Keith Frankish

And this piece ended thus.

"If all we had to worry about was a few potty homeopaths and astrologers, it might be better to shrug, and get on with trying to find some truths about the world. But now the endarkenment extends to parliament, universities and schools, it is far too dangerous to ignore."

No, I haven't. I'll look into it, though my main problem is getting to sleep, not waking up.

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Thanks! I'll try it

Thanks. I need to get more active. I do a lot of housework early in the morning, but it doesn't energize me.

No, my sleep is poor, especially during the first half of the night.

Any tips for getting the motor running early (in addition to caffeine)?

I used to be most productive late at night, sometimes working right through till dawn. But I can't do it anymore, and I can't find another slot that works. I'm useless early in the morning and sleepy in the afternoon.

I've never been a morning person. And now I'm not an afternoon, evening, or night person either.

YouTube video by Retrospective - Classic Movies Alastair Sim Trevor Howard Thriller Full Movie | Green for Danger (1946) | Retrospective

Implausible but engaging 1946 whodunnit with strong performances, especially from Alastair Sim as a quirky detective www.youtube.com/watch?v=zluR...

Extract from Balwin’s book reads: “I am not sure that the cultural level of the people is subject to a steady rise: in fact, quite unpredictable things happen when the bulk of the population attains what we think of as a high cultural level, e.g., pre-World War II Germany, or present-day Swe-den. And this, I think, is because the effort of a Schoenberg or a Picasso (or a William Faulkner or an Albert Camus) has nothing to do, at bottom, with physical comfort, or indeed with comfort of any other kind. But the aim of the people who rise to this high cultural level—who rise, that is, into the middle class—is precisely comfort for the body and the mind. The artistic objects by which they are surrounded cannot possibly fulfill their original function of disturbing the peace-which is still the only method by which the mind can be improved-they bear witness instead to the attainment of a certain level of economic stability and a certain thin measure of sophistication. But art and ideas come out of the passion and torment of experience: it is impossible to have a real relationship to the first if one's aim is to be protected from the second.”

Reading James Baldwin and every page seems to glitter with wisdom.

Her comments about Henry VIII!

YouTube video by BBC Archive 1972: Has KING JAMES IV been REINCARNATED? | Nationwide | Weird and Wonderful | BBC Archive

Another wonderfully weird report from 1970s Nationwide. The woman featured aka Ada F. Kay died last year aged 95. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_F._... www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf9g...

Contemporary philosophers who are excellent writers. Go!

"Why Caleb, is that a grubbing tool in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?" #GirlsOwnCC

And they say AI is useless . . .

Idea: A website where you can reconnect with people you used to know on Friends Reunited

'35.1 Verily he who pronounces a more severe judgement upon one who is friendless or come from afar than upon one of his own acquaintances injures himself' (you know things are bad just now when medieval laws sound so enlightened) #medievalsky #law

Next year it will be 50 years since Nuts in May was first broadcast. If we all asked very nicely, do you think Mike Leigh would write a sequel (Nuts in December?), with Roger Sloman and Alison Steadman reprising their roles and Diane Morgan playing their daughter? It would be amazing.

I hope you're right. I'm worried that AI use is becoming a touchstone for some on the left. I've been scolded for even experimenting with an LLM!

Many on the left see AI as a tool of social manipulation by sinister corporations. Maybe it is, but it doesn't follow that it couldn't be reappropriated for social improvement and personal empowerment. (Compare vaccines and big pharma.) But we won't make that happen if the left writes it off.

This is an interesting thread on one of the most important debates of our time.

Very odd!

It's appalling and self-destructive for Israel. I grew up in the 1970s, when the holocaust was still a relatively recent event. I was supportive of the idea of a Jewish state, and I hoped that Israel could make a fair settlement with the Palestinians. Now, I think that was naive.

I assumed -ent was the adjective, -ant the noun (a repellant is repellent)

My condemning what's happening in Gaza won't affect anything, but I do condemn it. I used to hope for a two-state solution to the conflict, but since Israel doesn't want that, then there should be a single secular state with a right of return for everyone with a recent family connection to the land.

* repellent -- sheesh, Keith!

Ooh -- will you post pictures of your progress, please?

CIS: The Flaxborough Chronicles by Colin Watson | Crime Fiction Lover

Here's a short introduction to CW and his work crimefictionlover.com/2015/09/cis-... I also recommend his Snobbery With Violence -- a history of early-mid C20th British social attitudes as revealed in crime fiction. It's waspish!

Do you know Colin Watson's Flaxborough novels? I think you'd like them. @ancientnmodern.bsky.social and I are fans.