Alasdair Pettinger

Misheard stochastic parrots as sarcastic parents.

The Government™ has made an ad about all these protests happening around the world, and it’s surprisingly honest and informative.

'I remember on the stone steps outside the School of English building coming across a white chalk outline of two feet in what was Douglas’s usual smoking spot, the motto beneath: Space Reserved for Douglas Dunn.' A long page of tributes collected by Don Paterson. substack.com/home/post/p-...

A great story and an even greater headline www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/2026/10/aye-...

The latest FIFA ruling is that for an ontological proposition to be onside there must not be daylight between mental experience qua experience and its verbal or numerical systematisation. Most philosophers have called the new ruling ‘hopelessly flawed’. Alan Shearer has described it as ‘bollocks’

'What is at play here ... is part of a recurring template employed against Black public figures in which “ideological campaigns are recast as a defense of integrity, so that accusations of racism then read like a dodge.”' newlinesmag.com/argument/the...

Currently wondering what message the UK govt thought it was sending by dressing up the Minister for Net Zero in a literal Shell logo.

High winds & heavy rain. Time to create a spreadsheet logging all the uses of the phrase 'trotz alledem' in the 9 volumes of Rosa Luxemburg's Gesammelte Werke. Perhaps this is not what the government means by stockpiling but, if I can print it out, it will keep me warm through an apocalyptic winter.

'Andy released several audio/tech projects including Sound Raider, a computer application, virus maybe, that, unknown to the user, searched for audio files on the users computer & then processed & combined them into an endless stream of ambient sound and noise.' datacide-magazine.com/andy-wilson-...

Sure, we should, if we can (many cannot). But as I keep pointing out, the government itself is making no provision at all. No stockpiles, no back-up, no alternative sources. It's individuating the response to a collective problem, and that never ends well. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

A few thoughts on the announcement that the Jackdaw gas field development will go ahead 🧵 You'll hear claims today arguing we need Jackdaw for various reasons. Primarily some combination of energy security, perhaps cheaper bills and jobs. We should be sceptical of them.

Fascinating article by Thomas Goumarre on the war of slogans and counter-slogans played out on the slag heaps that still overlook the city of Saint-Étienne thefunambulist.net/fr/magazine/.... (Subscription required, but @thefunambulist.bsky.social is well worth it)

There's some great lines in @eyesfront.bsky.social's poetic journal of lockdown walks. This one that really got me: A lone wren darts between the branches — one celebratory neuron, working through every variation of thought, scared away by its own reverberation. longbarrowpress.com/2026/09/18/h...

Great paper on how Gen Z is exploring new forms of protests, with the wonderful Véronique Servat (who BTW also published a book on protest songs @dudetour.bsky.social)

'This year alone, so-called “Gen Z protests” have broken out in Kenya, Indonesia, the Philippines, Morocco, Madagascar, Peru, and Nepal.' globalvoices.org/special/gen-...

It should merge with FIFA.

Yet another article seems to be advertorial: www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/1...

A deep dive into the words used during the Age of Revolution for what today we would probably call slogans www.bulldozia.com/2026/08/31/n...

I discovered you can get free biodegradable food waste bags at the library. They are stored under the counter at the checkout desk. It felt like a faintly illicit transaction.

Author baiting scams are not just exploiting authors. '“If an employee did not meet the target, they and their families were threatened with violence,” he said.'

Protestors Criticized For Looting Businesses Without Forming Private Equity Firm First https://theonion.com/protestors-criticized-for-looting-businesses-without-fo-1843735351/

If Sally Rooney is registered with the Public Lending Right scheme, she would have been receiving payments from the DCMS, which puts the government in a tricky situation, not just Faber. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

'Be cheerie, comrades, you never can win a revolution without being cheerie.' (John Maclean). From Crystal Eastman's article, 'The Workers on the Clyde' in Liberator magazine (October 1919). www.marxists.org/history/usa/...

Pancartes à Toulouse via apnu_puas etc.

'These are books that have been lived in, broken in like a pair of comfortable shoes, roughed up and cuddled."

Updates on student protests in France, now spreading overseas.

Chants of 'Don't protect the women, we can fight. We don't need your fascist shite' rang out in Glasgow tonight. As anti-fascists, women's rights groups and trade unionists protested against 'patriot platform' and their supporters pushing their racist agenda in the city. Things you love to see ✊

Men in suits.

A Schaerbeek, les élèves de Saint-Dominique se mobilisent aussi : "Il y va de notre avenir"

Los jóvenes estudiantes en huelga por los servicios públicos en Francia: Vive la commune 🚩

BASTILLE EST NOIRE DE MONDE

People in Ithaca sent a message to those who would normalize sexual assault on campus, paying a visit to Cornell’s main administrative building, Day Hall, which houses the office of the university president. If graffiti didn't change anything, it would be legal. crimethinc.com/KillPower

Arresting marchers for carrying flags and a band for playing 'Scots wha hae', Paisley 1819. Morning Post, 29 September.

From 20th October to 15th December, I’m running a five workshop online creative writing (poetry) short course, ‘Creating Bespoke & Organic Forms: Shaping Poems in the Act of Composition’. More information and booking details can be found here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creating-b...

'Today, there is no conceivable equivalent. Who is tonight’s guest on the One Show, plugging their novel about the birth of Christianity?' www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...