Recently updated blogs

"Draw up to the fire and gaze into the embers as I tell you a hearty tale that will boil your blood..." Old Nancy the witch knew how to tell a good ghost yarn. At over 107 years old ( and aging fast ) she certainly had plenty of years to practice her art of story-telling. Each week, for seven years, she gathered her listeners close to her via radio …

So I was filling out this week goals today and I realized I’m about 50% into a refill, and thinking: already?! Then I started to look into it and realized it probably will last me like a month or 4 weeks. I think it is a good length. But it also highlights why I want to replace this with a binder soon ish. Now I’d have to re-write my yearly …

After having sat through three football (all kinds!) weekends of election commercials now, it's pretty clear to me which of the two major parties is the lesser evil. This time, anyway. The underlying meme of Jackass-sponsored (or coordinated-but-not-really-no-that-would-violate-election-finance-law PAC-sponsored) commercials is either about how Joe Voter can/will directly benefit, or about

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Roxane Gay, and many others. Keith Rosson’s The Devil by Name, is a riveting sequel to his novel Fever House. Library Journal wrote of the book: “The stunning …

Learn to make my easy Soba Noodle Salad tossed in a honey sesame dressing. Try it chilled or at room temperature for a quick and light meal. READ: Soba Noodle Salad (Video) 蕎麦サラダ

As designers, our imaginations are the most powerful tools in our toolkit. They help us bring static mocks to life by thinking about how a user might interact with our ideas. Imagination can also hold us back sometimes, as it can be very challenging to communicate these interactions to others. It can also only get you so far when working with data because data visualizations can surprise us. It’s generally …

[Julian Fell at Australian ABC News]"Ecovacs robot vacuums, which have been found to suffer from critical cybersecurity flaws, are collecting photos, videos and voice recordings – taken inside customers' houses – to train the company's AI models."So in effect these robot vacuums are tiny spies inside your home, sending details about your living space and potentially your family to some centralized data store. This must be some terrible breach, right? …

Here is an 18- year old Montgomery Clift (1920-1966) and Alla Nazimova (1879-1945) in the Broadway play, The Mother. Left with few options, she gave up on the film industry....

Having repeated the first two series of Red Dwarf last year -- the first full-on repeat run the show has enjoyed on its channel of origin since 2007, and the first in peak viewing hours since the Remastered episodes were screened in 1998 and 1999 -- BBC Two have picked things up in the last week with a repeat of Series III, which has required me to try and edit …

Inwards and Onwards! The new entrance to the National Portrait Gallery, one of my favourite buildings in London, yesterday. Quote of the Day ”Within every lean, hungry, tech start-up founder, a bloated monopolist was struggling to get out.” Henry Farrell on Silicon Valley startups.* Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news We Banjo 3 performing live on BBC Radio Ulster’s Blas programme in 2013. Link Long Read of the Day …

One of the mysteries about pop is its repeatability. The way that repetition of a song doesn't dim its power, or only at extreme degrees of repetition (absolute blanket radio coverage causing you to get temporarily get sick of a song). A great song is that seemingly contradictory thing: the repeatable surprise. The classic pop single as a radio drama that never wears out.This degree of repeatability is not unheard …

As you all may know, I love retro gaming. Heck, I grew up during the Atari and NES days, so it’s part of my childhood. But I do have one retro game that’s on my ‘wall of shame’ because up until now, I never figured out how to play it. And that game is Yars’ […]

Kassie Krut “Reckless” My friend Molly passed this along to me, telling me “this feels Matthew-core.” And she’s right, this is exactly the kind of song I’ve been looking out for on this site for over 20 years. Let’s go down the checklist – catchy but abrasive, big heavy beats, random bits of noise, a playful but aloof vocal by some ultra-cool girl, the kind of dance music that’s actually …

This story isn’t recent, but I’m going to mention it anyway because it’s a good example of why you should never consent to a search by police, even if you “have nothing to hide.” (It is also true that I noticed the date only after writing half the article, but I stand by my decision anyway). According to the Gainesville Times (free sub. required), 23-year-old Ashley Huff was arrested after …