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Uniquely Designed Sit down. Be yourself. Be prepared. Be attentive. Defy the voices. Be the thing you want to be. Write. Be playful. Be reckless. Remember that you are uniquely designed for the idea that is moving toward you. You are good enough. The idea is about to arrive. Nick Cave

The various appointments that Donald Trump has announced, led by those of Matt Gaetz and Pam Bondi, Kristin Noem, Tulsi Gabard, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., suggest that he intends a real transformation of the federal bureaucracy and even of the function of the US government. Given that I studied the structure of the Nazi government in graduate school and that it figured in my first book, Economic Diplomacy and …

This limited edition A5 booklet of poetry is a curated collection of the work of the Yorkshire New Wave poet, Clifford Nicholas.Nicholas (1928-2021) was born in the North East of England, and his family moved to Leeds (West Yorkshire) when he was a small child. The University of Leeds is the site of the most complete hard copy collection of his previous work and is held in Special Collections.Nicholas’s poetry …

I had no idea the database was originally written to be used as a TCL extension. Explains a lot of good things.

Here is a photo I took this morning of the David Nash: 45 Years of Drawing exhibition at London's Annely Juda gallery. This room is dedicated to Ash Dome, the living tree sculpture he planted in 1977. Over the years he has returned to tend the trees and make drawings, using charcoal, raw pigment and earth from the ground they circle. The drawing below shows how the trees were fletched …

The Royal Parks have announced that Greenwich Park is set to close all day on Sunday 24 November. Storm Bert has also seen all other Royal Parks shuttered tomorrow with the Royal Parks stating: “Due to severe wind gusts caused by Storm Bert, all of the Royal Parks will be closed on Sunday 24 November. This closure includes all cafes, kiosks, park roads and cycleways.” List of Royal Parks closing …

Dirt Flirt Dramatic The solo project of London-based multi-instrumentalist Kit Eaton-Kent, Dirt Flirt is a creator of alt pop with an emotive, vulnerable edge. With a focus on exploring both queer themes, the lyrics are reflective and the hooks infectious. Dirt Flirt’s new single, Dramatic, opens with a propulsive beat and gently processed vocals, conjuring a sound that feels urgent and insistent as Kit begins to unpack her feelings of …

Barkerville (est. 1862) in 2012. After the Second World War a few people made a bare living panning gold from under the wooden sidewalks of Barkerville where it had fallen out of the miners’ and merchants’ pockets and purses. Image from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barkerville_at_150_-_02_(7987539577).jpg BC had a slightly more exciting than ordinary election, in which the party which had the second most seats and formed government from 2002 to 2017 changed its …

This Dickens classic is an annual treat, or a Christmas trial — depending on your point of view. At the Old Vic, it was adapted by Jack Thorne in 2017, and like the holly and the ivy has been a hardy perennial ever since. Here Scrooge has been played by stars such as Rhys Ifans, Paterson Joseph, Stephen Mangan and Christopher Eccleston. This time it’s the turn of John Simm. …

A coworker asked how React Islands work and I realized it's a technique I've been using to modernize monolithic web codebases for years, but never wrote down how it works.

It was an early morning, late September; a fine morning to be out by the rails. The morning started with a ballast train bombing through Diamond at six AM, darkness enfolding all.

Monday Sunrise 7:23am “Don’t let her fool ya. She’s a fucking demon behind those eyes”. I look again at the fluffy white pup, ten weeks old with bright blue eyes. Her owner – late teens, early twenties – stopped first, so I turned back to oblige, to chat. He tells me the dog, Lenka, is a fucking nightmare. But it’s clear he loves the whole ordeal. Lenka rotates her head …

The UK is cutting its armed forces (again). While the cuts to a large extent does make sense here and now, it is still baffling that the forces have managed to put themselves in this position, and that the government refuses to fund the scope of capabilities it wants to have – including most crucially funding personnel. In today’s world, most of us have recruitment and retention issues, but some …

As you certainly know I am following closely the site Décapassion and I stumbled upon a reference to a (somewhat old) article by Petros Kyprianou. For those for whom the name does not ring a bell, Kyprianou (a Cypriot) is the current Director of Track & Field and Cross Country at the University of Illinois. Previously he was head coach of the University of Georgia. He is a specialist of …

It’s finally the weekend — and perhaps, the last bit of calm before the holiday storm. We’re relaxing with our standard open thread poll. Talk about anything you like — the fragrance you’re wearing today, the fragrance that helps you keep calm despite various holiday hassles, whatever. Or, ask a question about fragrance, then see if anyone else has asked a question that you can answer… Read the rest of …