Four books unjustly doomed by circumstances beyond their creators' control.
Publishing Nightmares and Stories of Authorial Woe
Publishing Nightmares and Stories of Authorial Woe
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The June 2021 Yellow King RPG Bundle featuring .PDF ebooks of the surreal supernatural tabletop game The Yellow King from Pelgrane Press.
Bundle of Holding: Yellow King RPG (from 2021)
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james_davis_nicoll Oct. 22nd, 2026 07:50 am)
james_davis_nicoll Oct. 22nd, 2026 07:50 am)
A seeming nobody discovers that he is more than a mere pawn.
King’s Blood Four (True Game, volume 1) by Sheri S. Tepper
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wtfjht_feed Oct. 21st, 2026 03:52 pm)
wtfjht_feed Oct. 21st, 2026 03:52 pm)
Today in one sentence: JD Vance told Republicans to “stop whining” about Vivek Ramaswamy’s attack ad featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent in Ohio’s governor’s race; Trump’s special envoy called Putin “a humanitarian” after releasing an American the U.S. had designated as wrongfully detained; Justice Elena Kagan said the Supreme Court’s conservative majority “has created a democracy that doesn’t work as well as it should”; the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration must continue providing hormone therapy and other gender-affirming care for transgender inmates in federal prisons; the Justice Department’s inspector general declined to investigate allegations of criminal misconduct in the prosecution of former Olympian David Hearn; the U.N. Environment Programme warned that breaching the Paris agreement’s 1.5°C warming target is now “imminent and unavoidable”; and 52% of likely voters said they favor the Democratic candidates in their congressional districts, compared with 41% for Republicans.
1/ JD Vance told Republicans to “stop whining” about Vivek Ramaswamy’s attack ad featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent in Ohio’s governor’s race. In the ad, Donna Arthur calls her daughter, Amy Acton, “a liar,” disputes her account of childhood homelessness, and warns voters, “Don’t let her become your governor.” Acton hasn’t seen her mother since 1978, when her stepfather was indicted for raping her as a child and her mother “did nothing to protect me.” Her stepfather pleaded not guilty and fled before trial. Republican Sen. Jon Husted said, “I would not have run that ad,” Nikki Haley called Ramaswamy “a bad guy,” and former Ohio House Speaker Ryan Smith urged Republicans to “Stop normalizing bad behavior.” Ramaswamy’s campaign nevertheless called it a “campaign-ending moment” for Acton and committed $4 million to airing the ad statewide. Vance, meanwhile, said whether the ad was appropriate was “not really my concern,” defended it for calling Acton “a liar,” and that he was “disgusted” by Republicans complaining more about the ad than what “Democrats want to do to the United States of America.” (NBC News / Politico / Associated Press / CNN / Axios / New York Times / Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal)
2/ Trump’s special envoy called Putin “a humanitarian” after releasing an American the U.S. had designated as wrongfully detained. Stephen Hubbard was captured by Russian troops in eastern Ukraine in 2022 and imprisoned after Russian prosecutors accused him of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine. Nevertheless, Steve Witkoff told Putin: “You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that.” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis called the remark “embarrassing and outrageous,” while Sen. John Cornyn said Putin is “a stone cold killer.” (Washington Post / Politico / CBS News / CNBC)
3/ Justice Elena Kagan said the Supreme Court’s conservative majority “has created a democracy that doesn’t work as well as it should.” Kagan said the court’s 2019 ruling that kept federal courts from intervening in partisan gerrymandering sent both parties into a “race to the bottom,” “effectively depriving masses of citizens of their rights to voting equality.” Kagan said “all this money chasing all these political candidates is a nightmare” and that the court had “blinded itself” to the effects of its decisions. (Associated Press / Reuters / New York Times / NBC News / CNN / Washington Post)
4/ The Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration must continue providing hormone therapy and other gender-affirming care for transgender inmates in federal prisons. The court’s unsigned order leaves a lower-court injunction in place while the lawsuit proceeds. In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order directing the Bureau of Prisons to stop spending federal funds on gender-affirming medical treatments for inmates, arguing that the restrictions were needed for prison security and weren’t medically necessary. (ABC News / NBC News / New York Times / Wall Street Journal / CBS News / CNN)
5/ The Justice Department’s inspector general declined to investigate allegations of criminal misconduct in the prosecution of former Olympian David Hearn. Trump blamed Hearn and other “vandals” for damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, but U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro later dismissed the case after saying a contractor’s “botched installation” caused the damage. Hearn’s lawyers, however, claim that prosecutors ignored evidence and may have pressured a grand jury witness to change his testimony. Inspector General Don Berthiaume, however, referred the allegations to the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which lacks criminal jurisdiction and has lost roughly half its staff under Trump. Hearn’s lawyers warned that without an independent investigation, accountability “will simply not take place.” (NBC News / CBS News / Associated Press / Washington Post)
6/ The U.N. Environment Programme warned that breaching the Paris agreement’s 1.5°C warming target is now “imminent and unavoidable.” Under current policies, the report projects 2.8°C of warming by the end of the century, and even if countries fulfill their existing pledges it projects 2.6°C of warming. To limit the overshoot and return to 1.5°C by 2100, global emissions would need to fall 18% by 2030 and 45% by 2035 from 2025 levels. Existing pledges, however, are projected to cut emissions by just 5% to 8% and 11% to 15%, respectively. “We procrastinated, and now we are saying this window has closed,” UNEP executive director Inger Andersen said. (Semafor / The Guardian / The Hill / CNN / NPR)
poll/ 52% of likely voters said they favor the Democratic candidates in their congressional districts, compared with 41% for Republicans. (New York Times)
- Today last year: Day 1736: "It sort of looks bad."
- Two years ago today: Day 1371: "Exhausted."
- Six years ago today: Day 1371: "A distressing trend."
- Seven years ago today: Day 1005: "We prefer peace to war."
Support today’s essential newsletter and resist the daily shock and awe: Become a member
Subscribe: Get the Daily Update in your inbox for free
and I think she's interesting, so some backstory or a missing scene from "Fredless"
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
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Aimi and her pals' investigation of untoward, otherworldly goings-on leaves the survivors with a better idea of the scale of the catastrophe bearing down on Earth.
Wakusei Closet, volume 2 by Tsubana
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(girlgenius_main_feed Oct. 21st, 2026 04:00 am)
girlgenius_main_feed Oct. 21st, 2026 04:00 am)The Girl Genius comic for Wednesday, October 21, 2026 has been posted.
(wtfjht_feed Oct. 20th, 2026 04:29 pm)
wtfjht_feed Oct. 20th, 2026 04:29 pm)
Today in one sentence: Trump announced a $25 million program to pay whistleblowers up to $30,000 for tips about government fraud; Trump’s political operation plans to spend more than $400 million helping Republicans in the midterms; Trump announced an $8 billion Agriculture Department bailout for farmers struggling with rising diesel prices caused by his war with Iran; Elon Musk reportedly ordered the slowdown of Ukraine’s military-grade Starlink service; the Trump administration delayed shipments of Patriot interceptor missiles European allies already purchased for Ukraine; Trump said he’s open to meeting with Putin and Xi without Zelenskyy; JD Vance declined to endorse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Israel’s Oct. 27 election a day after Trump called Netanyahu a “Great Warrior Prime Minister” and gave him his “Complete and Total Endorsement”; and 70% of Americans are not confident that Trump will accept the results if Republicans lose in the midterms.
1/ Trump announced a $25 million program to pay whistleblowers up to $30,000 for tips about government fraud. “I will be the arbitrator of all of these decisions,” Trump said. “In other words, I’ll determine whether or not the person is deserving and I’ll determine — and I will be very generous, believe me.” The White House, however, said tips must lead to a fraud conviction or significant federal enforcement action to qualify for payment. (Associated Press / Wall Street Journal / CBS News / Washington Post)
- The Department of Homeland Security spent hundreds of millions of dollars on seven Boeing 737s for Trump’s deportation campaign that have barely flown. Each jet has made fewer than five flights since April. (Bloomberg)
2/ Trump’s political operation plans to spend more than $400 million helping Republicans in the midterms. He said more than $300 million had already been spent on advertising, voter contact, rallies, and other efforts. The money comes from MAGA Inc. and an allied nonprofit whose donors are not disclosed.
(New York Times / Washington Post / Mediaite)
-
Michael Bloomberg is sending about $80 million to help Democrats in the midterms, with at least $50 million headed to House races, according to his team. (New York Times / CNBC)
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Elon Musk pledged to give one SpaceX share to every “kid” in America next year, worth roughly $11 billion. Trump thanked him, saying the pledge was “exactly what was envisioned when we created Trump Accounts.” (Axios / Washington Post / Semafor)
3/ Trump announced an $8 billion Agriculture Department bailout for farmers struggling with rising diesel prices caused by his war with Iran. The one-time payments would cover part of farmers’ estimated losses this year, and follows a $12 billion bailout announced last December to offset losses from Trump’s tariffs and trade policies. The Agriculture Department, however, doesn’t have enough money in the designated account to fund the new payments. If funded, the bailout would bring the projected government payments to farmers this year to $55.4 billion, representing roughly a third of net farm income. Diesel prices, meanwhile, currently average $6.32 a gallon, up from $3.62 a year ago. (Reuters / New York Times / Politico / Wall Street Journal / CBS News / The Hill)
4/ Elon Musk reportedly ordered the slowdown of Ukraine’s military-grade Starlink service, which impacted some of its drones and weakened its ability to respond to Russian attacks. Musk claimed that limits on speed or usage were decided by the U.S. military and ultimately Trump. However, Trump said he didn’t know who was responsible, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon issued no directive and that Starlink could make decisions about its terms of service. Trump and Musk have criticized Ukraine for attacking Russian refineries, which Trump blames for rising diesel prices, although most analysts say the U.S. war with Iran has had a greater impact. (Wall Street Journal / CNBC / The Hill)
5/ The Trump administration delayed shipments of Patriot interceptor missiles European allies already purchased for Ukraine as Russia continues to attack Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth hasn’t approved the transfers and the delay comes after Trump waived sanctions on Russian diesel exports and pressured Ukraine to stop attacking Russian refineries. The Trump administration has also reportedly threatened to suspend a NATO weapons-purchasing program unless Kyiv stopped the strikes. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, acknowledged that while some interceptors may not have been delivered, he insisted “there has not been some deliberate political directive to go out and harm Ukraine.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, however, responded: “If you cannot rein Putin in, then give us interceptor missiles so I can protect our energy infrastructure.” (Washington Post / CBS News / Reuters / Associated Press / Washington Post / Bloomberg / Politico / Axios)
6/ Trump said he’s open to meeting with Putin and Xi without Zelenskyy. Putin reportedly proposed a summit in China next month to discuss ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, but Trump said he wanted to focus on “denuclearization.” No meeting has been finalized. Ukraine’s foreign minister, meanwhile, warned that a meeting without Kyiv would “encourage Putin to continue this war.” Trump said it’s “time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine,” adding that “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine. They haven’t been doing much.” (CNBC / Wall Street Journal / Washington Post / Axios / New York Times / CNN)
7/ JD Vance declined to endorse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Israel’s Oct. 27 election a day after Trump called Netanyahu a “Great Warrior Prime Minister” and gave him his “Complete and Total Endorsement.” Vance, saying he’s focused on the U.S. midterms, said “I’m not anti-endorsing him. I’m not pro-endorsing him. I’m not getting involved in Israeli elections.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, meanwhile, made an unannounced visit to Israel and met with Netanyahu amid U.S.-Israeli discussions about potentially resuming major military operations against Iran. (Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg / CNBC / NBC News / CNN / Washington Post / Politico / Axios / CBS News)
poll/ 47% of Americans see Republicans as the party of tech tax breaks – double the 21% who said the same for Democrats. (Politico)
poll/ 61% of Americans are confident that the midterms will be conducted fairly and accurately. 65% are confident that the votes will be counted accurately. (ABC News)
poll/ 70% of Americans are not confident that Trump will accept the results if Republicans lose in the midterms. Among Republicans, 36% say they’re not confident Trump would accept GOP losses, along with 77% of independents and 94% of Democrats. (Washington Post)
poll/ 71% of Americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction, and 58% agree that Trump is a “potentially dangerous dictator” and his power should be limited, up from 52% in March 2025. (PRRI
The 2026 midterms are in 14 days; and the 2028 presidential election is in 749 days.
- Today last year: Day 1735: "Built different."
- Four years ago today: Day 639: "Democracy is working well."
- Five years ago today: Day 274: "The same rotten core."
- Six years ago today: Day 1370: "Open discussion."
- 9 years ago today: Day 274: Elected by the American people.
Support today’s essential newsletter and resist the daily shock and awe: Become a member
Subscribe: Get the Daily Update in your inbox for free
(james_davis_nicoll Oct. 20th, 2026 05:23 pm)
james_davis_nicoll Oct. 20th, 2026 05:23 pm) The accusation came after Prime Minister Carney visited his home province and urged Albertans to vote to “stay in Canada,” an act which the US government is calling “a deliberate attack on U.S. interests.”
I should clarify that the Beaverton is a parody site.
I should clarify that the Beaverton is a parody site.
A castaway on an alien world discovers the local culture has changed dramatically in the thirty years since humans last visited Toka.
Heroes Are Made by Poul Anderson & Gordon R. Dickson
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[Reminder: don't be talking about your health online except under a pseudonym.]
I've been going through a lot with my health recently. Sort of. It's a bit weird and hard to talk about because it's not exactly that I've been in ill health. At least probably not. The waveform has yet to collapse.
I suppose it is fair to say part of what is going on – a substantial part – is about the interaction of being a disabled person and getting medical care: the way I am disabled makes it hard and extra time consuming to go places to meet people, like say going to medical facilities to meet wih medical professionals.
It can also cause exacerbations of my disability. This means a not-huge amount of medical appointments actually works out to be a huge amount of medical appointments for me because it often has a huge impact – sometimes including medically – on me. For instance, it recently took me a week to recover from the consequences of a recent medical exam, where by "exam" I mean "sitting in a chair waiting for the exam to start", and by "consequences" I mean "increased pain the following day, which then fucked up my sleep, which slowed my recovery from the aggravation of my pain, which protracted the disruption of my sleep from pain, lather, rinse, repeat; and also left me exhausted from all the sleep I was missing."
This interacts poorly with the apparent fact that it does not seem possible for me to have any contact with the medical establishment without a medical professional finding a lump or other potential sign of cancer. It has never turned out to be cancer. It just seems that I am... lumpier... than normal. But it means that when I present for medical problem X, not only do I wind up having all the subsequent medical appointments for X, I will also wind up having all the subsequent medical appointments for problem Y, which is Oh Look A Lump Maybe This Is Cancer.
When I got the CT scan of my aorta, they happened to get a look at my thyroid, and, because this was at the same hospital I presented to for the neck infection of 2022, they had a comparator. The radiologist reported that since 2022 the small lump they found on my thyroid then is less small now. So I've been dealing with the follow-up of that (doctor, labs, ultrasound, labs, more doctor).
This raises the obvious question of whether I have noticed any symptoms of thyroid malfunction, for which the answer is: sure, a little – but for decades. Doctors have been running thyroid panels on me forever, and they all come back fine. None of those symptoms have become much worse in the last three years, and one of them has gotten a bit better. The labs are finally showing something a tad off, but not actually that unusual for someone my age.
Then in July, I got a symptom that has nothing to do with my thyroid. It's one of those minor symptoms that they tell people with uteruses who have been through menopause means It's probably nothing. But... call your doctor. Unfortunately, my uterus was already being eyed with suspicion of trying to go rogue with cancer because lumps had already been found there (when my hip was imaged in 2022). I waited hopefully for a week or so for the symptom to go away on its own, and it didn't, so I called my new gynecologist (who is awesome). They weren't able to get me in to see her until mid-September which is just as well because of all the thyroid-related care I needed to show up for. Over the last few weeks the gynecologist (and the lab) ruled out a bunch of less serious problems. I have a ultrasound and a biopsy scheduled for November. This was convenient in that it gave both Mr Bostoniensis and I time to get all our seasonal vaccinations done, which will be useful given how much time it seems I'm going to be spending in medical facilities.
Also, there was a biannual teeth cleaning and a mammogram somewhere in all this.
So that's where things are. I've been dealing with an large amount of medical care which isn't to treat any of the things that have actually been problems for me, but to assess whether I have a problem I don't yet know about. It may all of it be nothing. It is to be hoped that it is nothing. But it has been so far and looks like it is going to continue to be a tiring, stressful, logistically-challenging, and physically painful nothing that hits the out-of-pocket-max on my health insurance.
It's awkward to try to talk about. I have multiple doctors concerned I might have cancer so I am going through tediously much medical care which is all about cancer. But I almost certainly don't have cancer. Just not absolutely certainly. The odds are very low that I do. I probably don't. "Ugh my schedule is all fucked up because of all the medical appointments for cancer my doctors think there is a very small chance I have."
The problem is that the odds just went from one in a hundred to one in twenty. And as we all know, that's a 1 on a 1d20. So this is basically a reasonably easy, but not sure-fire, saving throw.
So: I'm dealing with all doctors all the time, only not really, it's just that it takes very little doctor-visiting to cast a long shadow on my schedule including by causing medical complications of my pre-existing disabling conditions; and none of that medical care is to treat any of those pre-existing disabling conditions; it's not, in fact, to treat any condition at all at this point, since it's all diagnostic (e.g. imaging) or prophylactic (e.g. vaccines); it's to identify whether or not I have a medical condition that, while very bad to have, I am very unlikely to have.
(And no, nobody has done anything futher to investigate the cause of my chest pain back in June. Everybody is too preoccupied by the Oh Look A Lump Maybe It's Cancer question.)
This week, I have a telehealth appointment with my PCP to follow up on whether he thinks I need to do something about the thyroid lump and I have a scheduled flu shot at a pharmacy. In the next month (Nov), I have an ultrasound and a biopsy, the latter of which will be done in an operating room with an anaesthesiologist.
It feels slightly absurd and dramatic, but cancer is bad, so I guess this all makes sense.
I've been going through a lot with my health recently. Sort of. It's a bit weird and hard to talk about because it's not exactly that I've been in ill health. At least probably not. The waveform has yet to collapse.
I suppose it is fair to say part of what is going on – a substantial part – is about the interaction of being a disabled person and getting medical care: the way I am disabled makes it hard and extra time consuming to go places to meet people, like say going to medical facilities to meet wih medical professionals.
It can also cause exacerbations of my disability. This means a not-huge amount of medical appointments actually works out to be a huge amount of medical appointments for me because it often has a huge impact – sometimes including medically – on me. For instance, it recently took me a week to recover from the consequences of a recent medical exam, where by "exam" I mean "sitting in a chair waiting for the exam to start", and by "consequences" I mean "increased pain the following day, which then fucked up my sleep, which slowed my recovery from the aggravation of my pain, which protracted the disruption of my sleep from pain, lather, rinse, repeat; and also left me exhausted from all the sleep I was missing."
This interacts poorly with the apparent fact that it does not seem possible for me to have any contact with the medical establishment without a medical professional finding a lump or other potential sign of cancer. It has never turned out to be cancer. It just seems that I am... lumpier... than normal. But it means that when I present for medical problem X, not only do I wind up having all the subsequent medical appointments for X, I will also wind up having all the subsequent medical appointments for problem Y, which is Oh Look A Lump Maybe This Is Cancer.
When I got the CT scan of my aorta, they happened to get a look at my thyroid, and, because this was at the same hospital I presented to for the neck infection of 2022, they had a comparator. The radiologist reported that since 2022 the small lump they found on my thyroid then is less small now. So I've been dealing with the follow-up of that (doctor, labs, ultrasound, labs, more doctor).
This raises the obvious question of whether I have noticed any symptoms of thyroid malfunction, for which the answer is: sure, a little – but for decades. Doctors have been running thyroid panels on me forever, and they all come back fine. None of those symptoms have become much worse in the last three years, and one of them has gotten a bit better. The labs are finally showing something a tad off, but not actually that unusual for someone my age.
Then in July, I got a symptom that has nothing to do with my thyroid. It's one of those minor symptoms that they tell people with uteruses who have been through menopause means It's probably nothing. But... call your doctor. Unfortunately, my uterus was already being eyed with suspicion of trying to go rogue with cancer because lumps had already been found there (when my hip was imaged in 2022). I waited hopefully for a week or so for the symptom to go away on its own, and it didn't, so I called my new gynecologist (who is awesome). They weren't able to get me in to see her until mid-September which is just as well because of all the thyroid-related care I needed to show up for. Over the last few weeks the gynecologist (and the lab) ruled out a bunch of less serious problems. I have a ultrasound and a biopsy scheduled for November. This was convenient in that it gave both Mr Bostoniensis and I time to get all our seasonal vaccinations done, which will be useful given how much time it seems I'm going to be spending in medical facilities.
Also, there was a biannual teeth cleaning and a mammogram somewhere in all this.
So that's where things are. I've been dealing with an large amount of medical care which isn't to treat any of the things that have actually been problems for me, but to assess whether I have a problem I don't yet know about. It may all of it be nothing. It is to be hoped that it is nothing. But it has been so far and looks like it is going to continue to be a tiring, stressful, logistically-challenging, and physically painful nothing that hits the out-of-pocket-max on my health insurance.
It's awkward to try to talk about. I have multiple doctors concerned I might have cancer so I am going through tediously much medical care which is all about cancer. But I almost certainly don't have cancer. Just not absolutely certainly. The odds are very low that I do. I probably don't. "Ugh my schedule is all fucked up because of all the medical appointments for cancer my doctors think there is a very small chance I have."
The problem is that the odds just went from one in a hundred to one in twenty. And as we all know, that's a 1 on a 1d20. So this is basically a reasonably easy, but not sure-fire, saving throw.
So: I'm dealing with all doctors all the time, only not really, it's just that it takes very little doctor-visiting to cast a long shadow on my schedule including by causing medical complications of my pre-existing disabling conditions; and none of that medical care is to treat any of those pre-existing disabling conditions; it's not, in fact, to treat any condition at all at this point, since it's all diagnostic (e.g. imaging) or prophylactic (e.g. vaccines); it's to identify whether or not I have a medical condition that, while very bad to have, I am very unlikely to have.
(And no, nobody has done anything futher to investigate the cause of my chest pain back in June. Everybody is too preoccupied by the Oh Look A Lump Maybe It's Cancer question.)
This week, I have a telehealth appointment with my PCP to follow up on whether he thinks I need to do something about the thyroid lump and I have a scheduled flu shot at a pharmacy. In the next month (Nov), I have an ultrasound and a biopsy, the latter of which will be done in an operating room with an anaesthesiologist.
It feels slightly absurd and dramatic, but cancer is bad, so I guess this all makes sense.
(crooked_timber_feed Oct. 19th, 2026 10:45 pm)
crooked_timber_feed Oct. 19th, 2026 10:45 pm)Last week I was in the Public Records of Victoria (PROV) looking at records of the Melbourne mint. My substack about the Sydney mint by rights should come first, but I’m fresh-ish off the plane so I’m doing this one first.
It was a bit extravagant building two mints in Australia. As I flicked through the massive file of equipment to order and repair I wondered why they built another one. I’d assumed it was just that Melbourne was much closer to where most of the gold turned out to be.
Image source: City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection. I got it here.
And then I found a report by Edward Ward, Deputy Master of the Sydney Mint. It was one of those quietly boastful reports that said look at what a great job I’ve been doing running the mint. It is profitable. We should get another one of these.
But also because India will probably need gold soon. A lot of gold. While the Sydney mint was doing fine minting sovereigns to export to London and sell to Australian banks, if (as Ward expected) India went on the gold standard, the Sydney mint just wouldn’t have the capacity to supply the gold. Australia was closer to India than other gold fields, so a mint in Melbourne made sense.
Spoiler alert: India did not go on the gold standard then, or ever. There are reasons to think that this enabled purposeful under-development of India, as we will see. But first. In the PROV, another file contained dozens of orders for hundreds of gold bars to banks based mostly in Mumbai (Bombay in the archive) or Kolkata (Calcutta in the archive). It included memos attached to stamps for the relevant banks, which would be stamped on the gold bars. Sometimes there was a return note saying that the stamp was too big and wouldn’t fit on the bars, could they send another one.
One time a local gold cabal ordered 200 bars each for themselves and four or five banks in India. They said the bars were booked on a ship to Mumbai the following Wednesday. They trust the bars could be produced by then.
OK so India was on a silver standard (until the last gasps of the nineteenth century when it moved to a gold-backed pounds sterling standard) but its banks bought lots of gold anyway. WTF?
India’s Commodity/Currency Crisis
In 1861 there was a run on silver in India. This was because of the US Civil War. The American South was prevented from transporting cotton to the satanic mills of industrial England. But the mills were hungry, so merchants at the Indian ports were buying as much cotton as they could get their hands on from the interior of India, ready to ship to the power looms that were building British capitalism.
This required coins. Lots and lots of coins. More coins, it turns out, than Indian merchants could get hold of. Merchants sold everything they could get hold of (including valuable Indian treasury bonds, which dropped in price) to get hold of coins to send to the interior to buy cotton.
In the same file as the Sydney Mint Master’s report, a copy of a Gazette from India containing a Minute by Charles Edward Trevelyan, a key advocate of gold currency for India (and later a key figure in the denial of food to Ireland in the famine) discusses this in casually racist detail.
The problem, so claimed its author, was that Indian peasants refused, just refused, to exchange raw Indian cotton for civilised British goods. Soon enough they would be forced to purchase factory-made cotton products instead of hand-weaving their own. For, as the Opium Wars waged by Britain on China demonstrates, England would do literally anything to avoid a trade deficit and get coins back where it ‘belongs’. Even if that means (as it did for China) forcing a foreign nation to buy highly addictive drugs literally at gunpoint, ensuring that the silver Britain had used to buy tea from China, flowed back into the Empire again.
Before forcing India into a similarly less favourable trade relationship with Britain, some people thought about moving India to a gold standard. This would probably have been good for India, which maybe is why they didn’t do it. Having shifted Imperial strategy to settler-colonisation, a footnote by Trevelyan suggests that Australian gold (almost certainly gold from across the Kulin nation, mined and transported by armed government escort to the mint) would be followed by Australian men, which would (somehow…the author possibly hadn’t met many Australian men) Christianise this unfortunately ‘pagan’ bit of the British Empire filled with uneducated peasants who unaccountably prefer silver coins to British cotton products. Gold, Trevelyan suggested, was thus a moral imperative.
Reading Parliamentary debates in London, fans of an Indian gold standard were cowed by the difficulty of transitioning. Who would buy up the silver? Would India have a ‘double standard’ for a while? Ugh, that sounds messy. Economist Sunanda Sen says that the British Treasury always nixed gold currency for India. They were worried it would limit their supply of gold – and the Peel Act of 1844 meant that the quantity of British pounds needed for the economic expansions of the industrial revolution could only grow if the gold also grew.
So they didn’t do it. Around ten years after the 1861 run on silver coins the world was flooded with silver. Over-supply of silver meant that Indian currency came to be worth less. And that meant they were even more disadvantaged in trading with Britain, sending even more of the profits made from growing cotton to (a) settle the trade deficit they were now forced into and (b) pay the costs of their own colonisation, called ‘Home Charges’.
This is where the gold comes in.3
A Very Confusing Cycle of Cotton, Gold and Money
WTF was with Indian banks buying gold from the Melbourne Mint?
In the end I drew a diagram. It starts with trade bills. Merchants had a contract to buy and sell cotton. One of India’s banks would fund this (at a ‘discount’ of course – this was mostly how banks made money in those days, by ending up with the difference between the amount they pay on the contract and the final payment when the contract is finalised).
This was funded in gold. Literally, Kulin gold stamped with the bank’s stamp and shipped from Melbourne to (say) Mumbai. But what the merchant needed to pay for the raw cotton were Rupees. They needed to get those from the Indian Treasury.
So here’s the crazy bit. They sell the gold to India’s Secretary of State. That person – and, soon enough, the gold – is in London. The SoS gives them, in exchange, a piece of paper called a Council Bill, introduced in 1862 (the year after the run on silver). This Council Bill is redeemed in Rupees, which the Indian government has to include in their annual budget. Why? Because when gold was sold to the SoS, that gold was counted as the payment for Home Charges. Home Charges might sound like a warm fuzzy kind of phone bill to talk to your mum, but actually it meant paying for the government officials, military presence and whatever else the British wanted to use to rule India.4
When it came time to finalise the original trade bill, this was also done in silver Rupees. So the banks in India had to import a whole lot of gold, which they would then send to Britain, so they could have Rupees, which was what they actually needed to buy the cotton. But soon enough, the silver flooding the world also devalued the Rupees.
So, Indian banks were buying gold dear on one side of the world and selling it cheap on the other side. In order to supply satanic mills with raw cotton, which India was also coerced (by a tariff system) into buying back as cotton fabric.
I found letters in the Melbourne Mint archive asking what sort of discount Indian banks could get if the gold bar was a little less pure. The mint replied with the information that they always minted gold to a level of purity within a very narrow range. No discounts that way, soz.
Taking a Money View helps clear up this crazy thing
I haven’t seen the paper trail, but I am willing to bet India also paid for the transport of gold on both journeys. This seems crazy, not least because transporting gold seems pretty risky. Shipping gold not just once but twice is irrational.
Why didn’t the mint just ship it straight to London, instead?
This seems rational. But it is a bit like asking why my salary isn’t just deposited straight into Elon Musk’s bank account, since that is where it will end up anyway. The transactions, all the little steps, are how capitalism actually functions.
Capitalism is not so much a thing as a series of steps, which together forge and re-forge relationships between humans, humans and things and humans and other animals.
In this case, the problem was the quantity of silver coin. Like many others, I am mourning the loss of Perry Merhling who I didn’t know at all, but whose ‘money view’ is important to this project. The ‘survival constraint’ is central to the Money View and in this case applied to merchants wanting to buy cotton: there were not enough Rupees to buy the cotton that the satanic mills demanded.
There was no problem (apparently) with producing enough cotton. There was no problem with shipping it to England. The problem, at least in 1861, was getting sufficient coins to pay cotton growers. The coins were the blockage. Without them, everything stops. Or, at least, some of the satanic mills stop, which threatens the profitability of the industrial revolution.
The solution (such as it was, which SUCKED) was to link the supply of Rupees to the tribute that India was forced to pay because it was a colony.
The gold brought from Country belonging to multiple Aboriginal groups that fall under the Kulin nation (I think…this is not Country I am very familiar with so I hope someone will correct me if I’ve gotten it wrong) to India was matched to the contracts to buy cotton. This built a material connection between the physical money and the trade.
In turn it linked trade and empire. The Rupees needed to pay for the production of cotton was purchased with Kulin gold. That meant that the transaction between the banks and the Secretary of State gave the banks a claim on the Indian treasury, which ‘owed’ (cringe, ew) Britain tribute.
As long as the monetary value of the demand for Indian cotton didn’t exceed the tribute India ‘owed’ Britain, the supply of Rupees would be assured.
It also helped assure the supply of gold to Britain, where the quantity of currency was limited by the quantity of gold. Sunanda Sen wonders whether Britain could have maintained the gold standard without the Kulin gold that was trafficked through India. Which means the money view helps on the London end of things too. Having enough money was a problem there as well – at least, it would have been, if there was not enough gold. Again, this is related to the Peel Act.5
Stolen Kulin gold, minted and stamped in Naarm/Melbourne, shipped to Mumbai and then again to London. Well, it is not much of an exaggeration to say that a world finance system was built on this, a kind of laundering of Imperial misdeeds, draining value from Indigenous and Indian land to literally make money.
This post is part of my CH Currey Memorial Fellowship at the State Library of NSW.
(wtfjht_feed Oct. 19th, 2026 03:45 pm)
wtfjht_feed Oct. 19th, 2026 03:45 pm)
Today in one sentence: The Justice Department charged 28 legal permanent residents in California with voting-related crimes and arrested 11; Trump called a federal judge “a crazed lunatic” and declared that construction at East Potomac Golf Links would begin “IMMEDIATELY”; Trump signed an executive order creating a women’s health division at the National Institutes of Health, as well as a White House task force; Trump ordered an investigation into allegations that one of his top advisers promised presidential access in exchange for a Kennedy Center donation; 71% of Americans think the country is on the “wrong track”; 52% of likely voters support the Democratic candidate in their congressional district; and 31% of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as president.
1/ The Justice Department charged 28 legal permanent residents in California with voting-related crimes and arrested 11. All 28 appeared on a list of more than 20,000 voters the Trump administration claims are “likely noncitizens.” Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter accused California of “state-facilitated voter fraud,” and asked a federal judge to set aside the ballots from everyone on the list until their citizenship could be verified. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, however, said the department provided no evidence supporting its list and didn’t explain how it identified the voters. Los Angeles County election officials also refused to open a password-protected thumb drive containing the names, citing privacy and security protocols. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, meanwhile, called the 28 cases “a drop in the bucket” among the state’s 23 million registered voters. Noncitizen voting is extremely rare. (Associated Press / New York Times / Bloomberg / CBS News / Democracy Docket)
2/ Trump called a federal judge “a crazed lunatic” and declared that construction at East Potomac Golf Links would begin “IMMEDIATELY.” U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes questioned whether the Trump administration had misled the court about its plans to overhaul the public golf course, saying, “There is no universe in which all of this just coincidentally happens at the same time.” Last week, Reyes barred further tree removal through Oct. 26 after the National Park Service cut down hundreds of trees with little notice. Reyes wrote: “Breakneck speed to clear trees that posed no harm. The reason? Disputed. The budget? Unclear. The environmental impact? Unstudied. The urgency? None. Next steps: bulldoze hundreds more.” The Justice Department then sought to remove her from the case, citing hostility toward the government. Reyes denied the motion. (Politico / New York Times / Washington Post / ABC News / CNN / Associated Press / Wall Street Journal / NBC News)
3/ Trump signed an executive order creating a women’s health division at the National Institutes of Health, as well as a White House task force. The new division doesn’t replace the NIH’s existing Office of Research on Women’s Health, which was established in 1990. Trump, nevertheless, appeared unaware of its existence, asking, “Who the hell wouldn’t have a women’s health division?” White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will lead the new task force. (Associated Press / Washington Post / CBS News / NBC News)
4/ Trump ordered an investigation into allegations that one of his top advisers promised presidential access in exchange for a Kennedy Center donation. Ric Grenell allegedly promised Turkish billionaire Turhan Mildon “VIP events” and a chance to “get close with the administration, even with POTUS” in exchange for a donation. Mildon claimed, at Grenell’s direction, he wired $17.6 million to a Texas defense company, and that roughly $5.6 million was intended for the Kennedy Center, which Grenell was leading at the time. The Kennedy Center, however, never received the donation, and a White House official said the $17.6 million actually came from Congo’s Finance Ministry. (Axios)
poll/ 71% of Americans think the country is on the “wrong track” – the highest level of Trump’s second term. (NBC News)
poll/ 52% of likely voters support the Democratic candidate in their congressional district, compared with 44% for Republicans. Among registered voters, Democrats’ lead grew from three points in July to eight points in October. (Washington Post / ABC News)
poll/ 31% of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as president, while 66% disapprove. (Reuters)
The 2026 midterms are in 15 days; and the 2028 presidential election is in 750 days.
⏰ Dept. of Since I’ve Been Gone.
What just happened since my last update.
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White House press secretary Katie Zacharia was fired after five days on the job and one briefing. Trump said he had urged Zacharia to “reconsider” the job, saying: “The news has been so nasty to her. I’ve never seen anything like it actually. And I said to her, ‘honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider. You think about it, but I would reconsider.” Her first press briefing lasted about 14 minutes, where she spent most of the briefing reading prepared remarks praising Trump. She also called herself a lawyer, despite failing her bar exam. When asked which state she passed the bar in, Zacharia replied: “When I moved to China.” She is the shortest-tenured press secretary. Anthony Scaramucci, who served 11 days as White House communications director during Trump’s first term, said: “Records are made to be broken. But I take no pleasure in other people’s pain.” (New York Times / Axios / NBC News / Wall Street Journal / Washington Post / Mother Jones / The Hill / Politico)
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White House chief of staff Susie Wiles reportedly helped arrange a Sean Hannity interview an insider called a “sanctioned hit.” Hannity grilled Katie Zacharia, who was not Wiles’ preferred press secretary, over her first briefing and failed bar exam. She was fired hours later. Another insider said Wiles and White House spokesperson Danielle Alvarez “fed her to Hannity.” Meanwhile, a top Trump adviser said Wiles herself was in “some deep shit,” as Trump is reportedly considering replacing her amid his falling poll numbers. Trump, however, insisted there was “zero chance” he would replace her. [Editor’s note: An earlier version of the Politico report mischaracterized White House chief of staff Susie Wiles’s role in then-press secretary Katie Zacharia’s interview with Sean Hannity. Wiles reportedly had no direct role in booking the Hannity interview, but instead “offered positive reinforcement” for Zacharia.] (Politico / Mediaite / CNN / Zeteo)
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Elon Musk donated $158 million last month to the main super PAC supporting Senate Republicans, which immediately sent the money to the group supporting Ken Paxton’s Senate campaign in Texas. Musk gave the Senate Leadership Fund $75 million on Sept. 9 and $83 million on Sept. 23. The day after each donation, it sent the same amount to Texas PAC. (Wired / New York Times / CBS News / CNBC)
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Elon Musk reportedly proposed slowing down Ukraine’s military-grade Starshield satellite system to Trump. The restrictions disrupted Ukraine’s ability to intercept Russian drones for 24 hours. Musk, however, denied responsibility and said the restrictions on Starshield were decided by the U.S. military and “ultimately POTUS.” Trump also denied involvement, insisting that “it wasn’t us.” The restrictions came at the time of Trump’s demands that Ukraine stop striking Russian oil refineries and warnings that intelligence-sharing could be cut off. (The Telegraph / Axios)
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Trump waived new Russia sanctions and tariffs on major buyers of Russian oil and gas two days before they were set to take effect. He cited the national interests, but didn’t explain why. (CNBC / Wall Street Journal / CNN / CBS News / New York Times)
- Three years ago today: Day 1003: "Be ready."
- Four years ago today: Day 638: "A conspiracy to defraud the United States."
- Six years ago today: Day 1369: "An absence of national leadership."
- Eight years ago today: Day 638: Discord.
- 9 years ago today: Day 273: Who knows.
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This all-new Cohors Cthulhu Bundle presents .PDF ebooks of Cohors Cthulhu, the 2d20 System tabletop roleplaying game from Modiphius Entertainment of cosmic horror in the Roman Empire.
Bundle of Holding: Cohors Cthulhu
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(crooked_timber_feed Oct. 19th, 2026 12:57 pm)
crooked_timber_feed Oct. 19th, 2026 12:57 pm)What Makes Modern Online Casinos So Popular
Online casino sites have become one of the most vibrant corners of the digital home entertainment globe. Their appeal lies in the blend of excitement, convenience and constant technology. Gamers no longer need to visit physical venues to experience real-money video gaming. Rather, they can open a mobile application or web browser and access hundreds of video games within mins. This comfort has actually created a brand-new generation of gamers who value adaptability and rapid access over standard online casino routines.
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Mobile video gaming has changed the entire online casino site market. Most players currently access their preferred video games through smartphones instead of desktops. This shift has actually encouraged operators to optimise every attribute for smaller screens, making mobile experiences smoother, quicker and extra user-friendly.
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Safety and security, Licensing and Responsible Video Gaming
Depend on is the structure of on-line casino success. Reliable operators obtain permits from recognised authorities and comply with stringent regulative regulations. These permits verify that games make use of audited arbitrary number generators which payouts adhere to clear regulations. Financial systems additionally play a important role, https://testtest-test.com/perevirka/ as encrypted transactions and modern safety devices secure sensitive information.
At the same time, responsible gaming devices assist make sure that players remain in control. Functions such as deposit limits, cooldowns and self-exclusion choices produce a safer and a lot more encouraging atmosphere. The industry remains to progress with new policies made to protect gamers from risky behaviours.
The Future of Online Gambling Establishment Enjoyment
The future of on the internet gaming points towards also better technology. Virtual reality experiences, boosted live-dealer communications and ultra-fast settlement systems are ending up being extra common. Game programmers explore motion picture graphics and advanced technicians that make electronic play extra immersive.
As innovation continues to advance, on the internet casino sites will likely deliver a lot more customised experiences. Tailored suggestions, adaptive rewards and interactive features will certainly shape the next stage of electronic gaming. The market reveals no signs of decreasing, and gamers can anticipate an progressively abundant and appealing atmosphere in the years ahead.
(girlgenius_main_feed Oct. 19th, 2026 04:00 am)
girlgenius_main_feed Oct. 19th, 2026 04:00 am)The Girl Genius comic for Monday, October 19, 2026 has been posted.
Someone in my group wants to run Mayfair's DC Heroes, which of course raises the question, can I still design a DC Heroes character?
I am feeding someone's cat and since the bus trip over there takes between 30 and 90 minutes, I had time to kill. My starting point was an NPC from a post I won't look up, a moderately cranky middle-aged woman with low-end brick abilities.
( Read more... )
I am feeding someone's cat and since the bus trip over there takes between 30 and 90 minutes, I had time to kill. My starting point was an NPC from a post I won't look up, a moderately cranky middle-aged woman with low-end brick abilities.
( Read more... )
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