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This is a writeup of research into using satellite imagery to track mining operations, funded as part of Bellingcat’s 2024 Technical Writing Fellowship, and is a more in-depth version of a short guide published on their online platform. The accompanying Multispectral Satellite Imagery Explorer tool is available here. This guide is intended as an overview of my research, and a starting point for these techniques. a false colour satellite image …

I recently encountered the following party game: Mumbo Jumbo, based on trying to pronounce a word while wearing a mouth-stretcher. Basically, you wear a mouth-stretcher, and then you are asked to read out a phrase. Your teammate has to figure out the phrase you're trying to say. The mouth-stretcher means that you cannot make labials. Of course, the words are selected to take advantage of this limitation as much as …

I needed to do something. My family's new house had sprung a leak, as in the outside air (-28C with the wind at one point) was gushing into a room in our house, making things very unpleasant. I have been wrestling with many renovations to our new house, which has been neglected for years and is in need of some TLC.But on Wednesday night, I had had my share of …

After clocking out from my day job, I usually look for games that help me unwind. Fast Food Simulator had a different plan. The game perfectly captures the hustle and bustle of a fast-food joint, placing you in the shoes of a manager who has to handle everything from taking orders to balancing the books. It’s a frantic, fast-paced experience that mimics the real-world stress of working in fast food—but …

Really. And no, I’m not about to follow that statement up with something annoying like “…Because I love it! Haha!” either. I know the general term has its uses but I could do without the retro gaming mindset entirely, if I’m honest. I think we’d all be better off chucking that artificial distinction in the bin. If I happen to say I like a game made in 1981, or for …

My favorite songs of 2024.

It’s now 2025, thank God. And if you’re a chick, wiith the coming of a new year comes, of course, horoscopes. I am a Libra (Libra sun, Libra moon, Libra rising), so it’s not exactly my year. But my horoscope … Continue reading →

Reading Time: 35 minutes New year, new worries, same old Web Curios! Even in the maelstrom of moderately-unsettling uncertainty that is Q2 of the 21st Century, rest assured that I am once again here to greet you with open arms, a tear-streaked face and a hug that you will initially find welcoming but will, as it continues without showing signs of stopping, begin to make you feel uncomfortably like I …

In my last post I said that I ought to write a guide to helping those caught up in a disaster. I truly hoped it would be a long time before this type of thing was needed, but unfortunately I … Continue reading →

I think not!This is a modern 80s built house, and the ivy has been allowed to grow right the way across the upstairs window (the house had been unoccupied for a while), covering it completely, and heading on upwards into the gutter and into the roof.I sent my colleague up the ladder (I'm not daft!) to pull it off, and we found that the ivy had forced a way inside …

Vengeance Most Fowl (2024) • View trailer4.5 stars (out of five). Rated PG, and needlessly, for mild rude humorAvailable via: NetflixBy Derrick Bang Filmmaker Nick Park already had won two Oscars, the second for Wallace & Gromit’s The Wrong Trousers, when American viewers finally got to see that hilariously clever claymation short via a Wednesday evening PBS screening on March 20, 1995. That’s how long it took to cross the …

Summerhall Arts charity announces future plans Summerhall will be a venue at EdFringe 2025 according to Summerhall Arts, the independent charity set up in 2023 to take over the running of Summerhall’s arts and performance programme. The charity says that it is now welcoming applications for performers and theatre companies for this year’s fringe. And that besides being a venue at future fringes, it intends to run a “diverse programme …

NO SINKING FEELINGS HERE, GIRLFRIEND Call it a jukebox musical if you like, but only if the jukebox came alive, went rogue and started tottering around the stage on rubber feet hurling insults and doing its own thing like the one in the Kuttner sci-fi story which got modified by aliens from the future. Curiosity drove me into a snug balcony seat up against the sound-desk (high-fives with the young …

Belated happy New Year, everyone, and welcome to the (can it be?) eighth year of My Life 100 Years Ago.* J.C. Leyendecker, January 3, 1925 This year’s J.C. Leyendecker New Year’s baby apparently just registered his new car and immediately has to repair it, which I gather is par for the course for ca. 1925 vehicles. John Held Jr., January 5, 1925 Cars can be fun, though, as you can …