In my quest to block the evil Snap preview popups, I've found out a potentially useful thing about controlling which websites my Macintosh will interact with ( Read more... )

Things that are great:
          iTunes Radio's Magnatune station (all Renaissance and Baroque, all the time!)
          current cuppa hot Keemun
          settling in to read recent biography of Sir Francis Walsingham
          anticipating the release of Elizabeth: The Golden Age
          triumphant Red Sox

Things that are NOT so great:
        ( Read more... )

"Petition of the Common Labourers read: Nothing done." (Aldermen's Court Repertory Index, 16th C)

"William Besse, Grocer, sworn to make Treacle truly." (Index item, Aldermen's Court Repertory Index. 16th C)

It will no longer be possible for folks in the U.K. to shake their heads at the failures of political and academic discourse in the U.S. This case is every bit as inflamed and polarizing as anything that has happened in the U.S.: "Lecturer at centre of race row takes early retirement" (Guardian Online ( Read more... )

More excerpts from the records of London's workhouse prison:

THIS WOMAN NEEDS A PR-MANAGER TO DISCUSS NAME-BRANDING WITH HERAccused’s Name: Colde Joane ( Read more... )

... that's the term Jean Baudrillard is searching for in the following excerpt. Navel-gazing.

from A M E R I C A, by Jean Baudrillard (1986)
[Translated in 1988 by Chris Turner from the original in French, Amerique. Excerpt posted here.]

... This is echoed by the other obsession: that of being 'into', hooked in to your own brain. What people are ( Read more... )

... of Yesterday's Scandals; Or, More from the Archives.

CITIZENSHIP 101: MISTAKES TO AVOID
IT'S A BAD IDEA TO SLANDER THE QUEEN:Name: Agnes Young and Dorothe Frenche ( Read more... )

I'm off doing research, so I thought I'd share some of it with you. These are records from the Elizabethan workhouse prison in London, which dealt with prostitution, vagrancy, and moral crimes that for one reason or another (usually simply because the offenders were picked up in the City by the watch) didn't go before the Ecclesiastical courts ( Read more... )

I've been interested in the many-headed debate over fan fiction and its effect on authors whose works inspire it. If any of you haven't been aware of this discussion, you might check out this essay posted by Robin Hobb and this response by scott_lynch and the comments it generated. There is also debate on the subject being carried out on metaquotes, though that corner ( Read more... )