A pretty amazing finding cropped up in the news today - though it’s all a bit tendentious at present.
The unusual geographic effect of the rabbit-proof fence in Western Australia has revealed to scientists that modern farming practices - apparently - lead to less rainfall on the farmed side of the fence. Maybe we have more to do with the drought than we’d like to accept?
In my dream last night I discovered that all our night-time thoughts and feelings are recorded somewhere as plain-text files in a giant database. If we go to the correct location to access these files in the morning, we can check up on correspondences between our own night-thoughts and those of others, thus establishing the truth of human relationships in our daytime lives.
This man was not in the dream
So I went to the place for accessing records. It was a large brown office building in the centre of a big city. The foyer was very luxuriant, with a high ceiling, chandalier, and antique wooden floorboards. I waited a while, along with a range of wealthy businessmen. While I was waiting, a television showed the morning news, which featured a government announcement. The government described how they were going to restructure the taxation system, because they need to make it “more flexible”. I knew that the government in this city were notoriously corrupt, so I took this as nothing more than an excuse to do something scandalous. Continue Reading »
Lately my music listening has been totally dominated by Riot Control NYC, a series of online mix-tapes from New Yorkers Burt Fox and Sonny Noir. I would recommend anyone to check these guys out - the range of styles they cover is enlightened, with soul, electro, hip-hop, 80s b-boy, latino, dub… and all the bits in between. There’s an emphasis on black music - and espeically black music from New York City - but that in itself includes a pretty eclectic brew. Burt Fox is one of the last great selectas, pulling out obscure records that even the most erudite listeners won’t be ready for.
You can download any of their mixtapes online, and I love them all - but maybe try 8, 9 or 13 as a starting point. Number 11 is also a big favourite for me - but it’s loaded with pretty heavy dub that will be too much for some.
Anyways, I was listening to a Riot Control mix the other day when I started to get the feeling that the gritty urban soul track I was listening to actually seemed to be about free market economics. Perhaps, more specifically, it is in fact a plea for a monetarist approach.
I checked it out, and yep, he’s singing what I thought he was singing. The track is “Let the Dollar Circulate“, by Billy Paul.
This track came out in 1975, at the depths of a US recession. So maybe it’s just swung round, through the great cycles of history, to fresh relevance. I’m not sure if Burt Fox had all this in mind when he pulled this old record out for Riot Control 13.
Almost all the spam we receive is very very obviously spam. So do you find yourself wondering, just how many people actually take the bait?
Well, apparently the answer is: 1 in 12.5 million people.
I’ve got a review up at DailyInfo for Johnny’s Midnight Goggles, a rather strange show put on by cellist Matthew Sharp.
North Wall Arts Centre, Sat November 1st 2008
Matthew Sharp is a critically acclaimed cellist who has performed with the likes of the Royal and London Philharmonic orchestras. According to convention, Sharp should content himself with straight recitals like any other virtuoso, classically-trained musician. But he is not bound by convention, and this is not a conventional show.
Obama has been chosen as President in an absolute landslide result. He has been elected by a margin of 81-19, as voted by over 50,000 people from around the globe. No, I don’t mean the citizens of America - I mean the citizens of the world, voting in the Economist’s global election.
Unconfirmed Reports officially endorses Obama for President. If nothing else, he deserves some solace since his granny died.
One of the most convincing pieces of share-market analysis I have read recently:
The 10-year price-to-earnings ratio tells an incredibly consistent story over the last century. It has averaged about 16 over that time. There have been long periods when it stayed above 16 and even shot above 20, like the 1920s, 1960s and recent years. As recently as last October, when other measures suggested the market was reasonably valued, the Graham-Dodd version of the ratio was a disturbing 27. But periods in which the ratio has jumped above 20 have always been followed by steep declines and at least a decade of poor returns.
By 1932, the ratio had fallen to 6. In 1982, it was only 7. Then, of course, the market began to self-correct in the other direction, and stocks took off.
Toad and Frog
The new generation of mobile computing is about to arrive…
Back in England again. Cold and frosty - beautiful clear crisp mornings, but already we need to crank the central heating in the evenings.
Cold, frosty people as well. Decent, hygienic people.
Sunday, 23rd March 2008
Flurries of marijuana smoke mixed with heavy gusts of snow as I squinted my way through the streets of Amsterdam this afternoon. The outstanding tolerance of other peoples’ tastes here makes me feel like humans are not so bad after all. At the Rijksmuseum, I saw two self-portraits of Rembrandt, one at age 21, one at 55. I could see the same person in both faces, and he looked like a nice guy.
The point is not that marijuana is good. The point is letting rational grown-ups (even me!) run their lives for themselves, make their own personal decisions.
If the past few centuries have seen a pattern of incremental liberalisation and personal choice in law and social convention, then that would arguably put Amsterdam somewhere ahead of the rest of the world in the trajectory of human evolution. This theory may also be supported by noting that Amsterdam was one of the first places to develop modern finance and capitalist economics, from the fourteenth century onwards. In 1602, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange was the first place in the world to issue stocks and bonds. Soon after Gutenberg invented the printing press, Amsterdam became one of the major centres for producing books, since it was far more free from censorship compared to the rest of Europe.
Amsterdam’s early growth as a centre of commerce is inseparable from its religious tolerance, at a time when this was quite exceptional in Europe. The same tolerance now attracts tourism, which can be pretty ugly in the red light district - but all the same, I relish being able to walk down the street smoking a joint, without having to worry about who I might “offend”.