Just at a philosophy talk on cognition which, talking about brain activity, invoked animal studies ‘since obviously one couldn’t do those sort of experiments on people’. At that point I rather lost interest in the results.

The hit-and-run of a Muslim woman a few days ago. Why did this unusually shocking event not receive prominence in the news? www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfe...

Exciting #microbiome and #nanoplastics news!

I fear that in the next few weeks, we’re going to find out how much more secure we’d be if a 2019 Labour Government had secured domestic capacity to manufacture pharmaceuticals.

The world energy shock is coming — it will deepen inequality in ways we've seen before. Our new @newstatesman1913.bsky.social piece argues that without urgent government action, the Strait of Hormuz crisis will ripple through our economies and rip apart our societies. Here's why. 1/

Quick — where’s Nick Timothy to defend us?

If the UK bases on Cyprus end up like the US bases in the Gulf, it’s far from clear that it will be politically possible, given the sentiment in both the UK and and in Cyprus itself, to rebuild them.

Real burst of nostalgia; unexpectedly, a new remastering of Dorati’s complete Haydn symphonies, the instalments of which appeared annually through my teenage years.

James Orr, quondam philosopher, Head of Policy for Reform really did just say that Israel might reasonably claim that its current war against Iran is justified as retaliation for the missiles Iran fired in the 12 day war. ffs #bbcqt

Atrocity. After atrocity. After atrocity.

Just published: a volume in honor of the great Neoplatonism scholar Paul Kalligas! I have a piece in it about Iamblichus and Proclus and how they read Plato's Alcibiades. brill.com/display/titl... #philosophy #philsky #neoplatonism

Ok, so now can we have capital controls?

So Macquarie, which loaded Thames Water with billions in debt and left the infrastructure to rot, has done the same with NCP

From Asef Bayat’s open letter to Habermas in December 2023 newlinesmag.com/argument/juerg…

If this speech doesn’t persuade the Labour Parliamentary Party, there really is no point to Parliament.

NEW: Trump wanted an uprising. Instead, tens of thousands are in Tehran’s main square, risking their lives under bombardment, to pledge allegiance to the new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. We’re witnessing the greatest miscalculation in US political and military history. (🎥 Middle East Observer)

What do you see in a double eclipse? Philosophers agree you see the far object. But which part? Not the front, and not the back. The edge? Daniel García Saavedra, argues you see the far object, without seeing any of its parts. Read it here: philpapers.org/rec/GARBPS-2

Strato of Lampsacus: radical break from Aristotle or original interpreter? This volume revisits the Hellenistic debate on nature, demonstrating how Strato reworked Aristotelian ideas on teleology, soul and generation. Edited by Luciana Repici, published by #EdizionidellaNormale: tinyurl.com/57b7dzyy

So the US has moved from liberating the Iranian people to carpet-bombing them into submission. That was rapid.

Exclusive: Iranian girls killed by ‘double-tap’ strikes on Minab school - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-iranian-girls-killed-double-tap-strikes-minab-school

Never let it be said that the BBC misses an opportunity to manufacture consent (2) “Battered and isolated, Hezbollah drags Lebanon into another war” x.com/bbcworld/sta...

Have we told the US that it can’t use RAF bases on Cyprus for intelligence gathering that would support its illegal campaign against Iran? If not, they’re still legitimate targets.

Given that there’s apparently some contention as to whether 16-yr-olds are suitable voters, maybe it should become a live issue as to age at which someone’s horizon and interests become too short-term for them to have a say in who governs us. Over 80? 70? 65?

🗳️ NEW | Greens lead with all voters under 65, reveals latest YouGov survey: -- 18-64s -- 🟢 Grn: 26% ➡️ Ref: 20% 🔴 Lab: 17% 🔵 Con: 13% 🟠 Lib: 14% -- Over 65s -- ➡️ Ref: 33% 🔵 Con: 26% 🔴 Lab: 15% 🟠 Lib: 14% 🟢 Grn: 6% Poll: @YouGov, 1-2 March

Let it never be said that the BBC misses an opportunity to manufacture consent.

"Clashes between Bahraini police and protesters who took to the streets to condemn the “Israeli-American” aggression against Iran." مواجهات بين الشرطة البحرينية ومتظاهرين خرجوا للتنديد بالعدوان "الإسرائيلي الأمريكي" على إيران. www.threads.com/@qudslive/po... #Bahrain #Iran #Israel #News #WorldNews

Kati Farkas and I have a new paper, 'Lack of Attitude', in a superb new volume edited by @eschwitz.bsky.social and @msgjonhere.bsky.social The paper is open access and available to download here: academic.oup.com/book/62410/c...

I seem to missing all the urgent calls to support the pro-democracy protests in Bahrain.

Which is, I guess, a way of saying that if one hasn’t expressed outraged opposition to the US blockade of Cuba, one’s in no position to be outraged by Iran’s closing the Straight.

Even once the fighting has subsided — though that may be months away or longer — Iran should make it a condition of opening up the Strait of Hormuz that the US lift its blockade on Cuba.

Remember all those who are endorsing the attacks on Iran and insist that we should be fully supporting them; when the Western economy is strangled, inflation is sky-rocketing, …

The US killing one and hundred fifty school children in a single attack on Iran has apparently been universally decided to be a non story by the Western press. Not front page news, not in the highlights, instantly memory holed. Profession and institutions worse than worthless.

It should go without saying that the aim here is to collapse Iran - a country of ninety million people - into ungovernable chaos and Mad Max-style warlord catastrophe, much as they have every other country from Libya to Afghanistan that they could not buy off.

Israel goes immediately into its military comfort zone of slaughtering children.

Sectarian. The sheer contempt and entitlement in that word. Thousands of Muslim voters just voted for a white, (I think) working class non-Muslim woman because they feel abandoned by Labour and agree with her views on a huge foreign policy issue and on immigration policy