Recently updated blogs

I've just picked up the new tea towels. There's this one of the Wiltshire white horses, and a map of the Kennet and Avon canal, like this I'm very pleased with the quality of the printing; all the fine details are there, clear as you like. (The images here are low-res, because I'm out in the wilds of the Vale of Pewsey at the moment, and the internet is rubbish.)They're …

I had thought that NetNewsWire’s conditional GET support was rock-solid — and so my first reaction was to be very surprised to learn that it’s not! My second reaction was to be appreciative — Rachel’s work here on setting up a test server and reporting on the results is really great. My goal has always been to make NetNewsWire a model net citizen, and learning where it’s not is super …

This post comes from London where two roundabouts have been redesigned to add protected cycling space.The first is the Old Street junction which is right on the border of the boroughs of Hackney and Islington, but part of the Transport for London Road Network (TLRN) and is so a strategic road for motor traffic.The overall design for the roundabout was "peninsularisation" whereby one of the areas between two of the …

I wrote a bit about the war of the zettlekasten as my last entry, and have been keeping two separate ones; one is a set of notes on Philosophy, thus far really just notes and nodes as I read Bertrand Russell, and another which is for… life stuff, the novel I am perpetually not writing, and so forth, It’s new, and filled with strange observations, one chapter from the novel, …

I’m running a bit behind getting this post written and uploaded this morning. It’s the last full day of PulpFest 2024. I didn’t make it to the Doc Savage gathering this morning at 7:30, but I did make it to the informal meeting of members of PEAPS, the Pulp Era Amateur Press Society. I will […]

If ever there was a case of nominative determinism, this book has it. Susannah Walker writes about walking the Ridgeway and the Harrow Way, two ancient routes that snake across southern England and cross each other near the Wiltshire-Somerset border. She walks these routes on her own as an act of conscious resistance. The premise … Continue reading Susannah Walker, The Hard Way →

Where we started The first Government project I worked on was a licensing service, as part of the project, licence numbers were updated. That change stopped users from being able to log into a related service where they recorded their activity. In summary, our ‘service’ had broken someone else’s ‘service’. I’ve seen loads of examples of similar issues over the years. Usually the result of only designing parts of services …

To be fair, the original joke, published on X (formerly Twitter) on July 15, 2024, did not label U.S. Senator and vice-presidential candidate JD Vance, Republican of Ohio, a “couch-fucker.” That came later. The joke, posted by user @rickrudescalves and later hidden, merely posited that Vance “might be the first vp pick to have admitted in a ny times bestseller to fucking an inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch …

This is a slight departure for Historical Ragbag, as I’ll be looking at a mythical figure. But it still involves research and a good story so I decided it still fit. In researching for my novel, it’s contemporary and with merpeople but based on Welsh history and mythology, I came across a figure who gets one tantalising mention in the Mabinogion. Dylan of the Wave. The Mabinogion is a series …

My book about how comedy works, and why it matters, is available from good bookshops and truly exceptional coal merchants...Deeply analytical and utterly joyous.Robin Ince Joel Morris has finally invented ‘being funny whilst talking about being funny.Caitlin Moran It's made me a better writer. It's probably made me a better human too.Daisy Buchanan Joel knows what he’s talking about. And he’s sickeningly funny. Stop reading this sentence and buy this …

The fourth in the series about every year of Numberphile. Videos about Klein bottles, infinity, and coin flips.

In another universe, in which Washington’s bid to host the 2024 Olympics was successful, the District would be the center of the sports world this week. Clearly many photographers are feeling inspired by the Paris games anyway. Savor these sporty favorites from the Greater and Lesser Washington Flickr pool! In that other universe, the Iroquois Republic dominates Olympic lacrosse gold. Image by Diane Krauthamer licensed under Creative Commons. Cross country? …

Found this while working on a different research project, and fell in with love with the stripe fabric. It's described as a denim, which I need to look into further, as I haven't seen a two-color striped denim like this before. Anyway, I love how the striped fabric and darker (piped?) edging makes the bias-bands pop. It's very effective as trim, but subtle enough not to overwhelm the whole garment. …