David A. Conrad, Ph.D.
@davidaconrad.bsky.social
Author of AKIRA KUROSAWA AND MODERN JAPAN (2022)
Essayist for RAN 40th anniversary Blu-ray (2025)
New book on postwar Asia in progress
Part-time stay-at-home dad, adjunct, historian, old movie fan
Essayist for RAN 40th anniversary Blu-ray (2025)
New book on postwar Asia in progress
Part-time stay-at-home dad, adjunct, historian, old movie fan
Uh huh. And why do you think you know about it? Because you tracked down the evidence yourself? No, it's because somebody told you about it. A parent, a teacher, an author, a filmmaker.
You don't do things yourself. We all do things together, interactively.
You don't do things yourself. We all do things together, interactively.
November 13, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Uh huh. And why do you think you know about it? Because you tracked down the evidence yourself? No, it's because somebody told you about it. A parent, a teacher, an author, a filmmaker.
You don't do things yourself. We all do things together, interactively.
You don't do things yourself. We all do things together, interactively.
Why would that not be a normal thing for historians to do? It's the job. If you don't teach it, if you don't do the outreach, people forget it. It's clear you don't interact with many people.
November 13, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Why would that not be a normal thing for historians to do? It's the job. If you don't teach it, if you don't do the outreach, people forget it. It's clear you don't interact with many people.
What is a historian?
November 13, 2025 at 12:52 PM
What is a historian?
He came across quite specifically like a legacy admit fraternity bro who spends every day stoned but thinks he has more right to be where he is than anyone else. It was a surreal moment, because up to that point I'd heard only high praise for him, and was curious what that was all about.
November 13, 2025 at 3:13 AM
He came across quite specifically like a legacy admit fraternity bro who spends every day stoned but thinks he has more right to be where he is than anyone else. It was a surreal moment, because up to that point I'd heard only high praise for him, and was curious what that was all about.
I had this experience with Musk when he was just the private spaceflight guy. I had a gig subtitling videos, and I chose to subtitle one of his interviews. I turned it off after two minutes and backed out of the job because he was, right away, too annoyingly vapid to listen to. I was shocked.
November 13, 2025 at 3:11 AM
I had this experience with Musk when he was just the private spaceflight guy. I had a gig subtitling videos, and I chose to subtitle one of his interviews. I turned it off after two minutes and backed out of the job because he was, right away, too annoyingly vapid to listen to. I was shocked.
Every time communications with him come out, the people talking to him seem at pains to sound as hoity-toity and "hm quite" as possible. They're childishly emulating refined gentlemen and women. These are ostensibly intelligent people who ought to have been embarrassed to write or speak this way.
November 13, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Every time communications with him come out, the people talking to him seem at pains to sound as hoity-toity and "hm quite" as possible. They're childishly emulating refined gentlemen and women. These are ostensibly intelligent people who ought to have been embarrassed to write or speak this way.
Human Condition is such a must-see. Unreleasable, unmakeable for all but the few years in which it actually came out. Courageously honest yet courageously naive, expansively staged yet thoroughly unsolicitous of the audience. Nakadai is both everyman and iconoclast, exactly what's needed.
November 11, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Human Condition is such a must-see. Unreleasable, unmakeable for all but the few years in which it actually came out. Courageously honest yet courageously naive, expansively staged yet thoroughly unsolicitous of the audience. Nakadai is both everyman and iconoclast, exactly what's needed.
Bring this back: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFI_Wi...
FIFI Wild Cup - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 6, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Bring this back: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFI_Wi...
I would very much like to invert the polarity in that building.
November 5, 2025 at 3:12 AM
I would very much like to invert the polarity in that building.
I also think the scientists who discovered it - whether in the pharma labs or at universities, or likely at many places - would have made sure everyone knew who did it. There's Nobels in the bag, eternal appreciation, etc. It would be hard to buy them all off financially, and impossible personally.
November 4, 2025 at 1:25 PM
I also think the scientists who discovered it - whether in the pharma labs or at universities, or likely at many places - would have made sure everyone knew who did it. There's Nobels in the bag, eternal appreciation, etc. It would be hard to buy them all off financially, and impossible personally.
For the record, this cancer thing is NOT my deranged opinion. :)
November 4, 2025 at 12:43 PM
For the record, this cancer thing is NOT my deranged opinion. :)
I've got a dangerous RFK-like hypothesis about a health thing, completely uninformed because I'm not that kind of doctor, and I do not believe it with the critical part of my brain, but I can't help but feel that it just might be plausible. It would be irrelevant if true, but I'll still never share.
November 4, 2025 at 12:52 AM
I've got a dangerous RFK-like hypothesis about a health thing, completely uninformed because I'm not that kind of doctor, and I do not believe it with the critical part of my brain, but I can't help but feel that it just might be plausible. It would be irrelevant if true, but I'll still never share.
I taught a bit of this Thoreau piece today, and that's now two days in a row I've been moved to share it in response to some bullshit.
October 31, 2025 at 12:45 AM
I taught a bit of this Thoreau piece today, and that's now two days in a row I've been moved to share it in response to some bullshit.
I did have several good, sane conversations with older people (mainly Scottish, to be fair) about history and the state of the world. But I fear for younger (20s-40s) people, with whom I mostly had fairly alarming exchanges.
October 30, 2025 at 11:23 PM
I did have several good, sane conversations with older people (mainly Scottish, to be fair) about history and the state of the world. But I fear for younger (20s-40s) people, with whom I mostly had fairly alarming exchanges.
I don't know what it was like 20, 30 years ago, but witnessing it last year when I was in the UK was surprisingly indistinguishable from witnessing a US excuse for patriotism-signalling. The whole month seemed very largely divorced from the memory of a wasteful mistake of a war.
October 30, 2025 at 11:20 PM
I don't know what it was like 20, 30 years ago, but witnessing it last year when I was in the UK was surprisingly indistinguishable from witnessing a US excuse for patriotism-signalling. The whole month seemed very largely divorced from the memory of a wasteful mistake of a war.
Remember when the celebrity political chatterers of the day weren't abject cowards?
October 29, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Remember when the celebrity political chatterers of the day weren't abject cowards?
"They who have been bred in the school of politics fail now and always to face the facts. Their measures are half measures and makeshifts merely. They put off the day of settlement indefinitely, and meanwhile the debt accumulates."
You want a party of cowards. We already have it. It doesn't work.
You want a party of cowards. We already have it. It doesn't work.
October 29, 2025 at 9:43 PM
"They who have been bred in the school of politics fail now and always to face the facts. Their measures are half measures and makeshifts merely. They put off the day of settlement indefinitely, and meanwhile the debt accumulates."
You want a party of cowards. We already have it. It doesn't work.
You want a party of cowards. We already have it. It doesn't work.
I think it's underrated. It's not GoldenEye, in terms of the quality of the script, but it's also not as dated as GoldenEye. It's gotten better with age.
October 24, 2025 at 4:41 PM
I think it's underrated. It's not GoldenEye, in terms of the quality of the script, but it's also not as dated as GoldenEye. It's gotten better with age.
That was 80 years ago and before the vast majority of the people on the planet today or their parents were alive. Before most extent buildings in America were built, I daresay. If it's not indispensable history, it's at least too close to that to allow a dictator to destroy it without consequences.
October 24, 2025 at 3:02 AM
That was 80 years ago and before the vast majority of the people on the planet today or their parents were alive. Before most extent buildings in America were built, I daresay. If it's not indispensable history, it's at least too close to that to allow a dictator to destroy it without consequences.
I hope this isn't the full list of asks here. It's really mild stuff, on top of the fact that it won't be forthcoming.
October 23, 2025 at 12:56 PM
I hope this isn't the full list of asks here. It's really mild stuff, on top of the fact that it won't be forthcoming.
At this point, why should Mamdani want to be part of a club that would have Jeffries for a member.
October 23, 2025 at 2:13 AM
At this point, why should Mamdani want to be part of a club that would have Jeffries for a member.