In a recent post, I tried to start a deeper discussion with Milan about what it means to act ethically in these needful times with respect to climate change.
I’m not sure if he meant this post as a response to my post, or as a response to the ongoing discussion on carbon ethics – but [...]
Archive for November, 2009
On Carbon Ethics, Individual action, and the Value of Slow Travel
Posted in Capitalism, Cross Canada Trip, Ethics, Philosophy, Technology, Trains, global warming on November 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
On Topics for Writing: “Hot Cognition” and Play
Posted in Ethics, Philosophy, Pragmatics, beginning, writing on November 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Earlier this term I wrote a list of ten topics that I need to write on. These are not topics on which I have complete expertise, but they are issues on which I have opinions which ought be communicated. I thought I could write on one a day, or one every few days, and that [...]
Carbon Ethics and Future Worlds
Posted in Cross Canada Trip, Ethics, Philosophy, Pragmatics, Technology, global warming on November 20, 2009 | 3 Comments »
The Walt Disney company calls some of its imagineers “futureologists”, specifically if they work on Tommorowland or on the Future Worlds Pavilion at Epcot Centre. They are charged with visioning and representing futures. Futures are aspects of the present that project forward in time rather than space, so that we can anticipate what is to-come. [...]
High Speed Rail in Canada
Posted in Cross Canada Trip, Technology, Trains on November 19, 2009 | 12 Comments »
High Speed Rail in Canada is characterized by being in the past. It’s something that was (the Turbo, the Bombardier LRC), or never was but perhaps could one day be (the JetTrain). It’s also characterized by existing, but not really existing (many Via trains hit 100mph in normal service, but their overall schedules are hardly [...]
The Canadian
Posted in Trains on November 17, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I’ve just booked passage on the Canadian to travel from Vancouver and Toronto, and I’m quite excited about the journey. Having taken Amtrak across America, it will be nice to experience the Canadian equivalent.
I was able to get quite a good deal. While I was happy with taking Amtrak from Bellingham and Toronto for 303$, [...]
“Chic-ness” and Cheapness – the materiality of the modern aesthetic
Posted in Body Phenomenology, Capitalism, Ethics, Food, Pragmatics, Pubs, Technology, Things, coffee, writing on November 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
We find today everywhere examples of mass produced luxury. Sitting in a coffee house atop dark wood chairs, next to a floor to ceiling fireplace adorned with an exotic artwork, I am both everywhere and nowhere. Starbucks, or Second-Cup, even the new-look Macdonalds embrace an architecture of bare wood, rock and leather wingback chairs alongside [...]
Announcement of Food Politics Conference
Posted in Food on November 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
My housemates and I, who make up the Toad Lane Vegan Cooperative, will host a conference on March 20th, 2010 entitled “Free Food! Interrogating Perception, Choice and Progress in the Liberation of our Food Supply”. What we hope to achieve by this is a kind of cultural mixing between the vegan and academic community, to [...]
On Rememberance Day
Posted in Capitalism, Ethics, God, Philosophy, writing on November 11, 2009 | 1 Comment »
On Remembrance Day we are expected to honour soldiers. Soldiers who made individual sacrifices, for the sake of us – so that we can partake in the value(s) they defended. This is what is asked of us “in return” for their “gift”.
But is this demand without political, contemporary interest? Are we expected to value the [...]
Obscure Band Showcase: Part 3 of 3 – Emilie Mover
Posted in Art on November 5, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Emilie Mover is a singer songwriter in Toronto, Ontario. I met her in 2004 when I first moved to Toronto, and was immediately enraptured by her sad, magical songs. I was at the Tranzac for the release of her first record, Good Shake Nice Gloves. Since then she’s released a new album – also entitled [...]
