Today’s a big haul of recordings, and they’re all from a Film Four Star Trek season. So apologies in advance as these are going to be bits I like rather than longer synopses. The first recording starts with the very end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Still the best. Before the next installment, there’s an introduction from Leonard Nimoy. Then it’s Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. It’s an odd-numbered one so according to the rules it’s a bad one. But there’s plenty in it I like. And one…

The Kickstarter for Blood of the Baptist describes St. John the Baptist as an “extreme radical” and “one of the world’s greatest original rebels.” Can you speak to these characteristics and why this specific story was one you wanted to tell? John the Baptist was something of a rock star in his day. He attracted … Continue reading Reimagining John the Baptist Through Art and Music The post Reimagining John the Baptist Through Art and Music first appeared on The Simple Catholic. The post…

Crucial Track for October 29, 2026: “Save Me” by Saint Motel These lyrics feel like they could be about the main characters in The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow. Tell me how we first met Tell me, will we meet again? And I know I don’t say anything But I feel everything, I know you understand ∞ via Crucial Tracks

This is the face of the dead man in Clerkenwell. He does not look perturbed by the change in the weather. Once winters wore him out, but now he rests beneath the streets of the modern city he will never see, oblivious both to the weather and the wonders of our age, entirely oblivious to everything in fact. Let me admit, although some might consider it poor company, I consider death to be my friend – because without mortality our time upon this earth would be worthless. So I do not fear death,…

Tomas Bodén’s latest as Civilistjävel!, “Älvgång”, is experimental electronica with its roots firmly in dub techno. Skeletal arrangements of bass boom, bumps, low drones, strange stretched sitar-like tones and tight, twisted glitches. All synthesised on vintage analogue equipment and Serge and Buchla systems. The mood is dark and eerie. Coloured by spooky, spectral emissions. Cut by scraping, metallic arcs. Haunted by hypnotic ethereal vocals. “Strinne Tre”, a collaboration with Soccer…

Michael Cheval is a contemporaty painter, born in Russia, raised in Germany and who studied at the Ashgabad school of Fine Art in Turkmenistan. I often look sideways at contemporaty artists who call entmselves “Surrealists”, without adhearing to the Surrealist doctrine of unconscious or dream based imagery. Refreshingly, Cheval recognizes that and instead refers to his approach as “Absurdist” painting. He is obviously influenced by the Surrealist painters, in particular Magritte and Dalí,…

My favorite frog on my yearly calendar so far. Selfie a day for a year, day 58: Oct 29, 2026 edition.

Governments, banks, and Big Tech are on a collision course. How do they control the technology their economies depend upon? China weighs AI model restrictions, DoJ scrutinizes Nvidia, and European sovereign debt competes with AI for capital. with Matt Dines and I

Today, my daughters got some progress outside. The last 4 haskaps have been planted, and all 144 of them got a deep watering. The garlic bed also got a deep watering, before a straw mulch was added. If all goes well, the garlic should start growing under there, before the ground freezes. Over time, the … Continue reading Our 2027 garlic is done, and look who’s there…

My reading of Dai Vaughan’s Portrait of an Invisible Man led me to investigate more of the extant films edited by Stewart McAllister, culminating in GERMAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS FACTUAL SURVEY (started in 1945, completed in 2012). By sheer coincidence I’d bought the BFI DVD of Andre Singer’s NIGHT WILL FALL, which is a documentary about […]

“Here you go. This bag of candy cost $20.” “Twenty dollars for that‽” “Yes.” “They certainly know how to price gouge.” “Maybe next year we switch to candy corn.” “You know what I would really hate to get if I were to Trick-or-Treat?” “What?” “An apple.” “Well, it could be worse. I've heard some people give out dental floss for Trick-or-Treating.” “Dental floss‽ If I got that, I'd egg their house!” “That won't happen. Eggs are too expensive these days.”

“We need to get some Hershey's Fun Sized bars.” “We do, huh?” “Yes. With the fun sized bars, I can sneak one a day. If it's the big bars … well … Katey bar the door!” “Okay, I'll go get a bag of Hershey's Fun Sized bars.” “You don't trust me to get a few bags?” “A few bags‽ How many kids are you expecting to show up?” “How many do you think will show up?” “Two.” “Two‽” “Yes. So you're saying we give a bag of Hershey's Fun Sized bars to each child? Here! You get a whole bag! And you get a whole…

Scroll to the bottom of any page here. The very first badge says “Written by a human, not by AI.” Yet scroll back up and you’ll find posts like “Bringing old music ideas to life” and “I am for and against AI,” where I talk openly about how much I use the technology. So which is it? Am I just a hypocritical old man, or is there actually a line between what I let AI do and what I don’t? There is a line, but first, here’s how much I lean on AI... I use it to keep track of my computers and home…

[This is a guest post by Gireeja Ranade. This blog post was initially written in a different file format and converted using AI. — T.] The day after the Navier-Stokes result was announced, a student came to my office hours. They said, “Can we please talk about the Navier-Stokes result and what it means? I really need some therapy.” Two days ago another student mentioned, “I used to be really motivated, but now that all the models can do everything with just a prompt, I don’t feel like putting…

Patrick Stewart was an icon of my youth. His career-defining portrayal of Jean-Luc Picard represented, for me, a rock of stability in a tumultuous childhood.PicardCaptain of the Enterprise D, Jean-Luc exemplified everything I wanted to be in a man. He was contemplative, patient, erudite, and measured. He forestalled his passions in pursuit of principal.He was just trying to read his book.Picard listened to the voices around him and, what's more, he trusted their expertise and council.…

Puzzle Dungeon Jam has returned! It's time again to make your own dungeon with interconnected OSR-style puzzles sharing strong themes and challenges (and get help doing it). Like last year, I'll give feedback on submissions and am available to answer questions/assist on the Zine Month discord (puzzle-dungeon-jam channel). Submissions accepted from November 4th until December 4th. Cheers Jammers!

I think after a few fairly trad productions of Chekhov I'm ready for creatives to go back to being a bit more avant garde with him; the team of adaptor Conor McPherson and director Ian Rickson, reuniting at the Pinter after their Uncle Vanya, won't be the ones to do it though. The Cherry Orchard is part of an estate that once came with its own serfs; they have all been freed from their ancestral ties to the land, but the story takes place when their emancipation was still in living memory. The…

(It’s Halloween Week on Unsung, where we’re sharing scary, spooky, and creepy stories.) This story is a classic Jargon File campfire mystery: Some years ago, I […] was snooping around in the cabinets that housed the MIT AI Lab’s PDP-10, and noticed a little switch glued to the frame of one cabinet. It was obviously a homebrew job, added by one of the lab’s hardware hackers (no one knows who). You don’t touch an unknown switch on a computer without knowing what it does, because you might crash…

Dark Woods by Eddson Lens (Pexels)We want to believe the howls are from wolves, the wild west rearing its head. But when we remove our fingers from our ears, we know. Our hunters are not of this world. It’s the menace in between the howls that drives Pa to sit a nightly vigil at the opening of our wagon, rifle-in-hand. We were not the first to ride west in search of fortune, nor the first to traverse the Sierra Nevadas. Townsfolk from Reno warned us to make haste through the ponderosas and to…

enjoyed this movie recently "the lunchbox" I have been wanting to watch it and luckily found it on you tubeenjoyed this one too..."east side sushi" which I also have been wanting to see and also found it on you tube tried the frozen blueberries from 7-eleven...they are more on the tart side so not too good to eat with pancakes, probably better in smoothies or in muffins...we ate the

Bild: Alleestraße vor der Wattenscheider Straße: Ende des geplanten Radfahrstreifens. Die Alleestraße ist für den Radverkehr eine wichtige Achse dar. Sie ist im Radverkehrskonzept als Radhauptroute klassifiziert. Es gibt parallel keine Alternativrouten. Beschlussvorlage 20262116 Die Radfahrstreifen auf der Alleestraße sind ein deutlicher Fortschritt. Aber sie reichen nur vom Westring bis vor die Wattenscheider Straße. Es wird auch nach dem Ende der Bauarbeiten immer noch keinen durchgehenden…

Ok, Darling Ones, hold on to your butts, this is a big’un. . . Do y’all remember my nephew, Max? I’ve been writing about him for 26ish years. Perhaps you remember this interview from when he was four? Or Actual Factual Toilet Repair? If you’re a more recent reader, you might remember when he turned me to dust by saying, “I always forget how long ago the 90s were.” I promise not to go through all 23-pages worth of Max-specific posts, even though I kinda want to. Just two more, and then I’ll get…

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Hanif Abdurraqib, Andrew Sean Greer, Roxane Gay, and many others. Kaaron Warren’s Going to Summertime is an unsettling novella of friendship and greed. Aurealis Magazine wrote of the book: “Morbid and cajoling, sensual and startling. An astonishingly…

The Current StateContent creators have gotten really good at optimizing their videos thanks to the hyper-competitive markets of TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube. They know how to fine-tune everything in the videos, from when to cut to a new scene with the best transition to how to intonate their voice (just watch MrBeast’s videos and notice his voice) to the best thumbnails (again, see MrBeast, or better yet, his How to Succeed in MrBeast Production handbook).Companies have also gotten…

Journal An eventful couple of days thanks to my deciding to get my flu and covid vaccines and there being a slot available right after my psychotherapy session. I don’t think I had a particularly strong reaction before but this one was like getting actual covid, albeit for a couple of hours in the middle of the night. Lots of shivering and sweats and headaches and very little sleep. Not pleasant but not to worrying since I knew it would pass, and it did. I had no idea if I was eligible for free…

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I am back on the podcast, and just in time: MacBook Pros can be touched, iPad mini chips can be binned, and John Ternus can change the world.

Credit: Photo and placard by the author Godspeed, Sir Patrick 2026-10-29T22:37:00+00:00, by Emma Humphries, from Infinite Wishes 🏳️‍⚧️🚀 I told Cynthia that our captain was dead, and got out the Jameson so we could toast his memory. Sir Patrick stood on the side of labor and the dispossessed, so this placard I made when I was learning Inkscape and how to use a laser cutter is appropriate. May we bring about the better world that Sir Patrick, along with Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, and others…

If only more leaders in the world were like Captain Picard. The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it’s scientific truth, or historical truth, or personal truth! It is the guiding principle upon which Starfleet is based! If you can’t find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened, you don’t deserve to wear that uniform! —Star Trek: The Next Generation, The First Duty