Re-reading Hard Choices by @hillaryclinton.bsky.social I am again reminded what America threw away in 2016… How different, how much better would the world have looked today…

I love listening to the politics podcast from @NPR but their increasingly forced neutrality is becoming grating. For example, in last week’s round-up it was said that Trump basically has the same issue that Biden did when it comes to the economy, that is one of messaging. Really?? Messaging??

Using the word ‘brilliant’ about anything Trump and his administration does is nauseating; he is simple following his deprived gut-instinct and some proportion of the American electorate (though fortunately not as big as he likes to believe) simply have the same instincts.

…. and when you are unable to keep those promises, as happens frequently (eg #Studentloanforgivenesss) you are accused of being just another shifty politician who will say anything to get elected.

I have to admit I get a bit triggered when I hear commentary along the lines of ‘Dems have to take some responsibility for what is going on in the US today because they have not focused on swing for the fences, bold ideas that get people excited.’ It’s easy to make promises, much harder to keep them

I love watching Bluey in the morning with my 7 year old. Best children’s show ever!

www.i-programmer.info/news/105-art...

I really like this take on the idea LLMs as a scam. Calling them just fancy auto-complete machines sort of misses the point. Like the article state, we use language as model of the real world and train the model on that using leave-one-out prediction.

Anyone who enjoys reading science fiction and needs a cozy treat should check out Becky Chambers.

I had 'A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet' on my reading list for a decade, but I'm glad I picked it up in this hell-year.

What a delightful little interstellar romp. Kizzy is the best. 🥰

The case for regulation has never been more acute. The trouble is that we only care about regulation when something goes wrong | LSE Executive Education Regulation is often seen as something bad for business. It’s perceived to be a drag on industry; hurdles and hoops to jump through that hinder growth and squeeze competitiveness. But is this fair?

www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse...

While too much regulation can be onerous to companies, the end goal is to protect consumers from predatory practices by unscrupulous companies. There is no such thing as ‘self-regulation’. I for one hope the EU does not over correct as they seek investors.

Study: Immigration has not raised German crime rate – DW – 02/20/2025 A new study by a top German economic policy institute has confirmed the academic consensus: There is no correlation between increased migration and a rise in crime — despite the political debate.

www.dw.com/en/study-fin...

I really wish politicians would listen to academics more and pander less to populism. While isolated incidents are horrific, that does not justify jumping on to the bandwagon of blaming immigrants for ‘threatening our way of life’.

Forms, inspections, reports: German businesses beg for bureaucracy relief If Germany is to quickly revive its flagging industrial economy, businesses say the country's new leadership must make drastic reductions to bureaucracy alongside their radical plans to boost public investment.

Forms, inspections, reports: German businesses beg for bureaucracy relief - www.reuters.com/world/europe...

Completely understandable sentiment, but I hope the solution is to streamline existing regulation rather than relaxing standards.

This looks interesting, I’ll definitely keep an eye on it.

People could have put in a minimum of effort to actually educate themselves. Yes, democratic leaders could have communicated better, but voters are not children; they have agency and ability to find out how much say the President really has as to the price of eggs.

This looks really interesting, can’t wait to dig into the details.