The Liberalism of George Smiley We often do not think of democratic liberalism has possessing its own sort of moral excellencies, yet the model of George Smiley suggests that we should.

Ah, glorious. 🙂

A short poem adapting Wilfred Owen's 'Anthem for Doomed Youth'.

Rewriting Wilfred Owen's 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' in March 2026.

This looks great. Her previous book on the Tea Party movement in Gulf Coast Louisiana was the single most illuminating thing I read about the path to Trumpism. www.amazon.com.au/Stolen-Pride...

Tell us your secret!

First paragraph: How Should Christians Think and Speak.

Finding the opening hook. #writing

Table of Contents for "How Should Christians Think?"

[Writing] Having last week finished editing down to §2.d, the "How Should Christians Think" section is now complete except for application questions. Posts on each section will follow over the next week or two, but feel free to read ahead... The shortcut url is chapman.wiki?think .

Excerpt from John Dickson Carr, describing an academic dispute.

The glorious set up in John Dickson Carr's 'The Case of the Constant Suic*des'.

A snazzy rail-style map of Melbourne cycle paths, from u/LordQuinzulin on r/melbournecycling.

drive.google.com/file/d/1j6CZ...

That is not showing the beautiful GFS Didot, however. :/

The syntax for formatting interlinear translations in Article Wiki.

On Article Wiki today: testing Interlinear translations in ePubs.

Redoing my "US Classics" #conspiracy spectrum... Had to stop and think about #3 (on false-flag shooting hoaxes) after the Trump assassination attempt. But I think we're still at 0/10 there. I think the opioids crisis was enough to make #10 (on big pharma) a 10/10.

www.chapman.id.au/conspiracy-s...

Except from Alan Dickson Carr, The Case of the Constant Suicides.

Dramatic tension from a more genteel time.

Colonist.io is a marvellous online CATAN game, but some of the custom maps really show up the limited forward planning of the bot opponents. (This is me in red...)

Summary for how Christians should think and speak.

In the TL;DR intro to "How Should Christians Think and Speak?" I cover the three most prominent passages in the New Testament. This offers a baseline test for checking the sincerity of any ostensibly Christian public figure.

Lamb of the Free, Andrew Remington Rillera (2024). It's by no means my area, so I can't vouch for the argument, but I found it a real page turner.

Ah #perlego, how I love thee. Let me count (one of) the ways, which happens more often than not.

1. I see a cool 2026 handbook has come out, on a topic I'm curious about. It costs USD $200 even for the ebook. :O But it's already in Perlego's library and included in my AUD $18/mth subscription.

A halftoned image, that is, one reduced to black and white dots, with titles.

Halftones as a visual style for the web. Wired or tired?

(I will add: Once you know what you like, it's worth paying good money for something that you can use all day every day for the rest of your life, which is what a good quality pen should be.)

I've heard people speak well of Mahjohn and Admok, but never used either. Looking on eBay, I see they are 10% of the cost of a secondhand Pelikan M800, though, so could be worth trying out.

If you're anywhere near a big city there might be a pen meetup or pen show where you can try a heap of different pens and find exactly what you like, and have it be super reliable.

However, there are some good cheap options.There are Chinese clones of, say, the Pelikan M800). And LAMY Safaris are a reliable starter option, esp. if you get a refillable cartridge.

A modern fountain pen, like a Pelikan, should last forever with minimal maintenance. Cheaper pens can leak, have bad refill mechanisms, write scratchily, and so on -- but not better quality ones. So you should expect something lasting and permanently usable.

chapman.wiki/read/admin/h...

In Hebrews 13:1-2, Christians are urged “to continue” in philadelphia and “not to neglect” philoxenia. Philadelphia – after which the U.S. city is named – means brotherly love, appealing to the image of Christians as brothers and sisters. But philoxenia is the love of strangers or more literally foreigners, and the exercise of hospitality toward them. It is the sharp opposite of our English word xenophobia. The concern here seems to be that our obligation to love strangers is more easily neglected, and we have to pay attention to it.

xenophobia v. philoxenia

Play Go at online-go.com! | OGS Online-Go.com is the best place to play the game of Go online. Our community supported site is friendly, easy to use, and free, so come join us and play some Go!

The best online Go tutorial I've seen.

I'm willing to bet money that 31st Jan was being updated to 1st Feb. Maybe slip rule applies? legal-resources.uslegalforms.com/s/slip-rule

Messing with memeable content formats in Article Wiki.

Source:
ia801606.us.archive.org/23/items/AHa...

Some lovely (lively?) handwriting samples from Alfred Fairbanks 'A Handwriting Manual', 9th ed. 1978, from Internet Archive.

I heard a ranking New Testament scholar say this evening, "Luke", of gospel fame, "is the kind of guy who reads The Guardian."

@theguardian.com