Hardy Scholarship: A new guide, Great Things – Hardy’s Hostelries, maps 53 real pubs and inns tied to Thomas Hardy’s fiction, with photos, quotes, and notes on venues that have vanished or changed hands. Straussian Politics & Reading Culture: Michael Anton’s Studies in Machiavellian Political Philosophy doubles down on close, insider-style interpretation of Machiavelli and other political thinkers. Publishing & Controversy: Cambridge professor Jason Arday, amid plagiarism allegations, cancels book-tour events for his memoir Great And Unfortunate Things. Academic Freedom in India: JNU cancels an Umar Khalid book discussion, citing “non-disclosure of the full facts,” while students accuse censorship. Egypt on the Shelf: Egypt: Recipes and Stories From an Ancient Land pushes back on publishers’ claims that “Egypt isn’t known for its food,” compiling 150+ recipes across 14 places. Tech, Books, and Trust: A new Ethereum standard proposal (ERC-8338) targets “on-chain AI skill” verification problems, highlighting how downloadable instructions can be swapped or poisoned. AI Governance: Alaska’s AI policy gap is contrasted with other states’ child-safety and transparency rules. Meta in Court: Meta faces another U.S. trial over claims its platforms were made addictive for children. Popular Classics Rebound: Sales of Homer’s Odyssey jump in the U.S. after Christopher Nolan’s film.