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November 28, 1520 – March 6, 1521 After consulting with the pilot João Lopes Carvalho, Magellan decided on a straightforward plan for reaching the Spice Islands at long last. The fleet would sail north along the western coast of South America for about 1600 miles (2600 kilometers), until it reached a latitude of 32 degrees south. Then it would finally bid farewell to the continent around whose edges it had …

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It finally seems to be happening. The old hotel I worked at is getting torn down. It seems weird to see it go. I wouldn’t have had this website without that hotel. Here is a link to the Beloit Daily News article about the place getting torn down.

A path at Parc Angrignon, Montreal. Watercolor, 6" x 9". Attention -- our loss of it, our lack of it -- seems to be on many people's minds these days. From Ezra Klein to close friends of my own, it seems that more of us are acknowledging that sustaining the quality of awareness and focus we call attention has become a significant problem, not just for young people who've grown …

I’m happy to announce that I’ll be playing bass as part of the Pittsburgh Plays concert series on December 14th at The Roxian Theatre. From Pittsburgh Play’s website: Pittsburgh Plays is a semi-annual event that offers music lovers of all kinds the chance to experience the talents of local artists through the coveted music of legendary performers who have influenced generations. The mission of Pittsburgh Plays is to build community …

I’m trying to write a little bit about some of the materials, techniques and equipment that I use for my printing. These will be my personal opinions about what works for me and how well. Anything I say about cost, value and quality is from my personal experience and I’m well aware that the way we all work and our preferences and values are very individual. Out of all of …

Vincent Simonetti collected his first historic tuba - a ~1910 Cerveny BB-flat Helicon - in Boston in 1965, while playing tuba on tour with the Moyseev Ballet Company. Today the collection has grown to more than 350 tubas, and is now the largest private collection in the world that is dedicated exclusively to members of the tuba family. The collection entirely fills five rooms of a bright yellow house in …

Thought experiment: What’s the ugliest game book you’d still pick off a shelf if you came across it again for the first time? Indie snobs will of course claim it’s a whole long list, but the reality is that we really do judge a book by its cover. That’s why they have covers. Fair warning: it’s not a great movie! But I did appreciate the (ham-handed) message. Last week I …

Discussing climate change alongside The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu 2017-) is unorthodox but offers an alternative and marginalised perspective. Typically, when thinking of climate change, David Attenborough, Britain’s national treasure, comes to mind. But while attending the 2024 online CST Conference: Sustainability and Television, which ran from 24th June to the 4th of July, that all changed. Source

I was touring a grove in Ventura County that had some large GEM avocado trees and many of them had respectable crops, but then I came to one whose branches were cascades of new fruit. The other two people I was with also stopped in their tracks to admire the amount of avocados. And we […] The post GEM avocado tree next to Bacon has most fruit appeared first on …

Old age can be a silent tribute to beauty. I imagine my own case. Maybe I live the tail end of my life alone in elder care. My wife, six years older than me, is already gone. My children are living full lives in distant towns. What will I be doing? I've always been a writer, a teacher, a worker, but maybe 89-year-old me will lack the creative energy or …

I started this as another edition of Assorted Stupidity, but after noticing that my first three items all had to do with the same person, I decided to devote the entire post to him. As many sources have reported, rapper/producer Sean Combs, a.k.a. “Puff,” a.k.a. “Puffy,” a.k.a. “Puff Daddy,” a.k.a. “P. Diddy,” a.k.a. “Diddy,” a.k.a. “Love,” a.k.a. “Brother Love,” now a.k.a. “Inmate No. 37452-054,” is facing federal sex trafficking and …

Many things have been said about the Andromeda Galaxy, arguably the most majestic galaxy that amateur astronomers can image due to it's sheer size in the sky—many times larger than the Moon appears to us, but also many times dimmer.With the naked eye, even in dark skies it appears but a tiny little fuzzy patch. But once you start collecting those photons photographically with long exposures it comes to life.Total …

What if I told you I had a from-scratch cinnamon roll recipe that was effortlessly veganized, required no kneading, and could be coming out of your oven in just over two hours? And what if I told you’d I’d been making it for years and didn’t tell you about it because I thought, for some bizarre reason, that the site didn’t need another breakfast bun recipe? Yes, I’d throw a …

Presents insights on student debt from the author’s book, Leben auf Kredit, which examines various forms of precarious debt in the US from the end of slavery to the present.