I won’t be updating my solar and coal news from China this month. The Chinese National Statistics Bureau does not issue monthly series for January and February, but merges them into a single double month. I assume this is down to the Chinese New Year, the year’s most important public holiday, usually lasting five days. It is calculated like Easter on a lunar calendar plus mumbo-jumbo. Astarte malevolently ensures that the physics of the Moon make the lunar cycle a mismatch to the solar one, so both festivals hop around in the Gregorian calendar. The Chinese New Year begins as early as 23 January in the next Year of the Pig (2031) and as late as 19 February in the Year of the Tiger (2034). The statisticians seem to have concluded that there is no hope of journalists, politicians, and other amateurs interpreting monthly data correctly in the ever-popular Months of the Dimwit, and have opted for the two-month kludge. So the next usable data on anything will only be available around 20 March.
We laugh, but the Easter mess is worse. Julius Caesar’s calendar reform was still inaccurate, and by 1500 AD was out by 10 days. This led Pope Gregory XIII (Ugo Boncompagni) to issue a major update. He got good astronomical advice and the resulting Gregorian calendar is highly accurate. Gregory was intelligent, but also a Counter-Reformation fanatic who tried to dethrone Elizabeth I of England by declaring her a bastard, so Protestants initially rejected the reform. For two centuries Europe had date zones as well as time ones. Most Orthodox churches but not the Ukrainian - still stick with Julius Caesar.
Kevin Drum has lost his long and remarkably open fight with cancer and has penned what looks like an adieu. There are already over 200 messages of support and appreciation on his blog. The new media world does not have to be a bad place.
This is sad news. I tried to post a message, but couldn't get the login to work. Kevin (as Calpundit) was one of the first people I interacted with when I started blogging in 2002
I posted this one late last week, so I'll ask again this week. I hope that is OK.
Hi John,
Do you have any thoughts on Mariana Mazzucato's work? Do you have any thoughts on her conception of public-private partnerships in contrast with your own perception of neoliberal public-private partnerships?
Hi Darren, I enjoyed Mission Economy, but haven't thought specifically about PPPs in this context. PPPs mean different things in different contexts. I've mostly criticised them in the context of private provision of public infrastructure.
Thank you for the reply. I agree with you in that context. If you ever advance to thinking about them in Mazzucato's context, I would be curious to know your thoughts. Thanks again for your time.
China non-update
I won’t be updating my solar and coal news from China this month. The Chinese National Statistics Bureau does not issue monthly series for January and February, but merges them into a single double month. I assume this is down to the Chinese New Year, the year’s most important public holiday, usually lasting five days. It is calculated like Easter on a lunar calendar plus mumbo-jumbo. Astarte malevolently ensures that the physics of the Moon make the lunar cycle a mismatch to the solar one, so both festivals hop around in the Gregorian calendar. The Chinese New Year begins as early as 23 January in the next Year of the Pig (2031) and as late as 19 February in the Year of the Tiger (2034). The statisticians seem to have concluded that there is no hope of journalists, politicians, and other amateurs interpreting monthly data correctly in the ever-popular Months of the Dimwit, and have opted for the two-month kludge. So the next usable data on anything will only be available around 20 March.
We laugh, but the Easter mess is worse. Julius Caesar’s calendar reform was still inaccurate, and by 1500 AD was out by 10 days. This led Pope Gregory XIII (Ugo Boncompagni) to issue a major update. He got good astronomical advice and the resulting Gregorian calendar is highly accurate. Gregory was intelligent, but also a Counter-Reformation fanatic who tried to dethrone Elizabeth I of England by declaring her a bastard, so Protestants initially rejected the reform. For two centuries Europe had date zones as well as time ones. Most Orthodox churches but not the Ukrainian - still stick with Julius Caesar.
Kevin Drum has lost his long and remarkably open fight with cancer and has penned what looks like an adieu. There are already over 200 messages of support and appreciation on his blog. The new media world does not have to be a bad place.
After further consultations with
Death and his oncologist, Kevin is back, posting details of immunosuppressants. You only beat cancer one day at a time.
This is sad news. I tried to post a message, but couldn't get the login to work. Kevin (as Calpundit) was one of the first people I interacted with when I started blogging in 2002
I posted this one late last week, so I'll ask again this week. I hope that is OK.
Hi John,
Do you have any thoughts on Mariana Mazzucato's work? Do you have any thoughts on her conception of public-private partnerships in contrast with your own perception of neoliberal public-private partnerships?
Thank you for your time.
Hi Darren, I enjoyed Mission Economy, but haven't thought specifically about PPPs in this context. PPPs mean different things in different contexts. I've mostly criticised them in the context of private provision of public infrastructure.
Thank you for the reply. I agree with you in that context. If you ever advance to thinking about them in Mazzucato's context, I would be curious to know your thoughts. Thanks again for your time.