Kelson

the party that wants to require ID to vote abruptly invalidating a thousand people’s IDs overnight seems like a pretty giant flashing red light

The third book (and upcoming fourth) gets into the aftermath of the endgame, and also makes you really start to wonder about the nature of the Loop and time in the Nebula.

Heaven's Vault (Novels) - Review Aliya and the robot sail the Nebula, seeking clues to its history and future. The first two novels tell a story similar to the game, just different enough to feel new. Ancient writing appears througho...

I've finished reading the novels based on the game. The first two are just different enough that they feel like you've unlocked another path through it. And yes, puzzling through Ancient inscriptions is woven throughout.

hyperborea.org/reviews/book...

THIS.

None of them actually give a shit about, say, women's sports, or comic books, or Star Wars. It's obvious cuz if they try to tackle the subjects in depth, they just embarrass themselves. They don't know basic shit!

5 WNBA players!
Han Solo's homeworld!
3 2025 Eisner winners!

Zip! Zero!

How did we end up threatening our kids’ lives with AI? - Anil Dash A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

It is a vile scandal that 2 of the biggest AI companies in the world attack children by inciting them to self-harm, and by generating sexually exploitative imagery of kids for profit. I wanted to document this so that people in tech will stop saying they don't know: www.anildash.com/2026/02/18/t...

Solitude - Review The people of Eleven-Soro live alone except for a bare minimum of human interaction. But what is that bare minimum, and what does it mean for people who avoid all other contact?

New short story review on my website: Solitude, Ursula K. Le Guin ★★★★★

hyperborea.org/reviews/book...

The people of Eleven-Soro live alone except for a bare minimum of human interaction. But what is that bare minimum, and what does it mean for people who avoid all other contact?

HeliBoard - Review Versatile on-screen keyboard for Android with local-only autocorrect and suggestions for multiple languages. Extremely configurable. More private than GBoard, and works better for me than Fossify Keyb...

I've been running HeliBoard on my phone for a couple of months now. It's a super-customizable, local-only alternative to GBoard that supports auto-correct/suggest and a ton of languages.

Gestures currently require an add-on.

hyperborea.org/reviews/apps...

#Android #DeGoogling #HeliBoard

Opinion page of the Onion Jan-Feb 2026 issue with a piece titled "Anyone Else Have Those Weird Dreams Where Sobbing Future Generations Beg You To Change Course?" by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI

@theonion.com is so worth the subscription for this

Panel 1: Exec: "Ok guys ok ok we won't kill Adobe Animate." Crowd: "Phew" "thank fuck" "That's better" "I'm still switching to something else." "No yeah you really should" Panel 2: Exec: "Unfortunately we will also stop adding new features to it." Crowd: "WOO!!!" "It's a dream come true!" "Yeah!" "Finally!" Exec: "... um. Why are they cheering"

maintenance mode

The Real Story Behind the Midnight Immigration Raid on a Chicago Apartment Building The Trump administration has claimed the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had taken over the building. But new documents make no mention of the gang and reveal federal agents had information about “ille...

our government used a Blackhawk helicopter in a major American city, detained children and zip-tied U.S. citizens all to target... squatters

and the alleged Tren de Aragua presence? "It was a brutal lie against the American public."
www.propublica.org/article/chic...

Democrats Condemn ICE For Murdering Without Proper Warrants

Democrats Condemn ICE For Murdering Without Proper Warrants https://theonion.com/democrats-condemn-ice-for-murdering-without-proper-warrants/

These are all Black people. The regime is betting that you wont care Jamael & Trahern the way you care about Alex & Renée

Heaven's Vault - Review You play as an archaeologist, sailing among the moons of a habitable nebula linked by rivers, exploring ruins, interacting with townspeople, and translating ancient inscriptions. What starts as a…

Finished my second play-through of Heaven's Vault. An archaeologist sailing a habitable nebula, exploring ruins, interacting with townspeople, and translating ancient inscriptions. Your choices make enough difference that it's very replayable. 5★

hyperborea.org/reviews/game...

#Games #HeavensVault

The Republican position on guns is and always was that guns can only be used by lone wolves to murder schoolchildren or by Republicans to murder whoever they want.

How To Help if You are Outside Minnesota Last edited January 22, 2026 I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this, you more or less understand the situation in Minnesota and I don’t have to explain it to you! That sa…

Useful information for today (and tomorrow, and the day after that, and...)

naomikritzer.com/2026/01/21/h...

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Review Even though marine science and geology have passed it by, it's still a gripping episodic adventure through a strange, hidden world of marvels.

New book review on my website!

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne (F.P. Walter Translation)
★★★★☆

hyperborea.org/reviews/book...

Even though marine science and geology have passed it by, it's still a gripping episodic adventure through a strange, hidden world of marvels.

Onyx BOOX Go 7 Color (Gen II) - Review After five years, I replaced the Poke3 with the Go 7 Color. It's a lot faster and more responsive, brings back physical page turning buttons, and adds (pastel) color. Like its predecessor it has a sha...

I finally replaced my aging Boox Poke3 with the Go 7. I really liked the older tablet, and used it as my main eBook reader for years, but it was struggling with newer (and updated) apps. The new one's a dramatic improvement.

Review: hyperborea.org/reviews/prod...

#ereaders #boox

Critically, it makes Scrooge's conversion work as a matter of character, not just because the theme demanded it. You see just enough glimmers of humanity in his past that it's believable there might be some left in there somewhere.

Until I picked it up yesterday, it had been ages since I last read A Christmas Carol.

Dickens' original story holds up well. The emphasis on kindness and charity makes it timeless, beyond the specifics of England during the Industrial Revolution.

#AChristmasCarol

hyperborea.org/reviews/book...

The title refers to Norman Spinrad's satirical 1972 novel, The Iron Dream, which takes that strain to its logical conclusion, and makes the parallels to real-world fascism explicit through a framing sequence set in an AU where a dictator became an SF writer instead.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iro...

I'd known the broad strokes and some of the specifics, but seeing them all tied together in a continuous thread is...enlightening.

And makes it clear how people like Musk and Andreeson can look at the "genre of ideas" and only pick up on the tropes that justify their own prejudices and ambitions.

The Old Iron Dream - Review An extended essay tracing the strand of military authoritarianism and white male supremacy in science-fiction, from John Campbell through Heinlein, Pournelle and other major names up through the then-...

Finally read The Old Iron Dream, which traces the strand of military authoritarianism and white male supremacy in science-fiction from John Campbell through Heinlein, Pournelle and other major names up through ~2013.

hyperborea.org/reviews/book...

The Tombs of Atuan - Review Still my favorite of the Earthsea books. There's something fascinating about a labyrinth that you *must* traverse in total darkness, keeping a map and counting turns in your head.

The Tombs of Atuan is still my favorite of the Earthsea books. There's something fascinating about a labyrinth that you *must* traverse in total darkness, keeping a map and counting turns in your head.

Ursula K. Le Guin ★★★★★
hyperborea.org/reviews/book...

#books #earthsea

The Word of Unbinding and The Rule of Names - Review The original two stories set in Earthsea, before Le Guin wrote the novels. Each stand-alone, each interesting both in itself and in seeing what the series and its themes grew from.

I finally read the first two stories set in Earthsea, before Ursula K. Le Guin started on the novels. They're interesting on their own, as well as in seeing what the series grew from.
★★★★☆
hyperborea.org/reviews/book...

#Earthsea #UrsulaKLeGuin

Reading that, I'm reminded of Office Space, and Michael Bolton explaining why he doesn't want to change *his* name...

iZombie (graphic novels) - Review A horror/comedy that ranges from Scooby Doo to Lovecraft by way of Moorcock, featuring thinking zombies, vampires who run paintball, ghosts, secret societies, and a were-terrier. Off the wall concepts...

New ★★★★★ comic review on my website!

I recently re-read the original iZombie graphic novels for the first time since watching the TV series.

hyperborea.org/reviews/comi...

Vaster Than Empires And More Slow - Review An intriguing story of a dysfunctional crew dealing with each other and a planet that, at first glance, appears to have no sentient life, only plants.

New book review on my website!

Vaster Than Empires And More Slow, Ursula K. Le Guin

hyperborea.org/reviews/book...

An intriguing story of a dysfunctional crew dealing with each other and a planet that, at first glance, appears to have no sentient life, only plants.

Weird: Sometime in the last few days, my profile images and bio just disappeared. I'm still logged in, I can still read and post, my post history is still visible. Just... reset to a default profile.

Fortunately I'm a digital packrat so I can just re-upload the images.

I drop in here from time to time, but usually if I'm on social media it's in the Fediverse, where I'm @kelson@notes.kvibber.com

Thanks to Bridgy Fed, though, you can see (most of) my Fediverse posts here in Bluesky at @notes.kvibber.com

TL;DR: Vivaldi is the spiritual successor to the old Opera & has email instead of AI, Orion is like an advanced Safari & runs Chrome extensions, Waterfox is Firefox without the Mozilla services & telemetry, and Zen is an attempt to build a "calmer" experience similar to Arc.