July 2025
Monday, 21 July 2025
In the Shadow of Silicon Valley
Rebecca Solnit, London Review of Books: “I thought of this place in terms of liberation and protection; we were where the environmental movement was born; we were the land of experimental poetry and anti-war marches, of Harvey Milk and gay rights, of the occupation of Alcatraz Island that galvanised a nationwide Indigenous rights movement as well as Cesar Chavez’s farmworkers’ movement in San Jose and the Black Panthers in Oakland. We were the left edge of America, a refuge from some of its brutalities and conformities, a sanctuary for dissidents and misfits and a laboratory for new ideas. We’re still that lab, but we’re no longer an edge; we’re a global power centre, and what issues from here – including a new super-elite – shapes the world in increasingly disturbing ways.”
Saturday, 12 July 2025
Accidental find in planetarium show could shift scientists’ understanding of our solar system
Jacopo Prisco, CNN: “The problem with trying to imagine what the Oort Cloud looks like is that scientists have never seen it, even though we are technically surrounded by it.”
Tuesday, 1 July 2025
This paint sweats to cool off buildings. No energy required.
Anthropocene: “Air-conditioning uses 7% of the world’s electricity.”