I'm reading Pynchon's Shadow Ticket right now and enjoying it. Feels like a postscript to Against The Day, and indeed there is a cameo from one of the characters. Also he managed to work in a reference to REO Speedwagon.
At least now with that hole in the Sun we can observe Counter-Earth directly
Serious Q from someone not from the UK: what is a supermarket surgery? I do know what a tannoy is.
So if Australia's oil imports are cut off, it would only be a month or two until the last functioning domestic oil production facility there would be under siege by a psychotic band of leather-clad marauders, with only a haunted ex-cop driving a souped-up black 1974 XB Ford Falcon to defend it?
Reposted by Cameron Campbell
"‘Country could shut down’: Australia has just 28 days of petrol"
Racking my brains trying to think of some possible regional crisis that could disrupt Australia's oil imports.
www.afr.com/policy/forei...
Racking my brains trying to think of some possible regional crisis that could disrupt Australia's oil imports.
www.afr.com/policy/forei...
Joel Mokyr FTW!!!!
Three Share Nobel in Economics for Work on How Technology Drives Growth www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/b...
Three Share Nobel in Economics for Work on How Technology Drives Growth www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/b...
Three Share Nobel in Economics for Work on How Technology Drives Growth
www.nytimes.com
Kind of like Highlander but during the Quickening you absorb their followers instead of their energy?
We saw that as a test screening when I was in college. Someone was handing out tickets on campus and we scored some and drove from Pasadena to Westwood to see it. We loved it.
Hasn't been an issue for me. I guess I've been lucky. I have more trouble in the US with Uber drivers who have exotic air freshener scents that are sometimes overpowering.
I'm not one to cast stones since sometimes when after hiking on the Island on a hot day when we've taken the MTR back people who have the misfortune to be next to me will get up and move one after another.
I could have sworn that one was used but I just searched and couldn't find it. Maybe a conference presentation that never made it to publication.
Just checked Google and nothing turned up. Better write something quickly to claim it. Maybe history of public health that focuses on policies based on miasma theory of disease causation?
First time for me. Occasional issues with cigarette smoke but never BO.
James Scott needs to write a sequel called "Smelling Like A State"
As a bonus, the driver was muttering obscenities almost from the time he picked me up. Though he went quiet after the app told him to open his windows.
I almost wonder if I hallucinated it. Never seen anything like it. 3/3
The driver stared at his phone in shock and rolled down the windows. I was terrified that he would think I had used the app to snitch midride. Only thing I can figure is the passengers he dropped off when he picked me up complained using the app and Didi notified him during my ride. 2/3
Last night the Didi car that I rode back to the hotel smelled terrible because of driver's BO. I was suffering in silence and then the Didi app that was giving navigation suddenly switched and said something like "Driver, open the windows and allow air to circulate." 1/3
At airport security in Beijing and one of the staff came running up with a passport and asked if it was mine. She showed me the face page and the owner looked like a bald, skinny John Malkovich. Just for once, can't they mistake me for someone who looks like Brad Pitt?
I'm so sad to hear this. Diane Keaton's son was a classmate of our son in elementary school so we saw her regularly at the school and talked occasionally. She was a really nice, down to earth, and thoughtful person.
Terribly sad news about one of the greats. Diane Keaton has died at 79.
people.com/diane-keaton...
people.com/diane-keaton...
Diane Keaton, Famed for Roles in 'Father of the Bride,' 'First Wives Club' and More, Dies at 79 (Exclusive)
Diane Keaton has died at age 79. Keaton was best known for roles in movies like 'Annie Hall,' 'The First Wives Club,' 'Something's Gotta Give' and 'The Godfather.'
people.com
Sweeping piece on women in science in 20th century China by @yangyangcheng.bsky.social
Reposted by Cameron Campbell
And, at @madeinchinajournal.com, Yangyang has "Beyond Representation: On Being a Woman in Science in China."
Beyond Representation: On Being a Woman in Science in China | Made in China Journal
In the autumn of 1995, Ye Shuhua made a speech. During the NGO Forum at the United Nation’s Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, the 68-year-old astronomer took to the microphone and…
madeinchinajournal.com
That said, at least for elite males, polygyny was certainly a goal. It's just that before the 20th century, outside of wealthy regions like Jiangnan, the fraction of the population with the wherewithal to do it was low.
Those numbers don't make sense unless you treat widower remarriage as polygyny. Polygyny in China was problematic in all sorts of ways but you can make that case fairly easily without resorting to wild claims about systemic effects like social unrest and war.