Recently updated blogs

In this week’s blog, Dr Martin Spychal, Senior Research Fellow on the Commons 1832-1868 project, discusses his new book Mapping the State: English Boundaries and the 1832 Reform Act. The book is part of the Royal Historical Society’s New Historical Perspectives series and has been published by the University of London press. It is available now to download free in open access, or to purchase in paperback and hardback. In …

I'll be moving soon. I've been in the same apartment in Mentor, Ohio, just down the street from the James A. Garfield National Historic site (where our 20th president once lived) and a little further down the street from the public library where I work, for 12 years now, but the time has come to head back to my hometown of Ashtabula, Ohio to take care of my ancestral home.This, …

I like the stripes on this one: the contrast between the vertical stripes on the bodice and skirt, the horizontal stripe on the skirt, and diagonal of the bias-cut sleeves. The maker even made the effort to align the stripes on the cape and bodice at the center front.Dress, cotton, c.1825. From LACMA.

The release of the Lost Art Press “Make a Swedish Tool Chest with Whitney Miller” video course coincided with an expansion of my free time. And so, it was an easy decision to take this on as a new project. (And before you ask “what about the boat??”, yes, I am still working on the boat. I’m still doing final finishing on the mast, which is rather tedious. And the …

Double Maths First Thing is Colin’s weekly news bulletin. Although it’s more like a nerfpelletin, honestly. Hello! My name is Colin and I am a mathematician on a mission to help everyone find the joy and delight in figuring things out. Art! Up in that London they have these days, the Piccadilly Circus ad boards are being taken over by Olafur Eliasson. While this doesn’t look especially mathematical, a lot …

It is quite unbelievable that Amsterdam still does not have a bridge over the River IJ, despite discussions on this topic dating back almost two centuries. There are no other cities in the Netherlands that sit along a river and …

There are two fantastic things about this witch's broom. 1. It's easy and free to make. 2. If you don't have a lot of storage space for things like Halloween decorations you can just compost it or burn it at the end of the season then make a new one next year. Hi. I'm Karen. I long...Read More

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 …

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.