drive-by in current reading
Jan. 23rd, 2026 08:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yhleeNicolas Niarchos. The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology, and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth. I think I got this rec from Farah Mendlesohn. Apparently the entire "green energy" resource supply chain (including/especially the batteries) is fucked to hell and gone, including/especially in the human rights arena. Which is not surprising as such, but this is a field I don't follow in any detail (the world is FULL OF THINGS TO KNOW and I can't be expert in them all).
From the jacket copy:
This is ©2026 and just released, but of course...:gestures at current events:
:looks at small collection of slide rule, Napier's bones, abacuses, manual typewriters: Well.
From the jacket copy:
In this rush for green energy, the world has become utterly reliant on resources unearthed far away and willfully blind to the terrible political, environmental, and social consequences of their extraction. Why are the children of the Democratic Republic of the Congo routinely descending deep into treacherous mines to dig with the most rudimentary of tools, or in some cases their bare hands? Why are Indonesia's seas and skies being polluted in a rush for battery metals? Why is the Western Sahara, a source for phosphates, still being treated like a colony? Who must pay the price for progress?
This is ©2026 and just released, but of course...:gestures at current events:
:looks at small collection of slide rule, Napier's bones, abacuses, manual typewriters: Well.
drive-by interview link
Jan. 23rd, 2026 05:04 amyhleeFeatured Friday: Yoon Ha Lee [Zealotscript.co.uk, interview].
I apologize in advance for the closing :kof: pun.
I apologize in advance for the closing :kof: pun.
Which one of your characters would you most like to spend time with?
Excuse me, I had to be revived from a fit of the vapors. I give my characters difficult lives (when they survive at all) so it’s a common joke in my family that if they ever came to life, I am so, so very dead. I guess Shuos Mikodez from Machineries of Empire is the least likely to kill or torture me inhumanely for no reason. Alternately, Min from Dragon Pearl is like ten years old and I am not only a parent, I used to teach high school math so I reckon I can handle her. (Famous last words…)
extremely silly keyboard mod
Jan. 22nd, 2026 01:11 pmyhleeThe keyboard's legit great but I replaced some of the keycaps (the black ones that let the glow shine through) because I cannot find the hecking function keys in the dark reliably; I don't often use them outside of music production, the lighting in this room sucks, and I have a horrifying number of typing keyboards where the function key locations are just enough offset to throw off touch-typing.
I'm unreasonably happy with the space bar! The seller will 3D print custom images/text if you send an image so I made a design for hilarity. :)
I'm unreasonably happy with the space bar! The seller will 3D print custom images/text if you send an image so I made a design for hilarity. :)
US politics
Jan. 16th, 2026 06:51 amyhleeBy way of sovay: Stand with Minnesota, appears to be locally vetted. I've made a modest donation to one of the listed organizations.
(Still buried under health + family + work + school stuff as well, sorry - if I'm not responding or late to respond, that's why.)
sovay: Stand with Minnesota, appears to be locally vetted. I've made a modest donation to one of the listed organizations.(Still buried under health + family + work + school stuff as well, sorry - if I'm not responding or late to respond, that's why.)
