Humour studies on.ft.com/42nMEUu Why is this funny? And why AI doesn’t know — yet

New Substack post on the deaths of Jonathan Main and Terry Farrell, and the notion of creating places that bring people together johngrindrod.substack.com/p/sharing-co...

Years ago a jewish ma who loves me invited me to break fast with her family after Yom Kippur. It was a revealing experience and profound honour. In a small act of solidarity to jewish friends, we will eat tonight at 7:24. I have made lemon chicken soup, potato salad, and honey cake. 1/

BREAKING: sources say NARA has forced out Dr. Todd Arrington, the federal director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, after he declined to allow the Trump administration to remove a sword from the library for a gift to King Charles lastcampaign.substack.com/p/exclusive-...

On National Poetry Day, the greatest poem I have ever read

Bruce Lee explains why missing a writing deadline. A useful template? onlineonly.christies.com/s/fine-print...

this is basically portland's version of a haka

Portland enacts emergency powers of nudity to check federal overreach.

Sad news from Kentish Town. But good to see an Owl Bookshop bag this evening

Delighted for Ben's Booker shortlisting: REST OF OUR LIVES is a great novel. www.royalholloway.ac.uk/about-us/new...

#BBCNews - Why the BBC went undercover in the Met Police to investigate claims of racism and misogyny www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Disturbing sight on Queen St this morning: the Duke is hatless. Repeat: the Duke is hatless. This is not a drill. The Cooncil need to get a Brand Protection squad over there with a fresh cone and a tube of superglue before the tourists notice.

'A Corner of the Kitchen at Dennis Severs’ House' by Eleanor Crow eleanorcrow.org

This area where the Trump Library is expected to be built is projected to be flooded in about 100 years due to sea level rise, and I'm sad I won’t be around to see it.

Big razor seems to be behind it all.

Sums up this most dismal moment.

Was seeing new views even last night

It’s got a warm lining

Laser weeding is one of those “no wa-well actually no that makes perfect sense doesn’t it” things.

I'm impressed by the gov.uk petition server's resilience, frankly. It's racked up over 760,000 signatures on the "no to a digital ID card" petition in little over an hour, and each of those requires an email confirmation. That mail server's throughput is *scary*! (20M emails/day.)

why is it always id cards and never, say, superego cards

FWIW In 1995, Blur were the NME editors for the week. Dave Rowntree did the letters page, and an anti ID card letter was ‘star letter’. Nerdy highlight of my u/g career

Hostel, House and Chambers: Accommodating the Victorian and Edwardian Working Woman by Emily Gee publishes today! This Historic England title offers an expert architectural analysis, combining social history and insights into pioneering employed women’s domestic and working lives. bit.ly/HEHostel

almost posted something about "MC Esher", which must be a neverending cricket game

📢 This looks like a great opener for the upcoming @ihr.bsky.social Digital History Seminar - "Digitising Death: Gender, Genealogy, and the Experimental Recovery of Women’s Histories in Early Modern Ireland" 👉 21 Oct, 5.30 pm, online, FREE www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Holy shit

I wonder what the TLS’s reduced publishing schedule will do to the letters page?

Amazing opportunity for a specialist librarian at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh. The Crawford Collection really is outstanding #histSTM 📜🔭 fa-evzn-saasfaukgovprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

HNY

Was looking at Robert Recorde this week, so good to see this post from the Folger www.folger.edu/blogs/collat...

TIL wildfire smoke is right up there with gun violence and car crashes as a cause of premature death. I think I’ll keep this handy for next time someone tries to minimize climate change as an issue. (Gift link) wapo.st/41ZNjv7

The main story on BBC 6 Music News this morning is that a ‘boat carrying migrants is on its way to France’ Delivered in the same upbeat tone as England winning the women’s Euros. The migration ‘debate’ in this country is unmoored from reality, and the media-political complex is feeding it

“If you’re in any situation where there’s a chance that a Reddit subforum is advising your health decisions, I don’t think that that’s a safe place to be,” said Travis Zack on.ft.com/4nb9Kpv

RBS is happy to announce that we are now accepting applications for: 𝗥𝗕𝗦-𝗮𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀 (apply by 𝟮 𝗡𝗼𝘃.) 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠. 𝗖. 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗴 𝗙𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗶𝗻 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆, 𝗕𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝘆, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀 (apply by 𝟳 𝗗𝗲𝗰.) Details: rarebookschool.org/2025-scholarships-fellowships/

“Cataclysmically bad” This new series of ECR blog posts on the French History Network makes for grim reading, perhaps grimmer even than some in UK #FrenchHistory might have realised. 1st post, anon ECRs in French History on what it’s like right now out there: frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/6691/ 🗃️

the kimmel thing is bad but as long as they arent rounding people up indiscriminately based on race, building concentration camps and talking about eradicating those they deem sexual deviants, i think we’ll be ok

the skewer seems loosening out of the middle of the world

Let them watch Hey Duggee on an iPad

After the removal of the giant wooden steps, the University of London (Senate House) still seems keen to create some kind of giant ritual landscape - now with this circular formation of benches. From a Victoria County History perspective, I'm enjoying the knowing nod to English folk horror.

your link to the good stuff! www.kickstarter.com/projects/ogg...

Day of the panier. And a pannier is due for the Workcycke today

When I was placed on the Professor Watchlist in 2021, people sent death threats about my children. I had security officers monitor my 8yo at school. Where is all the outrage for those of us who have been targeted for years? Where is the outrage for our families? My own colleagues are silent.

Given all the incredible landmark buildings Nicholas Grimshaw designed, fascinating that so many people’s favourite would be the flats behind Sainsburys overhanging the canal Camden. A reminder that big names producing great architecture doesn’t have to mean a massive museum, station or HQ

Exactly right. The way to stand up a bully is to refuse to give an inch.

This has been coming from the beginning. All major democracy-supporting NGOs and foundations have their legal complaints already drafted. And in time, perhaps not even much time, they will win their cases. What is needed most in the meantime is courage. Keep saying what you think, doing what you do.

Just been to a collation. And not of a codex.

British writer Aphra Behn, painted in 1670 by Sir Peter Lely (#BTD). Wrote Oroonoko & many plays, & is buried in Westminster Abbey.

The @washingtonpost.com has changed its slogan again, from “Democracy Dies In Darkness” to “Know Your Place.”

Thank you Swarttouw!