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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). …

In scale and speed of construction, Tianjin West seems almost impossible – especially when viewed from Britain. It is, therefore, the perfect embodiment of China’s high speed rail network, on which the station can be found. It is also, I am sorry to say, the antithesis of the development of high speed rail in Britain, […]

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 …

Be vewy quiet! Trump, gagged So Kevin McCarthy has been ousted from his position as Speaker of the House. Meanwhile, Trump, on trial for massive fraud, has been hit with a gag order because he won’t stop running his mouth. Discuss, if you are so moved. Oh, and on an unrelated note, I’m now a WRITING COACH! Get in touch with me if you’re facing writer’s block or any other …

I love to bake bread. It takes a lot of time and effort to become a true professional, but the beautiful thing about bread is that even if you’re a beginner and your bread rolls are uneven and ugly, it still tastes amazing. I don’t mind if it takes time to bake bread, and most... Read More The post Quick and easy bread rolls first appeared on The Nordic Kitchen.

Hi,I read this morning, with great interest, your Old Deptford History, very good, so much information. My reason for looking on your site was because I am starting a novel which begins in Deptford High Street in the summer of 1914.Why I am sure you ask am I starting my novel there. My mother and her family, of two sisters and four brothers, were born there, although I'm not sure …

As the title promises, lots of great garage-eriffic trash here. Songs with just two chords when one was too many! (Be aware that unfortunately this record either was not Q.C.-ed during mastering or it was intentionally put in the race with a broken leg, because the side 1 master tape got crunched on many tracks, which suffer intermittent dropouts.)The Cannibals "Good Times"The Otherside "Haunted House"Les Thugs "Femme Fatale"The Surfadelics "Bad …

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 …

My mate Paul collected collections. He wrote a book, ‘Recollections of a Collection Collector.’ It was never published. Lance Stater – Detectorists, Series #1 Episode 6 Back in 2019 I attended Boring IX, a conference dedicated to the “celebration of the mundane, the ordinary, the obvious and the overlooked”. As ever the day was anything but boring, with my personal highlight being the talk from Joyce Smith. Joyce spoke about …

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 […]

Driving their damaged vehicle down from the plateau, Contra-Disward towards the banks of the Styx, the Levellers soon spotted what they’d been looking for. At the bottom of a steep incline, run aground on a rocky bank, was a strange ship unlike any the party had ever seen before. Without sails or oarlocks, the galleon instead sported three curved masts – two of them out to the sides – each …

This doesn’t need much of an introduction, I’ve written about it before but to get up to speed this was a comic strip appearing in issues of DC Thomson’s (TV) Tops comics in 1982. A full colour series featuring the pop star alias of Stuart Goddard, Adam Ant. Adam travels through time, adventuring in various personas inspired by his glamourous stage presence. I’ve been trying to piece together the various …

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 …