AI image is for illustration purposes only. USDA researchers in South Texas built a battery-powered sprayer, hid it at a fence crossing where wild nilgai antelope squeeze through the wire, and loaded the tank with billions of microscopic parasitic worms suspended in water. When an antelope walked through the gap, an ultrasonic sensor detected its movement, an onboard computer started the pump, and the machine sprayed the animal’s belly and legs with living roundworms that kill ticks. The target…

Sad to see Margaret Hamilton go, but she had a long and productive life. My deep disappointment is that she had to watch our idea of “leader in computing” shift to people like Andreessen, Musk, and Altman.

If you’ve read my previous post about my attempts to get an IBM ThinkCenter S50 from 2005 to boot past its Power-on self-test (POST), you are aware that I required a PS/2 keyboard. These are no longer available in local electronics or computer shops, so, once again, I took to Marktplaats.nl. There I found a handful of PS/2 keyboards, none of them small and none of them black. The most beautiful keyboard I could find was a Dell AT101w (with the “w” indicating a Windows key) that was at that…

Here’s what happens when you try to update your Android phone if it’s low on battery (even if it’s connected to a charger): It’s a pretty cheap error UI, a misaligned string thrown carelessly in between existing interface pieces. It doesn’t even bother explaining what “too low” means. Compare this to what the Playdate does in the same situation: If the device battery is depleted, the software simply charges if first to the necessary minimum (spelled out on screen), before automatically…

A Feature Request: Support for Static .md Outputs & Discovery Motivation: A Simpler, Less Exploitative Web I’ve been interested in a simpler, less exploitative web for a long time. It feels like the modern web is increasingly dominated by ads, intrusive surveillance, tracking scripts, and bloated layouts that mock our control over our own reading decisions. I’ve explored simpler alternative networks like Gopher and the Gemini protocol to find a quieter reading experience. But separate protocols…

Today I am posting my final piece of blog housekeeping for September. Since beginning these reprint roundups, they have quickly become one of my most popular posts. They certainly haven’t made my TBR pile any smaller, and hopefully my readers have found a few new books to try as well because of them. As always let me know if I have missed any September classic crime reprints…

If you are craving a homemade dessert that's quick, comforting, and filled with warm autumn flavour, this 3-ingredient Apple Spice Cake is the kind of recipe you will want to keep close. It starts with a simple spice cake mix and a can of apple pie filling, creating a moist, fragrant cake that smells just like apple pie as it bakes - without any of the fuss or extra steps. With only a few minutes of prep and a soft, sliceable texture thanks to the eggs, this is one of those dependable, no-fail…

A guided tour of the Greater London boundary (clockwise) Bexley From mid-Thames at Crayford Ness, skirt the Darent Industrial Park and head up Dartford Creek beneath the guillotine of the mighty flood barrier. One side Crayford Marshes, one side Dartford Marshes. Fork up the Cray rather than the Darent, then switch to the minor Stanham River. The first road crossed is the A206, the first two railway lines head to Dartford. Maiden Lane is the first suburban street (one side London one side…

Senators Warn Trump: You Went Too Far--on Immigration Multiple Republican senators have now come to the conclusion that Donald Trump's immigration policy has become a big problem for them, especially with Latino and suburban voters. Soon-to-be-former Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said: "I always thought that this idea of mass deportations sent the wrong message." If the Senator always thought this, one might ask why he never mentioned it up until it began hurting Republicans at the ballot box. Click…

What’s a hidden gem or underrated song you love? I think it was a recommendation from a website that took me to this artist. Describe as emo meets alt-country, I loved their sound, and especially (as you’ll have noted already, Dear Reader) the lyrics. I saw them live twice in two different, very small, venues in Glasgow around 2016/17. Just a bunch of young guys with musical senses ahead of their age. I know not if this is a hidden gem, or underrated song, only that most people will likely only…

The dancer waking up, in a body which is bot theirs, which is not a dancer. Trying to move, the feet, the legs, the arms. But the body will not, cannot, move as per directions. "Who the fuck put this together, and were they drunk at work?" The reach of the joints was of course and issue, but the main issue were the lack of connectivity with all the smaller, and even some mid-size, muscles around the body. She would have to start from the beginning. Again.

I don’t remember old people complaining about being old when I was a kid. It might have been joked about in passing but I recall little indulgence in self-pity. My maternal step-grandfather was a joker who loved his beer and, after retiring as a house painter, volunteered as a school crossing guard. He was one of the funniest people I knew when growing up. He was not a blood relative but we called him Uncle Kelly. When he talked about serving in the Army during World War I, he recalled having a…

Perfume PosseTruth or Dare Naked by Madonna Heya posse. You’re all headed into deep Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. Woo Hoo! Such a fabulous time of year to start getting out some lovely warming ambers. I think it may be my favourite time of year to be… Continue Reading → Perfume PosseTruth or Dare Naked by Madonna

Good to be back at a club meeting, having missed a couple whilst on holiday. Eight members enjoyed running trains, chatting, and the chip supper. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon! Star of the show was Chris’ new Revolution 313 EMU. A lovely model!

Thursday 8th October 2026 Answer: a brand new bus station. And, unlike Heckmondwike, Liskeard isn’t in a Mayoral Authority. But it is in a Unitary Council which has had two financially attractive Devolution Deals (2015 and 2023); using these to boost public transport through various initiatives all over the County . The new Liskeard bus station, which opened in July, is an example of such initiatives. It came about following suggestions made by a local Active Travel Group. Blog reader Peter let…

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It‘s really terrible what‘s happening in France with all the school kids rioting. Protesting injustices isn't the issue, that should happen, but the tricky thing is that in this case the fact that they are tearing up the schools is literally making things worse for themselves. If the school system is already at breaking point, and by all accounts, with 45 kids in classes, it certainly sounds like it is, the last thing you want to do is make the situation even worse. An interesting side note…

Despite not being too frightening (though he has worn masks, been a were-beagle and a vampire bat, and even dressed up like the Frankenstein Monster), Snoopy is definitely a Halloween icon. Charles Schultz always played up the holiday in the Peanuts comic strip, knowing how important it is to children, and the release of the 1966 animated special It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown was a celebration of not just Halloween but so many other elements of that special time of autumn, too. While…

Commando celebrates its 6000th issue in this week’s next set, on sale from Thursday 8th October from publisher DC Thomson in newsagents, on subscription and as digital editions! Featuring superheroes, a special tale from celebrity authors James Holland and Al Murray, and some special crossovers, fighting from Korea to Dunkirk, D-Day and Stalingrad…Commando 5999: Captain StarblazeStory: Daniel

My friend Joey got his face ripped off last week. Yeah, while staring at his cheek in the mirror a few months back he noticed a a small rubbery bump below the surface of his skin. Few months, few phone calls, few appointments later he found himself under the knife in a five-hour surgery getting a chestnut sized tumor slowly untied and airlifted out of a knotty nest of nerves in a high stakes game of Operation. Thankfully he’s okay and he’s all better and he’s managed to bounce over a pretty…

Pocket Empires is a 2-player card game from Indonesia by Nomas Kurnia. It is a minimalistic 18-card game that can be played in 10 minutes. The basic game contains six different civilisations. The game has now been expanded to have more civilisations. A solo game has also been developed. In Pocket Empires you and your opponent will build your respective 3x3 grid of

Busy day today. Lots of writing, even more editing. When you care about stuff that you make, that you shape, that you put out into the world, days like this are stressful but ultimately worth it. Related: this is the thing that was put into the world. Also: "I love you" is the best three-word phrase in the English language. Here's the second best. 🌲 gonna 🌼 go 🌱 touch sleep 🌳 grass hard 🌷 now Be good to yourself. If you enjoyed this post, click the little up arrow chevron thinger below the tags…

You can tell this isn’t going to plan since the admin isn’t touting this as an America first withdrawal of forces, to refocus on matters at home and leave things be abroad. They’re embarrassed about it. I don’t know how the actual military service folks feel about it — except I’m sure they’d rather not be in the path of a drone launched from a random truck on a nearby road.

gravity Product: Gravity Price: $9.99 The Problem We are all familiar with the act of note-taking. A thought occurs to you, you switch to our note-taking application and face a slew of decisions: What are we going to call this note? What are we going to tag this note? Or which folder does this note belong to? How does this fit into my existing tag-system? What was the tag I used a few months ago on a similar note? It belongs to this folder, but also belongs to this other folder, do I alias this…

said my youngest child, seeing a Yankee player jogging to first after a weakly hit ground ball. Sometimes they know they’re going to be out, I told him. They should still run faster, he responded. Can’t disagree.

White-haired, evil Immortal witch? Hell yes! But is the rest of the movie any good? Well...Necropolis (1986)It is 1686, and we are in "New Amsterdam" (minor quibble: it was renamed to "New York" in 1866), and we are following a witch (LeeAnne Baker) with long white hair. She sacrifices a young woman who was about to get married. Her husband-to-be and the locals find her, and they kill all the Satanists .300 years later, Eva is back, only now she rides a motorcycle and wears a leather jacket…

I am currently out of the country for a short company incentive trip. I really hate leaving my work to go on holiday. Holiday is a form of torture. Since this is a company trip, I have no choice but to go. While I am still fuming over the fact that I have to leave my work. I am also taking this opportunity to see how much work I can delegate and how my absence affects the business? I am already away for 2 working days; I need to get on my phone and computer whenever I can. The team back home is…

I'm just emerging from a bit of a nightmare related to higher level classes, hence this cautionary note. It‘s particularly relevant if you are coding with LLMs. The crux of it is quite simple. I had a need to create some decorators, which is a way of dynamically adding new behaviors or responsibilities to an object or class without altering its underlying code. It is a quintessential example of composition over inheritance: instead of creating a rigid, deep subclass hierarchy to add a feature,…

Red Barn – Ronks, PA – Fujifilm GFX100S II – Kodachrome 64 Someone recently asked me an interesting question: Why do Fujifilm photographers love Kodak-like Film Simulation Recipes so much? The most popular Recipes on Fuji X Weekly are overwhelmingly those that attempt to replicate Kodak films. Recipes with names like Kodachrome, Portra, Gold, and Tri-X consistently dominate the popularity charts, often by significant margins. In fact, looking at the most popular Recipes of 2026 so far, six of…