Hanging out with my guy, Steve, of Blueworks Vintage Clothing Store.

Fringe Existential Disagreement Studies (FEDS)

sydney day 2 👋🏻

Hello Sydney! 👋🏻 Reporting from the University of Technology Sydney

Scrambling to finish slides for the Arguing on the Internet workshop at UTS—as I’m boarding another flight in a few hours. Excited and mildly terrified to hang with the Wikipedia crowd for the 1st time, given that the disagreements I’m bringing to the table unfold on forums and semi-secret channels.

Abolitionst Elijah P. Lovejoy was murder OTD in 1837 by a proslavery mob as he defended the Alton, IL warehouse where his printing press was hidden. This 1850s bank note also from Alton ironically features among its images an allegorical vignette of Prosperity & Liberty. Alton Bank, IL, $3, 185-.

What about suspenders?

Such a good track, @onehitwondered.bsky.social! Here is The Weeknd's "Starboy" ft. Daft Punk. Released in 2016, topping the charts Canada, France, Netherlands, New Zealand and Sweden + US Billboard Hot 100. It was The Weeknd's 3rd and Daft Punk's only chart-topper. www.youtube.com/watch?v=34Na...

Just don't it

Hanoi 🤝 Saigon Cambridge 🤝 Oxford Reporter 🤝 Ethnographer @lamle52.bsky.social 🤝 @digitaldang.bsky.social Lam Le (Hanoi-based reporter, ex-RoW staff) and I are traveling to recycling villages in Bắc Ninh (and possibly Hưng Yên) today to understand how informal recycling works in these areas.

Flags in the wind: an exposition

The oppressive banality of hotel breakfasts

👋🏻 Hanoi! Have you paid?

I woke up hungry again — it can’t be helped. Today’s breakfast is hủ tíu mì, the Chinese–Vietnamese hybrid noodle soup: clear pork broth, chewy egg noodles and rice noodles together, a tangle of chives, minced pork, and prawns. A dish that lives somewhere between Chợ Lớn and the delta.

I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ve been waking up hungry at absurd hours. Thankfully, Vietnam knows how to feed its early risers. Today's breakfast is bánh cuốn, silky steamed rice rolls with prawn, pork, and mushrooms.

Saigon Sunday: night edition First up: propaganda in neon

Live dispatch from my 6 a.m. Sunday ride in Saigon. First stop: Brother Long’s paper stall.

speech and silence are twin effects of discipline; there is no escape, only power rearranging itself in the act of speaking—or not.

You think you’re grown, and then your mum insists you wear this before you get on the bike.

I agree with this except would extend the definition of capital from financial to (universal basic) infrastructure; public capital is highly redistributive.

Alright folks, I'm seated and my fellow passengers seem pleasant. See you on the other side! ✈️

G'day from Melbourne Airport

incoherence is vitality—a current that leaks just enough to let the future through.

If you see this, quote with a robot that isn't from Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, or Transformers

The recording from our USC panel on election cybersecurity is now live. We spoke about integrity not as an outcome but as a governance practice: built, tested, and repaired through infrastructure itself. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUSn...

Concepts aren’t born in the heavens. They’re beta-tested on Bluesky.

Exotic = f(Orient | Occident) Archaic = f(Africa | Occident) — Occident as operator.

Cringe cringe studies

Change one letter, ruin a candy: Mentog

I have been sitting with this new drop from ROSALÍA—with contributions from Björk, Yves Tumor and the London Symphony Orchestra—since yesterday, and the feeling hasn't gone away, so I'm going to call it: this might be the best thing I've seen this year. www.youtube.com/watch?v=htQB...

I’ve written for @financialtimes.com about the need for belief in the future to get things built on.ft.com/47cO3Qs Why optimists build better infrastructure

The week ending October 28, 1967, South African civil rights activist/singer Miriam Makeba earned US #OneHitWonder honors when “Pata Pata” entered the US #Billboard #Top40 at #36. The single spent 8 weeks on the chart, peaking at #12. #MiriamMakeba #MamaAfrica #OneHitWondered

Seems I've lost track of time again—my watches simply cannot be trusted. Heading to a meeting now, but essay is looking good!

The eye of Major Hurricane Melissa has wasted no time warming again after it closed during its passage over the complex terrain of Jamaica. A nice new burst of convection in the eyewall as well. The question is how much she can re-organize and re-strengthen prior to Cuba.

Long line at Good Measure today! Secured a spot to work + eat + drink for the next couple hours. Dark Matters adventure continues!!

After consulting the arch-archivist (my mum), it appears *this* is the official photo of me with my first bike. The bike was a gift from my uncle, brought back from a business trip to Russia—the roly-poly dolls on the shelf were part of the same diplomatic exchange.

Even nihilism requires energy.

"The needs of the bicyclist are an intelligent comprehension of the bicycle as a machine, an appreciative knowledge of the human machine that propels it, and a realization of the fact that rider and bicycle should form one combined mechanism."

Of course. "Irreducible" is right.

➰

"What radicalized you?" Starved for meaning in a buffet of takes.

🧿

A Thousand Micro-Aggressions

The first substantial, full colour critical biography of surrealist-occultist Ithell Colquhoun. Ithell Colquhoun: Genius Of The Fern Loved Gully by Amy Hale. Buy now via our website 👁️‍🗨️ strangeattractor.greedbag.com/buy/ithell-c...

Ancient Greek Mathematics in Print 1475-1703 A Bibliography of the editions of work other than those of Euclid / Benjamin Wardhaugh @bibsoc.bsky.social bibsoc.org.uk/ancient-gree... #openaccess

Alright, let’s keep this light—I recently caught the magnificent Samara Joy live, so I’ll share a few of my favourite tracks from her œuvre. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTKH...

Adverts should be representative of traditional British families