Richard Mischook

Software developer originally from Montréal and longtime resident of Northern Ireland. Unite the Union member.

Last Notes

2026-03-29 22:31:53 UTC

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the quality of the political class in most western countries is extremely poor and has been for quite some time. I think we should start by banning lawyers and PPE graduates running for Parliament. We would be far better served by more doctors, nurses, engineers, scientists, social workers, teachers, plumbers, electricians - basically anybody who has ever had a real job in life. And I say that as someone who got a degree in philosophy.

2026-01-13 21:25:54 UTC

RE: https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/115888970296152807
“As Canada contemplates our response to the collapse of the American empire and its alliances with the world, the cornerstone of our current strategy is sacrificing our dollars, water and energy in order to become more dependent on America, in a weird and improbable bet that we will figure out how to make millions of Canadians unemployed. I'm sorry, that just doesn't sound like a great idea to me.”
#note198r…56ej

2025-12-21 23:31:40 UTC

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I’m reading The New China Playbook by Harvard-educated economist Keyu Jin. It’s an interesting book but one of the author’s more baffling arguments (IMHO) is that the Chinese stock market’s lack of western-style growth is a deficiency in their capital markets, and that China would benefit from the likes of Blackrock or Goldman Sachs operating in the country. When I look at the achievements of China over the last 40 years I’m astounded that anybody would make such a claim.

2025-12-10 22:49:24 UTC

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as a Canadian living in Northern Ireland I haven’t been a fan of Brexit for a bunch of reasons, not the least of which was the threat to the peace process. But watching Canada struggle to break its dependence on trade with the US, I’m sympathetic to the argument that any country – including the UK – should try to diversify it’s trade relationships as much as possible. It’s worth noting that after the first Trump presidency, China reduced its dependence on US export markets.

2025-10-09 21:49:11 UTC

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I really wish Western governments would focus on the stuff that actually matters to people and would make a real difference in their lives (for the better hopefully).

2025-06-21 18:07:55 UTC

Verily #Israel is a democracy 😆
‘According to the magazine, throughout 2024, Israel’s military censor fully blocked 1,635 articles from being published and imposed partial restrictions on another 6,265.’
https://aje.io/6owobk
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/114/722/686/384/030/059/original/45bfba46a58d6a2d.jpeg

2024-12-09 18:39:19 UTC

"By investing in innovative solutions, we're aiming to demonstrate how advancements in space technology can drive better environmental monitoring, management and protection for the benefit of our communities and ecosystems,"
Translation: we know how to actually fix the issue but it’s going to piss off the farmers and industry - so we’ll just do space-age monitoring and AI hand waving stuff instead.
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/northern-ireland/three-projects-secure-funding-to-provide-space-technology-for-monitoring-lough-neagh-algae/a1944996325.html