I came across this account of Ivan Illich’s idea on a different kind of politics in “Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey” by David Cayley. Illich invokes three axes that we should consider when taking difficult political decisions—for example, on how we should care for the sick, run the economy, regulate AI, or help children learn. At the moment we make decisions on only one axis. Illich’s proposal makes much more sense to me than, for example, taking decisions on the grounds of what would…

When Justinian I became emperor (527 - 565), he inherited from his uncle the war with the Sassanid Empire to the east. This Iranian Empire was ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651 CE.His chief adversary was Khosrow I, who ruled the Sassanids from 531 to 579. Khosrow inherited the war from his father, Kavad I.In 541, Justinian sent General Belisarius to the east to take command of Byzantine forces facing the Iranians. Belisarius had recently come from Italy where he had been successful in…

We have been hearing about USB-C as the next generation and greatest thing since sliced bread for close to a decade. While I have finally hit Nirvana and now have most of my portable stuff being USB-C (I had this realization when I was by Haber's house) I had my laptop, my Switch 2, phone, massage gun, and USB battery pack. The only thing that was missing was my Amazfit tracker, which still needs a weird little magnetic dongle puck that hangs off of USB-C.This is great in theory until you are…

We've sung the praises of Brian Clemens here before as the mastermind behind a veritable host of Wyrd Britain classics such as Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde', 'Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter', 'And Soon the Darkness' as well as writing and producing for TV shows like 'Danger Man', 'The Avengers', 'The Professionals' for the likes of Hammer and ITC but the mid 1970s ITV series 'Thriller' was his baby, outlining every episode and scripting 38 of them including this one from the fourth series.'Nurse…

§ Hello. Summer has officially ended and sweater season has begun. Appropriately, it was a cool and rainy week in Cleveland which was an especially nice change of pace after spending a few days in Phoenix last week. § I finally upgraded my ailing Apple Watch Series 4 for a new Series 12. This time I got the cellular version to try replacing most of my phone usage with it. I have to say, nothing feels dramatically different on this new model compared to the eight year old watch it replaced. More…

It's that time again for my weekly update, which includes a short collection of noteworthy finds, posts that inspire, as well as a few reflections from the past week or two. I'll aim to land these in your inbox by the weekend, in time to pair with your morning coffee (or your preferred cup of inspiration).The Latest Drippings ☕️Intellectuals Are F*cking Idiots. Mark Manson does know how to pull me into reading his work, by often having a provocative title. Since his 2016 book, The Subtle Art of…

“The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth.” - Albert EinsteinHello friends! As I mentioned on Friday, I am taking a class this weekend, so today’s post is photo-centric. If the forecast is to be believed, it looks like it will be a rainy week. I’m glad I found a rain cover that fits the new camera! Here are my photo choices for today:Looking northwest at sunrise and feeling so supported by…

First off, look at that dork. What’s going on with his hair? Why is he tugging on his ear? Did he really think round glasses were right for his face? Someone needs to go back to 1991 and give that young man a fashion intervention. This is a disaster. Second, today is the 35th anniversary of my first movie reviews going on up in the Fresno Bee, the newspaper that hired me straight out of college to be their film critic. Why did they do that? Well, I would like to say that it was because my…

Don't worry I am not talking about agentic skills. This is one skill that doesn't come in a markdown file. If you are “lucky” enough to work as a software developer right now, chances are you are looking at LLM output on a daily basis. It might be you have to (or choose to) use AI tools to help with your programming. Maybe the project manager has decided to offload all ticket writing to an LLM or the documentation is now all LLM generated. Even if you abstain from using AI for doing your work,…

Listening to my new album. As you do.

In the house by the ocean where we’re currently staying there’s a copy of Annie Dillard’s collection of essays, For the Time Being. In the inside back cover there’s a label from the store where it was purchased: Norton Street Books in Leichhardt, Sydney. That book shop has long since closed, so long ago that I’ve never personally heard anyone mention its existence. But then this year when Berkelouw Books, also on Norton Street in Leichhardt, announced they were shutting down I realised I’ve…

This is a reply to: How to break up with someone you love by folkmoss 5yrs ago or so, I left a relationship where both of us loved each other dearly. To this day I still think of her, she was great and I hope I don't find her again as I don't know what I'll do. It was easier for me than it will be for you, due to distance. I'm from Puerto Rico (PR) she is too. I left to Missouri during that relationship to start a job there. COVID started, we continued our relationship long distance. It was…

In some weird way another Sunday has rolled around and pulled into the station that signals the end of another week. I say weird because it’s one of those weeks where you lose track of where you are day by day, and have to keep reminding yourself which day that ends in “y” you’ve landed on. It’s complicated. In a way to avoid my momentary confusion, here’s some Sunday Morning Reading to share. If I’m sharing it, it must be Sunday, right? Artificial Intelligence continues to complicate the news…

Isn't it wild that we've reached a situation where people who are most ❊pro❊ AI say “this technology we love and build has like a 10% chance of killing us all” and the people who are ❊anti❊ AI reply “there's no way this figure is correct, it's inflated out of proportion”? — Gro-Tsen (@gro_tsen) September 26, 2026 I am reminded of an episode from history involving Bertrand Russell and the U.S. writer and editor Leo Rosten. In the early 1950s, Rosten had approached Russell in London to write an…

Terrible day yesterday: ill and brain-fogged and too much to do. Missed the gig at the Jazz Centre I had tickets for. But I did make it to Konsztrukting Soundz in the evening. I didn’t actually have high hopes for the night – free jazz and skronk saxophones are NOT my thing – but it was actually incredibly good. Drone saxophone! A trio of a guitarist doing Sunn O)))-ish doom drones, a saxophonist staying in the deep registers and an experimentalist drummer smashing his way around the edges –…

I made the mistake of having a big breakfast before sitting down to write and now I’m lethargic and rather want to take a nap. I traveled for work this week, which was all nice and dandy. The trains were on time and pretty empty, taking them during the less busy hours makes quite a big difference.The hotel was a bit special – the vibe was less “person traveling for business” and more “married man vacationing with his girlfriend.” I haven’t really made much progress with the media tracking part…

Ahhh! PSB's RFS! A delightfully indulgent soundscape of melodic wonder, performed here on its 10th (ish) anniversary. Is it really nostalgia if an album is only a decade old? It feels like it has been in the air forever. For something which is seemingly made up of samples, it would have been easy for them to half-arse it and basically just play the CD. Instead we got a full band, guest singers, and 360° video projection, Oh, also a disco Sputnik flying over the crowd! Simply magical! As were…

Politics and governance are similar; if you load a lopsided furnace, your engine suffers.

Elk bugling, 2013 (photo by Paul Staniszewski) 27 September 2026 In September and October elk (Cervus canadensis) are in the rut in Pennsylvania. The dominant bulls follow groups of cows and warn other males away. Males try to intimidate rivals by vocalizing and displaying with their antlers. If neither bull backs down, they engage in antler wrestling, sometimes sustaining serious injuries. — Wikipedia: Elk Behavior and Ecology The sounds are haunting and surprisingly complex. Julia Plummer…

Such an amazing man and story. I've seen Rush three times: 1980, 1982, and 2012. They're my favorite. ✍️ Reply by email

Annie Dillard and the Writing Life — A lovely essay full of excellent advice for writing. Apple's Dimensional Drawings — Beautiful and useful should you want to… say 3D print something to fit an Apple product. How Anne Rice Channeled Grief Into ‘Interview With the Vampire’ (archive.ph) — Essay by her son, Christopher Rice. Slop-free FOSS — catsalad's Mastodon starter pack of “FOSS apps, projects, and services with accounts on the Fediverse that do NOT use AI, LLMs, Claude, vibe coding, etc.”…

I have recently released a new ttrpg/LARP thing for one person or many about the moments before an apocalypse: It can be downloaded here: https://caudipteryx-zoui.itch.io/waiting-for-the-rains-to-pass

I've been thinking about weird physical media lately, which is probably why a recent hunt for PSP games led me down a rather unexpected rabbit hole. I've always liked the oddities that turn up when you start looking beyond the obvious releases: unusual editions, forgotten pack-ins and things that only make sense when you remember how companies were experimenting with physical formats at the time. One of the strangest examples I've come across isn't technically a PSP game at all, it's a movie!In…

So, it’s raining all day. And it rained all day yesterday. But the sky looked really pretty on Friday just before the rain started. My view of the sunset from lower Manhattan Marie’s view from a train in Norwalk, with bonus rainbow: Ellie’s view from a train in Stamford: And Kate’s view on the East Side:

1999 remains one of my favorite years of film. Not only did some incredible films come out (Fight Club, American Beauty, Office Space), but this was the first year I started downloading movie trailers. I remember downloading American Pie, End of Days, and The Blair Witch Project and watching them over and over in anticipation for their theatrical releases. All summer longer I examined and memorized these trailers, and my favorite one of all was The Blair Witch Project. If you didn't live…

Sunday Asides #114 It's been a month since one of my part-time gigs verbally offered me a full-time job and it has not become official yet. That hasn't stopped them from loading up my schedule with meetings and pinging me on Slack like I have full-time availability though, and it's incredibly annoying. That being said, since I'm still not full-time employed...I'm going to start back looking for work beginning next week. I really hate that for me. But hey...here's some good news. Last week, I…

After the highs of Amsterdam and the exhibition last Saturday, I naturally feel a little low. While we are on the lowlands, here’s the soundtrack of this week’s update: For the last two weeks, I’ve only posted photologs as updates. I’ll cover minor happenings in this week’s update, so there’ll be some small fragments. What have I been watching and reading lately? A friend recommended Agustina Bazterrica’s Tender is the Flesh (Cadáver Exquisito) to me. It was a short book, so I finished it in…

A few weeks ago I posted my pre-basho thoughts on what potential storylines might develop in the first week. I intened to do a folloup at the 8-day mark, but life gets in the way sometimes. The tournament finished today, so let's see how many of these came to fruition! I've phrased them as questions this time whether it makes sense or not - I'm trying to invent a format here, give me a break. Yokozuna Hoshoryu Out After Surgery?Not a lot to report here - he stayed out like he should, hopefully…