Wisconsin Sheep and Wool 2025 Recap

Sep. 7th, 2025 06:04 pm
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Posted by Elyse

It’s one of my favorite weekends of the year– the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival–but this year it felt a little bit like a letdown. There seemed to be fewer vendors and less stock, meaning that even though I went early on the first day a lot of the specialty colorways I was looking for were already sold out.

First of all, I attend the event every year with friends and I wasn’t the only one who thought that while the crowd size seemed the same, there were fewer vendors and more space in the “country store” barns where most of the yarn, notions and other crafts are sold.

One of my favorite vendors is Oink Pigments, and every year I look forward to their specialty colorway for the event. Even though we arrived pretty early she was down to three skeins and none of them were sock yarn. Fortunately she was happy to dye a skein to order for me.

Three skeins of lavender yarn shot through with pink and orange sit next to an antique trunk under a sign that says HAUL THE WAY TO EYE an exclusive Colorway only at Wisconsin sheep and wool 2025

The larger vendors were still there, but it seemed like some of the smaller ones were not. I did manage to find a few new vendors, though.

Knitz and Pearls had a bunch of yarn that glows under a blacklight that appealed to my 80’s and 90’s child neon loving heart.

Skeins of yarn glow under a blacklight with a large pink glowing shawl hung in the shape of a bat over skeins that glow green, yellow, purple, and pink

I also find Fiber MacGyver (can we just take a minute to appreciate the name) and their adorable mushroom sock yet. They even gave out the little camper stitch stoppers with each purchase.

A partially knitted colorwork sock with mushrooms in front of a few sock sets. The sock is a yellow green with red and white mushrooms. The bottom row is marked in place by tiny teal and white camper trailers

There were also yarn trucks there, which, rather than selling products from a single vendor, sold several different brands of yarns and notions similar to a little yarn shop on wheels.

yarn trucks parked along the edge of the fairgrounds. There are baskets and tubs alongside the campers and trucks

And of course people still had their beautiful projects to show off, like this colorwork sweater.

A colorwork sweater with Halloween themes. The base is dark dark purple, with rows around the yoke of ravens, candelabras in pink, blue crystal balls, and ghosts in white in two sizes. below the body rows which have a polka dot pattern is the hem, and above the hem are tiny blue gravestones. The end of one sleeve has green RIP gravestones and the other has what looks like pink umbrellas?

So what do I think is happening?

I suspect the smaller stock and fewer vendors has to do with uncertainty regarding tariffs. Not a lot of wool is actually produced in the US, meaning a lot of dyers purchase their stock from overseas.

I don’t dye yarn but I do buy finished, dyed yarn from a few vendors in Europe and this year there has been a ton of delays and uncertainty regarding shipping and cost. A lot of shipments have taken much longer than usual, and some producers aren’t shipping to the US at all.

If you’re interested in further reading, Slate has an article on tariffs and knitting.

I’ll be going to the New York Sheep and Wool Festival next month (aka Rhinebeck) and I’ll be very interested to see how it compares to other years.

I still managed to find some cute yarn this year and I’ve already started a project so obviously it wasn’t a bust.

Four bundles of autumn colored yarns. the top is deep wine, purple and gold, the second one is a pale blue and cream with speckled brown and gold, kind of like Indian corn, the third is salmon colored, the fourth is dark grey and gold, then a set of wine, white, dark green and light green

Have you been to any fiber festivals lately? Have you noticed a difference year over year?

GPT-5 can parse headlines!

Sep. 7th, 2025 09:38 am
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Posted by Mark Liberman

Philip Taylor sent a link to this Guardian article "West Point cancels ceremony to honor Tom Hanks as ‘outstanding US citizen’", with the comment

It was only on reading the article that I realised that West Point was/were not cancelling the ceremony in order to honour Tom Hanks (as I had originally thought/believed) but were in fact cancelling a ceremony intended to honour Tom Hanks …

I've been meaning to test GPT-5's parsing ability, ever since I discovered its surprising ability to represent semantic scope ambiguities in correct predicate logic (see "No X is better than Y", 8/13/2025, and the details of its analyses).

So I simplified the Guardian's headline slightly, in order to make the analyses fit the page better, and tried it.


Me: Draw a parse tree for the sentence "They cancelled the ceremony to honor Tom Hanks"

GPT-5:

Thought for 25s

Great sentence—there’s a classic attachment ambiguity.
Here are two clean parse trees (Penn-Treebank style with ASCII):
#1 NP-attachment (most natural: the ceremony’s purpose is to honor Tom Hanks)

S
├── NP
│   └── PRP  They
└── VP
    ├── VBD  cancelled
    └── NP
        ├── DT   the
        ├── NN   ceremony
        └── S    (non-finite modifier of N; “reduced relative/purpose”)
            └── VP
                ├── TO   to
                └── VP
                    ├── VB   honor
                    └── NP
                        ├── NNP  Tom
                        └── NNP  Hanks

Bracketed:
(S
  (NP (PRP They))
  (VP (VBD cancelled)
    (NP (DT the) (NN ceremony)
      (S (VP (TO to) (VP (VB honor) (NP (NNP Tom) (NNP Hanks))))))))

#2 VP-attachment (less plausible meaning: they cancelled, in order to honor Tom Hanks)

S
├── NP
│   └── PRP  They
└── VP
    ├── VBD  cancelled
    ├── NP
    │   ├── DT  the
    │   └── NN  ceremony
    └── S    (purpose clause modifying the VP)
        └── VP
            ├── TO  to
            └── VP
                ├── VB  honor
                └── NP
                    ├── NNP Tom
                    └── NNP Hanks
Bracketed:
(S
  (NP (PRP They))
  (VP (VBD cancelled)
      (NP (DT the) (NN ceremony))
      (S (VP (TO to) (VP (VB honor) (NP (NNP Tom) (NNP Hanks)))))))


Entirely correct! (or at least close enough…)

See the full conversation, where I go on to ask for for dependency-grammar versions, which GPT-5 gets formally correct but is not very good at drawing. I didn't try to get GPT-5 to draw pretty syntax trees, rather than the ascii and bracketed versions, so I did it myself via jsSyntaxTree for those who might care.  The NP-attachment version:

And the VP-attachment version:

So it seem that GPT-5 can analyze (some instances of) syntactic as well as semantic ambiguity, and can use Penn Treebank and Universal Dependency representations correctly to describe the syntactic alternatives. This deserves more investigation than I have time for this morning, including exploration of two obvious questions:

  • Is GPT-5 recognizing when syntactic and logical analyses are needed, and turning the task over to special "experts"? If so, how do those subsystems work?
  • Does GPT-5 use such analyses in its own training and question-answering? If so, that's quite different from just predicting the next token in a text sequence. (Though thinking for 25 seconds about the analysis of one sentences suggests that its probably not yet doing this to much of its training text…)

 

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Posted by Amanda

The latest bestseller list is brought to you by scented candles, firm hugs, and our affiliate sales data.

  1. Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune Amazon | B&N | Kobo
  2. Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher Amazon | B&N | Kobo
  3. The Chief by Monica McCarty Amazon | B&N | Kobo | GooglePlay
  4. Writing Mr. Wrong by Kelley Armstrong Amazon | B&N | Kobo
  5. The Just City by Jo Walton Amazon | B&N | Kobo
  6. The Nothing Girl by Jodi Taylor Amazon | B&N | Kobo
  7. To Beguile a Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt Amazon | B&N | Kobo | GooglePlay
  8. Back After This by Linda Holmes Amazon | B&N | Kobo
  9. A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston Amazon | B&N | Kobo
  10. Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim Amazon | B&N | Kobo

I hope your weekend reading was comforting!

Sunday Sale Digest!

Sep. 7th, 2025 06:00 am
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Posted by Amanda

This piece of literary mayhem is exclusive to Smart Bitches After Dark, but fret not. If you'd like to join, we'd love to have you!

Have a look at our membership options, and come join the fun!

If you want to have a little extra fun, be a little more yourself, and be part of keeping the site open for everyone in the future, we can’t wait to see you in our new subscription-based section with exclusive content and events.

Everything you’re used to seeing at the Hot Pink Palace that is Smart Bitches Trashy Books will remain free as always, because we remain committed to fostering community among brilliant readers who love romance.

September 2025 Queer Romances

Sep. 5th, 2025 09:00 am
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Posted by Dahlia Adler

This month is positively spoiling us with queer romance of various genres, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Debuts, established names, and notable category-jumpers are all on the syllabus this September, so gets your wallets and library cards ready because queer romance school is definitely in session!

See You at the Finish Line

See You at the Finish Line by Zac Hammett

Author: Zac Hammett
Released: September 2, 2025 by Slowburn
Genre: , ,

Their only path to victory is each other . . .

George and Lucas can’t stand each other – which makes it awkward being on the same Cambridge University rowing team. The uber-charming, womanising George got parachuted into Cambridge from America for his sporting prowess, despite his subpar grades, whereas Lucas worked for everything he’s got – which sadly doesn’t include a boyfriend. When George is told that this year he’ll have to sit his exams fair and square, Lucas agrees to help him study – in exchange for help in wooing his crush, Amir.

Together, they embark on a journey to seduce, cheat, and beat their way to the top. They face rivals within their own squad, cutthroat competitors at Oxford, and their own annoyance with each other. But as they get closer, they find that they actually make a great duo. Will Lucas and George help their rowing team beat their arch rivals in a centuries-old feud? Will George manage to pass his fiendishly hard exams? Will Lucas finally work up the courage to ask Amir out? And what will Lucas and George do when they realise that what they really want is each other – even if that means changing their lives forever.

For fans of Red, White and Royal Blue, See You at the Finish Line is a brand-new LGBTQ+ enemies to lovers romance with a love story that will warm your heart.

I am automatically down for any queer sports romance, but college rowing with enemies-to-lovers and the glorious “falling for the person helping me to get the person I thought I wanted” trope?? I am definitely picking up this debut, and feeling optimistic there’ll be at least one solid coxswain joke.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

It Had to Be Him

It Had to Be Him by Adib Khorram

Author: Adib Khorram
Released: September 9, 2025 by Forever
Genre: , ,

Heartstopper meets Eat Pray Love in this swoony, spicy, second-chance romance from USA Today bestselling author Adib Khorram about two former classmates unexpectedly reuniting in Italy.

Ramin Yazdani’s marriage proposal has just gone bottoms up: his ex dumped him in public for being boring. Bent on proving him wrong, Ramin books a spontaneous solo trip to Italy. When he runs into his high school crush while in a gelateria, however, his resolve to reinvent himself is put to the test.

Noah Bartlett’s in a rut. Since his divorce, he’s become a bit of a homebody. So when his ex-wife insists he join her and their son on an Italian holiday, Noah reluctantly agrees. But his reticence turns to excitement when he sees his former classmate, who’s aged just like a fine wine. As a teenager, Ramin fascinated him—and since Noah now knows that fascination was code for crush—all those feelings are quick to come rushing back.

Soon Ramin and Noah are tumbling headfirst into a relationship. Only Ramin fears Noah’s feelings won’t last without Ramin’s adventurous new persona—and Noah’s not sure he can be the supportive partner Ramin deserves. With the days counting down to the end of their trip, can their love last without the magic of Italy?

I have a simple rule when it comes to Adib Khorram’s books: I read them. Picture books, young adult, adult romance… I’ve got AK books all over my shelves. This newest is a companion to one of my favorite m/m romances of last year, I’ll Have What He’s Having, and if Khorram’s name isn’t enough to get you to pick it up, the fact that it’s set in Italy and full of gelato should do it. Plus, both Ramin and Noah are total sweethearts you’ll adore traveling with.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

Lady Like

Lady Like by Mackenzi Lee

Author: Mackenzi Lee
Released: September 9, 2025 by The Dial Press
Genre: , ,

Two women, one refined and one ribald, set their sights on marrying the same duke, but instead of becoming natural enemies, they find themselves falling in love—though not with him.

Harriet Lockhart never planned to marry. The educated daughter of a high-class prostitute, Harry has spent her life defying playing male roles in bawdy Shakespearean productions on London’s seediest stages, pursuing the many women who adore her, and wearing whatever she pleases, so long as it’s well tailored—all while being subsidized by her late mother’s trust. When she is contacted out of the blue by her hitherto anonymous father, she finds herself at risk of losing the trust that he actually funds unless she acquiesces to his request that she lead a more respectable life, starting with finding a husband.

Emily Sergeant, on the other hand, has only ever wanted to marry. She is the modest, tea-sipping, soft-spoken Regency bride. And were it not for one mistake in her youth that rendered her a social pariah, she would be appropriately betrothed. Instead, she’s due to wed the only willing man in her small the abominable Robert Tweed. Desperate for an alternative, Emily flees to London for the summer to snag a less lecherous fiancé before she’s shackled to a scoundrel.

Worlds collide, dramatically and hilariously, when both women decide on the very same duke as their best possible chance at a tolerable husband and the security that he brings. A tongue-in-cheek romp through London’s summer season, from balls to brothels, horseraces to duels, Harry and Emily compete for the duke’s favor, only to find their true hearts’ desires may be more compatible than they ever could have predicted.

Mackenzi Lee has definitely shown her historical chops with her bestselling Montague Siblings series in YA, which kicks off with an international romp of an adventure and suggests this will be an extremely promising adult debut. Even if I weren’t already familiar with the author’s skill, it’d have me at the tagline: “In need of a husband. In want of a wife.” (Note: for another exciting Sapphic historical romance out this month, check out Ladies in Hating by Alexandra Vasti.)

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

Girl Next Door

Girl Next Door by Rachel Meredith

Author: Rachel Meredith
Released: September 9, 2025 by Harper Perennial
Genre: , ,

Girl Next Door is everything I love. Complex characters, a prickly love interest, secrets, yearning, questionable decisions, and that glorious HEA. A tender, funny, sexy novel.” — Ashley Herring Blake, author of Delilah Green Doesn’t Care

In this charming debut rom-com, a young freelancer returns to her suburban hometown to uncover why her childhood next door neighbor’s bestselling book appears to be an epic love story about the two of them.

When MC Calloway’s best friend Joe, an editor at the notorious gossip website Jawbreaker, calls her in for an emergency meeting, MC is unprepared for how frantic he is. But when he shows her a copy of Girl Next Door, the steamy, bestselling rom-com taking the literary world by storm, written under a pen name, points to one of the women on the front cover, and says, “that’s you,” its MC who begins to panic.

Joe is convinced that the author is Nora Pike, MC’s prickly, childhood next-door neighbor, and their former high school classmate – and MC knows he’s right, since the book describes actual events that happened their senior year, down to the tiniest details. But in the book, the characters based on MC and Nora are desperately in love, rather than the awkward acquaintances MC remembers being in real life.

Joe begs MC to go home undercover and get the scoop on Nora. That’s the last thing MC wants to do, especially for an assignment that seems morally dubious at best, but she reluctantly agrees, knowing Joe is desperate to break a big story. Crashing in her childhood home with her older brother Conrad (now married to MC’s secret high school crush, Gabby), MC begins untangling truth from fiction, trying to get close to Nora, who is just as hot and prickly as ever – and now suspicious of MC to boot. But the more involved she gets with Nora, the more it becomes clear they’re both hiding secrets . . . and MC realizes she might be in over her head.

Perfect for readers of Delilah Green Doesn’t Care and Book LoversGirl Next Door is a delicious debut brimming with romance, humor, and heart.

I’ve read “childhood friends to lovers,” and I’ve read “second chance romance,” but I’d never read a play on both quite like this. Meredith’s debut is witty, fun, sexy, and compulsively readable (I personally read it in one shot), and so chaotic and wonderfully honest, it automatically landed her on my instabuy list.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

Night at the Vampire Castle

Night at the Vampire Castle by Hari Conner

Author: Hari Conner
Released: September 23, 2025 by Andrews McMeel Publishing
Genre: , ,

It is a dark and stormy night…

When your car breaks down on a cold evening, you must take refuge in the ominous castle that looms above on the hillside, where a handsome, mysterious stranger invites you in. At dinner, you encounter three vampires and decide which to spend the evening with… Choose to charm one of the creatures of the night, have a fling with a few, or escape their clutches in Night at the Vampire Castle.

Stranded in rural Transylvania on a stormy night, you stumble upon an ominous castle, where the mysterious inhabitants seem keen to have you… for dinner.

In Hari Conner’s newest chose-your-own-path book, the reader chooses between gothic romance, partying with werewolves, or seducing an ancient vampire into revealing their secrets. Get swept away from the 9-5 by a whirlwind romance or steamy encounters – if you can avoid meeting your end…

With three main vampire romance paths, this story has fun, lighthearted elements as well as gothic themes, with choices to explore characters’ pasts in real European and queer history. Spend a Night at the Vampire Castle, if you dare.

I haven’t gotten my hands on this one yet, but there is not one thing about the description that is not absolutely killer. A Choose Your Own Romance?? Set in rural Transylvania??  Get to bang a vampire?? The author first flew on my radar last year with a queer YA graphic novel mashup of various Austen titles called I Shall Never Fall in Love, so it’s clear there are some seriously innovative chops at play, and this is definitely one of my most anticipated reads in a while.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

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Posted by Mark Liberman

No. At least, there've been plenty of dumb articles over past decades and centuries, and plenty of smart ones recently. But I have some complaints about one particular recent article in The Economist, "Is the decline of reading making politics dumber? As people read less they think less clearly, scholars fear", 9/4/2025.

I should start by saying that the quality of articles in The Economist is generally very high, in my opinion, and its articles about language are especially good. So why was I disappointed in this one?

Here are its first two paragraphs:

The experiment was simple; so too, you may have thought, was the task. Students of literature at two American universities were given the first paragraphs of “Bleak House” by Charles Dickens and asked to read and then explain them. In other words: some students reading English literature were asked to read some English literature from the mid-19th century. How hard could it be?

Very, it turns out. The students were flummoxed by legal language and baffled by metaphor. A Dickensian description of fog left them totally fogged. They could not grasp basic vocabulary: one student thought that when a man was said to have “whiskers” it meant he was “in a room with an animal I think…A cat?” The problem was less that these students of literature were not literary and more that they were barely even literate.

My first complaint: there's no  link to the referenced experiment. We're not even given the title of the publication documenting it, or the names of its authors.

Here's why that matters. Internet search reveals what the publication was: Susan Carlson et al., "They Don’t Read Very Well: A Study of the Reading Comprehension Skills of English Majors at Two Midwestern Universities", CEA Critic 2024. And checking that publication reveals several relevant facts:

  • Although the study was published in March 2024, the study was done in January to April of 2015, more than 10 years ago.
  • The 85 subjects in the study came from two Kansas regional universities.
  • Their average ACT Reading score was 22.4, which is "low intermediate level",
  • The authors divided the subjects' Bleak House explanations into three categories: problematic, competent, and proficient.
  • Their discussion focused on the students in the "problematic" category: 49 of 85.

In other words, they discuss the worst students in a sample with low scores to start with.

Why did they do that? As they explain,

The 85 subjects in our test group came to college with an average ACT Reading score of 22.4, which means, according to Educational Testing Service, that they read on a “low-intermediate level,” able to answer only about 60 percent of the questions correctly and usually able only to “infer the main ideas or purpose of straightforward paragraphs in uncomplicated literary narratives,” “locate important details in uncomplicated passages” and “make simple inferences about how details are used in passages”.  In other words, the majority of this group did not enter college with the proficient-prose reading level necessary to read Bleak House or similar texts in the literary canon. As faculty, we often assume that the students learn to read at this level on their own, after they take classes that teach literary analysis of assigned literary texts. Our study was designed to test this assumption.

So the study was designed to test the university and its faculty, not the students. The conclusion, basically, is that these students entered the university incapable of reading canonical literature; the university and its faculty failed to fix the problem; and the students didn't fix the problem on their own.

I'm not convinced that being able to read and understand the first seven paragraphs of Bleak House is an appropriate measure for the reading ability of modern American youth. That novel's many words and phrases from the 19th-century British court system make it hard for a modern American reader to grasp the context. I'd be more impressed if the students failed to understand the start of Great Expectations, EmmaGulliver's Travels, Jane EyreTom SawyerAlice's Adventures in Wonderland or etc.

But let's grant that Carlson et al. have proved their point, and just note that The Economist's writer badly mis-read (or maybe mis-represented?) their work, by presenting it as evidence that today's university-level literature students can't read Dickens.

My second complaint is that The Economist's writer goes on to use the Flesch-Kincaid readability measure:

We also analysed almost 250 years of inaugural presidential addresses using the Flesch-Kincaid readability test. George Washington’s scored 28.7, denoting postgraduate level, while Donald Trump’s came in at 9.4, the reading level of a high-schooler.

See my 2015 post "More Flesch-Kincaid grade-level nonsense", which points out that different choices of punctuation strongly modulate the Flesch-Kincaid index, as in this example from one of Donald Trump's speeches, which was used in a stupid newspaper article to prove that Trump operates at a 4th grade level:

It’s coming from more than Mexico. It’s coming from all over South and Latin America. And it’s coming probably — probably — from the Middle East. But we don’t know. Because we have no protection and we have no competence, we don’t know what’s happening. And it’s got to stop and it’s got to stop fast. [Grade level 4.4]

It’s coming from more than Mexico, it’s coming from all over South and Latin America, and it’s coming probably — probably — from the Middle East. But we don’t know, because we have no protection and we have no competence, we don’t know what’s happening. And it’s got to stop and it’s got to stop fast. [Grade level 8.5]

It’s coming from more than Mexico, it’s coming from all over South and Latin America, and it’s coming probably — probably — from the Middle East; but we don’t know, because we have no protection and we have no competence, we don’t know what’s happening. And it’s got to stop and it’s got to stop fast. [Grade level 12.5]

That post closes this way:

It's uncharitable and unfair of me to imply that the author of the Globe piece might be "stupid". But at some point, journalists should look behind the label to see what a metric like "the Flesch-Kincaid score" really is, and ask themselves whether invoking it is adding anything to their analysis except for a false facade of scientism.

That's enough complaining for now. But since The Economist's article also frets about secular changes in sentence length, let me refer interested readers to the slides for my talk at the 2022 SHEL ("Studies on the History of the English Language") conference.

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Posted by Amanda

So…didja watch it?

What did you think? Tell me everything!

Amanda: I’m putting my thoughts in a spoiler, just in case you may have started it and not finished it. Or if you haven’t read the book yet, as most of my issues came from the differences between the movie and the book.

Show Spoiler
I had just finished reading the book the day before and my memory was still fresh.

My biggest gripe was what they did with poor Bogdan’s storyline. I liked it much better when Bogdan was biding his time before seeking revenge for his murdered friend.

I watched the movie with a friend who’s a big fan of the series. She also thought the Bogdan storyline wasn’t great, given that he shows up in subsequent books. She did make a good point. Perhaps Netflix wasn’t sure how well this would do for a sequel and with the actors being older, who knows what they could commit to.

Coopers Chase was not how I pictured it in my head. It was more sprawling in my imagination, though I’d still want to live at either version.

This version of Bobby Tanner wasn’t to my liking either. I much preferred the notion that he was in hiding and really wanted nothing to do with crime life.

The whole nun/priest romance storyline was cut, which made me a little sad. There’s a moment in the book where Bogdan changes the headstone and I remember tearing up at that kind gesture.

Okay, I’ve done a lot of complaining!

I think if you’re going into this movie without prior knowledge of the book’s events, you’ll have a more enjoyable experience than I did. You won’t be caught up in what they changed or took out.

The movie did a good job of capturing the tenderness of the book, especially the relationships between the Murder Club members. The strongest part of both the book and movie, for me, were the characters anyway. The casting was pretty perfect.

If I had to assign a grade, perhaps a B- or a C+. The book was better, as it typical.

Sarah: I copy everything Amanda said. I loved how beautiful it was, and how much money was invested in sets, location, costumes, and everything that makes a movie or show feel lived in and real.

I also loved playing, “Oh, hey, it’s Famous Actor Person!” Like, every other scene. At point point Adam looked up and said, “Wait, David TENNANT is in this, too?” Literally the casting for this must have been a delight.

But wow, the compromises for length were a massive bummer.

Show Spoiler
  1. Justice for Bogdan. The reworking of his plot line was straight up terrible.
  2. Most folks were concerned that Pierce Brosnan was a bit too posh to be Ron, but he had the most energy out of everyone. He lifted every scene he was in.
  3. Ben Kingsley was deeply underused. (Let him explain the algorithm of how long the journey would take!)
  4. I thought Helen Mirren played Elizabeth with one particular dour flavor and never deviated (though the scene where her husband tells her she looks like the queen was A HOOT).
  5. I wish it had been a series, though I understand how extra more expensive that would have been.

I hope that there’s a sequel. I hope that it’s better than this one. It was pretty to look at but not something I’m going to watch again. I’m with Amanda: C+ for me.

What did you think of the movie? Tell us in the comments!

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Posted by Victor Mair

Sino-Platonic Papers is pleased to announce the publication of its three-hundred-and-sixty-fourth issue:

“Mythologies, Religions, and Peoples Outside Ancient China in the Classic of Mountains and Seas,” by Xiaofeng He.

https://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp364_Classic_of_Mountains_and_Seas.pdf

ABSTRACT

The Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhaijing, 山海經) is generally believed to be a fiction of mythologies, and many later literatures are based on it. But some believe it is an ancient text of geography. The Classic of Regions Beyond the Seas (Haiwaijing, 海外經) is one section of it, which does not give much topographical information but mostly concerns weird and mythical creatures. This paper, treating the text as offering a serious recording of observations and following the clues in the directions specified in the text, presents evidence that locates the areas of Haiwaijing in the modern world: huge areas of the Afro-Eurasian region, including south, west, and north Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa. It is, in fact, all one living piece of evidence for a unified Afro-Eurasian history.

Keywords: Shanhaijing, Hindu mythology, African mythology, Xia dynasty

—–
All issues of Sino-Platonic Papers are available in full for no charge.
To view our catalog, visit http://www.sino-platonic.org/

 

Selected readings

fests and exchanges

Sep. 5th, 2025 11:36 pm
trobadora: (mightier)
[personal profile] trobadora
After not writing anything more than alibi sentences for ages - my last fic was in May (The Consultant, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan), and the one before that in March (Beyond the Gates, the Mountain, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan) - I'm signing up for a lot of stuff now! Deadlines are usually very effective at making me write, so now that I'm not so busy any more and it's actually possible, that should get me back to where I want to be, writing-wise. I hope. *g*

In order of reveals:
  • There's [community profile] rarepairexchange, which has its deadline a little over two weeks from now, though reveals aren't until October. I've been poking at my assignment, and I have a bunch of things I know I want to be in it, but so far I haven't managed to pull it all together into a coherent narrative. Hopefully once I've conquered this one, things will be flowing again!

  • Then there's [community profile] guardian_wishlist, for which I just finished my sign-up last night - and we've only just posted the first batch of wishlists. (Mine is here; I'm requesting Guardian drama and RPF, as well as Guardian/Grimm and Guardian/Stargate crossovers.) And there are so many tempting prompts already! Reveals are on 6 October, and I hope to make a bunch of stuff before then.

  • Next comes [community profile] ficinabox, with a deadline in October and reveals in November - assignments aren't out yet, but should come soon. I won't seriously tackle that one until after Rarepair Exchange, though. Plenty of time if I brainstorm and have a plan by then!

  • There's also the Guardian Bonus Bingo grace period in November, for which I hope to finish at least some of the things I started and didn't finish so far. *g*

  • Yuletide is of course gearing up again as well, so that's what I'll be working on in December. Can't wait to find out which rare fandom I get to write this time!

  • Then, hopefully [community profile] fandomtrees will also run again this year, and I'll get to make a bunch of stuff for that too! Reveals are genearally early to mid-January.

  • And finally, there's [community profile] fffx which doesn't have its deadline until the second half of January. I still need to finish my sign-up for that (planning on doing that this weekend), but that deadline is so far away, there'd still be plenty of time even if I didn't start thinking about it until after Yuletide ends. (Though I hope to have a plan before then!) Of course, an idea might grab me right away and I might be working on this in parallel to everything else, you never know! *g*

Yeah, I know that's a lot. *g* I hope to make up a bit for all those months of not writing! But everything's nicely spaced out, except for Rarepair Exchange revealing one day before Guardian Wishlist, and the Bingo grace period overlapping with FIAB reveals. So it should be very doable without being too exhausting. *g*

What fests or exchanges is everyone else doing?

YA, Fantasy, & More

Sep. 5th, 2025 03:30 pm
[syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

The Palace of Illusions

The Palace of Illusions by Rowenna Miller is $2.99! This came out over the summer and I mentioned it on Hide Your Wallet because of the interesting setting. I’m not sure if there’s any romance.

The Palace of Illusions brings readers to a Paris breathless with excitement at the dawn of the twentieth century, where for a select few there is a second, secret Paris where the magic of the City of Light is very real in this enchanting and atmospheric fantasy from the author of The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill.

In the run up to the 1900s World’s Fair Paris is abuzz with creative energy and innovation. Audiences are spellbound by the Lumiere brothers’ moving pictures and Loie Fuller’s serpentine dance fusing art and technology. But for Clara Ironwood, a talented and pragmatic clockworker, nothing compares to the magic of her godfather’s mechanical creations, and she’d rather spend her days working on the Palace of Illusions, an intricate hall of mirrors that is one of the centerpieces of the world’s fair.

When her godfather sends Clara a hideous nutcracker for Christmas, she is puzzled until she finds a hidden compartment that unlocks a mirror-world Paris where the Seine is musical, fountains spout lemonade, and mechanical ballerinas move with human grace. The magic of her godfather’s toys was real.

As Clara explores this other Paris and begins to imbue her own creations with its magic, she soon discovers a darker side to innovation. Suspicious men begin to approach her outside of work, and she could swear a shadow is following her. There’s no ignoring the danger she’s in, but Clara doesn’t know who to trust. The magic of the two Parises are colliding and Clara must find the strength within herself to save them both.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

How to Plot a Payback

How to Plot a Payback by Melissa Ferguson is $2.99! This is a grumpy/sunshine contemporary. Some of Ferguson’s books have been reviewed favorably on the site and I feel like she has a lot of writer-centric characters.

He crossed an ocean, and it still wasn’t enough to escape his lifelong nemesis. Now he has to work with her.

Successful screenwriter Finn Masters just landed his dream job writing for Neighbors, one of Hollywood’s highest-rated, longest-running sitcoms. The only downside? It will put him back in proximity of the show’s universally adored, optimistic, altruistic star, Lavender Rhodes, who has been inadvertently ruining his life since they were school chums in England. But she doesn’t even know she destroyed his acting career and wrecked his relationship with the love of his life.

He’s not about to let this woman yank yet another dream out from under his feet. In fact, he realizes he’s been given the ideal opportunity to plot his payback: spinning her character in shocking new directions.

What could go wrong? Only everything. As Finn’s not-so-brilliant plot backfires one scene after the next, catching him in the blasts, he’s forced to think about this impossible, infuriating… and maybe even lovable woman in an entirely new light.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Notes from a Regicide

Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman is $2.99! I mentioned this one on Get Rec’d. The marketing copy described this as a “trans family saga” and I remember being very intrigued.

Notes from a Regicide is a heartbreaking story of trans self-discovery with a rich relatability and a science-fictional twist from award-winning author Isaac Fellman.

When your parents die, you find out who they really were.

Griffon Keming’s second parents saved him from his abusive family. They taught him how to be trans, paid for his transition, and tried to love him as best they could. But Griffon’s new parents had troubles of their own – both were deeply scarred by the lives they lived before Griffon, the struggles they faced to become themselves, and the failed revolution that drove them from their homeland. When they died, they left an unfillable hole in his heart.

Griffon’s best clue to his parents’ lives is in his father’s journal, written from a jail cell while he awaited execution. Stained with blood, grief, and tears, these pages struggle to contain the love story of two artists on fire. With the journal in hand, Griffon hopes to pin down his relationship to these wonderful and strange people for whom time always seemed to be running out.

In Notes from a Regicide, a trans family saga set in a far-off, familiar future, Isaac Fellman goes beyond the concept of found family to examine how deeply we can be healed and hurt by those we choose to love.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert is $1.99! This is Hibbert’s young adult debut and it was mentioned on a previous Hide Your Wallet. Shana just recommend this one on audio.

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Brown Sisters trilogy, comes a laugh-out-loud story about a quirky content creator and a clean-cut athlete testing their abilities to survive the great outdoors—and each other.

Bradley Graeme is pretty much perfect. He’s a star football player, manages his OCD well (enough), and comes out on top in all his classes . . . except the ones he shares with his ex-best friend, Celine.

Celine Bangura is conspiracy-theory-obsessed. Social media followers eat up her takes on everything from UFOs to holiday overconsumption—yet, she’s still not cool enough for the popular kids’ table. Which is why Brad abandoned her for the in-crowd years ago. (At least, that’s how Celine sees it.)

These days, there’s nothing between them other than petty insults and academic rivalry. So when Celine signs up for a survival course in the woods, she’s surprised to find Brad right beside her.

Forced to work as a team for the chance to win a grand prize, these two teens must trudge through not just mud and dirt but their messy past. And as this adventure brings them closer together, they begin to remember the good bits of their history. But has too much time passed . . . or just enough to spark a whole new kind of relationship?

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

[syndicated profile] languagelog_feed

Posted by Mark Liberman

Or rather, messages from Penn's Office of the Vice Provost for Research, mysteriously tokenized and re-formatted by gmail.

The start of the Fall 2025 OVPR email newsletter, as displayed by MS Outlook, has 14 bullet points referencing hyperlinked subtopics:

But gmail (where I first read the newsletter) shows me the same information as 14 columns of (individually) hyperlinked textual tokens, with a bullet on the first token of each column:

In each of the 14 columns, the hyperlinks go to the same subsections as the links in Outlook's corresponding row.

The subsequent subsections of the email have their own bullet lists, and gmail columnizes them in a similar way, e.g.

or

I wonder whether this is (my laptop's version of) gmail having an episode, or the result of something odd in the coding of the original message, or what. In any case, the fact that the re-coding of the rows seems to be based on language-model tokenization makes me suspect that Google's new Gemini email assistant might be involved…

Update — FWIW, the same row-to-column re-display of the bullet points in this newsletter happens in the versions of gmail in three different browsers on each of two laptops with different operating systems.

Update #2 — I sent a test message with a bullet list, generated in Outlook, and gmail doesn't transpose the rows to columns:


So apparently there's something special about the OVPR Newsletter's source? I don't have time this morning for any further investigation, but we'll see later…

683. RT Rewind: August 1996 Reviews

Sep. 5th, 2025 06:00 am
[syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed

Posted by SB Sarah

Smart Podcast Trashy Books Romantic Times RewindWe’re going back to August 1996 – that’s a bit of distance – to take a peek at the new releases and the book reviews in Romantic Times magazine.

We’re back in the era of time travel, a scifi imprint named Avonova, and probable worms.

NSFW worms.

As usual, we learn astonishing amounts of unexpected information from this magazine. For example: we’re both obsessed with the 1996 movie Twister and we have many thoughts on tornadoes.

Content warnings: the following episode contains discussions of large worms, racist language in 29 year old reviews, and spiders. Timestamp are in the intro.

Listen to the podcast →
Read the transcript →

Here are the books we discuss in this podcast:

The August 1996 issue of Romantic Times featuring Love and Laughter, a new line from Harlequin, with a big banner at the top and two smaller covers for two of the lead titles, one being Dates and Other Nuts.We also mentioned:

 

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What did you think of today's episode? Got ideas? Suggestions? You can talk to us on the blog entries for the podcast or talk to us on Facebook if that's where you hang out online. You can email us at sbjpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave us a message at our Google voice number: 201-371-3272. Please don't forget to give us a name and where you're calling from so we can work your message into an upcoming podcast.

Thanks for listening!


Podcast Sponsor

Support for this episode comes from The Spite Date by Pippa Grant – a hilarious romcom featuring a golden retriever celebrity who needs to get out of his own way, a woman trying to live her best life even if she’s not sure exactly how to do that, and a series of plans gone very, very wrong.

Here’s the Cover Copy:

I might be the only person not obsessed with Simon Luckwood, Hollywood’s hottest leading man and the newest part-time resident of my little hometown.

I don’t trust the way he’s always smiling. No one smiles that much.

And I’m clearly missing something, because I don’t get why the character Simon played on his weird hit TV show is so popular.

But revenge is a dish best served cold, just like the dishes on the menu at the restaurant my ex stole from me. So, when Simon feels guilty enough about his twin teenage boys accidentally getting me arrested that he wants to take me out on an apology date?

I see a perfect opportunity to get mine.

One night, one date, one very loud public scene at my ex’s grand opening, and then I can wash my hands of men forever.

That’s exactly how it has to go. Because my life can’t handle one more plot twist…

Reviews from readers are very positive!

MaddMoxie says, “This book was a total win for me – the kind you inhale in one night and then stumble through the next day running purely on caffeine and zero regrets. I cackled so hard i woke my husband at least a dozen times, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

And GetLitwithAshleyZ says, “This book was AMAZING!!! It’s the kind of book you binge and then have a book hangover the next day. Totally worth it!”

Your good book hangover comes in different format options, too: The ebook will be in Kindle Unlimited, while the paperback has sprayed edges, illustrated endpapers and custom chapter headings. Plus, the audiobook features duet narration by Will Watt and Callie Dalton.

The Spite Date by Pippa Grant is out now, and you can find your copy where you like to buy books. Visit PippaGrant.com for more information.

 

Remember to subscribe to our podcast feed, find us on iTunes or on Stitcher.
[syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

A Legend in the Baking

A Legend in the Baking by Jamie Wesley is $2.99! This is book two in the Sugar Blitz series and came out last November. Maybe grab a sweet treat if you’re reading this one.

After accidentally going viral on social media, a cupcake-baking football player gets assistance from a social media maven—and his best friend’s little sister—to help promote his new bakery.

August Hodges was supposed to be the silent partner in Sugar Blitz Cupcakes. Emphasis on silent. That is until his impromptu feminist rant about how women bakers are the backbone of the industry and baking cupcakes isn’t a threat to masculinity goes viral, making him the hottest bachelor in town. With a new location in the works, August and his partners decide to capitalize on this perfect opportunity to help cement their place in the community. But the hiring of his best friend’s younger sister, the woman who has haunted some of his best dreams for years, was as much of a shock as his new-found fame.

Social media manager Sloane Dell fell hard for her brother’s best friend the moment she met him more than a decade ago, but that teenage infatuation cost her dearly. Still, she accepts her brother’s request to revamp the bakery’s social media presence to take advantage of August’s newfound popularity, knowing it’s the big break her fledgling career needs. She’ll just ignore the fact that August is still August, i.e. sexier and sweeter than any man has a right to be. And that he drives her crazy with his resistance to all her ideas.

They vow to leave the past in the past. But when an explosive make-out session makes it clear their attraction burns hotter than ever, Sloane and August are forced to reconsider what it means to take a risk and chase your dreams.

As they’re both about to find out, all’s fair in love and cupcakes.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

The Just City

The Just City by Jo Walton is $2.99! It doesn’t appear the deal is price-matched outside of Amazon right now. This is book one in the Thessaly series and Walton’s books come highly recommend.

“Here in the Just City you will become your best selves. You will learn and grow and strive to be excellent.”

Created as an experiment by the time-traveling goddess Pallas Athene, the Just City is a planned community, populated by over ten thousand children and a few hundred adult teachers from all eras of history, along with some handy robots from the far human future—all set down together on a Mediterranean island in the distant past.

The student Simmea, born an Egyptian farmer’s daughter sometime between 500 and 1000 A.D, is a brilliant child, eager for knowledge, ready to strive to be her best self. The teacher Maia was once Ethel, a young Victorian lady of much learning and few prospects, who prayed to Pallas Athene in an ungaurded moment during a trip to Rome—and, in an instant, found herself in the Just City with grey-eyed Athene standing unmistakably before her.

Meanwhile, Apollo—stunned by the realization that there are things mortals understand better than he does—has arranged to live a human life, and has come to the City as one of the children. He knows his true identity, and conceals it from his peers. For this lifetime, he is prone to all the troubles of being human.

Then, a few years in, Sokrates arrives—the same Sokrates recorded by Plato himself—to ask all the troublesome questions you would expect. What happens next is a tale only the brilliant Jo Walton could tell.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

The Duke at Hazard

The Duke at Hazard by KJ Charles is 99c! This is the second book in the The Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune series. It came out over the summer. Shana was excited for this one because of the road trip element.

Don’t miss the second thrilling Regency romance in the Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune series by KJ Charles…

The Duke of Severn is one of the greatest men in Britain.

He’s also short, quiet, and unimpressive. And now he’s been robbed, after indulging in one rash night with a strange man who stole the heirloom Severn ring from his finger. The Duke has to get it back, and he can’t let anyone know how he lost it. So when his cousin bets that he couldn’t survive without his privilege and title, the Duke grasps the opportunity to hunt down his ring-incognito.

Life as an ordinary person is terrifying…until the anonymous Duke meets Daizell Charnage, a disgraced gentleman, and hires him to help. Racing across the country in search of the thief, the Duke and Daizell fall into scrapes, into trouble-and in love.

Daizell has been excluded from polite society, his name tainted by his father’s crimes and his own misbehaviour. Now he dares to dream of a life somewhere out of sight with the quiet gentleman who’s stolen his heart. He doesn’t know that his lover is a hugely rich public figure with half a dozen titles. And when he finds out, it will risk everything they have…

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Six Crimson Cranes

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim is $1.99! This is book one of a completed YA fantasy duology. Lim always has gorgeous covers.

A princess in exile, a shapeshifting dragon, six enchanted cranes, and an unspeakable curse… Drawing from ‘The Wild Swans’ and East Asian folklore, this breathtakingly original fantasy from the author of Spin the Dawn is perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo or Tomi Adeyemi.

Shiori’anma, the only princess of Kiata, has a secret. Forbidden magic runs through her veins. Normally she conceals it well, but on the morning of her betrothal ceremony, Shiori loses control. At first, her mistake seems like a stroke of luck, forestalling the wedding she never wanted. But it also catches the attention of Raikama, her stepmother.

A sorceress in her own right, Raikama banishes the young princess, turning her brothers into cranes. She warns Shiori that she must speak of it to no one: for with every word that escapes her lips, one of her brothers will die.

Penniless, voiceless, and alone, Shiori searches for her brothers, and uncovers a dark conspiracy to seize the throne. Only Shiori can set the kingdom to rights, but to do so she must place her trust in a paper bird, a mercurial dragon, and the very boy she fought so hard not to marry. And she must embrace the magic she’s been taught all her life to forswear–no matter what the cost.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Bohemian Rhapsody (Zulu version)

Sep. 4th, 2025 03:09 pm
trobadora: (Default)
[personal profile] trobadora
Via [personal profile] brithistorian: the South African Ndlovu Youth Choir has translated Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody into Zulu. It's gorgeous - and after I saw the video, I just had to share it. It's completely stunning:

pauraque: butterfly trailing a rainbow through the sky from the Reading Rainbow TV show opening (butterfly in the sky)
[personal profile] pauraque
In turn-of-the-millennium Nigeria, an Indian immigrant named Kavita is married to a Nigerian man. They have one son, young adult Vivek. On the same day that rioters burn the local marketplace to the ground, Kavita finds Vivek on her doorstep, naked and wrapped in cloth, dead of a head wound. From there, the progression of the novel is nonlinear, moving among Kavita's desperate search for answers, Vivek's life as a kid who was always different, and the perspectives of Vivek's friends and family in this complex multicultural community.

Like Emezi's earlier novel Freshwater, this one clearly draws inspiration from their own life and childhood, and it benefits from the same keen eye for the reality of what culture and tradition look like on the ground. But it's not as directly autobiographical, reading less like a memoir and more like an actual novel. The prose style and handling of the themes really worked for me. Vivek is queer in a country where homosexuality is illegal, but Emezi hasn't written a story where queer people are tragic victims, nor have they written a one-note condemnation of Nigerian culture. They include a variety of queer characters who are flawed and human, some of whom are pretty well-adjusted given the circumstances, and some of whom make terrible mistakes. Despite the difficult subject matter, the book orients itself towards a world where some of these kids will grow up okay, some of the ignorant will learn, and the future of queer Nigeria hasn't been written yet.

spoilery thoughtsIt was clear to me fairly early on that Vivek was some flavor of transfeminine (anachronistic labels aren't used, but bigender seems about right, and 'he' and 'she' are both accepted). Circumstantial evidence leads you and many of the characters to suspect he was killed in a hate crime. Towards the end, this scenario seems almost certain when you learn that he went out presenting as a woman on the night of his death, even though his friends tried to stop him because they thought it was too dangerous.

But "almost certain" is the operative phrase. As it turns out, Vivek wasn't murdered. He died in an accident that could have happened to anyone at any time, and it had nothing to do with his presentation or his queerness at all.

This subverted expectation turns the entire book on its head and makes it land in a completely different place than I thought it was going to. The message of the book is not that being queer will get you killed in this terrible, terrible world; it's that nobody knows what the future will bring, so you shouldn't let fears of what might happen hold you back. You should be yourself—and allow yourself joy—while you still have time.

This ending really stunned me and it took me a bit to process it. I think it's the right ending, but I didn't see it coming at all, and it made me feel the book had turned a sobering and much-needed mirror on me and my own assumptions about queer stories and about the world.

I don't know what I think about Osita (Vivek's cousin/boyfriend) keeping the full truth to himself. Letting Vivek's parents believe he was murdered opens the door for them to feel empathy rather than disgust, but can that be a justification to tell such a massive lie by omission? I don't know, it's messy, but so was Osita and Vivek's relationship from start to finish.

The book is not long (250 pages) and I think it could have benefited from being a little longer and spending some more time with each character and their arc. Some threads seemed to wrap up too quickly at the end. But overall I found it a thought-provoking read and I'm up for more of Emezi's work. Next I'll probably go for their YA novel Pet.

Bioneural Frankenstein

Sep. 4th, 2025 11:02 am
[syndicated profile] languagelog_feed

Posted by Victor Mair

Last week, Beijing hosted the first ever "Robot Olympics", and humanoid robot development is proceeding apace on many fronts.  One could fairly say that Chinese are obsessed with human-AI symbiosis.

China Advances Brain-Computer Interface Industry Development with New Policy Framework

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, along with six other government departments, has jointly issued an implementation plan to accelerate the innovative development of the brain-computer interface (BCI) industry. The comprehensive policy outlines ambitious targets for the emerging technology sector through 2030.

By 2027, China aims to achieve breakthrough progress in key BCI technologies while establishing advanced technical, industrial, and standardization systems. The plan specifically targets international-level performance in electrodes, chips, and integrated products. Applications are expected to expand rapidly across industrial manufacturing, healthcare, and consumer sectors, with the creation of 2-3 specialized industrial clusters and the development of new scenarios, models, and business formats.

Brain-computer interfaces create information channels between the brain and machines, enabling collaborative interaction between biological and artificial intelligence. This cutting-edge technology represents the convergence of life sciences and information sciences. The sector continues generating innovative breakthroughs and experiencing accelerated industrial growth, positioning itself as a critical area where technological and industrial innovation deeply integrate.

The implementation plan outlines five major tasks: strengthening basic software and hardware research, developing high-performance products, promoting technology application, expanding innovation entities, and enhancing industrial support capabilities. These are supported by three key projects focusing on core software/hardware development, premium integrated systems, and application expansion, detailed through 17 specific measures.

By 2030, China envisions significantly enhanced BCI industry innovation capabilities, establishing a secure and reliable industrial ecosystem. The plan targets cultivating 2-3 globally influential leading enterprises alongside numerous specialized small and medium enterprises, ultimately building an internationally competitive industry landscape.

Source: People’s Daily, August 15, 2025

(Chinascope)

 

Selected readings

 

[syndicated profile] languagelog_feed

Posted by Mark Liberman

Mixed metaphor of the week – via email from J.H.:

House Speaker Mike Johnson, apparently trying to lay the groundwork to blame Democrats for a government shutdown, is quoted by Politico as saying “The ball will be in their corner.

Presumably he meant to say “The ball will be in their court,” a tennis metaphor, but confused this with “in their corner,” which I assume comes from boxing. When someone is in your corner, that typically means they’re supporting you, and I don’t think the speaker meant to imply that Democrats have the support of any balls.

Someone at Politico must have thought this sounded odd, since they put ‘corner’ in quotation marks in the headline.

A quick search didn't turn up the audio — with luck a reader will fill the gap.

 

"What makes an AI system an agent?"

Sep. 4th, 2025 09:53 am
[syndicated profile] languagelog_feed

Posted by Mark Liberman

And what are the consequences of the growing population of AI agents?

In "Agentic culture", I observed that today's "AI agents" have the same features that made "Agent Based Models", 50 years ago, a way to model the emergence and evolution of culture. And I expressed surprise that (almost) none of the concerns about AI impact have taken account of this obvious fact.

There was a little push-back in the comments, for example the claim that "There may come a time when AI is autonomous, reflective and has motives, but that is a long, long way off." Which misses the point, given the entirely unintelligent nature of old-fashioned ABM systems.

Antonio Gulli from Google has recently posted Agentic Design Systems, which offers some useful (and detailed) descriptions of the state of the agentic art, along with example code.

The section on "What makes an AI system an Agent?" sets the stage:

In simple terms, an AI agent is a system designed to perceive its environment and take actions to achieve a specific goal. It's an evolution from a standard Large Language Model (LLM), enhanced with the abilities to plan, use tools, and interact with its surroundings. Think of an Agentic AI as a smart assistant that learns on the job. It follows a simple, five-step loop to get things done (see Fig.1):

    1. Get the Mission: You give it a goal, like "organize my schedule."
    2. Scan the Scene: It gathers all the necessary information—reading emails, checking calendars, and accessing contacts—to understand what's happening.
    3. Think It Through: It devises a plan of action by considering the optimal approach to achieve the goal.
    4. Take Action: It executes the plan by sending invitations, scheduling meetings, and updating your calendar.
    5. Learn and Get Better: It observes successful outcomes and adapts accordingly. For example, if a meeting is rescheduled, the system learns from this event to enhance its future performance.

At that point, Gulli notes that "Agents are becoming increasingly popular at a stunning pace".

And the chapter on "Inter-Agent Communication" explains:

Individual AI agents often face limitations when tackling complex, multifaceted problems, even with advanced capabilities. To overcome this, Inter-Agent Communication (A2A) enables diverse AI agents, potentially built with different frameworks, to collaborate effectively. This collaboration involves seamless coordination, task delegation, and information exchange.

Google's A2A protocol is an open  standard designed to facilitate this universal communication. This chapter will explore A2A, its practical applications, and its implementation within the Google ADK.

We'll see how seamless and effective those agentic collaborations turn out to be.

One obvious question: whose interests will determine what counts as a "successful" outcome? The various human and institutional participants may have quite different ideas about this. And the AI agents will certainly develop their own (artificial analog of) interests, goals, and preferences, as Gulli's sketch tells us.

And again, these agentic interactions will foster emergent cultures, whose alignment with the goals of human individuals and groups is worth more thought than it's gotten so far. (Except in dystopian novels and movies…)

 

The Wrong Obsession by E.L. Sparrow

Sep. 4th, 2025 08:00 am
[syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

C+

The Wrong Obsession

by E.L. Sparrow
July 7, 2025
Erotica/Erotic RomanceRomance

Content warnings
Stalking, Dubious Consent, mentions of parental neglect; PTSD. Author has a full list on her website.

The Al Gore Rhythm got me.

Recently, I’ve been receiving algorithmic ads for serial romances, where you pay to unlock chapters. Typically, Instagram or Facebook will show you the first few chapters to hook you and then send you to one of the gazillion romance novel apps out there.

The excerpt grabbed me, but I was not about to pay per chapter for a serial that, while thankfully completed, was over 150 chapters. Lucky for me, the author decided to release the entire thing as a duology. Book one just came out and book two is out in September. Great timing, if you ask me. As of right now, it’s only available on Kobo.

Originally titled Craving the Wrong Brother, this is an erotic contemporary romance with BDSM elements. It hits all the ridiculous, soapy high notes of a 2010s release: a wealthy hero who uses BDSM to treat PTSD instead of going to therapy (but really everyone in this damn book needs therapy) playrooms with an obvious red aesthetic, underground prizefighting, family members and friends scheming to keep the couple apart, SO MANY SECRETS. I literally cannot list all the secrets or we’ll be here for ages.

Okay, stop yelling at me. I’ll get to the summary.

Finn and Sloane have been BFFs for a decade. Sloane has been hopelessly in love with him, but he can’t get over his high school girlfriend Delilah and is addicted to their on again, off again toxic relationship. During one of their off again stints, Delilah gets engaged and Finn comes up with the grand idea to ruin her wedding and convince her to be with him again. To complicate matters, Finn’s older brother Knox (uh oh, he’s hot and mysterious) is the best man.

Sloane agrees because she’s a teensy bit of a doormat and Finn is manipulative with her feelings. He quite literally will throw himself at her feet and cry about how she’s the only one who understands him.

Knox and Finn have a Very Bad relationship, which is only made worse by Sloane’s attraction to Knox. Finn goes absolutely bananas when Sloane’s attention isn’t fully on him. Sloane is frequently put in the middle between the brothers, but also has family trauma around a similar situation with her divorced parents that has continued well into adulthood.

TW/CW: manipulation, abuse, injury

One of the craziest moments in the book is when Finn has Delilah break his arm with a hammer so he can go to the hospital and guilt Sloane into reestablishing a connection with her after she starts dating his brother.

Like I said, therapy for everyone.

However, the serialized nature of the original hinders this book when packaged as a full-length romance. With serials, stories come out in chunks and typically end on a little cliffhanger to bring you back for the next update. That’s exactly how the book felt. Every few chapters formed a little vignette with a “to be continued” sort of ending. They were set up typically like: dramatic scene between brothers, hot sex, big reveal. Rinse and repeat. After a while, you forget what the hell the characters are even working toward. They’re just endlessly circling the drain and the book, as a whole, really lacks cohesion. It’s like when a sitcom doesn’t know when to end and they just keep putting out season after season with no real direction.

The Wrong Obsession is a potato chip book. You keep going back for more and before you know it, the bag is empty, your tummy hurts, and you’re full but not satisfied. You bet your ass you’ll be buying another bag next time you go grocery shopping though.

It’s bonkers and I sped through, but I hesitate to say it’s something I’d recommend to just any romance reader. This is a romance for a specific kind of person. If you’re nostalgic for the heyday of erotic romances and have a soft spot for Fifty Shades of Grey (no judgement!), you might consider picking this up. It really made me remember the fondness I had for those kinds of books and authors like Shayla Black and Cherise Sinclair. In my brain, I dub these “toxic cornball” books. They’re melodramatic, you aren’t sure if you even like any of the characters, but goddammit you’re invested and you can usually put your brain on autopilot for the duration.

 

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Posted by Amanda

The Rec League - heart shaped chocolate resting on the edge of a very old bookThis Rec League is from Rebecca from our podcast Patreon Discord:

So I’m really enjoying the Below Stairs mysteries and wondered if anyone has any recs for other historical cosy mystery series. What I like about them is they generally resolve well and have that cosy mystery feel, but they also acknowledge some of the social justice issues of the time. I don’t really like high society stuff, so I like that they’re about working class.

Susan: Hither Page by Cat Sebastian has a very tired spy poking around a small village trying to solve a murder with a former army doctor, and it’s full of people trying their best

Fewer cozy vibes, but Murder on the Last Frontier by Cathy Pegau has a suffragette journalist in a frontier town in Alaska trying to solve the murder of a sex worker.

The Frangipani Tree Mystery
A | BN | K | AB
…I’m coming to realise that I read a lot of historical mysteries, and a lot of cozy mysteries, but not a lot in the intersection, hang on.

Sarah: I LOVED the Hither, Page books.

The Crown Colony series by Ovidia Yu, starting with The Frangipani Tree Mystery. They’re set in the late 30s in Singapore, when it’s still a British colony.

Murder at Mallowan Hall by Colleen Cambridge ( A | BN | K ) is about Agatha Christie and her housekeeper, Phyllida Bright.

Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare might work – it’s more noir and takes place on the Queen Mary in the 30s.

What mysteries would you recommend? Let us know in the comments!

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