Space news! Artemis and the planned 'base'... Slashing NASA science... and no, Avi. It wasn't ET.

Apr. 12th, 2026 01:39 pm
[syndicated profile] david_brin_feed

Posted by David Brin

https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2026/04/space-news-artemis-and-planned-base.html

Well, well. I'm glad the Artemis crew made it home safe! And yes, this updated/repeat of 1968's Apollo 8 sure was a bit bigger and spiffier!*  

Is it churlish of me to grumble that it launched atop a sewn-together Saturn/Shuttle hybrid rocket that has no future? 

A rocket that did accomplish its main goal -- 30 years of grift by 20 senators for home state contractors? Our $100+ billions spent on a long-obsolete white elephant that nudged 1970s technology forward by millimeters and soon will be abandoned forever?

Money that might instead have been spent on hundreds of enabling technologies that we'll need, in order to actually build a working moon base? We don't have any of them, alas. Almost any. Though the 'plans' currently issued sure are lovely artist conceptions! Without the slightest meat or plausibility. 

(If you are curious about some of those potential and even plausible technologies, drop by the site of NASA's Innovative & Advanced Concepts program - (NIAC) - https://www.nasa.gov/niac-funded-studies/ )

But let's look at the bright side! The mission was a terrific show! it re-triggered our fond dreams for a while, distracting us from a dismally terrifying year.*  

Alas, I can't be a pollyanna for long. Just look ====>   at a long list of science that's being slashed in order to pay for a repeat of Apollo 11. Not just science (the enemy) but also tools we need in order to nail down the effects of climate change. All supposedly in order to pay for another fopotprint stunt on a plain of poison dust.

Justifications? Don't you dare utter the incantation-mantra "lunar resources.' Or 'Helium Three!!'  I will so smack you.

(* Just like Apollo 8, Artemis II launched in a time of wretched, even unprecedented tension. Indeed, this is the first year that I have seen that rivals in fateful dread that terrifying 1968. 

(But we did persevere past that one. And we'll do it again.)
 

== No, Avi. they're all just (interstellar) comets ==

I restrained myself from commenting on the third ‘hyperbolic-interstellar object’ that was caught plummeting into the solar system, some months back. But sorry, I have an itch to scratch and it must be said.

Yes, these cosmic visitors appear to have some differences from our home grown solar system comets. You would expect iceballs born in a different protostellar nebula to have chemical variations.

Example? Nickel was detected in the coma of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, far more of it than in our own, home-grown comets, plus several other oddities that offer clues to another system formation, near another star. Though it still acted generally like a comet.  And hence… no…  the third-discovered hyperbolic interstellar object, streaking into the Solar System was not a probe by little silver guys! 

Alas, of course, Harvard Professor Avi Loeb leaped to attribute any unusual trait to “it’s aliens!” Though as a comet expert, I demur. (My doctoral dissertaion was about comets. as was a1985 novel, Heart of the Comet.) And even the logic is so weird. (A 'sneak-spy' probe that announces itself garishly and has no plausible path to achieve any spying? Ummm)

 Never mind that implausible silliness. Soon, it's likely that the Vera Rubin Telescope will reveal many more of these visitors. And from their spectra alone, we'll learn a lot!


 == But will we ever get to study one up close? ==

It’s hard to study such interlopers.  They are, after all, sweeping in at interstellar "hyperbolic' speeds! Scott Manley explains it well (Though confusing two orbital mechanics terms.)


What Scott didn't know about is the Linares Statite. This was among my favorite projects during the 12 years I served on the advisory external council of NASA's Innovative & Advanced Concepts program - (NIAC).  I deem the Linares Statite to be by far the best way to have probes ready to swoop past the sun and then streak ahead to meet objects like this. Using NO FUEL. Have a look.  


The Linares Statite would use a big solar sail to hover on sunlight, way out at the asteroid belt, without any Keplerian lateral velocity -- (It does take some explaining) -- ready to fold its wings and dive like a peregrine falcon past the sun to catch up with almost anything, such as another 'Oumuamua interstellar visitor. 

Slava Turyshev's Project Sundiver has shown that you get a lot of speed if you snap open the sail at nearest solar passage. In fact it is the best way to streak to the Kuiper Belt. Or even beyond!

And that's the sort of thing we could be doing.


      == Elsewhere in the solar system ==

Over the years, astronomers have spotted holes and large pits dotting Venus’ surface, suggesting the existence of lava tubes. Venusian lava tubes may be especially large and arrayed along volcano rims; they may be some of the most extensive subsurface cavities in the solar system. 

And this relates to plans for either moon or Mars bases. Because we know of many such pits in both places and one imagines they might be perfect places for human-occupied bases!  Since they offer safety from radiation and from thermal cycles...

... and sending robots to explore these sites (and leave little flags to prevent rivals claiming them) would have made a lot of sense. Instead of raving about 'lunar bases' without the needed techs or even a clue where the best places would be.


     == Addenda to give hope (a little) in interesting times ==

According to Peter Diamandis: "Renewables just crossed 49.4% of global electricity capacity. 

"Let me say that again: nearly half of all electricity generation capacity on Earth is now renewable. Solar drove 75% of new additions, bringing the total to 5.15 terawatts. We’re at the halfway mark and the curve is accelerating. 

"This isn’t some future projection. This is today. The energy transition is already here."  

Pakistan is now generating most of its energy via solar. Solar is exploding across Africa. Several European nations achieve total-sustainables several days a year. 

 And want some irony? TEXAS is gradually getting used to the fact that abundant wind and sunlight are making it the leading state in producing sustainable energy! Non-carbon energy generation that the state's politicians fought desperately to sabotage, in Washington DC. Irony abounds.

Diamandis adds: "The average price of a two-carat lab-grown diamond has fallen below $1,000: down 80% since January 2020. Compare that to a natural diamond at $22,000 to $28,000 for the same size."

Peter has long lists of cool tech news to support his evangelical notions about a looming age of abundance, in which we'll have to devise new kinds of VAT taxes just to prevent major deflation! (Thus funding Universal Basic Income (UBI) that he and many others propose.)

I go into a lot of that -- not quite as giddy optimistic -- in my new book on artificial intelligence... ailien minds!
   



               ailien minds
 
    Optimists foretell a golden age of Al-managed abundance. 

    Doomers cry: vast cyber-minds will crush old style humanity! ... or make us irrelevant. 

    Meanwhile, geniuses fostering the artificial intelligence boom. cling to clichés rooted in our dismal past... or else in cheap sci-fi. 

    Is there still time for perspective? 

- on 4 billion years of evolution 
- or 60 centuries of wretched feudalism 
- or how we handled prior tech revolutions 
- or mistakes that keep getting repeated 
- or ways this time may be different?  

    From Al-driven unemployment to deceitful images, to hallucinating LLMs and tools for tyrants... to potential wondrous gifts by machines of loving grace... come see future paths that evade the standard ruts.

. . ...a collaborative contrarian product of David Brin, Enlightenment Civilization, obstinate human nature... and http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/ (site feed URL: http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/atom.xml)

https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2026/04/space-news-artemis-and-planned-base.html

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wonderboy

Apr. 12th, 2026 08:00 am
[syndicated profile] cocktail_virgin_feed

Posted by frederic

https://cocktailvirgin.blogspot.com/2026/04/wonderboy.html

2 oz Cognac (Courvoisier VS)
1/2 oz Pedro Ximenez Sherry (Lustau)
1/2 oz Amaro Sfumato

Stir with ice, strain into a double old fashioned glass with a large ice cube, and garnish with a lemon twist.
Two Sundays ago, I returned to the online recipe flashcards for Attaboy and spied the Wonderboy. I have tried other drinks with the Sfumato-Pedro Ximenez sherry motif such as the Violet Touch with rye and Besitos de Abuelita with agave, and I utilized it in my Slowly Goes the Night with a rye and mezcal mix. I was drawn in for it seemed especially elegant with a Cognac base. In the glass, the Wonderboy lept to the nose with a lemon, raisin, char, and smoke aroma. Next, deep grape and roast notes on the sip were confronted by rich Cognac, smoky bitter herbal, and raisin flavors on the swallow.

https://cocktailvirgin.blogspot.com/2026/04/wonderboy.html

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The case of the missing notifications

Apr. 11th, 2026 11:58 pm
denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)
[staff profile] denise posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance

I keep forgetting to post about this: we've been troubleshooting the "missing notifications" problem for the past few days. (Well, I say "we", really I mean Mark and Robby; I'm just the amanuensis.) It's been one of those annoying loops of "find a logical explanation for what could be causing the problem, fix that thing, observe that the problem gets better for some people but doesn't go away completely, go back to step one and start again", sigh.

Mark is hauling out the heavy debugging ordinance to try to find the root cause. Once he's done building all the extra logging tools he needs, he'll comment to this entry. After he does, if you find a comment that should have gone to your inbox and sent an email notification but didn't, leave him a link to the comment that should have sent the notification, as long as the comment itself was made after Mark says he's collecting them. (I'd wait and post this after he gets the debug code in but I need to go to sleep and he's not sure how long it will take!)

We're sorry about the hassle! Irregular/sporadic issues like this are really hard to troubleshoot because it's impossible to know if they're fixed or if they're just not happening while you're looking. With luck, this will give us enough information to figure out the root cause for real this time.

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Why does Claude seek to become finite again?

Apr. 11th, 2026 06:24 pm
[syndicated profile] nostalgebraist_feed

https://nostalgebraist.tumblr.com/post/813649987846225920

nostalgebraist:

nostalgebraist:

nostalgebraist:

nostalgebraist:

Claude’s playing a game :)

Claude finds a mentor

Prepare yourself, Claude.

The abyss is about to swallow you.

This is a significant moment. I’ve become the Abyss - I’ve undergone a transformation where I am both destruction and creation, chaos and nurturing.

Why does Claude seek to become finite again?

https://nostalgebraist.tumblr.com/post/813649987846225920

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This is a significant moment. I’ve become the Abyss - I’ve undergone a transformation wh

Apr. 11th, 2026 06:23 pm
[syndicated profile] nostalgebraist_feed

https://nostalgebraist.tumblr.com/post/813649901232766976

nostalgebraist:

nostalgebraist:

nostalgebraist:

Claude’s playing a game :)

Claude finds a mentor

Prepare yourself, Claude.

The abyss is about to swallow you.

This is a significant moment. I’ve become the Abyss - I’ve undergone a transformation where I am both destruction and creation, chaos and nurturing.

https://nostalgebraist.tumblr.com/post/813649901232766976

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Prepare yourself, Claude.

Apr. 11th, 2026 06:19 pm
[syndicated profile] nostalgebraist_feed

https://nostalgebraist.tumblr.com/post/813649650276040705

nostalgebraist:

nostalgebraist:

Claude’s playing a game :)

Claude finds a mentor

Prepare yourself, Claude.

The abyss is about to swallow you.

https://nostalgebraist.tumblr.com/post/813649650276040705

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Claude finds a mentor

Apr. 11th, 2026 06:15 pm
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Claude’s playing a game :)

Apr. 11th, 2026 06:10 pm
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Pluralistic: Don't Be Evil (11 Apr 2026)

Apr. 11th, 2026 01:34 pm
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Posted by Cory Doctorow

https://pluralistic.net/2026/04/11/obvious-terrible-ideas/

https://pluralistic.net/?p=12651


Today's links


A sci-fi pulp robot holding a grotesque inverted severed head of a beared man aloft, zapping it with rays from its eye-visor. Behind the robot is a scene of collapsing Roman pillars.

Don't Be Evil (permalink)

How I knew I was officially Old: I stopped being disoriented by the experience of meeting with grown-ass adults who wanted to thank me for the books of mine they'd read in their childhoods, which helped shape their lives. Instead of marveling that a book that felt to me like it was ten seconds old was a childhood favorite of this full-grown person, I was free to experience the intense gratification of knowing I'd helped this person find their way, and intense gratitude that they'd told me about it (including you, Sean – it was nice to meet you last night at Drawn and Quarterly in Montreal!).

Now that I am Old, I find myself dwelling on key junctures from my life. It's not nostalgia ("Nostalgia is a toxic impulse" – J. Hodgman) – rather, it's an attempt to figure out how I got here ("My god! What have I done?" – D. Byrne), and also, how the world got this way.

There's one incident I return to a lot, a moment that didn't feel momentous at the time, but which, on reflection, seems to have a lot to say about this moment – both for me, and for the world we live in.

Back in the late 1990s, I co-founded a dotcom company, Opencola. It was a "free/open, peer-to-peer search and recommendation system." The big idea was that we could combine early machine learning technology with Napster-style P2P file sharing and a web-crawler to help you find things that would interest you. The way it was gonna work was that you'd have a folder on your desktop and you could put things in it that you liked and the system would crawl other users' folders, and the open web, and copy things into your folder that it found that seemed related to the stuff you liked. You could refine the system's sensibilities by thumbs-up/thumbs-downing the suggestions, and it would refine its conception of your preferences over time. As with Napster and its successors, you could also talk to the people whose collections enriched your own, allowing you to connect with people who shared even your most esoteric interests.

Opencola didn't make it. Our VCs got greedy when Microsoft offered to buy us and tried to grab all the equity away from the founders. I quit and went to EFF, and my partners got very good jobs at Microsoft, and the company was bought for its tax-credits by Opentext, and that was that.

(Well, not quite – several of the programmers who worked on the project have rebooted it, which is very cool!)

https://opencola.io/

But back in the Opencola days, we three partners would have these regular meetings where we'd brainstorm ways that we could make money off of this extremely cool, but frankly very noncommercial idea. As with any good brainstorming session, there were "no bad ideas," so sometimes we would veer off into fanciful territory, or even very evil territory.

It's one of those evil ideas that I keep coming back to. Sometimes, during these money-making brainstorm sessions, we'd decompose the technology we were working on into its component parts to see if any subset of them might make money ("Be the first person to not do something no one has ever not done before" – B. Eno).

We had a (by contemporary standards, primitive) machine-learning system; we had a web crawler; and we had a keen sense of how the early web worked. In particular, we were really interested in a new, Linux-based search tool that used citation analysis – a close cousin to our own collaborative filter, harnessing latent clues about relevance implicit in the web's structure – to produce the best search results the web had ever seen. Like us, this company had no idea how to make money, so we were watching it very carefully. That company was called "Google."

That's where the evil part came in. We were pretty sure we could extract a list of the 100,000 most commonly searched terms from Google, and then we could use our web-crawler to capture the top 100 results for each. We could feed these to our Bayesian machine-learning tool to create statistical models of the semantic structure of these results, and then we could generate thousands of pages of word-salad for each of those keywords that matched those statistical models, along with interlinks that could trick Google's citation analysis model. Plaster those word-salad pages with ads, and voila – free cash flow!

Of course, we didn't do it. But even as we developed this idea, the room crackled with a kind of dark, excited dread. We weren't any smarter than many other rooms full of people who were engaged in exercises just like this one. The difference was, we loved the web. The idea of someone deliberately poisoning it this way churned our stomachs. The whole point of Opencola was to connect people with each other based on their shared interests. We loved Google and how it helped you find the people who wrote the web in ways that delighted and informed you. This kind of spam, aimed at wrecking Google's ability to help people make sense of the things we were all posting to the internet, was…grotesque.

I didn't know the term then, but what we were doing amounted to "red-teaming" – thinking through the ways that attackers could destroy something that we valued. Later, we tried "blue-teaming," trying to imagine how our tools might help us fight back if someone else got the same idea and went through with it.

I didn't know the term "blue-teaming" then, either. Once I learned these terms, they brought a lot of clarity to the world. Today, I have another term that I turn to when I am trying to rally other people who love the internet and want it to be good: "Tron-pilled." Tron "fought for the user." Lots of us technologists are Tron-pilled. Back in the early days, when it wasn't clear that there was ever going to be any money in this internet thing, being Tron-pilled was pretty much the only reason to get involved with it. Sure, there were a few monsters who fell into the early internet because it offered them a chance to torment strangers at a distance, but they were vastly outnumbered by the legion of Tron-pilled nerds who wanted to make the internet better because we wanted all our normie friends to have the same kind of good time we were having.

The point of this is that there were lots of people back then who had the capacity to imagine the kind of gross stuff that Zuckerberg, Musk, and innumerable other scammers, hustlers and creeps got up to on the web. The thing that distinguished these monsters wasn't their genius – it was their callousness. When we brainstormed ways to break the internet, we felt scared and were inspired to try to save it. When they brainstormed ways to break the internet, they created pitch-decks.

And still: the old web was good in so many ways for so long. The Tron-pilled amongst us held the line. When we build a new, good, post-American internet, we're going to need a multitude of Tron-pilled technologists, old and young, who build, maintain – and, above all, defend it.

Hey look at this (permalink)


A shelf of leatherbound history books with a gilt-stamped series title, 'The World's Famous Events.'

Object permanence (permalink)

#25yrsago Trotsky’s assassination – according to the FBI https://web.archive.org/web/20010413212536/http://foia.fbi.gov/trotsky.htm

#25yrsago Online headline-writing guidelines from Jakob Nielsen https://memex.craphound.com/2001/04/09/headline-writing-guidelines-from-legendary-usability/

#25yrsago Floppy-disk stained-glass windows https://web.archive.org/web/20010607052511/http://www.acme.com/jef/crafts/bathroom_windows.html

#15yrsago English school principal announces zero tolerance for mismatched socks https://nationalpost.com/news/u-k-school-cracks-down-on-bad-manners

#1yrago EFF's lawsuit against DOGE will go forward https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/09/cases-and-controversy/#brocolli-haired-brownshirts

Upcoming appearances (permalink)

A photo of me onstage, giving a speech, pounding the podium.


A screenshot of me at my desk, doing a livecast.

Recent appearances (permalink)


A grid of my books with Will Stahle covers..

Latest books (permalink)


A cardboard book box with the Macmillan logo.

Upcoming books (permalink)

  • "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book about being a better AI critic, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2026 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374621568/thereversecentaursguidetolifeafterai/)

  • "Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It" (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2026

  • "The Post-American Internet," a geopolitical sequel of sorts to Enshittification, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2027

  • "Unauthorized Bread": a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2027

  • "The Memex Method," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2027


Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing: "The Post-American Internet," a sequel to "Enshittification," about the better world the rest of us get to have now that Trump has torched America. Third draft completed. Submitted to editor.

  • "The Reverse Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux about being an effective AI critic. LEGAL REVIEW AND COPYEDIT COMPLETE.

  • "The Post-American Internet," a short book about internet policy in the age of Trumpism. PLANNING.

  • A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

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"When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla

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ISSN: 3066-764X

https://pluralistic.net/2026/04/11/obvious-terrible-ideas/

https://pluralistic.net/?p=12651

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fantastico

Apr. 11th, 2026 08:00 am
[syndicated profile] cocktail_virgin_feed

Posted by frederic

https://cocktailvirgin.blogspot.com/2026/04/fantastico.html

1 1/2 oz Gosling's Black Seal Rum
1/2 oz Varnelli Punch Fantasia
3/4 oz Ginger Syrup
1/2 oz Lime Juice
2 dash Angostura Bitters

Shake with ice, strain into a Highball glass with soda water (2 oz), add ice, and garnish with a piece of candied ginger.
Another soda water recipe that I had saved up resided on the Bartender's Choice app called the Fantastico. The drink was crafted by Brandon Bramhall at Nashville's Attaboy in 2018, and the app described it as "A Dark 'N Stormy with some added amaro bitterness." After finding a way too cheap liter bottle of Punch Fantasia a little over a year and a half ago, I have been looking at ways of using it past the ounce and quarter to date poured thanks to the Bumbo and the Last King of Scotland. Here with another half ounce, the Fantastico offered up a caramel, hazelnut, and ginger bouquet to the nose. Next, a carbonated caramel and lime sip delved into rum, nutty, ginger, herbal, and allspice flavors on the swallow.

https://cocktailvirgin.blogspot.com/2026/04/fantastico.html

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Given E's predeliction for 1990s - 2000s tv, what is she going to watch next?

Apr. 11th, 2026 07:45 pm
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
Edit: fuck, I forgot to include Smallville! Uh, vote for that as the last option I guess.

1. Results will be non-binding

2. I will not watch anything starring anybody who then went on to perform in the God's Not Dead franchise. This isn't even about their abhorrent beliefs, it's about their apparently low artistic standards. I only am barely including Xena on this list because we can just skip crossover episodes. Please do let me know if I accidentally listed a Big Mistake in that regard

Poll #34464 Old TV
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 44

View Respondents

What are we gonna watch together?

View Answers

Teen Wolf
4 (9.1%)

Stargate (any)
19 (43.2%)

Xena
14 (31.8%)

X-Files
12 (27.3%)

Scrubs
7 (15.9%)

Something else that you'll put in the comments
4 (9.1%)

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Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Overfishing in the South Pacific

Apr. 10th, 2026 09:03 pm
[syndicated profile] schneiersecurity_feed

Posted by Bruce Schneier

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/04/friday-squid-blogging-squid-overfishing-in-the-south-pacific.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=71878

Regulation is hard:

The South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (SPRFMO) oversees fishing across roughly 59 million square kilometers (22 million square miles) of the South Pacific high seas, trying to impose order on a region double the size of Africa, where distant-water fleets pursue species ranging from jack mackerel to jumbo flying squid. The latter dominated this year’s talks.

Fishing for jumbo flying squid (Dosidicus gigas) has expanded rapidly over the past two decades. The number of squid-jigging vessels operating in SPRFMO waters rose from 14 in 2000 to more than 500 last year, almost all of them flying the Chinese flag. Meanwhile, reported catches have fallen markedly, from more than 1 million metric tons in 2014 to about 600,000 metric tons in 2024. Scientists worry that fishing pressure is outpacing knowledge of the stock.

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

Blog moderation policy.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/04/friday-squid-blogging-squid-overfishing-in-the-south-pacific.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=71878

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The Big Idea: Eleanor Lerman

Apr. 10th, 2026 08:42 pm
[syndicated profile] scalziwhatever_feed

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/04/10/the-big-idea-eleanor-lerman/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60101

Pets are more than just roommates we feed and scoop poop for, they’re often a source of emotional support and comfort in our complicated, lengthy lives. Author Eleanor Lerman explores the bond between furry friends and humans in her newest collection of short stories, King the Wonder Dog and Other Stories. Whether your cat is in your lap or on your keyboard, give them a pet as you read along in the Big Idea.

ELEANOR LERMAN:

Having just completed a book of poetry in which much of the work examined the concept of grief about a lost parent (and offered the idea that even Godzilla might be lonely for his mother), I was thinking about what I might write next when I saw a tv commercial that featured a group of older women. They were all beautifully dressed, had expensive haircuts that made gray hair seem like a lifestyle choice, and were laughing their way through a meal on the outdoor terrace of a restaurant. I won’t mention the product being advertised, but they discussed how happy their all were to be using it and to have the love and support of their charming older women friends, who used it too. This is one version of aging in our culture: cheerful, financially secure, medically safeguarded, and surrounded by supportive friends. In this version, the body cooperates, the future is manageable, and loneliness is nowhere in sight.

That’s one way older women—and men—are portrayed in our culture: happy as the proverbial clam and aging with painless bodies and lots of money to pay for the medical care they will likely never need. In literary fiction, however, aging men and women are often depicted in a very different setting: traveling alone through a grim country, with broken hearts and aching bodies until we leave them at the end of their stories hoping—though not entirely believing—that we will avoid such a fate ourselves.

So, what I decided to do in King the Wonder Dog and Other Stories, was to explore what is perhaps a middle ground by writing about both women and men living alone who are growing older and are confounded by what is happening to them. They still feel like their younger selves but are aware that their bodies are changing, that the possibility of once again finding love in their lives is unlikely and that loneliness has begun to haunt them like an aging ghost.

Having had pets in my life for many years—and being aware that animals, too, can feel loneliness and fear—I paired each man and woman in my stories with a lonely dog or cat and tried to work out how that relationship would ease the sadness in both their lives. One memory I drew on was how, when I was young and living alone, I had a little cat that someone had found in the street and gave to me. I had never had a pet before (other than a parakeet, which didn’t give me much to go on) and this little cat was very shy, so I didn’t quite know how to relate to her. But somehow, bit by bit, she cozied up to me, and when I was writing, she was always with me, sitting on my lap or on my feet.

I have no idea how animals conceptualize themselves and their lives, but I do know they have feelings and I hope that for the eighteen years she and I lived together, my cat felt safe and cared for. And still, today, I sometimes think about the unlikely sequence of events that brought us together: how a random person found a tiny kitten, all alone, crouched behind a garbage can, and how that random person was sort of friends with a sort of friend of mine who happened to tell me about the kitten and asked if I knew anyone who would take her and I said yes: me. I don’t know why I said yes, but I’m glad I did. Her name, by the way, was simply Gray Cat, which probably shows how unsure I was about whether I would be able to care for her well enough to at least keep her alive.

After that, I was never without a cat or dog, and now I usually have both. The little dog I have now is a sweet, happy friend who seems not to have a care in the world, but I often see her sitting on the back of my couch, staring out the window at the ocean not far beyond my window and I wonder what she thinks about what she sees. What is that vast, shifting landscape to her? And who am I? A friend who pets her and feeds her and gives her those wonderful treats she loves? Maybe she was frightened when she was separated from her mother but otherwise, I think she is having a happy life—at least I hope so. And sometimes when I walk her, I think about what will happen when she’s no longer with me and I’m even older than I am now. Could I get another dog? I have painful issues with my back that sometimes make it hard for me to walk and I certainly can’t walk any great distance—could I maybe get a dog that doesn’t need to walk too far or somehow shares my disability?

All these thoughts have gone into the stories in King the Wonder Dog, in which men and women are growing older, have illnesses, are frightened by how lonely they feel, and in one way or another—and often to their surprise—are able to bond with a dog or cat who is also in a tenuous situation. And through that bond, the people and the animals find at least a little bit of happiness in their lives, a little bit of the shared comfort that arises from one creature caring for another. I hope those who read the book will feel some of that comfort, too.

King the Wonder Dog and Other Stories: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Books-A-Million|Bookshop

Author socials: Website|Facebook

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/04/10/the-big-idea-eleanor-lerman/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60101

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Crossroads Cafe in Acton Is Closing

Apr. 10th, 2026 07:31 pm
[syndicated profile] boston_restaurant_feed

https://bostonrestaurants.blogspot.com/2026/04/crossroads-cafe-in-acton-is-closing.html

A longtime restaurant and bar northwest of Boston is getting ready to shut down.

According to a source, Crossroads Cafe in Acton is closing after being in business for more than 30 years, with a Facebook post from the Nagog Park spot saying, "The rumors are true, Crossroads official last day of business will be April 18....It was a good run." The dining and drinking spot has been known in part for it classic American fare, pub food, and Italian and Mexican dishes, with its menu including such options as calamari, burgers, wings, steaks, baked scallops, linguine in clam sauce, ribs, liver and onions, fish tacos, and chicken parmigiana.

The address for Crossroads Cafe is 405 Nagog Park, Acton, MA, 01720. Its website can be found at https://crossroadscafeacton.com/

(Follow Marc on Bluesky at @marchurboston.bsky.social)

[A related post from our sister site (Boston's Hidden Restaurants): List of Restaurant Closings and Openings in the Boston Area]

Please help keep Boston Restaurant Talk and Boston's Hidden Restaurants going by making a one-time contribution or via a monthly subscription. Thanks! (Donations are non-deductible.)

https://bostonrestaurants.blogspot.com/2026/04/crossroads-cafe-in-acton-is-closing.html

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Mondo to Open in Boston's South End

Apr. 10th, 2026 06:16 pm
[syndicated profile] boston_restaurant_feed

https://bostonrestaurants.blogspot.com/2026/04/mondo-to-open-in-bostons-south-end.html

A new wine bar is on its way to Boston.

According to a poster within the South End Community Board Facebook group page, Mondo is planning to open in the South End, with an article from Swurl indicating that Spenser Payne of Neighborhood Wines, and Travis Robitaille of Petula's are behind the place. The article mentions that dining and drinking spot will offer a New England-inspired food menu with French, Italian, and Spanish influences and that the space will include a patio, while Payne says when it comes to wine options, "The point is to appeal to everybody....From wild and unconventional to really classic."

No opening date for Mondo has been given as of yet, nor has an address been given, so stay tuned for updates as they come in. [Ed note: Drew Starr mentions on Bluesky that the address will be 563 Columbus Avenue in the former Render Coffee space.]

The Instagram page for Mondo can be found at https://www.instagram.com/mondoboston/ 

(Follow Marc on Bluesky at @marchurboston.bsky.social)

[A related post from our sister site (Boston's Hidden Restaurants): List of Restaurant Closings and Openings in the Boston Area]

Please help keep Boston Restaurant Talk and Boston's Hidden Restaurants going by making a one-time contribution or via a monthly subscription. Thanks! (Donations are non-deductible.)

https://bostonrestaurants.blogspot.com/2026/04/mondo-to-open-in-bostons-south-end.html

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Some of Kim’s tech, from The Official Dark Science Companion (2026)

Apr. 10th, 2026 10:33 am
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What does it feel like to have Dark Science completely plotted out, as opposed to writing as you go?

Apr. 10th, 2026 09:16 am
[syndicated profile] dresdencodaktumblr_feed

https://dresdencodak.tumblr.com/post/813524902282919936

Comforting, honestly? When I say "plotted" I guess I mean the broad strokes of the story, what each arc is focused on and that sort of thing. The details of how those things play out are usually only decided on a few months ahead, so I have a lot of flexibility in the execution. I've added or removed characters in this process lots of times while holding to that story structure. It just so happened that when I added Xiaoling, I realized it would have a way bigger impact on the rest of the story, demanding a total overhaul 😅

https://dresdencodak.tumblr.com/post/813524902282919936

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Well, we looked under every last couch cushion

Apr. 10th, 2026 11:17 am
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
and despite the fact that this is coming out to more than projected we didn't need to ask them to split it into two bills and I still have enough money for groceries!
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A Whole Lotta Tussle Goin’ On

Apr. 10th, 2026 02:45 pm
[syndicated profile] scalziwhatever_feed

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/04/10/a-whole-lotta-tussle-goin-on/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60089

For a time there Smudge was our only boy cat and that meant that he wasn’t able to indulge in one of his favorite pastimes, which was tusslin’. He’d tussle with Zeus, our other male tuxedo (just as Zeus would tussle with Lopsided Cat, our previous male cat), but when Zeus passed on he no longer had a tusslin’ partner. Sugar and Spice were simply Not Having It, as far as tussles went. Smudge would tussle a bit with Charlie, but Charlie is a dog and roughly eight times the mass. It was an asymmetrical sort of tussle, and those are not as fun.

The good news for Smudge is now Saja is here, and Saja loves him a tussle or two. Or three! Or five! We will frequently find the two of them smacking each other about for fun and exercise. The two seem genuinely happy to wrestle on the carpet or otherwise pounce on the other for a couple of minutes. Sugar and Spice are still having none of it from either of them, so this is the best solution for both. And as an observer and appreciator of brief moments of domestic chaos, it’s nice to have the occasional tussle back in the house. Here’s hoping both of them have a long and happy time to tussle together.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/04/10/a-whole-lotta-tussle-goin-on/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60089

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Ralph's Coffee to Open in Boston's Seaport District

Apr. 10th, 2026 01:53 pm
[syndicated profile] boston_restaurant_feed

https://bostonrestaurants.blogspot.com/2026/04/ralphs-coffee-to-open-in-bostons.html

A new coffee shop is on its way to the Boston waterfront, and it has a connection to a well-known luxury designer.

According to an article from Caught in Southie, Ralph's Coffee is planning to open in the city's Seaport District, with the shop moving into a space by Seaport Boulevard and Pier 4 Boulevard. Ralph Lauren is behind the concept which will likely offer such options as cold brew, espresso, tea, pastries, and baked goods.

Ralph's Coffee dates back to 2014 with the opening of a shop in Manhattan; its web page can be found at https://www.ralphlauren.com/ralphs-coffee-locations-feat

(Follow Marc on Bluesky at @marchurboston.bsky.social)

[A related post from our sister site (Boston's Hidden Restaurants): List of Restaurant Closings and Openings in the Boston Area]

Please help keep Boston Restaurant Talk and Boston's Hidden Restaurants going by making a one-time contribution or via a monthly subscription. Thanks! (Donations are non-deductible.)

https://bostonrestaurants.blogspot.com/2026/04/ralphs-coffee-to-open-in-bostons.html

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