Five Things #20

Water: A History by KJ Kabza is a remarkable and moving story of human colonists on the planet of Quányuán which is arid to the point of being uninhabitable. Wetness is a concept left back on Earth but this doesn’t stop one elderly woman from stepping outside the safety of the colony whenever she can for the brief opportunity to fully experience the outside world.

Christine McLaren meets the citizen scientists in Australia who are reforesting the ocean.

Denzil visits The See-Through Church of Borgloon.

Steve Royston reminds us that political movements are fine, as long as they’re regular.

Chris Grey looks ahead at what happens next with Brexit and the battle between remembering and forgetting.

Quote of the day: The rewards for failure have never been higher

We now have two unelected ministers in the People’s Government. Lucky, lucky us.

— John Crace

Quote of the day: Never knowingly in possession of a fact

[A] man who has been wrong in just about everything he has ever said about Brexit

— Chris Grey on former Brexit Secretary, David Davis

Quote of the day: Reckless and incompetent

Without an extended transition, the UK will have to choose between quick and total capitulation to EU demands as the price for low-friction trade or being shut out of the single market.

— Rafael Behr on the Tories inability to learn from the Article 50 negotiations that a ticking clock favours the bigger, better prepared side.

Unfortunately, Britain has a scandal-proof PM

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From Wumo

Quote of the day: Reflecting emptiness

[A] period of reflection led by a man who hasn’t changed his mind since 1970 seems an inevitable act of political Dadaism.

— Marina Hyde on Jeremy Corbyn

Quote of the day: A question of trust

How was it possible a country could so fall from grace that it could elect as leader a man who would brazenly tell the lies everyone else was too ashamed to say out loud?

— John Crace on Boris Johnson

Five Things #15

Alex Irvine’s Black Friday is set in a dark future America where consumerism and gun culture are unchecked, and follows a young family as they team up up to celebrate the first shopping day of the Christmas season in the most patriotic way possible.

The Guardian investigates the network of radical right wing think tanks that have hijacked Brexit and reshaped the Conservative party.

Jörg Schindler travels Northern England to explore Ground Zero of the Brexit Class War.

Mark Harrison considers the past and probable future of Aardman Animations feature length output.

In light of a recent study which suggested that establishing a trillion new trees around the world could turn back the climate clock to the 1970s, Mitch Anderson decided to take a look at some examples of resilient reforestation efforts and why they worked.

Quote of the day: The post-truth election

By leaving the EU, Britain will have less rather than more control over its regulation and policy choices, and will be poorer and less influential into the bargain. It’s a definitional lose-lose made inevitable by a world characterised not so much by globalization as by economic and political regionalization.

— Chris Grey on the choices facing voters in the upcoming UK election.

Five Things #14

Precious Little Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky is a prequel to the magical novella Made Things, which has just been published. It’s so good that I now have the novella.

Chris Grey asks what ‘getting Brexit done‘ actually means. There are some nasty surprises in store for anyone who thinks that Britain leaving the UK in January will be the end of it.

Robert McCrum remembers Clive James, who died last week.

Jennie Rigg points to what the phrase ‘poisoning of political discourse‘ means for real people.

And finally, here’s Wumo on Black Friday:

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