Weaponising narratives

Narrative has been weaponised for a very long time by skilled operators. The growth of mass media in the 20th century greatly facilitated it, the dangers well observed many decades ago by Orwell, Huxley and others. It’s growth was necessary because of dissolution of communities through people moving away to cities. There were no grape … Read more

Do masks make a difference?

Daily case number chart from the WA COVID dashboard: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/359bca83a1264e3fb8d3b6f0a028d768 Experiencing this chart made me convinced that masks do make a difference….but if that’s the case why was it only a spike and not a sustained increase in daily case numbers? Comments?

Middle of the week links

The narrative seems to be that markets are now betting on the Fed doing a U turn. I’ll wait till the next inflation figures and interest rate announcements before throwing money around. Other things I thought interesting the last couple of days: Apparently ANZ has developed an AUD stablecoin. Seems pretty pointless given that you … Read more

Weekened Links since last time to 26/6/22

I’ve been accumulating these for a while to share…some might be a little dated, but some good reading to be had. Auspol Overall deaths in Australia – where nearly everyone is vaccinated – are spiking. Fertilizer Australia > Fertilizer Industry > Australian Fertilizer Market USA From Court-Packing To Leaking To Doxxing: White House Yields To … Read more

Shortages, inflation and narrative.

The narratives I’ve heard about the shortages say they are driven by: Lockdowns (now only in China) People taking time off sick post lockdown, exaggerated by isolation requirements Some people banned from working due to vaccine mandates Limited immigration (not enough low paid workers to get low skills but essential jobs done) Spending during the … Read more

Weekend links 6/5/22-8/5/22

The non-nation New Data Shows The Mass Exodus Of People From Australia Continues Dear RBA, DO NOT HIKE INTEREST RATES – MacroBusiness Mark McGowan is impinging on human rights: human rights commission Solomon Islands-China deal: Australia won’t send defence, police personnel to work alongside Chinese forces Showdown on the Corral Sea, with Australia adrift in … Read more

Why bad philosophy leads to worse maths

Mark Latham commented on NSW maths results on Sky News arguing that the introduction of wokeness into the curriculum and the lack of specialised teachers lay behind the accellerating declines in performance https://www.facebook.com/MarkLathamsOutsiders/posts/7343436572364285 Many people will disagree reflexively with Mr Latham perhaps because he’s appearing on Sky News and represents One Nation, but there is … Read more

Weekend Links 23/4/22-25/4/22

So this weekend links is very similar to last week’s, mainly because I haven’t been reading as much and because lasts week’s were really earlier this week’s and got mostly ignored due to other posts being funnier and pithier. The non-nation: How philosophy gave up on the truth – UnHerd Alan Kohler: Soaring house prices … Read more

Some recently miscellanous collected links

Since the long weekend is nearly over, I am not calling it weekend links. I’ve been saving these up to share with you for a while. What an honest leaving-do speech would sound like | The Economist Coalition senator blasts Liberal Party’s ‘mean girls’ Alan Kohler: Soaring house prices have changed society for the worse … Read more