Category: gadfly
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Alternative G20 summit at the University of East London’s Docklands Campus on 1 April
An alternative G20 summit is planned for next Wednesday 1st April during the G20 summit here in London. There will be some good speakers there including the previous Mayor of London, Ken Livingston, the film maker, Ken Loach, and the historian Tariq Ali. It starts at 4PM and finished at 9PM. Directions below (link). University…
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Oxford vs Cambridge Goat Race…
As a wonderful spoof of the Oxford vs. Cambridge Boat Race, Spitalfields City Farm will be hosting the first ever Oxford VS Cambridge Goat race. This involves racing two rather dashing goats, one representing Oxford, one representing Cambridge, through a tough meandering course, to raise money for their lovely little city farm. There will be…
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A day in the life of the Digital Humanities
This is the entry I wrote for the ethnographic study yesterday on the day in the life of the Digital Humanities. I am not sure it was a typical day; except all the reflection about the nature of the Digital Humanities. That is typical for me (link). Nanook of the North; a famous (but discreited)…
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The Death of Mr Practical: The Practical man and Globalisation
This is a polemical article I wrote in 1995 and published on my blog in 2003. In reflection there is perhaps no such thing as ‘practicality’ (well there is; but it is also not value neutral). Practicality can be a form of ‘non-thinking’; it is a thing that we do without understanding the context that…
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The Great English Practical Problem (brough to you by Heathrow)
All counties have their institutional and ‘thinking’ problems. Australian intellectuals are often accused of being too broad and general in their thinking, unable to command the towering heights of research speciality within the rigours of a solid intellectual paradigm. American intellectuals are often accused of being too careerist, doing what is good for their career…
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The death of reality
Jean Baudrillard, a French philosopher and social theorist known for his provocative commentaries on consumerism, excess and what he said was the disappearance of reality, has died at the age of 77. Baudrillard died on Tuesday at his home in Paris after a long illness, said Michel Delorme, of the Galilee publishing house (from the…