Missive #728 Published 6 Jun 2026
In Deeds of Darkness Master Hugh learns that the Bampton coroner, an old friend, has been slain while traveling to Oxford. As he seeks the killer (or killers) he discovers a band of goliards in the area between Oxford and Bampton. But how to apprehend these youths? They have protectors far above Hugh's station. He must deal with the claims of justice on the one hand and the power of great men to protect their henchmen on the other.
Missive #727 Published 5 Jun 2026
142. Nasruddin Needs New Clothes
The whole town had put on their best clothes for the mayor’s birthday parade.
Ashamed of his threadbare garments, Nasruddin was hiding in an alley as the parade went by. “O God,” he prayed, “please give me some new clothes!”
At that moment, a man who had bought new clothes for the celebration threw his old clothes down into the alley. Joyfully, Nasruddin grabbed the bundle, only to discover these clothes were even more shabby than his own.
“God,” said Nasruddin, “you’re going to have to do better than this!” and he threw the bundle back up in the air.
Missive #726 Published 3 Jun 2026
In his boldest and most far-reaching book yet, world-famous economist Yanis Varoufakis argues that capitalism is dead and a new economic era has begun.
Insane sums of money that were supposed to re-float our economies in the wake of the financial crisis and the pandemic have ended up supercharging big tech's hold over every aspect of the economy. Capitalism's twin pillars - markets and profit - have been replaced with big tech's platforms and rents. Meanwhile, with every click and scroll, we labour like serfs to increase its power. Welcome to technofeudalism.
Missive #725 Published 1 Jun 2026
This is an interesting book but has it's downside. The author is more of a poet that a novelist and uses a lot of poems, or parts of poems, to make his points. That may be fine for those people that understand poetry but I'm not among them. He also uses fairy tales and other mythological tales as a base for the book. These stories I liked and they did help make his points. Recommended but with the qualifier.
Missive #724 Published 31 May 2026
Continuing The Federalist Papers
Federalist No. 74
The Command of the Military and Naval Forces,
and the Pardoning Power of the Executive
Author: Alexander Hamilton
To the People of the State of New York:
Missive #723 Published 30 May 2026
…acclaimed novelist, pragmatist, seer, nerd-friendly philosopher, and nationally bestselling author of groundbreaking literary works (Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, etc., etc.) — the word is well worth hearing. Mostly well-reasoned examination and partial rant, Stephenson's In the Beginning... was the Command Line is a thoughtful, irreverent, hilarious treatise on the cyber-culture past and present; on operating system tyrannies and downloaded popular revolutions; on the Internet, Disney World, Big Bangs, not to mention the meaning of life itself.
Missive #722 Published 29 May 2026
141. Nasruddin Gets a Gift from God
Nasruddin was praying outside one night. “O God” he cried, “please reward me for my devoted service. I’m asking for a hundred gold coins, and I’ll accept nothing less.”
Nasruddin’s neighbor heard this and, as a joke, he tossed down a bag containing some coins.
“Praise God!” Nasruddin exclaimed when he opened the bag and saw the money.
“Wait a minute!” shouted the neighbor. “You said you’d accept nothing less than a hundred gold coins. There’s nowhere near that much in the bag.”
“Since God kindly gave me this much now,” Nasruddin shouted back, “he can owe me the rest.”
Missive #721 Published 28 May 2026
Misogyny, conspiratorialism, surveillance, manipulation, fraud, and AI slop are drowning the internet. For the monopolists who dominate online - X, TikTok, Amazon, Meta, Apple - this is all part of the playbook. The process is what leading tech critic Cory Doctorow has dubbed 'enshittification'. First, the platform attracts users with some bait, such as free access; then the activity is monetized, bringing in the business customers and degrading the user experience; then, once everyone is trapped and competitors eradicated, the platform wrings out all the value and transfers it to their executives and shareholders.
Missive #720 Published 27 May 2026
Americas favourite Southern-fried, stand-up comedian and TV sitcom star Jeff Foxworthy brings his humor to the page in this riotous laugh-out-loud book. In No Shirt. No Shoes. No Problem!, Foxworthy examines the hilarity of growing up, love, sex, crazy families, roommates, friendship, mooning, having a crush on your cousin, and the real stories behind many of his favourite Redneck jokes. So get readyYoure in for a helluva good time!
Missive #719 Published 25 May 2026
By Kingsnorth’s lights, the origin of so much of the world’s current crisis is an “ongoing process of mass uprooting,” not just from one’s native place (as with China’s relocation of Tibetans and Uyghurs) but also our cultural uprooting from our traditions and our divorce from nature. Kingsnorth often paints with a brush that may be a few hairs too wide: He condemns science, for instance, as “an ideology posing as a method,” when science is likely the only thing that might rescue the world from the worst consequences of climate change, and his insistent view of cities as doomed and soulless places devoted only to profit too often slides into cant. Still, a little fire and brimstone never hurts an argument against things as they are, and if decrying the “the holy effort to which all human will, skill and energy is now bent: making money” gets a little shrill, his closing invocation of a culture in which “people, place, prayer, the past” are rediscovered resounds nicely.