andrewrgross

I want to emphasize that although this article is written in a manner that shows sympathy to the perpetrators of a genocide, I thought it was a valuable look into the ways that the genocide in Gaza is completely tearing apart the social fabric of Israeli society.

“Some people go into this with a deep sense of mission — of serving their team, their country, of doing something bigger than themselves,” she said. “But over time, that can blur into something else. It can make it easier to dehumanize the other side. I believe there has to be a space between committing war crimes and being killed. I pray we’re still in that space.”

[Ron Howard voice:] They were not.

Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate who has been in immigration detention in Louisiana for more than a month, was barred from attending the birth of his firstborn child Monday, after immigration officials denied him permission to attend the birth in person, according to emails reviewed by CNN.

On Sunday morning, attorneys for Khalil wrote to Melissa Harper, director of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in New Orleans, requesting that Khalil be released from detention for two weeks so he could travel to New York and be with his wife when she delivered their son.

Khalil’s case has sparked a firestorm of controversy since he was arrested outside his Columbia University residence where he was living with his then-pregnant wife, a US citizen. ...

I just read this and thought... Jesus Christ, that's fucking ice cold.

I feel like they could've agreed to a 48 hour suspension in his detention just to be at the hospital and then carted him back to a remote swamp prison and still retained 99% of their Nazi cred. Hell, letting him hug his child and then disappearing him again is still ruthless as fuck. But no. That was still too much kindness for these sadists. Okay, noted.

My brother pointed out to me that in last week's episode of his podcast, Ezra Klein namechecked solarpunk in a blink-and-you-miss it mention:

“One common argument I heard on the left - Lina Khan made this point actually in our pages - was that this proved our whole paradigm of AI development was wrong. That we were seeing that we did not need all this compute, we did not need these giant companies, that this was showing a way towards a decentralized, almost solarpunk version of AI development, and in a sense the American system and imagination had been captured by, like, these three big companies.”

The context isn't as interesting as the quote. He was talking about different approaches to developing strong AI. It's only interesting because he used the term "solarpunk" in such a casual manner in a discussion that wasn't about solarpunk or even fiction. It reveals that it's in his vocabulary, and that he's ingesting this in his media diet. For those who don't know Klein, he's a very popular writer and journalist whose politics roughly resemble a quieter version of Elizabeth Warren's.

After hearing this, the thought occurred to me that what I'm witnessing is an idea spreading from a fringe group into a mainstream concept. Eventually, if it gets big enough with mainstream progressive liberals like Klein, I bet it'll one day get discovered and made into a boogieman on the right.

I wonder how long that will take? When is the first time I'll hear a clip of like, I dunno, Ben Shapiro shouting, 'Have you heard about this new thing they call SOLARPUNK???!? It's crazy! It's like... imagine a cyberpunk dystopia: but they want THAT with like, vines and TRANS PEOPLE everywhere! Some ruthless Soviet dictatorship but without even the cool cars or wonderful corporate innovation! It's just TRAINS and GARDENS instead! Ulgh!! [eyes bugging out for the thumbnail image]'

That might be interesting. I think that this idea has a viral quality, so perhaps I can look forward to that in 2025 or 2026. What do you folks think?

Here's a link to a post I made on the FA! Mastodon account to get recommendations on negotiation mechanics in RPGs that might be useful. Feel free to add more in these comments!

A poll on Mastodon: what's the overlap between fans of Star Trek and fans of the sci fi genre of solarpunk?

My husband bought a Stark Drive bike through Kickstarter about 6 years ago. It's served us incredibly well, and we've put thousands and thousands of miles on it, but the battery is now truly cooked.

I think it's time to finally buy a replacement, which sells for $600: https://starkdrive.bike/accessories/17ah-battery-pack/

Before I do, though, I just wanted to get some expert opinion. Are there any other options that are cheaper or more environmentally conscious? Are there places that can capably disassemble the battery locally and rebuild it with fresh cells? Would doing so have any advantages against just buying the new one? Thanks.

This is a blog post by Pawel Ngei (@[email protected]) sharing impressions of the games within the solarpunk genre.

This post doesn't go into TTRPGs, but it's a great primer on what is out there. Folks who like Fully Automated! might like many of these.