Justin Pearce

Revenge perhaps? I wouldn't be surprised if Canadian shopping malls have been full of 'Last Christmas' for the past 40 Decembers.

I do understand why US academics who are appalled by what successive administrations have done over decades feel a need to write this kind of piece. But the apparent lack of interest in Angolan politics or Angolan agency, or in the last 30 years' worth of scholarship, is troubling.

Though 'dim sum' can also be read as 'gloomy total'.

You've now given me the idea of turning my surplus kombucha scobys into chew toys.

Where to start? Author seems to be a species that I've encountered at my institution too - academic title, mastery of jargon, no idea what a lecture room looks like or what we teach. Suspect both the article & author's bio are AI generated.

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you have seen in the wild
(In Africa predictable answers are easy - I'll avoid those & name beasts that don't appear on banknotes & which brought delight)
Chimpanzee (Uganda)
Banded rubber frog (Mozambique)
Springhare (South Africa)
Coypu (Czechia)
Reindeer (Norway)

That's a killer of a headline.

Can't even say 'crusade' these days.

🤣Just waiting for the Twitter posts waxing nostalgic about 1214.

I've never experienced Thanksgiving, but I do remember on one visit to the US wondering why I was getting a sugar rush from the salad buffet.

So nice to find these hidden little corners of non-US Bluesky.

cc @tomsavage.bsky.social @cozy-reb.bsky.social

Gmail users, take note and change your settings.

40 years ago Camnet would have been Charlesmarkstead.

Many of the elements are obvious cognates e.g. burg/bury, bad/bath, heim/ham. Never occurred to me that the thorp in English place names was a cognate of dorf, but makes perfect sense in terms of the other sound correspondences between the languages. I could be here all night / nacht...

Also interesting how some are actually English place names - I spotted Bath, Horsham and Hove - and many others sound like they could be.

Superb. Particularly Nethersex, though if Sachsen translates as Sex (presumably by analogy with Sussex, Essex etc) I don't know why they can't also have Sex-Onhold and plain Sex.

Great Mainz think alike.

C'est si Bonn.

Ramaphosa confirms Trump’s G20 u-turn Ramaphosa’s confirmation now places the United States back in the room for the weekend negotiations at Nasrec

Looks like you might be right... expect a frenzy of poster-hanging on the streets of Gauteng this weekend. I'm reminded of 1994 when Buthelezi came late to the party and they had to stick a new box onto the ballot papers.
mg.co.za/politics/202...

I'm not in Jozi so have only seen the photos. I hope Trump isn't in the pantheon - he's not in any of the photos I've seen. One advantage of him not coming, at least.

Highway in Johannesburg with large posters of world leaders including Narendra Modi and Javier Milei.

Bad enough hosting actual fascist leaders - did we really need to adopt the aesthetics too? #G20

Happy birthday for next week!

Parabéns Angola! 11.11.1975-11.11.2025 Um prazer te ter conhecido quase a metade da tua via.

Always on my mined...

I haven't seen Bloom. But I nominate Watchmen, Zack Snyder's 2009 film of the graphic novel: it assumes you will inhale 40 years of backstory from a montage during opening credits. Honorable mention for Jane Campion's Portrait of a Lady, which confirmed my suspicion that the book is unfilmable.

@srd.bsky.social This is a fascinating connection between the ideas of the two Mamdanis!

The Morality of Revolution The Morality of Revolution offers the first historical examination of urban cleanup campaigns and reeducation camps in socialist Mozambique. The book present...

Similarly in Mozambique - this is a fascinating study of Frelimo's 'urban cleanup campaigns' that reveals a preoccupation with the city as a place of moral decay.
www.ohioswallow.com/978082142583...

Mbeki calls for change in South Africa’s presidential election process During an address on Saturday, former president Thabo Mbeki said a National Dialogue was urgently needed to solve South Africa’s many crises and called for a reform of the country's presidential elect...

Bit rich coming from the person who was VP when the 1996 Constitution was approved and was the first president to be elected with that Constitution in force.
www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...

If the road accident in Paris hadn't happened, we'd be appalled today if Charles tried to bring a case of Rex versus Ex.