@ianhunt@mastodon.green
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ianhunt

@ianhunt@mastodon.green

Former Higher education worker at Goldsmiths | #GPEW | writer on art/sometimes architecture and social housing | reader -- ecology, environment, literary modernism & -wasm, contemporary poetry | mind-wandering | London, UK | he/him

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thisismyglasgow, to glasgow
@thisismyglasgow@mastodon.scot avatar

I've always been intrigued by the similarities between these two buildings. On the left is a 1770s tenement on Gallowgate in Glasgow (containing the Heilan Jessie pub), while on the right is Charles Rennie MacKintosh's iconic 1902 Hill House in Helensburgh. Given that MacKintosh lived in Dennistoun until 1892, he would likely have passed the Gallowgate tenement, and I wonder if it acted as an inspiration for him.

ianhunt,
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@thisismyglasgow That's a v interesting post and I bet you are right -- that strong visual connection constitutes one of those many small theories one carries about that eventually make it into

ianhunt, to random
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I have not been able to work on the local elections for in London this time round -- sickened and alas not surprised to read this https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/27/tory-staff-running-network-of-anti-ulez-facebook-groups-riddled-with-racism-and-abuse

Loukas, to random
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This article has some decent factual information in it, but the constant shrill framing that the crisis would 'tear Europe apart' is clearly just aimed at getting clicks from English and American readers who don't understand EU well.

EU cooperation is indeed always very difficult and is constantly hard - that's precisely why EU has structures so that countries don't need to like or trust each other in order to work together, long-term.

https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-second-term-presidency-united-states-tear-europe-eu-apart/?mc_cid=0edfd1a70e

ianhunt,
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@Loukas Yes -- another complaint of mine is that standard Anglo-American reporting on any EU elections that produce negotiated alliances produced by PR are regarded as intrinsic problems of management and democracy rather than forms for containing and channeling necessary political antagonisms.

ianhunt, to random
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Rokhaya Diallo on false secularism and Islamophobia in France https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/12/ban-headscarves-france-secularism-exclusion-intolerance

ianhunt, to Hastings
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Lady's Smock Cardamine pratensis in Alexandra Park, . In Cabbage family. This was my first look at the park, which is a phenomenal place for wild flowers -- it is threaded through by streams. Book says it flowers in April so like everything else in this part of the global north it's early.

ianhunt, to random
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Firebugs (Pyrrhocoris apterus) at the northern edge of their range in the UK. Described as 'nationally scarce' in my fairly recent insect book. They are clearly taking advantage of global heating. These were in Gillingham, Kent, yesterday, on a sunny bank. I will them as they are easily recognized and are one of several species that can help to track insect range in relation to climate.

ianhunt, to Bloomscrolling
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Among the early flowering plants: Draba verna -- Common Whitlowgrass, in Brassicaceae. Growing here on moss forming on old concrete in front of some garages. Self-fertilising; flowers 'March-May' -- well, scratch that. This was on Feb 14, Kent, UK, one of many plants flowering early. Greetings to all people.

timwaterman, to random
@timwaterman@mas.to avatar

Typical of Boys-Smith's narrow approach to call out the untidiness of 'snail trails' or 'street scars' but we really ought to think the whole mess through. Do we need a limited materials palette? Should utilities be buried/what's the carbon footprint of that? etc. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/09/call-uk-utility-firms-higher-fines-street-scars-pavements

ianhunt,
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@timwaterman The narrowness of UK streets creates all kinds of problems for necessary adaptations and utilities too (they should all be nationalised and turned into co-ops ofc). I am spending more time out of London and I see narrow A-routes where every front garden is paved for cars, and a two-tier class system defined by whether people rely on buses. It would be possible to reimagine utilities provided differently, alongside and as part of cycle tracks. Massive investment in public transport!

ianhunt, to random
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Good morning from my station at the washing up -- even the base of the mortar does good editorials on weather, history, carbon and

pvonhellermannn, to random
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Half thinking of starting an hashtag here, about the dire, dire state of UK (global?) higher education. Sharing nuggets of senior management decisions, neoliberal language, and overall slow collapse.

Won’t work of course because most of us can’t risk honesty, but honestly: the everyday reality of what is happening deserves recording in all its depressing and damning detail.

ianhunt,
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@pvonhellermannn Pauline, I heard rumours this was coming. Solidarity to you and everyone left (working way beyond what you are paid for) -- it's miserable, mismanaged decline.

ianhunt,
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@pvonhellermannn Sorry that you and your great colleagues have to deal with this so soon after last year's destructions. I'll be down to visit an RHB rally at some point as one of the recently departed.

ianhunt, to Sheffield
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Excellent exhibition in at Weston Park Museum: City of Rivers, on to November 2024. City museums inherit natural history, art and industrial & collections. This exhibition draws on and combines these and is packed with interest; it also pays tribute to those who are doing what they can to protect rivers (of course, it can't say 'co-operative control of water now'). I learned of it through poet Harriet Tarlo whose words are included. https://nowthenmagazine.com/articles/new-exhibition-set-to-transform-sheffields-view-of-itself-as-a-city-of-rivers-weston-park-museum

ianhunt, to Health
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How Africa exports its doctors and heathcare workers. 'Fifteen of the world’s (fiscally) richest countries have over 55,000 African doctors in their health systems, a new data analysis by The Continent shows. These are doctors who qualified before entering those countries. The United Kingdom is the top culprit, followed by the United States, France, Canada, Germany and Ireland, in that order.' https://continent.substack.com/p/trainee-doctors-are-barely-holding?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1620194&post_id=139038081&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=rwama&utm_medium=email

ianhunt, to random
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Good account of what's happening in the major oil companies right now & the role of the break even price. Kate Mackenzie. 'The buybacks, as much as they might be a repellent illustration of windfall profits arising from wars, are being conducted instead of investing in more upstream investment. Of course, this logic doesn't align with the much-repeated idea that “oil companies will have to be involved in the transition,” but neither do the actions of oil companies.' https://heatmap.news/economy/oil-companies-are-preparing-for-a-lucrative-decline

Private
ianhunt,
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@ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon Yes -- The Dark Side of the Landscape is a brilliant book.

ianhunt, to random
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Jason Burke writing from Jerusalem about hospitals 'More than a third of Gaza’s hospitals are no longer functioning, putting remaining facilities under massive pressure.' https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/03/doctors-and-aid-workers-fight-to-survive-in-gaza-abandoned

pvonhellermannn, (edited ) to random
@pvonhellermannn@mastodon.green avatar

“Selling Out for Sustainability? Neoliberal governance, agency and professional careers in the sustainable palm oil sector”

New paper by @Izadel and myself out now in @journalofpoliticalecology. It’s a critical exploration of the world of “sustainable ” and the interactions between consultancies, NGOs, finance and corporations as well as individual career choices. 1/2

https://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/jpe/article/id/4717/

ianhunt,
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@pvonhellermannn @Izadel @journalofpoliticalecology Great to read this work on susatinable palm oil and congratulations on completing it in these, er, precarious times in HE.

ianhunt, to random
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William Shoki and Bruce Baigrie in Africa is a Country: 'Ultimately, what supporters of Palestine must come to grips with is that neither the Algerian or South African cases offer a perfectly replicable pathway to ending apartheid in Israel.' https://africasacountry.com/2023/10/free-palestine

ianhunt,
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@pvonhellermannn There are rather fewer writers I feel like I learn much from in UK journalism these days -- I always like to see what William Shoki is saying though.

ianhunt, to Geology
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River Lavant, Chichester is a 'winterbourne', it runs dry in the summer. Parts that run through the city are paved -- you can walk it, dodging bridges. First visit to this interesting city -- I would like to return in winter or spring and see how much water is flowing. I think the immediate here is Greensand? No, chalk -- learning how to use the BGS map again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winterbourne_(stream)

ianhunt, (edited ) to random
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  1. Short thread. The stage of the Guildhall, King's Lynn, is doing the journalistic rounds as a heartwarming story today. Tree-ring dating confirms the boards were in place when is thought to have acted here. The Guildhall, is an amazing building, and also a rather dusty and neglected community resource -- which always made the 'Shakespeare was here' story a good one. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/oct/05/boards-trodden-by-shakespeare-found-under-floor-of-norfolk-guildhall
ianhunt,
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The problem is King's Lynn. Under any scenarios, this place is going under the sea; sorry to mention this. As and when that happens the oak floorboards will be relocated, and possibly every brick of the Guildhall with them. We have to balance the affective powers of history and cultural heritage in our reactions to this anticipated destruction; is it necessary to withdraw some of the emotional and cultural attachment, to think about the violent effects on people now?

ianhunt,
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3/3. I could try to answer my own question (not with an unambiguous yes or no) but interested to hear from people involved in on this -- I feel like our emotional attachments are skewed and there is not enough focus on the world that is coming, and one way of equalising this might be to start looking for cultural heritage at risk from sea level rise in a global, comparative way -- mapping it.

ianhunt,
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@timwaterman Thanks Tim -- for anyone reading this thread, here's the report. Not surprised that the realists at Historic England are planning for this -- even in their much reduced form, they have great researchers. https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/reports/85-2022?search=85%2F2022&searchType=research+report

ianhunt, to climate
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See you in court. 'The UK is one of 32 countries being taken to the European court of human rights on Wednesday by a group of Portuguese young people. They will argue in the grand chamber of the Strasbourg court that the nations’ policies to tackle global heating are inadequate and in breach of their human rights obligations.' https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/23/uk-one-of-32-countries-facing-european-court-human-rights-action-over-climate-stance

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