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scalziwhatever_feedIt’s a short and sweet oldy but a goody this time out, from Buddy Holly. Why this one? Why not? It’s been covered by just about everyone, from James Taylor to Erasure, and I really like the song, and I had free time this weekend, so here we are. If you like it, fabulous, if you don’t, well, it’s two minutes long, it’ll be over quickly enough.
And for those of you who have somehow never heard the original, here you go:
— JS
scalziwhatever_feedAnd we have a lot to think about.
— JS
epod_feedPhotographer: Ray Boren
Summary Author: Ray Boren
Almost two centuries ago, on July 4, 1830, a brigade of about 80 fur trappers and traders led by William Sublette, headed toward the Wind River region just to the west, paused to celebrate the Fourth of July — Independence Day in the young United States of America. They camped beside a massive, free-standing mound of bald granite along central Wyoming’s Sweetwater River. Sublette is generally credited with giving the monolith its name: Independence Rock, shown here in a photograph taken on June 19, 2025.
During the mid-19th century, this emigrant route over the Continental Divide and through North America’s Rocky Mountains was traveled by an estimated half-million explorers, adventurers, would-be gold miners, farmers, tradesmen and other settlers — men, women and children. All were walking, riding horses or seated on often oxen-powered wagons, and some were even pulling handcarts. The Oregon, Mormon Pioneer and California National Historic Trails and the route of the Pony Express all passed by this impressive outcrop. Independence Rock and the Fourth of July became goals for pioneers because the landmark was about halfway between their trek’s beginnings, near the Missouri River, and their Far West and Pacific Coast destinations, which they hoped to reach before snow started to fall in the Sierra Nevadas and other ranges later in the year.
In diaries and letters, emigrants variously wrote that the great mound looked like “a huge whale,” “a giant bowl turned upside down,” or “a big elephant mired up to its sides in the mud.” And on cliffs, in alcoves and caves, and on the rock’s rounded top, thousands of them scratched, chiseled or wrote with paint, axle grease, or tar their names, initials and dates onto the granite. Time, weather, erosion and rock-covering lichen have erased or obscured most of the inscriptions, but scores remain, as shown in the bottom photo (also taken on June 19). One of the earliest known signatures, made by “M.K. Hugh” in 1824, has vanished. But others, even from the 1840s and 1850s, can be found by determined searchers, especially along a path that encircles the rock.
The emigrants, as an informational sign at Independence Rock observes, probably did not realize they were beneficiaries of millions of years of geologic activity. The monolith — roughly 1,900 feet (580 meters) long, 850 feet (260 m) wide, and 130 feet (40 m) high — and other, more-jagged peaks nearby are composed of Archean granite, a hard, coarse-grained igneous rock that slowly cooled under the Earth’s surface. The rise and fall of the land and erosion eventually exposed the summits we see today. A highway rest stop along Wyoming 220 now provides viewpoints and pathways to the steep-sided mount, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961, and which is managed today by the State of Wyoming as the Independence Rock State Historic Site.
Independence Rock, Wyoming Coordinates: 42.4935, -107.1318
Related Links:
Crossroads on the Upper Green River
Idaho’s Granitic City of Rocks
Northeastern Nevada’s Pilot Peak
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We do so love the big blue marble we call home, don’t we? But what if humans had another home, and what if it was our red and dusty space neighbor? Author E.L. Starling poses this question in the Big Idea for newest novel, Bound By Stars, thinking up possibilities about the future that are certainly dystopian, but also realistic. Follow along on a journey through the stars, and try to keep afloat as the (space)ship goes down.
E. L. STARLING:
My family rewatches Interstellar together every year, which sometimes (read: always) devolves into a heated debate about complex theories, space time, and whether “they” really were aliens or just an unfathomable combination of future human technology and a natural anomaly splicing through the multiverse. (Probably the aliens, right?)
In spring of 2022, as the credits rolled, my oldest veered off our usual set of topics and brought up a certain billionaire’s desire to terraform Mars. We all responded with eye rolls and a version of the same sentiment, “How about putting that effort into combating climate change on this planet where we already have oxygen, water, and atmosphere?”
Plus, if I’m being completely honest, even if Mars was a viable option for everyone, you can still leave me here. Reading in a car going 25 mph flips my stomach inside out. And, the vastness of the unknown is a fear I would rather not face.
But, what would that be like? What if the wealthy abandoned Earth to create a utopia 140 million miles away and left the rest of the world’s population behind? Would they really leave Earth for good? Terraforming is a long game. They would still need resources. Would they use Earth like their new planet’s remote farm and factory? There was so much to consider.
This discussion sparked an idea. Two worlds. Separated by space and socioeconomic classes.
As my family members scattered, I was building the dystopia in my mind: After the Earth is ravaged by climate change, the population decimated, and society reshaped, the wealthy still control the resources, but they’ve drilled for water, built infrastructure, and established a safe haven in luxurious habitat cities on Mars.
The dynamics of the world set up the perfect main characters: two people from different classes and different planets. And what if they were teenagers in this world— still required to manage school, bullies, love, homework, and their impending futures? What if I upped the stakes further and put them on a doomed starliner between their two worlds? There was The Big Idea: YA Titanic-in-space.
Enter Jupiter Dalloway and Weslie Fleet. Jupiter is from Mars. Born at the top of society. The heir to a multi-trillion-dollar company. Unsatisfied with his predetermined future. Weslie’s from Earth. Hardened by a life of struggle and injustice. Full of confidence and armed with the attitude to call out Jupiter’s alarming privilege. Both of them seventeen, on the tailend of adolescence. Two people who learn to appreciate and celebrate each other’s differences despite the backdrop of a complex and oppressive world.
Choosing to write Bound by Stars as a YA novel was a conscious endeavor for me. At that age, you’re near adulthood, but still not fully in control of your own life. There are people who dictate the basics of your day to day, but you’re the one expected to make decisions about your future. High school graduation, college, the rest of your life is just around the bend in the road ahead. You’re shaped by every heartbreak, moment of triumph, cruel word, and act of kindness. And all the emotions inside you are bigger, stronger, more passionate. The future feels open. Possible. Big. Scary.
I love celebrating this multitude for joy, hope, injustice, and even sadness. In my opinion, this is great insight into why we often throw teenager characters into dystopian stories. While sometimes labeled as “overly emotional” or “out of control,” that “too much-ness” of adolescence is human emotion at its absolute fullest capacity. I can’t help but respect someone who can experience heartbreak like a life-ending blow and still care about their friends, show up for band practice, sing their heart out in a theater production, and write that 5-page essay due at the end of the week.
And on top of it all—today’s youth are growing up with a true fear of climate change and developing an understanding of the dangers of unfettered capitalism in real time, while being asked “What do you want to do with your life after high school?”
Of course, the compelling lightbulb of “Titanic-in-space” was fun and romantic: a chance to create parallels to an epic love story in a high-stake situation. But there was a level deeper. Underneath the outrageous opulence of the ship headed for Mars, sharp banter between characters from different worlds, slow-burn romance, and an action-packed, “there aren’t enough lifeboats (or escape pods in this case)” climax, Bound by Stars is a story about relatable, young characters navigating life in bleak future landscape. After all, dystopian novels can reflect the complexities of existing in this stage of life, while—hopefully—offering a bit of hope and inspiration.
Bound By Stars: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop
aslobcomesclean_feedAs always, I’m taking time off during the summer. This year, though, we’re trying something new! We’re sharing the audio of previous live Q&As that I did on YouTube. If you only listen to the podcast, this will be all new to you! We’ll be back with our regular format mid-August. This episode includes my […]
The post 465: Extra Bedding, Things That Need Repairs, and Extra Bins appeared first on Dana K. White: A Slob Comes Clean.
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Photographer: Greg Parker
Summary Author: Greg Parker
scalziwhatever_feedWhilst I was perusing the produce section at Kroger last week, I came across a watermelon. Not just any watermelon, though. Private Selection’s “Black Diamond” watermelons. I figured since y’all seemed to enjoy my orange review, you might want the skinny on this here watermelon, as well:
Unlike the Sugar Gem oranges, this watermelon was sweeter than a regular ol’ watermelon. Not only that, but the label boasts a rich, red flesh. I thought it may have been all talk, but lo and behold it was indeed very red! I bought this one for six dollars, which is pretty much the exact same cost as a regular watermelon, and it’s roughly the same size, so I’d say you should go ahead and buy this one over the regular ones if you are someone who prefers a juicier, sweeter watermelon.
I served this watermelon to my parents, both of whom do not particularly care for watermelon, and they made a point of telling me how good this particular watermelon was and ended up eating a good bit of it when normally they probably wouldn’t have opted for any watermelon at all.
With the 4th approaching this weekend, I assume many of y’all will want to pick up a watermelon, and I think if your Kroger has these ones lying around you should give it a try! I’ve been meaning to buy another one because it’s the perfect refreshing snack during this recent heat wave.
It’s nice to try something new and actually have a good experience with it. Those Sugar Gem oranges may have been a bust, but this Black Diamond Watermelon is definitely a winner in my book.
Do you like watermelon? If you don’t, would you be willing to give this one a try based on my parents’ reaction to it? Do you have fun plans for the 4th? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!
-AMS
rewritingtherules_feedNow that my new book with Alex Iantaffi, How to Understand Your Relationships, is out in the world (the last book in our How to Understand Your… series), I’m stocked that my interview about trauma and relationships is being included in the Reset Your Nervous System Super Conference.
The interview covers:
The conference airs on July 21st to 27th. You can sign up for the conference from today, using this link.
The book is out now and you can order it here.
And this zine also covers some of these ideas around relationship struggles.
The post Reset Your Nervous System Super Conference appeared first on Rewriting The Rules.
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Photographer: Anthony Ayiomamitis
Summary Author: Anthony Ayiomamitis
One of the most beloved myths from Ancient Greece involves the father-son duo of Daedalus and Icarus who were jailed by King Minos in Crete after the latter had asked for the construction of a complex labyrinth by the crafty Daedalus for the jailing of the Minotaur (illegitimate son of the King's wife).
The older Daedalus came up with the ingenious idea to construct wings made of wax and bird feathers so that he and his son could fly their way out of prison and away from Crete. Prior to their dramatic escape, Daedalus advised the younger Icarus not to fly too close to the Sun since the heat would melt the wax and lead them to their demise. Similarly, he advised Icarus not to fly too close to the sea since the moisture would dampen their wings, thus making them heavier and which would also lead to a destructive ending.
Although the escape went as planned, the younger Icarus was so excited by their ability to fly that he soon forgot his father's advice by flying higher and higher and which eventually led to the melting of the wax and his ultimate demise where he tragically fell into the Aegean Sea. Daedalus located his son's body and buried Icarus in the immediate vicinity of his tragic drowning and named the nearby island Icaria in honor of his cherished son.
Featured above (at top) is a stunning stainless steel statue depicting Icarus with the spring equinox Sun setting in the immediate background. The bottom photo required seven trips to Cyprus to get the alignment just right because of the greater distance from the statue than the top photo as well as various nuances due to the weather and a broken tripod connection. Top photo taken on April 9, 2002; bottom photo taken on March 15, 2025.
Photo Details: Top photo - Canon EOS 6D camera; Baader BCF2 filter; Baader ND5 filter; Canon EOS EF 50mm/f1.8USM lens; f8.0; 47 x 1/320 second exposures; ISO 200; Digital Photo Pro V4.6.30.0; Photoshop CS5. Bottom photo - Canon EOS 6D camera; Baader BCF2 filter; Baader ND5 filter; Canon EOS EF 70-200mm f/4 L; 200 mm/f14.0; 11 x 1/60 second exposures; ISO 640; Digital Photo Pro V4.6.30.0; Photoshop CS5.
Boardwalk, Ayia Napa, Cyprus Coordinates: 34.981898, 34.001602
Related Links:
Equinox Sun at Pegasus of Corinth
Anthony's Website
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Hop on board for author Matthew Kressel’s newest ride through the galaxy, Space Trucker Jess. In this Big Idea as he takes you through not only his writing process for this particular story, but on a journey through a high-concept sci-fi world viewed through the eyes of a teenage girl.
MATTHEW KRESSEL:
I was a feral kid. Both my parents worked full-time jobs, and I’d come home to an empty house. I had no supervision. I went off with friends and we, ahem, did things. Stupid things. Really fucking stupid things. And when I look back on those days I’m like, How the hell did I make it out alive?
But that freedom was glorious. You could do whatever you wanted. Go anywhere. You had the feeling that anything could happen. And it often did. The good and the bad.
That’s the kind of feeling I hope to evoke in Space Trucker Jess. The joy and spontaneity of discovery. In my childhood, we got into trouble all around the neighborhood. In my novel, Jess gets into hijinx across the galaxy.
Like Jess herself, I began the book with a simple premise: Screw the “rules.”
In my past stories and novels, I labored over every paragraph, sentence, word, and punctuation mark until I’d wound myself into a Gordian knot a million words long. In Jess, I felt the need to loosen the bridles, to let my idea run wild, like that feral kid who got into trouble around the neighborhood. What emerged was Jess, a take-no-shit foul-mouthed kick-ass teenaged girl who’s smart as hell, caring and empathetic, who solves problems not with violence but with brains and determination. Though too often for her own good, Jess’s curiosity gets her into trouble. Big trouble.
Think Natasha Lyonne narrating 2001: A Space Odyssey.
There’s lots of high-concept SF, and, yeah, Space Trucker Jess has all the tropes: starships and FTL travel, alien gods, missing planets, galactic secrets. But I wanted to tell the story a different way. Not from an omniscient or a dry and distant third person, but from deep in the point of view of a sensitive and expressive girl who’s journeyed across the Milk and back a thousand times and who knows more about starships than most people know their own nose.
And so you get high philosophy and fart jokes. Orthodox religion and irreverent sacrilege. Weird inscrutable aliens and deadbeat dads. All told from a foul-mouthed over-confident, wicked-smart and sometimes willfully naive girl who just wants, at the end of the day, to be left the hell alone.
Space Trucker Jess is also about identity. I wrote a good chunk of the book during the first Covid lockdowns. Cut off from friends and family, from work and all the many inter-personal relationships I took for granted, I felt my sense of self drifting. Without those external interactions reflecting my identity back to me, I didn’t know who I was anymore. It was very disconcerting.
A lot of that experience makes its way into the book. Jess’s worldview expands enormously throughout the novel, sometimes suddenly and violently, and she is forced to reckon with a new sense of self and a greater awareness.
Also, Space Trucker Jess is about family. Jess loves her deadbeat dad, and she and him have been grifting their way across the galaxy for years. But she knows he’s an asshole, he knows he’s an asshole, but she just can’t let him go. The relationship is, from the start, highly dysfunctional. Jess just wants stability, away from him. But getting away is harder than it sounds. Without getting too personal, I had a lot of turbulence in my childhood home, and I wanted to explore the contrasts between the family we’re born with and the family we choose, and how those dynamics can alter the course of our entire lives, for better or worse.
So if you want to go on a fun adventure alongside a bad-ass genius girl head-firsting her way through the galaxy who’s just looking for some peace in an uncaring universe, while encountering alien gods, missing planets, galactic secrets, and more, well then, Space Trucker Jess might just be your ride.
Space Trucker Jess: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s
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Photographer: Meiying Lee
Summary Author: Meiying Lee
It turns out that those of us living in the mid and low latitudes have only been seeing half of the Moon's trajectory! We're used to the Moon rising in the east and setting in the west. If we observe closely, we'll notice that its path shifts north and south every month, while the Sun only shifts north and south once a year. From February 22 to March 7, 2025, I traveled to northern Norway, around 69 degrees north latitude. The first few days I was there, I found that I couldn't see the Moon at all, day or night. It then dawned on me that because of how far north I was, the Moon's path was too far south for me to see.
However, in the latter half of the trip, on March 4 and 5, I discovered that the waxing crescent Moon stayed in the sky all day and night! In fact, if the weather was clear enough, we could observe this waxing crescent remaining near the level of the horizon for five to six days, much like the phenomenon of the Midnight Sun during the summer solstice, where in the vicinity of the Arctic Circle the Sun stays on the horizon continuously.
Unfortunately, due to the weather and my travel schedule, I couldn’t capture the entire trajectory of the Moon across the sky. But during the early hours of March 5, while photographing an aurora, I managed to capture two segments of the Moon's path. The left image shows the time from 12:30 to 1:52 am (local time) on March 5, and the right image is from 2:48 to 4:07 am. In the left image, the Moon is still descending, while in the right image, it appears to be moving horizontally just above the horizon. From the position of the North Star (at the center of the concentric circles), we can see that the Moon has reached its lowest point and is beginning to rise again, though the movement is so subtle it’s almost imperceptible.
Additionally, the Moon that appeared in the northern low sky at this late hour was a waxing crescent Moon, which shouldn't have been visible at this time and direction. This phenomenon, where the Moon never sets, is actually the other half of the Moon's trajectory below the horizon. It's a sight that people living in the mid to low latitudes have never imagined and is truly fascinating! Photos taken on March 3, 2025.
Senja Island, Norway Coordinates: 69.2965, 17.6459
Related Links:
Perspective of the Moon from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres
Meiying's Facebook page
scalziwhatever_feedHave you ever had one of those places you want to go to, but never get around to checking out, and suddenly a year has passed and you’ve still never been? That’s how it was for me and Grist, a restaurant in downtown Dayton that I had heard about from so many people and had been meaning to get out to for literal months. Well, I finally made it happen, and I’m so glad I did.
Bryant and I were going out to dinner, and I asked him what kind of food he wanted. He picked Italian, which, in my opinion, is the hardest cuisine to get around this area. At least, good Italian, that is. There’s always Fazoli’s, and TripAdvisor has the audacity to label Marion’s Pizza as the number one Italian spot in the area, so pickings are slim for Italian ’round these parts. But I wanted something nicer than Spaghetti Warehouse.
Eventually my searching led me to Grist, which was labeled as Italian, and looked pretty dang amazing from the photos provided. Plus, I’d heard from numerous Daytonians in the past that they liked Grist, and I trust my sources. So, I made us a reservation for that evening, excited to try somewhere new.
Located on Fifth Street, it’s just down the street from the Oregon District, and close to the Dayton Convention Center. There’s a parking garage right across the street from it, and some street parking, too.
Upon walking in, the first thing I noticed was how bright and open it is. The large wall of windows let in so much natural light, and you immediately get to see all the baked goods in their glass display case.
I immediately loved the decor and vibe in Grist. It was like sort of rustic but nice at the same time. Like fancy Italian farmhouse vibes? It was really cute.
And there was even a selection of wine for purchase:
I didn’t get a shot of their other indoor dining area or their little patio, but it does have a super cute patio.
Grist has casual service, so you can either place your order at the counter or order at your table using your phone, and they bring the food out to your table. I chose to use my phone because there was a pretty steady flow of people ordering to-go stuff from the register.
Here’s what they were offering on their dinner menu:
It’s basically a law that you have to try a restaurant’s bread. The bread a restaurant offers is a window into all the rest of their food, and also into their soul. So we split the half loaf of rosemary and parmesan focaccia:
Bryant and I both loved the focaccia, and there was more than enough for both of us. The outside was just a little bit crispy and the bread inside was soft and chewy. It wasn’t overwhelmingly herbaceous, and was definitely worth the six dollars in my opinion. The only acceptable reason to not try this bread if you visit is if you’re gluten intolerant.
We also shared the house-made meatballs:
I can’t say I’m like, a huge meatball fan. I don’t really eat them that often and they’re not something I crave regularly or think about all that much. However, these meatballs were really yummy! I was impressed that there were five of them, and they were quite sizeable. I think the portion size is honestly pretty good. They definitely tasted like they were made fresh in-house, and had just the right amount of sauce on them. I would be more than happy to have a meatball marinara sub made with these meatballs.
And our final appetizer was the mushroom pate:
First off, I love how toasty the ciabatta was, it’s like the perfect shade for toast. The mushroom pate was packed to the brim with mushroomy, umami flavor. Total flavor bomb, and a little goes a long way. The pickled shallots added a wild contrast, and there was a lot of interesting textures. It was seriously delish.
To accompany the starters, I decided to try their sweet wine flight, which came with three wines for fourteen dollars:
I can’t remember what the red one was, but the two whites are a Riesling and a sparkling Moscato. I did not care for the red at all, in my opinion it wasn’t even remotely sweet, but I generally prefer white anyway so maybe it just wasn’t my cup of tea (or wine, I suppose). Normally I like Rieslings but this one was kind of a miss for me, too. The Moscato was the bomb dot com though. I loved the bubbles and the sweetness level was perfect. It was so smooth and delish, I ended up polishing that one off but didn’t really drink the other two.
Choosing an entree was pretty dang tough, but Bryant ended up picking the Cacio e Pepe Orecchiette:
I absolutely loved the presentation of this dish, and I’m a huge risotto fan, but I honestly didn’t care for this dish. It just really didn’t taste like much to me, but then again I only had one bite and Bryant said he really liked it, so maybe it was a me issue. I’m glad he enjoyed it!
I opted for the Sweet Corn Agnolotti:
I actually wasn’t sure what type of pasta agnolotti was, but it’s basically just a stuffed pasta, kind of like a ravioli. These little dudes were stuffed with a delicious, creamy filling that I totally burned the frick frack out of my tongue on. They had a great corn flavor, you could definitely tell it was sweet corn. I noticed on the menu it also said it had black truffle in it but I actually didn’t notice any truffle flavor at all, so that’s kind of odd. I really enjoyed my entree, and I think next time I’d like to try the squid ink pasta since I still have yet to try squid ink.
Of course, we had to save room for dessert, and you can’t eat an Italian dinner without ending it with tiramisu:
Funny enough, Bryant’s favorite dessert is tiramisu, so he definitely wasn’t gonna pass this up. He was kind enough to let me try a bite, and I feel confident saying it’s a pretty good tiramisu! It was creamy and rich, and honestly didn’t have any sort of alcohol-y boozy type flavor. No complaints, solid tiramisu.
I went with the apricot and passionfruit tart with pepita crust:
Oh my DAYS! This bloody thing was loaded with flavor. Holy cannoli this thing literally punched my tastebuds into next week! The passionfruit flavor is absolutely bonkers on this sucker. Don’t get me wrong, it was delicious. It was sweet and tart and the crust was awesome and the meringue on top was fantastic and wow. Seriously wow. It took me three separate tries to eat this after I took it home, because I would take one bite and be like, okay that’s plenty for now. But don’t misunderstand me, it is very good!
Before leaving, I simply had to get one of their incredible looking cookies to take home, and I picked the white chocolate pineapple one:
This cookie was dense, chewy, perfectly sweet with pieces of pineapple throughout, and the flaky sea salt on top really was the cherry on top, or I guess it was the flaky sea salt on top (I know, it’s not a funny joke). Definitely pick up a cookie on your way out, you won’t regret it!
Grist is open Tuesday-Saturday for lunch and dinner, with a break in between the two. You can make reservations for dinner but not for lunch, and you can order online for lunch but not for dinner. While I was there I learned that Grist also hosts cooking classes on Sundays, so that’s neat! I’d love to check one out sometime.
All in all, Grist was a great experience. Though we didn’t have waiters and whatnot, the service we got from the people at the counter and from the chefs that brought our plates out was extremely friendly, and also the food came out really quickly. We both really loved the food and the vibes, and I also like the prices. I definitely want to come back and try pretty much everything I didn’t get to this first time around.
Have you tried Grist before? Which dish looks the best to you? Do you have any recommendations for nice Italian places in Dayton? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day! And be sure to follow Grist on Instagram.
-AMS
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TRIGGERED - Page 341
My coworker could see that I was upset by the conversation we overheard, but tried to assure me that it was ‘nothing personal’. How could it not be personal? When queer people were under attack for seeking protection for kids? When we were so often the subject of political debate that led to people loudly expressing opinions about us? It felt like the plebiscite all over again.
TRIGGERED is supported by my generous Patrons. To become a patron and gain access to hundreds of additional comic pages, head on over here.
epod_feedThis EPOD was first published May 16, 2012
Photographer: Rebecca Roush
Summary Author: Stu Witmer
The photo above shows a stack of driftwood on the beach of the bay of Hunafloi near Drangsnes, in the Westfjords district of Iceland. This is no casual bonfire in the making. Trees are few in Iceland. So much so that a popular joke for tourists is “What should you do if you’re lost in the forest? Stand up.” Most of the native trees were cut down in the early days of settlement and a reforestation program is underway to help bring the forests back. Meanwhile, driftwood fills the gap. There’s more driftwood than you might expect. Primarily spruce (Picea), pine (Pinus) and larch (Larix sibirica) the majority of these trees originally stood along Siberian rivers such as the Ob and the Lena where they may have eroded from the shores or escaped from logging operations. Once at sea, the trees drift with the Arctic Ocean currents. Studies have shown that it takes about five years for these trees to travel to Iceland. Driftwood can only stay afloat for about ten months indicating that these trees are primarily carried by sea ice. Along the way, the wood becomes impregnated with so much salt from the seawater that it is hardened thus making it excellent for use in construction. These days it is mainly used for fence posts. Since the wood belongs to whoever owns the land it washes up on, it makes a cost-effective building material and sometimes a cash crop. Photo taken September 13, 2011.
Photo Details: Camera: Canon Powershot SD 1300 IS; Focal Length: 5 mm; F Number: f/8; ISO Speed Ratings: 160; Flash: off.
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July 4 is most of a week away, so I was not anticipating that outside my hotel window last night would be a full-fledged professional fireworks display. But it turns out the hotel I was at, was next door to a Masonic Temple compound, and I guess they had some premature patriotic fervor. Inasmuch as I got a free fireworks show I didn’t even need to leave my hotel room for (and it ended early enough that I didn’t lose any sleep over it), I suppose I can’t complain.
Back at home now. Not anticipating a fireworks display tonight. We’ll see if that prediction holds.
— JS
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Very different from the last View From a Hotel Window I posted, seeing that one was from Venice, Italy. This one is greener, though. And has a parking lot! Very few of those in Venice, I have to say.
Why am I here? Because of the Big Ohio Book Con, where Tochi Onyebuchi and I are in conversation tomorrow at 12:30, followed by us both signing books. If you are in the vicinity of Medina, OH tomorrow, come down and see us (the book festival is also happening today! Right now! As I write this!). If you’re not in the vicinity of Medina, Ohio today or tomorrow, well, try to have a good time anyway.
— JS
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I was traveling much of June, and as a result we have an extra-large collection of new books and ARCs to consider here at the end of the month. What in this double stack of reading goodness would you like to take on in this final weekend of the first half of the year? Share in the comments!
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This weekend is the St. Louis Pen Show, so let’s take a look at the show ink! This year is KWZ Meet Me In St. Louis 2025, aka 314 Blues. You can pick this ink up at the show!
The color:
314 Blues is a bright medium blue.
*For my swab cards I use a Col-o-ring by Skylab Letterpress, a medium Pilot Ishime and a Mabie Todd Swan.
In large swabs on Tomoe River paper the ink has some shading but no sheen.
Let's take a look at how the ink behaves on fountain pen friendly papers: Rhodia, Tomoe River, and Leuchtturm, and on cheap copy paper.
*For my writing samples I use:
Vintage Mabie Todd Swan (flex nib)
Taroko Enigma notebooks (68gsm TR)
Dry time: 15 seconds
Water resistance: Low
Feathering: Low-there was some feathering on Rhodia, but I think that’s an issue with the latest batch of Rhodia paper I got rather than the fault of the ink.
Show through: Medium
Bleeding: Low-again with issues on Rhodia, I still think it’s the paper’s fault.
Other properties: medium shading, no sheen, and no shimmer.
On 20 lb copy paper the ink had feathering in all nib sizes and some bleeding.
314 Blues is brighter and more saturated than Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-peki. Click here to see the blue inks together.
I used a Lamy Al-star Pacific Blue with a medium nib on a Taroko Enigma notebook. The ink has an average flow.
Overall, I’ve enjoyed the Meet Me In St. Louis inks I’ve tried so far, and this one is lovely. You can pick up a bottle at the show!
Thanks to all my Patrons! I couldn’t do these reviews without you! You can find my Patreon page here.
Disclaimer: This product was provided by the organizers of the St. Louis Pen Show for the purpose of this review. All photos and opinions are my own. This page does not contain affiliate links and this post is not sponsored.
epod_feedPhotographer: Ray Boren
Summary Author: Ray Boren
Under a big blue sky, the morning sun illuminates a central portion of Wyoming’s majestic Teton Range, which is mirrored via specular reflection in a calm and equally blue bay of Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park. In this photograph, taken on May 23, 2025, the park’s namesake Grand Teton peak, topping out at 13,775 feet (4,199 meters) above sea level, is on the far-left side of the image, to the south. Blocky Mount Moran (12,610 feet; 3,840 m) rises prominently just left of center.
The snow still covering the Tetons on this spring day makes it easy to envision the Pleistocene ice-age glaciers that helped carve the mountains’ jagged summits, cirques, and U-shaped drainages. The Park Service explains that the Teton Fault began tilting the range’s primarily granite mountain block upward about 10 million years ago while also dropping the valley of Jackson Hole. Although masked by snow in the photograph, almost a dozen glaciers remain in the park today, some moving and some mere remnants. They, and erosion from water, wind and gravity, continue to shape the dramatic terrain.
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming Coordinates: 43.7904, -110.6818
Related Links:
Sunset and Specular Reflection at Great Salt Lake
Davey Jackson’s Valley in Winter
The Tetons, from the Idaho Side
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When strangers meet on the road, can lives change? What if those strangers are something other than just strangers? With Smoke on the Wind, author Kelli Estes has a chance encounter for the ages… in more ways than one.
KELLI ESTES:
When I started writing my novel, Smoke on the Wind, I thought it would be just like my last two: a dual timeline where the present-day protagonist learns about history taking place in the historical storyline and it changes her life in some way. But then, wouldn’t you know it, my historical protagonist ends up seeing my present-day characters walking past her on the road and her journey alters because of it.
Wait. What? I reached for the delete key but then stopped. What if I left that in? What if she – a woman in 1801 Scotland – really does see a woman and her son from 2025? What would that mean to her? What would that mean to the story?
Now, before we go any further, let me explain that I do not write science-fiction or fantasy. I write historical fiction, dual narrative, sometimes referred to as women’s fiction. We in this genre tend to stick to historical facts and realism. Readers will light our inboxes on fire if we alter history or get too, as one reader put it, “woo-woo.” (She was referring to a harbor seal that keeps reappearing to my character in a previous novel. Something tells me she really won’t like what’s happening in Smoke on the Wind!)
But, reservations aside, the idea felt exciting. And, even more, it felt possible. I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen ghosts. I’ve recalled past life memories. I’ve seen movement out of the corner of my eye when no one was there and known I was seeing the lingering energy of someone who’d been there before me.
Even more, this book is set in Scotland, a place that feels mysterious and magical, where generations of people believed that Fairy Folk helped keep their livestock safe and peering through a hole in a stone could show you the future. When I’m in Scotland walking the hills and glens, especially when I know the history of what once occurred on that land, I can feel the spirits of the people who came before me as though they are standing right beside me. In other words, the veil is thin in Scotland and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit to find myself touching a standing stone and traveling back in time or turning a corner and bumping into someone who’d lived three hundred years in the past.
Smoke on the Wind is set on Scotland’s most popular long-distance hiking trail, the West Highland Way. It is dual timeline meaning that there is a historical story interwoven with a present-day story and, together, they address themes such as identity, what makes a home, and the bond between mothers and sons. Because both stories occupy the same geographic space, they rub up against each other even though they are separated by over 200 years.
My present-day character, Keaka, learns about the historical character’s life which influences the trajectory of her own life. But, also, my historical character, Sorcha, sees glimpses of Keaka, which in turn, affects her life and the decisions she makes. I stuck to the facts of history – the Highland Clearances and Scotland in 1801 – but I allowed a bit of magic to come through, and I think the story works as a result. After all, we don’t really know if our own decisions are being influenced by whispers from the past, or even from the future.
As I wrote, I intended to stick with vague connections between the two women that could easily be explained away – a glimpse here and there, a whispered voice on the wind, a carving on a stone. But then I reached a scene near the midpoint of the story when, suddenly, the two women are standing face-to-face. I won’t spoil the book, so I’ll leave this vague and simply say that it’s not time-travel, but the women do see each other and communicate. I feel excited every time I think back to that scene because it feels so possible to me. Surely if I just squint hard enough, someone from another time period will appear to me, right?
It’s that sense of possibility that makes me love this story so much. Well, that and all the other things woven through the story that I equally love – the Highland Clearances, moms and sons, long-distance hiking, slow travel, visiting historic sites and feeling the weight still present, personal reinvention, the Scottish Gaelic language. Smoke on the Wind blurs time just enough that all things seem possible. History is relevant to our lives today, but maybe we’re relevant to it, too.
Smoke on the Wind: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s
aslobcomesclean_feedAs always, I’m taking time off during the summer. This year, though, we’re trying something new! We’re sharing the audio of previous live Q&As that I did on YouTube. If you only listen to the podcast, this will be all new to you! We’ll be back with our regular format mid-August. This episode includes my […]
The post 464: Digital Photos, Decluttering Clothes After Weight Loss, and Household Challenges with “Where Would I Look For It First?” appeared first on Dana K. White: A Slob Comes Clean.
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Photographer: Rui Santos
Summary Author: Rui Santos
The night sky and planetary alignment featured above was captured from Pinhal de Leiria, Portugal on February 28, 2025. I decided to view the alignment from here because I knew I'd have a clear view of the horizon. Since the planets were stretched out across the sky, I had to do a panorama and try to avoid light pollution (lower left and lower right) from surrounding cities and towns. Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Uranus are included above, but because I wasn't able to arrive as the Sun was setting, Saturn, Neptune and Mercury aren't in the frame.
At bottom center is the Crastinha Lookout Point, one of several watchtowers in the Forest of Leiria. The building to its right is the reconstruction of what used to be the guard's house, dating from 1883. This tower is still in use today.
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scalziwhatever_feedLet’s revisit December 2o23 for a moment, when I first experienced Dozo: an exceptionally cool underground sushi spot in Dayton that features a pre-fixe tasting menu and sake/wine pairings. After that incredible initial visit, I went about six or seven more times after that. Every time was the bomb dot com.
Today I’m here to tell you about a special event they held last week, called “Sip Happens: Sake Edition.” It was a sake tasting event in partnership with SakeOne, a sake company out of Oregon that not only brews their own craft sake, but has been importing fine sake from Japan since 1992.
It was twenty bucks for a ticket, which got you a 2oz pour of each of the four selected sakes for the evening. When buying your ticket online, you had the choice to add on two different sushi rolls, each for seven dollars. I opted for one of each roll to accompany my sake samplings.
For the most part, the only time I ever have sake is when I’m dining at Dozo and do their sake pairing. I always enjoy getting to try new sakes, so I was really excited to try some new ones at the event and also learn all about them.
When I was seated at my corner bar seat (my favorite seat, really), there was this welcome card:
On the back was a list of the sakes we were going to be trying, as well as the options to purchase another tasting of it or purchase the full bottle to take home:
I didn’t realize until I saw the card that the first sampling was going to be of my favorite sake! I absolutely love the Awa Yuki and it’s one of the first sake I ever tried, and it helped me realize I do really enjoy sake. So I was looking forward to that one even though I had in fact tried it before.
Here was my pours of the Awa Yuki and the Naginata:
For the Awa Yuki, it’s a sparkling sake and I tend to enjoy sparkling sakes and wines more than still. The Awa Yuki is slightly sweet, very light, and has just the right amount of bubbles. I’ve always thought it tastes kind of marshmallowy or vanilla-esque, and apparently both of those are actual tasting notes of it! I feel accomplished. It’s very mellow and I love the pretty blue bottle it comes in. It’s actually about half the size of a regular 750ml sake bottle, which is why the to-go bottle you can purchase is only twelve bucks. It’s also lower in alcohol content than a lot of sakes, at 5.5%. Here’s some extra details on it.
When I was talking to the SakeOne representative, Jack, he was happy to hear Awa Yuki is my long-standing favorite sake.
Then he began telling me all the details of the Naginata. Something that really fascinated me was that the rice used for the Naginata was grown in Arkansas and is actually a super high quality sake rice called yamada nishiki. It is considered the “king” of sake rice, and SakeOne’s goal with the Naginata is “to craft the best sake brewed outside of Japan, period.” If that’s their goal, using the king of sake rice is certainly a good place to start!
The Naginata smelled like crisp apple, and when I tasted it I ended up getting a melon-y flavor. I didn’t know if that was “correct” so I waited until Jack mentioned the tasting notes of it, and I was on the mark again, much to my delight. It was slightly dry but not overly so, honestly very light and fruity. I really enjoyed it.
You may have noticed that this particular sake is considerably more expensive than the other offerings. Not only was there only 1000 bottles produced, but it is 100% handcrafted, and the brewmaster is involved in every step of the process from washing the rice to bottling. It comes in an elegant, simple bottle with an embossed logo. True Sake says on their website that this is a “world-class sake that should not be missed by any sake enthusiasts.”
While I was enjoying these two pours, my sushi was brought out to me:
These rolls were much bigger than I anticipated, each coming with eight pretty large pieces. It was only seven dollars for each so I was pleasantly surprised at the portion. These rolls were extremely tasty, and the salmon was so fresh and tender that I ended up asking the chef about it. He said the salmon was from Canada, and was cold smoked. I think he also mentioned something about a brown sugar marinade, but yeah definitely super yummy. So glad I got to try both rolls.
I got my next two pours:
When the Yuki Tora Nigori was being poured, I got to see the beautiful, frosted glass bottle with the coolest tiger decal on it, which is fitting because its name means “snow tiger.” This sake is cloudy from natural rice sediment, and is more creamy and silkier than other sakes. The snow tiger was certainly packed full of flavor, it was complex and layered and truly unique, with flavors of roasted grain and toasted cereal, but also some slight sweetness. It honestly reminds me of horchata with its warm spice and creaminess. I loved this one! Here’s some extra details on it. Plus I love that you can buy it in a little 200ml can, so cute.
And finally, the Hakutsuru Plum Wine. While it’s not a sake, it’s made by a sake brand, in fact it’s the same one that makes the Awa Yuki, so I had high hopes for this wine. I gave it a sniff and it smelled pleasantly sweet and rather almondy. This wine was seriously out of this world, with a beautifully sweet plum taste, it was the perfect finisher to this tasting experience. Jack told me that it’s especially delicious because it’s actual fermented plum puree, like it isn’t fake or artificial at all. The specific plums are called “ume,” and it’s very popular in Japan to have the plum wine mixed with soda water on the rocks, or for it to be used in plum wine highballs. Here’s some extra details on it.
All four sakes were fantastic, and I hope the next time I’m in Portland I get a chance to check out SakeOne’s Tasting Room. I’m so glad I got to have some delicious, fresh sushi from Dozo while savoring these sakes, and if Tender Mercy decides to do another one of these events in the future, you already know I’m going.
Which sake sounds the best to you? Do you prefer chilled sake like me, or do you like it hot? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day! And be sure to check out SakeOne, Tender Mercy, and Dozo on Instagram!
-AMS
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Royalty is by blood. So what if a princess wakes up in a body that isn’t hers? And what if that body was previously a corpse? Author Chuck Rothman has the answers and is here to share them in the Big Idea for his newest novel, Cadaver Princess. Follow along to see if “blue blood” really does run through royals’ veins.
CHUCK ROTHMAN:
Cunningham’s Law states that the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it’s to post the wrong answer. The webcomic XKCD created a popular meme where someone is staying up late because someone is wrong on the Internet.
The Cadaver Princess started due to someone being wrong on the Internet.
I am a storyteller. I also like to try to find new ways to do it. No Hero’s Journey for me! No planning, either. I start with a situation and see where it leads.
By the time I began writing The Cadaver Princess, I learned to lean into my strengths: short chapters and many point-of-view characters. I call it a “mosaic novel,” where a bunch of small vignettes slowly reveal the main plot (and subplots). And my goal in all this was to make it all work.
As to how this book began . . .
Matthew Foster is an excellent critic of fantasy and SF films. In his review of Boris Karloff’s The Body Snatcher, he said, “There were more movies about Victorian body snatchers than there were Victorian body snatchers.”
But body snatching was a major concern in 1831. Cadavers were needed to teach doctors. “Resurrectionists” would dig up the freshly buried, and medical schools would pay for them, no questions asked. People went to some lengths to protect the bodies of their loved ones.
I had learned this from a book called The Italian Boy by Sarah Wise, about a group called the “London Burkers,” led by John Bishop. Obscure today, their actions were more important historically than the better-known Burke and Hare, and, like them, Bishop and his crew didn’t just dig up graves at night: they turned to murder.
I decided to start with them. But since I write fantasy, the idea of a cadaver lying on the slab is too mundane, so I had her sit up. And to make the stakes higher, I said she was Princess (later queen) Victoria — in the body of another young woman.
So I had a setting and an incident. I started to write about what happened next.
I spontaneously generate ideas as I write. Most of what I’ve encountered in books about the period (not counting Dickens) dealt with the upper classes. I wanted to write about the lower classes.
I had started with the point of view of the anatomist who received the corpse, but after a few short chapters, I realized there was a better main character: Pablo Mansong, a Black man who had been taken by slavers but was freed before he got to America. The name came from Pablo Fanque. Beatles fans might recognize it; Fanque was a Black circus owner and a major Victorian impresario.
Pablo is quite at home among the poor and the street vendors of London. There are chapters about royalty, but most of the book deals with Pablo and Victoria, including the shock when someone from royalty is face to face with poverty.
I had already dabbled in what I call “hidden history” — fantasy set in a real historical setting, but with fantastic events that are not recorded in history books. I see it as the opposite of alternative history, since it doesn’t change what’s known. But there are plenty of possibilities and ways of dovetailing the events to match the records.
Since I had introduced Victoria, I had to research her. I read about how she was raised, which gave me motivation for her villain, John Conroy. I also learned of how Victoria’s governess, Baroness Lehzen, tried to protect her charge.
As I write, connections come to me. Sometimes, a scene that’s just for background becomes an unplanned but essential plot element by the end. In one scene I’m describing one of the street vendors of the era. Later on, I realize it is important for a key moment.
The real joy of writing this was figuring out how to make the connections, and how to make them dramatic. It was like a puzzle, and I enjoy putting all the pieces together.
But ultimately, the novel originated from Cunningham’s Law: correcting something on the Internet that was wrong. I just turned it into fiction.
Cadaver Princess: Amazon
lightbluetouchpaper_feedThe Cambridge Cybercrime Centre‘s eight one day conference on cybercrime was held on Monday, 23rd June 2025, which marked 10 years of the Centre.
Similar to previous “liveblog” coverage of conferences and workshops on Light Blue Touchpaper, here is a “liveblog”-style overview of the talks at this year’s conference.
Sunoo Park — Legal Risks of Security Research
Sunoo discussed researchers receiving restrictive TOS clauses, and risk around adversarial scrutiny. Noting that it’s difficult to distinguish from malicious hacking, and we need to understand the risks. Sunoo highlights particular US laws that creates risk for researchers, sharing a guide they wrote for highlighting these risks. This project grew from colleagues receiving legal threats, as well as clients, wanting to enable informed decisions on how to seek advice, and also try to nudge public discussion on law reforms.
The CFAA was passed a long time ago, around the time of the Wargames film. Computer crime has changed a lot since then. They define computer to be pretty much any computer, where access is unauthorized or exceeds authorized access. One early case was United States vs McDanel, who found a bug in customer software and reported this to customers. This resulted in a legal case where customers were informed of a security flaw, due to the cost of fixing the flaw, but the government later requested the case be overturned. More recently, there was a case of a police database being accessed for a bribe, which was also under the CFAA.
Another law is the DMCA, which states that “no person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to work”, and this may apply to captchas, anti-bot, etc.
Sunoo is starting a new study looking at researchers’ lived experiences of legal risk under US/UK law. It can be hard for researchers to talk openly about these, which results in little evidence to counter laws. Furthermore, there’s a lot of anecdotal information. Sunoo would like to hear from US/UK researchers relating to law and researchers.
Alice Hutchings — Ten years of the Cambridge Cybercrime Centre
The Centre was established in 2015, to collect and share cybercrime data internationally. They collect lots of data at scale: forums, chat channels, extremist platforms, DDoS attacks, modded apps, defacements, spam, and more. They share datasets with academics, not for commercial purposes, through agreements to set out ethical and legal constraints. The aim was to help researchers with collecting data at scale, and overcome challenges with working on large datasets. They don’t just collect data, but they do their own research too, around crime types, offenders, places, and responses.
Session 1: Trust, Identity, and Communication in Cybercriminal Ecosystems
Roy Ricaldi— From trust to trade: Uncovering the trust-building mechanisms supporting cybercrime markets on Telegram
Roy is researching trust and cybercrime, and how this is built on Telegram. Cybercrime markets rely on trust to function, and there is existing literature on this topic for forums. Forums have structured systems, such as reputation and escrow, whereas Telegram is more ephemeral, but still used for trading. Roy asks how trust established in this volatile, high-risk environment? Economic theory states without trust, markets can fail.
Roy starts by exploring the market segments found, looking at trust signals, and how frequently users are exposed to these trust systems. Roy notes chat channels can have significant history, and while trust signals exists, users may not be likely to find older trust signals easily. They built a snowballing and classification pipeline, to collect over 1 million messages from 167 telegram communities. Later, they developed a framework, for measuring and simulating trust signals. Findings showed market segments were highly thematic within communities, and trust signals. They used DeepseekV3 for classification, which detected trust signals and market segments with highest accuracy. They found an uneven distribution of trust signals across market segments. For example, piracy content is free so trust signals were low.
They find messages asking for use of escrow, or asking other to “vouch” for sellers. Some of these communities have moderators which would set rules around types of messages. After looking at the distribution, they ran a simulation to see how many signals the users were exposed to. Setup profiles of market segments, communities visited and messages read. They found 70% of users see 5 or less trust signals in their simulation, and all users see at least 1. Over time, these do evolve with digital infrastructure forming a larger peak. They note the importance of understanding how trust works on Telegram, to help find the markets that matter and can cause harm.
John McAlaney — Power, identity and group dynamics in hacking forums
John discussed work in progress around power structures and group dynamics in the CrimeBB dataset. He attended Defcon as a social psychologist, observing the interaction dynamics and how people see themselves within the large size of the conference.
Previous work in identity asked if hacking forums members considered themselves to be a “hacker” and resulted in discussions around the term and labelling. Other previous work looked at themes of what was spoken about in forums, such as legality, honesty, skill acquisition, knowledge, and risk. Through interviews, they found people had contradictory ideas around trust. They note existing hierarchies of power within forums, and evidence of social psychological phenomenon.
Within existing research literature, John found a gap where theories had not been explored necessarily in the online forum setting. They ask if there are groups forming on hacking forums in the same way as other online forums? Also, how does the structure of these groups differ? Are group dynamics different?
He was initially working with a deductive approach for thematic analysis. “Themes do not emerge from thematic analysis”, rather they are exploring what is currently discussed. He is not looking to generalise from thematic analysis, but rather looking into BERT next to see if they are missing any themes from the dataset.
He suggests the main impact will aim to contribute back to sociological literature, and also try to improve threat detection.
Haitao Shi — Evaluating the impact of anonymity on emotional expression in drug-related discussions: a comparative study of the dark web and mainstream social media
Haitao looked at self-disclosure, emotional disclosure, and environmental influence on cybercrime forums. They ask how different models of anonymity across chat channels and forums vary, and which different communications styles emerge? They identified drug-related channels and discussions for their analysis, and took steps to clean and check dataset quality. The project used BERTopic, for embedding messages to be used in clustering, then plotted these to visually identify similar topics. To further explore the topics, Haitao used an emotion classifier to detect intent. They found high levels of disgust, anger, and anticipation in their dataset.
Session 2: Technical Threats and Exploitation Tactics
Taro Tsuchiya — Blockchain address poisoning
Taro introduces a scenario of sending rent, where the victim seems to make an error selecting a cryptocurrency address. This turns out to have been a poisoned address. Taro aims to identify address poisoning, to see how prevalent this is, and measure the payoff. They identify attack attempts with an algorithm to match transfers with similar addresses in a given time range.
They detect 270M attack transfers on 17M victims, estimating a $84M USD loss. They found loss was much higher on Ethereum, and this lookalike attack is easily generalisable and scalable.
They bundled these into groups, considering two are the same if, they are launched in the same transaction, and they use the same address to pay the transaction fees, or they use the same lookalike address. Clustering found “copying bots”, who copy other transactions for front-running. The attack groups identified are large but heterogenous, and the attack itself is profitable for large groups. Furthermore, larger groups tend to win over smaller groups. Finally, they model lookalike address generation, finding one large group is using GPUs to generate these addresses.
They give suggestions for mitigating these attacks, by adding latency for address generation, disallow zero-value transfers, and increase wallet lengths. They also want to alert users to this risk of this attack.
Marre Slikker — The human attack surface: understanding hacker techniques in exploiting human elements
Marre is looking at human factors in security, as this is commonly the weakest link in security. Marre asks what do hackers on underground forums discuss regarding the exploitation of human factors in cybercrime? They look at CrimeBB data to analyse topics discussed, identify lexicon used, and give a literature review of how these factors are conceptualised.
They create a bridge between academic human factor language (“demographics”) to hacker language (“target dumb boomers”), and use topic modelling to identify distribution of words used in forum messages.
What were their results? A literature review found a lot of inconsistencies in human factors research terminology. Following this, they asked cybersecurity experts about human factors, and created a list of 328 keywords to help filter the dataset. Topic modelling was then used, however the results were quite superficial, with lots of noise and general chatter.
Kieron Ivy Turk — Technical Tactics Targeting Tech-Abuse
Ivy discussed a project on personal item tracking devices, which have been misused for stalking, domestic abuse, and theft. Companies have developed anti-stalking features to try to mitigate these issues. They ran a study with the Assassins Guild, provided students with trackers to test the efficacy of these features. Their study found nobody used the anti-stalking features, despite everyone in the study knowing there was a possibility they were being stalked. At the time of the study, the scanning apps only tended to detect a subset of tracker brands. Apple and Google have since created an RFC to try to standardise trackers and anti-stalking measures.
Ivy has also been working on IoT security to understand the associated risks. They present a HARMS model to help analyse IoT device security failings. Ivy ran a study to identify harms with IoT devices, asking participants to misuse these. They ask how do attackers discover abusive features? They found participants used and explored the UI to find features available to them. They suggest the idea of a “UI-bounded” adversary is limiting, and rather attackers are “functionality-enabled”.
Ivy asks how can we create technical improvements in future with IoT?
Session 3: Disruption and Resilience in Illicit Online Activities
Anh V. Vu — Assessing the aftermath: the effects of a global takedown against DDoS-for-hire services
Anh has been following DDoS takedowns by law enforcement. DDoS for hire services provide a platform for taking control of botnets to be used in flooding servers with fake traffic. There is little technical skill needed, and is cheap. These services publicly advertise statistics of daily attacks they contribute to.
Law enforcement continues to takedown DDoS infrastructure, focusing on domain takedowns. Statistics of visitors following the takedowns found 20M visitors, and 34k messages were collected from DDoS support Telegram channels. They also have DDoS UDP amplification data, and collected self-reported DDoS attack data.
Domain takedowns showed that domains returned quickly, 52% returned after the first takedown, and in the second takedown all returned. Domain takedown appears to now have limited effect. Visitor statistics showed large booters operate a franchise business, offering API access to resellers.
Following the first takedown, activity and chat channel messages declined, but this had less impact in the second wave. Operators gave away free extensions to plans, and a few seemed to leave the market.
Their main takeaway is the overall intervention impact is short lived, and suppressing the supply side alone is not enough as the demand continues to persist in the long run. He asks what can be done better for interventions in the future?
Dalya Manatova — Modeling organizational resilience: a network-based simulation for analyzing recovery and disruption of ransomware operations
Dalya studies the organisational dynamics and resilience of cybercrime, tracking the evolution and rebranding of ransomware operators. To carry out ransomware, they need infrastructure. This includes selecting targets, executing, ransom negotiation, payment processing, and victim support, and creating leak websites. They break this down further into a complex model, showing the steps of ransomware attacks. They use this to model the task duration involved in attacks, estimating how long it takes to complete a ransomware attack when learning. Following this, they create infrastructure disruption and observe how this process changes. They also model the disruption of members: what happens if they reassign tasks to others or hire a new person?
Marco Wähner — The prevalence and use of conspiracy theories in anonymity networks
Marco first asks what is a conspiracy theory? These all appear to have right-wing extremism, antisemitism, and misinformation. There are a lot of challenges around researching conspiracy theories: the language is often indirect and coded, however this is not a new phenomenon.
What is the influence of environmental and structural of conspiracy theories in anonymised networks? Marco notes this can be for strengthening social ties, and fosters a sense of belonging. Also, this may be used with ideological or social incentives.
Marco asks how we can identify these theories circulating in anonymised networks, and if these are used to promote illicit activities or drive sales? This could then be used to formulate intervention strategies. They took a data-driven approach looking at CrimeBB and ExtremeBB data to find conspiracies, using dictionary keyword searches and topic modelling. Preliminary research found prevalence of conspiracies was very low. ExtremeBB is a bit higher, but still rare.
They provide explanations for the low level of distribution. Keywords are indirect, and can be out of context when searching. Also, conspiratorial communications are not always needed to sell products. They are aiming to strengthen the study design, by coding a subsample to check for false positives, and use classical ML models. They find a dictionary approach may not be a good starting point, and conspiracies are not always used to sell products.
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Photographer: Menashe Davidson
Summary Author: Menashe Davidson
The plant kingdom is distinguished from other kingdoms of life by its attachment to a fixed location throughout the plant's life cycle. To survive, plants must develop unique mechanisms that help them adapt to their environment. Unlike cultivated plants whose location and growing conditions are determined by humans, other plants establish themselves where their seeds fall on a suitable substrate for germination and development. Once on the surface, their survival depends on their ability to anchor into the soil at the point of germination, ensuring access to essential nutrients and moisture while also gaining protection from external threats.
I observed this remarkable adaptation in daffodil (Narcissus) plant tubers in my home garden in Rishon LeZion, Israel. After pulling the tubers from the soil at the end of the flowering season (March of 2025) to store them for the next growing cycle, I noticed two distinct types of roots at the base of the corm. The first type consists of normal fibrous roots that develop as shoots grow. The second type, known as contractile roots, is a thicker, layered structure that actively pulls the corm more profoundly into the soil. This contractile phenomenon occurs as the roots undergo cycles of expansion and contraction, effectively repositioning the corm to an optimal depth for growth, protection, and environmental stability. Note that the bottom photo shows the structure and development of a young corm.
Rishon LeZion, Israel Coordinates: 31.95 34.8
Related Links:
The Contractile Roots of Narcissus
Roots
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For our 25th anniversary, Krissy and I were planning to go to Iceland and spend a week or so there, getting to know the country. Then the pandemic happened and we ended up spending the anniversary at home. Fine, we would just reschedule Iceland for our 30th anniversary. But then I was invited to do a convention in Iceland last year, and we tacked on an extra five days after the convention to do all the things we planned for our 25th anniversary. This left our 30th anniversary suddenly unscheduled.
Fortunately, I had a backup: I had always wanted to visit Venice, not just for Venice itself, but also, goofily, for the fact there is a Church of the Scalzi there, and a Scalzi Bridge, and, heck, why not, even a Scalzi restaurant. Honestly, how could I not go? Krissy indulged me, and on the week of our anniversary, off we went.
We spent a full week in Venice, which appeared to surprise the people there when we mentioned the fact to them. Apparently Venice is usually a couple-days stop at most, tourists grimly marching themselves from the Doge’s palace to the obligatory gondola ride to wherever else they went before they were hustled back onto a bus or cruise ship and sent off to whatever the next destination was. The fact we were in town for a whole week impressed the locals. They seemed to appreciate that we wanted to take in the city at a leisurely pace.
Which is what we did! We did have two days where we had a private guide to give us a walking tour of the city (including stops at the aforementioned Doge’s palace, St. Mark’s basilica and the Scalzi church) and to take us over to Murano to watch glass being blown. And of course we rode in a gondola, because, hey, we were in fact tourists, and not afraid to do touristy things. But most of the days there we woke up late, wandered around the city and maybe took in a museum or church, and then ate at a bunch of restaurants and hung out in a bunch of bars, mostly on the water, and watched the city go by in various boats. Venice, as it turns out, is a lovely city to just be in. Krissy and I mostly did a lot of not much, and it was pretty great.
Mind you, Venice is one of the most overtouristed cities in the world, and as a visitor you can certainly feel that, especially on the weekends, in the space between the Rialto Bridge and the Piazza San Marco. It’s Disneyland-level crowded there. I can’t complain overmuch about that fact without being a full-blown hypocrite, but we did understand that our role in town was to drop a lot of money into the local economy in order to balance out our presence. We were happy to do that, and, you know, to be respectful of the people who were helping to give us a delightful vacation. By and large the Venetians were perfectly nice, did not seem to dislike us merely for being Americans, and in any event we got out of town before Jeff Bezos could show up and make everyone genuinely angry. No one blamed us for Jeff Bezos, either.
One of the things I personally genuinely enjoyed about Venice was just how utterly unlike anywhere in the United States. Yes, I know there are places in the US where they have canals; heck, the Venice in California was once meant to have them all over the place. But it’s not only about the canals. It’s about the fact that no matter what street you’re going down, what bridge you’re crossing or what side canal you’re looking down into, parts of everything you’re looking at have been there longer than the US has been a country, and none of it accommodates anything that the US would require. There are no cars in Venice, no Vespas, not even any bikes. If you’re going anywhere, you’re walking or going by boat. It’s very weird to have no road noise anywhere. You don’t realize how much you get used that noise, even in a rural area like the one I live in, until you go some place without it. I mean, there are boats with engines. The sounds of internal combustion are not entirely gone. But it’s dramatically reduced.
As mentioned, we stayed in Venice for a week, which I think is probably the right amount of time to be in the city. We didn’t see everything it had to offer, but then we weren’t trying to; if and when we go back there will still be new things to explore. But I did get to check off visiting the Scalzi Bridge, Church and restaurant, and the last of these was where Krissy and I had our actual 30th anniversary dinner. It’s was pretty good. I did not get a discount because of my last name. Alas. Here’s picture of the interior of the Church of the Scalzi:
Slightly more ornate than the one in Bradford, Ohio, I admit. But in defense of the one in Ohio, it’s much easier to dust.
Would I recommend Venice to others? Definitely. Spend more than a couple of days. Be respectful. Spend a decent amount of money. Have an Aperol Spritz. If you’re from the US, enjoy the fact there is nothing like it in the American experience. Maybe avoid the Rialto Bridge on the weekend. And there you have it: an excellent Venetian vacation. I hope you’ll enjoy yours as much as we enjoyed ours.
— JS
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We’re gettin’ the band back together! And this time, they’re gonna rock the political climate in foreign countries. Author Travis Kennedy is bringing you the best of hair metal bands with espionage on the side in his debut novel, The Whyte Python World Tour. Follow along to see how his Big Idea will shred… your expectations of 80s bands!
TRAVIS KENNEDY:
In my debut novel, The Whyte Python World Tour, the CIA recruits a hair band to foment regime change in the Eastern Bloc at the end of the Cold War.
That’s not the big idea I want to write about here, though, and I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t dream it up on my own. There’s nearly a century of evidence that the CIA has meddled with popular music to influence public sentiment all over the world. More specifically for my purposes, there’s a longstanding rumor – made popular by the fantastic podcast “Wind of Change” by Patrick Radden Keefe (2020) – that the CIA wrote the hit Scorpions song “Wind of Change” after the Berlin Wall fell, to rally Eastern Europeans into harmony with the Western world through the power of soft metal.
By the time I heard the podcast, I had been thinking about writing a book in the world of glam metal for almost twenty years – and even earlier on some level, since I was a little kid in the 80s watching MTV even though I wasn’t supposed to. Eight-year-old Travis saw metal guys as zany party animals without a care in the world. The cool kids in the back of the bus. In more recent years, I read autobiographies and biographies and watched documentaries from the era, believing all along that there was a story to be told there that could be bigger than the standard “Behind the Music” drama about how everything was great until it all came crashing down.
I didn’t entirely know why the genre captivated me so much. The entertainment factor never let me down, of course; a lot of their adventures are objectively funny. These borderline-feral Muppets were suddenly swimming in fame and fortune, and they didn’t have any of the tools to handle either. That was a good place to start. But I did learn quickly that my childhood impression of the glam metal bands was all wrong.
Because more often than not, these guys were not the cool kids in the back of the bus. They were misfits. Outcasts. They had abusive and tragic childhoods.
They usually weren’t popular. They did badly in school. People had no expectations for them. And they didn’t have much expectations for themselves. But they had this one thing they loved and were good at.
Music.
And while they were misfits on their own, when they found each other and played together, they unlocked these superpowers. The castaways and dropouts – with their massive hair, and makeup, and spandex – dominated the zeitgeist of the back half of the 1980s. It was one underdog story after another, like the Mighty Ducks or the Bad News Bears.
There it was: that simple but true BIG IDEA, proven over and over: that when misfits and outcasts find their communities, they can accomplish really big things together.
By the time I listened to “Wind of Change,” I knew already that metal dudes shared a lot of hidden traits. They were resourceful. They were adaptable. They were willing to live in circumstances that most other people weren’t. And they were constantly underestimated.
Those are actually really good qualities for spies!
So, while the concept was still hilarious to me, it was also weirdly kind of plausible. Now I was off and running, and a fascinating thing happened – the big idea kept finding different ways of telling itself in the story. Without spoiling too much, the band Whyte Python is not the only group of underdogs in this book; and whether it’s their Agency handlers or the people living under dictatorships a world away, the spark of music becomes a pretty powerful connector for disparate outcasts who go on to accomplish big things together.
Make no mistake, The Whyte Python World Tour is a satire. But always present is the belief that art – even if that art is party metal, played by feral Muppets – has immeasurable power when it’s shared. When it means something to people, and helps them find other people who have the same feelings about it. You’re doing that now as fans of this website, and every time you give a recommendation for a book or an album or a movie you loved. Participating in culture means that you’re a part of a thousand little movements, inspiring others to seek new ideas and talk about them with each other and maybe build something amazing out of it.
So on behalf of the band, let me be the first to say: welcome to the revolution.
Tell your friends.
The Whyte Python World Tour: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop
Author Socials: Website|Band Website|Facebook|Twitter|Rikki Thunder’s Facebook|Davy Bones Facebook|Spencer Dooley Facebook|Buck Sweet Facebook
epod_feedThis EPOD was first published December 1, 2020
Photographer: Stan Wagon
Summary Authors: Stan Wagon
South-central Utah is known for its striking sandstone hoodoos, with the most famous ones consisting of Entrada Sandstone capped by Dakota Sandstone. The angular towers seen here are unusual in that they consist entirely of Navajo Sandstone. These three, including the one that's very delicately balanced (far right and below), were formed when differential erosion occurred at irregular rates due to variability of content and hardness in the various strata; the more resistant rock remains when softer material is removed. Photos taken October 21, 2020.
Photo Details: Camera: Sony A6500 digital SLR; E 16-70 lens. Top - 1/400 sec, ƒ/10 aperture, ISO 160, focal length 20 mm (29 mm at traditional full-frame 35 mm camera). Bottom - 1/640 sec., ƒ/10 aperture, ISO 250, 19mm (28 mm at full frame 35 mm camera).
[2/25]
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My friend George sent me this picture of me and Krissy — which I had been literally trying to find for years! — where she and I were at the wedding of my friend Clete. I was a groomsman, which is why I’m dressed up; Krissy is dressed up because, you know, wedding, you’re supposed to look nice. I seem to remember the wedding taking place in 1995, although I might be off by a year; either way, this is us, roughly 30 years ago.
And here we are now!
30 years is a lot of time and also, not nearly enough time with someone if you love them a lot. Fortunately for us we get to keep going. Not gonna lie, though, I miss my hair. Krissy’s still looks spectacular, of course. That’ll have to be enough for the both of us.
Also, hello, we’re back in the United States now. Venice was lovely. I’ll post some more pictures of it soon.
— JS
scalziwhatever_feedFeeling the Monday Blues? Have I got the cure for you. Introducing one of my recent favorite artists, 6arelyhuman (pronounced barely human)!
Imagine the most hype, energizing club music that makes you want to take shots and dance till the sun comes up. No, not Kesha, but pretty close in vibes.
I came across 6arelyhuman on TikTok last year, and their song “Faster N Harder” ended up becoming my number one song on Spotify for 2024. I listened to 6arelyhuman’s songs on repeat daily for months last year, and I’m still loving them. They self identify as a freaky alien here to create absolute bops.
Here’s the song that started my obsession:
Don’t you just wanna dance your pants off?! Well let’s keep the party going with some others I really love from them:
And technically on this next one they’re only featured and it’s actually Odetari’s song, but I still really like it:
So, are you feeling amped? You simply can’t be in a bad mood after you listen to this music, trust me, I’ve tried.
Don’t forget to check 6arelyhuman out on Spotify, and let me know which song was your favorite in the comments. Have a great day!
-AMS
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TRIGGERED - Page 340
A little more context about the Safe Schools program. A lot of religious schools were dead against it - the school I went to (where my mum worked until she retired) had flyers on the front desk advertising very clearly why they were protesting Safe Schools.
I WISH I had had something like safe schools when I was a kid. I firmly believe that if I had been given even a basic education about my body and consent (which I NEVER got in my entire schooling), I wouldn’t have been so vulnerable to grooming, nor so ashamed of my body and how men responded to it. Not to mention just learning that there were actual queer people in our communities, and that they weren’t some kind of distant, monstrous creature lurking in dark corners and being rightfully shunned by society.
Safe Schools quite literally protects children from predators. It is amazing to me how often I have seen people use religion as the reason why children shouldn’t have knowledge that could protect them from harm.
TRIGGERED is supported by my generous Patrons. To become a patron and gain access to hundreds of additional comic pages, head on over here.
epod_feedPhotographer: Roberta Calabrese
Summary Author: Roberta Calabrese
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