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Likedrcmnd.app
The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real MagicTheir words
Mind candy fantasy: in which an early-21st-century American young woman, whose English-lit thesis and love life are going equally poorly, does a good deed; gets rewarded with three wishes, without realizing it; and, in consequence, wanders off, first into Faery and then into a Fantasyland which is convincingly poor, sexist and dirty, but also magical.
Cosma Rohilla Shalizi
Statistician at Carnegie Mellon; writes on complex systems, machine learning and inference, and started a books-read notebook in 2000 that is now thousands of entries long.
Cosma Rohilla Shalizi did not write this page. ppll compiled it from their own words, each linked to the source. Is this you? · Report a mistake
What they believe
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The conditions under which market prices alone suffice to coordinate an economy are so extreme as to be absurd.
The conditions under which equilibrium prices really are all a decision-maker needs to know, and really are sufficient for coordination, are so extreme as to be absurd.
bactra.orgSaid 30 May 2012This on korrents
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Factor analysis cannot reveal causal structure, so it provides no support for the reality of g, the general factor of intelligence.
Exploratory factor analysis being no good at discovering causal structure, it provides no support for the reality of g.
bactra.orgSaid 18 Oct 2007This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Feed
As its own page →Hiding
31 July
9 July
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Lovedaffiliate linkrcmnd.app
A History of BiologyTheir words
The chapter on medieval Islam wasn't very deep, otherwise this is truly excellent, particularly when covering the very complicated 20th century. I don't have much more to say, because it is so good, except that I should try to get my brother to review it.
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Likedaffiliate linkrcmnd.app
Go Down HardTheir words
Mind candy: dueling psycho-killers go on a date; mayhem ensues.
30 June
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Lovedrcmnd.app
Forty Signs of RainTheir words
I loved this, but partly this was the pleasant shock of recognition: much of the action revolves around the National Science Foundation and, physically, its old headquarters in Arlington, which Robinson captures extremely well (even the atmosphere of review panels).
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Lovedrcmnd.app
The Blueprint: How Socialism Can Work in the Real WorldTheir words
This is the best --- the most accessible and the most forceful --- case for market socialism since Alec Nove in the 1980s.
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Likedrcmnd.app
GlasslandsTheir words
This is clearly an amateur effort (there was a whole repeated paragraph), but as such it's very impressive and I am happy to have paid money for it.
+ 1 more
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Likedrcmnd.app
Resenting the HeroTheir words
Comparing this to The Fifth Season, it is striking how different two fantasy novels about worlds over-supplied with natural disasters, and the people with the psychic gifts to stop those disasters with their minds, can be in tone and execution. This is immensely fluffier, but it has no pretensions to be anything except candy, and succeeds as such.
31 May
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Lovedrcmnd.app
The Doxies PenaltyTheir words
Mind candy: continuing Robins's series of historical mysteries set in a very-slightly-alternate Regency London. (I re-read the last one, Sleeping Partner, before turning to this.) Robins continues to be great and I hope that many more of these will flow from her pen.
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Likedrcmnd.app
The Scientific Renaissance, 1450--1630Their words
An old (1962) but still interesting history of the earlier part of the scientific revolution. In every field, Boas traces a basically-humanist impulse to discard medieval ideas and accomplishments, in favor of reviving antiquity, the more antique the better, which only gradually turned towards striving to go beyond Greco-Roman science to something actually new and unprecedented.
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Mixed onrcmnd.app
Selected Poems, 1968--1996Their words
I am a Philistine, because I thought this was just OK. There were some good poems, quite a few which I found boring, and absolutely nothing that has stuck in my memory even a few weeks later.
+ 1 more
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Mixed onrcmnd.app
EisenhornTheir words
It's pretty decently adequate, as mind candy. There are places where Abnett shows flashes of real talent. (To avoid spoilers, I'll just say: The first alien planet; the opening scenes with the cranky biologist.) There are other aspects of the novels which are pretty unsatisfying.
30 April
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Lovedrcmnd.app
Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World EconomyTheir words
With that disclaimer out of the way, this is a great book, which simultaneously illuminates some very, very important phenomena, and is very well-written.
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Likedrcmnd.app
The Bitter TwinsTheir words
Mind candy fantasy: sequel to The Ninth Rain (in my backlog; suffice to say: good), and continuing the high standard of that book.
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Likedrcmnd.app
Orlando Furioso: A New Verse TranslationTheir words
I can have no opinion about whether the translation is accurate, but it is pretty good English verse.
31 March
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Likedrcmnd.app
This Hour, Our VigilTheir words
If I say it reads a bit like fanfic for Neumeier's own work, that sounds like I'm damning it, but I actually enjoyed it, because, I wanted good things to happen for those characters, who'd had drama enough and to spare.
30 May 2012
From one piece In Soviet Union, Optimization Problem Solves You 6 beliefs · bactra.org
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Their words
That planning is not a viable alternative to capitalism (as opposed to a tool within it) should disturb even capitalism's most ardent partisans. It means that their system faces no competition, nor even any plausible threat of competition.
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korrents.com
Planning a whole economy would be computationally intractable for the foreseeable future.Their words
Planning for the whole economy would, under the most favorable possible assumptions, be intractable for the foreseeable future, and deciding on a plan runs into difficulties we have no idea how to solve.
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Their words
Beyond the repulsiveness of the values it embodies, markets in areas like health care or information goods are always inefficient (over and above the usual impossibility of informationally-efficient prices).
+ 3 more
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Their words
There is, in other words, a strong case to be made for egalitarian distributions of resources being a complement to market allocation.
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korrents.com
The market's worst pathologies come from market exchange combined with gross inequality, not from markets as such.Their words
I don't think this sort of pathology is intrinsic to market exchange; it comes from market exchange plus gross inequality.
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korrents.com
The conditions under which market prices alone suffice to coordinate an economy are so extreme as to be absurd.Their words
The conditions under which equilibrium prices really are all a decision-maker needs to know, and really are sufficient for coordination, are so extreme as to be absurd.
18 October 2007
From one piece g, a Statistical Myth 4 beliefs · bactra.org
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korrents.com
That IQ tests are unbiased across groups is highly implausible and empirically unsupported.Their words
There are a very narrow set of technical conditions which let you out of this, i.e., which let you combine group differences, measurement unbiasedness and predictive unbiasedness. (See Millsap's papers for details.) That IQ tests satisfy them is highly implausible, and, to say the least, empirically unsupported.
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Their words
Since that's about the only case which anyone does advance for g, however, which accords very poorly with other evidence, from neuroscience and cognitive psychology, about the structure of the mind, it is very hard for me to find any reason to believe in the importance of g, and many to reject it.
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korrents.com
Factor analysis always finds a general factor whenever tests are all positively correlated, so finding g is trivial.Their words
Factor analysis is handy for summarizing data, but can't tell us where the correlations came from; it always says that there is a general factor whenever there are only positive correlations. The appearance of g is a trivial reflection of that correlation structure.
+ 1 more
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Their words
Exploratory factor analysis being no good at discovering causal structure, it provides no support for the reality of g.
Nothing matches.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 10 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
The conditions under which market prices alone suffice to coordinate an economy are so extreme as to be absurd.
The conditions under which equilibrium prices really are all a decision-maker needs to know, and really are sufficient for coordination, are so extreme as to be absurd.
In Soviet Union, Optimization Problem Solves You Said 30 May 2012
The market's worst pathologies come from market exchange combined with gross inequality, not from markets as such.
I don't think this sort of pathology is intrinsic to market exchange; it comes from market exchange plus gross inequality.
In Soviet Union, Optimization Problem Solves You Said 30 May 2012
Egalitarian distribution of resources is a complement to market allocation.
There is, in other words, a strong case to be made for egalitarian distributions of resources being a complement to market allocation.
In Soviet Union, Optimization Problem Solves You Said 30 May 2012
Show 7 more
Markets in health care and information goods are always inefficient.
Beyond the repulsiveness of the values it embodies, markets in areas like health care or information goods are always inefficient (over and above the usual impossibility of informationally-efficient prices).
In Soviet Union, Optimization Problem Solves You Said 30 May 2012
Planning a whole economy would be computationally intractable for the foreseeable future.
Planning for the whole economy would, under the most favorable possible assumptions, be intractable for the foreseeable future, and deciding on a plan runs into difficulties we have no idea how to solve.
In Soviet Union, Optimization Problem Solves You Said 30 May 2012
Planning is not a viable alternative to capitalism, and that should worry even capitalism's defenders because the system then faces no competition.
That planning is not a viable alternative to capitalism (as opposed to a tool within it) should disturb even capitalism's most ardent partisans. It means that their system faces no competition, nor even any plausible threat of competition.
In Soviet Union, Optimization Problem Solves You Said 30 May 2012
Factor analysis cannot reveal causal structure, so it provides no support for the reality of g, the general factor of intelligence.
Exploratory factor analysis being no good at discovering causal structure, it provides no support for the reality of g.
g, a Statistical Myth Said 18 Oct 2007
Factor analysis always finds a general factor whenever tests are all positively correlated, so finding g is trivial.
Factor analysis is handy for summarizing data, but can't tell us where the correlations came from; it always says that there is a general factor whenever there are only positive correlations. The appearance of g is a trivial reflection of that correlation structure.
g, a Statistical Myth Said 18 Oct 2007
There is little reason to believe in the importance of g, the general factor of intelligence, and many reasons to reject it.
Since that's about the only case which anyone does advance for g, however, which accords very poorly with other evidence, from neuroscience and cognitive psychology, about the structure of the mind, it is very hard for me to find any reason to believe in the importance of g, and many to reject it.
g, a Statistical Myth Said 18 Oct 2007
That IQ tests are unbiased across groups is highly implausible and empirically unsupported.
There are a very narrow set of technical conditions which let you out of this, i.e., which let you combine group differences, measurement unbiasedness and predictive unbiasedness. (See Millsap's papers for details.) That IQ tests satisfy them is highly implausible, and, to say the least, empirically unsupported.
g, a Statistical Myth Said 18 Oct 2007
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 60 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Liked The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic
Mind candy fantasy: in which an early-21st-century American young woman, whose English-lit thesis and love life are going equally poorly, does a good deed; gets rewarded with three wishes, without realizing it; and, in consequence, wanders off, first into Faery and then into a Fantasyland which is convincingly poor, sexist and dirty, but also magical.
bactra.org 31 Jul 2026
What others say about The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic →
Liked Go Down Hard
Mind candy: dueling psycho-killers go on a date; mayhem ensues.
bactra.org 9 Jul 2026
affiliate link
Loved A History of Biology
The chapter on medieval Islam wasn't very deep, otherwise this is truly excellent, particularly when covering the very complicated 20th century. I don't have much more to say, because it is so good, except that I should try to get my brother to review it.
bactra.org 9 Jul 2026
affiliate link
Show 57 more
Liked Resenting the Hero
Comparing this to The Fifth Season, it is striking how different two fantasy novels about worlds over-supplied with natural disasters, and the people with the psychic gifts to stop those disasters with their minds, can be in tone and execution. This is immensely fluffier, but it has no pretensions to be anything except candy, and succeeds as such.
bactra.org 30 Jun 2026
Liked Glasslands
This is clearly an amateur effort (there was a whole repeated paragraph), but as such it's very impressive and I am happy to have paid money for it.
bactra.org 30 Jun 2026
Loved The Blueprint: How Socialism Can Work in the Real World
This is the best --- the most accessible and the most forceful --- case for market socialism since Alec Nove in the 1980s.
bactra.org 30 Jun 2026
What others say about The Blueprint: How Socialism Can Work in the Real World →
Loved Forty Signs of Rain
I loved this, but partly this was the pleasant shock of recognition: much of the action revolves around the National Science Foundation and, physically, its old headquarters in Arlington, which Robinson captures extremely well (even the atmosphere of review panels).
bactra.org 30 Jun 2026
Mixed on Eisenhorn
It's pretty decently adequate, as mind candy. There are places where Abnett shows flashes of real talent. (To avoid spoilers, I'll just say: The first alien planet; the opening scenes with the cranky biologist.) There are other aspects of the novels which are pretty unsatisfying.
bactra.org 31 May 2026
Mixed on Selected Poems, 1968--1996
I am a Philistine, because I thought this was just OK. There were some good poems, quite a few which I found boring, and absolutely nothing that has stuck in my memory even a few weeks later.
bactra.org 31 May 2026
Liked The Scientific Renaissance, 1450--1630
An old (1962) but still interesting history of the earlier part of the scientific revolution. In every field, Boas traces a basically-humanist impulse to discard medieval ideas and accomplishments, in favor of reviving antiquity, the more antique the better, which only gradually turned towards striving to go beyond Greco-Roman science to something actually new and unprecedented.
bactra.org 31 May 2026
What others say about The Scientific Renaissance, 1450--1630 →
Loved The Doxies Penalty
Mind candy: continuing Robins's series of historical mysteries set in a very-slightly-alternate Regency London. (I re-read the last one, Sleeping Partner, before turning to this.) Robins continues to be great and I hope that many more of these will flow from her pen.
bactra.org 31 May 2026
Liked Orlando Furioso: A New Verse Translation
I can have no opinion about whether the translation is accurate, but it is pretty good English verse.
bactra.org 30 Apr 2026
What others say about Orlando Furioso: A New Verse Translation →
Liked The Bitter Twins
Mind candy fantasy: sequel to The Ninth Rain (in my backlog; suffice to say: good), and continuing the high standard of that book.
bactra.org 30 Apr 2026
Loved Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy
With that disclaimer out of the way, this is a great book, which simultaneously illuminates some very, very important phenomena, and is very well-written.
bactra.org 30 Apr 2026
What others say about Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy →
Liked This Hour, Our Vigil
If I say it reads a bit like fanfic for Neumeier's own work, that sounds like I'm damning it, but I actually enjoyed it, because, I wanted good things to happen for those characters, who'd had drama enough and to spare.
bactra.org 31 Mar 2026
Liked A Billion Days of Earth
It's not pleasant, but it is skillful, and strange, and makes me interested in Piserchia's other books.
bactra.org 31 Mar 2026
Mixed on Inequality: A Genetic History
I think a great book could be written on all this. (Among other things, it should be catnip to anyone who wants to call themselves a historical materialist.) This book, however, is merely OK.
bactra.org 31 Oct 2025
Loved Queen Demon
I do not think this book could really be enjoyed without the previous book, but with it, it's lots of skillfully-written fun, and leaves me eager for more.
bactra.org 31 Oct 2025
Liked An Introduction to the Theory of Spin Glasses and Neural Networks
This is a short (~150 pp), brisk first book on the topic for physicists. Most of the book --- the first ten chapters --- are good introduction to common models of spin glasses.
bactra.org 30 Sept 2025
What others say about An Introduction to the Theory of Spin Glasses and Neural Networks →
Liked Penric and the Bandit
Mind-candy fantasy from a highly reliable author, who is not afraid of putting beloved characters through the wringer.
bactra.org 31 Jul 2025
Liked Demon Daughter
Mind-candy fantasy from a highly reliable author, who is not afraid of putting beloved characters through the wringer.
bactra.org 31 Jul 2025
Mixed on Marxism and Totality: The Adventures of a Concept from Lukács to Habermas
I nonetheless found this book somewhat disappointing, because Jay seemed content to expound the authors he covers in more or less their own terms, rather than subjecting them to anything like actual epistemological or methodological criticism.
bactra.org 31 Jul 2025
What others say about Marxism and Totality: The Adventures of a Concept from Lukács to Habermas →
Liked Spiral Jetta: A Road Trip through the Land Art of the American West
Mind candy: A fun travelogue which does what it says in the title. It pretty much satisfies any impulses I might have to actually see any of the artworks in question. No familiarity with art-critical jargon required, though long passages are (more or less explicitly) art criticism.
bactra.org 31 Jul 2025
What others say about Spiral Jetta: A Road Trip through the Land Art of the American West →
Liked The Adventure of the Demonic Ox
Mind-candy fantasy from a highly reliable author, who is not afraid of putting beloved characters through the wringer.
bactra.org 31 Jul 2025
Liked The Overnight Kidnapper
Mind-candy mystery from a highly reliable author.
bactra.org 31 Jul 2025
Liked The Iliad: A New Translation
It's very readable, and captures a sense of what is, fundamentally, a very alien, and often ugly, story in a very alien, and often ugly, world, related in magnificent language.
bactra.org 30 Apr 2025
Liked Ancillary Justice
Re-read because I couldn't interest myself in a couple of other pieces of mind candy and thought "you know who did this sort of thing well...". Which got me thinking, again, about the relationship between this series and feminism.
bactra.org 31 Jan 2025
Liked Paint It Black
Mind candy, horror/contemporary fantasy: the first four "Sonja Blue" novels.
bactra.org 31 Oct 2024
affiliate link
Liked In the Blood
Mind candy, horror/contemporary fantasy: the first four "Sonja Blue" novels.
bactra.org 31 Oct 2024
affiliate link
Liked Sunglasses After Dark
Mind candy, horror/contemporary fantasy: the first four "Sonja Blue" novels.
bactra.org 31 Oct 2024
affiliate link
Recommends What Your Professor Thinks You Already Know About US Politics
I forget (again!) how I chanced across it, but it fills a very real need for a lot of the students in my inequality class, and I intend to make it recommended/optional reading in the future. (I'll have to see if the library can buy a digital copy.)
bactra.org 31 Oct 2024
What others say about What Your Professor Thinks You Already Know About US Politics →
Liked At the Midway
Mind candy, historical creature-feature thriller: in which the US military, in the form of the very worst ship in Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet, comes up against beasts which are not oversized plesiosaurs. (Exactly what they are instead would be a minor spoiler.) I have no idea how I found this online, but it's perfectly enjoyable as a specimen of the genre.
bactra.org 31 Oct 2024
affiliate link
Liked The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection
The result is extremely engaging, and while I didn't particularly learn from it, I daresay most of the prospective audience will not, in fact, have read as widely in Ansary's sources as I happen to have done.
bactra.org 30 Sept 2024
affiliate link
Liked Civilization and Capitalism, 15th--18th Century
It's definitely the volume I find least satisfying.
bactra.org 30 Sept 2024
affiliate link
What others say about Civilization and Capitalism, 15th--18th Century →
Liked The Perspective of the World
Liked Moon's Knight
Mind candy portal fantasy, in which Our Protagonist's struggles to escape back to Mundania are rather complicated by her growing recognition that her life there sucked, actually, and maybe fighting strange beasts and stranger people isn't so bad in comparison...
bactra.org 31 Aug 2024
affiliate link
Liked Tinker
Mind candy fantasy, in which Pittsburgh is transported to Elfland for most of each month. I read it for the local interest (admission to CMU plays a small part of the plot, and bad things happen in Turtle Creek [which I can only too easily believe]), and it was OK, but not good enough to make me pick up any of the many sequels.
bactra.org 31 Aug 2024
affiliate link
Liked The Last God
Liked The Blighted Stars
Mind candy: a very angsty romance wrapped in a shell of space opera. Both aspects of the story are left in media res, and I look forward to reading the sequels.
bactra.org 31 Aug 2024
affiliate link
Liked The White Rose
Mind candy military fantasy, in which Our Protagonists find themselves working as mercenaries for the Dark Lord's only-barely-less-evil ex-wife, on whom the narrator develops an unhealthy crush.
bactra.org 31 Aug 2024
affiliate link
Liked Shadows Linger
Mind candy military fantasy, in which Our Protagonists find themselves working as mercenaries for the Dark Lord's only-barely-less-evil ex-wife, on whom the narrator develops an unhealthy crush.
bactra.org 31 Aug 2024
affiliate link
Liked The Black Company
Mind candy military fantasy, in which Our Protagonists find themselves working as mercenaries for the Dark Lord's only-barely-less-evil ex-wife, on whom the narrator develops an unhealthy crush.
bactra.org 31 Aug 2024
affiliate link
Liked The Dark Lord's Daughter
Mind candy fantasy for younger readers, in which Mr. and Mrs. Middle America's beloved adoptive daughter turns out to be from Somewhere Else, which comes calling. It's very fluffy, which I was in the mood for, and Wrede is always reliably enjoyable.
bactra.org 30 Jun 2024
affiliate link
Liked Dark Country
Mind candy horror/mystery, stalking and being stalked by the somewhat-supernatural serial killer, with extensive local color for contemporary South Africa. There are rough patches, but it's a perfectly enjoyable specimen of this type of novel. It's obviously the set-up for a series, and I'm not sure I need to follow these characters, but I would be happy to read more by Snyman.
bactra.org 31 Dec 2023
affiliate link
Liked Nothing to Hide
Mind candy thriller, somehow equally about a serial killer and about secrets in marriage. (Previously in this series.)
bactra.org 31 Dec 2023
affiliate link
Liked Palm Beach Finland
Mind candy: black comedy crime fiction / murder mystery, in rural Finland. I enjoyed both the comic darkness and the convincing happy endings all around. (At least, happy by the characters' own lights...) My first Tuomainen, but I'd read more if they crossed my path and I was in the right mood.
bactra.org 31 Oct 2023
affiliate link
Liked Spy Island
Comic book mind candy, affectionately parodying several genres at once: glamorous spies, mysterious islands, etc.
bactra.org 31 Aug 2023
affiliate link
Liked Star Kingdom
Buroker is a reliable author of very fluffy mind candy, either science fiction or fantasy. A lot of her output is re-working material from identifiable prior art, without hewing so closely to the canon as to constitute fan fiction.
bactra.org 31 Aug 2023
affiliate link
Liked Coda
Comic book mind candy fantasy. Superficially, this is a cynical, post-apocalyptic subversion of the Matter of Middle Earth. In fact, the hard-bitten surface merely conceals a core which actually believes in epic fantasy, both in the content and in the classical form (a trilogy ending in a eucatastrophe).
bactra.org 31 Jul 2023
affiliate link
Liked The Silver Tide
They're all mind candy, but of high quality, and this one even makes me swallow a time-travel plot without complaint. But it really does rely on having read the rest of the trilogy beforehand.
bactra.org 31 May 2023
affiliate link
Liked Songs for the Dead: Afterlife
Mind candy fantasy, comic book flavor. A satisfying conclusion to the story.
bactra.org 30 Apr 2023
Liked Hell Bent
Mind candy fantasy / campus novel, in which Yale is literally a gateway to Hell.
bactra.org 30 Apr 2023
affiliate link
Liked Alberuni's India: An Account of the Religion, Philosophy, Literature, Geography, Chronology, Astronomy, Customs, Laws and Astrology of India about A.D. 1030
It's mostly readable, though there are quite a few places where the translator calls for more research and this reprint, naturally, doesn't say whether it's been followed up *. In any event, I found this fascinating.
bactra.org 31 Mar 2023
affiliate link
Liked The Soviet Middle East: A Model for Development?
The former is a personal touchstone which shaped me deeply; the later is merely very good. Looking up something else, I happened to discover that a bunch of his books are now available through our library electronically, so I plunged in.
bactra.org 28 Feb 2023
affiliate link
What others say about The Soviet Middle East: A Model for Development? →
Liked Hokuloa Road
Mind candy horror, continuing Hand's interest in beautiful places where people just go missing (and come to bad ends). It's exciting and creepy, and also one of the better fictional depictions I've found of the strangeness of 2020.
bactra.org 31 Jan 2023
affiliate link
Liked This Corner of the Universe
Mind candy: Military SF by someone who must've spent a big chunk of time in the (US?) military. The novel is good on the inter-personal dynamics of the service and especially of the small ship.
bactra.org 31 Jan 2023
affiliate link
Liked Infernal Tides
Comic-book mind-candy, of a particularly fluffy sort that does a good job of capturing the feel of a mostly-light-hearted long-running campaign.
bactra.org 31 Jan 2023
affiliate link
Liked Days of Endless Adventure
Comic-book mind-candy, of a particularly fluffy sort that does a good job of capturing the feel of a mostly-light-hearted long-running campaign.
bactra.org 31 Jan 2023
affiliate link
Liked Dungeons and Dragons
Comic-book mind-candy, of a particularly fluffy sort that does a good job of capturing the feel of a mostly-light-hearted long-running campaign.
bactra.org 31 Jan 2023
affiliate link
Liked Futurism
This is older, but it's still a really good book about the Italian Futurists. Indeed I can't think of a better one for a general audience with some background knowledge of modern art. The chapters on Futurist painting and sculpture, on music and performance, on women, and on politics are especially good.
bactra.org 31 Dec 2022
affiliate link
Where they publish
Site bactra.org His site: notebooks on hundreds of subjects, the book reviews, and the Three-Toed Sloth weblog.
The notebooks are working bibliographies he has kept for twenty-five years; the monthly "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur" posts are where the reviews land.
Link verified 20 Sept 2026.
About the English under a post
Some people here publish in a language other than English. Where they do, this site shows a machine translation beneath the post, in this typeface — the site's own, not theirs.
The post itself is never changed, moved or hidden: what is set in the serif above is exactly what the person published, and it is what to quote them on. A translation can be wrong in ways that matter, especially about tone.
Only the post's own words are translated. A quoted post, a linked article and a belief on korrents.com are left in their original language.