Recently updated blogs

Previously: Part 2 This week, we finished formulating the axioms of the Elementary Theory of the Category of Sets. This week’s axioms were the last four: 7. For every function f:X→Yf: X \to Y and element y∈Yy \in Y, we can form the fibre f −1(y)f^{-1}(y). Category theorists will recognize this as a special case of the existence of pullbacks. But in the presence of the other axioms, this special …

Accessibility is key in modern web design. A site that doesn’t consider how its user experience may differ for various audiences — especially those with disabilities — will fail to engage and serve everyone equally. One of the best ways to prevent this is to approach your site from a bottom-up perspective. Understanding Bottom-Up Design Conventional, top-down design approaches start with the big picture before breaking these goals and concepts …

Because who hasn’t dreamed of piloting their own AT-AT walker through the side of a neighbor’s house, this is a video of engineer James Bruton constructing his own roughly 7-foot tall rideable AT-AT. It moves at a snail’s pace (even slower than in the movies), but I would still proudly ride it around in circles in my front yard. Of course I also proudly bathe in a kiddy pool in …

Many people in Tasmania have a connection to these buildings - literally. The former Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital complex was purpose built and a rather vast complex of important Modernist era buildings. Pictured here is the Art Deco (1930s) and Modernist (1960s) buildings. The hospital closed down in the late 1990s and was moved to the current Launceston General Hospital in Charles Street. This photograph is available for the first …

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. …