Indeed do many things come to pass

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/us/politics/trump-iran-war.html?unlocked_article_code=1.bVA.EB30.mygpleorcQhg&smid=url-share

https://www.threads.com/@apstylebook/post/DXKtXVXEh7T

Posted by John Gruber

The Associated Press Stylebook, on Threads:

We updated our style for telephone numbers in 2024 to drop parentheses. We now recommend the form: 212-621-1500.

For international numbers use 011 (from the United States), the country code, the city code and the telephone number: 011-44-20-7535-1515.

Use hyphens, not periods. No parentheses. The form for toll-free numbers: 800-111-1000. If extension numbers are needed, use a comma to separate the main number from the extension: 212-621-1500, Ext. 2.

I have long been annoyed that U.S. phone numbers are so often formatted in the outdated (123) 555-1234 format. The use of parentheses for the area code dates back to the old days, when you only needed to dial the area code to call a number outside your own area code. (The same era whence comes the verb dial.) Until 10-digit dialing with mandatory area codes started to become standard in the late 1990s, you only needed to dial seven digits to call a local number.

Apple’s Contacts app (and I think the system-wide Contacts framework, used by third-party apps like Flexibits’s excellent Cardhop), will go so far as to reformat numbers entered in 123-555-1234 format as (123) 555-1234. Apple should update the formatting to go the other way, and turn phone numbers with the area code in parentheses into the 123-555-1234 format. It’s only because area codes used to be optional that they were put in parentheses. Given that 7-digit dialing is never going to return, we should abolish the parentheses too.

https://www.threads.com/@apstylebook/post/DXKtXVXEh7T

jwz_org_feed

Posted by jwz

https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/04/ai-vegan/

https://jwz.org/b/yk6V

Heard about some asshat out here calling themselves an "ethical AI vegan" because they only use corporate AI tools in "uwu smol" ways, and, I dunno, I guess they do a land acknowledgment before they boil a lake or whatever.

If anyone is an "AI vegan" it's me -- I don't use these tools at all, ever, because they are unethical. Telling me that they are delicious is not going to make them ethical.

Also, I will endlessly berate you about your use.

That's veganism, you're welcome.

Previously, previously, previously, previously.

https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/04/ai-vegan/

https://jwz.org/b/yk6V

asknicola_feed

Posted by Nicola Griffith

https://nicolagriffith.com/2026/04/16/pictish-beasts-in-bronze/

http://nicolagriffith.com/?p=98965

Remember the silver snakestone lapel pin I sometimes wear on my jacket? It was cast by MaudPunk (who also makes the great Fairford Duck pendants that Kelley likes so well). Now, with my blessing, she has used two of my Pictish- and one Viking coin-inspired animal designs to cast pendants. (The raven is from the Norse coin.) Right now they’re only for sale in bronze, but in a week or two they’ll be available in copper—and maybe silver? (Not sure about that.) Also, though I’m not sure of the timetable, she’ll cast the designs as lapel pins.

Each image below links to its Etsy sale page.

If metal isn’t your thing but linoprints are, another artist friend, Vicki Platts-Brown, is working on a couple of other images (flying heron and the boxing hares). More when I have it. And if neither metal nor paper work for you, I recently had a conversation with a ceramicist about mugs. Stay tuned!

https://nicolagriffith.com/2026/04/16/pictish-beasts-in-bronze/

http://nicolagriffith.com/?p=98965

https://9to5mac.com/2026/04/15/netflix-ruined-its-apple-tv-app-by-switching-to-a-custom-video-player/

Posted by John Gruber

Chance Miller, 9to5Mac:

The change began rolling out a few weeks ago, and user frustration is mounting. On Reddit, there’s a growing thread of Netflix subscribers saying they are canceling their subscription because of this change to the Apple TV app. [...]

The change also means you lose access to full payback controls using the Apple TV Remote app on your iPhone. You can’t enable Enhance Dialogue from the video player. That clever Apple TV feature that automatically enables subtitles when you rewind? Gone.

One of my most-used tvOS video player features is the ability to tap the Siri Remote to see when what I’m currently watching will end. It’s great for trying to decide whether you have time for one more episode before bed. That feature is gone in Netflix as part of this change.

FlatpanelsHD has a great roundup of all the features on Apple TV that rely on an app using the native video player.

Someone tried to argue with me when I complained about this horrendous regression that Netflix users somehow want consistency across different platforms — that users want the same Netflix player on Apple TV as on Roku, Amazon Fire, Google TV, and whatever crap is built into their “smart” TV. Nonsense. Why would users of one platform care what the Netflix player is like on other platforms? Apple TV users buy Apple TV boxes because they want the Apple TV experience. Maybe Netflix wants to present the same experience everywhere. Maybe Netflix wants to save on engineering costs by having a write-once-run-like-shit-everywhere video player. That’s a Netflix concern, not a user concern.

From the perspective of users, this change to the tvOS Netflix app just sucks. There’s no upside at all. Nothing is better, much is worse, and a slew of cool platform features are now gone.

https://9to5mac.com/2026/04/15/netflix-ruined-its-apple-tv-app-by-switching-to-a-custom-video-player/

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/04/15/apple-pay-visa-transit-exploit/

Posted by John Gruber

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

The process requires the victim to have Express Transit Mode enabled for payments, and a Visa card linked for those payments, among other steps. As it turns out, it’s a Visa-related security loophole rather than an iPhone issue, and it doesn’t work with a Mastercard or an American Express card because other cards use different security methods. It also doesn’t work with Samsung Pay on Samsung devices, and it requires the specific combination of a Visa card and an iPhone. Apple told Veritasium that it’s an issue with the Visa system, but something unlikely to occur in the real world.

The video, hosted by the Veritasium YouTube channel, but starring Marques Brownlee as the victim, takes over 15 minutes before clarifying that the exploit only works with Visa cards, and only when a Visa card is set as your card for Express Transit Mode. Until then, the video implies that the exploit can work against any iPhone that has Apple Pay configured, with any sort of credit card. The technical explanation of how the hack works is pretty good though.

As I wrote a year ago (when Apple was looking for a new partner to replace Goldman Sachs as the bank for Apple Card), Visa is the most popular credit and debit card in the U.S., by a significant margin. If you don’t use Express Transit Mode, you’re safe. If you do use Express Transit Mode, I suggest any card other than a Visa.

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/04/15/apple-pay-visa-transit-exploit/

askamanager_feed

Posted by Ask a Manager

https://www.askamanager.org/2026/04/how-do-i-handle-being-off-my-game-at-work-because-of-a-medical-situation.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=37127

A reader writes:

About a year ago, I got prescribed a CPAP machine. Very important for, you know, supplying oxygen to my brain while I sleep, but one doozy of an adjustment period. It took me about a month to adjust to wearing it at night, and during that month I lowkey felt like I was dying. I was getting very little sleep, and that in small bursts. I was exhausted all the time, and exhaustion made me stupid and slow.

I work in a compliance-related role. My job involves assessing regulatory liability for my employer and potential misconduct by licensed employees. If I find against an employee, it’s the kind of thing that could follow them for the rest of their career, whether at my firm or any other they move to. If I find in favor of my firm where I should have found fault, that can open us up to regulatory complaints and investigations.

Operating on broken and insufficient sleep for a month while facing those potential consequences for bad calls scared the dickens out of me. I had productivity numbers to meet, but I simply could not stay focused enough to work at the normal speed, and awareness of the potential stakes of an error of judgment made me extra cautious. I was operating at about 40% of our expected performance, and even after I adjusted it took me some more time to fully get back up to speed as I paid off the sleep debt.

But a month-plus of turning out a fraction of the work I’m expected to do had a predictably terrible effect on my career. I wound up on a performance improvement plan and lost a lot of credibility with my boss. And unfortunately for me, my boss is the kind of guy who doesn’t really understand exhaustion as an excuse. As he sees it, either you’re so badly off you should take PTO or you’re fine and coming in to work and doing what needs doing. But I couldn’t exactly take an entire month of PTO, that’s far more than my allotment! And I don’t think short-term disability can be applied here.

I had a similar situation early in my career, too, when I was prescribed a strong bronchitis medication that interfered with my judgment and focus during the two weeks I was taking it. I only had five days’ sick time and had used half of it, so the only option I saw was to go to work high, which even at entry-level stakes is a bad idea.

So, how does one navigate these situations? My understanding is that accommodations for health are meant to offer you support to maintain the expected productivity, not to make it okay to underperform. Are there ways to approach an “I know I’m underperforming but I can’t do better until my body stops doing a stupid thing, which is some indefinite number of weeks away” conversation that could actually sound credible? How do people navigate this?

The wording you want is, “I’m dealing with a medical situation that is making it hard to be at 100% right now. I’m working with my doctor to resolve it and we’re hopeful I’ll be back to normal soon, but I wanted to mention it in case you notice me seeming off my usual game.”

Or, “I want to let you know that I’m dealing with a medical condition that has been wearing me out lately. I’m working with my doctor on a treatment plan and I don’t expect it to continue long-term, but I wanted to mention it in case you notice me seeming off.”

You don’t need to disclose details — just you might notice this, I’m working on it, and I’m hoping it will be resolved soon.

It’s ideal to say it before your boss talks to you about changes in your work, but if you didn’t, you can still say it once they do. The idea is to give your manager context for what’s happening so they don’t have to wonder if you’re just being careless or aren’t invested in your job anymore, or otherwise draw the wrong conclusions about what’s going on. Most managers will give you a lot more slack if you explain that yes, you’ve flagged it too, there’s a reason for it, and you’re working to resolve it.

The post how do I handle being off my game at work because of a medical situation? appeared first on Ask a Manager.

https://www.askamanager.org/2026/04/how-do-i-handle-being-off-my-game-at-work-because-of-a-medical-situation.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=37127

https://kottke.org/26/04/0048764-researchers-have-found-th

Posted by Jason Kottke

Researchers have found that some aspects of sperm whales’ communication are “remarkably similar” to human languages.

https://kottke.org/26/04/0048764-researchers-have-found-th

https://kottke.org/26/04/0048728-what-was-the-very-first

Posted by Jason Kottke

What Was the Very First Plant in the World? “Scientists believe the first true plants evolved from green algae around 470 million years ago.”

https://kottke.org/26/04/0048728-what-was-the-very-first

unsung_feed

Posted by Marcin Wichary

https://unsung.aresluna.org/unsung-at-250-please-send-me-your-feedback

My original idea for Unsung was “a microblog with ~3 posts a week,” which seems like a distant memory.

Now that I published 250 posts since early December, what better way to celebrate than to ask for feedback?

Do you enjoy specific kinds of content, or missing some topics?
How could I make the visuals and interactions better?
Any fun little ideas or bugs or improvements I could make?
Any feedback about this blog’s information architecture (including the just-added tags), RSS, or the weekly email?

You can reach me via email, on Mastodon, or on Bluesky.

If the very idea stresses you out, I want to give you permission to send me just your bit of feedback without any greetings, or small talk, or “compliment sandwiching.”

Thank you in advance!

#about unsung

https://unsung.aresluna.org/unsung-at-250-please-send-me-your-feedback

unsung_feed

Posted by Marcin Wichary

https://unsung.aresluna.org/unsung-at-250-nine-design-details

(This is one of the meta posts about this very blog. If that’s not interesting to you, skip to the next one!)

I thought I’d share a few of the small design details I am proud of for this small blog!

1.
After years of being annoyed at Slack for mishandling image sizes, it was important for me to show the screenshots (at least the desktop UI) at their 100% precise size, if possible. I think that helps to get a better sense of a scale and feel of things. This was harder than I expected (since I still want images not to grow too wide or too tall), but hopefully works well now.

2.
I wrote some extra code so that if an image has edge transparency or even soft shadows, it will be aligned accounting for all that. I think that feels elegant – especially on a blog that practices asymmetry probably to a fault.

3.
If the images or videos blend too much into the background, they get a lil border to separate them – but only in light or dark mode as needed. This is so that the whole page rhythm holds better together. (Manually assigned so far. Would be curious if one can make this automatic.)

4.
Speaking of dark mode, I almost figured out how to make videos with transparent pixels so that they look good in both dark and light mode. (Chrome only. Still working on it for Safari.)

5
I want autoplay videos (without sound!) so that it’s easier to see interaction design – basically, a modern version of what GIFs used to provide. This has been challenging and required adding some JavaScript, and is still not done! But it’s starting to feel nice.

6.
Given all the quotations I do, I added hanging quotes to text. Wildly, they are still not really supported by CSS (Safari is a sole exception), so that required some manual intervention.

7.
Short lists are (automatically) spaced differently than long lists. I’ve always wanted to try that.

8.
I’m having a blast with the pixel fonts I recreated from PC/GEOS. I keep adjusting the glyphs, adding kerning pairs, etc. It’s fun to keep improving a font as you’re improving its surroundings; I just redrew the @ glyph you can see above!

9.
It’s a bit old-fashioned, but I still like the idea of visited links being styled differently than non-visited links, to help you orient yourself. (Linking feels very important to me.)

#about unsung #details

https://unsung.aresluna.org/unsung-at-250-nine-design-details

unsung_feed

Posted by Marcin Wichary

https://unsung.aresluna.org/unsung-at-250-goals-and-principles

(This is one of the meta posts about this very blog. If that’s not interesting to you, skip to the next one!)

At Unsung’s 250-postiversary, if I reflect on where this blog has been, and where it might be going, this is what comes to my mind. I didn’t start the project by writing all this down, but I held a lot of this in my head. This feels like a nice moment to capture all this more deliberately, and perhaps some of you might find it interesting.

Goals of Unsung:

Highlight hard, good, invisible design work that makes things better, but doesn’t often get spotlight.
Find deeper meaning in craft, past the pretentious platitudes and surface-level delight. (Details matter not just in some abstract “craftsmanship” sense.)
Help expand what craft means: highlight relations between things, show connections between history and present, talk about things that are hard to describe and impossible to measure.
Revel in being pragmatic. Share useful things, not just hollow inspiration.
Be fun to read.
DIRECTIVE 6: CLASSIFIED_

Higher-level principles for this blog:

Don’t ever share boring stuff, even if the concepts are good, or out of completeness. If you’re not enjoying reading or watching something, assume the audience won’t either. (You can occasionally salvage something boring by providing a non-boring commentary, but try to use this sparingly.)
When you share something, always try to add your perspective or connections. At the very least, excerpt the most useful thing. This blog is QT, not RT.
Find a good balance between positive and negative examples.
In general, offer variety. The weekly digest should have both depth and breadth. (For the last two points, I made a little dashboard to give me some insight, although the sentiment analysis there right now is pretty worthless.)
Be opinionated, but also humble and curious. You don’t know everything.
Be candid, but not cruel. Punch up, not down.
Avoid ridiculing, “walls of shame,” and so on. Even if the work you share is horrible, turn it into a lesson or two.
This is not about people, but about work – except in some occasions it might be about people, so be candid when that happens.
More links is better than fewer. Good linking rewards curiosity and is a form of curation (example 1, 2, 3). However, the post should stand on its own even if one doesn’t follow any of the links.
Make an effort to showcase work by women, people of color, underrepresented minorities, and so on.
Visuals are engaging and helpful. Think about them, but do not add gratuitous, irrelevant photos just to meet the quota (example 1, 2, 3).
The best way to teach something general is to show something specific.

Lower-level principles:

Credit people by full name.
For longer videos, offer their duration to make it easy for people to make decisions about when they want to watch them.
Avoid linking to X and Substack. (It really breaks my heart how much of the design community still supports particularly the former, given all the damage we know X inflicts on society.)
Don’t use this blog as an example (e.g. by screenshots of itself), as this is generally confusing.

Personal goals:

Practice writing things that do count in less than thousands of words.
Do things differently – this blog is authored in Apple Notes, for example, which is kinda weird to a person like me who always writes straight in HTML.
Have fun and learn working on this (completely custom) blog platform on the side.
Give back some of what I learned in my career over the years.
Practice stating my opinions and standing by them.
Learn new things (about what I’m writing and about publishing on the web); the only way to teach something is to understand it yourself first.

#about unsung

https://unsung.aresluna.org/unsung-at-250-goals-and-principles

askamanager_feed

Posted by Ask a Manager

https://www.askamanager.org/2026/04/my-employee-asked-for-a-170-raise-2.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=37165

A reader writes:

One of my employees has asked for a massive raise. He has good reasons for wanting a raise: his responsibilities have ended up being very different than what he was originally hired for, he’s been doing very well with them, and he’s definitely paid below market for what he’s ended up doing. We hired him at $15/hour for an entry-level position with no hard requirements, and based on some quick market research, I’d say the work he’s doing now is closer to a $20-$25 range, so I’m actually in favor of giving him a pretty substantial increase.

The trouble is that he’s asked for an increase to $40/hour, and he’s only been here for four months. That’s more than I make, and I’m honestly shocked that he thought this was reasonable to ask for. He says he did some market research, but that number hasn’t been supported by anything I’ve been able to find. Four months also seems like a short amount of time to me, but I don’t know if the significant change in duties should override that.

I want to advocate for my employee with our company’s owner (who is very reluctant to spend money), but I am suspicious that bringing the employee’s $40/hour request to him will make my employee (and potentially me as well) look completely out of touch with reality. Our owner is extremely hands-off — we’re all remote, and I talk to him maybe once every month or two for about 10 minutes. I told my employee that $40/hour was more than I make and gently suggested that asking for a lower number might be a better idea, but he shrugged that off and said he isn’t set on that number, but sees it as a good “starting point.”

Any suggestions for how to approach this?

I answer this question over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here.

The post my employee asked for a 170% raise appeared first on Ask a Manager.

https://www.askamanager.org/2026/04/my-employee-asked-for-a-170-raise-2.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=37165

https://kottke.org/26/04/the-brennan-self-balancing-monorail

Posted by Jason Kottke

Watch on YouTube

This is so cool: in the early 1900s, a mechanical engineer named Louis Brennan invented a self-balancing train that ran on a single track. This video demonstrates how the train worked using a clever system of gyroscopes.

This is the Brennan Monorail, a train from the early 1900s that seemed to defy the laws of physics. Not only did it keep itself perfectly balanced on a single rail, but it mysteriously leaned into corners without any driver input.

It’s kind of incredible how well Brennan’s system worked. It’s ingenious. (via messy nessy)

Tags: engineering · inventions · Louis Brennan · physics · science · trains · video

https://kottke.org/26/04/the-brennan-self-balancing-monorail

https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/04/14/name-of-foldable-iphone

Posted by John Gruber

One more thought re: the item I posted this week speculating on what Apple will name their much-rumored two-screen folding iPhone this year. If they do name it “iPhone Ultra”, I think Apple using that name for the folding iPhone will imply that they have no plans whatsoever to ever make a “rugged” iPhone — a model akin to Apple Watch Ultra.

I suspect Apple has no plans for a dedicated rugged iPhone. People who want that just buy extra-thick cases for regular iPhones. A watch is different. I know some people put their Apple Watches in ungainly protective “cases”, but they look hideous, which is why you see so few people using them. For aesthetically pleasing ruggedness, the watch case itself needs to be designed for it. But maybe there is a large enough potential market for such an iPhone — especially if such a device had significantly longer battery life than any regular iPhone, as an Apple Watch Ultra does relative to a regular Apple Watch.

But if Apple calls the folding iPhone “Ultra”, stop holding your breath for such an Apple-Watch-Ultra-style iPhone. In the same way that “Air” means very different things on Mac, iPad, and iPhone, so too might “Ultra”.

https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/04/14/name-of-foldable-iphone

https://www.apple.com/education/college-students/success-stories/goss/

Posted by John Gruber

Feature story and short film, well worth watching, from Apple:

One winter day in January 2024, 16‑year‑old Rory Goss experienced something jarring while in construction class at Abbey Christian Brothers’ Grammar School in Newry, Northern Ireland. He could no longer see the whiteboard at the front of the room.

As a straight‑A student in 11th grade, Rory was in the midst of studying for his A‑levels and was about to start applying to university. Passionate about golf and cars, and eager to start driving lessons, he had no idea what was happening to his eyesight.

Within weeks, he was diagnosed with Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy, a rare genetic condition that damages the optic nerve and can lead to sudden, severe vision loss. Over the next six months, his vision deteriorated by 95%, meaning he was legally blind as he began his 12th grade exams.

Apple just posted this feature this week, but it’s serendipitously aligned with my recent (and not-so-recent) posts about the screen zooming features in MacOS and iOS. Goss zooms in and out with extraordinary dexterity and fleetness. It’s quite extraordinary. Particularly moving for me is his illustration — created on an iPad, using Apple Pencil — where he attempts to illustrate what his vision now looks like.

https://www.apple.com/education/college-students/success-stories/goss/

smbc_comics_feed

Posted by Zach Weinersmith

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/forbidden

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
Later it turns out the duck was getting with a porcupine and had a litter of Echidnas.

Today's News:

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/forbidden

scalziwhatever_feed

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/04/16/the-big-idea-cameron-johnston-2/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60229

The Scientific Method is immensely helpful, but so is literal magic. Would the power of science prove to be more powerful than the power of wizardry? It’s tough to say, but author Cameron Johnston certainly speculates on the idea in the Big Idea for his newest novel, First Mage on the Moon. Read on to see how the Space Race might’ve happened with the help of a wizard’s staff.

CAMERON JOHNSTON:

For a bunch of wise folk that meddle with reality and break the rules of standard physics on a regular basis, wizards and mages in fantasy media seem a remarkably uncurious lot. Sometimes magic users are far more interested in other dimensions and eldritch creatures than in the mortal world they themselves inhabit. How many of them look up at the stars and wonder what they are, or gaze at the moon and ponder what that shining silver disc really is…and how they might get there?

First Mage On The Moon was born from a single Big Idea (OK, OK…the idle thought of a fantasy-fan): Without science, how would wizards describe gravity? Inevitably, that grew arms and legs and tentacles and thingamabobs into: What would they make of outer space? How would they breathe in a spacecraft when they don’t even know what oxygen is or why air ‘goes bad’. What about aerodynamics? and a whole host of other questions I didn’t then have answers for. When you only have a magical understanding of the world and the closest thing to science is the semi-mystical and secretive practice of alchemy, well, then things get complicated if you want to build something to visit the moon. Magic is not going to solve everything if you fly straight up and try to hit a moving object like the moon, and don’t factor in the calculations for orbits, gravity… or indeed the speed/friction of re-entry.

Science is an amazing and collaborative process and Earth’s 20th-century Space Race was a species-defining moment, but what if that happened in a fantasy world of mages, golems, vat-grown killing machines and grinding warfare. What if a group of downtrodden mages sick of building weapons of mass destruction for their oligarch overlords decided to go rogue and divert war materials into building a vessel to go to the moon, the home of their gods, and ask for divine intervention in stopping the war. When you have no culture of shared science, where do you even begin?

All those thoughts and ideas stewed away in the back of my brain while I was writing my previous novel, The Last Shield. As all authors know, there comes a stage of writing a book when your brain goes “Ooh, look at the shiny new thing!” Very helpful, brain, coming up with magical rocket ships when I’m trying to write a book set in a fantasy version of the Scottish Bronze Age – thanks very much! That idea of wizard-science and magical engineering lodged there, immovable, and my next book just had to become First Mage On The Moon. Which was handy, as I was contracted to write another standalone novel.

While the US/USSR Space Race and modern science of our very own Earth was inevitably a huge influence on my novel, so too were the theories and writing of its ancient thinkers. Around 500 BCE, Pythagoras proposed a spherical world, and Aristotle later wrote several arguments for the same theory, such as ships sailing over the horizon disappearing hull-first and different constellations being visible at different latitudes (all of which may have given the Phoenician sailors and navigators certain thoughts too). And then comes Eratosthenes, Chief Librarian of Alexandria, and a very smart dude who was able to calculate the circumference of Earth by using two sticks in two locations and comparing the angles of their shadows. If those ancient Earth scholars could calculate such things, then surely fantasy mages, with all the magic at their disposal, could do more than fling fireballs at each other. There had to be some among them with the desire to explore beyond the bounds of myth and magic, gods and monsters, and given the opportunity to work with like-minds to build something that has never been done before, they would surely take it…despite the risks.

Found family, magical engineering, and mad ideas of actual science in a magical world all came together to form First Mage On The Moon. As much as I love my morally grey characters in realms of swords and sorcery, it was deeply satisfying to write something that little bit different, a hopeful story about human ingenuity in an increasingly fraught world.

Author socials: Website|Bluesky|Facebook|Instagram

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/04/16/the-big-idea-cameron-johnston-2/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60229