This post, about Tom Lehrer, might help explain where I am coming from. In 1965 Tom Leher said that if we were going to get any songs about World War 3 “we’d better start writing them now.” Ditto for the Anthropocene (others have made a start - I will blog separately on that). So I... Continue Reading →
Tom Lehrer as the first great song-writer of the Anthropocene
The 37 or so songs of American satirist Tom Lehrer (1928- ) should all be part of the vocabulary of, well, everyone. They are dirty (Smut, I’m a market they can’t glut), sick (I hold your hand in mind and “Be Prepared” - “don’t solicit for your sister, that’s not nice; unless you get a... Continue Reading →
Moorhens, Disney and Hyenas
[Sobs] My illusions shattered. I've just seen two moorhens having a go at each other over food They were next to the towpath, on the grass. (yes, crappy photo - cameraphone, poor light etc) I was able to throw them food and not feed the ducks. [Ducks are, in my opinion, the humans of the... Continue Reading →
Letter to the Guardian abt CCS and George Monbiot (unpublished)
Last week George Monbiot had an article in the Guardian on Carbon Capture and Storage, which he isn't a fan of (for entirely justifiable and well-backed up reasons). The same day I sent in this letter below. It seems not to have made the cut. The Guardian did however publish three letters here that largely... Continue Reading →
Battles between technologies, defensive efforts go wrong, are irrelevant. – Twitter vs Bluesky et al.
Twitter is going to change the blocking function So people you blocked can see what you are posting. Then they can set up new accounts and spam you/troll you whatever. Musk-ovites will defend it blah bah. Other people will set up accounts on other platforms (Threads, Mastodon, Blue Sky) and for a while do ‘double... Continue Reading →
Salvation rituals, the US election and what next: “The last records from Norse Greenland are of a Christian marriage and a burning for witchcraft.”
Talking to a super smart friend (1) last night about the State of The World, we got onto the fun and games to be had before, during and after November 5 (the US ‘elections’). I found myself saying that all of us - even those who should and do know better - find ourselves hoping... Continue Reading →
“When the stresses get tectonic” – brilliant guest post about ‘What is to be done?’
A couple of weeks ago Australian novelist Tim Winton wrote a really provocative piece called Our leaders are collaborators with fossil fuel colonialists. This is the source of our communal dread, which I would strongly recommend. I wrote a response called Winton, Fanon and what is to be done: On climate, capture, Cesaire…, which got... Continue Reading →
Seeing things that aren’t there (yet): “The promise and peril of sociotechnical visions of the future”
A Looting the Ivory Tower on Sovacool, B. 2024. The promise and peril of sociotechnical visions of the future. Nature Reviews Physics. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-024-00774-5 Not all academic work is self-serving word-spinning helpfully quarantined behind paywalls and verbiage walls. I wouldn’t want to hazard a percentage, and it varies from a) field to field and b) taste to... Continue Reading →
JSO – why are you trashing your brand for pennies?
JSO is now an official nominee for the most cringe and WTAF email of 2024. Why? Just WHY? Just Stop Oil is a divisive organisation. They’re cool with that. Some lean into it, for good and baddish reasons. Glueing yourself to things, blocking oil refineries, blocking roads and - most notoriously of all - throwing... Continue Reading →
Film review: An Awful Lee Big Adventure
Film: Lee Director: Ellen Kuras Time: interminable, but officially 1hr 52 mins There’s a film involving flashbacks, the Blitz and women figuring out who they are. Made in 1995 it was called An Awfully Big Adventure.. Kate Winslet wasn’t in it. There’s a film involving flashbacks, the Blitz and women figuring out … Winslet in... Continue Reading →
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