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pabloredux.bsky.social
Paul Harland
@pabloredux.bsky.social
1.1K followers 2.4K following 4K posts
Evolution: it's nothing personal. (Sorry if I ask too many questions... Share nicely!)

I'm here because you're here.

http://pabloredux.wordpress.com/

(Profile photo: a faint shadow of me cast across a weathered lichen-marked stone wall by the sea.)
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pabloredux.bsky.social
Sign saying: SIGN NOT IN USE
November 20, 2025 at 11:11 AM
pabloredux.bsky.social
No sound stripe!

(Last summer, The Third Man museum in Vienna).
35mm black & white sound film strips from the start of The Third Man.
November 16, 2025 at 7:53 PM
pabloredux.bsky.social
The one on the left above very nearly happened yesterday but we felt like spending longer on the walk pictured below.

Open brackets. Tried to take the least inspiring views I could. Close brackets.
Large algae-green stretch of muddy riverbank. Tide out. In the distance, the river. Beyond that, a low rolling British coastal landscape, clouds above. Coastal mud catching the light, bordered by pale stalks of rushes in the background. Messy picture looking down towards a rough concrete drainage channel on stony ground taken through the metal bars of a pedestrian bridge, weathered and green. A stone wall supports what might be a narrow railway bridge, or something like it, largely obscured. A glimpse of the river above. Landscape on opposite bank looks nice but it's a long way away. Top third of the scene is a cloudy sky.
November 16, 2025 at 7:12 PM
pabloredux.bsky.social
In relation to @davidgunkel.bsky.social's 'Différance engine: large language models & poststructuralism' link.springer.com/article/10.1... and pabloredux.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/a... "We can train our bodies to do as they’re told, but oddly, if we do it too well, they stop asking us what to do."
"these capacities... have never been as autonomous, self-present, or secure as we might have assumed or assured ourselves."
November 16, 2025 at 12:07 PM
pabloredux.bsky.social
This kind of thing...
See link in tweet above. Page 480. I've highlighted "hydraulic, pneumatic, mechanical, electrical".
November 14, 2025 at 6:35 PM
pabloredux.bsky.social
Ooh, this Koppel article is interesting!
"To Gadamer, a work of art has the nature of a very complex game. We play games, of course, for recreation – they are not “real,” .... one becomes a part of the self-enclosed world created by that game." (I would dispute the not-real and the self-enclosed.)
SEE https://www.jasna.org/persuasions/printed/number11/koppel.htm FOR FULL TEXT. Extract below:- To Gadamer, a work of art has the nature of a very complex game. We play games, of course, for recreation -they are not "real," in the sense that driving to work or fighting an illness is real. But games do have their own kinds of realities, which generate involvement - sometimes intense involvement in the players. Someone who participates lackadaisically, with little interest in the quality of his own play or in the outcome of the game, is a spoilsport: "Play fulfills its purpose only if the player loses himself in his play" (92). When one participates in a game, one becomes a part of the self-enclosed world created by that game. Thus a game and a work of art has a completeness that is very rarely found in the chaos of actual life. And this completeness involves the realization of a form, or a structure, which reveals the inner meaning of the various parts, or aspects of the game, to the participant: "The being of all play is always realisation, sheer fulfillment, energeia which has its telos within itself. The world of the work of art, in which play expresses itself fully in the unity of its course, is in fact a wholly transformed world. By means of it everyone recognises that that is how things are" (101-02). A work of art then, communicates a form or structure, and when one participates in its world, one finds that form meaningful - through it "everyone recognizes that that is how things are." How is it then, in the beautiful, complex game called Pride and Prejudice that Claudia Johnson and I both think we see how things are but those things are very different in nature? Gadamer makes quite clear his belief that while each individual's reactions to the work might be different, if one truly participates in the work it will always be the latter, not the subjective consciousness, which dominates...
November 14, 2025 at 4:35 PM
pabloredux.bsky.social
Good afternoon!
"Balanced day You already exercised, and your stress and rest have been balanced. You still have plenty of energy to take on the rest of the day. +43 Charged, -23 Drained" Daily Timeline chart shows a "Body Battery" line increasing from nearly 40 at midnight to nearly 75 at 9am, dropping to about 60 now - mostly comprising of long chunks of "Rest" till midday, interspersed with a few brief periods of "Stress", mainly recent (following an "Unmeasurable" period). Nothing for "Active"!
November 14, 2025 at 2:18 PM
pabloredux.bsky.social
Authors' First Impressions of Jane Austen: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

Am browsing Marghanita Laski's 'Jane Austen and her World', supposedly for clues to the author's (ML's) reading of other authors (JA), but am getting distracted by wondering if I have Emma in the loft, owned but unread?
Page of book illustrated with opulent period paintings, circa 1800. Text reads:- We also have some account of the early days of First Impressions from Anna, now old enough to take notice. While playing in the dressing-room, she would hear Cassandra's bursts of laughter as Jane read the book aloud to her. Anna got to know the story and the people in it, and began to talk of it downstairs, until the sisters warned her that she must keep it a secret. 'Susan': Probably in 1798 Jane Austen began another book called Susan, which was eventually to become Northanger Abbey. All the Austen family were great readers, and great readers aloud. New books were constantly procured, whether from Mrs Martin's local subscription library or by purchase; the name of Miss J. Austen is on the subscription list for Fanny Burney's Camilla, published in 1796. The Austen family had none of the common contempt for novels. When Mrs Martin opened her subscription library in 1798, she offered as an inducement to sub scribers the information that she would have not only novels but every kind of literature. This Jane Austen rejected with contempt: 'She might have spared this pretension to our family, who are great Novel-readers & not ashamed of being so' a passage to set beside her famous defence of the novel in Northanger Abbey. So Jane Austen would not have missed the publication, in 1794, of Mrs Radcliffe's melodramatic 'Gothick' novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho, and to parody it in her Susan must have been irresistible. 'Lady Susan': Another book that almost certainly belongs to this period is her epistolatory novel Lady Susan, the story of the cruel fashionable mother and her ill-treated...
November 14, 2025 at 1:48 PM
pabloredux.bsky.social
@svennyholm.bsky.social Searching back on Twitter (to remember the term Technical Debt, @ruthmalan.bsky.social), I stumbled upon this. I've been worrying away since your paper was in draft! @davidgunkel.bsky.social @joshgellers.bsky.social Expect full response by... 2029? @digitaldang.bsky.social 🤣
@SvenNyholm on Twitter, Feb 27, 2021: "Gamification, Side Effects, and Responsibility for Outcomes" - my presentation at the 2020 OZSW Philosophy conference. (Warning: the sound quality is okay, but not great): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYuxz3SONAA @PabloRedux: What I keep wondering about is that there may already be many games going on, some winding down, new ones always starting, and we may be participating in (occasionally trying to influence the redesign of) several at the same time, so there may not be a definitive perspective. @PabloRedux on Twitter, Feb 27, 2021: How many and what kind of games is an academic (or professional) author's work at play in? That's an undercurrent in this stream:- [Quoted tweet by me, Feb 19th 2021, 'Reading "The Mushroom at the End of the World" by Anna Tsing is making me feel a lot less like some weirdo and a little more like a amateur. @ArtBourbon @ruthmalan @PKathrani @David_Gunkel @EmergTechEthics @JoshGellers @JohnAFlood'] References for instance... Do they nudge towards their own work, or away from the work of certain competitors; reveal in-groups; form league tables; attempt to impress or intimidate by being long or short; obscure plagiarism...? You probably have far more idea about the plays!
November 12, 2025 at 1:34 PM
pabloredux.bsky.social
But just sticking with the "fight" bit at the end meant being more longwinded to get from fight to walk... "I love Pennsylvania Avenue".
something's wrong here, something is really wrong, can have happened. And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. Our exciting adventures and boldest endeavors have not yet begun. My fellow Americans, for our movement, for our children, and for our beloved country. And I say this despite all that's happened. The best is yet to come. So we're going to, we're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I love Pennsylvania Avenue. And we're going to the Capitol, and we're going to try and give. The Democrats are hopeless they never vote for anything. Not even one vote. But we're going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones because the strong ones don't need any of our help. We're going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I want to thank you all. God bless you and God Bless America. Thank you all for being here. This is incredible. Thank you very much. Thank you.
November 10, 2025 at 9:12 PM
pabloredux.bsky.social
@daimoon.bsky.social, as I recall, put me onto the kayfabing of US politics, @digitaldang.bsky.social but there's an increasing number of pieces on the subject.

Now Trump is busy taunting the BBC with the perfection of his lie- (and hate-) filled speech at the Ellipse.
@realDonald Trump on "Truth" Social: The TOP people in the BBC, including TIM DAVIE, the BOSS, are all quitting/FIRED, because they were caught "doctoring" my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th. Thank you to The Telegraph for exposing these Corrupt "Journalists." These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election. On top of everything else, they are from a Foreign Country, one that many consider our Number One Ally. What a terrible thing for Democracy! telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/0...
November 10, 2025 at 8:37 PM
pabloredux.bsky.social
Here's a transcript of the speech - it's accurate enough: www.npr.org/2021/02/10/9... Here's how Trump concludes. As the Telegraph unintentionally confirmed, the only reference to behaving "peacefully" was about 50 minutes earlier. I'm sure they all remembered that, rather than to fight, to be bold!
"something's wrong here, something is really wrong, can have happened. And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. Our exciting adventures and boldest endeavors have not yet begun. My fellow Americans, for our movement, for our children, and for our beloved country. And I say this despite all that's happened. The best is yet to come. So we're going to, we're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I love Pennsylvania Avenue. And we're going to the Capitol, and we're going to try and give. The Democrats are hopeless — they never vote for anything. Not even one vote. But we're going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones because the strong ones don't need any of our help. We're going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue."
November 10, 2025 at 8:57 AM
pabloredux.bsky.social
Another day, up river. Greyer-browner. A muddier shade of pale.
Small boats moored in river, mud, sky, land. Mostly light grey-brown.
November 7, 2025 at 5:30 PM
pabloredux.bsky.social
To be honest, this was a major factor. Better views are available.
Warning triangle: car heading off pier into water (also in photo: lights and sensors on pole and stretched across on wires)
November 7, 2025 at 4:54 PM
pabloredux.bsky.social
Book cover with man in uniform in front of British flag: Put Out More Flags Evelyn Waugh
November 5, 2025 at 11:49 PM
pabloredux.bsky.social
Oh, it's brightening up.
River mouth: seafront railings, ferry, sign not to drive off edge into water, clouds thinning, hint of sun, the sea.
November 5, 2025 at 11:13 AM
pabloredux.bsky.social
What about my non-functionals? They need quality time too.
Bespoke rehabilitation Full brain/body MOT Functional brain screening
November 5, 2025 at 10:57 AM
pabloredux.bsky.social
Weeell...

The shops are round the corner from where I once used to work so I've already seen more than enough of them. Didn't last long in there, retreated for coffee. Will probably buy from Garmin online - more strap choice.

Much prefer your travelogue!
Retail park poking through the trees. Path divided into pedestrian and cycling halves. Wet. View of UK single-storey retail park, cars and parking spaces from coffee-shop window. Evidence of rain. No evidence of sun.
November 4, 2025 at 12:20 PM
pabloredux.bsky.social
Dislikeable, in the old-fashioned way...
Spreadsheet with part-words and counts
October 28, 2025 at 9:58 PM
pabloredux.bsky.social
At least this one is back in the shops. Have to do for now. @davidgunkel.bsky.social
Full glass of dark beer with a foamy head alongside bottle of Guinness West Indies Porter
October 28, 2025 at 8:54 PM
pabloredux.bsky.social
Yes, I was looking forward to the book but the reviews put me off. It was something I wanted to think further about - we all have those anecdotes! (Other leftovers from the time www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy... and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systema...) MMO's at the edge and into the grey area beyond.
Pabloredux on Twitter, Sept 2020 and Oct 2016:- I think I had part of an idea in this thread: some group exercising their "intelligence" perhaps by exploiting instabilities in the game while maintaining their own stability...? Maybe it's the last bit (i.e. "there's a limit to how fast you can displace work and maintain stability in a system which isn't intended to distribute benefits fairly") that really feeds the bullshit?! Mairtín Cunneen: Maybe that's human nature to give oneself a cause/purpose that is justified as meritorious but only feeds into a more negative system.
October 28, 2025 at 3:26 PM
pabloredux.bsky.social
And further still, in the ALT text!

You were lucky - I was born into a monochrome world.
Pablocito
October 28, 2025 at 11:22 AM
pabloredux.bsky.social
We're all ears! @davidgunkel.bsky.social Northern Monk 'Dark Matter' Imperial Stout 8.4%, brewed in collaboration with Wiper & True. First sip was good. Somerset crunchy vintage Cheddar and rosemary crackers.
Embrace Mystery 3 [crossed-out: TWO] BRAVE ADVENTURERS GO IN SEARCH OF DARK MATTER. CRAFT BREWED WITH NORTHERN PRIDE FOR A Rich, Roasted Coffee FLAVOUR. FRESH FROM THE NORTH Best Served AS COLD AS THE NORTH
October 26, 2025 at 10:28 PM
pabloredux.bsky.social
Weeding out cross-posted book reviews, I noticed an oddly phrased one on Goodreads that referred to multiple storylines - which simply don't occur in this novel. I suspected a fake account and sure enough... @digitaldang.bsky.social @davidgunkel.bsky.social Random ratings so that's not the game.
5 Goodreads reviews for 5 totally different books, between 21st and 26th July 2019, all left by people with different names and profile pictures, but using the exact same words in their review: "I just finished it for the same week and i really enjoyed it. I loved how at first the story lines didn't seem to have anything to do with each other but slowly details were revealed to show how they are all connected." Another 5 Goodreads reviews for 5 totally different books, between 26th July and 19th August 2019, all left by people with different names and profile pictures, but using the exact same words in their review: "I just finished it for the same week and i really enjoyed it. I loved how at first the story lines didn't seem to have anything to do with each other but slowly details were revealed to show how they are all connected."
October 26, 2025 at 9:05 PM
pabloredux.bsky.social
Watching the documentary, was delighted to see this - I hadn't realised they started performing at The Railway (a picture of which spreads across the gatefold of Meaty, Beaty Big & Bouncy) before they were The Who.
The High Numbers, every Tuesday 3/6, Railway Hotel, Harrow & Wealdstone.
October 26, 2025 at 10:18 AM