Steven Poole

“A legitimate PhD-level expert in anything,” they said.

“Show me a diagram of the US presidents since FDR, with their names and years in office under their photos,” I said.

he did write "Waterloo Sunset" though

‘Battle of the Big Bang’ Review: A Question of Origins The big bang ought to have spread energy homogeneously. What explains clumps of galaxies with vast spaces between them?

here i am in the WSJ on what came before the Big Bang: www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

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The Sleeping Forecast: A serene soundtrack for cosy nights

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Steven Poole
In Silent Circles

how about we start by banning them from having second and third jobs and then see how much time they have for their duties

yes! before the lamentable developments of 3000BCE, humans simply "venerated" nature rather than killing the parts of it they could catch for food (the review goes on to be properly sceptical of what sounds like an extremely stupid book) www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

not that i can bring to mind! But I guess that's because of how i conceive of what good style is in the first place? and, i suppose, what counts as thinking?

who are the good writers who are bad thinkers? inasmuch as they were thinking about how to write their writing, they must have been thinking that well

Escape from the Prison Planet Supreme Ultimate Fist · Escape from the Prison Planet · Song · 2025

Mr Fist wishes you every success in your battle for liberty open.spotify.com/track/5azWTB...

While it’s Alison Pearson day, I have fond memories of her period as a lockdown sceptic, which peaked with her posting “has anyone actually MET someone with Covid, or is this all just BBC news?” before admitting in replies that all of her children had it

here i am in the Graun on whether trees are good www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

i absolutely do not care!

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Hymn

Should we ban opinion polls? They claim to reflect public sentiment. But they’re better thought of as just another species of misinformation

here i am in the Graun on why opinion polls should be BANNED www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

When There Was a Chance Steven Poole · When There Was a Chance · Song · 2025

new tune out today: open.spotify.com/track/1AIWvd...

ok, we don't understand the same thing by "normative", cool

i've been trying to make you understand that "high" in such a context inevitably has a normative connotation (viz., "it should be lower"), but since you seem determined not to concede this point i shall henceforth desist

lol ok

actually, calling it "high" is no less an exercise in Unspeak than calling it "fair" would be

well rather than "high" we could as well say "ambitious" or "fair" etc: there is no such fractional calculus somehow embedded in folk morality

ah ok i think we are just disagreeing whether your original use of "high" had a normative rather than simply internationally comparative implication (i supposed it did)

people are going to struggle to follow this conversation since you deleted the post i quoted, but whatevs

no one who is not comfortably insulated from worrying about how much basic things for living actually cost could call the minimum wage "high". the problem is obviously that teacher salaries are low

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Au Bistrot

🤷🏻‍♂️

Face With Tears of Joy: A natural History of Emoji by Keith Houston review An deep dive into the surprising uses and linguistic shortfalls of the ubiquitous symbols

here i am in the graun on a sprightly history of emoji www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

good lord

‘Unplug’ Review: Living Phone Free Having trouble concentrating on work or finding time for your loved ones? The problem may have to do with the phone in your pocket.

here i am in the WSJ on whether you need to break up with your phone www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

Become a jamón expert at our Ham School

TIRED: “learn to code!”
WIRED:

reminds me of the brilliant description of him in the new @LRB by William Davies: "the former political scientist of the radical right Matthew Goodwin was radicalised by his own subject matter"