nephihaha

For a long period, Nobel Prize winners were Nordics. Carson has Icelandic citizenship, so arguably falls into that too.

If you look at old Nobel Prize winners, you will find plenty of writers who are barely read now (at least in the English speaking world) and some like John Galsworthy whose reputation isn't what it used to be.

Quote: 'Scotland is a wee country with only 15% of its land capable of growing arable crops. Our land is too strategically precious to be covered in solar panels'

Varoufakis is a member of the World Economic Forum, comes from a wealthy family and his wife is the daughter of the biggest clothing manufacturer in Greece. He's part of what he complains about.

In feudalism, there is some mutual dependence despite hostility. The peasants need the nobles to defend them from other depredation, and the lords need the peasants to feed them and fight their wars. The only problem is that during the future, if automation continues, the proletariat/peasantry will be surplus to requirements, i.e. not needed by the ruling class, so it won't really be feudal.

There seems to be some kind of hidden connection between autism and ADHD. At first sight the definitions are contradictory but in reality, many people have both. Sleep disturbance seem to be common among autistic people too.

I think the best form of this work was probably to be staff on an absentee landlord's estate. While the master or mistress was away, you would have little work to do except cleaning or maintenance, and probably could get away with having a life of leiaure.

The Romans and the Greeks provided a lot of their thinking. They provided models for their buildings and for the empire. The Romans wrote about the way they ran their empire, controlled local tribes and so on... They also provided a rationale for the civilising mission (as they perceived it).

Latin and Greek were useful for coining a lot of the new vocabulary that English had to create for science, industrialisation and overseas adventures.

I was at the Carnegie museum in Dunfermline a few years ago. His childhood home was not particularly big and his origins in Scotland were ordinary. What was of interest was how some of his philanthropy parallels more recent versions... He wasn't just behind fantastic libraries and so on, he was pouring money into proto-globalist organisations much like the Rockefellers more recently.

WW1 was nearly a generation after Victoria's death.

This isn't completely true. Some of them got so little sunlight that they developed illnesses as a result.

Port is generally poured by people at the table. There is an etiquette to it.

There are two ways to look it this. Either the growth of extremism, or the death of machine politics. Both are happening.

Because artificial sweeteners taste vile.

And the language is like Newspeak. It reduces your vocabulary to change your thinking. She states such openly.

I'm guessing some kind of yeast, fungus or plankton.

"The fact that aliens have not nuked us from orbit out of sheer panic is, I think, strong evidence that we are alone in the galaxy."

Or they are cybernetic lifeforms and are applauding our current trajectory.

Giant squid may be a bigger part of biomass than people think. I saw some estimates on sperm whale catches of giant squid and they may be eating thousands. There are far more of them than you might think, and they have a 3D living space. Sperm whale may be designed to hunt them.

The Acts of Union were in 1707, over a century after the Union of the Crowns. They were nothing to do with King James VI. The Scottish Parliament continued throughout the 17th century, apart from during the Cromwellian invasion.

By the way, England has been in regnal union with a number of places including Hanover, the Netherlands, France, Denmark (+ Norway) and Normandy.

Also the title was "King of Scots" not "King of Scotland", another common mistake.

Actually they weren't. The majority of the populations of Scotland and England did not want it in 1707. There was rioting in Edinburgh when it happened and the signatories had to go into a cellar to hide from it. Most English people didn't want to annex Scotland either, since they thought it threatened their trade.

Under 0.01% of the Scottish population had a vote for the parliament in the first place. The Scottish politicians were bribed and there is a document showing how much each was paid (which is ridiculously hard to get hold of online, for some reason.)

The English parliament continued with a few extra members, while the Scottish parliament was abolished. The speaker of the English parliament boasted, "We have catch'd Scotland and will bind her fast."

I'm sure some writers can remember their work well, but others would struggle to quote it verbatim. I think there are some books Stephen King wrote under the influence, that he claims to have been unable to remember writing.

You're romanticising poverty there. Come on. Who feels part of something greater when there are bodies demanding money off you?

I've been homeless. I didn't find that fulfilling or rationalise it with some Zen monk shtic. I saw it for what it was.

Libraries give money to authors, that's my point.

We have unions for a reason. They may be a pain sometimes, but the reason they exist is so that the lower end does not get abused. Now we have Uber and Deliveroo and Amazon who wilfully abuse their employees.

"The fundamental belief of capitalism is the free market. You are arguing against the free market."

We don't have a free market, and even if we did free content does not count as part of the market. The nearest are so called "loss leaders".

"Having fixed renumeration for work that everyone abides by like you are arguing for is generally a very marxist belief. "

So they say. In practice Marxists have used substantial slave labour.

"Were you mislead in your decision to contribute to Wikipedia? Wikipedia doesn't pretend to pay contributors."

I was misled about the nature of the project, how it was run and regret being persuaded into using a named account. I was far too optimistic about what it was and what it was for.

"Wow, do you have any idea how many open source software contributors are living on Ramen and are on the side of the working class?"

Maybe those types are eating ramen because they aren't getting paid for their work? There's a thought. In some places if you get caught doing that while on unemployment benefits, you will get those stripped from you too.

I don't like our economic system much either. It's run on creating debt. You have to have money and support from elsewhere or you sink.

I support public libraries. They create great third spaces, PAY for their books and pay for their staff. They have helped educate the public and increase literacy. I oppose the casualisation of libraries as well. Some places are trying to replace paid staff with volunteers if they are not trying to axe them.

Have libraries done some questionable stuff? Yes. But generally they are good.

My point about writing groups at libraries was that the people who run them get paid anyway. Nothing wrong with that.

His business practices have been despicable and that is just in computing.

Wells was an admirer of Stalin and that comes out in this work.

The mosquito is part of the ecosystem, and remove that and you remove the food source for many creatures including bats, frogs, swallows/swifts and many others.

I agree they are a nuisance but they do not exist on their own. Many of them spend their time feeding on plants rather than blood.

Bill Gates is involved in this. Always a red flag.

"Many people" does not imply a monolith. It does sound like there are a lot of rich kids on here though who support this. If you turn a paid job into an unpaid hobby then people can't make a living off it.

"Once again, you're trapped in your mindset and seem entirely blind to the aforementioned profit brainwashing. Other paradigms exist, with many benefits you're apparently still incapable of comprehending."

Tell this to your utility companies and any debt agencies you encounter and see how far you get with it. Try speaking to tax collectors about paradigms, brain washing and mindsets. See if your landlord or mortgage lender will accept a paradigm shift in place of monthly rent.

The only people who can get anywhere with that are people who already have money or some sugar daddy (or mummy.) Many of us have to work to survive. Ever heard of the working class?

This reminds me of the book reviewer who was complaining that they tried to pay her in books. She pointed out to her employers that while she loved books, she needed to be able to buy and pay for things.

You can be altruistic as you want, but unless you are a hermit living off the grid in the forest, you will almost certainly have to pay living expenses.

Isn't that more than the current population of Denmark? Who were the other exposed people?

"But literally nobody is suggesting anyone, let alone everyone should be expected to work for free or do anything they don't want to."

Most people given the choice between something free and something paid for, will go for the free item.

It is not just a matter of consent, but a market for ordinary people to make some money. Being able to work for free means you have to have the time and money to do so, otherwise you risk getting into debt yourself.

"You are competing with people who run paid writing workshops. It puts people out of a job to the same extent as the author posting his book on his website did."

Within thirty years (far longer than my group has been around) I've never witnessed anyone else run writing workshops within my local area who wasn't already working for the local libraries. They still do. So, that isn't the case — the others are all getting paid out of the council tax whether anyone turns up or not. I keep pretty close tabs on such things. At least I've helped other people publish and sell their books. It's helped my friend's café that was struggling financially after the government lockdown and may not have still been here without it. That's helped save her livelihood, and kept someone in work. Because of that she's been able to set up a catering arm. Far better than debt. So yes, it has had a positive impact on the local area, when so many places are turning into ghost towns and deserts.

That is for a short time every week. But I'd prefer not to work for nothing most of the time. I have had debt agencies after me in the past so it is not a luxury I can afford all the time, nor can most people. I have know people who make a living off writing, and many more who can't... But I'd prefer at least some people could. Some of the latter group put their books out for free, they got downloaded and they made little or no sales off that. (Not because they were all awful either.)