Recently updated blogs

I thought I’d lost my old iPod, but found it in the cellar and got it working again. It’s a delight to find a lovely old playlist on it, currently playing through the Scarlett into Ableton and my ears via my desk speakers. I thought ~2005 might’ve been the last time I’d used it, but the playlist is called AAA NACONF, so I must’ve dug it out and loaded it …

Photo by note thanun on Unsplash My job is to help people get funding. I occasionally get requests from friends and family to help them with a funding application. I love these requests – I get to show them what I do, and help them with something that they need. It reminds me that different types of funding need different approaches, but that there are also some things that stay …

Roger Martin: The latter meet my definition of a Strategic Choice. Since the opposite isn’t stupid, it represents a real choice to do something meaningfully different than some or all competitors/peers. The former don’t meet the definition. Does that mean they are unimportant and shouldn’t be mentioned in a strategy document? No. This is what I have come to call an Operating Imperative. Because it is smart and there is …

You've heard the call to action at the end of nearly every podcast you've ever listened to: "Listen to us on your favorite podcast app", or in the phrasing of podcaster extraordinare Roman Mars, "...wherever you find podcasts". (By the way, you should be radicalized by the recent 99 Percent Invisible episode on how "cooking with gas" is mostly a conspiracy, and inspired by the absolutely incredible Power Broker book …

Oscar Wilde by MaxThe New York Public Library recently hosted an exhibition on Max Beerbohm: The Price of Celebrity from October 20, 2023--January 28, 2024. A small book (around one hundred pages), with text by Margaret D. Stetz, with Mark Samuels Lasner, describes many of the items showcased in the exhibition. Max Beerbohm (1872-1956) is perhaps best remembered as a caricaturist (he

Photo card included with some copies of the Sunday Funnies 45 on Skoop. From left: John Rice, Luke Pride, Gary MacShara and Tom Sheffer. The Sunday Funnies 45 on Skoop 1070 has two excellent original songs, “Sunny Covington Avenue” an uptempo rocker, and “It Won’t Happen to You”. The labels list Gary McShara (actually Gary MacShara) as the song writer on the labels, with publishing by Buna Music. I don’t …

As a long-time barista turned professional coffee blogger, I'm often asked about the different types of coffee beans. One variety that generates both interest and confusion is caturra coffee. Where does this coffee come from? What sets it apart from other varietals? In this beginner-friendly guide, I'll answer all your questions about caturra. I'll cover everything from how it's grown and produced to the characteristics of the caturra bean and …

It might be hard to believe for some younger anglers but for many of us the only way we could indulge in our daft pastime at home was through words and pictures, magazines and books. The only worthwhile filmed fishing was John Wilson, there were very few videos, no Discovery channel and certainly no Youtube. So most of us scratched the itch by reading and found information and inspiration whilst …

An Unsung Masterpiece Rediscovered: Viewing NotesAdapted from Émile Zola's novel, this definitive movie version of Nana [Jean Renoir, 1926] is a masterpiece, the longest Renoir film, and restores one of the master's earliest successes to a length of 2 hours 49 minutes. What follows are some viewing notes from my recent revisitation of the film, -The lines of suitors, but with hierarchy.-The hair on the comb-bristles.-To liken one film to …

Chances are, you’ve heard of a class of computers called Chromebooks. They’ve been around since 2011 and, in spite of the scorn heaped upon them during that time, Chromebooks have become rather popular devices. Chromebooks run an operating system called chromeOS which, no matter what some people say, is more than just the Chrome web browser. You can even argue that chromeOS is Linux, at least under the hood. That …

Previous Philosophical Transactions: JP Callaghan on Lithium Pharmacokinetics Lithium in Scottish Drinking Water with Al Hatfield M’s Experience with Potatoes-by-Default Jon on One Year Post-Potato-Diet Neoncube on The Meat and Veggies Diet Hi SMTM, I’ve now had the pleasure of watching many people encounter A Chemical Hunger for the first time. Some of them get wide-eyed with wonder, and some of them make the same expression that babies make when …

This reposted from the Cyberselves blog, which has died. Original date: 2018-02-05 Here are three metaphors for how we think about digital and robotic technologies: First, as tools. Passive instruments which extend our own power. Hammers enhance your hitting, video calling extends your presence, algorithmic trading merely implements the rules you designed for trading. Tools seem like passive objects, without their own desires, but a moment’s thought will tell you …

If you are interested in religion and gender in the ancient world like I am, there is a fairly strong likelihood that, at some point, you’ve encountered some version of the claim that, at one point in human prehistory (variously conceived as sometime in the Upper Paleolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, or all three), either all human societies worldwide or at least the majority of human societies in Europe belonged to …

“Playback of this birds[sic] song is restricted.” “Playback of this birds[sic] song is restricted.” “Playback of this birds[sic] song is restricted.” I am not a board games person, yet I always seem to find myself surrounded by them. Such was the case one August evening in 2023, during a round of the bird-watching-inspired game, Wingspan. Released in 2019 by Stonemaier Games, designer Elizabeth Hargrave’s creation is credited with a dramatic …

***I’ve been absent for a couple of months because I was locked out of the account! Just to let you know that Chris and I continue to do our podcasts and there has been an episode on medieval x-files and now bird spirits. This is a fragment of an article on Fairy Census 2 I’ve […]