The consequences of being fat are deeper than we realise
Media Dragon
Daily Dose of Dust
Jozef Imrich, name worthy of Kafka, has his finger on the pulse of any irony of interest and shares his findings to keep you in-the-know with the savviest trend setters and infomaniacs.
''I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.''
-Kurt Vonnegut
Powered by His Story: Cold River
Friday, January 17, 2025
The consequences of being fat are deeper than we realise
Strict Scrutiny: Rapid unscheduled disassembly
David Lynch Saw the Nightmare Beneath the American Dream
The anti-social century, a sports-memorabilia crime ring, Narendra Modi’s populist facade, and a Christian war on the secular state. Plus Han Kang, the new Rasputins, apocalypse lit, Georgia O'Keeffe, Saint Francis, Betty Shamieh, new fiction by Brandon Taylor, and more.
Anybody keen to buy 25 footy fields of land overlooking Sydney’s Northern Beaches for a lazy $2m? Too late, you missed out! It’s gone to a mystery buyer.
What’s the scam? The agent described it as ‘affordable’, which is something of an understatement as the views stretch from the golf course on Long Reef headland down to Manly.
The photo is a bit misleading though, as much of the land, formerly owned by NSW Aboriginal Land Council, is on the steep hill above Brookvale oval.
Sydney beaches property expensive? Pfft, dirt cheap!
Joe Biden Issues Dire Warning In His Farewell Speech To America
"Today an oligarchy is taking shape in America that literally threatens our democracy, our basic rights, our freedoms," the president
The midair explosion of SpaceX’s Starship rocket took over social media on Thursday with space watchers ridiculing the Elon Musk-owned company’s rebranding of the incident as “a rapid unscheduled disassembly.”
“Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn,” the company wrote in a post on X of the company's seventh test of its mega-rocket. “Teams will continue to review data from today's flight test to better understand root cause.”
Strict Scrutiny
“A podcast about the United States Supreme Court and the legal culture that surrounds it. Hosted by three badass constitutional law professors– Leah Litman, Kate Shaw, and Melissa Murray– Strict Scrutiny provides in-depth, accessible, and irreverent analysis of the Supreme Court and its cases, culture, and personalities. Each week, Leah, Kate, and Melissa break down the latest headlines and biggest legal questions facing our country, emphasizing what it all means for our daily lives.
Whether you’re a lawyer or law student, or you’re just here for the messy legal drama, Strict Scrutiny has you covered. New episodes out every Monday… plus bonuses whenever SCOTUS takes away another one of our rights.”
ABA Free Legal Answers surpasses 400k inquiries; nearly 100,000 pro bono hours served
Free Legal Answers, the virtual legal advice clinic sponsored by the American Bar Association, hit a major milestone, crossing the 400,000-mark in the total number of questions handled since the program’s inception in 2016.
The program’s more than 15,000 attorneys registered nationally to volunteer performed over 16,500 hours of pro bono service in 2024, assisting with family, divorce and custody-related problems; housing and eviction; consumer rights; employment; and civil rights, among others. FLA is a project of the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service. Now in 42 states and territories, the program allows users to post civil legal questions at no cost to be answered by pro bono attorneys licensed in their state. The 2024 summary report is here…”
Current Developments In Tax Malpractice: Basics And Beyond
Current Developments In Tax Malpractice: Basics And Beyond
Does the FT think there’s a Musk-insprired conspiracy against Labour?
I noted yesterday my suggestion that the supposed crisis surrounding gilt prices might have been created by those in the City of London who wished to fulfil Elon Musk's demand that Keir Starmer's Labour government in the UK be brought down.
Last night, this was the FT homepage headline:
Downer and Howard’s East Timor lies. History missing in action.
by Rex Patrick | Jan 2025
The Government commissioned an official history of our operations in Timor and then censored the historian, removing an entire chapter. The partially redacted chapter obtained by MWM confirms lies told by the Howard Government.
The Government commissioned an official history of our operations in Timor and then censored the historian, removing an entire chapter. The partially redacted chapter obtained by MWM confirms lies told by the Howard Government.
What but Musk can explain this week’s financial crisis?
The comments I made here yesterday and on Radio 2 about the possibility of there being a degree of coordination in what is happening right now in bond markets have attracted a lot of attention.
So, let's be clear. I offered speculation. The reason is simple. Something very weird is happening in financial markets, and no events, bar one, explain why it might be happening now. That one event is that Musk said at the weekend that the UK's Labour government needs to be pulled down. He then ran a poll on Twitter on this issue. He also spread scurrilous rumours. And as the FT has noted, the attempt at a coup that is following from those comments appears to be very real and front page news. I hardly had to make this up: it is out there.
China releases world’s most powerful electronic warfare weapon design software – for free South China Morning Post
How a major bank cheated its customers out of $2 billion, according to a new federal lawsuit Popular Information
Founder of muckraking financial information firm Hindenburg Research calls it quits AP
The Governments That Survived Inflation Foreign Affairs
The Bitter End Doomberg
Xiaohongshu (RedNote)
‘TikTok refugees’ unexpectedly turn to Chinese alternative as ban looms LA Times
America’s youth longs for Chinese e-commerceGarbage Day. Worth a read on social media.
Biden tightens the noose on Putin with a farewell blitz
Biden tightens the noose on Putin with a farewell blitz
Stephen Bartholomeusz
Senior business columnistIf Ukraine and its allies in the West, particularly the US, can hang on, economic conditions within Russia and its capacity to maintain its war efforts could become unsustainable.
Thursday, January 16, 2025
Too much sitting hurts the heart
The Big Things make an impact.
The Little Things make a difference.
Do both.
AI Is Like Tinkerbell: It Only Works If We Believe in It Keep clapping. Louder
Futurism – “There’s no limit to the promise of artificial intelligence. Or at least, there’s no limit to the promises that the powerful make about AI. We’re told by tech companies and their investors that AI has the capacity to transform everything, making us more productive workers and more efficient learners— before eventually making us obsolete by AI agents that “won’t complain about work-life balance” while they automate away the majority of our jobs.
And of course, all these promises are steps along the path to constructing a cyber-god in the form of artificial general intelligence. But the future is a fickle thing. It can fail to materialize in the way envisioned. Our expectations for emerging tech are always at risk of being dashed against the rocks of reality. We often look to science fiction as a beacon that can help us navigate the waves of uncertainty, predict the future of tech, and discern what it means for society.
However, if we want to understand what fuels the AI boom — and how the bubble might burst — the best analogy comes instead from children’s fantasy. In the story of “Peter Pan,” the fairy Tinkerbell only exists if people believe in her and clap for her. Once we stop believing in her magic, she starts fading away. It’s at this point she implores Peter Pan — and the broader audience — to clap as loud as they can. Tinkerbell is sustained by our attention…