what is rule of law among people for whom words have no meaning?

maybe Day 3 of 2025 will be better.

“In a time of acute loneliness, the proliferation of AI-generated content seems not unlike an act of pollution, compromising the integrity of the social ecosystem.” @lmsacasas.bsky.social theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/the-cat-in...

On the collapse of US NIIP. So much for “dark matter”. Yet more testament to the profound but often overlooked importance of pure revaluation in aggregate accounts. www.rabobank.com/knowledge/d0... cc @steveroth.bsky.social

this feels to me like the Trump $2 bill, but for a certain kind of geek rather than for MAGA types. marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevo...

"In defiance of the neoliberal just so story, private companies did not respond to the government’s withdrawal of support by increasing their own R&D expenditure, they responded by cutting it." @williamcb.bsky.social williamcullernebown.substack.com/p/stepping-o... ht @karengregory.bsky.social

“What is the point of the Liberal party?” by @phillmv@hachyderm.io okayfail.com/garden/whats... // about Canada, but with parallels to what's happened to a lot of place's "mainstream" "center-left" parties.

only paranoid people believed this it was always a coincidence. mastodon.scot/@kim_harding...

"vibes" are even worse than "culture". things that pretend to explain but do not.

Tesla will be the worst Chinese EV (rebranded as “American”), but the only one we’ll be allowed to buy (thanks to targeted tariff waivers).

if it requires careful social science to suss out the truth of the matter, then the truth of the matter is entirely irrelevant to the politics of the matter.

do you actually own your car, or is it licensed to you?

has anyone ever examined whether Occam had a quality shave?

maybe Day 2 of 2025 will be better.

all the happiness in the world can't buy money.

I'd like to get a better sense of urbanism in China. They obviously have some amazing trains. How are they doing on lively, walkable, transit-accessible mixed-use neighborhoods? I know there have some car-centric, towers-in-the-park-on-arterials style development. What direction are they going?

so, who defends the Jones Act?

the thing about art is that it was never about the artifact, but about how people choose to relate and organize themselves around the artifact. provenance, or at least perceived provenance, will not be irrelevant to those choices.

the behavior of the most prominent and financially successful businessman in America is maybe putting some pressure on the moderate sensible pro-business liberal niche.

happy new year west coast friends