Recently updated blogs

After attending an Oberwolfach workshop with Kristin DeVleming and Anne-Sophie Kaloghiros where they helped me navigate the literature on K-stability for Fano 3-folds (thanks so much!), the current state of the art can now be found on the K-stability page. I will add more explanations to Fanography after my holidays, for the time being I'll just refer to the K-stability Wikipedia page. I am sure I have made mistakes, and …

A rare poster by Oskar Altherr For more about the extraordinary story of Oskar Altherr, click the links below. Part onehttps://mikedempsey.typepad.com/graphic_journey_blog/2010/02/mountain-man-part-one.htmlPart twohttps://mikedempsey.typepad.com/graphic_journey_blog/2010/03/mountain-man-part-two-.htmlPart threehttps://mikedempsey.typepad.com/graphic_journey_blog/2010/04/mountain-man-part-3.html

Roll up, roll up, roll up and welcome to the two hundred and twenty ninth Carnival of Mathematics! 229 is a prime number, and that in itself is interesting. Its the “elder” of a set of twin primes. 229 is in fact the smallest prime, that when you add it’s mirror (922) to it you get another prime! It is also the minimum number of crossings you get for the …

I've returned with an exciting new edition to my classic film book round ups. Every time I curate these lists I worry that this will be the one that disappoints. But they never do. I really like this selection of memoirs, coffee table books, scholarly texts, reissues and paperbacks. There is really truly something for everyone here.Are you new to my list? Here are the details. The books include biographies, …

In spite of our best efforts, the academic performance of our most and least advantaged students stubbornly refuses to close. In fact, as a recent report from the Education Policy Institute shows, the gap seems to be getting wider. Nationally, disadvantaged students at the end of primary school were 10.3 months behind their peers [...]

Each year, for more than 20 years, Bill Gardner of Gardner Design has been studying thousands of logos to select the strongest fit for the year’s Trend Report. “Flat Box” logos (above) by Scorpion Rose Studio and Semi:Formal, Blue Blazes, Asterisk, and Creative Spark. Speaking about the collection, Bill said, “As ever, this report is an observation of the logo design industry and isn’t meant as a guide for best …

The second of a series of posts in which I document my progress learning to play the ukulele. This post is long overdue. I started writing it several times but I have never been focused enough to do it. As with writing on my blog, also my exercising has slowed down. The previous diary entry ended with strumming rhythms and changing between the C, F and G chords. I was …

Growing up in New York, first in the city and then later in Albany, a young Herman Melville made frequent trips to stay with his uncle, Thomas Melvill, who lived on a farm near Pittsfield, in the Berkshire mountains of Western Massachusetts. In 1850, Thomas decided to sell his property. Melville, now with a young family of his own, arrived that summer for what they believed to be his final …

Kaleidoscope, the classic TV organisation, is holding a day event on the Television Play at the Midlands Art Centre (MAC) in Birmingham on Saturday 7 September 2024, 10.00-5.30pm. The event will include screenings of plays made for Armchair Theatre, Saturday Night Theatre, Thirty Minute Theatre and Television Theatre From The Midlands, and there will be a screening of The Mystery of Cader Ifan (1967), a rare Conan Doyle adaptation featuring …

4.5 years after my initial podcast inventory, with COVID and a career change under my belt, with my OPML file growing from 566 rss feeds in 2022 to 771* in 2024 (with quite a few of my fave NPR podcasts dying), and my backlog mounting to 43GB (according to this script, my outstanding episodes: 11915 (played: 22451)), I am now needing to declare podcast bankruptcy.

Not movie related but… TRANSGESSIONS, my latest collection of short stories is out now as an eBook and paperback. You can order your copy here. If you like it please consider leaving a review on Amazon and Goodreads.

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.

A deeper understanding of the relationship between seeing and thinking is necessary to designing for sustained attention. The connection between the eye and the mind is mysterious. It’s not that it is completely opaque to us; we understand many aspects of how our sense of sight interacts with the brain. But the obscurity of the eye-mind connection is also well represented by common phrases we often use in describing the …

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, …