robin.is

Butterfly on our lavender bush.

Now into the second heatwave of the Summer. It's again been over 30°C for well over a week. It's hardly rained in the last two months. The fields do not usually look like this in early July. Or ever really.

Our third visit to Rock Werchter, after 2022 and 2023. This time the two outstanding acts were Kneepcap and the headliners Twenty One Pilots. It's always well organised and great fun. This time I spent most of it listening from a distance, whilst the kids went to the front. Keanu Reeves was also performing with his band Dogstar. Dogstar Kneecap Twenty One Pilots

Trying to escape the heatwave and the hottest June week ever in western Europe, we headed first to the Belgian coast (a cool 24 degrees) and then to Switzerland and Liechtenstein (both a sweltering 36 degrees). Belgium Switzerland Liechtenstein

by Helen Pilcher Interesting read about the nocebo effect, essentially the evil twin of the placebo effect. The nocebo effect is the effect whereby if you tell people the side effects of medicines, they are more likely to get them. Or people who think they will age less well, get more ill in old age than those who don't think this. You can make people really physically ill by implanting thoughts in their head that they have a cancer or some other disease. You can even condition them, like a dog…

Small changes ripple outwards. Creating lasting positive changes: 3 Gratitudes (tell yourself three things you are grateful for everyday) Journaling Exercise Meditation Random Acts of Kindness Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXy__kBVq1M at 11:21

NearlyFreeSpeech For over two decades I've had an account with NearlyFreeSpeech. Mainly as a cheap registrar but also for hosting my site(s) from time to time. But with my attempt to use more European tech I moved my hosting and domain name registrar to European providers. I no longer have a need for NearlyFreeSpeech.net and today closed the account. The account within my profile was created on 2006-08-12. My actual profile has probably been around a few weeks longer. In any case it's two…

Physical The industrial revolution came for our physical strength. Few of us do much more than lift our fingers up and down on a keyboard, with the occasional walk to the meeting room adding a few steps to our fitness tracker. We now pay to go to the gym. Mental The AI revolution is coming for our brains, our mental strength. Maybe in the not too distant future we'll pay to do mental exercise to keep our brains fit. Just a (rare) thought.

About 7 years ago we had a fibre optic connection installed in our home. The router, provided by our ISP, is a Fritz!Box 5490, for which I pay about 4€ a month. To my surprise I realised a few weeks ago that the last time it received security updates was in 2023! Time for a new router. This time I decided to buy the router, rather than rent it. Since my current router has a direct fibre connection I had choices to make. In fact many more than I had anticipated. Router: DSL with ONT box vs…

by Becky Chambers A book in two parts. The first part follows a monk who wanders off into the wilderness and encounters a robot who helps the monk survive in wildeness. In the second part, the monk then takes the robot to see the human world. A lovely book covering many interesting topics including climate catastrophe, what it means to be human, to be alive, to be conscious and to help others. From 25.04.2026 to 16.05.2026