“We’re now poorer than Mississippi. It’s like Huckleberry Finn without the steamboats.”
by liberal japonicus The New Statesman podcast listens so we don’t have to!
Liberal Japonicus
Weekend music thread #08 How do you get to Carnagie Hall?
by liberal japonicus If you don’t know the old joke referenced in the title, the answer is ‘Practice. Lots of Practice’. And with that, here is the first youtube video. Yes, that’s elementary school kids. If you didn’t notice, they don’t have any sheet music, everything is being played from memory. Even more shocking to … Read more
Cory Doctorow and enshittification
by liberal japonicus I have, as I’m sure you all have, seen Doctorow’s writing about enshittification, but I guess he’s teeing up a book tour, so he’s doing the round of podcasts. He’s got his soundbites, which there is nothing wrong with, except for the fact that it gives me a sinking feeling in my … Read more
How are you sleeping?
by liberal japonicus I was going through a backlog of links I had saved and finally got to listening this NPR Fresh Air interview about dreaming. I’ve had a small bit of success with lucid dreaming, but it has not been to the extent of being able to alter my dreams, I just realise I … Read more
Weekend Music Thread #07 Sergei Prokofiev
by liberal japonicus I was looking at some pages about the war in Ukraine and it noted in passing that Donetsk airport, which was the site of Ukrainian resistance in 2014 before the Minsk agreement, was officially named Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev airport because Prokofiev was born in the region. This had me think that Prokofiev … Read more
It’s Your Party, you can cry if…
by liberal japonicus Chaplin once said “Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.” So watching UK politics is a bit like that for me. Which is an introduction to this New Statesman podcast about the Your Party conference. Here it is I do want to be careful, we’ve seen … Read more
uncomfortability?
by liberal japonicus Tossing this interview with Zack Polanski, leader of the Greens, on the rest of politics, there’s lots of things to talk about, but for me, I was spent most of the time wondering about the word ‘uncomfortability’. (at 11:11) It is apparently a neologism that is being used more and more.
Am I missing something?
by liberal japonicus Rachel Reeves, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, just delivered her budget to parliament and the leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch gave her reply and I’ve cued it up (I think) below. If you don’t want to wade thru the whole thing, at least check out from 1:57. Some other background, … Read more
The surprising philosophy behind Palantir
by liberal japonicus Not sure this will interest everyone, but this is an interesting piece on Palantir, which goes into (from 16:05) a discussion of Alex Karp, the CEO of Palantir, who has a background in philosophy which is detailed in the video. This piece is a good one for explaining what Palantir is and … Read more
An openish thread featuring the comedy stylings of Steve Witkoff
by liberal japonicus An open thread was requested to talk about the Witkoff deal. Some prescient comment from March on Witkoff, the man called ‘the dumbest of Trump’s advisors’ by one of Woodward’s background sources. Witkoff is also good at giving away negotiating positions, when he chooses to do so. This includes a certainty that … Read more