links, the last refuge of really bored bloggers

This came up in my twitter feed recently. Charmingly 90s-ish, but I did like the point that it's very difficult to get decent bass out of a mobile device/laptop/whatever, and this probably has consequences for the kind of music people will make with them. Come to think of it, there's an interesting economic angle. The electronics will only keep getting cheaper, and the software can be free. But some things require a large physical lump that needs transporting and storing awkwardly. It's a little like Baumol's cost disease.

Meanwhile, I read the Grauniad interview with Adam Curtis this weekend and it didn't make me want to see his next after all. This post sums up why. It's TV thinking - if the edit is right, it doesn't matter if the logic contains more handwaving than might be ideal.

What were the most successful public policies of the last 30 years? Apparently, the minimum wage, devolution, privatisation, and the Northern Ireland peace process. I suspect they may not use my definition of success, but even on their terms it's telling that three out of four of them come from the 1997-2001 Labour government.

Finally, some music.




A lot of their other stuff seems terribly dated now but that one holds up.