Recently updated blogs

for students | for scholars | for pleasure This blog is no longer being updated regularly with fresh content. Here are some self-study resources (including text and video) for those who would like to improve their academic skills, whether they are students or scholars (or dilletantes like me). For Students I have written a short paper that explains my approach here: “How to Write at University” (PDF). It is also …

I seem to have accidentally come up with a method for duplicating a centuries-old terrain representation technique. From a 30m DEM of Churfirsten, Switzerland. If you’ve looked at old maps, you’ve probably seen hachures: lines that run up and down along the slope of terrain features. There were a wide variety of approaches to doing hachuring, with different rules. But, in all cases, they attempted to give a reader a …

The PIGUM (which is an acronym for Porth I’r Gymru Ultra Marathon) is a 30 mile race with around 1700m (5500ft) elevation gain/loss, starting in the market town of Abergavenny, Wales. Porth I’r Gymru translates to “Gateway to Wales”. The PIGUM, 2024 route profile Last year I deferred this race due to scheduling issues, and this year I wasn’t originally going to do it either, as I had booked the …

Back to weeknoting after the election period. I write these notes for my own benefit, to reflect on what went on in my working week. I share my weeknotes online because I reflect more deeply, and write more thoughtfully when anyone could be reading. Monday A meeting of the new NHS England’s Product & Platforms leadership team, of which I’m a member, with the senior leadership of the Primary Care …

Recently, I’ve been looking back at a collaborative project with John Becker of WROT Studio. The “Institute for Controlled Speleogenesis” (2014) was a fictional design project we originally set in the vast limestone province of Australia’s Nullarbor Plain. [Image: A rock-acid drip-irrigation hub for the “Institute for Controlled Speleogenesis,” a collaboration between BLDGBLOG and WROT Studio; all images in this post are by John Becker of WROT Studio.] The Nullarbor …

Reflections on two years of working at Elicit and why it's time to leave

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 obsession, …

Hello all, Status updateSo.Mid-June saw me catch Covid again, which was a distinct lack of fun. I was wiped out for a good 10 days and am still feeling the its effect on my energy levels and mood three weeks later. As I approach the second anniversary of my Long-Covid it's put a bit of a damper on any sense of recovery I was feeling recently. Interestingly when Fiona inevitably …

Inforrm reported on a large number of defamation cases from around the world in 2023. Following a now established tradition, with my widely read posts on 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 defamation cases, I present my personal selection of the most legally and factually interesting cases from England, Australia, Canada and New Zealand from the past year – with three “bonus” cases from the US. After a haitus …

Episode 35 of the Ted Dabney Experience podcast is available now for your listening pleasure! If you enjoy reading ArcadeBlogger.com, you’ll love the other project I’m involved with: The Ted Dabney Experience Episode 35: Click to listen in Jeff Bell was a hardware engineer in Atari Inc’s coin-op division and officially the longest serving employee of the company; literally the last person to switch off the lights in 2004. Jeff …

It’s happening again, the thing that happens when I get back to drawing after a slump. The transition was abrupt. I woke up two weeks ago, went to the studio, queued up Neil Gaiman’s live reading of The Graveyard Book (my habitual comfort food of many years), cranked out four pages, rode my stationary bike for a half hour, and then took it upon myself to begin eating a whole …

Few are bold enough, or capable enough, to excel in making the kind of film that is genuinely weird but still manages to have widespread appeal. Yorgos Lanthimos is one of those filmmakers. He continues his reign as the master of the twisted fable with his new movie Kinds of Kindness. This trio of Ovidian-like fables puts various characters in scenarios in which their social interactions are viewed through an …

To celebrate 20 years of Garage Hangover I will be spinning some records at Do The 45 Rock ‘n’ Soul Party at Quinns in Beacon, NY on Friday, July 12, with old friends and fellow DJs Pete Pop (garage collector extraordinaire) and Phast Phreddie (who has known everyone cool in the music world since 1973). Plus go-go dancers Sheba Shake and Bella Bombora! Come out and say hello!

Occasional notes on calls, events, publications, and more that caught our attention. Please email us your own items. Grants Gerda Henkel Tandem Fellowships for the Global History of Ideas (Forschungszentrum Gotha der Univ. Erfurt) – Deadline: 31 July 2024 Thanks to the Gerda Henkel Foundation, the Gotha Research Centre at the University of Erfurt is awarding grants beginning on January 1, 2025, and ending on December 13, 2025. With a …

Salvaging 18650 li-ion cells from dead battery pack of a ThinkPad T530.