Recently updated blogs

Summer 2024 will live long in the memory after my visit to an extraordinary exhibition: George Biles: King of Signwriters. It was mounted in Bridport, Dorset, across three venues—The British Legion Hall, Bridport Arts Centre, and the Bridport Museum—with material drawn from numerous sources.In addition to signs from Palmers Brewery, there were theatrical backdrops from the local dramatic society, and a sampling of the vast collection of drawings, photographs, press …

(One of my summaries of the one-day Pycon NL conference in Utrecht, NL). Full title: Events in fintech: from state machines to event-sourced systems. He works at kiwi.com, a payment processor. They recently refactored their systems to be more event-based. Previously, they used state machines. A payment/customer/whatever can be in several well-defined states. Between states (but not necessarily between all states) there are transitions. Advantages of state machines: they're simple. …

‘By angle-space transmission, any place in the universe is just around the corner from any other place.’ Haigh Company Employee Handbook By the Book, The Worlds of Frank Herbert, 1971

Dark Intruder 1965 Dark Intruder is a 1965 television movie directed by Harvey Hart and written by Barré Lyndon. Set in 1960s San Francisco, the film follows a series of gruesome murders that leave the police struggling to solve the bizarre crimes that appear to be linked to dark occult rituals. They enlist the help … Continue reading A Trailer a Day Keeps the Boogeyman Away! Darkness Unleashed! The post …

Come From AwayNew Wimbledon TheatreCome From Away is an extraordinary and heartwarming celebration of humanity, compassion, and community spirit. This remarkable musical, based on the true events following the tragic events of September 11th, 2001, chronicles the story of a small town that welcomed over 7,000 stranded passengers when 38 planes were unexpectedly diverted to Gander, Newfoundland. The 100-minute production, performed without an interval, captivates audiences from the first note …

The Air Force has announced that the classified X-37B robo-plane is soon to start a series of “novel maneuvers” prior to reentry to a designated landing site – likely Kennedy Space Center. This U.S. space plane was launched to a highly elliptical high Earth orbit aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket back on December 28, 2023. […]

Covering musical selections from Enola Gay, Midwife, Thom Yorke, The Jesus Lizard, Death Grips, The Cure, Lungfish, Japanese Breakfast, Washed Out, MIEN, Teen Mortgage, The Murlocs, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Chat Pile, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Angels of Light/Akron/Family, Opus Kink, and Fontaine D.C.

My career began with Tata Elxsi, right after completing my BE in Computer Science, marking a significant milestone in my career. It was my first taste of the corporate world, and while not everything was perfect, the experience I gained there has been invaluable.I'm particularly grateful to JRD Tata and Ratan Tata for his vision in establishing Tata Elxsi as a pure electronics and software technology services company. In a …

In Coming home, I wrote about my adaptation of the POSSE model (“publish on your site, syndicate elsewhere”). Alan Jacobs responds with a thoughtful counter-proposal: “POS, not POSSE. Skip the syndication.” Fair enough. In fact, POS is the strategy I employed for the better part of two years, when I (quietly) left Twitter but continued to blog and send the occasional newsletter. The decision to return to some kind of …

Foreign Affairs has an interesting article on “The Age of Depopulation: Surviving a World Gone Gray“. It describes several hypotheses for explaining the reduced fertility rates and falling populations almost all over the world, but emphasizes that women simply voluntarily don’t want to have as many children: Pritchett determined that there is an almost one-to-one correspondence around the world between national fertility levels and the number of babies women say …

Deep inside Earth’s crust, scientists have discovered a hidden world—a vast underground ecosystem just beginning to reveal its secrets. In minuscule cracks and pores inside the “solid” rock of our planet, extremophiles thrive in conditions once thought impossible for life. These microorganisms endure crushing pressures, scorching temperatures, and harsh chemicals...

Science Fiction Theater Episode #7 Tonight (Oct. 10), tune in at 7pm (Pacific) to see what terrific, sciencefictional goodie the Traveler has got in store for you. A hint: it was made by a real Pal… by Jason Sacks My friends know I'm a big fan of the emerging "New Hollywood" films which has … Continue reading [October 10, 1969] Everybody's Talkin' At Me: Midnight Cowboy and Urban Tragedy → …

Las Vegas-based filmmaker Charles Nizet’s berserk drive-in oddity ‘Help Me.. I’m Possessed!’ was one of the unexpected highlights of my 2022 October horror marathon, so naturally I was curious to check out Nizet’s other foray into horror territory, previously considered a lost film, but now happily rescued from oblivion (albeit in an alternate softcore sexploitation cut, with burned in Dutch and French subtitles) by Vinegar Syndrome, as part of their …

Yosemite, California, September 2024. From the video This was my last chance....

As a US-based flyer, when I think of the big Middle Eastern airlines I think of epic long-haul flights on 777s, A380s, and other big planes. But can those airlines deliver a great experience on smaller single-aisle aircraft? We got to find out on an A320 flight from Doha to Zanzibar on Qatar Airways, Skytrax’s best airline in the world for 2024. Over the course of the six-hour flight we …