“This essay was commissioned by the guest editors of a special issue of the academic journal Social Text but rejected by the journal’s editorial collective on the grounds it was theoretically unsophisticated that included a ‘cheap shot’ at professors.” This message precedes an article by Robert Jensen, who is always worth reading, on academic freedom […]
On October 23rd the BBC news website reported that Sony was delaying the release of a new product in Europe until 2007, even though it is already on sale in Asia. The reason given was that the machines did not meet European safety standards. Today a second reason is given: “stock shortages of vital components.” […]
Regular visitors to this site will find it as radically altered as Kenny Rogers. But in this case, I believe the changes are a good thing.All the improvements can be exclusively attributed to my sister, web designer extraordinaire Catriona, who is scarily au fait with the cryptic realm of CSS files.Now, as Wilde famously remarked […]
Local elections are approaching and all over Poland (presumably — I haven’t been all over it myself) teams of workers are energetically engaged in infrastructural work. Roads are being resurfaced, roundabouts rationalised and parks prettified. It’s not fooling anyone: “kie?basa wyborcza” (election sausage) is what Poles call this transparent bribery of the general public. My […]
The Complete Review reports on the arrival at their offices of the latest, and possibly last, wrist-snapping 1100-page meganovel from that PoMo giant, Thomas Pynchon. They suggest that the book Against The Day “most resembles is, indeed, Gravity’s Rainbow. But that’s just a very quick first impression: this is definitely a text it’s going to […]
From the BBC news website today on Sony’s decision to prosecute people who import certain goods into Europe: “Critics of Sony’s approach feel that the electronics giant is preventing gamers in Europe from getting their hands on Play Station 3s early, even if they have to pay a hefty premium.” Critics of Sony don’t think. […]
Fellow Three Monkeys blog, Our Man in Gda?sk, recently commented on the state of Polish literature, focusing on the genre of “dirty realism” exemplified by the writings of Marek Nowakowski. This literary preoccupation with nostalgie de la boue is also evident in one of the more interesting recent collections of short fiction from an Irish […]
From “Can You Tell a Sunni From a Shiite?” in The New York Times: At the end of a long interview, I asked Willie Hulon, chief of the [FBI�s] new national security branch, whether he thought that it was important for a man in his position to know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites. �Yes, […]
Square-jawed publisher, John Ryan, the “brains” behind such consciousness-raising mags as VIP, GI (AKA Gay Ireland), and, latterly, The New York Dog, shows he’s hip to the new media zeitgeist with his latest venture, Bloggorrah. Proudly claiming to be “unfiltered and updated 10 times daily,” Bloggorah appears to be positioning itself as a Hibernian version […]