F U N S T U F F

New Stereolab album! First in 15 years. Well worth the wait! Nice one :)

"In tactile space you measure the distance that separates you from the object, whereas in visual space you measure the distance that separates one object from another." 

            - Georges Braque

Unlike objects, facts are never facts alone, capable of being considered distinctly or in isolation from a web of interrelated conditions or other facts. Any fact implies the entire sensorium that beholds, produces or otherwise contains it, together with all of its antecedents.

Academic freedom under threat from US ideologues

https://allea.org/portfolio-item/allea-statement-on-threats-to-academic-freedom-and-international-research-collaboration-in-the-united-states/ 

Democracy dies in the cold, hard light of day, too.

"Lao Dan said, 'Be careful not to meddle with the human heart! The human heart is something that springs up when pushed down, sometimes ascending and sometimes descending, sometimes the prisoner and sometimes the executioner. How soft and restrained and pliable it is, yet how firmly and roughly and sharply and severely it chisels and cuts. So hot it smolders to fire, so cold it freezes to ice, so swift that in the interval between glancing up and glancing down it has already twice touched points beyond the four seas. It dwells still like an abyss, it moves like the overhanging heavens -- stampeding and haughty, allowing nothing to tie it down. Such is the human heart! ...'"  

               - Zhuangzi, translated by Brook Ziporyn, Hackett Publishing edition 2020

Updated shipping and returns policy

Dear fans: I've changed my shipping and returns policy. Henceforth I am no longer accepting return requests or issuing refunds for physical merchandise. This is not in response to any actual request for a return or refund - in fact it has never happened - but I am taking proactive measures against any potential future contingency that might prevent me from fulfilling your order, for whatever unforeseeable reason, in addition to heading off the potential for abuse or an attempt at exploitation.

The reality is I'm only a one-person operation. Shipping to other countries is expensive and occasionally unreliable. I don't neccessarily have the resources to make sure your tape is absolutely going to get to whatever far-flung province you might be living in, but I can assure you I will make every effort to ensure that it arrives there intact. The one exception to this policy is China, whose postal system is so corrupt I refuse to ship anything there. Thanks for your understanding and your continued support!     

War is never inevitable

It is, of course, pretty inconceivable that any mass mobilization effort involving tens of thousands of troops, vehicles, and armaments along with all the associated logistical support and infrastructure - ultimately costing taxpayers trillions of dollars - is a realistic or sound alternative to diplomacy.