Stefan Laser

Mon, 11 May 2026 09:41:22 +0200

The dirty chunks are back, baby: “Global coal imports in May are expected to be more than 464,000 tonnes, the third highest monthly coal imports on record.” FT.com

Well, #coal has never been in decline. We have never had a #transition.

archive.is/202605110…

Thu, 07 May 2026 06:23:48 +0200

#Deutschlandfunk bitte nun immer morgens mit elektro beasts, danke

Wed, 06 May 2026 14:38:57 +0200

The UAE’s ambassador to the US, son of an oil magnate, writes an op-ed for the FT. “Leaving Opec is not a commercial calculation alone; it is a responsibility.” UAE wants to be so much more.

A detector flags the piece as 100% AI slop. Ok?

archive.is/fO95N

Mon, 04 May 2026 19:23:45 +0200

Der Taiwancast hostet die Dresdener Wirtschaftsförderung – guter Pod mit diversen interessanten bits und pieces zur TSMC-Ansiedlung in #Dresden, und der Kollege und ich waren wohl zeitlgleich zur SEMICON-Messe in Taipei unterwegs. #Halbleiter

intaiwan.net/2026/05/0…

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 09:55:04 +0200

Join us TODAY for a fly book launch. “Staying with the Planet” is a sci-fi story about ecological troubles of our modern universities.

⏰ 2pm CET 📍 RUSTlab RUB, or Zoom: tinyurl.com/RUSTlab 👇Find more info about the event and book (open access, y’all!) on the RUSTlab website.

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 13:22:56 +0200

Why tho, #DB? I am sitting in a German #train, virtually missing an important meeting, because we have more than 3hrs delay. We’re currently resting our not-well oiled machines in Hameln, waiting for the rats to catch us.

Infrastructural decay is tough to swallow, ngl

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 09:42:13 +0200

Thinking #AI through its future ruins: We just published Anne Pasek’s lovely ride of a keynote from the Before Ruins #STS conference, which took place at Ruhr University in #Bochum.

With hot beats by Mace.

www.youtube.com/watch

@apasek.bsky.social @aepa@Aepasek@scholar.social

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 15:13:30 +0200

Über “Arten des Lesens”, von extraktiv über kritisch hin zu generös und situiert – eine Ressource für die #Lehre. Die “ways of reading” von Murphy waren lange in meinen Bookmarks, nun habe ich sie für Seminare an der #RUB übersetzt.

Feel free to use. docs.google.com/document/…

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 10:43:18 +0200

Honey, wake up, another episode of Cultures of #Energy dropped, a #waste one!!

Highly recommended, with haunted insights from landfills in Czechia, based on Dan Sosna’s book “Europe’s Disappearing Waste.” Lovely, lovely stuff!

cenhs.libsyn.com/253-disap…

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 20:29:05 +0200

“Es wächst also alles gemeinsam und gleichzeitig. Holz, Öl und Kohle stehen nicht in Konkurrenz zueinander.”

Eine Symbiose, die sich mit Erneuerbaren fortsetzt.

Jean-Baptiste Fressoz (“More and More and More”, 2025) im Surplus Magazin: gegen ein Denken in Anteilen. #Energiewende

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 17:52:29 +0200

Über wuchernde Gasturbinen, “Infrastukturextraktivismus”, #KI Hype, Mythen, Bodenspekulation und andere kritische Reflexionen von #CablesOfResistance – ein Bericht.

netzpolitik.org/2026/rech…

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 18:14:51 +0200

“Teaching” is just another word for running around, from A to B to A, and collecting things.*

*Or, how to walk 10 km at Ruhr-Uni Bochum.

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 16:34:06 +0200

On the radio, I hear the German research foundation #DFG defend its recent move to allow #AI in project reviews, just with local setups, just for language clarity – lots of reservations.

I then listen to the most recent episode of Mél’s Data Fix podcast. An anonymous guest (🔥) talks about their daily chatbot use and how it is both useful (we need more concrete honesty) and addictive, sucking you in for follow-ups, offering more.

DFG, any discussion of that issue?

pca.st/rnby9g1z

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 13:52:54 +0200

Sowjetische #sf, “fremd und vertraut”. #KI

Und ein Cover Game erster Güte.

Funde aus dem Buchladen Peter Sodans, einer Magdeburger Institution

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 08:10:51 +0200

Oh the Americans want to increase their war budget by a few bucks, just a mere increase of ~40 percent. Germany also proudly moved to the top 5 of #military spenders worldwide. But money’s scarce y’all.

Can we have a moonshot beyond virtually shooting at the moon or burying souls for #AI assets?

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 14:21:31 +0200

Oh, that one hits hard: 👐

Tech Won’t Save Us: Why #Iran is Attacking #DataCenters w/ Sam Biddle

bsky.app/profile/t…

Paris now offers a YouTube version of the pod, too, the data centerification goes up up, but that’s fine in this case, I guess

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 10:05:05 +0200

Hey cool, flowers to myself: Starting this week, I will be Acting Professor at Ruhr-University #Bochum holding the chair of Anthropology of Knowledge.

This will be for the summer term and lots of fun, esp. in teaching controversy mapping, reading extraction, and discussing post-socialist economies.

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 07:38:05 +0200

Deutschlandfunk, CDU-Haushaltspolitiker. “Und dann geht es nur um das Ziel mehr Wachstum.” Der Staat nehme zu viele Steuern ein, da müsse man kürzen, Betriebe entlasten, Leistungsträger und so. Überall Kürzungen. Währenddessen bröckeln Infrastruktur und gesellschaftlicher Zusammenhalt

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 11:42:50 +0200

The same week that #OpenAI announced the imminent shutdown of Sora, its splashiest showcase for #AI, #Meta announced the shutdown of its splashiest showcase for the metaverse.

Brian the Merchant on the aesthetics and economics of things looking like shit.

open.substack.com/pub/blood…

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 08:56:30 +0200

Our #STS #Bochum conference is over. The experimental case format has been a success with overwhelming enthusiasm, standing before ruins proved to be an insightful lens; but my body is also weak and tired. Happy Weekend. 🧘

stsing.org/before-ru…

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 15:01:54 +0200

And we’re on! Welcome address done, and Anne Pasek kicks us off with a keynote on a world after the #AI bubble. @aepa@Aepasek@scholar.social 🏆

How to give justice to the material troubles that arise once data center infrastructure moves on? What do our fears & desires do?

We are given zines!!

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 18:13:25 +0200

On Wednesday, our #stsing conference in #Bochum starts. Final prep walk done. Standing #BeforeRuins. #sts

Check our lovely booklet here: stsing.org/before-ru…

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 10:27:40 +0200

Neue Erfahrung mit der #Bahn: ich bin gestrandet, randomly. (Das ist passend zu einem Forschungsantrag, den ich gerade eingereicht habe, aber das ist ein anderes Thema.) Warten auf ein Taxi in der Prärie ist die letzte Hoffnung.

More happy news to follow during our upcoming stsing conference 🤘

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 21:50:21 +0200

#Buchmesse 🫠

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 19:33:37 +0200

Maurice on 🔥:

Progressive sollten besser politische Entscheidungen an sich kritisieren als technokratische Kniffe wie das #Sondervermögen, die die Schuldenbremse umgehen.

Die zirkulierenden 95% sind sus und irreführend.

open.substack.com/pub/mauri…