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In 1993, in my early 20s, I was working in a giant chain bookstore known as BookStar in Cary, NC. It wasn't a bad place to work, basically a Barnes and Noble (who eventually bought and then closed down the store), although the guys had to wear ties and dress pants, like it was fucking church. Several of my coworkers were horror fiction fans, both of the modern and classic …

About a year ago Mats Danielson from Stockholm Sweden contacted the CPU Shack about an interesting project, documenting the history of Philips Data Systems, a former powerhouse of European computing. Previously we wrote about the SPC16 micro used in some of these, but Mats has done a complete history. His book is available for free at Research Gate: The Rise and Fall of Philips Data Systems. It includes the SPC16 …

If I’m going to point to something about string theory and say the same things as always about it, seems best to first start with the opposite, an item about something really worth reading. This spring I’ve been teaching a graduate course aimed at getting to an explanation of the Standard Model aimed at mathematicians. The first few weeks have been about quantization and quantum mechanics, today I’m starting on …

“Oh! Now what?” “Sir, see the lit sign up there? You cannot turn right.” “But did you not see the car right in front of me turning right?” “Sir, if a person jumped off a bridge, would you follow?” “Yes.” “You must be very smart then.” “And selective enforcement of the laws leads to distrust of the police.” “Sir—” “Oh look! The ‘No Right Turn’ sign is off now! Gotta …

As Okja unfolded I kept thinking of the comics I read in my youth. American comics were always bigger than superheroes with plenty of crime, autobiography and horror out there to please genre fans. This reminded me of manga. That’s not a perfect analogy as there are all kinds of comics from Japan in an infinite number of styles. But there are sensibilities that tend come from particulars parts of …

(The second part of a series reconsidering Dave Sim’s Cerebus The Aardvark on the occasion of me actually finishing it. As before, I’m not worrying too much about spoilers or trying to draw attention to particular moments or bits of art: this is just me writing about it.) Previously: Dave Sim’s Cerebus, a planned 300-issue comics series, launches with a series of Conan The Barbarian pastiches, which rapidly spin out …

It’s been a wet winter so far. Some 177mm has fallen in Wanstead – already 122 per cent more what falls in an average winter. But the amount pales into comparison with the Lake District. Since December 1st 1360mm has fallen at Honister, a station close to Seathwaite which proudly proclaims itself as ‘England’s wettest place’. Over a calendar year the area usually sees 5.6 times the amount of rainfall …

A personal philosophy In order to be a modeller of railways there needs to be a model railway. It doesn't matter if it is a loft or an Ikea box, there has to be a railway, otherwise we are mere collectors of things in boxes. Occasionally, a thought begins to become a concern, why build a model railway and why choose a particular subject? My obsession, for it is an …

The last in our series of seven key drivers influencing the move to After Capitalism is the Ineffective Left. The far left continues to be ineffective in catalyzing change. The left, particularly the far left, is more inclined to support the changes needed to move to After Capitalism than the right, but it has been […] The post Ineffective left driving towards After Capitalism first appeared on Hinesight....for Foresight.

My husband and I had a huge amount of fun on our trip to St. John last February. You might remember Lena's Spring Break posts from that trip, or the underwater photos of some Mattel mermaids. We had such a good time, in fact, that as soon as we got home, we booked a trip for this February, hoping to re-create the magic. Following through on that plan, last week …

I run a small Mastodon instance, and recently I've migrated it from a Docker container in Digital Ocean to my own Kubernetes cluster on Hostinger VPS. Here's how I did it.

“Koliada,” tapestry, by Olha Pilyuhina Just a few weeks ago I began a new semester at the University of Tulsa and also, with much excitement, kicked off my stint as a Tulsa Artist Fellow. I consider myself extraordinarily lucky to be part of this year’s multi-talented cohort, and I look forward to collaborating with each and every one of my colleagues in the program. My first year with the Fellowship …

“An X never, ever marks the spot,” Indiana Jones once famously stated. Only in this one particular case, it totally does: When Twitter became X, it very much felt like the official end of the Twitter era. I think this very concretely means two things: 1)The landscape for social media discourse has fragmented completely. Over on Bluesky, John V Willshire and I started chatting about this, which turned to him …

January was yet another month of snow and bitterly cold weather. There were large snow piles, kids on sledges, swathes of ice covering…

Composer Walter Mair’s music is everywhere and you might not even realize it. Perhaps you’re aware of the titles with his name on the marquee: the Apple TV+ show Liaison, starring Eva Green and Vincent Cassel; the memorable, Megan Fox-starring horror flick Til Death; and, recently, the 2023 reboot of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III. He’s also contributed score cues to everything from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to …