We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Rumours of Mr Jobs’ death were greatly exaggerated I guess the Bloomberg editor who transmitted this story in error has suffered the equivalent of being thrown into a pool of sharks, as happened to a baddie who got on the wrong side of Largo in Thunderball. There has always been a Spectre-like feel about the Bloomberg news operation, not to mention a cultish aspect, even. In their London office, there are lots of fish-tanks dotted about, presumably designed to make the staff feel calmer, but you never know what sort of beasties might lurk.
There is this wonderful story – I am not sure if it is totally accurate, though – about how an employee who fell out with a notorious Bloomberg editor, called Matt Winkler, managed to transmit headlines on the service that repeated for hours, with the words: “Winkler is a Wanker – Official”.
I just love the news business.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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JP,
Quite how obsessed are you with the adventures of James Bond? The commentariat are curious.
Do you for instance introduce yourself as, “Pearce, Jonathan Pearce” shortly before ordering a dry martini?
Do you have a top mate in the CIA called Felix?
Do you dream of shooting bad guys with spearguns and then saying, “He got the point” before snogging Ursula Andress on a Carribean beach?
I know I do.
One of the key flaws in the whole Bond movieology is when villians taunt him that he’s only doing what he does for a meagre pension. Yeah, right. If someone said to me, “Nick, the government want you to drive Aston-Martins in exotic places, drink the finest wines and have sex with ultra-fit birds*” I’d ponder it for about a nanosecond.
*Not Honour Blackman. Sickboy (Trainspotting) was right about that: “Pussy Galore – what a fucking misnomer”.
I could tell you, but I would have to kill you.
Every Bloomberg office is full of fish tanks. I would like to think this indicates Troy McClure like proclivities on the part of the mayor of New York City, but I fear it probably doesn’t.
I visited the Bloomberg office in London once as part of some sort of open architecture event. Nice old building on the outside, fancy modern office on the inside. Fish tanks, and lots of high tech signage and displays all over the place. I rather liked it.
NickM: I think you might enjoy The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross, and his other Laundry books too.
OT, thought I’d share a new article on the recent experiment by the team working on the Bussard Fusion Reactor(Link)