Stanley Pignal

They are just open to anyone and my email is in the bio

Also, commission officials don't typically have "disappearing messages" activated? Some do, but most don't in my experience

Opinion | 11 tips for becoming a columnist Here’s my advice for handling the awesome responsibility of this job.

It is very easy to write something interesting (but wrong). It is very easy to write something true (but dull).

The hard part of writing a column is writing something interesting *and* true.

Great nugget in this valedictorian column by @crampell.bsky.social

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

If as a company you don't want to invest in stockpiling resources you need immedate access to lest your factory close, that's on you. Let your shareholders take that risk. But don't dump it onto the public.

If your factory is too big to shut down, let's regulate you like we do banks. Won't be fun!

Insofar as the state should do anything, it should act in aid of companies that first help themselves. It is intolerable for foreign and trade policy to be skewed by companies - "our factories will shut down!" - who have made visibly zero effort to stockpile anything.

I understand. And obviously I'm very interested in immortality. BUT I ALSO WANT A ROBOT TO DO MY DISHES OK IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK FOR

only after they've invented a robot that can change my bedsheets and do the dishes.

STMicroelectronics, symbole des maux et des défis de l’électronique européenne Après une année noire, le fabricant de puces électroniques franco-italien prévoit 2 800 départs d’ici à 2027. Son modèle industriel est mis à mal par l’IA et la concurrence asiatique.

Fans of EU industrial strategy please take note: even if you are in the "right" sector, things can still go wrong.

STMicroelectronics, a microchip "European champion" part-owned by France & Italy, has seen sales slump and prospects dim even as Nvidia etc roar ahead

www.lemonde.fr/economie/art...

Fusion energy start-up claims to have cracked alchemy San Francisco start-up says modified fusion process could be used to produce gold from mercury

Two FT stories on how science is messing with jewellery:
- Lab-grown diamonds are now sold for 7% of "natural" ones, a single firm can make 100,000 carats a month
- Particle accelerators will soon transform mercury into gold in serious quantities
www.ft.com/content/2a8d...
www.ft.com/content/06f9...

My somewhat adopted homeland

Good quote tho.

valiant effort to make something bone-achingly dull somewhat interesting. (it is in fact interesting.)

On France and "bankruptcy": if a borrower can finance itself at a rate of interest of 3.4%, just 0.7% above the EU's safe asset, you have to seriously question the notion of "veering towards bankruptcy".

There are many, many other more accurate ways to describe what's going on here.

France’s budget bombshell is a wake-up call for Europe as it veers toward bankruptcy As challenges mount and workforces dwindle, much of Europe risks going broke — just not as quickly as France.

Politico writing that France is "veering towards bankruptcy" says a lot more about Politico than it does France. Completely stupid take. www.politico.eu/article/fran...

and services! I'm sure you can replace Amazon, Gmail, Windows, iOS and so on with EU products. But it would require some effort.

a comment made on an American platform, no less!

Europeans decry Trumpian tariffs as a "tax on Americans" (quite correct there - it is importers who pay the tariffs).

Yet somehow absolutely nobody in Europe seems to think that counter-tariffs imposed by the EU would amount to a "tax on Europeans".

My favourite genre of journalism is the "No no no, THIS TIME the Russian economy is well and truly screwed, a crash is imminent!".

The key thing is to make no effort at all to explain why the 14 identical pieces since February 2022 turned out to be wide of the mark.

fun story: the prequel to The Terminator is about a woman called Sarah O'Connor who is forced to change her name to Sarah Connor because of the apostrophe thing, and then decides all the damn machines must die.

Trump says Coca-Cola will use cane sugar in US production of Coke President says beverage giant will switch back to its old primary sweetener in cola produced domestically

Following his inspection of the tractor collective, Comrade Trump then issued new on-the-spot guidance on how to improve the taste of Coca-Cola, a drink much favoured by locals. His stable genius will propel production to fresh heights!

www.ft.com/content/f3c7...

kulak! saboteur! enemy of the people!

Trump says Coca-Cola will use cane sugar in US production of Coke President says beverage giant will switch back to its old primary sweetener in cola produced domestically

Following his inspection of the tractor collective, Comrade Trump then issued new on-the-spot guidance on how to improve the taste of Coca-Cola, a drink much favoured by locals. His stable genius will propel production to fresh heights!

www.ft.com/content/f3c7...

It will be a while before anyone can convert me to the idea of coming to Brussels and staying at a chain hotel opposite Gare du Nord.

this is like when half of Fleet Street was doing magic mushrooms and writing about it

I like living in Brussels - I really do! - but as a tourist city it really punches below its weight. Can you imagine sending someone to Beer World?

36 Hours in Brussels Brussels, with the largest share of young citizens in the E.U., offers genre-defining restaurants and mind-bending museums of fine art.

New York Times has done a new "36 hours in Brussels" feature.

My take might look like: "Given fast trains in and out of Brussels, you can turn 36 hours in Brussels into a solid 33 hours in Paris. Once you get off the Eurostar at Gare du Nord, head to to Louvre..."

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

People really need to learn how to spot a diplomat in action and judge it accordingly.

what a truly extraordinary moment that was

Next week from Gregg Wallace: "Baldness is a challenge for any man..."

It's like the people who refused to mark the year 2000 as the new century. True, serious people.