The best explanations I’ve yet seen of the Kafkaesqe events (aka coup) at the BBC are here: bylinetimes.com/2025/11/10/t...

You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to recognise an elaborate stitch up by Gibb, Prescott, Johnson and unknown parties

By a statistical miracle (and fistfuls of cash) I see that half the teams in the top 2 of the Champions’ League are from the Premier Division, also half the teams in the top 4, half the teams in the top 6, half the teams in the top 8, half the teams in the top 10, and half the teams in the top 12.

“Engineer Hans Hilfiker designed the Swiss rail clock to complete its revolution in 58.5 seconds then stand still for 1.5 seconds more to, as he put it, “bring calm in the last moment and ease punctual train departure” www.irishtimes.com/news/world/e...

I found myself in the concourse of Charing Cross Stn today for the first time in probably 35 years. Once this was an everyday experience: Dartford line via Bexleyheath to Blackheath. It's extraordinary how in London you can walk just seconds off your path to stimulate a little landslide of memories.

"the adulterations to Pepys began with Smith [the diaries' decoder] himself. He imposed his own punctuation and frequently omitted things he found “objectionable.” Very few people after Smith ever learned the code. This means that successive formal editors have only ever worked with Smith’s version"

‘Doing AI Differently’ from the Turing Institute ‘calls for a fundamental shift in AI development – one that positions the humanities, arts and qualitative social sciences as integral, rather than supplemental, to technical innovation.’ www.turing.ac.uk/news/publica...

Money talks: Labour listens www.theguardian.com/environment/...

So, when did Alexander the Great go skiing in the Dolomites? and when did they move the Parthenon to Languedoc? Tell us ‘Duolingo for History’

“The review describes anti-Black racism as “baked into institutional design” and diagnoses the Met’s HR (human resources) systems themselves as part of the problem. “ www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Clegg thinks AI companies should train on your data and mine unless we opt out first. “I just don’t know how you go around, asking everyone first. I just don’t see how that would work,” Clegg said. I'm not sure how "steal first, sue later" works either - in law. www.theverge.com/news/674366/...

Calling all digital preservers, archivists and librarians, Layla Jones on Trump's bonfire of data - t'would be good to prepare here

I see we have reached peak ontology

From FT: “Wholesale power prices will be negative for 17 hours from late Friday night, matching a record set in May, with the National Grid forecasting 20 gigawatts of wind power from the storm, more than three-quarters of the country’s total electricity demand.” Hah!

A De Havilland Dragon Rapide just flew past directly overhead. I knew from the sound of the engine, before I saw it. There are few more satisfying things.

Morgan, as I read this, Labour has lost as many to Green, slightly more to Lib Dem, & twice as many to Don't Know, as it has to Reform since the 2024 election. 40% of Tories have gone to Reform. The Labour vote has halved. But the clue to Why? is really in 'Won't vote' is now double Labour's share

I know I am not alone in disliking conclusions @davidveevers.bsky.social but after 20,000 words on the mutinies, disputes, dismissals and lies that preceded & followed the Sikh war in 1845-46, I have fallen for the temptation of playing historian, and written one. eaho.substack.com/p/12-victory...

Having spent much time over the last decade on a farm in Devon plagued by pheasants from the local shoot (they eat the clover, spread disease, pollute the Tavy) here is one more reason for hedge fund managers (Andrew Law) to stop playing aristocrats and put down their Purdeys.

A puzzle for the weekend: Who wrote this salacious little ditty? Retrieved from the ashes of the fire that destroyed the North transept of the Crystal Palace, it's an autograph composition and libretto, 'Un po di bastone' (a little stick). Who then is the composer? eaho.substack.com/p/a-mystery-...

I've decided to re-read Upton Sinclair's Lanny Budd series for the first time in 30 years - 11 novels averaging 650 pp each. The purpose: inspiration for Eliza Ogilvy's Commonplace Book is Missing.. Last time I had time on my hands, not now. If anybody wants to talk me out of this, feel free!

I've decided to re-read Upton Sinclair's Lanny Budd series for the first time in 30 years, as inspiration for Eliza Ogilvy's Commonplace Book is Missing. Eleven novels averaging 650 pp each. Last time I was ill and had time on my hands, not now. If anybody wants to talk me out of this, feel free.

Having read the abstract, which concerns a field I know something about, I haven’t a clue what this paper is saying; it’s one of those is it me or is it them? moments …

The 400 richest Americans are now worth a record $6.6 trillion. The entire bottom 50% of America is worth just $4.2 trillion. Our problem isn't a lack of resources. Our problem is ever-expanding inequality.

"Israel struck Qatar, ending the two state solution as Bibi Netanyahu’s plans advanced for the full evacuation of Gaza and the annexation of the West Bank." -- Lionel Barber. 12 days later, Keir Starmer announces UK recognises Palestinian state. 'Too little too late' or 'Taking the piss'?

Headline of the day: www.theguardian.com/business/202...

On the online safety act: a licence for online censorship

I've written a 3-part mini-history of Batta mutinies in India in 1H of the 19thC, and the defenestration of Lord Ellenborough by the men of Leadenhall St. In the first, racism is the root cause; in the second, a fatal combination of ambition, arrogance & dishonesty eaho.substack.com/p/10-mutiny-...

I've written a 3-part mini-history of Batta mutinies in India in 1H of the 19thC, and the defenestration of Lord Ellenborough by the men of Leadenhall St. In the first, racism is the root cause; in the second, a fatal combination of ambition, arrogance & dishonesty eaho.substack.com/p/10-mutiny-...

A smart Judith Butler response to @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social www.thenation.com/article/soci...

On losing the freedom to answer questions by ourselves (another AI parable) www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

Have we got to the level of abstraction that overcomes objections from @davidallengreen.bsky.social ?

Ah, Chris Mason, Robbie Gibb's pocket puppet

A good guide, easy process, registration achieved … now we wait 🤞🏻

I first came across Lorne Campbell in The Skull of Alem Bheg, by @kimatiwagner.bsky.social. Campbell also makes a cameo appearance in eaho.substack.com/p/10-mutiny-... and he is the subject of Eliza Ogilvy's poem on second marriages to younger brides in the HEIC. eaho.substack.com/p/on-the-ins...

While on the subject of flags, and in particular the English, this photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron semiotically entwines Arthurian mythology with the paraphernalia of crusader knights to promote an ideal of Christian militarism in imperial Britain in the 19thC - under the cross of St George.

Yes, and I think the Guardian devoting 4 paras out of 7 to verbatim quotes from the team owned by Netanyahu's friend Sylvan Adams, with not a word from the '000s of protesters looking straight at us in the photograph (many disgusted Basque cycling fans) says much about the Guardian's descent.

Edward Snowden on Apple's plan to push a new intrusive surveillance system. Remember when Boots photoprint dept reported parents to the police for taking innocent photos of toddlers naked? (As all parents have). According to Snowden, that's now going to be Apple. open.substack.com/pub/edwardsn...

The first of three chapters on the British Army’s takeover of the East India Company army in 1838-46, the period during and after the first Afghan war; a story told through the experience of Major General Sir Robert Dick, Eliza (Dick) Ogilvy’s rather fearsome guardian through her childhood.

1/4 Looking again at the Declaration of Independece, objecting to the acts of George III, '‘A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant’ it is uncanny how these acts, listed in the Declaration, are identical to those used by the present tyrant. Here is a sample:

I visited @nationalarchives.gov.uk.web.brid.gy yesterday, & was shown examples of the Declaration of Independence printed 4.7.1776 in Philly, Baltimore & NYC. I noted line: ‘A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.’

Come on @ft.com.web.brid.gy primary secondary third? We can cope with tertiary, honest

Historians: found in a letter written in India after Ellenborough received his recall by EIC directors: “The recall of Lord E. did not take me by surprise, the Court wished to blow him up about Scinde but ‘The Bean’ said no-one can do that but Her Maj. and Govt — all you can do is to recall him"

Historians: found in a letter written in India after Ellenborough received his recall by EIC directors: “The recall of Lord E. did not take me by surprise, the Court wished to blow him up about Scinde but ‘The Bean’ said no-one can do that but Her Maj. and Govt — all you can do is to recall him"

A Thought for the Day for Robert Jenrick

The BBC is finding truth so difficult to deal with it has censored thought for the day, and our contempt deepens www.theguardian.com/media/2025/a...

We may be about to find out that Wikipedia is actually important: "Category 1 demands would undermine the privacy and safety of Wikipedia’s volunteer contributors, expose the encyclopedia to manipulation and vandalism, and divert essential resources from protecting people and improving Wikipedia"

The 'Doing AI Differently' paper from the Turing Institute is importantly interesting. For addressing the inherent ambiguity of the humanities it explores 'interpretive' alternatives to the narrow range of deep neural network architectures pushed by Ggl, MS, OAI etc. www.turing.ac.uk/news/publica...

Just been scammed out of £333.60 by Academia.edu, transaction recorded as 'subscription renewal' (never had a subscription). Reddit etc. says this happening everywhere. Beware downloading '$1' papers or spam saying yr work cited. These people have spiralled into the dark side. Anyone else affected?

No, not delivering winners. This is Smithfield, so delivering carcasses. #brandfail

So while historians wipe the sweat of fear from their brow, historiographers quake ?