Entrepreneur, Philosopher
As I discussed last week, China’s proposed security law for Hong Kong would be a major blow. Follow-on discussions of potential results of the implementation of such a law really span quite a bit of ground. On the “very likely” side of things, Hong Kong is currently home to over 400 hedge funds, managing north … Continue reading “Hedge Funds and New Hong Kong”
With everything going on regarding COVID-19, and now the protests and riots in the US, it’s easy to forget that just a few months ago, there were on-going protests in Hong Kong around Beijing’s attempt to pass a law allowing people to be extradited to the mainland. Equally seemingly lost in the noise is Beijing’s … Continue reading “Hong Kong no longer autonomous from China”
Finland is conducting an experiment where they took a random sample of young-and-unemployed and long-term-unemployed people (2,000 in total) and provided them a small, basic income, not tied to their social benefits (i.e., if they got a low wage job, the wages would not count against their basic support, as most such current systems do). … Continue reading “Preliminary results from Finland’s basic income experiment … social “science” is hard”
A widely discussed and shared OpEd in Bloomberg pointed out Gavin Newsom’s (Governor of California) very clearly intentional use of language, using the terms “nation-state” and “export”. Prima facie, this is just politics and just Governor Newsom doing what he needs to do to ensure sufficient medical supplies for the citizens of California. The OpEd trolls … Continue reading “Is “civil war” brewing in the U.S.?”
We tend to think of “the Internet” as a single thing, but, in reality, it has been fragmenting for a while (China is the biggest example, where the Internet inside the country looks very different than the one outside, but there are lots of similar fractures, both big and small, e.g., back in 2014 when … Continue reading “The Internet continues to fragment”
News is certainly in need of, and worth, saving — most “news” today is incredible, intentionally divisive, and either prurient or pernicious, and is often mendacious; and even the “good” news sources are running down the path of click-bate for headlines and poorly researched or corroborated stories. Part of this is human nature and what … Continue reading “Misguided efforts by Europe to save news”
Speaking of privacy, if you’re a U.S. citizen, call your Senator and Representative, and urge them to kill the “EARN IT” bill. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is what allows most of your favorite things about the Internet to exist — it’s the clause that says that companies who build tools are not … Continue reading “The government is trying to destroy privacy, yet again — and you can help!”
Think privacy is bad in China? Wait until you see what India is planning. The Indian government has secretly been working on a “comprehensive” social registry, that will track every aspect of every citizen’s life: “when a citizen moves between cities, changes jobs, buys new property, when a member of a family is born, dies … Continue reading “Surveillance in India and The US”
Last month, recreational marijuana use became legal in the Australian Capital Territory (akin to Washington, D.C.). Medicinal marijuana was already legal both at the Australian State and Federal levels. Globally, there are currently four countries, and 11 U.S. states and districts, in addition to ACT, where recreational use is now legal, and another 23 countries … Continue reading “The marijuana startup space”
I’ve written a few times about the growing surveillance state in China, but while China tops the world in sheer number of cameras, I was very surprised to find that the U.S. tops the list on a per-capita basis, coming in at 15.28 cameras per 100 people (China is 14.36, and the next closest is … Continue reading “U.S. tops surveillance cameras per capita”
China is spreading Uyghur recognition across the country At least twelve projects across China are mandating that the ability to identify Uyghur be built into their facial-recognition systems. Imagine if US police RFPs started mandating Navajo recognition? Or if the English started mandating Welsh recognition? Remember, TikTok is controlled by China Seventeen-year-old Feroza Aziz wanted … Continue reading “China, Uyghur, TikTok”
Chinese President Xi Jinping said China should “seize [the blockchain] opportunity”. There’s a lot in there, but the big play is that they’re intending to launch a state-backed crypto currency. Of course, this won’t have the purported benefits of true, open cryptocurrencies, but it does represent a huge opportunity for China, including (by no means … Continue reading “Beijing is going all-in on blockchain”