Adam
afcbrodie.bsky.social
Adam
@afcbrodie.bsky.social
Blog here: https://afcbrodie.mataroa.blog/. I write about TTRPGs and history and probably other things.
'Because we can all imagine a mouse in a house with ease, it fits into more people’s narrative baseline and makes worldbuilding off of that baseline easier. But more importantly...it makes danger and reward more easily cognizable.' Prismatic Wasteland

www.prismaticwasteland.com/blog/id-rath...
I’d Rather Be a Mouse Than an Elf — Prismatic Wasteland
I love pretending to be an elf just as much as the next guy, but it pales in comparison to the joys of pretending to be a mouse with a sewing needle sword at my side.
www.prismaticwasteland.com
November 15, 2025 at 10:48 PM
3. 'The main changes since 2019 [to the barriers to housing and services indicator are] including core homelessness (which measures the most extreme and immediate forms of homelessness), average broadband speed, and patient-to-GP ratio as new indicators.' Campbell Brooks

tinyurl.com/yynfrswy
English deprivation data in 2025: What has changed?
The 2025 English Indices of Deprivation includes some changes in methodology, but the rankings of deprivation by constituency are similar to those in 2019.
tinyurl.com
November 15, 2025 at 10:48 PM
2. 'The problem has become, frankly, that without a strong but actually novel restatement of an orthodox – or at least anti-heterodox – hoplite position since 2013, the hoplite-heterodox scholars find themselves with no one to argue against.' Bret Devereaux

tinyurl.com/yc5pcy3j
Collections: Hoplite Wars, Part I: The Othismos over Othismos
This week (and next) we’re looking at hoplites, the heavy infantry of the ancient Greek poleis in the (early? mid? late?) Archaic and Classical periods, into the Hellenistic. In particular, I…
tinyurl.com
November 15, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Manchester Council: where is your Sonic representative
November 9, 2025 at 7:47 PM
3. Bit of a jarring shift in tone from the above, but Ophira Gottlieb's Mill piece about the Christmas-obsessed Councillor Pat Kearney is packed with perfect lines of writing.

manchestermill.co.uk/big-wheel-pa...
Meet the man taking on Manchester's 'Christmas Refusniks'
'I would start Christmas in August if I was allowed to'
manchestermill.co.uk
November 9, 2025 at 8:31 AM
2. 'A credible opposition, fresh CCM candidates, or a more populist (and popular) economic agenda have variously compensated for failures to achieve meaningful political inclusion or...acceptable economic order. In 2025, though, all three “fixes” have failed' (Michaela Collord)

tinyurl.com/2dn72fef
After the coronation
In Tanzania, the Gen Z uprising meets a state whose old bargains have collapsed.
tinyurl.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:31 AM
I read a blog recently (below) that argued the very best reviews enhance an audience's experience of their subject. The Prisoner's Dilemma does this.

(I feel ehhhh about the full case the blog makes, but 'enhance an audience's experience' is a great description)

dododecahedron.blog/2025/10/13/r...
Reviews: What Are They Good For?
Four functions of a review—and how most role-playing game reviews fall short (including my own).
dododecahedron.blog
November 6, 2025 at 9:18 PM
It is 'talk through the plot and our feelings about it' show, but one where the hosts' knowledge of the context is woven through the discussion of the plot, rather than consigned to an introduction.
November 6, 2025 at 9:18 PM
To go deeper on this - there's just so many great touches that set this show apart. The theme music and cover art are thoughtful and characterful, and I particularly like how every actor is given a small potted history that situates their work in the Prisoner as part of their broader career.
November 6, 2025 at 9:18 PM
I'm not wedded to it being weird fiction - it's good shit regardless - but wanted to make the case to see if the definition hung on it, and honestly, surprised myself a bit with how well YDoE looks in weird fiction costume.
November 5, 2025 at 2:18 PM
I think the only way it's not weird fiction is that it is not loudly breaking genre boundaries. However, it does shift between historical litfic and SF, and does so more explicitly than Hild/Menewood (not a weird text). So it's definitely troubling generic form, if not exactly breaking it.
November 5, 2025 at 2:18 PM
It is also a book focused on unsettling - both in the sensory experiences of the characters, and in its relationship to history. It is also literally a work that 'unsettles' Mexico.
November 5, 2025 at 2:18 PM
I think YDoE, depending on your 'reading weird fiction' definitions, could be a fully Weird text? It's irreal, both in the sense of its ending, and in the way the text/events fluctuate between 'real', 'delusion' and 'meta', without clear boundaries between.
November 5, 2025 at 2:18 PM
You Dreamed of Empires. On the outside edge of secondary, but tantalisingly so, close enough I'd want to invite it in. The Siege of Burning Grass - doesn't always feel like weird fiction, but the scene in the apartment really does. The Archive Undying...maybe not urban enough?
November 3, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Blogs above are posted because there was information and/or thinking in them I found really interesting. Hoping to do a post of this kind every weekend. If you found a blog similarly interesting, let me know. I'm always looking for more pieces to read!
November 1, 2025 at 3:35 PM
5. 'Bible sales are up roughly 40% since the pandemic, but church attendance is down to 30% from 42% two decades ago and 38% ten years ago.' (Kyla Scanlon)

kyla.substack.com/p/how-bible-...
How Bible Sales and Chipotle Explain the Economy
rate cuts, risk, and the casino economy
kyla.substack.com
November 1, 2025 at 3:35 PM
4. 'Japan faces a worker shortage as its population ages, and the country has been cautious about expanding immigration. Telexistence’s bots offer a workaround, allowing physical labor to be offshored' (Michael Beltran)

tinyurl.com/yc5j2the
Japanese convenience stores are hiring robots run by workers in the Philippines
Filipino tele-operators remotely control Japan’s convenience store robots and train AI, benefiting from an uptick in automation-related jobs.
tinyurl.com
November 1, 2025 at 3:35 PM
3. 'Stoke-on-Trent’s enormous growth in tech is unusual. It has easily overtaken other small cities in Britain such as Milton Keynes, Cambridge, Brighton, and Oxford...Thanks to Bet365, the city has a tech sector closer in size to much larger places.' (Tom Forth)

tomforth.co.uk/evilorirrele...
Evil or irrelevant: pick one.
Why I’d probably rather have an evil tech company in Leeds than a good one in London.
tomforth.co.uk
November 1, 2025 at 3:35 PM
2. 'The value of civil society stems precisely from its capacity to (a) restrain government from tyrannical behavior, and (b) create a realm of free engagement, where people can live their lives, and freely create and dissolve bonds among each other.' (Programmable Mutter)

tinyurl.com/yse9tbrz
What is civil society, and why should we care?
Ernest Gellner on the conditions of liberty.
tinyurl.com
November 1, 2025 at 3:35 PM