History

Thinking about the 7th century Irish monks who invented the spaces between words....that was honestly so smart of them pic.twitter.com/bKML81zV7o

— weird medieval guys (@WeirdMedieval) March 13, 2026

 

An Insight

This is an excellent explanation of why the "High Trust Society" is both so globally uncommon & so valuable to preserve throughout the Anglosphere. Well done to @kiteandkeymedia on this explainer https://t.co/2o7QVE6Pq1

— Gray Connolly (@GrayConnolly) March 11, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

The joy of Catholic nuns captured at a Detroit Red Wings game...

I love when the attendees collectively boo the next photo because they liked the one it was on 😂 👏 pic.twitter.com/3aOOedWwUO

— Restoring Your Faith in Humanity (@HumanityChad) March 12, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

News Media Successfully Avoids Reporting News pic.twitter.com/ZRODT5JFRm

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) March 10, 2026

 

Data Talks

"There are eight endowed chairs for nuclear research, but 173 endowed chairs for gender research" in Germany.

Possibly related: an extractive institution extracts resources from society to benefit one small group, often stifling innovation and long-term economic growth. https://t.co/rmn8E3Ripc

— Whyvert (@whyvert) March 13, 2026

 

A Village Square, 1943 by L.S. Lowry

A Village Square, 1943 by L.S. Lowry (England, 1887–1976)

Click to enlarge.

It’s laughable

From The Totems of Poetry by Dr. Joseph S. Salemi.

When I was a young and inexperienced teacher, I was advised by some older colleagues to have an “open classroom.” They told me that students learn best in an environment of freedom and unfettered self-expression, and that my task as a teacher was to “facilitate the exchange of ideas,” and to allow for “collaborative interaction,” and to be “non-judgmental” about issues of content, mastery, and individual student performance. This was the early 1970s, and that kind of blather was in the air.

Needless to say, all of it was complete buncombe, as Mencken might have put it. When I foolishly attempted to implement the above-mentioned jargon, my classroom became a disaster area of uncertainty, resentment, and utter failure. Students goofed off or were demoralized, and I hadn’t the slightest idea of what the class was supposed to accomplish, much less how I was to evaluate student work. You’ve heard of the Lost Weekend? Well, that was the Lost Semester.

The following year I decided to follow my own judgment exclusively. I knew that the military gets things done, so I ran the class like a Marine platoon. Requirements were rigorously spelled out, and the syllabus was adhered to religiously. I gave straight lectures, stopping only for the occasional question. I advised students to take copious notes, which they did. I didn’t allow a nanosecond of time to be wasted on pointless chitchat or opining. I taught directly to a final exam that I had prepared well in advance, and which was keyed to the objective mastery of material.

It worked like a charm. A few inherently ditz-brained and freaky students dropped out almost immediately, but the rest stayed, and almost everyone got an A or B grade. But what really surprised me was what happened the following semester. My new class was packed to the rafters, and I was constantly importuned for overtally permission by students who couldn’t register in my closed section. I believe I taught two classes for the price of one that next semester. And I earned an instant reputation as a serious teacher who got things done in a no-nonsense manner.

My colleagues congratulated me—albeit somewhat grudgingly—on my popularity. I timorously asked them why they had given me that wrongheaded advice about an open classroom, and all the other garbage. They hemmed and hawed, and looked quizzical. The general consensus seemed to be this: “Well, that’s the way it’s done. We had to tell you that.”

I was shocked. I said “Tell me what? Something that is palpably untrue?” “No, no,” they answered. “It’s theoretically true. But it doesn’t necessarily apply to one’s work in the classroom.”

There you have it, folks: the tyranny of asinine theories. People feel that there’s a moral righteousness in trumpeting certain privileged notions, even when the notions lack empirical validity. Most people know that the theories are stupid and inapplicable to our actual work and lives, but they are loyal to them nonetheless. It’s similar to promoting a literalist reading of Genesis long after you’ve been privately convinced by Darwinian arguments.

What causes people to do this? Why are so many persons loyal to theoretical idiocies? The eminent anthropologist Robin Fox, in his essay “The Passionate Mind,” makes the point that long-term memory, processed through our limbic system, has “a heavy loading of emotion and that a disturbance of the conceptual system so set up will cause a strong emotional reaction.” This means that people viscerally react a lot more frequently than they coolly think, and even their most abstract reasoning is colored by affect. We are loyal to our internalized totems before anything else. 

He then explores this insight in terms of poetry.

What are some of the theoretical totems of the poetry world? We’re loaded with them. There are lots of idiotic notions that poets feel compelled to defend, even though they disregard them in practice. Let’s look at ten of the most common. Each one is followed by an appropriate deflation.

1. It’s the task of poets to express what they truly think and feel. That is not the case at all. They’re supposed to lie through their teeth, if necessary, to create a good aesthetic effect.

2. Poetry ennobles and heightens human consciousness. This is like believing that having a college degree makes you a better person, or that learning French will improve your moral stature.

3.Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of mankind. This canard was dreamt up by Shelley, a poet with a frustrated power-complex. The very thought of poets having actual political power is as horrifying as Jurassic Park.

4.The language of poetry ought to be precisely the same idiom as that used in everyday life. This is so blatant a lie that it’s hard to believe anyone utters it with a straight face. The whole point of poetry is to say something arresting and memorable.

5.Creativity breaks rules and transgresses boundaries. No it doesn’t. Creativity puts itself to school, learning everything it can, and then manifests itself as one more facet of the great tradition.

6.Poetry teaches us great lessons. Poetry doesn’t teach us a damn thing. It is what it is, and that’s all.

7.If you are going to be a good poet, you must write about things that you personally know. Good poets write well, period. What they write about is utterly their own choice. Shakespeare didn’t write a single thing about his life in Stratford.

8.Poets see more deeply into reality than the rest of us. Not at all. They see exactly what everyone sees. Poets are simply more skilled in expressing themselves.

9.Good poets are always on the side of the angels. All I have to mention are three names: Ezra Pound, Pablo Neruda, and Amiri Baraka.

10.Poetry should provide inspiration, uplift, and positive values. Yeah, and we should all be kind to children and dumb animals. Poetry doesn’t have to do anything except be excellent.

As I said, serious practicing poets don’t pay any attention to these pious fabrications, except when they are questioned publicly about their work. Then some or all of these totems are trotted out, and we get another heartfelt little homily on The Urgent Importance Of Poetic Endeavor. It’s laughable.

 

History

Believe it or not, Sears once sold donkeys through their catalog-and yes, they'd be shipped right to you by train! (1950s) pic.twitter.com/88l3ZQ9Bdd

— Historyland (@HistorylandHQ) March 13, 2026

 

An Insight

Quizá seguir los consejos de una pendeja de 15 que ni siquiera había terminado sus estudios no fue la mejor idea que Europa pudo haber tomado... https://t.co/pRNzQE5G8d pic.twitter.com/bNVQtwTXw2

— Stanley del 56% (@stanleybostero) March 11, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

The odds of parachuting down and being attacked by kangaroo is very low, but never zero.pic.twitter.com/l87PM7togC

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) March 11, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

 

Click to enlarge.

Data Talks

Yet another example of a socialist obsessed with splitting up the pie that exists, while totally ignoring what makes the pie grow.

This *exact* line of thinking leads to Cubans squatting in the ruins of buildings the capitalists built in the '40 and '50s, which the communists… https://t.co/daQ81VGib6

— Moses Kagan (@moseskagan) March 14, 2026

 

The North Cape by Moonlight, 1848 by Peder Balke

The North Cape by Moonlight, 1848 by Peder Balke (Norway, 1804-1887)

Click to enlarge.

Numbers and thoughts

 I can't say why, but these two things I came across minutes apart seem oddly relevant to one another.  

population has grown ~9x in 200yrs, while poverty trends to 0

people act as though capitalism is a zero sum game, but it’s actually the only system that creates positive sum outcomes

the average person today is far richer than most kings in days past https://t.co/SHHfbT2V6V pic.twitter.com/Wk3Bmxpnwo

— Arthur MacWaters (@ArthurMacwaters) April 12, 2026

And

Advice to the English Department 

by Joseph S. Salemi

Instead of reading Marx and Hegel 

Have yourself a cream cheese bagel. 

Skip Foucault, ignore Lacan —

Order up a coq au vin. 

Sick of texte by Derrida? 

Cherchez la cuisine, comme ca. 

People who are in the know 

Turn to escalopes de veau 

Rather than get mental canker 

Wading through some verbose wanker. 

 

Advice to the English Department by Joseph S. Salemi

Advice to the English Department 

by Joseph S. Salemi

Instead of reading Marx and Hegel 

Have yourself a cream cheese bagel. 

Skip Foucault, ignore Lacan —

Order up a coq au vin. 

Sick of texte by Derrida? 

Cherchez la cuisine, comme ca. 

People who are in the know 

Turn to escalopes de veau 

Rather than get mental canker 

Wading through some verbose wanker. 

History

A curiosity missed by many in London

[📹livinglondonhistory]pic.twitter.com/ZQ6qCJ3BTf

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) March 13, 2026

 

An Insight

This is actually how they think pic.twitter.com/XAY6hoeO8w

— Kevin Sorbo (@ksorbs) March 11, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

You're telling me the British Defence Attache to a Desert country is a guy called "Captain Sandy Sandilands" https://t.co/1D0KkCoO5d

— 𝐃𝐄𝐕𝐎𝐍™ (@Devon_OnEarth) March 10, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

Really can’t add to this 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/uFuHv33roZ

— G-PA INDY (@GPAIndiana) March 10, 2026

 

Data Talks

One of the things that you don't understand when young but are amazed by when older is the logistics of war. Some of the stuff we carried out in 43-45 is insane. https://t.co/93dVebBiBZ

— Nick Meals (@nickmeals) March 13, 2026

 

Portrait of a Man (Self-Portrait?), 1433 by Jan van Eyck

Portrait of a Man (Self-Portrait?), 1433 by Jan van Eyck (Netherlands, 1390-1441)

Click to enlarge.

History

Noam Chomsky once called English spelling "a near optimal system."

You might think he was being ironic. Far from it.

The silent 'b' in "bomb" reappears in "bombard." The silent 'n' in "hymn" is pronounced once again in "hymnal." The silent 'g' in "sign" comes back in "signal."… pic.twitter.com/h45AU4TE5m

— Colin Gorrie (@colingorrie) March 11, 2026

 

An Insight

The lie goes out on national television, the correction goes out in a tweet.

See how that works? https://t.co/G8npElpW69

— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) March 11, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

Houghton Hall in Norfolk was built in the 1720s for Sir Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain, and designed to impress both historically and aesthetically

Inside is the Great Staircase, designed by William Kent to showcase Walpole’s extensive art collection pic.twitter.com/gdxgsGrBN4

— ʙʏ ᴍᴏʀᴛᴀʟ ʜᴀɴᴅ (@bymortalhand) March 10, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

Classic pic.twitter.com/5mOEwlBirX

— Jayroo (@jayroo69) March 10, 2026

 

Data Talks

In 1980, there were 22 officially Communist or Marxist states.

Today there are five. Four of these have explicitly adopted capitalist objectives and elements such as foreign investment, market reforms, and private enterprise. Almost the only "communist" feature they've kept is… pic.twitter.com/UFSTP0UcbW

— Sandy Petersen 🪔 (@SandyofCthulhu) March 13, 2026

 

Boats Returning Home, circa 1915 by William Ritschel

Boats Returning Home, circa 1915 by William Ritschel (Germany/America, 1864-1949)

Click to enlarge.

History

A detailed stone carving of an angel ascending Jacob's Ladder on the west facade of Bath Abbey in Somerset, England. pic.twitter.com/O0J2E648PI

— HerodotusWave (@HerodotusWave) March 10, 2026

 

An Insight

"Wow, phonics really works! We've achieved 99% literacy!"

"Hey, I have a new theory on how to teach reading that's completely untested and based on nothing but vibes! It's called whole language learning!"

"That's great! Fuck phonics, implement that new theory immediately!" https://t.co/7fj7GoOWP6

— Possum Reviews (@ReviewsPossum) March 11, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

MORGAN FREEMAN recites Nelson Mandela’s favourite poem - ‘Invictus’ by William Ernest Henley - in 2010. pic.twitter.com/t8nZpM1fJS

— Michael Warburton (@TheMonologist) March 11, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

It happens sometimes. pic.twitter.com/SvuHYRDYct

— Daily Roman Updates (@UpdatingOnRome) March 9, 2026

 

Data Talks

Norway saw a massive exodus just from slightly raising its wealth tax. I don’t understand why people were so sanguine. https://t.co/UjtgVCz0uK

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) March 11, 2026

 

The Waterspout, 1867 by Gustave Courbet

The Waterspout, 1867 by Gustave Courbet (France, 1819-1877

Click to enlarge.

History

Did you know?

In 1969, the number one song in America was by a band who actually didn't exist.
pic.twitter.com/aNMByuqCgh

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) March 11, 2026

 

An Insight

Food for thought. pic.twitter.com/Kv6v5tYanI

— Mary J. Ruwart Ph.D. (@MaryRuwart) March 11, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

Bill Evans gives me a kind of peace nothing else quite reaches. pic.twitter.com/vMV9plNalY

— Melodies & Masterpieces (@SVG__Collection) March 10, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

Jewish mother: "So, no law degree?" https://t.co/E11TyKkABR

— Daniel Sugarman (@Daniel_Sugarman) March 10, 2026

 

It’s hard to tell just what systems are communicating with other systems on which ports.

A variant on Hayek's Problem of Knowledge.  When authoritarian or totalitarian systems seek to impose on complex dynamic systems, you almost always have unintended consequences.  From Russia Cracks Down On VPNs, Brings Down Banks by Lawrence Person.

Here’s another example of the “new” Russia acting a whole lot like the old Soviet Union. Mere individuals will not be allowed to keep secrets from the glorious state, comrade.

But the Soviet Union barely lasted into the Internet age. Its communications infrastructure was built from the ground-up to spy on citizens, with entire floors dedicated to KGB agents constructed above telephone exchanges. It’s quite a different task to try to tap today’s vast array of encrypted digital communication channels. Ordinary companies frequently have a tough time locking down their own digital infrastructure, because it’s hard to tell just what systems are communicating with other systems on which ports.

Now scale up the problem to an entire nation that’s been cut out of the world financial system for waging an illegal war of territorial aggression, and a tyrannical government blocking vast swathes of what Internet is left in the name of information control like Hans Gruber’s minion chainsawing through the Nakatomi Tower’s trunk cables in Die Hard. All sorts of things you want to keep working are going to break.

I also suspect the attempt to be a futile one, at least for VPN users. I suspect the technical minds behind those are far more adept than the government censors trying to block them.

Data Talks

Le 11 mars 1811, un enfant naît à Saint-Lô, en Normandie. Son père est fonctionnaire.

À Polytechnique, on lui refuse le poste de chimiste qu'il convoite. On lui propose l'astronomie. Il accepte, faute de mieux.

En 1845, un problème rend fous les astronomes d'Europe : la planète… pic.twitter.com/PHnkgrkjDF

— Ce jour-là dans l'Histoire (@CeJour_Histoire) March 11, 2026

 

Winter, St Ives, 2013 by David Inshaw

Winter, St Ives, 2013 by David Inshaw (England, 1943 - )

Click to enlarge.

History

Malthus was actually right - but only for the pre-capitalist era. Prior to 1700 in the West (and prior to mid-20th century in the East), each time humanity had a population boom, it was followed by a bust.

The problem is that Malthus was no Schumpeter. He wasn't even an Adam… pic.twitter.com/a8VnaIWw2f

— Sanjeev Sabhlok (@sabhlok) March 11, 2026

 

An Insight

Yes, when I was in the submarine force on Sundays underway we had surf & turf.

Why was that? Because once a week we got to have a somewhat nicer meal as a reward for SPENDING YEARS OF OUR LIVES UNDERWATER so that people could make stupid points about non-news like this. https://t.co/b4XgypP4A3

— Tom Shugart (@tshugart3) March 11, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

In 2014 Dutch scientists left a hamster wheel outside, to see if wild animals would use it like domesticated counterparts.

The answer: hell yes! 734 visits from wild mice, plus rats, shrews, slugs (!) & even frogs and snails.

The apparent reason: fun. Just fun. pic.twitter.com/O7fBhNmxk8

— Mike Sowden (@Mikeachim) March 11, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

This is so funny. The first time I saw it, I was taken by complete surprise 🤣 pic.twitter.com/sS13bqf5Ai

— 🌸🎵 Beautiful Melody 🎶💖 (@Ducnghia16) March 10, 2026

 

Data Talks

For at least the past two decades graduate programs in our universities have been incubators for the development of vulnerable narcissists who have fallen under the utopian magic spell of pathocratic radical lunatics. This is now being fully recognized. https://t.co/69oZAfXIpb

— J.D. Haltigan, PhD 🏒👨‍💻 (@JDHaltigan) March 10, 2026

 

Wet Evening, 1927 by Clarice Beckett

Wet Evening, 1927 by Clarice Beckett (Australia, 1887 – 1935)

Click to enlarge.

History

Did you know 😏

He rubbed lemon juice on his face. Robbed two banks. Smiled at the cameras. Got caught in an hour. And changed psychology forever.

In 1995, McArthur Wheeler walked into two banks in Pittsburgh and robbed them with no mask, no disguise, and lemon juice on his… pic.twitter.com/c791MCkq0i

— Stellar (@StellarArtoisGB) March 10, 2026

 

An Insight

Pleasantly surprised by almost uniformly positive reaction to this piece — because whenever I wrote about public disorder in past I would get apathy and/or Bluesky type hysteria & nastiness.

Seems there’s been a rapid shift in elite discourse on the issue. https://t.co/KOooeUWUgO

— Chris Arnade 🐢🐱🚌 (@Chris_arnade) March 11, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

pic.twitter.com/ihZJhhWuFA

— Cody Libolt (@CodyLibolt) March 10, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

Absolutely the worst take ever from CNN, and that's saying a lot. Oh, and they deleted it . pic.twitter.com/slKnva21jL

— TexasBulldog (@Texas__Bulldog) March 10, 2026

 

Data Talks

This is what happened to Austin, Texas after they voted in a Soros DA - a 575% increase in bond violations.

It’s not rocket science; if you don’t enforce the law, and dismiss and downgrade charges, there are more criminals on the streets and people who stop following the law. pic.twitter.com/HKFWTJ39FA

— John LeFevre (@JohnLeFevre) March 11, 2026

 

There can be a limited-access order or an open-access order, but nothing in between.

From North, Weingast, and Wallis by Arnold Kling.  The subheading is The most under-rated model of political order.

Kling starts our by quoting an earlier essay of his.

Violence and Social Orders, by Douglass C. North, John J. Wallis, and Barry R. Weingast, is a fundamental work of political economy. Much of it rests on the distinction between what they call a limited-access order and an open-access order.

To have order at all, a society needs a mechanism to restrain violence. In a limited-access order (what NWW call “the natural state”), the government is like a crime syndicate. It incorporates any group with a potential for organized violence. It excludes anyone who is not a member of the coalition from obtaining the most valuable economic and political positions in the society. Those who are in the governing coalition benefit sufficiently to not want to disturb the status quo. Those who are outside the coalition are powerless to fight it.

I wrote that here. In a different essay, I wrote

In any society, who is allowed to form an organization that competes with powerful economic and political interests? In their 2009 master work, Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History, Douglass North, John Joseph Wallis, and Barry R. Weingast give a striking answer. They say that either almost no one is allowed to form an organization that competes against powerful interests, or almost everyone is allowed to form such an organization. In their terminology, there can be a limited-access order or an open-access order, but nothing in between.

He concludes:

My reading of NWW leads me to believe:

a libertarian utopia in which the state is small and weak is not possible. A society that can create economic assets will tempt groups to use violence to extract wealth. For order to prevail, such violence must be suppressed. In a limited-access order, the governing coalition is able to extract wealth, but at least there is order in which wealth is created. People outside of the ruling coalition cannot get rich, but at least they can live in peace and security. In an open-access order, less of the available wealth is extracted by those in power, and people outside of the ruling coalition have at least a bit of an opportunity to get rich.

Nation-building will fail. That is, the attempt to impose an open-access order on a country will fail if it has groups that are not willing to refrain from violence.

Our open-access order is robust, in spite of authoritarian inclinations on both the left and the right. We are not going to ban entire classes of people from engaging in political or economic competition. 

 

An Insight

I swear the whole transgenderism thing was all about this strategy: https://t.co/JRbMnzFlzq pic.twitter.com/tR3Hw5gC16

— Korobochka (コロボ) 🇦🇺✝️ (@cirnosad) March 9, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

Megafauna in news again: "Cattle grazing at a nature reserve in the Yorkshire Dales has increased plant diversity by over 40%. Allowing native cattle breeds to roam large areas of the landscape at Ingleborough has also led to a five-fold increase in the number of butterflies." pic.twitter.com/vAiduiFfJO

— Wrath Of Gnon (@wrathofgnon) March 11, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

And she will be traveling with a Knight, a Squire, a Yeoman, a Prioress, a Nun, Nun’s Priest, a Monk, a Friar, a Merchant, a Clerk, a Man of Law, a Haberdasher, a Carpenter, a Weaver, a Dyer, a Tapestry-Maker, a Cook, a Shipman, a Physician, a Wife of Bath, a Parson, a Plowman… https://t.co/svEqWStKqr

— Magister Johannes Josephus (@nassaujuan) March 14, 2026

 

Data Talks

Coincidence? I think not. Happy 250th birthday, Wealth of Nations! https://t.co/gBdrBrmEzF pic.twitter.com/Ddu5I4qg48

— Marian L Tupy (@Marian_L_Tupy) March 9, 2026

 

The Old Battersea Power Station, c.1938 by Christopher R.W. Nevinson

The Old Battersea Power Station, c.1938 by Christopher R.W. Nevinson (England, 1889-1946)

Click to enlarge.

History

The Keweenaw region in Upper Michigan has some of the highest quality copper in the world, being 95-98% pure. There is evidence of hundreds of ancient mines that date between 4,000 - 10,000 BC and that hundreds of tons of copper was removed. But, we have no clear idea what… https://t.co/ngqhfPhdXr

— Josh | Map Effects (@MapEffects) March 9, 2026

 

An Insight

Back in the 90s in grad school I was in a seminar which matched field scientists with statisticians. A lady scientist charged me and another statistician with "sexual harassment" because we wouldn't type in her data.

The "charge" was dropped because it was absurd, and because… https://t.co/JhGhQorIRM

— William M Briggs - Statistician to the Stars! (@FamedCelebrity) March 9, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

She has sold over 80 million albums, won four Grammys, been nominated for an Oscar, and has never once gone on tour. She lives alone in a castle outside Dublin with her cats, her neighbour is Bono, and her own uncle has said “We don’t see much of her. She lives like a queen. She… pic.twitter.com/z40SkTKg9M

— Dr. Lemma (@DoctorLemma) March 10, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

Bloody hell, that must have been quite a Facebook post pic.twitter.com/r6O24Qidde

— Peter Hague (@peterrhague) March 6, 2026

 

Data Talks

American elites took public trust for granted. That was a catastrophic mistake. If people see even one academic punished or canceled for holding a view most Americans share, they stop trusting experts. And it didn’t happen once: FIRE found 14% of faculty — about 1 in 7 — say… https://t.co/GqxhAjwha2

— Greg Lukianoff (@glukianoff) March 10, 2026

 

Greenland Coast, 1931 by Rockwell Kent

Greenland Coast, 1931 by Rockwell Kent (America, 1882-1971)

Click to enlarge.

History

The Theory of Moral Sentiments explains why a society that practices Smithian economics and limited govt will be a generous and cooperative society in practice. IMO it is as seminal for psychology and sociology as Wealth of Nations is for economics. https://t.co/NCwm5SE5o2

— Charles Murray (@charlesmurray) March 10, 2026

 

An Insight

You can only enjoy nature aesthetically when you’re protected from its harsh realities by the prosperity provided by capitalism - and the security provided if not by war then by the capacity to wage it. https://t.co/VRV6OExqvK

— Peter Hague (@peterrhague) March 10, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

It’s funny but also not funny. It illustrates something important: a leadership class that has been selected not just to tolerate but to propagate and enforce propagandistic lies that it does not itself believe even when they harm children will be ruinous over any time scale… https://t.co/1b3FYIYSNd

— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) March 10, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

The mother in response: you know, his brothers is a doctor. https://t.co/7eFrOVxrY0

— Yael Bar tur (@yaelbt) March 4, 2026

 

Data Talk

Lmao the EU is going to nullify another election to protect “democracy” aren’t they https://t.co/CjhwZdhvYw

— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) March 10, 2026

 

Skirt of Mt. Fuji, 1953 by Kawase Hasui

Skirt of Mt. Fuji, 1953 by Kawase Hasui (Japan 1883-1957)

Click to enlarge.

History

When people finds oil today:
"OMG! we're rich"

When people find oil in 330s BC: https://t.co/k13C8oeS7R

— LiorLefineder (@lefineder) March 10, 2026

 

An Insight

This proves my point exactly.

Norway has gone 98% green domestically, powered by hydroelectric (which is unique to its geography), while remaining one of the world's largest exporters of oil and gas.

Its fossil fuel exports have surged since the Ukraine war. Norway is already… https://t.co/HfiqRlVhx6

— Nina Schick (@NinaDSchick) March 9, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

Dive into this mesmerizing classical guitar rendition of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's iconic "Rondo alla Turca" (also known as the Turkish March) by a talented young performer with striking red hair. Seated in an elegant hall under a sparkling chandelier, she brings the piece to… pic.twitter.com/EuEwL7TJSI

— Roy Rogers Happy Trails Music Shop  (@RoyRogers_HTMS) March 10, 2026

 

Ending Lent with hot cross buns

Hadn't thought of this for years.  Had to look up the lyrics in Wikipedia to confirm my memory of them.  Strong memories from my childhood years in England in the mid-1960s of hot cross buns as the prelude to Easter Sunday.  

Hot cross buns!

Hot cross buns!

One a penny, two a penny,

Hot cross buns!

If you have no daughters,

Give them to your sons.

One a penny, two a penny,

Hot cross buns!

Related:  

The Queen banned them. 50,000 people rioted anyway. 🍞👑

In 1592 Queen Elizabeth I banned the sale of spiced buns. You could only buy one on Good Friday. Christmas. Or at a funeral.

So every Good Friday the Chelsea Bun House opened at 3 in the morning. And the crowds came.… pic.twitter.com/L0ikoitoN5

— Proudofus.uk (@ProudofusUK) April 3, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

My best friend pic.twitter.com/Dt3sULqWHY

— Charlie Berens (@CharlieBerens) March 4, 2026

 

Data Talks

Every political person who starts a charity does this. It’s a huge scam that they all teach one another - there are money laundering and tax advantages galore. If we had a really curious and functioning media it would be obvious. https://t.co/f21YgTSdOU

— FischerKing (@FischerKing64) March 9, 2026

 

Three Bathers by Johann Baptist Reiter

Three Bathers by Johann Baptist Reiter (Austria, 1813-1890)

Click to enlarge.

History

En 1530, Michelangelo est condamné à mort par le pape Clement VII après s’être opposé aux Medicis
Il se cache 2 mois dans une pièce sous la Basilique San Lorenzo, où il dessine au charbon sur les murs
La pièce est redécouverte en 1975
Les dessins n’étaient pas destinés être vus pic.twitter.com/jSU6lFWCZr

— TaQuIn MaUvE (@TaQuIn_MaUvE) March 9, 2026

 

An Insight

It's statistically known as the atomistic or "individualistic" fallacy. It's how Leftists use emotional blackmail as their main political weapon. Take a singular event or individual as an inaccurate generalization to a higher level unit of analysis. https://t.co/r2qskxzAcU pic.twitter.com/vJbstEJI56

— J.D. Haltigan, PhD 🏒👨‍💻 (@JDHaltigan) March 10, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

Fascinating! @JoelSalatin talks about ancient grasses that his pigs have awakened.

Nobody can identify these grasses & the leading theory is that their seeds have lay dormant for 100s of years, waiting for the right conditions.

This is environmentalism by participation. pic.twitter.com/bdyobwHrqo

— Cary Kelly (@CaryKelly11) March 10, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/3fqNtHZhT0

— Kate Levchuk (@KateGoesTech) March 4, 2026

 

Data Talks

Austin tried to pass rent control, but the state didn’t allow it. Instead, we allowed developers to build. Now it’s cheaper to rent in Austin as a % of income than in decades.

Move to states and cities that build things instead of having virtue signaling policies that don’t help https://t.co/lwECoBVvD3 pic.twitter.com/JLy5UJX11X

— Caleb Hammer (@sircalebhammer) March 9, 2026

 

Fall of the Tower of Babel, 1547 by Cornelis Anthonisz

Fall of the Tower of Babel, 1547 by Cornelis Anthonisz (Netherlands, 1505-1553)

Click to enlarge.

It can be hard to appreciate just how large each moment of each day is, how much more is going on than we experience.

From Days are enormous by Henrik Karlsson, a review of Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume.  I liked the beginning of the review.

Since I began working on this essay three hours ago, around 21,000 people have, statistically, died. Now the sky is low and cloudy; I’m feeling tired, and looking at the numbers, I learn that about 10 million people are having sex as I type this sentence.

It can be hard to appreciate just how large each moment of each day is, how much more is going on than we experience.

Even just thinking about the fact that every place I’ve ever visited still exists (however reconfigured) gives me vertigo. In the medical factory where I worked at 21, the production lines are still going, and have done so, more or less continuously, for the 15 years since I last thought of them. There are people living in every house and apartment I’ve ever stayed in: if I were to go back and peek through the windows, I’d see them, as real as I. Also, everyone I’ve ever been on a date with is—I hope—still alive, somewhere, occupied with a life that feels like the world to them. And everyone I’ve worked with, or met on a bus, or been to school with.

I think about this, or rather I feel it—the heaviness of it—as I read the first six books of Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume. It is one of the more moving experiences of art I’ve had this year.

History

If you really want to understand what the entire foreign op targeting Americans is about, you just need to watch this video of former KGB agent Yuri Bezmenov explaining ideological subversion.

It’s a combination of demoralization and destabilization.

pic.twitter.com/tVTLGhXqio https://t.co/TSwnrwZaax

— AG (@AGHamilton29) March 10, 2026

 

An Insight

… pic.twitter.com/0Ss7NYXV0L

— Judianna (@Judianna) March 4, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

If you're having a bad day…😊

Sound on pic.twitter.com/Cbb8zwJEFx

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) March 4, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

Chingford has long been recognised as the natural home for English eschatologists. pic.twitter.com/s9b6kaQuWu

— Ian Duhig FRSL (@ianduhig) March 3, 2026

 

Their attitude to the thing they love is imbued with judgement and discrimination.

From Beauty: A Very Short Introduction by Roger Scruton.  

For the past two or three years I have been wrestling with a set of interconnected thoughts which I still do not have untangled.  

The foundational observation is that Classical Liberalism is in constant struggle with totalitarian systems which are in themselves antithetical to the philosophical foundations of Classical Liberalism.  Totalitarian systems such as Socialism, Communism, Islam, and Wokeism (derivative from the first two), etc.  

What is the Classical Liberal response to someone espousing arguments from any of these totalitarian systems of thought?  To engage in argument.  To debate.  Which is fundamentally a waste of time.  The Totalitarian system's goal is to win and crush anything inconsistent with itself.  Argument and debate are mere tactics on the path to victory.  They have no relevance or reality in the totalitarian context.  

What is the Classical Liberal antidote to the Totalitarian mind?  What I have been considering is that it is a three pronged aspiration - pursuit of Knowledge (arguments and debate), pursuit of Truth, and pursuit of Beauty.  The first two are interesting to think through and I am pretty confident in their role.

The pursuit of beauty is where I have a conviction but not a particularly well developed argument.

These passages from Scruton are relevant to the thought.  Beauty is always, and necessarily, both intensely personal and individual, while also having a communal and social aspect.  It is the individual element which renders beauty incompatible with Totalitarianism.

Just as there is sex addiction, arising from the decoupling of sexual pleasure from the inter-personal intentionality of desire, so too is there stimulus addiction—the hunger to be shocked, gripped, stirred in whatever way might take us straight to the goal of excitement—which arises from the decoupling of sensory interest from rational thought. The pathology here is familiar to us, and was interestingly caricatured by Aldous Huxley, in his account of the ‘feelies’—the panoramic shows in Brave New World in which every sense-modality is engaged. Maybe the Roman games were similar: short cuts to awe, horror and fear which reinforced the ensuing sense of safety, by prompting the visceral relief that it is not I but another who has been torn to pieces in the ring. And maybe the 5-second cut which is the stock-in- trade of the B movie and the TV advert operates in a similar way—setting up addictive circuits that keep the eyes glued to the screen.

The contrast that I have been implicitly drawing between the love that venerates and the scorn that desecrates is like the contrast between taste and addiction. Lovers of beauty direct their attention outwards, in search of a meaning and order that brings sense to their lives. Their attitude to the thing they love is imbued with judgement and discrimination. And they measure themselves against it, trying to match its order in their own living sympathies.

Addiction, as the psychologists point out, is a function of easy rewards. The addict is someone who presses again and again on the pleasure switch, whose pleasures by-pass thought and judgement to settle in the realm of need. Art is at war with effect addiction, in which the need for stimulation and routinized excitement has blocked the path to beauty by putting acts of desecration centre stage. Why this addiction should be so virulent now is an interesting question: whatever the explanation, however, my argument implies that the addiction to effect is the enemy not only of art but also of happiness, and that anybody who cares for the future of humanity should study how to revive the ‘aesthetic education’, as Schiller described it, which has the love of beauty as its goal.

Ties to the idea that one of our present challenges is that we have become unmoored from constraints.  Absent constraints we are at risk of overindulgence to the point of addiction.

In a world of comparative and astonishing abundance, we are able to indulge ourselves in a fashion never before achievable.  When there is a dessicated but ever present access to virtually everything (knowledge, pictures, sound, etc.) everywhere and always, I wonder that there is even any remaining commitment to experience, to engagement, to anticipation, and of course to the pursuit of Knowledge, Truth, and Beauty.  

Augustus at the tomb of Alexander the Great, 1878 by Lionel Royer

Augustus at the tomb of Alexander the Great, 1878 by Lionel Royer (France, 1852-1926)

Click to enlarge.

History

British irrigation works in India are definitely relatively unknown, in contrast to say the railways.

In addition to the Punjab Canal colonies, there was the Ganges irrigation canal built in the 1840s (to prevent something like the Agra famine of 1837-8 happening again), the… https://t.co/YL1vHt9XRe

— Will Solfiac (@willsolfiac) February 21, 2026

 

An Insight

"Marriage was what you built your life on top of. You married young, figured it out together, grew into adulthood as a unit. It wasn't a reward you earned after getting your career right and your apartment right and your personal brand figured out or after having had enough… https://t.co/R2UiVp8v0b pic.twitter.com/rUiy9Pn6nr

— The Knowledge Archivist (@KnowledgeArchiv) February 20, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

A bench in the library of Alexandria, Egypt.

The pages feature inscriptions of Shakespeare’s poems pic.twitter.com/5NYpko4BxI

— Science girl (@sciencegirl) February 20, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

pic.twitter.com/XbSDPeMA5E

— Orwell & Goode (@OrwellNGoode) February 20, 2026

 

Data Talks

And here are the sex-segregated data on numbers of suicides in the United States from 1970 to 2022. pic.twitter.com/2r3EfzL5z1

— James L. Nuzzo, PhD (@JamesLNuzzo) February 21, 2026

 

At Breakfast, 1914 by Zinaida Serebriakova

At Breakfast, 1914 by Zinaida Serebriakova (Russia, 1884-1967)

Click to enlarge. 

History

For a brief period, all these realms were ruled by the Jagiellonian dynasty.

From 1516-26, Louis II ruled Hungary and Bohemia while his uncle ruled Poland-Lithuania.

Imagine an alternate European history where Jagiellonians forge a massive Eastern European Catholic empire. pic.twitter.com/1MEmET8AJE

— Aristocratic Fury (@LandsknechtPike) February 20, 2026

 

An Insight

One of my profs was just telling me this about 20th c Cambridge texts. It’s amazing what people were learning in school as recently as like 50 years ago https://t.co/sLpM6uUcW8

— Thōmās (@o_Thoma) February 20, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

Just a reminder that thousands of Amish from Pennsylvania spent an ENTIRE YEAR rebuilding Western North Carolina FOR FREE after Hurricane Helene...

...and not a single mainstream media outlet covered it

Their last tiny home was delivered to David Hostetter, a Vietnam veteran. pic.twitter.com/0qbmTB75fw

— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) February 20, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

Possibly the greatest single male athletic performance of all timepic.twitter.com/Lr64l9oStx

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) February 20, 2026

 

Data Talks

For 5 years we were told America was “millions of homes short.”

Here were the estimates:

• NAR: 5.5M (as high as 6.8M)
• Freddie Mac: 3.8M
• Zillow: 4.5M
• NLHC (rentals): 7.1M

Consensus? 5–7 million homes short.

Now JP Morgan: ~1.2M
That’s nearly an 80% revision.

Was it…

— Jon Brooks (@jonbrooks) February 20, 2026

 

Evidence? I am weary of evidence. Only rouse a man and make him feel the truth of his religion.

From Aids to Reflection and the Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  

And what has been the consequence? An increasing unwillingness to contemplate the Supreme Being in his personal attributes: and thence a distaste to all the peculiar doctrines of the Christian Faith, the Trinity, the Incarnation of the Son of God, and Redemption. The young and ardent, ever too apt to mistake the inward triumph in the detection of error for a positive love of truth, are among the first and most frequent victims to this epidemic fastidium. Alas! even the sincerest seekers after light are not safe from the contagion. Some have I known, constitutionally religious—I speak feelingly; for I {271}speak of that which for a brief period was my own state—who under this unhealthful influence have been so estranged from the heavenly Father, the Living God, as even to shrink from the personal pronouns as applied to the Deity. But many do I know, and yearly meet with, in whom a false and sickly taste co-operates with the prevailing fashion: many, who find the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, far too real, too substantial; who feel it more in harmony with their indefinite sensations

To worship Nature in the hill and valley,

Not knowing what they love:—

and (to use the language, but not the sense or purpose of the great poet of our age) would fain substitute for the Jehovah of their Bible

A sense sublime

Of something far more deeply interfused,

Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,

And the round ocean and the living air;

A motion and a spirit, that impels

All thinking things, all objects of all thought,

And rolls through all things!

Wordsworth.

And this from having been educated to understand the Divine Omnipresence in any sense rather than the alone safe and legitimate one, the presence of all things to God!

Be it, however, that the number of such men is comparatively small! And be it (as in fact it often is) but a brief stage, a transitional state, in the process of intellectual Growth! Yet among a numerous and increasing class of the higher and middle ranks, there is an inward withdrawing from the Life and Personal Being of God, a turning of the thoughts exclusively to the so-called physical attributes, to the Omnipresence in the counterfeit form of ubiquity, to the Immensity, the Infinity, the Immutability;—the attributes of space with a notion of Power as their substratum, a Fate, in short, not a Moral Creator and Governor! Let intelligence be imagined, and wherein does the conception of God differ essentially from that of Gravitation (conceived as the cause of Gravity) in the understanding of those, who represent the Deity not only as a necessary but as a necessitated Being; those, for whom justice is but a scheme {272}of general laws; and holiness, and the divine hatred of sin, yea and sin itself, are words without meaning or accommodations to a rude and barbarous race? Hence, I more than fear, the prevailing taste for books of Natural Theology, Physico-Theology, Demonstrations of God from Nature, Evidences of Christianity, and the like. Evidences of Christianity! I am weary of the word. Make a man feel the want of it; rouse him, if you can, to the self-knowledge of his need only the express declaration of Christ himself: No man cometh to me, unless the Father leadeth him. Whatever more is desirable—I speak now with reference to Christians generally, and not to professed students of theology—may, in my judgment, be far more safely and profitably taught, without controversy or the supposition of infidel antagonists, in the form of Ecclesiastical history.

I often see the concluding thought paraphrased as:

Evidence? I am weary of evidence. Only rouse a man and make him feel the truth of his religion.

Palm Sunday messaging

I was just reading Deuteronomy 2:32-36 yesterday.  

32 Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz.

33 And the Lord our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people.

34 And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain:

35 Only the cattle we took for a prey unto ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we took.

36 From Aroer, which is by the brink of the river of Arnon, and from the city that is by the river, even unto Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us: the Lord our God delivered all unto us.

When I am waiting for the service to commence, I will often flip randomly to a passage to consider in addition to whatever the day's readings are.  Deuteronomy 2:32-36 wasn't particularly consonant with the spirit of Palm Sunday and the Lord's Passion but knowing the whole is always more challenging than dealing in the parts.  

Unbeknownst to me, the Pope was simultaneously making a Palm Sunday, Lord's Passion statement.  

Pope Leo XIV on Palm Sunday, forcefully denounces those who use God to justify war: “Brothers and sisters, this is our God, Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them saying… pic.twitter.com/2x6VIGbkOM

— Catholic Sat (@CatholicSat) March 29, 2026

Of course this is in part just the eternal tension between the Old Testament of judgment, war and tragedy and the New Testament of forgiveness, peace and hope.  But it was a striking contrast between what I was reading while waiting for the service to begin and what the Pope was opining.  

And of course, Babylon Bee goes to town.

Pope Leo Explains God Does Not Listen To People Who Wage War So Long As You Don’t Count Moses, David, Joshua, Elijah, Saul, Gideon, Samson, Or Anyone Else In Bible https://t.co/8Hu7kJv7hc pic.twitter.com/q2jBwHjSST

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) March 29, 2026

 

A Cafe Scene, 1934 by Sylvia Gosse

A Cafe Scene, 1934 by Sylvia Gosse (England, 1881–1968)

Click to enlarge.