Speechless: The New Campus Revolution | Part I YouTube video by CBC Docs

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Psr...

Perhaps this is the place for a preliminary shout out for this, especially for those interested in introducing Plutarch to their students. Available in August 2026! www.cambridge.org/core/books/p...

There is a good deal to mine in Plutarch reception. Schliesser suggests that we need to approach the analysis of the reception of some of his writings differently, depending on their genre or form. With such a large opus, it is not always clear what Plutarch was doing in each work.

Mithridates....Maybe worth a short article for a comparison?

Nineteenth-century painting by Philipp Foltz depicting the Athenian politician Pericles delivering his famous funeral oration in front of the Assembly.

Now out in OA: "Can Democracy be Rehabilitated?" by John Dunn (@thecambridgeschool.bsky.social): "[It] will be a heroic challenge... The stakes in meeting it are the possibility of democracy itself, a citizenry that has recovered the capacity to keep itself free" www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....

Ontario groundhog (Wiarton Willy) has died. Six more years of winter?

I am glad not to be an Americanist this evening...

steamengine...

GTA under orange alert as snow hits Ontario and Eastern Canada Orange alerts warn of severe weather likely to result in significant damage, disruption or health impacts

Orange alert- actually it has been a while now...
www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

33.95?!

And tell me why do they need name tags in a Cabinet meeting in the first place?

Not so faithful I would suggest. The doctor never meant for his creature to be immortal for one...

Canadian government now seeking to cut international student visas from a target of 305,900 a year (already lowered from before) to 155,000 in 2026 and dropping further in 2027 and 2028. Yet they also want to attract foreign talent. Why deny these students a good education? Where can they go?

:(...

Afghanistan hit by communications blackout after Taliban shuts internet Telecoms disrupted nationwide after authorities cut fibre optic connections in several provinces to prevent ‘vice’

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Now why can't Elon Musk use his brains and technology for some good in the world now? (ok, I know the answer) Starlink would be a great solution here....www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/29/afghan...

'tough it out'? Yeah, right....

As long as we are talking about Afghanistan...

Afghanistan: What's at stake as Taliban cut internet? – DW – 09/18/2025 The Taliban have shut down fiber-optic internet across several Afghan provinces to "prevent immorality." Experts warn of serious consequences for trade and girls' access to education.

www.dw.com/en/afghanist...

Amazingly enough I am on this list *multiple times* because of scholarly articles I coauthored. You should really check and see if you’re on it too.

In 'Blood On The River,' The Berbice Rebellion Foreshadows Later Insurgencies Marjoleine Kars recounts a tale of oppression, bloodshed, and some triumph in her previously untold account of the 1763-64 slave rebellion in Dutch Berbice, modern day Guyana.

A good corollary to this point is the reading of Marjorie Kars' book. It documents an earlier slave revolt in Guyana (presumably the first in the new world) far away from any Enlightenment influences given the remoteness of the area www.npr.org/2020/08/12/9....

When I teach about Atlantic Slavery one of the key things I try to communicate is that it was a *resisted condition*. People were bound in servitude *by force* because only force could hold them to it. Their resistances forged entire cultures.

This is helpful framing and might be relevant to those currently drafting syllabi, i.e. suggesting student use of AI to write papers amounts to 'deskilling'. If I taught in a different field I might ask students to draft their c.v. but stressing the number of skills they had lost recently.

I am considering requiring a modern day equivalent of common place books where students have to physically write down passages from the texts studied. There is an interesting set of options here: against-a-i.com/assignment-i...

My book 'Plutarch's Prism' is reviewed by Katherine East in Vol. 45, no. 4, 2024 of 'History of Political Thought' journal. Nice review!

These are great suggestions!

Yes, except that some of the brightest British scholars in the past only needed an undergraduate first to prove their worth. Graduate degrees were for those across the pond.

how sinister....can we turn back time and send him to Philosophy 101?

Some limited highlights from a recent fabulous rafting trip on the Nahanni River NWT. Should be on everyone's bucket list. #nahanni.com

So secret even he himself does not know it....
NYT "Trump Says ‘Nobody Knows’ His Plans on Iran"