Ken Alba

@ken

he's just this guy, you know? * Formerly: BU (PhD, English Lit), MIT DH Lab. * Now: VP of Product @ Ander * Blogging about sf/f at . He/him

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Ken Alba@ken· 8d

1. Book I've read the most: All-time is probably still HATCHET, which I probably read a dozen times a year all through elementary and middle school. In the last 5 years, it's the Scholomance trilogy, which I read once a year as a treat.

Book cover for Naomi Novik's A DEADLY EDUCATION

Ken Alba@ken· 11d

Ken Alba@ken· 22d

My man wants you to look into your heart.

John Turturro in Miller's Crossing, sniveling.

Ken Alba@ken· Jul 3

can't wait to redirect the next crusade towards rogue bishoprics in texas

A screenshot of an event window from the video game Crusader Kings III, titled "Schism: SSPX in Switzerland." The text describes Bishop Bernard Fellay of the Society of Saint Pius X embracing "Lefebvrism" and rejecting the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. A 3D character model of a Pope-like figure is shown on the right, standing in a church. Below the text are two buttons: "What twisted mockery of our faith is this!?" and "You know, they do have some good points...".

Ken Alba@ken· Jun 26

looks like I got the best one britmonkey.com/2020s-politi...

quiz results that say my closest political match is Mamdani

Ken Alba@ken· Jun 4

me & imbiamba jombes the dog

Ken Alba@ken· May 26

Ken Alba@ken· May 7

also, we love a game whose animation style is basically Ray jumping the motorcycle over a mountain. (this may be @catacalypto.bsky.social content)

an achewood comic strip. the top has a conversation between Roast Beef the Cat and Teodor the bear.
Teodor: "Yeah, I set it up so that the second monitor shows exactly what's happening on Ray's computer"
Beef: "Dang so this is like looking over his shoulder in real-time."
Teodor: "Weird, he just googled for a picture of Mt. Everest... and made it his desktop!"
Beef: "Now he's googlin' for a picture of a motorcycle"
Teodor: "... he chooses one..."
Beef: "and shrinks the browser all down real small"

Then we get the bottom three frames, which shows the small window of the motorcycle being dragged over the mountain.

Ken Alba@ken· May 5

Spending my evening the American way — at my New England town’s annual Meeting, serving as a legislator (more or less!)

Ken Alba@ken· Apr 26

Two screenshots from Futurama. 1) the Robot Devil saying You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel!

2) the aame robot devil yelling “that makes me feel angry!”

Fry is watching.

Ken Alba@ken· Apr 16

this is him playing fetch with himself

Ken Alba@ken· Apr 16

my dog, running sideways!

imbiamba jombes, a russetish 50 lb dog, running at full tilt. He's cornering, so he's at a weird angle to the ground, and 3 of his feete are in the air. he's on a green field and he's wearing a teal vest.

Ken Alba@ken· Apr 15

Ken Alba@ken· Apr 5

some images from the splatbook GUIDE TO THE TECHNOCRACY from White Wolf's MAGE: THE ASCENSION line

Ken Alba@ken· Apr 1

Artemis 2 is on the way to the Moon!!

Ken Alba@ken· Apr 1

T-0 is 6:35 EST! Let’s Goooooo

Ken Alba@ken· Apr 1

It’s looking gorgeous from the East Causeway!

Ken Alba@ken· Apr 1

Listening in on mission control for #Artemis via the Kennedy Spaceflight Center’s #hamradio repeater! (N1KSC)

Me holding my little Baofeng handheld transceiver tuned to 444.925.

Ken Alba@ken· Apr 1

Some v cool patches at the little NASA shop!

A patch with Artemis, the goddess, in red white and blue, drawing a bow. The moon is behind her. The words ET LUNA AD MARTEM are emblazoned on the bottom.

Ken Alba@ken· Apr 1

Here at the #artemis2 launch site, just heard the last issue has been fixed and we are looking good to go!

The Artemis 2 rocket, visible against a blue sky over some water.

Ken Alba@ken· Mar 8

Would this qualify?

$A chat with Claude, pasted below Hey Claude. I believe there are more likely than not colonies of very intelligent octopuses deep under the sea in places we haven't explored. • Prepared thoughtful engagement with sp... › That's a fun idea to explore! There are some genuinely fascinating things about octopus cognition that make this an appealing thought. But there are also some pretty significant reasons to be skeptical. What makes the idea compelling: • Octopuses are remarkably intelligent - they use tools, solve puzzles, and show impressive problem-solving abilities • We've only explored a small fraction of the deep ocean, s Lnuine unknowns exist down there Reply to Claude + 小$

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shallow-water sextended
Where the idea runs into trouble:
The biggest obstacle is octopus biology itself. Nearly all octopus species are solitary and asocial - they actively avoid each other, and adults often cannibalize one another. A "colony" requires social cooperation, which is fundamentally at odds with how octopuses are wired.
They also have very short lifespans (most live 1-2 years, which severely limits cumulative knowledge transfer across generations - a key ingredient for the kind of intelligence that builds civilizations or complex social structures.
Their intelligence also appears to be largely individual and improvisational rather than culturally transmitted. There's no strong evidence they teach each other or pass down learned behav
Reply to Claude
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The honest bottom line: The deep ocean

Ken Alba@ken· Mar 3

my partner got a film camera and took this picture of me, and I like it!

me in black and white in the woods, the sun is right behind me and big and loud

Ken Alba@ken· Mar 1

Ken Alba@ken· Feb 6

A Frankenstein from the old movie with the words FIRE BAD

Ken Alba@ken· Jan 31

harder to provide a link to a negative, but you can search for any of the substrings in this email here: www.justice.gov/epstein But also, I don't purport to be a journalist, and the Holler kinda does?

screenshot of the search from the epstein library for "Little St. James operation", a substring in the post above. no results found.

Ken Alba@ken· Jan 30

The man in the yellow suit from Blood Simple

Ken Alba@ken· Jan 23

Snood snoot!

my dog, Imbiamba Jombes, in a white, blue, and orange snood with a little puffball on the top. His ears are poking out of the side of the snood, and he's licking his nose. He looks a little bit anxious because he always looks a little bit anxious.

Ken Alba@ken· Jan 22

Got a prototype linked up with images fetched from the web. Going to try to get this a little further along and then post it publicly this weekend. I'm also including some high-level SALUTE information and links to other toolkit info, but if there's anything else this site should do I'm listening.