Oh damn, I forgot that part about "Earth being the control". That's hilarious!
My favorite one of them is Excession. I found the relationships / culture between the ship AI's so interesting and frankly, better written than many human relationships in the series overall.
Thanks for writing about the Godzilla movie. I had heard some buzz but didn't know about the depth to it's concept. I'll have to check it out!
Have you ever read the Culture novels, by Iain M. Banks? They explore a somewhat similar idea to "intelligence agencies of ~~fascist~~ post scarcity interstellar empires".
I can't remember if the contacted civilizations are ever socialist, although there's definitely a more feudal one and the overall themes may be interesting to you nonetheless.
Great article. It's always fun to read about smart people lionizing a terrible person like Aleister Crowley and inevitably going insane (or dead, in Jack Parson's case).
The article never discussed the topic directly, but for others interested in esoterica would probably enjoy reading about the concept of egregores.
Honestly at this point in my software career (~10 years), it's not evil per se, but I don't feel great about essentially existing to help rich people (VCs, PE, etc.) get richer. But I suppose that's a problem that isn't limited to IT.
From my understanding, unions require a vote from employees before being able to negotiate contracts with management. So if they want a few more people to come to a meeting, it's probably because they need a sense of whether they're gonna win that election and / or there is interest from more than a single employee.
Getting a union can be a long process, just to get to the bargaining table. Successful campaigns require a tireless dedication from at least one employee who wants to fight.
All worth it IMHO, and I'm heartened to hear about labor action for EMS staff. Best of luck in your efforts!
Same here, but apparently this isn't even an isolated example:
https://youtu.be/fiD24uEvY1U?si=kqH-ixnhSvc4S_HG
(Video about their colonialism and exploitative monetary policy in the Saheel / Africa).
Not surprising - I watched this video about France's ongoing colonialism in Africa a few months ago, showed a side of them I never considered, at least in the modern era:
https://youtu.be/fiD24uEvY1U?si=kqH-ixnhSvc4S_HG
Suddenly, the Libyan adventure last decade makes more sense.
I'm going through a very similar thing except with blood clots and anticoagulants. I was in the hospital for 3 days for a pulmonary embolism, but the docs couldn't figure out why. Instead, they just put me on the blood thinners for life.
This is a big bummer because I have a pretty active lifestyle (cycling, caving, scuba) and being on the meds means I can't feel safe doing these things anymore.
I'm trying right now to talk to different doctors and see if there's a way to safely stop the meds but I'm fighting against their flow charts that simply say this is the reality from now on.
Looks exactly like the British soldier demon dude from Netflix's Locke & Key.
Good call. I gave up halfway through S3 of umbrella academy. It was just weird and goofy, the tone didn't match S1 at all.