This slender volume - containing three essays entitled "The Sin of Height," "On the Level," and "The Loss of Depth"- is an erudite, reflective and profound meditation on love and loss. Of course it is - this is Julian Barnes we are talking about here. The first two sections deal with early hot-air ballooning (including... Continue Reading →
Various people have called me several shades of cunt for my take on XR. They either ignore, or never bothered to find out, that back in 2019, when it was kicking off, I conducted and posted interviews with participants on Manchester Climate Monthly, offered to put together a private event with old and new activists... Continue Reading →
This one's a keeper. Eleanor Bron translates and introduces a work by German author Christine Bruckner. The work is 11 speeches/musings by real (including Gudrun Ensslin, Mrs Martin Luther) and fictional (Desdemona, Mary, Effi Brest etc) women as they reflect on their lives and how they have been shaped (and mostly constrained/contained) by men and... Continue Reading →
A house move is a chance to reflect (because I don't ever ruminate otherwise, oh not at all). So many books. So so many bloody books. So many of them not read (so many not written, too.) You get to thinking, as per my Twitter header - What has it all been for? What am... Continue Reading →
States don't just create external boundaries. As per Cesaire, the technologies are being brought into the metropole.
I often rant, sorry, "offer calm, considered and reasoned critiques" about academics who study nonsense badlystudy important things badlystudy important things well but write in turgid academese These things make me angry. But for once, I am angry after reading an academic paper, not about any of the above (because it is paper which studies... Continue Reading →
Here's a lovely demonstration of how recycling and return schemes don't necessarily provide ALL the "savings" you might hope for. "We" are not going to get out of this with just "efficiency." But then, "we" are not going to get out of this at all, are we?
There are dozens upon dozens of ways to crack a movement. One of the more inventive ones is the snitch jacket - to make it seem like someone who is NOT an agent/asset/informer/source actually is. And given that it is very difficult (impossible!) to prove that you are NOT an agent/asset/informer/source, well... This from a... Continue Reading →
"Thankfully "Behind the Blip" doesn't subscribe to the fetishes of computer science. The essence of software is revealed through sarcasm. "Sarcasm is truth," Fuller claims. For a frequent collaborator with the collective Mongrel, this is quite apposite: the term comes from an an Ancient Greek verb meaning 'to tear flesh like dogs'. Those accustomed to... Continue Reading →
Have moved house. Had to pack up one or two books and then unpack them. You'd think this would cure me of buying more. Ha ha ha ha. It's a damn pathology. I understand its roots, (I think), I understand the costs. I choose not to act to cure that pathology. Human, all-too-human. But I... Continue Reading →
