Mike R
@mikebut.bsky.social
I hate washing Tupperware. Learning to draw.
Pinned
Dear journalists: you can’t ‘diffuse’ a situation. Curiosity does not ‘peak’. In British English, ‘nonplussed’ is the opposite of ‘not bothered’. A ‘moot point’ can be open to debate and a ‘travesty’ has nothing to do with misfortune.
November 30, 2025 at 5:38 AM
Dear journalists: you can’t ‘diffuse’ a situation. Curiosity does not ‘peak’. In British English, ‘nonplussed’ is the opposite of ‘not bothered’. A ‘moot point’ can be open to debate and a ‘travesty’ has nothing to do with misfortune.
Reposted by Mike R
Reposted by Mike R
We talk with Sylla about the history of political economy in pre-& post-colonial Africa; the theoretical bases & political stakes of the anti-CFA Franc movement; & how MMT ought to inform current & future efforts to restore political and economic sovereignty to West African nations.
Confronting Monetary Imperialism in Francophone Africa with Ndongo Samba Sylla
Ndongo Samba Sylla (@nssylla) is a Senegalese development economist and Research and Programme manager at the West Africa office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Sylla is also the author of many a…
moneyontheleft.org
September 14, 2025 at 11:58 AM
We talk with Sylla about the history of political economy in pre-& post-colonial Africa; the theoretical bases & political stakes of the anti-CFA Franc movement; & how MMT ought to inform current & future efforts to restore political and economic sovereignty to West African nations.
Reposted by Mike R
I spoke to the person who AI-generated the Chicago Sun-Times reading list. Says he's very embarrassed. This was part of a generic package inserted into newspapers and other publications, so likely to run elsewhere. He didn't know it'd be in Chicago Sun-Times
www.404media.co/chicago-sun-...
www.404media.co/chicago-sun-...
Chicago Sun-Times Prints AI-Generated Summer Reading List With Books That Don't Exist
"I can't believe I missed it because it's so obvious. No excuses," the writer said. "I'm completely embarrassed."
www.404media.co
May 20, 2025 at 2:47 PM
I spoke to the person who AI-generated the Chicago Sun-Times reading list. Says he's very embarrassed. This was part of a generic package inserted into newspapers and other publications, so likely to run elsewhere. He didn't know it'd be in Chicago Sun-Times
www.404media.co/chicago-sun-...
www.404media.co/chicago-sun-...
Reposted by Mike R
Good morning everyone. #TreeOfTheDay no.1151 and a very happy #thicktrunktuesday
May 20, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Good morning everyone. #TreeOfTheDay no.1151 and a very happy #thicktrunktuesday
The pervasive sense of boredom. The anxiety underlying institutions. Politeness that masks hegemony. To succumb mistaken for tolerance.
Yet today still reminded of Renan (1882): “Forgetfulness [of the violence], and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation.”
Yet today still reminded of Renan (1882): “Forgetfulness [of the violence], and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation.”
May 18, 2025 at 7:20 PM
The pervasive sense of boredom. The anxiety underlying institutions. Politeness that masks hegemony. To succumb mistaken for tolerance.
Yet today still reminded of Renan (1882): “Forgetfulness [of the violence], and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation.”
Yet today still reminded of Renan (1882): “Forgetfulness [of the violence], and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation.”
“Is not the necessary obverse of my interacting with the object … the situation in which the object itself … deprives me of my own passive reaction of satisfaction … so that it is the object itself which 'enjoys the show' instead of me, relieving me of the superego duty to enjoy myself?”
May 10, 2025 at 2:23 AM
“Is not the necessary obverse of my interacting with the object … the situation in which the object itself … deprives me of my own passive reaction of satisfaction … so that it is the object itself which 'enjoys the show' instead of me, relieving me of the superego duty to enjoy myself?”
Andreï Makine (1995) 'Dreams of My Russian Summers' ('Le Testament français', trans. Geoffrey Strachan)
May 3, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Andreï Makine (1995) 'Dreams of My Russian Summers' ('Le Testament français', trans. Geoffrey Strachan)
One of my favourites is a later one that Hitchcock himself directed, “Bang, You’re Dead!” (S07E02). Brilliant form and structure — a masterclass in editing and direction: gaze and its expectation.
March 12, 2025 at 6:32 PM
One of my favourites is a later one that Hitchcock himself directed, “Bang, You’re Dead!” (S07E02). Brilliant form and structure — a masterclass in editing and direction: gaze and its expectation.
“A new four-lane highway cutting through tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest is being built for the COP30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém.” 🤡🤡🤡
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Amazon rainforest cut down to build highway for COP climate summit
The infrastructure required to host COP30 in Belém is undermining the cause, campaigners say.
www.bbc.com
March 12, 2025 at 1:53 PM
“A new four-lane highway cutting through tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest is being built for the COP30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém.” 🤡🤡🤡
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Choose 20 films from but slivers and slivers tucked away in but mounds and mounds of titles all but growing taller and taller than all the words and the words that might make up the themes and the topics that you might know.
March 11, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Choose 20 films from but slivers and slivers tucked away in but mounds and mounds of titles all but growing taller and taller than all the words and the words that might make up the themes and the topics that you might know.
Choose 20 films from the beginning. That always tell the truth.
March 10, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Choose 20 films from the beginning. That always tell the truth.
Choose 20 films you spotted 8 metres away without looking.
Nudging.
Pulling.
Wanting.
What would they think you think. Oh fourteen year-old you. What would be their questions you question. Oh teenage VHS small town video store you.
Nudging.
Pulling.
Wanting.
What would they think you think. Oh fourteen year-old you. What would be their questions you question. Oh teenage VHS small town video store you.
March 10, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Choose 20 films you spotted 8 metres away without looking.
Nudging.
Pulling.
Wanting.
What would they think you think. Oh fourteen year-old you. What would be their questions you question. Oh teenage VHS small town video store you.
Nudging.
Pulling.
Wanting.
What would they think you think. Oh fourteen year-old you. What would be their questions you question. Oh teenage VHS small town video store you.
Choose 20 films from those adapted for proud purview. No, don’t denote. You can’t escape a persistence in the passive voice, the voice that proves class pretence is but posture for madness, passion unto Pope: “Life’s poor play is now o’er.”
March 10, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Choose 20 films from those adapted for proud purview. No, don’t denote. You can’t escape a persistence in the passive voice, the voice that proves class pretence is but posture for madness, passion unto Pope: “Life’s poor play is now o’er.”
Choose 20 films of quiet isolation cut, honoured, stood up yes yes shouted, “Honesta mors turpi vita potior!” above that corporeal exudate of human want and blind willingness.
March 10, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Choose 20 films of quiet isolation cut, honoured, stood up yes yes shouted, “Honesta mors turpi vita potior!” above that corporeal exudate of human want and blind willingness.
Choose 20 films that stung tips of toes, thrust tight in two heels, tempered too much, tarried and tussled tout suite.
March 10, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Choose 20 films that stung tips of toes, thrust tight in two heels, tempered too much, tarried and tussled tout suite.
Reposted by Mike R
Choose 20 films that were coated, conical, you collected that day from four anthers, pollen bursted from stamens that stored beside unswayed stigmata and styles.
March 10, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Choose 20 films that were coated, conical, you collected that day from four anthers, pollen bursted from stamens that stored beside unswayed stigmata and styles.
Choose 20 films that don't dissolve in the bath, straightened out on dirty fingers, scratchings in the air, steam rising — deep stretch, or the worst: a cleanse.
March 10, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Choose 20 films that don't dissolve in the bath, straightened out on dirty fingers, scratchings in the air, steam rising — deep stretch, or the worst: a cleanse.
Choose 20 films you once dug with a spade in your sandpit, squashed castles, spread fingers that patted their tender, swallowed brown giggles. No care to open a mouth? No care to eat grains from the sand? No care for the judgement and staphylococcus aureus? No care losing breath with each gulp.
March 8, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Choose 20 films you once dug with a spade in your sandpit, squashed castles, spread fingers that patted their tender, swallowed brown giggles. No care to open a mouth? No care to eat grains from the sand? No care for the judgement and staphylococcus aureus? No care losing breath with each gulp.
Thinking about what it would be like for Jane Austen to read for an audiobook version.
March 8, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Thinking about what it would be like for Jane Austen to read for an audiobook version.
Reposted by Mike R
Listen to your children read. Read to your children. Read alongside your children. Take them to libraries. Talk about what reading means to you & what it can unlock.
Tell them it doesn’t matter if it’s comics, magazines or books as long as they’re engaged with the written word. #WorldBookDay
Tell them it doesn’t matter if it’s comics, magazines or books as long as they’re engaged with the written word. #WorldBookDay
March 6, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Listen to your children read. Read to your children. Read alongside your children. Take them to libraries. Talk about what reading means to you & what it can unlock.
Tell them it doesn’t matter if it’s comics, magazines or books as long as they’re engaged with the written word. #WorldBookDay
Tell them it doesn’t matter if it’s comics, magazines or books as long as they’re engaged with the written word. #WorldBookDay