Recently updated blogs

I always thought that the opening question in the song “Little Fluffy Clouds” by the Orb (music video) was a sample of LeVar Burton, maybe from his show “Reading Rainbow, but apparently, it's not! (link via Jason Kottke) Upon relistening to the song, it's now clear to me that it's not Levar Burton. It's very close though. And while I like the song, my favorite one from The Orb is …

Looking back at the year 1954 - some 70 years ago it was pretty much the same top stars from the year before. After 1954 though the movies were changing, and the next generation of youth would soon be taking over the box office...1. JOHN WAYNE2. DEAN MARTIN/JERRY LEWIS3. GARY COOPER4. JAMES STEWART5. MARILYN MONROE6. ALAN LADD7. WILLIAM HOLDEN 8. BING CROSBY9. JANE WYMAN10. MARLON BRANDO

Precious and fleeting, an autumn wander around these 'Isles of the Sea'

Disclaimer: This post expresses my opinions, which do not necessarily reflect consensus by the whole Web Components community. A blog post by Ryan Carniato titled “Web Components Are Not the Future” has recently stirred a lot of controversy. A few other JS framework authors pitched in, expressing frustration and disillusionment around Web Components. Some Web Components folks wrote rebuttals, while others repeatedly tried to get to the bottom of the …

How The Mouse Stumbled

Up until 2021, Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, was a town. For many years the area's long-standing MP, Sir David Amess, had campaigned for it to be granted city status. In October 2021 following the fatal stabbing of Sir David at his constituency surgery, Queen Elizabeth II agreed to grant Southend-on-Sea with city status as a memorial to him and this was made official in early 2022. The …

For this episode I spoke to Ahmed Gatnash, the Executive director of Kawaakibi Foundation. He is also a Strategy Advisor at the Albert Einstein Institution, and is the co-author of Middle East Crisis Factory, a primer on systemic crises and a vision for a positive future for the MENA region. During the discussion we spoke about the context of the political economic situation where Islam rose, the economic policies that …

And another month has passed. With September, 75% of the year is already over. Christmas is coming soon! 🎄 But once again, there’s not much exciting to share. A lot of my time right now is spent supporting my girlfriend, who is finally taking her (hopefully) final exams in October and will then be done with her studies. 🥳 But even studying needs a break sometimes, so at the beginning …

This is the third time I’ve carved these words from J.R.R. Tolkien on a bowl, but it has been several years. Each bowl has been different, and so has the lettering. I think working with green wood straight from the … Continue reading →

In Part 4, I presented a nifty result supporting my claim that classical statistical mechanics reduces to thermodynamics when Boltzmann’s constant kk approaches zero. I used a lot of physics jargon to explain why I care about this result. I also used some math jargon to carry out my argument. This may have been off-putting. But to understand the result, you only need to know calculus! So this time I’ll …

Jargon isn't an impartial term, so I'm sorry for the mild clickbait. I needed a word that started with "J"! I went to the doctor's recently. The nurse asked me if I had any hobbies because it was a mental health checkup. I said I was "making videos and stuff around ethics in tech" (I'm still workshopping my elevator pitch, can you tell?). Her: "There are ethical issues in tech?" …

Many of you will have seen the news that Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed SB 1047, the groundbreaking AI safety bill that overwhelmingly passed the California legislature. Newsom gave a disingenuous explanation (which no one on either side of the debate took seriously), that he vetoed the bill only because it didn’t go far enough (!!) in regulating the misuses of small models. While sad, this doesn’t come as a …

Instagram influencers are promoting "perineum sunning" as a health practice. “In a mere 30 seconds of sunlight on your butthole, you will receive more energy from this electric node than you would in an entire day being outside with your clothes on,” says an influencer, who goes by Ra of Earth. In a viral video that has racked up more than 35,000 views, he gestures toward the sun as three …

This month’s open thread for climate topics. Please stay vaguely on topic and do not abuse other commenters. The post Unforced Variations: Oct 2024 first appeared on RealClimate.

This week’s theme: John Coltrane as a sideman with Miles Davis, 1956, Workin’, Steamin’, Relaxin’, Cooking’, Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants. Featured artists Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones.The post Podcast: Miles and Trane, Prestige, 1956 first appeared on jazzcollector.com.