Interesting Links for 05-11-2025

[andrewducker]

1. EU moves to prevent 'Trojan horses' from joining bloc

(tags:democracy europe russia )

2. Confused about JCVI and COVID shots

(tags:pandemic vaccination )

3. Elon Musk does not understand The Lord Of The Rings

(tags:ElonMusk lotr )

4. Tolkien, Lewis, and The Silver Chair Theory

(tags:Tolkien CSLewis history writing lotr narnia relationships )

5. What happens when you try to meet transphobes halfway

(tags:bigotry LGBT transgender )

6. Takeaways from Tuesday's US elections

(tags:USA elections GoodNews )

7. 3/4 of CEOs believe they have to have an AI strategy or they'll be replaced (which explains why there's so much investment into it)

(tags:ai business )

8. Why is land reform on the agenda in Scotland?

(tags:land scotland law )

9. Covid jabs gave under-18s heart problems - but were less risky than catching virus

(tags:pandemic safety vaccination )

Comments

[juan_gandhi]

#7 is an interesting point. CEOs are not free in their decisions: do something too smart, and the board will kick you out. It's their money.

[andrewducker]

Oh yes. But if they all feel that they have to do something with AI or lose their jobs, and that their competitors are ahead of them, then it does explain why they're all frantically trying to make text extruders central to their business plans.

[nancylebov]

There's a happy marriage in LOTR-- Tom Bombadil and Goldberry. He's plausibly higher status than she is, but he lives to serve her.

[andrewducker]

Excellent point!

[cmcmck]

And another- Farmer Maggot and Mrs Maggot.

[simont]

You say that, but I always feel as if she must be getting pretty pissed off with that constant singing.

TOM:
Hey dol! merry dol! ring a ding-dillo!
Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!

GOLDBERRY (sotto voce):
If he sings that song once more I'll hit him with a pillow.

[anef]

This made me laugh

[simont]

I'm afraid #1 is just a "Subscribe or pay £1 to read" page, without even a teaser paragraph to give any idea of what the article is about.

(Seems odd even from the FT's point of view – wouldn't I be more likely to subscribe to read if I had some idea that I was going to be interested?)

[andrewducker]

How annoying - have an archive link: https://archive.ph/W5SEI

[simont]

Thank you! That version worked fine.

[andrewducker]

Archive is very useful.

I prefer to link to the original piece, and let people go get archives themselves when necessary, because that way I'm driving traffic to the original source. But it is very frustrating sometimes!

[dewline]

Much appreciated.

And yeah, having been so annoyingly "schooled" by Hungary under Fidesz - and Slovakia as well? - these past few years, I cannot fault the EU for wanting to be more careful with future recruits into their Union. At all.

[andrewducker]

Me either. I'd want to reform things to make it easier to hold renegade countries to account.

[anna_wing]

Eowyn ends up a ruler too, not only a healer. Princess of Ithilien, a rather important bit of Gondor, bordering Mordor, the South, the new Elven settlement...and basically second in rank only to the Queen. And since her husband is Steward of the whole Kingdom, one rather assumes that she's the one in charge of Ithilien and all its concomitant responsibilities and the power that comes with them. And she's an acknowledged Hero, the co-slayer of the Witch-King of Angmar( and his flying-beast). Glory, freedom, power, a very nice husband...Tolkien gave her a rather good deal in the end.

[andrewducker]

Excellent points!

[coth]

I can't read the end of the Tolkein/Lewis post without creating an account on Tumblr. Frustrating.

[andrewducker]

Oh that's annoying! I'm sorry.

[dreamaastrid]

The US election results gives me hope.