Recently updated blogs

It’s starting to look a lot like Christmas… And I wanted to make a small box for my wife who does needle felting, to keep her needles organized. I had a small piece of ash gash lying around, and thought it could be utilized for something more noble than barbecuing bacon cheese sausages on the fire pan (as if that is not THE noble end for wood…). What was I …

I truly enjoyed this podcast episode with Icelandic president Halla Tómasdóttir. Halla joins Adam to discuss dealing with impostor syndrome, why leadership is worth the effort and how listening and asking questions can build trust with constituents and make you a stronger leader. The two also dig into the story behind Halla’s “scarf revolution,” Iceland’s history of solving problems with creativity and Halla’s approach to leading her campaign — and …

Chuck Eddy's fave single of 2024 - "The Spark" by Kabin Crew & Lisdoonvarna Crew, from Knocknaheeny, Cork.The entire post-98 quarter-century-long enshittification of drum + bass redeemed at a stroke. It was all worth it.Kids + Breaks reminded me of this inevitablyThe rapping though - as an example of Very White Rapping + high energy dance beat (the breaks are not very breaksy, more bouncy - ultra-linear NRG surge) makes …

Novelist Andrew Michael Hurley has published what is basically a thirteen story collection, centered around a fictional border town between Yorkshire and Lancashire called Barrowbeck. This provides a thin skein that connects the stories, and the hint that the setting is something rather more significant enters into only a few of the tales. The first is set in the distant past, while the final story is set in 2041 in …

“God is an experience,” an old man told me as he reached for another cookie. “Not a thing or a concept. God is an event.”I thought about this last night while I watched the snow come down, my nose pressed against the cold glass like a little kid—not judging or wanting, just watching. They’re calling it Winter Storm Blair. I’m not sure when we started christening snowstorms, but like everything …

This illusion (from the Chicago museum of illusions, and duplicated, I believe, in other similar museums in other cities) “almost” appears to give a tiling of \(\mathbf{R}^3\) by regular dodecahedra, which for a number of reasons is not possible. (It … Continue reading →

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 …