Recently updated blogs

Many have noticed a key time coincidence. The last few centuries have seen both a rise in many lamentable changes to key social practices and norms, and also a great rise in the influence non-traditional social structures on our lives, including both more capitalism and more government. They suggest: the second trend caused the first, and thus that the first might be reversed by reversing the second. That is, with …

Seen around North Conway recently

A while ago I was watching a Canadian YouTuber who (as a sidebar in a much longer video) was objecting to the idea that Australia is bigger than Greenland… he just went, “Um, haven’t you seen them on a map?? There’s no way!” I guess some YouTubers are provocatively wrong about things to farm engagement but that wasn’t this guy’s schtick, he was just genuinely brainwashed by Mercator maps. Anyway, …

We were in London for a short visit this weekend and, between us, went to a few notable pubs that we never visited while living there. The Boleyn Tavern was infamous for being the West Ham pub because it was close to the former Upton Park stadium. Regularly boarded up or closed ahead of particularly tasty fixtures, it wasn’t the sort of place we ever felt the need to go. …

Chipping away at my River Wye pike target or just enjoying chasing pike! Less than ideal conditions, red and rising, but one fish lost to a hook-pull & one landed, 10lb 5oz - bleak livebait doing the trick.

Thursday 10th October 2024 Readers will know I like to get out and about and see what’s actually happening on the road as well as on the tracks when commenting. Something I wish more managers and especially senior directors of transport companies would do more often so they can take informed decisions based on real world experience. When I first wrote about what is now a widespread adoption by First …

For as long as I toil in the trenches of design, I'll never tire of the design brief that goes: "Everyone please take this same basic thing and mold it in your image." The results of such an assignment are nearly always uniformly delightful, so I was happy to see the debut of this latest project, commissioned by the bicoastal studio Office of Tangible Space, run by Michael Yarinsky and …

JFI’s Financing the Energy Transition researcher Sina Sinai has released the fourth memo in a series about the financing and bankability of green technologies in the United States. This paper examines how tariff policy has affected US manufacture of solar panels. Protective tariffs enacted to insulate domestic manufacturers from market forces will inevitably come at greater cost than explicit investment and subsidy policies in the shorter term as capacity continues …

Saturday 21st September 2024 You join me in the canalside Cheshire town of Audlem, lacking a bus service and now my Uber has driven off leaving me stranded, despite giving me the impression he'd stick around whilst I spent my 25 minutes in the Shroppie Fly. Thankfully, the barmaid had recommend an App called 'Go-Too'. What is wrong with 'Go To?' I wondered. After a pre-emptive half of Banksies in …

During the 1980s, a distinct pop culture aesthetic shaped the way teenagers decorated their bedrooms, regardless of gender. These spaces were a vibrant mix of cartoons, movies, and toys, capturing the essence of the era. The decor often mirrored the excitement of a Saturday morning cartoon lineup, bursting with color and personality. For teenagers in […]

I was introduced to Gurjot Singh in the summer of 2017. He is a Medical Doctor turned research scientist from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. His work involved researching and studying the carbon metabolism of cities in developing countries. He developed empirical models to describe the flow of carbon inside cities, including the sources of influx and efflux and carbon sequestration1 in urban areas. In 2015, he participated …

Check out As in guillotine... for more. UPDATE, 7PM: This was sent to subscribers via email as a test, but nothing seems to have changed with the “newsletter” setup so that means Jetpack is hiding that setting somewhere else, because of course they are! It might have to do with me having two Gravatar accounts I’m trying to merge but have to wait 30 days for one of them to …

Yesterday I wrote about a trend towards plainness and dullness as exemplary of the foibles of Modernism. Yes, the diversity of colour in art is decreasing. Yes, Mark Rothko's colour fields are getting more and more expensive. Yes, the places that we live and work are increasingly converging on dull beige boxes.But:Changsha Meixihu International Culture and Arts Centre by Zaha HadidHabitat 67 by Moshe SafdieThese are both a ton of …

Since the “social media is bad for teens” myth will not die, I keep having intense conversations with colleagues, journalists, and friends over what the research says and what it doesn’t. (Alice Marwick et. al put together a great little primer in light of the legislative moves.) Along the way, I’ve also started to recognize how slipperiness between two terms creates confusion — and political openings — and so I …

Today was their third attempt, I believe, to set a pre-enquête date.I didn't provide much detail about the previous pre-pre-enquête because I didn't want to tip my hand to Bill that I had been an Observer last week, too (at least for part of his appearance; I was stuck in a meeting for the first half). The previous Justice of the Peace - Her Worship Racine - had calmly explained …