Superman (2025)

Nov. 24th, 2025 08:07 pm
lannamichaels: Text: "We're here to heckle the muppet movie." (heckle the muppet movie)
[personal profile] lannamichaels


As superhero movies go, this is a very good superhero movie. As regular movies go, I kept being annoyed about the seriously compressed timeline and some really basic suspension of disbelief, like "is anyone going to say Lex Luthor is lying about translation" because, uh. Also, how does anyone know Kryptonian? So many little things just drove me up the wall.

However! It was a good movie, and the Clark/Lois stuff was very well done, I actually really loved their interview/fight because it worked so well in with characterization, it didn't strike my "I cannot, I cannot, I cannot" that I tend to have about couples arguing.

The main effect of the movie was, after it was revealed that Lex had people going over every inch of every Superman fight so he could get a single strand of Superman's hair so he could clone him -- I went and reread some old favorite Smallville fics. Good times.

The movie also did something I noticed with the Knives Out 2: Glass Onion film, where it made the Cool Evil Rich Villain... not come off very compelling on the slash goggles. I did not walk out of this movie shipping Clark/Lex, even though I ship Clark/Lex. Lex Luthor, played by Why Do I Recognize Him Oh That's The Boy From About A Boy, is very well done and very well performed and is not a magnificent bastard and he has zero chemistry with Clark, but not in a way that detracts from the film. This is not a film where Clark and Lex have ever been on good terms; this is not a film where they even ever knew each other. There was nothing about the movie that was in the same flavor or theme as Smallville, but hey, always fun to go reread some stuff.

But for a movie that did Lois so well, did we have to have Eve The Awful Clingy Obsessive Wannabe Girlfriend with Jimmy who did not want to date her, just wanted info from her? That was so hard to endure. I think worse of the movie for making that decision, it casts a long tail on the movie even a week after I finished it, like "oh yeah so that was a movie that made me go reread some old fics from 20 years ago, and also had this unnecessarily misogynistic sideplotline played for laughs (?)".

Nathan Fillion also appeared to be treating this film as "I will do bad acting on purpose to show that my character is a buffoon" but mostly it just came off annoying.

I also have a nit to pick with this movie that is solely from watching it with the DVD closed captions, which kept noting when the main Superman theme was playing, which is: the soundtrack to this movie is ... well, it's got some perfectly acceptable pop songs peppered in. But the rest of it is just so bland.

But this movie is better than every MCU movie I've seen, with the exception of Captain America 2: A Good Spy Movie With I Guess Absolutely Zero Repercussions For The Worldbuilding Oh Well.

30 in 30: ST:TNG

Nov. 24th, 2025 06:31 pm
senmut: Guinan propping face on hand (Star Trek: Guinan)
[personal profile] senmut
AO3 Link | Training Opportunity (100 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Tasha Yar, Worf
Additional Tags: Drabble, Slice of Life
Summary:

Yar shows Worf a flaw






Yar circled to the left, and Worf watched as he adjusted himself. When she lunged, he was as ready as he could be, and still she managed to foul his leg, and get him off balance. From there it was only two quick moves and he stumbled out of the circle they had made.

"You are a formidable warrior."

"So are you, but you're not accustomed to smaller, faster opponents who know how to use their body," Yar said. "So, joining my class?"

"Yes."

She smiled, then beckoned him in for another round. He took the invitation, eager to learn.
[syndicated profile] norightturn_feed

Posted by Idiot/Savant

Back in September, the regime announced plans to give new powers to the Commerce Commission. But the announcement also included this:
We have also heard in your submissions that businesses and individuals are increasingly reluctant to share information with the Commission because of fears confidential information could be released under the Official Information Act, potentially leading to retaliation or misuse of confidential information by competitors. This is undermining the Commission’s ability to collect evidence and receive useful information, particularly in investigations and merger clearances.
The regime's solution was of course more secrecy, with a 10-year blanket exemption from the OIA for "confidential" information provided to the Commission, and greater power for the Commission to issue temporary exemption orders. I was curious about the justification for this, so I asked the Commission whether they in fact had any evidence supporting it: were they aware of any OIA release from them actually causing the harms the Minister had alleged, and did they have any evidence their existing secrecy powers were inadequate? In both cases, the answer was "no":
Regarding the first two bullets of your request, the Commission is not aware of any specific instances where information we have released under the OIA has caused harm to the business who provided the information to us.

The Commission is also not aware of any documents containing specific evidence that section 100 of the Commerce Act is inadequate.

What about wider advice on the OIA? Here the Commission said they had information, then refused to provide it for a further two months as they were (illegally) "consulting MBIE and the Minister’s Office prior to making our decision on the potential release of this material". But they finally provided the response yesterday, and a folder full of documents. There are a few interesting things in here, including that the Commission has apparently been running its own private "special advocate"-style system for merger cases, where lawyers are given access to evidence but forbidden from discussing it with or disclosing it to their clients - similar to the system used in "national security" cases here and overseas, with all the unfairness and professional issues that entails, only without any statutory authorisation. But on the actual case for secrecy, its largely fear, uncertainty, and doubt. TL;DR businesses are afraid they will be harmed by the release of "confidential" or commercially sensitive information. There's also fear over the public interest over-ride, and the inability of the Commission to give categorical assurances of total secrecy. Both show that businesses do not understand the law (which is to be expected), but that the Commission seriously entertains this shows that they don't either (possibly due to corporate culture capture). The fact is that there is a clear and obvious case for withholding confidential evidence under s9(2)(ba)(i) (in that it is clearly in the public interest that people are able to give evidence to the Commission, so if release would inhibit the giving of such evidence in future, s9(2)(ba)(i) applies), and while this is subject to the public interest test, the reality is that in practice such information is almost never released, because the usual public interest factors of accountability, transparency, and participation simply don't apply to information provided by third parties about themselves.

(There is the issue of the accountability of the Commission for its decisions, which means they must release the evidence which justifies them, but they should be doing that publicly anyway, so that's not an OIA issue, but a basic one of administrative law...)

However, there is one significant issue: big companies intimidating smaller ones from giving evidence against them:

In cases involving an applicant with alleged market power, dominance, or some other form of power or leverage over market participants, those market participants may be particularly concerned by the prospect of any information provided to us being provided to the applicant. This is of particular concern to us, as cases of this nature generally merit scrutiny.
Which sounds reasonable at first glance. But it isn't specifically an OIA problem - because, as the Commission admits, it is required to provide such information to applicants for reasons of natural justice. So the applicants are going to find out whether a request is made or not, and all attacking the OIA does is hide information from other people.

The obvious move here is not to undermine the OIA, but to target the actual problem of retaliation and victimisation, just as we do for whistleblowers. And the government announcement included that, so there's no need for secrecy at all.

The release also includes a summary of public submissions to a consultation by MBIE, which gives a good overview of their consultees' views on "protecting confidential information". Its worth noting that a broad OIA exemption was not one of the options canvassed in that consultation, so the Commission is going well beyond what was floated. Its also shocking that any government agency would fail to recognise the constitutional nature of the OIA, and that their response to it causing them minor irritations is to try and exempt themselves from a fundamental part of our constitution. But again, this is likely a matter of capture by corporate culture. We know that local and international business are fundamentally hostile to democracy and transparency; its utterly shocking that the body we have established to police them has been so captured by them as to share that hostility. At the end of the day, the Commerce Commission is a public body. That means it must respect democratic norms - including the OIA.

Spider Videos

Nov. 24th, 2025 06:29 pm
moon_custafer: neon cat mask (Default)
[personal profile] moon_custafer
Found a whole YouTube channel about spiders, very informative, but I also like that the theme song is just:

(The video maker, his voice doubled with recording technology, singing lackadaisically) THESE are the SPIDERS in your HOUSE

Sometimes he changes it up: THESE are the SPIders in your YAAAARD.

This one also has some nice footage of St. John’s, Newfoundland: THREE DAYS with SPIDER SCIENTISTS

For the video on spider cognition: The MINDS of the SPIDERS in your HOUSE

This living in the future sucks

Nov. 24th, 2025 05:54 pm
flemmings: (Default)
[personal profile] flemmings
Got my water meter reading yesterday. They said I could add a photo of it if I wanted to, which was dicey because I needed three hands to do it (one for the flashlight, one to hold the tablet, one to click the icon) and I only have two. But got something, then went to the city's website and entered my info and meter reading and attach photo, and it wouldn't attach. OK then, reenter info, click on send, it wouldn't send. Ohhhkay, here's a phone number for reporting, call, sit through five minutes of useless information, press button for enter reading, get told mailbox is full. So much for that.

To library today to print my blood draw form. Guy says I can do it from my phone. Log in to library's wifi, bring up the DL, press print, phone does not try to find a printer but sits and snickers at me. Fine. Go to a computer, wait for it to load Chrome, why are library computers so slooow, get Chrome, call up webmail's login, enter my info, Chrome says the password is wrong. Enter it again, still wrong. Check password on my phone, yes it's the same one, try again, wrong password, three tries and you're out,  try again in fifteen minutes. Sit there glowering at computer, remember that I forwarded the email to my gmail account, call up gmail, login, there's my forwarded message, where's the link to the form? It should be at the bottom, where's the link? Could this be it? Yes!! Press print. Then go to printer, enter my library card number, enter my password, last digit doesn't enter but printer tries to print anyway. Can't. Go through it all again, enter password veeery carefully, printer prints my form. Success, I have slain the beast! but sheesh is this amount of faff necessary? 

And now I must once again go down to the lab only this time in the rain, or snow if I leave it to later in the week. However, today my water meter reading went through no problem, so go me.

第四年第三百二十天

Nov. 25th, 2025 07:58 am
nnozomi: (Default)
[personal profile] nnozomi posting in [community profile] guardian_learning
部首
已 yǐ
己, self; 已, already; 巴, noun suffix pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=49

语法
1.9 Negatives: 不 vs 没
https://www.digmandarin.com/hsk-1-grammar

词汇
败, defeat; 打败, to defeat/to be defeated; 失败, failure pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-4-word-list/

Guardian:
你要好好地保护自己, you have to protect yourself
汪徵给我的水我没喝, I didn't drink the water Wang Zheng gave me
实验又失败了吗, did your experiment fail again?

Me:
你应该已经好好知道。
成败的差就有一丝。

Overturning local democracy

Nov. 25th, 2025 11:31 am
[syndicated profile] norightturn_feed

Posted by Idiot/Savant

A month ago we had local body elections in this country. As part of that, we elected new members to each of the country's eleven regional councils. Five regions also held referenda on Māori wards, with two voting to retain them.

But apparently we wasted our time with all that campaigning and voting, because National is just going to overturn the elections and smash the lot of them:

The Government is set to announce local government reforms that could spell the death of regional councils, it is understood.

Multiple well-placed sources have confirmed reforms being announced on Tuesday will mean the dissolving of regional councils.

It is understood the first steps could be within this current three-year council term with talk of a panel of regional mayors taking over the running of regional councils. This would be the first steps towards removing the councils all together, it is understood.

And of course it will likely be done under urgency, because National doesn't do consultation or democracy any more.

To do this so soon after elections displays a complete contempt for the democratic process, and invites suspicion that National just didn't like the results. Though the alternative - that National just made us all vote knowing we were wasting our time and didn't tell us isn't exactly great either. As for temporarily installing panels of regional mayors in the place of properly elected representatives, this effectively silences the cities and ensures rural over-representation, allowing these unelected bodies to make environmental decisions while ignoring the wishes of their local populations. Which is exactly what they did to ECan in 2010. And the result was giving Canterbury's water to farmers and letting them intensify and pollute with abandon - with consequences we are still suffering from.

Overturning elections and removing democratic representation in order to advance the interests of cronies and donors is the act of a corrupt and undemocratic tyranny. We should not accept it, or the regime which does it. So its something else to be reverted in the Omnibus Repeal Bill.

Baking. Hazelnuts. Orange marmalade.

Nov. 24th, 2025 10:58 pm
eller: iron ball (Default)
[personal profile] eller
It's that time of the year - I may not celebrate Christmas, but I celebrate everything around Christmas, just because. (Yes, I have an Advent calendar again, too. Okay, three Advent calendars. You get the idea. I really like all the Christmas-y stuff!) Part of that is, of course, the food. So, here's some very classical Christmas baking! (Hazelnuts! Orange marmalade! YAY!) A bit early, but... I don't care. The supermarkets are starting to play that awful music, so, if I have to live with that, at least I can have the good stuff of the season as well, right?

Boyfriend already made an Advent wreath last weekend! (No candles, just branches and glittery stuff.) He met with some friends and they crafted together. :)

Adventskranz-2-mini

And I baked.

Just in case you are interested in the (very simple) recipe... It's behind the cut. )

kekse-1-kl

These... Won't survive long... XDD

xkcd excels

Nov. 25th, 2025 10:51 am
mific: (A rainbow)
[personal profile] mific

The latest xkcd made me cry (in a good way). For some reason it was the Northern lights pic that did it.

Nigerian Typography.

Nov. 24th, 2025 08:43 pm
[syndicated profile] languagehat_feed

Posted by languagehat

While not one of my core concerns, typography has long been an interest of mine (LH: 2003, 2010, 2017), and I couldn’t resist Ugonna-Ora Owoh’s Meet the Nigerian graphic designers bringing African expression to typography:

Contrary to what might be known, type design has always had a quiet but steady presence in Nigeria’s visual culture. Long before digital fonts and design software, lettering thrived on the country’s streets: hand-painted shop signs, market boards, danfo buses, and film posters all carried unique typographic expressions that reflected regional dialects and everyday aesthetics. These vernacular letterforms, often created by self-taught sign painters, formed the foundation of a distinctly Nigerian typographic identity, one rooted in improvisation, and storytelling. But they weren’t widely appreciated or respected, so gradually, these vernacular letterforms began to find themselves amidst imported Western forms which slowly blurred their identity.

However, the good news is a growing number of Nigerian designers are returning to the craft, building on both digital innovation and traditional sensibilities. These type designers are experimenting with indigenous scripts to craft fonts inspired by street typography, and they are even redefining what Nigerian type can look like. And the beautiful thing is, this is finding its way into global design conversations.

I really like the examples and I hope the designers continue their work and thrive. (Via MeFi.)

3D printing software? [tech]

Nov. 24th, 2025 03:51 pm
siderea: (Default)
[personal profile] siderea
I want a widget that doesn't exist so I might be stuck designing it for 3D printing. I have never done this before. For design software, I gather both Onshape and TinkerCAD are available for free. Anybody with experience have opinions which I should start with? I have never used any CAD program before, but am not new to drafting. OTOH my drafting experience was all about 40 years ago. Open to other suggestions available for the Mac for free.

Also, I don't have my own 3D printer, so I'll be availing myself of various public-access options. But this means the iterative design feedback loop will be irritatingly protracted. Also I might have to pay money for each go round, so I'd like to minimize that. Also I am still disabled and not able to spend a lot of time in a makerspace. But I am a complete n00b to 3D printing and have zero idea what I'm doing. Does anybody have any recommendations for good educational references online about how to design for 3D printing so your widget is more likely to come out right the first or at least third time? By which I mean both print right and also function like you wanted – I know basically nothing about working with the material(s) and how they behave and what the various options are, while the widget I want to make will be functional not ornamental and have like tolerances and affordances and stuff. So finding a way to get those clues without hands-on experience, or at least minimizing the hands-on experience would be superb.
muccamukk: Wanda walking away, surrounded by towering black trees, her red cloak bright. (Default)
[personal profile] muccamukk
Mooooooost of the politics mentioned are Canadian, a couple U.S. links in there.

Anti-Trans Bull Shit in Alberta
Stop Smith: Danielle Smith wants to take our rights and freedoms away. Help push back..
A petition.

Momentum: Join our mass organizing call on Wednesday, November 26th to help us turn the tide and stop Danielle Smith's assault on freedom, rights and trans kids..
Organising calls for both Alberta and elsewhere.

Putting the context behind a cut. Anti-trans violence discussed )


Other Canadian Politics Stuff I'm Mad About:
Most of these are from leftist rags, because other news sources make me tired, y'all. Just posting links. Cut for CanPol Fuckery )


Miscellaneous. Kinda Downer Stuff?
[youtube.com profile] caelanconrad: ChatGPT Kіlled Again - Four more Dеad (Video: 42min).
Ban. It. Ban it now. What the fuck!?

Dromline: When Your Favourite Author is Dead to You.
About Neil Gaiman, who the author was a lot more attached to than I ever was. Interviews Nalo Hopkinson and Tara Prescott-Johnson!

The Tyee: The Librarians Traces the Battle of a Lifetime.
Review of a documentary about book bans in Texas.


Miscellaneous. Not Completely Horrible Stuff?
Everyday Feminism: 8 Critical Things to Remember When Booking a Trans Performer.
Both funny and containing alarming examples from Kai and Ivan's lives.

Trauma Rewired: Self Compassion and How The Science of Kindness Changes Your Brain (Audio: 50min).
I find Dr. Kristin Neff's stuff helpful, though I know millage varies.

The Comics Journal: Talking Oglaf with Trudy Cooper and Doug Bayne: "We’d stay up all night drawing stuff to make each other laugh".
Really fun interview!
tamaranth: me, in the sun (Default)
[personal profile] tamaranth
2025/187: The Fall of Troy — Peter Ackroyd
There are many Turks who believe that the capture of Constantinople was a just vengeance for the fall of Troy. The Greeks were at last made to pay for their perfidy. [loc. 2376]

Reread: my review from 2010 is here. I remembered nothing at all about this novel! Apparently I purchased a paperback copy in 2007: as with almost all of his other novels, no Kindle edition is available.

Ackroyd bases his novel on the life of Heinrich Schliemann, who first excavated Troy, and his marriage to a much younger woman, a Greek (famously chosen on the basis of a photograph and 'Homeric spirit'). Ackroyd's fictional archaeologist is named Heinrich Obermann, and he has all of Schliemann's flaws and more:Read more... )

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