"You see, Christmas is not a holiday. It is an ideological apparatus of family unity and consumer fetishism. The magic of the film—what we enjoy without knowing—is this collision between sweet kitsch and brutal violence. This overlap is not accidental; it is the truth of Christmas under capitalism."

It’s *that* time of the year to repeat the message that once caused my face to be the centre of a window display of fans in the Chichester branch of Rymans.

I too am left with "less than minimum wage" once I've deducted my expenses from my income
www.thetimes.com/uk/education...

Pedestrians who are hit by SUVs are 44% more likely to be killed than if they were hit by a conventional car, new study finds. Children are 82% more likely to die when hit by an SUV than by a car. In children under 10, the risk of death was 130% higher.

Regulate vehicle size now.

105 cyclists/yr are killed by cars in the UK.

Cars kill or seriously injure 1,233 child pedestrians (u16) per year.

Changing the law is meaningless because so few people are killed by bicycles. The only effect will be to give drivers an even greater sense of entitlement to endanger others

One puzzle of Trump’s trade war is that he simultaneously argues America is the greatest country on earth and a victim of global trade. That contradiction suggests a deeper insecurity, understood less through policy than psychology and ideology. 🧵 1/

The core trilma here remains the same - the govt needs to accept one of three things: high student migration, higher domestic student fees (or higher taxes to fund universities) or university bankruptcies. Those are the only options, given where we are. Pick one.

What can be done about car bloat? Look to France and Norway, which tax new vehicles by weight.

At the local level, the District of Columbia ties registration fees to vehicle weight, and cities like Paris and Montreal require SUV and pickup owners to pay more to park.

NEW! MCCS are awarding a limited no of 100% fee waivers for 2025–26 for students who are the first in their family to attend university on these MAs:

• MA Cultural Studies

• MA Gender, Media and Culture

• MA Race, Media and Social Justice

Full details: www.gold.ac.uk/fees-funding...

“It’s not the parents’ fault.” The risk is that we let “Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg be Mum and Dad”. Digital rights campaigner Beeban Kidron, in an important and moving interview with @emmavj.bsky.social on.ft.com/4j5hEyb

Really shocked to hear of the passing of Caspar Melville. A great academic and huge font of knowledge on music and the music industry. And a really nice guy too! Here's my @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social interview with him about 'Its a London thing' newbooksnetwork.com/caspar-melvi...

📣 Job Alert! Fixed-term Lecturer in Media, Communications and Cultural Studies (specialism social media and/or platform studies) at our brilliant department @mediacomgold.bsky.social Closing date: January 5th jobs.gold.ac.uk/vacancy/lect...

Fascinating deep dive into London’s transport data by @jim.londoncentric.media:

tis the season. there’s A LOT of snooker on TV. but what, i hear you ask, can snooker tell us about gender, class and urban space in britain? well… www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

OUT TODAY!!! Stacked economization: a research program for the study of platforms @koraycaliskan.bsky.social Donald Mackenzie and Michel Callon www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....