Pun Salad

Politicians may debate whether big-government socialism or free-market capitalism leads to better economic outcomes. Their constituents may worry about rising prices and declining prospects for retirement. But neither group has the power to create money with no questions asked, manipulate the cost of capital, or counteract movements in financial markets. The central bankers are in charge—and perhaps that should change.

Even if duly elected leaders try to make good on campaign promises, they face hurdles if monetary authorities, domestic and global, disagree. What happened in Britain is a cautionary tale for nations that have relinquished to central banks the keys to economic performance. British Prime Minister Liz Truss, together with her finance minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, last month announced plans to spur investment and economic expansion by cutting taxes for individuals and businesses. Days later, they were verbally lashed by Mark Carney, a former governor of the Bank of England, for “working at some cross-purposes” with the nation’s central bank.

There is a strange exception to the progressive movement’s obsession with science, health, and safety — and that strange exception just happens to be one of the biggest problems in the United States: obesity. This morning, the Huffington Post is lauding the “perfect,” “epic clapback” that pop-star Lizzo supposedly delivered in response to criticism from Kanye West.

Here’s that “clapback” that “brought the house down”:

“I feel like everybody in America got my mother****ing name in they mother****ing mouth for no mother****ing reason, I’m minding my fat Black beautiful business” the pop star said.

Here’s what West — who is also black — said:

“Let’s get aside from the fact whether it’s fashion and vogue, which it’s not, or if someone thinks it’s attractive, to each his own, it’s actually clinically unhealthy,” West said.

That’s, er . . . boringly true. Aesthetically, it’s a matter of taste. Clinically, it is, indeed, “unhealthy” to be as fat as Lizzo is. Does anyone doubt that?

But bad news can become worse news. And that will definitely be the case if voters in Massachusetts approve a referendum next month to junk the state’s flat tax and replace it with a class-warfare system that has a top rate of 9 percent.

The biggest solar-eclipse booster in New Hampshire – perhaps the biggest on the Eastern Seaboard – has a confession to make: “I may have started a little early.”

Rik Yeames has been eagerly anticipating April 8, 2024, when a total solar eclipse will cross New Hampshire’s northern tip, since at least February of 2019. That’s when he showed up in the Monitor warning people not to wait until the last minute to prepare for one of nature’s great spectacles.

Expecting people to start preparing for something five years in the future was a little optimistic, he now admits, but that hasn’t stopped him from trying. Since that first article Yeames has overseen creation of everything from an eclipse song – “The Three of Us” based on Bill Withers’ “The Two of Us,” playing off the fact that an eclipse requires the sun, the moon and an observer – to turning his car into an EclipseMobile that visits schools and other locations as part of a “no child left inside” push. He admits that his wife is getting slightly tiredof it.

A voice synthesis company based in Dubai published a fictional podcast interview between Joe Rogan and Steve Jobs using realistic voices digitally cloned from both men. It takes place during the "first episode" of a purported podcast series called "Podcast.ai," created by Play.ht, which sells voice synthesis services.

In the interview, you first hear a replication of Rogan's voice created by voice cloning technology similar to that which we've covered before on Ars. Deep learning technology has allowed AI models to replicate distinctive voices with a high degree of accuracy, such as in the case of Darth Vader in Disney's Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series.