Skip to content →

Tag: med

Spring Arise: 7mar26

Published March 7, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Julia Dault

Things are sprouting in the garden, WAY ahead of schedule and WAY before I’m ready. The garden’s going to be a bombsite again this year.

I am (momentarily) back in gear and doing All The Things. It will, of course, not last.

TODAY:

OPERATIONS: I have to get seven pages out of the house by 5pm and finish tomorrow’s newsletter
READING: THE BOOK OF COMMENTARY / UNQUIET GARDEN OF THE SOUL, Alexander Kluge (UK) (US+)
LISTENING:

(I saw Julia Brussel play, last week)


LAST WATCHED: RICHARD II, 1971 tv production, Ian McKellen, Timothy West, and I swear that was Stephen Greif. And David Calder!

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

Comments closed

only hover briefly: 8feb26

Published February 8, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Yasmine Anlan Huang

Today I feel like I might have hit the midpoint of The Mange, as I feel a little stronger and clearer. Currently deleting some distraction apps and putting the AI devices in a drawer – the Bee can no longer access current information, it tells me, and the Rabbit can’t perform scheduled tasks without a reminder to perform them, which kind of defeats the purpose of scheduling tasks. Currently shopping for new notebook covers – I have a passport-sized Wanderings notebook cover and a newestor leather cover sized for Field Notes notebooks, of which I still have a ton from years of being on the Field Notes subscription service, and I have a feeling I need at least one more of the latter. Although this might also be the year I crack and get myself a Roterfaden. Scriptorium-monk mode!

Today’s newsletter went out at 10am UK time.

TODAY:

STATUS: it is time to blitz out my inbox, my RSS feed and my podcast queue. Having to clean-slate everything barely six weeks into the year is not where I thought I’d be.
READING: finished THE ART OF WAR, Sun Tzu (UK) (US+) last night. As previously noted, I tend to use winter to read the books I should have read/re-read years ago.
LISTENING: Oh my god, this. I discovered Barn Hoppit last night and this is extraordinary:


LAST WATCHED: FIRST BLOOD. There are, as far as I’m concerned, only two Rambo films: FIRST BLOOD and RAMBO.

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

Comments closed

4dec25

Published December 4, 2025 by Warren Ellis

He jumped into bed for some attention when he heard my alarm go off. When I stopped making with the head strokes so I could get up, he reached over and smacked me around the face to let me know who the boss is.

TODAY:

OPERATIONS: right now? god knows
STATUS: up a little late today, under 8hrs sleep, it’s dark, I just did a high-cacao protein shake to try and kickstart myself
READING: CODEX 1962, Sjon (UK) (US+). 
LISTENING:


MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

Comments closed

morning computer loops

Published November 25, 2025 by Warren Ellis

Shusei Nagaoka / Androla in Labyrinth | 1984 |

Scientists in Switzerland have created a robot the size of a grain of sand that is controlled by magnets and can deliver drugs to a precise location in the human body, a breakthrough aimed at reducing the severe side effects that stop many medicines from advancing in clinical trials…

Fucking finally. I remember talking about this at the Architectural Association probably fifteen years ago.

Work has begun on a looped Christian landmark named the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer, which was designed by UK studio Snug Architects to rise over 50 metres in Warwickshire.

I wasn’t sure what made this Christian art, as it’s obviously a Mobius loop:

Set to be built near Coleshill, the monument will be made up of 188 differently shaped precast concrete elements clad in one million white bricks.

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-1538138464089-0’); });

Each brick on the looping wall will represent the story of an answered prayer, which visitors will be able to read via a mobile app.

morning computer: some useful things first thing in the day.

My free weekly newsletter is at https://orbitaloperations.beehiiv.com/

Comments closed

telemetry 1nov25

Published November 1, 2025 by Warren Ellis

On All Hallow’s Eve, Jennifer Lucy Allan turns the cards and listens for what they reveal, tracing sonic lines across the tarot deck. From the ghostly atmospherics of William Basinski’s Wheel of Fortune, to the arcane explorations of early electronic pioneer Ruth White and Swiss krautrock mystic Walter Wegmüller, the spread unfolds in unexpected ways, its order uncertain, its juxtapositions surprising. Expect new sounds from Argentinian artist aylu, whose spiritually-charged album journeys from personal struggle to collective resistance, as well as slow-motion noise conjured by New Zealand’s drone trio Surface of the Earth.

Comments closed

morning computer space brains

Published September 29, 2025 by Warren Ellis

Millo and Seth Globepainter.

“The key is to understand how my body works and work with it, not against,” she explains. “I know I’m crap in the mornings, whether I had enough sleep or not. I wake up at 8, but I generally tackle admin, emails, and social media for work, rather than scrolling endlessly. Then, past 1pm, I go into full work mode.”

This self-awareness pays dividends. Sandrine says she can achieve four to five hours of uninterrupted deep work, excepting toilet breaks, by aligning demanding creative tasks with her peak energy periods.

Expert tips on getting into creative flow (and staying there)

Scientists studied the cognitive behavior of astronauts who have spent six months on board the International Space Station — and made some fascinating yet ominous discoveries.

…a series of tests revealed that their cognitive abilities slowed down while in space, “suggesting that processing speed, visual working memory, sustained attention, and risk-taking propensity may be the cognitive domains most susceptible to change in Low Earth Orbit for high-performing, professional astronauts,” the researchers wrote.

So astronauts’ brains malfunction. Great news.

Bonus round: microgravity activates “hidden, ancient sections of DNA called the “dark genome.” We didn’t have enough to worry about. There’s a Dark Genome now.

morning computer: some useful things first thing in the day.

My free weekly newsletter is at https://orbitaloperations.beehiiv.com/

Comments closed

3sep25

Published September 3, 2025 by Warren Ellis

TODAY:

OPERATIONS: Hitting my ancient iPad 2 with sticks to make its Downcast app work properly. I think the machine may have finally crapped out. Production and release schedules tentatively set. Today is scripting and hopefully getting back into a prose piece I’ve been fiddling with.
STATUS: 8hrs 8m sleep, but my body thinks autumn is here and is telling me to hibernate. Inbox 95. Browsing for new winter clothes. Reminder to self that I need to clean all my winter boots. Wearing the Timex Expedition Scout today, my signal to myself that I’m staying at least partly disconnected until 5pm.
READING: OUR DEBTS TO THE PAST by Ed James (UK) (US+)
LISTENING: Life is Exhausting by The Void Wanderer

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

Comments closed

marks 2sep25

Published September 2, 2025 by Warren Ellis

“The most likely scenario is that the severed upper limbs were trophies taken from the bodies of enemies fallen in battle or raids immediately after death and brought to the village. Heads and hands seem to be the most common human trophies documented in the archaeological record, although written and ethnographic sources often refer to other body parts, including soft tissues which would not generally preserve, such as scalps, ears, or genitals,” the authors write.

Disney is suddenly freaking out about losing its “boy” audience. No, really—they’ve finally noticed that the demographic they’ve spent the last decade ignoring might actually matter.

Variety is reporting that the studio has been quietly putting the word out to producers and writers: bring us films that can lure young men (ages 13–28) back into the fold. That Gen Z demo has been drifting for years, preferring video games and viral meme cinema (“Minecraft”) to whatever Marvel or Star Wars are serving up.

The United States may be losing its edge in mRNA technology­­.

The technology, which powered life-saving COVID-19 vaccines and is now rocketing new cancer therapeutics forward, will soon undergo a scientific slowdown. On August 5, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it would wind down mRNA vaccine development under the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA.

Comments closed

Lepodisiran

Published April 2, 2025 by Warren Ellis

From the Economist newsletter:

Cardiologists reported that an experimental drug, lepodisiran, manufactured by Eli Lilly, an American pharmaceutical company, could lower by 94% the blood’s level of a genetically inherited particle that greatly increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes. The promising midstage trial results will now be tested in large clinical trials. An estimated 1.4bn people worldwide have elevated levels of the particle, Lp(a).

Comments closed