yoda

Contrived. By the numbers. Every beat exactly as you expect. And absolutely great fun: a real thrill ride!

I'd be 6-2 my stomach if I were a Thistle fan.

You can tell Scot Gardiner is a Rangers man with that statement. Straight from the Ibrox printing press.

Fairytale stuff for Liverpool. A team full of asthmatics managing to play in every single feasible game and winning at least two trophies.

Here's a middle ground: It's a speculative "asset" and if you can afford to lose / invest your disposable income in it then go for it. On the other hand, it's still a speculative "asset" and it's not going to be replacing fiat currency for daily transactions let alone overtaking the dollar as a global reserve currency. In general, the Kool Aid drinking crypto bros are less reasonable than the crypto sceptics. At least in my personal experience.

I've not been blown away by anything so far this year. Maybe the Big Thief album? It was pretty good. But everything else* I've listened to has just been fine but hasn't gone on repeat. I've not listened to Sharon Van Etten's new one yet but I don't think it'll top Remind Me Tomorrow. Although I'll probably need to give it a spin before the Barrowlands gig next month. SAULT's one is on my list too. New stuff from Angel Olsen, Julia Jacklin, and Stella Donnelly has my interest. Plus there's supposed to be new albums from Sigur Ros and The Orielles, so that's something to potentially look forward to. *Black Country New Road, Wet Leg, Father John Misty, Aldous Harding, Arcade Fire, and Fontaines DC.

The current inflation is not really a demand side issue (and it's got very little to do with government spending in the pandemic no matter what the fiscally conservative commentators say). Sure there are some demand factors at play but it's predominantly supply side effects from the exiting pandemic and now a war in Europe. Plus there's a liberal amount of price gouging from various companies and producers (and the evidence says this is definitely happening). Consumer spending is going to fall (and probably has already given we're in a recession) but inflation won't budge because spending is not the main driver. Interest rates won't have much impact (because they're still relatively low; because there's a significant time lag for them to have any effect; because monetary policy isn't as powerful as the central banks told everyone) but the point of the increases is just signalling. Realistically the only way to handle this inflation is for the government to take steps to limit the damage until inflation falls back to "normal" levels. That means reducing the impact of higher prices by putting money in the pockets of low income households. It's not unrealistic to assume that a lot of low-income households were furloughed. Those same households saw a reduction in savings during the pandemic and it's not likely that they were ever topped up again. The price gouging aspect won't be resolved until we move away from this current model of shareholder capitalism (and that's not going to happen).

Billy Dodds should have been awarded Manager Of The Year for getting this Inverness team into the top three.

There's been, what, 7 play-off finals? And it's 4-3 in favour of the Premiership team. And three of those four were wins over Rangers and Dundee United!

I'm planning a trip to the Netherlands in a couple of months (Groningen and Amsterdam / Haarlem, probably). What's the deal with using my Starling debit card over there? I've read conflicting things - Starling say it's fine but a few things online say that MasterCard and Visa aren't widely accepted outside of Amsterdam. I'll be taking cash with me anyway but just wanted to know if I'll be fine with my card or should get a travel card?

Imagine throwing that much money at winning the league and not having it sewn up before this point

It's a bold artistic choice.

I don't mind the Wet Leg album. It won't be in my top ten of the year. But I liked most of the singles. It's disposable fun indie rock and that's okay. I don't get the hate; it's very inoffensive stuff.

I went to see Khruangbin at the O2 Academy last night. They're just so cool. Maybe the most fun I've ever had at a gig.

On Under The Skin - Mica Levi's score is one of the best of the decade too. I went to see The Worst Person In The World over the weekend. A really wonderful film that I can't stop thinking about.

Wasn't the voting structure thing at the same time as County and the Paisley Saints blocking the 8-8-8 nonsense? What does Setanta have to do with it?

This Kilmarnock team are a less exciting version of the County team that won the Championship in 2018/19.

It's not a "snow job" just because you don't like it. There's some good points in it, particularly regarding their market power.

Annie Lowrey had an interesting article on index funds a while ago. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/the-autopilot-economy/618497/