"If someone at the UN intentionally stopped the escalator as the President and First Lady were stepping on, they need to be fired and investigated immediately."
Reminds me, a little, of Alice in Wonderland: "Sentence first--verdict afterwards."
Another famous person I've never heard of, if 750K subs on YouTube is evidence of fame.
I genuinely don't know what constitutes "famous" on YouTube. The YouTuber "The Chieftain" is well known to at least three PBers but only has 318K subscribers. "Perun" is world-famous in the Western defence ecosystem but only has 599K subscribers. But "Mr Beast" who does things I don't care about has 439 million subscribers. Go figure
He is obsessed with me. I am happy to pay for a psychiatrist'
Again I do not see Davey giving Farage all this airtime is a great idea
So Farage confirms that he wants to make guns more readily available...
That is a bit of a stretch. Rather, Farage avoided the trap Ed Davey had laid for him. Davey made many charges and if Farage explicitly denied any, he would be implicitly admitting the rest.
This bad thing happens in America, therefore Farage wants it here – that was Ed Davey's formula. Here is the text of the leader's speech but as they say, check against delivery:-
"If someone at the UN intentionally stopped the escalator as the President and First Lady were stepping on, they need to be fired and investigated immediately."
Reminds me, a little, of Alice in Wonderland: "Sentence first--verdict afterwards."
My publisher has just fired everyone, citing a 30% year-on-year decline in sales of non-fiction technical books. Just a data point for the AI folks! I have seen this in Amazon sales too.
A few weeks ago I posted some 20-year-old technical (Stevens, once the JK Rowling of hard computer programming) books to another PBer. They were in near-mint condition because even back then, it was easier to look things up online.
One shred of comfort for technical authors and publishers is the recovery of fiction. For a while, it looked as if Amazon Kindle (other e-readers were available for about five minutes) had killed off dead tree books but the latter have recovered, although many small bookshops are now outsold by large supermarkets. One reason is giving books as presents. In unrelated news, today is 24th September so in exactly three months, we will all be scrabbling around for last-minute Christmas presents.
There is a chicken-and-egg problem though, in that if there is no prospect of large sales, why write the book in the first place? There was a time when Leon would delight us by reporting royalties for his thrillers from different markets. Nowadays he posts pictures of half-full beer glasses from around the world.
The Resolution Foundation should be called “ how Labour can ensure their poll ratings hit single digits “ .
Something has to be done given the rise in electric cars. Paying for what you use on the roads seems reasonable. However, it should first be revenue neutral, to avoid being seen as a cash grab.
ID Cards and GPS tracking of every car? I don't think that the cash grab is the issue.
And over-air updates of onboard computer firmware means that cars can be disabled for non-payment (and also that Presidents Xi and Trump, or their successors, will be able to gridlock Britain at the flick of a kill-switch).
Another famous person I've never heard of, if 750K subs on YouTube is evidence of fame.
It is an odd thing – one hesitates to call it a paradox – that as TikTok is raising a generation of viewers with the concentration span of a gnat, so 2-hour podcasts attract large audiences.
Another famous person I've never heard of, if 750K subs on YouTube is evidence of fame.
It is an odd thing – one hesitates to call it a paradox – that as TikTok is raising a generation of viewers with the concentration span of a gnat, so 2-hour podcasts attract large audiences.
Different demographics. Teenagers aren't listening to 4hrs of Joe Rogan talking to somebody who believes in Aliens built the pyramids or Chris Williamson talking to Matthew McConaughey or Jimmy Carr for life advice, they are 20 and 30 somethings.
The long form podcast is listened to those "working" from home or commuting to work. What the younger people might watch is the clipped version of video of podcasts* with the closed captions e.g. Rory Sutherland is bizarrely popular with the Tiktokkers.
The popularity of the Rory Sutherland with a section of da yuff is quite strange. Why they are interested in a quite a posh older bloke talking about marketing and advertising I am not quite sure.
Several articles in the Telegraph are now employing the word "cancelled". Perhaps difficult to imagine they would have done so until fairly recently — using the language of the opposition so to speak.
I think the BBC slightly jumped the shark on Kimmel story...top story in whole world, live tweet-esque coverage of what the other US Late Night shows (with small audiences) are saying in their coverage of what Jimmy Kimmel said on his return to the show that nobody usually watches.
Even the Guardian just wrote a simple article reporting that Kimmel as a mid ranking story.
A new artificial intelligence tool designed to crack down on fraud has helped the UK government recover almost £500m over the last year, the BBC can reveal.
More than a third of the money clawed back related to fraudulent activity during the Covid-19 pandemic, with other cash being recouped from unlawful council tax claims and illegal subletting of social housing.
The government will announce later today that a new AI tool which has helped to identify the fraud will now be licensed to other countries, including the US and Australia.
Only an hour to go until the new series of Slow Horses drops.....seems reviews are a big mixed this time around. Guardian not a fan.
Will wait for them all to drop then binge in October.
When good it is very, very good. Seasons 1 and 3 are tops. Season 2 a little less so. Season 4 did somethign that I thought they might (but hoped they wouldn't)
Given how the occupants of Slough House invariably get the better of The Park, you kinda wonder if a job swap might be in order...
Another famous person I've never heard of, if 750K subs on YouTube is evidence of fame.
I genuinely don't know what constitutes "famous" on YouTube. The YouTuber "The Chieftain" is well known to at least three PBers but only has 318K subscribers. "Perun" is world-famous in the Western defence ecosystem but only has 599K subscribers. But "Mr Beast" who does things I don't care about has 439 million subscribers. Go figure
Jimmy Donaldson (Mr Beast) is a real phenomenon of our age though. I think he'll ((He is too young yet !) run for President some day and win easily
Only an hour to go until the new series of Slow Horses drops.....seems reviews are a big mixed this time around. Guardian not a fan.
Will wait for them all to drop then binge in October.
When good it is very, very good. Seasons 1 and 3 are tops. Season 2 a little less so. Season 4 did somethign that I thought they might (but hoped they wouldn't)
Given how the occupants of Slough House invariably get the better of The Park, you kinda wonder if a job swap might be in order...
I thought Season 2 was the best by a long way. Russian agents, double agents, triple agents.
Season 4 mixed, was really let down by cringe "Park" stuff and weak ending when the mainline of the story was so good.
I think the BBC slightly jumped the shark on Kimmel story...top story in whole world, live tweet-esque coverage of what the other US Late Night shows (with small audiences) are saying in their coverage of what Jimmy Kimmel said on his return to the show that nobody usually watches.
Even the Guardian just wrote a simple article reporting that Kimmel as a mid ranking story.
I find Kimmel smug and not especially funny. But that the President of the US was revelling in his removal but after a volte face by Disney now has to be annoyed by his return - that is a story.
Preserving free speech - espcially from a thin-skinned President who feels the First Amendment should be binned if it stops him being mocked - should always be a story.
I think the BBC slightly jumped the shark on Kimmel story...top story in whole world, live tweet-esque coverage of what the other US Late Night shows (with small audiences) are saying in their coverage of what Jimmy Kimmel said on his return to the show that nobody usually watches.
Even the Guardian just wrote a simple article reporting that Kimmel as a mid ranking story.
I find Kimmel smug and not especially funny. But that the President of the US was revelling in his removal but after a volte face by Disney now has to be annoyed by his return - that is a story.
Preserving free speech - espcially from a thin-skinned President who feels the First Amendment should be binned if it stops him being mocked - should always be a story.
Its definitely a story, a big one. But live "commenting" in real time on what other shows say about the show as the number one story in the world, seems a tad OTT e.g. There is currently an absolutely massive typhoon hitting the Far East with millions being evacuated.
The Resolution Foundation should be called “ how Labour can ensure their poll ratings hit single digits “ .
Something has to be done given the rise in electric cars. Paying for what you use on the roads seems reasonable. However, it should first be revenue neutral, to avoid being seen as a cash grab.
ID Cards and GPS tracking of every car? I don't think that the cash grab is the issue.
The government already knows where you are and where you are going because of your mobile phone.
Not if it is switched off. Besides, it has to ask someone for that data. (In theory, at least)
Or you've left it at home. I used to be a fan of road pricing as a much better way of accommodating the externalities of driving: you create much more congestion driving 5 miles of urban road at peak hours than 20 miles of rural road at night, and should be charged accordingly. However, lockdown changed that. I no longer trust the government with that sort of information.
The Resolution Foundation should be called “ how Labour can ensure their poll ratings hit single digits “ .
Something has to be done given the rise in electric cars. Paying for what you use on the roads seems reasonable. However, it should first be revenue neutral, to avoid being seen as a cash grab.
ID Cards and GPS tracking of every car? I don't think that the cash grab is the issue.
The government already knows where you are and where you are going because of your mobile phone.
Not if it is switched off. Besides, it has to ask someone for that data. (In theory, at least)
Or you've left it at home. I used to be a fan of road pricing as a much better way of accommodating the externalities of driving: you create much more congestion driving 5 miles of urban road at peak hours than 20 miles of rural road at night, and should be charged accordingly. However, lockdown changed that. I no longer trust the government with that sort of information.
Ontop of concerns about government knowing where you are at all times and recording it on a big database, the biggest concern with big tax changes is they always start off "revenue neutral", but politicians just can't help going back to the well. Road pricing would be incredibly easy to just keep nudge nudge nudge, extra for these hours, we nudged it to another hour in the morning, Saturdays were off-peak, now they are peak, etc.
And if they go "black box" in every car, well all of a sudden they know how fast you are going at all times too....well that's another revenue source waiting to be tapped.
Another famous person I've never heard of, if 750K subs on YouTube is evidence of fame.
I genuinely don't know what constitutes "famous" on YouTube. The YouTuber "The Chieftain" is well known to at least three PBers but only has 318K subscribers. "Perun" is world-famous in the Western defence ecosystem but only has 599K subscribers. But "Mr Beast" who does things I don't care about has 439 million subscribers. Go figure
My 17 year old son described me as a "Z-list celebrity" because of YouTube. Then as he did trips with me he started to see people saying hello at superchargers (its happening now 1 stop in every 5 or 6). I've now been promoted to a "p-list celebrity"
Another famous person I've never heard of, if 750K subs on YouTube is evidence of fame.
I genuinely don't know what constitutes "famous" on YouTube. The YouTuber "The Chieftain" is well known to at least three PBers but only has 318K subscribers. "Perun" is world-famous in the Western defence ecosystem but only has 599K subscribers. But "Mr Beast" who does things I don't care about has 439 million subscribers. Go figure
My 17 year old son described me as a "Z-list celebrity" because of YouTube. Then as he did trips with me he started to see people saying hello at superchargers (its happening now 1 stop in every 5 or 6). I've now been promoted to a "p-list celebrity"
Personally, couldn't think of anything worse than being famous. I like nobody having a clue who I am. I think your level is probably fine / quite nice (enough to get some freebies), these ones on YouTube with 10s of millions of subs so that everybody knows their face e.g. Mr Beast, that sounds like hell. But each to their own.
I have always joked if you are going to be in a big band, you want to be the drummer, bugger all people remember the drummers face away from a gig, but you get all the upsides.
Another famous person I've never heard of, if 750K subs on YouTube is evidence of fame.
I genuinely don't know what constitutes "famous" on YouTube. The YouTuber "The Chieftain" is well known to at least three PBers but only has 318K subscribers. "Perun" is world-famous in the Western defence ecosystem but only has 599K subscribers. But "Mr Beast" who does things I don't care about has 439 million subscribers. Go figure
My 17 year old son described me as a "Z-list celebrity" because of YouTube. Then as he did trips with me he started to see people saying hello at superchargers (its happening now 1 stop in every 5 or 6). I've now been promoted to a "p-list celebrity"
Personally, couldn't think of anything worse than being famous. I like nobody having a clue who I am. I think your level is probably fine / quite nice (enough to get some freebies), these ones on YouTube with 10s of millions of subs so that everybody knows their face e.g. Mr Beast, that sounds like hell. But each to their own.
I have always joked if you are going to be in a big band, you want to be the drummer, bugger all people remember the drummers face away from a gig, but you get all the upsides.
YouTube is a business. Video views more than pay the monthlies (0% finance) for the car. Sponsorship revenue is building a fund to pay the lump off at the end. I've had 2 years of free supercharging to date thanks to tesla referral credits and keep free supercharging for at least another 3 years...
I have always joked if you are going to be in a big band, you want to be the drummer, bugger all people remember the drummers face away from a gig, but you get all the upsides.
Some exceptions
Neil Peart used fake ID when traveling alone to stop people bothering him
Another famous person I've never heard of, if 750K subs on YouTube is evidence of fame.
I genuinely don't know what constitutes "famous" on YouTube. The YouTuber "The Chieftain" is well known to at least three PBers but only has 318K subscribers. "Perun" is world-famous in the Western defence ecosystem but only has 599K subscribers. But "Mr Beast" who does things I don't care about has 439 million subscribers. Go figure
My 17 year old son described me as a "Z-list celebrity" because of YouTube. Then as he did trips with me he started to see people saying hello at superchargers (its happening now 1 stop in every 5 or 6). I've now been promoted to a "p-list celebrity"
Personally, couldn't think of anything worse than being famous. I like nobody having a clue who I am. I think your level is probably fine / quite nice (enough to get some freebies), these ones on YouTube with 10s of millions of subs so that everybody knows their face e.g. Mr Beast, that sounds like hell. But each to their own.
I have always joked if you are going to be in a big band, you want to be the drummer, bugger all people remember the drummers face away from a gig, but you get all the upsides.
I was once walking on the south coast (Hayling Island, I think) and went into a pub for a drink and some lunch. After a while an older gentleman came in, and whilst he stood at the bar started glancing over to me. After a while he came over and said something like: "Are you the guy behind (insert walking website name)?" I was, and we had a nice chat. Somehow he had recognised me from the website.
And on my coastal walk I had groupies for a few weeks: a couple who met me early-on on the east coast made it a little game to see if they could find me every Saturday, They managed it for three or four weeks, then I never saw them again. Since my website was mostly a few weeks out of date (*), it must have been quite a task for them to try to work out where I might be.
(*) Before social media and 3G. I had to create updates to the site, create a series of delta changes to it, put these onto a CD, and then post it to a mate who would upload the site. It would be much easier nowadays.
I think the BBC slightly jumped the shark on Kimmel story...top story in whole world, live tweet-esque coverage of what the other US Late Night shows (with small audiences) are saying in their coverage of what Jimmy Kimmel said on his return to the show that nobody usually watches.
Even the Guardian just wrote a simple article reporting that Kimmel as a mid ranking story.
I find Kimmel smug and not especially funny. But that the President of the US was revelling in his removal but after a volte face by Disney now has to be annoyed by his return - that is a story.
Preserving free speech - espcially from a thin-skinned President who feels the First Amendment should be binned if it stops him being mocked - should always be a story.
Its definitely a story, a big one. But live "commenting" in real time on what other shows say about the show as the number one story in the world, seems a tad OTT e.g. There is currently an absolutely massive typhoon hitting the Far East with millions being evacuated.
I’m sure it’s a big story for Americans, but it does irritate me how hooked British media is on the ins and outs of a foreign country’s internal culture wars.
Typhoon Ragusa is a much bigger deal, as for that matter - if we must do Trump news - is the man’s latest surprising ramblings on Russia.
Another famous person I've never heard of, if 750K subs on YouTube is evidence of fame.
I genuinely don't know what constitutes "famous" on YouTube. The YouTuber "The Chieftain" is well known to at least three PBers but only has 318K subscribers. "Perun" is world-famous in the Western defence ecosystem but only has 599K subscribers. But "Mr Beast" who does things I don't care about has 439 million subscribers. Go figure
My 17 year old son described me as a "Z-list celebrity" because of YouTube. Then as he did trips with me he started to see people saying hello at superchargers (its happening now 1 stop in every 5 or 6). I've now been promoted to a "p-list celebrity"
Personally, couldn't think of anything worse than being famous. I like nobody having a clue who I am. I think your level is probably fine / quite nice (enough to get some freebies), these ones on YouTube with 10s of millions of subs so that everybody knows their face e.g. Mr Beast, that sounds like hell. But each to their own.
I have always joked if you are going to be in a big band, you want to be the drummer, bugger all people remember the drummers face away from a gig, but you get all the upsides.
I think the BBC slightly jumped the shark on Kimmel story...top story in whole world, live tweet-esque coverage of what the other US Late Night shows (with small audiences) are saying in their coverage of what Jimmy Kimmel said on his return to the show that nobody usually watches.
Even the Guardian just wrote a simple article reporting that Kimmel as a mid ranking story.
I find Kimmel smug and not especially funny. But that the President of the US was revelling in his removal but after a volte face by Disney now has to be annoyed by his return - that is a story.
Preserving free speech - espcially from a thin-skinned President who feels the First Amendment should be binned if it stops him being mocked - should always be a story.
Its definitely a story, a big one. But live "commenting" in real time on what other shows say about the show as the number one story in the world, seems a tad OTT e.g. There is currently an absolutely massive typhoon hitting the Far East with millions being evacuated.
I’m sure it’s a big story for Americans, but it does irritate me how hooked British media is on the ins and outs of a foreign country’s internal culture wars.
Typhoon Ragusa is a much bigger deal, as for that matter - if we must do Trump news - is the man’s latest surprising ramblings on Russia.
I'm not sure that's true.
The typhoon will be done and forgotten within weeks; the future of US democracy affects us all. Like it or not, Trump's re-election was of massive consequence for the west, as will be how his administration ends.
I think the BBC slightly jumped the shark on Kimmel story...top story in whole world, live tweet-esque coverage of what the other US Late Night shows (with small audiences) are saying in their coverage of what Jimmy Kimmel said on his return to the show that nobody usually watches.
Even the Guardian just wrote a simple article reporting that Kimmel as a mid ranking story.
I find Kimmel smug and not especially funny. But that the President of the US was revelling in his removal but after a volte face by Disney now has to be annoyed by his return - that is a story.
Preserving free speech - espcially from a thin-skinned President who feels the First Amendment should be binned if it stops him being mocked - should always be a story.
"A" story, not "THE" story. The fact is that the media always prioritize a media story and quite quickly it turns into log rolling drivel. Meanwhile critical other stuff just gets drowned out
Stunning morning today. We left the house when it was just glimmering and before the sun had broken the horizon but the few whisps of cloud were already lit up in pink. Patches of mist between the trees etched out like stencils. Deer running freely over the cropped fields on spotting us. Just glorious. We are so lucky with where we live.
I think the BBC slightly jumped the shark on Kimmel story...top story in whole world, live tweet-esque coverage of what the other US Late Night shows (with small audiences) are saying in their coverage of what Jimmy Kimmel said on his return to the show that nobody usually watches.
Even the Guardian just wrote a simple article reporting that Kimmel as a mid ranking story.
I find Kimmel smug and not especially funny. But that the President of the US was revelling in his removal but after a volte face by Disney now has to be annoyed by his return - that is a story.
Preserving free speech - espcially from a thin-skinned President who feels the First Amendment should be binned if it stops him being mocked - should always be a story.
Its definitely a story, a big one. But live "commenting" in real time on what other shows say about the show as the number one story in the world, seems a tad OTT e.g. There is currently an absolutely massive typhoon hitting the Far East with millions being evacuated.
I’m sure it’s a big story for Americans, but it does irritate me how hooked British media is on the ins and outs of a foreign country’s internal culture wars.
Typhoon Ragusa is a much bigger deal, as for that matter - if we must do Trump news - is the man’s latest surprising ramblings on Russia.
"News is entertainment, entertainment is news."
And what some US celebrity is saying on TV is easy to cover. Those typhoons are dangerous and in foreign.
I think the BBC slightly jumped the shark on Kimmel story...top story in whole world, live tweet-esque coverage of what the other US Late Night shows (with small audiences) are saying in their coverage of what Jimmy Kimmel said on his return to the show that nobody usually watches.
Even the Guardian just wrote a simple article reporting that Kimmel as a mid ranking story.
I find Kimmel smug and not especially funny. But that the President of the US was revelling in his removal but after a volte face by Disney now has to be annoyed by his return - that is a story.
Preserving free speech - espcially from a thin-skinned President who feels the First Amendment should be binned if it stops him being mocked - should always be a story.
Its definitely a story, a big one. But live "commenting" in real time on what other shows say about the show as the number one story in the world, seems a tad OTT e.g. There is currently an absolutely massive typhoon hitting the Far East with millions being evacuated.
The American networks all think it’s the biggest story in the world right now, and we all know that the BBC night shift appear to do little else but watch American news.
Yes, the massive typhoon in Asia should be the lead today, there’s likely hundreds dead in Taiwan and the Philippines. If they want an American story, then quite a bit happened at the UN yesterday.
Another famous person I've never heard of, if 750K subs on YouTube is evidence of fame.
I genuinely don't know what constitutes "famous" on YouTube. The YouTuber "The Chieftain" is well known to at least three PBers but only has 318K subscribers. "Perun" is world-famous in the Western defence ecosystem but only has 599K subscribers. But "Mr Beast" who does things I don't care about has 439 million subscribers. Go figure
Mostly it is relative to the population size of a particular niche.
So, for example, Games Workshop have 920K subscribers to their YouTube channel, which gives you an idea of the size of their customer base (that is one YouTube). So a Warhammer YouTuber like Chapter Master Valrak has 270K subscribers, about 30% of the pool, making him a very big name in that niche. But you don't have to tell me that you've never heard of him.
I think there are very few YouTubers who achieve a broader base of popularity, that would qualify as celebrity in the sense that we used to know. YouTube tends to drive people further down into their own niche areas of interest which works against that.
Another famous person I've never heard of, if 750K subs on YouTube is evidence of fame.
I genuinely don't know what constitutes "famous" on YouTube. The YouTuber "The Chieftain" is well known to at least three PBers but only has 318K subscribers. "Perun" is world-famous in the Western defence ecosystem but only has 599K subscribers. But "Mr Beast" who does things I don't care about has 439 million subscribers. Go figure
My 17 year old son described me as a "Z-list celebrity" because of YouTube. Then as he did trips with me he started to see people saying hello at superchargers (its happening now 1 stop in every 5 or 6). I've now been promoted to a "p-list celebrity"
The problem is "celebrity" not "z-list" or "p-list" .
Another famous person I've never heard of, if 750K subs on YouTube is evidence of fame.
I genuinely don't know what constitutes "famous" on YouTube. The YouTuber "The Chieftain" is well known to at least three PBers but only has 318K subscribers. "Perun" is world-famous in the Western defence ecosystem but only has 599K subscribers. But "Mr Beast" who does things I don't care about has 439 million subscribers. Go figure
Mostly it is relative to the population size of a particular niche.
So, for example, Games Workshop have 920K subscribers to their YouTube channel, which gives you an idea of the size of their customer base (that is one YouTube). So a Warhammer YouTuber like Chapter Master Valrak has 270K subscribers, about 30% of the pool, making him a very big name in that niche. But you don't have to tell me that you've never heard of him.
I think there are very few YouTubers who achieve a broader base of popularity, that would qualify as celebrity in the sense that we used to know. YouTube tends to drive people further down into their own niche areas of interest which works against that.
Perun started in Online Gaming, where he has 50k subs (PerunGamingAU). He follows the "side-gig" model - as a consultant something something, and pivoted after doing one video that did well.
Another famous person I've never heard of, if 750K subs on YouTube is evidence of fame.
I genuinely don't know what constitutes "famous" on YouTube. The YouTuber "The Chieftain" is well known to at least three PBers but only has 318K subscribers. "Perun" is world-famous in the Western defence ecosystem but only has 599K subscribers. But "Mr Beast" who does things I don't care about has 439 million subscribers. Go figure
Mostly it is relative to the population size of a particular niche.
So, for example, Games Workshop have 920K subscribers to their YouTube channel, which gives you an idea of the size of their customer base (that is one YouTube). So a Warhammer YouTuber like Chapter Master Valrak has 270K subscribers, about 30% of the pool, making him a very big name in that niche. But you don't have to tell me that you've never heard of him.
I think there are very few YouTubers who achieve a broader base of popularity, that would qualify as celebrity in the sense that we used to know. YouTube tends to drive people further down into their own niche areas of interest which works against that.
Perun started in Online Gaming, where he has 50k subs (PerunGamingAU). He follows the "side-gig" model - as a consultant something something, and pivoted after doing one video that did well.
How big is the Defence Economics niche?
I think that's because Perun has expanded that niche outwards, simply by being very good. Defence Economics impinges on lots of different things of wider interest, and he is excellent at giving a broad-brush outline of his topic without going down too much into the weeds.
I love Drachinifel's channel, but I stopped listening to all his output when he started doing >3 hours Q and A livestreams. It's too hard to find the time to listen to all of it...
Another famous person I've never heard of, if 750K subs on YouTube is evidence of fame.
I genuinely don't know what constitutes "famous" on YouTube. The YouTuber "The Chieftain" is well known to at least three PBers but only has 318K subscribers. "Perun" is world-famous in the Western defence ecosystem but only has 599K subscribers. But "Mr Beast" who does things I don't care about has 439 million subscribers. Go figure
Mostly it is relative to the population size of a particular niche.
So, for example, Games Workshop have 920K subscribers to their YouTube channel, which gives you an idea of the size of their customer base (that is one YouTube). So a Warhammer YouTuber like Chapter Master Valrak has 270K subscribers, about 30% of the pool, making him a very big name in that niche. But you don't have to tell me that you've never heard of him.
I think there are very few YouTubers who achieve a broader base of popularity, that would qualify as celebrity in the sense that we used to know. YouTube tends to drive people further down into their own niche areas of interest which works against that.
Perun started in Online Gaming, where he has 50k subs (PerunGamingAU). He follows the "side-gig" model - as a consultant something something, and pivoted after doing one video that did well.
How big is the Defence Economics niche?
I think that's because Perun has expanded that niche outwards, simply by being very good. Defence Economics impinges on lots of different things of wider interest, and he is excellent at giving a broad-brush outline of his topic without going down too much into the weeds.
I love Drachinifel's channel, but I stopped listening to all his output when he started doing >3 hours Q and A livestreams. It's too hard to find the time to listen to all of it...
Yes - he was riding two suitable horses (gaming and Defence Exonomics professionally), and puts quality first.
A lot of people to DD listen in bed aiui.
It's interesting that his style is quite like Perun's in that the key is minimising video-editing time to allow more content work and background research.
They both essentially afaics do powerpoint presentations with commentary.
Drachinifel does person-to-camera on top, which is effective if you can avoid most of the need to re-edit.
This week the Telegraph's Ukraine the Latest said that they had reached 200 million downloads - after a little under 1000 episodes.
Comments
This bad thing happens in America, therefore Farage wants it here – that was Ed Davey's formula. Here is the text of the leader's speech but as they say, check against delivery:-
Don’t let Trump’s America become Farage’s Britain
https://www.libdems.org.uk/news/article/ed-davey-speech-autumn-2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEtl2X6mBmQ (longer version)
One shred of comfort for technical authors and publishers is the recovery of fiction. For a while, it looked as if Amazon Kindle (other e-readers were available for about five minutes) had killed off dead tree books but the latter have recovered, although many small bookshops are now outsold by large supermarkets. One reason is giving books as presents. In unrelated news, today is 24th September so in exactly three months, we will all be scrabbling around for last-minute Christmas presents.
There is a chicken-and-egg problem though, in that if there is no prospect of large sales, why write the book in the first place? There was a time when Leon would delight us by reporting royalties for his thrillers from different markets. Nowadays he posts pictures of half-full beer glasses from around the world.
The long form podcast is listened to those "working" from home or commuting to work. What the younger people might watch is the clipped version of video of podcasts* with the closed captions e.g. Rory Sutherland is bizarrely popular with the Tiktokkers.
* and why so many podcasts are now filmed.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk
Jesus Christ. That's equivalent to the entire first UK series of The Office, the two Christmas Specials, and at least one episode of Season 2.
It's entirely possible there is useful content in there. It's highly unlikely there is four hours of useful content.
Even the Guardian just wrote a simple article reporting that Kimmel as a mid ranking story.
More than a third of the money clawed back related to fraudulent activity during the Covid-19 pandemic, with other cash being recouped from unlawful council tax claims and illegal subletting of social housing.
The government will announce later today that a new AI tool which has helped to identify the fraud will now be licensed to other countries, including the US and Australia.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpd92gpld0go
When good it is very, very good. Seasons 1 and 3 are tops. Season 2 a little less so. Season 4 did somethign that I thought they might (but hoped they wouldn't)
Given how the occupants of Slough House invariably get the better of The Park, you kinda wonder if a job swap might be in order...
Jimmy Kimmel's full monologue tonight
https://x.com/MarlowNYC/status/1970698509084176466
Season 4 mixed, was really let down by cringe "Park" stuff and weak ending when the mainline of the story was so good.
Preserving free speech - espcially from a thin-skinned President who feels the First Amendment should be binned if it stops him being mocked - should always be a story.
I used to be a fan of road pricing as a much better way of accommodating the externalities of driving: you create much more congestion driving 5 miles of urban road at peak hours than 20 miles of rural road at night, and should be charged accordingly.
However, lockdown changed that. I no longer trust the government with that sort of information.
And if they go "black box" in every car, well all of a sudden they know how fast you are going at all times too....well that's another revenue source waiting to be tapped.
I have always joked if you are going to be in a big band, you want to be the drummer, bugger all people remember the drummers face away from a gig, but you get all the upsides.
Neil Peart used fake ID when traveling alone to stop people bothering him
And on my coastal walk I had groupies for a few weeks: a couple who met me early-on on the east coast made it a little game to see if they could find me every Saturday, They managed it for three or four weeks, then I never saw them again. Since my website was mostly a few weeks out of date (*), it must have been quite a task for them to try to work out where I might be.
(*) Before social media and 3G. I had to create updates to the site, create a series of delta changes to it, put these onto a CD, and then post it to a mate who would upload the site. It would be much easier nowadays.
Typhoon Ragusa is a much bigger deal, as for that matter - if we must do Trump news - is the man’s latest surprising ramblings on Russia.
The typhoon will be done and forgotten within weeks; the future of US democracy affects us all.
Like it or not, Trump's re-election was of massive consequence for the west, as will be how his administration ends.
World’s first purpose-built railway pub gets listed status
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/sep/24/worlds-first-purpose-built-railway-pub-gets-listed-status
And what some US celebrity is saying on TV is easy to cover. Those typhoons are dangerous and in foreign.
NEW THREAD
Yes, the massive typhoon in Asia should be the lead today, there’s likely hundreds dead in Taiwan and the Philippines. If they want an American story, then quite a bit happened at the UN yesterday.
So, for example, Games Workshop have 920K subscribers to their YouTube channel, which gives you an idea of the size of their customer base (that is one YouTube). So a Warhammer YouTuber like Chapter Master Valrak has 270K subscribers, about 30% of the pool, making him a very big name in that niche. But you don't have to tell me that you've never heard of him.
I think there are very few YouTubers who achieve a broader base of popularity, that would qualify as celebrity in the sense that we used to know. YouTube tends to drive people further down into their own niche areas of interest which works against that.
I'm up to (checks) 27.
How big is the Defence Economics niche?
I love Drachinifel's channel, but I stopped listening to all his output when he started doing >3 hours Q and A livestreams. It's too hard to find the time to listen to all of it...
A lot of people to DD listen in bed aiui.
It's interesting that his style is quite like Perun's in that the key is minimising video-editing time to allow more content work and background research.
They both essentially afaics do powerpoint presentations with commentary.
Drachinifel does person-to-camera on top, which is effective if you can avoid most of the need to re-edit.
This week the Telegraph's Ukraine the Latest said that they had reached 200 million downloads - after a little under 1000 episodes.