Paul McAuley

Bela Lugosi playing Jesus (1909)

Made a site comparing the sizes of living things :)

The great Julius Csotonyi spent 5 months painting over 60 illustrations for the site, no ai used

> neal.fun/size-of-life/

#postcardadventcalendar

11. Boys in masks.

Rest in peace, Herb. You were a great guy and a fine writer.

If you need a little digital reconnection to the pulse of the living Earth, here are about 200 sandhill cranes winging south over Atlanta this afternoon. Their voices have echoed across this continent for at least 5 million years. Hopefully 5 million more

Jack Womack's Random Acts of Senseless Violence was near future, it's setting may now be in the past, and some of its events feel distressingly present.

NASA just lost contact with a Mars orbiter, and will soon lose another one If NASA is serious about exploring Mars, it’s past time to send new missions.

NASA just lost contact with a Mars orbiter, and will soon lose another one arstechnica.com/space/2025/1...

A fire

Scientists have found the oldest evidence yet of humans making fires--400,000 years ago in England. Here's my story on the discovery and what it says about the minds of our ancestors. Gift link: nyti.ms/4q0Ls2q [Photo via Andrea H flic.kr/p/4cnSq ]

Photo of a rock surface completely covered in multiple lichen species. Colours include orange, yellow, grey, white and black.

Lichen collage. On lakeside rock, Northwest Territories, Canada.
#lichen #fungi #fungifriends

E.P.A. Erases Mention of Humans Causing Climate Change From Some Web Pages. Gift link: nyti.ms/3Mo6REt

Did a short Advent calendar episode for the Coode Street podcast. A few of the books I read this year, including my personal favourite, Christmas ghost stories, and a few words about Loss Protocol.

jonathanstrahan.podbean.com/e/episode-69...

Coral Gnosis #coralmorphologic

Posted by its entrance, the list of Christmas films Screen on the Green cinema is showing in December, including Die Hard, Eyes Wide Shut, Home Alone 2 and many more.

The complete list of Christmas films my local cinema, Screen on the Green, is showing this month.

UK soars past wind power generation record for second time in two months - edie Great Britain’s maximum wind generation record was broken on Friday, 5 December, the National Energy System Operator (NESO) has confirmed.

A new record - on 5 December wind power produced enough electricity for 3/4 of UK homes

At 23.8GW it meant that even during winter peak demand, it was still providing nearly half the country's power needs

Still a way to go though....

www.edie.net/uk-soars-pas...

‘London’, 1951. Robert Frank.

*I didn't "predict" this, but I did read that speculative Adrian Norman paper back in 1978, and this is very "data haven." Heaps of offshored black money, punitive strikes. Means, motive, opportunity, it's not that hard to figure out

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_ha...

White storks to make historic return to London in 2026 Species extinct as breeding birds in Britain since 1416 to be reintroduced in Barking and Dagenham as part of rewilding effort

More good news on the rewilding front

YouTube video by Dead Oceans Phoebe Bridgers - If We Make It Through December (Official Audio)

Getting in the holiday mood

"During his six years behind the cash register, Tim Virge has heard about all kinds of eccentric encounters. The job makes for far more interesting conversation, he said, than his previous gig at Walmart."

A small block of text with the name "O'Connell" centered in a red rectangle. The apostrophe is in the typical expected orientation.

A small block of text with the name "M'Coy" centered in a red rectangle. The apostrophe is opposite to the typical expected orientation.

I'm hoping @bcdreyer.social can solve a minor mystery for me from James Joyce's Ulysses. Why do characters beginning with the letter O have apostrophes in the correct orientation, but characters beginning with the letter M reverse them? I assume it's correct ... but why? What's the reasoning?

That's a turned or upside down apostrophe in M'Coy, a thing, not a typo. A way for 19C printers to recreate a lower
case superscript c, since many lacked the correct fount.
greenbag.org/v12n3/v12n3_...

Three decorative modernist slab blocks of flats illustrated in a Festival of Britain style

It’s the 7th day of #sketchpadvent. Here’s the Spa Green Estate near Sadler’s Wells by Berthold Lubetkin, illustrated in 1948 (the year before it was opened) by Margaret and Alexander Potter from their book Houses

Absolutely buzzing over this new video of a rarely seen giant squid

Léonard Misonne, Sortie De La Gare, Namur, Belgium, 1938

Spirits of the Rutting Moon No. 188

Field Notes from November in the East Austin edgelands, with frisky deer, late bloomers, cold moons, riverine fog, and the passing of a legend: fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/spirits-of...

Since his FIFA peace trophy looks like someone with their head in their hands it makes pics like this even funnier

RIP the great Martin Parr

*When* There Are Wolves Again

DB taking a bow with Michael C. Hall, Cristin Milioti et al

Bowie heading home

Enda Walsh: at the end of the show, Bowie “went around to everyone in the theater… he wanted to celebrate the stage managers & the doormen — he thanked everyone.” When Bowie left through the front door, out to his car on East 4th St., “I knew that was going to be the last time I would see him.”

‘No one knows where it came from’: first wild beaver spotted in Norfolk for 400 years — The Guardian Cameras capture lone creature collecting materials for its lodge in riverside nature reserve

Delighted by this story of a rogue beaver in Norfolk. Particularly the line - At first he wondered whether “some small boy with an axe had somehow found his way into the woodland.” And the concept of ‘beaver bombing’.

apple.news/Ar3iJ-4XOQ-6...