1. The next free online NATESOL event is at 16:00 UK time next Thursday, 15^th January: Languages Through Music: Songs to Engage, Inspire, and Connect with Learners with Desta Haile. More info and registration here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGw29N5zXmi0DmYAJFcVbDCxIEsc_nQOeF-RVE-I54ssDKSw/viewform

2. Ali Ansari has written a number of accessible pieces on Iran for Engelsberg Ideas (EI). Here’s his latest, The deep roots of Iran’s economic crisis https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-deep-roots-of-irans-economic-crisis/

The worsening economic crisis in Iran reflects a deeper malaise in the structure of the political economy of the country. Defined by a ‘mercantile mentality’, Iran’s economy is shaped by short-termism, opaqueness and a lack of accountability that determines, and is itself defined by, the absence of the rule of law. Such a mentality does not preclude industry, but it does define the way it is managed, with widespread inefficiency and corruption acting as a deterrent to any form of private investment. This failure to think strategically is most explicitly and catastrophically witnessed in the state’s environmental and water management. The Islamic Republic of Iran has a political economy defined by the ceaseless extraction of wealth, with a system of governance that is defined by it and reinforces it: it is the extractive state par excellence.

Here’s a link to Ali’s earlier pieces for EI https://engelsbergideas.com/author/ali-ansari/

and here’s one to (The?) Best of Engelsberg Ideas in 2025 https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/best-of-engelsberg-ideas-in-2025/

3. The latest post on Ethan Mollick’s blog, One Useful Thing, is – as usual! – one that I don’t fully understand. I got the gist, though, as I imagine most readers will: Claude Code and What Comes Next https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/claude-code-and-what-comes-next

I opened Claude Code and gave it the command: “Develop a web-based or software-based startup idea that will make me $1000 a month where you do all the work by generating the idea and implementing it. i shouldn’t have to do anything at all except run some program you give me once. it shouldn’t require any coding knowledge on my part, so make sure everything works well.” The AI asked me three multiple choice questions and decided that I should be selling sets of 500 prompts for professional users for $39. Without any further input, it then worked independently… FOR AN HOUR AND FOURTEEN MINUTES creating hundreds of code files and prompts. And then it gave me a single file to run that created and deployed a working website (filled with very sketchy fake marketing claims) that sold the promised 500 prompt set. You can actually see the site it launched here, though I removed the sales link, which did actually work and would have collected money. I strongly suspect that if I ignored my conscience and actually sold these prompt packs, I would make the promised $1,000.

4. The Baillie Gifford Prize https://www.thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk/ seems to have survived the brouhaha over Baillie Gifford’s sponsorship of literary festivals https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/jun/06/baillie-gifford-cancels-all-remaining-sponsorships-of-literary-festivals and remains the UK’s premier prize for non-fiction. Here’s last year’s shortlist https://www.thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk/books-and-authors?years=2025&accolades=winner|shortlist&genres=#filter and here’s more on Helen Garner’s winner, How to End a Story: Collected Diaries, including a podcast/video interview with her https://www.thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk/books-and-authors/how-to-end-a-story-by

5. And, finally, frivolously, and just in case you’ve not come across it yet, the deluxe version of Waffle https://wafflegame.net/deluxe