Fall's Here

Hurricane season is a long way from over (especially farther down south), but this evening was a pleasant, dry mid-70's with cool, clear air blowing in from the north.  Fall's here.

New Book Mention: The Flesh of Your Future Sticks Between My Teeth

There's a relatively new genre out there called cli-fi, a mash up of "climate" and "science fiction."  Pfft, I've even written about a couple of novels from this shelf, namely Star's Reach (by John Michael Greer, not so coincidentally the editor of this anthology) and more recently Termination Shock.  It's up-and-coming, enough that there are several periodicals devoted to it.  Naturally some of these veer into the hypocritically endarkened ends of the world, and as such have set themselves up for mockery.  Which brings us to a short satirical collection, The Flesh of Your Future Sticks Between My Teeth: Stories from the Gristle Cli-Fi Parody Contest.  You can read up on the inspiration and history of this weird amalgamation here (be sure to follow the several links back to the origin story), but let's just dive right in on the stories themselves.  First and foremost to keep in mind is that these stories are not intended to be good, they are intended to satirize the gunk that is already being published.  On to the dirty dozen!

• Tell It to the King of Sweden, Honey: An American golddigger takes on a Greta Thunberg stand-in.
• A Modest Contribution: unwittingly made by the sort of people who'd resort to suspended animation to avoid onrushing hard times.
• Kathy vs. the Barbarian Horde: After their high-tech defense system crashes, Berkley deals with the local desert warlords in a farcical manner that's a pretty fair reflection of analogous past events.
• Human-Derived Product: Amusingly dry.  Don't read this one after a heavy meal.
• A Chi Town Doctor:  In which a quasi-doctor navigates Mad Max-esque gang-run Chicago.  The closest this collection has to a straight-up story, it's only just enough over the top that you can tell it's a parody.
• How the Conspiracy Theory Generator Saved the World:  AI-enhanced dogs do their very best to save their beloved humans.  Because that's what dogs would do.
• Atlanta Is Broken:  A Quest to restore the last remaining data center to functioning order, if only the repair crew can ignore all those damn Confederate flags.
• The Penitent Lands:  Sensitivity training language and attitudes run amok in a near-future Paris.
• The Recalcitrant Savior:  A novel yet gut-wrenching solution to our energy problems.  100-proof satire!
• Scions of the High Road:  Like a bad road trip with a gang of glam rock opera characters.
• The Merchant of Progress:  Another "the sleeper awakes" type story.
• Power to the People:  Never forget the law of conservation of energy, because it'll come back to get ya.

Some of these are intentionally bad, some are more obliquely satirical, all worth the read.  It's a mad, mad mixed-up greasl-fueled ride.  Only take it if you want it.  Get yours here.

Because Dull Chainsaws Attract Hurricanes

Shoulda sharpened this thing months ago.  But today seems like an auspicious time.

Coffeeneuring Returns for '22!

As usual, details here.  Sure, I'm in.  Just let me get past this week's hurricane first.

Reed-Solomon Codes Well Explained

Article at Quanta, but here's the TLDR infographic that gets to the nitty-gritty:

Why do all this?  Chiefly transmission error detection & correction without having to send overly-redundant data.  Additionally, as a component in encryption seems to be an equally useful byproduct.

I'd always wondered about these things, they being not generally in my particular thicket of the physics-and-math woods.  Explanations usually took the form of "you know, REED-SOLOMON CODES, everyone knows about them, sheesh" or "here's a semester's worth of linear algebra to ponder, after which the point will become transparent."  It's good to have a comprehensible short version.

Neal Stephenson's Latest: Termination Shock

Lots of interesting ideas here, chief of which is solar geoengineering to combat ever-increasing temperatures, being pushed by a part visionary, part bullshit artist billionaire Texan.  The title refers to the downside of abruptly ending such a project, which, of course, someone has to try doing before the end of this novel.

The Good: Big Ideas – they've got to be big if they're going to cool the planet.  Interesting characters, all well-developed by the author; we know what motivates just about every one of them.  A decent sense of history.  A handful of new technologies extrapolated to interesting extremes.  Yet the core geoengineering technology could have been deployed (had we chosen) decades ago, so that's solid tech.

The Bad: This novel really needs an edit to boil down its bloated 700 pages to a more compact 300 or so.  Still, it was a compulsive page-turner, so even in its current form it wasn't that much of a chore to read.  One of the key technologies, earthsuits (a sort of personal air conditioner overgarment), were so sporadically deployed that they seemed more like window dressing than a key fact of then-current life.  Finally "performative war" is just a ridiculous concept and its chief practitioner, a drone-enhanced semi-cyborg with a fighting staff, is even more so.  There's plenty more to bag on here, but you get the point.

So... I don't know.  I'm glad that I finally made it through a Stephenson novel.  I swear, I tried and tried on both The Diamond Age and Snow Crash, just couldn't chew my way through either of those, not even with the aid of a crack team of Formosan termites.  And to be fair, Termination Shock was an OK read, if not taken too seriously.  But with a big idea like blocking climate change via technology and triggering a series of disasters and small wars, it's not exactly a comedic setup, so "if not taken too seriously" doesn't really work here.  Meh, time to move on.  2.5/5 Stars.

Movie Review: The Northman

TLDR: Hamlet, with Vikings and an otherworldly edge.  Bloody as all hell.  Not for the faint of heart.  If you think you can stomach it – and they consciously toned down some of the Viking Fun & Games – see it.  4.5/5 stars.  Trailer Link

Why not 5/5 stars?  At times it was difficult to tell one viking from the other because everyone was so covered with filth and blood.  Occasionally this muddied the story line, but hey, that's what a re-watch is for.  See the movie, watch the special features, then re-watch with the commentary track.  There's a lot to unpack here.

Wrap it up, I'll take it.

Morrison Springs

Back in mid-late August, several of us trekked up to Morrison Springs, near DeFuniak Springs.   Here is a link at The Florida Guidebook site, and here is the obligatory picture:

Note: Swamp trees but crystal clear water.  Not a common combo.

Afterward we drove up to DeFuniak Springs for lunch, and did a little touring around afterward.  Growing up less than three hours away, I had no idea that the second permanent Chautauqua site – a sort of 19th Century TED talk circuit – was situated there.

All in all a top-notch day.  With Ponce de Leon Spring nearby and still unexplored, another trip up there is in the wings for next summer.  One of the best parts of the whole thing is remembering to bring a mask and snorkel!  It totally changes the entire experience from a mere swimming hole to being down in the cold, cold water.

In a total side-note, we also made the yearly pilgrimage to Wakulla Springs this past week.  As always it was very nice, and the water was considerably clearer than during last year's visit.  Saw a couple of manatees, and one large bowfin – about a 30 inches.  Weird fish, they sport gills, swim bladders, and lungs.

Weird Wednesday

This Depression-Era Science Trick Transforms Water Into Pie at Atlas Obscura.  I swear, I always thought that "water pie" was a joke, just like "jam sandwich."

The Apalachicola Public Library is carrying John Ringo's Black Tide Rising series (search here, type in 'ringo').  Main series reviewed at this blog here, follow-ups reviewed here.  Good to see something fun and compulsively page-turnable and so damn plain weird on the shelves.  It's not old Mrs. Dodd (bless her heart) running the library these days!

The "Still Up" Light Reassuringly Blinks Green

Still here.  Just been busy with late-summer adventures.  On tap: N FL spring swimming hole adventures and a discussion of Neil Stevenson's latest sci-fi novel.  Be patient, I'm waiting for a rainy day when I'm stuck inside.