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- Geographical Imaginations
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- Paleofutures – good tech stuff
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Archives
Author Archives: Laleh Khalili
More on London canals
I have written lovingly of London’s canals before. I just want to briefly write out something else I have discovered which ties in nicely with the whole infrastructure thing. Today I spent an hour or so in the London Canal … Continue reading
Posted in infrastructure, political economy, transport
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Dangers of crewing an oil tanker
Associated Press reports that jets belonging to the Libyan government bombed a Greek-owned tanker, killing two crew members: A military spokesman for Libya’s internationally recognised government says its fighter jets bombed a Greek-owned tanker ship because it had no prior … Continue reading
Posted in Middle East, militaries, oil, political economy, transport, war
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Ghost ships
In the last two weeks, two ships filled to the brim with hundreds of Syrian refugees have been brought in to Italian ports. The ships seem to have left Eastern Mediterranean, and sailed parallel to the Turkish coast, picking up … Continue reading
Pulp fictions
pulp fiction n. fiction of a style characteristic of pulp magazines; sensational, lurid, or popular fiction. 1928 Decatur (Ill.) Herald 10 Aug. 6/5 Wood-pulp fiction commands a price of two—sometimes three—cents a word (The Oxford English Dictionary) I sometimes … Continue reading
Posted in capital accumulation, Middle East, oil, readings, war
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At sea on an island as a cyclone comes
This book is neither about ports and the labour of dockers nor about shipping and transport. But I have to write about it because it is one of the most stunning books I have stumbled into during my obsessive reading … Continue reading
Posted in literature, ports
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Train whistles and futures
I am reading two books simultaneously through both of which trains rattle and whistle and snake… But which in some ways are as different as they can be. Bill Cronon’s Nature’s Metropolis is a panoramic history of the making of Chicago in the … Continue reading
From detention to logistics
As I wrote earlier, one of the most amazing sections of Deb Cowen’s amazing book is about how after its closure, Camp Bucca was transformed into Basra Logistics City. Today, yet another article has come out about how Camp Bucca … Continue reading
Posted in logistics, Middle East, militaries, war
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How Railways Changed Time
I am reading Bill Cronon’s extraordinary Nature’s Metropolis. For obvious reasons, the chapters on credit, on canals and water transport, and on the railways are most interesting to me. This, however, came as a surprise: Before the invention of standard time, … Continue reading
Posted in capital accumulation, infrastructure, transport
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From Tegart forts to shipping containers
Christian Science Monitor reports that the British are building watchtowers along the Lebanese-Syrian border: “A lonely fortified watchtower built from stacked metal shipping containers, topped by a bullet-proofed observation booth, and protected from shrapnel and assaults by 18-foot-high walls of … Continue reading
Posted in construction, infrastructure, militaries, war
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The pirate republics of North Africa
Just check out this incredibly fabulous painting of Hayreddin Barbarossa and Sinan Reis, 16th century pirates extraordinaire… (thanks Orit).
Posted in piracy, the sea
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The Gamming 