The first 2 episodes made me think we were going to lose some main characters in the epic battle that was coming to Winterfell in an emotional and devastating last stand for humanity. Instead we got subversive fake-out ninja John Wick

Some people are waking up to the fact that using algorithmic choices to determine your feeds on youtube and facebook etc leads to a race to the bottom for quality, satisfaction and even enjoyment when the criteria used for judging success is "engagement" because we get distracted by carefully engineered clickbait titles, thumbnails and everything that appeals to our baser impulses.

The rest of the season has felt like those exact same algorithms were choosing the characters actions decisions and the plots. It feels like this is precisely how they want us to enjoy their labour. I truthfully envy those people their ability to enjoy it in that way. If you enjoyed it and found it satisfying and thrilling I'm 100% honestly happy for you. I just couldn't. It feels like it's become a self-parodying farce of what is once was.

The last episode was like being lowered up to your shoulders into a vat of body temperature porridge.

I felt virtually nothing during the finale except for some mild annoyance. I mean what was the point of Edmure fucking Tully or Prince anonymous of Dorne?

Bluetech - Sci​-​Fi Lullabies. He's been tearing it up lately, 2 albums last year, completing the 4 horsemen project this year and then this. I love this album so far.

So warm and lush; feels like a nostalgic homage to the early electronic music built from modular analogue synths but with a more modern perspective mixing broad brushstrokes from IDM and electronica. I've only listened a few times so it remains to see whether it'll hold up to repeated listening but it feels like it will.

The commenters on bandcamp seem to favour Darwinia but I think my favourites are Ambergris and Gethen but ahead of them all is that final track Caladan. It evokes one of my favourite electronic tracks ever Hologram - Solstice so strongly for me that it feels like a love letter.

Some more I like that I haven't mentioned (and haven't seen elsewhere) using my own home made bullet points

● Futility closet - a married couple raise funds to produce this. Each episode plucks and presents a single story from history in a very straightforward manor. They're usually brief but interesting historical glimpses you'd rarely have any reason to see. Then they take turns solving puzzles. Yeah it's a weird mixture but I enjoy the stories.

● Script notes - John August (Big Fish) and Craig Mazin (upcoming Chernobyl show) talk about things interesting to script writers and the film and TV industry. I do love getting an insight into subjects I'm completely ignorant about. Apparently it's highly rated on itunes but I've never seen anyone mention it.

After a long break I've been re-watching Carnivàle and Ive been listening to a podcast based on the show released in 2012 CarnyCast - well after it was cancelled, but back in the good old days of podcasting, before it became infested with advertising money and a viable career path for those too shy for youtube.

I wonder of they tried training it on Hatebeak

Future Sound Of London - Papua New Guinea mixes - I think Journey to Pyramid is the best but YMMV.

I haven't heard it for ages and there was a thread elsewhere saying post 5 random tunes from your music library; Papua New Guinea (Journey to Pyramid) came up. Inspired me to re-listen many times over.

Glorious. Jeff Daniels is haaaaaard liquor.

double down and post this

If you build it...

And already getting extradited to the US

First things first the book cover shown on his website reminded me so much of The Power of Lard that I played it on repeat while I was reading.

I enjoyed the story - the pacing and ideas were great as well as the horror theme.

The story seems to reflect society/clan/nation and worship but I ignored the bigger perspective i favour of world/society building games instead but then quickly throughout the whole damn thing I couldn't shake the feeling of a parallel between god and author.

Not being an author, but having met a few, I'm fascinated by an author's inability to precisely direct their characters behaviour and situations. Of course not all authors are created equal but I've met some who say they don't (or can't! ) control their characters because they have their own lives independent of the author. Obviously Kress initially thinks he can control the little darlings but it becomes quite clear how little control he wields. This quickly dominated my mind and got me considering the psychology of writers instead.

That was fascinating thanks.

FALAFEL IS TRENDING!

Ken Liu (the guy who translated The Three-Body Problem

The World in Words podcast has an episode on Chinese Sc-Fi featuring Ken Liu which is pretty interesting.

I really like the idea of different people interpreting the same ideas in this way - reminds me of Lazarus: X + 66 where each of the six issues were drawn by different people.