This week’s newsletter from Culture.pl contains several articles on language, one of which, by Mikołaj Gliński, answers How much Polish is there in Esperanto? Here are some excerpts: The Slavic Esperanto lexicon is generally considered to derive from two Slavic languages, both of which Zamenhof knew very well – Russian and Polish. While Russian, as he later recalled, was his favourite during his early days, as well as the language of the larger part of his linguistic output, Polish was the…
If you are building a commonplace book, you must learn how to create an ontology that works across books. Unfortunately, developing this ontology is anything but trivial. We must be able to store ideas (entries) and find them later to use them in our essays or conversations.Even worse, storing entries and looking up entries have inverse cost functions, i.e. the more time you take to store something, the easier it is to find later. The less time you take to store an entry, the harder it is to…
Many moons ago I wrote a class for the the Citizens of the terrible imperial metropole. This was in the very early days on the blog, and many things have since changed. I was never really happy with it - it ended up being a sort of downtime class that could nebulously 'infect' populations with ideas and concepts. Not a terrible idea for a class, but a bit blunt and brute-force and crude. I wrote a while ago about optical war-games, which depend on the machine/interface relation to produce a…
From yesterday, in the posting “nostalgie du ciel’, from an exchange with Hana Filip about nostalgia, with a reference to (from my father, long ago): guidebooks [to Alpine flowers], including a Swiss one with gorgeous color plates. Which are now inestimable sources of delight but also symbols of great loss. As you say, nostalgia. Now, an inventory of my postings about the one with those marvelous illustrations. — from 7/6/11, the posting “Flora” on two wildflower books: Taschenflora des…
Marvel seems to do this thing where if you create a character under their work-for-hire system and they use it in a movie/show, they'll give you a check...but are very careful about it. They aren't giving you a royalty; it is $5,000 and an invite to the premiere of the thing with your character...as long as you signed some contracts too, where they're protected from you suing for more money or speaking out about things too much in a critical manner. I mean, Ed Brubaker got more money for…
Affirmation 2026-07-17T21:56:00+00:00, by Emma Humphries, from Infinite Wishes 🏳️⚧️🚀 US Senator Tammy Duckworth, a decorated veteran, jdescribed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s plan to test the testosterone levels of cis men serving in the military as gender-affirming care. I’m guessing she meant it as a joke but… I am sorry that I must once again write about trans things when I could be writing about things I enjoy. The cisgender men serving in the US military are men. No one is…
“Asian workers ‘at home’ have been organized, culturally and politically, and have provided a critique of anthropological categorisation themselves by focusing on political and organizational issues. It is salutary to find that the communist or Marxist-inspired authors and activists that should be discussed here were able to provide a critique of eurocentric models of social science writing long before such critiques*/under the guise of reflexive anxiety and postmodern doubt*/became common…
When a really long road ends, why don’t we do more to celebrate the staggering amount of collective work that went into it? The ancient Romans really outclassed the federal highway system on this front.Today in Tedium: What does it mean for a road to end? Particularly, a big, imposing one that represents an essential connection for millions of people across an entire country? Often, major highways take up massive numbers of lanes, become both the primary path and bottleneck through which people…
Subscribe WordPress Facebook Twitter Instagram If you enjoy reading please consider “buying me a pint”, this will help to cover my hosting and image hosting and help to ensure further trips can go ahead!BUY ME A PINT Discovering the Character of Oxford, One Pub at a Time I had a brilliant day exploring Oxford, discovering a fantastic mix of historic pubs, cosy taprooms and independent bars, each with its own character and story to tell. It was great to meet up with members of Oxford CAMRA along…
“Vital Signals thinks its Signal Ring is accurate enough to replace traditional blood pressure cuffs for the almost half of U.S. adults who live with high blood pressure. The new wearable is thicker than the average ring, not unlike Oura’s older smart rings, but its on-the-spot and continuous blood pressure monitoring laps competitors like Samsung, Apple, and Whoop—if you’re willing to pay $399 to use it.” The other big differentiator though is that no blood pressure cuff calibration is…
If consciousness — and consequently, intelligence — is in fact a fundamental force of the cosmos {like gravity, electromagnetism, the strong and weak nuclear forces} then it’s literally like finding free money on the ground, pretty much every where you set your feet, and your eyes upon. ::chuckle:: Over the past couple of years, when I go on my daily constitutions throughout this highly walkable city and its mosaic of multifarious neighborhoods {set in its textured landscape of 17 or so hills},…
Streaming fatigue continues. The Verge captures the slow, steady movement that is backlashing streaming consolidations and DRM lock-ins. Also, a minor point not often cited, is bandwidth issues: It’s not just the cost of streaming that I have to worry about, either. Last year, I nearly exceeded my ISP’s data cap after I downloaded Baldur’s Gate 3 and kept up my heavy streaming habits. That was all the more reason for me to invest in DVDs. I’ve actually noticed some of this with Comcast over the…
[After Pistol Pete, there was Johnny Gun. Most today remember Pete Maravich, but far fewer recall Johnny Neumann. Understandably so. Maravich had a phenomenal college and, at times, pro career, while Neumann excelled in the college game for one season, went pro, but never lived up to the hype. Still, Neumann is worth remembering so many years later. Not to parse his career numbers, but to track his semi-tragic story. Neumann’s worst enemy was himself. But Neumann never quit on the game or his…
Even though I believe we collectively deserve what we collectively allow. A bit of my own misanthropy ruined my artistic inspiration for the day.
"Why?" people ask. "Well, why not?" I ask back. I've been working on some very specific pages and when writing them and their introduction I felt like a reasonable criticism of the idea would be, Why do this? And why post it? My answer to which was, Well, why not. That's mostly my answer. Sure it's a bit more effort than just keeping my own private list of links. But effort is no bad thing. I like other people sharing their enthusiasms and I ought to reciprocate. Writing something with the…
Yesterday on this blog — in the posting “Merest note” — I whined about, among other things, the incredibly tedious task of getting books organized in my new digs. Hana Filip’s comment on Facebook about my dismay evoked a complex moment of nostalgia for me: — HF: I find it hard organizing, discarding all kinds of documents, books, letters from the past. Occasionally, there are wonderful surprises because I remember lovely things that I should have remembered, but forgot, but mostly it makes me…
It was an honor to be back on Media & the Machine, which has grown to be an un-skippable podcast — usually with guests who are much smarter than me.Check it out over on LinkedIn too.Rob Kelly puts a lot of work into these episodes – more than any other podcast I’ve been on (even on the big networks). For this first half hour, we get into why:Marketing teams are being slashed and we’re being lied to about the reasons.The future belongs to the independents, who can publish opinions with a voice…
I don’t think people who argue about reductionism are really arguing about reductionism. Reductionism is the idea that the behavior of big, complicated things (people, economies, ecosystems) boils down to the behavior of their smallest constituents (molecules, atoms, subatomic particles). It’s often contrasted with emergence, the idea that new rules emerge in those big, complicated systems that are more than just the rules that govern the smallest scales. Emergence can be divided into two…
If I think about what I like and dislike about the internet, contrasting what I find pleasant or productive with what I find unpleasant or unproductive, I can’t escape the conclusion that debating strangers stands out as the principal activity that makes me dislike, even hate the internet. A long internet debate with a stranger can drastically sour my mood, ruining a whole day. And I can’t recall a single long debate with a stranger that ever ended well, in my decades on the internet. Short…
I never leave the house without a fat stack of $2 bills in case I ever encounter a lemonade stand. This has quickly become one of the most joyful habits in my life.First of all, you should know that I operated a lot of lemonade stands when I was a kid and it always made me so happy when people bought lemonade from us (we ran an incredibly unsuccessful business so this was a rare occurrence).So because I have this experience and I understand the excitement of getting actual paying customers for…
Most Fridays, I share a handful of pieces that caught my eye at the intersection of technology, media, and society.Did someone forward this to you? Subscribe for free.Mamdani invests in tech capacity to “solve real problems”There’s a lot that newsrooms can learn from Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral administration in New York City. His latest announcement is the Public Interest Technology (PIT) Crew, a set of dynamic, cross-disciplinary digital teams that will solve problems across the city using a…
I recently learned from a blog comment that Herman Chernoff passed away last week at the age of 103. He was born the same year as my dad. I first met Chernoff–it’s not like he was a particularly formal guy, but I can’t imagine calling him “Herman”–when I was a student at MIT. I’d taken a statistics course and really liked it, and I wanted to know what class to take next. The instructor, Stephan Morgenthaler, recommended I ask Chernoff, who in turn told me that MIT didn’t have much to offer in…
Six years and four months ago to the day, I received my first hashcard – an achievement-earning postcard sent while out on a geohashing expedition, to another geohasher. This experience went some way to my acquisition last year of a PO Box through which anybody on the Internet is invited to send me a postcard! (I’ve collected a few!) Well: today I received my second hashcard (and tenth “postcard from the Internet”)! This one came from GeorgDerReisende, whose 800+ expeditions are more than a…
On 25th July I’m teaming up with Discover Jesmond 1888 and Heritage History Her for an event in St. George’s Church, Jesmond. Jesmond? Want to make your mark in history? Come to St George’s Church Hall on Saturday 25th July to make a community heritage zine with me and Discover Jesmond 1888. Share your story of Jesmond. We’ll be collecting stories, collaging and collaborating from 2pm to 4pm. This activity is free!You can sign up on the Discover Jesmond 1888 website.
Last night was another episode in the ongoing public humiliation of the United States of America. I think I'm past the point of being dumbfounded. I guess it's just his commitment to the bit, or maybe it is dementia. I know the people around him blow smoke up his ass as they're kissing it every minute of every day; but I have to wonder just how much he believes his own bullshit about America being respected ("as never before"). I know he lies as reflexively as breathing, but does he think…
Day Six in Nagoya. No new kyujo to report but please check out Justin’s sumo experience with former Makuuchi wrestler, Kyokutaisei. There is so much sumo content and so many sumo shows nowadays, it’s great to see these options. Konishiki’s Sumo and Sushi tour is coming back and there’s even a new group in London, … Continue reading Nagoya 2026: Day Six
Some pub names just sound "right" to me. Others are obviously invented by outsiders, whether foreigners or just people not steeped in the culture. Here's a guide to the good ones.
This animated map reveals how agricultural productivity is expected to be affected by climate change around the world throughout this century. It uses the new Climate-Driven Agricultural Decline Index (CADI) to show where and how global heating is likely to alter crop-growing conditions.According to the Climate-Driven Agricultural Decline Index, more than 640 million people already live in
Kevin sent me a link to this email from Linus Torvalds the other day, and I found that to be a great example of something that has been bothering me for a while now. It’s about AI—everything is about AI these days, so damn boring—and, more specifically, Linus’ position when it comes to the use of LLMs. What I find bothersome is the lack of any consideration for the moral and ethical implications of the technology itself. The justification for its use essentially boils down to “it’s a useful…
Reading Time: 40 minutes Can I offer you a piece of advice? Next time it’s incredibly hot, if someone suggests to you that you spend nine hours at a dayrave, taking place in what are effectively two massive car parks surrounded by concrete walls, that instead of enthusiastically saying “yes please!” and overexcitedly getting On It you instead say “no, thankyou, I am Too Old For That Sort Of Thing” and stay somewhere airconditioned instead? I, sadly, did not make that sensible decision last…
