If you had visited the Dogger Bank in the north sea in 1830, you could have pulled up a tonne of fresh halibut in a day. If you look at the combined catch of that fish for the whole of 2022, it amounts to a miserable 2 tonnes per year. Why is that? Because all the halibut, and just about every other living thing have been eliminated by decades of brutal, efficient and utterly unsustainable trawling, and other crazed fishing methods, which have reduced it to the marine equivalent of the Sahara desert.

Yet Charles Clover, writing in the Guardian,[1] has some good news. By an accident of Brexit, the British Government has been forced to protect 12000 km² of the bank. There is a chance wildlife may recover. If the success of the Lyme Bay project is anything to go by, there will be an enormous diversification of marine life. Perhaps even more fish to catch-an outcome beyond the cognitive horizons of many free market theorists.

Because for many decades western populations have been dragged to worship at the altar of unfettered free markets. To exalt the kind of stripe shirted, hypermasculine free wheeling go getters of the sort personified in Wall Street or The Wolf of Wall Street. To whom the highest, shortest term profit is the greatest good of the greatest number. And that anyone who asks rather plaintively about the possible human, social or environmental costs is regarded at once as a”nut job” or a communist (and is often implied to be of a certain suspect sexuality to boot).

Well now the evidence is in. Regulation saves markets from themselves. More fish. More jobs. A cleaner world. No it isn’t communism, it’s more like putting brakes on a car-the benefits are clear to all but the most juvenile type of mind. The battle over marine protection is far from won. There will be fleets of hostile fishing vessels straining to get into the Dogger Bank from now on, longing to reduce it back to nothing in weeks. But a start has been made. And it points the way to bigger things to come.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/13/britain-rewilding-north-sea-dogger-bank-biodiversity

#fisheries #dogger bank #free markets #sustainability north sea #lyme bay #sussex kelp forest

Charles works for the blue marine foundation whose home site is

Homepage

Imagine that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II suddenly shows up at your home, right now. (can you say for sure it won’t happen?) How are you going to entertain her? Because surely someone like that deserves a drink, don’t they? Be warned: the Queen doesn’t travel lightly. There’s her personal entourage-ladies in waiting, servants, equerries, silver sticks, you name ’em. All her security-policemen, plainclothes, soldiers, helicopters overhead, the whole kit and caboodle. To say nothing of the press pack and photographers. That’s a lot of thirsty people. You gotta work fast. And you might run out of ingredients!

Stop worrying, for help is at hand. The two-hit quickie cocktail. So fast to prepare, so economical on ingredients, so easy to understand that even readers of the Sun can make these ones. A group of drinks which, as it serendipitously turns out, contains some of the very finest classics to hit a bar top from San Francisco to Singapore. Our researchers have come up with three fantastic sites for you today. So many recipes in fact, that all we can do is pick out some of the highlights. So here goes , and the links are below. (thanks researchers, you can go now-we’ll see you over at The Porter in ten minutes.) For the record two ingredients means the main ones-we don’t count simple additions like ice, waters or decorations, without which they’re not cocktails but just booze.

Gin and Tonic: So obvious, so cool, so simple. Why didn’t we think of at earlier?

Martini: sophisticated blend of gin and a dash of dry vermouth. What is your pleasure, Mr Bond?

Manhattan: More sophisticated adult fun-just a vermouth variation on the above, really.

Pink Gin: For nautical types: no doubt: the Royal Yacht club could whip one of these up quicker than it takes to rent a new buoy.

Gibson: From that immortal moment on the train in North By North-West where Cary Grant and Eve Marie Saint are on that train and he slips one in before dinner

Rusty Nail: Drambuie and scotch, the kind of strong one Boris Johnson resorts to after a meeting with Nicola Sturgeon. Not during lockdown of course

And now here come lots more. Our three fantastic sites for you to click are Taste of Home, tps://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/2-ingredient-cocktails/ liquour.com ttps://www.liquor.com/easy-two-ingredient-cocktails-4802618 and foodfor net More power to their excellent researchers, mixologists and writers, we say !

#coctails #friday #gin #vodka #whisky

Ask any overseas reader “what is the Best of British?” and they usually cite the BBC and its ecological superstar Sir David Attenborough. But the BBC contains another hidden gem. One that is free, easy to access, and which you may not have heard of. Ladies and Gentlemen, allow us to present Melvyn Bragg and In Our Time. [1]

For this is a golden trove of learning on every conceivable subject and every intelligent man or woman who has ever lived(except for the ones they haven’t covered yet) Aeschylus, the Artheshastra, Booth, the Bacchae……Shakespeare, Schopenhauer……we could go on. All presented in the same easily-assimilable 48 minute format where Melvyn gets in three of the top academics in any chosen field and lets them talk. But not at length! A recurring highlight is when he reigns in some rambling academic and reminds them that they’re there to talk about that day’s topic, not some obscure side branch from one hundred years before. And every show since 1998 has been collected and archived so you can dip in to as many or as few as you wish.

This is learning as it should be. Before they came along and ruined it for you with endless exams, assessments, targets and crushing assignments. A world of eclectic discovery and thought-and wonder. We have never been sure if those who didn’t go to a University at 18 ever missed much, at least not with the state of contemporary education. But now, thanks to Melvyn, anyone can get what is most worthwhile from that experience, while avoiding all the soul-destroying torments that have been layered on top. Now everyone can go to University.And this time they can enjoy it.

[1]https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qykl?page=3

#bbc #melvyn bragg #learning #science #art #philosophy

Shortly after the 2016 Brexit Referendum, we were accosted in our local pub by an acquaintance who testily demanded “why are you drinking that [foreign beer] Kronenbourg now we’ve had Brexit? You should be drinking [British] Fullers!” A trivial question? Mistaken? We don’t think so. Because we think it goes to the very heart of what it means to be a Conservative, and to the present troubles of our Prime Minister.

One honourable tradition in Conservatism is that the greatest good lies in belonging, usually to a nation and its particular culture. Symbols are indeed important. In England these include the Monarchy, Cricket, village greens-and what the English call Real Ale, such as Fullers. All are admirable, and all contribute to that sense of continuity which is such a vital national cement. [Overseas readers will be able to think of their own immediately] You tamper with these things at your peril, as Edmund Burke so rightly knew.

The other, equally honourable, is free markets. Low taxes and individual freedom are its nirvana. So trading goods and services freely across the widest area is the surest way to achieve general advance and prosperity. It’s been pretty well proved to work in practice. The alternatives have been truly cruel and inefficient. But of course it tends to wash away all that is local and particular, replacing them with a crude meritocracy of world brands. Like Kronenbourg. Microsoft. And McDonalds.

Which brings us back to that night in the pub. Should I be free to choose Kronenbourg? Or will its existence threaten the livelihood and traditions of thousands of British workers? Will choosing Fullers make me more British, or just more English? And anyway, it’s now owned by a Japanese company. As for Kronenbourg, some of it is brewed in the UK- but where do all those hops and barley come from? You could Google the answer on your I-phone, but where was that made-and who wrote the programmes that run it? Where? If we start restricting the movement of goods and people for the National Good, have we not opened the door to other interventions like raising taxes to the same end?

Boris Johnson’s real sorrows stem from the fact that he is presiding over a party and a country which has not truly answered these two questions. Nor have the Right and Conservatives in general. Until they do, the outcome will be incoherence and confusion on all sides, and an open goal to the Left. If they are clever enough to see it.

#boris johnson #free markets #conservatism #hayek # margaret thatcher #edmund burke #tradition #tax cuts #keir starmer #labour party #conservative party

Thanks to all readers and contributors home and abroad, who are now becoming too numerous to mention by name. Starting from today the Editorial Board will be entering into an intense period of work which will carry us far from the old computer. We’ll be passing briefly through Washington*, engaged in extensive horticulture and participating in retail business at the highest level. Meanwhile all our staff-transport, HR, finance, security, IT, engineering, catering, cleaning and property services, and all the others whose names and roles we have forgotten, but you see them in the lifts and that, have been granted the weekend off to celebrate Her Majesty’s Jubilee in the proper feudal spirit. Which means no Cocktail Night, no Round-Up and no other posts and blogs and links which you have all come to love so much

So whatever you are doing and wheresoever you may be enjoy a happy weekend and we look forward to being back next week

THE EDITORS

*and many other places on the A24 such as Horsham and Dorking

Around 1999 two psychologists called David Dunning and Justin Kruger did some pretty solid empirical studies. They found that people in the early stages of learning things quickly acquired a massive over-confidence. They rapidly overestimated their performance, hopelessly exaggerated their knowledge and proceeded to all all kinds of blunders in both fact and reason. Only by long dedication to a discipline did the provisional nature of their learning become apparent, and the humility to distinguish between conjecture and fact.

All pretty human, you might say. We’ve known about it for centuries. “if you want to know the answer to anything, ask a teenager” as the wise adage goes. You have to be really immature to possess cocksure certainty, and that over a wide range of subjects. So why does the Dunning Kruger effect[1] matter? Firstly because it is the beginning of good empirical evidence for what was previously supposition. And secondly because of journalists.

Journalists? The trouble is that journalists, and the proprietors they obey, are responsible for about 90% of the information we use, particularly in rather important areas like health and public affairs. In a typical day, a working journalist may have to master two or three new things, and then try to explain them to the public. And at the same time accede in all respects to the political and personal belief systems of the editors and newspaper owners who pay their salaries. The potential damage which this can afford was nowhere more clearly shown than in the MMR controversy of the 2000s when large sections of the UK press completely misunderstood and misrepresented scientific and medical findings to the immense detriment of all,

We leave the details to Dr Ben Goldacre who in his masterful Bad Science [1] describes the whole sorry affair, from his point of view in the epicentre. He is surprisingly fair, seeing poor Dr Wakefield more as victim and fall guy as much as anything else. His real ire is reserved for journalists who decided that they knew more about science than the scientists, journalists who believed they (or their owners) were the keepers of the flame of public morality. The Dunning Kruger effect indeed. MMR has passed now. But the same people and papers have gone on to mislead on many weightier matters. They have a right to speak of course; but we have a duty to make sure they speak responsibly from now on. The margin for error has almost disappeared.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

[2] Ben Goldacre Bad Science Harper Collins 2008 see especially chapter 15

#mmr #dr andrew wakefield #media ownership #press bias

We break our Tuesday silence to offer our readers genuine hope. One of the best ways to finally deal with global warming would be to finally develop nuclear fusion. That crashing-together of protons which could unleash unlimited cheap, clean energy. So for all you parents and grandparents, today is a simple showcase from Bostam Videmsjek of CNN.[1] It’s not just because it sums up the latest progress rather well. There’s also an easy to read guide as to what nuclear fusion is, and how it differs from the rather dangerous fission reactors which we have been using up until now. If it works, your kids will have a great future.

Once again it illustrates a deeper point. Real hope, real progress comes when educated intelligent people solve technical problems. You can wave all the flags and sing all the songs you like. But only Science is the Real Deal.

we thank Mr Gary Herbert of Buckinghamshire for this story

https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2022/05/world/iter-nuclear-fusion-climate-intl-cnnphotos/

#fusion #fission #global warming #energy #climate change

Foreign readers may be less aware, but this weekend, the UK will be devoting a great deal of time and energy to celebrating a Platinum Jubilee-a series of ceremonies designed to commemorate 70 years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Amid the lavish pomp and parties, there will be calls for the abolition of this institution, and its replacement with a Republic. Are these calls justified?

On the face of it, the case for a Republic is a slam dunk. You don’t get hereditary airline pilots, doctors, garage hands, Prime Ministers, Chief Executives or any other job. So why have a hereditary head of state? The unique selling point of Capitalism was its meritocratic promise-anyone could rise to the very top. It’s hard to reconcile that with hereditary monarchy.

At this point our old friend Dave Watford from the Dog and Duck always pops up to say “The Monarchy is what makes us what we are, dunnit ?” But that is only like football teams, and their supporters using the colours of their shirts to say who they are, and not. A simple colour can say nothing about the better governance of the state, or what constitutes the good life.

But think more carefully about Dave, for he has a right to be heard. Dave is English. And, as most English people see it, England suffers from two deep and abiding traumas. The first is loss of status. Within living memory (certainly that of Queen Elizabeth) England was the epicentre of a world Empire of unparalleled size and power. Now it struggles to keep the allegiance of even its most local possessions such as Scotland. The second is a terror of immigration, which has been far larger than in the other countries of the union. Clever people may seek to explain and dismiss both. But to live among the English is to know these feelings are primal, and cannot be lightly dismissed.

To kind souls who seek to lower the temperature and reassure the nervous and the elderly, the Monarchy is a godsend. Particularly in the hands of an exemplary figure such as Elizabeth II, it states, loudly and clearly “we are what our parents were, and we will be always, whatever changes in the world.” A beautiful opportunity for rancorous and divisive quarrels has been removed at once, leaving space for more urgent issues. And the human need for huge common rituals and hierarchies is satisfied. Actually,it is a little bit like football, isn’t it?

Looking abroad, we can see several successful and stable constitutional monarchies even in advanced European countries such as the Netherlands-to say nothing of Japan. As for republics-well even the United States is now locked in a bitter constitutional and cultural impasse where a brutal and selfish minority is holding the rest almost literally at gunpoint. No advert there.

We at LSS think that the British Monarchy may soon be less relevant in Canada and Australia, and even possibly parts of the UK. But in England, its home turf and fons et origio, its role as stabiliser is irreplaceable. And so we support the continued rule of Elizabeth II and her heirs. There is no practicable alternative.

#queen elizabeth #uk monarchy #platinum jubilee #republic #captitalism #meritocracy hereditary #british empire #immigration

To let you read both sides further here are links to a couple of websites.one staunchly monarchist, the other Republican.

http://www.monarchist.org.uk/

https://www.republic.org.uk/

intriguing issues from the last week

What makes human brains special? Obviously they are; or your cat would be reading this as well as you. We like the way Emmanuel Stamatakis and his team have borrowed from information science to try to answer this intriguing question. In the Conversation-where else?

https://theconversation.com/what-is-it-about-the-human-brain-that-makes-us-smarter-than-other-animals-new-research-gives-intriguing-answer-183848?utm_me

American Guns Talking of making neural connections-what would it take to make Ted Cruz and his little friends see the connection between tighter gun controls and less massacres? Nature Briefings showcases heartfelt pleas from two of America’s finest publications-but we bet they fall on deaf ears:

Leading journal Science and magazine Scientific American have simultaneously published impassioned editorials calling for changes to gun laws in the United States. “The science is abundantly clear,” write the editors of Scientific American. “More guns do not stop crime. Guns kill more children each year than auto accidents. More children die by gunfire in a year than on-duty police officers and active military members. Guns are a public health crisis, just like COVID, and in this, we are failing our children, over and over again.” “Scientists should not sit on the sidelines and watch others fight this out,” argues Science editor-in-chief H. Holder Thorp. “If children do not feel safe, they cannot learn. And a country that cannot learn cannot thrive. A nation of children threatened by gun violence does not have a future.”Science | 5 min read & Scientific American | 6 min read

DNA Archaeology One of the most thrilling advances of the last few decades has been molecular archaeology. The way the study of proteins and nucleic acids have given us new insights which would would have been impossible from just bones and bits of pottery. One recent example is extracting DNA from the famous Pompeii eruption in 79 AD. Here’s the BBC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-61557424

Advance Australia fair Recent developments in Australia are a rare win for rational science and a rare defeat for the Murdoch Media, as Michael Mann and Malcolm Turnbull explain for the Guardian. But its got to happen in a lot of other places, and soon, if there is to be any chance of stopping climate change.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/28/how-australias-electoral-system-allowed-voters-to-finally-impose-a-ceasefire-in-the-climate-wars

We’ll leave you with A book tip: Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. Published in 2009, its’ still a great and readable way of getting a toolkit to help you sift bad ideas from good ones.

#climate science #rupert murdoch #gun control #massacres #human evolution #dna #neurology

Even as we write these words, UK time, a warm Friday night is already melding into evening. And many of you will already be mixing your favourite cocktail. But before you lose yourself in all that gin, vodka or Pimms, spare a thought for a humble but vital factor which rounds off so many drinks deliciously. The mixer. And when it comes to mixers, we at LSS swear by Monin[1] the way makers of genetically engineered replicants swear by the Tyrell Corporation*

Even if you have never drunk a cocktail, you will see their range of mixers and flavourers in any good coffee shop. Here, we would never be without a bottle their cassis, sugar syrup, and grenadine. But that is just the tip of the cocktail iceberg. Get this state of the art information from our correspondent who spent hours meticulously researching Monin Key Facts:

• 5 production facilities worldwide : France, USA, Malaysia and China.
• 8 State-of-the-Art MONIN studios (innovation and formation centers) : Bourges, Paris, Dubai, Sao Paulo, Clearwater, Dallas, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur and 123 Local Studio Workshops
• 6 ranges and 19 formats
• 150 flavours spread across 150 countries
• 690 employees worldwide, including 300 in France

Each day, 8 millions drinks are made with MONIN products around the world !

So go on, what are you waiting for? Why not make it 8000 001?

[1]https://www.monin.com/uk/

*it was in Blade Runner