Recently updated blogs

In which I accidentally ran 16.2 miles instead of 13.1. Whoops. Assumed audience: People interested in endurance running (or endurance sports more generally), or who just like to hear what I am up to as a runner. On Sunday, I ran the Boulderthon Half Marathon! And… an extra 5km, such that I don’t have a particularly good official time to brag about, because my official finish time was 1:39:30. But …

Nero, book, Italian, 96 pages, 2021, Italia By 1984, Frigidaire magazine was an established publication that combined an edgy, irreverent and outspoken attitude with wide newsstand circulation. Among the various experiments in the pages of the magazine, the very first computer-generated comic was published that year. It was realised by a classic duo of illustrator and scriptwriter (Antonio Glessi and Andrea Zingoni) working with an Apple II+ and a primordial …

October 2, 2024 Let’s check in with what the “Start With Art” heroines have been buying! This month, we’re starting with this heroine and this painting. The more I look at this painting, the more I appreciate it – especially the essential touches of black in a painting that is mostly warm colors. Sometimes, you just want to have some black in your closet… First up – let’s look at …

(Previous posts here.) I’ve finished the game. Just like Dungeon Adventure was an anti-Zork of sorts, this can be thought of as an anti-Starcross, both in a negative and a positive way. A design from Kyoto University and the Kajima Corporation for artificial gravity on the moon, allowing babies to be born in 1G. Voltgloss and Rob helpfully drop some hints in the comments. The big piece I missed was …

Happy October!It's hard to believe the spooky season has rolled around once more, but here we are! And it's time for a look at the October schedule on Turner Classic Movies.Bela Lugosi is the October Star of the Month. Over two dozen of his films will be featured on Wednesday evenings.The TCM Spotlight will focus on period costume dramas, with a whopping 53 films being shown on Tuesday evenings.Thursdays will …

I have another book coming out – Legitimacy in Liberal Democracies. In this book I develop a theory of legitimacy to explain the crisis of liberal democracy in established democracies, like the United Kingdom and the United States. In these countries there is deep dissatisfaction with political procedures, yet no credible alternatives have emerged. Without … Continue reading My Second Book →

A day on the beach in the autumn sunshine. Fishing with Steve, the targets were cod, bass and rays. Although I really wanted to catch my first gurnard - just as well, that's all we could manage in daylight - what brilliant looking fish - really made my day! Gurnard - it's like Jar Jar Binks had sex with a gudgeon. Steve isn't one to quit so we fished on …

In Part 4, I presented a nifty result supporting my claim that classical statistical mechanics reduces to thermodynamics when Boltzmann’s constant 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 state …

Drive robot mechs underground as you search for treasure in Mining Mechs. It’s a 2D action adventure game and kind of reminds me of Steamworld Dig mixed with elements of Terraria. It’s available on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here. You’ll start the game on the surface, and can talk to […]

As many already know the book CRYPTOPUNKS: FREE TO CLAIM that I worked on most of last year, which is being published by Phaidon, is currently at the printers. As far as I know it should be in people’s hands in early December. I may or may not have seen a copy already, and in either case I can attest that it turned out beautifully. This thing is a brick, …

In the last 9 months I have managed to read… not even 3 whole books. I would like to beat my average (4) this year, so lately I’ve been making it a point to get a couple of chapters in every night before bed. I hate how I can just forget how much I enjoy reading.

German-speaking readers might be interested in Roberto Vinco’s article “Neo-Scholastic Metaphysics in the 21st Century: An Examination of the Perspective of Edward Feser,” in the latest issue of the journal Philosophische Rundschau.

"This Won't Kill You" is a 60-page Nero Wolfe mystery novelette by Rex Stout. It was first published in the September 1952 issue of The American Magazine. It later appeared in book form in the short-story collection Three Men Out, published by Viking Press in 1954. I have read this story many times and it is one of my favorite novelettes in the Nero Wolfe series. It is very different …

Sinéad Campbell-Wallace, ENO’s Suor Angelica 2024 © Genevieve Girling (2).jpg The English National Opera’s latest production of Suor Angelica, staged at the London Coliseum, is an evocative and emotionally charged portrayal of Puccini’s short but powerful opera. Directed by the ever-innovative Annilese Miskimmon, this staging of the 1918 work delves deeply into themes of religious barbarism, repentance, maternal love, and redemption, with a striking simplicity that enhances the intensity of …

The other day I saw a meme that went something like this: Isn’t it crappy how basic human activities like singing, dancing, and making art have been turned into skills instead of being recognized as behaviors? The point of doing these things has become to get good at them. But they should be recognized as things humans do innately, like how birds sing or bees make hives. I thought about …