when will androids dream of electric sheep?

Why aren’t we having holidays on Mars yet? What about clothes which wash themselves? Or a robot butler which is way much smarter than the slow and stupid Roomba? Of flying cars and the declining rate of profitbureaucratic corporate capitalism, the illusion of post-work society, marketing, privatisation of everything there is, and all those awful things which characterise our societies. From The Baffler, by David Graeber.

“How do politicians who are unresponsive to the interests of the vast majority of their constituents get elected and, more important, re-elected, while doing the bidding mostly of the wealthiest individuals?

A politician who represents the interests primarily of economic elites has to find other means of appealing to the masses. Such an alternative is provided by the politics of nationalism, sectarianism, and identity – a politics based on cultural values and symbolism rather than bread-and-butter interests.”

On How the Rich Rule, from Project Syndicate

Bubble vocabulary: The lazy and pretentious literary show-off in all of us.

Addictive French fries, seductive and sexy Fondant au chocolat. A linguist talks about restaurant reviews à la Américain on the New Republic.

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