Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Status Reports
Status: General Culture (2025 - March)
(Text as at 07/04/2025 00:15:50)
Rationale for this Project
- For years now I’ve hidden reading and writing on general cultural or political issues as so-called ‘Background Tasks’ appearing on reports for my Thesis1.
- While there are genuine background tasks in this respect, and these will remain reported as above, what will appear in this report will have no real connection in this regard, and so I will no longer overstate the time spent on my Thesis.
- Engagement with cultural and political issues is an important part of life so it’s worth recording and reflecting on what I do in this regard.
- I only intend to include items requiring active involvement, so nothing like passive news-watching.
- A particular focus was to have been Aeon where the papers and videos are in no way related to my Thesis. However, because of time restrictions, these priority ‘unrelated’ items are rather rare these days.
- More recently I’ve obtained access to the London Review of Books (LRB) Archive, and have spent a considerable amount of time salting away interesting items.
- I’ve also decided to book to this project time spent listening to the BBC (and other podcasts) while doing the washing up.
Summary of Progress during January - March 2025
- I spent 89.5 hours in 25Q1 on this Project, or related work (156 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2024). That's 114.4% of the planned effort (149.6% YTD). Overall, 11.2% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 10.1% YTD) - as against 9.7% planned (6.5% YTD).
- Further details follow (for the latest Quarter: 25Q1):-
GeneralCulture (Total Hours = 89.5)
- 24Q4 Status Reports: General Culture (0.5 hours)
→ See "Admin - General Culture - Admin" (0.5 hours)
- "BBC - Miscellaneous iPlayer and Podcasts" (Write, 4.25 hours)
- BBC: Ancient Apocalypse - Death on the Nile (Read, 0.75 hours)
- BBC: Ancient Apocalypse - Mystery of the Minoans (Read, 0.75 hours)
- BBC: Ancient Apocalypse - The Maya Collapse (Read, 0.75 hours)
- BBC: Easter Island Origins (Read, 1 hour)
- BBC: Lucy Worsley - British History's Biggest Fibs - Series 1:1 - The Wars of the Roses (Read, 1 hour)
- BBC: Lucy Worsley - British History's Biggest Fibs - Series 1:3 - The Jewel in the Crown (Read, 1 hour)
- BBC: Lucy Worsley - Empire of the Tsars - Romanov Russia (Read, 3.25 hours)
- BBC: Lucy Worsley - Royal History's Biggest Fibs - Series 2:1 - The French Revolution (Read, 1 hour)
- BBC: Lucy Worsley - Royal History's Biggest Fibs - Series 2:2 - George IV and the Regency (Read, 1 hour)
- BBC: Lucy Worsley - Royal History's Biggest Fibs - Series 2:3 - The Russian Revolution (Read, 1 hour)
- BBC: Lucy Worsley - The First Georgians: The German Kings who made Britain - Episode 1 (Read, 1 hour)
- BBC: Lucy Worsley - The First Georgians: The German Kings who made Britain - Episode 2 (Read, 1 hour)
- BBC: Lucy Worsley - The First Georgians: The German Kings who made Britain - Episode 3 (Read, 1 hour)
- BBC: Lucy Worsley Investigates - 1066 (Read, 1 hour)
- BBC: Lucy Worsley Investigates - Jack the Ripper (Read, 1 hour)
- BBC: Lucy Worsley Investigates - Princes in the Tower (Read, 1 hour)
- BBC: Lucy Worsley Investigates - The Black Death (Read, 1 hour)
- BBC: Pompeii - The New Dig (Read, 5.25 hours)
- BBC: R4 - Human Intelligence - Collectors - Charles Darwin (Read, 0.25 hours)
- BBC: R4 - Human Intelligence - Collectors - Denis Diderot (Read, 0.25 hours)
- BBC: R4 - Human Intelligence - Collectors - Pamphila (Read, 0.25 hours)
- BBC: R4 - Human Intelligence - Collectors - Samuel Johnson (Read, 0.25 hours)
- BBC: R4 - Human Intelligence - Disruptors - George Washington (Read, 0.25 hours)
- BBC: R4 - Human Intelligence - Disruptors - Malcolm X (Read, 0.25 hours)
- BBC: R4 - Human Intelligence - Disruptors - Mary Wollstoncraft (Read, 0.25 hours)
- BBC: R4 - Human Intelligence - Disruptors - Socrates (Read, 0.25 hours)
- BBC: R4 - Human Intelligence - Educators - Diogenes the Cynic (Read, 0.25 hours)
- BBC: R4 - Human Intelligence - Educators - Mary Somerville (Read, 0.25 hours)
- BBC: R4 - Human Intelligence - Educators - Michael Faraday (Read, 0.25 hours)
- BBC: R4 - Human Intelligence - Educators - Peter Ramus (Read, 0.25 hours)
- BBC: Shakespeare: Rise of a Genius (Read, 0.25 hours)
- BBC: Simon Schama's Shakespeare (Read, 0.25 hours)
- BBC: The Black Pharaohs (Read, 1 hour)
- FT - Best Five Books - Ferdia Lennon - Historical Novels Set During the Classical Era (Read, 0.75 hours)
→ See "FT - Five Books - Various Subjects not covered elsewhere" (29 hours)
- "Harris (Robert) - Fatherland" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- Interaction - Discussions with Mike, Sylvia & Julie (1 hour)
→ See "Interaction - Discussion with Mike" (1 hour)
- "LPOC - Listed Heritage: The Listed Property Owners' Club Magazine" (Read, 3.25 hours)
- "LRB - London Review of Books" (Read / Write, 50.75 hours)
- "Nature - Nature Briefing" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- I scheduled a much-increased 6 hours / week for this project in 25Q1 and over-spent this somewhat. There would have been a much greater overspend had I not made an ‘accounting change’ and logged time spent on "Mantel (Hilary) - The Mirror and the Light" to my Philosophy of Religion2 project (because of its connection to the Reformation).
- Most of the time was spent on "LRB - London Review of Books". I’ve now finished downloading ‘all’ interesting articles up to the end of 2024. I’ve taken out a 6-month subscription from April 2025, but will leave further downloading until I’ve completed the Note3 that records these papers. Work creating and completing this is Note is covered under my Web Tools project4.
- I’ve been watching various ‘improving’ documentaries on the BBC while doing the washing up, recorded to this project. See5 "BBC - Miscellaneous iPlayer and Podcasts".
- Progress (if any) in the current quarter can be obtained from the General Culture section of my Summary Task List6.
Plans for the Near Future
- Having now completed "LRB - London Review of Books" I’ve reduced the allocation back to 2 hours / week, though this may not be sufficient.
- So, I won’t have much opportunity to address the items on the list below:-
- Continue / complete reading various books that have landed in my in-tray7:-
- "Allison (Graham) - Destined for War: can America and China escape Thucydides’ Trap?",
- "Doyle (Andrew) - The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World",
- "Freedman (Sam) - Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How We Fix It",
- "Harris (Robert) - Fatherland",
- "Ryback (Timoth W.) - Takeover", and
- "Somerset Maugham (W.) - Collected Short Stories: Volume 2"
- Aeon8: Continue collecting, reading and reviewing papers issued by Aeon & Psyche (and the occasional spin-off).
- "FT - Five Books - Various Subjects not covered elsewhere": Continue collecting, reading and reviewing relevant books.
- "BBC - Miscellaneous iPlayer and Podcasts": Continue listening / watching and try to write up brief notes.
- Coxes Farm: Read:-
- "Barratt (Nick) - Tracing the History of Your House: The Building, the People, the Past",
- "Brunskill (R.W.) - Vernacular Architecture: An Illustrated Handbook"
- "LPOC - Listed Heritage: The Listed Property Owners' Club Magazine",
- "Yorke (Trevor) - Timber-Framed Building Explained", and
- "Yorke (Trevor) - Tudor Houses Explained"
In-Page Footnotes:
Footnote 5: Footnote 7:
- This list had started to grow, so I've given it a very severe pruning.
- I may add culled books back in as and when.
Table of the Previous 5 Versions of this Note:
| Note last updated |
Reference for this Topic |
Parent Topic |
| 07/04/2025 00:15:50 |
1362 (Status: General Culture (2025 - March)) |
Status: Summary (2025 - March) |
Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note
To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.
Summary of Notes Citing This Note
To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.
Authors, Books & Papers Citing this Note
| Author |
Title |
Medium |
Extra Links |
Read? |
| Chapman (Colin) |
The Israel-Hamas war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict |
Paper  |
|
Yes |
| LPOC |
Listed Heritage: The Listed Property Owners' Club Magazine |
Book  |
|
|
Text Colour Conventions
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2025