Happy 250th America Source unknown. Overview - Rule of Law What is the Rule of Law?
On July 4th, 2026, Duncan Rawlinson photographed the Independence Day fireworks bursting over Boldt Castle on Heart Island in Alexandria Bay, New York. Shot during the last minutes of twilight, the display filled the sky with gold, crimson, and violet while the fading sunset still glowed along the horizon behind the castle. Dozens of spectator boats gathered on the St. Lawrence River, their lights scattered across the water and the reflections of the show shimmering between them. This is an…
Dutch travelog, part 7. Read part 6 here. We decided leave the apartment together with Mozzarella. Thus, he made us a light and delicious veggie omelette for lunch. (I just had a banana for breakfast). View from the living room window. "Father, may I have some lööps oatmeal?" He gave us some tips on how we could spend our day, so we decided to take his advice and do a loop along the canal that encircles the city center of Utrecht. STOPS: The Railway Museum ⇣A quick look Centraal Museum ⇣Miffy…
This week’s edition is dedicated to our readers in America. Happy 250, with love & courage from your friend in Paris. 1. One of America’s most recognisable corporate buildings is for sale Nearly three decades after it opened as the headquarters of the Longaberger Company, one of America’s most recognisable pieces of corporate architecture has returned to the market.
According to Haudenosaunee tradition, the Earth was once entirely covered by water. One day a muskrat swam to the bottom of the great sea and surfaced with a tiny clump of mud. This mud was placed on the back of a giant turtle, where it grew until it became the earth.This is just one of dozens of creation stories that you can explore on the Origin Myth Map, an interactive atlas of the myths that
A week or two ago I made an aborted attempt at following the trail along the Ashuelot River. I had forgotten to put on bug spray and the mosquitoes turned me back. On this day I remembered the bug spray and tried again. We’d had thunderstorms during the week and the river was high. That meant I probably wouldn’t be seeing ducks or herons fishing the shallows because there were few shallows. Even the low water over in the little cove to the right, a favorite gathering place for Canada geese, had…
I’ve been getting into The Brain again. I’m currently liking it more than Obsidian for my work notes. I like that relationships become more visible and tangible.
July 4th may be "Independence Day" in America, but it's Impossible Day at Hawkworld! Let's take a look at the Thanagarian tradition that first appeared in The Brave and the Bold No. 44 (November 1962). In issue No. 42, Shayera has begun to get homesick. Even the festive Independence Day celebrations at Midway City don't cheer her up, so Katar suggests they do the traditional Impossible Day instead. In this issue, we find out a few things about Thanagar.*Shayera's ancestor is Rhon Dhu, a former…
Yeah, so a philosophical zombie is somebody who behaves like a normal human, they can walk around and have a conversation and react normally to stuff, but they're not conscious. Which means something like, they don't have subjective experience. What is subjective experience? One way it's defined is being able to experience "qualia". Like, if you look at this brick wall, it's red. From a physical perspective you can analyze this as like, it looks red to you because it's light of a specific…
Once again, RAYE shined last night at Montreux Jazz Festival. She was the star of the opening of the 60th anniversary of the festival, and had carte blanche to organise the evening.
You can't be derivative if you don't create at all
It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for another Six Degrees of Separation, hosted by Kate of Books are my Favourite and Best. The idea is that Kate chooses a book to use as a starting point and then we have to link it to six other books of our choice to form a chain. A book doesn’t have to be connected to all of the others on the list – only to the one next to it in the chain. This month we’re starting with Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. I haven’t read it, but here’s…
PleasantKenobi published a clickbaity video titled “House Rules Don’t Work For Magic” in which he argues that people should not do house rules. It’s clickbaity because in the video he lists some house rules that he actually likes. More about that later. I commented on the video with “My hot take on house rules: if you don't like them, don't use them.” I wanted to expand on my thoughts and comment on a bunch of points he made in his video. House rules in tabletop gaming Let’s start by talking…
I grabbed the set of Kala Mandala zines after the Hey Centaur shop went online. These are great zines of the old school OSR glory days - easily earning their shelf space beside any of the greats. We get a great setting in the Playbook and two Art Research zines, further expanded by three juicy adventures - all site exploration with a twist for each. Six books existing in the core set at time of writing: Kala Mandala Playbook - 42 pages, system Stirring the Hornets Nest at Het Thamsya - 26…
I'm sleepy, and everyone knows the best decisions made with money happen when it's very late, and you're tired, and should really be asleep. To be fair, while I shouldn't have spent the money, it isn't the most expensive thing. I went ahead and ordered myself a proxy of the Secret Lair DanDan deck because I've always wanted a DanDan deck and I keep telling myself eventually I'll get one, so today (or tonight?) is that day (or night?)! While the deck was sold with the stupid FOMO model and is…
If you’re visiting Center Parcs in the UK anytime soon, here are a few quick tips that may help you out, based on my own experience. My last visit was 2026, so are relevant at that time. Since 2001, Center Parcs in the UK has been a separate company from the original Center Parcs business. Therefore, I’m not going to assume that anything in the UK model of their holiday village is representative of the wider European model. Install the Centre Parcs app and use it in advance to plan your time.…
4th July 2026 A republic, if they can keep it – as Franklin said * Today is the 250th anniversary of the declaration of independence by a group of people who took land from one group of people and enslaved another group of people. All in the name of liberty. Still, it was a step in the right direction, if not really a stride. In principle, a republic is better than a monarchy, and a federal system is generally better than a unitary state. And the theory of a separation of powers, with checks…
Photo: © Stan B.I can pass (in a crowd), and am no doubt considered some kinda Arab when in Europe (hell, most Americans ain't sure what a Puerto Rican is)- but this is indeed interesting! Meanwhile, this is as borderline Genius, as this is hilariously obvious. And as to further round out our nation's great history... Enjoy the day!
Happy Fourth of July! I hope you have a nice picnic lunch with hotdogs, potato salad, and corn on the cob.I decided to pay tribute to Vintage Los Angeles today - for the heck of it - with two nice old views. This first scan is from "sometime in the 50s", looking North on Vine Street in Hollywood (Sunset Blvd. is behind us). There's the old NBC Studio to our right. Other fun details, ABC/KXCA Studio to the left (CBS was just around the corner on Hollywood Boulevard), the Santa Fe offices, and if…
You Only Live Twice (1967)
Before I get anywhere near its title screen Onimusha 3 rolls out an outrageously lengthy and surely eye-wateringly expensive cutscene, the whole thing lavishly rendered and full to bursting with complex motion captured fight choreography directed by none other than Donnie Yen. Did I really need to see Samanosuke take down an entire army of demons single-handed while looking like the most incredible warrior in existence? No. Am I glad I did? Oh heck yes. Capcom’s “Sengoku Survival Action” game…
Equal Earth • Greenwich Meridian A world map for everyone The Equal Earth Wall Map is for schools, organizations, or anyone who needs a map showing countries and continents at their true sizes relative to each other. Africa appears 14 times larger than Greenland as it actually is. And wherever you live, the map has you covered. Download a choice of three versions centered on these regions: Africa/Europe, the Americas, and East Asia/Australia. Other features include: • It’s free. Download the…
Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got deaths, rebirths and football. This week’s big news was something everyone’s been expecting for a while: Humphrey Smith, owner of the Samuel Smith brewery in Tadcaster, has died at the age of 81. Some of the tributes have a ‘don’t speak ill of the dead’ quality about them and use not-so-subtly coded language that indicates he was a difficult man to like. In the world of pubs and brewing, some have…
Daily Drawing 916
There is just something about the Canadian Prairies that I feel compelled to explore in my railway modelling. A curious blend of early first hand memory tempered by HO scale models built and enjoyed with my Dad in my teens. I've traced familiar lines out on paper but have, until now, not tackled this curiosity directly...Last year I found photos of Carlton and was almost tipped over the edge but somehow held my nerve. I'm not quite sure what was the trigger this time, it doesn't seem very long…
Everyone’s trying to understand Trump’s mysterious bond with Putin. There may indeed be kompromat, but I propose that the following is equally significant: Trump lived in a realm of comparatively modest transgression. Petty extortion, fraud, sexual coercion. As a psychopath, he was always capable of far worse, but in his world, deeper evil wasn’t part of his in-game experience. By thinking too small — by needlessly narrowing himself — he’d been leaving money on the table. Then he met Putin, who…
A year ago I took a career break after 28 years of web development. My goal was to study a variety of topics, and pursue hobbies like game development and technical writing. Runway 🛫 To accomplish this, my aim was to live a very frugal lifestyle, to stretch out my savings – some call this Lean FIRE. Despite the chaos abroad and some at home (e.g. furnace repairs), my portfolio did rather well. In fact, I ended up slightly ahead.
Where one would like to see less "meta posts", another starts a month of reply collecting... Gotta love the vibe there!
Nightshade, my angel, turned 12 yesterday. Now that we have his heart problem under control, and most of his teefs out, he is living his best life (apart from every morning when I force a pill down his throat). I love him so much 😭
Here is a guy wearing a shirt covered in images of Shohei Otani's face: I saw a lot of interesting garments at the July 2nd Dodgers game in LA - the "One Piece night" game - but this was possibly the best one I found. If it seems like I am doing a lot of tourist stuff in LA all at once, I am - this is the kind of thing that happens in the summer when you live in a big city and all your relatives want to visit the city at the same time all your friends are having blowout birthday parties and…
