New Google Earth Feature Lets Users Listen to Endangered Indigenous Languages From Around the World

From Mental Floss by Michele Debczak:

“According to UNESCO, at least half of all languages spoken around the world are on track to disappear by the end of this century. Most of these languages are spoken by indigenous populations whose number of native speakers get smaller with each generation. New technology can help preserve these native tongues: A social media campaign launched in 2013 aimed to preserve the Sami language of northern Europe, and a 2016 interactive web game focused on the Marra language of aboriginal Australians. The latest of these efforts comes from Google Earth, and it promotes not one, but 50 threatened languages.”

http://mentalfloss.com/article/596927/google-earth-lets-users-listen-to-endangered-indigenous-languages

Independence Day Reflection: My India

Vishal Bheeroo

Image source: Google India

The past is the present. Ancestors’ lineage and blood reverberate in every cell of my nerve and I for Identity never fades away. Cynics may call it discarded emotion or false patriotism. My great grandparents toiled in this colorful land, countless emotions, thousands languages and religions, we call India.

India may be born as an Idea. Historically and culturally rich, we stand tall as we verge to the past disowned or discarded by many. For me, it is not an idea but a country representing seamless, a metamorphosis on what makes me who am I as the person and the values I choose to stand for. Symbolism or grandiose effects have no place in my life. The wounds of the past and the displaced or uprooted from their lands as scars taking years and decades to heal, the people, grandfather, grandmother, mother, father taking the shape…

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Special issue: The Politics of Life. European Journal of Social Theory (2019)

Foucault News

Special issue: The Politics of Life, European Journal of Social Theory, Volume 22 Issue 3, August 2019

Contents

Guest editors: Greg Bird and Heather Lynch

Special issue introduction

Introduction to the politics of life: A biopolitical mess 301
Greg Bird and Heather Lynch

Special issue articles

Postdemocracy and biopolitics
Roberto Esposito

Me, my self, and the multitude: Microbiopolitics of the human microbiome
Penelope Ironstone

Geopower: On the states of nature of late capitalism
Federico Luisetti

Esposito’s affirmative biopolitics in multispecies homes
Heather Lynch

The eroticization of biopower: Masochistic relationality and resistance
in Deleuze and Agamben
Hannah Richter

Religion and the spontaneous order of the market: Law, freedom, and power
over lives
Elettra Stimilli

From homo sacer to homo dolorosus: Biopower and the politics of suffering 416
Charles Wells

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Here’s What Tourists Might See If They Were Allowed To Visit Gaza

read here

Videos of Plenaries from Truth, Fiction, Illusion: Worlds & Experience’ Conference 2019 – Malpas, Elden, Margaroni, Mbembe, Stiegler — Progressive Geographies

Full playlist here – plenaries by Jeff Malpas, Stuart Elden, Maria Margaroni, Bernard Stiegler, Achille Mbembe and discussion between Mbembe and Stiegler.

via Videos of Plenaries from Truth, Fiction, Illusion: Worlds & Experience’ Conference 2019 – Malpas, Elden, Margaroni, Mbembe, Stiegler — Progressive Geographies

Liverpool: huge tidal power plant on the Mersey could make city a renewable energy hotspot

Tallbloke's Talkshop

Map of the Manchester Ship Canal (= blue line)
[click on map to enlarge]
H/T TechXplore

Sounds expensive. But as Liverpool is near the start of the Manchester Ship Canal any barrage should have low impact on shipping, in theory at least. As far as a ‘climate emergency’ is concerned, I’ve lived near the Mersey for a long time and haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary with the weather – so far at least 😐

Liverpool has declared a climate emergency, says The Conversation.

The mayors of both the city itself and the surrounding “city region” have recognised the emergency, and both have suggested that a tidal barrage on the River Mersey could form part of the solution.

And on a recent visit to the city, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said his party would support the £3.5 billion project.

Two years ago, I teamed up with colleagues at…

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How much public consultation on carbon targets, Boris? Net Zero

Tallbloke's Talkshop

New Prime Minister Boris Johnson hasn’t had to wait long for critics of his approach to energy and climate to open fire.

In his first session as PM in the House of Commons, Boris Johnson made two notable statements yesterday, writes Ben Pile @ The Conservative Woman.

First, he declared that the Conservative Party is the party of democracy, and that as such it will defend the result of the referendum.

Second, he reaffirmed his commitment to the Net Zero 2050 target – the policy that Theresa May had stolen from his leadership campaign to secure her own ‘legacy’. Only one of those statements can be correct.

Many believe that the Net Zero 2050 (NZ2050) target lacks a democratic mandate.

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