The Wordsmith's Forge

Love Death + Robots "The Other Large Thing" S4 E05 2025 Full Episode

This anthology show is hit-or-miss. Some episodes are meh, some cringeworthy, but the hits are among the best science fiction ever created. This is one of the best. It's a cautionary tale, and if you know cats ... disturbingly plausible. Also hilarious. Do not watch with mouth full.

I adore the pairing, too, such a memorable set: Dingleberry Jones and his minion Thumb Bringer.

Engineers built a drifting wheelchair for an injured colleague. 

Given how crappy the official  medical equipment is, and how expensive, I'm delighted to see people making adaptive equipment on their own.

Impromptu "Hallelujah" in a park

If you have a gift, share it.  If someone starts something you're good at, join in.  Make connections.  Make something beautiful.

This flash mob put on a complex performance of "Bohemian Rhapsody."

It reminds me very much of the "musical dimension" -- the world in which people naturally, spontaneously form into teams for song and dance routines. People here are just using prosthetic technology to substitute for whatever energy phenomenon allows that in Musical Land. :D

Do-it-yourself prosthetic leg. 

The medical industry has been screaming bloody murder for some years about how bad it is for people to make prostheses outside the medical racket, that are actually useful and affordable.  It freaks them out to lose control over disabled people's bodies.  Fuck 'em.  Nobody is entitled to a captive audience or customers.  By all means, make your own for 1% of the cost.  3D-printed hands have been around for a while now and exist in many variations.

Youtube's new 18+ restriction thing

If you haven't heard: Youtube's gonna be rolling out a thing where they use AI to analyze the types of videos you watch to determine whether or not you're 18. If they think you're under, they're probably gonna limit what kinds of videos you can watch, and if they think you're 18 or over, you're gonna have to provide your ID. And if at any point Youtube has your age wrong, you're gonna have to provide some sort of ID anyways to rectify it.

I hate it all. Some people have posited that this being put in place is to protect kids, which on it's face sounds like a good thing. But having to give your ID to some online company, and Google no less... Not too long ago there was already another incident where an app intended for women only had it's database leaked, resulting in the leakage of several IDs (because this app used IDs to prove that its users were indeed women, a practice I have my own thoughts about).


Evil, but hardly a surprise.  So, think about how much you enjoy using YouTube, and if you start hitting barriers there, consider whether there is an alternative that would be less abusive.

Shanidar 1 is probably the most famous disabled person in history: missing an arm, blind in one eye, hard of hearing or deaf, mobility impaired, and more. He belonged to a Neanderthal family who exerted maximum effort to keep him alive, far beyond the typical lifespan of the time. Because he strove to survive, and they helped, his story lives on through his bones -- concrete proof that compassion, not brute force, is part of what made us human from the very beginning. The ability to care for each other, and to value people for themselves, not just for what they could contribute, made a difference in our survival.

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This performance neatly illustrates the difference between violin and fiddle. Technically they're the same instrument, but there are a lot of little tweaks and tricks that lead to different music -- even playing what is also, technically, the same song.  Violin invites you to sit on your ass and listen; fiddle motivates you to get off your ass and move.

THE MINI FOREST - Rewilding using the Miyawaki Method

Terrell Wong is about to plant 100 trees in her small Toronto backyard, a dense mini forest based on the Miyawaki Method. What at first seems like a simple act soon evolves into a complex story about dirt, lawns, fungus, wildlife, native species, and finally the human brain. An anti-lawn anthem from director David Hartman, The Mini Forest explores this innovative form of afforestation and the importance of restoring the native woodlands that once covered so much of Canada and the World.

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