Chris Ansell CFA

Red sea

#RedSea #Egypt

James Nicolson was awarded a Victoria Cross for an act of extreme gallantry in the Battle of Britain today in 1940. He stayed in a burning plane to shoot down a German aircraft. As he parachuted to earth he was shot in the arse by the home guard. When he found out he telegrammed his wife:

My new book Tank is out! t.co/TjxZPTAPZK It tells the story of this weapon through the ten greatest examples of the past 100+ years. But how to choose those top ten tanks?

"But how could we POSSIBLY have grasped that we were in the midst of a speculative asset bubble?" people in 2027 will be asking.

While many Chinese businesses are reeling from the trade war, Qi, the Maga merchandise maker, brushed off any suggestion his might suffer. Trump supporters, he said, were willing to pay any price for items bearing the image of their beloved president - and US suppliers were making such a huge profit on them that they could afford to partially absorb the tariff impact. A Trump baseball cap, for instance, cost only Rmb7.50 ($1) to produce. Tariffs might raise that cost to Rmb2o, but the caps were being sold for $50 in the US. "American sellers could even use the tariffs as an excuse to raise the price to $60 - yet the extra cost will still be borne by the US consumers, " said Qi.

now *this* is the anecdote of the day

Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.

Meta used at least 16 of my books, and numerous articles, to help train the AI it will use to make billions.

Authors, search your name here:

www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Are you a US scientist thinking of quitting the States for Europe? Would you be willing to talk about it — anonymity is possible? Send me a DM.

(Please reskeet if you have US contacts!)

Thousands of people are ditching Tesla. Here’s one of them with a message you can see from space.

Location: Black Rock Sands, Wales, UK

Led By Donkeys is 100% funded by small donations.

Mheanwhile in Britain...😁

This is possibly the most astonishing thing I've read from the last week. DOGE re-writing air traffic control. DOGE gutting USAID & raiding its SCIF. DOGE hoovering up OPM. All of it madness. But this one is worse. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/02...

🚀 AND WE'RE LIVE! 🚀

📺 Tune in for the launch of our new major report: 'The Brexit Files: from referendum to reset'

With Rt. Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds, BBC's Jo Coburn, UKICE's Sir John Curtice, @anandmenon.bsky.social Sarah Hall & Catherine Barnard

Link below 👇

https://buff.ly/4jssgZf

London Eye wheel reflected in a puddle along with buildings and a passer-by

London Eye

X refuses to remove stabbing video watched by Southport killer Axel Rudakubana was able to view Australian clip before murdering three young children despite pleas from authorities

Elon Musk has posed as a champion of those poor bereaved families in Southport

but the killer watched a violent video just before his killing spree *on X*

and Musk is refusing to take it down despite numerous official requests from UK & Australian authorities

www.ft.com/content/3c89...

a silhouetted man in a bowler hat reflected in a puddle in Whitehall, shot in sepia

took this photograph a couple of years ago, like to think he’s a spy emerging from the shadows

President Jimmy Carter’s message which was included on Voyager.

The Golden Record for the Voyager spacecraft.

jimmy carter’s message that was included on the voyager spacecraft.

rest in peace, jimmy carter 🌌

FYI: If you go to BBC iPlayer, then choose 'Categories' and scroll almost to the bottom, you'll see 'From the Archive'.

Hidden under that heading are hundreds of classic programmes, including comedies like The Office, Miranda, Porridge, The Royle Family, The Young Ones and The Thick of It.

This is absolutely shocking. It just can’t go on

reflection of Westminster Abbey in a puddle

found this reflection in a puddle last week

Remember when Labour promised us all a Superb Owl each? Another dropped manifesto commitment #smdh

We’re all suffering from qualitynesia now Borne along on the tide of technology, it is far too easy to forget that some things really were better quality in the past

Can’t stop thinking about this @sarahoconnorft.bsky.social column on the poor quality of sound on Spotify and what other reductions in quality that might become commonplace in the future:

A stunning bird’s-eye view of four sharks and their schooling prey has been announced as the overall winner of the Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2024, run in association with the Royal Photographic Society. 'The hunt from above', from the behaviour category, is by Dr Angela Albi.

At our event earlier this year celebrating the 50th anniversary of the internet, Dr Vint Cerf ForMemRS, known as one of the 'fathers of the internet', spoke about what is needed to make digital technology more accessible: #InternationalDayOfPersonswithDisabilities

A woman pushing a pram through an industrial landscape with smoking chimneys in the distance

Woman with pram, Consett in 1974 by Don McCullin.
#Photography

Remember new users are coming on daily, unsure of engagement. The more posts you like and reply to, the strong the platform becomes !

Gotta love those private equity marks. on.ft.com/411fTfH

Some exciting news from @economist.com. All American service members—all 1.3m active duty, and those retired—now have free access to The Economist's website, thanks to a deal with DoD. If I'm not mistaken, you can access it through DoD's library pages: www.dodmwrlibraries.org. Happy reading.

3D-printed map of Soho in 1854. Black marks on top of the buildings represent deaths from cholera caused by infected water from the Broad Street Pump (note the missing handle!). Top-down view.

3D-printed map of Soho in 1854. Black marks on top of the buildings represent deaths from cholera caused by infected water from the Broad Street Pump (note the missing handle!). Side view.

3D-printed map of Soho in 1854. Black marks on top of the buildings represent deaths from cholera caused by infected water from the Broad Street Pump (note the missing handle!). Framed, close-up.

3D-printed map of Soho in 1854. Black marks on top of the buildings represent deaths from cholera caused by infected water from the Broad Street Pump (note the missing handle!). Frame, "artful" shot.

Day 18 #30DayMapChallenge
I 3D-printed John Snow's 1854 cholera map of Soho. It took ages.

Oh - and if it’s not too much trouble, if you don’t mind Rt this so people can find me here, I’d be very grateful. Thank you

But I still don't think the implications of this have been fully digested. Any discussion of why the UK has been falling behind has to acknowledge the break point in productivity growth in 2008/09.