Alison Lurie's Foreign Affairs is the gift that will keep on giving, for a while at least.... Here's a great quote “In any social network there are always some people who are as it were ‘friends’ by social compulsion, though if the net fell apart they would seldom or never see each other. It is... Continue Reading →
Book Review: Alison Lurie’s “Foreign Affairs”
Alison Lurie, I've read a bunch of books and feel that I can mention that there are common themes and methods. Her books tend to involve "smart" people, (or at least people with lots of cultural capital, especially around English Literature,) who think that they know themselves very well. Thanks to their knowledge of narratives,... Continue Reading →
Two climate videos, one glaring silence (spoilers – it’s social movements)
Thanks to Twitter, I saw two videos yesterday - one which is very recent, about the so-called "activist industrial complex" and the other from three years ago by the Financial Times, presented by the actress Nicola Walker. Both, in their ways, are good to think with, but perhaps not for the reasons their creators think.... Continue Reading →
Spoof newspaper in the aftermath of Climate Camp (2006)- “Socialist Lurker”
So, there was a trend in the late 1990s and early 2000s for activists to do spoof newspapers - Metro, Evening Standard, Manchester Evening News, Financial Times. These varied in wit and skill, and usually met with, well, injunctions and so forth. But they were entertaining for a moment or two. In the aftermath of... Continue Reading →
Looting the Ivory Tower: on the plausibility of keeping warming to 1.5 degrees
"The plausibility of a 1.5°C limit to global warming Social drivers and physical processes" https://youtu.be/YRiE-ZQtYpk It's a report by some folks in Hamburg. You can read the report here https://cliccs.uni-hamburg.de/about-cliccs/news/2023-news/2023-01-31-pm-climate-futures-outlook.html… We're just not acting fast enough. We've got one foot lightly (VERY) lightly on the brake, and a lead foot on the gas (aka accelerator).... Continue Reading →
#DrJuggles and… climate science
https://twitter.com/marcsrhudson/status/1629491958056984577 This video is rougher than a badger's arse. Please help add to this list of what I need a) a microphone for decent sound quality b) the camera further back to catch the tops of the balls c) better juggling skills (!) d) e) f) etc
Video: Neologism of the day – “Decruitment”
I have made up a bunch of words (smugosphere, emotacycle, egofodder etc) to try to label phenomena that are easily missed if you don't have the vocabulary (I missed them for decades, until the penny dropped). I am going to make a video for each and - ideally- put them on Twitter. But at the... Continue Reading →
Dr Juggles and the Energy Quadrilemma
Using juggling as a metaphor for dealing not only with the energy "trilemma" - of security of supply, price and climate change, but the energy quadrilemma - all the other environmental problems too... Rough as a badger's... bottom, but you get the idea. You're allowed to a) laugh (at/with/whatever - we all need a laugh)... Continue Reading →
Looting the Ivory Tower: “Intersectionality & #Climate Justice: A call for synergy in climate change scholarship.”
I have a template now, and a rhythm that works for me. Here's the latest. Tell me what you think, how they could be improved (highlighting words in the quotes when I am reading aloud would be one thing. Leaving out some of the 'comic' asides would be another. What else? https://twitter.com/marcsrhudson/status/1626294996511997952
Manchester Labour’s utter naked contempt for democracy, part 94 (thousand).
So, Manchester City Council has 96 Councillors. 91 belong to Labour, and a more craven bunch of neoliberal stooges you are unlikely to find this side of the Conservative party. The City Council has an executive system, meaning 10 of the (Labour) councillors run the show, with a "cabinet" and a "leader." There are six... Continue Reading →
marchudson.net 