May 2012
44 posts
“This is what the bourgeois political economists have done: they have treated...”
– David Harvey, A Companion to Marx’s Capital (via daveomitchell)
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“Never regret thy fall,
O Icarus of the fearless flight
For the greatest...”
– Oscar Wilde (via mirroir)
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I'm going to mark the Diamond Jubilee with a 21...
It’s the only way I’ll still be sane on Wednesday…
Meanwhile, my father’s jetting off to Portugal to escape all this Diamond Jubilee shit and cover a sailing race or something. Jammy git.
In unrelated news, I’m feeling much better about my exams, having got 40/40 in English coursework and 47/50 in History coursework. Woop!
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Why America Failed: The Roots of Imperial Decline →
How bad is it?
Pretty bad. Here is a sample of factlets from surveys and studies conducted in the past twenty years. Seventy percent of Americans believe in the existence of angels. Fifty percent believe that the earth has been visited by UFOs; in another poll, 70 percent believed that the U.S. government is covering up the presence of space aliens on earth. Forty percent did not know whom the...
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“And don’t tell me God works in mysterious ways. There’s nothing so mysterious...”
– Catch-22, Joseph Heller (via cottonbutts)
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Post-exams reading list
Yeah, I really don’t like stopping, and the four month long summer that I’m oh-so-close to means I’ve already got a healthy stack of books to work my way through. Hopefully accompanied by some more glorious sunshine and a decent drink, but this is England, after all.
The French Revolution — G. Lefebvre
The Classical World — R.L. Fox
Late Victorian Holocausts...
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americagiveup:
Guillemots - Trains To Brazil
...
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tobuildamountain-deactivated201 asked: So you have the works of Shakespeare and Marx. What would your book of choice be?
Anonymous asked: Who would be your "desert island philosopher"?
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The Week
Loading up the offline record I keep of all the stuff I write for this blog, I was rather alarmed to discover that over the past six months or so I’d written ore than 30,000 words for this blog. At this stage of the academic year, it’s safe to say I’m wishing I’d shown similar zeal for my subjects. Anyway, enough regret. This week’s been pretty good, I turned nineteen on Tuesday, got a MacBook,...
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Anonymous asked: Chomsky or Foucault? xoxo
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“In Venezuela Chavez has made the co-ops a top political priority, giving them...”
– Naomi Klein (via fyeahnoamchomsky)
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“Aside from some academics and members of the business community, the term...”
– Noam Chomsky and the Struggle Against Neoliberalism
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Anonymous asked: Are you concerned the Egyptian elections won't be pharaoh?
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A New Dark Age →
Most scientists, on achieving high office, keep their public remarks to the bland and reassuring. Last week Nina Fedoroff, the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), broke ranks in a spectacular manner.
She confessed that she was now “scared to death” by the anti-science movement that was spreading, uncontrolled, across the US and the rest of the western...
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The fate that awaits me
Abe: So, I saw your ex boyfriend's Facebook a few days ago, and there was a photo of him with a magnum of Champagne, and he'd posted something like "great to be back in Oxford, sipping Champagne in the college gardens", and I just thought, "what a pillock".
Me: Yeah, I'd never turn into that kind of Oxford student.
Abe: I'd like to point out that you're currently in lying Regent's Park drinking a bottle of Prosecco.
Me: Oh, bugger.
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I turn nineteen tomorrow.
I’m not sure how I feel about being nearly twenty.
In less than 24 hours I’m going to be legal to buy alcohol in Canada. Woo!
Also, it’s now exactly a month until my exams are done and sixth form is over.
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A slight return
It’s been a really long time since I’ve properly written something on here, and much as I’d like to pretend that’s just because there’s been nothing quite absurd enough to write about, it’s mostly just been exams stress. I mean, let’s face it, in the past week or two, we found out that instead of running the country, our dearest Prime Minister spends most of his time sending texts ending ‘lots of...
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“Since the sixteenth century, the New World has been the name given by Europeans...”
– Under Eastern Eyes by Alain Supiot in the New Left Review
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“Sure, Maggie had a vagina and got to be Prime Minister, but she didn’t half pull...”
– The Vagenda, “GlamURGH strikes again” (via amybrookheimers)
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Anonymous asked: I absolutely didn't forget about that, let me reassure you on that point. And do you wish to know why ? Because every country around us, whether it is Greece, Spain and soon Italy, has been collapsing. And we didn't. Now we changed our President, we'll definitely be the next ones, and that's the actual message I wanted to tell you, because in my opinion, you can't solve...
Anonymous asked: I'm not from Valenciennes but from Lille, so your stalking stuff is messing up ;) I think you didn't read Hollande's program carefully. The ECB's President Mario Draghi said his program was incoherent as it intended to increase taxes and government spendings. He's precisely doing to opposite. Is this what you call a "good program" to boost growth ? I just hope...
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Anonymous asked: Why do you even care about what's going in France, you're not even a French and you don't know anything about what's "really" happening ! Hollande did win but he's going to put this country down so make ensure that you have a sufficient knowledge before crying for joy!
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Feedback from Bristol University
After several months of waiting, Bristol University sent me some feedback on why they rejected me; and I have to say, they went for the jugular.
Dear Euan,
Unfortunately, the Admissions Tutors felt that your personal statement was not as strong when compared with those to whom offers were made. In particular it did not convey evidence of motivation for and practice of the subject outside of...
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Hollande 2012!
Exit polls
Hollande: 51.90%
Sarkozy: 48.10%
Congratulations to the Parti Socialiste! — An even better result than in 1988!
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Boris, Boris, Boris
At some time around midnight, the London Mayor was declared to be Boris Johnson again. Given how late it was before the results were announced, one might say that Boris became our night mayor. In fact, the count took so long that it was starting to look like France might get a new President before we got a new Mayor in London.
The re-election of Boris was certainly disappointing, especially given...
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What does Boris Johnson have in common with the...
Too much Eton.
In other news, I voted for the first time today, and I feel all big and grown up and stuff. You were supposed to rank the candidates according to fuck, marry, kill? — Right?
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Jeremy Paxman
Paxo: KNOCK KNOCK!
Civilian: Who's the-
Paxo: JEREMY PAXMAN
Civilian: Jeremy Paxman wh-
Paxo: I ASK THE QUESTIONS AROUND HERE!
