Recently updated blogs

Before moving to the US, I attended the Gelfand seminar and took some pictures. I was a regular participant and have some bittersweet memories from that time. I’ve written about my experiences in several blog posts related to Gelfand, who was my advisor. The year was 1990, and I just acquired my first camera. I was about to leave the USSR for the US and took a bunch of pictures …

A truly impressive paper was published this week with a new reconstruction of global temperatures over the last ~500 million years. There is something tremendously satisfying about seeing a project start, and then many years later see the results actually emerge and done better than you could have imagined. Especially one as challenging as accurately tracking half a billion years of Earth’s climate. Think about what is involved – biological …

Photographed with a Fujifilm X100VI – 23 mm focal length – 1/900″ at f/8 – ISO 125 Teton Pass, Wyoming, United States – Newe Sogobia (Eastern Shoshone), Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla, Shoshone-Bannock, and Tséstho’e (Cheyenne) land This photograph, titled “Weather inversion over Jackson Hole, as seen from Teton Pass. September, 2024.”, was originally published on All-Encompassing Trip.

Rapido Trains UK have announced a range of generic pre-grouping coaches, with the new 00 Gauge 48’ ‘Evolution’ Bogie Coaches. There is such a variety of coaching prototypes in the pre-grouping era that it has been difficult for the industry to justify making 100% accurate models for all of them. Rapido Trains UK are filling this gap with a selection of generic 48’ bogie coaches, including SECR, LBSC and SDJR, …

In 1986, after the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds into its flight, the eminent physicist Richard Feynman was called in to find out what had gone wrong. He later demonstrated that the “O-ring” seals, which were meant to join sections of the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters, had failed due to cold temperatures, with catastrophic results. But he also discovered more than a few other... Source

I probably should wait a bit before writing these notes – I had my diabetes eye screening this morning which includes the demon drops that leave my vision even more compromised than usual. I am fully Mr Magoo-ing it at the moment but this is the window I put aside to write so I’ll persist….and hope for the best! I had a bit of a bumpy return from Hamburg – …

iSelection: One for Juan (J. Heath) https://londonjazzcollector.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/heath-brothers_one-for-juam_-the-heath-brothers-paris-76_srlp29_sam-records-fr_kevin-gray_ljc.mp3 . . . Track List A1 One For Juan (J. Heath) 13:11A2 Watergate Blues (P. Heath) 6:14B1 Smilin’ Billy (J. Heath) 22:36 Full Production Credits (including essential detail omitted from the hype sticker): “Recording of The Heath Brothers “Jazz Vivant” radio show performance before a live audience at Studio 104, Maison de la Radio, Paris, on April 16, 1976, Original stereo master tapes …

In the second season of Ancient Apocalypse, Graham Hancock focuses his search for a lost ancient civilization on the Americas. The presentation is, if anything, even slicker than in the first season. The cinematography looks amazing, the music is inspiring, the editing is masterful. I am sure it will be a stunningly beautiful travelog. Right from the first few seconds of the trailer though, Hancock gets into some conceptual trouble. …

Before the election, Labour promised to make broad changes to the standards regime. Yet two months after the election, progress on many aspects of their plans has been slow, and the new government has already been accused of ‘cronyism’ and other ethical missteps. Peter Riddell argues that urgent action to create new safeguards (including legislation) is required, and that ministers cannot brush aside criticism on the grounds that their intentions …

Reading Time: 33 minutes I ought to be in Slovenia right now, hanging out with nice internet people and thinking about nice internet things, but instead I am in my kitchen in London, in my pants, a bit tired and hungover and generally feeling quite resentful at the fact that things like ‘needing to earn money to eat’ have prevented me from travelling to Naive Yearly. To all those of …

I recently entered the Shropshire Shufflers’ Severn Bridges 10k in Shrewsbury (after a little bit of a kerfuffle where it wouldn’t accept my affiliated club name) and ran with Gaz to celebrate his birthday. Never expected Gaz to choose a 10k to as a birthday celebration and yet here we are; I like to think of it as my good influence as a long time runner Katie, at lifeofamissfit… Source

a daytime picture of the pike place market sign with a fancy vsco filter on it. this is one of the first pictures i took in seattle ten years ago. we’ve lived in this city for almost a decade now. seattle belongs to more people than the ones who can afford it. I’m traveling this week and I spent most of my writing time on my public testimony against the …

Astronaut Kate Rubins points at the "ISS Voting Booth" where she voted from the International Space Station on October 27, 2020 (NASA) The astronauts who are currently stuck in space thanks to Boeing's little mishaps will soon be voting in the upcoming U.S. presidential election between vice president Kamala Harris and convicted felon Donald Trump. They were supposed to come back to Earth after just eight days and given the …

Deserter Pubcast · Beers in Bermo: all the latest news about pubs, drugs, crisps and slacking off (Sept 24) In this episode: *** Source

Neil Madden recently wrote a blog post titled, Digital Signatures and How to Avoid Them. One of the major points he raised is: Another way that signatures cause issues is that they are too powerful for the job they are used for. You just wanted to authenticate that an email came from a legitimate server, but now you are providing irrefutable proof of the provenance of leaked private communications. Oops! …