Category: NotClimate

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NotClimate

January 22, 1953 – Songs by Tom Lehrer recorded. #NotClimate

On this day, January 22, in 1953

Songs by Tom Lehrer was recorded in a single one-hour session on January 22, 1953, at the TransRadio studio in Boston for the total studio cost of $15. The first pressing was an issue of 400 copies, produced at Lehrer’s own expense in the 10″ LP record format. Records were sold for $3.50, and later $3.95. Later releases were issued in 10″ and 12″ LP format.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were at 312 parts per million.

As of 2026 they are 428ppm at and rising rapidly. Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think. 

Btw, the point(s) of this project is …. the how, the who the hell am I and the what do I currently believe?

The context was Lehrer had gone to Harvard aged 15, and amused his peers with song parodies (some “not safe for work”).

Why care?

Lehrer can be – if you let him – a key figure for understanding how the world works.

(How) does it connect to climate change?

Well, this album not so much, but on the 1965 “That Was The Week That Was” there is “Pollution.”

What happened next

Lehrer released more albums, toured a bit.  Refused interviews about what he’d done. Only died in 2025.

How does it help us understand the world?

I should write “10 ways Tom Lehrer helped me see the world arights…” I really should.

How does it help us act in the world?

If you don’t know what’s going on, how you gonna intervene usefully?

The source that it comes from, if necessary, 

Xxx

The other things that you could read about this or watch 

All of Lehrer, obvs.

What do you think?

If you have opinions or info about this, or other things that happened on this day that are worth knowing, let me know!

Also on this day

Wikipedia – January 22

Working Class History – January 22

Etc

Categories
Media NotClimate United States of America

January 22, 1945- Journalist running his mouth pays price. #NotClimate

On this day, January 22, in 1946

“Kasherman quickly resumed publishing the Public Press, and set his sights on Mayor Marvin L. Kline, a Republican, whom he accused of allowing gangsters to run rampant. The December 1944 issue of the “Public Press” featured the headline “Kline Administration Most Corrupt Regime in the History of the City.” A month later, on the night of Jan. 22, 1945, Kasherman was ambushed after eating dinner with a friend and shot dead on a sidewalk at 15th and Chicago avenues in Minneapolis. His death made the front pages of newspapers across the Twin Cities, but few in the city were surprised when the police investigation quickly petered out…”

Arthur Kasherman – Wikipedia

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were at 310 parts per million.

As of 2026 they are 428 ppm at and rising rapidly. Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think. 

Btw, the point(s) of this project is …. the how, the who the hell am I and the what do I currently believe?

The context was the usual corruption!

Why care?

Journalists who don’t get the memo about afflicting the poor and comforting the rich sometimes need reminders of who is in charge….

(How) does it connect to climate change?

Most journalists are basically mostly-house-trained lapdogs. Occasionally they are allowed to nibble a finger to make themselves feel Independent. But pretty much a wing of the public relations industry…

What happened next

How does it help us understand the world?

Know that what you are seeing is, well, filtered.

How does it help us act in the world?

“All the adverts fit to print, all the news printed to fit” etc etc.

The source that it comes from, if necessary, 

Xxx

The other things that you could read about this or watch 

Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model.

Horace McCoy’s 1937 short novel “No Pockets in a Shroud”.

What do you think?

If you have opinions or info about this, or other things that happened on this day that are worth knowing, let me know!

Also on this day

Wikipedia – January 22

Working Class History – January 22

Etc

Categories
Brazil NotClimate

January 21, 1971 – Disappearance of Rubens Paiva #NotClimate

On this day, January 21, in 1971

Rubens Beyrodt Paiva (Brazilian Portuguese: [ˈʁubẽs ˈpajvɐ]; 26 December 1929 – 21 January 1971)[2][3] was a Brazilian civil engineer and politician who, as a Congressman at the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, opposed the implementation of the military dictatorship in Brazil in 1964. Due to his involvement with activities deemed subversive by the dictatorial regime, he was arrested by the military forces, tortured, and murdered.[4] As of 2026, his body has not been recovered.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubens_Paiva

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were at 326 parts per million.

As of 2026 they are 428ppm at and rising rapidly. Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think. 

Btw, the point(s) of this project is …. the how, the who the hell am I and the what do I currently believe?

The context was that the Americans were supporting military takeovers all over the joint, though I don’t know their grubby fingerprints were as closely on the 1964 one in Brazil as – say – Guatemala 1954 or Chile 1973.

The U.S. Government and the 1964 Coup | We Cannot Remain Silent

Why care?

Because this is one of the more extreme, or rather “unsubtle” ways of control.  No body equals more fear, more uncertainty, even more anguish. Charming, isn’t it?

(How) does it connect to climate change?

What, you think they’re not already disappearing inconvenient activists?

What happened next

Brazil emerged from that coup in the 1980s, iirc.

How does it help us understand the world?

This is how power works, innit?  Not everywhere all the time, but enough of the time to send the desired message.

How does it help us act in the world?

OpSec is a good thing, I guess.

The source that it comes from, if necessary, 

Xxx

The other things that you could read about this or watch 

That film Cental Station (which I’ve not seen).

John Sayles film Men With Guns.

What do you think?

If you have opinions or info about this, or other things that happened on this day that are worth knowing, let me know!

Also on this day

Wikipedia

Working Class History

Etc

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NotClimate

January 20, 1975 – “Kill Whitlam” telegram #NotClimate

On this day, January 12, in 1975

“Kill Whitlam” telegram was by Rupert Murdoch to the editors of his Australian newspapers. He was miffed at not getting more out of Gough Whitlam, the Australian Labor Party leader and Prime Minister, whom he had supported.. 

https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/gough-whitlam-and-the-rupert-murdoch-memory-hole,7027

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were at 331 parts per million.

As of 2026 they are 428ppm at and rising rapidly. Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think. 

Btw, the point(s) of this project is …. the how, the who the hell am I and the what do I currently believe?

The context was that Murdoch hadn’t had his transactional needs met by Whitlam, and was therefore gunning for him. Very old story. 

Why care?

So how would history have turned out any different? Probably not.   

Murdoch is doing a “cheating death” thing, with Lachlan, his mini-me in charge in perpetuity, so that Murdoch and Fox can spew out the bollocks forever. 

What a species, but we’re susceptible to it, the bollocks.

We just don’t know which buttons to push to collaborate. “They” know how to get us to hate.

They know how to get us to disdain and disparage – and to end coalitions before they even begin.

And you know, we need to remember this, that the power of the media, if they “pay the truth makers” against any political move that they even perceive to be opposed to their interests.

(How) does it connect to climate change?

The Murdoch media spews an endless vomit-stream of lies, half-truths, smears etc. It didn’t have to be like this….

What happened next

Whitlam was “dismissed”, lost the ensuing election, and the one in 1977. “Labor” regained office in 1983, under the neoliberals Hawke and Keating. That was pretty much the end for social democracy in Australia.  And here we are.

How does it help us understand the world?

The power of the press…

How does it help us act in the world?

Knowing when (and how) you’re being lied to is useful, imo.

The source that it comes from, if necessary, 

Independent Australia

The other things that you could read about this or watch 

See also the first television adaptation of Chris Mullin’s A Very British Coup with the newspaper proprietor on a sun-lounger in Spain telling his editors in London what the opinion polls were to be flashed on the front page of the newspapers about Prime Minister Harry Perkins. 

What do you think?

If you have opinions or info about this, or other things that happened on this day that are worth knowing, let me know!

Also on this day

Wikipedia

Working Class History

Etc

Categories
NotClimate

January 17, 1960 – Soviet sailors unmoored… #NotClimate

On this day, January 17, in 1960

On March 7, 1960, the American aircraft carrier Kearsarge saved Soviet soldiers who had drifted in the ocean for 49 days without food or water. This incident became world famous and eclipsed most of the political news of the time.

In January 1960, the self-propelled barge T-36 filled the role of a floating transshipment point near the island of Iturup on the South Kurile ridge. This vessel operated at a maximum speed of 9 knots per hour, and would sail up to nearly 1,000 feet away from the coast in order to deliver ammunition and food to large ships that could not approach the island’s rocky shore.

On the night of January 17, 1960, a hurricane arose, which broke T-36‘s anchorage and carried the barge out to sea. The crew had been neither warned about the approaching storm nor provided with the requisite 10-day rations. There were four soldiers aboard: junior sergeant Askhat Ziganshin, and rank and file Philip Poplavsky, Anatoly Kryuchkovsky and Ivan Fedotov. 

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/49-days-in-the-ocean.html

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were at 317 parts per million.

As of 2026 they are 428ppm at and rising rapidly. Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think. 

Btw, the point(s) of this project is …. the how, the who the hell am I and the what do I currently believe?

The context was oh, sailors are always going adrift. It’s a big ocean. This though, during the Cold War will have offered the US some embarrassment material. Or at least a distraction from the lie Eisenhower got caught in over Gary Powers.

Why care?

I’m a geek with probably a whole bunch of undiagnosed TLAs. This is my way of coping.

(How) does it connect to climate change?

Nope

What happened next

The Soviet system collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions, with the visible portion being 1989-1992.

How does it help us understand the world?

Afaik, it doesn’t

How does it help us act in the world?

Afaik, it doesn’t

The source that it comes from, if necessary, 

Xxx

The other things that you could read about this or watch 

Gericault and The Raft of the Medusa.

(There’s a fun take on this in Julian Barnes History of the World in 10 and a half chapters.)

What do you think?

If you have opinions or info about this, or other things that happened on this day that are worth knowing, let me know!

Also on this day

Wikipedia

Working Class History

Etc

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NotClimate

January 13, 1668 – Amphitryon-ic for the people… #NotClimate

On this day, January 13, in 1668

Amphitryon is a French language comedy in a prologue and 3 Acts by Molière which is based on the story of the Greek mythological character Amphitryon as told by Plautus in his play from ca. 190–185 B.C. The play was first performed at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris on 13 January 1668.[1] A whiff of scandal surrounded the play, with some claiming that Molière was criticizing the amorous affairs of Louis XIV of France in the guise of Jupiter. It was performed again three days later at the Tuileries Garden in the presence of Louis XIV.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphitryon_(Moli%C3%A8re_play)

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were at 270 parts per million ish.

As of 2026 they are 428ppm at and rising rapidly. Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think. 

Btw, the point(s) of this project is …. the how, the who the hell am I and the what do I currently believe?

The context was

Moliere at his peak. The Sun King and all that. One of the gnarlier Greek myths.

Why care?

You really don’t need to. I mean, I don’t half the time – these are markers/aide memoires/”I should come back and read this”.

(How) does it connect to climate change?

Almost any Greek myth could get repurposed, I reckon, if someone was bothered enough.

What happened next

Moliere died on stage. Literally, pretty much.

Molière suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis, possibly contracted when he was imprisoned for debt as a young man. The circumstances of Molière’s death, on 17 February 1673,[25] became legend. He collapsed on stage in a fit of coughing and haemorrhaging while performing in the last play he had written, which had lavish ballets performed to the music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier and which ironically was titled Le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid). Molière insisted on completing his performance. Afterwards he collapsed again with another, larger haemorrhage before being taken home, where he died a few hours later, without receiving the last rites because two priests refused to visit him while a third arrived too late. The superstition that green brings bad luck to actors is said to originate from the colour of the clothing he was wearing at the time of his death.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moli%C3%A8re

How does it help us understand the world?

Thinking about gods and them messing up/being assholes is a good analogy, imo. Powerful doesn’t mean smart. It means powerful, or at least consequential.

How does it help us act in the world?

It does not, as best as I can see – what of it?

The source that it comes from, if necessary, 

Xxx

The other things that you could read about this or watch 

More Moliere is called for, I think.

What do you think?

If you have opinions or info about this, or other things that happened on this day that are worth knowing, let me know!

Also on this day

Wikipedia

Working Class History

Etc

Categories
NotClimate United States of America

January 12, 1946 – “Friends of Frankie Fay” rally at Madison Square Garden #NotClimate

On this day, January 12, in 1946 Frankie Fay, a fascist asshole who had been the “first stand-up” held a rally of 10,000 fellow fascist asssholes.

And this AFTER the truth of what the Nazis had done was out there….

“… Actor’s Equity stood by Brooks, Darling, Malina and Osato. Rather than expel them from his union, Lytell censured Frank Fay for “conduct prejudicial to the association or its membership.”

…

In response to the censure, allies of Franco, members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi party organized a rally at Madison Square Garden in January 1946 called “The Friends of Frank Fay.” Speakers included Klan ally Joseph Scott, Nazi Laura Ingalls, publisher of anti-Semitic pamphlets John Geis, and the prolific Joseph P. Kamp, who had used the KKK’s mailing list to distribute his work about “Jewish influence” and America’s “Communist President” Franklin D. Roosevelt.

observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-friends-of-frank-fay.html

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were at 310parts per million.

As of 2026 they are 428ppm at and rising rapidly. Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think. 

Btw, the point(s) of this project is …. the how, the who the hell am I and the what do I currently believe?

The context was that the truth of the extermination camps and the industrialised murder of millions of Jewish people, Roma, and other “undesirables” was kinda hard to ignore in 1946. But never underestimate the fash, I guess.

Why care?

This stuff matters! We need to remember that there is nothing that cannot be denied/ignored/minimised if it gets between you and your a) money and b) sense of yourself as a Good Person.

(How) does it connect to climate change?

See above.

What happened next

The white supremacists took a series of defeats through the 50s-70s, but have come roaring back.

Fay died, unlamented, in 1961.

How does it help us understand the world?

That evil never goes away. It can be contained, on a good day.

How does it help us act in the world?

Xx

The source that it comes from, if necessary, 

Xxx

The other things that you could read about this or watch 

There’s a Kurt Vonnegut novel I should read again, about 1930s White Supremacists…

What do you think?

If you have opinions or info about this, or other things that happened on this day that are worth knowing, let me know!

Also on this day

Wikipedia

Working Class History

Etc

Categories
NotClimate

January 11, 1818 – publication of Ozymandias #NotClimate

On this day, January 11 in 1818 Shelley’s sonnet Ozymandias was published in The Examiner.

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desart.[d] Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

No thing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Ozymandias is sort of part of the furniture of educated people, at least in the UK? It’s one of those allusions you are expected to “get” – blah blah Bourdieu and cultural capital blah blah.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were at 284 parts per million.

As of 2026 they are 428ppm at and rising rapidly. Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think. 

Btw, the point(s) of this project is …. the how, the who the hell am I and the what do I currently believe?

The context was, according to Wikipedia

“The poem was the result of a friendly competition between Shelley and fellow poet Horace Smith; using the subject of Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II, Ozymandias being the Greek name for the pharaoh. Both Shelley’s poem and Smith’s “Ozymandias” explore the ravages of time to which the legacies of even the greatest are subject.”

Why care?

Poetry helps us see things? No?

(How) does it connect to climate change?

Sand, time, hubris, humans as dust. You see where I am going with this?

What happened next

Shelley kept putting off the swimming lessons, and that was a mistake.

How does it help us understand the world?

Metaphors and allusions help us see things that are (being) hidden. Ozymandias reminds us that today’s sneers of arrogant command are tomorrow’s fishwrap.

How does it help us act in the world?

This is one to memorise. Reminds us that “this too shall pass” – and that includes human “civilisation”…

The source that it comes from, if necessary, 

Xxx

The other things that you could read about this or watch 

Larkin’s poem Aubade?

What do you think?

If you have opinions or info about this, or other things that happened on this day that are worth knowing, let me know!

Also on this day

Wikipedia

Working Class History

Categories
NotClimate

January 8, 2016- Roy Batty incept date #NotClimate

On this day, January 8, 2016, within the film Blade Runner, the Nexus-6 replicant Roy Batty had his “birthday” (aka incept date)

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were at 404 parts per million.

As of 2026 they are 428ppm at and rising rapidly.  Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think. 

Btw, the point(s) of this project is ….  the how, the who the hell am I and the what do I currently believe?

The context was that humans (especially men!)  have always created stories of being able to do what “gods” do – create life.  Ancient myths, modern ones (Mary Shelley in 1816) and contemporary ones – Philip K Dick in “Do Androids Dream Electric Sheep?”, which is a good novel, imo, and the source material for “Blade Runner”

Why care?

Batty is, by most readings, a more sympathetic and interesting character than Rick Deckard, the “Blade Runner” who is hunting him down.  The story is worth thinking on.

(How) does it connect to climate change?

Well, genetically engineered humans would be a thing, if we were smart enough/it were possible.

What happened next

He wanted more life (“fucker”) but didn’t get it, despite having seen attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.

How does it help us understand the world?

It’s a compelling myth, and absolutely beautifully shot.

How does it help us act in the world?

Well, if we think about rebels, trying to extend their lives while being hunted down, we get… er.. Help me out here.

The source that it comes from, if necessary, 

Xxx

The other things that you could read about this or watch 

Idk – Blade Runner 2049?

What do you think?

If you have opinions or info about this, or other things that happened on this day that are worth knowing, let me know!

Also on this day

Wikipedia

Working Class History

Etc

Categories
France NotClimate

January 7, 1938 – Samuel Beckett stabbed #NotClimate

On this day, January 7, in 1938

Then, echoing the random absurdism of his novel, on 7 January 1938, Beckett was stabbed in the chest and nearly killed in a Paris street when he refused the solicitations of a notorious pimp, named “Prudent”. Joyce arranged for medical treatment, and Beckett received his page proofs in hospital where he made a few alterations and insertions. https://onehundredpages.wordpress.com/2024/07/24/murphy-by-samuel-beckett-1938-the-maestro-of-failure/

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were at xxx parts per million.

As of 2026 they are ppm at and rising rapidly.  Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think. 

Btw, the point(s) of this project is ….  the how, the who the hell am I and the what do I currently believe?

The context was

Beckett had been living in Paris for a couple of years by this time, I think. He’d been under analysis with Wilfrid Bion (watch this space)

Why care?

Well, knowing this about an author can change the way you read them?  (Some say it shouldn’t, obvs – nothing outside the text blah blah).

(How) does it connect to climate change?

Beckett’s sense of the absurd, despair, but also ACTION.

“Where I am, I don’t know, I’ll never know, in the silence you don’t know, you must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on.”

What happened next

He kept despairing and going on.

How does it help us understand the world?

Oof. Beckett and Bion – I must really get on with that…

How does it help us act in the world?

Beckett’s sense of the absurd, despair, but also ACTION.

“Where I am, I don’t know, I’ll never know, in the silence you don’t know, you must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on.”

There was the Austrian playwright, Otto Von Horvath who died in Paris on June 1 1938 when a branch of a tree fell on his head, as I recall, about the same time, pre war. Paris, of course, people didn’t know it was pre war, necessarily. They had a fairly good guess but didn’t know it was “pre-occupation Paris”,  (see what I did there?)

. I presume a lot of them had a mental model that it would be a rerun of World War One, only with bigger explosions.

Anyway, Sword of Damocles in it all our lives are hanging by a thread/ending of Stand by Me by the late great Rob Reiner 

The source that it comes from, if necessary, 

Xxx

The other things that you could read about this or watch 

I should read the Molloy trilogy – I stared Malone Dies without realising it’s mid…

What do you think?

If you have opinions or info about this, or other things that happened on this day that are worth knowing, let me know!

Also on this day

January 7 – Wikipedia

January 7 – WCH | Stories