Friday Smirk

Another classic cartoon from the boys. I often think this about all religions when believers make ridiculous claims of veracity and miracles, I think "pull the other one, it's got bells on it!"

London Stories

No, not an old petrol pump but a Police telephone! Installed in the 20s all the way through to the 60s these devices were connected directly to local stations and were used by bobbies to call in crimes, ask for assistance and generally keep in touch with their base. How telephony has changed in the last 60 years!

48 years of Animals

Released on 21st January 1977 (48 years ago!!!) this was one of my favourite albums of all time, I remember listening to it with my late Father, we sat there in silence and played it all the way through (both sides) before declaring it a classic. Favourite track? Well, has to be "Dogs" I reckon, the way the voice merges into a synth sound was ground breaking at the time and still sounds great to this day!

Value not found?

We've been riding the wave of a US stock market boom in recent years, particularly tech-stocks, and the likes of Amazon, Google, Apple, Tesla, Facebook, Nvidia and Microsoft (the "Magnificent Seven") are all at all time highs currently. Of course, whenever things go to their "all time high" we can expect a "correction" of some kind at some point, and there's no doubt that we are in a classic hype-cycle when it comes to AI and the valuation frenzy around companies that are involved in it.

I've been through several of these hype cycles now, they all look pretty similar, innovation occurs, inflated expectations are generated, the innovation flattens and we decend into a "trough of disillusionment" as it's known. I believe current AI tools will turn out just like this, sure, it's clever and useful but converting that innovation into hard revenue will, I think, prove a little harder than people think and will take time.

In recent weeks a new entrant to the generative AI scene has emerged, DeepSeek (which has an open source LLM), a Chinese firm has launched a chat platform that seems (superficially) to be as good as ChatGPT, but, the founders claim that it has been done at far less cost and with far fewer resources than it's US competitors (interesting only if true). News of this has sent the stock markets around these tech firms into freefall, Nvidia (which makes the chips used to build AI centric data-centres) lost 17% in one day and considering the market-cap ($3+ trillion) of that company, a record fall on the NASDAQ exchange.

So, will we see a "correction" now, will the magnificent seven turn into the sweaty six or even the flacid five? I somehow think that the bull market around tech is coming to an end, or at least flattening out for a while and the current volatility may provide some opportunistic upside for those with cash to spend. For those of us in pension land I suspect the prudent thing to do will be to switch sectors or to buy bonds for a while until things settle down a bit, then again, for those clever enough to spot the "bottom" a killing may well be made as these big tech firms aren't going anywhere anytime soon so a rebound (albeit perhaps over a couple of years) is pretty likely.

(PS. the stock photo above shows a trader with the number "404" which is ironic as that's the HTML error code for "Page not found", a case of "value not found" today perhaps?

London Stories

 Often forgotten in the mayhem of WW2 but another London first, perhaps one that we'd rather forget...

Picasso of Pettiness

 

When asked the question "why do the British hate Trump so much", a British author and commentator replied with the following reasoned response, I like it, it's what I would have said if only I were more articulate!

"A few things spring to mind.

Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem.

For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace - all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.

So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing - not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility - for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman

But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is - his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty. Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults - he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface.

Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront.

Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege. And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead.

 

There are unspoken rules to this stuff - the Queensberry rules of basic decency - and he breaks them all. He punches downwards - which a gentleman should, would, could never do - and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless - and he kicks them when they are down. So the fact that a significant minority - perhaps a third - of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think 'Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that: 

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
• You don't need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss.

He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum."

Storm Eowyn

 

Been walking around my local area today on my daily consitutional and could only spot one fallen tree (which looked pretty decrepit TBH) as a result of storm Eowyn, I guess we've been lucky down here in the South East, I see on the news pages that it's a totally different story up North!

Friday Smirk

J&M pointing out the obvious as usual, i.e. that the most famous religious texts are, on the whole, 99.9% "qur'ap", with the odd few words of wisdom (often plagerised from earlier stories) This is just about what you'd expect from chance or in other words a man-made (random) assembly of the cultural observations, dreams, delusions and misguided edicts of desert goat herders and shamen from a period spanning a few thousand years. All put together in the 4th century by a bunch of people wishing to have some kind of (confected) artefact that they could use to exert power and control over the masses.

London Stories

The "Cornhill Pump" established in 1799 just outside the shoping arcade that once was the Royal Exchange, financed by no less than the East India Company and the Bank of England, recently renovated it's worth a look as you make your way down to Bank station or up to Aldgate (where there's another famous water pump!).

Friday Smirk

Jesus and Mo, on point as usual examining the true nature of God, I heard that he's rubbish with money too, always needs more apparently..

Nominated Drivers

 

So here's another lo/no beer on trial, this time from my favourite UK brewer Verdant. It's an IPA and is loaded up with the usual mix of US and AU/NZ hops and made in a clear style using Verdant's house yeast. It's a cracker, really flavoursome a satisfying drink in it's own right IMO, refreshing and complex, a great effort! A splash of lemonade transports me back to being a kid in the pub garden with my parents nursing a half of shandy, happy days! Luckily I have six cans so will be able to spread it out over the month, this one is a keeper, worth having a couple of cans in the back of the fridge for the nominated driver anytime..

Zero to Hero

We're sticking to our guns and doing "dry January" this month, it's going well and I must say it's not really any hardship at all, there are plenty of alternative options available these days. I'm trying some low/no alcohol beers including some from our local craft brewer Siren, the picture above shows their flagship beer, Soundwave, done in a low alc format. It's good, tastes ok and acts as a perfectly good placeholder for when we're watching a box-set or movie on Saturday evening. My Wife enjoys a G&T at the weekend and we got some no-alc gin from Sipsmith, I haven't tried it as shorts aren't my thing really but she says it's tasty enough. I've puchased a few different lo/no cans to try from different brewers, it'll be interesting to see how much variation there is between them all and if a favourite emerges!

Leopard's spots

 

I was walking past my favourite little pond yesterday and noticed a rather unusual pattern in the ice/frost that had formed overnight, a bit like Leopard's spots I thought. Not sure why that is or what causes such patterns, on the other hand perhaps I shouldn't think so much about things like this..

Glove down!

 

It's that time of year!

Midweek Mirth

Jesus and Mo working out their strategy to populism for the next quarter century?

End of Woke?

Well, it seems that the "Trudeau Era" in Canada has finally come to an end. After a decent innings of 10 years in power Justin Trudeau resigned his position as Prime Minister yesterday and will remain as caretaker leader of the Liberal party until a new one can be found. Trudeau is part of a popular political dynasty including his Father (Pierre) in the 70s and 80s who was also Prime Minister several times over that period and had continued his Father's "progressive" philosphy. 

Justin was well known for espousing progressive views, i.e. left-leaning and sympathetic to hot issues surrounding trans rights and open borders, many people dubbed him "the prince of woke" but perhaps the "virtue signalling" mask slipped somewhat over his term as he became embroiled in financial and social scandals such as pictures of him wearing "black-face" to attend a fancy dress party. He also oversaw the introduction of highly unpopular C-16 laws in Canada, compelling people (by law) to use correct pronouns for trans people, something unprecidented in the history of English common law, many arguing that compelling speech was an anathema to free speech. 

Recently Trudeau has been becoming more and more unpopular within his own party, sparking some high profile resignations lately. Things finally came to a head with the election of Trump in the USA who openly mocks the Canadian Prime Minister and is now suggesting not only that trade tariffs should be re-introduced between the two nations but that Canada itself should be subsumed into the USA!  A view previously considered strictly off the table for past US presidents. Hopefully our Canadian cousins will find someone with more of a spine to elect, someone who will not only grasp the many issues neglected by Trudeau (such as immigration) by the horns but also stand up to Trump, we shall see.

Soft Snow

Even snow isn't what it used to be, for us softy Southerners at least!

Alsace treats

An unusual choice for NY celebrations last night but it really worked, a tasty Gewurztraminer from Alsace, really refreshing and quite pokey at 14%, certainly got the evening off to a decent "flow"! We're going to do dry January this year so it's the wagon for us for a month, it'll be interesting to use the time to investigate alcohol free drinks of which I've had a couple of good ones in 2024