Recent posts

#1

Off the Record / Re: US - Greenland Crisis Thre...

Last post by crazy canuck - Today at 10:47:53 AM

I think this clip is a good way to summarize the recent events

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DT1VO_oAW-V/?igsh=MTgwanZ4cm5sZTlrcA==

[UK hits back after Trump claims NATO troops avoided front lines in Afghanistan]

#2

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Duque de Bragança - Today at 10:37:03 AM

I guess the Epstein files are still a problem, since there is another polemic, started by the Orange Agent himself:

UK hits back after Trump claims NATO troops avoided front lines in Afghanistan
AMERICAS
The UK on Thursday said Donald Trump was "wrong to diminish" NATO's role in Afghanistan after the US president suggested allied troops were not on the front lines, sparking outrage in the country and among families of the hundreds of British soldiers killed in the war.
Issued on: 23/01/2026 - 13:57
Modified: 23/01/2026 - 14:33
2 min Reading time

By:
FRANCE 24

Britain said US President Donald Trump was "wrong to diminish" the role of NATO troops in Afghanistan, as a claim by the US president that they did not fight on the front line sparked outrage.

In an interview with Fox News aired on Thursday, Trump appeared unaware that 457 British soldiers died during the conflict in the South Asian country following the September 11 attacks on the United States.

"They'll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan," Trump told the US outlet, referring to NATO allies.

"And they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines," he added.

Trump also repeated his suggestion that NATO would not come to the aid of the United States if asked to do so.

In fact, following the 9/11 attacks, the UK and a number of other allies joined the US from 2001 in Afghanistan after it invoked NATO's collective security clause.

WATCH MORE
Afghanistan War: 20 years on, US "finally" accepts "army was not going to defeat the Taliban"

As well as British forces, troops from other NATO ally countries, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark and others also died.

"Their sacrifice and that of other NATO forces was made in the service of collective security and in response to an attack on our ally," Prime Minister Keir Starmer's official spokesman said.

"We are incredibly proud of our armed forces and their service and sacrifice will never be forgotten," he added.

READ MORE
Afghanistan refuses deal to give Bagram base back to US after Trump comments

'Heroes'

Care Minister Stephen Kinnock earlier said he expected Starmer would bring the issue up with Trump.

"I think he will, I'm sure, be raising this issue with the president ... He's incredibly proud of our armed forces, and he will make that clear to the president," he told LBC Radio.

"It just doesn't really add up what he said, because the fact of the matter is the only time that Article 5 has been invoked was to go to the aid of the United States after 9/11," he added in an interview with Sky News.

Defence Minister John Healey said NATO's Article 5 has only been triggered once.

"The UK and NATO allies answered the US call. And more than 450 British personnel lost their lives in Afghanistan," he said.

The troops who died were "heroes who gave their lives in service of our nation", he added.

Lucy Aldridge, whose son William died at the age of 18 in Afghanistan, told The Mirror newspaper that Trump's remarks were "extremely upsetting".

Emily Thornberry, chair of parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, denounced them as "so much more than a mistake".

"It's an absolute insult. It's an insult to 457 families who lost someone in Afghanistan. How dare he say we weren't on the front line?" the Labour Party politician said on the BBC's Question Time programme on Thursday evening.

According to official UK figures, 405 of the 457 British casualties who died in Afghanistan were killed in hostile military action.

The US reportedly lost more than 2,400 soldiers.

https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20260123-britain-hits-back-after-trump-claims-nato-troops-avoided-afghan-front-line

I could also mention that if there is who avoided the front (lines) it was Trump, but that was in Vietnam, not in Afghanistan. United Statesians also mentioned it previously, to no avail for his MAGA base.

#3

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by crazy canuck - Today at 10:35:08 AM

AI exacerbates the problem. Nobody is claiming that a problem didn't exist prior to AI.

You don't interpret "[t]here was little need to replicate an experiment previously" as a denial that there was a problem previously?  That's how I do.

In many fields, like machine learning, human slop has been deluging reviewers for a couple decades.  I worked for a company owned by a Computer Science professor, and she bemoaned the slop reviewers were being subject to back in the mid 2010s.  LLMs have definitely made the problem worse, as they significantly improve the "productivity" of generating human research slop, but it's not "orders of magnitude" as Zoupa says unless you're in an area that was not subject to high volumes of slop coming from questionable researchers in China and India.

Where I say they are going wrong is the suggestion of that the solution to the problem is the same as it has ever been, replicating the experiment.

We are putting our heads in the sand if we pretend that the replication problem is the same now as it has ever been.  That is clearly ridiculous given the volume of fraudulent papers that are being submitted to the journals.

#4

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by crazy canuck - Today at 10:31:57 AM

For those of you who are not familiar with the location of where the beach took place and the historical significance of it, here is a very good explanation.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DT1SbDakqLg/?igsh=MXQ3a3kyd3N2anJ3cg==


GF, you are certainly taking the comments out of context.  The overall point of the speech is actually important.  Only somebody with a particular grievance would argue that context is unimportant.

#5

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by Jacob - Today at 10:24:29 AM

Okay that was wrong. Mea culpa.

#6

Off the Record / Re: US - Greenland Crisis Thre...

Last post by Baron von Schtinkenbutt - Today at 10:04:48 AM

Trump cannot understand the concept of an alliance like NATO.

Of course not.  As the MAGAts' favorite half-assed painting corporal once said, "Any alliance whose purpose is not the intention to wage war is senseless and useless".

#7

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by Baron von Schtinkenbutt - Today at 09:40:58 AM

AI exacerbates the problem. Nobody is claiming that a problem didn't exist prior to AI.

You don't interpret "[t]here was little need to replicate an experiment previously" as a denial that there was a problem previously?  That's how I do.

In many fields, like machine learning, human slop has been deluging reviewers for a couple decades.  I worked for a company owned by a Computer Science professor, and she bemoaned the slop reviewers were being subject to back in the mid 2010s.  LLMs have definitely made the problem worse, as they significantly improve the "productivity" of generating human research slop, but it's not "orders of magnitude" as Zoupa says unless you're in an area that was not subject to high volumes of slop coming from questionable researchers in China and India.

#8

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by Baron von Schtinkenbutt - Today at 09:32:24 AM

But replicating every relevant incremental experiment since 2025 in your field is going to become an overwhelming burden on individual researchers very quickly.

Going to be?  In many fields, it has been for decades.  The "replication crisis" well predates generative ML models.

#9

Off the Record / Re: TV/Movies Megathread

Last post by frunk - Today at 09:25:05 AM

On the third episode of Interior Chinatown.  Very fun so far, nice slow build.

Finished it, good show.  The tone sits somewhere between the Truman Show, Russian Doll and Synecdoche, New York.  I don't think it's better than any of those* but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

*-better than S2 of Russian Doll though

[that]

#10

Off the Record / Re: Facebook Follies of Friend...

Last post by Duque de Bragança - Today at 09:12:25 AM

We got the joke.  We're not that illiterate, you know

Key word indeed.