Recently updated blogs

It is well known today that Iran is one of the most dangerous countries for LGBTQ+ people. However, thanks to the actions and determination of one woman, Maryam Khatoon Molkara, Iran now carries out more sex reassignment surgeries than all but one country.

My relationship with photography continues to evolve. Lately it’s become much more personal, useful for holding memories of family and travel close to the heart and less to discover poetry in light. Yet there are moments, camera by my side, that still speak up and scream for attention. Most times they are the calm ones, between sentences, when my mind actually has a moment to focus on the wider world …

Today, on the tenth anniversary of Overcast 1.0, I’m happy to launch a complete rewrite and redesign of most of the iOS app, built to carry Overcast into the next decade — and hopefully beyond. Like podcasts better than blog posts? Listen to ATP #596 for more! What’s new Much faster, more responsive, more reliable, and more accessible. Modern design, optimized for easily-reached controls on today’s phone sizes. Improvements throughout, …

In the US, it's common for local governments to focus on tax revenue produced by a property, without considering the costs it adds to the city's budget. This is like measuring how far a car can drive without considering how much gas it uses to get there. Different properties create different long-term cost burdens for the city. One of the biggest contributors to that variance is the amount of infrastructure …

🏳️‍⚧️ Today marks 5 years since I came out as trans on the internet. Time for a little ✨ gender update ✨. 💖 Check the release notes for all the details!

You know those last five seconds of a green light? The ones where the guy in front of you suddenly has to stop for a bit but just enough so that you can't escape? Yeah, that one. Yesterday when returning from the office I faced a similar situation but I had already crossed the white line and I could either move forward or stop in the middle of the road. …

Dear readers: I appreciate your patience as I navigate some life changes (some negative, ultimately positive), which have taken much of my time away from listening and reviewing. I do hope to return to the ECM fold soon enough, as the universe allows. Those who’ve been following me for a while may know I’ve been known to moonlight as an academic, and my latest book is a testament to all …

Never in my life have I been so violently confronted by my brokenness than in the first year of separating from my husband in early 2023. My body and mind, both of which had historically existed as a kind of backdrop to my life thus far, suddenly took centre stage as grotesque, malfunctioning vessels of pain. I began looking for answers. I scrolled through hours of TikTok, desperately browsing the …

I had a great life as a pilot but back in the day "real men" didn't wear hearing protection. It was not just ramp noise but airborne with a pair of TIO 540's next to your ears and a incanal ear piece for the radio, I'm now profoundly deaf to high frequencies. I other words I can't hear female voices, the left ear is worse than the right and the …

I did an excellent course on Strategy for Directors. On Monday, I shared some models we learned about and in this post I pull those together. Whether you are in leadership or not, you can use this process and the models to help your strategic thinking. If you prefer to watch rather than read, I covered a lot of this in my talk Analysing, Deciding, Doing: How to develop and …

Back when I started this, the Internet was a lot more promising. You could assume that your words would be indelibly etched forever into the conciousness of humanity. I’ve seen the future, I can’t afford it Turns out, that’s not quite the truth. Corporate greed has overtaken the thirst for knowledge, one could write up a detailed passage of a certain Rock Group’s album developments or release dates, but for …

Interference patterns from LED street lighting creates pixelated shadows.

Hello everyone, this is a short housekeeping update episode. I wanted to point your attention to a new podcast project I've started. It's called CREATIVE JOURNEYS, and it's not so dissimilar to Travel Writing World. However, instead of focusing on travel literature, I'll be talking about creativity more broadly and interviewing different types of creative individuals from historians to photographers to artists and authors. We'll talk about process and practice …

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 …

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 …