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Thinking about the 'how can you do/think about normal innocuous quotidien things' while shocking horrors are going on -

(Am not actually going to invoke pet genre of 'look at all these novels being written at a time when World War 2 was just about to begin/beginning'.)

This was just a coincidental thing that occurred to me when I was talking about something tangentially related when being a Nexpert for a journalist yesterday.

Who wanted to know about a certain sex manual v popular in its day and its author -

In the course of which I mentioned that it was not prosecuted for obscenity* unlike Eustace Chesser's Love without Fear (1940). One would have thought that possibly people had other things on their mind in 1940 than maximising matrimonial happiness, particularly considering that families were being broken up by men being conscripted into service, women being evacuated with their children, etc etc, but anyway, it was published, and sold several thousand copies before, in 1942, it was prosecuted for obscenity by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Again, one would think people had other things on their mind. Anyway, Chesser and his publisher decided to take the case to court and plead not guilty before a jury, bringing three medical witnesses for the defence. The jury was out for less than an hour before returning a 'not guilty' verdict.

***

Yesterday saw snowdrops appearing in the local park.

*WH Auden, Musée des Beaux Arts (1940)

**However, the Pope did put it on the Index.

snopes_feed

Posted by Laerke Christensen

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cher-trump-quote-bigotry/

The singer and actor allegedly had a few choice words to say about the U.S. president.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cher-trump-quote-bigotry/

arstechnica_feed

Posted by Rachel Brazil, Knowable Magazine

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/meet-the-mysterious-electrides/

For close to a century, geoscientists have pondered a mystery: Where did Earth’s lighter elements go? Compared to amounts in the Sun and in some meteorites, Earth has less hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur, as well as noble gases like helium—in some cases, more than 99 percent less.

Some of the disparity is explained by losses to the solar system as our planet formed. But researchers have long suspected that something else was going on too.

Recently, a team of scientists reported a possible explanation—that the elements are hiding deep in the solid inner core of Earth. At its super-high pressure—360 gigapascals, 3.6 million times atmospheric pressure—the iron there behaves strangely, becoming an electride: a little-known form of the metal that can suck up lighter elements.

Read full article

Comments

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/meet-the-mysterious-electrides/

arstechnica_feed

Posted by Eric Berger

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/as-data-from-space-spikes-an-innovative-ground-station-company-seeks-to-cash-in/

A company that seeks to disrupt the way in which data from space is received and transmitted has found some key investors and customers.

On Tuesday morning Northwood Space announced that it has closed a $100 million Series B round of funding to support a rapid ramp-up in the deployment of its phased-array radar system, known as Portal. The company also said it has received a $49.8 million contract from the US Space Force to augment the Satellite Control Network, which provides telemetry and tracking for the military's satellites.

"We made our last fundraise announcement in April of 2025, so less than a year, but there's been a lot of activity and progress on the Northwood side that reflects the importance of ground as an enabler for pushing forward more capable missions on shorter timelines," said Bridgit Mendler, co-founder and CEO of Northwood, during a media roundtable. "That's why we're here, that's why we're building what we're building, is because we believe that there's a lot of important capability in space that needs to be built faster, and the way to do that is through a vertically integrated ground network."

Read full article

Comments

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/as-data-from-space-spikes-an-innovative-ground-station-company-seeks-to-cash-in/

beccaelizabeth

Have watched the first episode of the Constantine series.
... many characters need therapy; John needs therapy from the correct century without the malpractice.

I am not a fan of the framing
the mental patient is the only one who can see the truth
or of this whole bit with the not-hallucinations revealing real threats

but having someone who knows he is both mentally ill and dealing with demons?
compelling.

sweettartheart posting in

100words

In honor of the state of my water pipes this cold winter morning...

This week's prompt is frozen.

Your response should be exactly 100 words long. You do not have to include the prompt in your response -- it is meant as inspiration only.

Please use the tag "prompt: #479 - frozen" with your response.

Please put your drabble under a cut tag if it contains potential triggers, mature or explicit content, or spoilers for media released in the last month.

If you would like a template for the header information you may use this:

Subject: Original - Title (or) Fandom - Title

Post:
Title:
Original (or) Fandom:
Rating:
Notes:

If you are a member of AO3 there is a 100 Words Collection!

reeby10 posting in

snowflake_challenge

Introduction Post * Meet the Mods Post * Challenge #1 * Challenge #2 * Challenge #3 * Challenge #4 * Challenge #5 * Challenge #6 * Challenge #7 * Challenge #8 * Challenge #9 * Challenge #10 * Challenge #11 * Challenge #12

Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.

( Fandom Snowflake Challenge #14 )

And please do check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on. You might just find your newest obsession!

And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.

prettygoodword

chiffonade (shif-uh-NAYD, shif-uh-NAHD) - n., leafy vegetables or herbs cut into fine, curly strips.

Generally used as a garnish, but also sometimes as the bed for a dish. Created by rolling leaves then slicing perpendicular to the roll, thus the curl. From French, from either chiffonner, to crumple, from chiffon, scrap/rag, or directly from chiffon, which in turn is from Middle French chiffe, from Old French chipe, rag, from Middle English chippe, chip/shard/fragment, from Old English ċipp, chip/splinter/shaving, from Germanic roots, ultimately from PIE *ǵeyb-, to split/sprout. Making this one of those rare cases where a word went from Middle English to Old French instead of the other way around.

---L.

snopes_feed

Posted by Joey Esposito

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wisconsin-man-death-inhaler-price/

The man's family later sued OptumRx and Walgreens, claiming they didn't offer alternatives after his regular inhaler's price increased dramatically.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wisconsin-man-death-inhaler-price/

osprey_archer

The Newbery Project is BACK, baby! Yesterday, the American Library Association announced the 2026 Newbery winners, which means I’ve got five hot fresh Newbery books to read.

After winning a Newbery Honor in 2018 for Piecing Me Together, Renee Watson went for gold this year with All the Blues in the Sky. I quite liked Piecing Me Together, so I’m hopeful I’ll enjoy this new one as well.

Daniel Nayeri is also a familiar Newbery name: he got an honor in 2024 for The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams, which I thought was pretty mediocre to be honest. But perhaps I’ll be more impressed by The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story.

Although this is Karina Yan Glaser’s first Newbery, I’m familiar with her Vanderbeekers series, which is a sort of modern-day version of the Melendys. I read the first book and thought it was okay, but not so okay that I wanted to read on… so we’ll see how I feel about The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli.

Finally, two books by new-to-me authors: Aubrey Hartman’s The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest, and María Dolores Águila’s A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez. The title of the first is giving me flashbacks to Scary Stories for Young Foxes, which was perhaps the Newbery’s first foray into horror. Fox horror possibly its own genre now? Will report back as I learn more.

versegm posting in

fandomcalendar

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james_davis_nicoll

Having successfully fled her home city with the proceeds of a spectacular heist, Aiah must now build a new life on that foundation.

City on Fire (Metropolitan, volume 2) by Walter Jon Williams

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: curious

cimorene

The thing about the changes made in the new miniseries of The Seven Dials Mystery is that they seem motivated by a couple of motives that strike me as unwise and illigitimate:

to make a rollicking comedy-adventure-farce way more serious and solemn and sad

to make sure the main heroine is not motivated by spunk, excitement, or sheer desire to solve crimes, but by revenge for the man she loooooooooved

to make the heroine just the MOST speshul, not because of what she achieves or her choices and actions, but because of who she innately is

You see what I'm saying? ( Read more... )

summersgate

-2F (-19C) right now. Nasty cold. Dave's gone ice fishing again. It's going to be a harder day for him than it was last week before the deep snow came. He pulls a sled with a one man tent on it out to the places where he drills the holes to fish through. I guess some spots are a 1/2 mile to a mile out on the lake. That's a long way to be dragging something. It's even hard for me to just walk in deep snow. It feels like every step is on shifting ground and I'm off balance. I love the look of winter, the snow and the gray tones but I'm not crazy about being cold. Dave's answer to that is always, "you have to dress for it". But I hate wearing long underwear under my pants. I feel like my legs are being held back from moving. It's not my legs anyway that are getting cold and hurting. It's my hands and ears. I do have super warm headgear now. I crocheted a combo scarf/hood recently that when I add it to a knit cap makes me pretty impervious to face and ear cold. Now I need to solve the hand problem. My thin everyday gloves with touchscreen fingertips don't really keep my hands that warm. When I wear my thick wool gloves my hands stay warm but I have to keep taking the gloves off if I want to take a picture with my phone. I put the gloves under my arm and then I forget and they fall into the snow and I have snow in my gloves! I hate that. So I ordered a pair of merino wool gloves with touch screen fingertips. They might get here today. That would be great.

*****

Just a start but I like it even at this stage. I was thinking about "compartment". Later I'll paint or draw things in those rectangles.

It's when stuff like this happens that I really enjoy painting.

I finished the bigger baby-friendly elephant yesterday. I personally like the smaller tighter version better. Dave says he likes the bigger one.

The plan today to have a pajama day, be housebound and make a smaller version of a rabbit. First though I want to post this, get the chicken chores done, feed the insiders and eat some breakfast.

icon_uk posting in

scans_daily

In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like.

Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.

The intent of these posts is to chat and have some fun and, sure, vent a little as required. Reasoned debate is fine, as always, but if you have to ask if something is going over the line, think carefully before posting please.

Normal board rules about conduct and behaviour still apply, of course.

It's been suggested that, if discussing spoilers for recent media events, it might be advisable to consider using the rot13 method to prevent other members seeing spoilers in passing.

The world situation is the world situation. If you're following the news, you know it as much as I do, if you're not, then there are better sources than scans_daily. But please, no doomscrolling, for your own sake.

Though it must be said that that has been harder and harder to avoid. It would be remiss to not acknowledge the growing efforts of those resisting authoritarian overreach, which has led to at least two deaths of late, and likely more. We name Renée Good and Alex Pretti as victims of this situation.

I will mention, on the UK side, more of the more extreme Tories from the last administration are defecting to the very very Right Wing Reform Party. I've seen this described as rats leaving the Titanic to discover they've landed on the Titan submersible. A confused mental image, but I understand what they mean.

The international stage defies any attempt at summary because where would be start, but that is part of the playbook, so let's not and focus on trivialities

The UK version of the Traitors ended with a remarkably tense finale where, with a sort of delicious irony, the Faithful wavered in their support, but the Traitors remained faithful to each other. There's probably a lesson in there.

Masters of the Universe got a teaser trailer which I think looks like a LOT of fun

And so did a series I didn't even know was happening Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord.

Starfleet Academy had it's most "college humour" episode so far, with a prank war breaking out between the Academy and the War College next door.

And Tom Baker and John Leeson are joining together again to play Holmes and Watson in a new audio drama! Which will also feature Nicholas Rowe, who played Young Sherlock in the Spielberg movie back in the 80's!

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: awake

tropicsbear

💀 The self-inflicted psychic damage of reading old journal entries and seeing one where I talked about lending my EHD to a coworker and forgetting that my doujin folder was there. I have no idea what she saw and she never mentioned anything, so. A memory I'd like to lose to the sands of time.

💼 A work meeting went around an hour over the allotted time. It was definitely past my end of shift by the time we wrapped up, but I can at least claim the time as credits for time off in lieu. I ended up having to cancel my gym session, though, because my stomach was screeching at me and I could feel the creeping fingers of an impending headache.

📺 Finished SPY×FAMILY S02! I need to set aside some time and gather my thoughts about the first two seasons, but they can be summed up as, "TWIYOR RAAAAARGH SO CUTE," "Why does Anya have so many weird faces lordt," and "I will stab anyone who attempts to hurt Bond."

👧🏽 While on the way home, my tricycle drove past a family on a motorcycle (little girl squished between her parents). With a complete deadpan face and her mouth slightly open, the little girl waved at me. I decided to wave back. The mom blinked at me in surprise then smiled when she realized her daughter was waving at me and I was returning the gesture.

spikedluv

There was no going downtown today because of the snow. Not a surprise; I’d planned for it.

I did a load of laundry, hand-washed dishes, ran a load in the dishwasher, went for several walks with Pip and the dogs, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, and scooped kitty litter. More leftovers for supper. (Leftovers are now gone because they got packed up to go up to the garage with Pip, so I’m going to have to start cooking again. o_O)

I rewatched about half of the second ep of Heated Rivalry, as well as Home Town and some House Hunters International. Dr. Pol was my evening background tv. I took a brief nap again, even though we slept in again this morning. It seems like the more sleep I get the more tired I am. o_O

I tried to upload a photo of this mug but Imgur didn’t like the WEBP file. It’s really cute and made me chuckle. (Link goes to chewy.com.)

Temps started out at 13.8(F) (a heatwave!) and reached 23.2. All the schools in our county (and surrounding counties) are closed. Pip shoveled the deck again and plowed the driveway and our walking paths. Then he went up to the garage to clean out the parking lot there. THEN he ‘cleaned up’ around the house with the tracker and snow blower. He was out there for an hour, stopped for some soup for lunch, then back out for another half hour. He was a popsicle when he was done.

Mom Update:

Mom sounded better today. Sister S had gone down to visit her despite the roads not being very good at the time. She also had a call from my brother. And she said she had some good food that sat well, so that’s good.