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Results: Bermuda Karting Club Week Two

The Bermuda Karting Club’s 2024/2025 season continued at the Southside Motorsports Park, delivering a day of high-octane action. Nathan DeCosta demonstrated his mastery in the tag senior class, securing a clean sweep of victories across all three races. His dominance was mirrored by Syah Pedro in the tag junior class, who similarly claimed the top […]




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Results: Bermuda Karting Club Week Three

The Bermuda Karting Club’s 2024/2025 race season saw the third race day at the Southside Motor Sports Park. William Dunkley won two of the three tag senior class races, with Jason Correia winning the other, Syah Pedro won all three races in the tag junior class races. Brian Bulhoes won all three L206 class races, […]




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Video/Photos: Aliana King Featured In WR.UP

Bermudian model Aliana King has been featured in yet another international marketing campaign, with time for the FREDDY WR.UP brand. According to the brand’s website, “FREDDY is an apparel brand established in 1976, based in Italy and specializing in stylish women’s shaping pants.” Ms. King has also appeared in a number of other campaigns for […]




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Photos: Fashion Show Fundraiser At Verdmont

A fashion show fundraiser last Saturday [Oct 1] at the Bermuda National Trust’s Verdmont property. A spokesperson said, “Verdmont, a Bermuda National Trust historic house and garden, was the splendid setting for a one-of-a-kind fabulous fashion show on Saturday October 1st. Most likely for the first time in its 300-year history it hosted a Fashion Show […]




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Photos: Aliana King Featured By David Yurman

Bermudian model Aliana King has been featured in a campaign for David Yurman. David Yurman describes itself as “America’s preeminent jewelry company,” and Ms King joins a number of prominent models and actresses — such as Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Naomi Watts, Gisele Bündchen, Joan Smalls, Taylor Hill, and Natalia Vodianova — that have modeled […]




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Photos: Berkeley’s Dress Code-Runway Show

As a part of its 125th anniversary celebrations, the Berkeley Educational Society held their ‘Dress Code Runway Show’ — a Tea, Hat, and Fashion show fundraiser — on Sunday [June 11]. Maxine Esdaille, Chair of the Planning Committee, previously said, “The idea behind this event is to recognize and celebrate Berkeley’s contribution, through its students […]




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Photos: CedarBridge Academy’s Fashion Show

[Written by Althea Emery and Anya Thompson] CedarBridge Academy set the stage ablaze with its electrifying annual S4 Fashion Show, “Save the Last Dance: It’s Giving Music,” held at the esteemed Ruth Seaton James Center for the Performing Arts on April 19th and 20th, 2024. Seamlessly blending fashion, music, and dance, this eagerly awaited event […]




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Photos: New Airport Terminal To Open Tomorrow

[Updated with more photos] The new airport terminal is scheduled to officially open for operations tomorrow [Dec 9] and the photos below show a small advance look at the new facility. A spokesperson previously said, “The new, purpose-built Airport Terminal will officially open for operations on December 9, 2020. The 288,000 square foot facility will […]




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Photos: Emergency Exercise At Airport

The LF Wade International Airport held an emergency exercise today [Nov 18] with multiple on island agencies participating. A spokesperson previously said, “The exercise is designed to test the airport’s emergency plans, with various governmental and non-governmental agencies on hand to participate. The event will be a simulation of an aircraft accident in the waters […]




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Photos: RAF Typhoons Land In Bermuda

Royal Air Force [RAF] typhoons were recently spotted at LF Wade International Airport as they made a landing on the island. The RAF website says, “The Typhoon FGR.Mk 4 is a highly capable and extremely agile fourth-generation multi-role combat aircraft, capable of being deployed for the full spectrum of air operations, including air policing, peace […]




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Photos: 2024 Bermuda Sandcastle Competition

The annual Bermuda Sandcastle Competition took place yesterday [August 31] at Horseshoe Bay Beach, with a wide array of examples of sand art on display for spectators and sculptors alike to enjoy. We will update with the results as able Related Stories Photos, Video & 360: Sandcastle Contest Photos: Sandcastle Mother’s Day Greetings Photos & Video: […]




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Photos & Results: Bermuda Sandcastle Contest

The Bermuda Sandcastle Competition took place on Saturday [August 31] at Horseshoe Bay Beach, with the ‘best on the beach’ prize being awarded to Pete Faverio. Best on the Beach Prize A spokesperson said, “Pete Faverio returns from Delaware to stun and amaze spectators with his castles. This is his third year joining us. Adult category #1 Team […]




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‘Faces Called Flowers: Artists Talk’ On Sept 11

The Bermuda Society of Arts [BSOA] will host its “Faces Called Flowers: Artists Talk” event with artists Keishunda Curtis and Andrea Ottley on Wednesday, September 11 from 5.00pm to 7.00pm on the top floor of City Hall. A spokesperson said, “Faces Called Flowers: Artists Talk with artists Keishunda Curtis and Andrea Ottley. Join the artists […]




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Photos: Gherdai Hassell Exhibition Opening

Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art held the opening of its “Not All Has To Be As It Was” exhibition, featuring the innovative works of Gherdai Hassell. A spokesperson previously said, “Not All Has To Be As It Was is Hassell’s inaugural collaborative exhibition, blending her unique vision with pieces from the Masterworks Permanent Collection and […]




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Photos: Video Game Design Challenge Winners

Bermuda Island Games hosted its 3rd Annual Video Game Design Challenge, where participants showcased their creativity and entrepreneurial skills by designing video games. A spokesperson said, “Bermuda Island Games held their annual Video Game Design Challenge over the weekend, to see which group could come up with the best video game idea. “The theme this […]




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Photos: Collie Buddz ‘Take It Easy’ Show

Collie Buddz – who was nominated for a Grammy earlier this year – performed at Snorkel Park just prior to the Cup Match holiday, serving as part of his international “Take it Easy” Tour. For extensive coverage of Cup Match spanning over a decade, visit our website BernewsCupMatch.com, the island’s most comprehensive resource on the Cup Match holiday. Over […]




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Photos: Azores President Bolieiro Arrives

President of the Azores José Manuel Bolieiro arrived in Bermuda today [Nov 2] to help celebrate the 175th anniversary of the first arrival of Portuguese immigrants to Bermuda. A spokesperson previously said, “The ’175th Portuguese Commemorations Committee’ wishes to let the public know that the President of the Azores, José Manuel Bolieiro, will be visiting […]




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Live Video & Updates: 2024 Throne Speech

[Updating] The Convening of Parliament is taking place this morning [Nov 8], with Governor Rena Lalgie delivering the 2024 Throne Speech, which outlines the Government’s Legislative Agenda for the year ahead. The proceedings are set to get underway later this morning and we will provide what coverage we are able to while it is live, […]




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Photos: Phoenix Hold Fenty Beauty Launch

Phoenix Stores held its Fenty Beauty launch event yesterday [Oct 24] at its 59 Front Street location. A spokesperson previously said, “Our team put in the work to craft a proposal to secure our spot as Bermuda’s go-to retail destination for the hottest beauty trends. “To celebrate, the line will debut at a special launch […]




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Photos: Pride & Breakaway Ships In Dockyard

The Carnival Pride and Norwegian Breakaway cruise ships recently visited the island, and a look at both of the vessels in Dockyard is below. To see more of our cruise ship coverage, click here. Related Stories Photos & Video: MS Insignia In St. George’s Photos & Video: MS Silver Shadow Visits Photos & Video: Cruise […]




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Photos: MV Sixth Sense Superyacht Visits

The Sixth Sense super-yacht — a 242-foot long motor yacht launched by Amels in 2019 that can accommodate 12 guests and 19 crew members — recently visited the island, stopping in the east end. Related Stories Video: Superyachts Invited To Bermuda Bermuda Called A Superyacht “Playground” $100 Million Superyacht “Rock.It” Visits Island 295-Ft Superyacht “Nero” […]




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"Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints" to Debut This Sunday, November 17th on FOX Nation

Premiering in two parts, the first four episodes will roll out weekly, beginning on Sunday, with the final four to run in April-May 2025, spanning the Holy season.




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Companies: All

Upcoming Companies No applications have been received since the last update. Finished Companies No finished forms have been received since the last update. Moved Companies No moved forms have been received since the last update. Closed Companies (Open for application) Chevys Fresh Mex; Dollar Tree; Outback Steakhouse; Wal-Mart Troubled Companies (Not open for application) The […]




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Politics and Organisations: Troubles

Removed From Troubles (Not open for application): Pro-Choice Movement (Movements); Obama, Barack (People) Troubled Politics and Organisations (Not open for application) The following fanlistings are scheduled for removal on November 13, 2024. If your listing is listed below, please fix the problem/send in a finished form and reply to the troubles email. Pending Removal: Anti-Bullying […]



  • Politics and Organisations

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Musicians: Bands/Groups – Overdue

Troubled Musicians: Bands/Groups (Not open for application) The following fanlistings are scheduled for removal on November 14, 2024. If your fanlisting is listed below, please fix the problem/send in a finished form and reply to the troubles email! Pending Removal – Overdue SR-71; Wallflowers, The



  • Musicians: Bands/Groups

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TV Shows: All

Upcoming TV Shows (Not open for application) Full House; Torchwood Finished TV Shows (Not open for application) Saved by the Bell: The New Class Moved TV Shows (Not open for application) No moved forms have been received since the last update. Closed TV Shows (Open for application) No closed forms have been received since the […]




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Musicians: Bands/Groups – All

Upcoming Musicians: Bands/Groups D’espairsRay; Kagrra,; Loona; Rentrer en Soi; Rise Against; tripleS Finished Musicians: Bands/Groups SR-71; Wallflowers, The Moved Musicians: Bands/Groups No moved forms have been received since the last update. Closed Musicians: Bands/Groups (Open for application) No closed forms have been received since the last update. Overdue Musicians: Bands/Groups No overdue fanlistings. Overdue: Temporary […]



  • Musicians: Bands/Groups

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Songs: Bands/Groups N-Z – Finished

Finished Songs: Bands/Groups N-Z Cover Girl (New Kids On The Block); Games (New Kids On The Block); Hangin’ Tough (New Kids On The Block); I’ll Be Loving You (Forever) (New Kids On The Block); Please Don’t Go Girl (New Kids On The Block); Step by Step (New Kids On The Block)



  • Songs: Bands/Groups N-Z

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Characters: Book/Movie – Troubles

Removed From Troubles (Not open for application) Dave (Ant-Man series); Kurt (Ant-Man series); Luis (Ant-Man series); Lang, Scott ‘Ant-Man’ (Avengers series, The); van Dyne, Hope ‘The Wasp’ (Avengers series, The); Wilson, Wade Winston ‘Deadpool’ (Deadpool); Salander, Lisbeth (Millennium series, The) Removed From Troubles – Closed (Open for application) Kili (Lord of the Rings series, The […]



  • Characters: Book/Movie

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Objects: Finished

Finished Objects Daggers




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NPR Topics: Winter Olympics '06




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Book Reviews: 'The Red Hourglass' and 'The Book of Deadly Animals'

"It's a brutal world for all of us, really, and some aspects of it are not comfortable for the sentimental or the squeamish. Somehow that's never dimmed my love for all animals. I celebrate their beauty, even the darker side of it." (Introduction, The Book of Deadly Animals)

"The predators far outnumbered the vegetarians."
(last words, The Red Hourglass: Lives of the Predators)

It's October, the "spooky" month with Halloween at the end of it; I sometimes take advantage of that to bring to light something a bit more horror themed than the usual Flayrah fare.

This year, I'd like to share the non-fiction books of Gordon Grice, which are about animals and their sometimes very tense relationship with man, because they are some of the scariest things I've ever read, and so appropriate enough under the "it's about animals and it's spooky" month to stretch the boundaries of what a furry publication can cover. Furthermore, from a personal angle, Grice spent much of his life where I'm originally from, the Oklahoma Panhandle (we share a birth town), and I occasionally like to shine a light on what would be to me local authors.

"The Red Hourglass: Lives of the Predators", Delacourte Press, 1998, 259 pages, Kindle $5.99, hardcover $19.32, paperback $17.10
"The Book of Deadly Animals", Penguin Books Ltd., 2010, xxvii + 383 pages, Kindle $4.99, paperback $24.00, illustrated, originally published as Deadly Kingdom

read more




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HPT Treasures: Practical Situational Awareness

I posted about Situational Awareness at HPT Treasures today. What I didn't say in that post was that I've experimented with a few different methods...




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iPhone Users: Put an AirTag in Your Camera Bag



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 »




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Board Game Review–Quests & Cannons: The Risen Islands

I had the opportunity to play a preview edition of Quests & Cannons: The Risen Islands  from Short Hop Games in advance of the game’s upcoming Kickstarter campaign. Designed by Eric and Shannon Geller, the preview edition arrived in a bright and colorful cover box that hinted at the beautiful artwork within.

We got it on the table for a family game straightaway. As we unpacked the contents of the box, I was impressed with the quality of the wooden components. Especially for a preview copy, everything was incredibly well made and sturdy, which speaks to the care and enthusiasm Eric and Shannon have put into the game. The illustrations on the components are just lovely! The artists (Lily Yao Lu, Tony Carter, Regis Torres, Sita Duncan, and Lilia Sitailo) did a really great job integrating the theme into the materials. 

Quests & Cannons  is very easy to setup and the rules are straightforward,  so you can get started playing pretty quickly; no one is going to be stuck spending an hour reviewing the rules upfront. The only thing you really need to work out is whether you want to play the game solo, cooperatively, free for all, or in teams.  Regardless of the mode you choose, you’ll sit down as a leader of a kingdom, tasked with bringing prosperity (i.e. victory points) to your people as you explore new islands that have suddenly cropped up in the sea. The revelation of the islands has coincided with devastating famine and drought hitting the kingdoms to varying degrees, so you’re also on a quest to find a way to reverse these plagues.

And since prosperity can be gained through attacking other leaders during explorations, you’ll need to be thinking about battle defense and offense.  My kids are teens, so they handled the attacks pretty well, but your mileage may vary with your youngsters, depending on their age and temperament.

The underlying mechanics of the game are pretty simple:

  • Explore to gather resources across the islands and turn those resources in to complete quests (pick up and deliver)
  • Follow explicit instructions on map clue cards to do X action at X location
  • Attack rival ships

Players can do three actions on a turn, choosing freely between move, gather resources, and attack. 

All of the how-to and particulars governing these actions are detailed in the rulebook (and in video play-throughs online). Variability in movement rules, attack/defense power, and resource storage capacity is dictated for each player by the leader card they’ve chosen at the beginning of the game (each one comes with special powers and differing stats) and the upgrades performed on their ship.

I did find a few issues with the mechanics for the Geller team to address before the final version is distributed:

  • Explain in the rulebook what should be done if the map clue drawn cannot possibly be used
  • Add a 0 space to the action point track on each player’s ship to track the exhaustion of the final action point
  • Implement monsters or other descriptive elements with differing effects into the treacherous sea spaces to add more complexity

Outside of these issues, I recommend Quests & Cannons as a family game for gateway gamers (i.e. new to the hobby) or those who gravitate toward light strategy games. It’s kid-friendly and there isn’t any analysis paralysis inherent in the game.  It plays in under 90 minutes, gives kids exposure to different play modes within the same game, tackles conflict resolution, and comes with a variety of board layouts to keep things interesting over multiple plays. Note that this is not a game I’d recommend for players who prefer deeper strategy. Highly experienced gamers drawn to seafaring themes and beautiful artwork can find similar mechanisms with a bit more depth and complexity in other games such as Islebound (designed by Ryan Laukat from Red Raven Games).

-------------------------------------------------

Publisher: Short Hop Games
Players: 1-6 (We played with 4 and 5)
Actual Playing Time (vs the guideline on the box): about 90 minutes per game
Game type: pick-up and deliver,hand management, action points, kid-friendly, solo

Rating for Gateway Gamers: 

Rating for Advanced Board Gamers:                                          

Rating scale:
OUI: I would play this game again; this game is ok. I probably would not buy this game myself but I would play it with those who own it and if someone gave it to me I would keep it.
OUI OUI: I would play this game again; this game is good. I would buy this game.
OUI OUI OUI: I LOVE THIS GAME. I MUST HAVE THIS GAME.
NON: I would not play this game again. I would return this game or give it away if it was given to me.



  • action points games
  • board game reviews
  • hand management games
  • Kickstarter
  • kid friendly games
  • pick-up and deliver games
  • Short Hop Games


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For parts: Lunar rover, never used

NASA has canceled VIPER, a rover designed to seek out water ice and other resources in the lunar south pole.




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Ramses: A new mission racing to land on asteroid Apophis

When a skyscraper-sized asteroid narrowly misses Earth in 2029, three spacecraft may be along for the ride.




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New insights into asteroid properties: A STEP Grant update

A Planetary Society-funded project to understand asteroids achieved its main goals and scientific objectives this year.




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Quicklisp news: October 2024 Quicklisp dist update now available

 New projects: 

  • adp-github — ADP extension to generate github markdown files. — MIT
  • adp-plain — Add Documentation, Please... using plain text. An extension of ADP to generate files with barely additional features. — MIT
  • allioli — Alliolification — MIT
  • alternate-asdf-system-connections — Allows for ASDF system to be connected so that auto-loading may occur. This is a fork of asdf-system-connections and incorporates a load-system-driven mechanism for loading dependencies and also loads the dependencies of the connections. — MIT
  • cbor — CBOR encoder/decoder — MIT
  • charje.documentation — Documentation is an opinionated yet customizable docstring parsing library. — AGPL V3 or any later version
  • chipi — House automation bus in Common Lisp — Apache-2
  • cl-aseprite — Aseprite file format parser — GPLv3
  • cl-astar — A heavily optimized yet flexible A* pathfinding algorithm implementation — MIT
  • cl-ceigen-lite — A Common Lisp wrapper around CEIGEN-LITE - which is itself a C wrapper around the C++ Eigen library. — MIT
  • cl-cf — Computations using continued fractions — GPL-3
  • cl-concord — CONCORD implementation based on Common Lisp — LGPL
  • cl-duckdb — CFFI wrapper around the DuckDB C API — MIT License
  • cl-fastcgi — FastCGI wrapper for Common Lisp — BSD License
  • cl-flx — Rewrite emacs-flx in Common Lisp — MIT
  • cl-frugal-uuid — Common Lisp UUID library with zero dependencies — MIT License
  • cl-gog-galaxy — A wrapper for the GOG Galaxy SDK — zlib
  • cl-lc — List comprehensions — MIT
  • cl-naive-ptrees — Functions to make it easier to work with plist(s) and plist trees. Works with plist(s) pairs as units and not as individual list items. — MIT
  • cl-qoa — An implementation of the Quite Okay Audio format. — zlib
  • cl-reddit — Reddit client api library — BSD
  • cl-resvg — An up-to-date bindings library for the resvg SVG rendering library — zlib
  • cl-trivial-clock — Common Lisp library to get accurate wall-clock times on multiple platforms — MIT License
  • clack-cors — A Clack middleware to set CORS related HTTP headers. — Unlicense
  • clack-prometheus — Clack middleware to serve stats in Prometheus format. — Unlicense
  • clith — Common Lisp wITH macro. A general WITH macro. — MIT
  • clj-arrows — Implements Clojure-styled threading/transformation macros. — MIT
  • clos-encounters — A collection of OOP patterns benefiting from the CLOS MOP. — Unlicense
  • coalton — An efficient, statically typed functional programming language that supercharges Common Lisp. — MIT
  • cocoas — A toolkit library to help deal with CoreFoundation, Cocoa, and objc — zlib
  • com.danielkeogh.graph — A fast an reliable graph library. — MIT
  • fast-mpsc-queue — Multi-Producer Single-Consumer queue implementation. — MIT
  • file-finder — File finder. Enable rapid file search, inspection and manipulation. — GPL3+
  • golden-utils — A utility library. — MIT
  • hiccl — HTML generator for Common Lisp — MIT
  • hsx — Hypertext S-expression — MIT
  • hunchentoot-stuck-connection-monitor — Monitors hunchentoot connections and logs the connections stuck in the same state for a long time (due to slow or inactive clients and network stream timeouts that hunchentoot tries to utilize not working properly). Offers an option to shutdown the stuck connections sockets manually or automatically, thus unblocking the connection threads and preventing thread and socket leak. See https://github.com/edicl/hunchentoot/issues/189 — BSD-2-Clause
  • incless — A portable and extensible Common Lisp printer implementation (core) — BSD
  • inravina — A portable and extensible Common Lisp pretty printer. — MIT
  • invistra — A portable and extensible Common Lisp FORMAT implementation — BSD
  • knx-conn — KNXnet/IP implementation in Common Lisp — GNU GPL, version 3
  • machine-state — Retrieve machine state information about CPU time, memory usage, etc. — zlib
  • myweb — simple web server written in common lisp for educational reasons — LGPLv3
  • noisy — Perlin noise for arbitrary numbers of dimensions. — MIT
  • nontrivial-gray-streams — A compatibility layer for Gray streams including extensions — MIT
  • open-with — Open a file in a suitable external program — zlib
  • openai-openapi-client — Openai API client — AGPLv3+
  • openrpc — CI for Common Lisp OpenRPC library. — BSD
  • parse-number-range — Parses LOOP's convenient "for-as-arithmetic" syntax into 5 simple values: from, to, limit-kind (:inclusive, :exclusive or nil if unbounded), by (step) and direction (+ or -)). Further related utilities are provided. Intended for easy implementation of analogous functionality in other constructs. — Public Domain
  • precise-time — Precise time measurements — zlib
  • pregexp — Portable regular expressions for Common Lisp — MIT-like
  • progressons — Display a progress bar on one line. — MIT
  • quaviver — A portable and extensible floating point string library — MIT
  • quilc — A CLI front-end for the Quil compiler — Apache License 2.0 (See LICENSE.txt)
  • qvm — An implementation of the Quantum Abstract Machine. — Apache License 2.0 (See LICENSE.txt)
  • random-sampling — Functions to generate random samples with various distributions — zlib
  • rs-dlx — Knuth's Algorithm X with dancing links. — Modified BSD License
  • scrapycl — The web scraping framework for writing crawlers in Common Lisp. — Unlicense
  • smoothers — Statistical methods to create approximating functions that attempt to capture important patterns in the data, while leaving out noise or other fine-scale structures/rapid phenomena. — MS-PL
  • trivial-adjust-simple-array — A tiny utility to change array size ensuring it is simple. — MIT
  • trivial-system-loader — A system installation/loading abstraction for Common Lisp — MIT
  • trivial-toplevel-commands — Trivial Toplevel Commands allows to define toplevel commands available on most implementations in a portable fashion. — BSD-3 Clause
  • trivial-toplevel-prompt — Portability library to customize REPL prompts. — BSD-3 Clause
  • utf8-input-stream — A UTF-8 string input stream over a binary stream for Common Lisp — MIT
  • whereiseveryone.command-line-args — Automatically create a command-line-argument parser for a given Common Lisp function definition. — AGPL v3 or any later version

Updated projects: 3b-bmfont, 3bgl-shader, 3bmd, 3d-math, 3d-spaces, 40ants-asdf-system, 40ants-slynk, access, acclimation, action-list, adhoc, adopt, adp, agnostic-lizard, alexandria, alexandria-plus, anatevka, anypool, april, arc-compat, architecture.builder-protocol, array-utils, arrow-macros, assoc-utils, async-process, atomics, auto-restart, aws-sdk-lisp, babel, bdef, bike, binary-structures, binding-arrows, birch, blackbird, bordeaux-threads, calm, carrier, caveman, ccldoc, cephes.cl, cepl, cerberus, cffi, cffi-object, cffi-ops, chanl, chunga, ci, ci-utils, ciao, cl-6502, cl-algebraic-data-type, cl-all, cl-ansi-term, cl-async, cl-atelier, cl-autowrap, cl-base32, cl-bmas, cl-bmp, cl-bnf, cl-brewer, cl-buchberger, cl-cmark, cl-collider, cl-colors2, cl-confidence, cl-containers, cl-cookie, cl-csv, cl-custom-hash-table, cl-cxx-jit, cl-data-structures, cl-dbi, cl-digraph, cl-dot, cl-enchant, cl-environments, cl-fast-ecs, cl-fbx, cl-fluent-logger, cl-form-types, cl-forms, cl-freetype2, cl-gamepad, cl-github-v3, cl-gltf, cl-gobject-introspection, cl-graph, cl-grip, cl-gserver, cl-hamcrest, cl-hash-util, cl-html-readme, cl-i18n, cl-info, cl-ini, cl-ipfs-api2, cl-kanren, cl-lib-helper, cl-liballegro, cl-liballegro-nuklear, cl-log, cl-markless, cl-marshal, cl-migratum, cl-mixed, cl-modio, cl-mount-info, cl-mpg123, cl-mssql, cl-mustache, cl-mysql, cl-neovim, cl-netpbm, cl-oju, cl-opengl, cl-opensearch-query-builder, cl-opus, cl-patterns, cl-plus-ssl-osx-fix, cl-ppcre, cl-project, cl-protobufs, cl-pslib, cl-pslib-barcode, cl-rashell, cl-readline, cl-sat.minisat, cl-sdl2-image, cl-sdl2-mixer, cl-sdl2-ttf, cl-sendgrid, cl-sentry-client, cl-skkserv, cl-smtp, cl-ssh-keys, cl-steamworks, cl-str, cl-svg, cl-telegram-bot, cl-threadpool, cl-tiled, cl-torrents, cl-tqdm, cl-transducers, cl-transit, cl-unicode, cl-unification, cl-unix-sockets, cl-utils, cl-vectors, cl-vorbis, cl-wavefront, cl-webdriver-client, cl-webkit, cl-webmachine, cl-who, clack, clack-pretend, clad, classimp, clast, clath, clavier, clazy, clerk, clgplot, climacs, clingon, clip, clj-con, clj-re, clobber, clog, clog-ace, clog-collection, clog-plotly, clog-terminal, clohost, closer-mop, clss, cluffer, clunit2, clx, cmd, codata-recommended-values, codex, coleslaw, collectors, colored, com-on, common-lisp-jupyter, commondoc-markdown, compiler-macro-notes, conduit-packages, consfigurator, contextl, croatoan, ctype, cytoscape-clj, damn-fast-priority-queue, dartscluuid, data-frame, data-lens, datafly, dbus, decompress, defenum, definer, definitions, deflate, defmain, deploy, depot, deptree, dexador, dissect, djula, dns-client, doc, docs-builder, dsm, dufy, easter-gauss, easy-audio, easy-macros, easy-routes, eclector, equals, erjoalgo-webutil, erudite, esrap, event-emitter, external-program, external-symbol-not-found, fare-csv, fare-scripts, fast-http, fast-websocket, file-attributes, file-notify, file-select, filesystem-utils, fiveam, fiveam-matchers, flexi-streams, float-features, flow, fn, fset, functional-trees, fuzzy-dates, gadgets, generic-cl, github-api-cl, glfw, glsl-toolkit, harmony, hashtrie, helambdap, http2, hunchentoot, imago, in-nomine, inferior-shell, introspect-environment, ironclad, jose, js, json-mop, jsonrpc, jzon, khazern, lack, lass, lemmy-api, letv, lichat-protocol, lichat-tcp-client, linear-programming, lisp-binary, lisp-chat, lisp-critic, lisp-pay, lisp-stat, lispcord, lla, local-time, log4cl-extras, logging, lru-cache, magicl, maiden, maidenhead, manifolds, math, mcclim, memory-regions, messagebox, method-combination-utilities, mgl-pax, misc-extensions, mito, mk-defsystem, mmap, mnas-package, mnas-string, moira, multiposter, mutility, mutils, named-closure, ndebug, neural-classifier, new-op, nibbles, nibbles-streams, ningle, nodgui, north, numerical-utilities, nytpu.lisp-utils, omglib, ook, open-location-code, openapi-generator, orizuru-orm, overlord, papyrus, parachute, parse-number, pathname-utils, petalisp, phos, picl, plot, plump, plump-sexp, pngload, policy-cond, polymorphic-functions, postmodern, ppath, prometheus-gc, psychiq, purgatory, py4cl, py4cl2, py4cl2-cffi, qlot, qoi, query-fs, quick-patch, quickhull, quri, random-state, reblocks, reblocks-auth, reblocks-file-server, reblocks-lass, reblocks-navigation-widget, reblocks-parenscript, reblocks-prometheus, reblocks-typeahead, reblocks-ui, reblocks-websocket, rove, s-dot2, sandalphon.lambda-list, sb-fastcgi, sc-extensions, sel, select, serapeum, shasht, shop3, si-kanren, sketch, slime, slite, sly, snooze, spinneret, staple, static-vectors, statistics, stepster, stmx, stripe, swank-crew, swank-protocol, sxql, symath, system-locale, taglib, teddy, ten, testiere, tfeb-lisp-hax, tfm, tiny-routes, tooter, trivia, trivial-arguments, trivial-clipboard, trivial-file-size, trivial-gray-streams, trivial-main-thread, trivial-octet-streams, trivial-package-locks, trivial-package-manager, trivial-sanitize, trivial-shell, type-templates, typo, uax-15, uiop, usocket, vellum, vellum-binary, vellum-csv, vellum-postmodern, verbose, vernacular, vom, websocket-driver, winhttp, with-branching, with-contexts, woo, xhtmlambda, xml-emitter, yason, zippy, zpb-ttf.

Removed projects: abstract-arrays, ahungry-fleece, cl-cheshire-cat, cl-darksky, cl-epoch, cl-naive-store, convolution-kernel, dense-arrays, extensible-compound-types, extensible-optimizing-coerce, fast-generic-functions, flac-metadata, freebsd-ffi, listoflist, luckless, one-more-re-nightmare, postmodern-localtime, stumpwm-dynamic-float, stumpwm-sndioctl, unicly.

To get this update, use:

 (ql:update-dist "quicklisp")

Sorry this update took so long. My goal is to resume monthly releases.

Enjoy!






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College Football Playoff Rankings: Oregon, Ohio State on top; Alabama enters top 10

The second set of College Football Playoff Predictions were released Tuesday night, with Oregon, Ohio State and Texas listed in the top three spots. See the complete rankings!




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College Football Playoff rankings takeaways: Colorado's path, Indiana undervalued

FOX Sports' RJ Young offers up three takeaways from the second set of College Football Playoff rankings, including Colorado's path to the CFP ... and the national title game.




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2024-25 NBA championship odds: Celtics, Thunder favored; Cavs rising

A number of contenders are chasing the defending champion Celtics on the oddsboard. Check out where things stand, with insight from Jason McIntyre.




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what 'polite' means: Culpeper, O'Driscoll & Hardaker (2019)

I've studied the word please off and on for a few years now.* Currently, I'm trying to finish up a study that I started an embarrassing number of years ago. Now that I've returned to it, I have the pleasure of reading all the works that have been published on related topics in the meantime. They couldn't inform my study design, but they must now inform the paper I hope to publish. One of these is a chapter by Jonathan Culpeper, Jim O'Driscoll and Claire Hardaker: "Notions of Politeness in Britain and North America," published in the book in From Speech Acts to Lay Understandings of Politeness, edited by Eva Ogiermann and Pilar Garcés-Conejos Blitvich (Cambridge UP, 2019). 

Their question, what does polite mean in the UK and US, was a research project on my to-do list. When I was a younger scholar, I'd have been (a) royally annoyed with those authors for getting to it first, (b) sad, sad, sad that I didn't get to do a fun piece of research, and (c) consumed with self-loathing for not being quick enough to do the project myself. It is both the blessing and curse of middle age that I now look at anything anyone else has done with gratitude. Good! Now I don't have to do it! 

Let's start with why it's interesting to ask about "notions of politeness" in the two countries. Here's a clue from an earlier post about use of please when ordering at restaurants. I asked:
So, how can it be that Americans think of themselves as polite when they fail to extend this common courtesy word?
I argued that Americans (subconsciously) find the lack of please in these contexts "more polite." In the comments section for that post, some people—mostly British people—could just not accept that a food order without a please could be described as polite. To them, to be polite includes saying please. If you're not using the word please, it's just not polite. 

Now, part of the reason for that disagreement is that I was using the word polite in linguistic-theory-laden ways. The distinction between how the word politeness is used in linguistic discussions and how it's used in everyday life has become such a problem for us linguists that we now talk about polite1 and polite2 to distinguish commonplace understandings of polite (1) from our theoretical uses (2). The failures of communication in my previous blogpost probably stemmed from having three understandings of politeness at play: the linguist's polite2, American polite1, and British polite1. 


Postcard from the How to be British series


 

Culpeper et al. set out to contrast British and American polite1. They point out that academic research on the topic of British/American politeness is "full of stereotypes that have largely gone unexamined." These stereotypes hold that British culture favo(u)rs maintaining social distance by using indirectness and avoidance in interaction, while Americans are more interested in creating interactional intimacy by being informal and open. The authors asked: how do AmE and BrE speakers use the word polite? If differences exist, then do they conform to the stereotypes, or do they tell us something new? To investigate this, the authors used two sets of data.


Part 1: clustering 'polite' words in the OEC

First, they searched the Oxford English Corpus, where they found thousands of instances of polite. In AmE, it occurs 6.8 times and in BrE 8.8 times per million words. They then used corpus-linguistic tools to determine which words polite was most likely to co-occur with in the two countries' data. They then used statistical tools to group these collocates into clusters that reflect how they behave linguistically. (I'll skip over the detail of the statistical methods they use, but it suffices to say: they know what they're doing.) For example in the British data, words like courteous, considerate, and respectful form a courteous cluster, while words like cheery, optimistic, and upbeat are in the cheerful cluster. 

The British and American datasets were similar in that polite co-occurred at similar rates with words that formed cheerful and friendly clusters. This seems to go with the common stereotype of American politeness as outgoing and inclusive, but contradicts the British stereotype of reserved behavio(u)r. 

The most notable difference was that British polite collocated with words in a sensible cluster, including: sensible, straightforward, reasonable, and fair. This cluster didn't figure in the American data. The British data also had a calm cluster (calm, quiet, generous, modest, etc.), which had little overlap with American collocates. British polite, then, seems to be associated with "calm rationality, rather than, say, spontaneous emotion." 

Other clusters seemed more complex. Courteous and charming came up as British clusters, while American had respectful, gracious, and thoughtful clusters. However, many of the words in those clusters were the same. For example, almost all the words in the British courteous cluster were in the American gracious cluster. That is, in American courteous and attentive were more closely associated with 'gracious' words like open-minded and appreciative, while British courteous and attentive didn't intersect with more 'gracious' words. Respectful is a particularly interesting case: it shows up in the courteous cluster for the British data, but has its own respectful cluster in American (with words like compassionate and humane). 
 
Looking at these clusters of patterns gives us a sense of the connotations of the words—that is to say, the associations those words bring up for us. Words live in webs of cultural assumptions. Pluck one word in one web, and others will reverberate. But it won't be the same words that would have reverberated if you'd plucked the same word in the other web. It's not that compassionate wasn't in the British data, for example—it's that its patterns did not land it in a cluster with respectful.  In American, respectful seems to have "a warmer flavour" with collocates relating to kindness and positive attitudes toward(s) others, while in the British data respectful has "older historic echoes of courtly, refined, well-mannered behaviour." 

Part 2: 'politeness' and sincerity on Twitter

Their second investigation involved analy{s/z}ing use of polite and its synonyms in a particular 36-hour period on Twitter. The data overall seemed to go against the stereotypes that American politeness is "friendly" and British is "formal", but once they looked at the data in more detail, they discovered why: US and UK words differed in (in)sincerity. In the British data, respectful seemed to "be used as a vehicle for irony, sarcasm and humour", while in the American data friendly "appears to have acquired a negative connotation" about 17% of the time, in which "friendly" people were accused of being untrustworthy or otherwise undesirable. This also underscores the idea that American respectful has a "warmer flavour" than British respectful. It's intriguing that each culture seems to be using words stereotypically associated with them (American–friendly; British–respectful) in ironic ways, while taking the less "typical of them" words more seriously.  

Yay for this study! 

I'm grateful to Culpeper, O'Driscoll and Hardaker for this very interesting paper, which demonstrates why it's difficult to have cross-cultural discussions of what's "polite" or "respectful" behavio(u)r. The more we're aware of these trends in how words are interpreted differently in different places, the better we can take care in our discussions of what's polite, acceptable, or rude. 


*If you're interested in the fruits of my please labo(u)rs so far, have a look at:




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31 Days, 31 Lists: 2018 Translated Picture Books

They come and they go into our bookstores and libraries and out again without a whisper of awards or significant praise. Yet the true mark of whether or not you are opening up your child to the world is to show them books made internationally. Today we celebrate translations. Even the weird ones. I take that back. ESPECIALLY the weird ones!



  • 31 Days 31 Lists
  • Best Books of 2018
  • 2018 translated children's books
  • 31 days 31 lists
  • translated picture books
  • translations

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31 Days, 31 Lists: 2018 Books with a Message

The earliest American picture books had only one goal: To provide some form of moral instruction. These days books with clear messages are exceedingly common. The ones that do it well? Much rarer. Here are the 2018 titles that knew what they were doing this year.




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31 Days, 31 Lists: 2018 Fabulous Photography Books for Kids

Every year I try to keep an eye out for any children's book that gives ample attention to photographs in some way. Thanks to advances in technology and printing, it's never been easier to make books with photographic images. Yet despite this, few come out. Today's list is a small one, but I'm grateful that each and every single one of these books exists.



  • 31 Days 31 Lists
  • 31 days 31 lists
  • photography
  • picture book photography

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31 Days, 31 Lists: 2018 Fairy Tales, Folktales, and Religious Tales

Interestingly, 2018 turned out to be a very strong year for folktales, fairy tales, and religious stories. Why? Well, look closely and you'll see that this is nothing so much as a gathering of small publishers. It's like I always say. The more the big guys consolidate, the more cracks and fissures remain for the little folks to sneak through. Here then are the titles published in 2018 that really stood out and shone: