The Shit Show
Nice to be ahead of the curve for once, although I cannot say I’ve been particularly active on micro.blog/ActivityPub. My silence have, however, been even more deafening on Twitter (and Facebook) the last couple of years.
/ in English
Bruno Latour, French philosopher and anthropologist, dies aged 75
Sad news. His works was a big influence on me, particularly when I was writing my dissertation. I saw him last when he visited Uppsala in 2019 and I attended his Moving Earths presentation. RIP.
When was the last time you bought anything made in Russia?
“This is the hope, that Europe now realises the danger and starts a green Manhattan project” (Yuval Noah Harari).
The whole thing is worth to listen to but this is my favourite part. Solving the climate crisis and undercutting dictators at the same time sounds like a good idea to me.
Cold War II
However this horrible chapter in European history will end, a few things are certain:
1. Volodymyr Zelenskiy will be remembered as a hero by history, whatever baggage he may carry. (Who cares about Churchill’s disastrous World War 1?)
2. The EU, as this article from The Guardian dramatically demonstrates, has slayed so many sacred cows, that its future will be interesting to follow. (Nothing unites like a common enemy!)
3. Germany is rearming. (This will make the former coal and steel coomunity more important than ever.)
4. Sweden sends weapons to a country engaged in an armed conflict. This hasn’t happened since the Soviet Union attacked Finland in 1939. (Sweden has not been at war for over 200 hundred years. But guess in what direction the guns have been pointing during those centuries.)
5. Turkey is invoking the Montreux convention.
The list could be made longer. And will probably be made longer by future decisions. For instance: Nordstream 2 will probably never open. On the contrary, every country that today is dependent on Russian gas is likely to scramble to replace it, sooner rather than later.
To sum up, as long as Putin is in power, the west, and especially the Russians, will have to adjust to the new reality of a Cold War 2.
Anglo-Swedish War (1810–1812)
Sweden and Great Britain has been at war. For two years! I did not know that. But since not a single shot was fired and trade continued between the countries (and Sweden even let their “enemy” “occupy” an island so that the trade could continue), this is perhaps not surprising.
Is there more volcanic activity than usual right now or is it just me who has started paying attention?
1. Disastrous lava flows in DR Congo
2. Lava wall breached in Iceland
3. Eruptions in Japan, Italy and many other places
I guess this is normal, since no one reports it as extraordinary. Perhaps with the exception that one of the lava flows entered a city and another has become a tourist attraction. Surely, that cannot happen “all the time”.
“Not wishing to be left behind by Hank Azaria, I would like to apologise on behalf on Monty Python for all the many sketches we did making fun of white English people, […] We’re sorry for any distress we may have caused” (John Cleese).
Covid-19, March 2021
A year ago, I wrote:
“Good news:
+ The mortality rate of Covid-19 is 5 times lower than that of SARS
+ For most people it is no worse than a common flu
+ It seems like only the elderly and especially those who suffer from a previous health condition is at risk
+ The virus is only spreading after a person has become ill and not during the incubation period
Bad news:
– No one is immune to the virus (Of course – because, this is what the main problem is)
– A vaccine will take at least a year to develop”
Well, a year later we have learned a lot. Some “bad news” turned out not to be as bad as we feared. For instance, the vaccin took less than a year to develop. But other things have had to be added to the list. We have learned that not “only the elderly and especially those who suffer from a previous health condition is at risk”, although those are most at risk, of course. Most notable in my view, howevere: Long Covid. I have had Covid but “no worse than a common flu” and without any lingering problem. For that I am very grateful.
Blue beads in the tundra
“In the 1400s, craftsmen in the city-state of Venice traded with people throughout Asia. The beads might have traveled in a horse-drawn cart along the Silk Road eastward toward China. From there, “these early Venetian beads found their way into the aboriginal hinterlands, with some moving to the Russian Far East,” the authors wrote in their recent paper.
After that great journey, a trader may have tucked the beads into his kayak on the western shore of the Bering Sea. He then dipped his paddle and made passage to the New World, today’s Alaska. The crossing of Bering Strait at its narrowest is about 52 miles of open ocean.”