America’s next authoritarian will be much more competent – The Atlantic
The situation is a perfect setup, in other words, for a talented politician to run on Trumpism in 2024. A person without the eager Twitter fingers and greedy hotel chains, someone with a penchant for governing rather than golf. An individual who does not irritate everyone who doesn’t already like him, and someone whose wife looks at him adoringly instead of slapping his hand away too many times in public. Someone who isn’t on tape boasting about assaulting women, and who says the right things about military veterans. Someone who can send appropriate condolences about senators who die, instead of angering their state’s voters, as Trump did, perhaps to his detriment, in Arizona. A norm-subverting strongman who can create a durable majority and keep his coalition together to win more elections.
Links
Not going anywhere #2
In the UK, the word of the year is obviously ‘lockdown’. Over in China, neijuan or ‘involution’ might be the key word.
It’s a sign
Noah Kalina puts up a Biden/Harris yard sign … with possibly predictable results. A concise illustration of how polarising politics has become.
Reasons why women shouldn’t vote
You know those suffrage posters? Turns out there was a book, too.
Screensaver dreams since 1999
I can’t believe Electric Sheep is still going. This distributed computing project for animating and evolving fractal flames has been going on for about 20 years now. One of the first things I put on my iMac.
Keeping an eye on them
You can count on them to help
Meet the Excel warriors saving the world from spreadsheet disaster – Wired UK
Research suggests more than 90 per cent of spreadsheets have errors, and half of spreadsheet models used in large businesses have “material defects”. Given some 750 million people use Excel globally, there are plenty of errors needing attention. One prominent researcher calls spreadsheets the dark matter of corporate IT. And that’s why people like Lyford-Smith have become defenders of the spreadsheet, mitigating the risks by fixing everyone else’s mistakes.
Sleep on it
You can now get bedding complete with side pockets for your phones/tv remotes/fags. Something tells me that keeping these things so close might not be promoting a positive attitude to sleep.
Is three weeks enough?
So there’s to be a three-week delay for ‘most’ GCSE and A-level exams in England next summer. The main set of exams will start on 7 June and run until 2 July, apart from the English and Maths GCSEs, which will be held before the May half-term. Here’s the press release from the government.
Keep calm
Learn to live like a Stoic by enrolling on Stoic Week 2020, starting 19 October. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed these in the past, just got to make these concepts and techniques ‘sticky’ once the week is through…
Buyer beware #2
Here’s an infographic of 29 psychological tricks and tactics used to make people buy more. Some obvious, some less so. I’ve mentioned some of these before, but reducing syllables? Removing commas?
Hidden costs of streaming music
The New Yorker’s Alex Ross on Kyle Devine’s new book, ‘Decomposed: The Political Ecology of Music’. “The ostensibly frictionless nature of online listening has other hidden or overlooked costs.”
Scenes that shaped animation
Animation professionals, historians, and other experts have compiled a list of 100 of the most influential sequences in animation history. So much to love here, from George Méliès, Norman McLaren and Popeye, to Akira, Luxo Jr and Jack Skellington.
About time, too
What’s in a name #6
More nominative determinism, this time from the Bulletin of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, via Futility Closet.
Student numbers
Universities should be two-thirds empty to avoid “almost inevitable” Covid spikes. As if I wasn’t worried enough about my son just starting university…
Seeing stars
Blogger Minnesotastan perfectly captions this satellite image of Sally, Paulette, Rene, Teddy and Vicky. There must have been a Tropical Storm Vincent by now.
Too easy
Here’s an amusing account of what you can do with an Instagram of former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s boarding pass. It’s a little scary just how easy some systems are to exploit. Not that we ever would, of course.
Can’t keep a good scarecrow down
That bizarre Melania Trump statue I mentioned last year? Turns out it was set on fire in July and replaced by a bronze replica.
Will this ever end?
The perfect calendar for 2020. Simple but effective.
