Meant to post this too…
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And that it fails to mention that, crucially, it’s small cake(s). Pâtisserie at its finest and sublimest.
I do appreciate the methodology of the Bolton Choral Society (and their leader Superintendent McGough), though. But fifteen seconds are too short a timeframe for Proust; what were they thinking.
Just to put this in some sort of perspective, you need roughly three and a half minutes for Heidegger, whereas someone as concise as Wittgenstein can be summarised in half of that.
Anyway, archived version for anyone hitting their limit of free articles:
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There are few towns where the lives of generations of the ancients can be traced. The site now known as Deir el-Medina was the home of the tomb-builders and artists of the Valleys of the Kings and Queens.
Where those ancient lives were lived, today:
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I just got the Fall of Civilisations by Paul Cooper, the companion to the very popular podcast.
It was discussed in, I think the Elon Musk thread where Skum was saying he knew lots about how civilisations collapsed because of a podcast. None of us remembered him saying what Apartheid Edison said and I remembered that he mostly withdrew from Twitter when Space Karen bought it, even defending that when “Pedo guy” asked him to come back.
Anyway so I cracked the book open today and here is what he says in the introduction:
ETA surprising how short the Sumerian chapter is just goes to show how little information a 2 1/2 hour podcast gives you v 2 1/2 hours of reading. His show is good though as it has actors in the languages and recreations of the musics so it gives you flavours books don’t.
ETA
The index has no reference for fertility rates. It does for inequality, famine, droughts, climate change, and in many of the sub entries for different civilisations there are multiple entries on climate or imperialism (or ecocide in Rapa Nui. So even a chapter in I’m going to suggest the Nazi bar owner completely misunderstood this.
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Damn it, that looks great… adds book to my too long list of books to get
Too many books, not enough time…
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I did a search and didn’t find this mentioned, so apologies if I’m bringing late news of the awesomeness of the Flash Gordon daily syndicated strip. Rebooted in October 22, 2023 by Dan Schkade, it features clean, beautiful retro-futury artwork and hyper-efficient story-telling. The entire threat of earth and arrival of Flash, Dale, and Zarkov occupies two panels in the first strip.
You can read the series at: Flash Gordon | Comics Kingdom
(there is a chronological listing under the “Overview” subsection)
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Richard Overy:
Blood and Ruins
The Great Imperial War, 1931-1945
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Thumbs up?
Thumbs down?
Maybe some inkling of why either way?
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Too early to say. It’s 1517 pages and I’m almost through the prologue.
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Ah, I’ll look forward to a review in 2026 then! 
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Spider-Man: Life Story is what can shamelessly be called a spectacular Spider-Man story. Essentially, each of the 6 issues takes place in a different decade, and Peter Parker ages in a world that mixes some of what was happening in Marvel Comics with some of what was happening in the real world (mostly in the beginning half). It’s a fascinating take on Spider-Man – and the broader Marvel Universe – that I’m surprised hadn’t been done before.
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[ETA]
To be honest, that was what I was reading like 40 years ago, but still…
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The manual.
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I don’t know, I’ve been recommending this book for a while now… Still do. If we’re serving the markets rather than the markets serving us, then we’re doing it wrong…
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Ugh…
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