Spent the night with the family in the Frassenhütte at the top of an Austrian Alp.
Category: Uncategorised
Cornhole is “American pétanque”.
We left our home in London exactly a year ago for my sabbatical abroad. After stints in Japan & New York, tomorrow we depart from our last long-term stop — a temporary but already much-loved home — in Leiden, the Netherlands, with still a few weeks to go before our final return.
15% still seems like a lot.
@ppfideas.bsky.social Thanks to the Past Present Future podcast episodes on the American Revolution, trial of Charles I & English Revolution, I finally understand the American Revolution against the tyranny of the King despite the British constitution’s weak monarch and strong Parliament.
The latest from Lisa Lucas at the Guardian! Freewheeling family fun in the Netherlands: a cycling and camping trip along the Maas river. With special guests!
U.S. abandons hunt for signal of cosmic inflation
Now-canceled CMB-S4 project would have searched the afterglow of the Big Bang for signs of cosmic exponential growth spurt.
This is mildly clever, very slimy, and a little bit funny (since it only works against other slimy — or at least lazy — people).
It seems that olive oil, cheap balsamic vinegar, greek yogurt, miso paste and garlic make a good chicken marinade. (Also, this is a Wordland test.)
Very impressed that Apple’s autocorrect knows that it’s apostrophes and not quotes in “rock ’n’ roll”.
From “aether” to “Zwicky, Fritz”, The Random Universe now has an index.
My morning bicycle commute (Leiden, NL)
I love the Netherlands, and I especially love cycling in the Netherlands. I don’t love the various motorized vehicles that are allowed to share the cycle lanes in the Netherlands.
Well, now I have a story about the time I went to see The Mekons but accidentally saw a very loud hardcore band with two drummers instead. This was not my desired outcome. (The Mekons were upstairs. I am kind of bereft.)
The latest from the amazing Lisa Lucas at the NYT!
Apparently, my fingerprints are almost worn down (according to biometric scans of the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND).
First Parkrun out of the UK.
Starting the final leg of my sabbatical — back in Europe for the first time since leaving last July. A quick stop through Madrid and then Leiden through most of the summer.
Category error.
By the numbers, the tariffs are less an expression of economic theory and more a Dadaist art piece about the meaninglessness of expertise.
–There Is Only One Way to Make Sense of the Tariffs – Derek Thompson, The Atlantic
(h/t Manton Reece)
R.I.P. Sergei Shandarin, great cosmologist and lovely human.
Having not lived in the US since around 2000, I have just had my first a “non-fire emergency” (i.e., active shooter) information meeting.
My 9-yr old wants to start out on Minecraft (& I kinda want to). They have a fairly old iPad to use; we’ve also got a much more recent MBP and iPad Pro which are mostly mine… What is the best setup for them (and me)? Should we go with iPad and run that on macOS too? What about server choice?
First loaf in six months. (Needs work.)
I am very excited to be sitting down with a cup of coffee and an actual print copy of the Sunday New York Times (for all its well-documented faults of late).
In DC, on a Capitol tour with my expat family. Easy & appropriate to be cynical about symbols of democracy 5 days before the awful inauguration. But somber & moving, even—or especially—speeches by senate Democrats excoriating Republican tax cuts for the wealthy disguised as populism.
New Year Dawn