479 BC
Greco-Persian Wars: Persian forces led by Mardonius are routed by Pausanias, the Spartan commander of the Greek army in the Battle of Plataea.
410
The sacking of Rome by the Visigoths ends after three days.
1776
The Battle of Long Island: in what is now Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe defeat Americans under General George Washington.
1793
French counter-revolution: the port of Toulon revolts and admits the British fleet, which lands troops and seizes the port leading to Siege of Toulon.
1859
Petroleum is discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania leading to the world’s first commercially successful oil well.
1883
The eruption of Krakatoa
1928
The Kellogg-Briand Pact outlawing war is signed by the first 15 nations to do so. Ultimately sixty-one nations will sign it. (Can you imagine?)
1962
The Mariner 2 unmanned space mission is launched to Venus by NASA.
1979
A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb kills British World War II admiral Louis Mountbatten and three others while they are boating on holiday in Sligo, Republic of Ireland. Shortly after, 18 British Army soldiers are killed in an ambush near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland
***
CNN devoted an hour of its Sunday show, hosted by Fareed Zakaria, to the topic of isolation, with an emphasis on the role of technology. My one conclusion was that sociology is still as shallow as ever. One disappointment: the wonderful metaphor, "bowling alone," wasn't a metaphor; it was some sociologist's statistical assessment.
***
New burdens on commerce, whether income taxes or tariffs, stunt the growth that generates taxable activity in the first place. We will never climb out of the fiscal hole politicians have dug in Washington without a prosperous economy.
***
Cybercriminals are utilizing AI to create high-quality fake websites, imitating prominent retailers such as Amazon and PayPal, as well as financial institutions. Some cybersecurity experts worry AI tools will supercharge these scams by enabling criminals with limited technical skills to create nearly perfect fake sites in minutes.--WSJ
***
***
Denmark's foreign minister had the top U.S. diplomat in the country summoned for talks after the main national public broadcaster reported Wednesday that at least three people with connections to President Trump have been carrying out covert influence operations in Greenland.
***
Jay Cutler will serve four days in Williamson County Jail as part of a plea deal following a DUI charge
The former Chicago Bears quarterback has also lost his Tennessee driver's license.
***
From Pino on Abundance, an assessment that just makes you want to say 'Damn!'
"In Abundance, authors Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson clearly state their thesis in the introduction: “To have the future we want, we need to build and invent more of what we need. That’s it.” And that’s the problem. Their thesis doesn’t make sense because they fail to consistently define the word that appears three times in that statement: “we.”
Klein and Thompson see their book as a missive to the American left and an antidote to the “degrowth” ideology that has taken hold in parts of it. Their vision for “abundance liberalism” is more about a shift in focus and emphasis than an entire ideological overhaul for the left. It has spurred debate within the left about whether it presents an opportunity to correct some of the mistakes that cost Kamala Harris the 2024 election or is merely a “neoliberal” wolf in sheep’s clothing.
It is neither. People who are more favorable to free markets may be tempted to applaud left-wing authors, conceding that government isn’t always the answer, but Klein and Thompson still don’t understand the role of individualism and markets in creating the abundance they desire.
…..
They are clear about what they want. Their vision of the future involves a lot of green energy, mass transit, housing construction, and research and development investment. They want vertical farming, lab-grown meat, automated technology, and supersonic airplanes.
Some of this vision sounds attractive to me. Some of it does not. That’s fine, and it’s true of all visions of the future. But they assert that this vision is the future that “we” want. I should be included in “we,” but I am not.
…..
Individuals are the ultimate decision-makers in a society. They are naturally part of groups (families) and often choose to organize themselves into other groups (corporations, governments, religious institutions, etc.) in ways that are healthy and beneficial. But individuals in the end have to choose to show up to work, use their brains to come up with new ideas, and persuade others that those ideas are worth developing.
One reliable way to get other people to do things for you is to allow them to make money from doing it. And there is already a mechanism by which that happens: markets. People get paid for coming up with good ideas and providing goods and services that make other people’s lives better. The development and expansion of markets around the world have delivered more abundance than thousands of years’ worth of human thought possible.
One reason markets work is that they do not need there to be “a single set of answers.” They work with decentralized information spread throughout society that is possessed and used by different individuals. That information condenses into a price, which is a signal to others that informs their decisions. They allow for the appearance of top-down coordination where none exists, and they perform better than attempts at top-down coordination because they incorporate information that top-down planners cannot access.
The answer Klein and Thompson are yearning for is markets. But they are respected American liberals, and respected American liberals can’t run around referencing Adam Smith or F. A. Hayek or Milton Friedman. So they’re just lost, aimlessly writing about stuff they want other people to do for them."
***
New burdens on commerce, whether income taxes or tariffs, stunt the growth that generates taxable activity in the first place. We will never climb out of the fiscal hole politicians have dug in Washington without a prosperous economy.
***
Cybercriminals are utilizing AI to create high-quality fake websites, imitating prominent retailers such as Amazon and PayPal, as well as financial institutions. Some cybersecurity experts worry AI tools will supercharge these scams by enabling criminals with limited technical skills to create nearly perfect fake sites in minutes.--WSJ
***
Oneil Cruz is off concussion protocol. How did they know?
***
Congratulations. You now own a piece of Intel, a failing semiconductor business. Now that we own it, should we legislate against its competitors?
This is a significant mistake.
Sometimes, not having any government philosophy at all can be very bad
Denmark's foreign minister had the top U.S. diplomat in the country summoned for talks after the main national public broadcaster reported Wednesday that at least three people with connections to President Trump have been carrying out covert influence operations in Greenland.
***
Jay Cutler will serve four days in Williamson County Jail as part of a plea deal following a DUI charge
The former Chicago Bears quarterback has also lost his Tennessee driver's license.
He also had a gun.
***
From Pino on Abundance, an assessment that just makes you want to say 'Damn!'
"In Abundance, authors Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson clearly state their thesis in the introduction: “To have the future we want, we need to build and invent more of what we need. That’s it.” And that’s the problem. Their thesis doesn’t make sense because they fail to consistently define the word that appears three times in that statement: “we.”
Klein and Thompson see their book as a missive to the American left and an antidote to the “degrowth” ideology that has taken hold in parts of it. Their vision for “abundance liberalism” is more about a shift in focus and emphasis than an entire ideological overhaul for the left. It has spurred debate within the left about whether it presents an opportunity to correct some of the mistakes that cost Kamala Harris the 2024 election or is merely a “neoliberal” wolf in sheep’s clothing.
It is neither. People who are more favorable to free markets may be tempted to applaud left-wing authors, conceding that government isn’t always the answer, but Klein and Thompson still don’t understand the role of individualism and markets in creating the abundance they desire.
…..
They are clear about what they want. Their vision of the future involves a lot of green energy, mass transit, housing construction, and research and development investment. They want vertical farming, lab-grown meat, automated technology, and supersonic airplanes.
Some of this vision sounds attractive to me. Some of it does not. That’s fine, and it’s true of all visions of the future. But they assert that this vision is the future that “we” want. I should be included in “we,” but I am not.
…..
Individuals are the ultimate decision-makers in a society. They are naturally part of groups (families) and often choose to organize themselves into other groups (corporations, governments, religious institutions, etc.) in ways that are healthy and beneficial. But individuals in the end have to choose to show up to work, use their brains to come up with new ideas, and persuade others that those ideas are worth developing.
One reliable way to get other people to do things for you is to allow them to make money from doing it. And there is already a mechanism by which that happens: markets. People get paid for coming up with good ideas and providing goods and services that make other people’s lives better. The development and expansion of markets around the world have delivered more abundance than thousands of years’ worth of human thought possible.
One reason markets work is that they do not need there to be “a single set of answers.” They work with decentralized information spread throughout society that is possessed and used by different individuals. That information condenses into a price, which is a signal to others that informs their decisions. They allow for the appearance of top-down coordination where none exists, and they perform better than attempts at top-down coordination because they incorporate information that top-down planners cannot access.
The answer Klein and Thompson are yearning for is markets. But they are respected American liberals, and respected American liberals can’t run around referencing Adam Smith or F. A. Hayek or Milton Friedman. So they’re just lost, aimlessly writing about stuff they want other people to do for them."
2 comments:
Interesting insight
agree
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