It is my pleasure to publish this extract from Gillian Tindall's novel Journal of a Man Unknown which describes a nocturnal vision that is granted to the protagonist in Mile End
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'It was a fine night, though chill, and the stars were out. I went walking on, beyond the Spital Fields and Brick Lane, out into the countryside to Mile End and beyond, to where there were few houses along the highway, out to where the Jews have made a burial ground. (I had met a few, newcomers to London like to the Huguenots, and they were very much the same manner of decent, hard-working people, for all their Spanish names). I had my knife in my belt as usual, but there was nothing to fear that far east out of Town: no-one about at all.
The moon was shining over St Dunstan's, out at Stepney, and I lent a while against the dead Jews' wall, watching it. I even contemplated walking yet further, so full of a strange energy did I feel. It was as if something that had been in the bottom of my mind for years, vaguely troubling me from time to time but ever quietly dismissed, had suddenly risen to the top that evening like liquid over a fire in a pan.
Jews, I know, have their own God whose son has yet to appear on earth. The Saracens have another one, of much the same kind by all accounts. The Huguenots, Protestants, Puritans, Catholics, Greek Christians and all the rest are supposed to believe in One God and His Son, but that has not stopped them from fighting and killing each other in the most un-Christian way in every century of which I have heard account. They were at it here in England all my childhood years.
How much fervent, angry, desperate praying goes on by all sides, many of the prayer-sayers wishing damnation on the others. And how little of it ever truly produces a result, except by ordinary life chances that are then falsely claimed as 'prayers answered'?
And in that moment I knew, in a burst of freedom, like a man before whom a door that he believed firmly locked and forbidden is suddenly open - that I did not believe in any of it, and had not done so for many years.
And as for the idea that the great Maker of the construction is perpetually watching each of us separate persons, intent on testing every one of his multitudinous subjects' loyalty with particular troubles and griefs, like a bad tempered and unjust King doling out unmerited torments to some on purpose to 'try them', while occasionally and unexpectedly bestowing blessings on others no more deserving - this was suddenly revealed to me as a story for badly behaved children.
And I strongly suspected in that same moment, that a number of the men whom I had met in London, and whom I most respected, had secretly come to the same never-to-be-spoken conclusion. Unbelief is contrary to the Law of both God and Man. But surely honest.
I went on standing there for quite a while, I think, trying to take in my new-found freedom. It felt right and just. But lonely, if - from - henceforth, there were none but myself in charge of my fate. Also a sense of my consequent, helpless separation in my secret heart from all others. For a few minutes my desolation recalled my first weeks alone in London. And I had no one at that time with whom I felt intimate enough to admit my new conviction.
And then something odd happened while I stood there. One of those moments, like the one in the night before I left the Forest (which I had dismissed as a dream). Although the Mile End Road was deserted, the few cottages around shuttered and none about but a half-grown fox in the Jews' cemetery, who had caught sight of me over the wall and had scampered away, I suddenly became convinced that I was surrounded. By houses and people that I could sense but could not see. The moon at that moment had gone behind a thick cloud, a country-dark descended. Yet I felt as if I were standing in a City street. Voices, passing by, that I could not hear properly, and footsteps on stone and other sounds of rushing or roaring that I could not identify. Such as the sound of machines. But my strongest sensation was that I was hemmed in, crowded.
Cravenly fearful, as if my ungodly thoughts were somehow visiting on me a revenge, I clutched the top of the brick cemetery wall with my hands. That at least seemed solid and of all time. Fearful of what the returning moon might reveal, I shut my eyes for a while. I believe that by habit I even cravenly and illogically prayed 'Keep me safe, Lord!'
I opened my eyes again at last when the sounds had faded away. The moon had returned. The Mile End Road was its peaceful, deserted, night-time self. The clock of St Dunstan's struck twelve.
Suddenly very tired, I must have made my way back to the Spital Fields, though that I do not remember.'
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This tiny banana photo collection looks like it was taken in a dollhouse orchard. The bananas here stopped growing early, leaving behind perfect little replicas that seem designed for playing with rather than eating — small enough to feel like a trick of perspective. — Read the rest
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The FBI interviewed a woman four times in 2019 after she claimed Donald Trump sexually assaulted her when she was underage. Now, as Attorney General Pam Bondi howls "no evidence," independent journalist Roger Sollenberger has found that the record of those interviews has mysteriously vanished from the government's publicly available Epstein files
Yet last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi insisted that there was "no evidence" that Trump had committed any crime—adding to the growing pile of denials from Trump officials that constitute a sweeping cover-up of the president's alleged wrongdoing.
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Attempting to be funny, JD Vance was once again awkward. Also, the target of his derision slapped back so hard that Just Dance Vance may not know what day it is.
Vance attempted to make a joke, somehow comparing his own intelligence to a Congressperson who paused to think before answering a question. — Read the rest
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The Adv Cardputer from M5Stack retains the best features of the previous version, and adds some sensible upgrades.
The post Review: M5Stack Cardputer Adv Version (ESP32-S3) appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.
TL;DR: Get these eight CISSP exam prep courses covering all domains for $19.99, down from $424. No coupon needed.
We all know that one friend who's constantly paranoid about getting hacked. They use seventeen different passwords, won't connect to public Wi-Fi, and probably have their laptop camera covered with electrical tape. — Read the rest
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A March 2025 Trump executive order that instructed our national parks to ignore or attempt to change history has sparked a chain reaction of stupidity.
Democracy Forward, a coalition of historians, scientists, and advocacy groups, has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the Trump administration directed the removal or flagging of dozens of interpretive signs at National Park Service sites nationwide. — Read the rest
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This country/gangsta rap mash-up is a lot of fun:
It seems turning NWA into country is not an isolated thing:
Be there
Surveillance-based pricing (just for you!) will be the subject of this talk at 4pm Eastern today. Register and attend at that link.
"These are MAGA airwaves now," seems clear enough that no one has to doubt FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's intent to keep an already reeling media landscape deep in the yellow.
During a Thursday interview on the Charlie Kirk Show, co-host Andrew Kolvet asked Carr why CBS had prevented Colbert from airing the Talarico interview.
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Trump's white power-loving "Secretary of War" invited his white supremacist pastor to speak at the Pentagon. Doug Wilson is a guy who says slavery was just fine, women shouldn't vote, and that Muslim and Hindu folks are parasites.
"Doug Wilson routinely mocks the pope and the Catholic Church," the Catholic writer and Democratic operative Christopher Hale wrote on X.
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You've seen the claim on TikTok, in parenting forums, and in roughly a million Instagram infographics: "Your brain isn't fully developed until you're 25." It's the go-to explanation for everything from bad relationships to impulsive tattoos. The number 25, though, has almost nothing to do with neuroscience. — Read the rest
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Your colon is lined with a layer of mucus. It's wet, it's slimy, and it keeps your stool hydrated enough to, you know, move along. Without it, everything dries out and gets stuck. Researchers at Nagoya University have now identified two species of gut bacteria that team up to devour this protective slime — and they think it could be the root cause of chronic constipation that laxatives can't fix, according to findings published in Gut Microbes. — Read the rest
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Shelby McSwain was driving past a Wendy's on East Franklin Boulevard in Gastonia, North Carolina, with her parents on Thursday evening when she spotted something through the window: a blue-haired customer, shirtless, hunched forward in a booth while a second person — gloved up in blue latex — worked a tattoo gun across their back. — Read the rest
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Pollan's new book, A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness, goes after a favorite Silicon Valley assumption: that if you build a machine complex enough, awareness will eventually boot up inside it. In a Fresh Air interview with Terry Gross, he argues that feelings are "very tied to your vulnerability, to your having a body that can be hurt, to the ability to suffer and perhaps your mortality." — Read the rest
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This $70 million Boeing 737 Max 8 has a bedroom that Ice Barbie will certainly put to service in the name of the taxpayers. Wonder if this expense is being discussed as her department remains unfunded.
The grift never stops. You would think puppy slayer Kristi Noem would lie low after turning the entire country against her, but nope. — Read the rest
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"I don't worship a man, I'm not in a cult, and I refuse to fight for a team that refuses to win." That's former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on February 17, turning on the president she once literally fawned over at rallies. — Read the rest
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Three states are now trying to make 3D printers police themselves. Washington's HB 2321 requires printers to ship with anti-gun software so effective that even users with "significant technical skill" can't circumvent it — on machines that run largely open-source firmware. — Read the rest
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Amid his odd ramblings and bizarre insistence that his wife is a movie star, convicted felon, and addled old man, Donald Trump gave another embarrassing performance. Someplace in the hours of rambling, he promised to use his stable genius to decide if we're going to war with Iran. — Read the rest
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For two hours inside a classified Senate hearing earlier this month, lawmakers from both parties tried to get FBI and NSA officials to answer a simple question: Does the White House want to renew Section 702, the government's most powerful warrantless surveillance authority? — Read the rest
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The Moon is wrinkling like a drying apple. As its interior slowly cools, the whole thing contracts, and the crust buckles and cracks under the pressure. Smithsonian scientists have now mapped the extent, finding 1,114 previously unknown ridges spread across the Moon's dark volcanic plains — more than doubling the known count to 2,634, according to a study published in The Planetary Science Journal. — Read the rest
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Amid awful news, mudslinging, and AI slop, it's great to remember what the internet truly excels at: memes and cats. Combine those with synthesizers and space themes, and you've got the perfect combination. If this intersection appeals to you, check out the brilliant work at "Cats on Synthesizers in Space." — Read the rest
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Bad Bunny's catchy Super Bowl halftime tunes have been stuck in my head since the show aired. I've watched the performance several times, and it gets better with each viewing. I recently found a split-screen version showing both Bad Bunny and Puerto Rican Sign Language (LSPR) interpreter Celimar Rivera Cosme, who brought incredible style and energy to his translation of Bad Bunny's lyrics. — Read the rest
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A car fire near North Hollywood's iconic Circus Liquor store created peak LA chaos this week when flames and smoke rose directly behind the landmark's giant clown sign. The clown never caught fire, but this video captures the surreal scene of flames, smoke, curious bystanders, and a grinning clown looming overhead. — Read the rest
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