Best Of

It still irritates me that the Americans insist on telling you that the difference between 47 and 52 is 5 (which might be classed as unnecessary information) and fail to tell us how these numbers compare with the last ones giving the direction of travel. Why on earth do they do this?

Having said this, I got lured into watching a video yesterday when people in the street were being asked if a die was rolled 420 times how many 3s would you expect? The people getting it wrong included a teacher, allegedly. Innumeracy rules, apparently.

It still blows my mind how many supposedly intelligent people think I am wrong when I tell them you get more pizza with one 18 inch pizza than with two 12 inch pizzas.

Do you tell them to do the calculation and then laugh when they ask what's the calculation ?

Too many 'educated' people seem to be proud of their lack of basic mathematical skills.

Here's more recent polling that you won't hear Trump or Farage supporters mentioning.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/692522/surge-concern-immigration-abated.aspx
...Americans have grown markedly more positive toward immigration over the past year, with the share wanting immigration reduced dropping from 55% in 2024 to 30% today. At the same time, a record-high 79% of U.S. adults say immigration is a good thing for the country.

These shifts reverse a four-year trend of rising concern about immigration that began in 2021 and reflect changes among all major party groups...

The paradox of the migration debate.

Most people want the total numbers to fall, but don't want the numbers in most migration scenarios to fall. It's not quite "less migrants in theory but not in practice", but it's pretty close;

https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/52704-is-there-public-support-for-large-scale-removals-of-migrants

The way that most people square that circle is to massively overestimate the proportion of immigration that is irregular/illegal because the boats are so visible. From that YouGov link,

Our research shows that almost half of Britons (47%) think there are more migrants staying in the UK illegally rather than legally, including fully a third of the public (32%) who think the illegal figure is “much higher”.

As our American friends are currently discovering, anti-immigrant talk is much more popular than anti-immigrant action.

The propensity of some people to believe stuff that simply isn't true never fails to astound me. It's not like it's hard to educate yourself on this stuff. The combination of cynical and malevolent politicians and gullible and stupid voters is a worrying one: we all know how this plays out in the worst case scenario and I for one don't want to be here if it does.

Something to be said for this idea…

https://x.com/abridgen/status/1955903325641351219

My suggestion on digital ID would be that all MPs and members of the House of Lords adopt digital ID as a pilot scheme , allow the public access to all the information as to where they go and what they do, all live. Run the trial for a couple of years and see if the MPs and Peers find the technology intrusive. What do you think to that idea ?

The UK should just move to ID cards with the option of a digital ID if people prefer that . I don’t see why this seems to be so controversial as almost every other European country have them.

There are two things:

1) Philosophical - the relationship between the state and the citizen is different in the UK. The state doesn’t get to order us around without consent - they have no right to demand we identify ourselves (“papers please”)

2) Practical - Blair’s original proposal hung massive databases off the ID card and gave way too many people access to the information. It was a massive privacy and data security risk.

We’re already tracked to a certain degree by our phones . You can limit the data on the ID card to just what’s absolutely necessary and also what agencies can access it .

You are under no obligation to own a smartphone, or a car, or a property.

I think it’s an Anglosphere thing where the public seem to be really riled up by the idea of ID cards .

I'd rather have mass uncontrolled illegal migration than ID cards. That's how much I dislike the idea of them being introduced.

I wouldn't.

ID cards are absolutely not needed to do something about uncontrolled migration. It's yet another example of the state refusing to use the powers it has to solve a problem, and demanding more. We would end up with both.

They don't solve migration - what they would remove is an excuse for employing illegal workers and with that one of the pulls for illegal migrants...

On the Latino falling out with Trump, funnily enough I was talking to a Mexican-American small businessman here in Sarajevo yesterday. He himself would never have voted for Trump, but he had friends and relatives who had. He shook his head in retrospective disbelief at their stupidity. He himself also owns some Airbnbs in Florida and had noticed a collapse in demand from Europeans and Canadians.

On why they were falling out with him, he hold me it's exactly as you'd expect - people don't like having their neighbourhoods raided by masked government thugs and their friends and relatives held and deported. The softening economy, the counter-productive trade policy and the trashing of America's diplomatic position worldwide are minor matters compared to that for his friends and relatives anyway.

Everyone knows that you shouldn't say to voters "don't do that, it will go against your interests, you'd have to be an idiot to vote that way."

Trouble is, most of us are idiots. At least when faced with complex issues outside our expertise. And sometimes even more so than that.

I heard some DMing advice that if you tell players about somewhere that's very dangerous they're more likely to go there.

I always liked Pratchett's example. If you had a big red button and a sign saying "do not press, end of the world" he said the paint wouldn't have time to dry.

Or God telling Eve: "Don't eat the fruit from that tree. That one, over there. Anyway, I'm going to leave you alone for quite some time."

It still irritates me that the Americans insist on telling you that the difference between 47 and 52 is 5 (which might be classed as unnecessary information) and fail to tell us how these numbers compare with the last ones giving the direction of travel. Why on earth do they do this?

Having said this, I got lured into watching a video yesterday when people in the street were being asked if a die was rolled 420 times how many 3s would you expect? The people getting it wrong included a teacher, allegedly. Innumeracy rules, apparently.

It still blows my mind how many supposedly intelligent people think I am wrong when I tell them you get more pizza with one 18 inch pizza than with two 12 inch pizzas.

Do you tell them to do the calculation and then laugh when they ask what's the calculation ?

Too many 'educated' people seem to be proud of their lack of basic mathematical skills.

Sadly, my second daughter is like that. It is a point of principle for her that she can't do numbers. This is not true, she got a B in her Higher maths, but she simply will not engage with numbers at all. I have tried to point out to her that there is a direct relationship between the fees she earns and the salary she is paid but monitoring fees is apparently "too hard". It is a completely unnecessary barrier that she has created for herself but it seems ever more common.

I recall several court cases where I have been able to get ahead of the witness using arithmetic and basic maths whilst cross examining and people look at you as if you have done some magic trick rather than simply been able to count. It does not reflect well on our education system.

On the Latino falling out with Trump, funnily enough I was talking to a Mexican-American small businessman here in Sarajevo yesterday. He himself would never have voted for Trump, but he had friends and relatives who had. He shook his head in retrospective disbelief at their stupidity. He himself also owns some Airbnbs in Florida and had noticed a collapse in demand from Europeans and Canadians.

On why they were falling out with him, he hold me it's exactly as you'd expect - people don't like having their neighbourhoods raided by masked government thugs and their friends and relatives held and deported. The softening economy, the counter-productive trade policy and the trashing of America's diplomatic position worldwide are minor matters compared to that for his friends and relatives anyway.

Everyone knows that you shouldn't say to voters "don't do that, it will go against your interests, you'd have to be an idiot to vote that way."

Trouble is, most of us are idiots. At least when faced with complex issues outside our expertise. And sometimes even more so than that.

I heard some DMing advice that if you tell players about somewhere that's very dangerous they're more likely to go there.

I always liked Pratchett's example. If you had a big red button and a sign saying "do not press, end of the world" he said the paint wouldn't have time to dry.

Here's more recent polling that you won't hear Trump or Farage supporters mentioning.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/692522/surge-concern-immigration-abated.aspx
...Americans have grown markedly more positive toward immigration over the past year, with the share wanting immigration reduced dropping from 55% in 2024 to 30% today. At the same time, a record-high 79% of U.S. adults say immigration is a good thing for the country.

These shifts reverse a four-year trend of rising concern about immigration that began in 2021 and reflect changes among all major party groups...

The paradox of the migration debate.

Most people want the total numbers to fall, but don't want the numbers in most migration scenarios to fall. It's not quite "less migrants in theory but not in practice", but it's pretty close;

https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/52704-is-there-public-support-for-large-scale-removals-of-migrants

The way that most people square that circle is to massively overestimate the proportion of immigration that is irregular/illegal because the boats are so visible. From that YouGov link,

Our research shows that almost half of Britons (47%) think there are more migrants staying in the UK illegally rather than legally, including fully a third of the public (32%) who think the illegal figure is “much higher”.

As our American friends are currently discovering, anti-immigrant talk is much more popular than anti-immigrant action.

It still irritates me that the Americans insist on telling you that the difference between 47 and 52 is 5 (which might be classed as unnecessary information) and fail to tell us how these numbers compare with the last ones giving the direction of travel. Why on earth do they do this?

Having said this, I got lured into watching a video yesterday when people in the street were being asked if a die was rolled 420 times how many 3s would you expect? The people getting it wrong included a teacher, allegedly. Innumeracy rules, apparently.

It still blows my mind how many supposedly intelligent people think I am wrong when I tell them you get more pizza with one 18 inch pizza than with two 12 inch pizzas.

Maybe you need to use pies in your example.