Recently updated blogs

Post to the north CricklewoodThe North London LineThe north London line from West Hampstead Station turns south westwardsArial Road,Hebrew word for water spirit, built by British Land Company 1879Barlow RoadBuilt on the site of the Midland Railway’s West End Sidings – a marshalling yard and goods distribution centre. William Barlow was the Midland Railway’s engineer who built much of St.Pancras Station.Lauriston Lodge, sheltered housingBrassey RoadBuilt on the site of the …

A Grisly End to a Lancashire Policeman.A grisly end. Sergeant William James Bedwell of the Lancashire Mounted Police had tied his legs together, cut his throat and jumped in the River RIbble -buried at Preston Cemetery, Lancashire. [Some years before he had been severely injured when he had been thrown from his horse and landed on his head]

In August 2020, the New York Times asked me to write an op-ed for a special feature on authoritarianism and democracy. They declined to publish my submission, which I am sharing here instead. When the George Floyd protests began to spread nationally in the summer of 2020, I noticed many people on social media asking Hong Kongers for advice on protest tactics–which apps to use, what equipment to wear, the …

Once you’ve deployed your web app to prod there is a moment of satisfaction: a brief respite where you can reflect on your hard work. You sit, adoringly refreshing the homepage of www.mysite.com to watch it load over and over. It’s beautiful, perfect, timeless. A glittering crystal palace of logic and reason. Then people start to actually use it in earnest and you begin to receive messages like this in …

As Britain’s population grew throughout the 19th Century and the demand for water in its towns and cities increased, local authorities and water boards looked to rural areas, building dams in remote valleys and creating large reservoirs. The Stocks Reservoir, completed in the 1930s, is one such reservoir, located in Dalehead in the Forest of… Continue reading The cemetery serving a submerged parish: St James, Stocks-in-Bowland

“For more than two decades now I’ve lived alongside the pelicans of the Prespa lakes in northern Greece. These birds are—for so many, residents and visitors alike—simply an astonishing and seamless part of being here. There is no Prespa without pelicans. In summer, the skies brighten with their flights, as hundreds of birds, their wingspans … Continue reading The Spirit of the Wetlands

by Cord J. Whitaker I am trying to order my thoughts today. They have been disordered by the specter of global war in a world where democracy is dying in the face of fascism, where a pandemic continues to bring humanity to its knees, and where my beloved cat has died. To carry on with everyday normalcy is a bit of a struggle. In the past, during times difficult for …

$striptext...

The effect varies for different people. Take a moment and look at this. Some people don’t see anything special: just a blue iris in a red eye. Image: CC-BY Tom Stafford 2022 For me though, there is an incredibly strong depth illusion – the blue and the red appear as if they are at different distances. I can enhance the effect by blinking rapidly, turning the brightness up on my …

Over in Every, I wrote about how writing is more than a method for capturing ideas, it’s a way of exploring them: By externalizing your thoughts, writing puts you into conversation with yourself. It’s always easier to diagnose other people’s problems, and to identify opportunities they might be missing. Just so, writing from the heart gives you a new vantage on you. This is certainly useful if you’re writing for …

durf: Boston Dynamics steals Japanese kawaii tech for its latest robot:

Written by Cathy Robinson, nature and travel writer, for Naturehood at Earthwatch Europe Have you been lucky enough to spot a pair of copper-coloured eyes peeping out from a hidey hole this spring? If you have toads on your patch, they’ll have lain low during the colder months, snug in your compost heap, hiding in a pile of dead wood or burrowed into mud, only coming out to forage during …

Slowly creeping towards reopening up my online store! Do you like how I do this after the holidays? I’m a professional 😎. However, I have lots of prints, pillows, zines and othe sundry items available IRL if you live in Portland. Swing by during @outletpdx open hours to peruse the selection. Above is a 11x14 risograph print, kelly green on light cream. Edition of ten. Printed on #barbaratheriso 🌈✨ (at …

I wrote Responsible JavaScript for A Book Apart. I hope you’ll consider buying it, and if you do, I hope you like it.