@mpallen.bsky.social
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It's #blackfriday here at the ILT: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (2nd Dublin edn.) Two single-sided black pages face each other at pp. 56-57.
"The ‘blackness’ is printed on both sides of the leaf with what appears to be a solid woodblock." The Laurence Sterne Trust
"The ‘blackness’ is printed on both sides of the leaf with what appears to be a solid woodblock." The Laurence Sterne Trust
November 28, 2025 at 3:21 PM
It's #blackfriday here at the ILT: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (2nd Dublin edn.) Two single-sided black pages face each other at pp. 56-57.
"The ‘blackness’ is printed on both sides of the leaf with what appears to be a solid woodblock." The Laurence Sterne Trust
"The ‘blackness’ is printed on both sides of the leaf with what appears to be a solid woodblock." The Laurence Sterne Trust
‘Which is entirely attributable,’ said Madame, ‘to the gross misconduct and most improper behaviour of Mr. Mantalini.’
‘Of me, my essential juice of pineapple!’
‘Of me, my essential juice of pineapple!’
November 28, 2025 at 4:58 PM
‘Which is entirely attributable,’ said Madame, ‘to the gross misconduct and most improper behaviour of Mr. Mantalini.’
‘Of me, my essential juice of pineapple!’
‘Of me, my essential juice of pineapple!’
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This basically vindicates Wordsworth in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads when he wrote of 'the tendency of metre to divest language, in a certain degree, of its reality, and thus to throw a sort of half-consciousness of unsubstantial existence over the whole composition'
This study show that using poems to jailbreak LLMs is... super effective? What the heck.
November 20, 2025 at 5:58 PM
This basically vindicates Wordsworth in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads when he wrote of 'the tendency of metre to divest language, in a certain degree, of its reality, and thus to throw a sort of half-consciousness of unsubstantial existence over the whole composition'
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Seen in Boston, Massachusetts in 1854.
November 20, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Seen in Boston, Massachusetts in 1854.
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IMO the most authentically British bit in it is that even though the world is absolutely wrecked and miserable, the King’s cavalry are still fannying about on horseback in the street wearing plumed golden helmets.
November 19, 2025 at 3:19 PM
IMO the most authentically British bit in it is that even though the world is absolutely wrecked and miserable, the King’s cavalry are still fannying about on horseback in the street wearing plumed golden helmets.
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ideas are for everybody. history is for everybody. art is for everybody. including the working young people of new jersey.
November 18, 2025 at 8:49 PM
ideas are for everybody. history is for everybody. art is for everybody. including the working young people of new jersey.
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I have been WAITING for a journalist to write this story.
I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care?
The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity
www.cityam.com
November 18, 2025 at 1:48 PM
I have been WAITING for a journalist to write this story.
I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
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“Is it time to rethink prejudice against throwing knives at students?” - by Tim Zarbi, CEO of EduKnives.
November 11, 2025 at 8:38 AM
“Is it time to rethink prejudice against throwing knives at students?” - by Tim Zarbi, CEO of EduKnives.
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I feel like we're in a weird world where the average Dem partisan, engaged voter is better informed than most of their representatives
seems to me that those democrats inclined not to fight perceive themselves as living through a somewhat ordinary cycle of presidential overreach and backlash and not something much more significant and dangerous
November 10, 2025 at 4:43 PM
I feel like we're in a weird world where the average Dem partisan, engaged voter is better informed than most of their representatives
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Googling stuff last night and the AI just making stuff up (and then admitting it when I Google the fake results)
November 9, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Googling stuff last night and the AI just making stuff up (and then admitting it when I Google the fake results)
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Amazing how many people in universities have imbibed metrics as the only marker of value. It needs to change.
November 5, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Amazing how many people in universities have imbibed metrics as the only marker of value. It needs to change.
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This is how you blurb
October 23, 2025 at 12:41 PM
This is how you blurb
AI leading to incredible developments in American historiography
November 4, 2025 at 6:04 PM
AI leading to incredible developments in American historiography
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No task actually kept us here.
—John Ashbery, from Flow Chart
—John Ashbery, from Flow Chart
July 11, 2023 at 9:27 PM
No task actually kept us here.
—John Ashbery, from Flow Chart
—John Ashbery, from Flow Chart
Butlerian jihad when?
October 30, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Butlerian jihad when?
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💯 build a cabin, build a chair, hoe beans, grow some beans, manufacture pencils, repair an axe handle, make a fishing rod, fish, philosophize about fishing, think about not fishing, get into a passive aggressive emotional standoff with a loon, wait I forgot what I was listing.
every adult should know how to craft something. i use that loosely: cook a meal, do a bit of DIY, sew a button, grow a plant.
if there is nothing in this world that you can make yourself... why. what are you doing
if there is nothing in this world that you can make yourself... why. what are you doing
Do you have any extremely niche, but serious, ethical stances?
October 17, 2025 at 2:47 PM
💯 build a cabin, build a chair, hoe beans, grow some beans, manufacture pencils, repair an axe handle, make a fishing rod, fish, philosophize about fishing, think about not fishing, get into a passive aggressive emotional standoff with a loon, wait I forgot what I was listing.
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10 years on insecure visas does not encourage anyone to "integrate" - the possibility of settling does
September 30, 2025 at 8:21 AM
10 years on insecure visas does not encourage anyone to "integrate" - the possibility of settling does
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one of the fine distinguishing features of Bouie as a columnist is that he very much Does The Reading
i stg one of the problems with the modern pundit-pocalypse is their sheer *incuriousity*. everything is based off their first impressions, their gut instincts, their thinking from first principle. they gotta get that take out before they do any reading. what hath the Blog Era wrought, man
September 18, 2025 at 4:11 PM
one of the fine distinguishing features of Bouie as a columnist is that he very much Does The Reading
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The beams are low and Alan keeps forgetting.
September 17, 2025 at 8:09 AM
The beams are low and Alan keeps forgetting.
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The rampant violations of academic freedom and intrusions on extramural speech are escalating rapidly. Faculty members have the right to speak or write as citizens, free from institutional censorship or discipline. Expression of opinion as a citizen does not constitute grounds for dismissal.
Clemson fires two more faculty members over Charlie Kirk comments
Clemson leaders had come under increased pressure from people online as well as South Carolina Republican politicians to take action.
www.wcnc.com
September 16, 2025 at 6:07 PM
The rampant violations of academic freedom and intrusions on extramural speech are escalating rapidly. Faculty members have the right to speak or write as citizens, free from institutional censorship or discipline. Expression of opinion as a citizen does not constitute grounds for dismissal.
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Slightly diminish a book.
Snack Poems
Snack Poems
September 8, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Slightly diminish a book.
Snack Poems
Snack Poems
i have been listening to John McPhee in audiobook form, but there is so much fun in his artful punctuation, I may have to switch to print
September 4, 2025 at 1:20 PM
i have been listening to John McPhee in audiobook form, but there is so much fun in his artful punctuation, I may have to switch to print