And me? Well, I'm just the narrator
Nov. 29th, 2025 02:17 pm—Tom Stoppard, Arcadia (1993)

I suppose it's remotely possible that there's someone with a similar name to mine for whom this would be a relevant conference:
The ITISE 2026 (12th International conference on Time Series and Forecasting) seeks to provide a discussion forum for scientists, engineers, educators and students about the latest ideas and realizations in the foundations, theory, models and applications for interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research encompassing disciplines of mathematics, econometric, statistics, forecaster, computer science, etc in the field of time series analysis and forecasting.
***
I have discovered a new 'offputting phrase that, found in blurb, causes you to put the book down as if radioactive': 'this gargantuan work of supernatural existentialism' - even without the name of the author - Karl Ove Knausgård - who has apparently moved on from interminable autofiction to interminable this.
***
A certain Mr JJ, that purports to be an Art Critick, on long history of artistic rivalries (between Bloke Artists, natch):
Shunning competition makes the Turner Prize feel pointless. It may be why there are no more art heroes any more.
Artistic competition goes to the essence of critical discrimination. TS Eliot said someone who liked all poetry would be very dull to talk to about poetry. Double header exhibitions that rake up old rivalries are not shallow, but help us all be critics and understand that loving means choosing. If you come out of Turner and Constable admiring both artists equally, you probably haven’t truly felt either. And if you prefer Constable, it’s pistols at dawn.
***
I rather loved this by Lucy Mangan, and will be adopting the term 'frothers' forthwith:
I like to grab a cup of warm cider and settle down with as many gift guides as I can and enjoy the rage they fuel among people who have misunderstood what many might feel was the fairly simple concept of gift guides entirely. I am particularly fond of people who look at a list headed, say, “Stocking stuffers for under £50” and respond by commenting on how £50 is a ridiculous amount of money to be spending on a stocking stuffer. They are closely followed in my pantheon of greats by those who see something like “25 affordable luxuries for loved ones” and can only type “Affordable BY WHOM?!?!” before falling to the ground in a paroxysm of ill-founded self-righteousness. On and on it goes. I love it. Never change, frothers. You are the gift that keeps on giving.
Further to that expose of freebirthers, A concerned NHS midwife responds to an article about the Free Birth Society

Peter Krowiak couldn't help but notice the sign inside the Sil in Allston, which is a pretty welcoming place, unless you happen to be a BU Republican taking credit for getting nine car-wash workers grabbed by men in balaclavas. The QR code goes to a GoFundMe page to help the workers and their families.
The National Herald breaks the news that Hellenic College Holy Cross, whose campus straddles the Jamaica Plain/Brookline line near Jamaica Pond, is considering a plan to sell off a large chunk of its land as it tries to transform into a full-fledged university.
The National Herald, which covers Greek Orthodox life in the US, reported college officials will meet Dec. 9 to consider a plan to sell the land to the Lyme Timber Co. That investment firm normally buys up large tracts of land for use in "sustainable" timber production, but in this case would only hold the land long enough for a series of anonymous philanthropists to re-buy the land and then gift it to the Trustees of Reservations, a non-profit group that preserves "places of exceptional scenic, historical, and ecological value."
The land consists largely of a wooded stretch along Prince Street and Parkman Drive, behind the Parkman monument, as well as a soccer field and nearby woods behind campus buildings off Goddard Road.
The National Herald notes this is not the first time the school has looked at selling off parts of its campus but that it had always withdrawn those plans after the news outlet broke news and members of the Greek Orthodox community arose in protest.

Which of these look interesting?
Kill All Wizards by Jedediah Berry (June 2026)
10 (27.0%)
The Franchise by Thomas Elrod (May 2026)
7 (18.9%)
Carry Me to My Grave by Christopher Golden (July 2026)
2 (5.4%)
Obstetrix by Naomi Kritzer (June 2026)
18 (48.6%)
Inkpot Gods by Seanan McGuire (June 2026)
10 (27.0%)
Cursed Ever After by Andy C. Naranjo (June 2026)
6 (16.2%)
For Human Use by Sarah G. Pierce (February 2026)
2 (5.4%)
The War Beyond by Andrea Stewart (November 2025)
5 (13.5%)
Some other option (see comments)
1 (2.7%)
Cats!
25 (67.6%)
From The Mandarin: Santow tips the bucket on AI slop
In a landmark speech delivered to the Sir Vincent Fairfax Oration in Sydney on Thursday, former human rights commissioner and now sought-after ethical adviser and academic Ed Santow delivered a serious wake-up call to assorted artificial intelligence cheer squad leaders and positivity meme flunkies.
Santow is positive about AI but also highly aware of its impact on societal functions, governance, and culture.
In a tightly woven speech that planted a deep stake in the necessity of the retention of knowledge and memory, Santow argued that “history matters on its own terms”, and its interpretation is also powering the next version of what we know as language models dip into the well.
“As AI disrupts our economy, politics, society and environment, I will make three arguments today:
AI might seem like it comes from the future, but it learns from the past, and so it also anchors us to that past.
Our history — or rather our choices about the versions of history that are recorded and remembered — influences how AI takes shape.
It is not enough that we expose AI systems to a ‘more accurate’ view of history; we must also draw the right lessons from history if we are to avoid repeating the mistakes and injustices of the past,” Santow said.
Exposure of AI to better feedstock is a difficult topic because, in large part, it assumes that the quality of inputs will self-correct problematic outputs. Yeah nah.
“Throughout history, we have built machines that are born like Venus — fully formed. When a car rolls off the production line, all it needs is a twist of a key or the press of a button, and it will work as intended. This is not true of AI,” Santow argued.
“AI systems start as ignorant as a newborn — perhaps even more so. A baby will search for its mother’s breast even before the baby can see. An AI system possesses none of a baby’s genetic instincts. Nothing can be assumed. All knowledge must be learned. The process of teaching an AI system — known as ‘machine learning’ — involves exposing the machine to our world.”
There’s a further problem, too, and it’s a systemic one. As internet pioneers like Vint Cerf noted, the great tech behemoth has trouble retaining both memory and history.
“The regime that should be in place [is] one in which old software is preserved; hardware can be emulated in the files so we can run old operating systems and old software so we can actually do something with the digital objects that have been captured and stored,” Cerf said in 2018.
“Think of all the papers we read now, especially academic papers that have URL references. Think about what happens 10, 20, 50 years from now when those don’t resolve anymore because the domain names were abandoned or someone forgot to pay the rent.”
That’s now happening.
But the warnings are at least a decade old.