My latest for the LRB is on the insights of David Graeber's 'baseline communism', and 'dialling to the left'. As @aycacu.bsky.social puts it, Graeber was an anthropologist of human possibilities.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
If I have to explain to you why it's a bad idea to use a machine that makes shit up 15-80% of the time AND destroys the environment AND contributes to rising fascism and genocide AND puts brilliant skillful creatives out of work by stealing their work, then we're already speaking different languages
'People say that we all have a book in us, and I don't believe that, but I do believe we all have a perfect radio interviewee in us, someone who can ramble on about our lives and dreams with great fluency,' writes @ashleighyoung.bsky.social.
www.rnz.co.nz/life/culture...
I refuse to use AI cause of its environmental impact, for ethical reasons eg. theft of creatives work + delegation of critical thinking 2 machine.I resent how it is now so difficult to avoid engaging with it + I resent the message that the media/companies are selling us that we need to adopt this.
When I post that #AI destroys everything I am not getting all hyperbolic and shit
He could so easily be talking about David Seymour and his cabal of astroturf orgs. #NZpol
No jokes.
Reminder to vote for your fave Aotearoa childrenโs books because it makes a HUGE difference to our local writers! Voting closes soon! www.whitcoulls.co.nz/kids-top50?s...
The question we need to keep asking people who wish to rewrite history about our Covid response, is how many of the 20,000 would you be comfortable killing?
Have some guts, put a number on it because thatโs the equation they wish to revisit.
John McGahern Book Prize shortlist revealed.
Congratulations to Ferdia Lennon, Alan Murrin, Sinรฉad Gleeson and Anna Fitzgerald, whose debut novels have been selected for this prestigious prize. Colm Tรณibรญn will choose the winner.
www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...
I never want to see another human trot across a crosswalk, hurry their stroller/kids/mobility device or rush a senior resident through an intersection or any road.
Itโs ridiculous, like weโve been gifted some incredible act of patience from those driving.
itโs even more demoralizing when the history youโre repeating is history you were around for the first time
I'm surprised when I see a motorist *not* playing with their phone while driving. Zero exaggeration.
If you walk or bike anywhere with regularity, you can easily see what's happening behind the wheel of cars through a lens that motorists can't see of other motorists. It's absolutely alarming.
"the social order is about who can speak in the public sphere, and who can not" - Shih-Diing Liu
Free to read, because it's an issue I think is important
www.feijoadispatch.nz/p/free-speec...
Comment: 'The housing emergency is more than a national disgrace that has produced record homelessness and mass suffering. It is an attack on our ability to foster meaning in our lives and to develop communities.'
www.ontheditch.com/comment-the-...
I wrote about the Trump administrationโs embrace of the pro-natalist movement, and the need to combat pro-natalist misogyny in cultural terms. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Good read about why libraries are more important than ever, and some of the fabulous things you can do in them. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...
โthere is no way to build the artificial mirror world that AI promises to construct without sacrificing this world โ these technologies consume too much energy, too many critical minerals, and too much water for the two to coexist in any kind of equilibrium.โ
"The British werenโt exporting democracy to New Zealand because they didnโt have it at home to export anywhere" Vincent O'Malley
e-tangata.co.nz/comment-and-...
โIt is as if any lid of liberal decency has been lifted, releasing a surge of manospheric pressure to saturate our social atmosphere.โ
Important commentary from my colleague!
Robert Reich quoted this on the TL and maybe the Nats could read it #nzpol
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
-Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953
This is high art
I cannot describe how much I oppose this, nor how furious it makes me.
Universities have to be at the forefront of addressing racial inequality, and doing so consciously with evidence, because if not the ones who do the research that shows this, then who else, and what use is our research?
โIn the meantime, we must hold politicians to account for these betrayals; force them to share power and resources with communities and ordinary citizens; and demand much stronger controls on campaign donations, lobbying and the power of corporations, while we still can.โ
Thank you Dame Anne Salmond
The Irish Times view on Irelandโs top 100 Irish fiction titles. It is striking that, whereas exile was once the fate of many of our talents, almost all the writers listed live and work at home. That is not to say that authors no longer struggle to find an audience.
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/edit...
This is a fun list! We are delighted to see Mike McCormackโs Solar Bones in the top 3! Also from Tramp Press is Doireann nรญ Ghrรญofa's A Ghost in the Throat and two novels by Sara Baume! Not bad for a very small independent publisher.
I wrote about Irishness, sort of
www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...
Yes, libraries are invaluable for their collections and the services they offer, but also social contact without the expectation to interact with anyone or spend money is so important to so many people
