Dave Wallace
@dewtell.bsky.social
I started going to Worldcons for the Business Meeting
It is, but check out @mikewilsoninoz.bsky.social 's reply to the skeet. The video in question was a proposal that was not approved by the FL legislature, and is several months old. The guy's still an idiot, but at least it's not official FL policy.
February 2, 2026 at 4:10 AM
It is, but check out @mikewilsoninoz.bsky.social 's reply to the skeet. The video in question was a proposal that was not approved by the FL legislature, and is several months old. The guy's still an idiot, but at least it's not official FL policy.
If you register by the 31st, you can nominate this year. You don't need to attend, a simple WSFS membership (around $50 US) is sufficient to nominate and vote (and nominate next year as well). All done through the LA Con web site.
January 30, 2026 at 1:10 AM
If you register by the 31st, you can nominate this year. You don't need to attend, a simple WSFS membership (around $50 US) is sufficient to nominate and vote (and nominate next year as well). All done through the LA Con web site.
For what it's worth, I just got around to reading Old Man's War for the 1st time yesterday. And I thought that, while you explicitly acknowledged Heinlein, the emotional register is a lot closer to The Forever War. In any case, it's a new and fresh book to me today. Thank you for writing it.
January 21, 2026 at 9:21 PM
For what it's worth, I just got around to reading Old Man's War for the 1st time yesterday. And I thought that, while you explicitly acknowledged Heinlein, the emotional register is a lot closer to The Forever War. In any case, it's a new and fresh book to me today. Thank you for writing it.
@bretdevereaux.bsky.social already linked it in the comments to his quote-skeet, but this is his go to summary of how the role of the Senate and other magistrates changed under the Principate: acoup.blog/2024/11/08/c...
Collections: The Afterlife of the Roman Republic
This week we are taking a look at what ended up being the ‘runner-up’ in the latest ACOUP Senate poll (we’ll also do the winner, “The Problem with Sci-Fi Body armor” b…
acoup.blog
January 4, 2026 at 4:32 AM
@bretdevereaux.bsky.social already linked it in the comments to his quote-skeet, but this is his go to summary of how the role of the Senate and other magistrates changed under the Principate: acoup.blog/2024/11/08/c...
That was the Athenian position in the Melian Dialogues. It didn't end well for Athens, though worse for Melos. 2/n
January 3, 2026 at 7:14 PM
That was the Athenian position in the Melian Dialogues. It didn't end well for Athens, though worse for Melos. 2/n
Not a lot of legal options if Trump preemptively pardons them. He might not. But I wouldn't count on it either way.
For 80 years, the US has claimed force should be restrained by international law. Now Trump says the strong can do what they can, while the weak suffer what they must. 1/n
For 80 years, the US has claimed force should be restrained by international law. Now Trump says the strong can do what they can, while the weak suffer what they must. 1/n
January 3, 2026 at 7:12 PM
Not a lot of legal options if Trump preemptively pardons them. He might not. But I wouldn't count on it either way.
For 80 years, the US has claimed force should be restrained by international law. Now Trump says the strong can do what they can, while the weak suffer what they must. 1/n
For 80 years, the US has claimed force should be restrained by international law. Now Trump says the strong can do what they can, while the weak suffer what they must. 1/n
To be fair, Soviet performance in the Winter War against Finland suggested that their military had lost a lot of competence in the purges. Hitler's confidence in a quick victory wasn't completely unfounded.
January 2, 2026 at 3:52 AM
To be fair, Soviet performance in the Winter War against Finland suggested that their military had lost a lot of competence in the purges. Hitler's confidence in a quick victory wasn't completely unfounded.
I've found that people who went into their first viewing of the movie with low or zero prior expectations (like me) are often blown away by it. While people who have really high expectations (perhaps from friends in group 1) may be disappointed. I think it's great, but try not to over hype it.
December 22, 2025 at 9:17 PM
I've found that people who went into their first viewing of the movie with low or zero prior expectations (like me) are often blown away by it. While people who have really high expectations (perhaps from friends in group 1) may be disappointed. I think it's great, but try not to over hype it.
Presumably that should read "from text with zero LLM input." Text with zero human input wouldn't have even started from human generated prompts.
December 20, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Presumably that should read "from text with zero LLM input." Text with zero human input wouldn't have even started from human generated prompts.
Me too (in case that wasn't obvious).
December 17, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Me too (in case that wasn't obvious).
I might quote Jackie 'Moms' Mabley: "I was taught to speak only good of the dead.
He's dead. Good." (in reference to her ex).
He's dead. Good." (in reference to her ex).
December 16, 2025 at 5:41 AM
I might quote Jackie 'Moms' Mabley: "I was taught to speak only good of the dead.
He's dead. Good." (in reference to her ex).
He's dead. Good." (in reference to her ex).
Thanks for posting. There are some issues in the transcript. In particular, it seems to use "Wilipedia" both for the real Wikipedia and for whatever Musk is backing instead.
December 13, 2025 at 1:46 AM
Thanks for posting. There are some issues in the transcript. In particular, it seems to use "Wilipedia" both for the real Wikipedia and for whatever Musk is backing instead.
Unfortunately, most of the extra power is like the One Ring. You may think you are going to use it for good once you take power, but the preconditions for using its full power mean that you will only overthrow one Dark Lord to set another one on his throne.
December 10, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Unfortunately, most of the extra power is like the One Ring. You may think you are going to use it for good once you take power, but the preconditions for using its full power mean that you will only overthrow one Dark Lord to set another one on his throne.
Because we generally suck at predicting how the general rules we write down will apply to future corner cases, it's good to have an escape mechanism that can occasionally temper justice with mercy. Of course we now see how that can be abused when mercy is only for my friends and law for my enemies.
December 3, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Because we generally suck at predicting how the general rules we write down will apply to future corner cases, it's good to have an escape mechanism that can occasionally temper justice with mercy. Of course we now see how that can be abused when mercy is only for my friends and law for my enemies.
You can pass new laws allowing the imprisonment of people who do similar things in the future, but our Constitution prohibits "ex post facto" laws that retroactivly make something a crime, or increasing the punishment above what was on the books when they did the criming.
December 2, 2025 at 3:12 AM
You can pass new laws allowing the imprisonment of people who do similar things in the future, but our Constitution prohibits "ex post facto" laws that retroactivly make something a crime, or increasing the punishment above what was on the books when they did the criming.
The problem is being public about your intent encourages Trump to pardon all the ringleaders on his way out, to avoid a verdict calling his actions illegal. Do you then follow up by only prosecuting the low-level functionaries he didn't pardon?
November 29, 2025 at 2:26 AM
The problem is being public about your intent encourages Trump to pardon all the ringleaders on his way out, to avoid a verdict calling his actions illegal. Do you then follow up by only prosecuting the low-level functionaries he didn't pardon?
Well, he wasn't the only guy after them, so it still kind of works. The thing that annoyed me, though, was that they had an escape artist scene, and didn't give it to the established escape artist. That should have been her chance to shine, and instead they reduce her to being a sexy assistant.
November 24, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Well, he wasn't the only guy after them, so it still kind of works. The thing that annoyed me, though, was that they had an escape artist scene, and didn't give it to the established escape artist. That should have been her chance to shine, and instead they reduce her to being a sexy assistant.
So if you ask, for example, "where exactly was 'Crimes Against Humanity' written down in pre-existing German law?," well it wasn't as such. But murder was illegal, and conspiring to murder millions of people was obviously illegal, so that gave them a basis to proceed against the defendants. 3/n
November 13, 2025 at 10:57 PM
So if you ask, for example, "where exactly was 'Crimes Against Humanity' written down in pre-existing German law?," well it wasn't as such. But murder was illegal, and conspiring to murder millions of people was obviously illegal, so that gave them a basis to proceed against the defendants. 3/n
To be fair, the prosecutors, Jackson in particular, worked really hard to ground the charges in pre-existing German law, so that you could show the defendants had to know they were doing something illegal at the time, even if the specific charges and penalties didn't exactly line up. 2/n
November 13, 2025 at 10:47 PM
To be fair, the prosecutors, Jackson in particular, worked really hard to ground the charges in pre-existing German law, so that you could show the defendants had to know they were doing something illegal at the time, even if the specific charges and penalties didn't exactly line up. 2/n
Nuremberg was possible, in part, because Germany had unconditionally surrendered to the Allies, leaving the four occupying powers in complete control of the country. Much harder to graft it on to an existing constitutional legal system. 1/n
November 13, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Nuremberg was possible, in part, because Germany had unconditionally surrendered to the Allies, leaving the four occupying powers in complete control of the country. Much harder to graft it on to an existing constitutional legal system. 1/n
Do you know what the nature of the updates are, and whether they are Kindle only, or if there will be a new printing of the print editions?
November 11, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Do you know what the nature of the updates are, and whether they are Kindle only, or if there will be a new printing of the print editions?
Her site megelison.com/bibliography lists her original collection "Big Girl", where it first appeared, and two best of collections that reprinted "The Pill." The pmpress.org web site shows "Big Girl" as still available.
megelison.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Her site megelison.com/bibliography lists her original collection "Big Girl", where it first appeared, and two best of collections that reprinted "The Pill." The pmpress.org web site shows "Big Girl" as still available.
20 seconds to transcribe the whole thing would be around 750 WPM, which would be around 10x what the fastest pro typists could do when I took typing back in the dark ages. Plus presumably proofreading and editing time. It's good to offer alt text, but not to minimize the effort required
November 2, 2025 at 8:08 PM
20 seconds to transcribe the whole thing would be around 750 WPM, which would be around 10x what the fastest pro typists could do when I took typing back in the dark ages. Plus presumably proofreading and editing time. It's good to offer alt text, but not to minimize the effort required