"there is always an oligarchy" - words of Ronald Syme I never forget

Someone is excited that it's #Caturday tomorrow

"there is always an oligarchy" - words of Ronald Syme I never forget

Then and now the focus on individuals - Peter Mandelson and Michelle Mone - diverts attention from the real point. Our institutions, which should protect the public, just nod along with what is a kind of theft by the privileged. No one goes to prison, no one is ever held accountable.

Where could the cat be?

Be cat, do climbs; then nest and be cosy.

She also got a new perch for Christmas

Who says black cats don't photograph well?

OCTOPUS!!!

The darkness brooded on the arms of the chair

Four hundred oligarchs, Fear, honour and interest, A bipolar conflict And a κτῆμά ἐς αἰεὶ.

On the ninth day of Christmas, Thucydides sent to me Nine IR Realists Eight toiling triremes Seven sorry Spartans Six truest causes Tragic irony!

because for me while yes pleasure is central to the effort, it’s a complex pleasure that can be transformative if I allow it to be, and “be less ignorant” is a yearly, endlessly renewable goal

Nyx ruling Christmas

Being nursed back to health by Nyx and the power of sleepies

Recent Nyx, featuring help on academic tasks; sleepies; independent study of philosophy; and pure joyful posing

*enters the room, cloak flapping* “This opuscule appears to me utterly remiss” *leaves*

An academic disliked an Oxford Very Short Introduction (145 pages) in his field so much that he wrote a 200 page book review attacking it. www.pierre-legrand.com/ewExternalFi...

I read the stuff academics wrote and knew I could do the same or better.

The reckless joy of the addict

This was terrific fun - sharing my own 'bit', but do watch the whole thing! www.youtube.com/live/T7x5syH...

New Nyx furniture

As always, Nyx is grateful to @noreenmasud.bsky.social for telling her papa to get silvervine

Makes his own kimchi and likes the warm sound you only get with vinyl.

Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.

It was Black Cat Day yesterday and we missed it! Sorry Nyx.

Schattenfroh + Schatten

It was the curry best of times. It was the Currywurst of times.

Compulsory Greek & Latin course for medical students propose punchng.com/don-seeks-co...

'universities are not companies...their leaders do not play a direct role in fulfilling the academic mission. Their role is twofold: to ensure the financial solvency of the institution, and to create the conditions in which academic staff and students can pursue excellence. Both are essential.' 1/2

there’s an essay here about when the joke starts in the U.K. it just gets an extra long day by rolling west but if it starts in the states when Australia is awake we can all keep it going indefinitely

Ra Ra Rasputna, Lover of the orange tsar There was a cat that really was gone!

Personally, I won’t even say hello to A.I. Just a death stare.

Tonight Nyx listened to Ethel Smyth and learned about feminism.

Some recent Nyx pics

A well known, longstanding and important problem gets another look in a new HEPI report this week. Link to the HEPI report is: www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/07/31/t... 1/2

Hallo lett me intorduce myselve I am Gonzo Ca'at I will bite yore enomys fore a smol cashmonie fee or perhabs a treet of pupperpony

Then again, I might use this next time I need an example of a false dichotomy

This isn't a drinking game, this is downing a bottle of vodka through a straw.

"Damn you, curtain, why must you oppose my will?"

Nyx clearly wants something and I can't figure out what. (I'm aware the answer is almost certainly dreamies...) but she seems more insistent than usual.

Quoted here: my earlier piece for @thewalrus.ca thewalrus.ca/chatgpt-writ...

I wrote about the widespread adoption of AI in education, and why there needs to be more resistance to it open.substack.com/pub/irinadum...

Omg

I don't want to be cynical, he lied, but is it possible Trump talked to Zelensky in the Vatican just so the story would be about him?

One of those things that's actually completely obvious when you think about it but still seems bizarre.

Meeting them, and briefly wondering if I might be one.

Intertextual links between commentaries on epigram and The Proclaimers