Jo Wolff

I don’t know why people are so confused by the idea of 1500% price decrease. If a drug originally cost $100 you’ll now get in free in a packet also containing $1400. Even I would vote for that.

The Public Philosopher: A day in honour of Jo Wolff’s career - YouTube

Should you have a hankering to sample the event it’s all online!

www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

The entire world!

It’s perpetually alternating between ‘let them get on with it themselves’ and ‘I can’t let them on with it themselves’.

Graph - Over two decades 92mn deaths were prevented by USAID Estimated total deaths averted due to USAID funding, 2001-21, by specific causes (mn)

Graph - Over the next five years 14mn people are likely to die as result of the USAID cuts Estimate of avoidable deaths (mn). Compares baseline of USAID funding at 2023 level vs projected defunding

Over two decades 92 million deaths were prevented by USAID and over the next five years 14 million people are likely to die as result of the USAID cuts.

Even if these Lancet estimates are a bit wrong, they give a sense of the magnitude
on.ft.com/4ojiRFJ

Entering second week of retirement and the ‘actually looking at the news they need me to come back and run everything’ phase.

We are hiring Nanyang Assistant Professors. Successful candidates will be offered a tenure-track appointment, a reduced teaching load for the first few years, and a start-up grant of up to S$1 million.

philjobs.org/job/show/29318

Actually, it’s not a ballroom. It’s a hanger for the Qatari 747.

For age verification purposes this afternoon my friends and I sat on a beach, in blue and white striped deckchairs, wearing fleeces and drinking tea to keep warm.

Trump’s America is going to be the 1950s plus AI and crypto.

For age verification purposes this afternoon my friends and I sat on a beach, in blue and white striped deckchairs, wearing fleeces and drinking tea to keep warm.

Surely he’s already got it for Art of the Deal?

Well, what can I say?

39% tariff on Swiss Goods? Pharmaceuticals, precision engineering, watches, jewellery. This time you can’t even accuse Trump of helping out his stinking rich cronies.

Why not just restrict admission to people whose names end in ‘Jr’ or ‘III’? And run admissions events only at US Country Clubs.

Writing history in the age of ages.

I hate doing references and footnotes. Wouldn’t it be great if I used AI to sort them out! Oh. Hang on a moment. No, scrap that.

Trump’s Efforts to Control Information Echo an Authoritarian Playbook

New York Times Efforts to Provide Information Echo Courageous Reporting.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/u...

There’s always a song:

You better look before you leap, still waters run deep
And there won't always be someone there to pull you out
And you know what I'm talkin' about
…

I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden
Along with the sunshine, there's gotta be a little rain sometime

Russell twice lost his position on account of his social views. He was twice imprisoned for them. His last sustained political action, the Tribunal on American War Crimes in Vietnam, was met by a conspiracy of silence round the world. The fact that he was an intellectual genius made it easier for those who purveyed a more comfortable view of life to present him as a simpleton. He endured this too. He continued in the belief that, the desire for power aside, the most socially dangerous conditions of mind were boredom and the love of excitement.

Richard Wollheim on Bertrand Russell.

Can you rabidly spout vile right wing conspiracy nonsense on TV while your shiny hair remains rigidly frozen in place? If so, have you considered a leading role in the Trump administration?

Surely he’s already got it for Art of the Deal?

Russell twice lost his position on account of his social views. He was twice imprisoned for them. His last sustained political action, the Tribunal on American War Crimes in Vietnam, was met by a conspiracy of silence round the world. The fact that he was an intellectual genius made it easier for those who purveyed a more comfortable view of life to present him as a simpleton. He endured this too. He continued in the belief that, the desire for power aside, the most socially dangerous conditions of mind were boredom and the love of excitement.

Richard Wollheim on Bertrand Russell.

Nothing in moderation. Trump’s way.

Can you rabidly spout vile right wing conspiracy nonsense on TV while your shiny hair remains rigidly frozen in place? If so, have you considered a leading role in the Trump administration?

A society in which every child shall grow up in pleasant homes and attractive surroundings and with good educational opportunities; in which every adult shall be provided for in sickness and adversity; and in which the pensioner can take untroubled ease.

Seeing a bit of angst about lack of vision in progressive politics both sides of the Atlantic. So once again I offer you St Lucian development economist Arthur Lewis’s sketch of what socialists want.

There’s always a song:

You better look before you leap, still waters run deep
And there won't always be someone there to pull you out
And you know what I'm talkin' about
…

I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden
Along with the sunshine, there's gotta be a little rain sometime

I always liked this from Samuel Gompers:

A society in which every child shall grow up in pleasant homes and attractive surroundings and with good educational opportunities; in which every adult shall be provided for in sickness and adversity; and in which the pensioner can take untroubled ease.

Seeing a bit of angst about lack of vision in progressive politics both sides of the Atlantic. So once again I offer you St Lucian development economist Arthur Lewis’s sketch of what socialists want.

Kemi Badenoch: I don't identify as Nigerian any more The Conservative Party leader says she has not renewed her passport for the West African country in years.

Rootless cosmopolitan?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...