A veritable cornucopia of dodgy barbarian and barbarian-adjacent movies that I have never watched before, and will probably never watch again. Deathstalker (1983) – USA/Argentina Inspired by a recent foray into the Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian: The Complete Weird Tales Omnibus, I suddenly had a hankering for more of the same, and so here we are.
While make some changes to the front page (I finally found a way to include the content I wanted!) I accidentally copied the settings file from my ‘dev’ directory to my actual website directory. The dev version only has a placeholder URL and site name in the settings.
Now I've gotten a reminder where I use those settings.
In addition to the header, the feeds rely on these. When I regenerated the site with the placeholder values in the settings file, every old post in the feeds were given a new URL and unique ID. This would result in your feed reader thinking these old posts were new posts. And a dead link to these posts.
Will try not to do that again! ^_^
Watched Train Dreams tonight.
Wow!
Another great film. Loved the quiet contemplation of it. The perseverance in the face on unbearable grief. Speaking of, I was, presumably like the protagonist, hoping that it didn't happen. That they simply moved on from the scorched earth, to start anew somewhere.
I still am.
U.S. strategy under strain abroad—and democratic renewal in Europe
The second half of this year will almost certainly see the start of an El Niño phase that could lead to extreme heat across much of the globe, and James Hansen expects that to make this year surpass 2024 as the hottest on record
In 2025, writer-artist Mike Mignola did an original hardcover graphic novel, Bowling With Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown. Not set in the “Hellboy Universe,” this was a collection of short stories written and drawn by Mignola, set in “Lands Unknown,” a new dark fantasy setting of his.
National Health Service rules state that all software created with public money should be publicly available, but fears of computer-hacking AI models like Mythos have prompted a change in policy
Should you really be drinking eight glasses of water a day? What about reaching for a sports drink after exercise? Physiologist Tamara Hew-Butler is here to bust these hydration myths and more.
Some science fiction authors like to cloak their histories in mystery, not content to keep the fiction in their writing. Lester Del Rey claimed he was born Ramon Felipe Alvarez-del Rey and that his family was killed in a car crash, although his sister confirms his birth name was Leonard Knapp and the accident only killed his first wife.
An infestation of caterpillars can make an oak tree postpone when it opens its leaves next year by three days, wrong-footing the insects when they attack again
With progress at COP climate meetings stalling, 57 countries took part in the first of a new series of conferences aiming to develop roadmaps away from fossil fuels, but big emitters like China and the US were absent
Silvia Park, author of the May read for the New Scientist Book Club, reveals how a book that was originally intended to be for children took a darker route following a death in the family
In this extract from Luminous, the May read for the New Scientist Book Club, we meet a mysterious robot discovered in a salvage yard in Seoul, in a future reunified Korea
Uranus’s outermost two rings are surprisingly dissimilar, which opens up a mystery about the tiny moons and moonlets that form them
Round two of Ask Me Anything, including: Dogs, comics, knowing when you're wrong and the dangers of monogamy.
Round two of Ask Me Anything, covering: style, illiberalism, changing your mind, comics, monogamy, escape routes from the UK, my writing environment, and why in god's name anyone gets a dog.
The implications of quantum mechanics suggest reality isn't as solid as we think it is, but physicist David Bohm had a spin on the theory that restores reality. Columnist Karmela Padavic-Callaghan explores how we could test Bohmian mechanics – and if it will ever become more widely accepted
Back when Copilot first came out, I immediately disliked it. But I decided to give it a fair shake and tried to evaulate it in good faith. I wasn’t interested in paying for it, but they had a form for FOSS community members to apply for a free subscription, so I filled it out and gave it a shot.
Email is like those creaking old Terminators from the ’70s which continue to function without complaining. Designed for a world that doesn’t exist anymore, it has optional encryption, no built-in auth, three⁺ retrofitted security layers bolted on top, an unstandardized filtering layer and many more quirks.
A cryptocurrency that aims to avoid the disastrous energy consumption of bitcoin is actually using 18 times more energy than its makers claim – but it promises improvements are on the way
An ambitious study has explored how the oral microbiome may affect our metabolic health, raising hopes that conditions like pre-diabetes could one day be screened for via a simple mouth swab
Since the early 20th century, people’s skulls have got rounder and their jaws have got wider, probably because of changes in health, diet and environment
Researchers in South Korea say they have made a major advance by turning on genes with an electromagnetic signal, but critics say the claims are implausible and the paper is flawed
New science fiction from big names including Ann Leckie, Alan Moore and Martha Wells are just some of the exciting crop of titles out this month
Craig Venter has died aged 79. He was at the forefront of sequencing the human genome and of synthetic biology, but divided opinion in how he went about it
What if you run a few online services for you and your friends, like a small git instance and a grocery list service, but you get absolutely hammered by “AI” scrapers? I cannot impress upon you, reader, that this is not only an attack that is coordinated, it is an attack that is distributed.
A technique inspired by the film Interstellar suggests a new way of communicating backwards in time, but it could help improve conventional communication systems as well
In Strong Poison, Sayers gives Peter Wimsey a love interest, and makes this central to the story. Traditional mystery writers had avoided this kind of plot (Irene Adler, for example, was clearly not romantically involved with Sherlock Holmes, however profound an impression she made on him).
Been thinking about redoing the front page for a while now. Want to incorporate recent workouts as well as books I'm reading. Perhaps even recent listens from my ListenBrainz profile.
Fiddled around with the inspector trying to land something. But nothing feels right. Yet. Could probably take to Figma or something to get a decent sketch, but ‘designing’ with HTML and CSS feels more like shaping clay or working wood, and that's the way I want to do it.
Microsoft is continuing its efforts to release early versions of DOS as open source, and today we’ve got a special one. We’re stoked today to showcase some newly available source code materials that provide an even earlier look into the development of PC-DOS 1.00, the first release of DOS for the IBM PC.
When Apple unveiled the Vision Pro, almost three (!) years ago, I concluded: If there’s one company that can convince people to spend $3500 to strap an isolating dystopian glowing robot mask onto their faces it’s Apple, but I still have a hard time believing this is what people want.
Young Blood (Zebra Books, March 1994). Cover uncredited Young Blood, from Zebra 1994, Edited by Mike Baker. Cover looks like a photo: Artist unknown. Here’s another book I picked up originally because it had a Robert E.
The New Scientist Book Club read Kim Stanley Robinson's acclaimed science fiction story about the first settlers on Mars in April – and had a lot to say about it
These unusual images were created by visual artist Daniel Regan by submerging Polaroid photographs in his ADHD medication, to represent his experiences with the condition through art
Feedback has learned that, according to reports, Meta is building an AI version of Mark Zuckerberg to interact with staff. Feedback hopes this doesn't become a trend
Set on a planet whose population lives underground, Radiant Star is Ann Leckie's latest Radch-universe novel. Its rich characterisation and meticulous world-building shine through, says our science-fiction columnist Emily H.
A procedure that could be done in half an hour, and prepared ahead of time, could seriously reduce blood loss from severe wounds, such as during surgery
An experiment with a carbon material in a magnetic field has revealed a novel way for electrons to move, which doesn't fully belong in two or three spatial dimensions
A wave of dinosaur discoveries over the past decade has completely reshaped our understanding of these long-extinct animals. Palaeontologist Dave Hone spills the secrets of how dinosaurs lived, from how social they were to how much they really fought
Reports suggest that Apple is using defective chips originally destined for high-end devices to create its latest affordable laptop. Reusing partially broken chips is common practice for all device makers and produces less waste
I recently picked up a pair of books from Matthew Bieniek: Barnstormers: The Adventures of Kiki and Bridget. Set in 1925 during the post-World War I barnstormer era, this is the kind of story we might have gotten in the aviation pulps.
Many scorpion species use blends of iron, zinc and manganese to enhance the toughness of their deadly weaponry
Europe, the fastest-warming continent, saw unprecedented wildfires and heatwaves in 2025, including a three-week hot spell that hit 30°C inside the Arctic circle
Obesity might be to blame for part of the increase in cancer among young people, a study in the UK has found, but the causes largely remain a mystery
Executive Summary:
- The Information reports that OpenAI projects that its $20-a-month ChatGPT Plus subscriptions will decrease from 44 Million subscribers in 2025 to a projected 9 million subscribers in 2026.
- OpenAI projects to make up the difference by increasing its ad-supported ChatGPT Go ($5 or $8-a-month depending on the region)
It seems like Apple is finally going to remove support for AFP from macOS, twelve years after first moving from AFP to SMB for its default network file-sharing technology. This change shouldn’t impact most people, as it’s highly unlikely you’re using AFP for anything in 2026.
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Yesterday morning, GitHub Copilot users got confirmation of something I’d reported a week ago — that all
Millions of dollars are being spent on wagers predicting measles outbreaks in the US, which could help researchers modelling the spread of the disease
People are increasingly placing bets that predict measles outbreaks in the US, which could help researchers modelling the spread of the disease
The idea that everything that exists can be built from the bottom up has long held sway among physicists. Now, a new kind of science is under construction that centres conscious experience – and might unravel the universe’s biggest mysteries
Robots can now run a half-marathon faster than humans and are rapidly homing in on the 100-metre sprint record. But why are companies so keen to create speedy robots that have no obvious application in homes or factories?
Good afterevenmorn, Readers! So… I’m a nerd. I know, surprising, right? What might actually be surprising, though, is that I’ve never actually played a game of Dungeons & Dragons.
The ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz has seen energy prices soar, but Alice Klein pays just A$25 (£13) a month for her electricity, even when charging an electric car or running an air conditioner.
A revolutionary cancer treatment is now being applied to a wide range of autoimmune disorders. Columnist Michael Le Page finds it is proving to be even more effective than expected
Tommy Dixon in the end of our extremely online era.:
And I think we won't realize how sick we were, how sick and sad and confused it makes us, until after it's over. We will look back on these times with a compassionate sadness. Shake our heads at how ignorant and naive we all were, to give up so much for so little. And wonder why we ever cared so much about strangers on the Internet.
Came across this piercing piece of writing by way of Tommy's follow up, How to end your extremely online era. Start with the first, the follow his somewhat practical guide.
I'll do the same.
Dillo is an amazing web browser for those of us who want their web browsing experience to be calmer and less flashing. Dillo also happens to be a very UNIX-y browser, and their latest release, 3.3.0, underlines that.
Ubuntu, being one of the more commercial Linux distributions, was always going to jump on the “AI” bandwagon, and Jon Seager, Canonical’s VP Engineering, published a blog post with more details.
Scientists were shocked to find that the Houtman Abrolhos Islands’ coral reefs survived a prolonged extreme heatwave in 2025 virtually unharmed, which may reveal how to protect corals elsewhere
You may think of the high-fat, low-carb eating plan as a faddish way to lose weight. But the keto diet is now being used to tackle conditions from severe depression to bipolar disorder and anorexia, with transformative results
You may not be aware that the home of Robert E. Howard in Cross Plains, Texas, is in need of vital repairs. This has been reported by the Robert E. Howard Foundation on its website and in videos on YouTube.
Coincident with the rise of the dinosaurs, a large landmass filled most of the Arctic circle, potentially contributing to global cooling that advantaged the famous reptiles
NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite has been searching for exoplanets since its launch in 2018, and it turns out it may have found plenty more of them than we had thought
The Coen Brothers are among the finest filmmakers of my lifetime. Joel and younger brother Ethan started with Blood Simple in 1984, writing, directing, and producing together for the next few decades. And they produced some of the era’s best films.
Smartwatches commonly use heart rate variability to monitor stress. Columnist Helen Thomson explores what this metric actually tells us, and whether it could also predict and diagnose depression – and help improve your mental health more generally
Physicists have long assumed that the universe is uniform at very large scales, but evidence is emerging this is wrong and suggests a way to resolve some of the biggest cosmological mysteries
Noah Hawley in What I Learned About Billionaires at Jeff Bezos’s Private Retreat for the Atlantic:
It’s not that the wealthy become evil; it’s that their environment stops teaching them the things that nonwealthy people are forced to learn simply by living in a world that pushes back.
Fascinating insights from someone who spent a weekend inside Bezos' private circus exhibition.
I’ve defined Heroic Fantasy (HF) as a type of fiction in which a heroic (bigger than life) figures use a combination of physical strength and edged weapons (Swords, Axes, Spears) to face bigger than life foes.
If you've done much with modern cellphones, you've probably noticed just how odd
the architecture can be around audio. Specifically, I mean call audio: modern
smartphones have made call audio less of a special case (mostly by just becoming
more complicated in general), but in older phones you would often find
arrangements where the cellular modem had direct analog audio to the
microphone and speaker, perhaps via some switching to share amplifiers.
Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth by Jack Kirby (DC Comics, October 1972 and February 1973). Covers by Jack Kirby Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth, written and illustrated by Jack “King” Kirby (1917-1994), has long been an inspiration to my creative works.
A recording of my recent Q&A with subscribers
Rewatched Interstellar tonight. First time since back when it came out.
Great movie. Very intense. Amazing music. Sure hits different when you're a parent. Cried like a baby.
It also triggers an immense longing. Something deep inside me. A desperate urge to know. What's beyond? I need to know. I must! It's almost a temptation.
Great movie. Fantastic, even. But I don't think I shall ever watch it again.
When it is time, I'll finally know.
Jeremy in Finally Finishing Ocarina of Time:
Ocarina of Time is one of those games that gets talked about so much that I’ve sort of always felt like a fake gamer for never finishing it, even nearly 30 years after release.
I don't know why Jeremy needs to exaggerate (or, alternatively, make me feel so old) when opening this otherwise great post. Was great reading some thoughts — thirty years on, apparently — about the game that defined my youth. Jeremy points out that the combat experience has aged well. I would agree. Every battle in every 3D Zelda game since has felt like a natural evolution of the standard set by Ocarina of Time. It was groundbreaking at the time, and even three decades later it holds up well.
Raymond Chen published a blog post about how a crappy uninstaller on Windows caused a mysterious spike in the number of Explorer (Windows’ graphical shell) crashes. It turns out the buggy uninstaller caused repeated crashes in the 32bit version of Explorer on 64bit systems, and – hold on a minute.
Not too long ago I had a need and an opportunity to re-acquaint myself with the mechanism used for software emulation of the 8087 FPU on 8086/8088 machines. ↫ Michal Necasek Look, when a Michal Necasek article starts out like this, you know you’re in for a learnin’ ol’ time.
Sebastian Wick has a great explanation of why opening files – programmatically – is a lot more complex and fraught with dangers than you might think it is. This issue was relevant for Wick as he is one of the lead developers of Flatpak, for which a number of security issues have recently been discovered, and it just so happens that many of these issues dealt with this very topic.
In that reading „AI“ is a machine for the creation of epistemic injustice and the replacement of truth with what a tech elite wants it to be in order to control the population. This is a Fascist project that not so subtly aligns with Fascism’s totalitarian will to power and control as well as its reliance in replacing reasoning and debate with belief in power and the leader.
Measuring the strength of gravity is extraordinarily difficult, and different experiments have always disagreed – but a new test is paving the way to finally understanding nature’s most enigmatic force
People with cognitive decline or early-stage dementia saw their symptoms improve when given bespoke treatment plans that targeted their personal nutritional deficiencies, ongoing infections and environmental exposures
Green Peyton Wertenbaker was born on December 23, 1907 in New Castle, Delaware. He attended the University of Virginia. After graduation, he worked as a technical writer and eventually a journalist in addition to writing fiction.
Just the latest moral and logistical atrocity.
Over a month in and we're still discovering fresh new consequences to Donald Trump's insane intervention in Iran.
Physicists have long suspected that there is a layer of physical reality beneath quantum theory and a new mathematical model unveils just how strange it might be
A clinical trial to reverse age-related vision conditions using stem cell treatment could finally deliver on the promise of a major discovery in ageing and regeneration made 20 years ago, says columnist Graham Lawton
The movie Return to Silent Hill (2026) is an adaptation of the psychological horror Silent Hill 2 (SH2) video game that was rebooted by Konami under Bloober Team in 2024. This ‘return’ film is directed by Christophe Gans, who championed the original 2006 film (which loosely adapted the first video game released in 1999).
WU LYF are back!
Their 2012 show at Parkteatret in Oslo is one of my all time favourite concerts. Fourteen and a half years later, they have a new record out and they're coming back to Oslo.
I'll be there at John Dee in September. Cannot wait!
