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fandomtrees

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recthething

Every Thursday, we have a community post, just like this one, where you can drop a rec or five in the comments.

This works great if you only have one rec and don't want to make a whole post for it, or if you don't have a DW account, or if you're shy. ;)

(But don't forget: you can deffo make posts of your own seven days a week. ;D!)

So what cool fanart/fanvids/fics/podfics/fancrafts/other kinds of fanworks have we discovered this week? Drop it in the comments below. Anon comment is enabled.

BTW, AI fanworks are not eligible for reccing at recthething. If you aware that a fanwork is AI-generated, please do not rec it here.

aurumcalendula

(belated) January 6th - 'what are your three favorite F/F pairings from live-action media?' For

maggie33

( Read more... )

(there are still slots open for the January Talking Meme here)

james_davis_nicoll

Another foray into the lost worlds of Unknown.

Unknown Worlds: Tales from Beyond edited by Stanley Schmidt

queervanilla posting in

polyamships

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Current Mood: disappointed

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polyamships

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languagelog_feed

Posted by Mark Liberman

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72547&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=chomsky-and-the-origins-of-ai-research

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72547

Melissa Heikkilä, "LeCun: 'Intelligence really is about learning'", Financial Times 1/2/2026:

(The AI pioneer on stepping down from Meta, the limits of large language models — and the launch of his new start-up)

LeCun’s lightbulb moment came as a student at the École Supérieure d’Ingénieurs en Électrotechnique et Électronique in Paris in the 1980s, when he read a book about a debate on nature versus nurture between the linguist Noam Chomsky and Jean Piaget, a psychologist. Chomsky argued that humans have an inbuilt capacity for language, while Piaget said there is some structure but most of it is learnt.

“I’m not gonna make friends saying this . . . ” he tells me, “but I was reading this and I thought everything that Chomsky . . . was saying could not possibly be true, [because] we learn everything. Intelligence really is about learning.”

AI research — or neural networks, as the technology was then called, which loosely mimic how the brain functions — was practically a dead field and considered taboo by the scientific community, after early iterations of the technology failed to impress. But LeCun sought out other researchers studying neural networks and found intellectual “soulmates” in the likes of Geoffrey Hinton, then a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon.

[You can't read the whole article at that link without a subscription, which I recommend despite its price. But as Kai von Fintel tells us in the comments, there's an open-access reprint at Ars Technica.]

For a sketch of Yann LeCun's opinions about current directions in AI research, see "AMI not AGI?", 8/2/2025.

And 1980's Yann seems to have fallen into the common error of seeing Noam as a proponent of epistemological nativism rather than rationalism, though Noam has often been misleading on this issue, including apparently in the debate with Piaget. See e.g.

"The Forever War", 2/20/2022
"Straw men and Bee Science", 6/4/2011
"JP versus FHC+CHF versus PU versus HCF", 8/25/2005
"Chomsky testifies in Kansas", 5/6/2005

The book that LeCun refers to is Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, Ed., Language and Learning: The Debate Between Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky — or presumably the French version Theories Du Language, Theories de L'apprentissage.

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72547&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=chomsky-and-the-origins-of-ai-research

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72547

mumblemumble

(2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024)

2025 was the year I completely lost my writing mojo, and also the year of Zhang Kangle. For me, personally.

Just for the sake of completeness, I'm including things that were revealed in January, even though I already gathered them up in a separate post.

( All the fanworks, and a lot of navel-gazing. )

snowynight

Challenge #4: Rec The Contents Of Your Last Page

"Any website that you like, be it fanfiction, art, social media, or something a bit more eccentric!"

Recently, I have fallen into a rabbit hole of old school tabletop RPG blogs. I really enjoy reading about different settings, character and bestiary ideas. It's a bit sad to land on a blog right long after posting stopped though.

Some interesting posts

d66 Character Creation Questions

REVANESCENCE_: an esoteric cyberpunk setting: "The Earth is a Kowloonesque megacity. It doesn't even resemble a proper planet anymore. Everyone worships the Lucky Golden Zodiac, a fivefold of modern demons that embody the pillars of boundless hypercapitalism. The bones of the planet have all broken under the weight of the mass of greasy blubber that is humanity. You've got as many lives as you can buy."

Marvelous Magical Mutations: a random magical mutation generator

[SWS] Hole in Your Soul, or Lack Thereof: exploration of reasons characters taking up cyberpunk implants

Hellwalkers: a dark fantasy setting that set after the demons' successful invasion of the kingdom

Lanthanide Horizon - Tied in the Strings of Dream : in a post apocalyptic society, the Sustainer Cells keep the majority of their members in cryosleep, switching bodies in dream

Cultivated Dreamers: "Their dreams could serve as vessels of the sublime, carefully managed spaces into which a noble dreamer could project to brush the realm of pure ideals."

How to Write a Module: An Incoherent Play-by-Play : good advice on writing RPG adventure modules

two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text

oursin

Have this rather silly fun playlist:

Let's do

The Martian Hop

The Monster Mash

The Time Warp

With A Robot Man

And then maybe go and chill with Apeman

Watch on YouTube

vriddy

It's been SIX DAYS without an update on the (still uncategorised) K-9 fandom tag!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was experiencing withdrawal symptoms.

I want to make a new icon, too. (Edit: Did it :D)

The Shirt Bandit Incident(s) | K-9 | Ren/Oboro/Fujimaru/Kagari | 1.3k words | rated T

Summary: Everyone in Division 9 is issued with the same standard black shirt, so it's easy to get confused about which belongs to whom. Easy to pretend to be, anyway.

Read it on Dreamwidth or on AO3.

vriddy

The revisions for this chapter involved reducing the instances of "annoying", "annoyed", "annoyance" to huh fewer than the original 15 times but probably still too many XD That's what Narumi inspires, I suppose ;)

Warm as life | Kaijuu No. 8 | Kafka/Reno/Narumi, Reno/Iharu, Kafka/Hoshina | 9k words (WIP, 5/7) | rated M

Summary: The new threat posed by No. 9 weighs heavily on everyone. Under these circumstances, emotions run high and what starts as a way of relieving stress can easily bloom into unexpected feelings. Some people find that easier to admit than others.

Read it on Dreamwidth or AO3.

vriddy

Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

Over the last week... I have apparently been very very active??! XD Had to check I didn't accidentally leave in my notes from last week!

Posted and commented on bnha_fans. Vigilantes season 2 started! :D

Commented on anime_manga.

Commented on candyheartsex (that is, did a canon promo for K-9 :D ACT SURPRISED, QUICK!!). You might still be able to sign up in time today?? In the next huh 10 minutes I guess good luck

Commented on goals_on_dw.

Commented on common_nature (heron! ice!)

Commented on threeforthememories, a comm that I look forward to seeing on my reading page every January. Consider this a signal boost, too!

Commented on getyourwordsout.

Commented on smallbatchicons.

Promoted octobercest, finalfantasy, friending_memes, snowflake_challenge.

Signal boosts:

findthatbook - I like plugging this comm because the more readers know about it, the more helpful it becomes... and also someone needs help right now!!
moodthemeinayear is starting up again, if you'd like to try your hand at creating a mood theme for Dreamwidth this year, together with a chill and supportive community :D There are various ways to go about it so it's not as overwhelming as it might first sound.
Via followfriday, there's a new comm for the Heated Rivalry folks around here :D gamechangerhr
Also cultivativity, a space for cultivating creativity but without the pressures that can come with a challenge, may be of interest to some of you here!

james_davis_nicoll

Remember Sigma?

Was there ever a membership list made public?

ysabetwordsmith

beavertech has posted the January batch of sponsored poems. :D

"So Many Words for Wood" on

first_nations_freaks

"The Infinity of Acorns" on

scienceworld

"Birds and Snow" on

the_magick_circle

"A Piecemeal Apocalypse" on

thefreaksclub

Current Mood: accomplished

xinas_island

So, a while back I had ordered six cans of pre-tinted paint from Home Depot (2 different colors).

I had expected it to just be shipped from the local store, but instead it was shipped from Ontario.

It arrived yesterday, ... and they were frozen (2 had a half inch of non-frozen near the top).🤣

Behold! The Forbidden Ice Cream! 😂

I did contact the online customer service as soon as I found out they were frozen. And, after sending a few pictures and letting them know the issue, they said to bring in the cans to the local Home Depot for a full refund. They also sent me a digital $100 HD gift card as an apology for the cans arriving that way.

So that all got resolved pretty quickly thankfully. 💕 Funds will take up to seven days to go back to my bank, but I got the refund eMails, and so I know it's happening.

Life is shifting, and so I opted to skip getting new cans to replace the frozen ones, as having the money back is better for the time being.

Current Location: Vancouver Island

languagelog_feed

Posted by Victor Mair

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72540&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=oreoreoreoreo

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72540

Christian Horn writes:

Oreo cookies are famous and widely known.

I never attached the name "Oreo" to single piecesof the cookie, but once you start this is possible:

Watch on YouTube

The Mastodon comments hint that this is from Youtube user @ohiofinalboss .

Etymology

The origin of the name "Oreo" is obscure, but there are many hypotheses, including derivations from the French word or, meaning "gold" (the original tin was gold-colored); the Greek word όρος (oros), meaning "mountain" (the cookie was originally conceived to be dome-shaped); or the Greek word ωραίο (oreo) meaning "nice" or "attractive". Others believe that the cookie was named Oreo simply because the name was short and easy to pronounce. Another theory, proposed by the food writer Stella Parks, is that the name derives from the Greek Oreodaphne, a genus of the laurel family, originating from the Greek words 'oreo' (ωραίο) meaning 'beautiful' and 'daphne' (δάφνη) referring to the laurel. She observes that the original design of the Oreo includes a laurel wreath, and the names of several of Nabisco's cookies at the time of the original Oreo had botanical derivations, including Avena, Lotus, and Helicon (from Heliconia).

Just for the record, I dislike Oreos, have probably only eaten one or two of them in my life.

Selected readings

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72540&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=oreoreoreoreo

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72540

silver_chipmunk

I meant to get up at 10:00, but once again I turned off the alarm and fell asleep for a few hours. Got up a bit before 12:00. Tomorrow I HAVE to get up at 10:00 cause I have my hair appointment at 12:00.

Anyway I got up and had breakfast and coffee, then I showered and washed my hair so it'll be clean for tomorrow. And didn't use conditioner so it'd be in it's natural state.

It was another day of not doing much, though I did get outside, I took out garbage and recycling, and walked around the block twice.

I Teamed the FWiB at 7:00. Just before we Teamed, the Kid finally called me and did not fill me in on what I need to know for Sunday. She's supposed to text me with the address and time for brunch, she has no idea who's paying, and wasn't very helpful about what I should wear. And she was in a bad mood to boot. So that was a bust.

Just as I was finishing Teaming,

mashfanficchick called me, and we talked briefly about the sign language interpreter for the mayor of Minneapolis, when he told ICE to get out of the city, the interpreter actually signed with her middle finger. Gave the finger to ICE, YAY.

I got off with the FWiB and went to my gaming group, had a lot of trouble with Discord as usual, but it didn't matter because we canceled anyway because there were only three players and the GM.

So I had dinner and went and lay in the bedroom playing solitaire.

I should say something about the murder in Minneapolis. But I can't. What Trump said was nauseating, the lies that are being told are worse. On top of that, apparently he talked about canceling the midterms. He said he wouldn't, but the mere fact that he mentioned it fills me with dread. And I live in terror of the repercussions if we actually attempt to take Greenland. This is nightmare fuel. I want to shriek "Make it stop" but there's no one to respond.

So that's where I am, and I'll leave it at that.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. Garbage is out.

3. My gaming group.

4. The Kid... even cranky.

5.

mashfanficchick

6. My pets.

Current Mood: distressed

kitewithfish

Annual thoughts: Traditionally, I have used the first Wednesday of the year as a bit of a place to reflect on the reading I have been doing. I had had a few goals in the last few years – read 100 books a year, read more nonfiction, read more broadly – and I think those goals have been pretty good for my reading habits!

This year, I want to focus this year on reading more complex books, and so I’m lowering the “total number of books” goal to down from 100 to 80 books. I also hope this will help with the nonfiction reading and the vague goal of reading more older books. I read just a few nonfiction books this year, only 6, but I really think they were fantastic choices, and I’m going to try and lean into that more this year. I think there’s good context out in the world that I need to get into.

I also had a number of books suggested over the course of Arisia 2025 that I would like to actually sit down and read! They are here, if you are curious: https://kitewithfish.dreamwidth.org/479961.html

What I’ve Read
Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett – I have been slowly reading thru the Night Watch thread of Terry Pratchett, and this was very good. I know this was a re-read, but god knows how long ago it was. I liked this one, and the general message of (non) human decency and bonds among fellow watchmen was emotionally fulfilling while the book itself was very funny. Recommend!

I skipped the Wednesday Reading Meme posts for the last few weeks, so if you are interested in what I read that last two weeks, it’s in a round up post here! https://kitewithfish.dreamwidth.org/492482.html

What I’m Reading
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins – The second Hunger Games book. About 30% in, and, well, recent evens make this feel like a good book to be reading about empires and power and violence and effective resistance not being something a sixteen year old girl can manage on her own. I think there’s a bit of a fashion of expressing annoyance at love triangles, but I think Katniss being torn between these particular two boys makes perfect sense. They are each decent and good people working in very different molds, and honestly, I can see how awful it is that Peeta’s earnest kindness is made into a snare against Katniss’s rebellion by the Capitol. This book is simply written but it never thinks the reader is stupid, and I respect the hell out that.

One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters – Book two of the Brother Cadfael medieval mysteries. Great so far – I do not know a lot about the civil wars of the 12th century, so I am likely missing some details but I generally trust the book to actually get me what I need to know. Ellis Peters, who is actually Edith Pargeter, has a deft had for women characters even if Cadfael is the lead, and I think that I will continue to enjoy these books for some time!

What I’ll Read Next
Playing it by ear.