“The good news is that nothing has gone wrong with you. Your nervous system is doing exactly what it evolved to do. It has just been dropped into an environment that looks like Times Square had a baby with a casino and raised it on espresso and Xanax.” - Dr. David RabinHello friends! This week has been all about the hummingbirds and butterflies, so it’s been a good week, despite the craziness of the world! It’s so easy to take tons of photos with this camera, and I’m having to be faster and…

The 64-page Fall 2026 issue of Armor magazine (the Mounted Maneuver Journal) is available online for free (read or download). The cover article, “Indispensable Iron” by COL Bryan Bonnema, MAJ Aram Hatfield, and CSM Greg Swayer, describes the importance of the ABCT and cautions against the temptation to substitute lighter formation or standoff fires for the capabilities that the ABCT provides. Enjoy!

The end of an era, boys. The A-10 Thunderbolt II SN 82-0665 completed its final training sortie with the 66th Weapons Squadron this week, flown by Lt. Col. Ridge Flick, the unit’s commander. “The flight closed a chapter of providing graduate-level training in advanced close air support with the U.S. Air Weapons School,” as noted Nellis’s PAO. U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Alex Padilla, a crew chief assigned to the 757th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, conducts postflight maintenance on an A-10…

Emmanuel Shiu: “Freefall” (detail) Maxi spots the body. Look, she says, pointing toward the ditch on the edge of Mr. Anderson’s property. But Ben doesn’t look, not at first. His eyes are trained on the road beneath his feet. Twice around the neighborhood, the woman said. The faster they’re done, the sooner she’ll let them back in the house. Ben pushed back this time. “It’s really cold,” he said. “Is it even safe for us to be out there?” The woman chuckled at this. “Just bundle up good as you…

My reading has dropped so much in the last few years that I am inching closer to the average 8 books in a year (3rd paragraph), and that scares me. In my best years (admittedly when I had considerably less responsibility and a job where I could read while working) I was reading between 80 and 100 books a year. Last year I read 22 books. Which was technically fine, but so very few compared to what I used to do. Right now I have read 9 books, and there's less than 3 1/2 months left in the year…

Here’s something that people didn’t predict - Meta’s “Muse” agent seems pretty good. Friends in Meta, whose judgement I trust, are quite impressed by it and have shared some great examples like tax preparation, group travel planning, scoring World Cup tickets that they are quite happy with. It’s gaining appreciation from other vectors too I’m already on a tangent. I was trying to pay Meta a compliment after months of mockery. And it’s honestly a big one. Because I must say, Muse is pretty…

The 2nd week of classes.

Lets start with some Twilight Zone, shall we? At The Twilight Zone Vortex, Brian reviews the final season episode "Spur of the Moment," which also marked the final contribution to the series of writer Richard Matheson. Just saw this episode a couple of weeks ago myself.From there, it's Comfort TV, where David reviews three hits from that much-maligned final season, as well as three misses. No, "Spur of the Moment" doesn't land on either list, though it does get a mention. But see if you agree…

Last week the official trailer for the next Avatar series debuted and I was surprised to be filled with confidence. Now, I am not some Korra hater. I actually quite like the show, the character, and sympathize with the creative team's struggles as Nickelodeon bungled the entire show. I even wrote about the show for my history of animation class at UCF in November 2015. While I have found the Pages document, I have decided to spare you all from publishing it. Seven Havens is leaning into the…

When I started my career, I put a lot of emphasis on learning how to say things the right way. I’d think, “How do I sound competent in this interview follow-up email?” Or, “How do I sound like a professional instead of sounding like normal me?” Post-AI, this seems to be flipping. I expect more movement away from prim and proper corpo-speak. Everybody can talk that way now with AI, so what’s the point of the formality circus? It used to be a proxy for competence, but we can’t trust it anymore.…

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed— Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above. (It never was America to me.) O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic […]

Got an email today that I was added into a cool looking project, pxlarea. Very pretty and creative way to discover some new blogs and websites in the indie/personal web! 10k pixels are available, it says, and 189 are taken at the time of writing this. You can add yourself, or be added :) My this is my pixel. You can set a description, tags and icon too, or if you were added by someone else/the maintainer, you can get an edit link to change the information there that was added for you. I think I…

Today’s TDC says: You may have seen the Tiktok trend where people turn everyday quotes into a motivational quote flyer. Now it’s your turn! Take a random quote from your day and create a motivational poster! I’m on holiday today, so ignoring all of the emails and Teams messages, so I took a pic of Cagney, pretending to sleep on my bed, and turned that into a poster Sleeping Cagney flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license

If the storms that were forecast for last night arrived, I slept through them.Wake at 6:00 to fog. Slip back into the sleeping bag. Up at 7:00, still foggy. Tuck away the sleeping gear, break down the boom tent. Ready to sail, I look at the fog and listen to the tide rushing against the wooden hull. 9:00 fog clearing. 9:15 under power. The flood tide has brought enough water to the cut between Birch and High Islands so I motor west to the small fleet of anchored boats. I am pleased to see…

Alicia aims to be the cool aunt to her niece Dottie. One of the aspects of being the cool aunt is fighting weird otherworldly creatures that both naturally find themselves attuned to see. The creatures are just kinda weird scary pests, like the scorpions that invade my home during the summer, so there’s no serious problems. But then, something weird and unfortunate happens. Dottie’s hometown of Daybreak suddenly vanishes from the outside world. Alicia, who was called before the town…

A poem shared via Substack Notes on Thursday, September 17, 2026 I won’t say I’m heartbroken, because that meansyou broke me, butmy heart aches for you. isn’t that different? it sounds nicer–cleaner, like I’m not missingyou as much as you know I am. like I had something moreto do with the No Usthat exists. like it’ll heal beforeI can remember the pain it iscausing me tohave known you.isn’t it different? that my heart achesfor you…isn’t it?

Groucho Marx once said he’d never want to belong to any club that would have him as a member. I think about that line often. No matter where you are, at work or in your social life, there’s always some in-group that seems just out of reach. The one that seems to have more fun, discuss the more important things, sit closer to the center of whatever matters. It’s easy to turn life into an endless chase for the next one. A better approach is to focus on what you’re actually solving for, and what…

The Flywheel theatre company are reviving the rep tradition by having five actors perform five different plays in five weeks. Their interpretation of Molière's classic is gaudy and hilarious. Even the lighting cues are funny! It is fair to say that School for Wives isn't exactly an uncontroversial play. The plot basically boils down to "Women! Eh? You can't live with them, you can't easily groom them from the age of four and keep them imprisoned so they become perfect submissives." Is the fear…

The alert looked ordinary for about five seconds.An endpoint protection product had detected and quarantined an executable named WindowsUpdate.exe. The name was suspicious but not especially creative. The path was what changed the investigation:C:\Users\<user>\Documents\ScreenConnect\Temp\WindowsUpdate.exeThis client did not use ScreenConnect.The endpoint record also showed a ScreenConnect RunFile action, an active remote session, and components associated with backstage shell and file-manager…

Welcome to this week's Link Dump, where our host is this very personable cat from around 1900. Alas, I have no other information about this photo.A handy reminder that the 19th century seaborne trade wasn't always much fun.10th century priests go to court.The mysterious death of George Proctor.In which an Australian tree just wants to be left alone.The sad life of Marilyn Monroe's mother.How to use magic to protect your home.Does the Great Pyramid have a secret code?New discoveries near Machu…

September 18, 2026. Today would have been Joe Kubert's 100th birthday. Many tributes and articles have honored his work and legacy over the years, and I feel inadequate to add to that. The best thing I can say is that Kubert's Hawkman and Hawkgirl have given me years of joy and dreams. His Hawkman first gave me wings 50 years ago, when I was a boy, and I haven't touched ground since. The best tribute I can give is to share all of the art of Hawkman and Hawkgirl that I have come across over the…

Some stories and developments you might want to keep on your radar. Did anyone else get the feeling that the GOP "convention" was more about soothing Trump's ego than about helping the candidates? the internals must be great[image or embed]— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm.bsky.social) September 17, 2026 at 8:36 AM Then there’s Rep Mike Lawler who took on Trump and WON![image or embed]— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm.bsky.social) September 17, 2026 at 5:48 PM Maybe Rep. Tiffany can use this picture for his…

The cops I served burgers to asked me what good was learning anything if I couldn't help people. I tell my students, at the end of the term, that they must have hobbies, because if they don't have hobbies, then that means writing is their hobby, and it shouldn't be that way; writing should be their life and not their hobby. I tell them to learn new things, different things, things that have nothing to do with writing. And not just learn them, but be good at them; master them; impress others…

Guess who got a 74% average on their "Disruptive Technologies in the Digital Economy" coursework? Guess who passed and no longer has to ever think about NFTs again unless she decides to write her dissertation on shitty digital scams? YEAH THAT'S RIGHT, THIS DWEEB RIGHT HERE. Well, that's a relief. ... Back to Statistics! AveragesThe average is where most of the values are located. We saw this on Wednesday with the box-and-whiskers plot I did for my films. The box? That's where my averages are.…

Pitt Peregrine “Red” at Tamarack Wildlife Center, summer 2026 (photo courtesy Tamarack Wildlife Center) 18 September 2026 Unfortunately I have some bad news to share. Red (Black/Green 09/Z), the juvenile male from this year’s Pitt peregrine nest, passed away at Cornell’s Swanson Wildlife Hospital in late August after extensive treatment for respiratory ailments that developed after his June collision and recovery at Humane Animal Rescue Pittsburgh and with Tamarack. Red near the snapshot camera…

Books I’d forgotten I was going to see Dave Gorman read from his new book 'Are you Dave Gorman?' tonight. Or rather I’d forgotten until yesterday, when I remembered. As always when deciding these things, I have to weigh up whether its worth staying late in Manchester in the knowledge that I won’t be home by ten o’clock, and I’ve been a bit trepidatious about visiting these Waterstones readings in the past – but I decided that as this was a personality I was onto a good thing.The arts section…

TIL you can rest a Stroopwafel on top of a mug of coffee or tea to soften it. Why hadn’t anyone told me all these years?

Assume that the performance of someone at work looks like this: This may be the case because of various reasons: the task is not standarized person gets tired creativity is required environment is not stable task difficulty is not uniform In some jobs, we are able to build systems that kind of filter out the “bad” parts, so the performance looks more like: Example of such systems: One person creating multiple version of their work and picking the best (authors, presenters, software engineers)…

On this page NixOS and Home Manager have plenty of options you can set. This is the result of a diligent community accumulating work over many years. You will not need most of it, but when you do want to configure any particular thing, it's nice to have the choice. I was looking at my config and noticed I have options that are used broadly across my machines. Over the years I've encountered some of these options that I wish I had known about sooner. Essentially, if I followed the installation…

Daily Drawing 992