Recently updated blogs

One thing I like to do is make fires. It’s often considered a less socially-acceptable pastime than my other wood-destruction hobbies like writing and woodworking, but each of these ways of killing trees teaches me something vital, and perhaps none is more full of portentous metaphors than building a wood fire in a fireplace or for a campfire. Here, then, are a few key lessons that may have additional resonance …

I’ll be in London this December to launch the new book, Legitimacy in Liberal Democracies, and to discuss some of my other work. There will be multiple in-person events in London. If you’re in the UK and you’d like to attend, here are the dates and, where applicable, sign-up instructions: Everyday Analysis Event on the … Continue reading December London Tour Dates →

Generative AI features have a large climate impact and water consumption. We can weigh that impact against those features' benefits, but what if they are left unused? If lots of people don't in fact use the thing? That seems like lots of avoidable waste. Which matters, we're in a climate emergency and we're dangerously far from that 1.5 degrees target. I know, we all want people to use features we …

Chase issues a cobranded credit card with Air Canada Aeroplan. It has a very interesting feature called Pay Yourself Back. This card isn’t especially popular in the US, but I have gotten pretty good value out of it over the past year. Although I live 900 meters inside the US, my home airport is Vancouver. Being a cardholder allows a free checked bag, even on basic economy fares. The card …

The Ware for November 2024 is shown below. Click on any image for a larger version. I have a policy of never using one of my own projects for name that ware. But, sometimes I see another person’s project in the wild and it is just too cool not to share! I came across this ware recently and fell in love with it instantly. It’s the sort of thing I’ve …

The Fokker D-II was a fairly mediocre and uninspired successor to the E-III monoplane responsible for the “Fokker Scourge” of 1915-’16. The D-III improved on it, but not enough to make it competitive with the Allied aircraft then coming into service, and it very nearly lost Fokker all the credit he had garnered with the German air services.Visually, there is little to distinguish the two. There were very minor differences …

Mubi only accepted one this year, so here were some from the reject pile:NEW: The Bikeriders (Jeff Nichols, US) + OLD: Lenin: The Train (Damiano Damiani, 1988)"The whole point of these guys is that they can’t follow rules, you know. You put ’em together, and they get in this club, and all of a sudden, oh, they start makin’ up all these rules for everybody to follow." NEW: Hard Truths …

The sashiko pattern yabane 矢羽根 or 矢羽 represents arrow feathers, which is also the literal translation of yabane.矢 ya means “arrow” and 羽 or 羽根 hane means “feather” or “wing.” When put together, the は ha sound becomes soft and turns into ば ba. Thus it is pronounced yabane, not yahane.The yabane sashiko pattern is one of the most popular traditional patterns. Probably not only because of its good looks, …

This week, I published Complete CSS. After 15+ years of teaching, architecting and delivering CSS for global organisations and startups, I’ve collated that experience into an extensive course. It’s been by far the biggest piece of work I’ve — sorry, we’ve — ever delivered in this industry and I just wanted to acknowledge that for a second on this personal website of mine. It’s not just a course about writing …

It’s catchy. And many people feel that’s what they do. And you’ll be doing it a bit I don’t doubt. If you’ve talked to a service designer over the last few years (or been one) you’ve probably heard some variation on that theme. That the job is mostly convincing other people to let them do their job. It’s a good ear worm but it’s a bad brain worm. Telling people …

I don’t normally get out at lunch but I was desperate to finish a roll of film. I left the office and walked over to Spring Garden Road, a busier part of the city. It was a good opportunity to get some photographs on the street and stretch my mind and legs. A lot of busses go up the street to get out of downtown and there are always people …

The Mechanical Turk was a machine built in 1770, at the start of the Industrial Revolution, that supposedly beat Napoleon and Benjamin Franklin at chess. It toured for 84 years before being destroyed in a fire and, although many suspected it was a scam, it was only revealed to have been a hoax as late as 1834. It seems obvious now, but it was essentially a box with a person …

80/20 Strength Training by friend-of-the-blog Uri Bram — Whether or not you care about strength training, more things should be written like this. skeptical thread about honey and bloodletting Seem like peanut allergies were once rare and now everyone has them?: The 1990s was the decade of peanut allergy panic. The media covered children who died of a peanut allergy, and doctors began writing more about the issue, speculating on …

by Diana Miranda Death and The Cat, directed by Penny Gkritzapi, explores life’s ultimate and inevitable outcome – death – wrapped with absurdist humour and a surprising amount of heart. Robert Emlyn Slater’s debut play gives life (ironically) to Death. What starts as a comedy full of quirky characters slowly reveals itself as a deeper reflection on questions about what infinity means, and how the power of connection may ground …

Satellite images of a horse, pomegranates, and a camel, created from Solar Panel installations in China and Mongolia.Via @[email protected] Horse image was created in association with Huawei, in a project that also includes agrivoltaics (growing crops between and underneath solar panels):In the Kubuqi Desert of Inner Mongolia, the State Power Investment Corporation used Huawei’s smart PV solution to build a 300 MW solar power station. The power station located in …