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My grandma died in August. She was 98 ½. 98 ½! A phenomenal run. She outlived Castro, but not Jimmy Carter. She was my last grandparent. My mom’s parents died when I was a kid, and my dad’s dad died over a decade ago. That left grandma, but she had a lot left in her. At one point I hadn’t been home for Christmas for a few years due to …

The third book in Edward Kellett’s series, we’ve now reached 1993 and 1994 – a period of change for The Bill as a third weekly episode was added to the schedule. As with the previous volumes, each of the two sections (dedicated to 1993 and 1994) begin by highlighting a number of key episodes (which are ideal picks for anyone keen to sample the programme, but who might balk at …

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 →

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 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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Even when it’s online, and you can shop from the comfort of your home, Black Friday always feels like a mad dash to find the best days. To simplify the landscape, I round up the best menswear-related promotions every year and post them here, along with a selection of notable picks at each store. These [...] Read More... The post Ten Of The Best Black Friday Sales appeared first on …

Today (2024), generative artificial intelligence allows us to generate infinite solutions, but the problem is that we cannot prove that these solutions are related to a particular real output. We can, correlate them and approximate the solution as a function of a given distance in a latent space, but we cannot prove this as a fact. To me, this is a problem whenever we want to apply this to deterministic …

My notes on the thought-provoking book The Collapse of Complex Societies. Recommended to me by Eli Dourado, whose notes you can find here. This chart sums up the thesis of the book, but it’s mislabeled. It’s the benefits of complexity vs level of complexity, not the marginal product of increasing...