Terrestrial predators like leopards and wolves maul, kill and devour their prey using sharp claws and canine teeth. The idea that some of them would pause to soak their food, the way we might soak lentils or chia seeds, may seem strange. That’s why, when a camera trap in Spain recorded a wild female Iberian lynx carrying a dead rabbit to a water trough and dunking it, researchers were shocked. Then, they spotted the behavior several more times. Camera Traps Reveal Iberian Lynxes Soaking Their…

When we make worlds, there are maps, star charts, languages, fashion, technology, currencies, governments, peoples, and so much more. This post is about creating a magic system. More posts will follow on world-building.IntroductionWe're going to make a magic system of runes and spells that can be cast on the runes. This is but one approach of many. I made a prototype toy for this activity if you wish to play. I recommend spell books be made with ink on paper under a full moon. RunesA rune is a…

My Pockethernet V2 tool is still great and in weekly use. See my Review Article. But I wanted to be able to drive it from my laptop, not only my phone. Don’t get me wrong, the phone app is perfectly fine (beside that rotate sizing issue) and the idea of running the tests from a CLI is more a possibility than a necessity. The advantage is that you can easily copy and paste the results to store them or automate tests. Example Before getting more into the actual script, take this example. The…

In this video I explain the inner workings of the bumpmapped rain effect from my Commodore 64 demo Lunatico from 2016.

9734/21653Catie was taking Ernie to school in the car. Unusually I got a call from her phone about five minutes after they'd left. I thought maybe Ernie had left his violin behind or I had some chore to fulfil."Hello" I offered.Then Ernie said "This is a prank call," laughed and hung up.I wish more prank calls would be up front about what they are. I had certainly been pranked good and proper. I felt like a fool.Ernie rang back a few minutes later and I thought it would be another prank call.…

The costs of war The American cemetery in Cambridge. Quote of the Day ”I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it.” Shakespeare, As You Like It. I felt the same about Cambridge when I first arrived in 1968. Still do. Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news Leonard Cohen | Democracy Link A good way to end this week. Many thanks to Ian Clark for suggesting it. Long Read of the Day AI Behaviour as an Engineering System Erik Larsen’s brilliantly succinct analysis of the…

One of the notable features of small towns = large villages in Ireland is how wide is the Main Street. Much wider and with more generous pavements = sidewalks than a few hundred people and/or the passing traffic seems to justify. This is not to say that through-traffic is unimpeded. Children don't walk to school through the fields anymore, so Mams-Jams are normal at the start and end of each school day. And commute times are much quicker during mid-term breaks Automobile autonomy can jam things…

Final Fantasy Resonance Slightly overkill on this trash mob. Alright, I went back to challenge Sephiroth and equipped everyone with the proper visions and built out the load out and...got my butt handed back to me for 45ish minutes? He's tough. The party is around level 48 and it's something I think I could beat but would have to get a little lucky to do so. So I'll just level some more and come back. One thing that's very annoying is the lack of loadout settings for the characters. It's…

Right. Tokyo to Seoul, then on to Hong Kong and the world beyond. I’m in regular contact with air traffic control, on time, closely watching my altitude, and slightly adjusting my speed as necessary. The twist is all of this isn’t happening in one of Taito’s Jet de GO! console releases but a tiny LCD game capable of fitting inside my pocket. Much like Densha de GO! 2’s LCD game, this plastic puck punches far above its weight. I’ve got separate levers to control my plane’s speed and altitude,…

I had a pleasant stay at Mama Shelter, with their great à la carte breakfast, bidet toilet, and rooftop pool.

If you've ever enjoyed a traditional Newfoundland holiday dinner, chances are that you have tasted this much beloved Newfoundland Dressing (or stuffing). Made with fresh bread crumbs, butter, onion, and plenty of summer savoury, this simple recipe has been a staple on family tables in Eastern Canada for generations. Whether tucked inside the bird, or baked separately until golden and fragrant, it delivers the comforting flavours of home in every bite.What makes Newfoundland dressing so special…

When I go out to take photographs, it can go two ways depending on location, days, and my mood: The busy hectic version: walking down busy streets (not near my house, obviously, but when I’m in Paris or another city). Everything is moving, there are people doing things everywhere, and the game becomes finding a way to capture something before it disappears. Checking the screen often, but knowing that during that time something else might happen, wondering all the time if I should switch lens (I…

Do you ever think about where the things in your life come from and where they go? Take this cup of tea, for example. I know the tea has come from the Nilgiri hills of South India because it says so on the packet. Yes it's Earl Grey what of it? The bergamot is only flavouring, not from genuine Italian oranges, so we can ignore that. I like to imagine the tea bushes being hand-trimmed by ladies in saris on hilltop terraces beneath a beating sun, but that's probably an opinion I got from a…

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Pull up a chair and check the menu for today’s Daily Dish – the special of the day is the Noir Villain You Love to Hate. There are lots of noir villains, from Phyllis Dietrichson, Kathie Moffat, and Kitty Collins, to Cody Jarrett, Tommy Udo, and Waldo Lydecker. Each are standouts in their own way, and each has a villainous resume that would qualify them to successfully carry out the most dastardly deeds. But when it comes to noir villains I love to hate, the first one I think of is Mr. Brown…

I have just started reading Simon Garfield's The Pen: A Human History. As you might know, I like fountain pens. I've been into fountain pens for nearly 25 years and even though I've not bought one in some time, I'm very happy with the ones I own. I've only read 17% of the book so far. It's written by someone who obviously cares about the subject. These are some quotes that I noted when reading the book. There is more to read about the book on Simon Garfield's site. Q: And presumably you learned…

Marisabel is hosting this previous month’s IndieWeb carnival, and the theme is “Pages.”. Thank you, Marisabel, for hosting! I KNOW I’M LATE, ALRIGHT?. I usually don’t skip the IndieWeb Carnival, as it’s a good inspiration source for my writings. However, October was a pretty hectic month from many points of view and I just missed it. And because Marisabel is such a wonderful host with great themes and she inspired one of my better articles, The Constant, I decided to write something, even if…

Marisabel is hosting this previous month’s IndieWeb carnival, and the theme is “Pages.”. Thank you, Marisabel, for hosting! I KNOW I’M LATE, ALRIGHT?. I usually don’t skip the IndieWeb Carnival, as it’s a good inspiration source for my writings. However, October was a pretty hectic month from many points of view and I just missed it. And because Marisabel is such a wonderful host with great themes and she inspired one of my better articles, The Constant, I decided to write something, even if…

Share a song with some of your favorite vocal harmonies. This band were on the periphery of my musical upbringing. I think my Mum was a fan, when she wasn’t screaming at Paul, John, George, and Ringo…. I have memories of the original Pet Sounds LP in my parents collection, and it’s re-release for its 50th anniversary pushed it back into my consciousness. Not that it ever really escaped, there is something ethereal about the Beach Boys, an entirely pure sound, a uniqueness that makes them stand…

Reading Time: 37 minutes Something something throw the booky wook at him something something. WHAT A WEEK TO BE ALIVE! A Republican defeat in the mid-terms (now would you all fcuk off and be quiet for a while, America? We have, frankly, had quite enough of you over the past couple of years, maybe just take a quiet time out while you calm down and sort your sh1t out, eh?), Russell Brand finally getting what’s been coming to him for 20 years (on which note: every fcuker in telly and ents knew,…

Happy Friday folks! This week has been a bit of a mixed bag for me. My son started nursery school again after our trip to Aus, which means he immediately brought the plague into the house. So I have been nursing a heavy cold while also trying to shepherd the project I am working on, AWAYSIS through console submission. It's been a lot of late nights and stress. However, I did manage to get some game time in. I played through Virtue and a Sledgehammer this week, a game I dropped into the Dispatch…

Just a normal day on Daemon's Crag. The session begins with the Avatar standing on Daemon's Crag, a peninsula surrounded on all sides by the lava spewed by Mount Morgaelin. As usual, I begin exploring by rounding the circumference, but the only things I find are a welcome teleportation pad and a stone bridge leading to a large, locked double-door. I then turn exploration inward to the small road network leading through a group of buildings. The first house I come to is labeled "ACOLYTE BANE." I…

Link: How Can Wikipedians Overcome Leadership Succession Crises? Lessons from the Invasion of Ukraine, by J. Nathan Matias at CAT LabAn interesting dive into what happened to the Ukrainian Wikipedia in the aftermath of the 2022 Russian invasion, told with characteristic care by CAT Lab’s J. Nathan Matias.“Inside Ukraine, people desperately needed to understand the changing circumstances of the war. Outside of Ukraine, the world flocked to information sources like Wikipedia to learn about the…

Some years ago I was diagnosed with a condition called MGUS (pronounced EM-gus) -- monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance. It’s a symptom-less and in most cases benign disorder, but it can be a precursor to multiple myeloma. It means I see the oncologist once a year, pee in a cup and have six vials of blood drawn. Cancer has consumed a larger portion of my consciousness since it killed my brother two years ago. On Thursday, I saw a new doctor, a young woman who worked hard to cheer…

Wednesday afternoon, and eight members turned out, though not all at the same time and one only briefly. I spend much of the afternoon wiring up a new junction module for Stuttgart, ably assisted by Sean. This is what the top looks like. I hope to ballast it, but I doubt whether I will time for scenery before the show. Providing it is all running OK, that will be fine! And on the main line, trains ran…..

The view of nowhere. Read here.

Programming note: Based on the e-mails we've gotten, we are going to have politics questions tomorrow, and non-politics questions next weekend. We kind of thought that things would turn out that way. TrumpWatch 2026: The Rats Are Preparing to Flee the Titanic If you are a high-profile Trump insider, and in particular if you are a high-profile Trump insider who might have broken the law, now is a pretty good time to think about getting out. Congress is about to start investigating six ways to…

Internal strife in Venetia led to the murder of a patriarch, and a change of government.

Some time ago I drafted an essay on cutting words from essays, intended for a cheesy writing contest, and never submitted it. I was thinking about this essay, languishing on my hard drive, as I was packing out to move to a new city. It struck me: revising and de-cluttering are remarkably similar processes. And I solved them in the same way, without connecting either the problems or the solutions to each other. Deciding what to leave behind, and what to throw out, is psychologically painful. So…