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Well as far as fishing summers go I think that to use a racing term 2024 is one to put down as an also ran. It was slow to get going due to last years biblical rainfall. Then being followed by a very dry couple of months .High summer never seemed to get going . I had some brilliant early days up in the upland stream that I joined this …

So, I don’t really write here any more. I write at drafts.interfluidity.com instead. Please follow that feed or subscribe by e-mail. I do still offer periodic roundups here of what I’ve been up to! And it’s been a busy few months. Without further ado. Unless it is remedied soon, the Supreme Court has rendered an end to liberal democracy in the United States nearly inevitable by their decision in Trump …

In June of 2024, a gaggle of front-end developers descended on Seattle’s Town Hall for two days of talks and workshops. I took the stage Day One to talk about the untapped potential of the humble GIF: Everyone loves animated GIFs, right? Not if you have finite bandwidth, a shaky network connection or motion sensitivity! But fear not: Thanks to newly supported media formats, shiny new web standards and the …

The residua of reading. Prince Palador in John Ford’s The Lover’s Melancholy, inspired by Burton’s Anatomy, always a skimmer away. Now, unearthly Cato, among the saved despite suicide and paganism, warden of Purgatory, un veglio solo (an old man alone)—a metaphor for the journey from fallen condition, from old man to pristine restoration, to prelapsarian innocence prior to entering Eden. Cato, watchdog to the purgatorial isle, delayed until Judgment Day—his …

Aliette de Bodard at the 2024Hugo Awards.(Photo by Olav Rokne)There are only 27 authors whose works have appeared on the prose-fiction Hugo Award ballot at least 10 times. It’s a list of some of the most recognizable and prolific names in the history of the genre: Heinlein, le Guin, Simak, Ellison, Bujold, Chiang.It’s an achievement to pen even a single work of fiction that speaks to the Hugo voting public …

Dick Powell as Marlowe.My favorite fictional detectives are the erudite, snobbish Philo Vance and the sarcastic, sly Philip Marlowe. Both have been the subject of numerous films, but with middling results. Marlowe has been played by an unusual assortment of actors that includes Humphrey Bogart, Robert Montgomery, George Montgomery, James Garner, Elliott Gould, Robert Mitchum, and Liam Neeson. Bogart captured Marlowe’s toughness. Garner projected the right amount of sarcasm. Mitchum …

At risk of copyright infringement, I wanted to highlight for my loyal readers a super cool book of photographs that I saw pop up on eBay, leading me to the wonderful-looking shop Globus Rare Books & Archives. If you click the link (provided no one has since bought it), you’ll find for sale at the bargain-basement price of $3,750 (man I wish I was rich) a “historically significant collection of …

It's finally happened. A big company said the quiet part out loud. PwC, the behemoth U.S. consulting company, is using surveillance data to monitor and flag employees for violating its "back to office" policy, according to a news report (link). The article concerns the U.K. office. There are some possibilities: this is a pilot program, eventually to be implemented worldwide other locations may already be doing it but quietly other …

“It goes without saying that I’m an activist for Multiplicity.“ The latest title to be translated into English by the eminent Spanish writer Enrique Vila-Matas, Insistence as a Fine Art, is practically a miniature book, measuring about 4 by 2 3/4 inches and only 96 pages long. In January 2023, Vila-Matas gave a lecture at the Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga called “La insistencia como una de las bellas artes.” He …

At least in the indie music genre, people are advised to make music videos in order to fulfill a requirement of publicity. The music video needs a certain degree of polish, which creates a natural economic filter weeding out musicians that have less economic resources. (Paying someone to make a suitable music video can easily cost $5K for a video – a price I was quoted by a certain indie …

Signal Is More Than Encrypted Messaging. Under Meredith Whittaker, It’s Out to Prove Surveillance Capitalism Wrong. Excellent interview covering lots of what's wrong with surveillance capitalism and what we need (more folk) to do in order to build a better alternative.Solar will get too cheap to connect to the power grid. In the UK in 2024, I can go online and buy a solar panel with the same dimensions as …

This is a tabloid thriller romp meets gothic romance into what I would probably describe more as caretaker whump appreciation of bad things happening to a male captive than anything traditionally femdom. Still, if your entry to this kink is more focused on the hurt/comfort male suffering part and the power fantasy of being a rescuer, this book has a lot to offer. And, if last week’s review (What… Source

We finally watched Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, an ode to solitude starring Koji Yakusho as a toilet cleaner finding happiness in doing things his way. Wenders told Frieze: “The spirit of the film is in the fact that everything feels almost holy because that’s how he looks at everything.” We’re encouraged to embrace life’s simple pleasures and routine, to leave the past behind and appreciate the current moment — life …

I have finally got the comments section of the site working. If you'd like to suggest corrections; ask questions or make a comment, please feel free. No swearing!You will need to supply an email address (look for the banner at the end of a post) and then check your inbox for an email from [email protected] confirming registration on the site. Click the confirmation link in the email and then you …