Recently updated blogs

Silently losing critical life infrastructure Published 2024-02-16 I’ve been having a pretty bad time recently. I don’t intend to talk about the details, but suffice it to say I’ve been extremely stressed, depressed, and anxious, and my appetite and sleep have completely fallen apart. This isn’t about that, not directly. It’s about some interesting things that this has revealed about my personal infrastructure for supporting my mental health. One piece …

This always makes me laugh, and it's one of those questions which just never stops appearing: just yesterday, someone said to me “I suppose you're off work now, until spring.” They must have realised, from the Look which I gave them, that they'd said the wrong thing, but they ploughed on, regardless: “I mean,” they said “there's nothing to do in the garden now, right?”Wrong.Oh, so wrong! To see the …

As I prevued images I shot in the past, it always works out that 90% of the time the ones that jump out at me are the ones with great light! Very often I go out in great light and look for subjects! I found these four recently when looking at a trip to Portland’s Japanese Garden’s work. Study the light and how they added to the texture and shapes …

For this post, I am going to wander into the world of crime in the late eighteenth century, and the grisly fate that befell many who committed the heinous crime of highway robbery. (Full disclosure: I’m not an historian of crime, gibbets or highwaymen…perhaps the case I’m about to discuss is very well known. But he’s new to me, and I love a good story, so he makes it into …

Sitting down to write your proposal for the 33 1/3 open call? Will Hagle, the author behind Madvillain’s Madvillainy, offers his advice for would-be authors keen to be part of the series. Here are his top three tips for writing your proposal. Hello,My name is Will Hagle and I am here on the 33 ⅓ blog to present three tips for submitting a proposal for Bloomsbury’s open call. Before I …

2024 has started with a bang for TV. Shows like The Traitors (BBC1) and Mr Bates vs The Post Office (ITV) have had around 10 million people tuning in to each episode, reminding us of the social relevance and transformative power of the medium. As television scholar, Amy Holdsworth, notes, TV acts as a ‘point of collective identification’ (2011:145), not just between the viewer and what they see on… Source

Let's start by clarifying the definition of a game maker in the context of this discussion. What I mean by game maker is someone who creates games in a financially sustainable manner. The games are being released to the public, and the whole process is profitable. Not necessarily profitable enough to sustain a livelihood. We know that is extremely rare. Just something that gives you a small side

For our February Soho Radio show, JON ‘MOJO’ MILLS chats with ALBERT’s Reid Morrison ahead of their performance at the March Happening, and plays a wide array of cool sounds, from powerpop and proto-punk to mellow folky flavours, psych, and a few brand new gems Tracklist Alan Hawkshaw ‘Pop Sports’ Levitation Room ‘Revelations’ Ty Segall ‘The Bell’ The Pretty Things ‘Cold Stone’ Andwella’s Dream ‘Sunday’ Blonde On Blonde ‘Castles In …

Damn Small Linux 2024 is the first new release of Damn Small Linux in sixteen years. I have to say that not only did I find it to be usable on my old computers, I am looking forward to getting to know it better.

The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan (2023) • View trailerFour stars (out of five). Not rated, but akin to PG-13 for violence and brief nudityAvailable via: Amazon Prime and other VOD outletsBy Derrick BangThere’s plenty to enjoy in this sumptuous, old-school adaptation of Dumas’ 1844 novel. That said, Dumas purists might get cranky, because scripters Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patelliére have taken serious liberties with the author’s book. The musketeers …

That Germans love bread seems to be one stereotype that is largely accurate. Given Germany’s rich baking culture, it is perhaps not surprising that it also has a long tradition of producing challot, braided loaves eaten during Shabbat. There were many expressions for challah, including Datscher, Challe, and Striezel.1 The most common terms, Barches and Berches, are derived from the word brachah, i.e., blessing. Additionally, Barches in some regions contained …

Zig-Zag paths and neusis constructions of a heptagon and a nonagon (\(\mathbb{M}\)), new article by Dave Richeson and Dan Lawson. annie rauwerda tells the world why Wikipedia and Wikipedia editing is great in a letter to the editor in Harper’s. Reverse mathematics (\(\mathbb{M}\)). New entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. CAT(0) Cube Complexes (\(\mathbb{M}\)). New book by Petra Schwer. I’m on the program committee for two recently announced calls …

(You probably expected this announcement a while ago ...) I've just signed a new two book deal with my publishers, Tor.com publishing in the USA/Canada and Orbit in the UK/rest of world, and the book I'm talking about here and now—the one that's already written and delivered to the Production people who turn it into a thing you'll be able to buy later this year—is a Laundry stand-alone titled "A …

Following on the success of last year's A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving album, Lee Mendelson Film Productions has announced the release of another classic Vince Guaraldi Peanuts soundtrack.It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown will be issued on an exclusive "camp green" vinyl LP for Record Store Day on April 20, 2024.The original soundtrack recording for this special has never been available before, and this album contains six bonus tracks as …