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mailto: blog -at- heyrick -dot- eu
Tariffs
What I would really like to see now is for the EU to post the following on whatever social media they choose...
Dear Donald,
Imagine, if you will, that a German company sets itself up in your country and then decides to hell with the laws and customs of the United States, it will follow German law.
You wouldn't accept that, would you?
Well, our actions against your big tech companies are not us going out of our way to harm your companies - after all we have no equivalent to the likes of Google or Facebook so it has nothing to do with protectionism. What we are asking is that if you wish to operate in our countries, you follow our laws. And yes, these laws may change because laws written in dusty books decades or longer ago have difficulty keeping up with the pace of technological progress. What we are asking is that when you are operating in our countries, you respect our laws, customs, and ways of doing things. In the EU, the concept of privacy is important and speech is free so long as it doesn't contravene other laws such as those pertaining to hate speech, discrimination, and so on.
With this in mind, I feel the need to also point out the shared history of our continents and the friendship that we have had for so very long, something that the current administration seems intent on wrecking. We share the things we make and do because sharing is caring. Selling European goods in the United States, and selling yours in the EU.
That being said, we are both big blocs with plenty of available resources and global connections. Therefore, it saddens me to say that if you implement the threatened 30% tariff on EU products, we shall have no response but to immediately respond with a 100% tariff on imports from the United States. Any and every retaliatory tariff will result in our tariff doubling, that is to say 200%, 400%, 800% and so forth. We can continue this as long as is necessary until you fully understand that random application of punishing tariffs chosen and implemented at random is no way forward nor is it a valid negotiating tactic.
Yours,
The EU.
To announce tariffs, out of the blue, on social media, because one doesn't feel like they're getting their way...that's not how negotiations happen. You'd have thought the man that wrote "The art of the deal" might have understood a thing or two about how to negotiate?
Unfortunately I think the EU is going to continue to treat the current administration as grown ups acting in good faith, when in reality they are neither. They need to be call it out and be willing to deal out pain in response to pain. If you let the bully bully, the bullying will just get worse - anybody who's ever been bullied at school knows that.
And, yes, there will probably be the threat of "that's it, you're on your own if there's a war" which is probably what the EU is afraid of. But ask yourself this - do you actually trust them to be there for us should it happen to be necessary? Sorting out our own defence is a good thing, we got complacent and brushed the problem aside until Russia provided a wake up call that old quarrels haven't been dealt with, only pushed into a closet for a while. Well, we now have an administration that is openly hostile to parts of its own country (looking at you, California, stay strong), so what makes you think they'll give the slightest inkling of a crap about, say, Poland?
Time to sort out our own direction, and time to stand up to bullies.
More AI music
Given the fun I had with the Suno AI song generator yesterday, I thought I'd have a crack at doing some more stuff. So... here are some more songs to enjoy. These were all created with Suno, which means the song lengths will appear weird and wrong.
There's no metal or rock this time. I'm trying different things.
UPDATE: Fixed versions of the songs are available here. Read below for info on the songs, then go to this link for good versions of the songs.
Divided Shadows
This is a rather gothic song about how polarised everything is, how people would rather hurt each other than try to compromise. Piano, violin, and brush drum.
And, hey, did the AI read my comments yesterday? This one features obvious breathing sounds which, actually, really suits this style of music.
Morning Croissant
Here in France, the morning croissant is SERIOUS. So this is a lovely whimsical piano song about the joy of a croissant. And, trust me, if you want to enjoy one at its best, find a baker in a small town. Sure, one might cost as much as a half dozen at a supermarket. There's a reason why.
I don't often eat croissants, but when I do one absolutely must put the entire world on pause while appreciating something that has a ridiculous number of layers of pastry.
I was hoping for a girl with a French accent, but instead got an American, but at least the few French phrases sound correct.
Raindrops and Reveries
I come from a place known for its rain. If you read any of the SIBA stories that I wrote, you'll probably have noticed that rain features prominently. It also used to rain quite a lot here in this part of France, but then we went and broke the weather and all the farmers talk about these days is nappe phréatique (water table) and sécheresse (drought). I like going for walks in the rain, particularly in forests, but there aren't any forests close by with pathways to walk along (the two closest are closed and private - I think CERN owns one, which is kind of weird but maybe they need some place to store the worn out Hadrons? ☺). So my access lane will have to do. It's just under a kilometre, to the end and back.
This song, mostly acoustic guitar, is about rain. It was also set to have the ambience of a live performance, which is why it is slightly echoey.
The song "ends" at 2:45, and after a few seconds of silence, seems to come back again. More AI weirdness? I think I might have to drop these files into Audacity to fix them up, no?
A Spot of Tea
A song about tea - this probably shouldn't be a surprise. I asked for male and female vocals with a "British accent" (any would do, but this usually translates to RP) and ended up with a perky pop song that sounds like two American women singing in a style that reminds me of Blink 182! The nod to being British is pronouncing "British" as "Bri'ish". Well, okay? guess the v3.5 model just doesn't do accents. Still, it is catchy and amusing. And, yes, I did guide it towards name dropping The Big Four (Tetley, PG Tips, Typhoo, and of course Yorkshire).
I asked for this to be written in a specific time signature (hint: not 4:4/common). I've not yet had the opportunity to put my headphones on to listen carefully to see if it did so. Let me know in the comments what time signature you think this is.
Enjoy!
Oh, and if you have any ideas for songs you'd like to hear - let me know. Maybe tomorrow (or whenever) I'll have it make one about what happens to all those lost socks...but, hmm, what genre would be best for that?
Oh, (yes, another thought) I was wondering about using a monthly subscription in order to try making songs with my own lyrics, and if you look at suno.com it's $8 a month for the normal pro plan, which Google tells me is about €6,90 at current exchange rates. Well, the app lists it at €10,99 a month. Which is about $12.76. Excuse me, what? Why is it half again as expensive for us Europeans? ☹
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It's not that I don't want to hear from my British friends, it's because your country makes stupid laws.
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Last read at 18:21 on 2026/02/15.
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