morwen | Reading

Based entirey on my probably-inaccurate and decidedly non-expert recollection (I will definitely have some things in the wrong order):

USA: We're not so sure about this NATO thing. Maybe we'd honour Article 5; we'd have to think about it. You should be spending a lot more on defence. Oh and by the way, we're going to publicly undermine your governments, meet with your far-right parties, and some of our rich people with governmental ties will be funding them.

*time passes*

USA: Our new Security Strategy says that Europe is on its own, and if you care about Ukraine it's up to you to deal with it. Also, we plan to invade part of Denmark.

*time passes*

USA: Uh, when we said you should spend more on defence, we meant with American companies! Why are you buying arms elsewhere? How did this happen? That's really disrespectful. By the way, your troops basically didn't do any fighting in Afghanistan. You've never helped us. Why are you sending military personnel to Greenland?

*time passes*

USA: We want to bomb Iran! Can we use your airbases?
Europe: Why do you want to bomb Iran?
USA: We don't know! Can we use your airbases?

Europe: No.

USA: Betrayal! By an ally! What about the Special Relationship?

*Iranian missile hits a British airbase in Cyprus*

UK: OK, we'll let you use our airbases for anti-missile-launcher operations. Also, we're sending an area air defense ship to Cyprus.
USA: Too late, loser, we're not interested in you joining a war to claim the credit when we already won it.

*a short time passes*

USA: Europe, we need you to send ships to protect the Strait of Hormuz, in this war that we already won.
Europe: No.
UK: Didn't you just say you didn't want us?
USA: *threatens to pull out of NATO*

liv

There's been a rant I have been meaning to turn into an essay for a while, but Ken White (Popehat) has done it better, so I direct you to his really well-written and referenced (though US-centric) article: The Fashionable Notion of 'Free Speech Culture' Is Justifying State Censorship, Ironically. Criticism. Is. Not. Censorship, and “Free speech culture” has a natural tendency to discount the speech rights and interests of people who criticize speech.

This is important in Europe too, not just in the US, because it's a deliberate, specific Russian infowar tactic to promote far right events at UK universities and claim censorship if anyone objects. A network based at [Cambridge] University and backed by Thiel, which it said was using the issue of free speech to “normalise white nationalism on UK campuses”. Neither Putin nor Thiel has anyone's freedom at heart, and they're all too successful at distracting people with a toddler-like notion of "freedom" where you get to say the naughty words without being told off.

( shorter version of my original opinion, building on White's piece )

skibbley

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

wildeabandon

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I was hoping to swap one of my compulsory courses for an optional one in reading and interpreting Hebrew Midrash. The other day I got the news that my request was rejected, so obviously I could do the sensible thing and postponing the Midrash course until the next time it runs in a couple of years, as part of my masters.

Wait, did someone say sensible thing? How about instead I take that course (along with another one in Patristic Greek) as a standalone module - that's only 39 credits (compared to a standard of 30) this semester. What could possibly go wrong? My plan had been to start all the modules until a decision was made, and then drop at least one of the optional ones if I wasn't allowed to switch with the compulsory one. The fatal flaw in that plan is that I am now having Way Too Much Fun to do that. I will keep the option of dropping one or the other in reserve if I feel like I'm burning out. The workload is a lot, and I am slightly behind compared to where my timetable says I should be, but if life holds off on curveballs then I think I should be able to get caught up in the next week.

The Midrash course in particular is really really good. We had a couple of introductory lectures on generally background, one from an academic and theoretical perspective, and one in which we looked at what what midrash says about itself. After that we got stuck in to actually doing the reading and interpreting. We're studying the Petikot (a series of introductory comments) of Lam Rabbah, an exegesis of Lamentations. It's a completely different approach to that taken in traditional Christian Biblical Studies, somehow both more open to individual and non-literal interpretations and also more demanding of a rigorous justification based on the precise details of the words of scripture.

It's quite a small group - four students, and two professors - Rabbi Dr David Meyer, who is leading us, and Pierre van Hecke, my erstwhile teacher of Ugaritic and Hebrew, who is engaging more like a fifth student. It's really delightful, having spent a fair amount of time over the last 18 months learning to read Hebrew, to be actually putting that learning into practice. My command of the language is probably the weakest in the group, but I'm just about managing to keep up, and at least some of my hermeneutical suggestions in class have been meeting with positive responses, which is encouraging.

squirmelia

I had a half day of annual leave to use up, so decided to go mudlarking, see some art, and go to a cafe. As low tide was at 9:15, I got up at 6 to make sure I'd have an hour beforehand. I got to Blackfriars and then queued for coffee and drank it on my way to the foreshore.

BBC had reported 0.00 for low tide, PLA had said 0.2. PLA then reported the actual tide as 0.4, but this time I managed to just about sneak around behind the leg of Waterloo Bridge, for the first time since the really low tide last year. I found a salt shaker! I wanted to look longer but was scared due to firstly the boats causing waves and secondly as the tide had turned. But, two other mudlarks appeared after low tide and they both went there, less hesitant than I.

The first mudlark said there wasn’t so much to find these days, but it doesn’t stop them looking, and the second showed me a nice bottle they’d found.

It was another day when lots of bottles were about, but I tried to be more restrained and only picked up 2 R White's and two little bottles. Plus a broken R White’s, as it seemed like the Thames was attempting to make art as a golf ball had become wedged in the bottle.

I dug a jam jar out of the mud, thinking it was something more exciting, but then put it back.

Finds included:

A necklace made of shells, which I left on the foreshore.

Two buttons and a bead

A Branch GPO sherd. I am not sure which office this is referring to, having previously found GPO West.

A Mecca sherd. I am not sure what Mecca cafe this is from.

Aerated Bread Company sherds

Express Dairies sherds

A different style piece of glass of an R White’s

A London Underground shot glass.

A salt shaker, with lid that says Cerebos salt on it. https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Cerebos

A pink handcuff

A ceramic pot that says No 1 on the bottom

An interesting piece of pipe (sadly the other side is damaged) - possibly Masonic?

A piece of a small bottle - on the bottom it looks kind of like it could say “lner” but it might say something else.

A piece of a large bottle that says “ard”.

A piece of a torpedo bottle

A golfball stuck in a broken R Whites bottle.

A metal bowl that looks like one you can get from B&Q. https://www.diy.com/departments/urbnliving-4-stainless-steel-ice-cream-cups-170ml-dessert-bowls-sundae-dishes-pudding/5063536181075_BQ.prd

Two R White’s bottles

Two large bits of a plate that were near each other. I did try looking for the rest, but didn’t see it. I only really picked these up as I could see a tiny bit of a logo and was hoping to find the rest of it.

Plate with Leipsic pattern on by Joseph Clementson. (The back has this stamped on it.) This pattern was exhibited at the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851.

Then after that I went to the Hayward Gallery and then to Nagare.

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

squirmelia

A Friday evening on the foreshore and I found:

Express Dairies pottery sherds and glass

Two French pieces, to prepare me for an upcoming trip:
A piece of a small House of Worth perfume bottle. It says Worth on the side and Paris on the bottom.
A sherd that says “mouflet”, which apparently means kid.

Part of a Lewis & Burrows Chemist bottle. They formed in 1895 as an amalgamation of different pharmacies.

Part of a Boots Chemist bottle. The style matches Boots bottles from 1910s/1920s.

A coin! Except it is actually just the foil from a chocolate coin. So close.

Gray & Son

OXO mug sherd

Hotel Ware - possibly Grindley Hotel Ware. I remember I found a piece previously that said Grind on it, which was also probably Grindley.

Aerated Bread Company (ABC) sherds

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

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Abigail Brady

Reading

A brief history of the last ~year in US/Europe relations

Freedom of speech

Three things of recent interest

Continued academic adventures

Mudlarking 98 - A handcuff and a salt shaker

Mudlarking 97 - chemists and mouflet

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May 2017

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