Recently updated blogs

I grew up with Swiss Army knives at home. My father and grandfathers were all in the Swiss Army, so the knives were ubiquitous at home. But not the red plasticky type ones, the real Swiss Army knives with the handles made of aluminum and four basic tools. There were two of them, and they always came with us, be it for camping or walking. I think in all those …

We are spotlighting another great review that my late friend Bruce Kogan posted. His reviews were always thorough and well thought out. This time we spotlight his review of 1947's Good News...Good News was the best musical from the Roaring Twenties from the premier songwriting team of DeSylva,Brown&Henderson. It ran on Broadway for 557 performances in the 1927-29 season and gave the team a number of song hits identified with …

From a Johns Hopkins press release: What appears to be evidence of the oldest alphabetic writing in human history is etched onto finger-length, clay cylinders excavated from a tomb in Syria by a team of Johns Hopkins University researchers. The writing, which is dated to around 2400 BCE, precedes other known alphabetic scripts by roughly 500 years, upending what archaeologists know about where alphabets came from, how they are shared …

Despite the Government’s stated commitment to growth, the Budget included no pro-growth tax reform, and its largest revenue raising measure is likely to reduce private sector employment and wages. The Budget continued a sad trend of tax policy driven by realpolitik rather than long term strategic thinking. It’s to be hoped we see something more […] Source

Sales of Australian author Charlotte Wood’s latest novel Stone Yard Devotional have enjoyed a boost, as a result of being both long and short listed for this year’s Booker Prize. The phenomena is sometimes called the Booker bump: Her publisher says that since winning the Stella Prize in 2016 for The Natural Way of Things, her blistering feminist critique of the patriarchy, “Charlotte’s books have been bestsellers — and Stone …

Baldur Bjarnason shared an article in a recent edition of his newsletter about AI in education. As a parent of an 8-year-old, this is something that’s been on my mind a lot recently. Like most other parents I’ve encountered, I find the idea that teachers can be “replaced” by AI so preposterous that I’d imagine no one who’s ever had a child, met a child, or even been a child …

Originally posted on my Patreon Update: The game is live. Here's the world links for the PC/PC VR version, and for the Quest version. This video above could be gameplay footage from an upcoming PS4 game by a professional studio, but it's actually only available in VRChat. Bullet Time Agent is a one person labor of love by a longtime VRC community creator known only as "Lakuza", who I've been …

Out past the last lights of town, André Palais

As announced by Automattic and covered by TechCrunch, I want to take a moment to welcome Elijah Potter and Harper to join Automattic. Harper is a super-fast (way faster than LanguageTool and Grammarly), local English grammar checker. The technology is nascent, but I’m very excited to embed this throughout all of Automattic’s products, and then expanding it to other languages, all in an open source way that can be embedded …

Submitted by Bushland Maps, who say: Ferries are a bit of a forgotten mode of transport in Melbourne. With no integration into the fare system or journey planners, and with overarching public transport body PTV only “overseeing” three of the routes (which doesn’t have any practical effect on the service), they are mostly either seen as a tourist attraction (which fairly some are) or not seen at all. Since there …

seekingstars:I’m going to New York!(what a lark! what a song!)where the tough Rocky’s eaveshit the sea. Where th’Acro-polis is functional, the trainsthat run and shout! the booksthat have trousers and sleeves!I’m going to New York!(quel voyage! jamais plus!)far from Ypsilanti and Flint!where Goodman rules the Empireand the sunlight’s eschato-logy upon the wizard’s bridgesand the galleries of print!I’m going to New York!(to my friends! mes semblables!)I suppose I’ll walk back West.But …

I was on the New Models podcast recently and stated: Worlds are the first emergent medium of the 21st century. This statement is the hot take that drives all my professional work across various domains, and serves as the main thesis behind all the essays at worldrunning.guide. Worlds as a Medium Meadowlark The Challenges of World-Running Worlds Need Running Where Do We Go from Here? Reality Coordination A New Discipline …

Web excursions brought to you in partnership with Backblaze. Back up everything. Weighted Hug A friend of mine launched these recently. I purchased one after trying it on at the launch party. It’s amazing. My breathing immediately slowed and the noise of the party became more bearable. At home I’ve found it a great relief when I’m feeling anxious or stressed. Highly recommend. Hand made, super high quality. linkding injector …

To a visitor from lands afar (me) who sees this part of the world in little two-week periods twice a year, Jeune & Jolie feels like it did all the work of establishing itself as one of the best restaurants in California in a metaphorical blink of an eye, a few short months between opening, winning its Michelin star and becoming the last word in sophisticated Cali-French dining. Of course, …

Account of a trip round England by the Czech writer who introduced the word “robot” to the world.