what Dave thinks about movies, books and everything
{4.5/5} “Inspector Hardcastle was professionally prejudiced against people who found bodies. Finding the body avoided so many difficulties for a murderer — it saved the hazards of arranging an alibi; it accounted for any overlooked fingerprints. In many ways it was a cast-iron position — with one proviso only. There must be no obvious motive.” […]
{4.5/5} “The Interdependency held no ‘poor’ or ‘rabble’ in ways that elites of previous civilizations would understand the term. This was great, if your goal was keeping a large population of humans, spread across trillions of kilometers of physical space, reasonably content on a day-to-day basis. It was less great if your goal was to, […]
{4.5/5} “The other houses are nervous about these changes in the Flow and what Grayland might use them as an excuse for, in terms of their business and monopolies. The parliament is convinced Grayland is about to institute martial law… Changes are coming. That much is obvious. And I think that everyone agrees that when […]
{4.5/5} “‘What is the Interdependency?’ And here there was another shimmer, and another figure walked toward Cardenia, a figure that Cardenia knew was meant to be Rachela I, prophet-emperox, the legendary founder of the Interdependency… ‘It’s a scam,’ she said.” The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi, published in 2017 The Interdependency is a collection of […]
{5/5} “Strange as this may seem, Commander La Forge, Romulans are not popular. The people here will do what you order, and they will do their best, but do not expect them to be happy. Again, I say — you are asking people to put aside their life’s work, and to assist people they have […]
{4.5/5} “You might think yourself guilty, only to discover exculpatory factors. Or you might think yourself not guilty, only to find out that you’ve committed crimes of which you were unaware. But most important of all: It’s irrelevant. Because all that matters when this mess is done is what the state can prove — and […]
{5/5} “I don’t think we’re really joie de vivre people.” Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist season 1, aired in 2020 When Zoey is having an MRI while listening to music during an earthquake she gains a special power — she hears and sees people singing songs about their feelings. She tries to user her power to help […]
Anyone who puts a “but” at the end of that sentence doesn’t understand what the deal is and needs to do some research. Why not start with the Black Lives Matter website itself (this is the Canadian version below)? They have a list of demands, some of which have already been met. See what they […]
{5/5} “I can understand how the limited perspective of an unartificial mind would perceive it that way.” Her, released in 2013 Theodore works at a company that writes letters for people. On the street everyone is in their own little world, using their ear buds to do things they used to do on their phones […]
Here’s an article from David Robson on BBC Future that describes a project called “positive lexicography.” The project is the brainchild of Tim Lomas, who is collecting words from other languages that we don’t have English equivalents for. In particular, he’s collecting words for feelings, emotions, and behaviours that might help us draw attention to […]