The Braindump Blog

Linklog

2024-11-19

What I want from Mozilla: To fulfil their stated mission by ‘fostering an ecosystem of open, accessible software that promotes user independence, privacy, and safety’.

More than one in three children in poverty as UK deprivation hits record high: Along with a quarter of adults.

2024-11-18

Ukrainian hackers breach former Russian commander’s computer: Romanchuk turns out to be more a chronically idle office slacker than a heroic warrior no matter whose side you’re on.

2024-11-17

To turn Britain around, we need a proper understanding of life for poorer workers: Plagued by ill health and the cost of living crisis.

Fears grow over UK children at risk placed in illegal care homes: Many children subject to Deprivation of Liberty orders are being locked up in wholly unsuitable places.

Thought Experiment 5: Wittgenstein’s Beetle

2024-11-16

Zionism’s long 20th century: And the shifts in the relationship between the British political left and right with regards to Israel.

The Sanewashing of RFK Jr.: Let’s not forget that this guy has some very bizarre (and dangerous) ideas.

2024-11-15

The world according to Trump: How Trump is likely to think about Ukraine, the Middle East, Europe and China.

How “YMCA” became Donald Trump’s unlikely theme song: I had wondered.

2024-11-14

Congress About to Gift Trump Sweeping Powers to Crush Political Enemies: A bill which enables the treasury secretary to unilaterally declare that any non-profit supports terrorism.

Before making clinical trials faster, let’s first agree on what they are: What’s needed for clinical trials designed to get new drugs onto the market is in tension with what’s needed for those designed to test interventions already in use.

2024-11-13

I blame the media: for Trump’s electoral victory - by normalising him plus failing to recognise Biden’s achievements.

2024-11-12

The art in everyday life: ‘You don’t have to paint the Sistine Chapel to bring art into the world.’

Regime of Unreason: The US surely couldn’t need any ‘liberalisation’ of its fossil fuel regulations when it’s already a net exporter of energy.

The Banality of Online Recommendation Culture: Hard to know whether to recommend this or not.

The Podcast Election: Can some of Trump’s victory be explained by the weaponisation of the ‘emerging medium’ of podcasts?

‘Five to ten seconds appears to be optimal’: the science behind hugs: Why hugs are good.

I spent hours trying to persuade US voters to choose Harris not Trump. I know why she lost: Apparently plenty of people believed believed what Trump said.

I moved to Finland believing it was a progressive dream. It hasn’t turned out that way: Are there any decent countries left?

On the benefits of microblogging: It’s good to write, and there’s no need to make it perfect.

2024-11-11

Donald Trump should have the easiest presidency ever: Biden’s administration has already accomplished a lot of Trump’s campaign promises.

Finally, the end of ‘the British empire’ – and maybe an honours system a modern country can live with: Soon the E in the OBE might stand for ‘excellence’.

‘You tried to tell yourself I wasn’t real’: what happens when people with acute psychosis meet the voices in their heads?: Introducing ‘avatar therapy’ - where patients with psychosis interact with digital incarnations of the hallucinatory voices that plague them.

Donald Trump should have the easiest presidency ever: Many of the things he promised to do during his campaign have already been done by the Biden administration.