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In martial arts and other combat sports, the importance of rules has a deep-rooted ethical and philosophical foundation directly proportional to the violence of the sport itself. The stronger the athlete can hit, the more solid and respectable his figure appears in relation to the control he has, using force only if, and when, it is appropriate. When you fight you don’t just have an enemy in front of you, …

Starting today, you may use PHP 8.4 in your Vapor environments. To get started, simply specify "php-8.4:al2" as your preferred runtime in your "vapor.yml" configuration file.

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I’ve been down in an audio plugin rabbit hole lately. More on that in a later blog post. But I just stumbled upon a set of free plugins that might be of interest to you, if you are doing voice recordings of any kind – be it a podcast, voice over, or, let’s say, video tutorials. There are, of course, many more free plugins for that use case. Again, I …

A poster promoting 'The Thief of Bagdad' (1924).Is Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks for abundance?If so, I can't think of a better silent film to prepare one for the upcoming holiday than 'The Thief of Bagdad' (1924), an epic adventure/fantasy starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr.I'll accompany a 100th anniversary screening of 'Thief' on Tuesday, Nov. 26 (two days prior to Turkey Day) at the Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline, Mass.More …

One of the (many) problems with old age is that things that were once considered an annoyance, eventually become big enough problems that they need to be fixed. Such a malady has finally caught up with me. For years I boasted that I have never had surgery. I reached the age of 66 back in […]

So comics artist Ron Randall spoke a bit about working with Alan Moore on Saga of Swamp Thing #33 from the mid-1980s. So if you click on the pic above, or on this link right here, you’ll be whisked away to a thread of posts on Bluesky where Mr. Randall has nothing but good things to say about the experience. Issue #33 is, of course, this one: …in which they …

I was familiar with the sightings in both Hudson Valley, NY in the '80s and those in Belgium (2:10-19:30) in the '90s. What I didn't know was that there were hundreds of sightings at each over the years. In Hudson Valley, entire towns (and their respective police forces) witnessed a variety of giant boomerang shaped UFO's on a regular basis; a decade later, civilians, police, radar and even F-16's repeatedly …

In an age when many of us could hardly make our way to an unfamiliar grocery store without relying on a GPS navigation system, we might well wonder how the Romans could establish and sustain their mighty empire without so much as a proper map. That’s the question addressed by the Historia Militum video above, “How Did Ancient People Travel Without Maps?” Or more to the point, how did they …

November 22, 2024 It’s snowing like the end of the world here in Chicago – I’m very happy! Of course, it will last an hour, and then melt… sigh… More heroines than you might expect are committed to wearing navy, grey, and accent colors that vary with the seasons. I hear from you often, and I can entirely agree that your choice is an elegant and pretty foolproof way to …

FAUX PRIX, the new indie rock project from Bradley Hanan Carter (NO, 5 Billion in Diamonds), drops their latest track ‘Chasing Sunsets,’ a haunting reflection on resilience and staying true to your dreams. With a thrift store Casiotone drone setting the mood, Carter channels a blend of nostalgic indie rock vibes and anthemic energy. He describes the song as a journey through personal struggle, urging listeners to hold on to …

This is one of those topics which is just soooo much easier to demonstrate than to describe... but I've have five people ask me about Tree Peonies in the past few days, so - as I still haven't managed to get a Go-Pro sorted out - you will have to bear with my descriptions, instead of a quick five-minute video. Sorry about that!Right, Tree Peonies: these are actually small shrubs, …

Memento Movi, a mini-app by Michael Condouris, is what you get when you use movies as a progress bar for life expectancy. Enter your birthdate and expected lifespan. Then select a movie from the list. The percentage of your life that you’ve lived is translated to the percentage through the movie you would be, which gives you the frame in the movie. I swear this was made just for me. …

Stephen Heintz and Kim Stanley Robinson will discuss our polycrisis, and the swift and holistic reform of global governance institutions that is needed to respond to these urgent transnational and planetary challenges we are facing.We are living in an age of exceptional complexity and turbulence. What distinguishes this period in human history is the confluence of forces— political, geo-strategic, economic, social, technological, and environmental, as well as the interactions amongst …

It's been a long time since I last wrote about a hair care product on Bonkers, but my recent quest to find something to give my fine, limp hair a bit of a lift in the crown may be of interest to any other seekers of volume, oomph, or anything vaguely resembling an artfully tousled look.In recent years my hair had been steadily growing, and I rather liked it long. …