I was getting burned out, more and more distant from photography itself, despite working on photography-related things all week long. When we decided to do a show of my nuclear weapons images at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, in Albuquerque, the original conception was to display maybe 40 images. It ended up being 96. During the planning of the show, my intention was to have a lab print the images (something I rarely do) just because it was so much work. But after talking…

The 59th ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing takes place in Atlanta next June, part of the Federated Computing Research Conference. I don't usually do announcement posts but we need to talk about the Call for Papers (deadline November 2) whereIn light of rapid advances in generative AI and their impact on research and scientific communication, STOC 2027 is experimenting with several new policies intended to encourage high-quality submissions and promote clear and effective communication of…

Hacker News (aka HN) is a link aggregator where “hackers”1 gather to discuss technology, politics, and anything which “good hackers would find interesting”. HN is a means by which its host, prominent startup incubator Y Combinator, projects soft power, promotes startups it funds, and feeds people with ideas into its incubation program. Hacker News is one of the most popular forums for discussing technology online today – perhaps the biggest.HN also has a pronounced political bias, which is…

Well I never expected to be referring to Piers Morgan as an authority on anything. But here’s an interesting discussion. The link comes from Ted Gioia’s Honest Broker Substack. If you don’t see a video here, please click on the title of this post in order to view it in your browser. The show starts with Mr Morgan and Tom Conti interviewing Tilly Norwood, our first AI-generated movie star who apparently burst onto the scene in July 2025. The video’s lead-in shows Tilly getting a bit confused,…

This is a work of fiction. Written entirely by me, a human. 23 June Sunday The Sunday afternoon crowd at the café, families mostly, had started to dwindle. Hani and Evan came in with backpacks and binocular and telephoto camera cases and looked for a place to stow them as they walked up to the counter. Marissa the barista, smiling, quickly eyed Evan and Hani up and down. “Well, hello! Greetings to my favourite couple! What will it be today?” Evan replied: “I think I’ll try a soy lavender…

I really need Litterbox to work for every short-form social media service.

When you care about your work, it can feel like the stakes are high. In times of stress, it’s useful to keep in mind that work is just one part of your life. This sign at the entrance of a construction site illustrates the principle well: Nothing you do on this site today will be as important as going home safely to your family & loved ones. In the marketing profession, there’s the phrase, “We’re not saving lives here.” It’s useful as a reminder to keep moving forward, and not so useful as an…

I was supposed to pick up a package for Anna while she was away, and I’m not even kidding when I say the kiosk was somehow even more chaotic in real life. There was barely any space to move, customers had to step over packages, and the staff couldn’t seem to find anything. In the end, I had to help them look for Anna’s package myself, but not before they tried to convince me that maybe it wasn’t there at all.

And I am aware this is not an airport.As of today, this site has been on the web for exactly eight years. I’ve decided to let this anniversary also be the date of its final new post. Yeah, I know: “This isn’t an airport, so you don’t have to announce your departure.” I do get that. In fact, that very bit of snark has been hanging around my brain for weeks now, intruding into my consciousness whenever I’ve considered making this move. It’s especially valid when I think about how few people…

If it's one thing I've noticed for a long time, it's our obsession with optimization. We have to be doing the most optimal exercise, for the most optimal length of time. Our heart rate has to be monitored and tracked, our heart-rate variability (whatever the fuck that even means), on and on and on. I know a lot of people who find themselves in this sort of cycle of min/maxing themselves to the point of burnout. They don't even start to do a thing because they're too busy trying to figure out…

One of my sons got AI to read every post in this blog and summarize it. I think every regular reader will enjoy the results--I certainly did. There is only one reference that I do not understand--I will have to look it up. Here it is:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M6ZgIXvBTMPUswNTjJn9q1jKlKhTz-hd/view?usp=sharingHistory Unfolding

Two days after my last blog post the store I interviewed at called me to confirm that they're hiring me for a seasonal position. So far my shifts have been fine. The first was signing some documents, inputting bank info and training. My second shift consisted of finishing online training and replenishing some displays. A few customers asked me questions and I felt bad that I couldn't answer them all that well. I already have to update my availability. I wake up so early for school and I forgot…

From the Editor’s Chisel:The dust has finally settled on Tuesday’s tragic three stegosaurus pile-up. Five people are dead, another seven seriously injured. Our city is at rock bottom, scraping to find some answers. Folks, trust me when I say I’m not one of those hippie-dippie, free-the-lizards activists, who expects everyone to get around on their own two hairy feet, like they did back in the Triassic. I’m a modern, Cretaceous man, with modern, Cretaceous values; some of my best childhood…

Two original images of the Stump House which was built (or rather grown)in Edgewater, Washington around 1900.There is a third image in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art taken in 1901 by photographer Darius Kinsey in 1901. Original photo / Real Photo Postcard of the Stump House c. 1900 Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb.

You want to laugh. But eventually the ludicrousness of it all just makes you want to throw a brick at a data server. For all the good that will do. In a scripted speech before the United Nations yesterday, America’s renamer-of-everything-in-chief, declared that we’re no longer calling Artificial Intelligence Artificial Intelligence. Heretofore it will be called Super Intelligence. Say the magic words, wave the magic wand and poof. The world’s your oyster. Given the tech world’s penchant for…

I was poking at a web app for a security assessment this week and ran a quick check on one of its dependencies, redacted-generic-plugin-name. Sounds real. Plausible. I curled the registry.

Who do you write?I’ve mostly written contemporary young-adult with a dash of speculative fiction, although my debut adult book, Bloom, came out in March. All of my writing incorporates queer themes and centers queer characters. I began writing in the fourth grade, when I aced a book project about the seaweed pulling me underwater at my aunt’s lake (don’t worry, my character was okay—it was all just a dream!). I love, love, love what I do, and feel incredibly lucky that I get to call this my…

I'm back this month with a slightly different format. Five covers of note. New, interesting, or on my mind. Without further ado, here they are...Seven-Part PactSeven-Part Pact by Jay DragonSeven-Part Pact, a game about the might and folly of powerful wizards bound by a venerable pact. What's pictured here is the planned slipcase art by Seattle-based illustrator, Pam Wishbow. Seven-Part Pact is a maximalist game. The kind that corrupts a kitchen table with knick-knacks, charts, booklets, cards,…

by Michael Kobre In 1975, Jerry Siegel, the co-creator of Superman, was shocked and infuriated, again, when he heard about the announcement of the upcoming production of a new big-budget Superman movie. In an all-too-familiar rage in what had been a lifetime of thwarted anger, Siegel did the only thing he could after decades of struggle and poverty since he’d been fired by DC Comics in 1945 when he’d sued the company in a failed attempt to regain the rights to Superman—which he’d sold, along…

Ngozi Ukazu and Mad Rupert’s Bunt!: Striking Out on Financial Aid (First Second, 2024) contains a classic string board. From contributor JJ Pionke.

This was all that was left of the fence in front of a gated community near Hawi after the passage of Hurricane Lala. When I saw it I immediately thought of Monty Python’s Black Knight!

I’m headed off to Dallas for the pen show tomorrow. If you’re attending the show, please come by the Dromgoole’s corner in the main ballroom and say hi. I’d love to see you! In Link Love news, its a very arty week and art markers get some serious love. USPS provides shipping guidelines for the upcoming holiday season and there’s some tips for reusing old planner inserts from Philofaxy. Enjoy! Pens: A Joy of Acrylic Markers: Two Different Sets of Arrtx Reviewed (via Apple-Pine) Hinze Pen Co.…

We have an EcoFlow Delta Pro 3 with an expansion battery that gives us 8kWh of battery with a maximum (sustained) output of 4kW. Winter is coming, and I thought it would be useful to have additional storage. EcoFlow is running a "Prime" sale, and I had a 5% off coupon, so I went to price an additional expansion battery. I checked the price at Home Depot, where I would be eligible for a 10% discount, and the EcoFlow price was better, so I placed the order with EcoFlow. I don't visit the site…

Rebecca De Mornay from The Slugger's Wife (1985)Oh Jimmy, Little Red Corvette & Hey, Hey, My MyThe three tracks sung by Rebecca in The Slugger's Wife, a 1985 romantic comedy film about a baseball star who falls for a singer (Rebecca De Mornay). Written by Neil Simon, directed by Hal Ashby and produced by Ray Stark, the film stars Michael O'Keefe, Rebecca De Mornay, and Randy Quaid. Rebecca De MornayHer breakthrough film role came in 1983, when she starred in Risky Business. De Mornay is also…

I learned two actionable models of the self from Gordon White, which he learned in turn from others: The soul incarnates into three bodies, i.e., the physical, emotional, and spiritual/mental bodies. The center of the physical body is the gut. The center of the emotional body is the heart. The center of the mental body is the head. I prefer the ambiguity of “gut” and “head” because specifying “stomach” and “brain” invites materialism. “Heart” already has sufficient ambiguity in our culture.…

I wanted to share what Stream would look like in Dark Mode since I use Light Mode all day and take my screenshots there.

Maximum effectiveness, up-to-date dependencies, and no fear of major releases: the three guiding tenets behind HTML Minifier Next.

I have been writing for a while now. Most of the time, I write about whatever is going through my head—my thoughts, my feelings, and my opinions. These are usually fleeting because emotions and circumstances keep changing, and so do the thoughts associated with them. I write when a feeling is particularly strong, only to find myself feeling something entirely different a few days later. I often go back and read my older essays. It does two things: it highlights how sporadic my thought process…

John Coltrane Quartet - Schwab Auditorium, Pennsylvania State University, January 19, 1963One hundred years of John Coltrane! The man’s birthday on September 23 should be some kind of international (interstellar?) holiday during which the entire globe shuts down and listens to nothing but his music. It might bring about some necessary changes! Maybe someday. But I’m going to get the ball rolling and listen to nothing but John Coltrane today. Join me! John’s time on this plane of existence was…