Scotland has an aging population and a total fertility rate of 1.25—we need *either* a TFR of 2.05 *or* immigrant labour to retain a stable population, and without a stable population we face a grim future of diminishing economic output and a rising ratio of dependents (largely elderly and infirm) to workers. Nor can we breed our way out of this—it takes 20-odd years to manufacture a new worker that way. Opposition to migration is quite literally suicidal.
mastodon.scot
Scottish Greens (@ScottishGreens@mastodon.scot)
Attached: 1 image Scotland must always remain a welcoming country for migrants and refugees. It's not illegal to seek asylum and refuge here, no ...
#WritersCoffeeClub Dec 18. Are there writing ‘traditions’ which ought to be preserved? Writing and reading for pleasure (and not delegating those activities to spicy autocomplete bots).
China to hike tax on condoms in attempt to boost falling birth rate
the Guardian
China to hike tax on condoms in attempt to boost falling birth rate
From 1 January, contraceptives will be subject to a 13% VAT rate – part of a carrot-and-stick approach by the government to increase births
 That's not going to work. Instead, it'll boost the abortion rate and cause a spike in the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases. (Attempts to force women into pregnancy by withholding contraception tend to fail horrifically—see also Romania in the 1970s and 1980s following Decree 770.)
And it's nice and relaxing until suddenly the battalion tactical group of orcs riding mammoths with a couple of dragons for CAS turn up to spoil your morning …
Furry.Engineer - Duct tape, hotfixes, and poor soldering!
Patch Arcana (@patcharcana@furry.engineer)
The former-army-cadet desire to play a high realism milsim game, whivh would lead to you mostly just lazing about under-armed on some base or other...
Just under 78 hours to the winter solstice, and the sun rose today at 0841 and sets at 1538, giving 6 hours and 57 minutes of (snort) "daylight". I love a lot of things about Edinburgh, but not that.
#PennedPossibilities 876 — Does your MC like being the center of attention? Why or why not? Current WIP: both Jum and Tabitha avoid it like the plague because they're career criminals and con artists—attracting attention is *dangerous*. Older work, eg. Laundry Files: it varies? Bob hates it but has had to be interviewed live on national TV in the course of his work. Mo has a side-line as a lecturer. And so on. Merchant Princes: Miriam ends up in politics—spotlights are unavoidable. And so on.
So you know the answer: I was *asked* by Nature to do a "Google: the first decade in the sciences" feature, with a lot of travel ... but was on a tight deadline already, and I have an iron rule: I don't throw over existing work just to take on something prettier. (Illness is a justification, avarice is not.) Everything else—Doomwatch reboot, Daleks Invade Narnia, dot-com death march—is something I've done (or have on ice for future resumption).
The Wandering Shop
Charlie Stross (@cstross@wandering.shop)
#ScribesAndMakers Create a poll of three projects you've worked on and one you haven't. Ask people to guess the one you haven't: [ ] A reboot of t...
Because it's nearly Christmas, BUY THIS SINGLE MAKE IT NUMBER ONE IN THE CHARTS AGAIN THIS YEAR: