Bubbles
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Back then, everybody smoked. I knew guys who could jump-start a Zippo lighter just by snapping their fingers. People smoked in restaurants, movie theaters, airplanes, trains, college classrooms, funeral homes. I’ve seen people smoking,...
Porto Covo is a small coastal village, nestled in Portugal’s Alentejo region. As well as its beautiful, whitewashed houses, little sandy coves and dramatic cliffs, it also has a gate to heaven (and as Michael Cane would probably say, not...
Overcast and cool. A sudden thumping under the floor, and a small groundhog goes running out into the garden, followed by the head of a larger groundhog, who turns to look at me over the end of the porch. After a minute-long staring...
Commentary: Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity: a high-density EEG study with implications for the classroom — Perhaps the oft touted claim that writing by hand rather than typing is better for memory...
Kurt Daluege isn't as widely remembered as Himmler, Heydrich or Eichmann, but he built the machinery a lot of their worst crimes ran on. As chief of Nazi Germany's Order Police for seven years, he turned a uniformed constabulary into an...
I’ve been tidying up various cupboards, drawers and boxes, and look what I found? I mean, I knew that I’d had a few phones over the years, but… And what do you do with old phones, anyway? I put the old one in a drawer and think “I’ll...
I was recently talking with someone about their time at a well-funded startup, one backed by some prestigious names. From the outside, they looked really good. A large valuation, big rounds, the works. But once they were inside, they...
My Dad has been staying with us because he lives between Fiji and Australia and needs to be here for medical appointments. He recently turned 80 and his health challenges, along with recent additions to ‘club 80’ in Dolly Parton and Tim...
Tinkering is Up For getting down with the tinkerers. (last update: 30 August 2026) Access this new client-side feed reader at http://tinkeri.ng. It’s for geeking-out on the hacker blogosphere every so often. Users cannot add new feeds to...
Back in February, I applied for NLnet's Next Generation Zero grant. They were looking for Fediverse projects to help rewild the social media landscape. Or, as they describe it: Reclaim the public nature of the internet Small and...
I say "old age" in the title of this post, I am still in my 30s, and I don't turn 40 until next year, but I have grey in my beard and I have definitely paraphrased "back in my day" more than once. Admittedly it is mostly to my children,...
On 9 February 2001, BBC Two aired the Simpsons episode "My Sister, My Sitter" for the first time, where Lisa is inspired to start baby-sitting by The Baby-Sitter Twins books.Precisely one week after that, on 16 February 2001, the one...
This is the second of two-part posts on the last two volumes of Sonetoismo by Filipino poet Mesándel Virtusio Arguelles. My thoughts on the penultimate volume, Dahilan (Reason), can be read here. Sa Wala Ka Maniwala by Mesándel Virtusio...
Lots of zoomers are nostalgic about Beta Minecraft. When speaking to a whippersnapper, the elderly zoomer is very predictable. He will first say "I'm getting on in years, so let me give you some advice. You've still got time. Don't live...
These droplets are some of the jewels of jewelweed. Schenley, 26 August 2026 (photo by Kate St. John) 30 August 2026 Yellow jewelweed (Impatiens pallida) and spotted touch-me-not or orange jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) are at their peak...