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By Stu Hennigan. “The phrase seemed to denote a level of long-standing poverty, family breakdown, lack of stability, unemployment and potential risk factors common to many of the predominately young, working class patients referred to the [psychotherapeutic] service” – Rosemary Rizq, The Future of Psychological Therapy, 2016 The coastal wind cut with a Stanley knife slash through a bitter mist of spray, chilling him to the bones. He was stiff …

Can men really love each other – without the sex? Or, to put it another way, how many different forms of male love can you name? These questions loiter around the edges of Tom Stoppard’s dense history play, which jumps from 1936 to the High Victorian age of the 1870s and 1880s, and is now revived by the Hampstead Theatre starring Simon Russell Beale. First staged in 1997 at the …

Liberty magazine ad for its serial of The Woman Accused (and the associated Paramount movie) I should start with an apology — two of them, actually. First, I apologize for not posting here for the last two months. I recently submitted the manuscript of my book, Virginia Faulkner: A Life in Two Acts, to the University of Nebraska Press, and that left me little time and energy for Neglected Books. …

I hate going to the gym, am terrible with routines, and don't notice time passing.Realized that getting a "buy a 10 visit bundle" membership to a gym was counterproductive because it made each visit feel too precious. I didn't want to go if I wasn't going to go do a "proper" session.However, I've learned recently that consistency is more important than exercising a ton in one go.Clearly a monthly membership …

All they want to do is get out of their wet clothes but the key doesn’t work. As Hannah struggles, Joe stands behind her sniffing the warm, musty air of the corridor. ‘Stinks of mice.’ Hannah tries pulling the key out a little as she turns it. She tries pulling up on the door handle. She tries pushing the key harder into the door. ‘Let me try,’ says Joe. He …

Here’s my latest for Foreign Policy! I thought crypto was finally dying off. But just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. [Foreign Policy] The headline was the brief — and well done to Haliey Welch for stealing bitcoin’s thunder. I also swing by our good friends at Tether to explain how the price of bitcoin is pumped. Plus our other favourite colourful racing identity, Justin …

After a pylonless November, December's pylon brings a bit of festive cheer with a dusting of snow. It's located on a 132 kV line near Huddersfied and if you fancy a trip to see it then look on the open infrastructure map for where the 132 kV line splits into a diamond crossing under the 400/275 kV ZP line near Lindley. The picture was sent in by a fan of …

A dozen years ago I shared my mother-in-law’s recipe for apple sharlotka (which family just calls “apple thing”), a lightly sweetened apple dessert that’s as much a thick crêpe as it is a cake. It’s got a short ingredient list and is the kind of thing you make on a whim. It’s so rustic and simple, I honestly didn’t expect it to cause a ruckus — it’s not apple pie, …

Let's get these out of the way! Bookmarks related to tech and web development Likes* are the best by Hagen Terschüren. Paged.js. Making Math Accessible by Dan O’Mahony and Ricky Onsman. My Eleventy site setup by Anh. 88x31 archive by . W3C badge custom element demo by Patrick Brosset. Adding Search to an Eleventy Site Without Client-side JavaScript by Philip Renich. My script to auto-delete Google Maps reviews by Ash …

This paragraph from Peter Coy's essay in the (paywalled) New York Times opinion section is just great. Computer scientists are continually surprised by the creativity displayed by new generations of A.I. Consider that lying is a sign of intellectual development: Children learn to lie around age 3, and they get better at it as they develop. As a liar, artificial intelligence is way past the toddler stage.Later in the same …

Norway, 1956: Housing Directorate’s type drawing 108A compact modern three bedroom house.Nordiske Småhus by Helge Abrahamsen, 1958. (Oslo, Norway) —from my library

Hew Locke asks us to consider imperial power as a grim yet alluring excess of the symbolic, not just as the exercise of brute force. The proliferating connections – from object to object and among the intricate details of his work – produce the uncomfortable sensation that empire’s manifold effects cannot be fully grasped.

Horns above me Tail ahin me Hooves beneath me Tripe within me Hail to the Hornèd Fáilte to the Fleet of Foot May fur fly Voice bell loud and strong Trapped in the rut Oh dear

I was in London last week for a few days and decided on a whim to have one entire day - or thereabouts - just drinking cask. "Unwise" I hear you say and of course I can see why, but arriving at a somewhat gloomy and rainy Euston and just as gloomy Aldgate, somehow pints of lager didn't appeal.As usual, we inspected the flat and having confirmed all is well, …

I've been very quiet here over the last couple of weeks. My mother, Delia Maria Johnson, already in hospital since 5th November or so, took a turn for the worse and began a rapid decline. She died peacefully after some days, and to be honest I’ve really not been myself since then. There's an extra element to the sense of loss when (as it approaches) you are powerless to do …