History

Herodotus proven right again award https://t.co/CzjMJgk5PI

— Cimmerian Pervert (@cimmerian_v) February 18, 2026

 

History

They were outnumbered six to one. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇫🇷

Starving. Sick. Exhausted.

The French looked across the field and laughed.

They weren't even soldiers. They were farmers.

But those farmers had something nobody else in the world had.

The Welsh longbow.

A weapon so powerful nobody else… pic.twitter.com/14O4h6nb0Y

— Proudofus.uk (@ProudofusUK) March 11, 2026

 

An Insight

Someone once explained to me, "In our society, the buyer hands over the cash and the seller says, 'Thank you.' Then the seller hands over the good and the buyer says, 'Thank you.' This is very rare in history. For millennia, someone has felt screwed." https://t.co/Q4hijW4m2G

— Jay Nordlinger (@jaynordlinger) February 19, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

275 years apart, the 4,500-year-old cypress tree, the oldest in China, on a painting by Emperor Qianglong of Qing Dynasty, and by a modern camera.

[📍 Dengfeng city, Central China's Henan province] pic.twitter.com/JzLxmKz7LJ

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) February 17, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

ICE needs to hire more gays immediately. They are the only ones that can defeat the white Karens. https://t.co/jeQxNLC2S7

— BLAIRE WHITE (@BlaireWhite) February 16, 2026

 

Data Talks

I was today years old when I learned that the UK's numbering system for A and B-Roads is based on zones and is not random.

(Explains why the two major ones near me are the A2 and A20).

Map credit: Roads [dot] org [dot] uk

More about how the zones work:… pic.twitter.com/IOs8K01XVt

— Brilliant Maps (@BrilliantMaps) February 19, 2026

 

The White Room, 1924 by Marius Borgeaud

The White Room, 1924 by Marius Borgeaud (Switzerland, 1861-1924)

Click to enlarge.

History

Stamped roof tile from Roman Chester (Deva) with the stamp of the Twentieth Legion who were based there. The tile is part of the collections at the Grosvenor Museum in Chester. 📸 My own. #TilesOnTuesday #RomanBritain #Chester pic.twitter.com/NlPSC5mUCZ

— Kevin Wilbraham (@KPW1453) February 17, 2026

 

An Insight

As I have argued since 2023, the decline of socialising and rise in singles are the canaries in the coal mine,

Studies which use 'completed fertility' about women in their 40s may have low predictive power for younger generations with totally different lifestyles..... https://t.co/xgKgCdQGFI

— Alice Evans (@_alice_evans) February 18, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

The impossible architecture of these bird nests

pic.twitter.com/12sNPIdowb

— Science girl (@sciencegirl) February 17, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

English can be confusingpic.twitter.com/HYR5KTefKR

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) February 16, 2026

 

Data Talks

Undergrads yesterday were broadly skeptical of evidence which showed US household incomes had increased for all racial groups in recent decades. pic.twitter.com/bnk2u48n5Q

— Tom Wood (@thomasjwood) January 16, 2026

 

The Kass, 1975 by Andrew Wyeth

The Kass, 1975 by Andrew Wyeth (America, 1917–2009) 

Clcik to enlarge.

History

In 1838, only one in seven men could vote. Not women. Not workers. Not the poor.

So ordinary people wrote a charter. Six demands. The right to vote. Secret ballots. Pay for MPs.

They collected 1.2 million signatures. Parliament rejected it.

They collected 3.3 million… pic.twitter.com/1GWtkSbben

— Proudofus.uk (@ProudofusUK) February 16, 2026

 

An Insight

The New Zealand Defence Force spent 2025 training soldiers to take out a fictional Christian terrorist group — on a map of their own country.

None of NZ's 23 listed terrorist orgs are Christian.

They say no offence was intended.

Here's what the documents actually show 🧵 pic.twitter.com/SOCEpPfWTy

— Kurt Mahlburg (@k_mahlburg) February 17, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

«Let me check what's the problem»

[📹 cutecomrade]pic.twitter.com/HL3LDIN5fO

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) February 16, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

Marco Rubio when he realizes he's going to have to tutor AOC in Latin American geography and history pic.twitter.com/gDgWrOW2pg

— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) February 16, 2026

 

Data Talks

Things undergrads are sometimes surprised to learn -- Americans are very symbolically conservative when it comes to economics.

Data from the World Values Survey. pic.twitter.com/rvAfOSrnNJ

— Tom Wood (@thomasjwood) December 4, 2025

 

Kilauea Fire Fountain, 1884 by Jules Tavernier

Kilauea Fire Fountain, 1884 by Jules Tavernier (France/America, 1844-1889)

Click to enlarge.

History

A twelve-year-old girl found a skeleton in a cliff. Two hundred million years old. A creature nobody had ever seen.

The men who came to look at it didn't write down her name.

Her name was Mary Anning. Her father was dead. Her family was in debt. She didn't even have shoes that… pic.twitter.com/8m4WfOJ39T

— Proudofus.uk (@ProudofusUK) February 17, 2026

 

An Insight

🚨 Forget the flight logs. This email is worse.
December 2014 — six years after Epstein's conviction for sex trafficking.

Bill Gates hosts a breakfast with billionaire donors. Afterward, he emails Jeffrey Epstein a detailed readout on each attendee.

Epstein writes back —… https://t.co/vD6IZnBV3i pic.twitter.com/4fna0QvrKs

— Sayer Ji (@sayerjigmi) February 17, 2026

 

Any monoculture in higher education would be bad. It just turns out that the particular monoculture we have is horrible.

Via Culture Links, 3/18/2026 by Arnold Kling

Yascha Mounk writes,

If it looks like a professional, talks like a professional, and earns like a professional, then it is probably a professional—with all the cultural and ideological accoutrements that nowadays come with that status.

…the Brooklynization of the Bourgeoisie. Its ultimate harm stems from the representation gap that has opened up between ordinary citizens and those calling the shots in society—and the counterproductive rebellion it inspired.

all the schools at the top range of prestige have over the past decades come to resemble each other to a remarkable degree. However much their respective college tour guides may wax lyrical to visiting high school seniors about their idiosyncratic local traditions, Harvard and Princeton, Yale and Stanford, Duke and Columbia are all examples of what biologists call “convergent evolution.” It is not just in the substance of their prevailing views that they constantly copy and emulate each other; it is also in the design of their curricula, in the way they finance their institutions, and in the criteria they use to select their undergraduate classes.

If you visit American suburbia, you will see a flattening of the culture. The same shopping malls, the same restaurant and retail chains the same eateries. College has flattened similarly—right down to the eateries. In 1963, the culture at Princeton differed from that at Yale or Harvard or Swarthmore. Now, they have homogenized. Everywhere there are the same upper-middle-class amenities (fitness centers, performing arts centers) and the same administrators hovering over “student life.”

Mounk talks about the need for viewpoint diversity. But I see a broader need for diversity in higher education. Any monoculture in higher education would be bad. It just turns out that the particular monoculture we have is horrible.

I see wonderful things

The guy is an absolute chad for lighting his ciggy pic.twitter.com/plyfOgahm5

— MERICA MEMED (@Mericamemed) February 15, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

pic.twitter.com/BA5Zuh2LRZ

— Papa Woof und Krampus und Bleaken (@woofknight) February 16, 2026

 

Data Talks

Israel:
- was invaded by an army that is larger than most European armies
- fought a war against an enemy that embeds in civilian homes and doesn’t wear uniforms
- issued evacuation notices
- paused the war for vaccinations
- facilitated humanitarian aid
- kept the internet on
-… pic.twitter.com/HVEYDTlwUo

— Max 📟 (@MaxNordau) February 16, 2026

 

Seascape with Reflection, 1907 by Léon Spilliaert

Seascape with Reflection, 1907 by Léon Spilliaert (Belgium, 1881-1946)

Click to enlarge.

History

When the Loeb Classical Library was launched, the greatest language teacher of the age, W.H.D. Rouse, wrote an essay meant to promote the Loebs by extolling the magnificence of Greek literature and Latin literature.

And boy did he. "Your mind cannot live without them. All the… pic.twitter.com/gq5W50xrK3

— Ancient Language Institute (@theancientlang) February 16, 2026

 

An Insight

Some of the grandest and most beautiful of the country homes--Hamilton Palace and Trentham Hall, as just two examples--were destroyed in the years after WWII because the spiteful and envious socialist government taxed into oblivion the families who had held them for centuries… https://t.co/x4cRAgKzB2 pic.twitter.com/X29WL0hDSF

— Will Tanner (@Will_Tanner_1) February 16, 2026

 

Three months resolving three bi-decadal sevens global threats from 67, 47, and 27 years ago.

It just registered with me.

In the first quarter of 2026, President Trump appears to be well on the way to resolving three generational international issues which have defied the capabilities of multiple presidents, Secretaries of State and innumerable foreign policy experts.  Things might still go wrong in any one of these situations but . . . right now each of these problems appear to be on pathways towards success and security achieved at lower risk and cost and in defiance of the institutional establishments of Washington, D.C. 

Communist Cuba - Fidel Castro came to power violently in 1959 during President Eisenhower's administration.  This is perhaps the most significant ideological victory, Cuba being one of the last holdovers of the Cold War.  Trump seems on his way to resolving this international and national security challenge which has defied twelve other administrations for sixty-seven years.

Theocratic Nuclear Iran - The Shah fell in 1979 during President Carter's administration.  There is an ongoing war currently, but Trump seems well on his way to finally resolving the global threat of a nuclear armed messianic theocracy.  This is probably the most significant achievement in terms of the Global War on Terror and national security which has defied six other administrations for forty-seven years.

Failed Narco-Dictatorship Venezuela - Hugo Chavez came to power in 1999 during President Clinton's administration, helping drive the global drug catastrophe and immiserating a whole generation of Venezuelans in the process.  Chavez and his successor Maduro have defied four other administrations for twenty-seven years.  

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.'s infamous phrase from Buck v. Bell can be repurposed.  Three generations of institutional foreign policy imbeciles are enough.  No wonder they are so irate with Trump.  He is well on his way towards having undone three generations of dangerous problems in three months.  

I see wonderful things

God speed Robert Duvall.

What I will always miss about him is that he always made his roles seem effortless.

Case in point, as Boo Radley, without saying a word, sends warmth into your soul. pic.twitter.com/o11ryxhbOX

— Danny Deraney (@DannyDeraney) February 16, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

His day will come. pic.twitter.com/yr2LrnMcIJ

— Steve (@stevet_140) February 16, 2026

 

Data Talks

Teen hangouts dropped off a cliff after 2012. Those teens are now adults in their late 20s and 30s wondering why they have no close friends.

We keep treating the loneliness epidemic like it came out of nowhere. It didn't. We just weren't paying attention when it started.

Chart… pic.twitter.com/5moIowRmxE

— Chris Carey (@chriscareymsp) February 16, 2026

 

Theseus in the Minotaur's labyrinth, 1861 by Edward Burne-Jones

Theseus in the Minotaur's labyrinth, 1861 by Edward Burne-Jones (England, 1833-1898)

Click to enlarge.

History

During World War II, Britain removed millions of iron railings from streets and homes as part of a national scrap-metal drive. Much of this metal was melted down and reused for war production, including weapons, vehicles and medical equipment like stretchers.

Those stretchers… pic.twitter.com/OHiVFHnBsx

— Science girl (@sciencegirl) February 16, 2026

 

An Insight

Views of American industrial sectors remain strikingly non-ideological (save for the publishing, the movie industry, and fossil fuels). pic.twitter.com/GFc6MnDuaz

— Tom Wood (@thomasjwood) February 8, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

Is there a jazz song more recognizable than this? pic.twitter.com/SLeRM7iqNR

— 🌸🎵 Beautiful Melody 🎶💖 (@Ducnghia16) February 15, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

It’s literally impossible for cowboys to have been here before the Spanish because horses weren’t here before the Spanish brought them over https://t.co/SCGSZCW4Hy

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) February 16, 2026

 

Data Talks

Switzerland is home to the richest French metropolis (Geneva), the richest German major city (Zurich), and the richest Italian speaking region (Ticino) pic.twitter.com/tK1YuzJgiC

— bernoulli_defect (@BernoulliDefect) February 16, 2026

 

Premature - "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means

I saw this in my feed this morning.

pic.twitter.com/LgYXaogNKF

— Derek T. Muller (@derektmuller) March 15, 2026

Profoundly revealing.

This past week CNN and most the other legacy Mainstream Media have repeatedly beclowned themselves by trying to make Iran and individual terrorists into sympathetic characters.  Trying so hard that they keep having to rewrite headlines multiple times and stealth edit the articles.  It is just a mockery of the profession of journalism.  

The claim that mainstream media writers are enemies of America is patently absurd; but they keep providing evidence to support the claim.

And it seems like half of their errors are entirely unconscious.  They are so steeped in old Gramscian falsehoods that they don't see themselves stating obvious falsehoods.

In this instance, the headline in the tweet was so egregious that I assumed it must be AI generated.  I went to the NYT site and, sure enough, it is legit.

."

Click to enlarge.

The profound but perhaps easily overlooked error is in the subheading.  "But he faced criticism when his predictions proved premature."

His predictions were not criticized because they were premature.  They were criticized because they were wrong.  Ehrlich was a neo-Malthusian.  

Malthus (1766-1834) was an economist who had the misfortune to base his economic theories on the entirety of human history up to his time.  And while they had some use and accuracy in describing that past, his theories were entirely invalidated by the triumvirate of Age of Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and the Scientific Revolution, all of which blossomed in his lifetime.

Humankind prosperity, productivity, longevity, health and growth all inflected into a rocket-like climb between 1750 and 1850.  Theories from the beforetime had not validity in the new reality of the successful world created by the Age of Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and the Scientific Revolution.  Malthus had an excuse - he couldn't see that the new world emerging around was categorically different from the entirety of human history on which he based his theories. 

Paul Ehrlich never had the excuse of not being able to see the evidence emerging around him.  Malthus was wrong from the time he wrote and there has been 150 years of evidence as to how wrong he was by the time Ehrlich, a neo-Malthusian, was writing in the 1960s.  Ehrlich had a flare for dramatic claims of disaster which then never occurred.  He was not even a Cassandra because he was never right.

Systematically and categorically wrong about everything across his entire oeuvre.  But his theories appealed to the anti-Age of Enlightenment, anti-Industrial Revolution, and the anti-Scientific Revolution biases of the clerissy and chattering classes nestled in academia and legacy mainstream media.

Biases which the headline reveal are still strongly rooted in the sterile mind of writers.  Ehrlich was not premature.  He was wrong because he never understood that the world changed between 1750 and 1850.  He was anchored in an antique mindset that one hundred and fifty years of evidence had not budged.  

Hailed as a prophet by the clerissy and chattering class, he was a prophet with no useful prophesies.  He was always wrong for obvious reasons.

We would never describe a weatherman repeatedly forecasting since 1965 balmy weather in the eighties next week in Antartica as having made premature forecasts.  His forecasts were always wrong.  Ehrlich is that weatherman.  His forecasts were always as confident as they were wrong.  

The use of the word "premature" in the headline betrays at best profound ignorance on the part of the editor/journalist.  At worst it is a knowing propaganda for a long overturned ideology.  Trying to change the world by changing the meaning of words is always a red flag.  

The Pyramids of Giza in the Evening Light, 1910 by Ernst Karl Eugen Koerner

The Pyramids of Giza in the Evening Light, 1910 by Ernst Karl Eugen Koerner (Poland/German, 1846-1927)

Click to enlarge.

Unknown Unknowns by Donald Rumsfeld

Unknown Unknowns

by Donald Rumsfeld

As we know, 

There are known knowns. 

There are things we know we know. 

We also know 

There are known unknowns. 

That is to say 

We know there are some things 

We do not know. 

But there are also unknown unknowns, 

The ones we don't know 

We don't know. 

It's a two hour change though, isn't it?

I forgot to post this last weekend.  A vivid reminder that we all live in different worlds even though we are roughly in the same space.

Last Sunday, the day of daylight savings time's leap forward, I am reading at Church between the morning services.  I am seated on a sofa in a foyer area and there are two or three ladies standing close by talking about how they are accommodating the change in time.

Lady 1:  I hate losing an hour's sleep.  I try and go to bed an hour early to make up for it but its hard to go to sleep earlier than your usual time.

Lady 2:  I know.  It takes a while to adjust.  I am out of schedule for a whole week after the change.

Lady 3:  I agree.  I don't like changing the time.  It's a two hour change though, isn't it?

Two hours.  And she made it to church on time so I am guessing someone else was actually in charge of the schedule.

You get used to people having sophisticated (pointless) refined arguments about the merits and consequences of Daylights Savings Time and then you come across someone who thinks you set your clocks forwards two hours.  We live in different worlds. 

History

“Chin up, girls, I’m proud of you, and I love you all.” These were the final words of Matron Irene Drummond on 16 February 1942, moments before 22 Australian nurses were marched into the sea and Japanese soldiers opened fire on them.

This atrocity, known as the Bangka Island… pic.twitter.com/yslfUufupB

— Australian Patriot. (@JimThom90458694) February 16, 2026

 

An Insight

Symbolic ideology and education, 1972-2024.

Ideological polarization increasingly interacts with education.

Data from @electionstudies CDF. pic.twitter.com/xwP4XFgcGg

— Tom Wood (@thomasjwood) February 19, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

Four Interlaced Horses. Culture: Safavid period. Origin: Iran, early 17th century. Medium: Ink on paper. Collection: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The design features components placed in the four corners, but there are actually only two horse heads and two hindquarters. No… pic.twitter.com/jjk8lnXfW4

— Archaeology & Art (@archaeologyart) February 16, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

alternate timeline:

if sweden had had one more truant officer, germany's industrial sector might have been saved... pic.twitter.com/nd2AO5jhsr

— el gato malo (@boriquagato) March 15, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

pic.twitter.com/lH5BMsZRZB

— Amazing Physics (@amazing_physics) February 16, 2026

 

Data Talks

US Territories pic.twitter.com/vdDFf41uGz

— Vintage Maps (@vintagemapstore) February 16, 2026

 

Shipwreck off a Rocky Coast, 1614 by Adam Willaerts

Shipwreck off a Rocky Coast, 1614 by Adam Willaerts (Netherlands, 1577-1664)

Click to enlarge.

History

”In 1786, when the United States was barely a country, it was having its sailors taken as slaves by the Barbary states, the states of the Ottoman Empire and North Africa. Tripoli. Shores of Tripoli. Ships stopped, its crews carried off into slavery. We estimate 1.5 million… pic.twitter.com/aKbwf8TRLO

— Taya (@travelingflying) February 16, 2026

 

An Insight

This is fabulous.

Gibbon’s ‘book is one of the most sustained accounts of Rome’s cosmopolitan imperial order, portraying the Roman Empire at its height as a political entity defined not by ethnicity or origin, but by law, citizenship, and participation in a universal civil…

— Robert Lyman 🇺🇦 (@robert_lyman) February 15, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

A fossil stingray with small fish - Green River, Wyoming. Sotheby's pic.twitter.com/XSAmaE0k9S

— Archaeology & Art (@archaeologyart) February 16, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

Do you think the guy that coined the term "one hit wonder" ever came up with any other popular phrases?

— Lloyd Legalist (@LloydLegalist) February 22, 2026

 

Data Talks

It was pretty reasonable for The Treasury to assume that the graduate premium would stay up in the UK as we added more graduates. The graduate premium actually went up in the USA and all of its major cities. And in London. https://t.co/crbGJk4RA3 pic.twitter.com/qEVyTdJiXn

— Tom Forth (@thomasforth) February 15, 2026

 

Stormy Sea off Alexandria, 1923 by Ernst Karl Eugen Koerner

Stormy Sea off Alexandria, 1923 by Ernst Karl Eugen Koerner (Poland/Germany, 1846-1927)

Click to enlarge.

We don’t know what we believe until we’re asked

Heh.  I have a post somewhere way back towards the beginning of Thingfinder in 2007 expressing this precise sentiment - writing in order to test my thinking.  

We have Schrödinger’s opinions: we don’t know what we believe until we’re asked. This is why we should write even when chatbots can write for us; interrogating yourself on the page is how you learn what you think and realize who you are.

— Gurwinder (@G_S_Bhogal) March 12, 2026

I also had the additional objective to create a record for myself to see how my thinking and understanding of things evolved over time.   

Theories of economic development

From NOTE TO SELF: All of the Currently Live Theories of the Causes of the "European Miracle"

by Brad DeLong.  The subheading is & was the “European Miracle” 800-1914, 1492-1914, 1689-1914, or 1776-1914?...

As he notes, "of course, highly overlapping"

Local geography & resources (coal, land, disease environment):

Jared Diamond, Kenneth Pomeranz, Robert Allen, Paul Bairoch, Fernand Braudel, Mark Koyama & Jared Rubin, Eric Jones, Leonid Grinin & Andrey Korotayev

Institutions, property rights & representative government:

Douglass North & Robert Thomas, Daron Acemoglu–Simon Johnson–James Robinson, Avner Greif, Joel Mokyr, Gary Cox, DeLong & Shleifer, Robert Brenner, Chris Isett, Eric Jones

Political fragmentation, competition & “market for ideas”:

Jared Diamond, Joel Mokyr, Niall Ferguson, Eric Jones, James Belich, Mark Koyama, Tuan-Hwee Sng, De la Croix–Doepke–Mokyr (guilds/journeymen)

Culture, religion & “WEIRD” psychology / Protestant ethic:

Max Weber, David Landes, Deirdre McCloskey, Joseph Henrich, Larry Siedentop, Nathan Rosenberg & L.E. Birdzell, Timur Kuran (for Islamic-world contrast), Justin Yifu Lin, Yasheng Huang, Eric Jones

High-wage economy & inducement mechanisms (wages, prices, factor prices):

Robert Allen, Gregory Clark, Jan Luiten van Zanden, Stephen Broadberry, Bishnupriya Gupta, Allen–Bassino–Ma–Moll-Murata–van Zanden

New World, coal, & “accidents” (California school/contingency):

Kenneth Pomeranz, Prasannan Parthasarathi, Jack Goldstone, Andre Gunder Frank, John Hobson, Jeffrey Williamson, Diego Comin, Acemoglu–Zilibotti (risk/diversification)

Colonialism, slavery, & deindustrialization at the periphery:

Eric Williams, Paul Bairoch, Amiya Kumar Bagchi, Prasannan Parthasarathi, Jeffrey Williamson, Tirthankar Roy (partly revisionist), Daron Acemoglu et al. (institutional twist), James Walvin

Human capital, knowledge transmission, & guilds:

De la Croix–Doepke–Mokyr (guilds/journeymanship), Bas van Bavel & coauthors (capital goods diffusion), Timur Kuran (Islamic legal forms

& firms), Mark Dincecco (state capacity & public finance)

Demography, Black Death, & Malthusian-escape dynamics:

James Belich, Oded Galor, Mark Koyama & coauthors, David Weir, Allen/Bairoch/van Zanden on wages, demography,

& living standards

Globalization, trade structure & core–periphery dynamics (19th c. “Big Bang”):

Kevin O’Rourke, Jeffrey Williamson, Guillaume Daudin, Leandro Prados de la Escosura, Paul Bairoch, Leonid Grinin & Andrey Korotayev

Aristocrats by Keith Douglas

From The Complete Poems of Keith Douglas, edited by Desmond Graham.  

Aristocrats

by Keith Douglas

The noble horse with courage in his eye, 

clean in the bone, looks up at a shellburst: 

away fly the images of the shires

but he puts the pipe back in his mouth.

Peter was unfortunately killed by an 88

it took his leg away, he died in the ambulance.

I saw him crawling on the sand, he said 

It’s most unfair, they’ve shot my foot off.

How can I live among this gentle

obsolescent breed of heroes, and not weep ?

Unicorns, almost,

for they are fading into two legends

in which their stupidity and chivalry

are celebrated. Each, fool and hero, will be an immortal.

These plains were their cricket pitch

and in the mountains the tremendous drop fences 

brought down some of the runners. Here then 

under the stones and earth they dispose themselves, 

I think with their famous unconcern.

It is not gunfire I hear, but a hunting horn.

Tunisia

1943

The poem from which this stanza is taken, originally entitled `Aristocrats', was written by Keith Douglas in Tunisia in 1943. It was occasioned by the death, on active service, of Lt. Col. J. D. Player, who left £3,000 to the Beaufort Hunt, and also directed that the incumbent of the living in his gift should be 'a man who approves of hunting, shooting, and all manly sports, which are the backbone of the nation.' (Desmond Graham (ed.), Keith Douglas: Complete Poems (1978), p. 139.) 

Remember to be humble about how small a portion is known compared to what could be known.

Well, good grief!  There is always something new to be learned.

I am increasingly disillusioned with my reach on X, so I am writing about stuff I like: English idioms. From 1188 to 1902 the Old Bailey Crown Court was attached to Newgate Prison.

The condemned men were taken by horse and cart to Tyburn, modern day Marble Arch, to be hung.… pic.twitter.com/b6XKIEKYsb

— David Atherton (@DaveAtherton20) March 13, 2026

His is an interesting observation on the origins of a couple of idioms.

That is not what has shaken me.

Marble Arch is the present day site of the old Tyburn Gallows, London's primary execution spot from 1196 until 1783?

I have lived in England on four occasions totaling six years from the mid 1960's onwards.  I have family there, including in London.  I have spent hundreds, if not thousands of days in London on business and leisure.  My sister had an apartment for a couple of years on Edgware Road not five or ten minutes from Marble Arch.  I have walked, ridden, and driven by Marble Arch thousands of times.  And yes, with tremendous trepidation, I have bicycled the roundabout around Marble Arch on more than one occasion as a teen courier.  

How on earth did I not know that it used to be Tyburn Gallows?

I read voluminously.  Maybe it just got crowded out.

I am no longer a youth.  Maybe I just forgot it.

Both seem unlikely.

My suspicion is that I knew that Marble Arch was the location of executions when I was anywhere up to my late teens but that the name Tyburn did not then have significance to me.  

My knowledge of the historical salience of Tyburn only came later with much deeper reading of English history.  I suspect that at different times I have known that Marble Arch was the site of executions and I must have even known that it used to be Tyburn Gallows but that by the time I focused on Tyburn Gallows from an historical reading perspective, I had forgotten the Marble Arch connection and never reconnected the two facts.  

It is a tissue thin rationale but I'll go with it.  And remember to be humble about how small a portion is known compared to what could be known.  

History

Princeton professor Stephen Macedo provides a retrospective on covid-era policies including the following:

1. He calls it the flu. I am old enough to remember when we were told that is a conspiracy theory.

2. There was decades of pandemic planning before Covid. The consensus… pic.twitter.com/4dQ1KNZSj3

— The Researcher (@listen_2learn) February 16, 2026

 

An Insight

An insider explains why the Democratic Party can’t moderatehttps://t.co/QsO0Q3Oz92 pic.twitter.com/LQfoK7VuYa

— Matthew Schmitz (@matthewschmitz) February 16, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

Optical illusion art
pic.twitter.com/2nkgM209QO

— Science girl (@sciencegirl) February 16, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

I’m impressed they got a quote from eagles. https://t.co/dKgcNUCqRh

— Simon Harley (@simonharley) February 21, 2026

 

Data Talks

A new article in Nature Medicine found that social connections were a surprisingly powerful predictor of a long life.

Living with a partner was roughly as beneficial as exercise. Regular visits with family or having someone to confide in also appeared to be associated with lower… pic.twitter.com/q0lfUGLBcN

— Jay Van Bavel, PhD (@jayvanbavel) February 14, 2026

 

Non-Event by Daniel Boston

It is, it appears, the nature of man to be frustrated with how short reality falls from his expectations.  

But every now and then he realizes how extravagant are those expectations.  

At least, this man.

This morning I am listening to an interview with Christopher Hitchens broadcast the day after the death of Princess Dianna in 1997.  Hitchens was an erudite, witty hard-man atheist whose thinking drove him to articulate wherever logic and reason and evidence led him.  It was nice when it aligned with your thoughts because his were so much better presented.  And troubling when he reached different conclusions because you knew you had to get your intellectual ducks in a row to address his argument.

Damn pic.twitter.com/uvr6APgmYs

— Rothmus 🏴 (@Rothmus) March 13, 2026

In this case, Hitchens is making the case that Princess Dianna was beloved in part because she was good at appearing to be good as distinct from actually doing good.  

In the midst of his comments he references

It's exactly that confusion what Daniel Boston in his book on the Non-Event says, "being well known for being well known."

Hmm.  Sounds interesting.  I don't think I have heard of Daniel Boston before, nor a book by that title.

I search Amazon.  Nothing close.  I try various permutations.  Nothing.

I switch out to Google for a more general search.  Still nothing.  Again with permutations of the query.

After a handful of iterations I get to a Google AI generated response, something to the effect that 

It appears from your searches you might be looking for Daniel J. Boorstin’s The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America.  

I suddenly realize, I have been working off the auto-transcription from the video which missed Hitchens's English accented Daniel Borstin for Daniel Boston and that Hitchens was referencing the concept, the Non-Event, of the book rather than its title, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America.

I search the proper name and title and get 

Published in 1962, Daniel J. Boorstin’s The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America argues that modern culture is obsessed with manufactured illusions rather than reality. Boorstin coined "pseudo-events"—staged, news-driven occurrences like press conferences—and defined "celebrity" as being "known for his well-knownness".

I have half a dozen Boorstin books, just not The Image.  Now ordered.  

OK, I spent maybe three minutes sorting out the confusion.  A very mildly aggravating wasted three minutes.

Until I am forced to step back and confront my lazy presumptuous taking for granted of a near miracle.

I am using an application (X) which kicks out for my attention an interview from nearly thirty years ago with an author whom I enjoy (Hitchens) who is now fifteen years passed, with a subtitled simultaneous transcription (with the trivial error of rendering Daniel Boorstin as Daniel Boston), recommending a book published sixty-four years ago of which I have never heard (incorrectly summarized by Hitchens as Non-Event instead of The Image) but which sounds intriguing and which is by another author with whom I am quite familiar and whose works I have enjoyed.  And I am mildly annoyed because it took me a couple of minutes to sort out the confusion of what the book was and by whom.  And then order it with the expectation it will be delivered into my hands for free in two days.

I hadn't realized how quickly I have presumed on the near miracle of our current existence.  Where, with just three minutes effort, I can find a book by an author I already enjoy on a topic about which I have more than a passing interest and recommended by a thinker whom I know of and respect.  Astonishing.

The Sun, 1911 by Edvard Munch

The Sun, 1911 by Edvard Munch (Norway, 1863-1944)

Click to enlarge.

History

Theater of Marcellus today pic.twitter.com/unbDqlvDZ7

— Darius Arya (@DariusAryaDigs) February 16, 2026

 

An Insight

if the choice were between a button to end all poverty or a button to end all billionaires, almost every progressive will pick the second button

the policy positions of progressives are derived backwards from their seething envy

— Jeremy Kauffman 🦔🌲🌕 (@jeremykauffman) February 16, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

This is what an erupting volcano looks like from space.

📽: NASA Johnson pic.twitter.com/rWcZFpvjXA

— Wonder of Science (@wonderofscience) February 21, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

If I was an English professor I would teach a class on Bees in Literature. It’d probably be called something like “ENGL 470: Apiological Perspectives in Western Literature…” Syllabus would start out with bees as symbols of social cohesion in Hesiod and Virgil then move on to…

— Cedar You (@our_decay) February 23, 2026

Cedar You @our_decay

If I was an English professor I would teach a class on Bees in Literature. It’d probably be called something like “ENGL 470: Apiological Perspectives in Western Literature…” Syllabus would start out with bees as symbols of social cohesion in Hesiod and Virgil then move on to bees in Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare… I’d give a lecture about the tradition of “the telling of the bees”… finally end up at Bernard Mandeville’s Fable of the Bees and discuss how bee theory created modern liberal capitalism. Last class of the semester we’d watch The Beekeeper starring Jason Statham.

 

Data Talks

In 2010, Europe accidentally ran history's greatest macroeconomic experiment. Greece got the full Keynesian stimulus treatment—massive spending, money printing, bailouts galore. Meanwhile, Estonia chose the Austrian path: brutal budget cuts, no bailouts, and actual austerity.… pic.twitter.com/EvwLTUZBCs

— Handre van Heerden (@Handrev) February 14, 2026

 

A Listening Ear, 2025 by Pete Tuffrey

A Listening Ear, 2025 by Pete Tuffrey (England, 1953 - )

Click to enlarge.

History

Lots of salty dogs sailed with the Roman navy, and archaeologists in Croatia have now excavated an unusual Roman river barge. Here’s what the site tells us about the lives of ancient mariners and the boatbuilding techniques of 2,000 years ago!https://t.co/YxV95xqDvj pic.twitter.com/imydtBhY9S

— Archaeology Magazine (@archaeologymag) February 13, 2026

 

An Insight

An elegant message from someone who is, really by a long shot, the most instinctively talented Hellenist I have had the great pleasure of meeting. https://t.co/w8md3QObx8

— Antigone Journal (@AntigoneJournal) February 14, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

Lindisfarne Castle, under a very Northumberland sky. pic.twitter.com/gpoTDuzOzu

— Northumberland Photography (@PaulAppleby_01) February 14, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

"I told the wife I was writing a new tank doctrine, she says, 'I hope you're gonna be testing that out in Manchuria so I can get some peace and quiet around here!' I tell you I get no respect." https://t.co/29bzr62dRe

— Jaketropolis (@jaketropolis) February 21, 2026

 

Data Talks

About half as many teens date now, compared to 1980. @grantjbailey and my latest @unherd: https://t.co/cjR0mHdWUF pic.twitter.com/Unf3djEk7F

— Brad Wilcox (@BradWilcoxIFS) February 13, 2026

 

Shepheard’s Restaurant, Cairo, 1928 by Kees van Dongen

Shepheard’s Restaurant, Cairo, 1928 by Kees van Dongen (Netherlands, 1877-1968)

Click to enlarge.

History

The absolutely stunning 12thC Virtues triumphing over Vices font at St Peter's, Southrop.
In this scene patience is seen scourging wrath. I was particularly taken with the little buildings sitting on top of the arcade, the detail throughout is jaw dropping. #FontsOnFriday pic.twitter.com/iVTpeCgkPG

— Fiona Chartres (@chartres_Fiona) February 13, 2026

 

An Insight

If one reads Tom Holland’s Dominion, David Bentley Hart’s Atheist Delusions, Sarah Ruden’s Paul Among the Peopke, or Kyle Harper’s From Shame to Sin…or Friedrich Nietzsche, this is precisely the conclusion one reaches. Indeed, look at the life and philosophy of Michel Foucault… https://t.co/C7HpBtCerh

— Paul R. DeHart (@PaulRDeHart) February 13, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

The “La Marseillaise” scene in Casablanca (1942) still lands with staggering power. Many extras were actual refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe, which is why it feels so painfully genuine. pic.twitter.com/HV1WMAIP3Y https://t.co/zKD8VhzP9q

— cinesthetic. (@TheCinesthetic) February 12, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

The icelandic cat who eats those who are not wearing their new clothes.

The Jólakötturinn, or the Yule Cat is a monstrously large creature from Icelandic folklore that is said to roam the snowy countryside during Christmas, with a particular appetite for anyone who has not… pic.twitter.com/2A3OWjkHKv

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) February 14, 2026

 

Data Talks

Europe is moving west - most countries that used to be communist have shrunk since 1989, while all countries that weren’t communist have grown.https://t.co/Y3D33yOMsl pic.twitter.com/dhRkQNewdI

— Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert) February 13, 2026

 

The Beautiful Librarians by Sean O'Brien

The Beautiful Librarians

by Sean O'Brien

The beautiful librarians are dead,

The fairly recent graduates who sat

Like Françoise Hardy’s shampooed sisters

With cardigans across their shoulders

On quiet evenings at the issue desk,

Stamping books and never looking up

At where I stood in adoration.

Once I glimpsed the staffroom

Where they smoked and (if the novels

Were correct) would speak of men.

I still see the blue Minis they would drive

Back to their flats around the park,

To Blossom Dearie and red wine

Left over from a party I would never

Be a member of. Their rooms looked down

On dimming avenues of lime.

I shared the geography but not the world

It seemed they were establishing

With such unfussy self-possession, nor

The novels they were writing secretly

That somehow turned to ‘Mum’s old stuff’.

Never to even brush in passing

Yet nonetheless keep faith with them,

The ice queens in their realms of gold –

It passes time that passes anyway.

Book after book I kept my word

Elsewhere, long after they were gone

And all the brilliant stock was sold.

The Flame, 1902 by Wilhelm Bernatzik

The Flame, 1902 by Wilhelm Bernatzik (Austria, 1853-1906)

Click to enlarge.

History

75th anniversary today of a heroic battle you've probably never heard of, the Battle of Chipyong-ni - "the Gettysburg of the Korean War" - where an American Regimental Combat Team and French Battaillon de Coree held off and defeated what had seemed an invincible Chinese Army. pic.twitter.com/2KtbUxvH7m

— Alberto Miguel Fernandez (@AlbertoMiguelF5) February 13, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

Taking the leaves off strawberriespic.twitter.com/HehaSJ11WP

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) February 13, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

pic.twitter.com/7hSEsL7aHA

— stargazeruk7 (@stargazeruk7) February 14, 2026

 

An Insight

“The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man.”

T.S. Eliot

Groton School [1940] pic.twitter.com/RbSJxWLdCb

— Mark W. (@DurhamWASP) February 21, 2026

 

Data Talks

Sharing 8+ meals a week with people has the same happiness boost as DOUBLING your income.

And yet we eat alone 53% more than we did 20 years ago. pic.twitter.com/0xjcVPJikm

— Dr. Dominic Ng (@DrDominicNg) February 13, 2026

 

Sunset at Étretat, 1883 by Claude Monet

Sunset at Étretat, 1883 by Claude Monet (France, 1840-1926)

Click to enlarge.

History

The 16th-century painting known as the “Portrait of Gregor Baci” depicts the face of a Hungarian nobleman who lived a unique tragedy.

During a fight against the Turks, Gregor Baci was wounded by a spear that pierced his eye and exited from the other side of his skull. After the… pic.twitter.com/A5MjulMfpU

— Fr. Daniel☦️ (@Fragbaza) February 12, 2026

 

An Insight

“Thank God for books as an alternative to conversation.”

W.H. Auden, born 21st February 1907

Sir Alfred Munnings, by Harold Knight [1911] pic.twitter.com/hkFZPzFgZ9

— Mark W. (@DurhamWASP) February 21, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

The Chronicles of Georgia

pic.twitter.com/j14qGEHXUb

— Science girl (@sciencegirl) February 13, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

Babylon Bee just dropped the most savage infomercial roast of 2026 😂

“Freezing in your selfish capitalist isolation? Warm up with the loving arms of collectivism!”

Watch “shared prosperity” turn into “everyone starves equally” while the bureaucrats keep the thermostat at 72°.… pic.twitter.com/cBfaLlna89

— Jake (@JakeCan72) February 13, 2026

 

Data Talks

An interesting finding from AEI. About 80% of disclosed private funding for humanities, arts, and social sciences fields comes from 25 charitable foundations. The Mellon Foundation is the top giver by a lot. pic.twitter.com/V1cOI944YL

— John Sailer (@JohnDSailer) February 13, 2026

 

Ode to Sleep, 2025 by Tokuhiro Kawai

Ode to Sleep, 2025 by Tokuhiro Kawai (Japan, 1971 - )

Click to enlarge.

History

Saxon Survivor

This unusual tower at St Peter's, Barton-upon-Humber (Lincolnshire) stands as one of England's finest Saxon churches, dating to the 9th-10th centuries. Originally built as a "turriform" church, where the tower's ground floor served as the nave. pic.twitter.com/mec5iY6Nba

— C B Newham (@cbnewham) February 13, 2026

 

An Insight

2017. Jeffrey Epstein's good friend Kathryn Ruemmler explains that she ran Obama's vetting and ethics department and was responsible for vetting all of Obama's cabinet members.

Ruemmler also said that she was saddened because Trump had "debased" the Presidency.

Ruemmler was so… pic.twitter.com/cw0afN1t8Y

— MAZE (@mazemoore) February 13, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

Launching at 80 km/h from the back of a truck running at 80 km/h.pic.twitter.com/7vhH1FRgkf

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) February 14, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

Train ride through Nagasaki Lantern Festival looks like a trip to the world of "Spirited Away" pic.twitter.com/E6irozz8Do

— Studio Ghibli (@PhotoGhibli) February 13, 2026

 

Data Talks

On days like today, I like calling back to this headline from June 2024:

"Trump would make America’s inflation crisis worse, 16 Nobel economists warn"

CPI is at 2.4% YoY in January as gasoline declined 7.5%.

The "Nobel economists" were dead wrong. pic.twitter.com/89D9egXuoK

— Daniel Baldwin (@baldwin_daniel_) February 13, 2026

 

A Conversation between Frisian and Old English (with captions) with Graham Scheper and History With Hilbert

A Conversation between Frisian and Old English (with captions) with Graham Scheper and History With Hilbert.

Double click to enlarge.

At the Moulin Rouge, circa 1892-95 by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

At the Moulin Rouge, circa 1892-95 by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (France, 1864-1901)

Click to enlarge.

The Promised Land by Bo Bartlett

The Promised Land by Bo Bartlett (America, 1955 - )

Click to enlarge.

But one of the silliest things is to allow the planning horizon to crowd out the other two, and I think many times I did that.

From Former Sen. Ben Sasse on laughing his way through terminal cancer by Steve Inskeep.

SASSE: So I have metastasized Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Around Halloween, I started having all this back pain, and I was just pretty sure that I had pulled a bunch of abdominal muscles. And we did some full-body scans on December 14, and my docs called me back in and were beating around the bush. And I said, please be blunt with me. I want some hard fact. Give me a truth. And they said, all right, Ben Sasse's torso is chock-full of tumors.

[snip]

SASSE: How do you live a life of gratitude to God? By trying to love your neighbor and especially those that are most proximate to you. So I am blessed to have Melissa, my wife of 31 years. And our daughters are 24 and 22, and our son just turned 14, and he feels like he needs a dad for a little while longer. So I want to knock him upside the head and wrestle with him and tell him how much I love him and tell him stuff I wish I had done differently in my life. And I want to do a little bit of thinking, reading, writing and talking.

[snip]

SASSE: I think we all live on three time horizons. Daily, at the end of your workday and as the sun is setting, can you say that you did meaningful work that day and can you break bread with people you love? No. 2 is kind of a planning horizon. What decisions should you make over the next 30 days that'll pay off over the next 30 years? And then an eternal souls kind of time horizon. And all three of them matter. But one of the silliest things is to allow the planning horizon to crowd out the other two, and I think many times I did that. I think in my 20s and 30s, I spent way too many nights per month on the road and had too few family dinners and too many nights in airports. But I had been repenting to my family for five or six years about some of my workaholism in the past, so this is not some deathbed conversion. But I'm, in a much more intentional way, reflecting on that with them now.