Fine cuts
This huge rock is probably a glacial erratic that we encountered on a lakeside walk in Kerry. Note, though, the sharpness of the edges on the fragments. A stonemason would be proud of those cuts.
Quote of the Day
”The world is disgracefully managed, one hardly knows to whom to complain.”
- Ronald Firbank
Note the punctilious grammar.
Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news
Handel: Semele – Act 2, Sc. 3 | Where’er You Walk | Rick Wakeman
Long Read of the Day
In Search of Sanity
This is a transcript of what the comedian and author Andy Horowitz said on Boston Public Radio last week in which he offered “unsolicited advice about getting through the next four years”. Given all the crap that’s currently emanating from the US — amplified by the country’s benighted mainstream media — I thought it came as a breath of fresh air.
During the election, the media just covered the horserace. They weren’t really covering any of the issues. They were covering the polls. They were saying, how does Nate Cohn differ from Nate Silver? Where’s Ann Selzer in this?
So they weren’t really focusing on what the candidates were going to do if elected. And as a result, we’re now at a point where we have this guy who is the president-elect, and the corporate media are still not giving us information that is valuable.
They’ve now sort of gone Jekyll-and-Hyde on us. A few weeks ago, Donald Trump was a senile guy who was bobbing to the music. Now he’s this master political genius along the lines of Talleyrand and Metternich.
Now, look, I think Trump is going to be a terrible president because he was terrible the first time. So I’m not denying or arguing with that. But what I am arguing with is this new characterization of him as competent. Because that is a media invention that I just find absolutely baffling—because there’s no proof of it anywhere. And day after day we have evidence that he is actually incompetent. And it may be our saving grace now…
Do read it.
My commonplace booklet
In praise of e-bikes
I’m biased because we’ve had e-bikes for years and they’re among the best purchases we’ve ever made. This piece spells out why they are are more important than conventional EVs.
On the world’s roads last year, there were over 20 million electric vehicles and 1.3 million commercial EVs such as buses, delivery vans and trucks.
But these numbers of four or more wheel vehicles are wholly eclipsed by two- and three-wheelers. There were over 280 million electric mopeds, scooters, motorcycles and three-wheelers on the road last year. Their sheer popularity is already cutting demand for oil by a million barrels of oil a day – about 1% of the world’s total oil demand, according to estimates by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
What about electric vehicles, you ask? After all, EVs have been heralded as a silver bullet for car emissions and air pollution in cities, as their tailpipe emissions are zero. If charged with renewable power, they get even greener.
But to see them as an inarguable good is an error. They are cleaner cars, but…
Yep.
Linkblog
Something I noticed, while drinking from the Internet firehose.
- Australian Dictionary Chooses ‘Enshittification’ As The Word Of The Year
Remember when Facebook was just a useful website that helped you stay in touch with your friends? And Google did more than serve you half a page of ads? And Twitter ― well, let’s not go there.
There’s a word for this decline: enshittification.
The term, made famous by the tech critic Cory Doctorow in 2023, was just selected by Macquarie Dictionary ― Australia’s oldest! ― as its 2024 word of the year.
Here’s how they defined it:
noun Colloquial: the gradual deterioration of a service or product brought about by a reduction in the quality of service provided, especially of an online platform, and as a consequence of profit-seeking.
The Macquarie committee politely described the phrase as “a very basic Anglo-Saxon term wrapped in affixes which elevate it to being almost formal; almost respectable.”
Don’t you just love the ‘almost’.
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