Feeling just slightly disingenuous

Jul. 15th, 2025 07:49 pm
oursin: Painting of Clio Muse of History by Artemisia Gentileschi (Clio)
[personal profile] oursin

Have been involved over the last day or so in the discovery and revelation of a hoohah over an esteemed bibliographer having copped to having fabricated a set of letters, of which the transcriptions appear on their website, with, true, a provenance note that might give one to be a tad cautious when citing.

But anyway, someone I know did actually cite something from one of these letters - fortunately not as a major pillar of an argument or anything like that - in their book which is only just published (and copy of which for review I finally received last week). And was informed by the perpetrator.

Cue kerfuffle. The ebook can be readily corrected but not the hardback copies.

But anyway, this led to me (particularly given subject and period) to think upon an instance I had encountered of learning - from the author no less - that a series of supposedly authentic Victorian erotic novels had been knocked up (perhaps that is not the phrase one should employ?) as remunerated hackwork for a paperback publisher in the 1990s.

A few of these are now accessible via the Internet Archive and I discover that they have introductions setting them up as Orfentik Discoveries of the writings of a Private Gents Club.

Anyway, I wrote this all up for my academic blog, and there has been discussion on bluesky about hoaxes and fakes and also I introduced the topic of people being misled by fictional pastiches that were not meant to mislead (or at least, like 'Cleone Knox''s work, have long been known to be made up).

(Ern Malley complicates this like whoa, since it has been claimed that the authors of the hoax actually produced SRS surrealist poetry whether they meant to or not.)

And as a scholar and an archivist I am against hoaxes and fakes and people inserting false documents into archives and so on -

- but I still have the occasional qualm that some naive reader will not read the disclosure of the real origin story right at the back of the volumes and think that the Journals of Mme C-, subsequently Lady B-, actually exist.

brithistorian: (Default)
[personal profile] brithistorian

Colossal Biosciences is planning to bring back the giant moa, a 3m (10 foot) tall flightless bird that went extinct around 600 years ago, shortly after humans arrived in New Zealand. Peter Jackson is one of the major investors. Considering the difficulties the Australians had when dealing with emus, which are only 2/3 the size of the great moa, they really need to consider that there was probably very good reason that the early New Zealanders wiped them out.

sonia: Quilted wall-hanging (Default)
[personal profile] sonia
The Back Room by Alicia Adams. A rock shop with a magic back room, and a teenager aching to find her way in.

Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being by A. W. Prihandita. A doctor struggling with corporate control as she tries to treat a patient who is a member of an isolated minority.

Computers, do computer things better!

Jul. 14th, 2025 09:00 pm
brithistorian: (Default)
[personal profile] brithistorian

I love YouTube Music — it's a great streaming system and gives me access to music that I could only have dreamed of when I was younger. But there's one thing about it — a small thing really, but still big enough that it bothers me: When you have a playlist, it should be a trivial thing for the software to add up the running times of all the songs in the playlist and give you a runtime for the playlist, and this works for shorter playlists, but once a playlist reaches 5 hours or more in length, the program gets lazy and anything over 5 hours is either "5+ hours" or "5 hours [XX] minutes," where [XX] isn't the actual number of minutes past 5 hours, instead the point after 5 hours where the software got lazy and decided to stop adding. Not a deal killer, not even that big of a deal, really, but it's annoying.

oursin: Coy looking albino hedgehog lifting one foot, photograph (sweet hedgehog)
[personal profile] oursin

Dr rdrz may have noticed that (in spite of the FAIL at getting to the Birmingham workshop in early May) I have gradually been Getting Out Into the World beyond health-related appointments and walks in the local parks.

Am still being possibly unwontedly cautious.

But, anyway, on Saturday went to a BBQ in [personal profile] coughingbear and [personal profile] hano's garden - slightly earlier this year than the usual Mahv'll'ss Pahti of the summer - and it was lovely to see them and other friends after so long being A Hermit.

Still (as found at conference the other week) having issues adjusting to the hearing aids - when there are several conversations happening - I think this possibly depends a bit on where I am positioned in relation to them - a distinct sense of (very dating reference) trying to tune in radio and getting two or more overlapping stations.

But on the whole was, I think, Coping.

(f&f)

Jul. 14th, 2025 06:34 am
elainegrey: Inspired by Grypping/gripping beast styles from Nordic cultures (Default)
[personal profile] elainegrey

Written Sunday midday

So humid. Yesterday i was soaked by sweat picking mulberries. That's in the shade and hardly moving. Admittedly, late morning, but still.

After showering, we went to the Mexican restaurant my Dad favors for a family lunch. My sister joined us. My brother is in the states and arrived Friday to study for the California Bar at my Dad's - fewer distractions.  He complains frequently that what he specializes in is not covered.

Home, to prep for a dinner visit from Christine's sister D. We took a break to watch Clarkson's Farm, which was about stressful preparations by a deadline. I will admit to spoiling things for myself by using google maps. Christine was not relaxed by the episode. I did not manage time well, so my dream of making blueberry bread did not come to pass. However, we had plenty of food and didn't get to desert. I did have a couple glasses of sparkling wine, as D enjoys her wine. This bottle has been in the fridge ... since the pandemic? It did not want to come uncorked.

D also brought her dog Lula who is somewhat bigger than Carrie. 55 to Carrie's 40 pounds? I hope that Christine and D see each other more often, and i think that will happen if Carrie and Lula can get along. The dogs were somewhat distracting as we tried to watch a Jaws documentary, but it was a good first visit.

I had a text from sister asking for a call that i had missed during D's visit; sent a message apologizing and noting where i would be in the morning.

I woke early  to ferry my dad and brother to the airport.  They head to the Chicago area to watch nephew D graduate from the Navy ROTC New Student Indoctrination course. To get them there i needed to leave at 6:15. It was a beautiful morning with the humidity in the air  -- and fog, and low clouds -- creating lovely atmospheric effects.

On the way back my sister calls, distressed about REDACTED. I join her, and we have tea, and she cries and i hold her.  It is reasonable distress, and i affirmed her. I also recognize an tendency i have in myself, which is if X is a possible outcome, wanting to just get X over with. Instead there is messy, uncertain work to get where she needs to be, which may or may not involve X. Instead, we talked about step B. I suspect (because it's what i would do) that she wants to rush through and be done with the distressing things, and we talk through the steps of just starting step B and how that will take a while.

Boost: Uncle Bill's Tweezers

Jul. 13th, 2025 11:27 pm
sonia: Quilted wall-hanging (Default)
[personal profile] sonia
Soon after I moved to the Bay Area, probably recommended by my knowledgeable housemate, probably at the then-independent Bill's Drugs which is now a CVS, I purchased small metal needle-sharp tweezers in a small plastic tube with a metal cap.

Thirty-mumble years later, the plastic tube is somewhat cracked, but the tweezers were recently as useful as ever to extract first a ceramic splinter from my hand, and then a wood splinter from my foot.

I got curious and looked it up, and there is an old-style website unclebillstweezers.com with testimonials, and they come up as available for purchase on various sites, including Amazon. The Chamber of Commerce says that Uncle Bill's Tweezer Co is located nearby in Albany, CA.

Highly recommended! I don't use them often, but when I do, they are exactly what I need.

Culinary

Jul. 13th, 2025 08:04 pm
oursin: Frontispiece from C17th household manual (Accomplisht Lady)
[personal profile] oursin

This week's bread: a Standen loaf, 4:1 Strong Brown/buckwheat flour, with maple syrup (last drain from bottle) instead of honey and Rayner's Malt Extract. V nice.

During the course of the week I made Famous Aubergine Dip to take to a BBQ.

Saturday breakfast rolls: adaptable soft rolls recipe: approx 70/30% wholemeal/white spelt flour, Rayner's Malt Extract, dried cranberries, not bad.

Also made foccacia to take to BBQ.

Today's lunch: sweet potato gratin with black olive tapenade (as there were sweet potatoes left over from last week), served with warm green bean and fennel salad (I did use tarragon vinegar but I think this had rather lost its oomph) and baby green pak choi stirfried with garlic.

Photo cross-post

Jul. 13th, 2025 07:24 am
andrewducker: (Default)
[personal profile] andrewducker


My primate family.

The exhibition at the museum is very quiet and rather good. Recommended!
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

(no subject)

Jul. 13th, 2025 12:50 pm
oursin: Brush the Wandering Hedgehog by the fire (Default)
[personal profile] oursin
Happy birthday, [personal profile] kimsnarks!

meanwhile...

Jul. 13th, 2025 12:56 am
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] redbird
Quoted in the Yale alumni magazine: "You know the world is going crazy when Yale alums are making donations to Harvard!"

(This Yale alum donates to the United Negro College Fund, because they need it more than Yale does.)

Some things never change...

Jul. 12th, 2025 11:23 pm
brithistorian: (Default)
[personal profile] brithistorian

Two days ago, Twice and Blackpink both had comebacks on the same day: Twice's "This is for" and Blackpink's "뛰어(JUMP)" (links go to the videos, so as not to spam your feed with two embedded videos).

Blackpink's song is a 1-song single, per YG's strategy of keeping Blinks starved for new music from Blackpink, while Twice's song is part of a 14-song album, keeping with JYP's strategy of giving Once as much music as they could possibly want from Twice. I prefer the JYP strategy — at first I was a bigger fan of Blackpink than of Twice, but eventually I got tired of waiting for new songs from Blackpink.

Two interesting things I noticed:

  • Twice Jeongyeon has had difficulty meeting the ridiculous weight standards imposed on K-pop idols (i.e. still not fat by any measure), so in recent comebacks Twice's stylists have started dressing everyone but Jeongyeon in midriff-baring tops. I don't know if this was done at the company's request or at Jeongyeon's, but they did it again this time.
  • Blackpink's song actually includes the English lyric "Are you not entertained?"
brithistorian: (Default)
[personal profile] brithistorian

I've got an idea about the plotting one of my fics, but I'm not sure if the idea I've got right now is the right thing. So. . . if any of you have read my fic "Turning of the Year" — or if you feel like reading it right now — and you'd like to give your input on the future course of the story (at the risk of possibly getting spoiled), send me a message.

Family resemblances are complicated

Jul. 12th, 2025 05:49 pm
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] redbird
via [personal profile] oursin, something I found interesting: We still don't understand family resemblance, and some of what we thought we knew is mistaken, or might be.

This article describes research that used data from almost a million people: every Norwegian student who took a standardized test from 2007-2019.

Quoting the article: "The resemblance of twins cannot be reconciled with any model....The resemblance of adoptees cannot be reconciled with any model."

Adjusting a model to account better for twins makes it a poorer match of adoptive relationships, and vice versa. Any attempt to account for one of these moves the model away adopted siblings makes it fit twins less well, and vice versa.
cut for length )

Profile

ljgeoff: (Default)
ljgeoff

April 2025

S M T W T F S
  1 2345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728 2930   

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags