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BRITISH EDITIONLa Soiree - David OrdiniWhen I was little and used to play pretend soccer in the dining room this was the theme that we would belt out "baba ba baba baba ba baba" while pretending to be either Kenny Dalgliesh or Archibald, the only two British players we knew in 1979 or 80. So i finally figured out it was the theme tune to ITV's The Big Match which …

This is a nice overview in Cell on vaccine history and new areas that are being explored. For sheer public health benefit, once you establish a clean water supply it's very hard to beat effective vaccines. We have wiped out smallpox as a disease, one that had been dreaded all the way back to prehistory. We are tantilizingly close to doing the same with polio. Other diseases that used to …

ICYMI — Laura Marcus from Tidelines Institute stopped by to talk about her education journey and the experiential education work she is leading in Glacier Bay, Alaska. Jed and I discussed several issues on the last WonkyFolk. Here’s a new analysis on AI from Bellwether. And here’s a new analysis of special education finance from Bellwether. It took Harvard 388 years to catch up with Bellwether. One of Bellwether’s most …

Four more shoutout requests from last year, it was really fun to draw Lupin and Jigen in the suits Max and I wore to our wedding! Shoutouts are for my Private Collector gang on Patreon & my VIP Blog! I draw them traditionally in my sketchbook and folks get one every month.

The singles continue to pour out of the upcoming new album from Jim Nothing. Starting late last year, the record became a steady source for indie comforts even before it was announced. Now, as we quickly approach the late October release of the upcoming Grey Eyes, Grey Lynn, the band lets out a softer side of their Kiwipop, the softly strummed “Sundown Clown.” Turning down the hooks in favor of …

A link I posted recently about Roy Liechtenstein’s plagiarism of comics artists turned up at Mefi not long afterwards, and as someone who likes modern art, comics, Lichtenstein’s art, sampling, and respecting artists’ moral rights, who doesn’t much like copyright in its contemporary overreaching form that’s more for the benefit of multinationals than artists, yet who still thinks copyright is pragmatically necessary in a capitalist society given that we don’t …

♫ Is This Love? by Alison MoyetRead an article in the Guardian only to have this ear worm firmly lodged.

If traditional film is a river, the viewer of that film sits on the bank and watches the water flow by. We wanted to take that viewer and turn them into a fish and put them down into that river. — Greg Roach, Director of The X-Files Game Given the demographics of X-Files fandom, we probably shouldn’t be surprised that the show’s parent network Fox started to think about making …

Nick Heer comments on a spectacularly weird New York Times story titled “Did Apple Just Kill Social Apps?,” which is actually about how Apple has ratcheted up contacts-sharing security in iOS 18: What I do not understand is granting Bier’s objections the imprimatur of a New York Times story when one can see the full picture of Bier’s track record. On the merits, I am unsympathetic to his complaints. Users …

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866 (GOLD)A big visual difference has been made over the past two weeks, with ceiling panel fitting now well underway and 75% of the main passenger saloon panelled very quickly. Even with the protective film still in situ, the extra lighting in the coach is noticeable with the new panels providing a lot of reflection.London North Eastern Railway 1938 Brake Third Open …

Is it possible that we can account for the Fermi paradox by looking to our own behavior as a species? Some science fiction of the 1950s pointed in that direction, as witness The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Dr Kelvin F Long addresses the question in terms of the ‘zoo hypothesis’ in the essay below, asking what our culture could do to make itself less threatening to any outsider. …

Welcome to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant […]

San Francisco, September 2024.

Review-o-rama! The post The Greg Hatcher Legacy Files #183: ‘Friday in the Stacks — Guest Reviews Edition’ appeared first on Atomic Junk Shop.

The publisher and editors of the paper record have told us ad nauseam how seriously they take the threat of a second Trump presidency and how conscientious they are about doing their job, but if you want to know what's really important to them, you should probably consider what economists might call revealed preference. That front page did more damage to the Times' credibility than Jayson Blair ever did.— Charles …