324 results for “james_inthe_box”
Trump Demands Apology From LeBron James Over National Anthem Conduct
LeBron James plays in the 2026-27 season opener between the Philadelphia 76ers and the New York Knicks at…
#EuropeSays #Korea #KR #Seoul #ColinKaepernick #DonaldTrump #LeBronJames #nationalanthem #NewYorkKnicks #Philadelphia76ers #TruthSocial
https://www.europesays.com/korea/198957/
LIVE: Democratic Senate candidate Talarico votes in Texas
Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico votes in Austin in the midterm elections. Talarico represents Texas Democrats' best chance at a statewide win in more than three decades but faces a wall of Republican money, with Elon Musk and other donors pouring hundreds of millions into a late effort to rescue Senate candidate Ken Paxton. #texas #talarico #paxton #midterms #election Keep up with the latest news from…
https://fllics.com/zh/video/live-democratic-senate-candidate-talarico-votes-in-texas/
James Bond finalists to screen-test for role for this week – reports
By Adrian Horton
Actors in the mix to play 007 in Denis Villeneuve’s installment include Callum Turner and Jack Lowden
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/oct/22/final-james-bond-screen-tests-callum-turner-jack-lowden
#JamesBond #DenisVilleneuve #Actionandadventurefilms #Thrillers #Film #Culture #USnews #TheGuardian #AdrianHorton
"I used to be in a yacht club," James admitted, "Which was basically a drinking club with a boating problem? I sold the boat. Shame. Josephine and I would go sailing sometimes, as far away from everything as possible."
"As much time as we spent being 'socialites, neither of us really liked people. We never felt right in the limelight, always interlopers, even though everyone knew our names. Which was quite annoying? It's hard to be an international thief when people know who you are!"
James Brown, if you somehow can hear this through the veil of death, the beginning lyrics of It's a Man's World explain why you had to write about your feelings expressed in the outro.
Wonder if you realized this
https://genius.com/James-brown-its-a-mans-mans-mans-world-lyrics
From the Archives w BCS #468: "A Dragon in the Abbey" by James Morrow, BCS #395 (who has a new story in BCS #468).
"Even as Jacob, dripping and shivering, urged the Abbess and the canonesses to back away from the shore, a portion of the swamp coalesced into a roaring and amorphous mass of silt and muck. With a noise like a thousand oxen breaking wind, the monstrous pudding undulated forward, seeking to suffocate its parent bog’s tormentors."
https://beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/a-dragon-in-the-abbey/
#fantasy #sff #shortstory
Cit James Frondeskians on W Social
"#Israeli company is using advertisements on the internet to install #malware without you clicking on the Ads on your phone. Details in the video and it's description. "
Also the article here
youtu.be/a8tbmcrCz_4?...https://youtu.be/a8tbmcrCz_4?is=WvapSgMr6aIoLD2P
Books finished in 2026:
43. Men At Arms by Terry Pratchett (1993)
42. Full Circle: A Life in Rebellion by Ben Morea (2025)
41. Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov (1952)
40. Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut (1962)
39. Wobblies! A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World (2005) Edited by Paul Buhle and Nicole Schulman with various authors
38. Foundation by Isaac Asimov (1951)
37. Clay’s Ark by Octavia E Butler (1984)
36. We Fight: Three Decades of Rebellion Against The Police 2nd Ed. by various authors (2020; 2025)
35. Rabbit, Run by John Updike (1960)
34. Mind Of My Mind by Octavia E Butler (1977)
33. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and The San Domingo Revolution by CLR James (1938)
32. Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett (1992)
31. Escape From Freedom by Erich Fromm (1941)
30. Walking With The Comrades by Arundhati Roy (2011)
29. Wild Seed by Octavia E Butler (1980)
28. Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline (2020)
27. The Last Hero: A Discworld Fable by Terry Pratchett (2001)
26. Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P Newton with J Herman Blake (1973)
25. The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney (1955)
24. Granny Made Me An Anarchist by Stuart Christie (2004)
23. The Day of The Triffids by John Wyndham (1951)
22. Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson (1970)
21. Secolo Nuovo: Or the Times of Promise, A Novel by Fulvia Ferrari (2021)
20. Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Friedrich Engels (1880)
19. Working Class History: Everyday Acts of Resistance and Rebellion by Working Class History (2020)
18. The Diary of a Drug Fiend by Aleister Crowley (1922)
17. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett (1992)
16. The Red and The Black by Stendhal (1830)
15. The Book of Sand (1975) and Shakespeare’s Memory (1983) by Jorge Luis Borges
14. Anarchist Feminists In The Philippines From Etniko Bandido (~2016)
13. The Unseen by Nanni Balestrini (1989)
12. Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare: A Guide to the Armed Phase of the African Revolution by Kwame Nkrumah (1968)
11. Rights of Man by Thomas Paine (1792)
10. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (2011)
9. Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker (1911)
8. Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (1996)
7. Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett (1991)
6. The Nation On No Map: Black Anarchism and Abolition by William C Anderson (2023)
5. baedan - journal of queer nihilism - issue one (2012)
4. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1992)
3. They Will Beat The Memory Out Of Us: Forcing Nonviolence on Forgetful Movements by Peter Gelderloos (2024)
2. It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis (1935)
1. Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge (2006)
#bookstodon #books #book #reading #nowreading #read #fiction #fantasy #discworld #terrypratchett
Book 15 of Discworld and the second book of the City Watch miniseries. A full 10 years after the beginning of the series and it was still going strong. I am reading them all in order, except for one exception so far.
There would definitely be advantages to reading the separate miniseries in order rather than all of them but I like seeing how the whole unfolded as it was published.
I still favor the Death books over the Witches, Wizards, and City Watch books so far. The stand alone ones have been quite good too, so far. Wizards are my second favorite, so far. Carrot is growing on me though. Love his connections to Dwarf culture despite being a big strong human. The undead are a fine addition to the city of Ankh-Morpork as well as the little dragons from Guards! Guards!.
Mass Effect: Universe Would Have Mixed James Bond, John Wick and Hitman, Claims Community Adviser
With BioWare being shuttered by the now Saudi-owned EA, we’re starting to get more details about the Mass Effect game that the team was working on. A leaked internal trailer gave us a look at the visual style and tone, and now we have people who were involved with BioWare giving us insights into what Mass Effect: Universe was going to be.
AdvertisementsDantics is an Australian YouTuber who claims he was a member of the Mass Effect council. In his video discussing the cancelled game, he explains: “They would send me what they were working on and I would provide feedback.”
In other words, his involvement was advisory, but assuming his claims are true, he would have had access to a lot of information. There is indeed such a thing as the Mass Effect council — it popped up in the credits of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, for example — and council members have previously discussed providing feedback on marketing and development on other BioWare games. What I can’t verify is whether Dantics was actually a member, but my gut instinct is that he’s telling the truth.
According to Dantics, Universe was going to take place more than 600 years after the original trilogy. The galaxy has split into three main factions: an alliance led by the humans that also includes the batarians and krogan; another alliance made up of the Council races; and a third faction in the rising geth superpower, which has also been making megastructures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOWrTNazZxM&t=1s
“Now, the three factions aren’t in open war,” he says. “Rather, it’s a cold war situation with an unknown enemy seemingly pulling the strings, which you are sent out to investigate.”
Shepard and crew were fairly straightforward operatives, but Dantics describes the new protagonist as more of a secret agent/spy. Like Shepard, this customisable lead character is an N7 agent, although the developers apparently had a different style of action in mind.
“They wanted the gameplay to feel more like James Bond meets John Wick,” Dantics explains. “You’re a super spy, an agent, being tactful if you want and forceful when you need.”
The character would also have “experimental tech in your head that uniquely interacts with your physiology.” Dantics compares its abilities to Cyberpunk 2077’s hacking, including looking through walls and remotely exploding pipes behind enemies.
Missions would use handcrafted maps like the original trilogy, but offer something closer to Hitman’s freedom of approach.
“Your missions would be similar to Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3’s traditional handcrafted maps, but you can approach them freeform, similar to the Hitman series or the start of Noveria. You can talk to people, assess, analyse, and execute with more freedom. But if you wanted, you could go in guns blazing.”
Liara would return as a powerful asari matriarch, which we glimpsed in the leaked trailer. Other companions included a krogan, a quarian and a human woman available to romance. Again, we caught some glimpses of them in the trailer.
AdvertisementsThe setting would also attempt to accommodate Mass Effect 3’s three main endings. After six centuries of technological progress, Reapers would be outdated and people would already be partly synthetic, reducing the differences between Control and Synthesis.
“Reapers are outdated tech, so if you chose Control, they’re not going to be as impactful as they were,” Dantics says. “Everyone at this stage is part synthetic, so picking Synthesis works out a similar way.”
Shepard would be long dead even if they survived Destroy, but their legacy would remain. Exactly how earlier decisions would be represented isn’t clear. Dantics says “your choices might even come up,” which suggests references to the trilogy rather than establishing how much those decisions would affect Universe.
As for how much of this BioWare had actually made, Dantics claims: “Not to rub salt in the wound, but they were a lot further in development than their statement suggested.” Insider Shinobi602 has offered a similar account, although neither has supplied a completion percentage or demonstrated a near-finished game.
In ResetEra comments reported by TwistedVoxel, Shinobi602 says the story was established, squadmates were implemented, hubs had been built and new combat and quest systems were being developed. He also claims development was progressing well, rather than suffering the problems associated with Andromeda and The Veilguard.
Shinobi602 describes the leaked trailer as an internal mood piece made for leadership, using placeholder assets to communicate the game’s direction. He says the team had been diverted to help finish The Veilguard before returning to Mass Effect following its release. His account is that EA leadership had been enthusiastic about the project, with the cancellation reflecting changing priorities at the publisher.
There is some first-hand support for the team’s ambitions. Former BioWare cinematic supervisor Tony de Waal wrote on LinkedIn that the project aimed for “a level of autonomy and choice that no other game has been able to match.” He cited Larian and CD Projekt as inspirations while stressing the team’s desire to stay true to the trilogy. De Waal also said he was among roughly 50 remaining BioWare employees who lost their jobs, a number which was also mentioned by Jason Schreier in his reporting.
However, ambition and progress don’t tell us how much work remained. Jason Schreier confirmed the leaked trailer was authentic, which establishes its origin rather than how representative it was of the wider game. BioWare’s closure statement still described the project as being in early development, and the footage itself uses pre-production assets.
Regardless of how close the game may or may not have been to release, Dantics’ details paint a pretty interesting picture. The idea of a Mass Effect game with more freedom to tackle objectives and the option to approach situations more like a secret agent than a soldier sounds awesome. But of course, it’s also easy to make a game sound good on paper — most cancelled games can be made to sound like they would have been spectacular. It looks like we will never know, unless this version of Universe gets handed off to a different team.
#bioware #ea #MassEffect #News #PC #PlayStation #Xbox
Who will be the next James Bond? - The Latest
By Presented by Michael Safi with Catherine Shoard ; producer Angus Neale ; senior producer Leonore Schick ; executive producer Zoe Hitch
The search for the next James Bond may be in the final stages, with screen tests reportedly taking place this weekend. Callum Turner, Jack Lowden and Josh O’Connor are among the actors thought to be in the running for the role. So who is likely to emerge as the next 007? And what does the future look like for the Bond franchise now it’s in the hands of Amazon MGM Studios? Michael Safi speaks to film editor Catherine Shoard – watch on YouTube
https://www.theguardian.com/news/video/2026/oct/23/who-will-be-the-next-james-bond-the-latest
#JamesBond #JoshOConnor #JackLowden #DenisVilleneuve #Film #Culture #TheGuardian #PresentedbyMichaelSafiwithCatherineShoard #producerAngusNeale #seniorproducerLeonoreSchick #executiveproducerZoeHitch
"Can we go out tomorrow?"
James looked at her. The lights were off and the stained glass windows made only ghosts on the wall. She stood thin and dark in the shadows, her hair tousled, wearing a black dress made shapeless by her gangling form. For a moment, he regarded her like a stranger.
"Go where?"
"I don't know. What would you do with Josephine?"
"Jess," he said reproachfully.
"I'm not trying to replace her. I only don't know what to do! But surely you had some fun together?"
Great, thorough guide to a chaotic situation by my TechTarget colleague James Walker. I'd seen posts about leaks but wasn't clear on these details. The Oct 17 evidence of an exploit in the wild is interesting...possibly fodder for another follow-up! #PHP2shell
Building a filterable menu that works for everyone. Jenna Smith and James Nelson explain why Base UI’s filterable menu is a dialog with a search field rather than a combobox. Arrow keys highlight items via aria-activedescendant while focus stays in the input, Home and End depend on whether there’s text, and each submenu gets its own input. The input uses type="text" with role="searchbox" to avoid native clear buttons, and focus isn’t trapped. #a11y #component
Remember these bad boys?
Djarum International clove cigarettes, from Jakarta, Indonesia.
Back in the #80s, sounded so worldly / James Bond.
The clove bits wd spark / explode, super rank; worse than patchouli.
Old buddy Tim & I used to buy them at smoke shops on The Ave in the U-District, Seattle.
But studies showed that smoking 1 was = to 20 regular cigs in lung damage/cancer risk.
Plus, u had to repaint your apartment, & kiss your damage deposit good-bye!
Maymont Mansion: Amazing Gilded Age Historic Home
Maymont, a mansion in Richmond, Virginia, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Virginia Landmark. Dating to 1893, the Gilded Age mansion was the lavish home built for James and Sallie May (Maymont) Dooley.
Maymont Mansion in Richmond, Virginia. Photo by Linda Aksomitis.Linda’s Pick of the Exhibits
First of all, the mansion is spectacular! It’s probably one of the most lavish historic buildings I’ve ever visited, including some European palaces and castles. It definitely rivals the Hearst Castle in California.
So, picking a favorite room was tough. However, I have to say it was the dining room that “spoke” the loudest to me in the end.
Why? Probably because the room and place settings do an amazing job of showcasing the lifestyles of the era’s high society.
Formal dining room at Maymont Mansion. Photo by Linda Aksomitis.Of course, the room is filled with paintings and sculptures and ornate furnishings. But it was the place settings that really amazed me.
I was used to the forks, knives, and spoons for each course. What I wasn’t familiar with was the range of glassware.
Place setting in the dining room of the Maymont Mansion. Photo by Linda Aksomitis.It was obvious that each type of glass, like each piece of silverware, was designed for a specific purpose. So this table was set for four different types of wine or sherry or champagne.
What types of glasses were used in late 1800s?Research showed me that I was correct!
Hmm, so if I was to guess, I’d say:
What’s at the Maymont Mansion?
The Maymont Mansion was a bequest to the city of Richmon from Sallie Dooley, fulfilling her husband’s wishes in 1925. What was in the bequest? One hundred acres to be used as a free park for city residents to enjoy. The mansion and its furnishings.
Eventually, of course, the mansion deteriorated without a cash fund to maintain it. A restoration began, and in 1975 the Maymont Foundation was established to care for the estate that’s still owned by the city. In 2025, the Foundation also did an additional 11.75 million restoration.
Maymont Mansion
The Maymont Mansion is built in a Romanesque Revival style. It has 33 rooms, with a number of the formal rooms included in the house tour. While 33 rooms sounds like the Mansion should be enormous, a number of the rooms are actually quite small. Twelve of the rooms are restored and open to the public.
Sallie Dooley’s room, with its magnificent swan bed, Louis Vuitton trunk and Tiffany dressing table crafted with sterling silver and narwhal tusks. Photo by Linda Aksomitis.Of course, the furnishings are amazing, being all original. In total, Maymont says the bequeathed collection totals 949 objects and the library has 1226 volumes from the Dooley’s library.
Ever dreamt of owning a collection of Tiffany pieces? A Style Weekly article indicated that the Maymont collection is the most complete, intact historic site from the period when Tiffany’s was the country’s most prestigious source of luxury goods!
While the guided tour ends with the formal rooms, visitors also have access to the domestic service rooms.
Butler’s room in the Maymont Mansion with the cast iron bed, simple furnishings and black work suit. Photo by Linda Aksomitis.This area provides an interesting contrast between the lifestyles of the rich and the servants who made their lives easier.
Fast Fact: During the Guilded Age, the employment of an English butler became the ultimate status symbol in the North. In the South, menservants were hired more often than in other regions. However, men made up a small percentage of household workers overall. By 1893, less than 10% of Richmond’s domestic labor force was male. As domestic staff, men received higher wages and served in more visible positions than women. Butlers were valued not only for their skills but also for a polished demeanor.
~ Maymont Mansion signage
The Grounds
The areas near the mansion include historic lawns and gardens, the Carriage House and water tower, and the barn and welcome center.
Highlights include:
More on the Estate
The park, like the rest of the estate, is a beautiful greenspace. You’ll find:
Fast Fact: Before the Dooleys built the mansion the land had been a rural dairy farm overlooking the James River. The estate added Maymont Farm in 1903.
Linda’s Road Trip Tips
Richmond is an amazing city to visit! I found it friendly, both in terms of talking to local people and in city features such as free buses.
People were quick to help, without being asked, whenever I was confused walking or picking a bus route. Leaving the Amtrak station the staircase to the street is high, and while I was struggling to get my bags down them, a teen sitting on the other side just stood and carried them down for me.
But the gem to me was getting to the Mansion. My Uber had dropped me at the wrong entrance, so I was walking to get to my scheduled tour. I asked various people for help, which was always given. However, when I asked an older resident how far away I was, she simply got her car keys and gave me a ride! Now that’s A++ for a directionally challenged tourist!
I stayed at the very comfortable Omni Richmond Hotel downtown in the historic Shockoe Slip District. It was close, just a short walk, to the Greater Richmond Convention Center. On the way, I walked through the historic Capitol Square.
Bison meatloaf. Photo by Linda Aksomitis.And meals? While I had many tasty ones, the best one was at Southern Railway Taphouse in Shockoe Slip. It’s a restaurant and bar with a patio facing the canal. My dinner? An excellent bison meatloaf. It was served with caramelized shallot gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, and sautéed green beans. Delicious!
Who Should Visit Maymont Mansion?
Maymont Mansion is an amazing attraction for Gilded Age and architecture fans. With its luxury and opulence preserved for 135+ years, the mansion can’t help but impress even the most well-traveled visitor.
Pin me!Anyone who loves decorative arts or is a Tiffany enthusiast will also find lots of treasures to keep them fascinated. Since visitors see both the elite lifestyle and the worker lifestyle, there are great insights into what separated the classes.
I wouldn’t recommend the mansion for families with small children. Strollers aren’t permitted due to the size of rooms and walkways.
Likewise, due to the historic integrity of the well-preserved home, tours aren’t wheelchair accessible.
However, the Robins Nature Center is fully wheelchair and stroller accessible. The gardens have limited access in some portions.
When it comes to time, I spent an hour-and-a-half going through the mansion. I didn’t, however, go anywhere on the grounds other than the walkway from the parking area.
How Do You Visit Maymont Mansion?
There are three entrances to Maymont Mansion. Access the mansion at the Hampton Street Entrance (1700 Hampton Street), the Robins Nature Center through the Shields Lake Drive Entrance (2201 Shields Lake Drive in Byrd Park), and the Children’s Farm and Wildlife Exhibits at the Spottswood Entrance near the Boulevard Bridge.
Parking: The Hampton Street Entrance and Shields Drive Entrance both have free parking areas.
Street address: 1700 Hampton Street (Maymont Mansion), Richmond, Virginia.
Find hours and days open (typically just Thursday-Sundays) on the Maymont website.
Keep up to date with what’s happening on the Maymont Facebook page.
Take the In Service and Beyond Virtual Tour on the Maymont website.
Plan your visit with Google Maps.
#history #lifestyles #museums #richAndFamous #travel #US
The Pillaging of India
‘They tore the cloth from the loom, or wrestled the scanty portion of rice or salt from the peasants of Bengal’ - Charles James Fox (Whig MP) ‘The East India Company is a state in the disguise of a merchant’ - Edmund Burke (Whig MP) ‘The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism’ - Franklin D. Roosevelt. Pirates for Good Queen Bess Spain is regarded as the first global superpower, and like all superpowers, it earned its stripes by plundering, enslaving, and colonising.
https://meanderingcuriousreader.blog/2026/10/24/the-pillaging-of-india/
Clifden District - Settler history, Gardner Family of "The Cliffs" property, 1920-1930
Son of the famous ‘Captain’ Gardner of Birchwood, James Carnegy Gardner who was born on 24 September 1871 in Victoria Australia to parents James & Mary, was always known as Carnegy (sometimes spelled as Carnegie). Carnegy had six other siblings. The family moved from Australia to Aotearoa New Zealand when he was just a young boy. The family took over the ownership of Birchwood Station in the intervening years and after being educated in Christchurch, Carnegy came to there to help his father manage it, before buying his own. It was at Birchwood that Captain Gardner established the now famous ‘Birchwood Hunt.”.
The postcard pictured above is from a Christmas thought to have been during the late 1920's or early 30's, is a historical snapshot from the kind of life and leisure that the Gardner family lived, with 'the hunt' and horses always at the centre. The wording reads: "Kind thoughts and all good wishes for Christmas and the New Year from your old friend Carnegy Gardner. Still going strong." It is believed to have been given to Malcolm Mouat of Eastern Bush as the two were known to have been firm friends and the item was left in the family's possession after Malcolm had died, and has been passed down the generations since then. Carnegy was a known lover of the hunt and horses, being part of the local racing scene after moving to “The Cliffs” in the early 1900’s, where he remained until retiring to Invercargill some years later.
Another entry CWA.001.20 in the archive which covers both Carnegy Gardner and his family at 'The Cliff's' with more background history.
However, if you or anyone you know has any more photos, information or accounts of 'The Cliff's' property, the Gardner family or anything else in the area during the years, on any aspects of business, farming or community life, please make a comment in the space provided under the image page, or make contact via the archive email on the front page.
Central and Western Murihiku Southland Archive via DigitalNZ
http://api.digitalnz.org/records/50736874/source
#Clifden #Settlers #Murihiku #Waiau #Pioneers #Southland #Farming #BirchwoodHunt #GardnerFamily #Horses #DigitalOnlyImageInArchive #CentralAndWesternMurihikuSouthlandArchive
Roadworks report for #Twickenham, Fri 23 Oct, 2026:
CLOSED: Hospital Bridge Road, Douai Grove, King Edwards Grove, Melbourne Road, Radnor Gardens, Radnor Road, St James's Road, Udney Park Road
LANE CLOSED: Chertsey Road
TEMPORARY LIGHTS: Hampton Court Road, Strawberry Vale, Nelson Road
SINGLE-FILE TRAFFIC: Waldegrave Road, Arlington Road, Scotts Drive
WORKS IN THE ROAD: The Green, Summerwood Road, Beauchamp Road, Craig Road, Crane Road, Gostling Road
+15 more: https://CheapFuelNearMe.uk/street-manager/twickenham/
Roadworks report for #Twickenham, Thu 22 Oct, 2026:
CLOSED: Hospital Bridge Road, Douai Grove, Melbourne Road, Radnor Gardens, Radnor Road, St James's Road, Udney Park Road
LANE CLOSED: Chertsey Road
TEMPORARY LIGHTS: Hampton Court Road, Strawberry Vale, Nelson Road
SINGLE-FILE TRAFFIC: Waldegrave Road, Arlington Road, Scotts Drive
WORKS IN THE ROAD: Richmond Road, The Green, Summerwood Road, Appleby Close, Beauchamp Road, Craig Road, Crane Road
+19 more: https://CheapFuelNearMe.uk/street-manager/twickenham/
The of it
I think I’ve come up with the post title least likely to be clicked. Looks like a typo, doesn’t it? It’s not, I promise. We really are going to be discussing the of it.
What is the of it?
Or alternatively, what the heck are you talking about, Frank? Frightening though it may be, I tell you, the of it is real. Poets throughout the Anglosphere have been seduced by the of it, beginning, I believe, in the 1980s with the then Poet Laureate Ted Hughes. From there it grew and now hardly can one pick up a pamphlet of poetry without being brought face to face with the ubiquity Of It.
When Hughes stumbled upon the Of It, he perhaps appropriately used it to highlight that something was new. Or, really, and here we come to the problem of it, actually just to say that something was new, but in a slightly different way: ‘the new of it’. Now, saying something old in a new way is a completely valid poetry thing to do, as is its converse1. The problem of it is that ‘of it’ is no longer new. It has become that most dread of all poetry things: it is now only a poetry thing. No one describes things using ‘of it’ in the way poets do. All ‘of it’ does in a poem, in the form ‘the [adjective] of it’ is provide one more way of attaching an adjective to a noun. But it adds nothing to the description. ‘I stroked a smooth-furred cat’ is a normal, prosaic sentence. ‘I stroke a cat. The smooth of it.’ Is demented but it is also, by virtue of the ‘of it’ and the continuous present tense (the now of it?), poetry.
If I were forced, presumably by some People’s Commissar for Verse, to forbid one thing in poetry, that thing would be the use of poetry things. Like alabaster, which now means ‘a white thing’ — when was the last time you heard someone use alabaster to talk about actual alabaster? Or gossamer, what even is gossamer? ‘Omphalos’, likewise, was introduced to us by Seamus Heaney, an actual genius, and tediously repeated by dozens of poets in dozens of poems since, without adding a single thing to Heaney’s usage. No one says omphalos, alabaster or gossamer, except in poems, and always in the same way: the old in an old way.
These terms are not merely cliches; cliche has its uses and is anyway nearly impossible to avoid2. They’re signals that say ‘this is a poem’ and thereby absolve the writer of having to actually write something poetic.
Cultural stuff
Books
James Byrne, The Banality of Power
This is quite good but suffers when Byrne overthinks things. For example, in ‘A Flute for Boudicca’, he writes: ‘Here you / found me, hissing inside my own shade / like a tree that burns but will not burnish’. None of this convoluted simile makes any sense. I’ll allow that a burning tree may hiss, but does it do so in its own shade? Any which way, it is certain that we don’t expect trees to ‘burnish’, so highlighting that this one won’t tells us nothing. It’s clearly only there because of the similarity of the (etymologically unrelated) words, and the homophone with Byrne’s name. These layers don’t go anywhere.
Elsewhere, he riffs off of the Ocean Vuong snowlcone, ‘What is X but Y Z-ing?’ This has already been mocked enough (deservedly, in my view), but it’s representative of an approach to poetry where we’re sort of expected to make grand statements. I’m not really into it. In this case, Byrne asks ‘What is grief, if not stasis that keeps on / moving?’ Come on, mate. It’s not just that, is it? I was watching Star Trek yesterday and they had a more useful statement about grief than this. In the same poem, he talks of ‘a priest / swinging his chalice’. I could be wrong here, but doesn’t he mean a censer, the thing with incense in? That is definitely swung, unlike a chalice, which is the cup for communion wine. I don’t see that you’d swing this because, if you did, you’d make a mess. I’ve never been to Mass, so perhaps I’m wrong and priests do swing chalices.
Byrne definitely has some talent and much of the collection is good. Aside from the burn/ish thing, ‘A Flute for Boudicca’ is really good: ‘Welcome to Rome. / Here’s a ticket to the circus’ does everything Byrne intended. And more, for all I know.
Kim Deyn, Folkish
As various editors have told me with a mixture of admiration and exasperation, it’s pretty difficult to write funny poetry. Kim Deyn’s poetry is good, funny stuff. It’s de rigeur at this point in a review to add a phrase like ‘but moving’, as though being funny and being emotive are opposites. Not an error Deyn herself would make, I suspect. Key title: ‘The Wyrm Raises an Interesting Point’.
Billy Ramsell, Render
Ramsell writes an entire ‘selected poems’ for an imaginary Spanish poet Alberto Cenas. Inevitably, you’re reminded of the real Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa and his ‘heteronyms’: many different assumed names, voices and characters. There’s a similar mood, here, too, of quiet despair in an indifferent world. However, where Pessoa despaired at an uncaring (acaring, might be better) universe, Cenas’ despair is with society rather than the world at large.
Ramsell positions himself as Cenas’ translator, rather than as creator. You can therefore have all the fun you wish thinking about the differences between the two processes. Borges would have a field day. To maintain the illusion, Ramsell gives us a timeline of Cenas’ life and work, and divides the book into sections based on the collections in which Cenas’ work ‘originally’ appeared. Ambitious, ingenious and completely committed to the fiction he conjures. An impossible role model for us lazy ironists (I, too, am completely committed to being lazy and ironic).
Robert Sapolsky, Determined: A Life Without Free Will
A fascinating book which will shake even the most determined philosophical libertarian. Sapolsky repeatedly asks, in ironic tones, where the ‘free will neuron’ is in the brain; his argument would be stronger if he’d focused more explicitly on what he obviously believes: that such a thing not only doesn’t exist but cannot exist.
Because he sticks to his own field (neuroscience) and preoccupations (criminal justice), he occasionally leaves interesting threads like this dangling. He points out at one point that while free will is often seen as incompatible with determinism, it’s even less so with indeterminism. He doesn’t run with this idea, but it’s interesting! If you raise your hand now because you willed it, you have to believe that the will determined the outcome, but if you believe in indeterminism, you have to view it as a coicidence that your hand rose instead of falling, waving or indeed detaching from your wrist and striking out on its own. This suggests that the idea of free will involves a contradiction whether or not the universe is deterministic. Either: the universe is deterministic, in which case every decision you make is determined by prior physical events in a chain of cause and effect going back to the Big Bang, and there’s no way you can will your way out of it; or, the universe is indeterministic in which case, how can your will affect even your own body, never mind anything else around it? Either way, free will, against all experience, seems to be impossible.
But there’s the rub. I personally can’t quite get past the idea that free will exists because that experience is just so strong. More fundamental than that, though, is that I can’t understand why this should be the case. My body performs many actions, some completely involuntary (my digestive systems works without my direct input), some apparently partially under my control (I blink reflexively but also can do so at will), and some entirely optional (I don’t have to write this blog). Then there are marginal cases where I deliberately perform some action, say, playing the chord of E Minor on a guitar, in which I intend the outcome but don’t have to consicously will my middle and ring fingers on to the correct frets and strings. Why is it the case that I experience these degrees of consciously willed action, if not because some of them are consciously willed? Without getting too far into dualism, it seems to me quite easy to imagine a body-mind relationship where conscious thought played a slightly greater or slightly less role than it seems to. But in every healthy person it plays precisely the role it does in me. Why?
As I’ve previously made clear, I already believe that your free will is attenuated in important ways. The observational evidence is that other people believe this, too. Parents try very hard to give their children good life opportunities because they understand perfectly well that a kid who goes to a bad school in a dangerous neighbourhood is much less likely to successfully will themselves into a good life. In other words, most people’s preferences reveal that they’re some sort of compatibilist (i.e., believing something along the lines of ‘determinism is real but that doesn’t rule out free will’).
Sapolsky has certainly hardened my views about how much freely willed control we have over our lives (I’ve moved from ‘very little’ to ‘nearly none’). Once you taken into account all the things you didn’t choose (your parents and therefore your genes, the country, culture and time into which you were born, all the random events, over which you had no control, which did or didn’t happen to you3) and all the things you perhaps did choose but which nevertheless curtailed your future choices in important ways (which career path you chose from the options available; who you formed relationships with; what hobbies you have), there’s just not a lot of room left for free will, even if it can exist. And, again, people overwhelmingly understand this even if they say they don’t, which is why no one has ever said, ‘I might as well raise my kids in this flat between a brothel and a crack den, as that will save me money on rent and my kids will simply will themselves into success regardless’.
One underexplored area is what hard incompatibilism would mean for politics and society. From at least around the time of the Enlightenment, our politics has been defined by a belief in personal freedom. If freedom is (meta)physically impossible, that renders the basis of our society nonsensical. Granted, there is a perceptible difference between being metaphysically unfree and actually being restrained, but the inconsistency nevertheless bothers me. ‘Freedom, which is impossible, is the birthright of every human being’ is not a sound basis for politics.
Both Sapolsky and Hayek (who I read last week) hit on quite similar reasons for continuing to organise society on a roughly ‘free’ basis: the spontaneous organisation of large groups of organisms, including humans, produces extraordinary results, frequently ones that are not predictable at the outset. Allowing people this kind of spontaneous (even if unfree) organisation leads to superior outcomes than could ever be planned and a lack of free will doesn’t change that, any more than the lack of free will in slime moulds or bees (to use two of Sapolsky’s examples) makes their self-organisation less impressive.
Acknowledging that free will is less powerful than we believed should change our views on the nature of reward and punishment, but not on anyone’s capacity for creativity, compassion or any other virtue. Perhaps the ideal society is a Commonwealth of Knowledge, where ‘knowledge’ includes skill and talent.
Music
I found a load of CDs in the street so if I’ve picked even weirder stuff to listen to this week than is usually the case, thank the street CDs.
Anohni and the Johnsons, The Crying Light
N.E.R.D., Fly or Die
N.E.R.D., No_one Ever Really Dies
Lightning Bolt, Wonderful Rainbow
DATE: October 22, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG
** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
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TITLE: Older adults with depression tend to have smaller volumes of a specific part of the hippocampus brain region
An analysis of more than 2,000 cognitively healthy older adults found that those with depression tended to have a smaller volume in one part of the hippocampus, a brain region central to memory and one of the first affected by Alzheimer’s disease. The association did not appear to be explained by amyloid and tau, two proteins linked to Alzheimer’s disease. The paper was published in Translational Psychiatry.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia in older adults. It gradually disrupts memory, thinking, behavior, and everyday functioning. The disease is accompanied by characteristic changes in the brain, including abnormal clumps of amyloid protein, called plaques, and twisted strands of tau protein, called tangles, along with the loss of nerve cells.
Research suggests that depression may also play a role in the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. People who experience depression during their lifetime appear to have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease later on. One possible connection between the two conditions involves the hippocampus, which is central to memory and is among the first areas affected by Alzheimer’s disease.
Depression has likewise been associated with changes in the structure of the hippocampus, although previous studies have produced inconsistent findings. Part of the difficulty may be that the hippocampus is not a single uniform structure but consists of several smaller regions (called hippocampal subfields) that can be affected differently by depression and Alzheimer’s disease. Antidepressant medications may also play a role, as some evidence suggests that they could protect against hippocampal shrinkage, while other findings raise questions about their effects in older adults.
Study author Danielle Luu of the Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute at the University of Southern California and colleagues set out to examine how depression and antidepressant use relate to the volume of hippocampal subfields in older adults without cognitive problems. They also wanted to know whether Alzheimer’s-related factors, including amyloid and tau buildup and the APOE4 gene variant, which raises Alzheimer’s risk, play a role in these relationships.
The researchers considered two possibilities for antidepressants. The medications might be linked to larger subfield volumes by relieving depressive symptoms. Alternatively, they might be linked to smaller volumes, either because of unknown harmful effects on the brain or because doctors are more likely to prescribe them to people with more severe depression.
The researchers analyzed data from the Health and Aging Brain Study-Health Disparities, which recruited Hispanic, Black, and white older adults through the University of North Texas in Fort Worth. The analysis included 2,009 cognitively unimpaired adults between 50 and 90 years of age, with an average age of about 65.
Of these participants, 630 were classified as having depression, either because they scored 10 or higher on the Geriatric Depression Scale or because they reported having been diagnosed with depression by a health care provider. The remaining 1,379 participants were classified as not depressed.
Participants underwent high-resolution MRI scans of the hippocampus and reported whether they used antidepressant medications. The researchers used the scans to calculate volumes of three hippocampal subfields: the CA1, the subiculum, and a composite region that included the CA2, CA3, and the dentate gyrus (CA23DG). Subsets of participants also underwent PET scans measuring amyloid (684 people) and tau (386 people) in the brain.
Participants with depression tended to have a smaller CA23DG, but depression was not associated with the volume of the CA1 or the subiculum. The association was small and held after the researchers accounted for body mass index and physical activity, as well as tau levels and APOE4 status. When amyloid was added to the analysis, the association was no longer statistically significant, but its size was similar, which the authors attribute to the smaller number of participants with amyloid scans.
The severity of current depressive symptoms and the age at which depression began were not associated with the volume of any subfield. In exploratory analyses, the link between depression and smaller subfields appeared stronger in men than in women, but the authors interpret this cautiously because the formal test of a sex difference was not statistically significant.
Among participants with depression, those who used antidepressant medications tended to have smaller CA1 and CA23DG volumes than those who did not. These associations weakened to borderline levels after the researchers accounted for body mass index and physical activity. When antidepressant use and depression were included in the same analysis, the link between depression itself and a smaller CA23DG faded, while antidepressant use remained associated with a smaller CA23DG.
The authors suggest that the medication findings may reflect what is known as indication bias, meaning that people with more severe depression may be more likely to be prescribed medication in the first place. Antidepressant users reported fewer current depressive symptoms than non-users, suggesting the medications were relieving symptoms, but the researchers did not have information on how severe participants’ depression was before treatment or how long they had taken medication.
“It is important to study AD [Alzheimer’s disease] in the context of mental health, since rates of depression rise with age. Moreover, it is crucial to investigate how depression and antidepressant medication use affect the hippocampus, a region of the brain that is heavily impacted by AD. Understanding the relationship between depression and the development of AD is important for exploring preventative measures against brain atrophy and dementia,” study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the neural underpinnings of depression in older adults. However, it should be noted that the design of this study does not allow any causal inferences to be derived from the results. Depression diagnoses and medication use were self-reported rather than drawn from medical records, and the analyses involving amyloid and tau were based on smaller subsets of participants.
The researchers did not compare different types or doses of antidepressants. They note that the possibility that the medications themselves affect hippocampal structure should be tested in randomized controlled trials.
The paper, “Depression and hippocampal subfield volume in older adults,” was authored by Danielle Luu, Alicia M. Twisselmann, Victoria R. Tennant, Brandon J. Hall, Arjun Mahajan, Audrey Kim, Jamie Terner, Marylan L. Davison, Koral Wheeler, Christopher R. K. Ching, James Hall, Matthew T. Borzage, Leigh Johnson, Arthur W. Toga, Sid E. O’Bryant, Kristine Yaffe, and Meredith N. Braskie for the HABS-HD Study Team.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #Depression #BrainHealth #AlzheimersDisease #Hippocampus #MentalHealth #HealthyAging #DementiaResearch #Neuroscience #Aging #MedicalResearch
Anyway here's something I saw this week in my short trip to Oslo - a new bird for me, in the form of a nutcracker!
These hoppy little corvids (crow/magpie relatives) live in cold and high mountain climates and bury nut stashes, digging them up from under the snow with their long heavy beaks during the winter months. They're also very speckledy, and have a very different balance to most of their cousins with a much longer beak and a short tail.
Matrix Conference next year in the Netherlands! #MatrixConf #FOSDEM
Matrix Conference next year in the Netherlands! #MatrixConf
Matrix Conference next year in the Netherlands! #MatrixConf #FOSDEM
Collective punishment is a war crime.
Excerpt: Israeli troops have levelled a neighbourhood in Hebron, driving out hundreds of families in collective punishment for a militant attack on an army checkpoint outside the West Bank city, local Palestinian authorities said.
The Hebron municipality estimated that 35 hectares (86 acres) had been destroyed or marked for destruction and about 1,500 people had been evicted from their homes by Saturday afternoon in the district of Ein Deir Baha. The whole city of 250,000 people was sealed off by checkpoints on every point of entry.
#WarCrimes #Hebron #Palestine #Israel
Israeli soldiers raze neighbourhood in Hebron, driving families from homes https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/24/israel-soldiers-raze-west-bank-neighbourhood-hebron-families-from-homes?CMP=share_btn_url
Former Steeler Willie Colon believes the Steelers Defense is finding a way: “It's a big game against the Buccaneers, no doubt. But this Steelers defense is starting to find its way. You look at what they did recently, and they're beginning to understand that if this team is going to have a legitimate chance to win football games, they have to be elite. You saw Jamel Dean come up with a big interception against his former team. You saw them do a good job stopping the run. And despite all of the injuries they've dealt with in the secondary, this defense continues to find ways to make plays. T.J. Watt and the rest of that group understand the standard. They're starting to play with that mindset, and when they do, this defense can be a major difference-maker for the Steelers.” #Steelers #NFL
James Maddison suffers another heartbreaking injury setback for Tottenham in London derby
James Maddison has suffered another injury setback in a gut-wrenching blow for the Tottenham midfielder. Maddison, who missed…
#London #Britain #UnitedKingdom #UK #GB #England #Headlines #News #Europe #EU
https://www.europesays.com/gbr/london/44358/
James J Archer defected from the U.S. Army to join the pro-slavery Confederate States Army; he was taken prisoner on the first morning of the Battle of Gettysburg and died OTD in 1864 https://cromwell-intl.com/travel/usa/washington-lee-mansion/?s=mb #CivilWar #history #BLM
James Maddison suffers another heartbreaking injury setback for Tottenham in London derby
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.…
#London #Britain #UnitedKingdom #UK #GB #England #Headlines #News #Europe #EU #ChelseavTottenhamHotspur-PremierLeague-StamfordBridge##PA2026 #soccerfootball
https://www.europesays.com/gbr/london/44350/