What's my new book A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIMEKEEPING about? I hope the title's self-explanatory, but I went into more detail for The Big Idea: whatever.scalzi.com/2022/01/…

Brewers closer Trevor Megill was very straightforward with his thoughts about Tropicana Field (via @Dario_Melendez)

As I follow it, you go from the 1500s Italian game "mallet ball," or "pallamaglio," to the French "pallemaille," to the English name of the game, "pall-mall," to an area where you would play pall mall being called a "mall," to a walking area that you could play pall mall being called a mall, to an indoor shopping area where you walk from store to store being called a mall, to a person who hangs out at the shopping area being a mall rat—the term "mall" all coming from the Italian and then French term for a mallet used in an outdoor game several hundred years ago.

I hope you've thought this through. "Chainsaw-wielding robots helping keep trains running safely in east Japan" soranews24.com/2026/10/25/ch…

People say a lot of nonsense about Gödel's incompleteness theorems, which presumably is only going to get worse because AI made the topic fashionable again, so if you want to learn more about them I strongly recommend this book. Not only does it explain the math, but it also discusses the philosophical implications and covers various related topics, such as Tarski's indefinability theorem, Turing machines, undecidability, the halting problem, the Church-Turing thesis, etc.

“Aretha Franklin, you’re dressed like an ambassador from another solar system and I’m talking into a vibrator. I think this may be a fever dream I’m having because I ate Taco Bell and took NyQuil last night but I’m going to continue the interview in the name of professionalism.”

Has an NFL team ever ended the season with two or more ties on their record?

The free breakfast area at this chain hotel has Bloomberg TV playing loudly, and my God, I hate all these people.

This is like the epigraph for the entire Trump 2.0 presidency: ‘’I don’t give a damn. We’re making a fortune’

Mouse and Top Hat, by Takeuchi Seiho, 1937

Time once again to spin the Mad Libs Headline Wheel 🎰 Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders 🎰 Ignite Legal War 🎰 With My Chemical Romance 🎰 Over Fake Uniforms

Happy to announce I built a Greek/English reader site with all the surviving plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, & Aristophanes. Multiple translations for each play; click to parse & define for any Greek word; full Greek & English search. greekdrama.johnhboyer.com

you just do it. I know everyone hates to hear that but there’s no secret. pick a book you’ll enjoy and put your phone in another room and do it even when it seems hard. and then do it as often as you can.

It has to come from faculty. Education begins with scholars and teachers. That doesn't mean it *will* come from them. Just this: if there will be successful reform, it can only come from faculty.

Sad news today. After 5 years of medical training, one of my mates has been struck off due to a minor discretion. He slept with one of his patients and can no longer do the job he loves. What a waste of time and money. Genuinely a great guy and a brilliant vet

If you mean two total, The Pip. If you mean two guests in addition to me, The Pip and my dad. (I'm super boring, I know...)

A reminder about Tampa's offense as we get this series started and the broadcast starts laying it on thick with the clichés: