Quarter of English councils may have to sell homes
Quarter of English councils may have to sell homes to balance books, study finds:
As part of other efforts to balance budgets, 28% of councils said they expected to sell off existing housing stock, while 45% are already using reserves to cover day-to-day spending. Of the 76 councils, 71 highlighted at least one sign of financial stress over housing.
One of the worst legacies of the Thatcherite era was the sell-off of council housing. While it meant that council tenants could get on “the property ladder”, the law prevented councils from reinvesting the money in new housing, which meant that stock ran down over time. Add in the horrible squeeze on council funding of the austerity era and you get a toxic brew that will take Labour a decade to sort out.
German ambassador warns of Trump plan to redefine constitutional order
German ambassador warns of Trump plan to redefine constitutional order, document shows
Germany’s ambassador to the United States has warned that the incoming Trump administration will rob U.S. law enforcement and the media of their independence and hand big tech companies “co-governing power”, according to a confidential document seen by Reuters… “Basic democratic principles and checks and balances will be largely undermined, the legislature, law enforcement and media will be robbed of their independence and misused as a political arm, Big Tech will be given co-governing power,” it says.
Bear in mind that this will not have been written without significant intelligence work. Dark, dark times for America, I’m afraid.
Honestly, if you fancy a glimpse into some of the most batshit stuff on the planet, doing a site search on citizengo.org for the word “woke” will leave you with your mouth open. Apparently it’s mostly “the transgenders”, of course. Woke, the lot of ya.
The sad tale of Power Computer (and no, they weren't bought by Apple)
Most Mac users of a certain age remember Power Computing, the Mac cloner who undercut Apple with better machines back in the mid-90s. Apple ended up buying Power Computing out and putting an end to the clone market. Well if you can’t compete, use your financial muscle.
It’s often said that Apple bought the company – but it didn’t. Even Wikipedia gets this wrong, claiming that Power was an Apple subsidiary. In fact, what Apple bought was the Mac-related assets of Power, including the license to make Mac clones. Apple did not acquire the company.
And, in fact, Power had a brief life post-Apple acquisition. It attempted to launch an Intel-based Windows laptop, the PowerTrip. However, it seems to have run out of money before it could launch – at least I can’t find any references to anyone ever getting their hands on the PowerTrip – and it got sued by its suppliers.
By the end of January 1998, Power was gone. Ironically, if the company had survived for longer, the $100m in Apple stock would have been worth a lot, lot more than Power itself ever was or could have been.
I’m sure that somewhere in a box, I still have some of their stickers.
Systemic Risk Reporting: A System in Crisis?
Instead of relying on platforms or regulators to define how risks should be conceptualized and mitigated, a joint approach is needed—one that builds on expertise by civil society, academics and activists, and emphasizes best practices. A collaborative approach would help make sense of these complex challenges and how they can be addressed in ways that strengthen users’ rights and protect fundamental rights.
The “something” that I was testing earlier (which worked) is the integration between Drummer and Micro.blog. I’ve always been a fan of outliners, and I’m interested in maybe using this one.
File under “things which make absolutely no sense at all”
Tom MacDonald and Roseanne Barr have written what can loosely be called ‘a song’ for Trump’s inauguration. And it is as bad as you might expect. The first lines are:
We won, you mad/It’s done, too bad/Boo-hoo, so sad/Now your daddy’s home
SpaceX calls their explosions “rapid unscheduled disassemblies,” which I think is intended as a joke, a parody of corporate euphemisms (while still trying to deflect attention from the danger). It reminds me of the language used by manufacturers of certain types of light bulbs. When their products explode, they call it a “nonpassive failure.” And they’re not trying to be funny.
Did Donald Trump Really Just Drop a Solana Meme Coin? - Decrypt
On-chain sleuths pointed to potential red flags, including the apparent fact that the project was seeded with millions of dollars of funds from Binance and Gate—two exchanges that don’t serve U.S. customers. But some other apparent concerns diminished with further sleuthing, not to mention with time as Trump’s social posts remained online.
Barf.
Over on my big school blog, Ten Blue Links is a day late, but you’ll forgive that, won’t you?
Some nifty news: Ghost is getting ActivityPub features this year. This makes me even happier that I moved from WordPress to Ghost.
Mark Zuckerberg lies about content moderation to Joe Rogan’s face
In fact, many of the controversial moderation calls Facebook made in the pandemic were during the Trump administration. Take, for instance, the “Plandemic” video hoax: Facebook removed the video in 2020. Joe Biden took office in 2021. If Zuckerberg was dealing with an administration pressuring him about this, it was the Trump administration. The Biden White House may well have engaged in similar outreach, but it was joining what was already an active discussion about Facebook moderation.
Meanwhile, the Heritage Foundation is planning to target Wikipedia moderators. So there’s that.
Flat tax rate is an ‘attractive idea’, Kemi Badenoch says | Kemi Badenoch
From the department of batshit Tories, we bring you this:
At the moment, we are a welfare state with a little bit of a productivity attached to it. We’ve got to turn that around.