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This is an Art Deco styled bakelite medium format camera made in France. Mine is a series III model made from 1947 to around 1956. This one is the deluxe or blindé version, meaning that it has a push-on bakelite lens cap (blindé means armoured). This camera is about as simple as you can get for roll film, and bears comparison with the Ilford Sporti I borrowed. The Photax cameras …

After spending some time with a bunch of rogues earlier this week, my #JanuaryInJapan thriller week continues today with another trip to Tokyo. This time around, the crime has long been done and detected, meaning the focus is far less on the what than the why. Let’s head off to prison, then, where we’ll be making the acquaintance of a young woman, and putting together the pieces of a story …

Over the holiday break Exponential View republished a piece by Azeen Azhar it had run earlier in the year on GLP-1 drugs. (In other words, drugs like Ozempic.) First time around, I’d noticed the headline, but not had time to get into the detail. But seeing it during the holiday meant I was able to give it more consideration. The Exponential View headline story is this: I reckon that they …

Photo books are one way of sharing your story now.Are you taking the time to tell your own story? Be a good ancestor and share your own story so future generations will have a sense of what your life has been like.My choice: photo booksI began to systematically document my life and family experiences in 2007, when I made the first of what became an annual series of photo books. …

Imagine there was a city that was, in many ways, Melbourne, Australia, but that, in equally as many ways, was Mexico City, Mexico. Imagine you’re walking along Bourke Street Mall but, simultaneously to looking around and seeing Bourke Street Mall, you look around and you’re seeing Paseo de la Reforma. That city, and the lands around it, is the city in which this story takes place. The protagonist of this …

I had to ask Chat GPT how to delete my Instagram account. Living in the twenty-first century feels not only slightly embarrassing but increasingly like an ultimatum: embrace the future without complaint or be left pining for the textures of the past. But there’s always a third way.1.Salvation Mountain, 2019Near a decommissioned military base between the Chocolate Mountains and the Santa Rosa range, there’s a candy-colored hill shellacked with religious …

Last week was the busiest yet for the NHS this winter, amid sky-high virus rates which have left hospitals ‘jampacked’ with patients. New data published today shows that more hospital beds were occupied last week (w/e 12 Jan) than at any point so far this winter (97,636), with 96% of adult general and acute hospital […]

Victorians in Prahran and Werribee will elect their new state Legislative Assembly member of parliament in by-elections to happen on Saturday February 8. This is due to the resignation of Greens MP Sam Hibbins in Prahran and the retirement of former Treasurer Tim Pallas in Werribee. Prahran and Werribee are chalk and cheese. Seat descriptions and transport needs discussed below:PrahranSeat descriptionPrahran is a densely populated inner suburban seat with an …

The unassuming entrance of what used to be a row of fancy mansionsIn 1881, upon the assassination of President James A. Garfield, Vice President Chester Alan Arthur was sworn in in the front parlor of his home located at 123 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. The building, located between 28th and 29th streets is now home to Kalustyans, possibly the finest purveyor of spices and condiments in the United States.I mention …

Sandy Steen Bartholomew, a supremely skilled cartoonist and illustrator, submitted four different items for review. First is a kids' book, Blue Roo, which is a comic but does have some sequential elements. It's about a girl named Albina, who is obsessed with the color white and overall tidiness and order in all things. Her most prized possession was her white kangaroo stuffie Roo. When her messy little brother Jojo accidentally …

Translated by Oonagh Stransky Review by Annabel Version 1.0.0 Such is my woeful lack of knowledge of African history, I had no idea that Eritrea had been colonized by Italy in the late 1880s, transferring to British administration during WWII, before reverting to Ethiopian control until its independence in 1991. The author, Erminia Dell’Oro, is the granddaughter of one of the first Italian settlers, being born and growing up in …

ALTHalf a can is better than none!// Disneyland Paris Resort, Disneyland Paris, Adventureland, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril, 2016[Source: Cameron Donlon. Used by Permission.]

I've been obsessed with Clive Barker's Hellraiser since I saw the first film back in the 80s, after getting my grandmother to rent it from the local grocery store. Truth be told, the first time I watched it I had to take it in two parts; it freaked me out so much that I had to stop the tape and continue the next day! After finishing it, though, I couldn't …

Today I'm giving a talk at the last annual meeting1 1It's the 8th of our 7 annual meetings of the Simons Collaboration on Arithmetic Geometry, Number Theory, and Computation. It's about Maass forms. The short of it is: Maass forms are in the LMFDB now, go [check it out](https://www.lmfdb.org/ModularForm/GL2/Q/Maass]! I've given many other talks about Maass forms in the past, and I'm happy to talk more about them. The slides …

Bluesky and the Fediverse are our best online hopes for humane human conversation. Things happened on 2025/01/13; I’ll hand the microphone to Anil Dash, whose post starts “This is a monumental day for the future of the social web.” What happened? Follow Anil’s links: Mastodon and Bluesky (under the “Free Our Feeds” banner). Not in his sound-bite: Both groups are seeking donations, raising funds to meet those goals. I’m sympathetic …