Interesting Links for 27-10-2023

[andrewducker]

1. Radical new forecast shows how rapidly the energy economy is changing

(tags:electricity renewables co2 thefuture )

2. Doctor Who Fandom in China

(tags:china conventions drwho )

3. Protesters face prison and £200,000 bill over injunction they knew nothing about

(tags:law UK OhForFucksSake protests )

4. Frodo laid a geas (Something I'd never noticed about the Lord of The Rings

I haven't read it for 30 years. Must do so when I'm reading again...
(tags:lotr )

5. Unprecedented diarrheal outbreak erupts in UK as cases spike 3x above usual

(tags:infection faeces health swimming uk )

6. What Palestinians Really Think of Hamas (They don't like them, wouldn't vote for them, and would like a two-state solution)

(tags:gaza palestine )

7. Pregnant women in Gaza are being forced to have C-sections without anaesthetic

(tags:gaza palestine OhForFucksSake israel war childbirth )

Comments

[conuly]

You mispelled your Israel tag as Israwl.

[andrewducker]

Thank you, fixed!

[simont]

#4: huh, no, I'd never noticed that before. My interpretation had always been that Frodo succumbs to the Ring at the last moment, and loses a fight with Gollum, and only by sheer undeserved luck do those two failures combine into ultimate victory.

Frodo put a curse on Gollum: if you try to take the Ring again, you’ll be cast into the Fire. Five pages later, Gollum tries to take the Ring again. And that’s exactly what happens. Frodo’s geas takes effect and Gollum eats lava.

So by this interpretation, he was much less incompetent. He succumbed to the Ring as a direct result of making that geas, which was the one thing that would ensure his victory[1]. But that was OK, because as soon as the Ring was destroyed it wouldn't matter that he'd briefly turned to the dark side in between "arranging to win" and "actually winning".

[1] Or, hold on there, maybe not. The geas said that if Gollum even tried to take the Ring again, successful or not, he'd fall into the fire. But Gollum falling into the fire wasn't the true goal. I see a loophole here in which Gollum could have tried unsuccessfully to take the Ring again, lost the fight, and fallen into the fire without the Ring, leaving Dark Side Frodo still holding it and laughing maniacally.

And surely, the Ring being capable of acting in self-preservation, it ought to have been striving for that outcome as hard as it could!

[andrewducker]

Depends how smart the One Ring is. We never really see it be able to do more than persuade people to take it, and possibly to also take it to Sauron. I don't think it could have persuaded Gollum, who was totally obsessed with it, to *pretend* to fight for it, but then lose.

[simont]

True. I was thinking more that a lingering remnant of Light Side Frodo might have thrown the fight on purpose, knowing that that was the path that led to the wider victory, and so the Ring's best play would have been to strengthen Dark Side Frodo's ability to resist that light-side remnant, which is more in line with the kinds of thing it's shown itself able to attempt.

But perhaps you're right, on the grounds that Gollum is simply more badass than Frodo's body, no matter what Frodo's mind is up to. Certainly I agree it's unlikely that the Ring could have made Gollum not try as hard as he could to take it. So perhaps no matter what the Ring did to Frodo's fighting spirit, Gollum was still going to win.

Props to Frodo for thinking all that out while exhausted from climbing a mountain! It's taken me longer than that to get there while sitting in a comfy chair.

[nancylebov]

4. Ben Newman noticed that aspect of LOTR and wrote a song about it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10FeOo3qNS1nuy9_Mmh6idZi0OAkeUl7Y/view

I thought the last rhyme would be "see you fall", but it isn't.

[mountainkiss]

Why isn’t 5 doom?

[andrewducker]

It doesn't seem terribly likely to get much worse?

Although it might, I suppose.

[mountainkiss]

If it’s three times normal rates and nobody knows why then I don’t automatically draw that inference.

[andrewducker]

I'm mostly assuming that this is the continuing saga of the UK's inability to keep our water clean.

[mountainkiss]

That’s not doom?

[andrewducker]

It may well be.

Of course, I suspect the main reason that it's not tagged Doom is the lack of sleep and the lack of concentration that goes with it.

[anna_wing]

Tolkien said, somewhere, probably the Letters (note to self, get the revised edition as soon as it comes out) that Frodo could not have "won" i.e. been strong enough to destroy the Ring. He did and gave everything he could and it was never going to be enough, because basically he was fighting the power of a god. But by giving everything, he got himself, and Sam, and Gollum, to the point where Providence/the One/the will of the Valar could work on all of them, to get the Ring where it needed to be i.e. in a whole lot of lava.

It's not inconsistent with the observation about the geas, but it's a much more nuanced understanding of Frodo's actions at those points.

[greenwoodside]

Thanks for the link to the Chengdu Dr Who blog. have shared the link further on a message board with fantasy/sci interests.

[andrewducker]

My pleasure!

I read Nicholas blog generally, and I thought this entry might be more widely interesting.