"All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered."
There are cities that seduce by excess, by grand vertical gestures, by spectacle, by the dazzling promise of visibility. And there are others, quieter ones, that prefer to act by undercurrent, by persistence, by relation. Milan belongs to the second kind, in my opinion. And...
a.k.a. How the Laws of Robotics Foretold the Logic of Large Language Models Introduction – The Machine That Dreamed in Logic Everyone is familiar with the Three Laws of Robotics.They’ve seeped into our cultural bloodstream: quoted in tech conferences, invoked in ethics debates, even recycled...
“The ISO 8000 series provides frameworks for improving data quality for specific kinds of data. The series defines which characteristics of data are relevant to data quality, specifies requirements applicable to those characteristics, and provides guidelines for improving data quality.” 1. The Architecture of Trust...
The City Beneath the City There are cities that dazzle with their surfaces, and others that live in the mind. Milan belongs to the latter kind, to me. Beneath its layers of glass, asphalt, and the relentless functionality everybody likes to boast, there lies another...
Today we talk about a very special exhibition here in Milan, one that approaches art from a not-so-common angle, and that seems to collect the threads of some other exhibitions I really enjoyed here in the city. The exhibition is titled “Art from Inside: Masterpieces...
1. Introduction — The Paradox of Standards The dream of a digital commons is as old as the internet itself: a space where information flows freely across boundaries, where collaboration scales beyond organisations, and where knowledge becomes a shared infrastructure rather than a private asset....
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“Pay heed to the tales of old wives. It may well be that they alone keep in memory what it was once needful for the wise to know.”
Though I think I get what Lem was trying to do with this novel, I also understand the many people whose reaction has been “what the fuck did I just read?” The novel is about alienation, so...
Does it count as a re-read if you didn’t originally read it in English? And does it count if your memory was so overwritten by the movie adaptations and, by extension, by people commenting on them i...
I’ve been a supporter of the author on Patreon for some time, now, and I bought the book as soon as she published it as additional support, but I never got around to actually opening it. One of the ...
Ted Chiang’s The Lifecycle of Software Objects is one of the most criminally underrated pieces in contemporary speculative fiction. While Chiang is best known for meticulously crafted stories like T...
This is just the second book I have read by this author, following, of course, the previous title in the series, so I don’t claim to be an expert. Nevertheless, for those who wish to approach and en...
Once upon a time there was a Smith, and he had one son, a sharp, smart, six-year-old boy. One day the old man went to church, and as he stood before a picture of the Last Judgment he saw a Demon paint...
In the olden years, long long ago, with the spring-tide fair and the summer’s heat there came on the world distress and shame. For gnats and flies began to swarm, biting folks and letting their warm...
In a certain country there once lived an old man who had three sons. Two of them had their wits about them, but the third was a fool. The old man died and his sons divided his property among themselve...
Mother Earth and Other Stories by Isaac Asimov: Between Robots, Empires, and Human Nature Isaac Asimov’s Mother Earth and Other Stories gathers a fascinating range of his shorter works, spanning fro...
There once was a rich merchant named Marko—a stingier fellow never lived! One day he went out for a stroll. As he went along the road he saw a beggar—an old man, who sat there asking for alms—...
When Space Turns to Horror Stanisław Lem has often been described as a visionary of science fiction, but to call The Invincible simply “sci-fi” feels inadequate. Lem doesn’t write speculative a...
— The following review contains heavy spoilers on Liu Cixin’s first novel in the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy: The Three-Body Problem. Proceed with caution — The first t...
We Were Always Here: on Memory, Erasure, and the Persistence of Queer History All month long, we have journeyed through scroll and scripture, painting and poetry, ruin and reliquary, gathering voices,...
Letters in Exile: Rumi’s Longing for Shams al-Din Tabrizi “Since Shams appeared,my heart has been a hundred thousand burning lamps.The world is a candle, and I am the wick:I am consumed in the fla...
The Love That Wrote Itself: Hadewijch and the Ecstasy of the Unknown Beloved “And she beheld me with love,and made me forget all my suffering.”— Hadewijch of Brabant, Visions and Poems (13th...
Saint Wilgefortis and the Bearded Woman of Lützen: Gender Miracles in Devotional Art A crucified female saint — dressed in noble garments, arms outstretched, and crowned with an improbable beard ...
Christina of Sweden: The Queen Who Refused to Be a Woman Crowned queen at the age of six and ruling in her own right by eighteen, Christina of Sweden stood as one of the most enigmatic and transgressi...
She Knew Better than Any Man: Female Lovers in Brantôme’s Courtly Chronicles “This reminds me of certain women who love their companions so dearly that they would not share them for all the wealt...
The Noble Knight: Gender Ambiguity and Queer Aesthetics in the Portrait of Doña Catalina de Erauso Known as “La Monja Alférez” (The Lieutenant Nun), Catalina de Erauso defied every expectation o...
Veiled in Wit: Queer Subtext and Gender Play in The Heptameron Often dubbed “the French Decameron,” The Heptameron is a collection of 72 stories told by a group of noble travellers, written by Mar...
Not by Nature, but by Habit: Christine de Pizan and the Complexity of Gender Roles “If it were customary to send little girls to school and teach them the same subjects as boys are taught, they woul...
The Sword and the Stage: La Maupin, the Scandalous Virtuosa of Baroque France Julie d’Aubigny, better known as La Maupin, was a French opera singer, expert swordswoman, and outlaw who lived as boldl...
As Blossoms Fall: The Poetry of Ephemeral Love in Nanshoku Ōkagami “Their sleeves were soaked with tears, not from shame, but from knowing they had only this one night. In the garden, plum blossoms...
In the Courtyard at Dusk: Female Intimacy in Mughal Miniature Painting In the world of the Mughal court, the zenana was a secluded space that offered elite women both constraint and community. Mughal ...
As October draws to a close, so too does our month-long journey through haunted halls, spectral visions, and uneasy hearts. This Spooktober, we’ve celebrated a remarkable group of writers: Charlotte...
We close the month as we started it: with Elizabeth Gaskell. The Open Door is possibly her most famous ghost story. Some people do not believe in ghosts. For that matter, some people do not believe in...
It was a mystery to me, but not to the other doctors. They took, as was natural, the worst possible view of the matter, and accepted the only solution which the facts seem to warrant. But they are men...
ELSIE was always lonely, but her desolation seemed more poignant when the day was sunny. Elsie lived with her grandmother in a large house at Hampstead. She thought that there could not be, anywhere, ...
When the rumours first began, I can’t tell you. They must have had a beginning: but no one recollected when the beginning was. It was said that curious noises were heard in the neighbourhood of ...
It stood on the left of the road as you went towards Alcester: a good-looking, red-brick house, not large, but very substantial. Everything about it was in trim order; from the emerald-green outer ven...
Better known by her pen name Mrs. Henry Wood, Ellen Wood (1814–1887) was a Victorian novelist whose works reached an immense popular audience. Her most famous book, East Lynne (1861), became a sensa...
The light had been put out on the stairs. Usually, when he returned late to spend the night in his rooms, he found it burning. Now he had to make his way slowly, striking matches as he went up the old...
I was riding along one autumn day through a certain wooded portion of New York State, when I came suddenly upon an old stone house in which the marks of age were in such startling contrast to its unfi...
Nest revived during the warm summer weather. Edward came to see her, and stayed the allotted quarter of an hour; but he dared not look her in the face. She was, indeed, a cripple: one leg was much sho...
Another spooky story in two parts by Elizabeth Gaskell. Of a hundred travellers who spend a night at Tre-Madoc, in North Wales, there is not one, perhaps, who goes to the neighbouring village of Pen-M...
Today, we feature another spooky story by Marjorie Bowen. When Maitland first saw the house the poppies were in full bloom; he had never before seen so many blooming together; the field was a sheet of...
This is not a celebration. Every year, November 25th marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and it opens the door to the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Vi...
Today is Human Rights Day and the last day on my reading list. I’ve got a treat for you. And tomorrow I’ll give you a sneak peek of the BIM notebooks. Drawing Power: Women’s Stories ...
I don’t have much time today (it was bound to happen) but I can still throw something out there as part of the reading list. We’re almost there. Tomorrow is Human Rights Day. Chlorine Gard...
On October, 10th – International Mental Health Day – I had the chance of writing how unsafe and unhealthy the construction industry can be. I skimmed again on the surface of this topic on...
After Lighter than my Shadow, and as I feel that body shaming is one of the forms of violence and abuse we often overlook, on today’s reading list I have another graphic novel about eating disorders...
As the Crow Flies by Melanie Gilman Melanie Gillman’s webcomic about a queer, black teenager who finds herself stranded in a dangerous and unfamiliar place: an all-white Christian youth backpack...
It’s December 5th and I know I should be remembering something, but I can’t remember what. I probably forgot someone’s birthday and if you’re reading this… sorry, I think...
On November 25th, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, I announced taht I am going to collect all the articles I wrote on BIM since 2015 and that all profits from the ...
It’s December (can you believe it?) And I’m struggling with my committment of providing you with a little something every day, going from November 25th to December 10th, from the Internati...
Happy 1st day of December, darlings. I continue with my reading list of comic books by artists talking about gender biases, integration and diversity. Today on the reading list… Passing for Hu...
I continue along the line of what is becoming a reading list on graphic novels around the subject of diversity, gender-based violence and integration in general. Today… The Hookah Girl and Other...
Day 6, my reading list continues. November, 25th was the International Day for the elimination of violence against women and I‘m trying to bridge it together with December, 10th (International Hu...
Fifth day of my committment. November, 25th was the International Day for the elimination of violence against women and we try to make a run for December, 10th (International Human Rights Day) by mak...
I follow through my committment, on this fourth day. November, 25th was the International Day for the elimination of violence against women and we try to make a run for December, 10th (International ...
Take It as a Compliment by Maria Stoian Bringing together the voices of males and females of all ages, the stories in this collective graphic memoir reflect real life experiences of sexual abuse, viol...
Linley was fond of collecting what he called “raw material” and, as a fairly successful barrister, he had good opportunity for doing so. He despised novelists and romancists, yet one day h...
“Wonder what’s goin’ on in the church?” Gilman Marlow stopped and stared slowly over at the church. It was a little white building with five pointed windows on each side. The w...
The following story is found in the Gretla, an Icelandic Saga, composed in the thirteenth century, or that comes to us in the form then given to it; but it is a redaction of a Saga of much earlier dat...
I was born at Sawley, where the shadow of Pendle Hill falls at sunrise. I suppose Sawley sprang up into a village in the time of the monks, who had an abbey there. Many of the cottages are strange old...
A considerable time ago I was invited to a little evening gathering, where our friend Vincent was, along with some other people. I was detained by business, and did not arrive till very late. I was al...
“I don’t s’pose you air goin’ to do much Christmas over to your house.” Mrs. Luther Ely stood looking over her gate. There was a sweet, hypocritical smile on her little t...
She who had been Florence Flannery noted with a careless eye the stains of wet on the dusty stairs, and with a glance ill used to observance of domesticities looked up for damp or dripping ceilings. T...
The Chrightons were very great people in that part of the country where my childhood and youth were spent. To speak of Squire Chrighton was to speak of a power in that remote western region of England...
Martha Pym said that she had never seen a ghost and that she would very much like to do so, “particularly at Christmas, for you can laugh as you like, that is the correct time to see a ghost....
Perlipat’s mother was the wife of a king–that is, a queen; and, in consequence, Perlipat, the moment she was born, was a princess by birth. The king was beside himself for joy as he saw hi...
Isabelle Crosland felt very depressed when the boat train drew into the vast London station. The gas lamps set at intervals down the platform did little more than reveal filth, fog and figures huddled...
Every December, I get the itch for two things: candlelit cosiness and the delicious shiver of a good ghost story. So this year the blog is hosting an Advent Calendar of spooky Christmas tales. From De...
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