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Daily Inspiration: "Shift faster!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
One thing is for sure at this moment in time - the future is going to be WILD!
And at this moment in time, you need to move away from asking yourself why you are so slow - to asking the hard truth as to whether you are moving fast enough!
If there is one lesson that organizations have learned through the past few years, it's that their future survival is now heavily dependent upon the flexibility they've put in place - flexibility that demands a new level of agility within their leadership team to respond to new levels of volatility! At this moment in time, it's probably a good time to double down on that flexibility through agility - given an unprecedented future, you will need to be able to shift faster. You'll need to be able to bounce back from an unprecedented level of "VUCA - what has become known as volatility, complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity.
How important is it? Today and in the not-too-distant future, it's critical, because levels of VUCA have accelerated through the roof and will continue to do so. ! I've gone so far as to suggest that organizations should now consider putting in place a "Chief Resilience Officer" - someone responsible for steering the organization through an unprecedented level of VUCA.
The future demands leadership agility. What is it? It's the ability to shift mindsets and actions rapidly according to fast-moving circumstances. I've recently concluded a research project to take a look at the elements of agility and resilience and found this quote which outlines it perfectly.
Avoid the distraction of clarity - because going forward, there probably isn't any!
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#ShiftFaster #Agility #Resilience #VUCA #FutureReady #LeadershipAgility #Adaptability #FastDecisions #TrendsRadar #OrganizationalFlexibility
Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2024/11/daily-inspiration-leadership-agility-shift-faster/
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#weeklyreview 37/2025
back to Berlin
Finally back in Berlin after the school holidays. Everyone trying to adapt to the big city and regular schedule again. I noticed that’s it’s getting harder and harder to get back to the big busy city after spending time in the countryside. Everything in Berlin is so busy and hectic and especially peopley.
Dinner at L’s
Nice catch-up dinner at my dear friends L. We hadn’t seen each other for the holidays and a meeting was long overdue. Very delicious food as always 🙂
Hacker Stammtisch
Due to communication breakdown only two of the nerds showed up. Nevertheless a good evening with nerdy conversations at the Pratergarten.
Freestyle UNO
We chose a different game for our weekly Poker night. Kiddo had Minecraft UNO cards and wanted to play UNO. But we tried to play with his extended set of rules that they made up during their bike trip the week before. Quirky rules like “you can’t say the color of the card, but must say this instead…”. Every round he came up with a new rule or changed the ones he already issued. Felt a bit like work were the rules seem to change with each manager and round of reorg. But never make any logical sense….
B&B Friedenau Edition
After quite some walking around the city (I forgot the Fahrzeugschein when delivering my car to the garage to get new TÜV and had to fetch it) I was looking forward to the next B&B meeting Thursday evening at the Boerge HQ in Friedenau. That was rather delicious and garnished with warm hospitality. Unfortunately he set the bar high for home made burgers now :-/
Also the lovely Klappstulli gifted us these team bracelets BnB♾️
energy consultant
On Saturday I met with the local energy consultant to start making a proper renovation plan for #project25. Slowly but surely we’re making progress.
The consultant will look at the condition and our vision how the house and rooms should look etc. and then does the calculation for the heating and what kind and level of insulation we’d need to apply in order to received subsidies for the renovation.
Stella rockt
Saturday afternoon K3 and me drove to nearby Friedrichswalde for their Saalkultur events. That’s various exhibitions and events in the village with its many historic halls. The opening event was an art installation made up of 3772 CDs forming a nice mosaic.
Later there was a comedy fashion show, buffet, bbq and finally a concert by the band “Stella Rockt“.
They started with “Lonely Boy” from The Black keys and immediately set the tone for the rest of the concert. Powerful rock music with their own touch. They played cover songs of many famous songs. What I liked is that they didn’t just try to imitate the original but made them proper rock songs with their own twist. Sometimes changing the speed or the tone slightly. All four of them were great performers at their instruments. The lady on the drums absolutely killed it as well did the lead guitarist. I had great fun attending the concert and also lovely conversation with the band afterwards. Can highly recommend them for your next gig.
https://videos.explain-it.org/w/pbSN6agEkwkNTWEVX6uLar
#concert #enEN #Music #project25 #StellaRockt #Uckermark #weeklyreview #wochenrueckblick
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Novembers Doom – Major Arcana Review
By Steel Druhm
Chicago’s Novembers Doom have charted a unique course for themselves over the last 30 years. Their unnatural pairing of beefy, cargo-beshorted death metal and highly emotional doom originally felt unstable and liable to erupt into chaos at any moment, but over time, they became adept at finding the ideal balance between madman and sadboi. Albums like The Pale Haunt Departure and Hamartia were loaded with ripping riffs and plaintive gloom, and at their best, Novembers Doom can tear at the heartstrings even as they snap your neck. The wild swings from hugely emotional, weepy sadboi melancholy and femur-fracturing death could sometimes feel forced, but more often it just fucking worked. 2019s Nephilim Grove had big moments but felt underbaked with too much filler. It’s been almost six years since, but now we get their 12th album, Major Arcana, and hopefully, a rebound for these Autumnal leaf reapers of despair.
Nothing’s really changed in the way Novembers Doom approach their trade. After an ominous and forboding intro piece, they come out swinging on the massive title track and hit you like a runaway battleship with a wide collection of primal feelz. Grinding riffs are coated with Paul Kuhr’s excellent clean and death metal vocals as the intensity builds and Kuhr warns, “This has gone too far.” The way his vocals increase in intensity is gripping, and all the usual melodic tricks Novembers Doom are known for come to the fore. This is really good shit. Another high point comes with “Mercy,” where the band hits gold with an emotionally crushing piece that evokes Woods of Ypres, Pink Floyd, and latter-era Anthema. It will break your fucking heart with its beauty and poignancy. Also quite tasty is album centerpiece “Bleed Static,” which uses its 8-minute runtime to explore a variety of despondent emotions effectively. Elsewhere, “The Dance” sticks out for its very Amorphis-esque airy, melodic guitar work and a chorus that you can easily imagine Tomi Joutsen singing.
Unfortunately, the rest of Major Arcana doesn’t operate at this level, and though most tracks have something worthwhile to offer, they won’t whisk you away in a leafblower maelstrom. “Ravenous” is a basic melodeath tune that should run 3-4 minutes, but gets stretched to 6 for no good reason. The back third of the album is significantly less enthralling than the early tracks, and while the songs work in the context of the album, they aren’t especially captivating individually. At 56-plus minutes, it would have been easy to drop 2 or 3 tracks to deliver a leaner, meaner release, but that isn’t the Novembers Doom way. This is a mood piece kind of listen, though, and if you’re in the right state of mind, it will all drift by without much resistance.
As ever, Paul Kuhr is the epicenter of the band’s sound, and he does his usual first-rate job. His singing voice is so perfect for doom that he should run a clinic on it.1 He sounds so desperately hurt and broken on “Mercy” that you can’t help but want to give him a big hug and tell him everything will be OK. At times, his singing reminds me a lot of the late great Eric Wagner of Trouble, and that’s great company to be in. His death roars are also as good as ever, big, booming, nasty, and venomous. His transitions between extremes are smooth and well-timed, and he knows how to wring a song for the maximum emotional impact. Lawrence Roberts and Vito Marchese wield potent riff hammers that often feel like they belong on a caveman death metal platter. When they do lapse into doom and melancholic sadboi mode, they deliver the goods there too. On cuts like the title track, “Mercy,” and “Bleed Static,” you can feel the pathos dripping from their fretboards. I just wish they spread that quality more evenly across the whole record.
Albums like Major Arcana can end up a frustrating experience because you get a few really amazing songs and the remainder ends up looking pale in comparison, even if nothing is bad. Novembers Doom have struggled with this issue over their career, and both 2019s Nephilim Grove and this one are held back by inconsistent songcraft. This is a good release with really high points, but you’re left feeling it could be so much more. I want MOAR leaf doom, dammit!
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Prophecy Productions
Websites: novembersdoom1989.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/novembersdoom1989 | instagram.com/novembersdoom
Releases Worldwide: September 19th, 2025#2025 #30 #AmericanMetal #DoomMetal #FieldsOfNephilim #MajorArcana #NovembersDoom #ProphecyProductions #Review #Reviews #Sep25 #WoodsOfYpres
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So, no references, which means I'll have to investigate all these claims on my own (I would anyways, 'cuz...)
#RadiationEating #Fungi: Nature’s Survival Tactic
By Staff EditorMay 31, 2025
"The #Chernobyl exclusion zone, one of the most radioactive places on Earth, harbors an extraordinary secret. While most life forms struggle to survive in this contaminated landscape, certain fungi are not just surviving – they’re thriving. These remarkable organisms have mastered a survival strategy that sounds like science fiction: they eat radiation.
"The discovery began in 1991 when researchers sent robots into the ruins of Chernobyl’s reactor number four. To their amazement, the robots found thick black fungal growths covering the walls closest to the radiation source. These weren’t random survivors clinging to life; they were flourishing in conditions that would be lethal to almost any other organism on the planet.
"What makes these fungi so remarkable isn’t just their resistance to radiation – it’s their ability to harness it as an energy source, much like plants use sunlight for photosynthesis. This process, called #radiosynthesis, represents one of the most fascinating adaptations in the natural world.
The Science Behind Radiation-Eating Fungi
"The key to these fungi’s superpowers lies in #melanin, the same pigment that gives color to human skin and hair. However, fungal melanin operates differently than the melanin we’re familiar with. While our melanin primarily serves as protection against UV radiation, fungal melanin has evolved into something far more sophisticated.
"When radiation hits melanin-rich fungi, the pigment molecules absorb the energy and undergo a process that generates #electrons. These electrons then power the fungi’s cellular processes, essentially converting deadly radiation into usable energy. Scientists believe this works through a mechanism similar to #photosynthesis, but instead of capturing light energy, these fungi capture the energy from gamma rays and other forms of ionizing radiation.
"Three species have gained particular attention for their #radiotropic abilities: #CladosporiumSphaerospermum, #CryptococcusNeoformans, and #WangiellaDermatitidis. These fungi don’t just tolerate radiation; they actually grow faster when exposed to it. Laboratory experiments have shown that radiation-exposed samples of these species grow approximately three times faster than those in radiation-free environments.
Life in Extreme Environments
"The fungi of Chernobyl aren’t unique in their love for extreme conditions. Throughout Earth’s history, fungi have proven themselves to be nature’s ultimate survivors, colonizing environments where few other life forms dare to venture.
"High above our heads, fungi have been discovered on the International Space Station, hitching rides on equipment and somehow surviving the vacuum of space. Deep beneath the ocean floor, fungal communities thrive in sediments that haven’t seen sunlight for millions of years. In the frozen wastes of Antarctica, fungi live inside rocks, extracting minerals and moisture from seemingly barren stone.
"Perhaps most remarkably, fungi have been found living inside nuclear reactors around the world, not just at Chernobyl. The #HanfordSite in Washington State, the #Sellafield facility in England, and other nuclear installations all host their own communities of radiation-eating fungi. These discoveries suggest that radiosynthesis might be more common than initially thought.
Ancient Origins and Evolutionary Advantages
"The ability to harness radiation for energy likely evolved hundreds of millions of years ago, long before humans split their first atom. Early Earth was a much more radioactive place than today, bombarded by cosmic rays and containing higher levels of naturally occurring radioactive elements.
"Scientists theorize that melanin-based radiosynthesis might have been one of the earliest forms of energy capture on our planet, possibly predating photosynthesis. This would make radiation-eating fungi not just evolutionary marvels, but potential glimpses into life’s ancient past.
"The evolutionary advantages of this ability become clear when we consider the environments these fungi inhabit. In places where organic matter is scarce and other energy sources are limited, the ability to harvest energy from radiation provides a significant competitive edge. These fungi can establish themselves in niches where nothing else can survive, essentially having entire ecosystems to themselves.
Modern Applications and Future Possibilities
"The discovery of #radiosynthetic fungi has captured the imagination of researchers across multiple fields, from astrobiology to environmental remediation. NASA has shown particular interest in these organisms, recognizing their potential for long-term space missions where traditional food sources would be impractical.
"Imagine spacecraft equipped with #FungalBioreactors that could convert the abundant cosmic radiation of deep space into food and oxygen for astronauts. Such systems could make long-duration missions to Mars or beyond far more feasible. Some researchers have even suggested that similar fungi might already exist on other planets, potentially representing our first encounter with extraterrestrial life.
"Closer to home, these fungi offer promising solutions for environmental cleanup. Traditional methods of dealing with radioactive contamination are expensive and often only move the problem from one location to another. Fungi that can actually consume radiation could potentially detoxify contaminated areas while producing useful byproducts.
Beyond Chernobyl
"While Chernobyl remains the most famous example of fungi thriving in radioactive environments, similar discoveries continue to emerge worldwide. The #Fukushima nuclear disaster site in Japan has revealed its own communities of radiation-resistant fungi. Natural #uranium deposits in #Africa host fungal ecosystems that have been consuming radiation for thousands of years.
"These findings are reshaping our understanding of what constitutes a habitable environment. Life, it seems, is far more adaptable and resourceful than we ever imagined. The existence of radiation-eating fungi forces us to reconsider the limits of biology and the possibilities for life in the universe.
What This Means for Us
"The study of radiosynthetic fungi offers more than just scientific curiosity; it provides practical insights into survival and adaptation. These organisms demonstrate principles of resilience and resourcefulness that could inform everything from biotechnology to sustainable energy development.
"Understanding how fungi convert radiation into usable energy might lead to new forms of biological solar panels or radiation detectors. The robust nature of these organisms could make them ideal candidates for biomining operations or environmental monitoring in hazardous locations.
"The next time you encounter mushrooms growing in unexpected places, remember the remarkable fungi of Chernobyl. While the specimens in your local forest aren’t likely eating radiation, they’re still performing countless invisible miracles, breaking down organic matter, forming partnerships with plant roots, and maintaining the delicate balance that keeps our ecosystems functioning. In their quiet, persistent way, all fungi are engaged in the extraordinary business of turning the impossible into the everyday."
https://fungiexplained.com/radiation-eating-fungi-survival-tactic/
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Book Review: The Happiness Files by Arthur C. Brooks
Most books about happiness tell you what to do. Arthur C. Brooks has spent years asking a harder question: why do so few people actually do it? The Happiness Files is a companion piece to his Atlantic column and podcast series of the same name, collecting and expanding on the conversations, research findings, and practical frameworks he has developed over years of writing about what social science actually knows about human flourishing. It is a shorter and more accessible entry point into Brooks’s thinking than either From Strength to Strength or Build the Life You Want, and for readers who want to understand the research landscape before committing to his longer works, it serves that purpose well.
Who Is Arthur C. Brooks?
Arthur C. Brooks was born in 1964 in Seattle, Washington. He trained as a classical French horn musician and played professionally before returning to academia, earning a PhD in policy analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School. He served as president of the American Enterprise Institute from 2009 to 2019, one of the longest and most productive tenures in that institution’s history, before joining Harvard University, where he currently holds professorships at both Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School.
His column “How to Build a Life” in The Atlantic has become one of the most widely read regular features on happiness, meaning, and human flourishing in American journalism, drawing on research from psychology, neuroscience, economics, and philosophy to address questions that most serious publications treat as too soft for sustained attention. He has written twelve books across a career that has consistently resisted easy categorization, moving between policy analysis, social science, and what might broadly be called practical philosophy.
The Happiness Files represents Brooks at his most conversational, reflecting the format of his podcast work and the relatively compressed essay structure of his Atlantic columns. It is the most informal of his major works and in some ways the most immediately engaging.
Buy The Happiness Files on Amazon
What the Book Is About
The Happiness Files is organized as a series of interconnected explorations of specific findings from happiness research, each addressing a distinct question about what contributes to or undermines human wellbeing. Rather than building a single linear argument the way From Strength to Strength does, it moves through a range of topics including the neuroscience of enjoyment, the role of work in identity and meaning, the relationship between money and happiness, how social comparison damages wellbeing, the science of friendship and loneliness, the connection between gratitude and satisfaction, and the surprisingly powerful effects of small daily habits on long-term wellbeing.
The research Brooks draws on is substantial and carefully chosen. He is not a pop psychologist cherry-picking studies that confirm a predetermined conclusion. He engages with findings that complicate easy narratives and acknowledges uncertainty where it exists, which distinguishes his work from much of the happiness genre. At the same time the book is written for general readers rather than academics, and it maintains the warm, direct tone of someone who is genuinely interested in helping readers improve their lives rather than demonstrating his own expertise.
A recurring theme throughout is the gap between what people believe will make them happy and what research consistently shows actually does. That gap, which psychologists call affective forecasting error, is one of the most robust findings in happiness science and one of the most practically consequential. People systematically overestimate how much positive events like promotions, salary increases, and material acquisitions will improve their wellbeing, and underestimate how much they will adapt to those improvements and return to their baseline. Understanding that pattern changes how you allocate your time, energy, and money in ways that actually matter.
Lessons Readers Can Take Away
The most immediately useful lesson for anyone managing a budget or planning their financial future is the research on money and happiness. Brooks covers this territory carefully, engaging with the famous and frequently misunderstood findings on the income-happiness relationship. The research does not say money does not matter. It says that the relationship between money and wellbeing is strong at lower income levels, where additional income genuinely expands options and reduces sources of stress, and becomes significantly weaker at higher income levels, where additional money produces rapidly diminishing returns in terms of actual life satisfaction.
The practical implication for readers who are already financially stable is that the next dollar of income or the next increment of wealth accumulation is likely to improve your life substantially less than you expect it to, and that the attention and energy you are directing toward earning more might produce better wellbeing outcomes if redirected toward the domains that actually predict happiness at higher income levels, which are primarily relationships and meaning.
A second lesson concerns what Brooks calls the comparison trap. Social comparison is one of the most reliable destroyers of financial satisfaction. The person who evaluates their financial situation relative to their own past circumstances and their own values tends to feel considerably better than the person who evaluates it relative to peers, neighbors, or the curated wealth displays of social media. Brooks draws on research showing that relative income, how much you have compared to others in your reference group, is a better predictor of financial dissatisfaction than absolute income, which is both counterintuitive and practically important. Managing your media consumption and social environment is a genuine financial wellness strategy, not just a lifestyle preference.
A third lesson addresses the role of work in identity and wellbeing. Brooks covers the distinction between jobs, careers, and callings with particular clarity in this book, drawing on research that shows how people at every income level and in every type of work can find elements of meaning and craft that shift their relationship to what they do from obligation to engagement. This is not a recommendation to romanticize exploitative work conditions. It is an observation that the internal orientation you bring to work, the extent to which you can connect it to something larger than a paycheck, has measurable effects on your wellbeing that are partially within your control.
A fourth lesson is about the science of enjoyment versus pleasure. Brooks draws on research distinguishing between hedonic wellbeing, the presence of pleasant feelings and absence of unpleasant ones, and eudaimonic wellbeing, the sense of living a meaningful, engaged, and purposeful life. The research consistently shows that eudaimonic wellbeing is the more stable and more reliable predictor of long-term happiness, and that many of the pursuits Americans invest most heavily in, entertainment, consumption, convenience, are hedonic rather than eudaimonic. Building habits that produce engagement, connection, and meaning rather than simply comfort and stimulation is a reorientation that applies directly to how you spend both your time and your money.
Buy The Happiness Files on Amazon
Criticisms of the Book
The most significant criticism of The Happiness Files is also its most forgivable: it is a collection rather than a fully developed argument. The essay format means that the book does not build toward a comprehensive conclusion the way a more conventionally structured work would. Individual chapters are illuminating, but readers looking for a unified framework will find it less satisfying than From Strength to Strength or Build the Life You Want, both of which provide more architectural structure for Brooks’s ideas.
A second criticism is that the book assumes a reader who is already relatively privileged. The happiness research Brooks cites is drawn overwhelmingly from studies conducted in wealthy countries, and much of it reflects the concerns of people whose basic needs are met and who are navigating questions of meaning and flourishing rather than survival and security. Readers dealing with serious financial stress, food insecurity, or housing instability will find the book’s prescriptions less immediately applicable, and the book does not always acknowledge that limitation with the clarity it deserves.
A third criticism is that some chapters feel more fully developed than others. The collection format means that pieces written at different times for different contexts do not always sit together with equal weight. Some topics receive the depth of treatment they deserve. Others feel like sketches rather than completed arguments.
A fourth criticism echoes concerns raised about the broader happiness research field: much of the science is correlational, and the translation from population-level findings to individual prescriptions is not always as clean as the confident writing style implies. Brooks is more careful about this than most popular writers on happiness, but the epistemological challenge remains real.
Should You Buy This Book?
It depends on where you are in your engagement with Brooks’s work and with happiness research generally.
If you are new to Brooks as a writer, The Happiness Files is actually a reasonable starting point precisely because of its brevity and accessibility. It gives you a broad survey of his thinking and the research he draws on without requiring the sustained attention that From Strength to Strength demands. If it resonates, you can move to his longer and more architecturally ambitious works.
If you have already read From Strength to Strength and Build the Life You Want, reviewed separately on this site, The Happiness Files will cover ground you have already visited. Some of the specific research findings and frameworks will be familiar, though the essay format occasionally surfaces angles that the more structured books treat less fully.
For readers specifically interested in the intersection of happiness research and personal finance, the chapters on money and wellbeing, social comparison, and the hedonic treadmill are worth reading regardless of familiarity with the other books. The research on why additional money above a certain threshold produces so little additional happiness is directly relevant to how anyone thinks about financial goals, lifestyle choices, and the relationship between earning, spending, and living well.
At its length and price point the book represents a modest investment of both.
Final Thoughts
Arthur Brooks has spent years translating difficult social science into practical wisdom for general readers, and The Happiness Files reflects that project at its most accessible. It will not change how you think about happiness as comprehensively as From Strength to Strength or as practically as Build the Life You Want, but it does something those longer books cannot quite do: it moves quickly, covers a lot of ground, and lets readers identify the specific questions and findings that are most relevant to their own lives before going deeper.
The financial relevance of Brooks’s work across all three books is ultimately the same: the way most Americans allocate their time and money is systematically misaligned with what research shows actually produces wellbeing. Earning more, spending more, accumulating more, and optimizing for hedonic comfort are not reliable paths to a happy life. Investing in relationships, finding meaning in work, practicing gratitude, and building habits that produce genuine engagement are. That is a message worth hearing regardless of where you are in your financial journey, whether you are building your first emergency fund, maximizing contributions to a retirement account, or figuring out what financial independence was actually for in the first place.
The books reviewed here alongside The Happiness Files, including The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel, Die With Zero by Bill Perkins, Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, and Atomic Habits by James Clear, all approach the same fundamental territory from different angles. Together they form a reading foundation that addresses not just how to build financial security but what financial security is actually in service of. That question is worth taking as seriously as any other in your financial life.
Buy The Happiness Files on Amazon
#ArthurCBrooks #BookReviews #Books #Psychology #SelfHelp #TheHappinessFiles -
Mistodon: Why has AdeptApril drawn a #PostageStamp in #ANSIart? Is it national philately day? Not quite: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" isn't just paraphrased in Laurie Anderson's "O Superman", this phrase (derived from Herodotus describing the courier service of the Persian Empire under Xerxes I) is carved into New York City's James A. Farley Post Office, which opened in 1914 on this day.
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Dreary April morn
Stroll along Lake Tazawa
Stillness, torii gate#haiku #NaturePhotography #Japan #JapanTravel #travel #poetry #poem #torii #gate #lake #mountains #rainy #nature #Tazawa #LakeTazawa #Akita #spring #muddy #photography #puddle
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Musing about Password-Based Cryptography for the Government
What would a modern NIST standard for password-based cryptography look like?
Obviously, we have PBKDF2–which, if used with a FIPS-approved hash function, gives you a way to derive encryption keys and/or password validators from human-memorable secrets.
However, PBKDF2 isn’t memory-hard.
In 2012, several cryptographers initiated the Password Hashing Competition (PHC) to study the state-of-the-art for password-based cryptography at the time. Part of this motivation was that memory-hard hashing (first developed by Colin Percival in scrypt a few years prior) provided greater defense against the increasing parallelism of modern password cracking techniques.
After a few years of cryptanalysis, the PHC selected an algorithm called Argon2, and gave special recognition to four other finalists.
And, quote the NIST SP 800-63B:
A memory-hard function SHOULD be used because it increases the cost of an attack.
If you were expecting, “Nevermore,” you’re currently reading the wrong literary genre.
“So, we’re done, right? Just use Argon2 and call it a day.”
We did it! Yayyyyyyyy~
…
Of course, it’s not that simple.
(Artist source unknown, meme generated from imgflip)What is Argon2?
Argon2 is defined in IETF RFC 9106. There are several variants of Argon2 that have subtly different security properties (Argon2d, Argon2i, Argon2id, Argon2ds — the latter one providing a property called cache-hardness. which Steve Thomas’s slide deck from BSidesLV 2022 explores in depth).
Argon2id is the variant most of us settled on in 2024.
Regardless of the variant used, the same underpinnings are used. From RFC 9106, section 3.2:
Argon2 uses an internal compression function G with two 1024-byte inputs, a 1024-byte output, and an internal hash function H^x(), with x being its output length in bytes. Here, H^x() applied to string A is the BLAKE2b ([BLAKE2], Section 3.3) function, which takes (d,ll,kk=0,nn=x) as parameters, where d is A padded to a multiple of 128 bytes and ll is the length of d in bytes. The compression function G is based on its internal permutation. A variable-length hash function H’ built upon H is also used. G is described in Section 3.5, and H’ is described in Section 3.3.
Bold text for emphasis.
If you weren’t adept at playing Crypto Algorithm Bingo, it might be easy to miss the fact that BLAKE2b is NOT a cryptographic algorithm approved for use in FIPS validated modules.
So, full stop, unless NIST and the US Department of Commerce turn over a new leaf and add BLAKE2 to the approved algorithms list for FIPS, this is a non-starter.
Well, why not use yescrypt? Or scrypt for that matter?
Yescrypt (and scrypt before it) are based on Salsa20/8. In fact, most of the time computing a KDF output with either algorithm is spent on Salsa20-encryption regions of memory.
After all the computing resources are spent on Salsa20/8 and memory management, PBKDF2-SHA256 is used to compress the output to a fixed length. This is arguably complying with NIST’s requirements to use PBKDF2–albeit with an iteration count of 1 (so it’s just artificially sweetened HMAC, if we’re being honest with ourselves).
How are systems complying today?
I’ve heard a few conflicting stories over the years from folks that care a lot about FIPS (presumably because the US government is a significant chunk of their annual recurring revenue). It’s possible I’m misremembering what they said, so please take these secondhand anecdotes with an appropriate amount of salt.
One person claimed that Scrypt is fine since “the last step is PBKDF2”, and if an auditor blinks, you allegedly just need to document all the Salsa20 stuff as “obfuscation” and PBKDF2 is what you’re really doing to comply.
Another approach I heard was to run a memory-hard KDF in parallel with PBKDF2, then use HKDF to combine the two outputs.
Between the two, I’m more likely to believe that an auditor would approve the latter HKDF-based design, but I’ve never worked at a NIST CMVP lab, so who knows?
Unfortunately, NIST SP 800-63B has little to say about the specifics:
Examples of suitable key derivation functions include Password-based Key Derivation Function 2 (PBKDF2) [SP 800-132] and Balloon [BALLOON]. A memory-hard function SHOULD be used because it increases the cost of an attack.
I already said that PBKDF2 isn’t memory hard, so that’s useless here.
The other example they gave, Balloon Hashing, is frankly a weird recommendation to make, given the lack of a stable reference implementation and how poorly specified it is.
This is starting to look like a catch-22. Maybe we would be better off not supporting passwords anymore.
But what if you can’t make that decision?
What would a modern NIST standard for password-based cryptography even look like?
Towards Gargon: Government-flavored Argon2
Is that last question even answerable?
I argue, “Probably yes.” From the introduction to RFC 9106:
Argon2 is also a mode of operation over a fixed-input-length compression function G and a variable-input-length hash function H. Even though Argon2 can be potentially used with an arbitrary function H, as long as it provides outputs up to 64 bytes, the BLAKE2b function [BLAKE2] is used in this document.
Clearly, the Argon2 RFC authors intended to allow the hash function be swapped out for another one.
So can we just
str_replace()BLAKE2b with SHA512 (or SHA3-512) and call our job done?No, that would be too easy.
The internal compression function, G
Argon2’s design involves computing the internal compression function, G, over regions of memory. The linked section of that version of RFC 9106 provides a good overview of the construction.
- G is defined in terms of the permutation, P.
- P is based on the round function of BLAKE2b.
- The BLAKE2b round function is based on ChaCha, which is similar to Salsa20 (and designed by the same author), which we already established isn’t approved for FIPS.
So if we’re going to invent a Government-tolerable variant of Argon2, we’ll need to be a bit more creative about our choice for G as well.
More precisely, even if we keep the overall structure of G intact, we’ll need to define a FIPS-able permutation, P.
The permutation, P, for building the internal compression function, G
A reasonable person would assume we would need to pick a component from the hash function we’re building atop which has an increased circuit depth. After all, that’s what the Argon2 designers did:
The modular additions in GB are combined with 64-bit multiplications. Multiplications are the only difference from the original BLAKE2b design. This choice is done to increase the circuit depth and thus the running time of ASIC implementations, while having roughly the same running time on CPUs thanks to parallelism and pipelining.
And this is where reasonableness hits a wall. There are several directions that one could go to invent Government-tolerable Argon2.
- The SHA-2 family compression function (i.e., , , , and ).
- The basic block permutation function from SHA3 (i.e., , , , , and ).
- Look elsewhere in the FIPS algorithm suite, such as AES (e.g., in Counter Mode, to exploit the hardware acceleration of AES in modern CPUs).
Each of these ideas is terrible in their own way.
The cryptanalysis results showing that the best attack against a full hash function costs 2 to some power queries don’t imply the security of each constituent component. So you’re really rolling the dice if you pursue this.
AES might be okay, depending on how it’s constructed and used. But the devil’s always in the details.
It’s starting to seem like Gargon’s possibility is fleeting, after all.
Wouldn’t life be simpler if NIST just approved BLAKE2b and/or Argon2 for use in FIPS validated modules?
Yes, life would be much simpler. NIST should do that.
Unfortunately, until that day comes, there are yet more windmills that need tilting.
https://scottarc.blog/2024/06/17/the-quest-for-the-gargon/
#Argon2 #crypto #Cryptography #CryptographyStandards #cybersecurity #encryption #FIPS #NIST #passwordBasedCryptography #passwords #PBKDF2 #security
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Reign is one of those systems that I was hoping might turn out to be the perfect RPG. Because that's what I'm looking for, and I'm sure it must exist, but none of the previous contenders weren't quite it. The previous contender was Burning Wheel, which I'd heard a lot of good stuff about, and the way Beliefs work is really great, and a big part of what I'm looking for. Only the rest of the system was extremely fiddly with excessive amounts of detail in some places (the enormous skill list) but fantastic bits in other places (lifepaths), but also some gaping holes (anything in between Fight and Bloody Versus).
Reign is next on my radar, and some stuff I read about it makes it sound it might be almost perfect. The dice system is unique and really interesting, but ultimately I fear it might be a bit gimmicky. You roll a dice pool of d10s, and all dice that come up with the same number form a set. You can roll multiple sets, and for each action you declared (which could be more than one), you pick one of your sets. The number of dice in the set is its width, the number on the dice is the height. Getting two different dimensions out of a single roll is a really cool idea. The problem is that the system tends to use these two dimensions for more than two things, which can have weird results.
For example, hits to your legs are easier to parry than hits to your head. I think that's the big one to me. Another one is that quick attacks that go first, also do more damage. I have less issue with that, but with 4 effects mapped to the two dimensions of the roll, I do wonder if two rolls wouldn't have made more sense.
Something I really love about it is that, unlike Burning Wheel, this system is intentionally a toolbox, meant to be tinkered with. Lots of optional rules and suggestions how to adapt it. These seem to be 5 chapters on combat; not sure if they're all the same system or alternatives, but clearly you can start easy and add detail as required.
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Polidectes le propone un plan a Perseo: si va a la caza de Medusa y le trae su cabeza, él dejará en paz a Dánae. El muchacho acepta porque no le queda otra. Para Polidectes, esto es un planazo: se libra de ese niñato molesto que le amarga sus planes de acosador y tendrá a una Dánae vulnerable de la que aprovecharse más fácilmente.
Recordemos que Perseo es un pringado máximo. Y aquí llega la ayuda divina: Atenea decide ayudar al muchacho. Medusa es un monstruo que petrifica con su mirada, con lo que conviene ir bien preparado. Atenea, diosa de la estrategia militar, le propone un buen plan a Perseo: le presta un escudo pulido para usar como espejo y así guiarse en la gruta donde vive Medusa sin tener que mirarla directamente.
Guiado por #Atenea y #Hermes, dios mensajero y protector de los viajeros, encuentran a las grayas, una tríade de ancianas que comparten un único ojo y un diente, y Perseo (ayudado por la astucia de Atenea) les quita el ojo para que les revelen la guarida de unas ninfas que custodian artefactos divinos.
Dichas ninfas entregan a Perseo un zurrón para guardar la cabeza de Medusa (cuya mirada puede seguir petrificado después de muerta), las sandalias aladas de Hermes y el casco de Hades para volverse invisible. Hermes también le da una hoz para acabar con el monstruo.
Así, Perseo llega a la gruta donde vive Medusa y gracias a tener tan buena build se la carga y guarda la cabeza en el zurrón.
Por el camino de vuelta conoce a Andrómeda pero esto lo guardo para otro día.
Cuando llega a Sérifos, Perseo se venga de Polidectes: cuando el rey le pregunta si ha tenido éxito, el muchacho saca la cabeza de Medusa y lo petrifica, liberando así a su mami.
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More Than a Game: On Joining the British Games Institute
Last week, I was formally onboarded as a new trustee of the British Games Institute (BGI), the incredible organisation that runs the National Videogames Museum. After taking part in my first board meeting, I’ve been reflecting on why this work is so important – and why it cuts to the very heart of the challenges and opportunities facing our entire industry.
For years, we’ve all heard the same statistics. We know the games industry is commercially massive, dwarfing film and music combined. We are, by any financial metric, a spectacular success story.
But for all our commercial confidence, we have been shamefully quiet when it comes to our cultural confidence. As an industry, we are incredibly adept at talking about what we make and how much it sells for, but we are often silent, or even dismissive, on the subject of why it matters.
We lack cultural leadership. We have very few public-facing institutions that look beyond that huge financial bottom line and champion the deeper, transformative potential of play.
The Role of The British Games Institute
This is precisely why the BGI and the National Videogames Museum are so vital. They are one of the very few organisations in the UK dedicated to preserving, cataloguing, and interrogating games as a cultural form. They are the epitome of the ‘More Than Games’ philosophy – a permanent, physical declaration that games are more than just ‘digital toys’ suitable only for children, or financially lucrative products; they are artistic expressions, social platforms, and powerful tools for learning and connection.
In an industry defined by rapid technological change and relentless forward momentum, we need an institution that has the mandate to look back, to hold onto our history, and to ask critical questions about our impact.
But for me, this new role isn’t just about preservation. That work is essential, but it is the foundation, not the final structure. The true opportunity is to help build upon that foundation. It’s about looking beyond just cataloguing the past and helping to position Britain as a global leader in thinking about games differently.
This is a platform to champion the role of games in our wider cultural and social life. It’s about moving from simply preserving our history to actively using our medium’s power to shape the future – in education, in healthcare, in public policy, and in our national discourse.
I am incredibly proud and excited to join the BGI board and to contribute to this mission. It is work that aligns perfectly with everything we are trying to build here in Scotland – a mature, confident, and culturally-aware games ecosystem that understands its own value far beyond the balance sheet.
#bgi #britishGamesInstitute #games #nationalVideogameMuseum #nvm #sheffield #uk
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“It’s also okay if you decide to do something else for a while”
Please note: this is an anonymous response to an online survey; I do not have any way of contacting the respondent or verifying responses. Their answers may reflect good, bad, or middling job searching practices. I invite you to take what’s useful and leave the rest.
Your Demographics and Search Parameters
How long have you been job hunting?
√ More than 18 months
Why are you job hunting?
√ This is the next step after finishing library/archives/other LIS graduate degree,
√ I’m underemployed (not enough hours or overqualified for current position),
√ Looking for a promotion/more responsibility,
√ I want to work with a different population,
√ I want to work at a different type of library/institution
Where do you look for open positions?
LinkedIn, Simmons Jobline, Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners jobs postings, specific local libraries’ employment sites, HigherEdJobs
What position level are you looking for?
√ Entry level,
√ Requiring at least two years of experience
What type(s) of organization are you looking in?
√ Public library
What part of the world are you in?
√ Northeastern US
What’s your region like?
√ Urban area
Are you willing/able to move for employment?
√ No
What are the top three things you’re looking for in a job?
public-facing work, professional-level title and equivalent responsibilities, located in or near my community
How many jobs have you applied to during your current search? (Please indicate if it’s an estimate or exact)
48 (exact)
What steps, actions, or attributes are most important for employers to take to sell you on the job?
√ Pay well,
√ Introducing me to staff,
√ Prioritizing EDI work,
√ Prioritizing work-life balance
Do you expect to see the salary range listed in a job ad?
√ Yes, and it’s a red flag when it’s not
Other than not listing a salary range, are there other “red flags” that would prevent you from applying to a job?
Complete absence of EDI language in listing; listings that include mostly librarian-level work but are presented as para-professional roles
The Process
How much time do you spend preparing an application packet?
3-6 hours
What are the steps you follow to prepare an application packet?
research library, including department structure, major initiatives, and current staff; adjust resume language to create a version that mirrors job posting; adapt the most relevant previous cover letter to fit role; proofread
How do you prefer to communicate with potential employers?
√ Email
When would you like potential employers to contact you?
√ To acknowledge my application,
√ To tell me if the search is at the interview stage, even if I have not been selected,
√ Once the position has been filled, even if it’s not me
How long do you expect an organization’s application process to take, from the point you submit your documents to the point of either an offer or rejection?
The average over my search has been about 75 days, so I guess that’s what I expect at this point. That’s pretty terrible, though.
How do you prepare for interviews?
Researching committee members, department, larger library system, relevant topics, etc. and typing up copious notes. Writing out answers to common questions to find articulate ways to say things (obviously I don’t read the notes in the interview, but writing through things helps me). Making an extensive list of questions that I want to ask. Reading up on recent literature in the field for areas that I have less direct experience with.
What are your most hated interview questions, and why?
“What tools or tricks do you use to stay organized?” – I don’t have many, but I’m still a pretty organized person, so it either comes off like I’m bragging or I haven’t thought about how to organize my work.
During your current search, have you had any of the following experiences:
- Submitted an application and got no response √ Happened more than once
- Had an interview and never heard back √ Not Applicable
- Interviewed for a job where an internal candidate was eventually chosen √ Happened the majority of the time or always
- Asked for an accommodation for a disability √ Not Applicable
- Withdrawn an application before the offer stage √ Happened more than once
- Turned down an offer √ Happened once
If you have ever withdrawn an application, why?
The position wasn’t ideal in the first place, but I really wanted to move on to a new thing. Then during the interviewing process it became clear that it was a bad match.
If you’ve turned down an offer (or offers), why?
It turned out that working with children and young adults was a much larger part of the role than I had anticipated, and while I wasn’t opposed to that, the pay was quite low so those two things combined made me think it wasn’t the right job for me. I kind of regret that now, though.
If you want to share a great, inspirational, funny, horrific or other story about an experience you have had at any stage in the hiring process, please do so here:
I applied for a role that was fairly similar to the one I have now, but would have been a professional librarian position (my current role is classified as para-professional) and it was at a different type of library, about halfway between where I am now (academic special collections) and where I’d ideally like to be (public). During the interview, it became clear just how clearly matched my skills from my current role were to the role they were hiring for, and the hiring manager just said “I think you’d be bored in this job. Would you be bored?” I mean, he wasn’t wrong, but that was a weird thing to be asked/try to answer in an interview setting. Also I once went through four rounds of interviews for a job only to have one of the interviewers tell me (in a one-on-one zoom conversation) that I shouldn’t want the job because it would basically crush my spirit. Again, wasn’t wrong, but…how do you respond to that??
What should employers do to make the hiring process better for job hunters?
I know it’s never going to happen, but please, once you’re into final interviews, can you tell the rest of us that we’re out of the game?? Also, way more people should consider providing interview questions in advance, I don’t know why this isn’t normalized. Yes, many types of librarianship require being able to answer questions on the fly, but usually with resources at hand! And in a deeply interactive way! I’m also kind of sick of the idea of being “overqualified”–this is not my first career, I’m coming to it a little older than some others, and yes, I have the degree and some experience, but I can’t even get interviews for assistant/associate jobs, and I have to assume part of that is the assumption of being “overqualified” and/or that it would be a “stepping stone” but it’s really frustrating!
You and Your Well-Being
How are you doing, generally?
√ I’m somewhat depressed,
√ I’m frustrated,
√ I feel alone in my search
What are your job search self-care strategies?
keeping data on the search is helpful for me in terms of feeling informed and managing expectations; existentialism?? idk
Do you have any advice or words of support you’d like to share with other job hunters, is there anything you’d like to say to employers, or is there anything else you’d like to say about job hunting?
This is kind of the worst, and I know that’s not inspiring, but hey, solidarity. It’s also okay if you decide to do something else for a while–I’ve had like three and a half careers and have multiple advanced degrees and I’m still in my thirties, you can broaden your horizons and it’s not the end of the world.
Do you have any comments for Emily (the survey author) or are there any other questions you think we should add to this survey?
I’ve been reading these for so long and the responses are always meaningful, even the ones that seem to have very little in common with my own experiences. I didn’t realize the survey was still open until today, but I’m thrilled to be able to participate! I really appreciate your work on the site (and the podcast!)–thank you for this!
Job Hunting Post Graduate School
If you have an MLIS or other graduate level degree in a LIS field, what year did you graduate? (Or what year do you anticipate graduating?)
2022
When did you start your first job search for a “professional” position (or other position that utilized your degree)?
√ After graduating with my MLIS/other LIS degree
In relation to your graduation, when did you find your first “professional” position?
√ Hasn’t happened yet – I’m still looking
What kind of work was your first post-graduation professional position?
√ N/A – hasn’t happened yet
Did you get support from your library school for your first job hunt (and/or any subsequent ones)?
Ha no. I tried working with career services for resume/cover letter review. They gave me one formatting suggestion (which I didn’t take) and told me that my cover letter was “one of the best” they’d seen–I mean, thanks? But it’s not working? So???
Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about searching for or finding your first post-graduation position?
See comment about about the “overqualified” paradox. Also switching from one type of library to another is shockingly hard??
#GLAMJobs #librarians #libraries #libraryHiring #libraryInterview #libraryJobs #libraryWork #LISCareers #lisJobs
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does this coloration look like late evening or early morning? ... or like some kind of otherworldly demonic blood tempest?
thank you for your input
#PixelArt #PixelFed #background #BackgroundArt #FeedbackWelcome
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I've finalized 3 #pixel palettes for my #PixelArt #VisualNovel Dungeon of Departure! LET'S GO!!!
1) normal lantern lighting
2) dim flame lighting
3) green otherworldly [redacted] "lighting" (spoilers)#PixelFed #PixelArtist #MastoArt #FediArt #IndieDev #IndieGame #ColorPalette #Color #Palette #BackgroundArt #Dungeon #DungeonOfDeparture #RetroGaming #GameDev #FeedbackWelcome #ドット絵 #GameArt
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newly finished #PixelArt #Background from my #VisualNovel project... ancient cave writing in a deep, dark, underground labyrinth....
#IndieDev #GameDev #MastoArt #original #FediArt #ドット絵 #art #FeedbackWelcome #DungeonOfDeparture
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I wrote a poem today about feeling #cold
the tone of it may seem depressing, but I assure you it is not meant to be...
#poetry #poem #poet #autumn #emotions #CreativeWriting #writing #WritingCommunity #october #fall #FeedbackWelcome
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I'm estimating that I have less than half of the #soundtrack and audio for my #VisualNovel complete and it's already 348 MB... I haven't compressed the files yet, but I'm worried my total game size is going to be like 2 MB of code, 16 MB of images, and 1 GB of audio...
is that normal? can any #GameDev or #RenPy VN devs here give context from their own creations?
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Psychology of Delusions: Why We Cling to False Beliefs
Delusions aren’t just quirky thoughts; they’re deeply held beliefs that defy logic and evidence. They’re like stubborn weeds in the garden of the mind, refusing to budge even when confronted with the most compelling counterarguments. But why do they take root in the first place? Often, it’s because they serve a purpose, acting as a psychological shield against the harsh realities of life. Think of them as a mental coping mechanism, a way to cushion the blow of painful truths or overwhelming anxieties. The DSM-5, the psychiatrist’s bible, defines them as fixed beliefs resistant to change, often arising from complex emotional and cognitive landscapes. They’re not mere whims, but rather a reflection of a deep-seated psychological need.
Perception, delusion, and reality are like three intertwined threads, each distinct yet constantly interacting. Perception is how we take in and make sense of the world around us. Reality, though a slippery concept, is generally understood as the objective truth, independent of our individual biases. Delusions, however, are like tricksters, masquerading as interpretations of reality, especially when our minds need a comforting narrative to shield us from the harsh glare of truth. The key difference? Delusions persist even when confronted with a mountain of evidence to the contrary. You might see a shadow and, quite rationally, assume it’s just that – a shadow. But a delusional mind might interpret that same shadow as an omen of impending doom, even when the light clearly reveals its true nature.
Challenging a delusion head-on is like poking a hornet’s nest. You’re not just questioning a belief; you’re threatening the very foundation upon which a person’s psychological stability rests. Imagine someone convinced their long-lost friend is still sending them letters, despite evidence to the contrary. Presenting them with proof of their friend’s passing might trigger denial, accusations of forgery, or even a complete rejection of the system. It’s a defensive maneuver, a desperate attempt to protect a fragile sense of self. Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, recognized this phenomenon, noting that dismantling illusions can lead to a psychological unraveling. The backlash can be fierce because, in their mind, the person is fighting for their emotional survival.
Yet, there’s hope. With careful and empathetic guidance, it’s possible to gently nudge a person towards a re-evaluation of their delusional framework. Carl Jung, a pioneer of analytical psychology, believed that true insight comes from within, not from external criticism. Allowing individuals to question their own assumptions, at their own pace, can lead to a more lasting and meaningful realization. This is why the adage “Don’t mess with people’s delusions” holds so much weight. Direct confrontation can be like ripping off a Band-Aid too quickly, leaving the wound exposed and more vulnerable than before.
Humanity has a knack for weaving illusions into the fabric of our cultures, politics, and religions. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave paints a vivid picture of this. Prisoners chained in a cave, seeing only shadows projected on a wall, mistake these shadows for reality. When one prisoner escapes and sees the true world, his attempts to enlighten his fellow prisoners are met with disbelief and scorn. This allegory highlights the uncomfortable truth that challenging collective delusions can trigger hostility and resistance.
But here’s the real test of us: can we, or should we, even strive to live entirely without delusions? On the one hand, intellectual honesty demands that we seek the truth, no matter how uncomfortable. On the other hand, some illusions, like a touch of self-deception, can act as a buffer against the anxieties of existence. Nietzsche, the philosopher of the Übermensch, even argued that certain illusions are life-affirming, fueling our creativity and helping us cope with the bleakness of reality.
In a world often perceived as cruel and chaotic, delusions can offer a sense of solace. Some find comfort in rigid belief systems, while others cling to unwavering optimism or an exaggerated sense of control. These illusions act as psychological scaffolding, propping up our emotional well-being. They may not be rooted in logic or morality, but they can become essential tools for self-preservation.
However, we must also acknowledge the darker side of illusions. When they morph into widespread ideologies, they can justify violence and oppression. Collective delusions, or myths, can warp our moral compasses, leading to the exploitation and harm of others. History is littered with examples of this, from totalitarian regimes to colonial conquests, each fueled by distorted narratives that masked injustice.
Can we ever truly escape the clutches of delusion? Human cognition is remarkably adaptable. Through philosophical inquiry, scientific discovery, and introspection, we can challenge and refine our illusions. But complete eradication of self-deception is a rare feat. At best, we cycle through illusions, trading one for another that seems more beneficial or less harmful. Ideally, we replace delusion with knowledge and acceptance, but even our understanding of reality is constantly evolving, shaped by partial truths and inherent biases.
We stand at a crossroads, caught between the need for psychological comfort and the pursuit of moral truth. Delusions can cushion us from life’s blows and even inspire creativity. But left unchecked, they can fester into social and ethical maladies. To truly understand these “warped reality fields,” we must recognize their potential for both harm and creative expression. They can propel us to imaginative heights, fueling art, literature, and innovation, but they can also trap us in denial and destructive behavior.
“Don’t mess with people’s delusions” is both a warning and an invitation to engage thoughtfully. We must respect the emotional function of these beliefs, but we cannot remain silent when they cause harm. The key lies in finding a balance: empathy coupled with a commitment to truth, ethical responsibility, and personal growth. In a world that’s constantly changing and often harsh, a little psychological sedation might seem necessary, but critical thinking and moral vigilance are equally crucial if we hope to build a better collective reality.
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#commerce #coping #delusions #dilemma #mechs #morality #perception #psychology #reality #warped
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Polidectes le propone un plan a Perseo: si va a la caza de Medusa y le trae su cabeza, él dejará en paz a Dánae. El muchacho acepta porque no le queda otra. Para Polidectes, esto es un planazo: se libra de ese niñato molesto que le amarga sus planes de acosador y tendrá a una Dánae vulnerable de la que aprovecharse más fácilmente.
Recordemos que Perseo es un pringado máximo. Y aquí llega la ayuda divina: Atenea decide ayudar al muchacho. Medusa es un monstruo que petrifica con su mirada, con lo que conviene ir bien preparado. Atenea, diosa de la estrategia militar, le propone un buen plan a Perseo: le presta un escudo pulido para usar como espejo y así guiarse en la gruta donde vive Medusa sin tener que mirarla directamente.
Guiado por #Atenea y #Hermes, dios mensajero y protector de los viajeros, encuentran a las grayas, una tríade de ancianas que comparten un único ojo y un diente, y Perseo (ayudado por la astucia de Atenea) les quita el ojo para que les revelen la guarida de unas ninfas que custodian artefactos divinos.
Dichas ninfas entregan a Perseo un zurrón para guardar la cabeza de Medusa (cuya mirada puede seguir petrificado después de muerta), las sandalias aladas de Hermes y el casco de Hades para volverse invisible. Hermes también le da una hoz para acabar con el monstruo.
Así, Perseo llega a la gruta donde vive Medusa y gracias a tener tan buena build se la carga y guarda la cabeza en el zurrón.
Por el camino de vuelta conoce a Andrómeda pero esto lo guardo para otro día.
Cuando llega a Sérifos, Perseo se venga de Polidectes: cuando el rey le pregunta si ha tenido éxito, el muchacho saca la cabeza de Medusa y lo petrifica, liberando así a su mami.
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Polidectes le propone un plan a Perseo: si va a la caza de Medusa y le trae su cabeza, él dejará en paz a Dánae. El muchacho acepta porque no le queda otra. Para Polidectes, esto es un planazo: se libra de ese niñato molesto que le amarga sus planes de acosador y tendrá a una Dánae vulnerable de la que aprovecharse más fácilmente.
Recordemos que Perseo es un pringado máximo. Y aquí llega la ayuda divina: Atenea decide ayudar al muchacho. Medusa es un monstruo que petrifica con su mirada, con lo que conviene ir bien preparado. Atenea, diosa de la estrategia militar, le propone un buen plan a Perseo: le presta un escudo pulido para usar como espejo y así guiarse en la gruta donde vive Medusa sin tener que mirarla directamente.
Guiado por #Atenea y #Hermes, dios mensajero y protector de los viajeros, encuentran a las grayas, una tríade de ancianas que comparten un único ojo y un diente, y Perseo (ayudado por la astucia de Atenea) les quita el ojo para que les revelen la guarida de unas ninfas que custodian artefactos divinos.
Dichas ninfas entregan a Perseo un zurrón para guardar la cabeza de Medusa (cuya mirada puede seguir petrificado después de muerta), las sandalias aladas de Hermes y el casco de Hades para volverse invisible. Hermes también le da una hoz para acabar con el monstruo.
Así, Perseo llega a la gruta donde vive Medusa y gracias a tener tan buena build se la carga y guarda la cabeza en el zurrón.
Por el camino de vuelta conoce a Andrómeda pero esto lo guardo para otro día.
Cuando llega a Sérifos, Perseo se venga de Polidectes: cuando el rey le pregunta si ha tenido éxito, el muchacho saca la cabeza de Medusa y lo petrifica, liberando así a su mami.
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Polidectes le propone un plan a Perseo: si va a la caza de Medusa y le trae su cabeza, él dejará en paz a Dánae. El muchacho acepta porque no le queda otra. Para Polidectes, esto es un planazo: se libra de ese niñato molesto que le amarga sus planes de acosador y tendrá a una Dánae vulnerable de la que aprovecharse más fácilmente.
Recordemos que Perseo es un pringado máximo. Y aquí llega la ayuda divina: Atenea decide ayudar al muchacho. Medusa es un monstruo que petrifica con su mirada, con lo que conviene ir bien preparado. Atenea, diosa de la estrategia militar, le propone un buen plan a Perseo: le presta un escudo pulido para usar como espejo y así guiarse en la gruta donde vive Medusa sin tener que mirarla directamente.
Guiado por #Atenea y #Hermes, dios mensajero y protector de los viajeros, encuentran a las grayas, una tríade de ancianas que comparten un único ojo y un diente, y Perseo (ayudado por la astucia de Atenea) les quita el ojo para que les revelen la guarida de unas ninfas que custodian artefactos divinos.
Dichas ninfas entregan a Perseo un zurrón para guardar la cabeza de Medusa (cuya mirada puede seguir petrificado después de muerta), las sandalias aladas de Hermes y el casco de Hades para volverse invisible. Hermes también le da una hoz para acabar con el monstruo.
Así, Perseo llega a la gruta donde vive Medusa y gracias a tener tan buena build se la carga y guarda la cabeza en el zurrón.
Por el camino de vuelta conoce a Andrómeda pero esto lo guardo para otro día.
Cuando llega a Sérifos, Perseo se venga de Polidectes: cuando el rey le pregunta si ha tenido éxito, el muchacho saca la cabeza de Medusa y lo petrifica, liberando así a su mami.
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Polidectes le propone un plan a Perseo: si va a la caza de Medusa y le trae su cabeza, él dejará en paz a Dánae. El muchacho acepta porque no le queda otra. Para Polidectes, esto es un planazo: se libra de ese niñato molesto que le amarga sus planes de acosador y tendrá a una Dánae vulnerable de la que aprovecharse más fácilmente.
Recordemos que Perseo es un pringado máximo. Y aquí llega la ayuda divina: Atenea decide ayudar al muchacho. Medusa es un monstruo que petrifica con su mirada, con lo que conviene ir bien preparado. Atenea, diosa de la estrategia militar, le propone un buen plan a Perseo: le presta un escudo pulido para usar como espejo y así guiarse en la gruta donde vive Medusa sin tener que mirarla directamente.
Guiado por #Atenea y #Hermes, dios mensajero y protector de los viajeros, encuentran a las grayas, una tríade de ancianas que comparten un único ojo y un diente, y Perseo (ayudado por la astucia de Atenea) les quita el ojo para que les revelen la guarida de unas ninfas que custodian artefactos divinos.
Dichas ninfas entregan a Perseo un zurrón para guardar la cabeza de Medusa (cuya mirada puede seguir petrificado después de muerta), las sandalias aladas de Hermes y el casco de Hades para volverse invisible. Hermes también le da una hoz para acabar con el monstruo.
Así, Perseo llega a la gruta donde vive Medusa y gracias a tener tan buena build se la carga y guarda la cabeza en el zurrón.
Por el camino de vuelta conoce a Andrómeda pero esto lo guardo para otro día.
Cuando llega a Sérifos, Perseo se venga de Polidectes: cuando el rey le pregunta si ha tenido éxito, el muchacho saca la cabeza de Medusa y lo petrifica, liberando así a su mami.
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this is what the Puget Sound region would look like in the (completely impossible) scenario of sea levels rising 100 meters rather quickly.
this animation comes from a new video I posted on my YouTube Channel that shows a 100m sea level rise 20+ other locations around the globe.
https://www.youtube.com/@quiteadept
#PugetSound #Seattle #MapPorn #Maps #SeaLevel #ImaginaryMaps #Animation #DataVisualization #Vancouver #PNW
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Are you referring to my mentions being @Erik :heart_agender: and @Roknrol rather than what you're used to, namely @bright_helpings and @roknrol? Using the long name rather than the short name and keeping the @ outside the link rather than making it part of the link? Likewise, the # being outside the hashtag link rather than being part of it?
This is because I'm not on Mastodon. The Fediverse is not only Mastodon. It has never been. So this is not a toot.
No, really. This is what I post from: https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/channel/jupiter_rowland, https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/profile/jupiter_rowland. I ask you: Does this look like Mastodon? Have you ever seen Mastodon look like this?
Where I am, this style of mentions and hashtags is hard-coded. And it has been since long before Mastodon was even an idea.
I'm on something named Hubzilla. Hubzilla is not a Mastodon instance. Hubzilla is not a Mastodon fork either. Hubzilla has got absolutely nothing to do with Mastodon at all.
It is its very own project, fully independent from Mastodon (https://hubzilla.org, https://framagit.org/hubzilla, https://joinfediverse.wiki/Hubzilla).
Hubzilla has not intruded into "the Mastodon Fediverse" either. The Fediverse is older than Mastodon. And Hubzilla was there before Mastodon.
Hubzilla was launched by @Mike Macgirvin ?️ in March, 2015, eight months before Mastodon, by renaming and redesigning his own Red Matrix from 2012, almost four years before Mastodon. And the Red Matrix was a fork of a fork of his own Friendica, which was launched on July 2nd, 2010, 15 years ago, five and a half years before Mastodon. (https://en.wikipedia.org/Friendica, https://friendi.ca, https://github.com/friendica, https://joinfediverse.wiki/Friendica)
Friendica was there before Mastodon, too.
Here's the official Friendica/Hubzilla timeline on Hubzilla's official website to show you that I'm not making anything up: https://hubzilla.org/page/info/timeline. Scroll all the way down and notice all the features that you may right now know for a fact that the Fediverse doesn't have, but that Friendica has introduced to the Fediverse 15 years ago, five and a half years before Mastodon was launched.
Again, Mastodon has never been its own network. The Fediverse has never been only Mastodon. When Mastodon was launched in January, 2016, it immediately federated with- GNU social, the successor to @Evan Prodromou's StatusNet from 2008 (the actual start of the Fediverse, eight years older than Mastodon)
- @Mike Macgirvin ?️'s Friendica, now maintained by @Tobias and @Michael 🇺🇦
- @Mike Macgirvin ?️'s Hubzilla
Friendica has been formatting mentions and hashtags the way I just did for 15 years now. When Mastodon was launched, Friendica has been formatting them that way for five and a half years already, and Hubzilla has done so for ten months. It is hard-coded there. It is not a user option.
That's because not everything in the Fediverse is a Twitter clone or Twitter alternative. [b]Friendica was designed as a Facebook alternative with full-blown long-form blogging capability. And Hubzilla adds even more stuff to this. This is why Friendica and Hubzilla don't mimic Twitter.
Another shocking fact: As you can clearly see here, Friendica and Hubzilla don't have Mastodon's 500-character limit. Friendica's character limit is 200,000. Hubzilla's character limit is 16,777,215, the maximum length of the database field. And it's deeply engrained in their culture, which is many years older than Mastodon's culture, to not worry about the length of a post exceeding 500 characters.
One more shocking fact: Friendica has had quote-posts since its very beginning. So has Hubzilla. Both have always been able to quote-post any public Mastodon toot, and they will forever remain able to quote-post any public Mastodon toot. And Mastodon will never be able to do anything against it. (By the way: In 15 years of Friendica, nobody has ever used quote-posts for dogpiling or harassment purposes. Neither Friendica nor Hubzilla is Twitter.)
You find this disturbing? You think none of this should exist in the Fediverse, even though all this has been in the Fediverse for longer than Mastodon?
Then go ahead and block all instances of Friendica and Hubzilla as well as all instances of Mike's later creations, (streams) (https://codeberg.org/streams/streams) from 2021 and Forte (https://codeberg.org/fortified/forte) from 2024.- https://friendica.fediverse.observer/list
- https://fedidb.com/software/friendica
- https://rumbly.net/communities?project=friendica
- https://nomad.fedi-verse.hu/communities?project=friendica
- https://streams.elsmussols.net/communities?project=friendica
- https://hubzilla.fediverse.observer/list
- https://fedidb.com/software/hubzilla
- https://rumbly.net/communities?project=hubzilla
- https://nomad.fedi-verse.hu/communities?project=hubzilla
- https://streams.elsmussols.net/communities?project=hubzilla
- https://rumbly.net/communities?type=streams_repository
- https://nomad.fedi-verse.hu/communities?type=streams_repository
- https://streams.elsmussols.net/communities?type=streams_repository
- https://rumbly.net/communities?project=forte
- https://nomad.fedi-verse.hu/communities?project=forte
- https://streams.elsmussols.net/communities?project=forte
Or you could go ask @Seirdy / DM me the word "bread" and @Garden Fence Blocklist as well as @Mad Villain of @The Bad Space to add every last instance on any of these lists to their blocklists for being "rampantly and unabashedly ableist and xenophobic by design" due to not being and acting and working like Mastodon and just as rampantly and unabashedly refusing to fully adopt and adapt to the Mastodon-centric "Fediverse culture" as defined by fresh Twitter refugees on Mastodon in mid-2022 as well as refusing to abandon their own culture which is disturbingly incompatible with Mastodon's. Essentially try and have four entire Fediverse server applications Fediblocked once and for all because they're so disturbing from a "Fediverse equals Mastodon" point of view.
Or you could go to Mastodon's GitHub repository (https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon), submit a feature request for defederating Mastodon from everything that isn't Mastodon by design and then go lobbying for support for your feature request.
As for why I have so many hashtags below my comments, here is what they mean. Many of them are meant to trigger filters, including such that automatically hide posts behind content warning buttons, a feature that Mastodon has had since October, 2022, that Friendica has had since July, 2010, and that Hubzilla has had since March, 2015.- #Long, #LongPost = This post is over 500 characters long. Create a filter for either or both of these hashtags if you don't want to see my or anyone else's long posts.
- #CWLong, #CWLongPost = CW: long post (over 500 characters long). Create a filter for either or both of these hashtags if you don't want to see my or anyone else's long posts.
- #FediMeta, #FediverseMeta = This post talks about the Fediverse. Create a filter for either or both of these hashtags if you don't want to see me or anyone talk about the Fediverse.
- #CWFediMeta, #CWFediverseMeta = CW: Fediverse meta. Or: CW: Fediverse meta, Fediverse-beyond-Mastodon meta. Or: CW: Fediverse meta, non-Mastodon Fediverse meta. Create a filter for either or both of these hashtags if you don't want to see me or anyone talk about the Fediverse.
- #NotOnlyMastodon, #FediverseIsNotMastodon, #MastodonIsNotTheFediverse: This post talks about the Fediverse not only being Mastodon. Create a filter for either or multiple or all of these hashtags if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about the Fediverse being more than Mastodon. Otherwise, click or tap any of these hashtags to read more about it in your Fediverse app.
- #Friendica: This post talks about the Facebook alternative in the Fediverse named Friendica. Create a filter for it if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about Friendica. Otherwise, click or tap it to read more about it in your Fediverse app. It is also meant for post discovery.
- #Hubzilla: This post talks about the Swiss army knif of the Fediverse named Hubzilla. Create a filter for it if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about Hubzilla. Otherwise, click or tap it to read more about it in your Fediverse app. It is also meant for post discovery.
- #Streams, #(streams): This post talks about the Facebook alternative in the Fediverse commonly referred to as (streams). Create a filter for either or both of them if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about Friendica. Otherwise, click or tap either of them to read more about it in your Fediverse app. It is also meant for post discovery.
- #Forte: This post talks about the Facebook alternative in the Fediverse named Forte. Create a filter for it if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about Forte. Otherwise, click or tap it to read more about it in your Fediverse app. It is also meant for post discovery.
- #AltText = This post talks about alt-text and/or contains an image with alt-text. It is primarily meant for post discovery.
- #AltTextMeta = This post talks about alt-text. Create a filter for this hashtag if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about alt-text.
- #CWAltTextMeta = CW: alt-text meta. Create a filter for this hashtag if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about alt-text.
- #ImageDescription = This post talks about image descriptions and/or contains an image with an image description. It is primarily meant for post discovery.
- #ImageDescriptions, #ImageDescriptionMeta = This post talks about image descriptions. Create a filter for either of these hashtags if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about image descriptions.
- #CWImageDescriptionMeta = CW: image description meta. Create a filter for this hashtag if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about image descriptions.
- #Hashtag, #Hashtags, #HashtagMeta = This post talks about hashtags. Create a filter for either of these hashtags if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about hashtags.
- #CWHashtagMeta = CW: hashtag meta. Create a filter for this hashtag if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about hashtags.
- #CharacterLimit, #CharacterLimits = This post is talking about character limits. It is primarily meant for post discovery. But if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about character limits, create a filter for any of these hashtags.
- #QuotePost, #QuoteTweet, #QuoteToot, #QuoteBoost = This post talks about quote-posts and/or contains a quote-post. If this disturbs you, create a filter for any of these hashtags.
- #QuotePosts, #QuoteTweets, #QuoteToots, #QuoteBoosts, #QuotedShares = This post talks about quote-posts. Create a filter for either of these hashtags if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about quote-posts.
- #QuotePostDebate, #QuoteTootDebate = This post talks about quote-posts. Create a filter for either of these hashtags if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about quote-posts.
- #FediblockMeta = This post is talking about fediblocks. It is primarily meant for post discovery.
Lastly: Having all hashtags in one line at the very end of a post that only contains hashtags is the preferred way in the Fediverse. For one, hashtags in their own line at the end of the post irritate screen reader users much less than hashtags in the middle of the text. It's actually hashtags in the middle of the text that are ableist. Besides, Mastodon is explicitly designed to have a separate hashtag line at the end of the post. -
Recently moved to a new 7-string as my primary guitar. It has a marginally wider nut than my old 7.
Weirdly, the thing that's hardest to adapt is my muting technique - the fleshy bits of my fingers and my right hand palm are _just_ not quite touching the adjacent strings, and I get sympathetic notes sounding.
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Recently moved to a new 7-string as my primary guitar. It has a marginally wider nut than my old 7.
Weirdly, the thing that's hardest to adapt is my muting technique - the fleshy bits of my fingers and my right hand palm are _just_ not quite touching the adjacent strings, and I get sympathetic notes sounding.
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Recently moved to a new 7-string as my primary guitar. It has a marginally wider nut than my old 7.
Weirdly, the thing that's hardest to adapt is my muting technique - the fleshy bits of my fingers and my right hand palm are _just_ not quite touching the adjacent strings, and I get sympathetic notes sounding.
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Recently moved to a new 7-string as my primary guitar. It has a marginally wider nut than my old 7.
Weirdly, the thing that's hardest to adapt is my muting technique - the fleshy bits of my fingers and my right hand palm are _just_ not quite touching the adjacent strings, and I get sympathetic notes sounding.
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Your favorite fantasy TV series was cancelled, now what? RPGs
A few years ago it was the heyday of big, high fantasy TV series. Yes, the grit of Game of Thrones and Witcher were still popular, but there were also a selection of shows with a higher level of magic, higher level of heroism and a set of characters who you wanted to win. It was the era of peak fantasy TV.
Slowly but surely these faded away.
Screenshot of Willow on Disney+Some series got a reasonable run — The Magicians reached a conclusion. Some series were cut quite short — Willow, ended with more story to tell.
Universes were announced to be expanding. Shadow & Bone went from having the Six of Crows spinoff announced to the entire project dying.
There was big money in fantasy for a bit. These weren’t Brit TV specials like Merlin or modern attempts at low budget like Xena.
The biggest money of them all is still around. Rings of Power, the prequel-ish endeavor by Prime Video churns along at price points that are normally saved for theater or Andor.
The wheel weaves as the wheel wills, always turning.
Sometimes the wheel destroys the things you enjoy, like Wheel of Time — especially the last half of season 2 and all of season 3 with strong reviews and great fan appreciation. While there was enormous pushback against the changes made to adapt to the shorter run time of a book plus a bit per season, as well as pushback against the attempts to be less coded and more openly diverse, the series was generally well received. It was generally profitable.
It’s gone.
The story won’t finish (except in the books, which will always be around). Yes, there’s a petition to Save Wheel of Time. I hope it succeeds. Brandon Sanderson seems to suggest it should, but will not.
Petitions and book reading are passive.
Don’t be passive — adapt those stories to an RPG
Playing games in those worlds is active participation in the fandom, and helps build out that word of mouth.
You don’t need to have an authorized book in order to play. Any fantasy series, movie, video game, book, comic, etc can show up at your table.
You can instead borrow the themes, cultures, characters and put them in your world. Sure, you could play pure within the world created by Robert Jordan or Lev Grossman or Jonathan Kasdan.
The power of roleplaying games is that the tale is yours, no one can take it from you. The rules can be simple enough to fit on a business card or so complex it fills bookshelves.
What happens to Jade, Kit and Elora?
That’s up to you.
What happens to Mat, Perrin, Elayne, Min and the rest?
That’s up to you.
Take the themes, tropes and world of that story that a committee decided was no longer worth being told and tell it yourself.
That’s why I fell in love with D&D and RPGs in the 80s.
The unfinished trilogy, or maybe not
Back in my youth my bookshelves were covered with science fiction, fantasy and encyclopedias. Words on a page were meant to be consumed by me, like a black hole consumes a galaxy.
I’d shop at a used bookstore, looking for a new series to start. Except sometimes I’d never find book 2, let alone the inevitable trilogy. Sometimes I would start with book 3!
One of my favorite tales, and I say this as someone who had pets but didn’t really discover the love of pets until my 30s, was a story about a fading order of knights who rode giant tigers. The hero wasn’t really part of the order. His family was and he had that extremely large cat. In this dying world they journeyed, starting as outsiders and immediately recognized as legendary. But they were just a dude and a great cat.
They didn’t want to be heroes. It was so compelling, this story of man and beast who wanted to be normal while the world needed them to be great.
I never found book 2.
But I had already discovered Dungeons & Dragons. A character paralleling that tale was created. We roamed the worlds that Erik and Justin and Chis and Abel and Hayes and Jacob and Colin and Andrew and others created.
We finished that tale.
Wheel of Time is over, unless it isn’t
The series explored slightly different things from the books. One of those was how tales are told. There’s a suggestion from the meta of the series that within a world where there are endless retellings of tales and history.
What changes, and what stays the same is part of that story.
Your RPG could lean into that by playing similar characters at different levels, at different times with a power to oncer per month to have a past power show up, maybe ramping faster as time goes by.
Another possible exploration from the Wheel of Times series and books is how power corrupts. The nature of saidin is that man with power lose control of themselves — mentally, emotionally, physically.
Want to toss a saidin power into your D&D?
Maybe your Rand-ish character is a Warlock that has to roll on the Wild Magic table every time they cast a spell.
Of course, one of the most potent tales from the books that is amplified in the series is that women are not side characters. They are as important to the story, and powerfully so, as anyone else.
You don’t need special rules for this. The modern versions of D&D encourage this.
From Willow there is a connection in the series to the tales from the movie (history is a massive throughput in Wheel of Time as well).
To see this at your table means connecting a current adventure or campaign to one that ended a decade, a century, a millennia, an age ago.
A D&D campaign that builds off of former campaigns is a structure that generally needs some continuity of players, but can also be done through one-sheets, common knowledge pages and a regular re-telling of special moments.
This could happen around the campfire, on the steps of a temple, inside a tavern or any place where the PCs meet NPCs.
Find what’s important from these tales and make them your own
It’s rough to lose a special story.
You have your memory. You have your hope.
You have a game to help you continue the legends that are important to you. You don’t need Rafe or Sera or Kasdan.
You need dice, paper and a table of friends.
#DnD #DungeonsAndDragons #fantasyTV #PlayingDD #RolePlaying #RPG #WheelOfTime #Willow