Book Review: The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race - Ayanna Thompson


A young, black actor, dressed in modern military clothing, performs a scene from Shakespeare.

The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race shows teachers and students how and why Shakespeare and race are inseparable. Moving well beyond Othello, the collection invites the reader to understand racialized discourses, rhetoric, and performances in all of Shakespeare's plays, including the comedies and histories. Race is presented through an intersectional approach with chapters that […]

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Book Review: To Be Taught, if Fortunate by Becky Chambers


A strange star and moon hang over an alien planet.

At the turn of the twenty-second century, scientists make a breakthrough in human spaceflight. Through a revolutionary method known as somaforming, astronauts can survive in hostile environments off Earth using synthetic biological supplementations. They can produce antifreeze in sub-zero temperatures, absorb radiation and convert it for food, and conveniently adjust to the pull of different […]

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Book Review: The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal about Identity, Race, Wealth and Power by Deirdre Mask


A book cover featuring a keyhole carved out of a city map.

When most people think about street addresses they think of parcel deliveries, or visitors finding their way. But who numbered the first house, and where, and why? What can addresses tell us about who we are and how we live together? Deirdre Mask looks at the fate of streets named after Martin Luther King, Jr., […]

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Book Review: Amatka by Karin Tidbeck


Book cover - the title Amatka repeats over and over and over again.

Vanja, an information assistant, is sent from her home city of Essre to the austere, wintry colony of Amatka with an assignment to collect intelligence for the government. Immediately she feels that something strange is going on: people act oddly in Amatka, and citizens are monitored for signs of subversion. Intending to stay just a […]

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Movie Review: Boss Level


Generic movie poster.

This movie is dogshit. Obviously, some movie producer has a stack of compromising material. That's the only logical explanation as to why so many good actors would appear in this schlock. What if Groundhog Day was an action movie? OK, that's Day After Tomorrow. So what if that was direct to video? It would be […]

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Book Review: Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China by Jung Chang


Book cover featuring photos of three Chinese women.

Meet the three women who helped shape the course of modern Chinese history; a gripping story of sisterhood and betrayal from the bestselling author of Wild Swans. They were the most famous sisters in China. As the country battled seismic transformations these three women left an indelible mark on history. Red Sister rose to be […]

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Book Review: How High We Go in the Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu


Book cover featuring three dots surrounded by circles.

For fans of Cloud Atlas and Station Eleven, Sequoia Nagamatsu's debut is a wildly imaginative, genre-bending work spanning generations across the globe as humanity struggles to rebuild itself in the aftermath of a devastating plague. Dr. Cliff Miyashiro arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue his recently deceased daughter’s research, only to discover a virus, […]

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Footnotes in Markdown


A very long footnote.

Did you know - WordPress Markdown supports footnotes1? There is some documentation but I thought I'd write a slightly more comprehensive guide. The code is pretty simple. Write [^1] where you want your first footnote link to appear. Then, later in the document, write [^1]: The text of the note. It doesn't matter what number […]

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Searching online for books in local libraries


List of items matching the search "Song of Achilles" - includes two versions of the book, an audio book, and other work by the author.

This is a mixture of lament and how-to guide. Suppose you've reviewed lots of books. It's pretty easy to generate a link to let people buy the book at Amazon or any other online store. But how do you link to a user's local library? You can't. There is no "search every library in the […]

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Rethinking Twitter Verification


Screenshot of the GOV.UK Twitter Account. Twitter have added a flag and label saying it is state affiliated.

I have my Twitter Tick™ because I'm a mediocre white man in the tech industry. No joke. During one of Twitter's periodic bouts of opening up their verification programme, I applied and basically said "Don't you know who I am??!" and got it. Sucks to be anyone other than me, I guess. Twitter has paused […]

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