A World Without Sherlock Holmes
I recently caught up on the show Elementary, a modern-day Sherlock Holmes adaptation, and it raises a number of concerning questions about its worldbuilding and alternate history for me. The show is set
The Non-Alphabet
You are probably familiar, as someone reading this English-langauge text, with the Latin alphabet. But perhaps you are less familiar with all the letters that aren't in the Latin alphabet, but could be.
API Access to Grimoire.org
TLDR: There's an API for grimoire.org data and it's documented at grimoire.org/api. Grimoire.org is my pet project of a website about (mostly) early modern (mostly) European magic texts. The
Questionable Love Spells from History
In 1486, Heinrich Kramer, a Dominican monk and Inquisitor, published the famous witch hunters manual, Malleus Maleficarum. The text enumerates theological arguments for the existence of witchcraft, and devotes pages to the ins
Vegan Oatmeal Waffles
I looked high and low (read: I did a cursory search) and couldn't find a recipe for oatmeal waffles that was vegan but not gluten free. As someone who likes to deal with
How to Sort Your Books
Let us say you own books. Where do you put them? At the moment I write this, I own 402 books. This is the fewest I've had in a long time; I recently
Uses of a Bird's Tongue
I collect and read grimoires - books of spells, invocations, and magical instructions. My focus is on early modern European grimoires in the Christian tradition. As I read, I index the information in
All Alone Now - Useful Python Libraries for Pointless Websites
Over the last couple weeks, I made a little website called All Alone Now for FermiJam - a game/digital art jam inspired by Fermi's Paradox. I consider the site a great success,
A Suggestion on How to Spend a Day at Home
Or: A Breakfast Manifesto Here's what you do: Wake up in the morning, put on a comfy sweater, and make a pot of tea (or coffee if you're into that). Make yourself a
Brand New Facts
@brand_new_facts is my twitter bot the creates new facts by merging sentences from two different wikipedia pages. These are a couple of its tweets. animals can be easily confused with poetic
Technologies of the Decentralized Web Summit
The Internet Archive hosted the Decentralized Web Summit June 7th - 9th; more info and videos are available at decentralizedweb.net. Why a decentralized web? The core vision of a decentralized web is
On Vegan Shortbread
Shortbread cookies are usually celebrated an all-butter affair; they have a very simple recipe, and the flavor of the butter is a central part of the cookie. The usual recipe is something like: