This morning was taking the tetrapaks to the recycling centre (presumably they are then incinerated or landfilled, but I've Done My BitTM), and listening to a podcast. Oh My. Oh My Oh My Oh MY. All the liberal handwringing. All the refusal to think about what would happen if you mashed up (as you should)... Continue Reading →
Simone Weil, cygnets, goslings and a heron in flight
A short walk, and not in the Hindu Kush. Just to the marina and back (roughly 80 minutes). Weighted jacket and two bricks, as usual. Listened to the end of a podcast about James Baldwin (interesting comparisons with his essay "Notes of a Native Son" and Ginny Woolf's "A Room of One's Own.") Then a... Continue Reading →
Cygnets, herons, existentialism and James Baldwin (again).
For shifting lard I tend to a) overeat less b) yomp more. Fascinating, eh? Well, it's working, and more importantly I am getting to see some wildlife and listen to some podcasts. In theory I am going to blog each yomp. In reality I won't. But anyhoos, the times I do will include a) links... Continue Reading →
On climate movements and pathologies, cities etc.
Just got a lovely Twitter reply - Marc. I’ve decided I’m going to get into your stuff on climate movements. Where do I start? What has worked, what doesn’t, what’s needed next. That kind of thing. Especially anything practical at city level. This request sounds lazy but I’m very time poor. Thanks! So, this is... Continue Reading →
James Baldwin, the UK climate “movement” and the Safety Dance – what is to be done?
James Baldwin was a very smart guy. For the purpose of this blog post, the key insight is from a January 1962 New York Times column, in which he wrote "not everything that can be faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." And so on to the UK climate... Continue Reading →
Newsflash! Old coot finds new coot
Second 4hr30m+ yomp today. Same distance (basically to Stafford and back), but carrying an extra house brick (in a back pack) this time. Will increase the distance, and the weight. In future will make sure to be carrying enough water (today ah depended upon the kindness of strangers...) Anyhoos, right at the end, just as... Continue Reading →
Homo Sapiens Rectiens – or “you hairless apes are assholes”
I just had a letter in the FT, about John Carpenter's "Starman". It made me realise there is a film season to be done about sci-fi films and novels about how "we" appear to intrstellar visitors. Novelistically you could go for War of the Worlds, where (as HG Wells says the Martians are merely doing... Continue Reading →
Letter #10 in the FT!! On John Carpenter’s Starman and homo sapiens as asshole…
Whoop!! My tenth letter published in the FT (mostly they are on climate, but also Tom Lehrer etc, and with a roughly 50% success rate of submit-appear). https://www.ft.com/content/bdf57e59-aba0-4f81-ae5c-872bbcd3c9ec In his letter (April 30) responding to Anjana Ahuja’s column about the now fixed Voyager 1 (“Rejoice! Voyager 1 is back from the dead”, Opinion, April 26),... Continue Reading →
Podcast recommendations given and sought. Climate, energy, psychoanalysis, film noir etc
Have gotten back into the habit of long (3 to 4 hour plus) walks along the canal, feeding moorhens, ducks, swans and now even geese. There's only so much talking to himself a man can do (into a dictaphone), so podcasts have become the Way Forward. Below are some recommendations from me, but also I... Continue Reading →
Compulsory (institutional) optimism – or “from straws in the wind to dust in the wind”
I just read an article on a newspaper website about a New Politics that is apparently coming. The article came recommended by people I (still) respect, and was written by a commentator who is sincere, diligent and intelligent. And you know where this is going.... The article was, if not actually pants, then, well, pants-adjacent.... Continue Reading →
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