Recently updated blogs

Reading Time: 35 minutes I hope all of you who’ve sent me complaining messages about there being ‘too much AI stuff’ in Curios over the past few years are feeling suitably-chastened now that Sir Keir’s going to MAINLINE IT INTO THE NATION’S VEINS. Whether or not intravenous injection was necessarily the right analogy for the forced introduction of a potentially-nefarious technology that noone necessarily wants into the body public is…questionable, …

Time flies faster than we can think of. Nagarathna Memorial Grant – 2025 is open for applications; this is our eighth edition. When I started it, I didn't think much about how it would turn out in a couple of years. So, there were no expectations. But it has grown into its own thing in these seven years. I have met so many interesting people and their work. It has …

Congratulations.Good decision 😄.Beekeeping is a wonderful hobby.There's a lot to recommend it; it's relatively inexpensive to start, training is usually widely available, it involves an invigorating combination of hard work, practical skill, observation, insight and understanding, and - if you manage all that - your bees should produce some delicious honey that is better than anything available in the supermarket.In fact, if you get that lot right, and you're blessed …

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts: Comfort Zone In this very special episode, the gang makes their “Pro” and “Pro Max” predictions for tech in 2025 and oh my, does it get wild! Who’s best clued into the tech coming this year? Who is just wish-casting their way to third place? We’ll have to wait to find out. NPC: Next Portable Console On this special edition of …

In her 2008 memoir, A Freewheelin’ Time, Suze Rotolo described how Bob Dylan, her boyfriend between 1961 and 1964, developed his look. Apparently it was Dave Van Ronk, a slightly older Greenwich Village folkie, who urged the 21-year-old Dylan to start paying attention to his image. In Rotolo’s words: “Such things might have been talked about in jest, but in truth they were taken quite seriously. Much time was spent …

brilliant free Minesweeper-inspired roguelike by Daniel Benmergui #

Like all nerds, I revere Brian Eno. When MusicRadar asked for a column about him, I jumped on it. They wanted something about his generative music, and Music For Airports was the obvious choice. While I was researching, I learned that a couple of airports had tried playing the album in the terminals, and that it had not gone over well. With a little reflection, this is not surprising. Who …

We’re thrilled to be collaborating with Qing Wang and Adam Tooze to publish articles from Phenomenal World in translation as a new column on Chartbook’s Chinese edition. First up is Andrew Elrod’s essay on Bidenomics and the tectonic forces arranged around US tax and fiscal policy. Read the WeChat post. Follow along at Chartbook China. The post Phenomenal World partners with Chartbook China appeared first on Jain Family Institute.

(SOUND FIXED): Oasis (Karl Jenkins) https://londonjazzcollector.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/nucleus_oasis_well-talk-about-it-later_vertigo-1971_6360027_ljc.mp3 . . . Apologies, first post had a missing sound link, now fixed, also, Harry M photos of Nucleus added, at Collector’s Corner – LJC Track List A1 Song For The Bearded Lady (Jenkins) 7:22A2 Sun Child (Clyne, Marshall) 5:16A3 Lullaby For A Lonely Child (Jenkins) 4:21A4 We’ll Talk About It Later (Jenkins) 6:13B1 Oasis (Jenkins) 9:44B2 Ballad Of Joe Pimp (Carr, Clyne) 3:45B3 …

Who did I listen to most this week? #lastfm says: Peter Gabriel (64), Kate Bush (45), Glaring (35), Phase Fatale (29) & The Soft Moon (19) [via lastweekly]

During that same fateful spring of 1521 which brought triumph followed by death to Ferdinand Magellan in the Philippines, his adopted liege Charles was grappling with problems of his own half a world away. For Charles’s new kingdom of Spain was then in the closing stages of a brief but terrifying civil war. A year earlier, the city of Toledo, in the heart of old Castille, had instigated a rebellion …

Hello, and welcome to 2025. Is it that time already? The possessive apostrophe (or rather, the abuse of the possessive apostrophe) is a recurrent guest star here at Shady Characters, but usually in the English language. Recently, though, the Guardian reported that unneeded apostrophes are infecting German, too. The so-called Deppenapostroph, or “idiot’s apostrophe”, appears when a German-language expression uses it to indicate a possessive — despite the fact that …

Here's another Stargrave scenario, completely untested, as per usual. THE HERMIT Pagurus Titanicus is known for grabbing bits of debris to build itself a tough outer shell, and there's plenty of debris among the dead stars. There's loot too, and rumour has it this monster is carrying treasure on its back. SET-UP Place terrain as normal. Multi-level terrain is handy for jumping down on the

I was walking from Russell Square to Kings Cross today and, as I passed by these houses that end at Heathcote Street, I thought it was high time that I shared my idea that surely they face the wrong way. I mean to say, the front doors face Mecklenburgh Street, yet the walled back gardens abut Grays Inn Road here. I've only seen the like in two other London locations: …