Good morning sports fans!

Boy are we getting some fancy sports action.

The Olympics have already started, with Milan as the host city. The opening ceremony is tonight. My longtime friend, the brilliant and beautiful Anna Masera, will be attending. She's from the nearby city of Torino.

And of course there will be lots of sports action on Sunday, when by coincidence, the Knicks are playing the Celtics in Boston.

And also in case you're into American football -- the SuperBowl is on Sunday in my former home base of Silicon Valley, featuring the New England Patriots (booo) and the Seattle Seahawks (booo two). 6:30PM Eastern on Peacock and NBC. (They say "simulcast" on NBC, which means what?)

Meanwhile I'm sooo freaking tired of working on reading and replying in WordLand, but I gotta get it done. I hope to have a test version up real soon, like maybe next week. I'll write some more about that in a bit. I want people to be prepared for the new design, you won't be replying on my site, you'll be replying on yours. This is the price we pay for true distribution. But when you're reading the posts and replies, it's all seamless. No cost. And, if my site goes away, your writing remains where it was, where you wrote it, on your site. This is what's new about WordLand. We respect the web and we respect you. I'm not trying to lock you in, just trying to set an example for the rest of the tech world. Give us all a way to avoid being locked in the trunk while the tech oligarchs have stadiums and train stations named after them (and if they think that makes them immortal, please tell me who Mr or Ms Shea was? Heh.)

Now one thing some people are sure to be upset about, up front. WordLand only knows how to write to WordPress sites. It's kind of a miracle we can do that, mostly owing to the fantastic API they have created. After we get that going, of course I want to work with other blogging systems to make sure their products can be used in the same way. Working together we're going to give the good old web a new feature! But right now I'm the only person working on this, and I'm pretty old for doing this kind of work, so please be kind. Thanks.

Here's some good news that might have passed you by. UK productivity - how much the economy produces per hour worked - grew more in the past year than in the previous seven years combined. I know. It doesn't feel like that. GDP per person has barely moved since before the pandemic - up just 0.8% in six years. We've slipped level with Italy, having been 8% ahead. The vibes are terrible.

The UK has lost ground relative to their peer group. But productivity is genuinely picking up, and the reason why tells us something important about what's happening in the economy and what the Bank of England might do next.

The official productivity numbers come from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), and they show a modest 1.1% growth in the year to Q3 2025. That's good - faster than most years since pre-2007 Good Old Days - but not exciting. But the problem is LFS response rates have collapsed since the pandemic, and as a result it erroneously thinks that the 16+ employment rate has been reasonably flat over the past year.

If we use payroll data instead - to count employees receiving a payslip - the picture transforms. The employment rate is now *dropping* fast on this measure. With output rising slowly, but the number of hours worked to produce it dropping fast, productivity in fact grew by 3.1% over those four quarters. That's not a rounding difference. It's the gap between "solid" and the best non-pandemic year since before the financial crisis.

One driver of productivity growth is something the economist Joseph Schumpeter called "creative destruction." The idea is simple: unproductive firms die, their workers move to better firms and the economy gets more productive. It's how market economies are supposed to work - but the UK hasn't been getting enough of it.

Since the financial crisis, and outside of the pandemic, creative destruction has been sluggish. Think of it this way. Interest rates were basically zero for over a decade. Energy was cheap. The minimum wage was low. If you were running a not-very-productive business, you could get by - maybe not thrive, but survive. Too many firms were limping along, tying up workers and capital that could have been used more productively elsewhere. That lack of churn is one of the prime suspects behind the UK's productivity malaise.

Now the environment has changed. Interest rates are higher, energy costs more, and the minimum wage has risen sharply. And sure enough, we're seeing more firms go under. Job losses from exiting firms in 2024 were the highest since 2011. Corporate insolvencies are running well above pre-pandemic levels. Redundancies are up too.

*If* this really was creative destruction at work, it could be exactly what the UK economy needs. More churn, more reallocation, more productive firms replacing less productive ones. That's a good story. But it's a pretty big "if."

Here's the catch. Creative destruction has two parts, and so far we've mainly got the latter.

The destruction is clearly happening - firms going bust, workers being laid off. But the creation? Not so much. We're not seeing a wave of new firms starting up to absorb those workers. Hiring at expanding firms isn't (yet) big enough to pick up the slack.

The result is that unemployment has risen to its highest level in a decade outside the pandemic (5.1%). The productivity gains are real, but they're coming partly from fewer people working, not just from more output being produced.

This is where it gets tricky. Not all unemployment is the same, and what the Bank of England does next depends on what kind we've got.

If higher unemployment simply reflects spare capacity - not enough demand in the economy to keep everyone in work - then the Bank should act. Cut rates, stimulate spending, bring unemployment back down. That's textbook stuff.

If it's frictional - more people between jobs at any given moment because the economy is churning faster - that's different. It's not painless for the people involved, but it is temporary for them, and it's an inevitable side effect of the dynamism the UK economy badly needs more of. A more dynamic economy just has a higher background rate of job switching. The Bank doesn't need to step in.

The really worrying scenario is mismatch or unrealistic expectations. Maybe workers displaced from dying firms don't have the right skills for the jobs being created. A barista laid off when a coffee chain goes bust can't necessarily walk into a role at an AI startup. Or maybe wage expectations haven't adjusted - if workers are hankering after unrealistic wages to make up for past or expected inflation, the labour market will generate inflation. In that world, unemployment stays high, the Bank can't fix it by cutting rates, and we don't get the benefits of higher dynamism either. We would just have to live with it until skills catch up or expectations adjust.

Right now, we honestly don't know which of these stories is right. Probably a bit of all three. But the answer matters enormously - not just for economists, but for anyone with a mortgage or looking for a job.

The productivity pickup is genuinely good news. The UK economy badly needed it. But we're stuck in an uncomfortable middle phase: the old firms are dying and the new ones haven't fully arrived yet. Whether this turns into a story about a healthier, more dynamic economy - or a story about a downturn that the Bank must respond to - is probably the most important question in UK macro right now.

This article is republished from the Resolution Foundation's substack. It draws on Chapter 2 of the Foundation's recent report Mountain Climbing.

With a thematic issue on a vital topic - the rise child poverty, ending on a hopeful note. You will find sharp analyses on the effect of poverty on children's lives, with a spotlight on the communities that are on the front line of deprivation, with personal stories and shared solutions. Click on the image to gain access to it, or find us on Substack.

Journalism by the people, for the people.

The post Surprising growth in UK productivity first appeared on East Anglia Bylines.

Cabaret producer and stripper, Lara Clifton, interviewed Maedb Joy, a poet and former sex worker of extraordinary moral courage who has created Sexquisite, a cabaret of performers with lived experience of sex work.

Portrait of Maedb Joy by Sarah Ainslie

Maedb Joy is a woman in her twenties who is on a mission to resist the simultaneous silencing of sex workers and appropriation of their culture. At Bethnal Green Working Men's Club, as part of the campaign against the threat of closure, I attended what was potentially one of the last events, Sexquisite, a sex-worker-run cabaret. It was the best audience I had stood amongst for a long time. The crowd was mixed in age, class, bodies and genders, giddy with the pleasure of being in a sex-positive, shame-free, celebratory space.

Fifteen years ago, I was interviewed by Spitalfields Life about my work as a stripper. At that time, there were few public spaces where sex workers could speak with nuance, pride and political clarity. What strikes me most is not how much has changed but how much organising, creativity and solidarity it still takes to claim space.

So when The Gentle Author invited me to interview Maedb, founder of Sexquisite, I was chuffed and this is her story, in her own words.

"I worked in the sex industry from when I was fourteen. I was very isolated and working in secret. The only other sex worker I knew I met on Tumblr. I didn't tell my friends.

When I was sixteen, I was arrested for working underage and was on bail for two years. It was a formative experience and really awful - I was forced to come out to my family. My dad was in police meetings with me, seeing everything. It destroyed our relationship.

That same year I had a road accident where I almost lost my right foot. But it ended up being a blessing because I started writing while I was in hospital. At first, I rewrote poems I found online, pretending they were my own. I was desperate for approval. Then I started writing about what had happened to me.

My mum, who is a feminist and an ex-music-journalist, started arranging gigs for me. They were punk gigs. I'd be the only teenager on a line-up with feminist punk bands, performing angry poetry about sex work.

After the accident, I went back to college and studied performing arts because I'd left school without GCSEs. We had to create a play and there wasn't room for another main character, so I wrote a monologue about a girl in a hostel who'd been groomed. That was the first time I told a couple of hundred people about what had happened to me, but I was playing a character. That's how I started performing, to talk about experiences without naming myself.

I got into Guildhall School of Music & Drama. In the second year, we had to put on an event. The event I put on was Sexquisite. That was the beginning of 2019.

At that point, I had no sex worker friends. People told me not to say anything about my past, that this was a fresh start. I was really scared. I was making art about my life but no one knew it was my own story. I didn't even know what cabaret was. I put out a call asking for multidisciplinary artists who were sex workers - poetry, comedy, burlesque, theatre. Through Sexquisite I started meeting people like me.

Being a sex worker is very marginalising. People don't understand what it's like, having family angry at you, friends who won't speak to you, partners who call you a whore. Performance was how I could show the complexity of it. Through a monologue you can explain what it actually feels like.

People think stigma is disappearing but I don't think it is. In sex-positive scenes - such as at the Bethnal Green Working Men's Social Club - it feels easier, but outside that bubble it's still dangerous. I know sex workers who have had their children taken away. People can't rent homes. They can't explain gaps in their CVs. Even legal work like web-camming is treated as immoral earnings.

Sex worker is the only marginalised identity people believe you choose. That alone says a lot. You're never allowed to say you had a bad day at work, people tell you you shouldn't be doing it at all. Even within families it becomes a source of shame. This is why the law matters. The Online Safety Act has been coming into force this year and it's had huge consequences. Platforms are deleting adult content, closing accounts, wiping out years of work overnight. Websites face massive fines if they don't comply, so many are just cutting off adult material entirely.

It's sold as protection but it's collecting people's data, pushing sex workers off safer platforms and into more dangerous situations. It's also erased support spaces such as forums, harm-reduction networks and community archives. That's not accidental. There are also ongoing attempts to expand criminalisation through policing and crime bills and to push versions of the Nordic Model, which claims to protect workers but actually makes screening clients harder and working conditions less safe. These laws don't remove sex work, they remove safety for sex workers.

Meanwhile there's a weird contradiction happening culturally. Sex worker aesthetics are everywhere. Some people dress like strippers, use the language and take the imagery, but they don't work shifts or deal with the consequences, or support the sex worker community. At the same time, actual sex workers are being de-platformed and legislated against. That contradiction is exhausting but it's also why my work has to keep going.

I want to start a UK Sex Worker Pride, in the same way we have Trans Pride and Black Pride. It'll take maybe a team of a hundred people. I would love to do a big march and a big party. This year I'm doing a programme of events but next year it would be cool to make it bigger."

Maedb performing one of her poems at Bethnal Green Working Men's Social Club

Photographs copyright © Sarah Ainslie

Towers

I love to look at them, know what they're for, and (many decades ago) climb them. Places where I write about towers and post photos of them:

• Trunk Line, my blog about infrastructure
• Nfrastructure, my Flickr collection of infrastructure photos (most of which are about broadcasting and transmitters)
• This subset on my main Flickr collection
• All these (121 of them), posted on this very blog

Consider all of them a long love letter to the now-gone golden age of broadcasting. I want future historians and archivists to remember what broadcasting was and how it worked before digital tech absorbed and obsolesced it. Long may it wave.

Stories

I Love Girl, by Simon Rich, in The New Yorker. It's worth getting a subscription just for that one story.

Boom!

What Happens When You Put AI in the Hands of a 73-Year-Old Grandmother, by Frances Flynn Thorsen, @blogmother on her Substack blog. Hats off to the real estate conversation led by Bill Wendel of RealEstateCafe and happening here.

ICE Barbie Kristi Noem ignited a political firestorm on Friday by suggesting her Department of Homeland Security has a role in ensuring "the right people" are voting in upcoming elections. Her comments raise concerns about DHS's limited role in policing elections. — Read the rest

The post Noem's "Right people voting" comment sparks concern over DHS role in elections appeared first on Boing Boing.

A friend sent me this music video. I don't know the song it parodies, but it is sheer lunacy.

Nothing like metal Muppets to get your day going. Much more fun than Elmo.

Previously:
• Muppets from Space's 'Brick House'
• Long-time voice of Kermit calls the current Muppets a tribute band
• The Muppets' version of Bohemian Rhapsody remains one of the best covers of all time

The post Metal, Muppets, Madness appeared first on Boing Boing.

Organised in partnership with the University of East Anglia, the Science Fair will entertain, invigorate and stimulate all who attend and is the third largest science festival in the UK. Catering for all ages, from the moment you enter Norwich's Forum's atrium, you'll notice that this space has become the Explorium for the duration of the festival. The festival is spread across numerous venues throughout Norwich, including Norwich School and Norwich Theatre.

If you're fascinated by microscopic science, the Microbe Zoo based in the Forum's Gallery will be open from 10.30 - 16.00 - be prepared to queue. Once inside the 'zoo', you'll be transported into a world inhabited by bacteria, fungi, viruses and algae. A team of 'zookeepers' from Norwich Research Park will guide you through the different habitats, as you discover "what these tiny creatures do and how they keep plants, people, and the planet healthy."

The Microbe Zoo, is presented by the Centre for Microbial Interactions, based at the Norwich Research Park, will guide you through the different habitats as you discover what these tiny creatures do, and how they keep plants, people and the planet healthy. Other organisations from the research park have provided funding for this event through the SAW Trust, which was founded in 2005 at the Norwich based John Innes Centre.

Families are welcome and many of the events are children centric. From 16 - 21 February the church of St Peter Mancroft, opposite the Forum, is hosting a fascinating exhibition, Bells, Beasts and Bones. Just pick up an explorer's backpack and follow a trail around the church. Children from the ages of 4 to 12 will have a great time making discoveries, and anyone over the age of seven can take part in a bellringing taster session on 18-19 February.

Some people love marmite others absolutely hate it. Dr Duncan Gaskin, a former research scientist and currently chair of the Norfolk and Norwich Science association, will delve into the science behind our food tastes with experiments and demonstrations. This event is based on the Atom stage, right in front of the Forum and is weather dependent so it's a good idea to check with the information desk whether the display is still running.

If you ever wanted to learn more about what it's like to work at CERN, home to the Large Hadron Collider , then Tik Tok, Insta and You Tube creator, Dr Clara Nellist, particle physicist, will be on hand in the auditorium on 20 February to explain how she built her successful career. She'll highlight some of the difficulties encountered along the way as well as the satisfaction she gains from her career.

For an £8,00 ticket, from 16 - 21 February you can take part in a unique series of workshops where you have to imagine that the city is shrouded in darkness. It's down to you to restore power. You can make your own electrical circuits and even learn how to launch an electrical flying saucer. Children aged 5-8 are welcome along if accompanied by an adult. The event takes place at the Sir Isaac Newton Sixth form situated in the old fire station on Bethel Street.

Many of the events are free and the organisers do not offer concessionary tickets. Booking is essential, even for the free events as many of the most popular events fill up quickly or sell out in advance. Those without tickets can buy on the day at the Information Desk in The Explorium at The Forum.

With a thematic issue on a vital topic - the rise child poverty, ending on a hopeful note. You will find sharp analyses on the effect of poverty on children's lives, with a spotlight on the communities that are on the front line of deprivation, with personal stories and shared solutions. Click on the image to gain access to it, or find us on Substack.

Journalism by the people, for the people.

The post The tenth Norwich Science Festival is on now first appeared on East Anglia Bylines.

TL;DR: For $19.97 (reg. $600), EDU Unlimited unlocks a library of 1,000+ online courses, progress tracking, certifications, and new content added monthly.

You could keep hoarding "learn Python" threads like digital souvenirs, convincing yourself you'll circle back (spoiler: you won't). Or you could drop $19.97 and finally build the skill set you've been humble-bragging about at brunch.  — Read the rest

The post From coding to marketing, get 1,000+ courses for $19.97 appeared first on Boing Boing.

Cover for Dillinger Relic 23, one of Arthur Hlavaty's zines posted at Fanac.org. 

Andy Hooper, a prominent science fiction fan who writes a lot about fanzines and fannish history, has justed posted a good tribute/obituary for Arthur Hlavaty. Arthur was a BNF, a "big name fan," nominated many times for the Hugo Award for best fan writer, although many of us knew him as a friend of Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson and the founder of The Golden APA. 

Hooper mentions that he went through a number of Arthur's zines as he was working on the piece. As the Hugo nominations imply, they are well worth reading. Many of his zines are available at Fanac.org.  At one section of the site, they are alphabetized by editor; scroll down in the H section. From the zine pictured above: "Then someone else called up to report that he just read ILLUMINATUS last week, and he's already started hanging out with witches and smoking hash. Some people are just fast learners."

Hooper's piece mentions "Goldencon, a 1980s gathering of Illuminati fandom," does anyone have any more information? 

Celebrating St Valentine's Day is a very old tradition which may have its origins in the Roman festival of Lupercalia, a festival that marked the start of springtime. One, perhaps apocryphal, ritual was that during the celebrations, boys drew the names of girls from a box. They would be boyfriend and girlfriend for the duration of the festival. Sometimes they'd marry.

There are many other strategies for finding your soul mate: the 3-3-3 rule, where you review yourself at three different points - after three dates, after three weeks, and after three months; the 6-6-6 rule, which is probably best when seeking a male partner, as it refers to choosing someone who is six feet tall, has a six-pack abs, and earns over six figures; and the 37% rule, where one dates and rejects the first 37% of potential partners. 

I've never been much persuaded by dating formulas. What follows is simply my own way of thinking about relationships, shaped by years of experience rather than theory. It's not for everyone, but as it works for me, I thought I'd share it.

Romance and dating don't have to be conventional, but require vulnerability and commitment. The caveat is, when seeking a romantic partner, one does need to use some common sense to avoid headache and heartache.

Over the years, friends have marveled at how successfully I have navigated the adventures of dating. My approach is simple: is the person of good character and does he or she meet my "rules of engagement"?

We all have different ideas about what we want in a relationship. So, before I explain further, I ask that you seek pen and paper, and write out what you are looking for in a relationship. That is, what are the first 12 attributes that come to mind and the 12 things that you will bring to a relationship?

Having made your lists, set the paper aside. Now read my rules of engagement. Remember, this exercise is about clarity, not a critique.

Without this, you are wasting your time. Pining away for unrequited romance is a counterproductive state of mind and, I think, a very unattractive trait.

The individual must be available. Simple as this may read, I cannot count just how many friends I have known over the years that had romances with someone who is committed to someone else.  Exhibit self-worth - if they are genuinely attracted to you, let them first take the steps to make themselves single.

To me, it is also important that the individual is emotionally available - not longing for a previous failed relationship or grieving over the death of a romantic partner. Absolutely avoid falling into the role of "emotionally supportive caregiver". You are looking for a romantic relationship, not the role of therapist.

The individual should be on the spot. It can be very challenging to date someone who is distant. I know internet dating can bring together persons far and abroad, and happiness can transpire. But ask yourself this, "If they are so wonderful, why are they choosing to look at distant romantic possibilities?"

Early romance has enough awkward communication patches without adding in the hurdle of long-distance.

The individual must be self-supporting. This means not living off their parents, their great aunt, their ex, or a trust fund.

I would want the person to be on a spiritual path. Don't let this throw you. It doesn't mean a structured religious person, but someone who is humble, and honest enough to acknowledge that there is something greater in the cosmos than themselves. The key word here is humble. Someone who hugs a tree, or looks beyond themselves, is an excellent example.

Read my rules of engagement one through six, and apply them to yourself; I believe it is only fair that you uphold the same standards.

Now, prioritise each of the two lists you wrote out at the beginning of this article. This allows you to see the most important traits you desire in someone, and what you are offering. Know your goals, know yourself.

And so, the early stage of courtship begins. Remember that ultimately, you can only be who you are, and they in turn, will be who they are. If you find romantic love, research suggests such a pairing with commitment delivers optimal conditions for rearing children.

For those of you that have given up on dating or are discouraged, don't be - unless you prefer to remain footloose and fancy free. Make your own happiness. There is nothing more attractive to others than someone who is independent and content with their life.

Allow the cosmos to surprise you. Romance and love may come when you least expect it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

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The post St Valentine's Day and the art of choosing love first appeared on East Anglia Bylines.

St Valentine

The moment I met you
I immediately knew,
I met my soulmate,
You are sent by Fate…

©Dessy Tsvetkova
picture Nick Victor

This is an excellent "dipping" book. There are nearly 200 articles ranging from short anecdotes, multi-page synopses of complex topics, and quirky little asides. Rather than a linear history of computing, each short chapter ends with a multiple-choice "GOTO".

From there, you take a meandering wander throughout retro-computing lore.

Some paths lead to dead-ends (a delightful little Game-Over experience) while others will send you round in loops (much like any text adventure). I've no idea if I actually read everything - although I did stumble onto some Easter Eggs!

Some of the knowledge in here is of the geeky arcane trivia which is of no use to man nor beast - yet strangely compelling to anyone who remembers POKE, CHAIN, and all the other esoteric commands. Some of the stories you'll undoubtedly heard before. Others are deliciously obscure.

Sadly, the book is caught up in the continuing Unbound drama so is rather hard to buy. There are signed copies available from The Centre for Computing History.

I'm grateful to the kind friend who lent me their copy.

1993: Lea Valley Walk follows the Limehouse Cut to the Thames because the last mile is inaccessible
2000s: Half-mile dead-end riverfront promenade opens opposite Bow Locks
2009: Plans for linear Leaside park and riverside path (the 'Fatwalk')
2012: Cody Dock opens, connecting dead end to industrial estate
2016: Fatwalk renamed the Leaway (but remains unbuilt)
2016: Ramp opens linking Twelvetrees Bridge to Lea towpath
2019: Cycle ramp opens beside A13 underpass
2021: Funding for new Lochnagar Bridge (but no subsequent action)