Utopia, you are standing in it!

“The press has had little to say about most of the strange details of the election — except, that is, to ridicule all efforts to discuss them. This animus appeared soon after [Election Day], in a spate of caustic articles dismissing any critical discussion of the outcome as crazed speculation: ‘Election paranoia surfaces: Conspiracy theorists call results rigged,’ chuckled the Baltimore Sun on November 5. ‘Internet Buzz on Vote Fraud Is Dismissed,’ proclaimed the Boston Globe on November 10. … The New York Times weighed in with ‘Vote Fraud Theories, Spread by Blogs, Are Quickly Buried.'”

That passage was not addressing the oddities and suspicions of fraud in this month’s election between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.

No, the passage is from a cover story in Harper’s magazine published 15 years ago, about suspicions of fraud in the 2004 presidential election, in which George W. Bush…

Continuing our series on Scotland, Dr Martin Spychal, research fellow for the House of Commons 1832-1868 project, uses Ronald Gower’s diaries to provide some rare insights into mid-Victorian electioneering in the ‘pocket county’ of Sutherland.

If there was a History of Parliament award for ‘constituency most under the thumb of an aristocratic patron’, the Highland county of Sutherland would be a top contender. Following the Act of Union in 1707 a succession of earls, ladies, dukes and duchesses of Sutherland effectively controlled who would represent the county at Westminster.

The 1832 Reform Act, which extended Sutherland’s electorate from 20 life-rent tenants to a mere 104 voters (or around 2% of adult males) did little to challenge this influence. Most of the county’s electorate lived on land owned by the Sutherlands (the family owned 80%…

Swiss voters rejected a ballot question called the Responsible Business Initiative that would have instituted legal liabilities and allowed torts against domestic companies that are accused of international human rights abuses and climate damage. If this had passed, environmentalists and other left-wing groups would have had a field day in terms of litigating Switzerland into outright socialism by destroying Swiss companies via the legal system. Thankfully it was shot down.

Swiss firms narrowly avoid ‘Responsible Business’ liability as vote divides nation

By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi, November 29, 2020

ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss firms narrowly avoided facing greater liability for human rights and environmental abuses on Sunday after a national vote rejected the proposal due to regional differences despite it winning majority popular support.

In a divisive referendum, 50.7% of Swiss voters supported proposals by the Responsible Business Initiative (RBI) to extend liability over international human rights abuses and environmental harm caused…

Earlier this year a paper of mine was published that review more than 50 studies that employ “normalization” methodologies to assess disaster losses over time.

Pielke, R. (2020). Economic ‘normalisation’ of disaster losses 1998–2020: a literature review and assessment. Environmental Hazards, 1-19.

Here I will continue to track literature that has been published since my review was completed.

Sajjad, M., & Chan, J. C. (2020). Tropical Cyclone Impacts on Cities: A Case of Hong Kong. Frontiers in Built Environment, 6, 172.

“It is important to note that through there is a significant increase in the TC-related non-normalized damages (95% confidence), this trend becomes insignificant after normalizing the damages with the corresponding years GDP. This finding is in line with the existing literature . . .”

A new dynasty is born out of war and bloodshed. Hope is restored to the land as the remains of the Houses of York and Lancaster are united when Henry VII marries Elizabeth of York. It was not until the birth of their eldest child and heir, Prince Arthur, that the union was truly complete. Arthur was the hope for the nation, but when he tragically died shortly after marrying Catherine of Aragon, he was replaced by his younger brother who would become King Henry VIII. Arthur’s life was indeed very short, but his legacy and untimely death altered the course of history forever. Arthur tends to be a footnote in history, between Henry VII’s and Henry VIII’s reigns, but what was this young prince like? Why did his death leave such a large hole in the plans for the future of the Tudor dynasty? What was his relationship like…

John Taylor [here/here] recently reiterated his views on what caused the global financial crisis.

He contends the following.  That the Great Moderation was due to adherence to the Taylor Rule [and to ‘rules-based’ fiscal policy].  That during the early 2000s, monetary policy was set looser than that prescribed by the Taylor Rule.  This caused the build up of debt and risk-taking, which ultimately led to the bust, and the end of the Great Moderation.  Weak activity following the crisis has been due to departures from rules based monetary policy, in the form of unconventional monetary policy.   And departure from rules based fiscal policy, in the form of the fiscal stimulus enacted by Obama in 2009.  These departures have created uncertainty that has weighed against activity.  Tighter policy on both counts would have led to more buoyant activity during the recovery on account of being more certain.

It was never going to be released while those directly responsible were able to milk it for political advantage and totally avoid their direct lapses that allowed a weedy little demented Aussie to purchase and employ the weaponry to enter the lists of the horrible.

A misdirected cost saving that enabled Tarrant to accumulate an arsenal that a very high percentage of those buying weapons and ammunition would never even contemplate.

It is very hard to ascertain the suitability of anyone wanting a New Zealand arms licence, and it could still eventuate that a bad person could defeat the very stringent rules that stand between a sane stable reasonable shooter and a desire to lawfully purchase what is desired.

I have some personal knowledge and understanding of what might have gone wrong that allowed an insignificant vertically challenged Aussie Nutter to set himself up as a one person killing machine…

Today, I am very pleased to introduce Professor Eleanor Scerri, an archaeological scientist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena! Eleanor is Lise Meitner Professor in Archaeology and leader of the Pan-African Evolution research group, where she directs a suite of multidisciplinary projects and fieldwork programmes based in Africa and southwest Asia. She also has recently initiated fieldwork projects on the island of Malta, where she is from! Eleanor’s research aims to establish how and to what extent archaeological, genetic and biogeographical data are related in order to develop new theories and methods for understanding human evolution. This led to her leading the publication that introduced the new ‘African structured metapopulations model’ for the evolution of Homo sapiens, proposing that it took place across Africa in interacting subpopulations as opposed to just in East or South Africa, as traditionally assumed.

What are your…