azalemeth

Everyone is to be a child by default until proven otherwise by "highly effective" age assurance methods.

> It doesn't matter if it is technically feasible or not.

There is a long tradition of legislators not being burdened by such things as mathematical fact [1] or technical feasibility. In fact, in the law, it is quite common that one thing "is deemed to be" another -- famously a guide dog "deemed to be" a cat, for example, in a building where no dogs are allowed.

A senior British politician was on the radio yesterday morning saying words to the effects of 'if they can do AI they can do this' and calling all the privacy concerns overblown.

One part of the classical diaspora I think is both under appreciated and undergoing something of a renaissance is that of contemporary choral music. There are many great examples but two I'd like to draw to attention to two of those I have recently sung, and really enjoy:

(1) The works of Ēriks Ešenvalds,[1] a Latvian composer who was a fellow in composition at Trinity College, Cambridge and brought really a large part of the surprisingly rich eastern European singing tradition to the west. I had never heard of the Singing Revolution against the USSR in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania – countries with a wonderful, rich choral tradition where music (and choirs) played a really nonzero part in the downfall of the USSR. All absolutely beautiful and a group I sing with has worked with a lot of composers from this part of the world. Amazing soundscapes with harmonies that are never quite as good in equal temperament as outside it and yet always tonal and beautiful.

(2) Desmond Earley and the choral scholars of Trinity College Dublin – who conjures up a rich sound world of very pure, Irish tones that almost sounds synthetic but is made entirely from human voices and traditional instruments. It is simple to sing but difficult to master. I would highlight Dúlamán, [3] a traditional song about the economic importance of seaweed.