Recently updated blogs

Russian lawyer, political leader, and activist Alexei Navalny is dead. Yesterday, we posted Varya Gornostaeva‘s words on his unexplained death. Here are a few words from the award-winning Russian author and cardiologist Maxim Osipov, from a 2021 Facebook post in Russian, which he is allowing me to republish in English: Wise words from award-winning author/cardiologist Maxim Osipov A few months ago, a famous humanitarian, whose name I will not disclose, …

A selection of read volumes from my shelf What pre-1985 science fiction are you reading or planning to read this month? Here’s January’s installment of this column. When I’m not reading science fiction, I’m more often than not devouring history that touches on my decades of focus: 1945-1985. Recently that’s meant lots and lots of monographs on Cold War culture: from fallout shelters, suburbia, to analysis of the drama of …

I came up with a really slick trick to write E2E tests that deal with sending/receiving emails recently. This is the sort of thing that seems like it's probably usually sort of a nightmare — I wanted to write a test for registering a account on a website, where part of the flow was clicking on a validation link in a email. The slick trick is a test SMTP server …

Boosting innovation by teaching people to be tech entrepreneurs?

The Wedding Present Watusi Deluxe EditionGet It At DiscogsArriving after a Steve Albini-produced trove of mopey wonder (1991's Seamonsters) and a collection of relatively more lighthearted singles (1992's Hit Parade), the Wedding Present's fourth album Watusi found David Gedge and company hitting a particularly brilliant stride in terms of songwriting and creative development alike. Produced by Seattle personality Steve Fisk in a time when "grunge" was a breathless buzzword, there's …

I was surprised that I hadn’t heard of any of these ten novels and authors from The Shades of Orange YouTube review “The Top Science Fiction Books Published in 2023.” Is this an indication of how out of touch I am with new science fiction, or do my tastes just run much different from the reviewer? When and why did I stop reading new science fiction? Here are Shades of …

Oxford's Ground Zero Oxford is home to a Zero Emission Zone - a collection of streets where only zero-emission vehicles are welcome. It’s just a trial, but if it goes well, the whole city centre may go the same way.Increasingly political battles are being fought over the road network. Not the ones we’re familiar with, like the environmental movement, where construction of tunnels or tree houses might hold up a …

One’s moral progress is measured in unexpected moments. Good morning! The house is full of the aroma of baking muffins, which my daughter requested I make first thing this morning. I happily obliged. She and my son are munching away at them as I type this. – What’s the oldest, most useful object in your home? Ours is probably the 8” Griswold skillet my wife inherited from her grandmother. As …

Take notice There has been a lot in the news recently about the polluted state of many of Britain’s rivers. The River Wye, for example, is undergoing an ecological crisis due to the levels of phosphates in its waters, a state of affairs that has been attributed to run-off from the many intensive poultry farms near its banks.* Other rivers have enormous amounts of untreated sewage dumped into them, because …

For anyone who follows me on my bang-average social media (here and here, nudge nudge wink wink) you’ll know that I was very keen on a QBox. There were multiple reasons for this that can be shortened down to its proximity to my house of circa 100m, and the quality of the food which was nothing short of excellent. Not a week went by without a chicken burger, mac and …

It may be the middle of February, the rain and the winds have been approaching biblical in their severity but some plum blossom has begun to show in one of the orchards. Now that is a hopeful sign of Spring. It certainly brightens the twice daily walks with Lucie when we pass the trees and a little more warmth should release some of that lovely blossom scent. My apologies for …

The tale of David Scarboro isn't one I was overly familiar with, but his short life and career on British television is, in itself, very much like the soap opera which defined his early fame. Full of highs, lows and tragedy, it's almost as if the infamous EastEnders doof doofs were positioned perilously above his head once he found fame. And the excellent 1989 edition of Scene entitled My Brother …

JW Francis Orbit JW Francis is an intriguing individual. Born in Oklahoma, raised in Paris and now based in New York, he was once the assistant to someone who won a Nobel Prize, is a licensed NYC tour guide and owns a murder mystery business. His scratchy, lo-fi indie-alt-pop has a similarly eclectic feel to it, taking inspiration from the city Francis now calls home. Taking inspiration from The Velvet …