Identical photographs of the artist, each with a unique miniature painting at the centre.
A manuscript that pairs illustrations of cats with poetic descriptions and notes on what mystical benefits their owners might hope to accrue.
The Spirits #189: The Fireside Flip [ 23-Jan-26 4:02pm ]
~ THE FIRESIDE FLIP ~
Fresh ginger
15ml honey, loosened with a little hot water
25ml Scotch
25ml sloe gin
1 whole egg
Dash Angostura bitters
Freeze a diminutive cocktail glass. Peel a little coin of ginger and muddle it up with the honey and water in the bottom of your shaker. Now, add the spirits and the entire egg (yes, yolk and all). Shake once without ice for maximum froth. And now again with ice to cool it all down. Fine-strain the mixture into your diminutive glass. Drop the Angostura on top and swirl with a toothpick to make a pretty pattern. Sip by a hearth.
Some Fireside Flip Notes:
It's Burn's Night this weekend. And this excellent little drink from Ryan Chetiyawardana's Good Things to Drink struck me as rather apt for the season — a hearty cocklewarmer combining the warming whiskiness of the Penicillin with the plum-crumble-and-custard qualities of sloe gin and yes, an entire egg. Quoth Ryan (who is particularly good on Scotch cocktails, I find): "This Fireside Flip has comforting, malty notes matched with the fruity/nutty flavours of sloe gin, all tied up with a hint of golden spice from honey and ginger. It's at its best made two-in-a-shaker you you and a loved one."
I have entirely come round to whole eggs in cocktails. I think this one might just be the Great Chieftan o' the Eggy-race.
Speaking of which: you can read me in the Guardian's FEAST on Saturday again. I'm talking about Scotch this time; and the poetry of Robbie Burns; and the great Highland writer Neil Gunn; and the lamentable and somewhat paradoxical elevation of "single malts" to luxury marques; and how actually there's a lot more affordable fun to be had seeking out independent bottlers and sloshing blends around in cocktail shakers. It'll be online next week — so, buy a paper in the meantime?
The sloe gin edition of the Cabinet is also forthcoming; I've now cleared enough deadlines (and illnesses) to have no excuse not to have this opus ready for you by Monday.
WELCOME TO THE SPIRITS✨
The neighbourhood bar of the internet
The Spirits #188: The Sloe Gin Fizz [ 16-Jan-26 4:03pm ]
~ THE SLOE GIN FIZZ ~
45ml sloe gin
15ml gin
20ml lemon juice
10ml honey (loosened with a little hot water)
Dash Angostura bitters
~150ml fizzy water
Freeze a tall glass. Now, measure all of the ingredients into that new shaker you got for Christmas. All the ingredients except the fizzy water, that is! Add ice, apply the lid and exercise your shaking muscles. …
Five Cocktails for New Year [ 31-Dec-25 2:03pm ]
Hello friends —
I hope we all had good Christmases and didn't come down with the quademic? Mine was lovely, thank you. I got a Boston Shaker, among other items — a sign that it's time to get serious with this cocktail business.
The Spirits is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscri…
Everything that happened in 2025 [ 31-Dec-25 12:03pm ]
JANUARY
THERE is a momentary pause in the music and I repair to the kitchen to mix a strong gin and tonic before returning triumphant to the dancefloor. It is a New Year and we are all starting it as we mean to go on. Intentionally.
The King is Charles III. The Pantone colour is Mocha Mousse. Bradford is the city of culture. You laugh but Bradford's actua…
The Spirits Gift Guide 2025 [ 12-Dec-25 7:48pm ]Note: This might be "too long for email". So click on the link and head to the app.
Oh fuck. I have caught you at the precise pivot between "there's loads of time" and "there's no time at all", haven't I? You had all these organised, benevolent thoughts, three weeks ago, of what to get for Cora and Jim and Uncle Feather and the Aspen Girls; you planned s…
The Spirits #187: The Manhattan [ 05-Dec-25 4:36pm ]
~ THE MANHATTAN ~
50ml bourbon (or rye)
25ml Italian vermouth
Dash Angostura bitters
Lemon zest (optional)
Freeze your glassware. Combine the bourbon and vermouth in a mixing vessel, half-fill with ice and stir until a melancholy thought occurs to you. Now strain this mixture into the cold glass. Garnish with a cherry or an orange zest twist — though I actu…
How to throw a cocktail party REDUX [ 01-Dec-25 1:32pm ]The Spirits is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
What with it being the season and all, I figured it would be useful to compile republish some advice for those of you who are hosting over the next few weeks. And also, to provide some impetus for those of you who are thinking of hosting. Because as diverting as it is to prepare a Baby Turtle for oneself of a winter eve, it is 100x more fun to drink Baby Turtles with all of your favourite people in a room. It's sort of what Baby Turtles are for.
Some people fear hosting. I don't, I love it and see it as the logical endpoint of becoming good at making cocktails. I can't remember who it was who wrote that the most important thing about cocktails (alcoholic or not, I should add) is that they make people happy. "Honestly, people really light up when you offer to make them a cocktail. If there's one thing that you need to know to make good cocktails, it's that. Why would you not want that for as many people as possible?"
In other words, we're all coming to your house. Friday? Great.
Naturally, constitutions and temperaments differ. It may be that nothing less than a strangers having sex in corners type of party will do for you. It may be that throwing a few random acquaintances together is all the fun you need. In all cases, however, I feel you're aiming for a certain alchemy. A good party is exponential. It's what happens when spirits multiply and the bowl overflows. It's the work of a few moments — but you can feel these moments for days, weeks, sometimes years afterwards. Cocktails, says the authoritative volume quoted above "provide the feeling that this moment is special and that feelings and moments are important."
So I'm afraid there's no getting out of it. We're coming over. What there's no time before Christmas? Well, some of the best parties I've hosted have been in January. Step to it. Here's how.
1. Just fucking do it.
Seriously. There are 305 reasons not to have party. I mean, that horrible damp patch on your wall, for a start - no one wants to look at that! The size of your home, the reluctance of your children to go to bed in a timely manner... Also, do you know enough cool people? Is there enough time between now and Advent? Won't everyone be busy? What if everyone laughs at your drapes?
None of these are good reasons. The fact is, if someone says: 'Hey, we're having some friends over for cocktails - come?' You'll probably be quite pleased. Particularly if you know that this person has been talking about this great cocktail newsletter they subscribe to and how it had really upped their mixing game. You might even think it incumbent on this friend of your to have a few of the rest of you over for cocktails. Particularly as all you really need to do these days is create a WhatsApp group entitled "PARTY", add various acquaintances and hit send. No one will mind the damp patch on the wall besides you. Although you should think about changing your drapes.
2. Don't overthink the guestlist.
It's so tempting to curate. It's so easy to think, ah but what do these disparate people in my life have in common? And also, what if Terence gets talking to Diane, it will be a FUCKING DISASTER! But here's the thing. Your friends are adults (even Diane, technically) and they will have hopefully worked out how to be civil and interesting around other adults by now.
In fact, I would advise actively inviting incongruous groups of people from your life (as per this rather good Vox article). It's more generous, I feel? Try to include: someone you just met the other day who seems interesting; someone who has known you your whole life; one or more actual neighbours; someone who is on holiday in your country; someone who just got home after a long trip; someone who has recently moved to the area; someone who seems interesting but it would be a bit much to invite them over to dinner; the chief of the fire dept; a member of the clergy; two or three people who can perform a musical number in a tight spot; an ex-con; at least three people you fancy; and as wide a varity of ages as possible. OK, seriously, I suppose the main point is, if you JUST invite colleagues or people from the school gate - or solely members of the clergy - you will end up talking about the same boring stuff you talk about every day. Throw them all together and: gesundheit! Hopefully.
Naturally, you want to set a number that is within your level of whelm. I mean you don't want to be either over- or underwhelmed by guests. You will want to ensure three or four of your most reliable friends are available too - I mean those who can be relied upon to mix drinks, fix playlists, talk down Diane, etc. But be warned. No matter how pessimistic you are about RSVPs, the house is always 31% more full than you mentally envisioned.
3. Start making ice now.
Probably 70% of house parties founder on inadequate ice. A tray will not cut it and nor will a bag of supermarket ice. Clear a shelf of your freezer and begin ice production a week in advance. Continually freeze water in takeway containers, hack up these blocks into glass-ready sizes, freeze some more ice and so on. You might choose to leave some large lumps (e.g. for punch bowls) and some smaller ones to fit in glass. You never want to serve a drink that is supposed to be cold at room temperature. Trust me: this will make FAR MORE DIFFERENCE to the perception of your drink-making than, for example, the price of your booze.
While we're on the subject: make sure you have fridge space available for the inevitable beers, wines, soft drinks, etc when they start arriving on the day. You don't want them balancing on half-eaten lentil dishes.
4. Set expectations re: food
It may be that you are in fact Jesus and 5,000 hungry mouths are no problem to you. It may be that you are absolutely shit at cooking and somehow manage to burn even salad. Whatever: be absolutely straight with your guest's gullets beforehand. I don't think it's such a bad thing to say in a WhatsApp reminder message 24 hours before an event (see #5, below) "There will be some food but I'd recommend having dinner beforehand". I'd want to know that if I were going to your party.
But there should be some zakuski - as the Russians call "drinking food". It's just civilised. Nuts, olives, crisps, salty whatnots, THREE ESSENTIAL DIPS, and some celery sticks, bits of charcuterie, slices of Spanish tortilla, that sort of thing. Maybe not those marinaded anchovies because they're difficult to eat while remaining elegant. Oh, you know what would be a good idea though? A big plate of gilda pintxos. If you're thinking more substantial? I'm personally in favour of the handheld: samosas, empanadas, sausage rolls, boreks, pierogi, those little cheese pies you made last time, hell, you might even devil some eggs. But this should certainly not require you to go back and forth to the oven all evening, Mercy, no. You are a host not a martyr.
5. Make a playlist
I have just the playlist for you, in fact! Music is absolutely crucial and should not be left to the last minute. In fact, make two playlists. One for talking, one for dancing. Actually, I would add, make sure your GODDAM SONOS IS WORKING PROPERLY.
6. Send a reminder 24 hours before the party
You'll want a final head-count obviously and your guests will want to know your address, whether to eat beforehand (see rule 4), what to wear (if anything) and also what to bring.
Because: watch out! For some reason, even in 2023, the words "COCKTAIL PARTY!" seem to call forth random bottles of José Cuervo paint-stripper, expired Baileys, novelty liqueurs - and somehow never the artisanal vermouths and rare editions of Chartreuse one would ideally like. Even asking for something specific and useful like "gin" or "rum" can be perilous. I'll wager that you'll end up with spiced rum. Or worse: 25 bottles of spiced rum.
I suppose you could be super-specific: "Mount Gay Eclipse/Elijah Craig Bourbon/Antica Formula/Tarragona Chatreuse please!" But people will think you're an arsehole. And it's on you to provide the core alcohol. Ask your guests instead to bring wine or beer or "whatever you like to drink". Tactful when you have teetotallers coming. And also, beer and wine is good, because people can open it themselves. But probably the best injunction is: "Bring fizz." Most people will bring prosecco. Some might bring champagne. These can popped on the spot, saved as party currency for later in the season, or else incorporated into cocktails; see rule 7.
7. Make it easy on yourself
OK, this is super-important. You are not going to be making individual cocktails for people. Maybe you will towards the end - but don't plan this. Also your cocktails are unlikely to be served to your usual perfect standards. Embrace this. However adept you are at fixing Pisco Sours for yourself, it's really difficult preparing them for fresh waves of guests as they pour through the door. Even making cocktails for three is more of a faff than you think. You'll be separating the eggs for the Reverend and then Samantha and the girls will arrive demanding Negronis… and things will soon get out of hand.
Even if you are only having a handful of people over and want to try your hand at a range of live cocktails, please: squeeze lemons/limes in advance, cut the garnishes, freeze glasses, maybe even batch certain ingredients. But in all cases, you will need something ready to pour the moment they come in with their annoying coats. (It's winter. Have a coat strategy).
This isn't just about liquoring people up. It's about setting the tone. See 8.
8. Make a large quantity of something delicious
The way I see it, there are four options.
a) PUNCH. The best of these is the drink that is DESIGNED FOR PRECISELY THESE CIRCUMSTANCES. I mean punch. The basic RUM PUNCH is infinitely adaptable. Here are four further recipes if that doesn't cut it (my famous PNIN'S PUNCH; a CLARIFIED MILK PUNCH that I have served with enormous success at parties before; a non-alcoholic APPLE PIE PUNCH, remember those guys too; and the MULLED NEGRONI). A hot punch is a great idea in winter as it will fill the house with inviting aromas. Here is a tried and tested recipe for CARAMELISED PINEAPPLE PUNCH. Make a ritual of the preparation. And do this WELL IN ADVANCE so all you have to do is warm five minutes before the guests arrive. I can't tell you how much time it will save throughout the evening to have a big vat of something that guests can serve themselves.
b) A LARGE JUG. Other reliably crowd-pleasing cocktails that batch well include PALOMAS, JUNGLE BIRDS and variants, NEGRONIS, CAROUSELS (kind of a winter Negroni) and I bet you could figure out a cold weather version of the KING OF CUPS too. While punches should be served in bowls, these can be made in jugs and kept in the fridge - and perhaps withdrawn later - and maybe even thrown together live if you're in a tight spot. The GINGER ROGERS PUNCH is a good house party standby in this vein. For 12 people, muddle 8 mint stprigs with a bottle of gin (700ml), the juice of four limes, 1 litre of ginger beer, a heft glug of Angostura bitters and maybe a dash of sugar syrup (or something else sweet) if you feel it's required.
c) A FIZZ-BATCH. Remember! People are bringing "fizz". Use it. A good strategy is to make a base of something that can be topped up. For example: 50/50 Campari and Italian vermouth, well-iced in a jug. Top this up with prosecco in individual glasses and have yourselves NEGRONI SBAGLIATI. And I hardly need to tell you that you can top it up with fizzy water for Americanos (good for a long night drinking), gin for Negronis, bourbon for Boulevardiers, tequila for Rositas, etc…. The principle works with the Gin Sour too - top it with fizz and you have French 75s. Or even something like a Brandy Old Fashioned which becomes a Champagne Cocktail when fizz is applied.
d) A LITTLE SOMETHING. Oh and do keep something in reserve. I hosted a fun party this summer where I made a batch of MARTIKI and kept it in an old rum bottle in the the FREEZER. Alcohol over ~33% ABV or so should be "safe" to put in a freezer, so a Dry Martini, pre-made, not to much dilution, reasonably strong gin, ought to be fine too. You'll thank yourself when your remember it at 10.37pm.
9. If someone wants beer LET THEM
Seriously. One less mouth to feed. Enjoy the party. Individual cocktails are only to be made when there's five or six of you sitting around at the end.
10. Clear up systematically
The first thing is to throw away all food waste. The second is to gather all the recycling. The third is to put all the glasses/plates/cutlery by the sink or hopefully dishwasher. The fourth is to do any necessary washing up. Do this communally, with a co-host, with music on and gossip to share and it can actually be enjoyable. Assuming you tided your house a bit beforehand, it might all look quite respectable in surprisingly short amount of time - and it will have an additional party afterglow too. There's a reason they call it housewarming. And remember: hangovers, like cocktails, are best shared communally.
The Spirits #186: Blow My Skull [ 28-Nov-25 4:36pm ]
~ BLOW MY SKULL ~
50ml dark rum
25ml brandy
15ml lemon juice
15ml sugar syrup
~150ml ale or stout
This is a species of punch - so make it in the glass. Introduce the spirits, and the lemon, and the sugar, and give it a stir. Add ice. And top up with beer to taste.
Some BMS Notes:
1) Some of you may remember Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Davey (1758-1823), the Devon…
The Spirits #185: The Baby Turtle [ 14-Nov-25 4:01pm ]
~ THE BABY TURTLE ~
50ml tequila (reposado)
10ml Campari
20ml grapefruit juice
20ml lime juice
15ml cinnamon syrup
20ml egg white
Pinch salt
Measure the ingredients into your shaker. Apply the lid and perform the action with unusual viguour. This is to froth up the egg white. Now stop. Add lots of ice and shake once more. Strain this admixture into a tumbler fi…
The Spirits #184: The Jack Rose [ 07-Nov-25 6:33pm ]
~ THE JACK ROSE ~
50ml apple brandy
15ml lemon (or lime) juice
10ml grenadine
Freeze that cocktail glass! Now, add the liquids to your shaker, half-fill with ice and give it the old up-and-down. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into the glass and garnish with apple, somehow.
Some Jack Rose Notes:
1) I decided to mix things up a bit, pardon the pu…
The Spirits #183: The Marianito [ 04-Nov-25 4:02pm ]
~ THE MARIANITO ~
75ml Italian (or Spanish!) vermouth (see note 3)
15ml gin
15ml Campari
Dash Angostura bitters
Fill an old fashioned glass with ice cubes. To do this really properly, you'll now make the cocktail in a mixing vessel over ice and then strain this into the glass. But I won't tell on you if you do it the easy way which is simply to combine the v…
The Spirits #182: The Airmail [ 17-Oct-25 4:03pm ]Everything must go at the Spirits Store! There are just a few bottles left now - type in SPIRITS50 at checkout and you will receive 50% off ANYTHING and EVERYTHING you can lay your hands upon.
~ THE AIRMAIL ~
30ml light rum
15ml lime juice
10ml honey syrup (honey, loosened with a little hot water)
45ml sparkling wine
Place a champagne glass in the freezer. No…
The Cabinet: Galliano [ 10-Oct-25 4:02pm ]
~ GALLIANO L'AUTENTICO ~
Italian herbal liqueur, flavoured with anise, vanilla and spice / 42.3% ABV / c.£23 for 500ml.
Friends with: rum; tequila and mezcal; gin (and tonic!); vermouth; amari. Orange (liqueur and juice). Also cream. Chocolate, mint. Pineapple.
THE yellow dust swirled under a pitiless Abyssinian sun. Major Giuseppe Galliano (1846-1896) crouched behind the last remnants of his fortifications, listening to the thunder of the rifles. The game was up. His men were defeated; he was defeated. Around him, Menelik's warriors surged, a living storm, now ecstatic in the fullness of their triumph. To his left, two soldiers from his battery lay wounded on the cracked earth whining pitifully for the mothers, and their soft weeping took him back too, to the wind-scoured hills above Nuoro, to the wild thyme after rain, to the sheep bells drifting across the twilight, to the laughter in the piazza. For Galliano was dying too. Galliano who avenged the Dogali massacre! Galliano who fought off 100,000 at Mek'ele! Galliano - oozing life into the Abyssinian dust. With trembling fingers, he reached for his hipflask. The metal was warm, dented from battle but when he uncorked it, the scent of Harvey Wallbangers and Golden Cadillacs rose into the acrid air. He smiled faintly and whispered, Per l'Italia, as the liqueur burned sweetly down his throat - and the dust received him as a mother...
The Spirits #181: The Piccadilly [ 03-Oct-25 4:02pm ]Everything must go at the Spirits Store! Enter the code SPIRITS50 at checkout and you will receive 50% off ANYTHING and EVERYTHING.
~ THE PICCADILLY ~
50ml gin
20ml French vermouth
10ml grenadine
Dash absinthe
Place your glass in the freezer. Now make the cocktail. Add the alcohols to your mixing vessel, half fill with ice and stir patiently for 30 second…
The Spirits Anniversary Special [ 03-Oct-25 2:02pm ]
Friends -
It is now five years (and a day) since I sent out my first Spirits dispatch; and ten years (and a couple of days) since my book The Spirits was published. It's important to mark these occasions, I think - only I've been so busy these past couple of weeks, barely at home, that the thought of sitting down and gathering my thoughts as I did all th…
The Spirits #180: The Hotel Nacional Special [ 19-Sep-25 4:31pm ]
~ THE HOTEL NACIONAL SPECIAL ~
50ml light rum
15ml apricot brandy
25ml pineapplie juice
15ml lime juice
5-10ml golden sugar syrup
Angostura bitters (to garnish)
Place your glass in the freezer. Now make the cocktail. Add the rum, apricot brandy, pineapple juice, lime juice and sugar syrup to the shaker, perform the eponymous action (I mean, shake it) and then …
The Spirits #179: The Midori Spritz [ 12-Sep-25 4:01pm ]
~ THE MIDORI SPRITZ ~
(AKA the Melancholy Spritz)
50ml Midori
10ml gin
75ml prosecco
~10ml fizzy water
Fill a wine glass with ice cubes. Add the Midori, gin, prosecco and fizzy water, and give it a quick stir. Garnish with green melon and lime.
Some Midori Spritz notes:
1) The Midori Spritz isn't a classic but isn't brand new either. I mean, I've found various…
The Cabinet: Midori [ 10-Sep-25 2:03pm ]
~ MIDORI ~
Japanese musk melon liqueur / 17% ABV / c.£18 for 500ml
Friends with: vodka, industrial sour mix, vintage disco. Oh but also gin, rum, tequila. Green things: Green Chartreuse, absinthe, lime, cucumber, green tea. And light spritzy things, tonic water, soda, prosecco.
Suddenly, Midori is everywhere. It is as if the collective consciousness - ChatGPT maybe - decided that the taste of now is a Japanese melon liqueur the colour of Slimer from Ghostbusters. No one knows how or why but suddenly all of the hip bartenders are desperate to show off their Tokyo Iced Teas and Japanese Slippers and June Bugs. Midori, according to this pair of Gen Z influencers I found on TikTok, is "slept on."
It's the sort of generational shift that is liable to leave a cocktaileur of my era feeling a little bewildered - a bit like in 2016 when all the hipsters decided that depressed R'n'B singers crooning about their Nikes through autotune was the thing and guitars the sound of neoliberal hegemony. Or, contrariwise, when everyone seemed to decide, earlier this summer, that actually Oasis are and always have been an excellent band. For I'm pretty sure that Midori was precisely the sort of sticky, synthetic alcohol product that the whole cocktail revival thing was designed to expel from the bartending garden, along with such horrors as Passoa, umbrellas, Chambord, Tom Cruise in Cocktail, Del Boy and our old friend "Sour Mix".
The Spirits #178: The Gin & French [ 05-Sep-25 4:04pm ]
~ THE GIN & FRENCH ~
40ml gin
40ml French vermouth
The Spirits is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
There is no great art to it. You must simply combine the gin and the vermouth in a fetching glass over ice. Give it a little stir and garnish with a lemon zest twist. Perhap…
The Spirits #177: The Cantarito [ 29-Aug-25 4:36pm ]
~ THE CANTARITO ~
Tajín (see below)
50ml tequila (reposado best)
20ml grapefruit juice
15ml orange juice
15ml lime juice
10ml agave syrup
Pinch salt
~75ml grapefruit soda
If you are using an authentic earthenware cup, you mustn't freeze it. You must immerse it in cold water for 10 minutes or so. If you just want to try the drink, though, by all means use whateve…
Fury as Amazon Ring Cameras Are Hooked Up to ICE System
As US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents wreak havoc on American communities, big tech companies have been making themselves indispensable to the increasingly tyrannical state.
Among them is Amazon subsidiary Ring, the company behind those AI doorbell cameras that have exploded in popularity over the last few years. Back in October, Ring announced that its devices would soon be looped into a network of Flock AI surveillance cameras. That network, an investigation by 404 Media found, has been available to local and federal police and enforcement agencies like ICE — leaving many worried that their Ring doorbell cams are now feeding into a government panopticon.
Sure enough, as anti-ICE protests ramp up throughout the US, activists are pushing a grassroots campaign to convince Ring users to smash their devices. Doing so, they say, could help deprive the federal government of footage it's using to enact a campaign of harassment, arrests, and deportation.
"Smash your Ring doorbells," progressive activist Guy Christensen urged his 3.5 million followers on TikTok. "You need to smash your Ring doorbells. Amazon owns Ring, and they've decided to begin sharing surveillance collected from your front step with ICE and Flock Safety, weaponing surveillance against the American people."
"If you have home surveillance or something, make sure that you know, 100 percent, the footage being recorded of you and your family in your home, or wherever, is only and can only be seen and shared with you," Christensen implored….
The Seven Properties of Highly Secured Devices (2nd Edition)
*According to Microsoft in 2020
"RoomDiffusion," a proposed AI scheme that might act as your interior designer for your home,
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2409.03198v1
In this report, we introduce RoomDiffusion, an industry model applied to interior decoration design scenarios, which outperforms all existing open-source models.
Our report details the construction process of the RoomDiffusion model, the evaluation methods used, and the performance comparison with open-source models. We also hope that our technical report can provide a reference for the open-source community and foster more rapid and valuable development in the field of interior decoration design.
#Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst on Artificial Psychedelia
*Starmirror AI public space installation. I reckon that's gonna be hard to beat for weird.
Timber structures built by pre-humans
Dear ThingsCon friends,
In just four weeks, we'll kick off TH/NGS 2025, our annual gathering exploring this year's theme: Resize < Remix < Regen.
This week brings exciting updates: our closing keynote speaker, three new workshops, exhibition details, and a final reminder that early bird tickets end this Sunday, November 16.
Closing keynote: Matt JonesWe're delighted to announce Matt Jones as our closing keynote speaker. Throughout his career—from BERG to Google, Lunar Energy, and now as Head of Design - AI at Miro—Matt has consistently offered playful incisive perspectives on our relationship with technology.
The plenary programAlongside our keynotes, the plenary program will feature:
- Student Project Pitches - Three selected projects presenting their innovative work
- Exhibition Talks - Short presentations diving into the vision and design behind selected exhibited works
New Workshops AnnouncedOur program continues to take shape with approximately 14 workshops and sessions, plus exhibition talks, student showcases, and more.
Last week we introduced five workshops covering Creating physical manifestations of our digital waste, People's AI infrastructures & Mud batteries, The politics of design, Making AI chairs, and Design artefacts for magic.
Home - a private place for everyone? Seemingly harmless smart home sensors and
their impact on privacy for secondary users
Anticipatory Design: Bringing the power of foresight into everyday practice
by Susan LK Gorbet, Matt Gorbet
Save on your ticket—early bird pricing expires November 16.Secure your spot!
We can't wait to see you at TH/NGS 2025!
Warm regards,
The ThingsCon Team
Inside Ananya Panday's First Home in Mumbai Designed by Gauri Khan
Modern Bollywood celebrity home with an interior designed by the designer wife of a Bollywood celebrity.
#Amazon's surveillance camera maker Ring announced a partnership on Thursday with Flock, a maker of AI-powered surveillance cameras that share footage with law enforcement.
Now, agencies that use Flock can request that Ring doorbell users share footage to help with "evidence collection and investigative work."
Flock cameras work by scanning the license plates and other identifying information about cars they see. Flock's government and police customers can also make natural language searches of their video footage to find people who match specific descriptions. However, AI-powered technology used by law enforcement has been proven to exacerbate racial biases.
On the same day that Ring announced this partnership, 404 Media reportedthat ICE, the Secret Service, and the Navy had access to Flock's network of cameras. By partnering with Ring, Flock could potentially access footage from millions more cameras.
Ring has long had a poor track record with keeping customers' videos safeand secure. In 2023, the FTC ordered the company to pay $5.8 million over claims that employees and contractors had unrestricted access to customers' videos for years.
North Korean Scammers Are Doing Architectural Design Now
Talented North Korean coders and developers have, for years, been getting hired for remote jobs at Western tech firms. Thousands of these so-called IT workershave earned billions for North Korea's authoritarian regime by developing apps, working on cryptocurrency projects, and infiltrating Fortune 500 companies—when they get paid, they send their earnings home. But the scale and scope of these fraudulent job schemes likely extends beyond most people's understanding.
New analysis of exposed online accounts and files linked to suspected Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) digital laborers shows that at least one group has been working in a very different field: architecture and civil engineering. Over recent years, the cluster of workers has been masquerading as freelance structural engineers and architects, according to a report sharedwith WIRED by cybersecurity firm Kela, which dug into one network it links to North Korea.
Files linked to the alleged North Korean operatives show 2D architectural drawings and some 3D CAD files for properties in the United States, Kela researchers say. In addition to the plans, the scammers were also seen claiming to advertise a range of architectural services and using, or creating, architectural stamps or seals, which can act as legal certification that drawings follow local building regulations.
"These operatives are active not only in technology and cybersecurity but also in industrial design, architecture, and interior design, accessing sensitive infrastructure and client projects under fabricated identities," Kela writes in a blog post. The United Nations estimates that thousands of IT workers raise between $250 million and $600 million for North Korea each year, with money being used to support the country's nuclear weapons programs and sanctions evasion efforts….
An American SAGE nuclear air-defense complex in the height of the Cold War.
One of the things I've found out the hard way over the past year is that slowly going blind has subtle but negative effects on my productivity.
Cataracts are pretty much the commonest cause of blindness, they can be fixed permanently by surgically replacing the lens of the eye—I gather the op takes 15-20 minutes and can be carried out with only local anaesthesia: I'm having my first eye done next Tuesday—but it creeps up on you slowly. Even fast-developing cataracts take months.
In my case what I noticed first was the stars going out, then the headlights of oncoming vehicles at night twinkling annoyingly. Cataracts diffuse the light entering your eye, so that starlight (which is pretty dim to begin with) is spread across too wide an area of your retina to register. Similarly, the car headlights had the same blurring but remained bright enough to be annoying.
The next thing I noticed (or didn't) was my reading throughput diminishing. I read a lot and I read fast, eye problems aside: but last spring and summer I noticed I'd dropped from reading about 5 novels a week to fewer than 3. And for some reason, I wasn't as productive at writing. The ideas were still there, but staring at a computer screen was curiously fatiguing, so I found myself demotivated, and unconsciously taking any excuse to do something else.
Then I went for my regular annual ophthalmology check-up and was diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes.
In the short term, I got a new prescription: this focussed things slightly better, but there are limits to what you can do with glass, even very expensive glass. My diagnosis came at the worst time; the eye hospital that handles cataracts for pretty much the whole of south-east Scotland, the Queen Alexandria Eye Pavilion, closed suddenly at the end of last October: a cracked drainpipe had revealed asbestos cement in the building structure and emergency repairs were needed. It's a key hospital, but even so taking the asbestos out of a five story high hospital block takes time—it only re-opened at the start of July. Opthalmological surgery was spread out to other hospitals in the region but everything got a bit logjammed, hence the delays.
I considered paying for private private surgery. It's available, at a price: because this is a civilized country where healthcare is free at the point of delivery, I don't have health insurance, and I decided to wait a bit rather than pay £7000 or so to get both eyes done immediately. It turned out that, in the event, going private would have been foolish: the Eye Pavilion is open again, and it's only in the past month—since the beginning of July or thereabouts—that I've noticed my output slowing down significantly again.
Anyway, I'm getting my eyes fixed, but not at the same time: they like to leave a couple of weeks between them. So I might not be updating the blog much between now and the end of September.
Also contributing to the slow updates: I hit "pause" on my long-overdue space opera Ghost Engine on April first, with the final draft at the 80% point (with about 20,000 words left to re-write). The proximate reason for stopping was not my eyesight deteriorating but me being unable to shut up my goddamn muse, who was absolutely insistent that I had to drop everything and write a different novel right now. (That novel, Starter Pack, is an exploration of a throwaway idea from the very first sentence of Ghost Engine: they share a space operatic universe but absolutely no characters, planets, or starships with silly names: they're set thousands of years apart.) Anyway, I have ground to a halt on the new novel as well, but I've got a solid 95,000 words in hand, and only about 20,000 words left to write before my agent can kick the tires and tell me if it's something she can sell.
I am pretty sure you would rather see two new space operas from me than five or six extra blog entries between now and the end of the year, right?
(NB: thematically, Ghost Engine is my spin on a Banksian-scale space opera that's putting the boot in on the embryonic TESCREAL religion and the sort of half-baked AI/mind uploading singularitarianism I explored in Accelerando). Hopefully it has the "mouth feel" of a Culture novel without being in any way imitative. And Starter Pack is three heist capers in a trench-coat trying to escape from a rabid crapsack galactic empire, and a homage to Harry Harrison's The Stainless Steel Rat—with a side-order of exploring the political implications of lossy mind-uploading.)
All my energy is going into writing these two novels despite deteriorating vision right now, so I have mostly been ignoring the news (it's too depressing and distracting) and being a boring shut-in. It will be a huge relief to reset the text zoom in Scrivener back from 220% down to 100% once I have working eyeballs again! At which point I expect to get even less visible for a few frenzied weeks. Last time I was unable to write because of vision loss (caused by Bell's Palsy) back in 2013, I squirted out the first draft of The Annihilation Score in 18 days when I recovered: I'm hoping for a similar productivity rebound in September/October—although they can't be published before 2027 at the earliest (assuming they sell).
Anyway: see you on the other side!
PS: Amazon is now listing The Regicide Report as going on sale on January 27th, 2026: as far as I know that's a firm date.
Obligatory blurb:
An occult assassin, an elderly royal and a living god face off in The Regicide Report, the thrilling final novel in Charles Stross' epic, Hugo Award-winning Laundry Files series.
When the Elder God recently installed as Prime Minister identifies the monarchy as a threat to his growing power, Bob Howard and Mo O'Brien - recently of the supernatural espionage service known as the Laundry Files - are reluctantly pressed into service.
Fighting vampirism, scheming American agents and their own better instincts, Bob and Mo will join their allies for the very last time. God save the Queen― because someone has to.
