Pete Buttigieg speaking to global leaders in London today: "I did not come here to tell everybody that things are better than they look. They're not. And they're probably going to get worse before they get better. And yet I am optimistic."

Describe a key to better cities in 5 words or less. Here are mine — fewer cars, less driving.

Full Special Out this Sunday on You Tube 😀 Buzzin with how it came out. Give it a look

Many people including CEOs have come to me asking about Sam Altman's UBI pilot. Unlike most critics, we actually read the research. Basic income ended poverty with minimal impact on work beyond single parents. People took risks to find better jobs, retrain & escape abuse. 1/🧵

EXCLUSIVE: @kezdugdale & @StephenNoon publish proposals for changing political discourse. Part of holding #IndyRef2 would mean "mandating" the Sec. of State for Scotland to: "read the mood of the nation" and call a vote when support consistently favours "Yes" @UofGPolicy

The original architects of American global power did something very clever that no other empire had ever done before: they deliberately hid the instruments of their power. Specifically, they institutionalized the hard power of the post-WW2 American military into a "rules-based international order" and the organizations needed to run it. These include the UN, IMF, World Bank, NATO, and numerous philanthropic NGOs like (as has been in the news recently) USAID. The reason they did this is because repeated use of hard military power is fragile and self-defeating: it engenders resentment and breeds defiance. The British learned this and used prototypical methods of institutionalization in the declining years of their empire, but their American successors perfected it. (If you don't understand how this works, I will link a post in the replies explaining how one example works - NATO) The more sophisticated rivals of the US obviously know what's up, so they try to oppose or circumvent these institutions, but obviously the institutions are backed by hard power in the end. It sounds fair enough to say "if you don't abide by the 'rules,' we will invade you." It works well enough because it it sounds more fair to say that than "if you don't do what we tell you, we will invade you." Rival governments aren't fooled, but a lot of their ordinary citizens are, and combined with media dominance and control of the reserve currency (economic dominance), it's enough to keep everyone in line. An unanticipated problem seems to have arisen: It turns out that if you hide the levers of power, your own successors may have trouble understanding them. Especially if you failed to educate them, or let various cultural forces undermine the indoctrination of your elites. With that happening, once the new generation of elites gains power, they don't recognize that the complicated weird control panel you built that doesn't seem to do anything but costs $10 billion a year to maintain is actually how you're controlling everything around the world and they take it down to save money. All because you did too good a job hiding the levers of power. Soft power isn't "soft." It's real power. It's just soft because it's hidden. I don't know how to solve this problem because I think hidden levers of power are definitely better, but you have to train a priesthood generation after generation to understand them, and that kind of thing corrupts itself too. Open power is much more honest, but no one likes it and it's hard to hold on to.

This is an insane number: almost a quarter (22%) of all packages handled by the French post come from Chinese e-commerce sites Temu and Shein. They've now overtaken Amazon. liberation.fr/economie/22-de…

Applications for our Winter '24 cohort of Startup First Steps are open. If you'd like to learn more about the course and how to apply, come along to our explainer webinar tomorrow from 3pm. hubs.ly/Q026436T0

From the Red Paper to Toilet Paper. Gordon Brown's multibank solutions to Holistic Destitution 🇬🇧bellacaledonia.org.uk/2024/0… #BetterTogether

It's Goog Enough! bit.ly/googenough #seo #search #google

Farming is increasingly a more technical industry with a lot more measurement. This had become one of the most important bits of kit on our farm. It is basically a weigh scale which automatically IDs the cow and beams the data to a website.

🟡 Leadership Election 2024 - Nominations will open at 11.59pm on Monday 29 April. 
- Nominations will close at noon on Monday 6 May. Any member wishing to declare their candidacy should email national.secretary@snp.org for a nomination form. my.snp.org/#/0/events/leader…

18. This press corps made the election about vibes and it’s going to remain an election about vibes, and if those vibes now grind against the instincts of this press corps, tough shit. You reap what you sow.

As ever, endless nonsense spoken about this. Your money has not already been taxed. Inheritance tax isn’t a tax on your wealth. It’s a tax on the windfall of the person receiving it, which they have not earned. We tax earned income too much and unearned income too little.

Will Smith sorry for smash mouth Jimmy Carr sorry for killing joke Louis C.K. sorry for the strokes Scientology sorry for bad religion CIA sorry for dead kennedys Lazy texters sorry for u2 Owl sorry for the who Blind dog sorry for wet leg UK beef industry sorry for madness

yo wtf, Microsoft's newly released AutoGen is fk'in dope.. - allows for multiple agents that align to one goal - human input allowed 🤖 I created 5 agents to help me plan a 30-day iternary in Bangkok (results below ↓)

Jack Dorsey: "the algorithms are definitively programming us... we are being programmed. These algorithms know our preferences better than us. That's only going to increase. How do we increase agency? It's by choice [of algorithms]."

Lilt drink brand to be scrapped after 50 years and rebranded bbc.in/3E6v6jj

Americans *genuinely* believe they have better food than France. They really believe it. It’s truly extraordinary.

Marks & Spencer CEO describes operating under the current government as "like running up a downwards escalator with a rucksack on your back" trib.al/lUPHove

Terrorism works

Starbucks annual sales is ~$40B across 37k+ stores. At such scale, it’s very profitable to shave a few seconds off each order. Per Bloomberg, Starbucks would make an extra ~$900m a year if each store served 5 extra patrons per day. That’s why Starbucks is spending $450m on a new bar setup called Siren System (video below), where the key ingredients — dairy, pumps, caffeine, ice — are placed in a new optimized counter. Take a Mocha Frappuccino: ▫️Under the existing system, it takes 16 steps and 87 seconds ▫️Under Siren System, it will be 14 steps and 36 seconds. There are currently 383 billion potential drink combinations at Starbucks. And orders have gotten so ridiculously elaborate, that the average wait time is 5 minutes. Why does Starbucks put up with the extra? Cause “extras” on the order are worth $1B a year. For people like me — who just want a simple black Trenta iced coffee — it’s kinda annoying. The Siren System will be in 40% of US stores by 2026. Can’t wait for the full rollout to more efficiently put caffeine down my skull.

The @AngusRobertson story is pretty interesting in a number of ways, including what it says about Scotland’s place in the world, what is says about the Scottish Government and what is says about the SNP. Here’s my short take 🧵