Recently updated blogs

A dry autumn to date in most of California! But hydroclimate whiplash to come… It did turn out to be a much drier than average autumn across most of California and the Southwest after all (except the northernmost part of the state). Well, that has been true through mid-November, at least–though it’s going to change […] The post Sudden shift to very wet conditions in NorCal with strong & very …

Say hello to your new favorite fall side! This roasted delicata squash has a savory, salty, garlic & herb breading that’s kind of irresistible. Let’s just say, there may or may not have been leftovers in the test kitchen… Just 7 simple ingredients and 30 minutes required, making it perfect for everything from weeknights to busy holiday dinners (you’ll be able to SQUASH it in). Garlic & Herb Breaded Delicata …

Review by Annabel When it was announced that Nick Harkaway, one of the lateJohn Le Carré’s sons, was going to write another Smiley novel, I rubbed my hands with glee. Karla’s Choice became my most anticipated read of the season. I believed that the much-loved characters were in the best hands, as I’ve enjoyed Harkaway’s own writing, (read my review of Tigerman), and Harkaway has written about how his own …

Everything is so impressive (via)

80s, 80s, 80s! "I'm living in the forest of a dream"When hair in your eyes was the sexiest thing you could do as well as wearing an off the shoulder oversized jumper sans pants. I totally forgot this song existed, I don't reckon I've heard it since 1984. More tunes about adult concerns with darkly glamorous themes. Shonky dancing alert from 1.48. This tune is way better than I recall. …

Since everyone lately, particularly in the writing community, seems to be ditching X/Twitter for Bluesky, I’ve made the transition as well, though I’m keeping my Twitter account active for the time being. I don’t really use social media for much beyond reposting blog and Patreon content and promoting my writing, so the more outlets I have for that, the better. And I still have a few friends and connections who …

An article advanced-published on 14 November 2024 in the Journal of Mammalogy calls out the problem with poor naming practices of proposed new species in our internet age. One of the most famous examples of poor practice was that of Melba Ketchum, et al., who not only did a terrible job analyzing DNA from “Bigfoot” but also used a pop-up journal to give Bigfoot another useless name. The “Perspective” piece …

When I completed the first refill I started to do some minor changes to how I use it. The biggest one is to use half a page for what used to use a full page for. The main reason was that most of the time I used close to a half page, and where I didn’t it have been useful to “focus” (or reduce) my plans or goals. Also useful …

I finally got my hands on Donald Duck: Vacation Parade , and it was worth the wait. Fréderic Brémaud and Federico Bertolucci have created a charming graphic novel that reads like a lost cartoon from the 1950s.There aren't any words in this comic, but you can hear the sputtering and squawking.The colors are gorgeous.The story doesn't need words to flow from panel to panel, like storyboards for a lost classic …

We get asked all the time what our favorite dog enrichment activities are. We did write the book on it, after all! And, as always, the answer is actually, “It depends.” Enrichment is about meeting an individual’s needs to allow them to perform species-typical behaviors in healthy, safe, and appropriate ways. While individuals within a particular species have similar needs (like the 14 categories of canine enrichment that we outline …

Race Forward has released a new toolkit, From Project 2025 to Project 2029: How We Resist an Authoritarian Takeover and Turn Public Administration into a Force for Equity and Justice. Is there anyone else reading this who wants to meet and discuss?

Semiconductors are so integral to the history of Silicon Valley that they give the region its name, and, more importantly, its culture: chips require huge amounts of up-front investment, but they have, relative to most other manufactured goods, minimal marginal costs; this economic reality helped drive the development of the venture capital model, which provided unencumbered startup capital to companies who could earn theoretically unlimited returns at scale. This model …

Dennis O’Keefe and Marsha Hunt in Anthony Mann’s Raw Deal 1948. While iconic film noirs grab our attention, films like Out of the Past, where Jeff Bailey’s (Robert Mitchum) past catches up with him lured by the complex and dangerous Kathie Moffet (Jane Greer), and while there’s nothing hotter than the steamy affair between Frank … Continue reading Under the Radar: The Unseen Side of Film Noir – Part 1

This May, Fantagraphics is collecting the various small square Peanuts books they’ve published into a new box set, Peanuts All Year Round Mini Collection. This includes: A Valentine for Charlie Brown — Valentine’s Day and romance strips Batter-Up Charlie Brown! — baseball strips Waiting for the Great Pumpkin — Halloween strips Snoopy’s Thanksgiving — Thanksgiving strips (yes, I know you could figure that out.) Charlie Brown’s Christmas Stocking — reprints …

Blocking sets are one of the central topics in finite geometry, which were originally introduced in the context of game theory under the name of `blocking coalitions’: On Finite Projective Games. I first learned about them during my Ph.D. as a source of challenging extremal problems that over the years led to the development of techniques like the polynomial method and the variance trick. The latter can sometimes be replaced …