David Rafferty

The 90s had a lot of missteps but the then-earnest belief in diversity and multiculturalism brought on by post-Cold War optimism was one of it better fruits

Ivanhoe is the story of a Russian farmer and his tool.

YouTube video by daveh0ndoras TOOL - Forty Six & 2 live 1996 Pomona, CA

Your #RobertHarveyMedal Top 32

Number 6 (36 votes)

Ænima - Tool

youtu.be/5irce-bVeyc?...

YouTube video by UPROXX Indie Mixtape Faith No More - Midlife Crisis (Official Music Video) [4K]

Your #RobertHarveyMedal Top 32

Number 19 (18 votes)

Angel Dust - Faith No More

youtu.be/U8b88US-6ts?...

The Consuls are in the thick of a tremendous scandal. The candidate C. Memmius read out in the Senate the text of a compact which he and his fellow candidate Domitius had made with the Consuls providing that, if they were themselves elected, they would furnish three Augurs who would state that they had been present at the passing of a lex curiata which had never been passed, and two Consulars who would state that they had witnessed a senatorial decree making provision for the consular provinces, though the Senate had not even met; failing this, they were both to forfeit the sum of HS 4,000,000 to the Consuls. The compact, which, as was stated, was not an oral one but had been entered in the account books of many persons with names and full details, was produced by Memmius on Pompey's advice with the names cancelled. This exposure leaves Appius where he was— nothing lost to be sure. But for his colleague it is a collapse, he is utterly discredited. Memmius, having broken up the coalition

One of my favourite bits of Roman history: the conspiracy to rig the elections in 54 BCE. The best detail is at the end: to hold both sides to the deal, money was held in trust by third parties and noted in account books.

Cue Stringer Bell: "Are you taking notes on a criminal fucking conspiracy?"

YouTube video by Top Clips Naked Gun - Drug Dealers

Sadly, the last line of this clip isn’t a gif. It would so often be useful.

youtu.be/sxNRyxw4kIk

I can’t speak for others, but for me it’s because I’m an historian.

Fire extinguisher next to a statue of Joan of Arc

Hell of a thing to put next to a statue of Joan of Arc. (h/t David Pilling)

There’s also the Alexandrian customs. I don’t think we have numbers on them, but as the biggest port in the Med, they would be substantial.

Pre that, you have disproportionate spending on navies, which are famously capital-intensive. The Ptolemies were also relatively less good at plundering outside their borders, which was the easiest way to raise silver. So, as you say, a structural shortfall.

I would also ask @quatrus.bsky.social. She is working on silver flows into/out of the eastern Mediterranean.

Steady on, Rousseau.

Brisbane deserved winners (*spits*) but the Storm were terrible in the second half. A team built on doing the basics well couldn’t complete their sets. #NRLGF

The kombucha lady meme, with “Broncos” as the bad one and “Lions” as the good one

For neutrals watching both grand finals, the correct opinion:

Can you measure this on the Sam Draper scale?’

There won’t even be any chocolate inside.

Are we talking 1980s German footballer bad?

Everything in that article was saying “Why don’t they just create a government work force to build houses, continually? Why rely on the building companies?”

Which is why Roosevelt is (in world-historical terms) the greatest American. Someone else in that job might well have sat out the war.

The secrets of Glasner’s success and why Palace system would be lost in translation elsewhere | Jonathan Wilson Why does a system that has drawn so much scepticism at Manchester United work so well at Crystal Palace?

I’ve been thinking this for a couple of years, but @jonawils.bsky.social’s column (www.theguardian.com/football/202...) crystallised it:

Arsenal. Left back steps into midfield next to a deep-lying player. Two 8s ahead of them. Wingers who stay wide; a single centre-forward.

Is this a W-M?

You mean, landlords against their tenants?

For those who haven’t seen it: track down the full match of Barca’s 5-0 over Real Madrid in November 2010. Do yourself a favour and watch the whole thing. The single best team performance I’ve ever seen.

NOTE TO SELF: Do not thoughtlessly walk on the grass without thongs in bindii season...ow ow ow ow ow

Okay my confession for October is that I preferred Martin Odegaard‘s old haircut.

This is my local (Federal) backbench MP.

The reason the “never heard of” number is so low for Chuck Schumer is that people have heard of Amy Schumer.

Photo of Ada Palmer and Jo Walton holding the advanced release copy of the book, sitting in front of a bookcase covered with science fiction and action figures.

The book cover. It shows stacks of old and much loved paperback books with classic science fiction and fantasy fonts, stacked so their titles spell out the title of the book. The mood is cozy, warm, and bibliophilic, like curling up in a corner overstuffed armchair to look over a friend’s bookcase and smile at the mixture of familiar and new book friends.

The back of the book. The blurb reads: “in “Trace Elements”, Jo Walton and Ada Palmer have come together in a supremely entertaining look at modern science fiction and fantasy, at how out genre is written and how it is read, that will join nonfiction works like Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Language of the Night,” Samuel R. Delany’s “The Jewel-Hinged Jaw”, and “Understanding Comics” by Scot McCloud, on the short shelf of titles essential to all readers of our genre.” ☺️😅

The ARCs are here!! “Trace Elements: Conversations on the Project of Science Fiction and Fantasy” coming out Tor Books in March 2026 from me and @bluejo.bsky.social

I’d agree that sex is a bad interview technique. Talking is much better.

I am *not* doing the Thing, but here's the house of Somnus (=Hypnos) from Ovid Met. 11.608

"Doors, lest strident hinges squeal, in all the house are none; no guard at the threshold, only, in the middle of the hall, an ebony couch raised high - feathery, black, and swathed in dusky sheets...

"A major shift in how we understand colonial growth in the early Caribbean, colonial-Indigenous relations, the origins of slavery in the Caribbean and North America, and the connections between piracy, privateering, and colonization." Greg O'Malley nails it. Congrats @csschmitt.bsky.social!