Martin McCallion
@devilgate.org
📗 Books2025, 25: Summerland, by Hannu Rajaniemi: https://devilgate.org/2025/11/08/books-summerland-by-hannu-rajaniemi/
The Fractal Prince by Hannu Rajaniemi (Books 2016, 6)
I enjoyed it, but I didn't really understand it. I’m sure I should have more to say about it than that, but really, that sums it up quite neatly.
But to try to go a bit deeper… The solar system is populated by various species or clans of posthumans, transhumans, AIs, uploaded minds, whatever. Earth is unrecognisable, though some people – seemingly fairly close to basic-human, though it’s hard to judge, with so many strangenesses – still live there.
devilgate.org
November 8, 2025 at 10:49 PM
📗 Books2025, 25: Summerland, by Hannu Rajaniemi: https://devilgate.org/2025/11/08/books-summerland-by-hannu-rajaniemi/
‘[W]e might have to wait two years for the conclusion’ I wrote almost six years ago.
The conclusion of The Book of Dust arrived the other day. I haven’t started it yet, and now I’m thinking I might go back and reread the previous one first.
The conclusion of The Book of Dust arrived the other day. I haven’t started it yet, and now I’m thinking I might go back and reread the previous one first.
November 5, 2025 at 2:37 PM
‘[W]e might have to wait two years for the conclusion’ I wrote almost six years ago.
The conclusion of The Book of Dust arrived the other day. I haven’t started it yet, and now I’m thinking I might go back and reread the previous one first.
The conclusion of The Book of Dust arrived the other day. I haven’t started it yet, and now I’m thinking I might go back and reread the previous one first.
Spent yesterday at the Battle of Ideas festival, from the Academy of Ideas. Lots of panels on various subjects around politics, society, literature, and more. I mostly went to literature-related ones. why has fantasy fiction become s... https://devilgate.org/2025/10/19/spent-yesterday-at-the-battle/
Battle of Ideas festival 2025
The twentieth Battle of Ideas festival will take place at Church House, Westminster on 18 & 19 October 2025.
academyofideas.org.uk
October 19, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Spent yesterday at the Battle of Ideas festival, from the Academy of Ideas. Lots of panels on various subjects around politics, society, literature, and more. I mostly went to literature-related ones. why has fantasy fiction become s... https://devilgate.org/2025/10/19/spent-yesterday-at-the-battle/
📗 Books 2025, 24: Under the Glacier, by Halldór Laxness, Translated by Magnus Magnusson: https://devilgate.org/2025/10/16/books-under-the-glacier-by/
October 16, 2025 at 7:03 AM
📗 Books 2025, 24: Under the Glacier, by Halldór Laxness, Translated by Magnus Magnusson: https://devilgate.org/2025/10/16/books-under-the-glacier-by/
Asteroid City, 2023 - ★★★½: https://devilgate.org/2025/10/16/asteroid-city/
October 16, 2025 at 6:46 AM
Asteroid City, 2023 - ★★★½: https://devilgate.org/2025/10/16/asteroid-city/
Mission: Impossible II, 2000 - ★★½: https://devilgate.org/2025/10/16/mission-impossible-ii/
October 16, 2025 at 6:43 AM
Mission: Impossible II, 2000 - ★★½: https://devilgate.org/2025/10/16/mission-impossible-ii/
Watched: Mission: Impossible 🎥
Went back and took a half-star off after posting, because of the betrayal. Honestly. It’s hard to get over that. I don’t really know why I went on and watched the second one last night.
Went back and took a half-star off after posting, because of the betrayal. Honestly. It’s hard to get over that. I don’t really know why I went on and watched the second one last night.
Mission: Impossible
When Ethan Hunt, the leader of a crack espionage team whose perilous operation has gone awry with no explanation, discovers that a mole has penetrated the CIA, he's surprised to learn that he's the prime suspect. To clear his name, Hunt now must ferret out the real double agent and, in the process, even the score.
www.themoviedb.org
October 12, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Watched: Mission: Impossible 🎥
Went back and took a half-star off after posting, because of the betrayal. Honestly. It’s hard to get over that. I don’t really know why I went on and watched the second one last night.
Went back and took a half-star off after posting, because of the betrayal. Honestly. It’s hard to get over that. I don’t really know why I went on and watched the second one last night.
Mission: Impossible, 1996 - ★★: https://devilgate.org/2025/10/12/mission-impossible/
October 12, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Mission: Impossible, 1996 - ★★: https://devilgate.org/2025/10/12/mission-impossible/
Crucial Track for 10 October 2025: https://devilgate.org/2025/10/10/crucial-track-for-october/
Clash City Rockers by The Clash on Apple Music
Song · 1977 · Duration 3:56
music.apple.com
October 10, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Crucial Track for 10 October 2025: https://devilgate.org/2025/10/10/crucial-track-for-october/
📗 Books 2025, 23: How to Solve Your Own Murder, by Kristen Perrin: https://devilgate.org/2025/10/09/books-how-to-solve-your/
October 9, 2025 at 6:34 AM
📗 Books 2025, 23: How to Solve Your Own Murder, by Kristen Perrin: https://devilgate.org/2025/10/09/books-how-to-solve-your/
Watched: Sliding Doors 🎥
I already posted about this, but I’m trying out Micro.blog’s new movies feature here.
I already posted about this, but I’m trying out Micro.blog’s new movies feature here.
Sliding Doors
London publicist Helen, effortlessly slides between parallel storylines that show what happens when she does or does not catch a train back to her apartment. Love. Romantic entanglements. Deception. Trust. Friendship. Comedy. All come into focus as the two stories shift back and forth, overlap and surprisingly converge.
www.themoviedb.org
October 7, 2025 at 6:47 AM
Watched: Sliding Doors 🎥
I already posted about this, but I’m trying out Micro.blog’s new movies feature here.
I already posted about this, but I’m trying out Micro.blog’s new movies feature here.
Sliding Doors, 1998 - ★★½ (contains spoilers): https://devilgate.org/2025/10/05/sliding-doors-contains-spoilers/
October 5, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Sliding Doors, 1998 - ★★½ (contains spoilers): https://devilgate.org/2025/10/05/sliding-doors-contains-spoilers/
📗 Books 2025, 21: The Book of Daniel, by EL Doctorow: https://devilgate.org/2025/09/24/books-the-book-of-daniel/
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
September 24, 2025 at 9:16 PM
📗 Books 2025, 21: The Book of Daniel, by EL Doctorow: https://devilgate.org/2025/09/24/books-the-book-of-daniel/
📗 Books 2025, 20: The Hallmarked Man, by Robert Galbraith: https://devilgate.org/2025/09/07/books-the-hallmarked-man-by/
Tales from the Bitface
Well this is an exciting turnup: remember early in the pandemic, when there was an article in The New Yorker New York magazine about the inability to get a particular pasta shape? The pasta shape was equally mysterious over here. I wrote about it: Bucatini.
Well, at last, here it is.
devilgate.org
September 7, 2025 at 4:45 PM
📗 Books 2025, 20: The Hallmarked Man, by Robert Galbraith: https://devilgate.org/2025/09/07/books-the-hallmarked-man-by/
The Italian Job, 1969 - ★★★½: https://devilgate.org/2025/09/07/the-italian-job/
September 7, 2025 at 4:39 PM
The Italian Job, 1969 - ★★★½: https://devilgate.org/2025/09/07/the-italian-job/
180 pages in, and it’s only publication day. My local bookshop got my preorder in early and Lett me collect it.
Took the dustjacket off because it’s fiddly to hold.
Took the dustjacket off because it’s fiddly to hold.
September 2, 2025 at 11:05 AM
180 pages in, and it’s only publication day. My local bookshop got my preorder in early and Lett me collect it.
Took the dustjacket off because it’s fiddly to hold.
Took the dustjacket off because it’s fiddly to hold.
August, so my daughter tells me, slipped away like a bottle of wine.
August 31, 2025 at 10:39 PM
August, so my daughter tells me, slipped away like a bottle of wine.
Books 2025, 19: In Ascension, by Martin MacInnes: https://devilgate.org/2025/08/29/books-in-ascension-by-martin/
August 28, 2025 at 11:21 PM
Books 2025, 19: In Ascension, by Martin MacInnes: https://devilgate.org/2025/08/29/books-in-ascension-by-martin/
"Minute Cryptic - 25 August, 2025
“Forger’s initial on map - it shows treasure spot! Buried gold is fake…” (4)
🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣
I scored: 2 under par
www.minutecryptic.com"
“Forger’s initial on map - it shows treasure spot! Buried gold is fake…” (4)
🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣
I scored: 2 under par
www.minutecryptic.com"
August 25, 2025 at 8:20 AM
"Minute Cryptic - 25 August, 2025
“Forger’s initial on map - it shows treasure spot! Buried gold is fake…” (4)
🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣
I scored: 2 under par
www.minutecryptic.com"
“Forger’s initial on map - it shows treasure spot! Buried gold is fake…” (4)
🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣
I scored: 2 under par
www.minutecryptic.com"
I find this kind of horrifying: Denmark’s state-run postal service will no longer deliver letters. And I can see Britain’s Royal Mail going to same way.
It feels like we’d be cut off, in kind of a way. I mean I don’t know when I last sent a letter, but still.
I mean, Christmas cards!
It feels like we’d be cut off, in kind of a way. I mean I don’t know when I last sent a letter, but still.
I mean, Christmas cards!
Denmark's state-run postal service will no longer deliver letters
PostNord will stop delivering letters to Denmark at the end of 2025, though package distribution will remain.
apnews.com
August 22, 2025 at 6:08 PM
I find this kind of horrifying: Denmark’s state-run postal service will no longer deliver letters. And I can see Britain’s Royal Mail going to same way.
It feels like we’d be cut off, in kind of a way. I mean I don’t know when I last sent a letter, but still.
I mean, Christmas cards!
It feels like we’d be cut off, in kind of a way. I mean I don’t know when I last sent a letter, but still.
I mean, Christmas cards!
Books 2025, 18: Glory Road, by Robert A Heinlein: https://devilgate.org/2025/08/21/books-glory-road-by-robert/
Glory Road - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
August 21, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Books 2025, 18: Glory Road, by Robert A Heinlein: https://devilgate.org/2025/08/21/books-glory-road-by-robert/
The Naked Gun, 2025 - ★★★½: https://devilgate.org/2025/08/14/the-naked-gun/
August 14, 2025 at 6:13 AM
The Naked Gun, 2025 - ★★★½: https://devilgate.org/2025/08/14/the-naked-gun/
The Ballad of Wallis Island, 2025 - ★★★★½: https://devilgate.org/2025/08/05/the-ballad-of-wallis-island/
August 5, 2025 at 7:44 PM
The Ballad of Wallis Island, 2025 - ★★★★½: https://devilgate.org/2025/08/05/the-ballad-of-wallis-island/
Books 2025, 17: Theophilus North, by Thornton Wilder: https://devilgate.org/2025/08/05/books-theophilus-north-by-thornton/
The roaring twenties, told from the seventies, and read in the… unroaring twenties? Much better than that famout novel set in the twenties.
The roaring twenties, told from the seventies, and read in the… unroaring twenties? Much better than that famout novel set in the twenties.
📚 Books 2024, 25: The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
Finished reading several weeks ago, in fact. I’m way behind with the change of year.
Anyway, this is an odd little book. I stress the ‘little’ because it’s very short. We’re in Peru. An ancient rope bridge, of Inca origin, collapses one day, killing the five people who were crossing it. A priest, Brother Juniper, witnesses the event and decides to use it to prove God has a plan for humans.
devilgate.org
August 5, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Books 2025, 17: Theophilus North, by Thornton Wilder: https://devilgate.org/2025/08/05/books-theophilus-north-by-thornton/
The roaring twenties, told from the seventies, and read in the… unroaring twenties? Much better than that famout novel set in the twenties.
The roaring twenties, told from the seventies, and read in the… unroaring twenties? Much better than that famout novel set in the twenties.
I read Doc Searls’s piece, How about ASO, for Attention Surfeit Order?. I was sure I had used that expression, or one like it, on my blog. A quick search led me to a 2006 post about attention in various senses, which has ‘Attention surf... https://devilgate.org/2025/07/26/i-read-doc-searlss-piece/
How about ASO, for Attention Surfeit Order?
Royal Society: Attention deficits linked with proclivity to explore while foraging. To which Thom Hartman adds, The Science Catches Up: New Research Confirms ADHD as an Evolutionary Advantage, Not …
doc.searls.com
July 26, 2025 at 5:47 PM
I read Doc Searls’s piece, How about ASO, for Attention Surfeit Order?. I was sure I had used that expression, or one like it, on my blog. A quick search led me to a 2006 post about attention in various senses, which has ‘Attention surf... https://devilgate.org/2025/07/26/i-read-doc-searlss-piece/