Arriving at the end of steel where the ribbons meet the sea and embraced by the mountains of the most familiar of islands will forever be a tonic for the restless soul…Where models transcend their origins and help us paint a picture that evokes such emotion - Lochdubh exists in the curious dreamlike state between miniature and model railway. Its trains moved only by my hand but its ability to move me goes beyond the physical movement of electric motor driven models along nickel silver track……

For the Daily Dish on Day 4 of Noirvember 2026, I’m taking a look at Favorite Uncommon Noir Performer. What does this mean, you may ask? It’s those actors and actresses who made a mark in noirs, but who you don’t normally think of when you think of film noir. You know, like Mickey Rooney or Marilyn Monroe or James Stewart. I’m going to go with Esther Williams, who turned her skills as a champion swimmer into a successful Hollywood career, becoming the queen of MGM’s lavish aquatic musicals in…

It went better than we thought.Certainly, my predictions -- which still had Democrats taking back the House and Senate! -- were far too conservative.The final tallies are still in the air. But even with what we know so far -- boy howdy.Democrats don't just win the Texas Senate seat -- they win essentially every contested statewide race there is. Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Railroad Commissioner, four Supreme Court seats -- it's a wrecking ball.Ohio? Flipped. South Carolina?…

There’s a fundamental gap in C++ that trips up everyone who reaches for it: you can’t pass a constexpr value through a function boundary and have it remain constexpr on the other side. The value is known at compile time, the function is constexpr, but the parameter inside the function body is not a constant expression. This forces workarounds - template parameters, tag types, std::integral_cons...

This morning I read “Slow Living” post from Requiem. I never considered this. Me as a child and now watching my own grow, expecting fast learning. Now 40, I think about the many years it has taken me to properly read, write, draw with colour, speak fluent Dutch, interact with strangers, even think... A journey to reshape myself since I was 23. I began to pass time, try things, some stuck, some did not; but in the end I'm the result of slow deliberate and constant effort. I also knit and skate,…

There for the Crimbo and New Year months so lets explore undenting the universe plus moving slow and fixing things. Even though it’s a family / friends focused trip am open to the usual creative collaborations in the following arenas: FIRESIDE.RS WORKSHOP From my new venture fireside.rs, which focuses on unlocking creative productivity by gathering humans effectively. This unique offering is a 90min workshop designed around the simple idea that how we gather matters, and as been delivered…

Sometimes the simplest lunches are the ones that leave the biggest impression, and this Deli-Style Roast Beef Sandwich is proof of that. Piled high with tender roast beef, creamy Havarti cheese, fresh peppery rocket and a lush and zippy garlic horseradish mayo, it's the kind of sandwich you'd expect to find at your favourite neighborhood deli, yet it's easy to make right at home.Hearty, flavourful, and loaded with deli-shop appeal, this roast beef sandwich transforms everyday ingredients into a…

There are almost 20,000 listed buildings in London, from palaces to pubs and parish churches to phone kiosks. They're particularly prevalent in inner London because that's where most of the old stuff is, and somewhat sparser towards the outskirts. There are also a few larger gaps where nothing's been listed, these generally suburbs in former agricultural areas where nothing old was noteworthy and nothing newer has proved architecturally significant. Today's question is thus... Where in London…

In my very recent blog post about turning between spindles I noted that you are simply peeling away wood perpendicular to the grain. Bowl turning presents a different challenge: as the work turns, the grain of the wood is presented parallel to a the tool and constantly changing direction. This makes the wood splinter out half the time (see picture above). You can easily find instruction on YouTube to help you develop techniques to avoid this problem. But I couldn't find a single source that…

Watch Dogs (stylized as WATCH_DOGS) is an action-adventure video game franchise published by Ubisoft, and developed primarily by its Montreal and Toronto studios using the Disrupt game engine. The series' eponymous first title was released in 2014, which was followed by two sequels: Watch Dogs 2 (2016) and Watch Dogs: Legion (2020). The franchise also includes several tie-in novels, comic book miniseries, and an upcoming live-action film set in the games' fictional universe.Genre: Electronic,…

Wandering around the neighbourhood of Kuramae, Dandelion Chocolate was one of the places that I had seen pop up in recommendations from other stores a couple of times, so I decided I was due to check it out. Actually this place (as the name might suggest) is more of a chocolate shop first and foremost. Plenty of seating on the second floor But of course I love coffee, so I got their cacao nib cold brew (750 yen). It was pretty tasty! I think my friend got their hot chocolate, and a brownie And…

In this special solo edition of The Blue Hour, I introduce what I've begun calling my Italian constellation: six distinguished scientists and thinkers whom I'll be travelling to Italy to interview in January 2027, each in person with my portable voice recorder. The constellation includes evolutionary philosopher Telmo Pievani, whose work brings together biology, philosophy and literature; zoologist Maurizio Casiraghi, who studies evolution, symbiosis and the relationships between living…

Let's see if I can have a better November this year. First session of the month wasn't looking hopeful - jack lost on a lure and a run that nicked my sardine. And it was getting dark... I left the deadbait in while I packed up - and a last second bob on the float. Ten more minutes then. As I gave up, a run, and a pike to start the month. Hopefully the first of a few November pike...

Wow! Great job USA! Texas flipped, which is both amazing and shows how much Trump sucks.

More idleness from the Professor. I went to bed early the previous night, so I woke at 0700. After another ten hours of sleep. It was pitch-dark, raining hard, and the wind was howling. So I whiled away a couple of hours on the computer until the rain let up and then I went to the pool, where things were fairly quiet—at one point there were only 6 people in the various pools and pots. As the

In previous years, this was a question people would ask about December, but that changed in 2025 when NaNoWriMo, or at least its parent nonprofit, The Office of Letters and Light, shut down. It was a strange saga. What started as a goofy yearly event became, by some measures, the biggest annual writing event in the world. A formal organization was founded, with increasingly grand plans to change the world, and increasingly significant funding needs. It all ended in tears and acrimony, and some…

“I have a dreamy way of withdrawing into myself, and, besides, a dull and childish ignorance of many common things.” Among the most rewarding gifts of concentrated reading is encountering thoughts we previously assumed were held only by ourselves. This happens most often with writers aware of their own inadequacies. Think of Samuel Johnson and Proust but think especially of Montaigne. Reading his essays is like reading our better selves, but never forgetting our most fallible moments. The line…

Just a few odds and ends…. An odd one – and LMS (LNWR) loco hauling a GWR milk tanker at the SR East Croydon. Bath in 1866, with the GWR in the centre of the photo. Portsmouth High Level. A 2HAL leading a 2BIL at St Leonards West (photo David Pearson.) A little modelling challenge from the end of steam…. And for no other reason than it’s beautiful, an HP 42 takes off. And a Jago Hazzard video to finish….

I Posted Every Day for a Year One year ago, I started posting on this blog regularly. It was November 4th, and I used to know, but I don’t know why I started doing it, honestly. But I thought I would have one interesting thing to say about music every day. Turns out I was right. Up until the middle of last week, I was going to stop doing it, but I’ll keep doing it for now. Typically, the cliché is, what have I learned? And I’m going with it. What have I learned? No one has asked me, but I’ll…

Watch 2020 census block groups become congressional districts with equal populations. Change the rule, see the shapes and the numbers move, then compare the result to the map Congress actually uses.

With the historic election results rolling in tonight, it seems like a good chance to share my tribute version of The Great Wave Off Kanagawa. I created this piece 4 years ago using Procreate, and it’s getting a ton of use over on Giphy so I hope y’all enjoy it too. The post The Great Wave off Kanagawa Tribute Piece appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

“They just used ‘their’ when they should have used ‘his or her.’” “It's a foregone conclusion—‘they’ is now a singular pronoun in addition to being a plural.” “It's just wrong!” “Singular ‘they’ goes back to the thirteen or fourteen hundreds.” “Someone was wrong then, and they're wrong now.” “Did you just a singular ‘they?’” “Quiet! My show is back on!”

It took me a while to sort out that the initial Q in the qwest.tv service’s name is for the legendary musician and producer Quincy Jones, a co-founder. At US$60 a year, this remains one subscription too many for me, but the organization’s YouTube channel adds clips and full-length performances to build awareness, which is how we get this fantastic subdued Ambrose Akinmusire quintet set from 2014: The band features Charles Altura on guitar, Sam Harris on piano and Fender Rhodes, Harish Raghavan…

I spent a lot of time on the dry-fit stage of the French WC kit. There wasn't a rush, and I wanted to enjoy the build. More importantly, if significant work was required, the kit would need to go back in the box. Resin isn't lovely stuff to sand, the dust isn't good for you. Bad enough when it's just me, but we don't need to be exposing the public to anything. Luckily, there wasn't an issue. All the parts were moulded square and true. A bit of brushable superglue was all that I needed to hold…

I’m typing this from my phone because I’m just now seeing the updates. I had a lot of thoughts this morning about living in tx (for my whole life practically) and being in a blue city (Austin now, but originally from HTX) in a historically red state (Texas). Showing up to vote, always hoping for the best even if I would end up disappointed. But this time it’s different! Incredible. Anyways I’ll sleep now. reply via email: hello@fiddery.com

I'm moving through the summer series of single boxed G.I. Joe: Classified Series figures. I've now covered Airtight and Sundown so it's time to turn our attention to a Cobra: Overkill! Who is Overkill exactly? Well, there are a couple answers. The original 1989 figure (who was released as part of the Talking Battle Commanders subset) was an advanced prototype B.A.T. who was placed in charge of the other B.A.T.s. During the relaunch of the line (Generation 2), Overkill was now called Over Kill…

These are 1:144 scale Sopwith Salamanders, a British armoured ground-attack aircraft from the very end of WW1, based largely on the Snipe. They were ordered in quantity in order to support the offensives intended for 1919, but the Armistice intervened, and in the end only two ever made it to the Western Front.It was used as a test-bed for a new (to the British) multi-colour disruptive paint scheme. As well as the camouflage, new low-visibility markings were trialled: the red and blue of the…

Early fall is pretty. I’ll savour it now before the trees get all nekkid. A couple of larger mushrooms by the trail, surrounded by fall colours. Just west of the Cariboo Dam. Golden trees in golden light at Still Creek.