like X-Files and Stargate.

But there are definitely people in fandom spaces with whom I share no fandoms, and I still enjoy their company, because they're doing the fandom thing too. That is, they're passionate about something, and so passionate that they want to talk about the thing, and make more of the thing, and put their joy and passion into the world so that other people can share it. Elsewhere on this year's snowflake, someone mentioned how much they love seeing someone be passionate about something, even if they don't share that passion. I like that. It is a joy to see humans be happy and excited about things they love, and to be unabashedly passionate about them.

Let people enjoy things has become a meme, almost a cliche, but that's because it so often needs to be said. Fandom at its best is a safe place where people are allowed to enjoy things without mockery or disdain, and in a world where that is all too often not the case, that's a very valuable thing.

ysabetwordsmith

brickhousewench tipped me to Heading Prints, a company that makes scarves using book art as inspiration. They offer bandanas, skinny scarves, large rectangular scarves, square silky scarves, and also a few rings with designs to match some of their most popular scarf designs. Also, these are much more affordable on average than most fashion scarves I've seen, although they do cost more than the cheap random ones in a discount store.

If you've seen my post "How to Simplify Fashion," then consider these scarves as an option for color-matching. Look for a scarf whose colors you love and want to use. Wear it while clothes shopping to test if new clothes match your colors.

Current Mood: busy

languagehat_feed

Posted by languagehat

https://languagehat.com/by-and-large/

https://languagehat.com/?p=19033

You know how sometimes you look at a word or phrase you’ve known all your life and suddenly wonder about it? That happened to me with by and large, and it turns out to have such an unexpected background I thought I’d post it. OED (entry from 1933):

1. Nautical. To the wind (within six points; cf. by prep. A.I.ii.7) and off it.

1669 Thus you see the ship handled in fair weather and foul, by and learge.
S. Sturmy, Mariners Magazine 17
[…]

2. In one direction and another, all ways; now esp., in a general aspect, without entering into details, on the whole.

1707 Tho’ he trys every way, both by and large, to keep up with his Leader.
E. Ward, Wooden World Dissected 35

1769 Miss Betsey, a charming frigate, that will do honour to our country, if you take her by and large.
in Southern Lit. Mess. vol. XVII. 183/2
[…]

The relevant senses are by 1.d. “Nautical. Close to the wind. Chiefly and earliest in full and by” (c1500 “What worde to sey, he [sc. the loodsman] is in doute, Eyther warae the lof, or ells full and by”; 2001 “With a foul wind, the boat was sailed full and by, and estimates made of the deviation from the direct track”) and large III.18. “Nautical. Of a wind: crossing the line of the ship’s course in a favourable direction, esp. on the beam or quarter” (1578 “Hauing a large winde, we kept our course vppon our saide voyage”; 1984 “With the wind large, and the yard braced in a little, it [sc. the tack] lay directly under the yard”). I expect AntC already knew this, but nautical terms are mare incognitum to me.

https://languagehat.com/by-and-large/

https://languagehat.com/?p=19033

delphi posting in

polyamships

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aurumcalendula posting in

thisfinecrew

I also ran across H.R. 1936 (No Invading Allies Act) that was introduced by Seth Magaziner (D-RI) in March, and it sounds like it might be useful to contact Reps about: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1936

(the summary isn't up for some reason, but the full title is 'To prohibit funds for the Armed Forces to engage in operations to invade or seize territory from Canada, the Republic of Panama, or the self-governing territory of Greenland.')

gingicat

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oursin

What I read

Finished Diary at the Centre of the Earth, which I really enjoyed.

Then on to Anthony Powell, Hearing Secret Harmonies (A Dance to the Music of Time) (1975) in anticipation of the final meeting of the reading group. This is the one that appears to have been invaded by characters from a Simon Raven novel, or that thing I have mentioned about writers getting a plot-bunny that was meant to go to someone else.... On another paw, at least Isobel gets rather more on-page time than she was usually wont.

Finished The Lathe of Heaven.

Discovered that there was a new David Wishart Corvinus mystery, Dead in the Water (2025) - I would say that not being informed of this is due to their only being available via Kindle these days, except Kobo, really not all that at keeping one informed of books in series one has been keeping up with. So I gritted my teeth, and read it via the app on the tablet. Not perhaps one of the top entrants in the series.

On the go

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dream Count (2025), for the in-person book group meeting in a week on Sunday, and nearly finished. I have writ before of the genre of '4 (usually youngish) women, connected in some way, affronting their destinies', which was all over in the 60s-80s, but possibly not so much these days? to which this has some resemblances.

Up next

I got partner the most recent Slough House thriller for Christmas and he has now finished it, so I guess that's probably my next read.

my baby's in the white fluffy clouds

xe's miles above the desert, xe drops Shaymins down

The Death of Robin Hood, The Testament of Ann Lee, They Will Kill You, Hamlet, Send Help

Apparently today is More Joy Day 2026

Venom #252-253

reading wednesday

DC K.O.: Knightfight #3

New Poems

Wednesday Reading Meme

“We’re deploying a fleet of robotic ducks to lead the T. rexes peacefully out of the park.”

Day 1814: "Propaganda machine."

Music Wednesday

Apologies, and More Joy Day (tomorrow the 8th)

Stamp of approval

#52 Plans and Opportunities (part 1 of 1, complete)

snowflake day 3: a love letter to fandom

Shopping

By and Large.

FIC: The Voyage of the Unicorn (Our Flag Means Death)

H.R. 1936 - No Invading Allies Act

Dear Purimgifts Author

Wednesday is indulging in a spicy margarita

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