Recently updated blogs

Brian Collins is among the most provocative bloggers writing about science fiction and fantasy today. They should be considered for a Hugo for best fanwriter.Through their blog, the 28-year-old New Jersey native tackles topics that vary wildly between more staid fare such as the value of reading old science fiction, to more incendiary ideas such as the role that military science fiction has played in rationalizing genocide. Their work tends …

I mean, it’s impossible to write about The Fast Show without quoting it. So let’s get them out of the way. Brilliant. I like this, when comedy worlds collide and remind me that sometimes shows that seem from different eras actually shared a schedule. Which is nice. The Stage – Thursday 13 November 1997 This one is more interesting from a TV history point of view. I’m amazed they were …

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AI Can Now Create a Replica of Your Personality James O’Donnell | MIT Technology Review “Imagine sitting down with an AI model for a spoken two-hour interview. A friendly voice guides you through a conversation that ranges from your childhood, your formative memories, and your career to your thoughts on immigration policy. Not long after, a virtual replica of you is able to embody your values and preferences …

This caught my eye in the New York Times the other day: That word, “cleaner,” wasn’t familiar–I imagined it meant what Americans would call a cleaning lady, a cleaning person, a custodian, a janitor, basically, something that sounded a bit fancier than what the job really is. “Cleaner” felt British to me, along the lines of “carer,” also not found in the U.S. (We would say “companion,” “care-giver,” or, wordiest …

“[45] In India there are wild asses as large as horses, or even larger. Their body is white, their head dark red, their eyes bluish, and they have a horn in their forehead about a cubit in length. The lower part of the horn, for about two palms distance from the forehead, is quite white, the middle is black, the upper part, which terminates in a point, is a very …

According to the multiverse theory, we are likely to find ourselves in a universe particularly suited to the emergence of life. According to a new paper, though, that’s not the case given how it’s expanded over time. But does that mean the multiverse theory has also been invalidated? Let’s take a look.

Murder While You Work by Susan Scarlett aka Noel Streatfield This book is one of twelve written under the Susan Scarlett pseudonym and in some ways it is a romance, but certainly not of the delicate sort. It combines a murder mystery with elements of a domestic thriller, as well as observations of conditions in the Second World War. Bombs do not rain down on this English village, but there …

Third time’s a charm? Not for me when it comes to Point Lobos, the iconic State Natural Reserve just south of Carmel and Monterey. I’ve been there twice in 2013, and didn’t feel like I really got anything substantial from ... Read moreThanks for following Alexander S. Kunz Photography via RSS & keeping independent websites alive. Buy me a coffee? Support @ $3/month. Visit My Print Store. Browse My Photo …

Regular readers might just remember that nine years ago, I posted a brief history of Anne Heap of Frogs, the hard rock band I was guitarist for in 1988. (Astonishing to think it’s nine years since I posted that!) Here once more is the photo of twenty-year-old me, on the left with the white strat; on the right is Andy Charles on bass. And here I am in 2024, playing …

A ‘Why am I reading this?’ post, because this is why I haven’t posted many reviews lately: I keep giving up on books I have nothing much to say about. Benjamin Myers, Cuddy Winner of prizes, lauded indie publisher’s saviour, the subject is a favourite (early medieval English religion and history), and wow was I … Continue reading Did Not Finish →

Twelve Horses and the Hangman’s Noose by Gladys Mitchell published 1956 This Gladys Mitchell book is very unusual indeed – because in terms of plot you could imagine a number of crime authors having written it. The major point of most Mitchell books is that no-one else in or out of their right minds would have tried to build a book round her imaginings. And certainly some readers (me: I …

Editor’s Note: Since I started providing legal advice to AKTI, I have loosened my no politics rule a bit to provide insights and commentary on legal issues related to knives. This is one of those articles. As with everything I write both for AKTI and here, this is all my opinion. It is not legal advice, which requires knowledge of specific facts. If you need a lawyer for a criminal …

One for fellow map nerds and London Transport fans. There is an excellent exhibition at The Map House showing the evolution of the tube map, the like of which I am not sure has been seen before. In the gallery room at the rear of the shop there is an arrangement of framed pocket maps that clearly shows how the tube map has been adapted as new routes and stations …

The pinnacle of that view of freedom, of course, is avant-garde jazz, which I find by and large a dead loss. It operates on the assumption that if you remove all constraints from people, they will behave in some especially inspired manner. This doesn’t seem to me to be true in any sense at all — not socially, and certainly not artistically. The point is that the typical jazz or …