"Just write the bloody thing"

People may have concluded over recent weeks that I was skeptical about the current England team's approach. Comments such as "Baz must go" and "play proper cricket FFS" were taken out of context: I have always been firmly behind the team. I am happy to correct this misunderstanding. #ashes #goharder

On the 11th day of fossils, my true love gave to me... 11 Cambrian fossils from the Great Basin. The Great Basin is a large area of Utah and Nevada that was under water 500 million years ago. Life was experimenting and there's lots of strange creatures found here. 1/x #12DaysofFossils

It's a great night for looking at the moon! Saturn is supposedly near the moon, but I'm having trouble finding it.

Where would you stand to see this view? That is the puzzle at the heart of Drawing from the Crowd—a citizen science project exploring how Edo-period Japanese prints depicted landscapes. We'd love your help solving it 🧵

I guess I'm hopelessly naive, because I cannot fathom why people would even dream of doing this.

@aab1871.bsky.social Hiya, a friend just linked me to your work, love it. May I ask about your post on drift? Am I understanding it right that you found a ball with a straightish seam drifts with the spin (normal swing?) but one angled more across the wicket/direction of travel drifts the other way?

The Japanese embassy had an event yesterday to celebrate the work of the British Association For Japanese Studies. It was a nice way to close out the semester, and a chance to catch up with colleagues. x.com/JAPANinUK/st...

100% worth your time. Excellent read.

I stayed for a while at another villa. When I left, I wrote my hosts the following lines: If I had slept this night When should I have heard the noise of the angry sea that batters the shore at Nara

Looking to test cricket as an antidote to everything in current affairs and UK higher education seems to have been short sighted.

I hope that England go down playing (a better version of their) plan a. If they try to play much more cautiously, then they're just going to guarantee a miserable 5-0.

I find so much to admire about the way in which Joe Root goes about his business. He manages here to remain optimistic, accept the criticism, and still not throw his team mates under the bus. #theashes www.skysports.com/cricket/news...

Quick bump for this. It's my first piece on a new project on the game of go in modern Japanese history. In the article I use a mix of textual and database analysis to consider Shinfuseki - a moment of strategic change in how go was played. #digitalhumanities #boardgamestudies #mjha

I wrote a new article: it’s on the Fallout franchise, & it’s just been published in Games&Culture I’m currently trying to wrap my head around a bigger project on historical video game promotion and branding & this article is a slice (in progress) of that + it’s open access! doi.org/10.1177/1555...

Here he is taking the photo.

I'm not really sure the best way to promote research these days, but here's my first article from a new project, on the game of go (& it's open access!): reference-global.com/article/10.2...

I've started watching the latest season of The Witcher, and my goodness I have no idea what on earth is going on.

If I have one complaint about the current England test side, it's making me agree with Michael Vaughan. Shambolic tactical awareness I can handle; repeatedly raising my hopes only to dash them, no real change there; batting like they're double parked: no problem. But this, this is the limit.

Nearly time to start feeding hay, I think. It's been quite a mild autumn so I think this is later in the year then usual.

Today in the ARB: Ian Rapley reviews “Fuji: A Mountain in the Making” by Andrew Bernstein asianreviewofbooks.com/fuji-a-mount...

Strongly agree Engage in an extravagant fire ritual, then dump the pudding in the bin.

There's something quite elegant about the fact that these two routes are almost perfectly matched. Less so that I have to drive there tonight for the AGM of a junior district cricket association.

If it can decode whatever that is that I wrote on the calendar for next Thursday, then we're really talking.

The boy turned 16 today. He's off to choose his own GP, buy some liqueur chocolates, and get a job cleaning a bookies (after closing time).

As disappointing as day two of the Perth test was, and it was really really disappointing, I think I'm not ready to throw in the towel on the #ashes just yet. If any England team has the self belief to not capitulate 1 down in Australia, it's surely this one.

Post a movie where you are from.

For anyone in Perth who suspects they’ll be at a loose end over the next few days, luckily I’m the kind of person who has a rough holiday outline ready for most places in the world. Here are some suggestions:

Who knew that Test batting was going to be one of the things destroyed by smart phones and the damage they've done to our concentration.

Trying to unsubscribe from The Atlantic is proving one of the worst, most frustrating customer services experiences I've ever had.

Telling myself, this England batting lineup is mercurial. They'll have their moments as surely as they'll collapse from time to time.

Having watched Only Murders In The Building from end to end in the last few months, I felt that this season was a perfect place to call it complete.

I won't be getting up in the night, but I am quite excited about the #ashes kicking off tonight. England's batting will have their moments, and there is a path for the bowling to do well. Australia are favourites, but not overwhelmingly so.

I just took my son to a sixth form open evening. Which is strange, since he was in primary school during lockdown, which we all know was just the other day.

It's the hope that kills you. Australia have to be favourites, but it feels like the outcome of #theashes could be anything from 5-0 Australia through to a convincing England win.

New favourite podcast. Also, on a one day streak of writing every day.

I listened to The Rest Is Politics for the first time in ages to listen to Michael Gove's interview. He's a fascinating mix: thoughtful reasoned ideas, very polite & urbane, and then absolute lunacy.

We had a weekend trip to Hereford. Nice town, nice cathedral, the mappa mundi was really really fabulous. It was in such good condition, I had to double check it was actually the real one.

Our next Exploring the Past public lecture is taking place soon. This fascinating and free talk will be online. Title: Caribbean and West African Lives in British Ports Date: 12.11.25 Time: 19:00 bit.ly/4hubwQH @webstermedieval.bsky.social @cuhistarchrel.bsky.social

Fantasy would be a better genre if the Earthsea books were its foundational texts, not LoTR.

Also, there is nothing interesting at all about 'there's a character in this novel with the author's name, who is and is not the author'

World war two was the final death blow to the novel as a genre, and we're still living in the shattered remains, hunting for a replacement.

This (fascinating) audiobook thread reminding me of the hardest choices you have to make as a parent, “how many characters in this book are getting funny voices?” b/w “can I actually do the accent I am attempting?”

Five wickets for Kuldeep Yadav, but the West Indies mounting a rearguard action against the Indian men, plus what looks like a fascinating game in the women's world cup between India and Australia. Plus a test in Pakistan. In retrospect, my love of cricket always used to be quite parochial.

*Academic lecturing voice*: history reveals to us that many of the things we take for granted, as natural or timeless, are in fact, contingent, mutable, and have in the past been very different. Take, for example, the flap jack.

Thread

The photographer here has clearly had an absolute whale of a time.

This #womensworldcup could really use one of these near-upsets turning into an actual upset. England, Australia, and now (from a lesser point of jeopardy) India have dug themselves out of holes.

According to online stores, Green Star Japan is coming out in paperback at the end of the month. That's a nice surprise, and just in time for Christmas. www.foyles.co.uk/author/81753...