Saw Peter Mullan as Bill Shankly in a stage adaptation of David Peace’s ‘Red or Dead’ yesterday in Liverpool. Comprehensively marvellous. Charisma and pathos in equal measure, plus an hilarious Kevin Keegan hairstyle from 1973. With my tribe!

First day of spring.

I also want to belatedly record my joy at observing the parade of planets last week. I only saw 5 as Mercury and Saturn were too low on the horizon. Mars not in this view but that was also a clear, red treat.

Been supporting them for 44 years and this is one of the very best away performances; Allison 11/10.

I hardly ever do social media these days but have to say engaging tonight with many decent, funny and insightful US folks in my thread has cheered me right up. There is always hope.

Book #6. Good ‘un. Volcanoes, storms, Peru, foment, stifled revolution, Andean natural history, polar ice, battles, deus ex machina rescue.

Book #5. Commuter read. V light but fun. Written for TV, adapted v well.

Playing around with an older laptop today, I was really happy with how google chrome ‘synced’ my bookmarks: turns out this means ‘overwrite & destroy dozens and dozens semi-randomly & in a way that is unrecoverable’. Really useful feature.

Book #4

Book #3

I teach atrocity crime to criminologists & have been using Project 25/campaign speeches to predict Trump’s engagement with ongoing conflicts. My grimmest predictions couldnt capture something as unhinged as ethnic cleansing for resort development. www.theguardian.com/law/2025/feb...

Dry Jan done. No fuss. Wine tasted super strong. Enjoyed greatly with game stew and cheese.

We’re gonna fly, baby fly. As degrowth/MMT & other positions make clear, growth at any cost is immoral, deadly & doomed. Staggeringly reckless. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Book #2. 16/21! Those who know, know.

I think this may be the best thing I’ve ever seen on a website. shop.savethechimps.org/product-cate...

New piano book. Can play the Beethoven; learning the Jazz etudiette.

Morning walk best-of from the last couple of gelid days.

The Labour tragedy: stunned/surprised at being in power, with no vision, pointless self-imposed limitations & essentially the same failed macro-economic model of the last 15 years, they resemble a miserabilist, bureaucratic wing of the Tory party. Failure opens space for deep(-er) Faragism.

This looks great, and there are a number of open access articles.

Gott in Himmel, is nothing I value safe from this man?! I’m not migrating to Everton (‘bluecry’?)!

Glorious, then bleak midwinter.

2025 book #1

Trying to relax over the holidays, I keep encountering extreme violence: yesterday, a Richard III doc showing death by multiple head & body wounds; today reading Alfred Russell Wallace describe hunting/wounding/killing/skinning 16 orang-utans in grotesque detail. What a dismal species we are!

A quiet year, all-in, but I’m still turning up and learning. #hinterland

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www.theguardian.com/society/2024... Will watch this with interest. Cash transfers have a decent evidence base, and arguments against are ideological-cultural, resorting to poor law stereotypes of the feckless poor.

Manchester doing its thing on my morning walk this week.

If you’re going to fall for a phishing scam, falling for your own Uni’s false ‘cautionary tale’ scam isn’t a bad one. Sadly, I instantly forgot my new pw & spent 36hrs locked out. I got back in just in time to speak at an online meeting in Chennai. Am left reflecting how amazing yet fragile IT is.

After migrating last week, I thought I'd better make my first post to avoid being mistaken for a bot. I've found starter packs to be very useful and, for what seems the first time in years, have a feed that is full of interest & basic good will. Long may it continue. Thanks everyone for the follows.