Recently updated blogs

A 2018 piece for Stanford Live on Bowie's death and the art of the eulogy. The night that the news went out that David Bowie had died, I was just finishing a book in which he was the central figure. On January 10th 2016, I was literally on the last pages of my glam rock history Shock and Awe when Twitter told me that this towering pop figure had fallen. …

From the Independent: Nigel Farage has launched a defence of Elon Musk’s incendiary social media attacks on Keir Starmer, claiming that “free speech is back” under the Tesla tycoon’s ownership of X (Twitter). The Reform UK leader said that “tough things get said” in public life after Mr Musk described safeguarding minister Jess Phillips as a “rape genocide apologist” who should be in jail. Farage’s deputy Richard Tice adopted the …

A classic Italian shrimp risotto that uses saffron, some peas and lots of butter. It screams spring, even in winter. Shrimp Risotto is the latest post on Hunter Angler Gardener Cook.

I've literally just found this - below shot - looking for something else to post quickly before I go to work, and as it's 12th night/the last day of Christmas, today, I'd better post it! These were part of a donation from Peter Evans back in the late summer, and I've mentioned that several donations and a couple of toy fair lots have rather been forgotten or subsumed into the …

Join us on Monday 27 January 2025 for the event ‘Fragments of the Past: Holocaust Legacies and Commemoration’ and explore how the Holocaust has shaped memory, identity, and culture. Bringing together scholars, historians, and artists, this conference examines the Holocaust’s profound and enduring impact, as well as the varied methods...

A farmer with a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage must cross a river by boat. The boat can carry only the farmer and a single item. If left unattended together, the wolf would eat the goat, or the goat would eat the cabbage. How can they cross the river without anything being eaten? You probably know this puzzle. There are two efficient solutions, related by a symmetry that switches …

Boris Dralyuk has tracked down a clip from a 1937 B-movie where Alexander Voloshin—whose Russian poetry Dralyuk has translated—speaks Ukrainian instead of (as usual) being silent and uncredited. In that post he links to the late 1920s experimental short The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra, very much worth your 14 minutes! I’ve learned a lot from The Russian Reader’s grim juxtapositions of translated bits of current Russian …

Before we get into the swing of the new year, I’m going to write briefly about some of the books that left an impression on me in 2024. These aren’t in any particular order, and there’s a mix of non-fiction and fiction. Dan Davies: The Unaccountability Machine Although these are not in a particular order, this is the book I’ve found myself coming back to more than the others. Davies …

In this short video, I share insights about the difference between expectations from a middle manager and a senior manager and how can one navigate this shift in expectations, which at times is extremely difficult. You get invited to the so called big boys table when you do exceedingly well at your tasks and show the potential to be a good leader. This required you to be able to have …

The Shield & Dagger, Southampton, Hampshire A post-war pub, originally knoqn as the Stratton, in a back-street location in the Shirley district on the north-west side of the city. Demolition work began in September 2024.

Happy New Year! I hope you’re keeping safe and well. The first post of the year is the now customary look back at the previous year’s Young Adult covers. All the covers on this year’s list are illustrated (which was almost, but not quite, the case last year too). I love illustration — it’s part of the reason why I still keep doing these posts! — so it’s possible that …

Somehow this marks twenty years of travelogues. As I mentioned last fall, part of longevity is just sticking to it. One of the shortcomings of this format is that I specifically chronicle where I’ve slept, not where I’ve been. Every once in awhile this matters—like this year, where I spent eight hours in Minnesota, flying to Minneapolis early in the morning, complete with a diverted landing in Duluth, and leaving …

The LEGO® Icons Blacktron Renegade is now available to all, and the B-model instructions are on the LEGO building instructions portal, meaning I could finally construct the walker and repair mech alternate builds.Continue reading »

For the second time now, someone mentioned to me that it is kind of paradoxical that my newsletter, which is called “Own Your Web”, is not hosted on my own server or under my own domain but on Buttondown. And yes, they are right. I realize that this is kind of not walking the talk. Do I really own my Web in this case? I thought about this as well …

Pink and Blues on the booze. Source