PicoBlog

Who has read Adam Smith’s Chapter 7, Book IV in The Wealth of Nations? It is an unusual chapter, located towards the end of book (Book IV) that deals with the systems of political economy, more exactly with mercantilism (and physiocracy briefly at the end), and discusses at great length mercantilist trade policies of European empires from Portugal to England. It is no surprise that Adam Smith has very few nice words for imperial policies, including ban on production of goods that may compete with metropoles’ production (like the famous case of steel in North America), prohibition of direct exports to other markets than metropole’s, and obligation to carry trade using metropoles’ ships (the Navigation Act).

Driving during the eclipse is like driving in Yellowstone. The roads are constructed safe, the drivers on those roads won’t drive safe. “Dad, bison thirty feet off the road, stop now!” Car pulls left and stops half blocking two lanes. “Dad, the moon is now completely blocking the sun!” Cars stop in traffic. The only true and dangerous unknown is how will the Tesla around you in semi- or full-autonomous mode react?

I was recently watching Game 5 of the 1999 Western Conference Final between the Colorado Avalanche and the Dallas Stars. As a teenager I framed the experience by the sum of its hits and scrums because I was a dumb bloodthirsty young boy who grew up on too much Three Stooges. Now I find myself watching the interplay of systems, routes, and positioning with a more ‘civilized’ eye. I feel like this phenomenon is part of what people are dealing with when we talk about Esa Lindell.

I absolutely love Eurotunnel – or LeShuttle as it’s now known – and regularly travel on it when I visit France with my family. It’s super-convenient for where we live and if you time it right is extremely fast – the crossing time is only 35 minutes. However, as anyone who lives in the UK knows, if you don’t time it right and attempt to travel when everyone else wants to, like the first day of school holidays, or any day in summer, it can be a nightmare, with queues so long they make the news.

While we all know that Spotify kinda sucks (especially for musician trying to make a living), it does have some bells and whistles that make it sort of fun for users. Spotify Wrapped, for instance, is a nice way to tell which bands or artists you’ve been obsessing over for the past year. And there’s no way to cheat it to make yourself look cooler than you are, so you have to own your love for whatever artists tops that list (which could also be a point of pride, I guess)

Is Gladiator a Stoic movie? The obvious case against it being a Stoic film is that its protagonist isn’t Stoic. It’s a revenge film.  Charged with restoring the republic, Maximus’s family is murdered and he’s left for dead, by the shunned Son of Marcus Aurelius, Commodus. Maximus’s life refocuses on killing Commodus, with dreams of reuniting with his family in the afterlife. The saga plays out in bloody gladiatorial arenas.

Competition always proves fun, especially between the character leads in a TV show. Think Spock vs Kirk in Star Trek, Flo vs Alice in Alice or the Fonze vs everyone in Happy Days. It’s simply pure fun for audiences to root for their beloved TV show favorite. For the actors toiling away on the Hollywood sound stages, though, it can be a trying task indeed. When those fan mail bags come in more bulging for one than the other lead actor, it can’t be fun for one given the lighter load.

“I am SHOOK right now.” “We can’t do, use, or buy anything!” “Just threw away like half my makeup.” “[This is] scaring the shit out of me right now.” “I can’t believe these [beauty] companies are trying to slowly kill us.” These are just several of the terrified responses to the HBO documentary series “Not So Pretty,” now going viral on social media platforms, and especially on TikTok. Many women now worry their compact pressed powder will give them cancer, that manufacturers don’t safety-test a single ingredient, and so on.

Last week, New York Magazine’s The Cut published an all-time banger of a hate read — which is saying something, considering the run they’ve been on recently (from the “$50k in a shoebox” piece to the “tried to leave my husband and then realized I was just having a breakdown” piece). Grazie Sophia Christie’s floridly written and smugly framed essay, “The Case for Marrying an Older Man,” argues, with all the wisdom and certainty earned through 27 years on earth and 4 years of marriage, that leveraging youth and beauty to marry an older man is a cheat code for women, who are otherwise condemned to years of miserable labor alongside insufficient same-age partners.