Recently updated blogs

Karen Lord, The Blue, Beautiful World, Del Rey, 2023.Audiobook available.The Blue, Beautiful World is a fascinating science-fiction stand-alone novel about first contact. Owen is a global music star. The crowds flock to his concerts, commune in his music which celebrates the countries where he tours. Beyond his fame and talent, he's also investing in virtual reality, and in a particular corporation he supports. He's surrounded by loyal aides and managers. …

After The Spirit of Gravity in February I ended up talking to Jason Hotchkiss and Jo Summers. I knew Jason from a Build Brighton guitar pedal workshop years ago and as a sound artist from Sound Plotting, but Jo knew Jason as the game developer who made 1D Pong. After …

In my last entry, I talked about how NASA was floating a weird proposal. In essence, the agency wanted to change the New Horizons mission from a Kuiper Belt explorer to doing solely heliophysics. This, while the spacecraft is still in the Kuiper Belt, exploring this largely unexplored part of the Solar System. Oh, and the proposal also suggested replacing the entire science team (that built and knows the spacecraft). …

I've been feeling kind of ... broken lately. Broken in the way that a car breaks down. Like I have a flat tire or two, the alignment is screwed up, the A/C doesn't work any more, and the right blinker is permanently turned on. And, of course, that doesn't even take into account the exterior damage: the busted tail-light, the smashed-in left side, the peeling paint, the rust, the huge …

Director: Hiroshi AkabaneWriter: Ryuho OkawaYear: 2023 I can’t speak for anyone else, but I think about what, or how, I could have done things differently if my life was restarted. Sometimes I imagine I go back with the knowledge that have accumulated in tow. Every time knowing that will never happen. But it is a fun distraction. In this charming picture the main character, Masane Tsukayama, is given that exact …

What has Balaam to do with Josiah? Ancient stories are not always what they seem, and different biblical passages often intersect with each other in unexpected ways. In this article, I examine a speculative theory about an unknown king of Judah by investigating some problematic passages in the Old Testament. Problem #1: A War That […]

Here's another relic from behind the iron curtain on the great Polish cassette label Anti-Musik Der Landsh that was founded by Mariusz Blachowicz in the small town of Łańcut. The label is another prime example of the hidden counter cultural expressions that were going on in the underground during the socialist times in Eastern Europe in the last century. In a nutshell, first there was state controlled cultural propaganda, then …

Hello everyone,Some of you already know that I'm currently taking a break from blogging. I've posted about it on Twitter, but the algorithms are fucked on there, so I don't actually know if it's been getting through to people. Anyway, I decided to make an official blog post for anyone who's wondering why I haven't been posting anything for the past few months. I thought I could just quietly disappear …

Down on his luck Curt Blair is waiting out a rainstorm in a “ritzy hash joint” just outside of Hollywood, USA when he steals a fancy camel hair overcoat then flees intending to sell the coat. It’s how he makes his living these days – ripping off suckers' coats, rifling the pockets for treasures and cash, then selling the ransacked coat. But this time all hell breaks loose and he’s …

If you teach high school or introductory college physics (or just know the subject well), I wonder if you can tell what I’ve done wrong here: OK, well, I haven’t given you a lot of context. Early in our study of forces, I make sure students see a lot of examples of objects that are […]

My new poetry pamphlet from Melos Press, The Dictionary Speaks, is now out and can be ordered post-free via this link.From the publisher’s blurb:-NICHOLAS MURRAY’S many books include poetry, two novels, critically acclaimed biographies of Franz Kafka, Aldous Huxley, Bruce Chatwin, Andrew Marvell, and Matthew Arnold, and studies of Liverpool, Bloomsbury, and British poets of the First World War. He is a Fellow of the Welsh Academy and, with his …

By far the largest part of Schumachers book is in regard to the third world and this section really hasn’t aged well at all. The world is different place 50 years on, but it exposes in one way just how little economic progress some countries have developed and just how much progress countries have made. Schumachers approach is very much a what we can do for them or really to …

This three ingredient fig jam is designed for canning and uses just fresh figs, sugar, and lemon juice. It’s bright, flavorful, and so easy to make. If you find yourself awash in figs every year, keep this recipe handy! Hello friends! I realize that it has been an absolute age (more than a year!) since I’ve posted anything new here. I have desperately missed sharing my canning practice with all …

We’re thrilled to unveil our latest endeavour – the IMMERSIONS project! Our new initiative, the IMMERSIONS project, is funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe program, and is set to transform the world of electronic music and cultural engagement across Europe. This collaborative effort brings together four countries – Poland, Norway, Portugal, and Lithuania – in an ambitious endeavour to create a European hybrid music network that bridges geographical and …

Here we are going to look at several diagnostic plots are helpful when attempting to answer a causal question. They can be used to visualize the target population, balance, and treatment effect heterogeneity. Setup I’ve simulated data to demonstrate the utility of the various plots. In each simulation, we have four pre-treatment variables: var1, var2, var3, and var4, a treatment, t, and an outcome y. I have also fit a …