One no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head

Feels to me that making a deal to have the city carried off by bats might actually be easier than resisting the cult of the car.

Does also mean that any indexing via say, web searches will also do the same though.

I guess that's a feature on some sites though! :)

But what I meant is that literally everyone can say the same, and we end up playing a game of 'chicken' whilst the problem gets steadily harder to tackle.

Thank the lord for Private Eye

We should totally offer him a knighthood. Would be a bargain.

I feel that high quality solutions to environmental problems is a potential growth area. Both the 'direct' ones - e.g. solar panels, tidal power etc. but also the indirect ones like 'how to configure a city to minimise pollution'.

Mostly that if everyone waits for 'someone else' to lead the way, nothing will ever happen.

Indeed. The problem with climate change has always been that we can kick the can down the road, but each time we do... we have less time to solve a bigger problem.

And we've been doing that for nearly 100 years now...

Honestly whilst I don't know for sure if we can afford to go faster, I'm also really not sure we can afford _not_ to.

Problem with being in 'unprecedented' territory is that we really don't know where the point of no return actually is!

Good things in life are never trite. The more reminders of things worth fighting for the better.

I think being sensitive to sentiment and credibility is important to crypto right now. Whilst eventually the tech will find a niche, and the various options will have fundamentals to dictate a 'true value' at the moment they are heavily speculative.

Loss of credibility might kill a promising tech.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".

Tech people know the same stuff is still happening behind the scenes, it's just the abstraction layer is making it easier to engage with ... but also much harder to troubleshoot.

Donations for books ... school libraries need your help!

open.substack.com/pub/edroliso...

As the man himself said, it's become harder and harder to write 'near future' because in the time it takes to write the book, the future has caught up.

I recall another short story I think, about how AI 'evolved' out of spambots vs. spam filters fighting each other.

It's not the politics, it's the fact that Facebook keeps on showing me stuff I don't really are about and hides stuff I've actually indicated I want to see.

Like 'friends posts' and 'groups I've joined' and 'events people in those two groups are hosting'. But instead I get 'engagement bait' posts.

Bitcoin and friends ... invest in what you understand

open.substack.com/pub/edroliso...

Cider Advent Calendar The ultimate advent calendar for cider lovers. Countdown to Christmas with a delicious cider every day. This is an advent calendar done right! Advent

Well that's the advent calendar sorted.
www.sandfordorchards.co.uk/product/adve...
Found it whilst visiting Exmoor earlier in the year. Liked "the general" quite a bit. Both of us which is slightly unusual.

Wrath of the Righteous (Official Pathfinder Epic Metal Song) - [feat @KristinStarkey] YouTube video by Skar Productions

Quite enjoyed this - mashup of some of the in game themes. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R-U...

International Mens day again (... it's the 8th of March)

In which I waffle about men's mental health for international men's day.

edrolison.substack.com/p/internatio...

It certainly seems to be the case that the electorate significantly over-values the last 6 months or so.

So uh. What's the business model for Bluesky? I mean, in the early days of Twitter it was externally funded, and the enshittification began when it was monetized.
I'm more happy to pay for an account somewhere that hasn't happened yet, but I don't know if enough would.

I've no cause here, I'm just adopting a platform that delivers the content experience I want.
Twitter used to do that, as did Facebook, but the signal to noise ratio has got worse over time.
Social media in general suffers from a critical mass problem though, so a measure of evangelism does help.

I'm really not so sure. As far as I can tell, inheritance tax is always hated out of proportion to it's impact. Far more people object to it than the relatively small number of people who are actually hit by it, and MOST of those only only slightly over the threshold and thus pay a pittance.

Especially if focussing on the tenant farmers who get to rent their farms from said super wealth landlords.

Background Noises • Ambient Sounds • Relaxing Music | myNoise ® myNoise sets the standard for online background noise machines and interactive soundscapes.

Can I recommend mynoise.net as a way to get audio soundscapes/ambient noise?

I'm honestly finding it really good for focus/avoiding distraction. A soundscape that's evocative and matches the ambient works really well. (Warm sunny days, sea noise, colder gloomy days rain noise, etc.)

International Mens day again (... it's the 8th of March)

edrolison.substack.com/p/internatio...

Had annual review yesterday. Was apprehensive about it - despite probably not having any real reason. But it went ok, and I'm still appreciated.

So, given someone got 5 years for a zoom call to plan a disruptive protest, does anyone think this will be applied to the people disrupting central london with tractors?

I'm hoping it stays this way. But Twitter's gone from bad to worse, and it's bordering on useless now.