I just learnt there are competing electric vehicle charging plugs.
We need the EU to mandate that all vehicles must be chargeable by USB-C.

Screencap of three books listed on Amazon: the classic Usborne children's series "The World of the Unknown". The titles are UFOs, GHOSTS, and MONSTERS. These are new reprints of the 1977 release. Prices vary but are around $13. That's AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS. Holy cow that's cheap.

Found these reprints of books that defined my childhood. Instantly ordered yesterday, delivered today, and... Holy cow that was a small price to pay for THAT much nostalgia.

Now please reprint the Battlegames series.

#usborne #books

Me, teaching a class on Critical Thinking & Ethics to 12-year-olds: Why would a company change a product, like breakfast cereal, if it's already popular and successful?
Kid 1: Maybe the CEO got blackmailed.
Kid 2: Or bribed!

#criticalthinking #ethics

Sequel titles from my friends:
• Don’t Turn the Torment Nexus into a Business Model
• Don’t Invest in the Torment Nexus Bubble
• Don’t Let the Torment Nexus Industry Fund Political Campaigns

What should be the title of the sequel to the classic sci-fi novel *Don’t Create the Torment Nexus*?

Anyone else hate when you buy a book series as it's being published, and then for some reason they change the cover design style before the last book comes out, making it impossible to collect a matching set in the original style?

We do... but that's not where we were.

Ink sketch of a table at a waterside restaurant; behind the table is the edge of the wharf, several boats, and across the water another wharf with buildings and trees in the background.

Had a celebratory lunch with wife at a fancy waterside restaurant. Between the main course and dessert we sat and took our time and did sketching. Highly recommended.

All I know about the TV show Gavin & Stacy is that the actors who played Gavin & Stacy were not told about plot or characters they would interact with. The other actors were. But Gavin & Stacy had to ad lib their entire performances.
But.... I don't know if this is true, or just a fever dream I had.

“If you were in charge of Star Trek what would you do?”

Make a series where every episode is a self-contained story that you can watch in isolation or in any order, like the good old days of TV. Instead of this modern trend of one story spanning the entire run of a series

Okay... it's a 1978 printing of the 1977 edition. Not a first printing. Not actually rare or valuable at all. Still pretty cool though.

Photo of a hardback copy of The Silmarillion, showing Tolkien's original drawing of an emblem of Lúthien on the cover. The book is old, battered. The dust jacket is worn, creased, slightly torn in places, and has a small white sticker with "$6" stuck to it, possibly from a second-hand bookstore.

I picked up my battered copy of The Silmarillion for free from a street library some years ago. I never read it until I started it a couple of weeks ago.
I just discovered now that it's a 1977 first edition.

This is why it's great to produce and publish your own webcomic. Where else can you make a joke that you have to understand 16th century Italian politics AND image processing theory to understand?

I just had the hard realisation that Brian May earning his Ph.D. in astrophysics at age 60 means that time is running out for me to become a rock guitarist.

#brianmay #queen #astrophysics

Teaching a critical thinking class for kids about "Wishes", I mentioned the tradition of tossing a coin into a fountain and making a wish.
One kid said nowadays you can just swipe your card in the water.

Photo of a large eucalyptus tree against a dramatic cloudy sky, with dark grey clouds building up.

A photo I took in the country around Mudgee, NSW, 2 weeks ago. Just before a storm. This was on the driveway of our accommodation.

Marmalade to be rebranded in post-Brexit food deal The breakfast favourite will be legally renamed when Britain aligns with new EU labelling rules.

Post-Brexit, EU changed a law about "marmalade", allowing any jam to be labelled "marmalade", in accordance with traditional usage in many non-English languages. Now the UK wants a trade deal which will force it to allow "fig marmalade" & "strawberry marmalade" labels.
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Photo of a pigeon/dove with narrow black/white strips on its neck and nape, and a pale blue eye ring. It is sitting on grassy ground.

On my road trip last week I photographed some peaceful doves for the first time. This makes 130 bird species I've photographed in Australia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peacefu...

#bird #australianbirds #birdphotography

Photo of the night sky, showing the Milky Way arcing across the sky. Near the centre of the shot are Crux, Alpha/Beta Centauri, and the Coalsack Nebula. The Magellanic Clouds are visible on the right.

I posted an iPhone shot a few days ago (bsky.app/profile/dmma...). Now that I'm home, here's the Milky Way shot with my dSLR.
Crux and Coalsack Nebula just above centre, α/β Centauri just left of centre, the Magellanic Clouds on the right.
#astrophotography #nightsky #milkyway

For our recent road trip, I hired a car for extra luggage space rather than use ours.
Whichever car designer decided that it would be a good idea for cars to play cutesy welcome and goodbye jingles whenever you start and stop the engine should be ostracised from the human race.

Photo of Scully, a black toy poodle, eagerly licking at a piece of delicious Brie. Scully is wearing a bandana on her collar which says in purple text: It’s my birthday.

It’s Scully’s 8th birthday, so we’re doing a cheese tasting. This is like ice cream and cake at the same time for her.
#poodle

Photo of a grassy courtyard with tables under a shade umbrella, an old building in the background.

Brush pen sketch of the same scene as the photo.

Sketch while waiting for lunch at The Cellar by Gilbert, Mudgee.
#sketch #mudgee

Ink sketch of a cafe in an historic country town residence building. Two point perspective showing the front corner of the building, which has a large overhanging awning.

Sketch of today’s breakfast cafe. Althea by Zin, in Mudgee.
#sketch #mudgee

Pencil sketch of a scene at a cafe with people seated at tables and eating. Caption: Alby & Esther’s, Mudgee

The cafe where we had breakfast. First morning away on our rural road trip.

Photo of a sketch of a scene looking across a grassy field with cows grazing, towards a line of trees in the mud ground, with a low range of mountains in the horizon and dawn colours in the sky. Sketched with acrylic paint pens in ten different colours.

Trying new sketching media. Posca acrylic paint pens. This was dawn this morning outside my road trip accommodation.

I didn’t notice that power line was there until I got back inside and looked at the photos.

Photo of the night sky showing the Milky Way as a band running from lower left to upper right plus thousands of individual stars.

Wow, iPhone is not bad at capturing the Milky Way when you are in the countryside and actually have dark skies.
Looking towards Crux and Alpha/Beta Centauri and the Coalsack Nebula.
#astrophotography #nightsky #milkyway

Photo of expansion packs for the Root board game: The Homeland Expansion, The Marsh and Gorge Playmat; Homeland Hirelings Pack, The Squires and Disciples Deck, and Frog Clearing Markers.

Root loot!
The brand new expansion plus all the Kickstarter bonuses. Just arrived in the mail this morning.
#boardgames #root #rootgame

Photo of a paper grocery bag. Stuck to it is a delivery order sticker, with the name "Antonia Marran" printed on it. (Nicole Kidman's sister's married name.)

Odd coincidence dept:
I bought some beer from a local store and they put it in a second-hand grocery bag for me. When I got home, I realised this bag was originally used by Nicole Kidman’s sister. (Yes, she does live in my neighbourhood, so this was definitely hers.)