Kingdom of Pain
The Police played Wrigley Field last night, only the second concert allowed in the ballpark. It was a great show. Stewart Copeland is a genius and, apparently, a Cubs fan. Here’s a pretty good review.
It was a bit odd seeing people so dressed up in the ballpark, cheering with no team on the field. It felt … wrong, somehow. Though it does continue my spate of unique outings at Wrigley this year.
More pics at Flickr.
Hi, I’m John Tolva!
Mission Elapsed Time: 20:00:21:06:42:40
Recently this blog (and my Flickr account) turned 20 years old, forever in Internet years. I went back through it all, retracing digital footprints made on what feels like a different planet. Here are some highlights.
The Terror Tourist
A roughly monthly exploration of places in horror fiction — real or imagined, geographical or psychological — culled from The Heavy Leather Horror Show.
Subscribe to the podcast or the email newsletter or just read through the archives posted here.
The Ampcamper
How I hauled myself, two teens, an 80 lb dog, and a whole load of crap 4000+ miles across six states in twenty days using an electric vehicle. And survived to tell the tale.
Latest Photos
Marginalia
Stuff I’ve found interesting from around the web lately.
The mysterious song of the dinosaurs
We tend to associate dinosaurs with ground-shaking roars, but the latest research shows that this is probably mistaken.
Baby Steps | 2024 | PlayStation 5 and PC
Coming to PlayStation 5 and PC in 2024! https://babystepsgame.com Play as Nate, an unemployed failson with nothing going for him, until one day he discovers a power he never knew he had… putting one foot in front of the other. Explore a world shrouded in mist, one step at a time. Hike the serene
Title:Phase behavior of Cacio and Pepe sauce
Full-text links: Access Paper:
Bonus Post: The McMansionization of the White House, or: Regional Car Dealership Rococo, a treatise
The McMansionization of the White House, or: Regional Car Dealership Rococo: a treatise | McMansion Hell Get more from McMansion Hell on Patreon Patreon
Shell Recyclers in Connecticut Are Helping Oysters Find Homes
Summer in New England means lobster rolls, fried seafood and, of course, freshly shucked oysters. But there’s a problem. Those empty shells usually end up in a dumpster instead of back in the water, where they play a key role in the oyster life cycle.
The Public Domain Cinematic Universe Edition
Rex Sorgatz (RS) wrote the very popular Key Art Edition. We are happy to have him back. Rex here. The year was 1998, and people on the internet were mad at Disney. But it wasn’t wokeism or bloated cinematic universes or theme park prices that had them riled up.
The Hallucinating ChatGPT Presidency
We generally understand how LLM hallucinations work. An AI model tries to generate what seems like a plausible response to whatever you ask it, drawing on its training data to construct something that sounds right. The actual truth of the response is, at best, a secondary consideration.
Dance Music Is Booming Again. What’s Different This Time? A Lot
Fans emerged from pandemic lockdowns primed to hit the floor. Now online platforms are bringing fresh sounds and budding stars to bigger audiences worldwide.
Bus Stops Here: Shanghai Lets Riders Design Their Own Routes
From early-morning school drop-offs to seniors booking rides to the hospital, from suburban commuters seeking a faster link to the metro to families visiting ancestral graves, Shanghai is rolling out a new kind of public bus — one that’s designed by commuters, and launched only when enough rider
Remarks on AI from NZ
Last week I participated in a panel discussion on AI as part of a private event in New Zealand. The organizers asked me to kick it off by talking for ten minutes, so I pulled together a few ideas on the topic, which I’m going to present in lightly edited form here.