Recent posts

#1

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by grumbler - Today at 08:03:14 AM

This happened this morning in a ford near to here:

Looks like a Volkswagen to me.

#2

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by Josquius - Today at 08:01:31 AM

I know right.
This is being mostly reported as a "AI does bad" story. But I'd even more so read it as a cutting back on employees and ruining resilience story. This bridge was just half a mile from Lancaster Station.  They seriously didn't have someone they could send on a 10 minutes walk to check?

#3

Gaming HQ / Re: Europa Universalis V confi...

Last post by Josephus - Today at 07:58:55 AM

Oh my, more example of Johan being too jittery to handle the pressures of a major franchise:

https://www.reddit.com/r/EU5/s/TmcNUezrTX

Community relations have never been one of his strengths.

"You're a pirate....deleted".

(Anyone remember that , from Vick 1 I believe)

#4

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Josquius - Today at 07:58:23 AM

Also in fun with driving.
I was at Beamish Museum on the weekend for their christmas stuff. Went home at 4 or something after it was already dark.
Checked which way google maps suggested to go home, and it said a road I don't normally take. A bit more direct but using backroads, a lot of which are single lane.....
So off we went straight through Hell Hole Wood (that's its name), as soon as we got to the abandoned Medieval settlement of Ravensworth a deep fog set in so we couldn't see more than a few metres in front of us.
It all just felt so very cursed.

Once we got back onto a more familiar road the fog then lifted. I wonder if that is why the village the familiar road goes through is named Sunniside.

#5

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by HisMajestyBOB - Today at 07:51:08 AM

This happened this morning in a ford near to here:

Looks like a Volkswagen to me.

#6

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

Last post by grumbler - Today at 07:50:58 AM

Do the police need to have a search warrant under those circumstances (searching possessions incident to an arrest)?

#7

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

Last post by HisMajestyBOB - Today at 07:49:33 AM

Depends on if you think this Supreme Court will uphold legal precedent.

#8

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by garbon - Today at 07:40:35 AM

It would be great if public infrastructure didn't rely on social media reports.

#9

Off the Record / Re: The EU thread

Last post by Josquius - Today at 07:35:10 AM

I was having weird thoughts the other day of maybe in a way its 'too little' inequality. There being little to work for as formerly solid middle class salaries of 50k+ don't really put you in a different league to minimum wage people, just more comfortable in the same place.
Further expanding could it loop back around to 'everything is housing'? You save up all your money and you get to afford to own a regular terraced house whilst your neighbour earning half as much has to rent it for twice as much.
Have more, and more diverse housing, and maybe more of a tangible physical point than financial security can come from earning more.


Also... I'm not sure top 10% vs. bottom 10% is where to look for the key difference. Top 10% kicks in with 60k a year, which even without the compression and housing issues isn't massively different to 20k a year.
Its with the 1% or higher even that the difference really comes in.  Where you're talking not 3x more but 30000 times more.

I suppose it comes down to we're lacking a solid 'middle'.

#10

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Josquius - Today at 07:03:42 AM

But I think it is where Hyde is quite useful as she started as an entertainment writer and I think we are in an age when understanding how sports or celebrity fandoms work is pretty useful in understanding our politics. Many of the strongest supporters have their support for, say, Corbyn or Trump as core a part of their identity as a sports fan or a Swiftie - which makes persuasion impossible. How do you try to convince Jos to abandon Sunderland, say?

The club being taken over by an ultra conservative authoritarian dictatorship would do it.
Incidentally I really should get a Gateshead shirt.

I'd add that like Hyde I also have a lot of problems with the argument that we need immigration to have a class of lower-paid people to do "demeaning" jobs. And again I have wider issues with the way we as a society treat those who need care - whether elderly or because of disabilities - so I don't like his framing on that. On both of those points I find the framing pretty morally repugnant - we don't value or respect the weak or the people who care for them (naively I had genuinely hoped covid was a break in how we perceive work). But I think on both points it's not specific to him - although I think it is sort of adjacent to the Little Britain/Benefit Street era contempt for the poor.

On this too.... I recently noticed a case on BBC news of a male nursery worker in London being convicted for abusing children.
This really upset me. I mean, on a kids being abused the story itself level it did obviously.
But also on a deeper level that this is a huge problem in the UK, though we're making good progress on getting women into "men's jobs", "women's jobs" seem less suitable for men than ever. Which hurts the overall respect they get and damages staffing issues.
Compare to Switzerland where male nursery workers are pretty standard. Women are still the majority but most nurseries will have at least a man or two as well.


On the Hyde article and Polanski....
I think thats a problem with the 'populist' approach and trying to term things as the man on the street would. You will end up offending people. When you're on the far right this is fine. Offending inferior people is the name of the game. When you're trying to present yourself rather as a far left person who stands up for the weak though....It is a tight rope.
I never saw the bum wiping bit but I get the cringe. On the other hand his bit on the last leg about penguins choosing to identify however they want....I've not seen any trans outrage about that. It was a pretty nicely put way of ridiculing the anti-woke arguments.

He really needs to work on his framing with that one. Quite a complex issue where these jobs are considered undesirable thus not many Brits want to do them, as a current reality that needs addressing.... But we shouldn't keep propagating it.

He often gets attacked for just being a left wing Farage but....honestly I'm fine with that. Not my taste but that's the name of the game and if some those people who might be swayed by Farage can be swayed towards positive ends instead? This is fine.

She repeats the dodgy interpretation of the boob job story though. I'd like to see a good neutral writeup around that but his explanation definitely sounds believable.