Recently updated blogs

On Saturday we went to the British Art Fair, which was huge, filled with wonders and horrors, and extremely crowded. At first I thought we wouldn’t be able to move or see anything, but the crowds thinned as we progressed. About 70 galleries were exhibiting, most of them multiple works, so you could emerge from the scrum overwhelmed and remembering nothing. But I did see things that excited me, and …

Two upcoming events that may be of interest to you (please pass on to others who may like them): The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State Presents: A non-technical, 6-week class with Professor Andrew Fraknoi Einstein without Tears Tuesdays from 12:30 to 2:30 pm via Zoom (Oct. 8 – Nov. 12, 2024) This non-technical, non-mathematical introduction to some of the most awe-inspiring ideas from the work of Albert …

We’re signing up to PACBI, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. Since 2004, PACBI has been advocating for a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions. This is based on the fact that these institutions are complicit in the Israeli system of oppression that has denied Palestinians their basic rights guaranteed by international law. Cultural institutions are one part of the ideological and institutional framework …

This week: Amazon’s return to office mandate; and local LLMs are getting good thanks to Meta. You must be a member to read the rest of this article. (Already a member? Log In.)

I like to keep an eye out for cool shapes during my walks and use them as inspiration for my #SidewalkFriends drawings. It’s like my version of hunting for Pokémon. We just got back from a fun vacation in Hawaii. While we were checking out the awesome murals in Kaka’ako (near Honolulu), I spotted these interesting cracks in the sidewalk. I started this sketch by drawing a face, but then …

September was such a bad reading month for me. I had so many books that were 2 stars or lower; I don’t remember smashing any mirrors… So I’m super excited to draw a line under September and move onto October reading. It surely can’t be worse! Please! I am hoping to flip between spooky, creepy… Continue reading October Reading Goals

The immigration officer looked up at me sternly, “Your student visa has expired June 10, 2024!” What!? There must be some misunderstanding. I applied last October for a one-year extension. It has been granted. Look here under visa expiry date. It says 10/6/2024. “In India, the month is the second digit. That’s June 10th. I then realized what happened. 10/6/2024 was the expiry date of my passport when I entered …

Black Ends - Pretend 2 Be (Protect Me) Seattle scene stalwarts, Black Ends describe themselves as "gunk-pop" which does quite well to pigeonhole a sound that pulls the rug out from under post-grunge (hey, Seattle, we were bound to fall into that one) and watches it fall into a menacing, vaguely jointed heap leading into an "anthem for the paranoid and the hopeless". Psychotic Spew by Black Ends Dayflower - …

GO GET THAT The post No Bells, Issue 1 is available for pre-order now appeared first on No Bells.

Punk Planet issues 25-31. 2024 marks 30 years since the start of Punk Planet, the magazine I ran for 13 years. Writing a single essay to summarize 80 issues—thousands of pages, hundreds of interviews, infinite amounts of hope and effort—is impossible, so I am writing 13 posts over 13 months, each one about a single year of the magazine. Each one dedicated to a year of learning, a year of …

Your brain, fueled by books and augmented with simple tools, is your best resource for preparing and running awesome tabletop roleplaying games. Many GMs and players say they find a lot of value out of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and other generative AI tools like Midjourney or Dall-E. Who am I to tell them they’re not finding them as useful as they say they are? But there's a …

Morning folks.Well, another post about film and I'm not even a hipster.Nor am I using the truly ghastly Ilford colour film either - a film that reminds me of the free stuff you'd get every time you got your holiday pics developed at Snappy Snaps (et al).Nope, this bad boy was fecking expensive, but lovely nonetheless, Kodak TMX 100 - and FRESH too, which is unusual for me as I …

Within culture which could be loosely labelled as Southern Gothic or Gothic Americana there is often a mythical take on the American South which has parallels with work in the UK that has come to be labelled as wyrd, otherly pastoral or weird Albion-esque. Both often have deep roots in the land and folklore, which is accompanied by a sense of the landcape being layered with hidden or unknown stories, …

JAMES MURRAY - WEEDS The Quiet Details label started off in 2023 (at least that is where the catalog numbers began - they were preceded by a digital release by Fields We Found in 2022), but is now rapidly becoming one of the most active labels in the ambient music field. 'Ambient' may not be the right label exactly: the label describes itself as a place for 'each artist's own …

Tens of thousands of children and eligible adults living with type 1 diabetes across England are set to receive an ‘artificial pancreas’ thanks to cost-effective deals secured by the NHS with suppliers of the technology. These groundbreaking devices continually monitor the individual’s glucose levels and then automatically adjust the amount of insulin given to them […]