Hugh Aldersey-Williams

🚨 It looks like the UK government is gearing up to upend copyright law in favour of AI companies, legalising the theft of their work.

This is despite creatives' huge protests, and despite previous proposals being roundly rejected by the public.

Please spread the word.

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part of the medieval walls of Norwich, showing path of foundations at ground level and a section of standing wall

A line made by walling.
Part of the medieval walls of Norwich, a greater circumference than London’s #AFineCity

Sources Our catalog of sources is intended to be at once a celebration of the sources we use in the creation of The Public Domain Review and a mapping of the current landscape of openly licensed collections w...

Not exclusively #EarlyModern, but I’ve found this a useful first port of call:
publicdomainreview.org/sources/

My first book award shortlisting. @latimes.com. From 30 years ago! Pretty happy to havee lost out to Carl Sagan tbh!

“The Uncertain Heavens: Christiaan Huygens’ Ideas of Extraterrestrial Life”, @HoooAW's essay exploring the first scientifically informed speculation about extraterrestrial life: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-uncertain-heavens

Let’s not pretend that Andrew’s activities are separate from his royal status. The whole concept of royalty is based on undeserved privilege, lack of accountability, luxury and hedonism, and the idea that others are beneath you, and can be used.

Contrasting Orwell’s and Huxley’s dystopias

‘Truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance’ Aldous Huxley

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

I have to say, Otto, that Matt isn't stupid. He's pretty smart. The lesson in his case is more that of how ideology can make a smart person say dumb things, and it's one I constantly try to keep in mind.

On an entirely facetious note, I recall there was once a proposal for all these overseas territories to have a common flag under the EU umbrella: a blue ground with twelve bananas in a circle.

you are now the proud owner of a nest of swans Hugh!

I can’t help with the paleography I’m afraid, but am interested to know what you find – for obvious personal reasons!

Actually, no. Spelled out the units are lower case, pascals, newtons, hertz etc, even though the symbols are Pa, N, Hz etc.

You can’t repeal a scientific finding. You can only refute it or refine it with a new scientific finding. Some at the New York Times must know this.

Sad to hear that Cees Nooteboom has gone.
I had occasion to quote from him in Dutch Light:

‘choremancing’ – had to go to the Guardian to see what they meant. Missed opportunity – surely a choremancer is one who predicts the next dance craze. Does nobody learn Greek any more?

I’m an Ambassador for this brilliant charity, Bookbanks, giving away books with food parcels at food banks. There are two part-time jobs going for Regional Leads in London and East Anglia.

Link below.

Please share far and wide :)

Oh dear. Reminds me of the time I saw books on wave mechanics shelved under oceanography in a famous university library

They are #curling in Bruegel’s Hunters in the Snow!

Woordle 1691 1/6

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Essayism | Fitzcarraldo Editions Imagine a type of writing so hard to define its very name means a trial, effort or attempt. An ancient form with an eye on the future, a genre poised between tradition and experiment. The essay wants ...

Try this?
fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/essayi...

BBC Sounds - Music. Radio. Podcasts Listen without limits, with BBC Sounds. Catch the latest music tracks, discover binge-worthy podcasts, or listen to radio shows - all whenever you want.

Astonishing and moving on the vital power of art.
Tom Service interviewing Joyce DiDonato about the Emily Dickinson cycle she’s shortly to take across America: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... (listen from 1:12:10)

No Prisoner be—
Where Liberty—
Herself—Abide with Thee—

Tom Service, BBC Radio 3, Saturday Morning, Interview with American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato. Possibly the interview of the year.
Tom doing what BBC news and current affairs woefully fail to do.

Dutch parties agree on minority government with Rob Jetten as prime minister Centrist D66 to team up with center-right and liberal parties, leaders say.

the Dutch are about to get a new government which is centrist, liberal, non-populist, respectful of minorities, fiscally sensible, anti climate change, pro-EU, anti Putin.
In the current climate that is not a small thing. People should be glad and stop complaining!

www.politico.eu/article/dutc...

Possibly not quite the premiere I see checking on Wikipedia. But yes, the Maggio Musicale, in a fabulous double-decker cloister (maybe Santa Croce?) with the four soloists centrally placed in the upper arcades and KH at a bank of controls in the middle.

Nice haul! I heard the first performance of Sirius in Florence in 1980!

From Snowdrop to Nightjar: Robert Marsham’s “Indications of Spring” (1789) What can we learn from observing the progression of spring — a hawthorn’s first flowering, the return of birdsong on a particular day? Hugh Aldersey-Williams explores the lifelong calendrical project ...

Snowdrops are out and the skylarks are up: it can’t be too soon to repost this: publicdomainreview.org/essay/from-s...

Cover of Periodic Tales

Nice to see Periodic Tales still flying off the shelves.
Is everyone reading up about rare earth elements?

'A national project to turn the tide': Government unveils £15bn Warm Homes Plan Long-awaited plan aims to help millions of families to cut energy bills by installing solar panels, batteries, heat pumps, and insulation

This will get massively overshadowed today and as ever the devil is in the detail, but is should be one of the best things Labour has done. It has the potential to improve the lives and finances of millions of people.
www.businessgreen.com/news/4524489...

"Every critical ecosystem is on a pathway to collapse"

FFS

The fact that the Labour front bench suppressed this expert analysis rather than being transparent and stepping up a gear in doing something about it doesn't just make them unserious. In my view it makes them criminally negligent.

Round here it’s a loke