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James Dunbar

@jamesad.bsky.social
247 followers 107 following 531 posts

architect, phd student (Architectural & Urban History & Theory, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL), traveler, photographer, future architectural historian, part-time punk (semi-retired), critiques of ISM

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Reposted by James Dunbar
Feena van @feenavan2099.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
"Before Stonehenge was raised, before Egypts first pyramid broke ground,before the Nazca people drew their famous lines across the Peruvian desert,someone in what is now southern Arizona shaped a 272-foot fish into the earth On April 23,2026,"a border-wall contractor drove heavy equipment across it"
gadgetreview.com
Trump's Border Wall Construction Destroys 6,500-Year-Old Arizona Geoglyph – Older Than Stonehenge
Arizona's 6,500-year-old Las Playas Intaglio, the oldest dated geoglyph in the Americas, was irreparably damaged by border wall construction in April 2026.
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Arin Arcady @rnrkd.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
It is not permitted to request jury nullification during a trial but it is permissible to discuss it abstractly. Jury nullification is the synthesis of two rules. First, the prosecution cannot appeal a jury verdict of not guilty. Second, a jury issuing a verdict of not guilty need not explain itself
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Pete Apps @peteapps.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Breaking: the Met Police has submitted charging files to the Crown Prosecution Service resulting from its Grenfell fire investigation. The files cover 54 individuals and 20 companies and cover charges including fraud, misconduct in public office and manslaughter
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Le Monde in English @english.lemonde.fr · 25/09/2026
Amnesty International calls for ICE to be abolished
lemonde.fr
Amnesty International calls for ICE to be abolished
In a report titled 'We Had Whistles, They Had Guns,' the NGO documents widespread human rights violations committed by ICE in the United States.
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Ill Will @illwill.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Regarding the DoorDash driver shot by ICE in Austin, TX, this double essay from Brazil offers a powerful reflection upon new kinds of strikes, sabotage, and disruption available to app drivers. illwill.com/work-and-rev...
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Bryce Covert @brycecovert.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
It always seems like it can't be true, but it is: American businesses often pay more to try to defeat a union drive or contract negotiation that they would if they recognized the union and agreed to better pay and benefits prospect.org/2026/09/08/u...
prospect.org
How Much Do Union-Busting Campaigns Cost? - The American Prospect
Is your boss making you sit through anti-union propaganda meetings? It turns out those are pricey.
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Josh Shepperd @joshshepperd.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I hope y’all see that this will mean the imminent closure of a number of graduate programs.
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rom comrade @savasavasava.myatproto.social · 30/08/2026
very interesting and worrisome. "Each decision can be individually rational: Google changes a search parameter, OpenAI rebalances the sources its chatbot retrieves. Together, they are reshaping a public epistemic infrastructure that nobody outside the companies can meaningfully inspect or contest."
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Ill Will @illwill.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Gilles Deleuze's overlooked writings on Palestine offer a general paradigm for political individuation. However, as Pasquale Liguori argues, recovering them demands that we break the peace of the guilty, which “modulates genocide and calls it law.” illwill.com/forbidden-de...
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Tim Waterman @tim-waterman.co.uk · 15/08/2026
Shannon Mattern's generosity, openness, honesty, and incredible perspicacity is precisely what should be happening with everyone on social media every day. If only we all saw participation as deeds for the public good rather than self aggrandisement.
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Barbara Brayshay @bbrayshay.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
@livingmaps.bsky.social James Cheshire shares fascinating insights into the droughts of 1976 and 2026 in the Drought Atlas of 1976 from the Library of Lost Maps: A series of maps that reveal the story of the drought, prevailing weather conditions, vegetation fires, media coverage and recovery.
libraryoflostmaps.com
Exploring the 1976 Drought: Lessons for 2026's Heatwave
Explore the profound impact of the 1976 drought in Britain, its lessons for today's climate, and the role of media in public perception.
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Tim Waterman @tim-waterman.co.uk · 04/08/2026
This is yet another 'rewilding' article calling for better landscape management. We used to have degrees in landscape management but they've all gone. Please just bring landscape management back.
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De-Katie and Cat-Boo!-ger @katieandcatburger.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
this rules so hard, rip raoul vaneigem this wikipedia excerpt feels especially present for me right now: he challenged what he called "passive nihilism", a passive acceptance of the absurdities of modernism which he considered "an overture to conformism"
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words @words.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
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words @words.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
rip raoul vaneigem
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Tim Waterman @tim-waterman.co.uk · 03/08/2026
Future alien archaeologists: "There was a sudden glut of hand-held devices with whirling blades, and then the species died. We think these tiny engines somehow killed off humans."
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Frankie Huang 黄碧赤 @ourobororoboruo.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
I am making it a habit to always look for the labor story behind these nasty scandals. The consumers are almost never the only ones being harmed.
futurism.com
The Diarrhea Lettuce Company Has Been Linked to Forced Labor
The lettuce-producing Taylor Farms was linked to the widespread use of prison labor before its involvement in a cyclospora outbreak.
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Zoomer Antimillenarian @surcomplicated.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
It's basically austerity or hyperinflation in the near future and the only way for Dems to politically survive the necessary austerity is to destroy the lives of as many MAGA regime criminals as humanly possible, in public, messaging the fuck out of every single prosecution.
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Alexander Chee @alexanderchee.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
‘Anthropic described the project as “our effort to disruptively scan all the world’s books” in an internal memo, which noted “we do not want it to be known that we are pursuing this project”.’
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Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
This new study finds that the total death toll in Europe during the June heatwave exceeds 20,000 people. "This result highlights the accelerating threat of mass heat mortality events in Europe despite previous adaptations to heat." Pre-print here: zenodo.org/records/2108...
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Tim Waterman @tim-waterman.co.uk · 27/07/2026
CFP: Reclaiming Radical Imagination Utopia and Speculation in Architectural Practice, Theory, and Pedagogy; Thematic call for VAS - Visionary Architecture Studies Journal, an Open-Access, Peer-Reviewed Journal. vas-journal.org/index.php/VA...
vas-journal.org
Reclaiming Radical Imagination | VAS - Visionary Architecture Studies
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starch mogul @posts-cards.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
us just full-on stealing billions of dollars from venezuela is breathtakingly fucked up and yet it feels like it’s barely gonna register www.ft.com/content/0e56...
ft.com
The US has collected about $13bn of Venezuela’s oil money. Where is it?
Washington has given diverging accounts of where the earthquake-shattered country’s funds are going
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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
“If we’re not careful we will end up with what the great writer Toni Morrison called ‘statist history.’ And it will creat what she called ‘sanctioned ignorance.’” A righteous defense of the craft and the profession of history. Watch it. youtube.com/watch?v=mbz2...
youtube.com
WATCH: David Blight makes opening statement in hearing on how Smithsonian presents history
YouTube video by PBS NewsHour
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Ed BooOOooOOmila @edburmila.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
It would be nice if, at the very least, the people reporting on this stuff properly contextualized it by explicitly stating that if the president can do this the union has ceased to exist. It's not hyperbole or figurative language. There is no union. "Unconstitutional" doesn't cover it.
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
An attempt to steal our own tax dollars from us. Tyranny
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Prof Tracey Hill @tracelarkhall.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
A window into living conditions in 1628: Joane Bullocke, a tenant of the Fishmongers, is asking for stairs to be installed in the house she lives in because she is lame and struggles to get up the ladder to the trapdoor that leads to her room (the Company agreed to pay for the stairs).
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Stephen Farrow @stephenfarrow.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Many thanks to the Toronto Star for inadvertently showing us why we should all use the Oxford Comma. Apparently Sylvia had some, let's say, complicated hobbies:
Headline from the Toronto Star:

The latest historical fiction
books take inspiration from
Sylvia Plath, a New York
vigilante and Shah of Iran

We review ‘Daffodil Days,’ ‘Lady X,’ ‘Love Lane’ and
‘Mistress of the Persian Boarding House.

July 16,2026 at 12:45 p.m.
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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
The most frightening and important analysis you’ll read this week, courtesy of @stevevladeck.bsky.social. open.substack.com/pub/stevevla...
open.substack.com
239. The Alien Terrorist Removal Court
The Trump administration has activated a secret 30-year-old court that's never been used. Here's what we know, and why we should (and shouldn't) be worried.
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Kim Kelly @kimkelly.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
bless @defector.com’s Sabrina Imbler for this crucial piece of service journalism defector.com/why-the-expl...
defector.com
Why The Explosive Diarrhea Parasite Is Way Worse Than Regular Diarrhea Parasites | Defector
Grab a stool, take a seat, and get ready to learn about cyclospora.
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Rachel Gilmore @rachelgilmore.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
CBC headline from two weeks ago: “Carney says Trudeau-era climate plan was ‘too expensive’ and ‘divisive’
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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Judges are expected to write opinions not only for the sake of precedent, but b/c written opinions act as judicial guardrails. They help keep judges from making arbitrary or insufficiently considered opinions because they have to provide some coherent explanation for their conclusion.
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Kim Kelly @kimkelly.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
if you too fear the diarrhea plague, Philly has a lot of great farmers markets (not just bougie expensive ones!) where you can get nice local produce for cheap. There’s one tomorrow in Old City, and one in Point Breeze 3-7pm on Thursday—it’s veggie quest time
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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
bifurcation days "The report, conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, found that U.S. workers received just 54.1% of national income in early 2026, the lowest level recorded since the data series began in 1947."
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Tim Waterman @tim-waterman.co.uk · 14/07/2026
The generation that is just now dying off in the US was either marching for civil rights in the 60s or against (e.g. with the KKK). They will die clinging onto leadership and mostly their views haven't changed.
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Grace Blakeley @graceblakeley.substack.com · 08/07/2026
"I cannot picture a ‘post-neoliberal society rooted in fairness.’ But tell me that I could wake up each day and hear birds outside my window again, and that I can cycle safely to work on clearly-marked bike lanes." New guest post from @casshebron.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/gracebla...
open.substack.com
The left needs to cut jargon to build power
Our language is alienating the people we should be recruiting.
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Tim Waterman @tim-waterman.co.uk · 07/07/2026
Europe absolutely must prioritise landscape-led planning, as thinking through all the sets of landscape relationships is the only way to come to grips with (or even to survive) wicked problems like this.
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Jason Scott @textfiles.com · 03/07/2026
I'll summarize this: Mamdani asked NYers to keep air conditioning at 78 degrees. A wave criticism hit online. A MSNBC broadcast pointed out the US Department of Energy recommends that 78 degree figure. Immediately after, the US Department of Energy deleted 6,000 web pages related to energy saving.
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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
today in destroying higher ed is economic sabotage: “Economists project a 1/3drop in international STEM students will strip $240-481B from GDP research institutions employ enormous numbers of people directly, purchase locally, anchor economies” johnaubreydouglass.substack.com/p/trump-poli...
johnaubreydouglass.substack.com
Trump Policies Depressing Not Only Future US Graduate Student Enrollments, But Economic Growth
On the Anniversary of the One Big Beautiful Bill we are seeing the consequences
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Alice Wickenden @awickenden.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
I agree with all the takes about an attack on the humanities being an attack on critical thinking, &c. It’s also about joy, though. ‘Why bother studying that’ is always also a sneer at — why do you think you should get to do something you enjoy? Grow up and be miserable all the time!
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Grace Blakeley @graceblakeley.substack.com · 03/07/2026
The bust is coming. The rich will offload their assets at the peak of the bubble - and pension funds and retail investors will buy them. Millions of peoples' savings will be wiped out. The wealthy will walk away with billions graceblakeley.substack.com/p/this-is-wh...
graceblakeley.substack.com
This is what a bubble looks like 🫧
The AI bubble continues - but under the surface, signs of strain are beginning to show.
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Tim Waterman @tim-waterman.co.uk · 03/07/2026
It couldn't be more important to understand fascism. I have put a lot of energy into just that in recent years. One thing I can conclude: what we are seeing is not "fascism 2.0" or "neo-fascism". It's just fascism, a project of a power- hungry and wealthy elite that adapts to the times.
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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Everybody in the "climate space" (which means everyone on earth...) needs to understand these mind-blowing figures. Google's "total electricity consumption jumped from 31 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2024 to 43 TWh in 2025." In ONE year. The AI corporate arms race is eating the world.
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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
One thing that I’ve learned in my study of backlash politics from Reconstruction through the Civil Rights Movement is that backlashers are a persistent bunch. The undoing of Reconstruction took several decades, and post-WWII backlashers looked back on that patient counterrevolution as a model.
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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
The majority on this Court has left Americans undefended. The President is now a king, and our only hope is to elect a more benevolent king. In their zeal to end the so-called “administrative state,” they broke what was left of protections for the American people.
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Truthout @truthout.org · 26/06/2026
“’Centrism’ is just performative compromise devoid of critical thinking, policy, or ideology,” D’Arrigo wrote. “It’s a political vehicle that gives permission to do nothing in service of protecting a status quo that benefits large corporate donors and special interest groups who fund both parties.”
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Kim Kelly @kimkelly.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
The wonderful @marisakabas.bsky.social let me go long on the grim historic parallels between the Prairieland defendants and 19th century America’s brutal repression—and execution—of anarchists, union organizers, and political dissidents. We are all antifa now. www.thehandbasket.co/p/haymarket-...
thehandbasket.co
From Haymarket to Prairieland: How dissent has unleashed the long arm of the law
The Prairieland sentencing has dark historical parallels, Kim Kelly writes. But we can change the end of the current story.
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 25/06/2026
As a new heatwave grips Europe, it's time to think about how workers can fight environmental destruction. This new book from Lorenzo Feltrin offers a new framework for understanding labour struggles and environmental justice. Get yours: shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/...
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