Recently updated blogs

How 12,000 tons of food waste transformed a barren landscape (via Mefi). A skyscraper-sized tsunami vibrated through the entire planet a year ago and no one saw. Apparently there had been a cruise ship in the fjord the day before it happened. Turns out the soft cell was around long before the early 1980s. How and why sauces break (via Mefi) prompted me to try the flourless cheese sauce recipe—warm …

Tischlein, deck dich! While waiting for its first sitters, this table set for three enjoys the late afternoon sun.

If you are a fellow aficionado of cheap and cheerful Northern Soul compilations you will know one of the downsides is that certain tracks crop up again and again, which is often a price worth paying to get unexpected or lost gems. One of the repeat offenders is Laura Greene’s ‘Music, Moonlight and You’, which is fine by me as I am incredibly fond of the spoken introduction, where Laura …

Dina comes home beaming with new pictures of grey seals. We wonder why she keeps photographing what she has already successfully photographed.“Why go to the trouble of a long strenuous walks to photograph what you photographed many times before?” Siri asks cheekily.Dina: “Because I enjoy it. And I never know what I’ll meet out there.”Siri ...

What can philosophical preoccupations such as dialectics offer a world in the grip of a existential environmental crisis? For most commentators, indeed for most people concerned about the environment, the crisis is a technological one. Humans, the argument goes, use the wrong technologies, the wrong energy sources or use too much natural resources leading to depletion, exhaustion and pollution.

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 […]

An end of week recap “No one who loves life can ignore literature, and no one who loves literature can ignore life.” – Laura Esquivel This is a post in which I summarise books read, reviewed and currently on my TBR shelf. In addition to a variety of literary titbits, I look ahead to forthcoming features, see what’s on the nightstand and keep readers abreast of various book-related happenings. CHATTERBOOKS …

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 …