Side Effects

A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge

I'm reading A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge and it's pretty great. There is a whole lot going on, but on page 100 they are dealing with some fairly mundane issues. They are trying to graft a competitors communication system onto their low level hardware and we get this paragraph:

"Sure, we can handle weird calendars, but that's in front-end applications." Arlo Dinh has been an apprentice programmer; now he was in charge of software mods. " Our new, um, employers are using Qeng Ho internal tools. ' There will be side effects.'" Arlo intoned the mantra ominously.

Effing software. 

Lenin? Hitler? Seattle Times?

I got a chuckle out of this story:

Seattle Times Editorial Board Member Fired After Comparing Lenin And Hitler On Twitter

Seems the left is starting to devour their own.

P. S. More nonsense:

Museum bans JK Rowling from Harry Potter exhibit

Antikythera Mechanism

Antikythera Mechanism V2: A Modernized Reproduction
Spencer Connor

This is just amazing. He ties the astronomy, math and mechanics all together. I've put up a couple of other posts about this machine.

Did We Make The Bombi Too Powerful? Massive LS Engine Barely Fits.

One of Matt's best videos. Plenty of mechanics antics, a touch of blatant commercialism, and some unusual sidelights.

Nuts

Robert De Niro.gets tricked by bill Hader

I dunno, maybe you had to see the movie when it came out. It was like nothing before.

Thicker Than Water | Official Trailer | Netflix

Eight 30-minute episodes. Three generations of Algerian women living in the projects in Paris. One brother gets a gig as a mule driving a van but he screws up and has a wreck. Number one sister has a job as a reporter for a TV news station. She gets passed over for an anchor position one too many times and loses her shit, which goes viral, and the big shots decide to put her in the anchor position. Brother hides his van in number-one sister's garage. Things quickly spiral out of control, and keep getting worse. All due to failure to communicate.

Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump

Donald Trump - Mario Tama / Getty Images

Opening paragraphs from a story on Unherd:

The Donald Trump Monster Movie by Michael Lind

In Hollywood sci-fi movies from the Fifties, there is often a moment when the US military drops an atomic bomb on a monster. It then invariably emerges from the radioactive cloud unscathed — to the disappointment and horror of those looking on.

Today, something like that disappointment and horror can be found in the response of America’s political establishment to the as-yet unstoppable Donald Trump. His Democratic enemies have deployed two impeachments and multiple lawsuits, some more frivolous than others, but they have proven as ineffective in stopping his return as the A-bomb was in halting the Martian invaders in The War of the Worlds (1953). 

It goes on for a bit. He offers a bit of insight into national politics, but right now everything is up in the air so it's all just speculation.