: Remembering Robin Williams, who left us 10 years ago today. His comedic genius and deep humanity …
: Some photos from my night of Italian food and English theatre.
: “Much Ado About Nothing” at Shakespeare’s Globe.
: Why do tape measures always have a very distinctive smell?
: There’s a session drummer named Steve Gadd who looks awfully like George Clooney.
: The restaurant I made a reservation at lets me upload a photo of myself so they can greet me by name …
: Morning all ☀️ I don’t know about you lot, but my sun is gorgeous this morning.
: I’ve written about how media companies keep on underestimating the value of new technologies. …
: 🍿 Film Review: Air (2023) “Air” is about the creation of Air Jordan shoes at Nike. It’s silly and corny, but …
: KFC is the only good value fast food chain left. As long as you ignore the burgers and stick to the …
: My fellow English autumn addicts, just how much are you loving this wonderfully rainy July?
: If you want to use Dropbox but don’t want to have to pay $10/mo for 2TB you can apparently …
: Happy Sunday all. The weather is fine and sunny in Hertfordshire today and I’ve been for a …
: The barista yelled ‘Mi’lady!’ and for a split second I thought I’d …
: Hope everyone’s Saturday’s are going well. I’m just back from a spooky July walk …
: Modern life feels like death by a thousand £9.99 subscriptions.
: I mean, doesn’t the word ‘buy’ imply you get to keep it?
: Captcha: ‘Select all stairs.’ Brain: ‘What defines a stair?’ Suddenly, …
: The longest title for a film that I’ve come across.
: The Queen’s final Christmas speech before she died is listed as the “series …
: I’m flattered Hozier wants my phone number. But I shouldn’t have to give it to him just …
: I propose we bring back the 19th century tea dance. It’s so much better than a night club or …
: “It was illegal until the mid-1960s for bars in New York to sell alcohol to people known to be …
: I love the wonderful terminology of American music in the 1940’s. Crooner, bobby soxers, …
: The original toilet roll patent from 1891 clearly shows it should hang over the roll, not under.
: The Google Maps iOS app finally has a speedometer on it.
: I rate films precisely out of 100. I can tell you exactly what I liked and disliked. But books? …
: Sunday so far: a walk, a shop and a burger from a greasy spoon. 🥾🌲🍔 Next: Tour de France and then …
: I’ve written about the struggle of birthdays in an extrovert-centric world. Ron Swanson gets …
: Post England game. The sun has come out and I’m drinking a Leffe 0% beer 🍺☀️ My second ever …
: Pre England game walk and food. 🥾🍽️ 📍 National Trust - Ashridge Estate + The Traveller’s Rest
: I think the concept of ‘cultural appropriation’ is largely nonsense. But some of you …
: The AI data gold rush meets its match: Cloudflare – imlefthanded.com
: The absolute disappointment of turning on the Tour de France and discovering it’s a time trial day. …
: A good day to no longer be under a Tory government 🙅♂️
: Snacks taste 15% better if I browse their website whilst eating them.
: Cloudflare is making it easier to stop AI crawlers scraping your site.
: ‘noplace, a mashup of Twitter and Myspace for Gen Z, hits No. 1 on the App Store’ It very much is …
: What an odd headline in the Times: “No more koala cuddles at sanctuary visited by Putin and …
: A hip church, a modern poet I recently saw the poet Harry Baker. My girlfriend was the fan and wanted to go, though I had also …
: SoundCloud doesn't let you fast forward without signing in In the grand tradition of web hostility, SoundCloud has made a bold move. They’ve decided that …
: Pipes.digital is a great replacement for Yahoo Pipes. As a keen RSS user I used to love Pipes back …
: Blogging like Dave Winer: the case for making more of your thoughts public Dave Winer has been blogging since 1994. And extensively too. His output is remarkable. And the …
: No one oversells more than a podcast host pushing a VPN. Apparently it will stop people tracking …
: I wrote several post bearish on AI today. But it is simply amazing at helping you remember the …
: The first ever podcast I listened/watched was Diggnation, back in 2005 (nearly 20 years ago!) If you …
: I struggled to find a TV show to watch. Tried “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” and …
: A few new posts on my tech blog today, mostly around AI. ‘Why AI can’t replace science’ …
: 'Why AI can’t replace science' FastCompany (Gary Smith): Today, AI is being increasingly integrated into scientific discovery to …
: Companies are cooling on the cloud BBC News: This year, software firm 37signals will see a profit boost of more than $1m (£790,000) …
: Figma's pulls its AI tool after it got caught copying Apple's Weather app Figma’s had to pull its new AI-powered app design tool after it started churning out clones of …
: Meta's AI image labeling: 'Made with AI' becomes 'AI Info' Meta’s having a bit of a wobble with its AI labelling. They’ve gone from “Made …
: 🍿 Film Review: The Lobster (2015) Imagine a world where being single isn’t just frowned upon—it’s outlawed. That’s …
: If you’ve got an adblocker Rotten Tomatoes isn’t letting you in anymore. They’ve had this popup for …
: I despise Putin’s Russia and am totally on the 🇺🇦 side of the Russo-Ukrainian War. But I think their …
: I keep on hearing such mixed things about The Bear season 3, it’s insane. I wouldn’t know. found …
: Not the most original artwork by Discovery+ here.
: “Brighton FC want to buy Dewsbury Hall from Leicester.” Dewsbury Hall sounds like it should be …
: 🍿 Film Review: Wonka (2023) This always looked terrible. And the trailer was so bad it became a literal meme. However, this …
: Me: “Hey ChatGPT, what’s 2 + 2?” ChatGPT: “I’m not going to answer that. Here’s some Python code …
: Playing Battlefield 1. Probably my favourite game of all time. The graphics, soundtrack and ‘feel’ …
: After 20 years, my morning RSS ritual still feels like unwrapping digital gifts. From news to niche …
: June 26, 2024 Good morning all. It’s currently 18°C where I am ☀️ 📖 Morning links: Just paying attention to …
: A sports score Mac menu bar app inspired by teletext. I haven’t used it, but I love the look.
: App subscription pricing in 2024. Yearly: £99 Monthly: £250
: “Excuse my fingers.” No Barbara, I won’t excuse them. Just use some utensils you tramp.
: Alban Day 2024 Me and my girlfriend accidentally stumbled upon “Alban Day"1 in St. Albans2 today after …
: June 21st, 2024 Good morning all. It’s currently 19°C where I am 🌤️ 📖 Morning links: “37 (Or So) Lessons From …
: This morning I saw a man walking along with a ceramic mug in his hand and a beaming smile on his …
: Glad Apple has created the Journal app. But I would recommend Day One over it. Its a mature product …
: The moon is so bright tonight it looks like the sun 📷
: Watching Noah Kalina’s “Hotline Show” series on YouTube. I can’t tell if it’s good or not. But it’s …
: June 20th, 2024 Good morning all. It’s currently 15°C where I am ☀️ 📖 Morning reads: “Vaccines have saved 150 …
: Your brain is not a computer --> Research psychologist Robert Epstein argues that our understanding of the human brain is being held …
: Didn’t realise there was a Five Guys with a glorious view of Tower Bridge. Great place to see …
: June 19th, 2024 Good morning all. It’s currently 14°C in London 🌤️ 🚆 Trains reads: “Another …
: 🔗 15 rules for blogging - Matt Webb Some of the best and most realistic rules for blogging I’ve …
: A common British experience is that for every single place you know there’s an identically named …
: 🍿 Dumb Money (2024) Adequately put together and fairly fun, but this was merely okay. The whole Wall …
: These AI newsletters are essentially identical. I don’t know why I’ve remained …
: I’ve reached the point in my digital life where I’ve used enough ‘saving’ …
: 🔗 Why I write and why I won’t – Remy Sharp° He says that one of the benefits of sharing your …
: A place to write where you just don't care 🔗 Stream on Simon Collison has written about having a longer form blog and also a short one. A …
: New word learnt: standfirst. “An introductory paragraph in an article, printed in larger or …
: 1988 Flannel Daughter Realizes Dad Has Worn Same L.L.Bean Flannel Shirt Since 1988 I’m a recent convert to …
: Continuing on from yesterdays post about preserving your websites once you die Derek Sivers has the …
: They were talking about the “agri-food industry” on the radio. But all I could hear was the “angry …
: People who put (Save for later) in their posts sure must think highly of what they have to say. I …
: fredbenenson on Threads: Apple needs to ban notifications from delivery / service apps that are …
: Digital legacy At least once a week I think about what’s going to happen to my websites once I die. Within a …
: I’ve written about @vincent’s wonderful Tinylytics.
: It’s a human rights violation for a company not to have any wi-fi signal in their toilets.
: “Israel Adds a Medieval Weapon to Its Arsenal in Fight Against Hezbollah"°
: Small Sites Want Analytics Too Like a lot of bloggers I have a small, but quiet audience. So I’m a fan of using analytics to …
: Finally getting around to watching the Apple WWDC keynote. Favourite new thing thus far? You can now …
: Perfect weather for staying indoors and watching 📺 “Clarkson’s Farm”. As a …
: Portugal - 2024 A few weeks ago I did an Iberian trip, visiting Spain and then Portugal. Here’s some photos …
: Reddit is a much more pleasant place once you start blocking certain words and subreddits.
: I’ve been rewatching those stunt/dare/prank reality shows of my teenage years, like Jackass …
: 🍿 Rewatching “Bullet Train”. It’s a fun popcorn film. 64. And it’s worth watching just for its array …
: I still miss app.net techcrunch.com/2017/01/1…
: I don’t know what it is but I can never bring myself to use the 😂 emoji.
: I am pleased to report that Uber/Deliveroo now lets you add extra patties to your Five Guys order. …
: “More Than This” by Roxy Music is a fantastic song (it’s great for testing out new speakers …
: Few feelings are more wonderful than the exciting early stages of a new hobby.
: 1920’s depression treatment: lots of milk and lots of nothing I’m currently reading “English Food: A People’s History” by Diane Purkiss. I thought this …
: 1930’s Protective Foods I’m currently reading “English Food: A People’s History” by Diane Purkiss. There’s a section …
: I began tagging emails as ‘not important,’ but soon realised I was labelling 95% of them …
: Cleaning tip for people with ADHD. Make yourself a coffee and then start cleaning. You will move …
: I completely misjudged how crowded the train would be and snagged the first available seat, right …
: I can eat lunch and lose focus and have an energy crash and struggle to get work done. Or I can skip …
: I’ve been enjoying a lot of Japanese ambient music recently. And I just discovered this one and love …
: I often accidentally type 2014 instead of 2024. And when I do 2014 as a date doesn’t feel that long …
: Sorry, I missed that. I was too busy having a crisis over the communal food in the middle of the …
: Millenarianism One of the things I don’t like about certain religious groups and people is their love of round …
: High-end hotels and first class plane tickets are two things I’m always shocked at the price of. …
: I’d never been in a proper bookshop nook before. The cosiest part of it is actually how it sounds in …
: I’m actually really enjoying summer this year. But I have to admit, I still have autumn and …
: This is a test post This is a H2 I love discovering a wonderful new homepage or blog. Especially on the weekend when I …
: I love the illustration on the Pika.page. It makes me feel warm, fuzzy and happy for some reason. I …
: Give me some citations please <img …
: Late bedtimes might harm your mental health, even if you're a nightowl Neuroscience News°: Staying up late harms mental health regardless of one’s natural sleep …
: Asket and stupid marketing experiments Last week the clothing company Asket removed all images for their products. I would be curious to …
: Big projects, small favours: Boost your work reputation by nailing the extremes Want to be known as dependable and great at your job? Focus on the big and the small tasks. People …
: Travel? Meh Venkatesh Rao (Ribbon Farm)°: One of the biggest changes in my personality with middle age is that …
: Newsletters are the new blogs. And that's a good thing. I used to be a newsletter hater. My email inbox is a wasteland of work, spam and things I …
: How-to: Instantly make Google minimal and ad-free A simple trick that gives you the minimal Google search results of old — no ads, no ‘People …
: Arun.is --> I love discovering a wonderful new homepage or blog. Especially on the weekend when I have time to …
: Film Review: The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare I’m a big fan of Guy Ritchie’s films. His first two, “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking …
: The 19th Century's Lottery for Life April 12, 1835. London. The weekly Friday lottery draw is about to take place and a young woman …
: 'Stop Acting Like You're Famous' --> Ash from ajkprojects.com°: You aren’t famous. Anything you do or create will probably receive …
: 4000 Weeks: Embracing Limits for a Fuller Life Ever feel like you’re hurtling through life, desperately trying to cram everything in before …
: Little Links & Notes 8: Writing Hacks and the Pain of Existence Hi all 👋 Long time no see. Hope you’re having a good Sunday. I’m back with the eighth …
: Gemini 1.5 Pro accepts 1 million token prompts Every.to° (Dan Shipper): I got access to Gemini Pro 1.5 this week, a new private beta LLM from …
: Using a Shell Script to Automate the Building and Deploying of My Hugo Blog blot.blog is powered by Hugo, which is static site generator. So basically my blog is a bunch of …
: Movie Review: Your Christmas Or Mine? (2022) Through a transport and communication mishap, a couple accidentally spend Christmas at the …
: Shane MacGowan Has Died “The Pogues were once described as a tight, professional bunch of musicians fronted by a total …
: Little Links & Notes 7 Recipe timings before the invention of clocks (Making Darkness Light: The Lives and Times of John …
: The Disappearing Hum of Fans These days I work in a big, open plan office with no assigned desks. So I’ve sat next to a lot …
: Little Links & Notes 6 ‘A new ‘miracle’ weight-loss drug really works — raising huge questions’ (Financial …
: A Stopped Watch My watch stopped recently. I like my watch. It is (usually) reliable and has been a loyal friend for …
: Lilacs and War It’s early summer and a veteran of the First World War is walking hand-in-hand with his young …
: Little Links & Notes 5 ‘When Coal First Arrived, Americans Said ‘No Thanks’’ (Smithsonian;° But …
: Little Links & Notes 4 On realising that friends often talk about you behind your back and that they don’t always …
: Little Links & Notes Get Ready for the Forever Plague (The Tyee / Andrew Nikiforuk°). ‘Public health officials’ …
: Can’t Afford the Gas to Cook (Lots of money talk in the UK today as the Chancellor of the Exchequer° has released his …
: Tolkien, Orwell and Simple Living Darcy Moore° looks at the surprising similarities between George Orwell and J.R.R. Tolkien. And I …
: Little Links & Notes Good afternoon everyone. It’s a beautifully mild and spotlessly sunny lunchtime in southern …
: Little Links & Notes Ran Prieur° on not choosing suicide: “But I think the most universal reason to keep living is …
: Legs Look Weird Jerry Seinfield has talked about how there’s something about certain jokes that for whatever …
: Low Birth Rates and High War Deaths Wrong Side of History (Ed West)†: It’s hard to imagine but back in the 1970s one of the most-read …
: Economic Sanctions Cause Discomfort in a Very Comfortable Modern World The Nazi’s preprepared their economy for the inevitable sanctions and supply chain issues long …
: Enablers of dirty Russian money in London + What's an 'Unexplained Wealth Order'? Simon Kuper (Financial Times)°: French economist Gabriel Zucman estimated in 2014 that 52 per cent …
: Just pay Russian soldiers to surrender? Ukraine is offering° Russian soldiers currently involved in the Russo-Ukrainian War° around $48,000 …
: 'Why the Russians Are Struggling' --> Summary: Conscripts do just a 12 month term. Which is no where near long enough to learn to become …
: Sigmund Freud aged 26 and 36 Photo one is of him in 1882 – via the New York Times. Photo two is in 1892 – via Microscopy UK.
: “Humanity is just not what I think it is.” Louis Theroux has a new TV series out called “Forbidden America”. In this week’s …
: Highly anticipated experiences are often underwhelming Morgan Housel°: Going to the moon is the coolest thing humans have ever done. You’d think it would …
: 'My first web3 webpage' --> Interesting blog post by Dries Buytaert°. And after reading it I had a serious poke around web3 for …
: February 26th, 2022 I don’t have an opinion on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Nor any knowledge on them. However, …
: A Trip to Windsor Castle I visited Windsor Castle° yesterday. It was surprisingly good. Firstly, I shocked by the weapons and …
: Review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) I’m drinking coffee in bed. The rain is pouring down outside, as Storm Eunice° gives out its …
: Friday, February 18th, 2022 ‘The Dubai debt trap’ – The Economist°. On Dubai’s terrible judicial and prison …
: 'Evolutionary anthropologist Herman Pontzer busts myths about how humans burn calories—and why' --> According to the evolutionary anthropologist Herman Pontzer the amount of calories a human burns …
: The Chronicles of the Rings (.mp4 copy of trailer) Well the trailer for the new Amazon Lord of the Rings TV show is out. And it …
: Pencil drawing or satellite image? The image above was featured in an article in the Economist° about Russia’s military build up on the …
: One third of all Swiss exports are drugs The Swiss are going to vote soon on wether to implement a total ban on animal testing. But one thing …
: Wealth is money you don't spend --> Morgan Housel° on lifestyle inflation: Three points stick out here. Wealth is what you don’t spend, …
: WordPress -> Hugo part 2 Well, after moving my tech blog to Hugo the other day I’ve now done the same here. With …
: Stealing the word "Freedom" Isn’t it interesting how fascists always steal the word “freedom”? I think about …
: WordPress --> Hugo Last night I moved my tech blog from WordPress to Hugo. Everything went swimmingly (I think) aside …
: Lessons learned from making the front page of Hacker News and /r/technology (AKA the legally required ‘my WordPress blog went down after making Hacker News’ …
: Caffeine, late nights and book introductions It’s late. But I made the fatal mistake of having two sources of caffeine today and I can’t get to …
: Feminine exclamation Maybe it’s just me, but when I read say a reddit comment or an email the more exclamation points the …
: Review: The Last Dance Television: The Last Dance (2020). Bloody hell is this good. I watched it when I first came out, so …
: Review: The Power of the Dog (2021) Movie: The Power of the Dog (2021). I hate westerns. But luckily this isn’t your typical one. …
: Some links ‘The Cluttered Web: A Scrapbook of Sreenshots’. A collection of website pop-ups. …
: Attempting yoga for the first time I’ve been dealing with M.E (or chronic fatigue syndrome) for the past six months (I got it …
: Review: The Alpinist (2021) Movie: The Alpinist (2021). This is a film about a climber. And if you liked Free Solo you’re …
: Some links ‘If everyone were vegan, only a quarter of current farmland would be needed… Even a …
: CloudFront's first 1TB of bandwidth is free I didn’t realise that AWS CloudFront now gives customers the first 1TB of out-bound bandwidth …
: Some links ‘2,000-Year-Old Roman Bowl Discovered Intact in the Netherlands’ ’The Quiet Joys …
: Today's lunch Beyond Meat burger patty in a brioche bun. Chips and tomato on the side. By the way, the longest, …
: 1994 Instagram This guy only uploads photos to his Instagram that he’s taken with the world’s first …
: Websites seem to have a different sort of downtime nowadays Websites seem to have a different sort of downtime nowadays. Gone are the days when a site was down …
: Adblocking People and Non-adblocking People Experience a Totally Different Web I’ve just spent the past hour writing a blog post about why on earth certain websites have …
: Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) I’m watching Hot Tub Time Machine (2010). In it a character is playing Second Life. But of …
: How To with John Wilson (Season 2) Television: How To with John Wilson (Season 2). This is the most unique reality show out there right …
: I only want TV shows that have ended, and ended well I would love a website which only shows you well-received TV shows that have now ended (but …
: The North Water (Season 1) Television: The North Water (Season 1). Maybe I just missed it when it was being released, but I …
: Brandon Taylor's Substack I’ve finally found a Substack newsletter I like. It’s by the author Brandon Taylor, who …
: Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) Movie: Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021). Maybe I’m not the target audience - being neither young …
: The French Dispatch (2021) Movie: The French Dispatch (2021). Wes Anderson movies tend to leave me a little cold - and the only …
: The Watch (2012) Movie: The Watch (2012). Rewatch. The premise is good and there are a few giggles here and there. …
: 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible (2021) Movie: 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible (2021). (Trailer). There’s a good story here, but sadly …
: Black Knight (2001) Movie: Black Knight (2001). Rewatch. A childhood favourite. But yeah… this isn’t that …
: The Economists 'daily briefing' I’m not really a big reader of general news. But the Economists ‘daily briefing‘ I never fail to …
: "And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on evil. “If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously …
: "Plotting over brandy." Terry Pratchett on evil. “It was much better to imagine men in some smoky room somewhere, made mad and cynical by …
: Confident and proud? Or arrogant? I rather like Derek Sivers. He’s an interesting guy with interesting ideas. And I still fondly …
: The Mandrake Plant So apparently the mandrake plant from Harry Potter is an actual plant. And also that just like in …
: Friday, September 17th, 2021 ‘Don’t take criticism from someone you wouldn’t take advice from’. …
: Photos of Americans and their pets from 125 years ago All of these fantastic images were taken by Charles Milton Bell and come via the Library of …
: Wednesday, September 15th, 2021 I had no idea you can send documents and eBooks (!) to your Kindle via email. Why have I been …
: 'Going private: Increasing numbers of Britons are abandoning the NHS and paying for medical treatment' inews.co.uk [c]: As more people opt to fund their healthcare themselves, or take out private health …
: Franz Liszt by Henri Lehmann This portrait of Franz Liszt by Henri Lehmann is fantastic. [Found via Lapham’s Quarterly]
: You can own the 'speakers on wheels' rig from Mad Max: Fury Road! The auction begins on Sunday, September 26, 2021. Bidding starts at $1 [c]. (Found via the Digital …
: Michael Chapman has died Michael Chapman died today at the age of 80. He was a part of that tremendous English folk scene of …
: When to quit a bad book Taken from an article on Farnham Street, ‘How to Remember What You Read’ [c]: Author …
: Got a big fat wave of nostalgia listening to this for the first time in a while. It came out just …