Peoples Republic of Leith

Tawny owl

Six weeks ago, I picked up a year-old tawny owl with a broken leg off the main road near our home and dropped him off at our nearest vet.

After a few days, I received one of the most bizarre phone calls I’ve ever had, asking “So when are you coming to pick up your owl?” 🧵

He seemed a bit better over the last couple of seasons, and he was (audibly) more circumspect when they did topics he knew nothing about (e.g. phenomenology and the science-y stuff).

My PhD supervisor used to talk about top-down fears of 'mass politics'. After listening to that episode, I _finally_ got it ...

Bragg was much more circumspect when he was obviously out-of-his depth -- e.g. 'Phenomenology' and the more science-y topics -- and also over the last couple of seasons.

Bragg did indeed interrupt and talk over his guests (especially women), probably when IOT was doing topics he thought he knew something about.

I started regular listening to Melvyn Bragg and IOT back episodes after June 2016, when I couldn't bear BBC news anymore.

On the subject of Melvyn Bragg, I think of this Private Eye cartoon more frequently than I care to admit, when I’m struggling to raise the energy for a lecture or graduate supervision

I thought the episode you did on The Chartists was exemplary ..

spanish people and especially basque people do NOT play about Palestine

Post-'67 'two state' solutions have never really been plausible, for the same reason(s) that the '47 partition plan was never going to work.

Neither side can be expected to relinquish land, voluntarily, in the service of a notional political settlement.

And you've mentioned only one of the sorts of diatribe I spotted during a brief scroll ..

.. as others have noted, the Dems/Harris-backers went from saying that Arab-American/Muslim-American votes didn't really matter -- to blaming them for November 2024.

I just put 'Dearborn' into BSky, and noted multiple types of aggro ...

"British politics is stuck in a post-Brexit doom loop, addicted to spectacle politics and unable to engage with its actual problems"

As good an interpretation of the current moment as anything else I've seen.

🤦

"Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Here's what a no go zone in England *really* looks like.

Image

Firefighters are battling a large blaze on Edinburgh’s Arthur’s Seat, working through thick smoke as the fire spreads downhill.

The public is urged to avoid the area.

The fire has been burning for over two hours.

#Edinburgh #ArthursSeat

Interventions | Caring for Cats in Cairo: Urban Grammars of Compassion

By Amira Mittermaier

👉 www.ijurr.org/article/cari...

Jeffrey C Mays skeet of his recent article "Mayoral Candidates Navigate."

A particularly shoddy attempt at a 'hit piece' against Mamdani.

The NYT continues to astonish and appall ...

But the issues of planning reform and land ownership/control are likely too much for a structurally impoverished HMG to address ...

‘No shops, no schools’: homes in England built without basic amenities Thousands of properties going up without access to playgrounds, community infrastructure and even doctors

"Thousands of properties going up without access to playgrounds, community infrastructure and even doctors."

The underlying problem with both Abundance and the Starmer government's 'get Britain building': what actually gets built?

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Plaque at Jedburgh Abbey in Scotland: "Great Drain: River water was channelled along here to flush away waste from kitchen and toilets. Later in the abbey's history, the water powered the abbey mill and this channel served as a mill-lade up until 1950."

Saw this plaque yesterday at Jedburgh Abbey (in Scotland), and thought of you folks @neorsd.org ..

John Waterbury (1983) THE EGYPT OF NASSER AND SADAT; still the best single-volume treatment, albeit probably a bit dated in its approach

A carving of a plague doctor wearing a beaked mask, long robe, gloves, and a brimmed hat. He's also holding a pole, and he has a little satchel.

Next time you visit York, take note of this carving of a plague doctor outside York Minster Cathedral. It was recently carved out of magnesian limestone to replace figures eroded by time, as part of the ongoing restoration of the East Front. I love this little fellow.

Presumably he doesn't want to go the way of Jamaal Bowman ..?

Ayatollah by Steve Dahl & Teenage Radiation

And for more Tehran Hostage Crisis nostalgia, see Steve Dahl's "Ayatollah" (1979):

madmusic.com/song_details...

Sewers up there with refrigeration and vaccination in the annals of life-saving public health investment

Am curious as to how an African studies epistemological approach differs from other sorts.

Re the broader question of LLMs & academia: the hype-driven commentary, seemingly relentless, is just depressing ..

GPS is mainly for roads and paths not (recently) travelled. Or for when I have to drive and traffic congestion becomes an issue.