“Our results further show that respondents with lower standards of hygienic habits engage significantly more in intimate self-inspection (sniffing body parts such as genitals, anus, or navel).” www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

😢.

nobody seems to have studied mortuaries, morticians and the smell of death. as a death and smell denying society, this makes sense. but i was hoping somebody else could fill this gap… 👃 💀 💨

london’s gini coefficient (income inequality) seems to have dropped post covid. kind of interesting (though a bit less so before housing costs)

i wish my borough had a different mayor.

this looks good, though i’m not sure chinese restaurants would be the best metric in the uk… fried chicken shops? greasy spoons? also begs the question as to the role of particular food outlets and related community networks in warding off, or mitigating gentrification and displacement.

Pubs to stay open until early hours in Labour push for UK growth. Record high of 10,473 alcohol related deaths last year. There are other drugs, that the legalisation and taxation of which would actually do something positive. But boozy cultural conservatives rule the roost.

male grooming products that purportedly smell like big foot wearing a leather jacket riding a motorbike through a sandalwood forest smoking a cigar. i’m not saying that they’re the cause of all the world’s ills. but they’re not helping things either.

how do you teach about the emergence of the modern nation state? with 40 year old pop cultural references. that’s how.

Happy New Academic Year! To get things rolling, we hosted the first School of Global Change Symposium - Excellent contributions from Sociology, Anthropology, History, Politics and Law academics and students 💥!

www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mon... Xenophobic swan-eating panic has happened before and it’ll happen again. Here’s your primer for all migrant-based meat madness.

can’t remember who i was talking to about ‘Your Party’ last month, but whoever it was… i told you so.

i think the smartest people i know are also the best gossips.

i’m thinking a lot about olfaction and postmodernity. i guess i’ve been thinking about this forever really. at least since i read baudrillard’s ‘cool memories’. but maybe, just maybe, i’m going to finally write something about it. we can never be modern.

for a londoner, the number of DRIVERLESS CARS in san francisco is mind blowing.

i know people say londoners are cold and unfriendly. but try walking around at 04.55am. everybody i just saw said ‘good morning’ or nodded/chin lift. there’s a shared camaraderie in the last hour of dark.

the latest evidence of end times? needing a subscription to watch pétanque championships.

1 day into term and the secondary school kids have found multiple hacks for the ‘phone vaults’ the school shelled out £00000s for. power, it seems, is everywhere.

the passive aggressive circulation of screenshots via whatsapp trying to prove which day school starts again. it’s an annual event that i enjoy spectating.

i made pickle juice lemonade. family have taken this as exemplary evidence of why you shouldn’t do everything the algorithm tells to you too. in contrast i have turned it into a delicious alcohol free pickle juice shandy and will now be handing over all major life decisions to the algorithm.

a william gibson deep cut: ‘skinners room’. a story about vagrancy on the golden gate bridge. it describes an exquisitely po mo world, layered with repairs and hacks. like a medieval london bridge for a late 80s vision of the future. illustrations by ming funn and craig hodgetts.

NEW on our Substack: Help your HEC reps decide what we should do next for our pay dispute! Please see the linked form, fill it in, & pass to your contacts. The form is open until 5pm Friday 27th Aug in advance of HEC on Monday 1st Sep. Please repost #ucu ucucommons.substack.com/p/help-your-...

i’m running out of news feeds and channels to block.

63% of people think net migration rose in the last 12 months 8% of people think it fell Yet it fell by 400,000 in 2024 vs 2023 [It is falling further in 2025] Public service broadcasters are doing a core part of their job on this topic badly if that 8% is not closer to 30% at least

take three very large potatoes

given the extent to which one constructs identity both within and against dominant forms of representation, @towerhamletsnow.bsky.social could make ££££ selling some ‘tower hamlets’ t-shirts right now.

a jumbo cone makes for a much less messy ‘2 scoop’ ice cream. but it looks silly until you put a third scoop on.

history obsessed #2 just casually naming these two ‘ronnie and reggie’.

fwiw, @rushanaraalibgs.bsky.social had always been good at responding to housing issues in TH, wrote supportive letters and spoke up re. tenants issues. i guess this is why she was appointed housing minister. but there is a micro landlordism inside us all, and it needs to be kept in check.

@towerhamletsnow.bsky.social what do we think about the wheelchair accessibility of the pavement on the east side of hanbury street?

the jude bellingham limited edition ‘ice kick’ lucozade sport is surprisingly quaffable.

a few recent conversations with peers, and discoveries about their parent’s biographies, have demonstrated very clearly just how much radical-social-mobility-via-marriage there was in the 20th century. this century seems vastly different. stasis amongst cliques.

just quick question @londonfirebrigade.bsky.social are these little planters a serious fire hazard?

please lean on greenwich to get the basic infrastructure (foot tunnel lifts) working @london.gov.uk . there are no nearby suitable alternative pedestrain crossings for wheelchairs, pushchairs and bikes. if this were a vehicular crossing, it would be out of action for half a day

hushpouch. coollockers. lockabl. schoolock. when they file their accounts, it’ll be interesting to see how much purveyors of anti-smartphone tech have made off schools this year.

slightly bamboozled by the new exposé of estate agents. afaik they’ve always tried to upsell you anything and everything.

i’m not sure if you ever have. but you really should.

does anywhere circa SE14 stock gazpacho soup?

the smell in this little haggerston glade is amazing. ripe plums and wildflower blossoms. if radox herbal essences did urban planning, we’d have a lot more of this.

“Dad, are we in the Roman Empire?” “Not any more.” “The British Empire?” “Nope. That ended too.” “The Hackney Empire?” “Ok. Yes.“

there’s a network rail instagram ad asking if you want more toilets at liverpool street station. it’s not about toilets. it’s implicitly, sneakily, asking you to support the unnecessary office development atop the po-mo wonder of today’s station.

tennis, strawberries, pimms and moral panic. the quintessence of british summer.

east london has run out of gazpacho.

my dad once left a lit cigarette on the edge a 17 inch ‘ferguson’ trust house forté TV. he then offered to buy the TV off the hotel at a knockdown price (see also deluxe duvets). years later, when i came back from a dinner shift, it was on that tv i watched pulp @ glastonbury 1995. nostalgia pangs.

in the same way that an MP with a background in Law might be able to skip over legal man traps, an MP with a background in Sociology or Cultural Studies, might be more deft at dodging the symbolic media games of balaclava wearing hip-hop act.

I really like The Bear. I grew up in kitchens and restaurants and it speaks to me. HOWEVER… I ditched the opportunity to start to the new series last night in favour of the best show on television: Aussie Gold Hunters! I’VE GOT GOLD FEVER MATE!

Filling in a form and one of the fields just says “Question” It has taken every bit of impulse control I have not to answer “Tell me what you think about me. I buy my own diamonds and I buy my own rings.”

i’m a few weeks behind on the water cooler convo. but i’m so glad that i just got to see this before we all go to the rapture.

may the efflorescence of global cue sports studies continue! www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

case study for next term’s week 5 lecture: Hyper-realistic baby dolls spark moral panic and legislation in Brazil