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When Maria Callas died in 1977 at the age of 53, the New York Times obituary called her "the most exciting opera singer of her time." Director Pablo Larrain's Maria presents Callas at her height only in flashbacks when the singer recalls previous triumphs. Known for Jackie and Spencer, the Chilean-born Larrain tends to focus his biographical efforts on well-known women at low points in their lives. In this case, …

Last year, instead of putting out a typical holiday gift guide, I put together a gift giveaway. It was fun, but I think I started it too late in the season, so I’m starting it early this year. Yours truly, in a scene from last year’s selection of the gift giveaway winner This idea came about mainly because I’m just one person with specific tastes who isn’t especially attuned to …

Mia Sato talks to two women whose similar aesthetic was shaped by Amazon product options, social media algorithms, and other larger influencers #

Although i still haven't dared yet to venture deeper into the kinda intimidating back catalog of Totowa, New Jersey act Monda, they have already made a lasting impression as a shapeshifting, restless creative force in constant flux over the course of this year. While this spring's Stiff Jumbo spazzed out gloriously and let its freak flag fly in short bursts of melodic noise and then, sumer's VIII saw them calm …

Week highlights: this was a pretty eventful week, with major new releases of Blender, FreeCAD, and Zrythm. Inkscape Rafał Siejakowski proposed an enhancement to Inkscape’s Node tool: being able to edit arcs in paths as arcs, with arc-specific controls: You can grab a build from the merge request’s pipelines. Blender 4.3 As usual, the new version of Blender arrived with a gazillion new features and improvements. There’s no competing against …

Staff engineer onboarding is about building relationships, understanding priorities, and delivering early value while aligning with the organization’s goals.

Snow! I woke up to a lot of snow on Tuesday. It had pretty much all gone by the evening. There's probably a metaphor in there somewhere.

In the early 1970s, one company studied for the NRO a concept for a "rapid reaction" reconnaissance mission that could return images within 24 hours. Joseph T. Page II examines the concept and one danger it posed.

Cherry-picking, quant contests, hairy private wealth clients, in-seat promotions, a DJT business model and the head of mar

The first thing we hear in Peter Bogdanovich’s tragicomic treasure Paper Moon (1973) is an old recording of the 1932 title song by Harold Arlen, E. Y. “Yip” Harburg, and Billy Rose, a reflection on the seductive power of falsity that keeps returning to the plaintive refrain “It wouldn’t be make-believe / If you believed in me.” The idea in that lyric is that true love has the power to …

In my do-over game of Factorio: Space Age, it became apparent to me why Factorio (and other games) are addictive. Once you get started, you enter the “flow state,” meaning I was fixing one thing and then fixing another …. aaaaannnndddd it’s 2am. Or today when I was tinkering on Vulcanus and missed lunch. How many board game reviews have said “It took half a day, but the time flew …

Last week I wrote about the impossibility of deciding on the single best way to write anything – because readers differ, and what works well for one reader will work poorly for another. (Don’t panic, this isn’t a completely nihilistic position. There’s definitely bad, good, and better writing; there just isn’t best.) There’s an interesting […]

Finding Nemo’s Almanac For many many years I have been a great fan of Nemo’s Almanac, and it seems to me that many of my readers might like to know about it too. It is an excellent diversion, and also makes a great present for bookish friends…. My erudite, literary, knowledgeable readers (yes I mean you) would make the ideal audience. So I will try to describe the whole phenomenon. …

From snow and subzero temperatures…. We’ve woken up to a spot of snow! ….to flooding that put paid to the Loosemore Family Pre-Christmas Treat: Dinner, Bed & Breakfast at The Angel Hotel, Abergavenny, when Storm Bert (and Tom) came a-calling at the weekend: Storm Bert at Forty Acres Flooding on the lane down to Lower Jury Farm (Video, 20 sec) We woke up to a light dusting of sleety snow …