Before the cruel events on October 7th and the insane devastation that followed, I didn’t realize how deeply messed up the western idea of foreign policy in the Middle East really is. Before October 7th, I knew about colonialism, I knew about the war on terror and its devastating consequences for countries in that region. I knew about things like the insane death toll in the Mediterranean Sea, where innocent people in need are just getting systematically crushed by the EU’s border apparatus and the right-wing idea of “securing borders” and “not letting the bad ones in”. I knew about it and understood it as inhumane right-wing or neoliberal ideas that align with the interests of those who can really profit from it. The oil industry, weapons manufacturers, etc… and the politicians who are in their pockets or benefit from spreading fear and hate.

For me, these topics were always something that the progressive left and even many liberal or apolitical people can understand as senseless cruelty. Seeing the news coverage after October 7th and diving deeper into the details of that conflict, I was absolutely dumbfounded, that even some of the progressive news-outlets I follow are avoiding talking about Israels war crimes while repeating the propaganda of Zionist organizations or the Israeli state. My country has defended Israels actions in the international court, and there are quite a few people agreeing with that decision. Quite a few people that I would otherwise consider reasonable and knowledgeable. I have read newspapers that hold themselves to “high journalistic standards” who call peaceful student groups antisemitic and Nazi-aligned. Groups that were advocating for humanity, a ceasefire and a one-state-solution, and have now shut down any kind of public protest because of the hate that came their way.

Not far from where I live, there was a concentration camp and less than a hundred years ago my country had a fascist tyrant as its leader and plenty of accomplices who helped him with his ethnic cleansing campaign. We are not that far removed from this fascism, from treating people with other ethnic backgrounds like something you can just exploit to drown out in the Mediterranean Sea. From supporting the idea of a pure religious ethnostate having the right to slaughter “uncivilized” people that are in the way. From being ignorant enough to whitewash those who fought against apartheid while jailing those who are opposing it now.

The “towards the center of mass” force, will grow with the square of the distance reduction to the closest bunch of mass(es)

This is the key point of my question because the mass m of the “bunch of mass” that is close to Venus will be less when you consider the density p with m = p * V, where V is just the volume of mass that is close enough to Venus. Assuming the Suns density is uniform (which it isn’t, most of the mass is far away from Venus), p and by extension m and by extension F (the gravitational force) are proportional to 1/r³.

Unfortunately, the actual calculations are far too hard for me, but my intuition would suggest that the 1/r³ relationship of density and volume would outdo any other factors here.

I’ll add “Will Save The Galaxy For Food” to my list, thanks! I’ve actually read Angry Planet a while ago and enjoyed it. A story that is really cozy and easy to read, that helped me through difficult times. In case you haven’t read the Murderbot Diaries, I’d highly recommend those. Despite the name, it’s also very nice to read.

I haven’t tried those, thanks for the suggestion!

This looks a lot like hard scifi and cyberpunk to me and I’m not sure if they fit the “exploring new worlds and places” part I was looking for. When I eventually come back to those genres, I’ll have a great list of recommendations though. Thanks!

I’ve read the first and parts of the second book and I think it has one of the best antagonistic characters. I didn’t put it on this list because I was looking more for stories, that explore new worlds and places. Its definitely on the list of books I want to finish at some point. Idk what it is, but it needs to be the right time and place for me to be able to appreciate books like those.

I haven’t heard of any of those books and especially Permutation City sounds interresting to me, thanks!

I have to admit that I’ve never really gotten into other books by Frank Herbert. I’ve tried Messiah and a few of his short stories but nothing came close to Dune. I haven’t tried the ‘WorShip’ trilogy yet (which is the same as The Pandora Sequence I’m guessing?.. I can’t find anything with that name tbh)

Thanks for mentioning it. I definitely should’ve added it to my post, since I enjoyed that story so much. Also, just in case you haven’t seen the Apple TV adaptation of it… don’t… They completely botched that one imo.

Currently, I’m looking for longer stories, but I’ll definitely come back to your suggestions at some point. Thanks!

Thanks! Added it to my list.

Thanks! All of these stories sound interesting. Red Rising has actually been on my bucket list for a while now, but I’ve been hesitant to try it because the summary sounded like the “stumbling from one flawed decision to the next” thing I was mentioning earlier. Having another person suggest it here, makes me want to try it now.

Thank you for the suggestion! I’ve actually read that one and It’s my favorite story from Brandon Sanderson. I loved the characters and the fantasy setting! But yeah… it doesn’t really fit the sci-fi/futuristic world that I was looking for here.

Picture this: It’s one of those perfect days in the shire. You are sitting in your armchair and smoking a pipe of haflings leaf. In front of you is the book with all your best memories. You open it and the first chapter is called Concerning Hobbits.

So… if I had to choose a goto song for my best memories, it would probably be this one.

Germany’s government has been slowly shifting towards neoliberal and reactionary politics for the last few decades. The SPD (the self-proclaimed “social democrats”), who currently have the most seats in the parliament, are not actually pushing for progressive policies but make concessions to neoliberal agendas whenever possible. Similarly to the US Democrats, they often act as a controlled opposition, focusing on liberal issues while dismissing progressive/left-wing policies. The Green Party, which holds the second-most seats in the cabinet, has some progressive voices but also has a history of supporting western hegemony when it comes to foreign policy (especially in the Middle East). Together with the aspects mentioned in the article, this is the reason why German politicians are so ignorant of the Palestinian cause and unwilling to push for any kind of long-term deescalation.

As someone born and living in Germany, I was expecting our politicians to act this way, unfortunately. What I, personally, didn’t expect is how often progressive media outlets here are behaving like Jacobin describes them in the article. Hearing progressive/left-wing voices that I usually listen to, shaping the public discourse towards a more regressive/antisocial one is what terrifies me the most.

Those are just technical details. Misinformation about the IDF-Hamas war is so insane, you can’t even look at “reputable” mainstream media outlets without getting ahistorical analysis, zionism or antisemitism. We are witnessing ethnic cleansing and cruel war crimes here because all the parties who had the possibility to prevent this decided not to. Instead of focussing on the historical context and the steps necessary to deescalate this conflict, the media is focussing on the question of which acts of violence are justified and which aren’t.

Very exciting to see! I wonder why the throttling is so imprecise in this test-hop. I would’ve assumed that having small nozzles and a compact design like this would make it easier to control. This is all just speculation, ofc. but maybe the engines are made to perform better with heavier loads than this proof of concept design. Hopefully, Everyday astronaut will visit them again one day to ask more questions about all the progress they’ve made.

Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll look into it when I find some time.

I haven’t played any of these games before, but if a find enough time, I’ll look into them. Thanks for the suggestions!

I think your idea is interesting, but based on the examples I’ve listed, which I must admit is not a huge sample, most of them are played in a sort of GUI experience sort of way. I think it would be very, very difficult to translate the core concepts of programming to a side scroller.

Unfortunately, I haven’t played any of these games, but I have scrolled through that category myself to see what’s out there. I agree with you, that a side scroller is probably not the best option to introduce programming concepts from a game-mechanic perspective. I think didn’t really communicate well, that the way I envision my game differs a bit from these approaches. I don’t actually want to focus on specialized in-game mechanics that help to visualize algorithms or programming concepts. Instead, the game is meant to be a very mechanically trivial, story focussed frontend, that makes achieving the programming tasks more exciting.