Odds and Ends — 17 January 2022
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
Source: Letter from Birmingham Jail
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, and Debt:
Crypto job posts on LinkedIn rocketed 395% in 2021
Fidelity: ‘Countries That Secure Some Bitcoin Today Will Be Better Off Than Their Peers’
“We also think there is very high stakes game theory at play here, whereby if bitcoin adoption increases, the countries that secure some bitcoin today will be better off competitively than their peers,” said the report. “In other words, a small cost can be paid today as a hedge compared to a potentially much larger cost year in the future.”
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
Australia Makes an Example of Novak Djokovic
The day before the Australian Open was set to begin, Novak Djokovic, possibly the greatest tennis player of all time, ran up against a group of determined opponents that no amount of talent, training, money or willpower could overcome.
He lost his final bid to stay in Australia on Sunday when a three-judge panel upheld the government’s decision to cancel his visa.
More broadly, he lost to a government determined to make him a symbol of unvaccinated celebrity entitlement; to an immigration law that gives godlike authority to border enforcement; and to a public outcry over what was widely seen as Djokovic’s reckless disregard for others, particularly after he said that he had tested positive for Covid last month and met with two journalists anyway.
School Closures Were a Catastrophic Error
It is now indisputable, and almost undisputed, that the year and a quarter of virtual school imposed devastating consequences on the students who endured it… The damage to a generation of children’s social development and educational attainment, and particularly to the social mobility prospects of its most marginalized members, will be irrecoverable.
Politics:
Are we being conditioned for war? This cheery piece is from the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia in the Obama administration: The US Must Prepare for War Against Russia Over Ukraine
MAGA hats and QAnon: Inside Trump’s first rally of 2022
Trump’s Arizona Speech Proves His Shock Comic Act Has Jumped the Shark
American Olympic Athletes Advised to Use Burner Phones
China’s Population Flatlines With Fewest Births Since 1950
China’s population crisis continued to worsen in 2021, with the latest birth figures again sliding despite government efforts to encourage families to have more children.
Serendipity:
The Tragedy of Macbeth Is a Frighteningly Good Shakespeare Movie
Joel Coen solves the problem that curses most adaptations.
Why Lady Macbeth is literature's most misunderstood villain
