Recently updated blogs

If you’d like to see notifications about my posts on Bluesky, now you can! I just realized dlvr.it had stopped posting my updates to Twitter-I-mean-X and Facebook about a month ago, so it seemed like a good time to jump on the Bluesky bandwagon. I probably won’t be posting very actively but there will at … Continue reading Notebook Stories is Now on Bluesky →

When we last left the Factory, I had just defrosted my Aquilo factory and left for a tour of the inner planets. I fixed some minor issues and used the initial Cryogenic science to unlock new technologies and discover the super-duper final planet (outside the solar system). This will require an even better ship design, so I tell my home factory to stamp out another destroyer …. I’ll modify it …

Eva and I are back with fun chat in the warm and cozy shed. As per usual, you can watch and listen via YouTube or find it on your podcast feed. Segments and links this episode: What’s up with all the leaves in bike lanes and why the issue is challenging for advocates. How’d She Get There? OMSI to Gateway Green: Eva and I discuss the best bike route from …

I’ve organized all the best sports technology deals below in the tables by category. I’ll be updating them throughout November & December. Keep in mind not all deals last (especially over Black Friday weekend when Amazon themselves will briefly run deals beyond approved manufacturer deals). So if you see something that’s hot, I’d strongly suggest buy now (and return later if need be). With that, onto the deals! And thanks …

★★★★☆ Spectral Napier University Craiglockhart: Thu 21 – Sun 24 Nov 2024Review by Rebecca Mahar Up-and-coming local amateur company The Forth Act has boldly taken on one of Noël Cowards best-known and oft-produced plays with strong success. Blithe Spirit follows the hijinks that ensue when novelist Charles Condomine, researching material for his next book, arranges a séance to take place in his home, and the hapless medium Madame Arcati unwittingly …

There's a fun new tool at Edhiphy. The designers pulled the full text from twelve leading philosophy journals from 1890 to 1980 and counted the occurrences of philosophers' names. (See note [1] for discussion of error rates in their method.) Back in the early 2010s, I posted several bibliometric studies of philosophers' citation or discussion rates over time, mostly based on searches of Philosopher's Index abstracts from 1940 to the …

Originally published on my Patreon I started writing this post as a fun casual guide for exploring Second Life sims I’ve admired and written about in recent years. But as I quickly discovered, many of my favorite, popular places featured in my long-running New World SLurl series have since changed hands. A surfing spot had been converted into castles; a seaside cyberpunk city had been turned into an island vacation …

The Apollo Awards have been celebrated since 1992 with fine ceremonies. It’s still as important as ever to celebrate outstand­ing ach­ieve­ments in the museum world. Yet senior museum com­m­entators warn­ed that mus­eum culture may not endure with its cur­rent sense of purp­ose; funding for both national and regional instit­utions being squeez­ed still further. Thus the awards proclaim the museums have set the standards to which others should aspire.Carnavalet ParisC16th Renaissance …

For years, I’ve looked down on rolling bags, boasting the holy grail of one-bag minimalist backpack travel. But for most travel, a simple carry-on is all you need and your back will thank you for it. Enter the Softside Carry-On roller from Away. Available in Carry-On, Bigger Carry-On, Medium, and Large (for checking or a trunk) this is a back to basics of the rolling bag you might have grown …

I've been hunting down Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg collaborations at the internet archive, and came upon one that has, it appears, only ever been printed in a Roger Zelazny anthology I'd never heard of before, Wheel of Fortune, published in 1995. From this book let's also read a story by Nelson S. Bond and one by Richard A. Lupoff. (Hopefully the joke cover of the anthology is not …

by Cláudio Alves PIECE BY PIECE is the only film competing in both the ANIMATED and DOCUMENTARY Oscar races. At long last, AMPAS has started divulging its eligibility lists for the 97th Academy Awards. As is usual, the first categories to be announced are the special feature races – Animated, Documentary, and International Film (click on each category to see their prediction pages). This year, 31 cartoons vie for the …

The Zifriend mechanical keyboard may be a satisfactory keyboard for some people, but you should definitely know some of its issues before you decide if it is right for you.

David Snoke’s book, Interpreting Quantum Mechanics: Modern Foundations, is an engaging and comprehensive introduction to interpretative issues in quantum mechanics. It provides an accessible presentation of the field which would be useful for students and teachers, and it also offers a valuable technical resource for researchers in both physics and philosophy. Part I provides a nonmathematical exposition of quantum mechanics. It also presents and defends Snoke’s principal interpretative thesis: that …

In case you missed them in previous years, here are some gratitude zines I made free to download and print. I’ve loved how people have shared their completed zines with me in Thanksgivings past. To help carry on the tradition, I’ve updated the page with a video explaining how to fold them and a simplified version of the zine for kids. Please feel free to share them far and wide! …

In this historical novel set between the wars, an outgoing young woman finds a new career as a matchmaker. When April McVey’s father dies, she and her mother are disgraced and practically penniless and leave Ireland to live with an aunt in Manchester. It’s a roof over their head but April knows she needs to establish her independence and applies for a position with Mrs. Hart’s matrimonial bureau, a short …