Alan Davey

The kids grow up so fast!
The first person to trust me to supervise her PhD has officially submitted, and I couldn't be prouder! Congratulations Juliane😊

The National Year of Reading celebrates the ‘joy’ of books. But let’s not forget they can also be deeply troubling, too | Charlotte Higgins Encounters with great art can be absorbing, unsettling and even painful. How has this been tamed into ‘reading for pleasure’, asks Charlotte Higgins, the Guardian’s chief culture writer

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... my friend Charlotte here on why reading for “pleasure” is NOT the be all and end all of reading. With a shout out for non fiction too which hasn’t got too much of a look in during this year of reading.

My new friend Louis. #Caturday

Seat tonight in Helsinki has a good view of the organ. Hearing AION by Anna Þorvaldsdottir and the Rite of Spring by Helsinki Phil. Despite the weather I am fond of Helsinki.

Mine definitely do. Adobe Acrobat keeps asking "this is a long document, would you like me to summarize it?" No, Adobe, because it's a ****ing MUSICAL SCORE.

The main argument against PDFs is that they bamboozle AI LLMs. Transferring everything to PDFs …..

The war against PDFs is heating up Will the file type survive the AI revolution?

I like PDFs. Leave PDFs alone.

The war against PDFs is heating up
economist.com/business/202...
from The Economist

Really useful assessment [ie dismantling] of #Reform ‘illegal #migrant #return policy’ 36mins in @evanhd.bsky.social with Alan Manning, former chair of Migration Advisory Committee. Worth listening in my view. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

🥳’History repeats the old conceits..’ a
proper humanities education would bring to mind Augustus and his laws against adultery and encouraging childbirth. The princeps in the bedchamber was never a good look. (Lex Julia de maritandis ordinibus/Papia Poppaea and Lex Julia de adulteriis..)

Did better than in the NYT version…

Old Norse Wordle 26-02-24
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨
🟨🟨⬜⬜🟨
🟩⬜🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
onp.ku.dk/z2

Yesterday’s #Wordle: kyrra (vb.): 37 cits, e.g. // ‘sidan kyrddi sioen’ (Frið in AM 510 4°) onp.ku.dk/o46900 #OldNorse

That was annoying ….Wordle 1.711 6/6

⬜⬜⬜🟩🟨
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟨🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Generation gap Gen Z Millennials Living situation At home with their parents at age 23 1 23% Rental accommodation 21% 39% Own their own home 5% 1 17% Not yet gained independence because they could not afford to move out 23% Were living with parents to save for a deposit 17% Did not want to leave the family home yet 12% Partners and family Had a romantic partner by age 23 54% Lived with their partner 17% 40%* 68%

Gen Z (this group born 2000-02) are hitting ‘growing up’ milestones later than Millennials (this set 1989-90) partly as they can’t afford to move out from their parents. (Data from two separate longitudinal studies)
www.thetimes.com/article/8ff2...

Illegal migrant in small boat stopped from entering sovereign territory without a permit.

A war foretold: how the CIA and MI6 got hold of Putin’s Ukraine plans and why nobody believed them Drawing on more than 100 interviews with senior intelligence officials and other insiders in multiple countries, this exclusive account details how the US and Britain uncovered Vladimir Putin’s plans ...

Absolutely amazing piece by @shaunwalker7.bsky.social on what we now know about the period running up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It’s a rich piece worth reading in full, but here a few bits that are striking 🧵
www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

I am sick, so sick of trying to introduce reason, detail, order and actual analysis into talk about Higher Ed - now dominated by total BS, lurid fiction and, let's face it, lies. This is my view right now, I'm off to enjoy it, do what you want.

Domesticating Grasslands or Wetlands: two neolithic styles of landscape and productivity in China This lecture examines the emergence of two contrasting agricultural systems in Neolithic China, with millet-based farming in the north and wetland rice cultivation in the south shaping distinct ways o...

Cool lecture we are holding in Nottingham. How did agriculture impact society in Neolithic China?

Rice in the south offered reliable yields, supporting the rise of sedentary communities.

In the north, millets produced lower yields, encouraging mobility.
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/lectu...

How Nazgul the wolfdog made his run for Winter Olympic glory in Italy Nazgul isn't talking, but his owners come clean about how he got loose, got famous, and how they feel now

Anyway, whatever, any vestiges of a university 'system' in England and Wales disappeared a while back. It's gone beyond the red line: much is on borrowed time. Don't even know why I sometimes still post on it. Let's have wholesome doggy content instead! That's better. 🐕 www.npr.org/2026/02/21/n...

Gray striped cat surrounded by toys with head on box.

Play hard, sleep harder #caturday

Okay, sign me up!

Fyrr mun heimr ok himnar,
hugreifum Ôleifi,
— hann vas mennskra manna
mest gótt — í tvau bresta,
áðr an glíkr at góðu
gœðingr muni fœðask;
kœns hafi Kristr inn hreini
konungs ǫnd ofar lǫndum.
Hfr ErfÓl 27

This one hits hard.

Man, slightly bent posture, face signed by anxiety, standing in a room of which a window and part of a door and a grand piano can be seen.

‘Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.’

📚W.H.Auden, September 1, 1939
🖼️ Edvard Munch, Self Portrait

#BookWormSat #poetry20thC

Life goals...

Bjarni gullbrárskáld Hallbjarnarson, Kálfsflokkr 3
Ed. Alison Finlay
Vol. 1, p. 882
Mss: Holm2(60r), J2ˣ(212v-213r), 321ˣ(228), 73aˣ(184v), 68(59v), 61(118va-b), 325V(72rb), 325VII(33v), Bb(191vb), Flat(120ra), Tóm(148v) (ÓH); Kˣ(441r-v) (Hkr); FskAˣ(188), 301ˣ(68v-69r) (Fsk, ll. 5-8)

The British Academy Public service media: funding and governance options An international comparison to inform BBC Charter review 2027

The review of the BBC Charter has just been announced. In anticipation of this we have published a review of how 10 countries around the world organise their public service media, and what lessons can be drawn for the renewal of the BBC Charter www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications...

100 years old today. Happy birthday to composer György Kurtág! 🥳
Read an interview with Kurtág's close friend and colleague, Pierre-Laurent Aimard: bachtrack.com/interview-pi...

YouTube video by Pierre Boulez - Topic Messages de feu Demoiselle R. V. Troussova, Op. 17

Wishing György Kurtág a very happy hundredth birthday. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwXW...

This morning’s morning music (inspired by Radio 3 breakfast @alryanradio.bsky.social )

Who's Afraid of Lupercalia? Podcast Episode · Instant Classics · 19/02/2026 · 47m

Here it is! Our Instant Classics episode on the Lupercalia: whipping, nudity, laughter. How do we begin to understand it? podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/i...