What is up with the air quality in London?

Where is all that surveillance infrastructure hosted?

Aerial photograph of the National Security Agency by Trevor Paglen.


Aerial photograph of the National Reconnaissance Office by Trevor Paglen.


Aerial photograph of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency by Trevor Paglen.

More details here.

Gamification Explained

Monterey Boulevard in 1920 and 2014

Every National Security Overreach Hearing

Briefly, on Tuesday, San Francisco's air quality was worse than Shanghai

San Francisco reached a PM 2.5 peak of 158. The worst it was when I was in Shanghai was 171 (I think). I noticed how bad the air was that day, but I did not notice it here yesterday.

Hammering at Lenin

Happy 10th Birthday to my iPod

We all know that we should upgrade our Apple devices every two to three years. Obviously then these products don't have to be designed to last. But my third generation iPod is celebrating its tenth birthday. This was the first model that could use USB, which is fortunate as my new PC does not have FireWire. It has had about 4 new batteries, and the (Apple) holster is being held together with glue and sealing wax. A young person of my acquaintance was amused to find that it twisted gyroscopically in her hand when she turned it, for this primitive device actually contains a hard disk. I still use it nearly every day.

British jazz pianist Stan Tracey has died aged 86

My first ever jazz concert was seeing Stan Tracey at Chester Town Hall in 1976, featuring a very young Clark Tracey on drums.