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FREDERICK: The study of birds and their habits is quite fascinating, Mrs. Gamely. I was only reading about it in stir… Sir Benjamin Stir, I mean… he’s the leading author on the subject, you know. MILDRED: Oh yes? FREDERICK: For instance, did you know there are some species of birds which are now practically extinct? MILDRED: Really? FREDERICK: Now, you take the little bustard. Now it seems that 50 years …

Bit more warmth to tide us over until the long dark descends upon us. An hour on Golden Pond before dusk, little movement but a tiny fizz of bubbles and this cormorant scarred skimmer took a fancy to a Swim Stim durable hooker. Hateful birds. I'd lost a puddle chucker early doors but a fitful breeze conspired to drift it cocked just into netting range at the same time.Sunday and …

3 Text Editors for the Linux Command Line 17 September, 2024 I don’t know exactly, or even roughly, how many editors there are for the Linux command line. But I have tried more than a few of them over the years, and found that most weren’t for me. A variety reasons for that, which probably had as much to do with me as with the editors. But, regardless of what …

Bev and I fly off to the, sun-soaked, island of Corfu on Wednesday afternoon. Gatwick isn't a particularly pleasant airport from which to start our latest adventure, yet is certainly better than the Luton alternative when having to drive from Ramsgate. Because of this tonight will be the final time that the garden moth trap will be operated until we return. To be fair, the recent run of blustery winds …

The world’s birds gathered for their conference And said: ‘Our constitution makes no sense. All nations in the world require a king; How is it we alone have no such thing? Only a kingdom can be justly run; We need a king and must inquire for one.’ They argued how to set about their quest. The hoopoe fluttered forward; on his breast There shone the symbol of the Spirit’s Way …

Day 22 in Ukraine. Sunlight’s soft ballet through lace of old curtains— glimpses of empty streets. — Dusk descends quietly Sirens wail through the stillness, Stars fade from the sky. — Awoken at night Flashes tear through the darkness, Dawn feels far away. Another day arrives. Why is time flying so fast? A week ago, I had a dream about waking up in the middle of an explosion (it was …

I read back my writing and find it uneven, like a mislaid path. Cobblestones, ruddy with rusty moss. But the unevenness doesn’t bother me. In the gaps between sentences, where the rhythm breaks and disperses, where traces of it are cast irregularly over rocky paragraphs, like a varnished wave smeared wetly against the shore, I glimpse something glittering, something close to feeling. That leak of light is a comfort. You …

There is a classic statistical test known as the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test (Wikipedia). This post is about an off-label use of the KS-test that I don’t think people know about (not even Kolmogorov or Smirnov), and which seems useful for experimentalists in behavioral science and beyond (most useful, I think, for clinical trials and field... The post [120] Off-Label Smirnov: How Many Subjects Show an Effect in Between-Subjects Experiments? appeared …

Olight Arkfeld Pro Specifications Introduction Torch in use Build quality LED, bezel, lens and reflector Size and comparison User interface Batteries and charging Performance Beamshots Conclusion Price Product page Specifications Brand/model Olight Arkfeld Pro LED Cool White 5700-6700K 70 CRI, green laser, 365nm UV emitter Maximum lumens 1,300 lm Maximum beam intensity 2,608 cd Maximum throw 102 m Battery Built-in 1500mAh 3.7V LiPo Onboard charging Yes (magnetic charging) Material Aluminium …

Thanks to everyone who bought a book in our recent half-price sale. All orders have shipped and will be with you very soon. My storage woes are over, but you know something? It felt great to shift some units. So let’s do it again, albeit in a slightly lesser fashion. The Good Life For Wage Slaves is half price again. Use GOOD50 at checkout. I’m Out can’t be half price …

“Unit One,” a new short story of mine, is published in issue 249 (fall 2024) of The Paris Review, with eerie illustrations by Cathleen Clarke. Please check it out!

This is the final entry in Season 1 of Discourse 2000, a story-by-story look at 2000AD. Contains spoilers! WHICH THRILL? The surviving cast of Harlem Heroes return, forming a team to compete in the new, even more violent sport of Inferno. The final issue of Action, with the traditional “exciting news” death knell THE STORY OF A VIOLENT COMIC Action, 2000AD’s notorious predecessor, still existed for the bulk of 1977, …

Hainan is an island off the south coast of China about the size of Vancouver Island - that makes it bigger than Sicily and Sardinia and twice the size of Hawaii, with a population of over 10 million people (more than London). And yet inevitably until last week I'd never heard of it. I make no excuses for this - my knowledge of the geography of China is pretty pathetic, …

History is written by the winners, George Orwell said, and this goes for family history, too. After finishing Miss Abby Fitch-Martin, you sigh in relief that the adage is true in this case. If Kataryn Loughlin and her little sister Esther survived to adulthood, it was despite the best efforts of their Aunt Abby. “Aunt Abby” sounds far too familiar for this forbidding woman. She was, Loughlin writes, the “final …

It's one of those days that a web search led me to an unfamiliar corner, and I found myself poring over a pile of column charts that look like this: This pair of charts appears to be canonical in a type of genetics analysis. I'll focus on the column chart up top. The chart plots a variety of gene functions along the horizontal axis. These functions are classified into three …