Barley Blair
@barleyscottblair.bsky.social
Unhealthy obsession with geopolitics, love learning about new cultures and languages. Build tech companies in my spare time. Startups, code and semiconductors. Sometimes in the UK, sometimes in China.
Strikes me as great news for the UK. Chinese students bring $10.6bn per year to the US and for many the UK is the second choice.
March 15, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Strikes me as great news for the UK. Chinese students bring $10.6bn per year to the US and for many the UK is the second choice.
Down for me too
March 10, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Down for me too
The US has always demanded control over their sphere though. So I guess the question for me is whether the US is planning to be seriously expansionary or if this is just bluff and bluster?
January 7, 2025 at 10:25 PM
The US has always demanded control over their sphere though. So I guess the question for me is whether the US is planning to be seriously expansionary or if this is just bluff and bluster?
But what does that mean? That he just wants to be like Putin and that the US is going to be an expansionary warring empire?
January 7, 2025 at 10:24 PM
But what does that mean? That he just wants to be like Putin and that the US is going to be an expansionary warring empire?
It seems like it’s just going to push allies away from the US. It makes no sense. Unless they genuinely think they can rile up the MAGAs in other countries to oust the mainstream governments there instead.
January 7, 2025 at 1:11 AM
It seems like it’s just going to push allies away from the US. It makes no sense. Unless they genuinely think they can rile up the MAGAs in other countries to oust the mainstream governments there instead.
I am genuinely so confused about this. I don’t get what the endgame is with this Greenland, Panama Canal, Canada and UK rhetoric. Is it serious expansionism? Or just bluff as some opening gambit? Or just to sow chaos?
January 7, 2025 at 1:08 AM
I am genuinely so confused about this. I don’t get what the endgame is with this Greenland, Panama Canal, Canada and UK rhetoric. Is it serious expansionism? Or just bluff as some opening gambit? Or just to sow chaos?
So you would say this is genuine expansionism? That they seriously think this is a valid play?
January 7, 2025 at 1:05 AM
So you would say this is genuine expansionism? That they seriously think this is a valid play?
Does anyone have insights into what they hope to achieve by this? Why are they attacking allies in this way? Just to rile up their base, or an opening gambit in negotiations, or to put other nations on the back foot, or genuine expansionism? What is the endgame here? I feel I am missing something.
January 7, 2025 at 1:04 AM
Does anyone have insights into what they hope to achieve by this? Why are they attacking allies in this way? Just to rile up their base, or an opening gambit in negotiations, or to put other nations on the back foot, or genuine expansionism? What is the endgame here? I feel I am missing something.
Not just news. Apple’s email summaries are often far less helpful than the old snippets of the first few lines.
January 6, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Not just news. Apple’s email summaries are often far less helpful than the old snippets of the first few lines.
People looking at engagement metrics, I expect. Isn’t that all there is in these companies?
December 31, 2024 at 1:03 AM
People looking at engagement metrics, I expect. Isn’t that all there is in these companies?
Fair criticism, thank you!
December 31, 2024 at 1:02 AM
Fair criticism, thank you!
Yes, all very fair points, thank you. And a lot of non-Katakana Japanese is arguably loanwords too, from a long time ago. Although my perception is that Japanese is getting more of them more quickly than many other languages. I have no evidence to back that up though!
December 31, 2024 at 12:59 AM
Yes, all very fair points, thank you. And a lot of non-Katakana Japanese is arguably loanwords too, from a long time ago. Although my perception is that Japanese is getting more of them more quickly than many other languages. I have no evidence to back that up though!
Why without irony? Genuinely curious.
December 31, 2024 at 12:46 AM
Why without irony? Genuinely curious.
I love Ridley, but his biggest problem is that he can’t tell the difference between a good script and a bad script.
December 31, 2024 at 12:45 AM
I love Ridley, but his biggest problem is that he can’t tell the difference between a good script and a bad script.
Going to be a busy January for US politics
December 31, 2024 at 12:44 AM
Going to be a busy January for US politics
Usually on products to look cool in my experience.
December 31, 2024 at 12:43 AM
Usually on products to look cool in my experience.
You’re right of course, but there does seem to be an outsized amount of loanwords in Japanese. I find it especially irksome when they replace beautiful words like 苺 with cumbersome versions like ストロベリー.
December 31, 2024 at 12:37 AM
You’re right of course, but there does seem to be an outsized amount of loanwords in Japanese. I find it especially irksome when they replace beautiful words like 苺 with cumbersome versions like ストロベリー.
Biden was only 4 years earlier too, in 1942. The 1940s have had a bizarrely outsized influence on US leadership.
December 31, 2024 at 12:35 AM
Biden was only 4 years earlier too, in 1942. The 1940s have had a bizarrely outsized influence on US leadership.
Also the arrows are pretty subjective too. Are they sure boomers are going to continue downwards, which seems to be the implication?
December 30, 2024 at 4:42 PM
Also the arrows are pretty subjective too. Are they sure boomers are going to continue downwards, which seems to be the implication?
Just anecdotal, but most people I speak to want their voices heard, but don’t think they are in current democratic systems. They believe that their vote doesn’t change key things they’d like changed. So I think it’s better democracy, rather than something else.
December 30, 2024 at 1:35 PM
Just anecdotal, but most people I speak to want their voices heard, but don’t think they are in current democratic systems. They believe that their vote doesn’t change key things they’d like changed. So I think it’s better democracy, rather than something else.