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James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 9h

I’ve wrestled with this a bit over the years with Crohn’s Disease and the related fatigue. I had to decide how to term in a long running study I’m in and settled on ‘chronic condition’ that impacts daily activities ‘a little’ (though ‘a lot’ would be truer for the last year).

James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 9h

Not sure if this counts, but Wodehouse should be taught at GCSE as an illustration of the craft of both language and plot.

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 1d

A lot of online men, of all political persuasions, are always deploying castle metaphors (motte, bailey, moat) in their discussions of politics, economics and whatnot.

Has everyone been frequenting the same fora?

Is this more than a few years old?

Have I missed a memo?

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James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 1d

Strobing shirts and ties. That's something you don't see any more.

A still from a 1980s training film, shot on 1" videotape - a man sits at a computer. The stripes on his shirt are strobing, due to the limitations of the camera and the video playback.

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James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 1d

The thing I always find odd is the huge gulf between the onerous requirements of broadcast licensing (e.g. editorial/advertising separation, protection of children, balance and accuracy) and the free-for-all of streaming video.

It's a distinction that really doesn't make logical sense.

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James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 2d

It has red rot.

🏰meg⚔️ @Birthright Audiobook! @impavid.us · 5d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.

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James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 2d

I guess it’s all relative.

You’re right that Turing is the only household name.

But Flowers is known to anyone who delves into the subject.

Personally, I wish Gordon Radley’s contribution was better appreciated. Management isn’t glamorous but he did a great job heading Dollis Hill.

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James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 2d

Don’t get me wrong. This is a great article, and Flowers is a vitally important figure. But - partly because he lived long enough to still be around when everything started to be declassified, meaning he could tell his own story - his contribution has been recognised for 40 years now.

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James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 2d

The idea that Tommy Flowers is ‘little known’ just seems odd to me.

But I did spend the first lockdown tidying up the scans of the Dollis Hill War Diary prior to its release, so I’m clearly far too close to the subject.

Move over, Alan Turing: meet the working-class hero of Bletchley Park you didn’t see in the movies

The Oxbridge-educated boffin is feted as the codebreaking genius who helped Britain win the war. But should a little-known Post Office engineer named Tommy Flowers be seen as the real father of comput...

www.theguardian.com

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James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 2d

I’m too close to the subject, but it makes me smile when articles like this describe Tommy Flowers as ‘little known’.

I did a podcast with David Kenyon and Erica Munro at Bletchley earlier this year which covered Colossus and other stories.

E179 – Dollis Hill Days

www.bletchleypark.org.uk

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James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 3d

A schoolfriend who is a mutual on here is very into MTG and I gather from his posts that he's decidedly unimpressed with the Spider-Man deck.

I don't quite follow why but it seems the core community don't like these tie-ins and, according to him, the Spider-Man one is not selling.

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James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 3d

The belief that fertility collapse is an existential risk is something of a tell.

There are 7 billion of us. Humanity dying out due to lower birthrates is something we don’t have to worry about for a good few centuries yet.

That aspect of Children of Men is not likely (though others may be).

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James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 3d

I was not at all surprised to see Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nick Bostrom mentioned, as they are both AI doomers whereas I think Thiel is an accelorationist? Scott Alexander (SlateStarCodex) is another that I’m sure looms large for him.

They are all, of course, into Race Science (so called) and IQ.

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James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 3d

Enjoy your last day!

Great to meet you in person, and to hear your talk.

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James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 3d

Thoroughly enjoyed my week at @gladlib.bsky.social.

Strongly recommend to anyone wanting to do some reading, writing or just pondering, in the stillness and companionable quiet of a Grade 1 listed reading room, surrounded by Gladstone’s own books.

Great food too.

An Edwardian library reading room, with shelving, wooden desks, armchairs and a wooden gallery above.

An Edwardian building of red stone with a central section and two wings on the left and right.

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James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 4d

What, like Bob Odenkirk in that movie?

James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 4d

Enjoyed this piece about Peter Thiel.

A key quote is this:

“…in Thiel’s mind there are two cosmic forces warring over creation itself, and they both consist of Peter and his friends.”

I think this does capture the self-involvement of a lot of senior tech sector men, and the “thinkers” they like.

Peter Thiel’s off-the-record antichrist lectures reveal more about him than Armageddon

Silicon Valley titan desperately tries to detach self from power in amateurish talks attempting to ape his favorite philosopher

www.theguardian.com

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James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 4d

Rebecca Ferguson wants to be the next Bond villain.

100% would watch.

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James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 4d

There’s a bit in Robert Harris’s Fatherland, which is set in alternate-reality 1964 where Germany won the war, where a father and son take a tourist bus tour around Berlin which has all of Speer’s Germania designs realised.

It’s an eerie scene.

James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 4d

In thinking about that, I try to keep in mind the difficulty of the 'moral task' in hand.

e.g. I didn't break the rules but I'm somewhat introverted so it was a heck of a lot easier than it was for you.

If the rules had been 'you must go out every night' I'd have had a much greater challenge

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James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 4d

….Forgot to say, this is on the latest episode of No Such Thing As A Fish.

James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 4d

New ASMR just dropped:

@meladoodle.bsky.social reciting Pi to 55 places…from memory.

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Reposted by James Elder

Standplaats Kraków @standplaatskrk.pl · 10d

A woodcut style ink drawing of a Tardigrade: "Just because I can survive harsh conditions doesn't mean I should have to."

(If anyone knows the artist, I'd love to make (a version) of this available for sale and can only find tumblr replies via tineye.)

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James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 5d

Good shout.

Olivia Rodrigo introduced Robert Smith (who was joining her for duets during her Glastonbury set) as “perhaps the best songwriter to come out of England” and a case can certainly be made for that.

Reposted by James Elder

Alexandra Meakin @ameakin.bsky.social · 5d

Yep, but it's a brilliant way to show how the building was absolutely not designed as a legislature! And @satisfactory20.bsky.social's insights are always worth sharing 🙌

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