Recently updated blogs

Asda is adding 110 more convenience stores this month alone that will enable it to make further inroads into the grab-and-go food category and it is not alone as all the major supermarkets and symbol groups like Spar are experimenting with their food-to-go models. They recognise that we are now in an era that is much more powered by grab-and-go and delivery-only propositions. This poses a big question for foodservice …

Written by John le Carré, produced by John Kershaw and directed by Alan Cooke. Broadcast on ITV at 8.30pm on 29 June 1970. By Joseph Oldham Readers of the recently published book A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré (2023) may have been intrigued by a brief reference to a letter that the acclaimed spy novelist wrote to John Margetson, a former colleague from the Secret Intelligence Service …

Roll up, roll up, roll up. Come hither come all to the Carnival of Mathematics. This is the 224th Edition of the longest running Maths Carnival. For those of you who are unaware, a “blog carnival” is a periodic post that travels from blog to blog and has a collection of posts on a certain topic. In this case the topic is mathematics. 224 is an interesting number – you …

APHA's Dr Flavie Vial As International Programme Manager at the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), Dr Flavie Vial facilitates international cooperation and knowledge exchange on preparing for, and responding to, animal disease threats. As part of her role, Flavie oversees APHA’s delivery of Official Development Assistance funded projects focused on food safety and security as well as strengthening animal health systems. Let us hear more from Flavie in this …

Here, as promised in my last post, is a written version of the talk I delivered a couple weeks ago at MindFest in Florida, entitled “The Problem of Human Specialness in the Age of AI.” The talk is designed as one-stop shopping, summarizing many different AI-related thoughts I’ve had over the past couple years (and earlier). 1. INTRO Thanks so much for inviting me! I’m not an expert in AI, …

This will be a talk for the Logic and Philosophy of Science Colloquium at the University of California at Irvine, 15 March 2024. Abstract. With a simple historical thought experiment, I should like to describe how we might easily have … Continue reading →

Better Benchmarks Through Graphs Isn't the ambiguity in the word *graphs* fun? This is a blog post version of a talk I gave at the Northwest Database Society meeting last week. The slides are here, but I don’t believe the talk was recorded. I believe that one of the things that’s holding back databases as an engineering discipline (and why so much remains stubbornly opinion-based) is a lack of good …

This is another repeated trip. Years ago I went to Almeria, just as a way to escape from a very bad time in my life. I thought about spending a few days somewhere not too far, just to see how I would feel afterwards. I thought about going to a deserted area in the south of Spain. I loved it. You can see pictures of that trip here. A summer …

A guest post by London Historians member Joanna Oyediran Titan of the Thames: The Life of Lord Desborough by Sandy Nairne and Peter Williams Despite organising Britain’s first Olympics and being an energetic public servant, William Grenfell (1855-1945) has “gone missing from British history”. This biography seeks to reinstate him. Grenfell, raised to the peerage […]

Panorama of Katzie Marsh in Pitt Meadows, British Columbia with Widgeon Peak, Gloomy Peak (middle), and Osprey Mountain in the background. Panorama View of Katzie Marsh and Pitt Lake Area (Purchase) -click to enlarge- In 2019 I made a post showing a few photographs from Katzie Marsh Loop Trail. In the fall of 2023 I ... Read more The post Katzie Marsh Loop Part 2 appeared first on Michael Russell …

UI DESIGN TIPSThe most important balancing actDecluttering in UI design — UX Knowledge Piece Sketch #57The most important balancing actHow to remove or hide everything that’s just noise at a given point of the user flow, and at the same time, keep or display all the content and functionality that’s needed.Our goalhelp users achieve their goals by focusing their attentionreducing users’ cognitive loadand ultimately, provide a better user experience.How to …

Welcome to my weekly theatre newsletter. I’d like to express particular gratitude to those of who’ve written to acknowledge my writing about my current bout of depression; on the one hand, I am more than the sum of my depression, though it is such an all-consuming force that it feels that it dominates my life right now; but on the other, I’m reminded why it is so valuable to share …

Here's a photo I've been dying to print since I took it. I love the composition of the rocks floating. The contrast of the dark rocks with the light patterned bottom of the pool. The delicate shadows of the little ripples. So how to best tackle the shadows. No white in this one so straight into colour. Here's the lino with the 2nd colour rolled on 4 colours make the …

by Maria Majewska Paweł Pawlikowski’s 2018 film Cold War is a profound account of Polish identity, cultural homogenisation, politicisation of folklore and the trauma of migration from the Soviet bloc. As a Polish migrant with a deep connection to this story, I was keen to see how this masterful, nuanced film would translate to the stage. Tragically, the Almeida’s production is an insulting missed opportunity. A reverential, faithful representation was …

Photo by Bianca Czarnock on behance, borrowed for educational purposes Dior's Dolce Vita fetes its 30th anniversary this year, being launched in 1994, when Dior was very careful with its new launches and the firm was creating mega-hits that shattered antagonism in one fell swoop. The promise of happiness, exuberance and confidence in Dolce Vita, in its flamboyant and optimistic package,