"Y'a pas d'argent à l'Education Nationale ! On doit faire des économies !" Regardez les prix catalogues des sociétés par lesquelles je suis OBLIGÉ de passer 80€ la lampe de chevet QUATRE-VINGT EUROS 48,6€ l'ampoule QUARANTE-HUIT PUTAINS D'EUROS POUR UNE AMPOULE

In years to come, students in university departments around the world will be studying the propaganda embedded in this headline. As someone who regularly lectures in sociology, journalism and media studies, I could teach an entire lesson on the title alone. For example: 1. Treating the 4 Israeli soldiers as more important than the 23 Palestinian children (by leading the story with their deaths and just chucking in the others at the end) implies their lives are of higher value. 2. Infantilizing active duty soldiers as "teenagers" while not emphasizing the age of the schoolkids, despite many of them being demonstrably younger. 3. The classic use of the passive voice: Israelis are "killed" while Palestinians merely "die". 4. Putting scare quotes around "23 die" subtly undermines the credibility of that claim. Maybe no one died, and the Palestinians are just lying? 5. Using the word "attack" for Hezbollah actions, but choosing a more neutral, clinical word like "strike" for Israeli aggression. 6. Allowing Israeli sources to dictate the framing of the story ("Israel names teenage soldiers") etc. 7. Actually naming the Israeli soldiers, but not doing the same for the far greater number of Palestinians, again sends the message to the reader that Palestinian lives don't matter nearly as much, if at all. It's truly incredible how much propaganda has been packed into 16 words. We are swimming in an ocean of propaganda. That's why it is crucial to deconstruct it and critically assess everything you read, see and hear.

This is rather brilliant:

That was @RLS2024 at Ruhr University Bochum. Thank you all for a memorable conference and some great explorations of intertextual Stevenson

Le 30 juin, faisons le choix de rester ensemble.

It's almost time to head off to Bochum for RLS2024, the biennial Robert Louis Stevenson conference. This year, the theme is Intertextual Stevenson. ruhr-uni-bochum.de/neuere-en…

Ditto France

Lesley Graham / @lezzles takes us to those 'opening-out places' and we love it. 'Risorgimento' on inksweatandtears.co.uk/lesle… #poem

RLS 2024: Intertextual Stevenson, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, Preliminary Programme, ruhr-uni-bochum.de/neuere-en…

Join the French Society for Scottish Studies International Conference 'Unions/Disunions,' hosted by Nathalie Duclos and Robert Irvine, at Edinburgh University, May 2-4, 2024. Keynote by Prof Robert Crawford @SFEEcossaises @NathalieVDuclos

Thank you so much, @lezzles, for letting me know about this. What an interesting analysis in Études Écossaises bilingual journal of The State of Me, my 2008 autobiographical novel on illness: journals.openedition.org/etu… Fascinating and gratifying to see your work read so closely.

International early-career seminar Strangers and foreigners: hospitality and hostility in Britain, France, and Germany, 1680-1850 Université Bordeaux Montaigne, 3-5 April @UBMontaigne & @unidue With the support of @DFHUFA bit.ly/3TktFET

Does you good just to spend two minutes with this, doesn’t it?

📢 We need your help! 🗓️ To get the Brits abroad vote out for the GE we need everyone to register asap. We have a long way to go, so please share with all your family and friends abroad. 👉 UK nationals over 18 can vote wherever they live. gov.uk/register-to-vote

It's an 80's thing.

CFP : Etudes Ecossaises: “Scotland 30 years after Trainspotting” sfee.fr/1742-2/

COP28 is now on the verge of complete failure. The world desperately needs to phase out fossil fuels as quickly as possible, but this obsequious draft reads as if OPEC dictated it word for word. It is even worse than many had feared. It is “Of the Petrostates, By the Petrostates and For the Petrostates.” It is deeply offensive to all who have taken this process seriously. There are 24 hours left to show whose side the world is on: the side that wants to protect humanity’s future by kickstarting the orderly phase out of fossil fuels or the side of the petrostates and the leaders of the oil and gas companies that are fueling the historic climate catastrophe. In order to prevent COP28 from being the most embarrassing and dismal failure in 28 years of international climate negotiations, the final text must include clear language on phasing out fossil fuels. Anything else is a massive step backwards from where the world needs to be to truly address the climate crisis and make sure the 1.5°C goal doesn’t die in Dubai.

Lamentable

I was at one of these gigs (can’t remember which). Shane was incredibly drunk, arrived on stage hours late and could barely stand. It was still brilliant. ( 📸 @sudouest ) #ShaneMacGowan

Just two days left to get your proposals in for RLS2024 Intertextual Stevenson at Ruhr University Bochum, 27 June – 29 June 2024 ruhr-uni-bochum.de/neuere-en…