Various
1. Woe betide the urban middle classes squeezed inexorably by a vice of wealth and poverty...I'm glad to say that this isn't entirely so in San Francisco, though the pressures* are certainly there.
*Whole Foods, boutique clothing and food retailers, plus the Ferry Building chic, and the erosion of farmers making the fuel-intensive trek to the Alemany Farmers' Market near my neighbourhood; the proliferation of liquor stores and ghetto grocers (high price, low selection, low service, questionable sanitation) on the other.
But it's hard to typecast San Francisco so easily, since the Aldi-owned Trader Joe's is popular, as are several co-ops including Rainbow Grocery (arguably more luxury chic than middle-class, but certainly not a Whole Foods). Also, there are industry giants, like Safeway and Costco which are more or less middle-class institutions, for better or worse.
Living well and inexpensively is very possible in SF, what kills you is the rent and real estate. This has been an absolute barrier to new entrants to the market who don't already have a wad of cash to drop without fretting.
2. North Korean supernotes are back in the news. I'm stuck trying to find a suitable historical model of this sort of thing, a challenge to the national economy like this. On the one hand, there was the long period of Spanish pieces-of-eight retaining value as trusted common currency (didn't really end until post-Civil War US-minted coins & paper went into wide circulation). Then again, there was the only fight on the "shores of Tripoli."
What I also wonder is: given the quality of the engraving used by these high-quality North Korean currency presses - it does beg a couple of questions: how much of this has resulted from intelligence-gathering and penetration of the US Mint; how much of this from computational power for graphic analysis and reconstruction? There are certainly plenty of clever North Korean analysts who could do this, given enough time, but the introduction of these "supernotes" happened rather quickly after the introduction of the new designs by the US Mint. If it turns out to be a computational solution, I wonder what that may indicate about other North Korean ambitions where computation helps? Hmmm...
Really, all this sounds like some sort of Tintin adventure!
3. My collegues' green electronics program has gone public!
4. Geography of the mind...
5. What an advert for Scottish Socialism! Apparently "Scrabble and Sunbeds" are code for cocaine-fuelled orgies. So outlandish to be unlikely, but then ... every party needs a little marketing drive. ;-)
6. On the loss of the UK's milkmen - I know it may be difficult to manage, but it would be a shame to loose such a timely and fresh-conscience distribution network (via electric vehicles no less!). Diversifying their deliveries makes sense, but if they can sort out that restructuring, a hearty marketing effort could do just the trick.
In an era of national groceries (and others) achieving where Webvan failed, why reinvent a wheel that the UK already has? Yes, even when the UK has a successful network of hypermarkets and corner shops too.
7. Sam Neill needs a goat-whisperer for his racist farm-animal...and other points from a Guardian interview that suggest copious quantities of alchohol fuelled the conversation.
8. Local environmental warning note - warmer-than-usual waters off of the Farallones have crashed the krill population. Nesting Cassin's auklets will have an "unprecedented breeding failure." Still, they should theoretically be able to recover if new breeding pairs arrive to fill their niche, should the food situation improve after a population crash.
9. WTF?! As one pundit opines about the degrees of 'civilian' in the Lebanese-Israeli conflict at present, and the necessity to recognise and accept levels of guilt based upon support for Hezbollah. I find the concept so morally repugnant and historically vile to be shocked a Harvard law professor would suggest it, let alone a Jew. I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised. At least FP comments on it with formula. I just can't see how anything less than a complete acceptance of the existing legal divide between civilian and soldier will offer any clarity. By his own rationale, this child would be complicit and a justifiable 'civilian casualty.' After all, who is the Grand Adjudicator post-facto mortem? Gah! Vile!
*Whole Foods, boutique clothing and food retailers, plus the Ferry Building chic, and the erosion of farmers making the fuel-intensive trek to the Alemany Farmers' Market near my neighbourhood; the proliferation of liquor stores and ghetto grocers (high price, low selection, low service, questionable sanitation) on the other.
But it's hard to typecast San Francisco so easily, since the Aldi-owned Trader Joe's is popular, as are several co-ops including Rainbow Grocery (arguably more luxury chic than middle-class, but certainly not a Whole Foods). Also, there are industry giants, like Safeway and Costco which are more or less middle-class institutions, for better or worse.
Living well and inexpensively is very possible in SF, what kills you is the rent and real estate. This has been an absolute barrier to new entrants to the market who don't already have a wad of cash to drop without fretting.
2. North Korean supernotes are back in the news. I'm stuck trying to find a suitable historical model of this sort of thing, a challenge to the national economy like this. On the one hand, there was the long period of Spanish pieces-of-eight retaining value as trusted common currency (didn't really end until post-Civil War US-minted coins & paper went into wide circulation). Then again, there was the only fight on the "shores of Tripoli."
What I also wonder is: given the quality of the engraving used by these high-quality North Korean currency presses - it does beg a couple of questions: how much of this has resulted from intelligence-gathering and penetration of the US Mint; how much of this from computational power for graphic analysis and reconstruction? There are certainly plenty of clever North Korean analysts who could do this, given enough time, but the introduction of these "supernotes" happened rather quickly after the introduction of the new designs by the US Mint. If it turns out to be a computational solution, I wonder what that may indicate about other North Korean ambitions where computation helps? Hmmm...
Really, all this sounds like some sort of Tintin adventure!
3. My collegues' green electronics program has gone public!
4. Geography of the mind...
5. What an advert for Scottish Socialism! Apparently "Scrabble and Sunbeds" are code for cocaine-fuelled orgies. So outlandish to be unlikely, but then ... every party needs a little marketing drive. ;-)
6. On the loss of the UK's milkmen - I know it may be difficult to manage, but it would be a shame to loose such a timely and fresh-conscience distribution network (via electric vehicles no less!). Diversifying their deliveries makes sense, but if they can sort out that restructuring, a hearty marketing effort could do just the trick.
In an era of national groceries (and others) achieving where Webvan failed, why reinvent a wheel that the UK already has? Yes, even when the UK has a successful network of hypermarkets and corner shops too.
7. Sam Neill needs a goat-whisperer for his racist farm-animal...and other points from a Guardian interview that suggest copious quantities of alchohol fuelled the conversation.
8. Local environmental warning note - warmer-than-usual waters off of the Farallones have crashed the krill population. Nesting Cassin's auklets will have an "unprecedented breeding failure." Still, they should theoretically be able to recover if new breeding pairs arrive to fill their niche, should the food situation improve after a population crash.
9. WTF?! As one pundit opines about the degrees of 'civilian' in the Lebanese-Israeli conflict at present, and the necessity to recognise and accept levels of guilt based upon support for Hezbollah. I find the concept so morally repugnant and historically vile to be shocked a Harvard law professor would suggest it, let alone a Jew. I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised. At least FP comments on it with formula. I just can't see how anything less than a complete acceptance of the existing legal divide between civilian and soldier will offer any clarity. By his own rationale, this child would be complicit and a justifiable 'civilian casualty.' After all, who is the Grand Adjudicator post-facto mortem? Gah! Vile!