I came across Nicole Teeuwen through my colleague Elsbeth Kwant. Nicole is chair of the Practical Training Sector Council and invited me \u2013 on a rainy afternoon, though the sun did peek through now and then \u2013 to GSG Het Segment, a school for practical training in Gouda, The Netherlands. We met on a Wednesday afternoon, and after our conversation we were given a private tour of the school by a second-year pupil. Our conversation began with the here and now. It was the day after the PISA results were announced. And amidst all the negative talk about the standard of our reading skills, the fact that the reading skills of pupils in practical training have improved in recent years may have been somewhat overlooked. Pupils at practical training schools scored an average of 7 points higher than four years ago. And that is certainly significant!
\nThroughout her long and rewarding career, Nicole has dedicated herself to giving people a helping hand \u2013 through policy and creating the right conditions, because that is what she does best. In this way, she helps people move forward by making the most of their talents. She also gives children in vocational education good prospects for the future. She herself was given the opportunity to study. Her parents had only attended primary school. And she grew up in a neighbourhood in Utrecht ('wijk C') where her grandfather also worked alongside the day labourers. They lugged market stalls about, peeled prawns \u2013 whatever needed doing and came their way. And in a way, that's (albeit adapted to the present day) what the children in practical training will end up doing too. The link between her background and what she stands for is very clear.
\nNicole explains that she has become socially mobile; and that this has also created a distance between her and her family \u2013 they no longer understood one another. How wonderful, then, that she has managed to forge that connection after all. She is now doing so in the role she has held for the longest time (certainly once her terms as chairperson have come to an end). But she has also been able to help people get ahead during her time working for the trade union (Abvakabo), in care for people with disabilities, and as director of the telephone helpline. A very clear, long-standing trajectory and driving force. She has broadened this by being active in local politics in Houten, and by still sitting on various supervisory boards.
\nAs we walk around the school, we see the practical training rooms, where you can learn to weld, saw, do carpentry, repair a car, bicycle or scooter, cook, and look after animals. And much more besides. It's lovely to see everyone so committed; every subject teacher proudly explains what they are doing with the pupils.\nAnd Nicole would like to add one more thing. To come back to the improved reading skills: \"Learning doesn't have to come solely from a textbook. Pupils also learn to read whilst cooking. And it works. Stop forcing everyone into the same cognitive mould.\" And that touches on something Nicole considers truly vital. Give vocational education its own place; not at the bottom of the ladder, but alongside academic education. So that we can value diverse and different qualities side by side. And so that we don't create marginalized groups of people whom we desperately need in society. Nicole might well want to capture that passion and insight in a book one day. And that strikes me as a very good idea. Because, through her drive, Nicole makes society accessible to everyone. She also draws inspiration for this from her colleague (Chair of the Education Council) Louise Elffers, who also attaches great importance to equality of opportunity.
\nNicole believes that Arie Slob's decision (then Minister for Education) during the pandemic to advise on 'opportunity-based' education may have seemed positive at first glance, but that this subsequently led to a great deal of disappointment and demotivation. You end up walking on tiptoes at the start, only to fall much further below your actual level once you become disillusioned. According to Nicole, this is why vocational education has grown relatively rapidly. It reminds me of my aversion to the pressure to excel in the university environments where I've worked. After all, you always measure excellence against others; just give it the best you have \u2013 that seems more than enough to me. We carry on talking for a while about how to ensure that the pupils at this school will also feel valued in the work they do later on. 'Take people seriously,' says Nicole, 'that's incredibly important. And stop emphasizing the differences so much.' Ultimately, she's firmly convinced that people like us won't be needed any more (new technology will take our place; it can also be used for decision-making), but handcraft and service provision will endure.
\nNicole now lives in Utrecht again, and when she attends a meeting of one of her supervisory boards, she looks out directly onto the very place where she used to live. She's come full circle. But then, you only realize that in hindsight.
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/zk4c4-qpt41","guid":"https://wvanwezenbeek.github.io/blogs/2026/10/08/In%20conversation%20(2):%20Giving%20a%20helping%20hand","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791417600,"rid":"fn4pr-7g357","summary":"I came across Nicole Teeuwen through my colleague Elsbeth Kwant. Nicole is chair of the Practical Training Sector Council and invited me \u2013 on a rainy afternoon, though the sun did peek through now and then \u2013 to GSG Het Segment, a school for practical training in Gouda, The Netherlands. We met on a Wednesday afternoon, and after our conversation we were given a private tour of the school by a second-year pupil.","title":"In conversation (2): giving a helping hand","updated_at":1791480341,"url":"https://wvanwezenbeek.github.io/blogs/2026/10/08/In-conversation-(2)-Giving-a-helping-hand.html","version":"v1"}},{"document":{"authors":[{"affiliation":[{"id":"https://ror.org/03wc8by49","name":"Posit Software, PBC (United States)"}],"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Clawson","given":"James","url":"https://orcid.org/0009-0008-6756-0607"},{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Kaczmarek","given":"Ursula","url":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8244-1373"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"3446712e-ab03-4bb7-8641-571dcda8d8cd","created":1787702400,"current_feed_url":null,"description":"Tracking disruptions to U.S. federal science funding, grant by grant.","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/grantwitness","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/3446712e-ab03-4bb7-8641-571dcda8d8cd/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://grantwitness.org/updates/rogue-scholar.xml","filter":null,"generator":"Other","home_page_url":"https://grantwitness.org/updates?type=updates","issn":null,"language":"eng","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":true,"slug":"grantwitness","status":"active","subfield":"3321","title":"Grant Witness","updated":1791331200,"use_api":null},"blog_name":"Grant Witness","blog_slug":"grantwitness","content_html":"With our October 1st data update, Lost Fund's reported disruptions to national spending dropped from $177 billion to $174 billion. That's a pretty big change, but it represents the kind of shifts we expect to see in the data as the fiscal year ends and agencies report their final numbers. Here's a short summary of what changed in the data, not only to impacts we were already tracking but also to new impacts added in this update.
\nThe biggest changes come from updates in the funding data supplied by USAspending. As more spending is reported in the database, we update our numbers, including the losses calculated for the year. To a degree, we anticipate these shifts by expecting less than total numbers for 2026 until all reporting is final. Even still, numbers get reported with different timelines and with a lag.
\nThe biggest change in reported spending came in the state_disaster_relief impact area. Since Lost Funds launched, billions of dollars in new state disaster relief spending has been reported in the federal data. As funding continues to be reported for the last couple months of fiscal year 2026, we expect spending to continue its trajectory and the difference from expected spending to drop somewhat until reporting is final. At that point, we'll raise expectations to 100% of what should have come in for 2026.
\nWe won't have any 2027 numbers for a few months now. When these come in, we'll continue to improve how we calculate the year's expected spending as a portion of the overall fiscal year.
\nAt launch, Lost Funds tracked reported disruptions across 61 impact areas, labelled as \"impact_id\" in the downloadable dataset. We now track 65 impact areas, with four new areas added October 1st. This change improves our coverage of national disruptions, including to programs affected by the president's \"pocket rescission\" of September 25th:
\nIn addition to adding new impact areas, we also improved how we tracked funding for existing programs:
\nThe overall dollar amounts might be the most visible site changes in our recent update, but they're not all. Visitors might also notice a slight decrease in the national counts of local governments and school districts affected by funding disruptions. These represent live counts of recipients in our impact areas. When sufficient 2026 spending comes in to remove an impact area from the list of disruptions in a state\u2014for instance, if funding belatedly catches up to what was expected\u2014recipients that are unique to that impact are also removed from the counts. These shifts are small, but they're real.
\nFinally, we've also updated the litigation we track. The latest changes, pushed on October 6th, add two new cases. Now Kansas shows up among those fighting back against federal funding disruptions, bringing the number of states to 27.
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/q6y7b-b5b71","guid":"https://doi.org/10.59350/q6y7b-b5b71","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791331200,"rid":"yw40b-wyw67","summary":"With our October 1st data update, Lost Fund's reported disruptions to national spending dropped from $177 billion to $174 billion. That's a pretty big change, but it represents the kind of shifts we expect to see in the data as the fiscal year ends and agencies report their final numbers. Here's a short summary of what changed in the data, not only to impacts we were already tracking but also to new impacts added in this update.","title":"Lost Funds: Data Update for October 1","updated_at":1791474923,"url":"https://grantwitness.org/updates/lost-funds-data-update-for-october-1","version":"v1"}},{"document":{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Eden","given":"Terence"}],"content_html":"![\"Book](\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/sky-daddy.webp\")
\n\nWhat - and I cannot stress this enough - the actual ever-loving fuck!?0
\n\nOK, perhaps it was a mistake to start reading this while on an international flight. The book concerns Linda, a content moderator at an endlessly sub-contracted tech company, who is in love with planes. No, strike that, she is excessively sexually attracted to the idea of dying in a plane crash.
\n\nYeah.
\n\nThe story goes though all her attempts to, effectively, manifest an in-air disaster through the power of wishful thinking and frantic masturbation.
\n\nThis isn't exactly erotica1, it contains a rich stream of satire about the modern tech industry and how it chews up and spits out the people working at the sticky end of keeping platforms safe.
\n\nThis is one of the most creative novels I've read in some time. The protagonist is a creepy blank-slate whose unhealthy obsession drips off the page2. Her morose existence is - to mix fantasies - a car crash. I can honestly say that I haven't read anything like this before and I've no idea if I'm the intended audience.
\n\nI wouldn't necessarily describe the book as fun and enjoyable, nor is is particularly sexy3. It is intriguing, entertaining, and constantly baffling. How wonderful to step inside the mind of an utter deviant and soak up their bizarre existence.
\n\nEvery other paragraph made me scribble WTF in the margin. \u21a9\ufe0e
\nNot that there's anything wrong with that! \u21a9\ufe0e
\nLook, you probably shouldn't do an armchair diagnosis of fictional characters but this is possibly the most autistic-coded character I've read since In Search of Lost Time. \u21a9\ufe0e
\nUnless, I guess, you're in to that sort of thing. YKINMKBYKIOK! \u21a9\ufe0e
\n![](\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=66394&HTTP_REFERER=DOI\"){kind=small}
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/dft3h-j1b24","guid":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=66394","image":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/sky-daddy.webp","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1768780800,"rid":"cyc7b-gs250","summary":"What - and I cannot stress this enough - the actual ever-loving fuck!? 0 OK, perhaps it was a mistake to start reading this while on an international flight. The book concerns Linda, a content moderator at an endlessly sub-contracted tech company, who is in love with planes. No, strike that, she is excessively sexually attracted to the idea of dying in a plane crash. Yeah.","tags":["/etc/","Book Review"],"title":"Book Review: Sky Daddy by Kate Folk","updated_at":1791470548,"url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/01/book-review-sky-daddy-by-kate-folk/","version":"v1"}},{"document":{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Eden","given":"Terence"}],"content_html":"![\"Book](\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/sublimation-12.jpg\")
\n\nThis is an astounding bit of high-concept sci-fi. Imagine a world where crossing a border literally split your body in two. A young woman emigrates from South Korea - one version of her stays in Seoul, another version goes off to live in New York. This is the way humanity has always existed. People bifurcating and dealing with the consequences.
\n\nIt is heady stuff. The book spans life, love, politics, religion, and folklore. It layers on narrative and meta-narrative. Like any debut novel, there are too many ideas to be contained and the plot seems to spill beyond its pages. What would the fascist ICE do with immigrants who were mere clones of the people they left behind?
\n\nThe dizzying implications of the story are matched only by the gorgeously intricate plot. Does the tale need to occasionally be told in the second-person? You don't think so, but you also can't think of a better way to illustrate how strange it is to argue with your other-self. You enjoy all the literary and scholarly references and find they add poetic texture to balance out the increasing tension.
\n\nUnlike other hard sci-fi, it doesn't spend too much time on exposition; it gets drip fed to the reader. But it is happy to dive into the practicalities of a world where refugees might leave behind more than just memories. There's a small but necessary amount of technobabble, and a large but necessary amount of moral philosophising. Tuvix did not die in vain.
\n\nSublimation lives up to the hype. It is dramatic, powerful, intriguing, and - above all - fun.
\n\nMany thanks to NetGalley for the review copy. Sublimation is available to pre-order now for delivery in July. I recommend reading it twice.
![](\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=67177&HTTP_REFERER=DOI\"){kind=small}
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/cje43-nwf26","guid":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=67177","image":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/sublimation-12.jpg","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1768694400,"rid":"r915d-nyb25","summary":"This is an astounding bit of high-concept sci-fi. Imagine a world where crossing a border literally split your body in two. A young woman emigrates from South Korea - one version of her stays in Seoul, another version goes off to live in New York. This is the way humanity has always existed. People bifurcating and dealing with the consequences. It is heady stuff.","tags":["/etc/","Book Review","NetGalley","Sci Fi"],"title":"Book Review: Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim","updated_at":1791470546,"url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/01/book-review-sublimation-by-isabel-j-kim/","version":"v1"}},{"document":{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Eden","given":"Terence"}],"content_html":"![\"Book](\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/RabbitTestCollection_Website.webp\")
\n\nThis is an an interesting and varied set of sci-fi/fantasy stories. Some barely a couple of pages, others cutting short at just the right time. They are all on a similar theme - the strife between parents and children. Whether it is a twisted take on classic fairy tales, or a dive into the far future - there's always something interesting going on.
\n\nSamantha Mills has a excellent eye for neologisms and isn't afraid to deploy humour with sometimes devastating effect.
\n\nThe titular \"Rabbit Test\" is excellent but - like most of the others - it is a riff on some genre classics. That's not a bad thing; it's always fun to explore tropes from a different angle. Each story is entertaining, but most left me thinking \"now where have I heard that before?\"
\n\nOne of the lovely things is the story notes at the end. Like a little behind-the-scenes feature on a DVD extra. More books should give the reader a glimpse behind the writing process.
\n\nMany thanks to NetGalley for the review copy. Rabbit Test is available to pre-order now.
![](\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=65215&HTTP_REFERER=DOI\"){kind=small}
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/6q9yz-ppz34","guid":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=65215","image":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/RabbitTestCollection_Website.webp","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1768435200,"rid":"138z4-cq432","summary":"This is an an interesting and varied set of sci-fi/fantasy stories. Some barely a couple of pages, others cutting short at just the right time. They are all on a similar theme - the strife between parents and children.","tags":["/etc/","Book Review","NetGalley","Sci Fi"],"title":"Book Review: Rabbit Test and Other Stories by Samantha Mills","updated_at":1791470544,"url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/01/book-review-rabbit-test-and-other-stories-by-samantha-mills/","version":"v1"}},{"document":{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Eden","given":"Terence"}],"content_html":"![\"Book](\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/under-the-eye-of-the-big-bird-1.jpg\")
\n\nThis is an intriguing and mostly satisfying sci-fi tale. It has shades of Oryx Crake mixed in with A Canticle for Leibowitz - we are mere observers of the tattered remains of humanity. Watchers guide scattered settlements as they strive to evolve and understand their place on a corrupted Earth.
\n\nThe writing is dreamy and hazy - reminiscent of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. It isn't immediately clear what's happening; the story is drip-fed to us. Unfortunately it is rather undone by the penultimate chapter which is a great-big data-dump of exposition.
\n\nIf you've ever seen the show Don't Hug Me I'm Scared you'll be well at home with the surreal and oblique nature of the storytelling presented here. The language is obtuse and confusing, reflecting the confusion these new humans feel.
\n\nI think part of the story is a rejection of the hierarchy and artificial inter-personal structures often seen in societies like Japan. Everyone is simultaneously desperate to escape their confines while rigidly enforcing the status quo - with predictably disastrous results.
\n\nIt is a meandering tale, spanning eons, which ultimately feels a bit depressing.
![](\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=65619&HTTP_REFERER=DOI\"){kind=small}
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/p1545-qyh19","guid":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=65619","image":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/under-the-eye-of-the-big-bird-1.jpg","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1768262400,"rid":"yw1ss-r0475","summary":"This is an intriguing and mostly satisfying sci-fi tale. It has shades of Oryx Crake mixed in with A Canticle for Leibowitz - we are mere observers of the tattered remains of humanity. Watchers guide scattered settlements as they strive to evolve and understand their place on a corrupted Earth.","tags":["/etc/","Book Review","Sci Fi"],"title":"Book Review: Under the Eye of the Big Bird - Hiromi Kawakami","updated_at":1791470543,"url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/01/book-review-under-the-eye-of-the-big-bird-hiromi-kawakami/","version":"v1"}},{"document":{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Eden","given":"Terence"}],"content_html":"![\"Book](\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/53507.webp\")
\n\nGiven my blog's domain name, I don't write nearly enough about Shakespeare. Luckily, the good folks at NetGalley have sent me Irene Coslet's provocative new book to review.
\n\nWho was the real Shakespeare? It's the sort of low-stakes conspiracy theory which is driven by classism (\"a low-born man couldn't write such poetry!\"), plagiarism (\"he stole from other writers!\") and, according to this book, sexism and racism.
\n\nFrom the blurb:
\n\n\n\nNow, in this intriguing and well-documented book, Irene Coslet conclusively demonstrates that Shakespeare was a not a man, but a woman: a dark-skinned lady, of Jewish origin, born into a family of Court musicians from Venice, and the mother of the English-speaking world. Her name was Emilia Bassano.
Yes! In your face, Bacon! Get stuffed, Marlowe! Edward de Who?!
\n\nThe life of Emilia Bassano is genuinely fascinating. The book offers some excellent insights into the lives of women, Moors, and Jews during the time period. The analysis of the sexual politics - both in the plays and real life - are both interesting and well researched. For that reason, I have to give it some stars.
\n\nThe book starts with Kuhn and his ideas about paradigm shifts - the more tweaks we have to bolt on to a model, the more likely it is the model will eventual collapse and a new model will emerge. I'm 100% behind that - given the deficiencies in Shakespeare's biography, people keep adding more and more fantastical explanations to it. But the counterpoint is that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
\n\nSo, what evidence is there that Emilia Bassano was the writer of Shakespeare?
\n\nAnd so it goes on. Sadly, the evidence presented rarely rises to the level of circumstantial, let alone extraordinary. Some of it is of the sort found in the discredited Bible Code. If you selectively squish the data, you can make it say anything:
\n\n\n\nHere, the author exploits the similarity in Hebrew between the word Portia (PRT) and the word lead (YPRT). Portia (PRT) is nested within the lead (YPRT), embedding one one term inside the other to create multiple layers of meaning. Only a person who is fluent in Hebrew [...] would be able to make such a pun.
This book is a monument to what happens if you start with a conclusion and then selectively pick only the clues which support your case. There's no testing of the evidence against other candidates - for example, the author describes folding the Droeshout portrait in a specific way until it looks a bit like one of the portraits which might be of Emilia Bassano. It's a bit \"Mad Magazine Fold In\" - but can the image be folded different ways? Are there other people that it looks like? Sadly, the folded image isn't included on (dubious) copyright grounds.
\n\nThere's also no mechanism suggested. Let's suppose that Emilia Bassano did write all these plays and poems. What was the method whereby \"The Man From Stratford\" took them and passed them off as his own? Was there payment? Why did she keep writing if they were being stolen? Wouldn't someone have noticed her slipping in all these \"clues\" about the true authorship and then removed them?
\n\nI'm generally sympathetic to the idea of trying new ways to look at old problems and I genuinely found some of the analysis interesting. I tried to keep an open mind and to steelman the arguments. Nevertheless, I found most of it unconvincing.
\n\nHere are some of the arguments I have trouble with.
\n\n\n\nScholars agree that the plays are 'feminist' but have not been able to explain why the author was interested in gender issues.
To which a suitable response might be \"Hath not a man eyes? hath not a man hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?\" It also ignores all the decidedly unfeminist tropes and characters in Shakespeare.
\n\n\n\nEmilia Bassano tells about this portion of her life in Cymbeline through the character of Posthumus Leonatus. Posthumus is the son of Sicilius, a reference to the Sicilian origin of the family. Sicilius has two other sons, who both die prematurely, an allusion to Lewis and Philip, Baptista and Margaret's sons who died in infancy.
You could pick any random character out of any play and find someone in history who it could be an allegory for.
\n\nBut, again, there are some reasonable arguments that Shakespeare may not be who we think. Emelia Bassano certainly had some of the background necessary:
\n\n\n\nThe playwright had direct knowledge of the Veneto region. The playwright is familiar with the Commedia dell'Arte. [...] In 1582, Emilia Bassano travelled to Denmark, and that journey, according to Hudson, provided the material for Hamlet. [...] They all stayed at the Castle of Elsinore \u2013 which is renowned today as the setting of the play Hamlet. The delegation met two prominent Danish noblemen: Georgius Rosencrantz and Petrius Guildenstern
Most of these arguments seem to be taken from John Hudson's 2014 book \"Shakespeare's Dark Lady: Amelia Bassano Lanier The woman behind Shakespeare's plays?\" with very little in the way of original research.
\n\nThe author does prove that there are a few positive connections between Emilia Bassano and Shakespeare. For example, she was the paramour of Henry Carey - founder of the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Could that have taken her into the orbit of Shakespeare's theatre company?
\n\n\n\nYet, in 1594, Henry Carey was a sixty-eight military General (he died in 1596): it is hard to believe that the creation of a theatre company was his initiative. It is more likely that it was Emilia Bassano's idea, who was twenty-five and a playwright at the peak of her creativity.
That's just pure speculation! When you go looking for evidence, and squint your eyes, it's possible to make anything seem like a connection:
\n\n\n\nOphelia \u2013 whose name rhymes with 'Emilia' \u2013 has a relationship with the Lord Hamlet and gets pregnant. Ophelia is the daughter of the Lord Chamberlain \u2013 a reference to the Lord Chamberlain, Henry Carey, who was her fianc\u00e9 in real life.
The book veers between cold-reading and the Forer effect. For example, the author asserts that one of Shakespeare's characters is based on a friend of Emilia Bassano. How can that be proven?
\n\n\n\nShakespeare had the uncanny ability to give an accurate impression of the characters without describing them in detail. There is a painting by Thomas Francis Dicksee entitled Anne Paige (circa 1862). Although Dicksee was not aware that the character of Anne Paige is based on Lady Anne Clifford, his impression of Anne Paige looks strikingly similar to the portrait of Lady Anne Clifford by William Larking (1618): brown-haired, big-eyed and with a rounded face. It appears that the way the audience imagines Anne Paige when reading the play \u2013 and the way Dicksee represented her \u2013 is exactly how Anne Clifford looked. Same goes with Falstaff: Shakespeare gives such an accurate impression of Falstaff, without describing him in detail, that now we have an idea of how Alfonso Lanyer looked in real life.
I don't know how to fully respond to that. Two paintings looking slightly similar is not evidence! Where are all the other paintings of Anne Paige? Do they all look similar? There's cherry-picking, and then there's this!
\n\nAnyway, I give you Dicksee's portait and Larkin's so you may compare their similarity.
\n\n![\"Painting](\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/portraits.webp\")
\n\nSimilarly, some of the discussion is of the sort you might have after imbibing a few bottles of wine:
\n\n\n\nIt is fascinating how two very different cultures and religions used the same sounds, Shekinah and Shakti, to indicate the divine feminine presence, and how these sounds can also be found in the name Shakespeare: Shekinah, Shakti, Shakespeare.
Emilia Bassano is the acknowledged author of the poem \"Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum\". Surely a textual analysis of her work and that of Shakespeare's would throw up some similarities? Alas, all we get are:
\n\n\n\nProspero asks Miranda: 'Cants thou remember / A time before we came unto this cell?'. In Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum Emilia Bassano says that she lives in a cell: 'I that live clos'up in Sorrowes Cell'
And
\n\n\n\nthere are many rhetorical similarities between the Passion in Salve Deus and Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece. For example, Jesus is associated with the colours white and red, like Lucrece. In Salve Deus we read: 'The purest colours both of White and Red' (1828). In the Rape of Lucrece: 'To praise the clear unmatch\u00e8d red and white'
Frankly, that's less than nothing!
\n\nThe book concludes with this:
\n\n\n\nFrom the viewpoint of white men and businessmen, the story of the Stratford man is inspiring. It is the story of a white boy, a merchant, with little education, who resorted to writing and miraculously became a genius. Society likes the narrative of the genius, because when we say 'genius' we think of a miracle and it does not require much explanation. It is all about magical thinking.
I agree that there's a lot to be said about Shakespeare and race. There may well be arguments about the true authorship of the plays and sonnets - and it is certainly interesting to approach them from a new perspective. The book does a reasonable job of contextualising some of the gender politics surrounding Shakespeare's propaganda for Queen Elizabeth and, similarly, the historical context in which the plays were written. But most of the evidence presented is somewhere between magical thinking and divine inspiration.
\n\nEmilia Bassano was undoubtedly a fascinating woman - poet, teacher, entrepreneur, confidant of the Queen - she deserves better than this scattershot ramble through her life.
![](\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=66676&HTTP_REFERER=DOI\"){kind=small}
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/18wjx-03558","guid":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=66676","image":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/53507.webp","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1768089600,"rid":"4jwyh-bp726","summary":"Given my blog's domain name, I don't write nearly enough about Shakespeare. Luckily, the good folks at NetGalley have sent me Irene Coslet's provocative new book to review. Who was the real Shakespeare?","tags":["/etc/","Book Review","NetGalley","ShakeRace","Shakespeare"],"title":"Book Review: The Real Shakespeare - Emilia Bassano Willoughby by Irene Coslet","updated_at":1791470541,"url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/01/book-review-the-real-shakespeare-emilia-bassano-willoughby-by-irene-coslet/","version":"v1"}},{"document":{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Eden","given":"Terence"}],"content_html":"![\"Book](\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/room-706.jpg\")
\n\nI cracked open my review copy of Room 706 and settled in for an early night in my hotel room. I was up until way past midnight tearing through the book - my heart pounding. Given that the book centres around a woman trapped by terrorists in her hotel room, it was perhaps not the best choice to read on holiday!
\n\nIf you were held hostage - what message would you want to send to your family? Would they know that you loved them? Would they need the password for your grocery app? Would they ask why you were having an affair in that hotel?
\n\nAh.
\n\nAnd there's the plot. In many ways, this is a stage-play or - in TV terms - a bottle episode. Our protagonist and her lover cannot escape from a little box of misery. What was once heavy with lust is now brimming over with fear, irritation, and pain. Ellie Levenson beautifully observes all the little moments which go into a day, building up the characters' lives only to tear them down again. I can't work out whether she is a cruel god torturing her creations or a loving creator who allows them to make their own mistakes.
\n\nIt helps that she's created a protagonist who is just the right side of obnoxious. Their self-justified self-delusion leap off the page. Every minor irritation they experience explodes into bitterness and, just for a moment, you almost believe the lies she tells herself. There are some painfully witty observations about how men and women might react differently to the terror of a siege. It is, perhaps, a little bit heartbreaking to realise your own reactions to the situation would be laughably inadequate and barely more than a clich\u00e9.
\n\nPerhaps that's the point; we're all trapped in a room of our own making. We fall into the same patterns as everyone else and react with shock when we discover how we've trapped ourselves.
\n\nI was desperate for there to be a twist. Some last-minute deus ex. Or even a moment of catharsis. Instead, Room 706 wrings every drop of stress out of you up until the final page. There is no let-up in the tension.
\n\nAn exhausting and frantic read. Highly recommended.
\n\nMany thanks to NetGalley for the review copy. Room 706 is released on the 15th of January and is available to pre-order now.
\n\nLong-term readers will recognise Ellie from my review of her Noughtie Girl's Guide to Feminism from 17 years ago. Let's hope we don't have to wait until 2043 for her next book!
![](\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=66839&HTTP_REFERER=DOI\"){kind=small}
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/myk4r-r6n31","guid":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=66839","image":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/room-706.jpg","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1767916800,"rid":"14xep-xrp82","summary":"I cracked open my review copy of Room 706 and settled in for an early night in my hotel room. I was up until way past midnight tearing through the book - my heart pounding. Given that the book centres around a woman trapped by terrorists in her hotel room, it was perhaps not the best choice to read on holiday! If you were held hostage - what message would you want to send to your family?","tags":["/etc/","Book Review","NetGalley"],"title":"Book Review: Room 706 by Ellie Levenson","updated_at":1791470540,"url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/01/book-review-room-706-by-ellie-levenson/","version":"v1"}},{"document":{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Eden","given":"Terence"}],"content_html":"![\"Book](\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/the-satsuma-complex-9781398521216_lg.jpg\")
\n\nThis is delightful whimsy wrapped up in a sensible chuckle. The sort of gigglesome nonsense that washes over you and worms its way into your ears. There's a hint of caper, a soup\u00e7on of cosy crime, and a sprinkling of a love story.
\n\nAnd then there's a massive tonal shift where it all becomes rather menacing and a bit bleak.
\n\nBob Mortimer's prose, pacing, and peculiarities are smashing. This is an enjoyable and entertaining way to spend a few hours. Beats chatting to squirrels, anyway.
\n\nThanks to my brother for the recommendation.
![](\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=66048&HTTP_REFERER=DOI\"){kind=small}
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/vjtzp-kvn80","guid":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=66048","image":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/the-satsuma-complex-9781398521216_lg.jpg","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1766707200,"rid":"r5wb0-5gv72","summary":"This is delightful whimsy wrapped up in a sensible chuckle. The sort of gigglesome nonsense that washes over you and worms its way into your ears. There's a hint of caper, a soup\u00e7on of cosy crime, and a sprinkling of a love story. And then there's a massive tonal shift where it all becomes rather menacing and a bit bleak. Bob Mortimer's prose, pacing, and peculiarities are smashing.","tags":["/etc/","Book Review"],"title":"Book Review: The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer","updated_at":1791470538,"url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/12/book-review-the-satsuma-complex-by-bob-mortimer/","version":"v1"}}],"items":[{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Kun","given":"Jeremy"}],"blog":{"authors":[{"name":"Jeremy Kun"}],"community_id":"a9da26d0-1f88-4154-a730-28bb864b1c11","created":1780876800,"current_feed_url":null,"description":"Recent content on Math \u2229 Programming","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/jeremykun","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/a9da26d0-1f88-4154-a730-28bb864b1c11/logo","feed_format":"application/rss+xml","feed_url":"https://www.jeremykun.com/index.xml","filter":null,"generator":"Hugo","home_page_url":"https://www.jeremykun.com/","issn":null,"language":"eng","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":null,"slug":"jeremykun","status":"active","subfield":"2605","title":"Math \u2229 Programming","updated":1791483629,"use_api":null},"blog_name":"Math \u2229 Programming","blog_slug":"jeremykun","content_html":"A quick update on our homomorphic encryption compiler HEIR: our partners at Belfort have a hotword detector in FHE that runs in 350ms.\nMore specifically, they launched a live demo at hotword.belfortlabs.com, that has a little game inspired by the NY Times Connections puzzle. Instead of typing in your guess for the word that connects a group of clues, you say it out loud.\nYour audio is encrypted under FHE, transitted to their server, and a hotword detector runs on it to determine which word you said (still encrypted).","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/ft4wb-1vd93","guid":"https://www.jeremykun.com/shortform/2026-10-08-1120/","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791417600,"rid":"vzdjp-61122","summary":"A quick update on our homomorphic encryption compiler HEIR: our partners at Belfort have a hotword detector in FHE that runs in 350ms. More specifically, they launched a live demo at hotword.belfortlabs.com, that has a little game inspired by the NY Times Connections puzzle. Instead of typing in your guess for the word that connects a group of clues, you say it out loud.","title":"Hotword detection in FHE on GPU in 350ms","updated_at":1791485730,"url":"https://www.jeremykun.com/shortform/2026-10-08-1120/","version":"v1"},{"authors":[{"affiliation":[{"id":"https://ror.org/02w4jbg70","name":"National Library of the Netherlands"}],"contributor_roles":[],"family":"van Wezenbeek","given":"Wilma","url":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9558-3709"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"b24c21ca-e48c-4d4c-8876-6992bd1758a6","created":1721779200,"current_feed_url":null,"description":"About libraries, open science, open access, open education, connecting the opens, knowledge equity (all my own opinion)","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/wvanwezenbeek","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/b24c21ca-e48c-4d4c-8876-6992bd1758a6/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://wvanwezenbeek.github.io/blogs/feed.xml","filter":null,"generator":"Jekyll","home_page_url":"https://wvanwezenbeek.github.io/blogs/","issn":null,"language":"eng","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":true,"slug":"wvanwezenbeek","status":"active","subfield":"3309","title":"Observations, Opinions & Opens","updated":1791417600,"use_api":null},"blog_name":"Observations, Opinions & Opens","blog_slug":"wvanwezenbeek","content_html":"I came across Nicole Teeuwen through my colleague Elsbeth Kwant. Nicole is chair of the Practical Training Sector Council and invited me \u2013 on a rainy afternoon, though the sun did peek through now and then \u2013 to GSG Het Segment, a school for practical training in Gouda, The Netherlands. We met on a Wednesday afternoon, and after our conversation we were given a private tour of the school by a second-year pupil. Our conversation began with the here and now. It was the day after the PISA results were announced. And amidst all the negative talk about the standard of our reading skills, the fact that the reading skills of pupils in practical training have improved in recent years may have been somewhat overlooked. Pupils at practical training schools scored an average of 7 points higher than four years ago. And that is certainly significant!
\nThroughout her long and rewarding career, Nicole has dedicated herself to giving people a helping hand \u2013 through policy and creating the right conditions, because that is what she does best. In this way, she helps people move forward by making the most of their talents. She also gives children in vocational education good prospects for the future. She herself was given the opportunity to study. Her parents had only attended primary school. And she grew up in a neighbourhood in Utrecht ('wijk C') where her grandfather also worked alongside the day labourers. They lugged market stalls about, peeled prawns \u2013 whatever needed doing and came their way. And in a way, that's (albeit adapted to the present day) what the children in practical training will end up doing too. The link between her background and what she stands for is very clear.
\nNicole explains that she has become socially mobile; and that this has also created a distance between her and her family \u2013 they no longer understood one another. How wonderful, then, that she has managed to forge that connection after all. She is now doing so in the role she has held for the longest time (certainly once her terms as chairperson have come to an end). But she has also been able to help people get ahead during her time working for the trade union (Abvakabo), in care for people with disabilities, and as director of the telephone helpline. A very clear, long-standing trajectory and driving force. She has broadened this by being active in local politics in Houten, and by still sitting on various supervisory boards.
\nAs we walk around the school, we see the practical training rooms, where you can learn to weld, saw, do carpentry, repair a car, bicycle or scooter, cook, and look after animals. And much more besides. It's lovely to see everyone so committed; every subject teacher proudly explains what they are doing with the pupils.\nAnd Nicole would like to add one more thing. To come back to the improved reading skills: \"Learning doesn't have to come solely from a textbook. Pupils also learn to read whilst cooking. And it works. Stop forcing everyone into the same cognitive mould.\" And that touches on something Nicole considers truly vital. Give vocational education its own place; not at the bottom of the ladder, but alongside academic education. So that we can value diverse and different qualities side by side. And so that we don't create marginalized groups of people whom we desperately need in society. Nicole might well want to capture that passion and insight in a book one day. And that strikes me as a very good idea. Because, through her drive, Nicole makes society accessible to everyone. She also draws inspiration for this from her colleague (Chair of the Education Council) Louise Elffers, who also attaches great importance to equality of opportunity.
\nNicole believes that Arie Slob's decision (then Minister for Education) during the pandemic to advise on 'opportunity-based' education may have seemed positive at first glance, but that this subsequently led to a great deal of disappointment and demotivation. You end up walking on tiptoes at the start, only to fall much further below your actual level once you become disillusioned. According to Nicole, this is why vocational education has grown relatively rapidly. It reminds me of my aversion to the pressure to excel in the university environments where I've worked. After all, you always measure excellence against others; just give it the best you have \u2013 that seems more than enough to me. We carry on talking for a while about how to ensure that the pupils at this school will also feel valued in the work they do later on. 'Take people seriously,' says Nicole, 'that's incredibly important. And stop emphasizing the differences so much.' Ultimately, she's firmly convinced that people like us won't be needed any more (new technology will take our place; it can also be used for decision-making), but handcraft and service provision will endure.
\nNicole now lives in Utrecht again, and when she attends a meeting of one of her supervisory boards, she looks out directly onto the very place where she used to live. She's come full circle. But then, you only realize that in hindsight.
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/zk4c4-qpt41","guid":"https://wvanwezenbeek.github.io/blogs/2026/10/08/In%20conversation%20(2):%20Giving%20a%20helping%20hand","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791417600,"rid":"fn4pr-7g357","summary":"I came across Nicole Teeuwen through my colleague Elsbeth Kwant. Nicole is chair of the Practical Training Sector Council and invited me \u2013 on a rainy afternoon, though the sun did peek through now and then \u2013 to GSG Het Segment, a school for practical training in Gouda, The Netherlands. We met on a Wednesday afternoon, and after our conversation we were given a private tour of the school by a second-year pupil.","title":"In conversation (2): giving a helping hand","updated_at":1791480341,"url":"https://wvanwezenbeek.github.io/blogs/2026/10/08/In-conversation-(2)-Giving-a-helping-hand.html","version":"v1"},{"authors":[{"affiliation":[{"id":"https://ror.org/03wc8by49","name":"Posit Software, PBC (United States)"}],"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Clawson","given":"James","url":"https://orcid.org/0009-0008-6756-0607"},{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Kaczmarek","given":"Ursula","url":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8244-1373"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"3446712e-ab03-4bb7-8641-571dcda8d8cd","created":1787702400,"current_feed_url":null,"description":"Tracking disruptions to U.S. federal science funding, grant by grant.","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/grantwitness","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/3446712e-ab03-4bb7-8641-571dcda8d8cd/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://grantwitness.org/updates/rogue-scholar.xml","filter":null,"generator":"Other","home_page_url":"https://grantwitness.org/updates?type=updates","issn":null,"language":"eng","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":true,"slug":"grantwitness","status":"active","subfield":"3321","title":"Grant Witness","updated":1791331200,"use_api":null},"blog_name":"Grant Witness","blog_slug":"grantwitness","content_html":"With our October 1st data update, Lost Fund's reported disruptions to national spending dropped from $177 billion to $174 billion. That's a pretty big change, but it represents the kind of shifts we expect to see in the data as the fiscal year ends and agencies report their final numbers. Here's a short summary of what changed in the data, not only to impacts we were already tracking but also to new impacts added in this update.
\nThe biggest changes come from updates in the funding data supplied by USAspending. As more spending is reported in the database, we update our numbers, including the losses calculated for the year. To a degree, we anticipate these shifts by expecting less than total numbers for 2026 until all reporting is final. Even still, numbers get reported with different timelines and with a lag.
\nThe biggest change in reported spending came in the state_disaster_relief impact area. Since Lost Funds launched, billions of dollars in new state disaster relief spending has been reported in the federal data. As funding continues to be reported for the last couple months of fiscal year 2026, we expect spending to continue its trajectory and the difference from expected spending to drop somewhat until reporting is final. At that point, we'll raise expectations to 100% of what should have come in for 2026.
\nWe won't have any 2027 numbers for a few months now. When these come in, we'll continue to improve how we calculate the year's expected spending as a portion of the overall fiscal year.
\nAt launch, Lost Funds tracked reported disruptions across 61 impact areas, labelled as \"impact_id\" in the downloadable dataset. We now track 65 impact areas, with four new areas added October 1st. This change improves our coverage of national disruptions, including to programs affected by the president's \"pocket rescission\" of September 25th:
\nIn addition to adding new impact areas, we also improved how we tracked funding for existing programs:
\nThe overall dollar amounts might be the most visible site changes in our recent update, but they're not all. Visitors might also notice a slight decrease in the national counts of local governments and school districts affected by funding disruptions. These represent live counts of recipients in our impact areas. When sufficient 2026 spending comes in to remove an impact area from the list of disruptions in a state\u2014for instance, if funding belatedly catches up to what was expected\u2014recipients that are unique to that impact are also removed from the counts. These shifts are small, but they're real.
\nFinally, we've also updated the litigation we track. The latest changes, pushed on October 6th, add two new cases. Now Kansas shows up among those fighting back against federal funding disruptions, bringing the number of states to 27.
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/q6y7b-b5b71","guid":"https://doi.org/10.59350/q6y7b-b5b71","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791331200,"rid":"yw40b-wyw67","summary":"With our October 1st data update, Lost Fund's reported disruptions to national spending dropped from $177 billion to $174 billion. That's a pretty big change, but it represents the kind of shifts we expect to see in the data as the fiscal year ends and agencies report their final numbers. Here's a short summary of what changed in the data, not only to impacts we were already tracking but also to new impacts added in this update.","title":"Lost Funds: Data Update for October 1","updated_at":1791474923,"url":"https://grantwitness.org/updates/lost-funds-data-update-for-october-1","version":"v1"},{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Eden","given":"Terence"}],"content_html":"\n\nWhat - and I cannot stress this enough - the actual ever-loving fuck!?0
\n\nOK, perhaps it was a mistake to start reading this while on an international flight. The book concerns Linda, a content moderator at an endlessly sub-contracted tech company, who is in love with planes. No, strike that, she is excessively sexually attracted to the idea of dying in a plane crash.
\n\nYeah.
\n\nThe story goes though all her attempts to, effectively, manifest an in-air disaster through the power of wishful thinking and frantic masturbation.
\n\nThis isn't exactly erotica1, it contains a rich stream of satire about the modern tech industry and how it chews up and spits out the people working at the sticky end of keeping platforms safe.
\n\nThis is one of the most creative novels I've read in some time. The protagonist is a creepy blank-slate whose unhealthy obsession drips off the page2. Her morose existence is - to mix fantasies - a car crash. I can honestly say that I haven't read anything like this before and I've no idea if I'm the intended audience.
\n\nI wouldn't necessarily describe the book as fun and enjoyable, nor is is particularly sexy3. It is intriguing, entertaining, and constantly baffling. How wonderful to step inside the mind of an utter deviant and soak up their bizarre existence.
\n\nEvery other paragraph made me scribble WTF in the margin. \u21a9\ufe0e
\nNot that there's anything wrong with that! \u21a9\ufe0e
\nLook, you probably shouldn't do an armchair diagnosis of fictional characters but this is possibly the most autistic-coded character I've read since In Search of Lost Time. \u21a9\ufe0e
\nUnless, I guess, you're in to that sort of thing. YKINMKBYKIOK! \u21a9\ufe0e
\n","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/dft3h-j1b24","guid":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=66394","image":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/sky-daddy.webp","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1768780800,"rid":"cyc7b-gs250","summary":"What - and I cannot stress this enough - the actual ever-loving fuck!? 0 OK, perhaps it was a mistake to start reading this while on an international flight. The book concerns Linda, a content moderator at an endlessly sub-contracted tech company, who is in love with planes. No, strike that, she is excessively sexually attracted to the idea of dying in a plane crash. Yeah.","tags":["/etc/","Book Review"],"title":"Book Review: Sky Daddy by Kate Folk","updated_at":1791470548,"url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/01/book-review-sky-daddy-by-kate-folk/","version":"v1"},{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Eden","given":"Terence"}],"content_html":"\n\nThis is an astounding bit of high-concept sci-fi. Imagine a world where crossing a border literally split your body in two. A young woman emigrates from South Korea - one version of her stays in Seoul, another version goes off to live in New York. This is the way humanity has always existed. People bifurcating and dealing with the consequences.
\n\nIt is heady stuff. The book spans life, love, politics, religion, and folklore. It layers on narrative and meta-narrative. Like any debut novel, there are too many ideas to be contained and the plot seems to spill beyond its pages. What would the fascist ICE do with immigrants who were mere clones of the people they left behind?
\n\nThe dizzying implications of the story are matched only by the gorgeously intricate plot. Does the tale need to occasionally be told in the second-person? You don't think so, but you also can't think of a better way to illustrate how strange it is to argue with your other-self. You enjoy all the literary and scholarly references and find they add poetic texture to balance out the increasing tension.
\n\nUnlike other hard sci-fi, it doesn't spend too much time on exposition; it gets drip fed to the reader. But it is happy to dive into the practicalities of a world where refugees might leave behind more than just memories. There's a small but necessary amount of technobabble, and a large but necessary amount of moral philosophising. Tuvix did not die in vain.
\n\nSublimation lives up to the hype. It is dramatic, powerful, intriguing, and - above all - fun.
\n\nMany thanks to NetGalley for the review copy. Sublimation is available to pre-order now for delivery in July. I recommend reading it twice.
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/cje43-nwf26","guid":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=67177","image":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/sublimation-12.jpg","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1768694400,"rid":"r915d-nyb25","summary":"This is an astounding bit of high-concept sci-fi. Imagine a world where crossing a border literally split your body in two. A young woman emigrates from South Korea - one version of her stays in Seoul, another version goes off to live in New York. This is the way humanity has always existed. People bifurcating and dealing with the consequences. It is heady stuff.","tags":["/etc/","Book Review","NetGalley","Sci Fi"],"title":"Book Review: Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim","updated_at":1791470546,"url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/01/book-review-sublimation-by-isabel-j-kim/","version":"v1"},{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Eden","given":"Terence"}],"content_html":"\n\nThis is an an interesting and varied set of sci-fi/fantasy stories. Some barely a couple of pages, others cutting short at just the right time. They are all on a similar theme - the strife between parents and children. Whether it is a twisted take on classic fairy tales, or a dive into the far future - there's always something interesting going on.
\n\nSamantha Mills has a excellent eye for neologisms and isn't afraid to deploy humour with sometimes devastating effect.
\n\nThe titular \"Rabbit Test\" is excellent but - like most of the others - it is a riff on some genre classics. That's not a bad thing; it's always fun to explore tropes from a different angle. Each story is entertaining, but most left me thinking \"now where have I heard that before?\"
\n\nOne of the lovely things is the story notes at the end. Like a little behind-the-scenes feature on a DVD extra. More books should give the reader a glimpse behind the writing process.
\n\nMany thanks to NetGalley for the review copy. Rabbit Test is available to pre-order now.
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/6q9yz-ppz34","guid":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=65215","image":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/RabbitTestCollection_Website.webp","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1768435200,"rid":"138z4-cq432","summary":"This is an an interesting and varied set of sci-fi/fantasy stories. Some barely a couple of pages, others cutting short at just the right time. They are all on a similar theme - the strife between parents and children.","tags":["/etc/","Book Review","NetGalley","Sci Fi"],"title":"Book Review: Rabbit Test and Other Stories by Samantha Mills","updated_at":1791470544,"url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/01/book-review-rabbit-test-and-other-stories-by-samantha-mills/","version":"v1"},{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Eden","given":"Terence"}],"content_html":"\n\nThis is an intriguing and mostly satisfying sci-fi tale. It has shades of Oryx Crake mixed in with A Canticle for Leibowitz - we are mere observers of the tattered remains of humanity. Watchers guide scattered settlements as they strive to evolve and understand their place on a corrupted Earth.
\n\nThe writing is dreamy and hazy - reminiscent of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. It isn't immediately clear what's happening; the story is drip-fed to us. Unfortunately it is rather undone by the penultimate chapter which is a great-big data-dump of exposition.
\n\nIf you've ever seen the show Don't Hug Me I'm Scared you'll be well at home with the surreal and oblique nature of the storytelling presented here. The language is obtuse and confusing, reflecting the confusion these new humans feel.
\n\nI think part of the story is a rejection of the hierarchy and artificial inter-personal structures often seen in societies like Japan. Everyone is simultaneously desperate to escape their confines while rigidly enforcing the status quo - with predictably disastrous results.
\n\nIt is a meandering tale, spanning eons, which ultimately feels a bit depressing.
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/p1545-qyh19","guid":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=65619","image":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/under-the-eye-of-the-big-bird-1.jpg","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1768262400,"rid":"yw1ss-r0475","summary":"This is an intriguing and mostly satisfying sci-fi tale. It has shades of Oryx Crake mixed in with A Canticle for Leibowitz - we are mere observers of the tattered remains of humanity. Watchers guide scattered settlements as they strive to evolve and understand their place on a corrupted Earth.","tags":["/etc/","Book Review","Sci Fi"],"title":"Book Review: Under the Eye of the Big Bird - Hiromi Kawakami","updated_at":1791470543,"url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/01/book-review-under-the-eye-of-the-big-bird-hiromi-kawakami/","version":"v1"},{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Eden","given":"Terence"}],"content_html":"\n\nGiven my blog's domain name, I don't write nearly enough about Shakespeare. Luckily, the good folks at NetGalley have sent me Irene Coslet's provocative new book to review.
\n\nWho was the real Shakespeare? It's the sort of low-stakes conspiracy theory which is driven by classism (\"a low-born man couldn't write such poetry!\"), plagiarism (\"he stole from other writers!\") and, according to this book, sexism and racism.
\n\nFrom the blurb:
\n\n\n\nNow, in this intriguing and well-documented book, Irene Coslet conclusively demonstrates that Shakespeare was a not a man, but a woman: a dark-skinned lady, of Jewish origin, born into a family of Court musicians from Venice, and the mother of the English-speaking world. Her name was Emilia Bassano.
Yes! In your face, Bacon! Get stuffed, Marlowe! Edward de Who?!
\n\nThe life of Emilia Bassano is genuinely fascinating. The book offers some excellent insights into the lives of women, Moors, and Jews during the time period. The analysis of the sexual politics - both in the plays and real life - are both interesting and well researched. For that reason, I have to give it some stars.
\n\nThe book starts with Kuhn and his ideas about paradigm shifts - the more tweaks we have to bolt on to a model, the more likely it is the model will eventual collapse and a new model will emerge. I'm 100% behind that - given the deficiencies in Shakespeare's biography, people keep adding more and more fantastical explanations to it. But the counterpoint is that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
\n\nSo, what evidence is there that Emilia Bassano was the writer of Shakespeare?
\n\nAnd so it goes on. Sadly, the evidence presented rarely rises to the level of circumstantial, let alone extraordinary. Some of it is of the sort found in the discredited Bible Code. If you selectively squish the data, you can make it say anything:
\n\n\n\nHere, the author exploits the similarity in Hebrew between the word Portia (PRT) and the word lead (YPRT). Portia (PRT) is nested within the lead (YPRT), embedding one one term inside the other to create multiple layers of meaning. Only a person who is fluent in Hebrew [...] would be able to make such a pun.
This book is a monument to what happens if you start with a conclusion and then selectively pick only the clues which support your case. There's no testing of the evidence against other candidates - for example, the author describes folding the Droeshout portrait in a specific way until it looks a bit like one of the portraits which might be of Emilia Bassano. It's a bit \"Mad Magazine Fold In\" - but can the image be folded different ways? Are there other people that it looks like? Sadly, the folded image isn't included on (dubious) copyright grounds.
\n\nThere's also no mechanism suggested. Let's suppose that Emilia Bassano did write all these plays and poems. What was the method whereby \"The Man From Stratford\" took them and passed them off as his own? Was there payment? Why did she keep writing if they were being stolen? Wouldn't someone have noticed her slipping in all these \"clues\" about the true authorship and then removed them?
\n\nI'm generally sympathetic to the idea of trying new ways to look at old problems and I genuinely found some of the analysis interesting. I tried to keep an open mind and to steelman the arguments. Nevertheless, I found most of it unconvincing.
\n\nHere are some of the arguments I have trouble with.
\n\n\n\nScholars agree that the plays are 'feminist' but have not been able to explain why the author was interested in gender issues.
To which a suitable response might be \"Hath not a man eyes? hath not a man hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?\" It also ignores all the decidedly unfeminist tropes and characters in Shakespeare.
\n\n\n\nEmilia Bassano tells about this portion of her life in Cymbeline through the character of Posthumus Leonatus. Posthumus is the son of Sicilius, a reference to the Sicilian origin of the family. Sicilius has two other sons, who both die prematurely, an allusion to Lewis and Philip, Baptista and Margaret's sons who died in infancy.
You could pick any random character out of any play and find someone in history who it could be an allegory for.
\n\nBut, again, there are some reasonable arguments that Shakespeare may not be who we think. Emelia Bassano certainly had some of the background necessary:
\n\n\n\nThe playwright had direct knowledge of the Veneto region. The playwright is familiar with the Commedia dell'Arte. [...] In 1582, Emilia Bassano travelled to Denmark, and that journey, according to Hudson, provided the material for Hamlet. [...] They all stayed at the Castle of Elsinore \u2013 which is renowned today as the setting of the play Hamlet. The delegation met two prominent Danish noblemen: Georgius Rosencrantz and Petrius Guildenstern
Most of these arguments seem to be taken from John Hudson's 2014 book \"Shakespeare's Dark Lady: Amelia Bassano Lanier The woman behind Shakespeare's plays?\" with very little in the way of original research.
\n\nThe author does prove that there are a few positive connections between Emilia Bassano and Shakespeare. For example, she was the paramour of Henry Carey - founder of the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Could that have taken her into the orbit of Shakespeare's theatre company?
\n\n\n\nYet, in 1594, Henry Carey was a sixty-eight military General (he died in 1596): it is hard to believe that the creation of a theatre company was his initiative. It is more likely that it was Emilia Bassano's idea, who was twenty-five and a playwright at the peak of her creativity.
That's just pure speculation! When you go looking for evidence, and squint your eyes, it's possible to make anything seem like a connection:
\n\n\n\nOphelia \u2013 whose name rhymes with 'Emilia' \u2013 has a relationship with the Lord Hamlet and gets pregnant. Ophelia is the daughter of the Lord Chamberlain \u2013 a reference to the Lord Chamberlain, Henry Carey, who was her fianc\u00e9 in real life.
The book veers between cold-reading and the Forer effect. For example, the author asserts that one of Shakespeare's characters is based on a friend of Emilia Bassano. How can that be proven?
\n\n\n\nShakespeare had the uncanny ability to give an accurate impression of the characters without describing them in detail. There is a painting by Thomas Francis Dicksee entitled Anne Paige (circa 1862). Although Dicksee was not aware that the character of Anne Paige is based on Lady Anne Clifford, his impression of Anne Paige looks strikingly similar to the portrait of Lady Anne Clifford by William Larking (1618): brown-haired, big-eyed and with a rounded face. It appears that the way the audience imagines Anne Paige when reading the play \u2013 and the way Dicksee represented her \u2013 is exactly how Anne Clifford looked. Same goes with Falstaff: Shakespeare gives such an accurate impression of Falstaff, without describing him in detail, that now we have an idea of how Alfonso Lanyer looked in real life.
I don't know how to fully respond to that. Two paintings looking slightly similar is not evidence! Where are all the other paintings of Anne Paige? Do they all look similar? There's cherry-picking, and then there's this!
\n\nAnyway, I give you Dicksee's portait and Larkin's so you may compare their similarity.
\n\n\n\nSimilarly, some of the discussion is of the sort you might have after imbibing a few bottles of wine:
\n\n\n\nIt is fascinating how two very different cultures and religions used the same sounds, Shekinah and Shakti, to indicate the divine feminine presence, and how these sounds can also be found in the name Shakespeare: Shekinah, Shakti, Shakespeare.
Emilia Bassano is the acknowledged author of the poem \"Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum\". Surely a textual analysis of her work and that of Shakespeare's would throw up some similarities? Alas, all we get are:
\n\n\n\nProspero asks Miranda: 'Cants thou remember / A time before we came unto this cell?'. In Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum Emilia Bassano says that she lives in a cell: 'I that live clos'up in Sorrowes Cell'
And
\n\n\n\nthere are many rhetorical similarities between the Passion in Salve Deus and Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece. For example, Jesus is associated with the colours white and red, like Lucrece. In Salve Deus we read: 'The purest colours both of White and Red' (1828). In the Rape of Lucrece: 'To praise the clear unmatch\u00e8d red and white'
Frankly, that's less than nothing!
\n\nThe book concludes with this:
\n\n\n\nFrom the viewpoint of white men and businessmen, the story of the Stratford man is inspiring. It is the story of a white boy, a merchant, with little education, who resorted to writing and miraculously became a genius. Society likes the narrative of the genius, because when we say 'genius' we think of a miracle and it does not require much explanation. It is all about magical thinking.
I agree that there's a lot to be said about Shakespeare and race. There may well be arguments about the true authorship of the plays and sonnets - and it is certainly interesting to approach them from a new perspective. The book does a reasonable job of contextualising some of the gender politics surrounding Shakespeare's propaganda for Queen Elizabeth and, similarly, the historical context in which the plays were written. But most of the evidence presented is somewhere between magical thinking and divine inspiration.
\n\nEmilia Bassano was undoubtedly a fascinating woman - poet, teacher, entrepreneur, confidant of the Queen - she deserves better than this scattershot ramble through her life.
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/18wjx-03558","guid":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=66676","image":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/53507.webp","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1768089600,"rid":"4jwyh-bp726","summary":"Given my blog's domain name, I don't write nearly enough about Shakespeare. Luckily, the good folks at NetGalley have sent me Irene Coslet's provocative new book to review. Who was the real Shakespeare?","tags":["/etc/","Book Review","NetGalley","ShakeRace","Shakespeare"],"title":"Book Review: The Real Shakespeare - Emilia Bassano Willoughby by Irene Coslet","updated_at":1791470541,"url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/01/book-review-the-real-shakespeare-emilia-bassano-willoughby-by-irene-coslet/","version":"v1"},{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Eden","given":"Terence"}],"content_html":"\n\nI cracked open my review copy of Room 706 and settled in for an early night in my hotel room. I was up until way past midnight tearing through the book - my heart pounding. Given that the book centres around a woman trapped by terrorists in her hotel room, it was perhaps not the best choice to read on holiday!
\n\nIf you were held hostage - what message would you want to send to your family? Would they know that you loved them? Would they need the password for your grocery app? Would they ask why you were having an affair in that hotel?
\n\nAh.
\n\nAnd there's the plot. In many ways, this is a stage-play or - in TV terms - a bottle episode. Our protagonist and her lover cannot escape from a little box of misery. What was once heavy with lust is now brimming over with fear, irritation, and pain. Ellie Levenson beautifully observes all the little moments which go into a day, building up the characters' lives only to tear them down again. I can't work out whether she is a cruel god torturing her creations or a loving creator who allows them to make their own mistakes.
\n\nIt helps that she's created a protagonist who is just the right side of obnoxious. Their self-justified self-delusion leap off the page. Every minor irritation they experience explodes into bitterness and, just for a moment, you almost believe the lies she tells herself. There are some painfully witty observations about how men and women might react differently to the terror of a siege. It is, perhaps, a little bit heartbreaking to realise your own reactions to the situation would be laughably inadequate and barely more than a clich\u00e9.
\n\nPerhaps that's the point; we're all trapped in a room of our own making. We fall into the same patterns as everyone else and react with shock when we discover how we've trapped ourselves.
\n\nI was desperate for there to be a twist. Some last-minute deus ex. Or even a moment of catharsis. Instead, Room 706 wrings every drop of stress out of you up until the final page. There is no let-up in the tension.
\n\nAn exhausting and frantic read. Highly recommended.
\n\nMany thanks to NetGalley for the review copy. Room 706 is released on the 15th of January and is available to pre-order now.
\n\nLong-term readers will recognise Ellie from my review of her Noughtie Girl's Guide to Feminism from 17 years ago. Let's hope we don't have to wait until 2043 for her next book!
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/myk4r-r6n31","guid":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=66839","image":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/room-706.jpg","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1767916800,"rid":"14xep-xrp82","summary":"I cracked open my review copy of Room 706 and settled in for an early night in my hotel room. I was up until way past midnight tearing through the book - my heart pounding. Given that the book centres around a woman trapped by terrorists in her hotel room, it was perhaps not the best choice to read on holiday! If you were held hostage - what message would you want to send to your family?","tags":["/etc/","Book Review","NetGalley"],"title":"Book Review: Room 706 by Ellie Levenson","updated_at":1791470540,"url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/01/book-review-room-706-by-ellie-levenson/","version":"v1"},{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Eden","given":"Terence"}],"content_html":"\n\nThis is delightful whimsy wrapped up in a sensible chuckle. The sort of gigglesome nonsense that washes over you and worms its way into your ears. There's a hint of caper, a soup\u00e7on of cosy crime, and a sprinkling of a love story.
\n\nAnd then there's a massive tonal shift where it all becomes rather menacing and a bit bleak.
\n\nBob Mortimer's prose, pacing, and peculiarities are smashing. This is an enjoyable and entertaining way to spend a few hours. Beats chatting to squirrels, anyway.
\n\nThanks to my brother for the recommendation.
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/vjtzp-kvn80","guid":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=66048","image":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/the-satsuma-complex-9781398521216_lg.jpg","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1766707200,"rid":"r5wb0-5gv72","summary":"This is delightful whimsy wrapped up in a sensible chuckle. The sort of gigglesome nonsense that washes over you and worms its way into your ears. There's a hint of caper, a soup\u00e7on of cosy crime, and a sprinkling of a love story. And then there's a massive tonal shift where it all becomes rather menacing and a bit bleak. Bob Mortimer's prose, pacing, and peculiarities are smashing.","tags":["/etc/","Book Review"],"title":"Book Review: The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer","updated_at":1791470538,"url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/12/book-review-the-satsuma-complex-by-bob-mortimer/","version":"v1"}],"out_of":57764,"page":1,"per_page":10,"total-results":57764}
![Dicksee's portait](\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anne_Page_(Dicksee,_1862).jpg\"){kind=link}
![Larkin's](\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Anne_Clifford#/media/File:William_Larkin_Anne_Clifford,_Countess_of_Dorset.jpg\"){kind=link}