Learn about 4 of the most exciting updates made to the Python standard library in 3.15. This article highlights 4 of the most exciting updates made to the Python standard library in 3.15: new object_hook in json.load: together with frozendict this unlocks a very powerful use case new module math.integer: new module that introduces integer arithmetic functions new re.prefixmatch function: clarifies some confusion that typically arises when using re.match new asyncio.TaskGroup.cancel function:…

blogging (writing about my life) shouldn’t be this hard (especially when things are so good).

From the Wurts Brothers, a tenant directory at 250 Park Avenue: Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library. “250 Park Avenue (East 46th Street – East 47th Street)” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1887 – 1964. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/4ba64aa0-c5ed-012f-19b6-58d385a7bc34 (Note that the photo date is listed as “1887 to 1964, approximate,” which would seem to cover all the possibilities.) I…

Of all the things you might expect to cause performance problems during a frantic reactor escape in AM2R, a temperature gauge probably wouldn't be high on the list. There are collapsing walls, explosions, and all manner of things happening on screen, any one of which seems a reasonable suspect when the frame rate begins to struggle. Yet when the developer known as PatchDev began investigating why this particular sequence wasn't performing as well as it should on lower-powered Android handhelds…

The “largest and most systematic study of linguistic inequity in academic philosophy to date” was recently published. Its authors are Neri Marsili (University of Turin) and Paul Rehren (Max Planck Institute). In the following guest post, they share some of their findings. Underrepresentation of Non-Native English Speakers in Analytic Philosophy: Findings from over 100,000 Papersby Neri Marsili and Paul Rehren It’s no secret that a good command of English is a prerequisite for a successful…

As a Young Man, Magazines Were My Window to the World. That Wonder will be Lost When All the Shops have Gone, by John Harris, The Guardian Worth the Risk: On Daring to Choose the Writing Life, by Jung Yun, Literary Hub The Story Behind Edward Hopper’s Iconic Painting, “Nighthawks”, by Louis Shadwick, Literary Hub (Excerpted from Edward Hopper: A Life) Will Books Survive? 34 Insiders, Experts, and Icons on the State of Literature in an Age of Uncertainty, by Colin Groundwater, GQ Hello? Where Is…

It's municipal election season, and this will be the first time we participate in Three Rivers. It's a hard decision. I know nothing about these people, and they don't share much of themselves, though I suppose they're well known in their own social circles. One of the council candidates for our ward tells you to simply give him a call. He doesn't seem to have email. The others had nothing available when I searched. The local paper publishes something about the mayoral candidates, behind a…

On Saturday I went to a sewing class to learn how to use a sewing machine. We made a tote bag and some bunting after instructions on threading, stitches, and materials. I had a great time. I am extremely conflicted as to whether I want to pursue it as a hobby long term. I think it would be nice to make costumes, but no further advances on that. I’d need an initial investment of a few hundred pounds, a working desk, fabric scissors, etc. And all that just to maybe give it up after a week? I’m…

i just can’t be bothered. most things going on are not worth my time. why? it’s not ignorance and turning a blind eye it’s just that most things are out of reach where to spend money. with whom to spend time. these are changeable… …but most things are not

Pot of Gold flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license Today’s TDC says: Check out this link to get a random German fairy tale. Now make us some art based on whatever you get – maybe a picture or a poem. I landed on The Heckethaler (Swinemünde), which I discovered is a magical self-replicating coin. I have nursery rhymes on my mind, so here’s the poem that wrote itself for me: Heckethaler What would I do with a magic coin? Could I solve the…

(I mean, in the day…) So I was sitting on the couch, minding my own business, when I heard this *boit*-sounding thing. A soft sound… like a polite notification beep or something. I checked all the Firefox tabs, but didn’t see anything — and then switched the sound off on the laptop. Still getting a *boit* every couple of minutes. So then I had to get off the couch — like an animal — and try to locate what device I could possibly have somewhere in the living room that made the sound. Reader, it…

Overview # I’m launching a Premium Newsletter that runs in addition to the regular one. The launch price is €25 EUR for a year’s membership, which is a 50% discount off the annual price and a 70% discount off the monthly price. This Halloween launch sale lasts up to (and including) 1 November 2026. I’m also offering a bundle Halloween sale that includes all the ebooks and a year’s membership in the Premium Newsletter at €50 EUR, a 60% Halloween launch discount until 1 November 2026… Or, more…

It's 1 degree outside, according to my thermometer. At night I sleep under two heavy comforters, and my early morning trips to the bathroom are as quick as I can make them, bare feet on a cold floor, then straight back under.We have entered the season of cold and grey, which must be endured for seven or eight months every year. The warmth has gone, the trees are bare, the life around us has gone to sleep, and my electricity bill climbs as I try to keep a leaky house and office warm. Soon my…

Sometimes, I come across OpenStreetMap contributors who spend quite a bit of time linking OSM objects to their respective Wikidata items. It makes me wonder : how many OSM contributors are also active Wikidata contributors?Personally, I do this quite casually. I link an OSM object to a Wikidata item using the wikidata tag, and vice versa by linking a Wikidata item to an OSM object through properties such as OSM node ID, way ID, or relation…

This post collates some advice that I provide to medical students and junior doctors looking to enter paediatric training in Victoria. This post concerns entry at the Junior Resident Medical Officer (JRMO) level, which is the pathway for doctors with no or minimal paediatric experience. This is based on my experience applying in 2023 as a PGY1 for 2024 entry (obtained unaccredited JRMO position), and applying in 2024 for 2025 entry (obtained accredited JRMO position). Overview Entry at the JRMO…

When we bought this fixer-upper house in Spartanburg back in early May, we thought we would spend the summer renovating it and move a truck load of belongings down here to be ready for a fall semester with less commuting back and forth to Arden. It's been a slower remodel than we expected.Last night was our first overnight here. Last week the new mattresses were delivered, and so we were able to spend the night last night, which I really wanted to do, because I volunteered to help with a…

The AT&T Long Lines North Table Mountain Tower atop its namesake mountain near Golden, Colorado. The post Mountaintop Relay appeared first on 75CentralPhotography.

I've written lots of GM principles, but it's been a while since I put together any advice centred on the role of player. This coincidentally lines up with a blogwagon! The goal, as always, is self-centred. I'm not writing this as a pamphlet to hand to my players as they sit down at the table. This is to help me when I'm playing a game, as I'm less confident in the role of player than I am as the GM. Player Principles Ambition - Reach up to make the best game Curiosity - Reach out to the world…

Many people think1 that getting “good at AI” is trivial. Sure, with some early models there were tricks you had to learn,2 but current models don’t need them. Even if there are different tricks3 that work on current models, the next generation will render them obsolete, so why bother? Just tell the model what you want it to do. This take is particularly popular with the anti-AI crowd, who scoff4 at the idea that AI-reluctant people are being left behind, or that it might be irresponsible to…

Another week of my mid-life project. I. Body Squinting Thanks for reading I may be wrong! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. That is me trying to see what is on my screen without my glasses. Without them I’m essentially blind. I got my first pair of glasses at 11, the same age I got my first computer. No relation, but I remember my mother thinking that sitting hours in front of the screen was the cause. In reality it’s a physical distortion of the eyeball, so entirely…

[Prisons] cannot…legitimately deny people critical healthcare. – Aditi Shah The Mob Rules (#1559) Forced-birth fanatics are now actively empowering abusive men: An Arizona judge awarded $67,000 in damages to a man who sued for wrongful death of an embryo after his ex-wife had a wanted abortion…[pretending] the clinic and its doctors…didn’t [say all the magic words and perform all the sacred dances required by] the state’s [anti-autonomy] law…[even though she] signed four consent documents…[if]…

After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubineby Liu Gou HuaGenres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Light Novels, Romance Pages: 400 Series: After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine #2 Rating: Synopsis: IS A PROMISE OF PROTECTION ENOUGH? Jiang Suizhou, a history professor transmigrated into the frail and hated Prince of Jing, has been dealt quite the losing hand. His only bastion of hope? The captured, incapacitated Huo Wujiu, his concubine—and the general whose vengeance will end the…

Welcome to another Wednesday, and there is no shortage of progress this week. We start with Chris St who has made progress on his late romans, both more infantry and cavalry. I however have been having fun with cardboard. I obtained a concrete effect spray paint and discovered it makes simple buildings like this sci-fi factory look much better with a bit of surface texture. Moving on and Mark J has painted up a rather characterful WW2 British soldier carrying a PIAT. Next up and just in time…

Tomorrow, my wife and I will be delivering out paper, “The Heritage of Hope in a North American Small Town during the Cold War” at the 2026 CHAT | Hope conference in Innsbruck, Austria. I’ve blogged about it here before and it is the first official, in person, conference paper that I am giving on the work my wife and I have been doing (with our colleagues in the Grand Forks Historic Preservation Commission) in Grand Forks on the mid-century history and heritage of the city. The paper isn’t…

The Game Seeking Hiding Lessons The Game As I hinted the other day, we - Ruth, JTA, the kids and I - spent a long weekend in London playing the "home game" version of Jet Lag: The Game - Hide & Seek. I've long been a fan of the show1 and snapped up the game and its expansion pack as soon as they became available in metric units, but I only just now got the opportunity to properly play them. We started our game at King's Cross because it's central and well-connected. Nominally, this was Ruth's…

The Classification of Finite Simple Groups, or CFSG, was undoubtedly the major collective achievement of mathematics in our time. Daniel Gorenstein, the general who had masterminded the campaign, announced 45 years ago that the proof was finished apart from some details which could be done later (proving that groups of Ree type were Ree groups, and the uniqueness of the fourth Janko group, for example). It turned out that the announcement was premature, since a big component, the classification…

I recently shared this map (above) showing the countries of the world as drawn by over 3,000 people playing the Borderline country border game. This combined map brings together all the borders and coastlines drawn by players in Borderline and its companion game, Coastlines.In Borderline, players attempt to draw the outlines of individual countries on a blank map from memory. The results can be surprisingly interesting, which is why, alongside the global map above, you can also explore How the…

The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886, with President Grover Cleveland and many dignitaries in attendance. The graceful statue was a gift from the people of France, and the pedestal was financed by the people of the United States. The sculpture was taken apart and shipped from France to New York City in crates, arriving in the summer of 1885, where it awaited the construction of a pedestal and then reassembly.Not just a tourist destination, I think many New York City-area…

A nice mild day. Some showers and strong wind. Raked leaves up drive and burnt them. Bryan and I put a new valve on ball tap outside T. Jane, Dot H.