In the news

Reginald Molehusband.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sHH-9YA4HE

http://theradavist.com/2018/03/thoughts-on-boycotting-cycling-brands/

I've always felt a bit conflicted about the radavist given its bad faith consumerism (consumption is good, as long as things are made or at least designed by "cool people", but let's all pretend we care more about the "experience"); this has really done it for me. The whole defense is so pathetic and tired (and false, as at least one Vista company, Savage Arms, makes military-style rifles), it really shows John Watson for the person he is.

Well surely Berlin's dominance in Germany only began when Germany became Germany. Could the decentralisation of Germany be argued to have earlier roots, in precisely the fact that Germany is so young? As a collection of principalities and city states there was no cause to be centralised. Is the period of dominance from Berlin more of an aberration than the trend of federalism?

I'm not sure whether we're talking about Germany being decentralised or Germany being just slightly less centralised than Britain and France (which are both excessively centralised). :)

I would think that Berlin's dominance certainly predated 1871--Prussia's power at the time had already surpassed that of Austria-Hungary--it had swallowed every major German power except for Bavaria and Saxony. Here's a map of Germany in 1871:

The capital of all that blue stuff was Berlin. Apart from Leipzig, München, and Hamburg, there were no other really large cities in Germany. You obviously still had some of the smaller states like Braunschweig, but if you'd gone there you would have found a few tiny towns, most still in their medieval bounds, full of ancient buildings, and otherwise only small villages--and despite their statehood within Germany certainly not much power. Of course, cities only really exploded with the coming of the railways, and those were slightly slower to come to Germany than to Britain, and obviously, like all major cities, e.g. London, New York City, or Paris, Berlin experienced immense growth in the early 20th century, but other German cities much less so (although the imbalance was a little more muted than in Britain).

I think to discuss this properly one would need proper stats on economic performance and populations and so on. The above is a totally unscientific impression. :)

I think what's happening at the moment is the same as what has been happening to London (and which has been a little more muted since the 24th June 2016) and 'world cities' all over the globe, i.e. people leaving smaller places and flocking to larger places, in our supposed 'new industrial revolution' that seems to be having as little impact on productivity as the first 'industrial revolution' had. People have much easier access to information about places like London and want to live here, and Berlin's population has, of course, been growing more and faster than that of any other place in Germany, as far as I know. So, I think Berlin is only going to become more dominant than it already is. In recent years, it certainly has seemed to me as if federal states are receding in importance, although their role as mandated by the current configuration of Germany obviously remains strong, and I'd rather say that it has been the federalism of the post-war years that seems to have been the aberration, if indeed there has been one. However, in the current depressing political climate, it feels as if many post-war things may have been aberrations--I don't really know. I also haven't lived in Germany for over 20 years, so certainly don't have a finger on the pulse. I'm sure other people have completely different impressions.

Another Russian assassination on UK soil?

I am definitely in Giro's target demographic; happy to boycott it until they sort this shit out.

John Watson could have been a political copywriter in another life.

That really is some excellent work.

What can Giro do about it?

Make their helmets bullet proof

1) feedback to the holding company that their sponsorship of the NRA is having a negative impact on their brand.
2) look at MBO options.

GCHQ be like...

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Coincidentally I've got an informant in Salisbury Hospital since about 0930 today and will be staying in overnight as a minimum. I'm not entirely sure what info she can glean as she is in the AMU with a(nother) suspected heart attack and our spy friend is in ICU or similar.

Mrs Michael Gove's ego and self-delusion is a thing to behold.

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^^^^ it is faintly confusing that people are calling him a Russian spy when in fact he is a British spy who is Russian.

This is very belated, but I don't think anyone mentioned it at the time. In the wake of the last school shooting, the state governor was quoted saying;

We need to have an honest conversation as to what should and should not be allowed in the United States as it relates to the things being put in the hands of our young people

Which sounds like a surprisingly forward thinking viewpoint (in the states) on gun control. Except he was talking about video games. Wut???

I've seen conflicting reports - one that he was a spy for Britain, another that he was a spy for the US who settled in Britain. I think the spies he was swapped for were in the States.

Spy for Britain when the guy who wrote the Trump dossier ran British spy network

"from 2004 to 2009 Christopher Steele headed M.I.6’s Russia Station, the London deskman directing Her Majesty’s covert penetration of Putin’s resurgent motherland."

"Skripal was sentenced to 13 years in jail for spying for Britain in Russia in August 2006 after being convicted of “high treason in the form of espionage”.

Oh nice

"Mr Skripal, whose wife, son and older brother have all died in the past two years, was granted refuge in the UK following a "spy swap" in 2010."

His son died whilst holidaying in Russia a couple of years ago, but I can't seem to find anymore info on it!

His wife died of illness in 2012, I believe.

Boris tries to play tough and comically/pathetically fluffs it

https://twitter.com/SamCoatesTimes/status/971017091590643712

It was mentioned in The Guardian, suggests his son died not so long ago in St Petersburg, but no more detail.

Added: this article;
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/06/uk-counter-terror-police-investigate-russian-spy-mystery-sergei-skripal

Pre-Trump, pre-Brexit we were on the same side in espionage terms. Who the fuck knows now.

Reality is stranger than fiction, so satire is basically real life now right?

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Newsflash - NME apparently still existed (until today):

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/mar/07/nme-ceases-print-edition-weekly-music-magazine

^ ha

this is great news! now i won't have to avoid eye contact with the guy that hands them out outside the building.