Eric of the Poe People

When Grammy-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens begins playing “Old Corn Liquor,” a traditional Black American folk tune, acclaimed Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man recognizes similarities to Chinese pentatonic music and spontaneously joins in. The joy on their faces says it all.

MEL BROOKS talks about giving GENE WILDER his first cup of coffee, plying him with chocolate, and how their working relationship beautifully mirrored Fellini’s with Alberto Sordi. “Everything Gene did for me as a film artist was angelic & supreme.”

The Pet Shop Boys just released a concept album about the life of Alan Turing. As a gay, Gen X computer engineer, I feel like its target audience. www.petshopboys.co.uk/news/2026-10...

A praying mantis walks into a bar. The bartender says, “sorry, we don’t serve insects.” The praying mantis says, “that’s ok, I’ll just take a Miller Lite.”

Packagist turns 15, with more than 200 billion package installs 🎉 How Composer and Packagist started, 15 years of milestones, recent growth, and our plans for supply chain security and funding. blog.packagist.com/15-years-of... #php #phpc #composerphp

The W3C released a new HTML element out of nowhere. It was the element of <surprise>.

“Now that’s a lotta trees!”

I took a picture of poison ivy so that you don't have to get up close to see how furry it is (zoom in). Is it felt? You better hope not! (Sorry, I had to throw in a dad joke) I also have a newfound appreciation for the Aculops rhois mites that blister the plant with galls.

Many U S Parents Outsourcing Child Care Overseas

I was adding some MIME-type guards to a file-upload form. That made me think of a château hiring mimes, armed with long baguettes, to guard the gates. While one is at attention & the other is peeling an invisible banana, the mimes hear an ominous rustle in the darkness. "Halt," they don't shout.

lol my flight got diverted because of a medical emergency and they landed us in reykjavik in the middle of the night and deplaned us and sent us through passport control and then the crew vanished and then british airways sent us links to book an overnight hotel room but for a hotel at heathrow

"It’s a simple exchange introduced by German academics that dates back to the early nineteenth century. We’ll cover the complete cost of IVF to help you build your family—yes, really—and then, on your child’s first birthday, we might take your baby." buff.ly/stGSoST

when you work at the BPAF but you’re beginning to realize there’s not going to be a successful IPO

My #Smithsonian experience

The king's adviser is actually a nice guy:

The most absolutely massive flex from the state fair exhibit. This quilt is made of 40 years of prize ribbons from various categories at the New Mexico State Fair won by Carol St. Clair Johnson. She also won a prize for this quilt.

Rough Draft vs Final Draft

Just in time for the 2026-2027 vaccines, a new review shows that COVID19 vaccination significantly reduces the risk of severe illness and hospitalization across all age groups, including kids. Pregnant women were also protected, as were their babies. Don’t forget to schedule your vaccination!

Today, I accidentally typed, "DevOops" and thought, "yeah, I've made quite a few of those, too." #Programming #DevOps

🚨 BREAKTHROUGH: After 40 years of research, Brazilian scientist Dr. Mariangela Hungria wins the World Food Prize for pioneering a $2 nitrogen-fixing bacteria treatment that replaces costly fertilizers, saves farmers $25 billion annually, and cuts 230 million tons of CO₂ emissions.

While watching this season's Ted Lasso, I think, "I wonder what Diamond Dames will be saying about this part." This week's DD episode should be 100x based on this week's TL episode. I cannot wait.

She was the best of all us 🖤

For those mourning the passing of Dolly Parton and for those not yet enamored with her, Dolly Parton's America is a lovely biography and tribute to one of the most amazing people to have walked this earth at the same time we did. I need to give it a re-listen www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dol...

I took my kid to see the 25th anniversary showing of The Fast and the Furious at the theater. I expected rowdy fans. I wanted MST3K, Rocky Horror Picture Show. I wanted jeers when Brian's hair suddenly gets big when he's accused of being a cop and cheers when Dom says the line. Instead: crickets.

Is this true @swordsjew.bsky.social?

Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty Hacker: I've installed Doom, written in Java, in this cup

People who don’t know the difference between ‘entomology’ and ‘etymology’ bug us in ways we cannot put into words.

He was the only president who received both the Medal of Honor (for Spanish/American War) and, as you point out, the Nobel Peace prize. Everyone who knew him remarked about his tremendous energy. A man in perpetual motion.

This hits hard, like hard hitting news should.

"DEI hire." "DEI is discrimination." "Kill DEI." "Look at the DEI training." Watch how fast a term meant to describe fairness got turned into an insult. That did not happen by accident. Let us break down what is actually being done to this word, and why it matters. 🧵

Reade to the ende of thys! From Oliver J. Rosten, "On functional representations of the conformal algebra" Theoretical Physics (2017):

I photographed a neighbour’s colander (I did ask permission, I’m not an animal).

Less a full review and more an exploration of the ancient texts around The Sea Peoples and concept of Xenia - adds some great nuance and complexity to Nolan's interpretation.

right winger getting cancelled vs. trans person getting cancelled

i better pick up some gatorade

“According to our trials, squinting your eyes and dramatically stating, ‘Hey dickbreath, suck on this,’ produced a dramatic surge in overall ballistic capacity,” said the study’s lead author

I started getting followed by some "film festivals" and "writing festivals" and thought "oh, these are cool!" Then I looked a little closer. They're all part of a network that preys on writers, charging us for reviews, and feeding our stuff into slop generators. So I made a list.👋🏻🖕🏻😠

Polish the Polish furniture with Polish polish.

finally, the Democratic party has a plan.

Schadenfreude is a portmanteau of "throwing shade" and "Freudian slip." It is that feeling you get when your nemesis, in a social media post, describes their own mother as a MILF.