Society

The universe doesn’t care about you.

Even more info on Amazon’s attrition problem.

Introducing: The Synthetic Party, a new political party in Denmark. Their head honcho, Leader Lars, is an AI chatbot, and all policies are AI-derived.

In an era of unprecedented military strength, leaders of the United States, the global hyperpower, have increasingly embraced imperial ambitions. How did th

How a best-selling series gave young readers a new sense of agency.

Leslie Jamison writes about the enduring allure of Choose Your Own Adventure books. The books, Jamison writes, gave young readers a “sense of agency” in limited and rule-bound lives&#82…

Source: Visual Capitalist     I am out of pocket most of today, but I wanted to share a quick note on the long-term history of Interest rates, as seen in the above history. Three things stand out : 1) From 1790 to 1950, the overall trend was towards lower rates. 2) The 1970s-80s inflation/yield…Read More

The Federal Reserve has raised U.S. interest rates five times in 2022, but how do today’s levels compare to historical interest rates?

“A couple of thoughts: I don’t think using Dan Hannan and Jacob Rees-Mogg illuminates what most Leave voters thought: they weren’t in favour of letting the free market rip. That was why Vote Leave focused, for good or ill, on public services…”

A discussion on supply chains, commodities, and climate

Abstract. Liberals claim that globalization has led to fragmentation and decentralized networks of power relations. This does not explain how states increasingly “weaponize interdependence” by leveraging global networks of informational and financial exchange for strategic advantage. The theoretical literature on network topography shows how standard models predict that many networks grow asymmetrically so that some nodes are far more connected than others. This model nicely describes several key global economic networks, centering on the United States and a few other states. Highly asymmetric networks allow states with (1) effective jurisdiction over the central economic nodes and (2) appropriate domestic institutions and norms to weaponize these structural advantages for coercive ends. In particular, two mechanisms can be identified. First, states can employ the “panopticon effect” to gather strategically valuable information. Second, they can employ the “chokepoint effect” to deny network access to adversaries. Tests of the plausibility of these arguments across two extended case studies that provide variation both in the extent of U.S. jurisdiction and in the presence of domestic institutions—the SWIFT financial messaging system and the internet—confirm the framework's expectations. A better understanding of the policy implications of the use and potential overuse of these tools, as well as the response strategies of targeted states, will recast scholarly debates on the relationship between economic globalization and state coercion.

Texas-based RealPage’s YieldStar software helps landlords set prices for apartments across the U.S. With rents soaring, critics are concerned that the company’s proprietary algorithm is hurting competition.

On the concept of self-referential fame, a tool some use even before they’ve actually become famous.

by Brewster Kahle, June 2011   Press on this:  NYtimes Books are being thrown away, or sometimes packed away, as digitized versions become more available. This is an important time to plan carefully for there is much at stake. Digital technologies are changing both how library materials are accessed and increasingly how library materials are preserved. […]

“War of memes: why Z-war won't end with peace Some Western analysts unfamiliar with Eastern European cultural context perceive Z-war as an accident. They presume that Russian invasion results from some sort of "misunderstanding" or mistake which can be resolved via negotiations🧵”

“Word of the day is another old favourite. A 'mumpsimus' (16th century) is someone who insists that they are right, despite clear evidence that they are not.”

With more people conscious of racial inequities, it’s worth drilling down into what exactly ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’ mean. How are they different, where do they overlap? And how do both impact how we interact with society?

The video below—first posted on social media by China Kestrel Defence—depicts an armed robotic dog dropped off by drone. Note that it says “Blood-Wing” in the upper right. It’s no…

Check out this informative documentary thread by @marina0swald—who, to be clear, is not actually Marina Oswald, the 81-year-old widow of JFK assassin Lee Harvey. The thrust of the thread is “on Glo…

At Wednesday’s oral argument in Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. v. Hewitt, the court will consider whether Michael Hewitt, an oil-rig worker, was wrongly denied overtime pay. At the heart of the case are rules allowing highly compensated “executive, administrative, or professional” employees to b