Recently updated blogs

Earlier this month I had a few minutes to spare downtown so I decided to take a walk around Gold Medal Park. It’s a beautiful park on the east side of downtown. Not too long ago it used to be a large parking lot. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure I saw Cirque du Soleil in this very spot back in the early 2000s when it was just …

Saturday morning at Moorewood Colliery. And down at the coal canal, Pete & Dud are chatting to Boatman Brian about his new unsinkable narrowboat which is made almost entirely from balsa wood by a company called Craftline. The same company also produced the pithead, that too is also made of balsa wood and is also unsinkable. Driver Stavros the Steam is pottering about the sidings pushing wagons from here to …

I’ve been using Structured for more than 150 days, and I’m delighted to say that it has significantly increased my productivity. My ability to plan out my days efficiently has greatly improved thanks to the app, and I now have much better time management. The visual timeline feature really shines. Watching my day unfold visually has reshaped how I tackle my tasks. It’s like having a personal compass for the …

I first learned of bonnets and hats being made of luffa sponge only a couple years ago. I found the idea of a bonnet made from a squash to be both fantastical and completely practical. I figured I would be lucky to ever see one behind glass in a display. I never imagined I would […]

I meet so many aspiring designers who proudly assert that they’re really good at “ideas”. The world does not need more idea people, at least until it catches up on the inspiring backlog of Matt Webb’s ideas. We need to make home-defragging robots before dreaming up new things to buy.

There have been hundreds of (two, actually) complaints about an art work by one Poppy Baynham in a gallery in Hay-on-Wye which includes a black triangle with pink wool on top and those of you who recall (however vaguely) my past posts about Gustave Courbet and Deborah de Robertis and Egon Schiele and Leena McCall will realise that, yes, he’s talking about ladyparts again or, more specifically, images of ladyparts, …

A question from Tumblr user baddywronglegs: I’ve asked this question before and been surprised by the results, now I have access to more weirdos it’s your problem:It is the middle of a Sunday afternoon. You have nothing on, and aren’t expecting visitors, deliveries or post.Unexpectedly, there is a knock at the door.Which of these would surprise you more to find on the doorstep? Fairy or Walrus? Apparently 80% of the …

Note: This article is based on updated research and is intended to replace my old article on Melchizedek, written several years ago. It has also been produced as a documentary at the MythVision YouTube channel. Melchizedek. You’ve probably heard that name before, but many Christians would be hard-pressed to tell you who he was or […]

Albrecht Dürer’s print “The Witch” from around 1500. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession Number 17.37.31 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/391138 I visited Dürer’s house, it was saved from bombing by being built next to the city wall. About sixty years ago, L. Sprague de Camp discovered a list of ancient magic tricks and stagecraft. Most of the tricks employed by the witch Saphanbaal to awe her clients (in my novel) are described by Bishop …

Credit: By the author A Joyful Return of Old Web Techniques 2024-09-19T00:00:00+00:00, by Emma Humphries, from Infinite Wishes 🏳️‍⚧️🚀 I’m happy to see folks who had accounts on Cohost set up their own web sites (which is a wonderful response to see in response to the beloved site’s demise.) People are creating blogs, web rings, and OPML files with the feeds of ex-Cohost users. Some are making tools such as …

On a recent trip I saw this pair of Latin phrases tattooed on the back of a flight attendant’s arms: Left: Deo absente. Right: Deum culpa. I took Latin in middle school, and could guess what the combination might mean. It’s not a common construction, and a search seems to confirm my guess. Both Google and Bing take you to a couple of Reddit posts in r/Latin. Would this be …

Who are you, and what do you do? I'm Miriam Suzanne, and I make (mostly collaborative) things. I like working with creative teams. Around these (online) parts, I'm mostly making things with HTML and CSS. 20 years ago my theater needed a website, so I learned to make websites. Then another for my band, and it snowballed to become OddBird – a small web agency that's been doing some pretty …

My dear wife, Kathryn Farley, just woke me this Friday the 20th from a nap with something that she said was amazing. She told me it was the top most viewed video of the entire day—over a million views. It was indeed terrific—especially for a video by women who work in complexity theory. A Result From Simons As part of their flashback series, they are sharing one of the most …

Heritage Open Days trip to the Fulneck Moravian Settlement Back to weeknotes after a hiatus brought about by – variously – a change of government, the summer holidays, and a house move. Song of the week: Yard Act – Fixer Upper. I had planned 10 days off for the move, but ended up taking a full 2 weeks. I’m glad that I did. I’m writing this on the sofa in …

Today marks the last day of summer—at least, in the Netherlands, where we follow the astronomical calendar to define seasonal changes. I recently discovered – much to my surprise – that other cultures observe this differently. Naturally, this also depends …