Recently updated blogs

If you were to wander into one of Cincinnati’s tonier watering holes some evening in the 1890s, you would surely not be surprised to find beer on tap and a few bottles of rectified whiskey gracing the backbar shelves. A selection of fruit cordials and liqueurs might not raise an eyebrow. But absinthe?It’s true. Cincinnati had its devotees of “La Fee Verte,” the “Green Fairy” so beloved of habitués of …

The next Starship test flight will be very similar to the previous one last month. But, as Jeff Foust reports, it is taking place in a changed political environment that could see the next administration lean heavily on that vehicle for the Moon and perhaps Mars.

♫ Kurt Vile, Come Again

By Dr Ross Mahoney Editorial note: This post was originally posted on my website and has been cross-posted here to generate further discussion. Minor editorial changes have been made to the post. Ok, this post stems from a question I asked on BlueSky: ‘Who is the most significant air power historian of our generation? Discuss … Continue reading #ResearchNote – Top 10 Air Power History Books of this Generation →

Settling back into Life At Home. First full day back home on Tuesday, and I spent most of it catching up on admin. We did a quick trip to Tesco’s. This is the life! Wednesday started foggy, dew sparkling on the lawn. To the gym then home for (hopefully) the last mow of the year. A lot of mowing…. and some raking up of leaves on the paths to/from Mower …

One popular term encountered in generative AI practice is retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). Reasons for using RAG are clear: large language models (LLMs), which are effectively syntax engines, tend to “hallucinate” by inventing answers from pieces of their training data. The haphazard results may be entertaining, although not quite based in fact. RAG provides a way to “ground” answers within a selected set of content. Also, in place of expensive retraining …

[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]In June of 2000, the power shut off across much of the San Francisco Bay area. There simply wasn’t enough electricity to meet demands, so more than a million customers were disconnected in California's largest load shed event since World War II. It was just one of the many rolling blackouts that hit the state in the early 2000s. …

I’ve been experimenting migrating Flame from ObservableObject to Observable. It’s very simple to have SwiftUI watch these obejcts for changes, but because of the legacy navigation I have in the app, I rely on the ability to watch the object for changes from normal Swift code. Previously I was subscribing to the Combine publishers for this, but now that I’ve moved to the new macro, I’ve been missing this simple …

Scene: Lower Quinton in South Warwickshire, England. Population 493. A quiet village, settled in its ways, where everyone knows each other and strangers are not welcome—or so it seems. On the morning of Saint Valentine’s Day 1945, Charles Walton a seventy-four-year-old farm laborer left his home...

One of my favourites of all the 54mm Inquisitor models is the Imperial Navy Bodyguard or Bosun. He's an unusual subject - an Imperial that isn't an Inquisitor or Guardsman. I also love his piratical gear and no-nonsense look.Read more »

That’s it. That’s the post.

Joe and Mika went to Mar a Lago to talk with Trump over the weekend. First face-to-face meeting in seven years. “We didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues and we told him so,” @JoeNBC says. “What we did agree on – was to restart communications,” @morningmika says. pic.twitter.com/lyWZWK4CwX — Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) November 18, 2024 Loyal “Morning Joe” viewers are furious about the Trump meeting. @jeffjarvis called it …

This gaunt Macleod stronghold stands on the shore of Loch Assynt in Sutherland

Joshua Davis is the creative director for Monogram Styling, a luxury acquisition and image consulting firm with regular service to Atlanta, New York, Washington, D.C. and by appointment to clients worldwide. (Links below may be affiliate links that earn commission when you make a purchase. Thanks!) Some dads teach their sons how to shave. We’re all familiar with the shaving montage: the awkward teen with too much lather and an …

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 …