As permanent draught takes hold of the American Midwest, it will affect agricultural output there, and the Ukraine war will also affect food production. So, Canada might produce more food, if temperatures rise? Isn’t it natural to assume that what is now grown farther south, in a future of elevated temperatures, might grow well in the north?

Let me tell you a thing that is not often mentioned, which I think contributed to the rise of the American right we see today. In the us, unlike in Europe where freedom was economically tied to the rise of lower classes in their struggle against landowners and aristocracy, the notion of freedom implied a freedom from the norms of the majority. This is the old “frontier myth”. Then the prairie was settled, but that myth was entrenched. Then the internet came and opened up an unlimited and unregulated space for these cults and alternative views, and since the technological dynamics constantly drives everyone away from pain and towards pleasure, that is confirmation of existing beliefs, the “echo chambers” mushroomed. Because of historical baggage, the US was predisposed towards eccentricity, in a way. On top of this comes the fact that Congress has always had a very very low approval rating. It is epitomized by the representatives who read the phone book out loud, or filibuster, from the podium in order to sabotage the passing of legislation. At salaries paid by the taxpayer!! Then there is the annual shutdown ritual over the raising of the debt ceiling, which could have been avoided by switching from absolute numbers to a percentage of GDP. But it is a ritual, like the knocking on the door of the British parliament. So they keep it. But it adds an impression that they do nothing, that everything is jammed and that no representatives from different parties ever talk to each other over coffee, and that “hate” remains even after the cameras are off.

What was she doing there?

Well, the problem is that on these old cylinders there is quite a lot of static noise, and then in addition sometimes a sort or repeating thump every time the cylinder rotates. When you then remove the static and thump, you take some of the fullness of the original voice. I do not doubt that those with better equipment than myself would get a better outcome. But it is not easy. They have a recording of both Queen Victoria and Lord Tennyson. And it is very hard to extract something you can be sure is genuine. I hope these Ai services would set up some template for this. It should actually be quite easy, as the noise profiles on all of these are almost identical, and that subtraction process would be much better. It could be very interesting to hear the oldest voices on wax cylinder. I did this because enjoyed the song, probably because I also used to enjoy drinking :) Some people like other things, that’s ok…:)

That you don’t like the song, I cannot comment on. That is an individual taste. But the original recording was a wax recording, remember that. To get from a wax recording to this is not bad. But I do not know who you are, and you may have much superior skills and resources. I just wanted to mention this wax recording point.

These are actual letters sent to and from Hoover, not fiction. And the subject is politics in 1963. James Baldwin and the others.

That people start open newssites is good, but if it is not commercially run, the issue of the backer’s influence will always be there. I still hope they make it work, but that they make clear these things.