Youād think that ādonāt change the stuff that the user isnāt changingā would be a low bar, but most image editors Iāve used on Android handle EXIF data in one of three ways:
1. Ignore It
Some apps might preserve the metadata, or might not, depending on circumstances, resulting in it being discarded haphazardly. Often including the time the photo was taken!
Scrambled EXIF is great, but it removes everything, and when I upload a photo to iNaturalist, I want to keep at least the timestamp and (if present) location.
3. Preserve itā¦but with bugs
Google Photos forgets the time zone if youāre not syncing with their cloud, so I ended up with photos stamped with the right location, but the time off by the difference from UTC. I had to use a desktop anyway to fix all the timestamps.
Sort of hidden in the back of a building along Embarcadero, this tiny shop serves multiple flavors of cookie dough to eat (and mixes to take home), as well as actual cookies, brownies and ābrookiesā (cookies baked around brownies). The flavors are great, and they were helpful accommodating my food allergies by suggesting some of the pre-packed flavors.
When I stopped by, they had a seasonal cookie that was something like maple bourbon cardamom with espresso filling, which tasted like a dirty chai in cookie form.
I donāt get to Morro Bay often, but Iāll definitely want to stop here again the next time Iām in town.
Park and Vicente Bluffs Reserve (Palos Verdes Peninsula, CA)
ā ā ā ā ā
The nature reserve runs along the coastal bluffs. Wide trails run along the tops and through scrub habitat. The trails are fenced, graded, and mostly flat, suitable for an easy stroll and probably wheelchairs. A good place to spot seabirds as well as scrubland birds like white-crowned sparrows. No shade, but plenty of ocean breezes.
On clear days you can easily see all of Catalina Island across the channel to the south, and the Santa Monica Mountains above Malibu, across the bay to the northwest.
Around the corner is the Point Vicente Lighthouse, which is visible from most parts of the park and the southern part of the reserve. The actual lighthouse grounds are managed by the Coast Guard. They run tours once a month, but I always think of going sometime other than the second Saturday of the monthā¦so I still havenāt managed to tour the tower!
Between the lighthouse grounds and nature reserve thereās a city park with grass, trees, and picnic areas. (The park has shade!) A visitor center features restrooms, drinking water, a few maritime and nature exhibits, and a curated native plants garden, and is sometimes used for event space.
The park isnāt part of the reserve, but a trail and interpretive sign run along the edge of the cliffs from from the south edge of the park to the north end of the nature reserve, wrapping around several coves that make for interesting views.
At the north end, the trail winds between the clifftops and a very expensive-looking residential neighborhood until it reconnects with Palos Verdes Drive. At the south end, the next stop along the road is Pelican Cove, which has some interesting geology that I still havenāt gotten around to checking out.
Uphill and across the road, thereās Alta Vicente Reserve which offers a slightly wilder hike withā¦letās say a lot more vertical variation.
Getting There
You can drive around the peninsula from either end, and turn into the parking lot from either direction, though the signage isnāt very clear either way.
Heading south from Torrance itāll be the first right tern past Hawthorne Boulevard and Golden Cove shopping center. And yes, thatās the same Hawthorne Boulevard, so if you prefer driving over the hill instead of around it, you can do that.
Coming from San Pedro, itāll be past Terranea and Pelican Cove (which has a large rock formation sticking up between the road and the cliffs), and itāll be a left turn toward the ocean. (This would also mean driving over the landslide, which is its own kind of trip.)
Leaving, you can only turn right, so if youāre heading for Torrance, youāll need to make a U-turn at Terranea.
The traditional pizzas are good too. We got pepperoni with regular tomato sauce as a backup one time in case the teenager didnāt like the curry (spoiler alert: he did). Just nothing with ham, since theyāre halal. They also assured me the first time I ordered that they donāt use lentils or chickpea flour in the pizzas, which was something Iād been concerned about for allergy reasons.
There are a couple of tables, but itās small, more suited for take-out and delivery.
Written in the aftermath of several controversies over racism and sexism in the science-fiction community in the early 2010s, The Old Iron Dream traces the strain of of military authoritarianism and white male supremacy through the history of the genre. From John W Campbellās days editing Astounding Science Fiction, through Robert Heinleinās polemics and Jerry Pournelleās hyper-military eugenicist advocacy, right up to Ted Bealeās blatantly racist and sexist remarks getting him kicked out of the SFWA. (This would be followed up by Sad Puppies, Rabid Puppies, Gamergate, Comicsgate, and the 2016 US Presidential race.)
The title is drawn from Norman Spinradās satirical 1972 novel, The Iron Dream, which takes that strain to its logical (and gory) conclusion. Spinrad drives the point home by crediting it in a framing sequence to an alternate-reality Adolf Hitler, who became a science-fiction writer instead of a dictator, but with the same twisted idealsā¦ideals that were no strangers to pulp science fiction.
Elitist With a Thousand Faces
Iāve been aware of the broad strokes for a while now. That Campbell had a very limited view of who should count as a hero, or a writer, or generally as a person, and he used his editorial power to shape the genre. That Heinlein got really wrapped up in militarism and libertarianism. (Starship Troopers is a fascinating book, but there really isnāt a way to read it where it isnāt advocacy for military dictatorship and beating your kids so they donāt grow up too soft.) That Pournelle tended to prefer military stories and didnāt approve of āsoft sciences,ā like sociology, and that he and Larry Niven were involved in Reagan-era government-adjacent think tanks. (I lost a lot of respect for Niven when I found out heād suggested spreading conspiracy theories to discourage āillegal aliensā from seeking medical care.) Orson Scott Cardās homophobia is well-known, and Gregory Benford shared Campbellās limited perspective on the genre.
But there are a lot of specifics that I didnāt know. Pournelleās connection to Newt Gingrich, for instance. Or Heinlein campaigning for more nuclear weapons testing. Or Card claiming that President Obama would elevate street gangs and send them after his personal enemies. Or that Benford, who couldnāt bring himself to look past his own subgenre, accused feminist science fiction writers of having a limited imagination. And other details Iād forgotten, like the cannibal army in Luciferās Hammer being largely made up of Black people. (On the other side, thereās the absolutely vicious criticism Michael Moorcock leveled against this viewpoint back in the 1970s!)
Seeing them all tied together in a continuous thread isā¦enlightening.
Thatās Not Optimism
Iāve often thought itās ironic that people like Elon Musk and Marc Andreeson would get techno-fascism and an utter disdain for democracy and for people who arenāt like them out of the āgenre of ideas.ā But this is a clear reminder that some readers (and writers, and editors) arenāt interested in expanding their thinking so much as they are in finding new ways to dominate others, and justify themselves in doing so.
