Some thoughts

I like substack, it's handy getting new posts emailed directly to me and is (as far as I am aware) at resisting attempts at censorship (unlike WordPress, again so I hear) While I appreciate it is attempting to ensure individual writers can earn from their writings, I do wonder how viable it is to have individual channel subscriptions. I currently have free subscriptions to 22 writers. If I were to upgrade just my favourite 5 to the cheapest payment level it would cost me approx £31 a month. For comparison UnHerd, with many different authors, is just £5 a month. That's much better value.  As with the proliferation of streaming platforms, the question is with rising bills how many people will continue to justify the expense of multiple subscriptions for specific content?

Spotted this story on my FB feed this evening: As the post mentions, according to modern standards  'the idea that only men are suitable for this role is outdated and even discriminatory' Coincidentally, yesterday I saw this via a comment on David Thompson's  blog:  1776 The Musical . I have to ponder the contradiction, that an all-male cast is discriminatory, but an all-female one is stunning and brave. Then there is the fact that this play is based on real (white) men, and distorts historical facts by portraying them as women of various races. As we have seen time and again, the hypocrisy here is staggering, anything anti-male is fine but anti-female is hatefully misogyny. This is not equality, but overcompensation for the sins of the past by going too far in the opposite direction.

I spotted this on my Facebook timeline earlier this evening:  Scientists Have Built the First Modular Body—a Living Being That Isn't Alive Sounds scary right? Just one slight problem with this story: it isn't real. If the author had bothered to click on the link in the (allegedly 'recently unearthed' but posted 6 years ago) video's description he would have noticed the following summary: ' Modular Body is an online science fiction story about the creation of OSCAR, a living organism built from human cells.' Indeed, I saw this and some related material at an art gallery (I think it was in Austria in 2016, but am not 100% sure). What this also shows is the state of modern journalism, especially in technical/scientific fields. Time was mags would hire people with a background in a subject (one of my tutors at uni moonlighted as a science correspondent for the Guardian). Now they hire arts graduates who don't have a clue about the scientific content and spe...

A good summary of the past 12 months in popular culture. I didn't watch much western media due to the constant woke nonsense. Hopefully, as the Drinker suggests, we are finally turning a corner.    

I watched the launch program last night, despite the tiny, cheap-looking studio and a few technical issues I thought it was overall a solid launch and seems worth watching in the future. If they continue to put out material like this-  Dan Wootton: Boris Johnson has bottled it. Freedom Day won't take place-  it will stir up a few pigeons. Would be great if they were to hire or just broadcast the Lotus Eaters, they seem to have a similar take on these issues.