Lent

How hard would it be, I wonder, to never (knowingly) put money in a billionaire's pocket again ... is there an app for boycotting greed?

If you follow me on here but are also still on the HellSite, please don't - just unfollow me! ... I don't feed fascism.

“Hated school, dropped out at 11, can't read, can't write. But I can do this!” 💥💡 That's real feedback from one of the participants in a #prison #philosophy class funded by the Royal Institute of Philosophy. Find out more about our work in prisons: royalinstitutephilosophy.org/news/how-phi...

Whoopsie-daisy jazz night (at Cafe Alto, Amsterdam):

If in Rotterdam: an engrossing exhibition, profiling the strikingly fresh creativity of Iris van Herpen: www.kunsthal.nl/en/plan-your...

Iris van Herpen - Kunsthal

Up to and including Sunday 1 March, Kunsthal Rotterdam’s HALL 2 will be entirely dedicated to the work of the world-famous Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen (1984). Van Herpen is one of the most ...

kunsthal.nl

When I visit England, in the rural North, the conversation can turn quickly to 'stopping the boats', largely thanks to the BBC upping a 'migrant crisis'. This is utter bollocks. The huge English crises are, as ever, poverty & illiteracy.

Hetan Shah@hetanshah.bsky.social · 7mo ago

About 6.8 million people – half of all those in poverty – were in very deep poverty, the highest number and proportion since records began three decades ago - @jrf-uk.bsky.social analysis www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Woke up thinking with Taleb; AI frenzy is a 'white swan', we see a bubble & know how such stories go (Nortel etc); the $ looked 'anti-fragile', but such in-fighting (in a G7 country) has no precedent - a 'black swan' takes flight?

There's still joyous stuff out there; Mozes Rosenberg & Anton Goudsmit - so much soul, fun & stylish technique: @bimhuis.bsky.social

25 January 1935 | Dutch Jewish boy, John Groenteman, was born in Amsterdam. He was deported to #Auschwitz from #Westerbork in September 1942. He was murdered in a gas chamber after the arrival selection. --- Children at Auschwitz: 🎧 Podcast: https://youtu.be/aYKx_zpLSqA

"Europe is the site where violence and bourgeois complacency meet." Henrike Kohpeiß (2023)

What do you feel is the biggest threat to our national security right now? The UK Joint Intelligence Committee has released its report on the threat of biodiversity and ecological collapse on national security. Its a chilling read: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/696e0e...

A future for Venezuela, Gaza & Greenland is being drawn up in golf-club bars & then declared in hotel lobbies; the UN has been back-watered, while EU leaders stay polite:

Yesterday, at my local grocery in Amsterdam: Me: I won't shop here any longer, now that you are selling Israeli fruit. Shop: I sell what people want, I also sell products from the US, and from Iran. -- that bracketing is so apt:

America is in real-time talking itself into being unbankable, in front of an audience of all the major financiers in Europe.

Checking my pension fund this week ... making sure to dump US bonds; US shares gone already - EU citizens can so turn on these bullies:

Standing ovations all round - Karina Canellakis conducted an exuberantly crisp Mahler 5 this afternoon at Het Concertgebouw, whilst Manchester Utd walloped the neighbours at footie; yay! Surely some linkage ...

"The idea that we can still claim access to truth without being dependent upon interpretation presupposes that knowledge of objective facts is enough to guide our lives. Within this transparent realism, warnings are cast off as unfounded, contingent, and subjective ...". Santiago Zabala (2025)

nocturne

“Poverty, great wealth and democracy are ultimately incompatible elements in any society…either poverty will use democracy to win the struggle against property or property…will destroy democracy” Nye Bevan, 1952

These days every, even the mundane, kindness is vital:

'USA withdraws further from the international stage' - front page news, here in the Netherlands; not a good look, so petty and selfish:

Georgina Sturge@georginasturge.bsky.social · 8mo ago

A longer post from me to start the year: the Dutch are panicking. Their digital ID system will soon fall under the control of an American company and far-reaching US government powers. Why is that such a problem? And what does it mean for the UK? open.substack.com/pub/georgina...

Eerily quiet in A'dam: near closure of the airport, absences many tourists; green puddles in pristine snow, presences many dogs:

A couple weeks until this event at @housmansbookshop.bsky.social on Jan 21st – I'll be chatting to @katrinanavickas.bsky.social about her fantastic new book *Contested Commons* (@reaktionbooks.bsky.social). Really looking forward to it! Get your tickets here: housmans.com/event/book-t...

Book Talk: CONTESTED COMMONS: A History of Protest and Public Space in England

Proffessor Katrina Navickas In Conversation with Daniel Frost For our first event of the year we welcome Proffessor Katrina Navickas to the shop to discuss what is an increasingly urgent political …

housmans.com

AI should be regulated, or shunned, just like GMO food. #epiphany

Bye-bye, full moon days ... weary from your beck & call:

Habemus ... sneeuw! A morning fit for Breugel:

Announcing: On Philosophy, Winter 2026!! All events are free, Mondays at 2pm ET / 7pm UK (except March 2nd is 30 min later, and March 9th is 3pm ET) featuring Angie Hobbs, Yann Allard-Tremblay, Fannie Bialek, Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan, Kaitlyn Creasy, and so many more! #Philosophy #PhilEvents