Matthew's Journal

Not so much re-inventing the wheel, as having to point out something that is already known and has been for a long time (it was not really news when my primary-school teacher was making the point): Children’s reading should prioritise pleasure over learning, says laureate. Sigh.

***

Also on perhaps a similar theme that the obvious straight road is not actually the way there: science is not simply a sequence of tasks that can be optimized:

It advances through a process analogous to Darwinian evolution: variation across many independent efforts; selection through critique, replication, and competition; and retention of robust results. This distributed structure is what allows science to correct itself and to generate novelty. Independence is not incidental; it is the mechanism that produces both reliability and discovery.
....
The scientific system thrives on inefficiency: redundant efforts, failed attempts, and divergent paths. These are not costs to be eliminated but sources of discovery. By contrast, optimization pressures drive convergence—faster iteration within a constrained search space. The result may be more output but less exploration of the unexpected.

I stumbled across a remarkable collection of photographs:

There are several images in the collection of relevance to queer history, not least in those that record varieties of touch between men that would later become discouraged. In one, we see four young men sitting together on a bench in a garden: two of them hold hands. In another, a man takes another man on his lap, posing as lovers in a pose that mimics the popular visual culture of the day.
But the collection is arguably of most interest to LGBTQ+ history, specifically trans history, for the kinds of gender play it records. Several images in the collection illustrate traditions of gender crossing in British culture. Some show pantomime dames and another perhaps shows the role of a boy character taken up by a woman.

***

An extraordinary story of people who appear to be the 'good guys' (Liberal representing the anti-slavery interest in Lyme Regis) absolutely knee-deep in electoral corruption. Bonus appearance of Mary Anning!

What is most striking about Pinney’s career as an MP is not just the willingness of a fairly advanced Liberal to engage in wholesale electoral corruption, but his own attitude to slavery given his family background. As early as 1832 he had called on the hustings for its complete abolition and in 1838 he willingly voted for the Whig government’s apprenticeship reforms.

This is fascinating: The Plotland Houses of Britain: How a 20th century working-class housing movement was stifled, but I'd like to see some consideration of how the post-WWII prefab housing developments and attitudes thereto would fit onto what's described here.

(Also resonates with account in Houlbrook's Songs of Seven Dials about what well-intentioned progressive town-planners wanted to do to those traditional parts of inner London, but in the event, didn't.)

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/5/23/this-is-communication

Via MTSOfan, who writes, “I recently posted a photo of a bison rubbing its snout against a fallen tree trunk. Something different is happening with Luani, the American river otter. Otters use glands that leave scents to convey information to other otters. They're very social creatures!”

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/5/23/this-is-communication

Posted by Sumana Harihareswara

http://harihareswara.net/posts/2026/otherwise-fundraising-auction-wiscon-about-12-hrs/

http://harihareswara.net/posts/2026/otherwise-fundraising-auction-wiscon-about-12-hrs/

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260522.html

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260522.html

I'm running on fumes, I think. There are a lot of Things needing doing. Why I thought signing up for an academic presentation (thankfully, I picked the 20 minute rather than the full hour option) at a con I'm on the committee for was a good idea, ... eh. I mean, it is a good idea from a lot of standpoints, but the 'how much energy I have for anything' is not one of them

I have a friend arriving Monday to stay for ... three days? four days? I have not done the yak shaving tasks that will allow the spare room to be set up; I have a memory that there was a reason to delay setting up the bed, but I do not remember what it was. I also have not sewn the funny shaped fitted sheet I had been planning, and probably won't at this point.

And there are two things complicating my day. My bank has changed its system again, and I'm on the ~fourth card in a year (they cancelled their credit cards; moved us to debit Mastercard. Now they have cancelled that service, and shifted to Visa. In there was the expiry of another card) -- that went live today and I have no idea whether anything I want to do money wise will work. Which goes poorly with the issue that the mob who provide my email services as well as web hosting for SwanCon are suffering a DDoS attack, and so several to do items are in limbo waiting for that to clear up. *sigh*