Observations from a Hill

Data, Information, Knowledge, Truth, History. Often crassly conflated as one and the same thing by those that seek only to benefit materially from such reductiveness in pulling a fast one when presenting one as equivalent to another for political ends. They are of course increasingly macro divisions derived, each, in turn from the previous. Finer subdivisions obviously can be drawn within each of these categories themselves, but suffice it to say that they are not equivalent, either structurally or conceptually: one follows from the other. Examples of this manner of deliberate distortion can be found daily in the pronouncements of pundits, politicians - and particularly - economists, the press, and sundry others drawing and promulgating conclusions from un-contextualised atomata [ my neologism, I think: apologies, anyway, in advance of whatever ] in service of nefarious doings to further their own agendas. The current US situation is a case in point. They are currently entering the ear...

A thumb-twiddling post tonight as I'm currently trying to rescue my thousands of tunes off of my - to be frank, still serviceable - iPod Classic. As is always the case these days, iTunes seeks to eviscerate and reset such devices if they weren't last synched with the Mac it sees fit, so I go to DropBox, where I had a modest starter account, having abandoned my original account years ago; and proceeded to start the current - ongoing - attempt at rescuing my music from the maw of obsolescent technology. I've had to upgrade, of course, with a concomitant extra financial obligation; and now have three terabytes [!] of storage available for a mere twenty quid a month. How much stuff do we need to file away? And how long will it last anyway? I've got to the stage in life that if my data can last ten years, it's probably good enough to see me out, and then it's someone else's problem if they care to see it as an obligation. So I'll roll with this one for as lon...

The current 'debate' about free speech in the US is a worrying one. The First Amendment to the constitution states: ' Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances'.  There you have it in a nutshell. Unfortunately, the political right in the US these days seems to hold a somewhat twisted view of the First, somehow inserting invisible caveats into it, such that free speech is now actually only available to the government itself, its supporters, and most particularly, its funders. Pretty neat trick, eh? We are actually moments close to Germany, 1933; the Soviet Union under Stalin or Cambodia in the Pol Pot era. All have common traits: racial cleansing, othering, ideological suppression; the rewriting of historical truths to suit the regime, und so we...

I have to comment [yet again] on the absolute farrago that is the current US administration, in the light of the security [Ha! There's a concept] breech that has occurred in the last few hours, with the collective f**k-wits of Trump's inner coterie of incapable misfits broadcasting to the world via social media - geez, won't someone tell politicians to stay clear of this shit? - their war plans regarding the issues at play in Suez. The denials proffered by all and sundry are simply, clearly, the pathetic 'it wasn't me' denials of a young kid in the playground caught with his pants down. And just as with a kid in the playground, the language these so-called adults use in these 'communications' is indeed the language of the playground. I for one find this simple fact alone a tad worrying, considering the power that these people wield and the responsibility they hold for the consequences of their thoughts and actions: the ramifications of which are deep and...

How long before the Trump Bubble explodes/implodes? Anyone's guess, I guess; but he seems to be doing a great job of committing an agonisingly slow and drawn-out act of seppuku at the moment,  seemingly without any awareness of his doing so. So too, his fellow billionaire acolytes and toadies, their fortunes dwindling at pace as a direct result of their collective endeavours under the [mis]direction of Trump and his chosen Lord of Chaos, Elon Musk, whose fortunes are similarly taking a real time beating, with shares in Tesla sitting at the end of yesterday's trading at around half of its all-time high, and down 8.79 on the week. A similar picture obtains across the rest of Trump's frat pack of über-rich co-conspirators and their businesses: they're all losing money, and have done consistently since they all jumped into bed with The Orange One. How long before they realise their glorious leader is a conman and gangster of the crassest ilk, out solely to fleece them and t...

Tonight's Sunday meal is a bit of an improvised twist on some ingredients that might just be familiar to you from past Sunday Roast Posts; however, the lack of any stock with which to make sauce led me to rethink. So, the spuds were pretty much the Greek take, with seasoned olive oil, lemon, garlic and thyme, whilst the belly pork strips were treated to light and dark soy sauce, black pepper, chilli flakes, salt and olive oil, baked alongside small vine tomatoes, to produce the sauce. Steamed veg to accompany the thing and there you go. Very fine, even though I say so myself. Another week beckons, and I'm changing cars: out goes the old small, white Citroën; in comes the new small, white Citroën: pleasantly familiar, but with a new twist, just like supper tonight...