Reading

Created
Wed, 17/01/2024 - 20:56
House of Lords, Report Stage (January 2024) The Snowden revelations and subsequent litigation – some of which is ongoing – have repeatedly identified unlawful state surveillance by UK agencies that took place absent the knowledge of parliamentarians. Whilst we welcomed the stated intent to regulate the rapidly growing surveillance state via a democratic process, the […]
Created
Wed, 17/01/2024 - 20:00
Lennart Brandt, Natalie Burr and Krisztian Gado The Bank of England has a 2% annual inflation rate target in the ONS’ consumer prices index. But looking at its 700 item categories, we find that very few prices ever change by 2%. In fact, on a month-on-month basis, only about one fifth of prices change at … Continue reading Beyond the average: patterns in UK price data at the micro level
Created
Wed, 17/01/2024 - 16:54
The latest information from Japan suggests that in December 2023, its inflation fell sharply for the second consecutive month and that one might conclude the inflation episode is coming to an end. The Bank of Japan made the assumption that this supply-side inflation was temporary and would subside fairly quickly once those constraints eased. And…
Created
Wed, 17/01/2024 - 10:30
Remember when Ann Coulter used to ecstatically describe Donald Trump as an “alpha male” who was going to set the country straight? She even wrote a book called In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome! Well, she’s been off of him for quite some time because he failed to build the wall. And she doesn’t seem to believe him when he and his henchman Stephen Miller promise to deport millions of people who look like they might not be citizens. She’s going after him and his voters on twitter and it’s kind of hilarious. She doesn’t think he can beat Biden: “How many people who voted for Biden in 2020 have since switched to Trump?” If there are ANY, it’s a lot fewer than: 1) those who voted for Trump but who’ve since died (older white people);2) immigrants who turned 18 in the last 4 yrs and will vote (minorities);3) Republicans who voted for Trump in 2020, but have since changed their minds over, e.g.
Created
Wed, 17/01/2024 - 08:17
Preparation: approx. 10 min.Cooking time: approx. 10 min. Ingredients:5-6 hg fresh or frozen plaice fillets½ tbsp salt1 tbsp melted butter or margarine1 eggwhite pepper4 tbsp breadcrumbs4 tbsp grated cheese (preferably manorhouse cheese) Garnish:1 lemonanchovy filletsolives or herbs Preparation: Poorly translated from the original Swedish using Google Translate ©️Hemmets Journal AB S/K/2
Created
Wed, 17/01/2024 - 07:30
Zeynap Tufekci studies authoritarian movements around the world. She took a look at the MAGA movement for the NY Times and it’s quite interesting. (Gift link, here.) An excerpt: Cheryl Sharp, a 47-year-old sales associate who was among the many Iowans turned away from a filled-to-capacity Trump rally last month, sounded pretty confident she knew why Donald Trump was so appealing to many voters. For her and many others, she said, his most important quality was strength: He had the fortitude to keep the country safe, avoid new wars and ensure the economy hummed along. “You want someone strong, globally, so that it creates mutual respect with other countries, and maybe a little bit of fear,” she told me. “Yes, it’s true, not everyone likes him. It’s good not to be liked. Being strong is better.” Sharp readily conceded that not everything Trump said was great, but she saw that as part of the right personality to be president. “You gotta be a little crazy, maybe, to make sure other countries respect and fear us,” she said.
Created
Wed, 17/01/2024 - 06:42
The Terminator Future (The End of Meat)

This is my third piece this week on how the world is changing and why. The first handled the geopolitical, the second the military tech at this moment and how that is making empire difficult.

This one is about the future.

There’s going to be a period of war which is all about autonomous robots. Drones, missiles, robodogs with guns, tiny swarms, etc…

Humans are a stupid and inefficient way to apply force: most of the human body is not designed for combat: we are slow, clumsy and easily damaged and destroyed compared to what we can build.