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Although France has historically been the only case of an insurance hedger opting for an independent deterrent, there is no guarantee it will be the last. Under President Trump’s leadership, significant doubts about America’s commitment to both Europe and East Asia led to growing concerns that the United States may not indefinitely remain a reliable and credible provider of extended deterrence—concerns that may remain long after the Trump administration as …

Ancient indigenous people used seven so-called “Metals of Antiquity”: gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, iron, and mercury. Today, our complex societies require a much longer list of metals. We build components for power generation, transportation, health care, consumer electronics, defense, and many more sectors from metals and other minerals that are sourced from around the world. Industries will need to find many new metal and mineral sources, and open new …

Postmasters previously offered derisory compensation by the Post Office are being given a new opportunity to claim under an independent appeals process. The Post Office has written to them offering the choice of appealing, or accepting a £75k flat payment. It’s one or the other – a difficult decision for which postmasters should receive detailed […] Source

Since September 2017, I've been updating posts to the site monthly. This was a way for me to both continue making content for the site to keep it on people's minds, and a deadline that would force me to work on content so things didn't slip out of my own mind. I used to be able to do these updates monthly with the occasional "no update this month" post.My life …

Rain in Hastings, or at least another waterlogged pitch, so it was over to the Polegrove where the only threat to the game was wind – this is Bexhill after all – and a crowd gathered for a charity event who were enjoying the bar and the tunes available in the clubhouse. They may have […]

Why is your refrigerator filling up with fervent foods named Mike? My daughter voiced the question that had been on my mind…almost. “Is Mike’s Hot Honey the same company as Mike’s Amazing Mustard?” My actual question was, “Is Mike’s Amazing Mustard the same company as Mike’s Hard Lemonade?” Perhaps you’ve wondered the same, swapping in a brand like Mike’s Mighty Good Ramen or Wild Mike’s Ultimate Pizza. America is spoiled …

ALS stole his voice. Machine learning gave him it back Urban British foxes are slowly self-domesticating The Mormon Dream Mine Patina and intimacy TidyBot, bringing the dream of having robots do every single chore one step closer (via Interconnected) Finn-men The last format war: blu-ray versus HD DVD The death of the magazine, and quality writing with it, is one of the sadder trends of the internet age. They can …

Old and New Dreams was a superb live act. View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize Here is another Old and New Dreams title on ECM. This time it’s live. Recorded in June 1980 in Austria. Fantastic performance from this outstanding group. The sound is great. Everything sounds clear, crisp, detailed and pleasant. It could …

It’s been fascinating to see the spread of “artificial intelligence”, or more properly large language models (LLMs),* in science and in writing. It’s been even more fascinating to watch how we, as scientists and writers, are struggling to know how to think about them. That’s not surprising: the wide availability and superficially impressive performance of […]

Have you seen one these before? Nore have I.

The Slow & Steady portfolio has hit an new all-time high! Yes, our model passive portfolio has finally surpassed its previous peak, reached on New Year’s Eve 2021. Almost two years later we’ve put 2022’s bond crash behind us – in nominal terms anyway – as the portfolio grew for the fourth quarter in succession. And for once that growth wasn’t driven by our US-dominated Developed world fund. Here are …

In the post How Paris Conquered the Fashion World we learned how Parisian fashion styles traveled the seas. But just what were these styles? The Empire Style Fashion is about volume and its repartition. From the thin and weightless silhouettes of the Napoleon’s Empire to the voluminous sleeves of the Romantic Era, through the enormous bulk of the mid-century crinolines, to the thin again late 1880s and, finally to the …

Humans are increasingly engaging with wearable technology as it becomes more adaptable and interactive. One of the most intimate ways gaining acceptance is through augmented reality glasses. Last week, Meta debuted a prototype of the most recent version of their AR glasses—Orion. They look like reading glasses and use holographic projection to allow users to see graphics projected through transparent lenses into their field of view. Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg …

[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]If you have to know the answer right away, it’s no; or at least, my goal with this video is to convince you that the world is not running out of sand. But if it were that simple, I wouldn’t be here (right?) and you probably wouldn’t be either. In fact, I was really surprised by some of the …