ramshackle
Aug. 12th, 2025 01:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 12, 2025 is:
ramshackle \RAM-shak-ul\ adjective
Ramshackle describes things that are in a very bad condition and need to be repaired, or that are carelessly or loosely constructed.
// Toward the back of the property stood a ramshackle old shed.
// The book had a ramshackle plot that was confusing and unbelievable.
Examples:
"House of the Weedy Seadragon ... and Semaphore Shack sit side-by-side in the sand dunes. They're part of a cosy cluster of ramshackle residences, built in the 1930s by a Hobart family as weekenders for the extended tribe to fish, swim and while away sun-soaked days." — The Gold Coast (Australia) Bulletin, 4 July 2025
Did you know?
Ramshackle has nothing to do with rams, nor the act of being rammed, nor shackles. The word is an alteration of ransackled, an obsolete form of the verb ransack, meaning "to search through or plunder." (Ransack comes from Old Norse rannsaka, which combines rann, "house," and -saka, a relation of the Old English word sēcan, "to seek.") A home that has been ransacked has had its contents thrown into disarray, and that image may be what inspired people to start using ramshackle in the first half of the 19th century to describe something that is poorly constructed or in a state of near collapse. Ramshackle in modern use can also be figurative, as in "a ramshackle excuse for the error."
innumerate
Aug. 12th, 2025 04:14 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
Political Rant.....
Aug. 11th, 2025 10:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Trump Takes Over D.C. Police and Deploys National Guard in Nation's Capital in Unprecedented Power Grab
The president has been insisting that Washington has too much homelessness and crime, despite crime rates dropping substantially since 2023
By Kyler Alvord
https://people.com/donald-trump-takes-over-dc-government-deploys-national-guard-11788370?hid=7f1109a25d2362f31854399df255b82ba78f015e&did=18977911-20250811&utm_source=ppl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ppl-news_newsletter&utm_content=081125&lctg=7f1109a25d2362f31854399df255b82ba78f015e&lr_input=758ad690760192cf49795c3f52223721cac5324e3e862e41c5d4db73a4d43f32&utm_term=midday
Basic Income
Aug. 11th, 2025 04:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
According to the Stanford Basic Income Lab, universal basic income is a periodic cash payment that is given to individuals unconditionally, requiring no work requirement or sanctions to access.
And as various nonprofits and cities across the country experiment with basic income programs, most have found that the money received is largely used to pay for the basic essentials many Americans struggle to afford.
A new pilot program in Boston, Massachusetts wants to find out if the same trend applies for a specific demographic: young adults facing homelessness.
( Read more... )
Monday Update 8-11-25
Aug. 11th, 2025 03:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Spider Apocalypse
Activism
Fossils
Birdfeeding
Safety
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Thinking
Safety
Moment of Silence: Jim Lovell
Birdfeeding
Follow Friday 8-8-25: Icons
Today's Adventures
Inventions
Fossils
Birdfeeding
Bigotry
Birdfeeding
Good News
Food has 34 comments. "Philosophical Questions: Looks" has 48 comments. "Incompetence, Sloppy Thinking, and Laziness" has 75 comments. "Not a Destination, But a Process" has 148 comments.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
There are no open epics at present.
The weather has been sweltering agan. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a mourning dove, a house wren, a male cardinal, and a fox squirrel. Currently blooming: dandelions, pansies, violas, marigolds, petunias, red salvia, wild strawberries, verbena, lantana, sweet alyssum, zinnias, snapdragons, blue lobelia, perennial pinks, oxalis, moss rose, yarrow, anise hyssop, firecracker plant, tomatoes, tomatillos, Asiatic lilies, cucumber, yellow squash, zucchini, morning glory, purple echinacea, black-eyed Susan, yellow coneflower, chicory, Queen Anne's lace, sunflowers, cup plant, gladioli, firewheel, orange butterfly weed. Tomatillo and pepper have green fruit. Wild strawberries, mulberries, tomatoes, and cucumbers are ripe. The second crop of blackberries and the ball carrots are ripe.
Poking the Discourse Bear Re: “Classic” Science Fiction
Aug. 11th, 2025 08:46 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)

Over on Bluesky I got a lot of guff about the above post, but you know what? I 100% stand by it. I’m 56 now, and if you’re recommending the same science fiction books to a ten-year-old today that would have been recommended to me when I was a ten-year-old — and were old and kinda dated even then — I think you should seriously reconsider recommending science fiction books to young readers.
Why? Well, for just two things, either you are so far behind in your science fiction reading that you can’t think of a science fiction work from the two-and-half-decades of this millennium (not to mention possibly the three decades immediately preceding that time frame in the previous millennium) that you could recommend to a young reader, which is not great, or you have kept up with the last twenty-five years of science fiction writing and think none of it is worthy of recommendation to the youth of today. In which case, on behalf of every science fiction writer who first started publishing in this century (and all the ones who debuted before then, but have kept on writing): Rude. There’s been a lot of fantastic work in the last twenty-five years that stands at least equal to what was written before, that you could recommend to new and/or young readers of the genre. If you can’t acknowledge that, this is a you problem.
“But the kids should read the classics!” Well, one, as I wrote almost exactly five years ago, “the science fiction canon” is dead, so this is an arguable statement, especially for a casual reader; and two, even if one were to stipulate that there is an essential canon of classic works every science fiction fan should read, it does not necessarily follow that every young reader needs to read them to start off. Start young readers with interesting accessible contemporary work that brings them through the door and gets them curious as to what else is out there, at which point they may well wander back into the “classics” arm of the genre and delight in what they find there. But if that’s the only door you can show them into the genre, you’re doing them and the genre we all mutually love a disservice.
And anyway, it’s kind of ridiculous. As I said in a different Bluesky post:
To be clear, it’s not that the Kim Sisters aren’t cool, or unimportant to the overall history of K-Pop. They are cool, and important! But the hard swing from “Golden” to this is rough, to say the least.
And then there’s the Suck Fairy to consider, and my own complementary twist on that idea, the Sixteen Candles Problem, in which you show something you loved as a young person to a young person today, and you’re both horrified at all the problematic bullshit in the thing that your brain just plain forgot was there (seriously, don’t show Sixteen Candles to anyone born in the 21st Century without watching it first. You have forgotten how awful it actually is). So if you’re out here blithely suggesting sixty-year-old science fiction books to the youth of today, let me ask: When was the last time you read the thing you’re suggesting? Is it more than a decade? Maybe read it again? Because you may find the casual sexism/racism/other -isms are there a lot more than you remember, or the prose more wooden, or the dialogue rather more stiff, or the plots more iffy, or some combination of above.
(And if you read it and you don’t find any of those things, ask yourself: Am I a white dude who doesn’t actually have to think about racism/sexism/etc on a regular basis? Because that will maybe be a filter you need to consider. I know it’s fashionable in the current era, seeing as we now have mask-off bigots running the government, to have white dudes consider having to acknowledge that filter to be deeply unfair, but, you know. Try anyway.)
It’s all right if you love something that hasn’t aged well! Everything ages, and much of it not especially gracefully. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t important to you or that it doesn’t have value. It’s also okay to have that give you pause with regard to recommending it to someone of another, younger, generation.
But when someone asks about recommendations for their kids, you want to be helpful! Cool, here’s my suggestion: read more new stuff. And when you read it, think about from whom (and at what age) you would recommend that work. You don’t even have to buy it, just head off to the library and look through the new releases (or suggest an upcoming release for the library to acquire. Librarians like when you do that. So do authors). Then, when the question comes up, you’ll be prepared with something from this century.
If you can’t or won’t do that, then here’s another useful tip: Tell the person asking to ask a librarian for recommendations. That’s literally what librarians do! They’re really good at connecting people (and particularly kids) with books. They would be happy to do it here as well. They know what’s new, and what’s good, and what’s in the library. That kid will go home with something great (you can do this in bookstores, too, if you want to be purchasing that day).
And if you really really really really really want to recommend a decades-old book? Then reread it, have an idea of how that text and story sits right now, and when you recommend it, acknowledge and disclose it’s from another era, with all the things that come from being of that era — and then be able to articulate why you think it still has value to a young person today, beyond “well, I liked it when I was that age,” or “it’s a classic.”
Then go read some more new stuff! You deserve it.
— JS
Magpie Monday
Aug. 11th, 2025 02:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Change is an immutable element of the universe.
Today, let’s make change our goal. Call it the theme. Big or small, quiet and subtle or dramatic and incontrovertible, what change do you want to see? In the world? In a story with an unsatisfying moment (or worse, ending)?
Birdfeeding
Aug. 11th, 2025 02:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.
EDIT 8/11/25 -- I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 8/11/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
EDIT 8/11/25 -- I did more work around the patio.
EDIT 8/11/25 -- We reeled up the garden hose. Yay. Yay.
I am done for the night.
Univ. of Chicago Press: 75% off ebooks, Aug. 11-17
Aug. 11th, 2025 01:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
The sale includes publishers that the University of Chicago Press distributes: Acre Books, Bard Graduate Center, Brandeis University Press, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Gingko Library, Haus Publishing, Iter Press, Karolinum Press, Charles University, Seagull Books, Swan Isle Press, and The American Meteorological Society.
Use the code EBOOK75
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/virtualCatalog/vc106.html
Bundle of Holding: Ironsworn-Starforged
Aug. 11th, 2025 02:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)

Ironsworn, Starforged, and Sundered Isles, tabletop roleplaying games of perilous fantasy, space opera, and seafaring adventure by Tomkin Press.
Bundle of Holding: Ironsworn-Starforged
Clarke Award Finalists 2009
Aug. 11th, 2025 11:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Which 2009 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Song of Time by Ian R. MacLeod
1 (3.8%)
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
21 (80.8%)
House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
7 (26.9%)
Martin Martin's on the Other Side by Mark Wernham
0 (0.0%)
The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper
5 (19.2%)
The Quiet War by Paul J. McAuley
5 (19.2%)
Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.
Which 2009 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Song of Time by Ian R. MacLeod
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
Martin Martin's on the Other Side by Mark Wernham
The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper
The Quiet War by Paul J. McAuley
With an * on the McAuley because it was too grim and I didn't finish it.
(no subject)
Aug. 11th, 2025 09:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Monday At The Movies.....
Aug. 11th, 2025 09:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
D.: You know what an older women does for me?
I.: Changes your diapers?
D.: Touché.
Which Movie Does This Quote Come From?
The Breakfast Club
0 (0.0%)
Pretty In Pink
1 (50.0%)
Sixteen Candles
0 (0.0%)
I Don't Have A Clue...
1 (50.0%)
Last Week's Movie Quote...
Sheik Amar: Tch, secret government killing activity! That's why I don't pay taxes!
It comes from the 2010 action movie, "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time".
It starred Jake Gyllenhaal and was based on a video game.
Sadly, it was a dud at the box office and there weren't any sequels to come.
Which is a shame because Jake was HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hehehe.......
Those Who Knew or Guessed Correctly...
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![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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All Things Video
Aug. 10th, 2025 11:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Other viewings (since I'm about to stop streaming Acorn and Apple TV, but will keep Brit Box for now):
Apple TV
Silo - I enjoyed this a LOT, because you know I love a good dystopian setting! My one complaint is that too much of it takes place in the dark, and now that people are no longer using blue light to indicate "dark," it is almost impossible to see parts of the action.
Dark Matter - Multiverses with a side of romance, and I was sorry when it was over.
Constellation - OMG, let me fangirl for a bit over this. An astronaut survives a fatal incident on the International Space Station, but parts of her life don't seem quite right afterwards. Mismatched multiverses play a part in this one, and not just for that one character. Jonathan Banks (better known as Mike Ermentraut) plays a JPL scientist who also experiences similar effects. Loved it, and the space sequences were fantastic.
Mr. Corman - The characters aren't exactly endearing in this series about a 5th grade teacher with regrets, but the show grew on me, and some of the fantasy-sequences are bizarrely entertaining.
Previously recommended: Severance and Slow Horses.
Acorn TV
Keeping Faith - A lawyer's husband goes missing, and disturbing secrets surface. It's kind of a hot mess, and the main character makes a lot of impulsive and rash decisions, but I watched it to the end.
Bariau (Inside) - Only 1 season available. Takes place inside a Welsh men's prison, and I liked it for the quantity of Welsh language in it. About 2/3rds of the show are in Welsh, with random detours into English--sometimes within the same sentence.
The Accident - Four-part miniseries about the collapse of a factory caused by teenagers who sneaked in to vandalize the place. Really well done.
The Gone - WHERE is the second season of this Tasmanian show with the visiting Irish detective?
Previously recommended: Hidden, Agatha Raisin, My Life Is Murder, Deadwater Fell, Cuffs, The Man Who Died.
And in other TV news, I dived into Wednesday, S2 on Netflix and quickly ran out of episodes. Only half of S2 is up, with the other half set to drop in early September. Which means scrambling for entertainment tomorrow, as it's another 100-degree day and I will be stuck biking in the garage AGAIN.
stipulate
Aug. 11th, 2025 01:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 11, 2025 is:
stipulate \STIP-yuh-layt\ verb
To stipulate is to demand or require something as part of an agreement.
// The rules stipulate that players must wear uniforms.
Examples:
“Nilsson’s reputation preceded her. The New York Times wrote of her: ‘Christine Nilsson, the Met’s first diva in 1883, could not only stipulate by contract her choice of roles, but could prohibit their performance by any other soprano in the same season.’” — Elise Taylor and Stephanie Sporn, Vogue, 20 June 2025
Did you know?
Like many terms used in the legal profession, stipulate, an English word since the 17th century, has its roots in Latin. It comes from stipulatus, the past participle of stipulari, a verb meaning “to demand a guarantee (from a prospective debtor).” In Roman law, oral contracts were deemed valid only if they followed a proper question-and-answer format; stipulate was sometimes used specifically of this same process of contract making, though it also could be used more generally for any means of making a contract or agreement. The “to specify as a condition or requirement” meaning of stipulate also dates to the 17th century, and is the sense of the word most often encountered today.
A few unrelated questions
Aug. 12th, 2025 02:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
1. People often do say that the English subjunctive is in decline. However, literally nobody I've ever heard say this has provided any sort of evidence. Is there any data on this other than "yeah, feels that way to me"?
1a. I've also heard that the subjunctive, or at least some forms of the subjunctive, is more common in USA English than UK English, from somewhat more authoritative sources but with roughly the same amount of evidence.
2. I got into it with somebody on the subject of "flammable/inflammable". I am aware that there are signs that warn about inflammable materials, and also signs warning about flammable materials. Is it actually the case that anybody has ever been confused and thought they were being warned that something could not catch on fire? Or is that just an urban legend / just-so story to explain why the two words mean the same thing and can be found on the same sorts of signs?
3. Not a language question! I've recently found one of the Myth Adventures books in my house. Gosh, I haven't re-read these in 20 years. Worth a re-read, or oh god no, save it for the recycle bin?
( Read more... )