Notices by Zivan Krisher (zkrisher@tweesecake.social)

Some great books are on sale on Audible right now.

Perhaps they'll bring some comfort:

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

A mix of East European myth and Jewish history in the region.

https://www.audible.com/pd/Spinning-Silver-Audiobook/B07B8TSSKN?ref_pageloadid=DjJ3gGcyDsk3WUzl&pf_rd_p=de3faad9-adea-4a7b-9a6c-e149da2df4c0&pf_rd_r=NDVQK2C2BQGSPE8G9640&pageLoadId=QDhkKbG83qowDsii&creativeId=86f3627a-6e10-4bca-9848-b3e1564922e6&ref=a_ep_cozy-s_c10_lProduct_1_2

@bookstodon #bookstodon #audible #AudioBooks #sale

What we know about treating Long COVID

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/more-on-long-covid/

#ScienceBasedMedicine #SBM #LongCOVID

I've finished: The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

At first I was impressed.

Anti-Colonialism, pro LGBTQ, smart girl uses her wits, stress on the economic and logistical side of strategy… count me in.

Dickinson manages to make the heroine is an accountant trope actually work.

I even enjoyed the strategizing 101 at first.

I studied history ant uni and was fascinated by the decisions that won or lost wars.

But then I learned more, and grew up, and understood how messy life is, and about friction and unintended consequences.

I think what irked me most was how despite her disadvantaged, persecuted background, Baru is incredibly privileged. She is protected by such powerful forces. Especially narrative causality. So many things had to go right, so many points of failure, so many times she should have been crushed and was spared.

Especially these days, with the wars in Ukraine and Israel showing us how strategies fail to achieve their goals. It was hard for me to suspend my disbelief and enjoy this novel for what it is.

A complex novel about colonialism, racism and homophobia, and how hard it is to rebel against them.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/d5fdec07-bd6d-4681-9581-95c8127eeeda

@bookstodon #bookstodon #fantasy #AudioBooks #lgbtq

Roofing

#caturday

Science Based Medicine:

The Hypocrisy Is The Point. Doctors Who Said Not To Mix Politics & Medicine.

Hypocritical articles on politics and medicine weren’t really about politics and medicine, they were a message- the standards we set for you, don’t apply to us and everyone knows it.

by: Jonathan Howard

"Indeed, many We Want Them Infected doctors mixed politics and medicine openly and freely since the start of the pandemic. Scientists, namely Dr. Ioannidis himself, tried to influence politicians as early as March 2020, as Stephenie Lee documented in her article An Elite Group Of Scientists Tried To Warn Trump Against Lockdowns In March."

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/thepoint/

#ScienceBasedMedicine #skepticism #COVID #hypocracy #conservative #politics #healthcare

I've finished: And Put Away Childish Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky

After reading a couple of mediocre things I didn't bother posting about, I was reminded how much fun reading a master like Tchaikovsky can be.

(He also turns out to be a really good narrator).

Tchaikovsky manages to mix our reality with fantasy and sci-fi in a seamless way.

The protagonist is both clueless and steeped in the mythos. A setup that allows Tchaikovsky to create a more detailed fantasy world and a deeper interaction between Harry and the alternate universe.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/0dac5cdc-debb-4309-bf6c-85fd74e3885e

@bookstodon #bookstodon #SFF #AudioBooks

You received a gift article from Haaretz.
Iranian soccer fans boo during moment of silence for generals killed in Damascus attack https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/2024-04-08/ty-article/.premium/iranian-soccer-fans-boo-during-moment-of-silence-for-generals-killed-in-damascus-attack/0000018e-be99-db65-a7af-fe99dc4e0000?gift=28abab0ccfaa4f838021073dcc601abf

@esther

As a legally blind person touchscreens or touch buttons on every device are the bane of my existence.

The iPhone is very accessible, Android phones are reasonably accessible to the blind. But hardly anyone makes the touch screen on an appliance screen reader accessible.(apart from very expensive products made especially for the blind).

Why does the espresso machine at work need touch sensitive buttons? I've learned that I need the second button from the top. But since I can't touch the top of the machine to feel where the buttons are without instantly activating any other button on the way I find it very difficult to make a cup of coffee .

Touch screens are worse. and when some company does make them accessible for legal reasons (ATMs for example), they do such a shitty job you may as well ask for sighted assistance anyway.

#accessibility #blind

I wonder what she thinks of the taste. Is it a good vintage?

#caturday #kitten #CatsOfMastodon

I've finished: The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

Le Guin is one of those rare authors that stand the test of time. Unlike Heinlein, Asimov, Niven and others her social science background allowed her to envision future societies that reflect progressive ideals that are still relevant today.

The Lathe of Heaven was published in 1971 and unlike many of her other novels is set on Earth. There are many references to years that are long in our past, and to technologies that are out of sync with the developments we've witnessed in the 1980s and 90s, the fact that this is a multiverse novel helps makes this less anachronistic.

The constant threat of global warming, present throughout the novel helps ground it in current apocalyptic threat concerns and mitigate other predictions that seem antiquated today.

Sadly, predictions of war in the Middle East, never seem to go stale

The Lathe of Heaven is an interesting take on the Djinn or Monkey's Paw trope, of wishes going wrong. Bringing it into the realm of science fiction by placing the power to change the world in the chaotic realm of dreams. Making the science of psychology and the struggle to control these dreams the focus of the novel.

Very much worth reading even more then 50 years later.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/c5bd8c8b-94d8-42ab-a4ac-384033927e5d

@bookstodon #bookstodon #SFFbookClub #amReading

You received a gift article from Haaretz.
'Alarming and catastrophic': This Is What Aid to Gaza was Like Before the war - and now https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/2023-10-29/ty-article/.premium/alarming-and-catastrophic-this-is-what-aid-to-gaza-was-like-before-the-war-and-now/0000018b-6c92-db57-a7cb-ec9f86280000?gift=b6dd77e8210c4354b40dced64dee241b #israel

Hi, I just moved to this instance from a general one I joined during the great migration of November 2022.

I'm a legally blind AT teacher at a center for the blind in Tel-Aviv.

I mostly post about books I liked, and photos I've taken. I do boost posts to do with history, science, accessibility, technology and some left leaning politics.

I live on a Kibbutz and have two pets, a lab golden mix called Zoe and a kitten called Nellie.

I'll try to keep the politics under content warnings, but it's hard not to get political when your country is at war.

Do boosts show up for everyone in the local feed?

#introduction