Recently updated blogs

It's difficult to imagine a world full of people who have yet to form an opinion about Donald Trump. Few public figures have so rampantly flaunted themselves as the Queens, N.Y.-born 45th president. In The Apprentice, director Ali Abbasi tries to explain how Trump became what the filmmaker has called an icon of American culture. Abbasi returns to the 1970s and 80s, focusing on what the movie regards as Trump's …

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. …

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

What is it to desire or value something? Is it to feel a certain way? Is it instead to have a certain sort of representational architecture (a stored representation of "X is good" or a representation of X in one's "desire box")? Is it to have a certain type of neurological structure associated with reward and learning? I hold, instead, that to desire or value something is a matter or …

I’m certainly not above government criticism nor do I think lying for political gain is a new trick. I am bummed that a website needs to exist called Hurricane Rumor Response from FEMA in order to combat a barrage of lies accusing them of everything stealing donations to literally preventing aid. Hey, I’m not on the ground in these hurricane zones so what do I know? But do you really …

• 5-star hikes • 6 to 7 mile options • Moderate | Gain 1,920 to 2,570 feet • Lyme, NH | Sunapee Region . NHFT 52WAV One of the few NH fire towers with an accessible cabin. Smarts Mountain is located twelve miles north of Hanover, close to the neighboring state of Vermont. Offering spectacular views and a fire tower with an accessible cabin, this peak is a satisfying destination …

Erin Kissane has started a new research studio with the most punk URL I’ve ever seen: wrecka.ge. Get out of here! That’s fantastic. But also everything about this project is, as Erin writes: We need new networks that genuinely work better, not only for indie-web people or tech people or other outliers, but for all of us working toward collective survival. And I don't think we'll get them by just …

Some of the half-frame 35mm photographs from the French ‘Randonneur Round The Year’ rides will be included in a Brighton Photo Fringe exhibition between 16 and 20 October. The show is at Regency Town House in Hove, open between 11am and 5pm. Further details on the Photo Fringe website. Copies of the photo book 2704 will be for sale at the exhibition but can also be ordered from my Etsy …

My book Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American of American English–which is of course based on this blog–has gotten a lot of nice attention in the couple of weeks since it’s been out. I plan to do a post with some of the links to articles, reviews, and podcasts soon. But the piece by The Economist‘s “Johnson” columnist–Lane Greene–deserves a post of its own. The title is “Americans Are Chuffed …

The Supreme Court is keeping busy on gun matters! It just granted S&W's petition for certiorari. The government of Mexico had sued a large group of gun companies over guns being smuggled in, the companies pled the Lawful Commerce etc. Act, but the First Circuit upheld the suit on the grounds that the Act doesn't protect aiding and abetting of crimes. The companies point out that aiding and abetting requires …

Even when the legal arguments in such lawfare cases are weak or absurd, the litigation itself can be of value to litigants who seek to utilise the court hearings to air a litany of real or imagined grievances. In the wake of a decision by the Council of Stellenbosch University to close its Wilgenhof Men’s Residence for one year in an attempt to bring an end to humiliating and exclusionary …