Bantam Tools Acquires Evil Mad Scientist to Accelerate Development of Next Generation Art and Handwriting Machines Windell Oskay and Lenore Edman of Evil Mad Scientist named CTO and COO of Bantam Tools  PEEKSKILL, N.Y, January 16, 2024 — Bantam Tools, the desktop CNC manufacturer that builds exceptional computer controlled machines for innovators, is excited to … Continue reading Bantam Tools Acquires Evil Mad Scientist →

Bantam Tools proudly unveils its latest advancement in proven plotter technology with the launch of the new Bantam Tools NextDraw™ series of drawing and handwriting machines. Engineered for artists, innovators, and educators seeking exceptional versatility and performance, Bantam Tools now offers a trio of new models designed for drawing and handwriting. “The Evil Mad Scientist … Continue reading Introducing the Bantam Tools NextDraw™ →

How has Doctor Sleep fared 5 years since its release?

Apple’s new AirTags are a straight-up gift for photographers. After testing one for the past couple of weeks, I’ll be hiding an AirTag in my scooter, one in my car and another one in my camera bag.
Read more »

Five years ago I was pretty sure that all I would ever know was the plain concrete box I lived in. I was just a little pup, not even six months old, when they took me and my cousins away from the life we knew in the woods and put us in boxes. I started to forget who I was. I forgot about the woods I used to live in and that there was anything outside my box. Some of the other dogs forgot themselves before I did and believed that the box was all there was. Hector didn't forget and he would bark at the people that hosed us and our boxes and it would remind me that once I knew something other than the box.

Uba, NW1

REVIEW – There seems to be a number of different form factors popping up with projectors recently. Very slim projectors, portable cubes, and today’s variation which looks more like a spotlight than a projector at first glance. The XGODY Gimbal 3 projector looked like a fun projector to try out and looked very portable. Read […]

NEWS – Scykei Technology, Inc., a New York-based tech brand, announced its mission to challenge the status quo and redefine the technology industry. With a bold vision to become a generation-defining tech company, Scykei is poised to make waves in the wearable market. Positioning: A Considerable Alternative Scykei has positioned itself as a considerable alternative […]

Happy paperback book birthday to my YA thriller, THE LAKE HOUSE!!! It's about three girls stranded in the woods in Maine. No food, no water, no shelter, and someone -- or something -- is hunting them. Paperback edition out today from HarperTeen! 

http://www.sarahbethdurst.com/LakeHouse.htm

This is "one gift I will definitely keep," President Obama said when he was presented with a National Geographic Society map cabinet at the White House.

Visit the NATGEO NEWS WATCH Blog by News Editor David Braun for the full story: http://tinyurl.com/ncmdqy












Photos courtesy of The White House

In today’s economy, parting with hard-earned dollars to support your favorite charity or cause just may not be feasible. Consider donating yourself and your time as a way to give back without impacting your piggy bank.

Here’s how Chris Knoll, a cartographer here at NatGeo Maps, is giving back:

As part of an ongoing effort to support access to some of Colorado’s most popular 14er mountains, I participated in a stewardship adventure with Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado who partnered with Colorado Fourteeners Initiative. The main focus of this project was to work on building a sustainable trail up to 14,172 foot peak Mount Bross; which is near Fairplay, CO (90 miles southwest of Denver). Due to numerous unmarked mine shafts and a network of unmanaged social trails, access to the summit of Mount Bross was closed in 2006 until private land owners in conjunction with the US Forest Service can come to an agreement on the new route.

This is where the volunteers come in to action. Four crews totaling about forty people were given the task of stabilizing, reconstructing, and rerouting a trail leading up to Mt. Bross. The work included building sustainable portions of trail by installing rock steps where trail erosion is present, delineating one path up the mountain, and covering up social trails by re-vegetating these areas with native tundra plants that grow at higher elevations.

After work was completed each day, volunteers were fed by VOC staff, and were given the opportunity to socialize around the campfire and even take short hikes in the area. However, nights were called in early due to early 5:45 a.m. wake up calls.

All in all, the work that was completed over the weekend was meaningful and fun. It gives me a great sense of accomplishment knowing that one day, I will be able to hike a trail that I helped to construct.

For more information on non-profit volunteer groups mentioned in this article, check out http://www.voc.org, and http://www.14ers.org.

~Chris Knoll, Cartographer, National Geographic Maps

New and Complete Map of Cuba, supplement to National Geographic magazine, October 1906; NG Maps.

Since our first post, this blog has addressed the history of cartography at National Geographic, geographic names (toponyms), and even the cartographic exploits of James Abbott McNeill Whistler, the American artist best known for the painting "Whistler's Mother." I hope that these topics have proven of interest to some if not all of you. But what we have not addressed is the personal more intimate side of cartography here at the Society.

Unquestionably, National Geographic is the place to be if you love the science as well as the art of mapmaking. Our production schedules are full of stimulating and challenging projects that often test our knowledge of the cartographic profession. Once in a while, we will be assigned a project so close and near to our hearts that it becomes an overriding passion. Several months ago, I was given such an assignment—a large format (36" x 24") political map of Cuba.

The last time the Society published such a map was in October 1906! Those of you in the exiled Cuban community, both in the U.S. and abroad, know the significance of this map. Anyone who has visited Miami's Little Havana, Tampa's Ybor City, or even Union City, New Jersey, can't avoid seeing maps of Cuba painted on walls, plastered on windows, or even printed on the sides of grocery bags.

Read more:

I have been assigned the task of researching and compiling our forthcoming map of Cuba. During the early stages of my research, I hit the cartographic jackpot—the possibility of two new provinces forming in 2011. Not only were we going to be publishing a map of Cuba for the first time since 1906, we were also going to be among the first to showcase its new administrative structure. This is considered an exciting event for cartographers here at the National Geographic. Why? Because before any element is mapped, we need to assure that it portrays the most up-to-date information.

My first stop was Cuba’s official government website. Unfortunately, it was a bit difficult to navigate, especially since the English version of the site was “under construction.” My next stop was the Cuban Embassy—well, not exactly since Cuba and the U.S. have not had formal diplomatic relations since 1961. But there is the Cuban Interests Section embedded within the Embassy of Switzerland here in Washington. It was there that I was able to obtain the official document (Gaceta Oficial de la Republica de Cuba, No. 023) spelling out the upcoming changes to Cuba’s new administrative divisions—Artemisa and Mayabeque provinces.

As Cuba is organized administratively by province and municipality, we were able to delineate the new provincial boundaries pretty easily by using a map of municipalities contained in the most recent Nuevo Atlas Nacional de Cuba. In the latter stages of my research I was able to reconfirm the delineation of these boundaries with the Cuban statistics office, La Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas, as they were now providing statistics for these two new provinces.

Now I have to keep abreast of the deepwater oil exploration off the northern coast of Cuba. If possible, we would like our map to also showcase the location of such prospective oil fields.

—Julie A. Ibinson
Map Researcher & Editor
National Geographic Maps

It’s been over a year since I last posted, and a lot has happened this year, especially in the last 6 (or so) months of it. The biggest thing is maybe that I’ve flown on not one trip but two … Continue reading →

Is it hypocritical of me to say that I miss when people used to write long-form blog posts when I’ve been really bad at doing so myself? Probably, but something something do as I say not as I do. The … Continue reading →

Federal Government Boosts Australian Cardiovascular Alliance’s Mission to Combat Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke  News Hub

1. New program will see pregnant mothers and babies protected from life-threatening virus  SBS
2. World-leading approach to protect babies from RSV  Department of Health
3. Government-funded RSV vaccines to protect infants from severe disease  Australian Pharmacist
4. 'Very scary': Wagga mum's plea for parents to protect babies through RSV jab  The Daily Advertiser
5. Guild backs free RSV vaccinations  Australian Journal of Pharmacy

1. North Melbourne announces three-year Western Australia agreement  North Melbourne Football Club
2. Roos end 14-year relationship amid bold new location for AFL games  Fox Sports
3. North Melbourne takes 'home' AFL matches to Western Australia  ABC News
4. Eagles set for extra WA game  West Coast Eagles

1. Brisbane Broncos star Ezra Mam charged over head-on collision, allegedly failing second drug test  ABC News
2. Brisbane news live: Broncos’ Ezra Mam charged over drug test result after crash | Stab victim’s widower wants knife checks in schools | Dog rescued near abandoned boat  Brisbane Times
3. Broncos player charged after car crash: 9News Latest Stories Season 2024, Short Video  9Now
4. Ezra Mam issued court notice after allegedly failing secondary drug test  Fox Sports
5. Club Statement: Ezra Mam  Broncos

1. All-time reaction to coaching ‘disaster’; Steph’s stunning clutch moment: NBA Wrap  Fox Sports
2. Bike rides and Balkan music: Klay Thompson is embracing a fresh start with the Mavericks  ESPN Australia
3. 10 unforgettable Klay Thompson moments with Warriors ahead of return  NBA.com
4. Dub Hub: Warriors players share ‘welcome back’ messages for Klay Thompson’s return  Golden State of Mind

1. ASX falls as banks drop; MinRes sinks, James Hardie rallies  The Australian Financial Review
2. Wages growth slows, CBA logs flat first-quarter profit, ASX falls — as it happened  ABC News
3. Markets today: ASX slides as ‘Trump trade’ peters out on Wall Street; miners, banks fall  Sydney Morning Herald

1. Outback Queensland residents spend thousands on flights, grapple with Qantas service changes  ABC News
2. Airlines that love competition: Do you see pigs fly?  Sydney Morning Herald
3. Predictably, domestic airfares surged after the collapse of Rex. There aren’t many good solutions  The Conversation
4. Report finds just how much airfares spiked since end of Rex. One route doubled  The Canberra Times
5. Qantas’ single excuse for fare price hike  news.com.au

1. Volcanic eruption grounds Bali flights, leaving travellers stranded  Sydney Morning Herald
2. Bali flight cancellations continue due to dangerous volcanic ash clouds  SBS News
3. Bali flight cancellations continue as volcano spews ash  9News
4. Aussies stranded in Bali volcano nightmare  Daily Telegraph

1. Cindy Crossthwaite's estranged husband faces Supreme Court murder trial over mother of three's death  ABC News
2. 'Deep-seated hatred' for estranged wife led to killing, jury told  9News
3. 'Deep-seated hatred' for estranged wife led to killing, court hears  9News

Good fundraisers typically stick with what works in a fund raising campaign choosing not to ask to many questions about why it works. While intuitively, many fundraisers know that women tend to make more donations in a given campaign or series of campaigns and perhaps if the fundraiser is intuitive enough, that men who give, generally tend to give higher amounts overall.

It’s not always easy to understand why this is so, and therefore for a fundraiser to take full advantage of this information.

Many studies have been done on philanthropy; fewer have been done on telephone fund raising, however the research on this subject is not insignificant. Two studies that we will highlight here at onfundraising are one commissioned by the Share Group Inc on fund raising and direct mail campaigns, and the other is “The Effects of Race, Gender, and Marital Status on Giving and Volunteering in Indiana” as published in the Nonprofit and voluntary Sector Quartley, in 2006 while report focuses on Indiana, much of the reporting is general in nature and therefore suitable for this post. The study’s main purpose was to examine whether factors like race, age, education or marital status make a difference to philanthropy of volunteering.

Both studies are available on line, and are linked to at the bottom of this article.

In 2006, Share Group. Inc, of Massachusetts participated in a comprehensive study on donor characteristics .Among other things this study quantifies some of the major difference between male and female donors; something that many people knew intuitively but lacked the hard data to validate. The study also measured donor contributions by age, and gave some general insights into what age group is the most supportive of charitable organizations.

According to the study, when contacted, women are more likely to support a charity campaign than men.

This data corresponds with past studies on philanthropic giving, but is limited to telephone fund raising The data indicates the women generally are more likely to donate to fund raising efforts and are also more likely to leave bequests to charitable organizations. The research indicates that woman as a whole are more likely to donate than men are.

However, the study found that based on the statistical evidence, men who do give to a campaign are likely to make larger contributions than female donors. This information as well is corroborated by independent research.

The study observes that the optimal donor age is fifty years old. Contributions tend to dwindle as donors reach retirement age. Donors ages sixty five to seventy five were most receptive to and renewal of support campaigns.

Interestingly for fund raisers, the study found that female callers secure pledges less often than male callers, but the average size of the pledges female fundraisers secure is larger than their male counterparts.

In general, women according to the research in both studies, are more likely give a larger contribution than they have previously given (upgrade). Men who could be convinced to upgrade generally upgraded at higher percentage versus female donors.

Breaking down the data further showed that when it comes to the actual giving of money, single women give twice as much as single men. These results are consistent with what has been published in the past. Furthermore, single women are more likely than men to give to a variety of charities and philanthropic efforts. A not so surprising finding was that married men also were 2-3 times more likely to give as much as single men or single women. However, the amount of money donated by single men was found to be far greater than that of married couples.

When the race factor is assessed for donation, there is little or no difference. Whites, Blacks and other minorities are no more or less likely to give relative to each other. The one obvious finding is that donations are significantly increased when the donor is educated, earns a higher income, and is older. This finding was again observed in all ethnic groups.

The Indiana study also looked at another aspect of giving-volunteering. The results are not much different to the philanthropic study. Again, single females are more likely to volunteer their time when compared to single men. Infact single females are more likely to volunteer for many more hours (>146 per year) than single men. The one surprising finding is that there is no difference in volunteering between married couples and single individuals when it comes to volunteering. It would be expected that married couples would have less time due to their familial obligations but this is not so.

Race did not reveal any differences in volunteering- Blacks, Whites and other minorities were just as likely to volunteer.

Volunteering was found to decrease when the levels of income and education were low. In fact, there was a sharp drop in volunteering levels for those with less than a high school education relative to the general population, and this was seen across all age groups.

However, increased income did not correlate with the numbers of hours volunteered. Individuals with low income were just as likely to volunteer for longer durations of time and vice versa.

The one curious observation from the study is that when individuals were asked if they had volunteered in the past, women were more likely to recall this act. Minorities could not recall if they had volunteered. Why someone can’t remember a dignified act like volunteering is a mystery- perhaps an error in how the questionnaire was set up or comprehension difficulty. The writers of the Indiana study surmised that often minorities do volunteer work without formally characterizing it as such.

Most of the results of these studies are also supported by many previous national surveys which have also found that education and higher income are the strongest and most consistent predictors of philanthropic activity.

Why single women volunteer more is not fully understood but it is speculated that because single women have less social and financial means, they compensate this by giving more of their time as volunteers while at the same time establishing their social networks.

These studies provide some insight into differences in donors by sex, marital status, race and income. Both men and women are motivated to give to charity for different reasons therefore when communicating with donors, fundraisers are advised to take this into effect and structure their solicitations accordingly.

We can take from these studies the fact that most Americans do give to charity in one way or another. Fund raisers can best serve the causes they work for buy understanding the broad characteristics of donors and structuring their donation requests accordingly.

 An increasing number of charities and nonprofit groups are electing to solicit donations through Telefundraising campaigns. Despite having different goals and needs, disparate organizations find that Telefundraising is an effective use of resources . For many groups, the option of telefundraisng makes sense.
For large groups with vast amounts of members, telephone fundraising provides an effective means of outreach.  Charities withsignificant fundraising budgets see impressive returns from telephone fundraising efforts. Large organizations are results oriented, this is why they continue to support Telefundraising campaigns.

Small non-profits use telephone fundraising efforts as ameans to gain support for little upfront investment.While wide-scale print and media campaigns are often beyond the reach of small organizations, phonecampaigns can be executed in an extremely cost effective manner. Adjustments to telephone campaigns are virtually instantaneous, while other types of fundraising efforts need much more planning to alter.
Organizations of any size can quickly realize significant benefits from telephone campaigns. The relative low cost of phone fundraising campaigns is an attractive feature, regardless of organizational size. Paired with simple initial equipment requirements, this makes raising money by phone an easy choice for most non-profits.


Raising money is not the only goal of telephone solicitation campaigns. Contacts that end without a donation can still prove to be useful. Basing success on donations alone, overlooks other possible benefits to an organization.
Receiving a call from an organization helps to personalize the charity to its donors. Phone calls keep organizations on the minds of their supporters. These calls provide donors with the latest information on the cause they support. Well informed donors provide more frequent support.
Donation calls properly made, can be an important source of feedback for an organization as well. Donors use telefundraisng contacts as an opportunity to sound-off about their feelings about an organization.  Organizations can take these valuable insights, and use them to tweak their efforts.
Solicitation calls can provide much more than donations alone. Fully grasping this truth greatly improves campaign results.Positive campaign results are limited only by the imaginations of the organizations which run them.


Calling campaigns are always an effective solicitation method. For the best possible outcomes, additional factors should be considered as well. Holidays represent an excellent time for telephone fundraising efforts. This time of year is when many donors are most receptive to giving.Wise non-profits leverage the holidays to increase their rate of success.
Topical campaigns have increase significance to givers. These campaigns can be combined with additional media efforts. By closely monitoring the news cycle, it is possible to create campaigns that take advantage of current news, and require no additional effort to spark media interest.
Close attention to relevant news is useful, but not essential to telephone fundraising. Calling campaigns that are well structured can drive their own press coverage.  Press coverage is useful in some cases, but not an absolute requirement for all calling campaigns.


Implementing a successful telephone campaign is not substantially different than other types of solicitation methods. Good Telefundraising applys traditional fundraising methods to the phone. The benefits of applying telephone fundraising are obvious.
Telephone campaigns are an excellent way to overcome the problem of donor fatigue. Combined with other strategies, Telefundraising can strengthen listing campaigns. Fundraising by phone can produce results in and of itself.
Carried out properly, there is no application where telephone fundraising campaigns cannot be attempted with positive outcome.Effective fundraising campaigns require detailed planning. Phone fundraising and other solicitation efforts should be designed to work in harmony.
Fundraising by telephone requires serious preparation. Calling efforts should be well managed and adequately staffed. The results of telephone campaigns are based largely on the dedication of the organizations which run them.


Pound for pound, telephone fundraising delivers better results than other fundraising techniques. The advantages of telephone fundraising fluctuate across organizations, but remain significant. While income is an important factor, it is not the only way to evaluate the performance of a fundraising effort.
Phone campaigns can be implemented with minimal staff requirements. Well managed small teams can out performs much larger groups . Small teams are capable of delivering large gains.
Changes to phone fundraising campaigns can be implemented without halting the camapaign. Important updates can be quickly integrated. News and current events can be incorporated into the campaigns virtually instantly.Comparable fundraising methods need significant time to alter.
Speaking directly with prospects ensures valid contact. Direct  contact with donors is assured with calling campaigns.

That's all I've got, so far, for linguistic commentary on the U.S. election results. According to the OED, the etymology of ballot is < (i) Middle French ballotte (French †ballotte) small ball (beginning of the 15th cent. as †balote), small coloured ball placed in a container to register a secret vote (1498) or its etymon […]

The first two panels of yesterday's SMBC: The last two: Back in 1979, David Macauley's Motel of the Mysteries had a much longer story to tell about archeologists' presuppositions. Macauley's plot loosely satirizes the work of Heinrich and Sophia Schliemann in excavating Troy, and also echoes Howard Carter's excavation of Tutankhamunn's tomb. It's 4022, and […]

Here is the new content:

I've mentioned that I have been working on running a five-minute mile on the treadmill this year, a goal that at one point seemed in reach. I think I also complained that I got sick and that when I got back to it, they had swapped out all the treadmills for fancy treadmills with built-in Netflix and air conditioning and stuff like that, which I now refer to as "Bob's Tred Mill." There's some good things about these, and some things that make me crazy, but one thing that especially made me crazy is they felt significantly faster than the old Precor ones I was used to. It's definitely a real thing that treadmills are sometimes not calibrated correctly (or the tread stretches out or slips, etc.) but it was also possible that being sick set me back more than I thought. The important thing is to get The Data instead of just The Upset Feelings so I was shopping for things like those hand-held unicycles that you can wheel around to measure how long things (like streets) are, as it does seem like the kind of device that I would own, looking at like the world's most accurate hand-held unicycle thing, and then I noticed at the last thing that most of them have a MAX SPEED of something like 10mph, which would not do. I finally had the brain-stroke that I could use a laser tachometer to do it, since these have a max speed more like 99999 RPM. So I measured the tread length with some chalk marks and put reflective tape on there. The treadmill will go at different speeds when loaded (running on it) vs unloaded, which also depends on your weight and stride and stuff a little, so you also gotta engage in the dexterity-testing act of measuring while running on it, which looked like this:

POV: You are me

Pointing the laser at the reflective tape dot (visible right next to the laser dot here) as it flies by while running kinda fast is definitely tricky, although I must say that it was one of those times when I thought, "I've been training my whole life for this!" and you can see that I'm showing off a little bit here by also photographing it at the same time. But you are not impressed since it reports 0 RPM. The nice thing about the tachometer is that it only needs a pair of observations to give you a frequency, and you can easily tell if you missed the tape, which you do often on account of the shaking, because you get some integer multiple that's way off from the right answer. Anyway I dutifully took multiple readings unloaded and loaded at (nominally) 6mph, 7mph, ... 12mph and made a spreadsheet with all the results converted, and... found that the treadmill is just about 1% too fast loaded, all across the board. This would be just 3 seconds for a five-minute mile, which is not nothing, but it definitely does not vindicate my Upset Feelings (I was thinking it felt more like 10%). My best guess is that the old treadmills were (all?) actually too slow, which is annoying because now I doubt some of the unofficial 5k records I painfully set for myself during the summer. But, well, the thing about endeavoring to do challenging things is: No Cheating!

In project news, I feel I have a foothold now to get myself out of this math hole, as I've finally migrated this algorithm to work only with 64-bit integer arithmetic and so I can port it to GPU soon and then be out of ideas about how to make it faster. I have no idea if there's a good story to be told for this project, but I'll try (and also, it is okay if sometimes the hobby programming doesn't lead to a video or Sigbovik paper, you know?). And speaking of Sigbovik: Heroes have emerged quite on time this year, so it's certainly looking like there will be a proceedings and conference (perhaps with livestream), so start writing those papers now.

Aside from the math hole, I've been making some progress on two other concurrent projects. It's getting normal again (even quiet) at work and winter break is coming up, and I'm looking forward to having some several-day stretches to work on them.

I played through Golf Peaks (well, I haven't beat all the bonus levels yet but I've been working back to front so it's just a matter of a little time at this point), which was a very nice little puzzle game that does almost everything right. Other than the very irritating music in one world, I think my only disappointment was that it doesn't elegantly handle infinite-length puts. I'm also still working on Return to Monkey Island, which I do like, although it doesn't hold up to my memory of the first two. I think one of the problems with modern point-and-click adventure games is the voices, actually: Not because the voice acting bothers me, but because it goes so slow compared to reading. It's like when you just want to figure out the maximum speed of the hand-held unicycle and they're trying to get you to watch a video instead of just reading. Tears of the Kingdom (which I'm still savoring, but getting close to the end now) does a good job with this; you do hear snippets of voices, which helps with the characterization, but you can blow through the dialog at a pretty fast pace. Probably a lot cheaper, too!

Wicked Abandoned A New England Horror Writers Anthology Edited by Rob Smales and Scott T. Goudsward Published by Wicked Creative, LLC  (September 25, 2024) Reviewed by Carson Buckingham All I have to say is that New England sure grows a bunch of great writers! Wicked Abandoned is one of the best anthologies I’ve read in […]

The post Book Review: WICKED ABANDONED first appeared on Hellnotes.

In the six months since my retirement from the bench I have not had cause to visit the courthouse. This week, however, I volunteered to show some local people around the building, and I was agreeably surprised to find that I still remembered the pass code for the car park. Our visitors were very interested and full of questions, which reminded me of my very early days as a JP when I found out just how little people knew about the court and its workings. That was a prime reason for my starting a blog a decade ago.

From holes on Mars to a spun-around moon and a flipped reflection, space science involves looking at things from all different angles.

Europa Clipper will soon head for Jupiter's icy, potentially habitable moon. Without the advocacy efforts of The Planetary Society and our members, the mission may never have been possible.

 This is me working out my warband for a Dark age campaign. I can't really get going on it until I have finished my Hobbit armies for an up coming show. So In the meantime time this sketch of the warband will have to do. Out of the hat I got the Black shield Irish.

The rules will be One hour wargames, and it's interesting to see the small size of the warband. Then again it is a skirmish game.

well...what a bloody marvellous couple of days I've just had. Taking all my figures to a show for the first time was a little nerve racking, but the effort really paid off. I had an excellent time and met some great new friends too in the process.
The board and mountain were excellent too, crafted by the talented James Morris. I had never deployed my whole army in one go before, so what better time to do it than on a set up like this. Everything seemed to come together perfectly.
I started my battle with the orcs at the bottom of the hill advancing across the mountain river. However, due to my terrible dice rolling and the luck of the Elves, I was cut and shot to pieces. It wasn't long before my tattered ranks were tumbling back through the freezing water. The Elves just had time to redress their lines before another dark wave of Goblin folk arrived.
I love the walled up gate that James made, the little gaps in the stonework were perfect. It really reminded me of one of Alan Lees illustrations. Also a very clever use of silver fabric for the river...very effective!

The Eagles arrived later in the game and swept the Goblins from the mountain sides. The game was masterfully run by David Hunter, who made sure the flo was just right.
My Eagles looked very realistic on the slopes of the mountain too, better than I had hoped for. The extra poses were well worth collecting over the last ten years. The flying ones on stands were a very recent purchase and they really stood out.
The game in full flo, it drew a big crowd and it was great to talk figures with people. A lot of people wanted to know where I got my Orcs from and of course the answer was...everywhere. Also the amount of plastic model kits used was very hard to calculate. Just about every Dark age and Fantasy box set all mashed up and mixed together.



I love my Wood elves after lovingly creating each one individually and got a huge buzz from seeing them in action. I didn't really care they were cutting my forces to ribbons, just seeing them used in anger was enough for me.
Hordes of Goblins still plagued the mountainside, their numbers were too much even for the Eagles.
Thorin was cut down by Bolg's bodyguard as he tried to cut through their great shields. Bard of Laketown too, fell to the hacking Goblin blades. Dain of the Iron hills was holding his own but was badly wounded. At last it seemed like the Free people's luck had run out. 
Then with a roar like a thunderclap Beorn burst onto the scene. He tore through the Goblin ranks and made his way to Bolg. Approaching the rear of Bolg's bodyguard he shattered their formation.

It was at this point the Orc's morale was lost and the game was called. The rules were James' new Midguard ones and were perfect for this Dark age epic clash of men and monsters.

I had a great couple of days and it was a real treat to get out and do something exciting like this. To my amazement I didn't suffer any spear snaps of breakages and everything survived intacted. I was expecting a few casualties and had even taken a little repair kit but didn't need it.

Dain's Iron hills Dwarves push the Goblins from the ridge, supported by a group of Lake men.
An earlier shot of the swirl of battle.
The nine Black riders with their Dark lord 
My beloved Silvan elves holding their own against ravaging wolf packs.

I said it once, I'll say it again, what a bloody marvellous couple of days!

 I'm sure I'll have some more pictures soon to post on here of the day...
 

 Here's a shot of James Morris' Lonely mountain with the only missing element...thousands of blood drinking bats. 

Here are my test bases for the French and Indian wars, using the Bonnie Blue Flag rules.
I quite like these bases, they have more character than the single ones for me. Hopefully, these few test bases will inspire me to do a few more and finish the unit.

Galloping Major figures are so nice that you want to do them justice.

These have just been flocked and need a bit of a dusting off.
Mixed herbs make great leaf litter that is a classic look for the ancient Canadian forests.
When painting these figures I used a few coloured fine tip pens to detail the belts and pouches. I also gave them a coat of Dark tone dip from the tin. I was trying to think of a way of speeding up the painting process.
The Huron, allied to the French.

I love the long muskets and rifles.

 Twigs from the garden make for great moss covered logs.

The men of Lord Hastings' Retinue struggle through the mud of Tewkesbury.

Vallejo thick mud was the perfect solution for the grim battle conditions of the war. Adding snow to this layer would look fantastic but would rather limit the battles. I think a generic muddy field is a good all rounder for this brutal conflict.

I broke my usual 69x60mm basing after seeing a friend's and decided to copy it. Partly because the cheapness of plastics allows for bigger units. I also have quite a few old Perry miniatures from the old days of Foundry. These old lead figures are great for sprinkling amongst the ranks to add character. The above photo shows the effect of these old sculpts. They have to be mounted on plastic bases etc to bring them up to the height of the newer plastics. The mud is great for covering these and making everyone level.
As the Vallejo mud was drying, I cut up some thin brush bristles and pushed them into the mixture. These make for great arrows and really helps to give the bases a War of the Roses look and feel.
The mud is also great for splashing up the legs and clothes of the soldiers. It's quite subtle but helps to  set them in the scene.


The mud isn't quite dry yet and there are a couple more things to do before they are finished. Layers of 'Rutted field' from Luke's APS should look good over the mud, as well as patches of static grass. Also the arrows will need some white goose fletching on them.


 These new bases are 80x60mm and give a more realistic look to a unit. I got a bit carried away with these bases and they grew to 10 men per base.

The figures In these units are a mix of old Foundry, Perry's plastics and Forlorn Hope metal figures. They all mix together well and make for characterful formations.

Table of Contents

1. Thread Local storage exhausted
2. The layer of indirection
3. I can fix her
4. Let's write some tests!
5. Summary

Thread Local storage exhausted

In the last post I've described a technique to use dynamic variables by value instead of the name by utilizing the operator PROGV. Apparently it works fine on all Common Lisp implementations I've tried except from SBCL, where the number of thread local variables is by default limited to something below 4000. To add salt to the injury, these variables are not garbage collected.

Try the following code to crash into LDB:

(defun foo ()
  (loop for i from 0 below 4096 do
    (when (zerop (mod i 100))
      (print i))
    (progv (list (gensym)) (list 42)
      (values))))
(foo)

This renders our new technique not very practical given SBCL popularity. We need to either abandon the idea or come up with a workaround.

The layer of indirection

Luckily for us we've already introduced a layer of indirection. Operators to access dynamic variables are called DLET, DSET and DREF. This means, that it is enough to provide a kludge implementation for SBCL with minimal changes to the remaining code.

The old code works the same as previously except that instead of SYMBOL-VALUE we use the accessor DYNAMIC-VARIABLE-VALUE, and the old call to PROGV is now DYNAMIC-VARIABLE-PROGV. Moreover DYNAMIC-EFFECTIVE-SLOT used functions BOUNDP and MAKUNBOUND, so we replace these with DYNAMIC-VARIABLE-BOUND-P and DYNAMIC-VARIABLE-MAKUNBOUND. To abstract away things further we also introduce the constructor MAKE-DYNAMIC-VARIABLE

(defpackage "EU.TURTLEWARE.BLOG/DLET"
  (:local-nicknames ("MOP" #+closer-mop "C2MOP"
                           #+(and (not closer-mop) ecl) "MOP"
                           #+(and (not closer-mop) ccl) "CCL"
                           #+(and (not closer-mop) sbcl) "SB-MOP"))
  (:use "CL"))
(in-package "EU.TURTLEWARE.BLOG/DLET")

(eval-when (:compile-toplevel :execute :load-toplevel)
  (unless (member :bordeaux-threads *features*)
    (error "Please load BORDEAUX-THREADS."))
  (when (member :sbcl *features*)
    (unless (member :fake-progv-kludge *features*)
      (format t "~&;; Using FAKE-PROGV-KLUDGE for SBCL.~%")
      (push :fake-progv-kludge *features*))))

(defmacro dlet (bindings &body body)
  (flet ((pred (binding)
           (and (listp binding) (= 2 (length binding)))))
    (unless (every #'pred bindings)
      (error "DLET: bindings must be lists of two values.~%~
                Invalid bindings:~%~{ ~s~%~}" (remove-if #'pred bindings))))
  (loop for (var val) in bindings
        collect var into vars
        collect val into vals
        finally (return `(dynamic-variable-progv (list ,@vars) (list ,@vals)
                           ,@body))))

(defmacro dset (&rest pairs)
  `(setf ,@(loop for (var val) on pairs by #'cddr
                 collect `(dref ,var)
                 collect val)))

(defmacro dref (variable)
  `(dynamic-variable-value ,variable))

;;; ...

(defmethod mop:slot-boundp-using-class
    ((class standard-class)
     object
     (slotd dynamic-effective-slot))
  (dynamic-variable-bound-p (slot-dvar object slotd)))

(defmethod mop:slot-makunbound-using-class
    ((class standard-class)
     object
     (slotd dynamic-effective-slot))
  (dynamic-variable-makunbound (slot-dvar object slotd)))

With these in place we can change the portable implementation to conform.

#-fake-progv-kludge
(progn
  (defun make-dynamic-variable ()
    (gensym))

  (defun dynamic-variable-value (variable)
    (symbol-value variable))

  (defun (setf dynamic-variable-value) (value variable)
    (setf (symbol-value variable) value))

  (defun dynamic-variable-bound-p (variable)
    (boundp variable))

  (defun dynamic-variable-makunbound (variable)
    (makunbound variable))

  (defmacro dynamic-variable-progv (vars vals &body body)
    `(progv ,vars ,vals ,@body)))

I can fix her

The implementation for SBCL will mediate access to the dynamic variable value with a synchronized hash table with weak keys. The current process is the key of the hash table and the list of bindings is the value of the hash table. For compatibility between implementations the top level value of the symbol will be shared.

The variable +FAKE-UNBOUND+ is the marker that signifies, that the variable has no value. When the list of bindings is EQ to +CELL-UNBOUND+, then it means that we should use the global value. We add new bindings by pushing to it.

#+fake-progv-kludge
(progn
  (defvar +fake-unbound+ 'unbound)
  (defvar +cell-unbound+ '(no-binding))

  (defclass dynamic-variable ()
    ((tls-table
      :initform (make-hash-table :synchronized t :weakness :key)
      :reader dynamic-variable-tls-table)
     (top-value
      :initform +fake-unbound+
      :accessor dynamic-variable-top-value)))

  (defun make-dynamic-variable ()
    (make-instance 'dynamic-variable))

  (defun dynamic-variable-bindings (dvar)
    (let ((process (bt:current-thread))
          (tls-table (dynamic-variable-tls-table dvar)))
      (gethash process tls-table +cell-unbound+)))

  (defun (setf dynamic-variable-bindings) (value dvar)
    (let ((process (bt:current-thread))
          (tls-table (dynamic-variable-tls-table dvar)))
      (setf (gethash process tls-table +cell-unbound+) value))))

We define two readers for the variable value - one that simply reads the value, and the other that signals an error if the variable is unbound. Writer for its value either replaces the current binding, or if the value cell is unbound, then we modify the top-level symbol value. We use the value +FAKE-UNBOUND+ to check whether the variable is bound and to make it unbound.

#+fake-progv-kludge
(progn
  (defun %dynamic-variable-value (dvar)
    (let ((tls-binds (dynamic-variable-bindings dvar)))
      (if (eq tls-binds +cell-unbound+)
          (dynamic-variable-top-value dvar)
          (car tls-binds))))

  (defun dynamic-variable-value (dvar)
    (let ((tls-value (%dynamic-variable-value dvar)))
      (when (eq tls-value +fake-unbound+)
        (error 'unbound-variable :name "(unnamed)"))
      tls-value))

  (defun (setf dynamic-variable-value) (value dvar)
    (let ((tls-binds (dynamic-variable-bindings dvar)))
      (if (eq tls-binds +cell-unbound+)
          (setf (dynamic-variable-top-value dvar) value)
          (setf (car tls-binds) value))))

  (defun dynamic-variable-bound-p (dvar)
    (not (eq +fake-unbound+ (%dynamic-variable-value dvar))))

  (defun dynamic-variable-makunbound (dvar)
    (setf (dynamic-variable-value dvar) +fake-unbound+)))

Finally we define the operator to dynamically bind variables that behaves similar to PROGV. Note that we PUSH and POP from the thread-local hash table DYNAMIC-VARIABLE-BINDINGS, so no synchronization is necessary.

#+fake-progv-kludge
(defmacro dynamic-variable-progv (vars vals &body body)
  (let ((svars (gensym))
        (svals (gensym))
        (var (gensym))
        (val (gensym)))
    `(let ((,svars ,vars))
       (loop for ,svals = ,vals then (rest ,svals)
             for ,var in ,svars
             for ,val = (if ,svals (car ,svals) +fake-unbound+)
             do (push ,val (dynamic-variable-bindings ,var)))
       (unwind-protect (progn ,@body)
         (loop for ,var in ,svars
               do (pop (dynamic-variable-bindings ,var)))))))

Let's write some tests!

But of course, we are going to also write a test framework. It's short, I promise. As a bonus point the API is compatibile with fiveam, so it is possible to drop tests as is in the appropriate test suite.

(defvar *all-tests* '())

(defun run-tests ()
  (dolist (test (reverse *all-tests*))
    (format *debug-io* "Test ~a... " test)
    (handler-case (funcall test)
      (serious-condition (c)
        (format *debug-io* "Failed: ~a~%" c))
      (:no-error (&rest args)
        (declare (ignore args))
        (format *debug-io* "Passed.~%")))))

(defmacro test (name &body body)
  `(progn
     (pushnew ',name *all-tests*)
     (defun ,name () ,@body)))

(defmacro is (form)
  `(assert ,form))

(defmacro pass ())

(defmacro signals (condition form)
  `(is (block nil
         (handler-case ,form
           (,condition () (return t)))
         nil)))

(defmacro finishes (form)
  `(is (handler-case ,form
         (serious-condition (c)
           (declare (ignore c))
           nil)
         (:no-error (&rest args)
           (declare (ignore args))
           t))))

Now let's get to tests. First we'll test our metaclass:

(defclass dynamic-let.test-class ()
  ((slot1 :initarg :slot1 :dynamic nil :accessor slot1)
   (slot2 :initarg :slot2 :dynamic t   :accessor slot2)
   (slot3 :initarg :slot3              :accessor slot3))
  (:metaclass class-with-dynamic-slots))

(defparameter *dynamic-let.test-instance-1*
  (make-instance 'dynamic-let.test-class
                 :slot1 :a :slot2 :b :slot3 :c))

(defparameter *dynamic-let.test-instance-2*
  (make-instance 'dynamic-let.test-class
                 :slot1 :x :slot2 :y :slot3 :z))

(test dynamic-let.1
  (let ((o1 *dynamic-let.test-instance-1*)
        (o2 *dynamic-let.test-instance-2*))
    (with-slots (slot1 slot2 slot3) o1
      (is (eq :a slot1))
      (is (eq :b slot2))
      (is (eq :c slot3)))
    (with-slots (slot1 slot2 slot3) o2
      (is (eq :x slot1))
      (is (eq :y slot2))
      (is (eq :z slot3)))))

(test dynamic-let.2
  (let ((o1 *dynamic-let.test-instance-1*)
        (o2 *dynamic-let.test-instance-2*))
    (signals error (slot-dlet (((o1 'slot1) 1)) nil))
    (slot-dlet (((o1 'slot2) :k))
      (is (eq :k (slot-value o1 'slot2)))
      (is (eq :y (slot-value o2 'slot2))))))

(test dynamic-let.3
  (let ((o1 *dynamic-let.test-instance-1*)
        (exit nil)
        (fail nil))
    (flet ((make-runner (values)
             (lambda ()
               (slot-dlet (((o1 'slot2) :start))
                 (let ((value (slot2 o1)))
                   (unless (eq value :start)
                     (setf fail value)))
                 (loop until (eq exit t) do
                   (setf (slot2 o1) (elt values (random (length values))))
                   (let ((value (slot2 o1)))
                     (unless (member value values)
                       (setf fail value)
                       (setf exit t))))))))
      (let ((r1 (bt:make-thread (make-runner '(:k1 :k2))))
            (r2 (bt:make-thread (make-runner '(:k3 :k4))))
            (r3 (bt:make-thread (make-runner '(:k5 :k6)))))
        (sleep .1)
        (setf exit t)
        (map nil #'bt:join-thread (list r1 r2 r3))
        (is (eq (slot2 o1) :b))
        (is (null fail))))))

Then let's test the dynamic variable itself:

(test dynamic-let.4
  "Test basic dvar operators."
  (let ((dvar (make-dynamic-variable)))
    (is (eql 42 (dset dvar 42)))
    (is (eql 42 (dref dvar)))
    (ignore-errors
     (dlet ((dvar :x))
       (is (eql :x (dref dvar)))
       (error "foo")))
    (is (eql 42 (dref dvar)))))

(test dynamic-let.5
  "Test bound-p operator."
  (let ((dvar (make-dynamic-variable)))
    (is (not (dynamic-variable-bound-p dvar)))
    (dset dvar 15)
    (is (dynamic-variable-bound-p dvar))
    (dynamic-variable-makunbound dvar)
    (is (not (dynamic-variable-bound-p dvar)))))

(test dynamic-let.6
  "Test makunbound operator."
  (let ((dvar (make-dynamic-variable)))
    (dset dvar t)
    (is (dynamic-variable-bound-p dvar))
    (finishes (dynamic-variable-makunbound dvar))
    (is (not (dynamic-variable-bound-p dvar)))))

(test dynamic-let.7
  "Test locally bound-p operator."
  (let ((dvar (make-dynamic-variable)))
    (is (not (dynamic-variable-bound-p dvar)))
    (dlet ((dvar 15))
      (is (dynamic-variable-bound-p dvar)))
    (is (not (dynamic-variable-bound-p dvar)))))

(test dynamic-let.8
  "Test locally unbound-p operator."
  (let ((dvar (make-dynamic-variable)))
    (dset dvar t)
    (is (dynamic-variable-bound-p dvar))
    (dlet ((dvar nil))
      (is (dynamic-variable-bound-p dvar))
      (finishes (dynamic-variable-makunbound dvar))
      (is (not (dynamic-variable-bound-p dvar))))
    (is (dynamic-variable-bound-p dvar))))

(test dynamic-let.9
  "Stress test the implementation (see :FAKE-PROGV-KLUDGE)."
  (finishes                              ; at the same time
    (let ((dvars (loop repeat 4096 collect (make-dynamic-variable))))
      ;; ensure tls variable
      (loop for v in dvars do
        (dlet ((v 1))))
      (loop for i from 0 below 4096
            for r = (random 4096)
            for v1 in dvars
            for v2 = (elt dvars r) do
              (when (zerop (mod i 64))
                (pass))
              (dlet ((v1 42)
                     (v2 43))
                (values))))))

(test dynamic-let.0
  "Stress test the implementation (see :FAKE-PROGV-KLUDGE)."
  (finishes                             ; can be gc-ed
    (loop for i from 0 below 4096 do
      (when (zerop (mod i 64))
        (pass))
      (dlet (((make-dynamic-variable) 42))
        (values)))))

All that is left is to test both dynamic variable implementations:

BLOG/DLET> (lisp-implementation-type)
"ECL"
BLOG/DLET> (run-tests)
Test DYNAMIC-LET.1... Passed.
Test DYNAMIC-LET.2... Passed.
Test DYNAMIC-LET.3... Passed.
Test DYNAMIC-LET.4... Passed.
Test DYNAMIC-LET.5... Passed.
Test DYNAMIC-LET.6... Passed.
Test DYNAMIC-LET.7... Passed.
Test DYNAMIC-LET.8... Passed.
Test DYNAMIC-LET.9... Passed.
Test DYNAMIC-LET.0... Passed.
NIL

And with the kludge:

BLOG/DLET> (lisp-implementation-type)
"SBCL"
BLOG/DLET> (run-tests)
Test DYNAMIC-LET.1... Passed.
Test DYNAMIC-LET.2... Passed.
Test DYNAMIC-LET.3... Passed.
Test DYNAMIC-LET.4... Passed.
Test DYNAMIC-LET.5... Passed.
Test DYNAMIC-LET.6... Passed.
Test DYNAMIC-LET.7... Passed.
Test DYNAMIC-LET.8... Passed.
Test DYNAMIC-LET.9... Passed.
Test DYNAMIC-LET.0... Passed.
NIL

Summary

In this post we've made our implementation to work on SBCL even when there are more than a few thousand dynamic variables. We've also added a simple test suite that checks the basic behavior.

As it often happens, after achieving some goal we get greedy and achieve more. That's the case here as well. In the next (and the last) post in this series I'll explore the idea of adding truly thread-local variables without a shared global value. This will be useful for lazily creating context on threads that are outside of our control. We'll also generalize the implementation so it is possible to subclass and implement ones own flavor of a dynamic variable.

1. 3 Children, 3 Women Missing After 10 Suspected Kuki Militants Killed In Encounter In Manipur's Jiribam  NDTV
2. Manipur on boil: 2 more bodies found, 6 missing  The Times of India
3. Additional paramilitary forces rushed to Manipur amid spike in ethnic violence  Hindustan Times
4. Letters to The Editor — November 13, 2024  The Hindu
5. 2 men found dead, 6 of family missing day after militants killed in Manipur  India Today

Full Article