I think there are worse uses of taxpayer money than reading my website

✏️ Day 4 of #inktober. Spending most of the day on the sofa as I wasn’t feeling well. #inktober2026

Next week my two weeks 'off' come to an end and base training starts. Three months of zone 2 running, long slow Sundays building up to three hours, and a whole winter sat on the Zwift Ride, all to get me ready for the six 70.3s I have stupidly entered next year. I already know it's going to be a grind.Don't get me wrong, I love training. There's nothing I like more than a long plan and months of turning up to do the work, but base is different. It's boring, and at times really disheartening,…

📷 251/365 - Foggy morning.

Two days ago I promised you a grisly end to Mazdak and his followers. Yesterday was the set-up: Iranian Emperor Kavad tried to be tolerant of Mazdak, a priest who preached a doctrine that was not in line with orthodox Zoroastrianism.Kavad reached a point where support of Mazdak was detrimental to Kavad's rule. He arranged a debate over the tenets of Mazdakism. Not only Zoroastrian priests, but also Jewish and Christian representatives were invited to all denigrate Mazdak and his beliefs.Kavad…

First up, what is a blog? According to Wikipedia, “A blog (a truncation of “weblog”) is a website whose basic unit is a “post” or “entry”, with posts typically presented in reverse chronological order.” So, a website made up of posts. Now if you share anything on social media — and you likely do — … Continue reading Why you should blog, be it 2006 or 2026 or 2046

It's kind of strange seeing all these discussions about software factories... and the like. It's also strange to see conversations about programming languages or claims that $language is best, as if that will remain true going forward. It's very clear, however, that programming languages will converge toward something, but that 'something' is undefined for now.What I haven't seen is people really deeply understanding the power of the new substrate that we have. People are still too fixated on…

I ordered this one via the Cha-Do website, where I also got the South Korean Garucha Matcha from that started this blog. :) General InfoAs the name says, this matcha is coming from Kagoshima in Japan and it's made from Tencha leaves. At the time of ordering (and writing), it cost 19,99 Euro for 50g. It was unavailable for quite some time before I was able to order it, and the shop site promises a great flavor with a bit of umami and sweetness, an excellent "ceremonial" matcha with a deep green…

Currently in my hometown in Brazil and I have seen so many wonderful animals, plants, fruits already. I saw this little family of Sagüis (tiny monkeys) four days in a row, the father always moved first, jumping from branch to branch, tree to tree, closely followed by the mother and their TWO babies on her back!! Here's my humble attempt at drawing them.

Overslept by a full hour. One of the best takes on DIGGER that I’ve seen, CONTAINS ALL THE SPOILERS On the newsletter: the complete first part of COLLIDE by me and artist Jerome Eyquem.

A few thoughts on binge watching, daytime TV, and The Boss. Also a buncha fresh tracks. At some point this week, I will join 99.999999% of the rest of humanity and be able to say that I’ve finished watching Game of Thrones all the way through. There are really only a few other long-running dramatic series I can make that same claim with, namely Dallas (yes, really) and Cold Case. For the former, it was more a case of “why not?” than anything else and was a real field trip through primetime soap…

A demo of the then-new M14 at Fort Dix in June 1959. Similar in size to the M1 Garand, with 29 of 116 parts interchangeable with that .30-06 semi-automatic rifle, the M14 was select-fire and had a larger, 20-round magazine. (Photo: Springfield Armory National Historic Site) Gerald O’Keefe, who has served as Chairman and CEO of the Civilian Marksmanship Program since 2022, has just transitioned to Executive Chair. He has been replaced by Fabian Loberia, but Jerry disclosed on his way out that…

We’ve always been fans of the six-pack of Pegasus-class hydrofoil patrol missile (PHM) boats that entered service in 1977, were sadly underutilized during the Cold War, and were retired wholesale when it ended. Each carried eight Harpoons, a 76mm/62c MK75 OTO Melara Super Rapid forward, and a GE LM2500 gas turbine that could drive the whole enterprise at 48 knots. These 133-foot “Boeing boats” were magic to behold. Pegasus on trials USS Hercules (PHM-2) and Taurus (PHM-3) 1983 Hydrofoil USS…

The Coast Guard, while on its face tasked with preventing smuggling and maintaining the U.S. maritime border, also has a long history of running maritime blockades off the coasts of other countries. The rundown: The Civil War: Cutters like the USRC Harriet Lane (which fired the first maritime shot of the war at Fort Sumter) were deployed to enforce blockades off Charleston, Wilmington, and New Orleans, with smaller, shallow-draft cutters often tasked with inshore interdiction while the Navy…

If you've paid attention to these Minnesota State Editions, you'll notice the ways they've changed over the years. A half-dozen or so channels have changed call letters since the statewide editions of the early 1960s, and WXOW in LaCrosse doesn't even come on the scene until 1970; meanwhile, in thenew in the Twin Cities, three stations change their affiliations. There are also several PBS affiliates from around the state, but I didn't include them because their programming was mostly redundant.…

If you or your users rely on Apple Mail on macOS to access Microsoft 365 work or school accounts, you may soon run into unexpected sync disruptions. Starting October 1, 2026, Microsoft began disabling Exchange Web Services (EWS) by default in Exchange Online as part of a phased rollout ahead of a complete, permanent shutdown on April 1, 2027. Because Apple’s native Mac apps (including Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Notes, and Reminders) still rely on EWS to communicate with Exchange Online, Mac…

Newsletter Reminder Social Media Beeper Itch Mini-Server, Part 35 Kabang! Entropy Arbitrage Library Updates Next Today marks the (maybe surprisingly) unpopular World Architecture Day, backed by the Australian Architecture Association. Celebrating architecture seems reasonable… And as I have surely mentioned before, the first Monday of October also marks World Habitat Day, with this year’s theme Adequate Housing for All. Housing figures into more of these than I would’ve guessed, actually. And…

Happy Banned Books Week, I got you a rant. Yesterday I was at a book event and a person got up, walked over to one of the authors, took their mic and then spoke for several minutes without stopping. The gist of what he said was, he wanted more kids books for Filipino kids. Now this is a delightful wish. And not about banning. But the energy of taking the mic from the person speaking and then declaring there are no kids books for Filipino kids and that these five on the panel should personally…

The Australian Research Council last month announced the winners of its latest round of Future Fellowships. . The fellowship awards are roughly AU $1 million, and are intended to support 4-year projects. The philosophy faculty named in this recent round of fellowships include: Guillermo Badia (The University of Queensland)A project to develop new many-valued logics to help machines reason about data that is scored with numbers, probabilities, security access levels, etc. This is a significant…

I generally agree with George Will's call for "carnage" for the GOP during the midterm elections, including his exceptions:If Mike Rogers, former seven-term congressman and chair of the House Intelligence Committee, is not Michigan's next senator, Abdul El-Sayed will be. The Democrat is comfortable in the company of antisemites and Holocaust deniers.If Sen. Susan Collins loses in Maine, this will be partly because she did something admirable and senatorial. Standing against manufactured…

I've already been faffing today- did I choose the right banjo take? Would the clawhammer be better, scratching away? I tried it, and it isn't- but I'll do just a vocal and clawhammer mix for fun later on.I've been running through the songs: my smashed fingers rip still a bit dicey but it'll do for the gig next Sunday.I'm also within sneezing distance of finishing the pilot community radio show I'm doing. I've interviewed Molly Tie and Johny Brown ( postcard from Newcastle and postcard to…

Trollhättan is the 23rd-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Trollhättan Municipality, Västra Götaland County. It is situated by Göta älv, near the lake Vänern, and has a population of approximately 50,000 in the city proper. It is located 75 km (46 mi) north of Sweden’s second-largest city, Gothenburg. Spring Johnny! which means Run Johnny! in Swedish, hailed from that town, Trollhättan, the 23rd largest of the country. What does Trollhättan means? Yes, it means troll’s hat. Great name for a…

Last edited 0 minutes ago. I socialized so much recently. Nothing like getting back to my roots I guess. And my kitty is with me in the move back home. I got my two cats now living with me under the same roof, and it feels good. Also I voted yesterday, despite the outcomes… You can reply via email or leave a message on my guestbook.

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 800. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is … Continue reading →

Nicholas Grossman is definitely onto something...: There have always been humans who thought: 1) The world will end soon 2) It will happen in a cool, exciting way 3) It’ll happen to me personally 4) I’ll be a martyred prophet, or a warlord, or otherwise special 5) People who don’t see this are lesser “Sexy apocalypse” is a great phrase for that[image or embed]— Nicholas Grossman (@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social) September 18, 2026 at 6:17 AMGrossman was commenting on this Techdirt piece by Mike…

“That is why you must freely and recklessly make new mistakes - in writing or in life - and do not fret about them but pass on and write more. Active evil is so much better than passive good, which is just docility, feebleness, timidity. And do not try to be consistent, for what is true to you today may not be true at all tomorrow, because you see a better truth. “For when you begin to plan such a huge edifice of words, your heart fails you. It is too hard, it will never get done, it is too…

Fifty-odd years later, the original version of Tony Williams’ Lifetime remains the most exciting band I ever saw. At Ungano’s in New York in the autumn of 1970, the three-piece Lifetime, with Larry Young on Hammond organ and John McLaughlin on guitar, produced a howling noise that seemed to take music into the next dimension. It was jazz, it was rock, it was somehow psychedelic, it was all of those things and none of them, with the burners turned right up. In that time and place, made by a trio…

I don't expect anything good to happen, and I'm positive everything will get worse, yet, somehow I'm not pessimistic enough for my expectations to meet reality.

Her People had need of weapons and ways, defense for forest city. Lady of Rain caused city’s trees to dig down deeply into the earth. The roots dug out rooms and formed into walls, creating homes safe and dry. The People gathered their household items and moved in under the ground. Beneath the soil the roots hollowed roads connecting all of the homes. People could do work and visit others. There too were plazas and parks. The forest swallowed all of the buildings except for the Child God’s…