In 1978, the Czech dissident Václav Havel, later president, wrote an essay called The Power of the Powerless. And in it, he asked a simple question: How did the communist system sustain itself? www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

This is an actual line that was added to the official system prompt for Codex for GPT-5.5 by OpenAI. Usually the system prompt is as minimal as possible, so I assume it would otherwise mention goblins a lot. AIs are weird.

I have a papyrology joke bu[t ca. 15 ].

There is now a Dyslexia Hebrew font available for download:

I don't know, but it's bringing philology and source criticism to the masses

Something pretty cool about ancient epic and drama is that nobody needed to offer spoiler alerts, everybody already knew how the damn thing ends, they paid attention to the storyteller for the _special effects_

never change, John Chrysostom

Me, at a naval museum, reading a display about sea mammals being trained to do recovery work: “Oh! Look! It says here that dolphins train for 5-7 years. It’s like they get a PhD!” [reads further] “Oh…no. Never mind. It also says that ‘naval animals learn through positive reinforcement.’”

My colleague gave this apt definition of philology: Giving a text or manuscript to a philologist is like giving a pig carcass to a butcher, you end up with a ham.

In this Roman taberna, it was a tradition: a little puls, big glass of passum, then over to Calvary to watch the the crucifixions. But now the woke mob wants to take all of that away.

A 3,200 year-old painted scene of a lion and a gazelle playing a board game, probably senet. From an ancient Egyptian illustrated papyrus showing animals taking on human roles in comic situations where they act against their natural instincts. 📷 British Museum #Archaeology

I don't normally subscribe to the "German has a word for it" thing because all languages can invent and borrow new words! That said, I can't stop thinking about "hobbyless" as an insult since I saw it a few days ago, so here you go It promotes a growth mindset!! www.tumblr.com/abbiistabbii...

Went to the Whitney and they had a painting of my dissertation defense

I want fully staffed public pools, and libraries that are cathedrals to public goods and a society where walling yourself off with money is viewed as sociopathic.

Perfect

Thanks to a random Instagram influencer, I now have a new favourite Bible verse.

Herman Melville on moderates, all the way back in 1857:

A Roman marble sculpture of four puppies, all curled up asleep together. Unearthed from the ruins of the House of the Faun in Pompeii, 1st century BCE, now housed at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, Italy

Yes, hello, is that God? Yeah, hi. I have a complaint. You gave me this brain that’s designed for finding berries and avoiding lions and now people are ‘just circling back’ to see if we can ‘move the needle’ on ‘key initiatives’? NONE of those things are berries.

All this. Yes.

We listened. We heard you. When you go to a restaurant and pay for food, you want it to taste good. Honestly we had lost sight of this. Even though we are a restaurant that exists to serve food people want to buy and eat. But guess what, we're doing things differently now!

Civilisation has been in a moral and artistic nosedive ever since they made it possible to play as Bowser in Mariokart, and win races for evil

Full disclosure: sometimes I say “All the best,” but I’ve actually retained some of the best for myself.

No-one says ‘Fast food isn’t going away, so let’s work out how to incorporate it into your diet’, yet we are often treated to the same non sequitur when it comes to AI

I find it depressing that so many people seem determined to outsource their basic brain functions. Like WHY ARE YOU EVEN ALIVE IF THAT'S HOW LITTLE YOU THINK ABOUT EXISTENCE

C. S. Lewis tried to warn us about AI

I find it bleak how many people seem to have given up on having any kind of intellectual life. Depression is rampant because we’ve abandoned books & hobbies in favor of joyless amusements. The single most attractive thing a person can do is read often & delight in learning.

I get yelled at for saying this but for many hundreds of years people went to university not to get diplomas or be employable but because immersion in the humanities was considered foundational to a good life, and school must return to its original purpose: the joy of learning.

Best κατάβασις (katabasis) reference you will see until this summer’s Odyssey. www.smh.com.au/culture/oper... wanna know more? Read the splendid Suzanne Lye’s underworld book: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

pliny the elder DID mention aioli in his historia naturalis! i found the quote!!! his contemporary columella also mentions beating garlic and oil with a pestle but suggests administering it via nostril to those afflicted with tongue distemper, so im discounting that. for ONCE a primary source!!!!

“These sorts of things are entirely and eminently effable. And I should be very grateful if you’d try to eff a few of them for your essay next week.” Nikhil Krishnan encounters Oxford philosophy for the fist time.