Maybe there should be a "time out" for any and I mean *any* visits from Russia. Up to the invasion of Crimea these people were arrogantly demanding visa-free travel with the EU. Just freeze visas except for family emergencies. It is Europe's security at stake. Enough. — toomas ilves, ex-verif (@IlvesToomas) April 17, 2021 I […]

Ethiopia has long done quite well by Sub-Saharan African standards. It has a good record of human accomplishment, being the only country in the region to have developed a literary corpus before European colonialism. But it was, until recently, extremely poor. But no longer so after a decade of some of the highest growth rates in the […]

This week’s Open Thread. (1) Vitalik Buterin – Prediction Markets: Tales from the Election. Best explanation of why predictions markets were giving Trump 10% well after it was clear it was <1%. (2) Balaji – How to Start a New Country. One of my favorite Indians. He discusses his new website (amongst other things) with Tim Ferriss […]

It strikes me that most of life’s most exquisite comforts can be had with ~$10M or so. Apartment in the center of a world class city (luxury condo if in the Second World). Holiday home. Nice vacations and gourmet restaurants. Model-tier gf. The virgin financial docs sleuthing to suggest Bad Orange Man isn’t a billionaire […]

I know this will come as a shock to many of my regular readers, but I will nonetheless ask you to respect my new identity as a Black Trans Russian (#BTR, pronouns: she/her) and support me in my transition. You can do that verbally, or even better, financially. Those surgeries don’t come cheap. Black Trans […]

In 2015, I attempted to quantify the military power of the world’s states with an index of Comprehensive Military Power. You can read the post, including the detailed methodology, here. Since then, its conclusions – broadly speaking, that China and Russia had about a third of US military power in the mid-2010s, while the next-tier […]

It’s quite amusing that, read in the wrong (right?) light, this basically comes off as a paean to White Supremacy. It’s the ultimate humblebrag. I think there’s quite a lot of truth to this thesis of The Unbearable Lightness of White Supremacy. Regardless of which White faction “wins” this civil war, the power structure itself […]

Interesting links. (1) Len Sassaman and Satoshi: a Cypherpunk History. This is, I think, the strongest case for someone being Satoshi that I have read to date. All I can say is that IF it was him, he played the double act VERY well. Imagine being advised to buy Bitcoin at $20. https://t.co/l0g9kak2eN — Anatoly Karlin […]

The blockage of the Suez Canal and the 12% of world cargo trade (1 billion tons of cargo per year) that flows through it raises the profile of an obvious and much shorter alternative that global warming is making increasingly attractive. Arctic sea ice continues to retreat at a very rapid clip (currently running below […]