A Sense of Doubt blog post #4109 - Know Your Tools and the Music of Danielle Dax - Music Monday for 2605.18

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4109 - Know Your Tools and the Music of Danielle Dax - Music Monday for 2605.18

I know Danielle Dax from Robert Fripp's 1981 album The League of Gentlemen, one of my favorite albums.

And the cover of the Beatles' single "Tomorrow Never Knows" in 1990 which I saw on 120 Minutes on MTV (or at least I am reasonably sure of this).

But I had not followed her career.

Today's content is mostly sharing from Warren Ellis' newsletter.

Thanks for tuning in!!

Danielle Dax - Wikipedia 

Danielle Dax - Inky Bloaters

Danielle Dax - Jesus Egg That Wept (FULL ALBUM)

Danielle Dax - Tomorrow Never Knows (Official Music Video)

Orbital Operations for 5 October 2025

THE WORLD SERVICE

PATIENCE

By the time you read this, if everything’s gone to plan - and there’s no reason to expect it will - the entirety of graphic novella PROJECT LOST SIERRA should have been delivered to the upload site by the artist, if she hasn’t experienced yet another bizarre Fortean accident that has led us both to believe this book is cursed.

PROJECT BORLEY’s artist is in the last half of issue 3 - 4 is on his desk, which mean I need to get a wiggle on and produce two more scripts to stay well ahead of him. PROJECT EXPLOITS RIVER is into its final pages now, I believe, PROJECT KNIFE HILL and PROJECT ROANOKE are still waiting for their artists to get free, I’m already into the projected 7500 words of contracted ebook PROJECT SODA SPRINGS (I suspect it’ll end up around 10k, like DEAD PIG COLLECTOR, and I don’t even bother mentioning all the film and tv activity - options, attachments and the like - because none of that stuff matters until it physically happens on a set or in a studio.

Patience. I was having a conversation about that with someone earlier. Things will happen, or not happen, in their own time, and there is rarely anything you can do about that. If you want to make things for a living and not go batshit - and I have to remind you that all creative industries are filled with people who went batshit - step one is to learn how to wait and let things go.

It’s among the hardest lessons to learn, but it’s the one that will save your life. Take it from someone who’s lived through a lot and nearly died a few times.

OPERATIONS

KNOW YOUR TOOLS

Actors talking about acting can be painful to listen to. But actors who have really thought in practical terms about what they do and how they do it - that’s fascinating.

Michael Caine would talk about acting on film as “surgery with a laser” as opposed to theatre acting being “surgery with a scalpel.” Film doesn’t let you be broad or take your time and you can see every little detail in that frame. Hence his famous “eye trick” - he won’t blink during a shot unless he’s trying to show nerves.

Anthony Hopkins doesn’t blink when he plays Hannibal Lector, either - but he does hold his mouth slightly open in every shot, the way a snake does.

I once saw a short documentary about the film THE COMPANY OF WOLVES, and in an interview Angela Lansbury said something brilliant. Her character, the slightly creepy grandmother, wore little spectacles. And, every now and then, Lansbury would hold her head a certain way, because she knew the lighting would catch the glass of her spectacles and hide her eyes. And when you can’t see someone’s eyes, you unconsciously stop trusting them. Therefore, Lansbury would make it so you were never quite sure about Granny, without her doing anything except tilting her head a bit.

Because she was in command of the tools. She knew what everything on a set did, she knew what a camera did, and she knew that the tiniest of movements would change everything.

And here’s musician and actor Danielle Dax, of the Thames Delta, as the werewolf girl in COMPANY OF WOLVES:

DANIELLE DAX ENTR’ACTE

And since I ended up talking about the sainted Danielle Dax, here’s a short musical interval:

Danielle Dax - Bad Miss 'M'

Daisy

07. The Spoil Factor - Jesus Egg That Wept (1984) / Danielle Dax

Danielle Dax - White Knuckle Ride

ORBITAL

SOCIAL MEDIA WINTER CONTINUES, ALMOST EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE

I’ve seen this quoted in a few places - it’s a piece on the FT that I don’t have access to because I’m too cheap to spring for the FT, but this is the bit, this time on Marginal Revolution:

It has gone largely unnoticed that time spent on social media peaked in 2022 and has since gone into steady decline, according to an analysis of the online habits of 250,000 adults in more than 50 countries carried out for the FT by the digital audience insights company GWI. And this is not just the unwinding of a bump in screen time during pandemic lockdowns — usage has traced a smooth curve up and down over the past decade-plus. Across the developed world, adults aged 16 and older spent an average of two hours and 20 minutes per day on social platforms at the end of 2024, down by almost 10 per cent since 2022. Notably, the decline is most pronounced among the erstwhile heaviest users — teens and 20-somethings… Additional data from GWI trace the shift. The shares of people who report using social platforms to stay in touch with their friends, express themselves or meet new people have fallen by more than a quarter since 2014. Meanwhile, reflexively opening the apps to fill up spare time has risen, reflecting a broader pernicious shift from mindful to mindless browsing.

There is, of course, one notable exception to this global trend. America.

Recently: THE DEPARTMENT OF MIDNIGHT audio drama podcast, DESOLATION JONES: THE BIOHZARD EDITION, THE STORMWATCH COMPENDIUM., THE AUTHORITY Compact Edition, the LIGHTS OUT Anthology.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY with AJ Brady

One More Won’t Hurt

There’s nowhere to stand in this country that doesn’t have twelve feet of human bones under it. Every day we're walking on nine hundred thousand years of buried bodies.

These are the collaborations between myself and painter AJ. Sometimes she sends me an image and I respond to it in text, sometimes I send her a piece of text and she responds with an image. Find her work at brady-pictures.com.

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2605.18 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3973 days ago & DAD = 627 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4108 - Lazarus Fallen - comic book reviews

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4108 - Lazarus Fallen - comic book reviews

DAY 626 since Dad died. His birthday is 6/26, so a significant number.

I have been reading Lazarus by Rucka and Lark since it started in 2013 when I was still living in Michigan.

I loved Rucka's work and followed closely with his career even before moving to the greater Portland area where he and so many other comic creators live.

So, I was excited when Lazarus: Fallen started in 2025 after a three year hiatus since issue seven of Lazarus: Risen.

Supposedly, this is the final series about "Forever Carlyle," which may hint at a continuation without the character of Forever.

Though six issues are out now, I am only going to focus on the first in the series and hope to return to discuss the rest in another post some time in the future.

Maybe the next issue (seven) is coming out soon? I could not find a definitive answer on the Internet. Looks like it fad been solicited for March 2026, which didn't happen. now, maybe, May 2026, which is now.

Reminder: Often these links have to be copied and pasted not clicked:

https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/image-comics/lazarus-(2013)/fallen-1

Impressively, the critics reviews of this comic (8.6/10) are much closer to the user reviews (8.2) than usual. Surely, this rating similarity speaks to the high regard for this comic and its creative team.

Oddly, only two critics reviewed Lazarus Fallen issue one with one giving it an 8.7 and the other an 8.6/10.

The 8.7 -- https://nerdinitiative.com/2025/05/29/lazarus-fallen-1-the-high-cost-of-freedom/ -- has nothing but praise for the team and this issue, so I fail to understand why it scored an 8.7/10.

The other is much the same. https://www.superpoweredfancast.com/lazarus-fallen-1-review/

The site was so saturated with ads that I couldn't read the content and had to copy-paste it just to read it.

Both reviews are copied below followed by my take.

“I had strings, But now I’m free, There are no strings on me” – Leigh Harline.

In a neo-feudalist world, one family wields tremendous power. The Carlyle Family has staked a claim in a hostile landscape. There are one of a few families who control everything. They don’t see people for who they are. You are either a Serf or Waste. To ensure their rule, families have a Lazarus in their ranks. Having a living weapon has won them many things. None have been more legendary than Forever Carlyle.

In 2013, Greg Rucka and Michael Lark started Forever Carlyle started a violent and complex journey. During the saga, she has made some discoveries. Infinity, her younger sister and heir apparent, has given a huge assist. Twelve years later, the path has now opened a new direction for her to walk. It also has given readers a very heavy question: What happens when an unkillable warrior is truly free of control?

The Final Order Cut-Off for issue #1 is Monday, June 2nd, 2025. Nerd Initiative got an advance look at LAZARUS: FALLEN #1 by Greg Rucka, Michael Lark, Santiago Arcas and Ariana Maher.

Here is my *SPOILER FREE* review of the first chapter of the final saga.

LET’S TALK STORY!

Right from the jump, Rucka establishes the tense covert feel fans expect. A raid on a Hock preservation center gets more intense as each panel hits. The dialogue reflects the sinking feeling the squad is developing on their mission. Knowing who they are in pursuit of feels like a losing cause. The mission presses forward. It can’t be stressed enough the dire and intense aura Rucka has crafted here. It is the embodiment of espionage. The result sets a strong pace as the chapter moves forward. With this world, there is no gray area. It is survive or fall at all costs.

This sense carries forth when the spotlight is cast on a familiar face. Rucka holds nothing back in showing the depths this figure is willing to go for what they want. Readers can easily pick up on the deceit pouring out of every word said. There is no shortage of drama on these panels. Where it leads is sure to shake things up. Longtime fans of the series will have much to rave about. This is especially true in the closing pages. If there wasn’t enough drama thrown into this explosive issue, the last panel stops the show on a dime.

HOW ABOUT ART AND LETTERING!

Lark and Arcas build up the suspense slowly with the raid. Each raid member is walking very tensely. It conveys the dangerous mission they’re on. Using wider panels captures a more clearer picture of the trek through the building. The center has its fair share of surprises. Readers watch as the unit’s path puts them in line with some surprise guests. It gives the moment some calm before the air gets thick with a deep stand-off. There’s no shortage of win with this sequence. It caps off with a loud statement as the story takes another turn.

Once the devious figure appears, the art reflects the change in mood. The pages relay a more firm and direct sense. There is no sugarcoating the reactions on display. Readers can’t help but being ensnared in these panels. It results in a few more twists before a final changed gear. Lark and company give the final location a more calming sense. If ever slightly, readers get a steady walk into the close. The closing panel will have readers buzzing as parts are in motion for a combustible last ride.

OVERALL GRADE: 8.7/10

The final story of Forever Carlyle begins with an unswerving shot of drama and intensity. Rucka crafts the ever-changing landscape with superb writing. Lark, Arcas and Maher delve into the lengths all parties will go to win with their art. “Fallen” is poised to fire on all cylinders and this final run is one fans simply won’t want to miss.

Let me know your thoughts on the Lazarus series in the comments below. Thanks to Image Comics.omics for the advance look & thank YOU for reading! 

Lazarus Fallen #1

Image Comics

Written by Greg Rucka

Art by Michael Lark

Colors by Santiago Arcas

Letters by Ariana Maher

The Rundown: The patriarch of the Carlyle family is determined to retrieve his Lazarus and continue his program.

A Carlyle team infiltrates Hock family territory on the hunt for Forever Carlyle and her sister. Unfortunately, they are too late and the head of the facility decides to send an explosive message to the Carlyle family. At the Carlyle family home, Jo deals with her father’s insistence on locating where in the world Forever might be hiding. Desperate for answers, he brings in a familiar face to lead the Lazarus project and work with Jo to sustain the future of the family.

Years after Forever was declared rogue, two young women show up in Armitage territory and attempt to become part of the resistance movement known as The Free. Skeptical of their skills, the women are vouched for by a familiar face.

The Story: Rucka crafts a great continuation of this story and the world of it. There’s great intrigue throughout the story and I love the world building of the series. The issue does a great job of serving both fans of the series and new readers jumping onto this first issue with a story filled with action, thrills and a mystery that I was to explore.

The Art: Lark delivers stunning art throughout the issue. I love the visuals and the character designs. Every page and panel is filled with amazing details.

 MY TAKE

10/10

I don't see any reason to down grade this issue and not give it full marks. Sure, I am an easy grader, but seriously.

Forever and her sister (Eight) have escaped the Carlyle family and are looking for Freedom Fighters to help take the family down.

The story launches mid-action as "Miss (Sonia) Bittner" the Bittner family Lazarus sent to retrieve Forever from Hock, who had removed the tracking and other tech from the two sisters.

Bittner turns the tables on Sonia and blows up himself and his complex once Dr.  Carlyle and the Lazarus trainer (I forgot her name).

This is followed by the machinations of the Carlyle family, chiefly the patriarch Malcolm, to get his Lazarus back but their attempts to find her (and her sister) have come up empty.

A text box tells us Forever went rogue 293 days ago.

Cut to Paris where another text box tells it's now 859 days since Forever left the Carlyle family as Forever and her sister make contact THE FREE and, surprisingly, the presumed dead Jonah Carlyle.

One great thing about Rucka/Lark is that they do not explain much. The reader is dropped into the story and needs to remember what happened previously and all the inter-relationships or have all the back issues handy.

They even decided to share the French in dialogue with translations in the back for verisimilitude. Brilliant!

Issues two through six have all been fantastic.

Love this comic and cannot wait for more!!


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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2605.17 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM =  3872 days ago & DAD =  626 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4107 - A new Species Offers a Clue to the Boom of GIANT Dinosaurs

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4107 - A new Species Offers a Clue to the Boom of GIANT Dinosaurs

PICTURE ABOVE: The recent discovery of Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis, shown in this illustration, in Thailand adds support to the idea that warm, open, and relatively dry habitats created ideal conditions for the evolution of giant sauropods. DinoThaiThai


This article prompted me to make a dinosaurs category.

This is an astounding discovery of a true behemoth, a gigantic dinosaur.

Thanks for tuning in!!

A new species offers a clue to the boom of giant dinosaurs

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/species-offers-clue-boom-giant-090000731.html

Riley Black

Thu, May 14, 2026 at 2:00 AM PDT

Titans once towered over Thailand.

A research team led by National Geographic Explorer Sita Manitkoon has discovered a new long-necked dinosaur they estimate was over 88 feet long and weighed nearly 30 tons.

“Initial measurements of the bones excavated suggested that this could be the largest dinosaur ever found in Southeast Asia,” says Manitkoon, a paleontologist at Mahasarakham University in Thailand.

The telltale bones were uncovered in 2016 by a local man named Thanom Luangnan in Chaiyaphum Province, northeastern Thailand.

“He observed what he described as strange-looking rocks on the banks of a public pond,” says Manitkoon. Luangnan reported the findings to the country’s Department of Mineral Resources. The strange rocks, it turned out, were dinosaur bones, and when Manitkoon came upon them, he knew the creature must have been enormous.

(How to bring a 75-foot-long dinosaur back to life)

The researchers named the new species Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis after where it was found, and the giant serpent-like Naga of Southeast Asian folklore. The discovery, which was announced Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, provides insight into how changes in ancient climate and vegetation opened the doors for gigantic dinosaurs to develop.

“This is the most complete sauropod specimen discovered from the Khok Kruat Formation,” says Pedro Mocho, a paleontologist at the Universidade de Lisboa in Portugal, who was not involved in the study. Until now, Mocho says, the big dinosaurs in Thailand were known only from bits and pieces of skeletons. The new find is substantially more complete, revealing a titanic dinosaur never seen in the country before.

Sita Manitkoon oversaw the recovery of Nagatitan, the largest dinosaur ever discovered in Thailand. Tanintorn Ketburana

Colossal Cretaceous sauropods

Nagatitan left behind a smattering of vertebrae, ribs, hip bones, and limb bones entombed in 113-million-year-old rock. Its right forelimb is longer than that of other, recently uncovered giant sauropods such as Patagotitan and Dreadnoughtus, though the dinosaur itself likely was not as big as those heavy hitters, which weighed an estimated 60 and 50 tons respectively.

The largest dinosaurs of all time were not each other’s closest relatives. Sauropod dinosaurs evolved their giant body sizes more than 30 times over the course of more than a hundred million years on at least six landmasses. Nagatitan became a giant independently of other huge dinosaurs from other periods and places, but its relationships and habitat suggest it lived at the beginning of a time conducive to enormous dinosaurs.

Nagatitan belonged to a group called the somphospondyli. These dinosaurs tend to have long forelimbs compared to other sauropods, as well as a wide stance, says Paul Upchurch, a paleontologist at the University College London and a coauthor of the study. The other differences would have been difficult to spot on the living animal, but these subtle cues identify the Nagatitans as a group of immense dinosaurs that spread far and wide some 110 to 120 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous.

Sita Manitkoon and the Thai Paleontology Youth Network recovered a dorsal rib (about six feet long) from the site and moved it to the Sirindhorn Dinosaur Museum. Tanintorn Ketburana

How titans thrived

Environmental conditions in Cretaceous Thailand might explain why Nagatitan was so large.

During the time the dinosaur lived, Thailand was closer to the equator than it is today. Clues found in the same formation in which Nagatitan was buried indicate that the region was covered by relatively open, slightly dry shrublands. Earth was in a hothouse state, and recent research has suggested that big sauropod dinosaurs thrived under such conditions. Humongous herbivores could easily and efficiently travel through the woodlands, browsing on trees and nibbling plants like horsetails and ferns down low. Their feeding and trampling of the soils also kept such habitats more open and savanna-like rather than thickly forested.

The fossils were prepared and cleaned using specialized tools at the Sirindhorn Dinosaur Museum lab in Kalasin Province. Tanintorn Ketburana

Two local women from the Sirindhorn Dinosaur Museum area helped prepare the fossils, which involved using specialized pens, air compressors, scalpels, brushes, and glue to release them from the rock Tanintorn Ketburana

Nagatitan represents the beginning of this size boom. When the researchers looked at other giant sauropods from Asia for comparison, they found that the dinosaurs got even bigger during the warm Cretaceous years following the time of Nagatitan.

“Sauropods such as Ruyangosaurus, nearly 60 tons, are among the largest from Asia during the Cretaceous,” Manitkoon says. They add support to the idea that warm, open, and relatively dry habitats created ideal conditions for sauropods to evolve to giant sizes.

The overall picture is complex, says Mocho. Sauropod dinosaurs both expanded and shrank in size at different times and places.

(Scientists find a new titanosaur dinosaur species in Patagonia)

“Savannah-like ecosystems are known to favor the development of megaherbivore faunas, and it would not be surprising if environmental factors were related to sauropod gigantism,” he says.

The interplay between large herbivores like elephants and their habitats today could help researchers better perceive similar patterns in the fossil record.

“It seems a little odd that sauropods were able to cope with higher temperature conditions,” says Upchurch, as large bodies are harder to cool down and retain heat more readily.

But sauropod anatomy likely allowed the dinosaurs to work against expectations.

Sita Manitkoon is pictured standing next to the complete replica of Nagatitan's left femur. The specimen is the largest dinosaur limb ever found in Southeast Asia. Tanintorn Ketburana

The long necks of the dinosaurs, Upchurch says, increased the surface area from which they could shed heat. Their complex air sac system would also have helped them dump body heat as they exhaled. When habitats shifted to warm woodlands, full of vegetation at browsing height, the evolutionary gifts that sauropod dinosaurs already had allowed them to balloon in size, as they were well equipped to handle the heat.

“The discovery of Nagatitan and its giant relatives in Asia indicates that these dinosaurs had evolved to such enormous sizes since the early Cretaceous, a successful survival mechanism,” Manitkoon says.

The fossil record shows that from the time of Nagatian until the asteroid strike, dinosaur titans repeatedly evolved and grew large when conditions were just right.

The nonprofit National Geographic Society, committed to illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world, funded Explorer Sita Manitkoon's work. Learn more about the Society’s support of Explorers.

Riley Black is a freelance science writer based in the U.S. She regularly reports on science, paleontology, and natural history for National Geographic and is also the author of The Last Days of the Dinosaurs.

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2605.16 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3971 days ago & DAD = 625 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.