What I read
Finished Revolutionary Imaginings in the 1790s, which was very good, given that not my period and somewhat outwith my usual academic disciplinary interests. The pdf format a bit irksome ( Read more... )

Happy 117th birthday, Barbara Hepworth - the video to go with today's celebratory Google Doodle.
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I was initially cynical about an interview with a sexual psychophysiologist and neuroscientist but it's wonderfully It's All More Complicated about simplistic views about sexuality, sexual arousal, ideas of the gendered brain and patterns of arousal ( Read more... )

For reasons I have been thinking about legal/illegal abortion over the last few days.
And the fact that making abortion illegal doesn't make it vanish.
It either makes it go elsewhere (O HAI, Ireland/Northern Ireland)* or it makes it go underground and dangerous and exploitative*.
But presumably people who want to do that do so so that they can ( Read more... )

The Charlie Gard case.
And okay, besides the honking irony monster that is people whose intended policies demonstrate massive disregard for infant life and welfare getting all on to this, I wonder how many of the contributors to their crowd-funding effort and people squawking about the Evil Fascist Institution That Is Great Ormond Street Hospital ( ( Read more... )

This afternoon I went down to see my father in hospital, as he was considered unlikely to be discharged until the end of the week.
(A not too unbearable hi-speed rail service from a mainline station very accessible to me, but then taxis to/from the hospital, which is well out of town.)
I hadn't intended stopping more than an hour or so, because on ( Read more... )

Father update: still in hospital, might be out tomorrow, might be out Wednesday, according to sister on phone this p.m. a bit better in himself - has been a bit out of it either from the infection or the medication.
Many thanks for all the good wishes.
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The other thing, is that I would wish to solicit the plethora of wisdom and experience that ( Read more... )

Discovered while looking at Facebook latish yesterday evening that my father (94) had been taken to hospital, was being given oxygen, and waiting for assessment by a doctor.
Latest news this a.m. however is that he should be cleared for coming home some time today. This entry was originally posted at http://oursin.dreamwidth.org/2550464.html. ( Read more... )

My father was taken into hospital again last night - I got b-i-l's text when I was standing on Tower Hill Tube Station and then connectivity went.
(It was his 94th birthday.)
So he's still there today under observation, and we don't have any info as to what might be happening, how long he's likely to be there, etc.
So, I said that I would go down ( Read more... )

‘Mother of modern witchcraft’s personal collection to be displayed for the first time.
And this, which seems related in terms of the discovery/invention of tradition: The Surprisingly Short History of Popular Yoga, and what work that idea of long tradition is doing.
And from the Department of SRS Woowoo: Sex Dust - 'an etheric potion from the ( Read more... )

My father is now home from hospital, though still having antibiotics etc. Just spoke to him on the phone and he seems in reasonable shape considering.
Many thanks indeed for all the concern and support. It's been a worrying time and in the circumstances, the worry doesn't really go very far away. This entry was originally posted at http://oursin. ( Read more... )