Currently reading: Songbirds, Truffles, and Wolves: An American Naturalist in Italy by Gary Paul Nabhan, ISBN: 9780140239720
Finishing touches done for this week's Eat This Newsletter, with the Catherine Effect, from @BienassisLoic, not the pizza effect, from @NPR, groundnuts in The Gambia, and the horrible Hamlet Fire, from @BryantSimon. Sign up at https://buttondown.email/jeremycherfas
I've never really been an outliner sort of person, although I know I should try harder. So I'm taking a look at [bike](https://bikeguide.hogbaysoftware.com/) and really liking it. Much more intuitive than things I've used before, so it may stick. Need to check that Save As script.
Beyond rescue ecomodernism: the case for agrarian localism restated | Small Farm Future
Our modern culture is good at heroic, high-tech mitigation of specific and immediate acute problems. It’s not very good at long-term, low-tech cultural adaptation that mitigates against these specific and immediate acute problems from arising.
Is there time? Best to assume that there is, and start the transition now.
ongoing by Tim Bray · Slow Travel
Oh, to be able to travel by Zeppelin. Meanwhile, I think the idea of never flying anywhere for less than a week is a good stop-gap, and more trains when possible.
Currently reading: Night Soldiers by Alan Furst, ISBN: 9780375760006
New issue of Eat This Newsletter out now, with raw material provided by @kitchenbee @historicuk @minimaxir and a minor kerfuffle in the august pages of @PNASNews.
Read it at https://buttondown.email/jeremycherfas/archive/eat-this-newsletter-185-heat/ and feel free to subscribe, for free.
Time's the revelator
Many good thoughts and conclusions.
Biggest mistake I ever made was starting a "free trial" of @RealVNC because now my original Home VNC Viewer no longer works and I cannot find a way to revert.
Not surprised that only 25% of people found this useful https://help.realvnc.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003474552#on-the-device-you-want-to-control-from-0-4
Latest issue of Eat This Newsletter is about to drop, racing through the backlog so normal service can be restored ASAP. There's hops, heritage grains and climate change, plus agricultural policy in South Africa and the US.
https://buttondown.email/jeremycherfas/archive/eat-this-newsletter-184-catching-up-with-reality/
Consider subscribing.
City of the dead, part two
“... (a symptom of the malaise: the spellchecker on my computer is happy with the word ‘urbanization’ but not ‘ruralization’).”
When, I wonder, are we going to get to the art/culture arguments in favour of cities. Those are what have kept me urbanised for the past many years. Irrationally, perhaps, but the result is the same.
Slightly puzzled by Epilogue for MB for those of us who do not have a paid account. Does it feed my timeline, eventually? If it does, I might consider PESOS rather than indiebookclub and POSSE. Also, two way traffic, to open someone’s link in MB would encourage conversation.
Finished reading: Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert MacFarlane, ISBN: 9780393358094
Currently reading: Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden, ISBN: 9780143037071
From regenesis to re-exodus: of George Monbiot, mathematical modernism and the case for agrarian localism
George Monbiot illuminates and infuriates in equal measure, although I suspect, after reading Chris Smaje’s review, that I will not be paying much attention in future. I have not read Regenesis, so will say nothing about it myself. Two quotes from Chris (of many others I could have chosen):
“[A]n alternative, perhaps counterintuitive but more plausible argument [is] that low food prices in fact are a fundamental cause of global poverty.”
“[T]here’s no such thing as ‘an inexorable economic logic’, there are just political games with winners and losers – a point the old George Monbiot once understood.”
Yup.
"You begin the book a sober reader, calmly appreciating the complexity of historical causation, and you finish it a raving wheat monomaniac."
Glad to know I am not alone. Fine review of @nelsonhist's book in the NYRB
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2022/07/21/wielding-wheat-oceans-of-grain-nelson/
The tragedy of the climate commons and one way I tried to fight it | Small Farm Future
Interesting account of a single piece of civil disobedience and its aftermath.
You are being redirected...
Splendid piece by a splendid broadcaster. Only one thing to push back against:
Music helps. Sound beds help. Clear simple writing helps.
Clear writing, obviously. But music and sound beds? This is much more culturally determined, in my view, and I don't know how best to cope with it.
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Stupid 170 1/1/2
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Stupid 169 1/0/2
Abracadabra!
Here, have a webmention in recognition of this bold leap.
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Stupid 168 1/1/2
Whoa! New artwork, parts of which look just like the leaves on my cannas. @cdevroe
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Stupid 167 1/2/2
Quite hard.
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Stupid 166 1/0/2
So many vowels
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No coalmines around here.
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Indeed it is!
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Stupid 162 1/0/2
Another easy one
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Nice an' easy
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Stupid 160 1/0/2
Not too hard
Regenesis: Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet by George Monbiot - review by Dan Saladino
“For Monbiot to highlight the complexity of soil but ignore the complexities involved in nutrition doesn’t make his faith in a protein techno-fix convincing.”
“It’s not clear, though, why a shift in attitudes won’t lead us to increase our intake of beans, nuts and lentils instead.”
Thank you Dan Saladino, especially for that final “Nevertheless ...”
Very disappointed that Lets Liberate Diversity @eclld does not offer any kind of feed from its website. I would much rather follow a feed than any other way.
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Stupid 159 2/1/2
Pure luck
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Twice is coincidence ...
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Stupid 157 2/2/2
Another bad guess.
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Stupid 156 2/2/2
Bah! Rubbish performance today.
Subterranean Blogging
I dunno, maybe an underground garden (blog) isn’t such a bad idea. Maybe, in the scorching heat of social media we need a cooler, darker space for connections and discussion. Where things grow more slowly but still bear fruit 25 years later.
Makes sense to me