Talisman card art is GREAT

35 (Haunting of Hill House slipping through the closing door this afternoon)

It’s not often I read something that changes how I behave at once but this is it. I love my Apple CarPlay and… “when using Apple CarPlay by touch reaction times were nearly five times worse than when a driver was at the drink-drive limit, and nearly three times worse than when high on cannabis”

4 games that I played most in 2025

An underrated characteristic of miniature wargames (Warhammer etc) is that when people play them they're typically standing up and moving round the table. I really miss that in playing boardgames.

Never let the north-up convention get in the way of a good election map!

DeBriefed: EU under ‘pressure’; ‘Unusual warmth’ explained; Rise of climate boardgames ✍️ @tom.2x2.graphics 📝 @daisydunne.carbonbrief.org Read here ➡️ buff.ly/AdhlxQX Subscribe to DeBriefed ➡️ subscribe.carbonbrief.org

This is just as good as the first one. Maybe the best thing I’ve read this year? Really hoping there’s a book 3 at some point. I want to know what happens to Karen! I want to know what happen to Françoise!

Painting some little guys for the Alien RPG

This deserves some alt text

Those areas are wildly different sizes. A & B are tiny compared with G & D

Love this Sarah Evans painting, the light is perfect, reminds me of the village where i grew up. sarahevanswelshartist.com

Rhossili Beach, Gower Peninsula, painting by Welsh artist Sarah Evans. #WomensArt

There’s something about Wes Streeting’s waxen visage that reminds me of the kid in that old Frys chocolate advert

today the hoot page turns twentynine! hootpage.com I keep on keepin on...

Always love to see bookcases, if there are any in the background of photos I gurantee I will zoom in on them to have a nose around (have even been known to screencap zoom meetigns to do the same) so in the spirit of providing others with the same pleasure here's the one that sits next to my desk...

Was able to perform an impromtu experiment last night re earplug efficacy when I lost one of mine and had to make do with a cheap foam one from Boots in my left ear. Conclusion: it's definately worth having decent ear plugs.

Games used to so effortlessly mix the mundane and the strange.

Accidentally painted this guy to look like Santa

re Jose Saramago and dogs: This is from Ursula Le Guin's review of his last novel (I've read enough of his books now to be able to confirm that this simple ranking system is correct esp if as Le Guin suggests you count elephants as dogs) www.theguardian.com/books/2010/j...

October reading

The Wedding Present seem like they should be the kind of band I'd like but I can't stand them, wheras the B52s seem like the kind of band I should find irritating and ... well I only find them irritating sometimes.

Indiana Jones, breaking into my grandmother’s kitchen and declaring ’this belongs in a museum’ before making off with the kettle

Another dwarf

"Unhinged" beliefs: board games edition... The time they show on the side of the box (60-90 mins etc) is a recommendation not a promise i.e. if you're not getting the game played in the time the box suggests that's more likely an issue with your group of players than with the games design.

There’s a YouTube ad for deliveroo that I keep getting, sounds like the voice over is done by hanne lippard (I assume it’s not, but who knows?)

Llwyngwril

I replied instead of quoting🙃

A highlight of NOW 13 for 10yr old me

Urg! Affinity Designer and Publisher are both really great and the reason I like them is that they just let me get on with doing the job at hand, run decently fast and have fewer bugs than the competion. Can't emphasise enough how much I don't want "a shift in how creative freedom is defined"

Luckily I caught the postman before he'd totally shredded the packaging as he forced the new issue of @wyrdscience.bsky.social through our slightly too small letterbox

Ripping CDs like it’s 1999

Eagerly awaiting "8 car driving tips that just might prevent you from killing a pedestrian"

I never understand why Wordsworth Classics have covers like this. Surely there's just stacks of public domain pictures they could use (cf Standard Ebooks standardebooks.org/ebooks) but instead they go through the trouble of producing these uncany valley photoshops

The 17th century origins of kitbashing

intriguing

Please buy Wyrd Science, it's my favourite magazine and I want to it to keep going! (it's really excellent value) shop.wyrd.science/products/wyr...

Batteries got really good and solar power got cheap.

Lol, no. Also, interesting choice to illustrate this piece with a picture of a traffic clogged Parisan roundabout.

This is a remarkable image! The top commenter on the linkedin post exclaims "Amazing picture showcasing the impact we can make and what role technology can play 🎉👏" oblivious to the irony.

50. prince - 3 chains o' gold (1992) #ALL50RTS youtu.be/2iXGfD1lwcE

Just thought better of correcting someone’s space flight related post because all my knowledge on the subject comes from Kerbal Space Program which is probably not the most reliable source.

49. Captain Beefheart Electricity (1967) #ALL50RTS youtu.be/HE32tcojArI

48. AFX - Nightmail 1 (2017) #ALL50RTS youtu.be/QFYz5iiB620

47. Sonic youth - Eric's trip (1988) #ALL50RTS youtu.be/_mu7MV_7aYs

46. Clipse - Young Boy (2002) #ALL50RTS www.youtube.com/watch?v=A76s...

Whatever you think of anyone else on this lineup they’re not (to my knowledge) actual fascists or white supremacists like Curtis Yarvin is. But at the moment everyone else on the list is helping to legitimise his views

45. Harry Nilsson - Gotta get up (1971) #ALL50RTS www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckk5...