Recently updated blogs

by S. Astrid Bin Editor’s Note: Longtime fans of this site may be familiar with its “tag line,” “Stop watching sci-fi. Start using it.” So I was thrilled when a friend told me they had seen Astrid present how she had made an instrument from a Star Trek episode real! Please welcome Astrid as she tells us about the journey and lessons learned from making something from a favorite sci-fi …

There's currently a lull in our planning for Toby and a temporary reprieve from paperwork, so I'm enjoying decompressing a little with regular walks out in the woods. Although winter still has the countryside in it's grip, there are signs that a change is coming, and the first flower of the year is now in bloom, the glorious snowdrop. I never feel right picking wildflowers to bring home, they all …

I like to keep an eye out for cool shapes during my walks and use them as inspiration for my #SidewalkFriends drawings. It’s like my version of hunting for Pokémon. I did a double take when I first saw this orange traffic cone on 29th street. I could have sworn it winked at me. So I grabbed a quick photo and used it as inspiration for today’s Sidewalk Friends sketch. …

I have a bookcase problem. IKEA Billy and BD Albums don't mix perfectly. Is there a fix? The post The Problem with a European Comic Book Collection appeared first on PIPELINE COMICS.

This zine is for anyone interested in kitsch from an everyday or academic perspective. The author provides her own kitsch objects, alongside some well-known ones, in order to explore and critique kitsch throughout its history. The zine is A5 size and includes text and black and white images (highly illustrated). The cover is coloured card (colour not specified). The contents includes, among other subjects: kitsch from the 19C, sixties kitsch …

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 …