Just saw its name in some news article since the latest launch failed to land properly on SpaceX' drone "A Shortfall of Gravitas" which is basically a call to a bunch of Culture ships in the series with similar names.

Totally random, but I am guessing Elon is a fan or something. Good books btw.

After years of trying to avoid ereaders the price and availability of books in leafland finally broke me. Got the kindle basic and I'm going to fill it with pirated legally obtained books.

Gotta say I'm impressed, the screen is super easy on the eyes. What ereaders do you guys use? And where do you get your books?

1. The mutants clearly think they are better than humans - They think having the X gene makes them special and that they will one day replace humanity as the next step in human evolution, which is clearly incorrect taking into account that mutants come in a high enough variety of forms that successful mating strategies may not even be possible and you might get one or two offshoot races from some of the more stable mutant genes at best.

2. Mutants are clearly not the next step in human evolution - post humanity in the future timelines is clearly better and more advanced than mutants and the only reason mutants win is because the phoenix force ( Literal dues ex machina ) has a girl crush on a mutant.

3. There exist humans that are already more advanced and smarter than mutants, without othering humanity. - The fantastic four are all humans. Spiderman is a human. Iron man is human. All of them more than capable of leading humanity forwards beyond the stars without a single bit of Mutant DNA in sight. Which again supports the fact that mutants are not inherently better than humans.

4. The mutant gene is too unstable - The mutant gene produces mutants with planet destroying powers and mutants with a different hair color at random. What happens when a 13 year old randomly develops the ability to explode like a million hiroshima's anytime they get upset? It could happen at any time any place and you are never guaranteed to get there in time. Mutants due to this genetic instability are an actual threat to the existence and day to day life of humans.

5. The mutants keep undermining Earth's interests in the Galaxy - Mutants go out of their way to participate in the games of galactic empires, this puts Earth at constant threat the moment one of these galactic powers becomes upset with Earth. You end up with one planet fighting a galactic power. They pretend to be humanity's representatives to other intelligent species without any say from the humans. They have forcefully taken control of Earth diplomacy.

6. Mutant culture is completely disconnected from human culture - Mutant kind completely disconnects themselves from how humans behave and value one another. This makes it impossible to determine what the values of mutants are or how to interact with them or how to assimilate them. Most of the mutant cultures are more often than humans about killing those who get in your way. I know more humans who would hesitate to kill one another than mutants who would hesitate to kill one another.

7. Mutants are willing to treat human killing mutants like friends and family - Human heroes are clearly more moved by the act of humans that kill mutants than mutants are moved by the act of mutants that kill humans. This is clearly visible in the willingness of accepting mutants like Apocalypse and Magneto among their inner circles.

8. Even when mutants are helping humans, it is never about helping humanity or helping sapien kind - Even the kindest mutants go out of their way to ensure that people are aware that there is a difference between mutants and humans. They talk about wanting to be treated as equal, but would never accept being labelled as humans rather than their own species. This clearly shows an unwillingness to normalize themselves as part of humanity and a very humanity excluding mindset.

9. Even the kindest of the mutants are either bigots or threats to humanity on a global scale - Charles Xavier is capable of killing all of humanity's leaders just by thinking about it. The only thing stopping him is him waking up every day and choosing not to do so. There is nothing these world leaders can do to protect themselves. Xavier could destabilize and cripple humanity at any waking moment he wants. Cyclops, one of the poster child for mutantkind, is someone who clearly looks down on humans and humanity even while he does philanthropic work. Cyclops has been on record referring to humans as apes and also been known to willingly work with Magneto and hold similar ideals and act upon them at times. A living nuke is obviously too dangerous to keep alive. What can you do about the fact that the nuke now has a human face.

In conclusion:

Human heroes can protect Earth well enough that mutants aren't really needed. While most of the mutants are not a real threat, omega level mutants can occur at any point in time and pose an extinction level threat to the entire planet as long as they are alive. Taking into account that there is no way to track which mutant will randomly be born as a planet destroyer and how they will use this power, it is only logical to eradicate the X genome entirely to ensure the safety of the species and the planet as a whole. Add in the fact that mutants actively consider themselves as distinct from humans, and we can see the possibility of mutants being willing to or normalizing exterminating anybody without an X gene.

The only smart move for humans is to exterminate the mutants and keep moving towards a post humanity civilization instead.

We don't need bob the bullying teenager to randomly erupt into a category 9 tsunami, we need a species capable of handling and controlling planetary forces responsibly as a group.

I stand with Israel.

!bookworms

!bookworms !architecture !macacos the first pic is from the Mario Andrade Library in São Paulo. It contains 3.2 million books on its inventory, it's the 4th largest library in Brazil and the largest municipal library.

The main building was concluded in 1942 and underwent restoration works in the 1970s and the 2000s.

Pics from the inside.

And here's the public library of the Great State of Paraná, located in Curitiba. It was built in the 1950s.

And here's the National Library in Brasilia

Soulless as everything else on that city but not as bad as the library of the University of Brasilia.

And finally, The National Library of Rio de Janiero.

The largest in the country with almost 10 million volumes. It was inaugurated in 1910.

Undelete Link

^ If you made the mistake of reading all of that, you'll notice it's a whole lot of words to say nothing at all ^

What matters is in the comments:

Link

What do you mean 'original plot'?

[OP] Animals acting like animals taking over the farm. like sure, the satire is that animals acting like humans who act like animals is a full circle whtver but the point was driven soooooo far into the ground it was boring. I didnt wanna read about animal turned napolean bonaparte

This leads to a bunch of reddit^tm approved dunks on OP

I didn't know the Olympics was still running, I just saw some amazing mental gymnastics

Edgy. Can't wait to never see you again.

We all make mistakes, man. Keep reading.

The dunking continues until somoene goes too far and the entirety of /r/books takes a stray

_{-11 points}

Isn't it for children?

I was bored so I decided to check what stage of cope Kingkiller Chronicle fans are in. I think most people have accepted that Winds of Winter is never coming out but for some reason people still think Doors of Stone will.

Hope his new assistant helps him stay focused

The man hasn't written a word in fifteen years but surely a new assistant will get things back on track!

I'm thinking I should learn an ancient language

Latin seems fun but it's too basic b-word to learn (at least as my first ancient language) and I already had to do some grammar classes on highschool so it's also too easy

I'm thinking maybe ancient hebrew is the least studies out of the big 3 of Latin Greek and Hebrew

But what are the other options/what will make me stand out the most as the cool esoteric intellectual I am

To discuss your weekly readings of books, textbooks and papers.

!bookworms !classics

@Aevann pls

The last story of the Newborn Saga.

The Supreme Born, Kael, has chosen the armies of King Bowser, Mickey Mouse, and the Kids Next Door to battle for his power, and to further his own goal of becoming God of the Multiverse.

Under Bowser's flag:

-The allied warlords of Mushroom World

-Dr. Eggman and his robotic empire

-Gruntilda and her monster army

-Giovanni, Team Rocket, and all their enhanced Pokémon

-The Brotherhood of Evil, an army of supervillains led by Tomura Shigaraki

Under Mickey's flag:

-Several kingdoms united by Disney

-Several media corporations

-Jacques Schnee and his Nature Dust Company

-Big Bird and his Intergalactic News studio

And the Kids Next Door have the vast array of diverse friends and allies they collected across the years. But this war may truly test the loyalty of their friendships.

CHAPTER 6: Start of Xeno Saga, featuring major Xenoblade Chronicles crossovers!

CHAPTER 15: Start of Mecha Saga, featuring crossovers between Life as a Teenage Robot and other robot-themed characters!

Part 31 of Kids Next Door Gameverse Series

!bookworms

!bookworms !mathematics

I read four of the 5 Incerto books (the only one I didn't is "The Bed of Procrustes").

It's been a while but my takes were that "Fooled by Randomness" and "The Black Swan" had legit interesting ideas and concepts along Taleb's anecdotes.

"Antifragile" and "Skin in the Game" had some interesting ideas, but the writing style went down considerably, he became so full of himself. Check this excerpt from "Antifragile" for instance

In the aftermath of the banking crisis, I received all manner of threats, and The Wall Street Journal suggested that I 'stock up on bodyguards.' I tried to tell myself no worries, stay calm, these threats were coming from disgruntled bankers; anyway, people get whacked first, then you read about it in the newspapers, not in the reverse sequence. But the argument did not register in my mind, and, when in New York or London, I could not relax, even after chamomile tea. I started feeling paranoia in public places, scrutinizing people to ascertain that I was not being followed. I started taking the bodyguard suggestion seriously, and I found it more appealing (and considerably more economical) to become one, or, better, to look like one. I found Lenny 'Cake,' a trainer, weighing around two hundred and eighty pounds (one hundred and thirty kilograms), who moonlighted as a security person. His nickname and weight both came from his predilection for cakes. Lenny Cake was the most physically intimidating person within five zip codes, and he was sixty. So, rather than taking lessons, I watched him train. He was into the 'maximum lifts' type of training and swore by it, as he found it the most effective and least time-consuming. This method consisted of short episodes in the gym in which one focused solely on improving one's past maximum in a single lift, the heaviest weight one could haul, sort of the high-water mark. The workout was limited to trying to exceed that mark once or twice, rather than spending time on un-entertaining time-consuming repetitions. The exercise got me into a naturalistic form of weightlifting, and one that accords with the evidence-based literature: work on the maximum, spend the rest of the time resting and splurging on mafia-sized steaks. I have been trying to push my limit for four years now; it is amazing to see how something in my biology anticipates a higher level than the past maximum—until it reaches its ceiling. When I deadlift (i.e., mimic lifting a stone to waist level) using a bar with three hundred and thirty pounds, then rest, I can safely expect that I will build a certain amount of additional strength as my body predicts that next time I may need to lift three hundred and thirty-five pounds. The benefits, beyond the fading of my paranoia and my newfound calm in public places, includes small unexpected conveniences. When I am harassed by limo drivers in the arrival hall at Kennedy airport insistently offering me a ride and I calmly tell them to 'f*** off,' they go away immediately

For those who don't know him, he's foul-mouthed Lebanese-American statistician and risk analyzer (and a former stockbroker).

His twitter is super unhinged and dramapilled (fights with cryptostrags, antivaxxers, Nate Silver, plus berating Jordan Memerson, Steven Pinker, Lex Friedman, pan-arabists). Since october 7th however his Twitter became just boring sandshit stuff, kind of like an angrier @Redactor0 thread of comments.

His sub discusses it

https://old.reddit.com/r/nassimtaleb/comments/1923uef/talebs_tweets_getting_angrier_and_crazier/

The Lobsterson and the Nate Silver drama always makes me laugh

LOL I can't believe all it took was for someone to stand up to your bullying by trolling you back for you to turn into such a cuck.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) April 8, 2019

Best novel sounds like a real banger.

A thrillingly told queer space opera about the wreckage of war, the family you find, and who you must become when every choice is stripped from you

Also see how far you have to scroll to find a man.

https://archive.ph/qy80H

!neolibs !bookworms there's a book "Infantilised" by a Bong author.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199617292-infantilised

The first link is The Economist article.

Some highlights

Over many years as a lecturer, Mr Hayward grew concerned that his 18-year-old students "resembled less mature teenagers on the cusp of adulthood and more fearful schoolchildren adrift in an alien world of adult autonomy". One arrived in class dressed in a onesie, noting that it was cold and he liked to feel comfortable. Was he not "concerned about the infantilising overtones of such a garment?" asked Mr Hayward. "No, I want to be treated like a kid," came the reply. "Adulting is hard."

Finally, Mr Hayward chides the liberal commentariat. On the one hand, they celebrated Greta Thunberg, a former schoolgirl activist, as an "all-knowing sage", despite her possessing "no scientific expertise" and saying "nothing original whatsoever about climate issues". This, he claims, is evidence of "a role reversal in which young people are increasingly assigned the intellectual gravitas and cultural authority to educate adults".

A lot millennial writing consists on adults behaving like children and children acting as sage creatures "lecturing" adults. Greta Thunberg is just a symptom of that. !writecel gives us some pf the worst examples of "wise kids" tropes on media.

But Mr Hayward's argument has two flaws. One is that it is so grumpy. Why shouldn't adults dress up as comic-book characters, if they enjoy it? What is wrong with liking the "Wallace and Gromit" animated films? Being grown-up means taking responsibility for your actions; it does not mean only ever seeking fun in highbrow places.

Lmao, "Just let people enjoy things" journo version

>A procession of books in recent years have explored the UFO phenomenon but few perhaps with the authority Luis Elizondo brings as a Defense Department insider, laboring for decades to learn who the visitors are, where they are from and what they want.

>In the 275 pages of "Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs," Elizondo provides evidence of what the U.S. Department of Defense knows with this somewhat surprising conclusion – Defense Department higher-ups often thwart Elizondo and his team's efforts.

>Why? Elizondo writes that the defense establishment doesn't want to present a problem it neither can explain nor offer a solution. But are these visitors a threat? Elizondo concludes that the visitors' capabilities make them a "very serious national security issue."

>Earliest documented UFO sightings go back to before World War II and since then, many UFOs have violated sensitive military airspace but no one appears to have been deliberately hurt by a UFO in the United States. However, perhaps given his combat experiences and long association with Defense Department work, Elizondo worries about another 9-11-type attack, a threat we should have anticipated but did not.

I don't always agree with Elizondo, he has reported many false news especially about rods, he seems like a crackpot, but I have read many of the sourced books here and I find them to be based on credible reports, just muddied by the authors' biases.

To discuss your weekly readings of books, textbooks and papers.

I'm putting aside fiction for a while, I recently started "Chaos: Making a new science" by James Gleick, it's a pop science intro for Chaos Theory but a well-researched one which doesn't fall into quackery. Also thanks to our !mathematics friends for their textbook recommendations

!bookworms

@Aevann pls

There are a good deal many nonfiction books talking about modern politics, most of them suck and have nothing of importance to say. This list composes of books that at the very least have some food for thought. I have read most of these, though not all fully. Most of these books have audiobook versions, which are useful for those of you who prefer that format. Many libraries have access to these books in both formats. !grillers you should ideally read/have read a few of these, !burgers you should do the same, as your civic duty. Also, a shoutout to @pizzashill for recommending some of these years ago on the subreddit.

Suspicious Minds by Rob Brotherton

 A great book that explains the mindset for believing the unbelievable, a good book for anyone who interacts with conspiracy theorists with any regularity.

Vodka Politics by Mark Lawrence Schrad

 This a good book that provides key insight into not only the Russian government, but the people who passively support the current regime. A good showcase on how the best way to deal with Russia geopolitically is to first understand the state, and it's history of oppression and control.

The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli

 Many people have a misunderstanding of The Prince, believing it to be a personal manifesto of Machiavelli's ideas. This is false, the book is mostly an observation of the states he saw around him, and what made some function and others falter. Machiavelli is not supporting these ideas from a moral standpoint, but a pragmatic one.

The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America by Coleman Hughes

When I heard some Zoomer with a YouTube channel wrote a book, I rolled my eyes. However this is actually an impressive breakdown on why modern IdPol is cancer to society and how two wrongs don't make a right. It helps that he is good at narrating his own audiobook, highly recommend the audio version over the regular book. Probably my favorite book of the year, fiction included.

Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up by Abigail Shrier

 If you have kids (or plan to), I consider this book essential. It provides some key tips for parenting (basically do the opposite of everything Millennial parents do). It's also useful for understanding why Zoomers and gen A are so dysfunctional, the parents did everything wrong. As Zoomers start to enter the political arena, understanding how they function (or rather mostly don't) is key.

Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

 A guy he survived the holocaust explains how he was able to keep living after what happened to him. Is he the best writer? No. However he has a perspective that the vast majority of westerners don't, an event in life that involved true suffering.

China's Great Wall Of Debt: Shadow Banks, Ghost Cities, Massive Loans, and the End of the Chinese Miracle by Dinny McMahon

 China is screwed, but often it can be hard to understand why when for all appearances they appear to be a functioning almost developed country. People may see all the stats that spell doom and gloom, but without examples it can be hard to internalize. This book is masterful at providing those examples and tying them in to various stats about China's economy and population. The audiobook is also high quality, and 100% free if you have an Audible membership (doesn't cost a credit).

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt

 If you only read one book here, make it this one. This book perfectly explains the mind of the wingcuck, and explains what one can do to avoid becoming one. It also provides some really uncomfortable ideas that challenged my beliefs and actually made me more moderate.

The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt

 This book is not as well written as The Righteous Mind, however it does have some additional ideas that are worth pondering. Worth a read, but not as essential of a read as The Righteous Mind.

Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson

 Jordan B Peterson is no genius, but his ideas have obviously resonated with a lot of people. This book, above all his other books really helps shed light on why. This is probably his most personal book, and shows what kind of person naturally gravitates towards this type of thinking. It helps that it also has more meaningful advice than his first self-help book, less empty platitudes.

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies by Jared Diamond

 A lot of modern historians dismiss this book as pseudohistory, I'd argue that whether that's true or not doesn't matter. This book is more useful to explain the mindset of historians and politicians from the decade this book was published. The fact remains that many believe this book to be true regardless of it's actually factuality, and as such it is worth knowing what started this mindset and what the mindset actually is. I will personally add that this book has more truth to it than many modern historians are willing to admit. Most people who dispute this book attack the data, as the conclusion is hard to challenge.

The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money by Bryan Caplan

 Public school is trash in the USA, this book articulates why in a very matter of fact way. This book doesn't offer much substantial solutions imo. However understanding *why* our education system is broken is a key step to working on creating solutions.

The Bible (LSB)

 The Bible is the most important book ever written, this is undeniable. This book has had such an insane amount of influence not only on religion, science, and culture, but also the fabric of what makes The West a concept to begin with. Many modern readers have trouble getting through the KJV Bible, understandable. Thus I recommend the LSB version, is it as good from a religious or historical aspect? No. However if you have found yourself unable to really get through The Bible due to it's complex prose, the LSB version is a solid option for understanding The Bible. Unfortunately it doesn't have any non-AI complete audio readings, so no audiobook for those who want it.

You may wonder why other religious texts aren't included, and that's because The Bible has value from a culture and historical angle for any Westerner. Other religious texts are less valuable from that angle, and don't have the same amount of influence over the core Western identity as compared to The Bible.

!bookworms !sophistry was this book worth it? Why does Lobsterson brings up Carl Jung on his vids? Why is he always crying nowadays?

!bookworms !ifrickinglovescience so you can post and discuss Pop-Sci books. Tell us what you recommend but also which ones you hated and made up roll your eyes

Pic related is from !sophistry "The Neolithic Revolution and it's consequences…" author and Silicon Valley darling (((Yuval Noah Harari))) because it's Sci-Fi-ish when compared to that overrated "history" book Sapiens.

Current day X-Men are powerful enough to have been able to defeat time traveling AI. At the same time somehow Bob from human supremacy HQ is capable of defeating the X-men, or to act as an actual threat to them.

Even the most advanced sentinels can now be defeated by the team of X-men. There is literally no possibility where humans can be a threat to mutants anymore yet we are supposed to take mutant persecution seriously, even when the mutants have been shown to be the most powerful psychics in the plant, the most powerful magicians on the planet, one of the most powerful galactic powers in the galaxy, and technologically centuries ahead of the humans alive today.

The mutants alive today are advanced enough to be able to defeat the Children of the Vault, another species of humans who are placed in a vault where time passages thousands to millions of times faster than on Earth, where every time they leave, their species is a thousand years more technologically advanced. The mutants were able to defeat them. Yet somehow, the normal human supremacists are supposed to be a real threat to the mutants of Earth.

The mutants are powerful enough to defeat any galactic level threat. They even have their own off shoot civilization of mutants on Mars now. The story of mutants should by now move on to the part where mutants rule the solar system and just ignore the humans while the Earth and its human inhabitants do their own thing which will never have any impact on Mutantdom.

Instead, we are told that the Mutant kingdom is gone, and the mutants are once again spread across the world, at constant risk of persecution. None of it makes any sense. Even power creep cannot explain humans defeating the mutants because the humans would have to be smarter than Iron man in terms of capability and intelligence as a species to be able to act as a threat to current day mutant civilization.

The writers need to move on with the mutants and make them their own empire away from Earth, where they have a treatise with Earth transferring all mutants from any nation state to the mutant empire.

Or at the very least let the mutants become the unquestionable dominant species on the planet, who have domain over most of the planet beyond the US and Latveria.

The time traveling, galactic power level, planet destroying tier individuals species is being oppressed and are the victims of le evil. Are you pooping me?

The mutants still being persecuted is stupider than Americans thinking they are victims of hate from the rest of the world.

Make realistic storylines with mutants on top.

One of the main themes of gender relations in Wheel of Time is that they are fraught. Men and Women across society and generation are at war with each other, treating each other like a different species. The women, almost without exception, independent of age or country of origin, see men as oafish, stupid children who must be shown the right way to behave and tightly controlled. Men, on the other hand, see women as overbearing, stubborn, unwilling to admit fault, and bossy. Personally, I find this extremely tiresome, that every character is so lacking in awareness and self awareness that they can't come to understand any members of the opposite s*x. Robert Jordan writes dozens of times throughout the books across every male character how incomprehensible women are. I think he might just be telling on himself. Or, I suppose it was more common in his time to boast about such things. "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" and all that.

The main issue with Robert Jordan's portrayal of these characters, though, is that in his writing he goes out of his way to show that the women are irrational, lack self-awareness, willfully stubborn, and hypocritical. Nynaeve is obviously the most extreme example, but all of the other women display this to some degree. They will have a thought about how infuriating some aspect of some other character is, and then the next sentence is them displaying the same trait. Robert Jordan is playing this for laughs, I think, but he doesn't do this with the same frequency or intensity with the men. He plays the women's inconsistency, irrationality, and hypocrisy for laughs. He rarely does this for the men. As a result, as a reader, it's difficult to not see Robert Jordan taking sides implcitly in the "man vs. woman" war he's written. The women are usually wrong and refuse to admit it. The men are right that the women are irrational. This goes in the reverse order only very occasionally.

> why aren't the Foids on this Fantasyslop Mary Sues?

!bookworms !foidmoment WoTcels thoughts? I never read the Wheel of Time but I always love the drama it attracts. Was Jordan /ourguy/?

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0193723599234002

>Outta My Endzone: Sport and the Territorial Anus

>By Prof. Brian Pronger (University of Toronto)

>The practice of competitive sport itself can have homoerotic dimensions: the contact of the playing field, the spectacle of the partially clad body, the steamy environment of the showers and locker room...

>I argued that men's sport allows men and boys to exclude women and girls from their all-male environments, permits them to play with each other's bodies, to surround themselves with naked men in the showers and locker rooms, to enjoy that all-male contact, without suffering the vilification that usually comes from the open acknowledgment and pursuit of masculine erotic contact, the stigma of "being homosexual." ...

>In other words, the homophobia of competitive sport allows men to play with each other's bodies and still preserve their patriarchal heterosexist hegemony; they can have their (beef) cake and eat it, too.

...

He helpfully cites a real-life example:

>National Hockey league player Sheldon Kennedy, fine example, has revealed that when he was a young man playing in the Canadian Hockey League, he submitted more than 300 times to the sexual demands of his coach, Graham James, who subsequently has been jailed for the offense. It has been widely reported in the media that numerous boys exchanged sexual favors for hockey tickets and other perks with employees of Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens.

!bookworms !chuds