Reading

Created
Sat, 28/06/2025 - 03:00

So there I was, minding my own business, when, for some inexplicable reason, I found myself idly thinking about the fall of the Romanov dynasty. For the life of me, I can’t tell you what led me to reflect on the moment when Nicholas II lost control over a once-burgeoning empire due to widespread unrest that he himself had a hand in shaping. Maybe it’s the weather? Maybe those barometric pressure changes can lead to more than just headaches?

But it’s kind of weird, right? Why would my mind make me recall that the Russian Revolution was largely ignited by a devastating economic crisis, social inequality, and the ruling class being aggressively out of touch with the suffering masses? It just makes no sense for me to be thinking of a bunch ruling-class assholes enriching themselves through, if not illegal, then definitely immoral ways, while everyone else has to buy tacos on payment plans. They didn’t even have tacos in Russia back then. Is my brain broken? Am I having a stroke?

Created
Sat, 28/06/2025 - 00:09

Filmed at the AI Summit at London Tech Week 2025, this two-minute video captures the passion and purpose behind the newly-launched Drupal AI Strategic Initiative.

Join Baddý and Jamie as they explain why this work is important and why we need the Drupal community to rally behind it.

“In order to get fast innovation in Drupal AI, we need people to work on the project—and we’re doing that by getting funding and full-time contributors from participating companies.”

— Baddý Sonja Breidert

“I’ve never seen something quite like this in the Drupal community… It’s coordinated innovation not for one company, but for the whole open source community.”

— Jamie Abrahams

Created
Fri, 27/06/2025 - 23:00


The difficulties of procuring water and power in Karachi, Pakistan, where surging temperatures have strained the city’s resources, and much more.

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DISCUSSED:

Underground Water Tanks, Envy, Climate-Influenced Mood Disorders, A Widow’s Home, Dawn, Urban Heat Islands, Nagging Uncertainty, The Pump Games, Karachi’s Water Mafia, Candlelight Feasts, The Incredible Magic of Air-Conditioning, Load Shedding, A Family Showdown, Monsoon Season, Microwaves, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Bacteria That Thrive in High Temperatures, Overconsumption, A Bucket and a Cup.

Created
Fri, 27/06/2025 - 22:01

This is what it’s all about. The crack of the bat. The crisp summer air. The camaraderie of old friends on a beautiful new day.

These are all experiences I can’t wait to enjoy for myself as soon as I’m done waiting in line for a fourteen-dollar hot dog.

You can feel the triumphant swell of patriotism as we are called to rise for the national anthem. If you listen closely, can you hear our forefathers singing the very same melody as they, too, delighted in our national pastime?

I’m legitimately asking. Can you hear that? I am still in line for that hot dog.

No matter. Because soon after the game begins, another beautiful sound engulfs the park: CLINK! And then: the unmistakable, deafening roar of a stadium packed with delighted fans.

Simultaneously, another sound. The sound of me saying “fuck.”

Because I definitely just missed something super awesome. Because I am now in the ketchup line. Because, for some reason, that is completely separate from the hot-dog line.

Created
Fri, 27/06/2025 - 18:49
Socialismens ABC är en fördjupningspodd från Katalys. Den inledande serien  — där bland andra Sven-Eric Liedman, professor emeritus i idé- och lärdomshistoria, medverkar — fokuserar på Karl Marx liv och idéarv. Få tänkare har haft ett så genomgripande inflytande på världen som Karl Marx. Trots att det har gått över två sekler sedan hans födelse […]
Created
Fri, 27/06/2025 - 12:50
Many thanks to Hannah for her beautiful post on George Eliot’s Silas Marner and the evacuation of moral purpose from the Protestant work ethic. That resonates with Hijacked, my latest book, which traces the history of the work ethic from 17th century Puritan theologians, through the economic theory and policy debates of the 18th and […]
Created
Fri, 27/06/2025 - 11:30
In this paper we study the propagation of demand and supply shocks in a heterogeneous agent New Keynesian model. Calibrating the model to Australia, we explore how inequality in the model affects shock transition, as well as how shocks impact individuals differently across the distribution. Contrary to much of the literature, with a single asset in the model we find a dampening in the response of the real economy to a monetary policy shock, driven by falling consumption in the extremes of the distribution. This dampening is likely due to the high holdings of liquid assets by many households in the model, which allows these households to effectively smooth their consumption, emphasising the need to include further asset classes. In the case of supply shocks, we likewise find a dampened response of the real economy to both a labour disutility shock and a mark-up shock. These results highlight the need to explore models with more realistic asset classes in the Australian context.