From “Cats in the Sun”, Greek Islands, published 1994 by Hans Silvester

Philco 40-180 seven-tube AM radio from 1940, being sold for parts but I'm sure someone could figure out which vacuum tube to change to get it back into gear.

"April Sun" by Mikhail Abakumov (1986)

Hi, Neil! I don't have a question. I just wanted to say that i just finished watching Dead Boys Detectives and I love it every second of it. I really hope it gets renewed otherwise I don't know how I'll keep living 😨

Tell everyone you know in real life to watch it. Tell everyone you know online. Remember that the first month is the most important and that completion rates are the statistic that Netflix cares about at least as much as viewing figures. Post things anywhere you can post things.

It's up to all of you whether it gets a second season (or a third).

The Philosopher’s Corner, 1873 by Maria Richards Oakey (American, 1845–1927)

WTF.

really enjoying this series

Kevin Nowlan, Phoenix.

Okay, this could really be something!

“This is one of the most exciting things we’ve seen in a really long time,” said Shaw. “This is a really finely honed tool. To be able to sit there and say to your patients that you’re offering them something that’s effectively like the Fat Duck at Bray versus McDonald’s – it’s that level of cordon bleu that’s coming to them … The patients are really excited about them.” The vaccine is an individualised neoantigen therapy. It is designed to trigger the immune system so it can fight back against a patient’s specific type of cancer and tumour. Known as mRNA-4157 (V940), the vaccine targets tumour neoantigens, which are expressed by tumours in a particular patient. These are markers on the tumour that can potentially be recognised by the immune system. The jab carries coding for up to 34 neoantigens and activates an anti-tumour immune response based on the unique mutations in a patient’s cancer. To personalise it, a sample of tumour is removed during the patient’s surgery, followed by DNA sequencing and the use of artificial intelligence. The result is a custom-built anti-cancer jab that is specific to the patient’s tumour.

...If your tech vocabulary's up to it, see also the abstract/article in the Lancet.

Dearest Dashboard Detectives,

Do you have a question about Dead Boy Detectives?

Do you have a paranormal and/or tumblr post related mystery that needs solving? 

Do you believe in love after life?

Submit all manner of questions and conundrums here, and come back on May 2nd at 12pm PT/3pm ET for a spirited Answer Time with the cast of Dead Boy Detectives.

My sensei back in NY was really insistent that i should do some naginata drills with him when I got into his class, as his first female student. (He refused to teach this art to any of the male students and would only say that it "wasn't right".)

This is how, when a guy tried to mug me late-ish one evening while I was waiting for a bus near Macy's in Manhattan, I was able to keep him away from me for ten minutes or so with the handle of the mop I'd just bought.* ...And at this end of time I can safely confess that it was, well, kinda fun. The poor schmuck literally never knew what hit him/kept hitting him. (All he had was this little knife. I'm laughing now just remembering it.)

Understand, I didn't really want to hurt him badly. And I could have. As a nurse, the flip side of learning how to put hurt people back together is also learning in great detail the many, many ways they can be taken apart or very badly damaged with relatively minimal outlay of force. So I just kept using the mop handle to remind Mugger Guy that (a) he wasn't going to be allowed to get close enough to me to hurt me or take anything of mine, and (b) he had all these vulnerable knees and elbows and shins and things. ...Especially the things.

Finally, when the bus was coming, the guy called me a bunch of terrible names and slunk off in a big hurry. And when the bus was moving again, and the reaction set in, I sat there right behind the driver and shook like a leaf for the next ten minutes or so. But when I had breath to do so again, I couldn't help snickering. Was I sort of cruel to that guy, toying with him like that? Maybe. But he started it.

Meanwhile, the practice naginata is really good for knocking down apples from the Bramley-grafted tree in the paddock next door. :) (Better than Peter's spear, actually, which is extremely sharp and tends to cut/poke holes in the fruit, impairing its keeping qualities.)

*The head came off and was in a separate bag. Just as well, as doing the drill moves with the mophead in place would have been at best rather inelegant.

I've been ordered by my lord to escort his ladies to Edo. I'm sorry, but without a permit, no lord or his retinue may leave Osaka Castle. It is Lord Ishido's order. You leave me no choice.

IG : @emperorofmischief

okay what did i miss

(yes some of these overlap and some are suppositions. for example if parchment is always used for ephemera, rough drafts, notes, and never re-used or re-purposed, we can also assume that the author is unaware of wax tablets as a concept)

A few slightly annoying damning-with-faint-praise moments in the review. But generally, a good and positive summing-up.

"In the funny, terrifying, colorful, oddly lovely, lovably odd Dead Boy Detectives, premiering Thursday on Netflix, deceased putative teenagers Edwin (George Rexstrew) and Charles (Jayden Revri) investigate what’s troubling troubled ghosts...."

Frank Frazetta, Strange Creatures.