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Trump v the Deep State:  Who wins? – politicalbetting.com

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  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,460
    edited October 27

    Scott_xP said:

    Anybody else notice that "visionary tech bro" Elon has been handing out his millions to voters, not with crypto, not even with PayPal, but with physical checks (sic)

    What a luddite...

    For the same reason, lottery winners get to stand with a comedy sized cheque. Its how you do the marketing / PR.
    In addition, the US is very much behind in electronic payments.
    Is that still true? At least for small amounts lots of people used Zelle, Venmo, CashApp.
    Ask the average USA’ian about Contactless….
    Good point, I believe contactless to some Americans is probably they think you mean when who put the cash in the basket and they pick it up, so no physical contact...
  • FishingFishing Posts: 4,947
    edited October 27

    KWASI KWARTENG: Okay, my Budget wasn't perfect - but this one will be naked class war
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14006593/Kwaski-Kwarteng-budget-class-war.html

    The Mail proves satire is not dead.

    The centrepiece of his budget being... checks notes... a tax cut for those on over £150k a year. Yeah definitely no class war from Old Etonian Kwarteng going on there.
    Yeah, God forbid those who work for their money should be allowed to keep a fraction more of it.

    Blatant class war.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,720

    Scott_xP said:

    Anybody else notice that "visionary tech bro" Elon has been handing out his millions to voters, not with crypto, not even with PayPal, but with physical checks (sic)

    What a luddite...

    For the same reason, lottery winners get to stand with a comedy sized cheque. Its how you do the marketing / PR.
    In addition, the US is very much behind in electronic payments.
    Is that still true? At least for small amounts lots of people used Zelle, Venmo, CashApp.
    Ask the average USA’ian about Contactless….
    Good point, I believe contactless to some Americans is probably they think you mean when who put the cash in the basket and they pick it up, so no physical contact...
    Fintech is an example of consumer regulation creating innovation. The EU’s FS reg is strongly focused on consumer convenience and safety (much of it devised and implemented by British officials when we were members). The US regulation leaves much of the B2C side of things to individual states.
    Hence Fintech’s global hub is London, not Silicon Valley or NY.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,314

    Scott_xP said:

    Anybody else notice that "visionary tech bro" Elon has been handing out his millions to voters, not with crypto, not even with PayPal, but with physical checks (sic)

    What a luddite...

    For the same reason, lottery winners get to stand with a comedy sized cheque. Its how you do the marketing / PR.
    In addition, the US is very much behind in electronic payments.
    Is that still true? At least for small amounts lots of people used Zelle, Venmo, CashApp.
    Ask the average USA’ian about Contactless….
    Good point, I believe contactless to some Americans is probably they think you mean when who put the cash in the basket and they pick it up, so no physical contact...
    The biggest problem is the US is the anti-competitive commercial agreements that are seen as commonplace over there. Didn’t one card services provider or machine manufacturer negotiate a one-year exclusive on Apple Pay when it first came out?
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,687
    Fishing said:

    KWASI KWARTENG: Okay, my Budget wasn't perfect - but this one will be naked class war
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14006593/Kwaski-Kwarteng-budget-class-war.html

    The Mail proves satire is not dead.

    The centrepiece of his budget being... checks notes... a tax cut for those on over £150k a year. Yeah definitely no class war from Old Etonian Kwarteng going on there.
    Yeah, God forbid those who work for their money should be allowed to keep a fraction more of it.

    Blatant class war.
    Nobody under 150k works for their money?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,586
    Sandpit said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Anybody else notice that "visionary tech bro" Elon has been handing out his millions to voters, not with crypto, not even with PayPal, but with physical checks (sic)

    What a luddite...

    For the same reason, lottery winners get to stand with a comedy sized cheque. Its how you do the marketing / PR.
    In addition, the US is very much behind in electronic payments.
    Is that still true? At least for small amounts lots of people used Zelle, Venmo, CashApp.
    Ask the average USA’ian about Contactless….
    Good point, I believe contactless to some Americans is probably they think you mean when who put the cash in the basket and they pick it up, so no physical contact...
    The biggest problem is the US is the anti-competitive commercial agreements that are seen as commonplace over there. Didn’t one card services provider or machine manufacturer negotiate a one-year exclusive on Apple Pay when it first came out?
    Yes - and the blatant purchase of the right to make such anti-competitive deals from the politicians.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,677
    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,460
    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    You are missing the big scoop about GE results though....
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 59,994

    KWASI KWARTENG: Okay, my Budget wasn't perfect - but this one will be naked class war
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14006593/Kwaski-Kwarteng-budget-class-war.html

    The Mail proves satire is not dead.

    The centrepiece of his budget being... checks notes... a tax cut for those on over £150k a year. Yeah definitely no class war from Old Etonian Kwarteng going on there.
    So Brown was prosecuting class war when he kept the top rate at 40% all the way until 2009-10, then?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,677

    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    You are missing the big scoop about GE results though....
    I am now, by sheer dint of doing it for 30 years all over the world, a fucking genius photographer
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,141

    viewcode said:

    Nigelb said:

    MattW said:

    FF43 said:

    Interesting header. Not enough serious thought is going into what a Trump administration would look like. I don't know.

    Which is more likely? A semi-fascist new order? Or a chaotic despotism more like his first term? This may depend on how much Trump will be in charge.

    For analogies, the best I can think of Kaiser Bill, playing with his navy whilst Germany went to hell in a handcart.

    Trump will first of all focus on saving himself, then he will focus on enriching himself.
    Why not all of the above? A chaotic despotism (attempted) as the 2025 types try and do stuff. Trump tries to do his thing, and weirdly clash with the 2025 types on surprising, random stuff. While agreeing with the 2025 types on other random stuff. And fighting the blue states. But also, probably getting push back from red states when he impinges on the flow of pork money….. And stuffing (or trying to stuff) his pockets at the same time.
    These are the guys who are definitely in, whether or not that's true of Project 25.
    You could do worse than read up on them for guidance on stuff that might happen.
    https://americafirstpolicy.com/assets/uploads/files/The-America-First-Transition-Project-Introduction.pdf
    I thought "Project 2025" and "America First" and "Agenda 47" were separate things. Am I misinformed?
    I attended a dinner with one of the leading lights behind Project 2025 a few nights ago. It left me feeling a bit more relaxed about the whole thing. The guy was surprisingly stupid and inarticulate and a lot of the ideas he espoused weren't so much half baked as not even defrosted. This is not a well organised conspiracy.
    As far as I am aware, and Godwinning myself, many leading Nazis were not particularly bright, and their organisation not particularly well organised. Ditto the various Marxist groups in Russia in the 1910s.

    What both of these had in common, was a purge of rivals - internal and external - once they gained power. That;s something to watch out for, and the GOP seem to be falling towards.
    I think Goebbels could be put in the category of evil genius, and unfortunately his genius came on stage just at the point modern political publicity and campaigning took off (literally in the case of flying AH around the country). Hitler is of course in a demonic category all his own.
    Quite right.

    Mein Kampf is mostly drivel, but there is one part that is very interesting, where Hitler writes about mobilising the masses, and winning political campaigns. He writes admiringly, about how the Social Democrats were able to make the bourgeois parties feel morally inadequate. And at the same time, how Karl Lugar, the Christian Socialist mayor of Vienna, was able to rally the masses.

    Here, and only here, Hitler is both interesting and original.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,080
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    You are missing the big scoop about GE results though....
    I am now, by sheer dint of doing it for 30 years all over the world, a fucking genius photographer
    If you posted your photos on Instagram, and I used Instagram, I would follow you to see your photos.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,677

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    You are missing the big scoop about GE results though....
    I am now, by sheer dint of doing it for 30 years all over the world, a fucking genius photographer
    If you posted your photos on Instagram, and I used Instagram, I would follow you to see your photos.
    Photography - I believe - is a craft not an art. Anyone with a brain and an imagination can master it, with enough practise

    True arts require innate talent AS WELL

    I’ve spent decades working with pro photographers and seeing what they do and how they do it and why. And I’ve taken 100,000 photos all over the world

    So I’ve learned how to take a properly good photo. Composition, angle, mood, metaphor

    Also, and very importantly, smartphone cameras now take care of all the technical stuff
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,205
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    You are missing the big scoop about GE results though....
    I am now, by sheer dint of doing it for 30 years all over the world, a fucking genius photographer
    If you posted your photos on Instagram, and I used Instagram, I would follow you to see your photos.
    Photography - I believe - is a craft not an art. Anyone with a brain and an imagination can master it, with enough practise

    True arts require innate talent AS WELL

    I’ve spent decades working with pro photographers and seeing what they do and how they do it and why. And I’ve taken 100,000 photos all over the world

    So I’ve learned how to take a properly good photo. Composition, angle, mood, metaphor

    Also, and very importantly, smartphone cameras now take care of all the technical stuff
    Bah. I took over 18,000 photos on my year-long walk around the coast. That's about three every mile.

    Most can be summed up as : "Some coast.", "more coast", "a boat at sea". But a few are, IMV, spectacular. I rarely, if ever, stopped to look for the right angle; I'd just get my camera out, pause, and snap.

    I'd love to do the walk again and reproduce some of the shots, to show how the cast has changed over 20+ years. Looking at the photos taken from other coastal walkers, before and after me, some places are timeless; others less so.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,677
    edited October 27

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    You are missing the big scoop about GE results though....
    I am now, by sheer dint of doing it for 30 years all over the world, a fucking genius photographer
    If you posted your photos on Instagram, and I used Instagram, I would follow you to see your photos.
    Photography - I believe - is a craft not an art. Anyone with a brain and an imagination can master it, with enough practise

    True arts require innate talent AS WELL

    I’ve spent decades working with pro photographers and seeing what they do and how they do it and why. And I’ve taken 100,000 photos all over the world

    So I’ve learned how to take a properly good photo. Composition, angle, mood, metaphor

    Also, and very importantly, smartphone cameras now take care of all the technical stuff
    Bah. I took over 18,000 photos on my year-long walk around the coast. That's about three every mile.

    Most can be summed up as : "Some coast.", "more coast", "a boat at sea". But a few are, IMV, spectacular. I rarely, if ever, stopped to look for the right angle; I'd just get my camera out, pause, and snap.

    I'd love to do the walk again and reproduce some of the shots, to show how the cast has changed over 20+ years. Looking at the photos taken from other coastal walkers, before and after me, some places are timeless; others less so.
    I did say you need a brain and an imagination

    I’ve no doubt you have the first; the second, hmm
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,205
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    You are missing the big scoop about GE results though....
    I am now, by sheer dint of doing it for 30 years all over the world, a fucking genius photographer
    If you posted your photos on Instagram, and I used Instagram, I would follow you to see your photos.
    Photography - I believe - is a craft not an art. Anyone with a brain and an imagination can master it, with enough practise

    True arts require innate talent AS WELL

    I’ve spent decades working with pro photographers and seeing what they do and how they do it and why. And I’ve taken 100,000 photos all over the world

    So I’ve learned how to take a properly good photo. Composition, angle, mood, metaphor

    Also, and very importantly, smartphone cameras now take care of all the technical stuff
    Bah. I took over 18,000 photos on my year-long walk around the coast. That's about three every mile.

    Most can be summed up as : "Some coast.", "more coast", "a boat at sea". But a few are, IMV, spectacular. I rarely, if ever, stopped to look for the right angle; I'd just get my camera out, pause, and snap.

    I'd love to do the walk again and reproduce some of the shots, to show how the cast has changed over 20+ years. Looking at the photos taken from other coastal walkers, before and after me, some places are timeless; others less so.
    I did say you need a brain and an imagination

    I’ve no doubt you have the first; the second, hmm
    I was on a walk. The aim was to walk. If you stop every five minutes, move off to the side of the path or road to get a better angle or wait for that gap in the clouds, then you'll either end up falling off a cliff or end up never getting anywhere. :)

    One of the famousish landscape photographers spends days camping out waiting for the perfect shot, when the sun or stars are in the right position.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,895

    One of the famousish landscape photographers spends days camping out waiting for the perfect shot, when the sun or stars are in the right position.

    I spent a night in my car outside Eilean Donan waiting for the sunrise

    It is a nice shot, if I say so myself
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,190

    Exit poll suggests Japan ruling party set to fall short of majority

    It comes after a tumultuous few years for the LDP which saw a “cascade” of scandals, widespread voter apathy and record-low approval ratings.

    The party had seen approval ratings of below 20% earlier in the year, in the wake of a political fundraising corruption scandal. Yet opposition parties have failed to unite, or convince voters they are a viable option to govern. The main opposition party had an approval rating of just 6.6% before parliament was dissolved.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8xpev42g78o

    And we think our current mobs are unpopular...

    If only we had some pb-ers on the ground to report back the political intricacies...
    @edmundintokyo ?
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,895
    @PickardJE

    turns out that when government announced 5 new Freeports last week it meant…

    ….there won’t be any new Freeports

    instead five existing freeports will get official clearance to have custom sites within their boundaries

    https://x.com/PickardJE/status/1850541754480558301
  • carnforthcarnforth Posts: 4,488

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    You are missing the big scoop about GE results though....
    I am now, by sheer dint of doing it for 30 years all over the world, a fucking genius photographer
    If you posted your photos on Instagram, and I used Instagram, I would follow you to see your photos.
    Photography - I believe - is a craft not an art. Anyone with a brain and an imagination can master it, with enough practise

    True arts require innate talent AS WELL

    I’ve spent decades working with pro photographers and seeing what they do and how they do it and why. And I’ve taken 100,000 photos all over the world

    So I’ve learned how to take a properly good photo. Composition, angle, mood, metaphor

    Also, and very importantly, smartphone cameras now take care of all the technical stuff
    Bah. I took over 18,000 photos on my year-long walk around the coast. That's about three every mile.

    Most can be summed up as : "Some coast.", "more coast", "a boat at sea". But a few are, IMV, spectacular. I rarely, if ever, stopped to look for the right angle; I'd just get my camera out, pause, and snap.

    I'd love to do the walk again and reproduce some of the shots, to show how the cast has changed over 20+ years. Looking at the photos taken from other coastal walkers, before and after me, some places are timeless; others less so.
    Editing is a medium (selecting the good ones from 18000, I mean, not photoshopping them). Being able to spot that something is good is halfway towards making something which is good - creativity being, mostly, merely sufficiently deep copying.

    Ok, that's three awful turns of phrase in one paragraph. Back to my Butty Bach.
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 8,424

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    You are missing the big scoop about GE results though....
    I am now, by sheer dint of doing it for 30 years all over the world, a fucking genius photographer
    If you posted your photos on Instagram, and I used Instagram, I would follow you to see your photos.
    Photography - I believe - is a craft not an art. Anyone with a brain and an imagination can master it, with enough practise

    True arts require innate talent AS WELL

    I’ve spent decades working with pro photographers and seeing what they do and how they do it and why. And I’ve taken 100,000 photos all over the world

    So I’ve learned how to take a properly good photo. Composition, angle, mood, metaphor

    Also, and very importantly, smartphone cameras now take care of all the technical stuff
    Bah. I took over 18,000 photos on my year-long walk around the coast. That's about three every mile.

    Most can be summed up as : "Some coast.", "more coast", "a boat at sea". But a few are, IMV, spectacular. I rarely, if ever, stopped to look for the right angle; I'd just get my camera out, pause, and snap.

    I'd love to do the walk again and reproduce some of the shots, to show how the cast has changed over 20+ years. Looking at the photos taken from other coastal walkers, before and after me, some places are timeless; others less so.
    I did say you need a brain and an imagination

    I’ve no doubt you have the first; the second, hmm
    I was on a walk. The aim was to walk. If you stop every five minutes, move off to the side of the path or road to get a better angle or wait for that gap in the clouds, then you'll either end up falling off a cliff or end up never getting anywhere. :)

    One of the famousish landscape photographers spends days camping out waiting for the perfect shot, when the sun or stars are in the right position.
    You have to do a huge amount of walking to get that perfect shot. I've got 10 or so that are genuinely brilliant, but that's after 14 years in the mountains.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,720
    edited October 27
    It’s difficult to draw a proper distinction between art and craft. I think that’s because art comes from Latin and craft comes from Germanic languages. Both originally referred to similar things. But German also has Kunst.

    Then we have techne from Greek, and technique / technology.

    Often the case where you have two similar but subtly different word meanings that come from different sides of our language family tree. Like the difference between house and mansion.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 22,703
    edited October 27

    viewcode said:

    MattW said:

    MattW said:

    glw said:

    MattW said:

    A couple of interesting bits from this week's More or Less.

    6:20 Trump's latest fabrications. This time about crime statistics.
    11:00 Knocking spots off misrepresentation of stats about GP suicides by the BMA. Especially around misinterpretation of unclear questions to get a big claim.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00244l3

    Without even listening that sounds like one of those questions along the lines of "have you thought about changing profession in the last year?" Obviously all employees think about that sort of thing to a degree, but it gets spun by pressure groups and the media into "60% of Doctors want to leave the profession".
    It was an ambiguous question, plus dodgy interpretation.

    The BMA claimed:

    one in four GPs know another GP who has taken their own life

    The basis of the claim was a survey by another group which asked:

    "to what extent do you agree or disagree with the statement: I know of general practice workers in my own region who have taken their own lives due to work pressures."

    (GPs make up ~25% of all general practice workers.)

    1 - The group referred to is obviously totally different.
    2 - There was a red flag level of "don't know" or "prefer not to answer" in the responses, at 24%.
    3 - "Know of" is totally different to "know". "Know of" could be on Facebook or a newspaper report.
    4 - The question is generally ambiguous.

    The BMA are blowing up their claim to be credible.

    The piece also includes comparisons with other roughly comparable groups, and Doctors are low in occurrence. Also other bits worth a listen.
    They also went on a bear hunt.

    Bears can eat 250k buffalo berries a day. Someone tracked bears through the woods collecting and analysing the poop.

    (Bears shit in the woods about 10 times a day, and each contains approx 20k buffalo berries.)
    Woah, I call shenanigans on that. How heavy are 250,000 buffaloberries? How heavy is a bear? Facially, there would seem to be a disparity
    That's what, 6 berries a second, every second during daylight? OK, they grow in dense clumps, but even so, that would make them an awesome reaping machine.

    Not seeing it.
    Go and listen to the piece. It is not very long.

    Tim Harford wsa sceptical, but was convinced by the end.

    It is at about 20:45 in the programme. It takes less time than pulling it apart on PB !

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00244l3
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,513
    That sounds… not enticing.

    Elon Musk says we must accept "temporary hardship" once Trump is elected.
    https://x.com/PiperK/status/1850019114074435650
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,720
    Scott_xP said:

    One of the famousish landscape photographers spends days camping out waiting for the perfect shot, when the sun or stars are in the right position.

    I spent a night in my car outside Eilean Donan waiting for the sunrise

    It is a nice shot, if I say so myself
    Impressive dedication, but couldn’t you just have googled sunrise time and turned up 5 minutes beforehand?
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,895
    TimS said:

    Scott_xP said:

    One of the famousish landscape photographers spends days camping out waiting for the perfect shot, when the sun or stars are in the right position.

    I spent a night in my car outside Eilean Donan waiting for the sunrise

    It is a nice shot, if I say so myself
    Impressive dedication, but couldn’t you just have googled sunrise time and turned up 5 minutes beforehand?
    Not in 1997, no
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,205
    Nigelb said:

    That sounds… not enticing.

    Elon Musk says we must accept "temporary hardship" once Trump is elected.
    https://x.com/PiperK/status/1850019114074435650

    One thing is or certain: Musky Baby and his friends will not be accepting 'temporary hardship' if Trump is elected.

    Re-electing Trump means two main things; a further redistribution of wealth from poor to rich, and reduced rights for women.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,513
    Nigelb said:

    That sounds… not enticing.

    Elon Musk says we must accept "temporary hardship" once Trump is elected.
    https://x.com/PiperK/status/1850019114074435650

    Ah, some detail.

    Elon says he'll "need a lot of security" once he stops government programs that help the poor and middle class because "a lot of people are going to be upset about that."
    https://x.com/PiperK/status/1850027819914391736

    Government of the people, by the billionaires, for the billionaires ?
    The new party of Lincoln.
  • JohnLilburneJohnLilburne Posts: 6,210
    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    They are very small schoolboys

  • JohnLilburneJohnLilburne Posts: 6,210
    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    They are very small schoolboys

  • carnforthcarnforth Posts: 4,488

    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    They are very small schoolboys

    Just far away.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 22,703
    MattW said:

    viewcode said:

    MattW said:

    MattW said:

    glw said:

    MattW said:

    A couple of interesting bits from this week's More or Less.

    6:20 Trump's latest fabrications. This time about crime statistics.
    11:00 Knocking spots off misrepresentation of stats about GP suicides by the BMA. Especially around misinterpretation of unclear questions to get a big claim.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00244l3

    Without even listening that sounds like one of those questions along the lines of "have you thought about changing profession in the last year?" Obviously all employees think about that sort of thing to a degree, but it gets spun by pressure groups and the media into "60% of Doctors want to leave the profession".
    It was an ambiguous question, plus dodgy interpretation.

    The BMA claimed:

    one in four GPs know another GP who has taken their own life

    The basis of the claim was a survey by another group which asked:

    "to what extent do you agree or disagree with the statement: I know of general practice workers in my own region who have taken their own lives due to work pressures."

    (GPs make up ~25% of all general practice workers.)

    1 - The group referred to is obviously totally different.
    2 - There was a red flag level of "don't know" or "prefer not to answer" in the responses, at 24%.
    3 - "Know of" is totally different to "know". "Know of" could be on Facebook or a newspaper report.
    4 - The question is generally ambiguous.

    The BMA are blowing up their claim to be credible.

    The piece also includes comparisons with other roughly comparable groups, and Doctors are low in occurrence. Also other bits worth a listen.
    They also went on a bear hunt.

    Bears can eat 250k buffalo berries a day. Someone tracked bears through the woods collecting and analysing the poop.

    (Bears shit in the woods about 10 times a day, and each contains approx 20k buffalo berries.)
    Woah, I call shenanigans on that. How heavy are 250,000 buffaloberries? How heavy is a bear? Facially, there would seem to be a disparity
    That's what, 6 berries a second, every second during daylight? OK, they grow in dense clumps, but even so, that would make them an awesome reaping machine.

    Not seeing it.
    Go and listen to the piece. It is not very long.

    Tim Harford wsa sceptical, but was convinced by the end.

    It is at about 20:45 in the programme. It takes less time than pulling it apart on PB !

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00244l3
    And they forage for more like 20 hours per day before hibernation :smile: .
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,205
    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    You are missing the big scoop about GE results though....
    I am now, by sheer dint of doing it for 30 years all over the world, a fucking genius photographer
    If you posted your photos on Instagram, and I used Instagram, I would follow you to see your photos.
    Photography - I believe - is a craft not an art. Anyone with a brain and an imagination can master it, with enough practise

    True arts require innate talent AS WELL

    I’ve spent decades working with pro photographers and seeing what they do and how they do it and why. And I’ve taken 100,000 photos all over the world

    So I’ve learned how to take a properly good photo. Composition, angle, mood, metaphor

    Also, and very importantly, smartphone cameras now take care of all the technical stuff
    Bah. I took over 18,000 photos on my year-long walk around the coast. That's about three every mile.

    Most can be summed up as : "Some coast.", "more coast", "a boat at sea". But a few are, IMV, spectacular. I rarely, if ever, stopped to look for the right angle; I'd just get my camera out, pause, and snap.

    I'd love to do the walk again and reproduce some of the shots, to show how the cast has changed over 20+ years. Looking at the photos taken from other coastal walkers, before and after me, some places are timeless; others less so.
    I did say you need a brain and an imagination

    I’ve no doubt you have the first; the second, hmm
    I was on a walk. The aim was to walk. If you stop every five minutes, move off to the side of the path or road to get a better angle or wait for that gap in the clouds, then you'll either end up falling off a cliff or end up never getting anywhere. :)

    One of the famousish landscape photographers spends days camping out waiting for the perfect shot, when the sun or stars are in the right position.
    You have to do a huge amount of walking to get that perfect shot. I've got 10 or so that are genuinely brilliant, but that's after 14 years in the mountains.
    I once took Mrs J on a walk on the South West Coast Path, across the Lulworth Ranges. She is not a great walker, and it was one of the first coastal walks we did together. As we topped an old hillfort, we got a brocken sprectre and glory. Then we came across an adder sunning itself on the path. Then, another brocken spectre and glory.

    Mrs J said: "Wow! No wonder you do all this walking!"

    In truth, I'd never seen a brocken spectre before, and had only once come across an adder on a walk (in Norfolk).
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 4,874
    carnforth said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    You are missing the big scoop about GE results though....
    I am now, by sheer dint of doing it for 30 years all over the world, a fucking genius photographer
    If you posted your photos on Instagram, and I used Instagram, I would follow you to see your photos.
    Photography - I believe - is a craft not an art. Anyone with a brain and an imagination can master it, with enough practise

    True arts require innate talent AS WELL

    I’ve spent decades working with pro photographers and seeing what they do and how they do it and why. And I’ve taken 100,000 photos all over the world

    So I’ve learned how to take a properly good photo. Composition, angle, mood, metaphor

    Also, and very importantly, smartphone cameras now take care of all the technical stuff
    Bah. I took over 18,000 photos on my year-long walk around the coast. That's about three every mile.

    Most can be summed up as : "Some coast.", "more coast", "a boat at sea". But a few are, IMV, spectacular. I rarely, if ever, stopped to look for the right angle; I'd just get my camera out, pause, and snap.

    I'd love to do the walk again and reproduce some of the shots, to show how the cast has changed over 20+ years. Looking at the photos taken from other coastal walkers, before and after me, some places are timeless; others less so.
    Editing is a medium (selecting the good ones from 18000, I mean, not photoshopping them). Being able to spot that something is good is halfway towards making something which is good - creativity being, mostly, merely sufficiently deep copying.

    Ok, that's three awful turns of phrase in one paragraph. Back to my Butty Bach.
    I’m enjoying an Old Jock. It’s like Old Malc, but less bitter.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,069
    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    That sounds… not enticing.

    Elon Musk says we must accept "temporary hardship" once Trump is elected.
    https://x.com/PiperK/status/1850019114074435650

    Ah, some detail.

    Elon says he'll "need a lot of security" once he stops government programs that help the poor and middle class because "a lot of people are going to be upset about that."
    https://x.com/PiperK/status/1850027819914391736

    Government of the people, by the billionaires, for the billionaires ?
    The new party of Lincoln.
    OK... Accepting that Musk has a brain the size of a planet, and skating over who made him Trump's spokesman...

    ... why would you say that?
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,687
    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    That sounds… not enticing.

    Elon Musk says we must accept "temporary hardship" once Trump is elected.
    https://x.com/PiperK/status/1850019114074435650

    Ah, some detail.

    Elon says he'll "need a lot of security" once he stops government programs that help the poor and middle class because "a lot of people are going to be upset about that."
    https://x.com/PiperK/status/1850027819914391736

    Government of the people, by the billionaires, for the billionaires ?
    The new party of Lincoln.
    There's something quite dark about Musk. Maybe from growing up in South Africa, that sense of threat that comes with extreme privilege, the fear of it all falling apart, the distrust of the masses. The weird sense of grievance.
    It's a lovely sunny weekend on the East Coast of America. It's got that late summer feeling. Like 1914.
  • Jim_MillerJim_Miller Posts: 2,960
    7 billion souls? That would explain a lot, since it implies that about 1.2 billion don't have souls. So we shoudn't be surprised by a Putin, a Xi, a Kim, and so on.
  • Jim_MillerJim_Miller Posts: 2,960
    No doubt others here have already mentioned this, but I was pleased to see PM Starmer's reference to one of the great English histories. (I assume all of you know which book he was referring to when he pretended to confuse "hostages" with "sausages".)
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,687
    carnforth said:

    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    They are very small schoolboys

    Just far away.
    Yes I believe they are in Japan.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,720
    Scott_xP said:

    TimS said:

    Scott_xP said:

    One of the famousish landscape photographers spends days camping out waiting for the perfect shot, when the sun or stars are in the right position.

    I spent a night in my car outside Eilean Donan waiting for the sunrise

    It is a nice shot, if I say so myself
    Impressive dedication, but couldn’t you just have googled sunrise time and turned up 5 minutes beforehand?
    Not in 1997, no
    You could have gone on Netscape navigator. Or looked in the paper.
  • FishingFishing Posts: 4,947
    TimS said:

    It’s difficult to draw a proper distinction between art and craft. I think that’s because art comes from Latin and craft comes from Germanic languages. Both originally referred to similar things. But German also has Kunst.

    Then we have techne from Greek, and technique / technology.

    Often the case where you have two similar but subtly different word meanings that come from different sides of our language family tree. Like the difference between house and mansion.

    Skill is the other one - it's Viking.

    Very often the Frenchified/Latinate words sound poncey and pretentious, the Germanic/Viking are usually more honest and down to earth.

    Compare a hearty welcome (Germanic) and a cordial reception (Frenchified).
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,720

    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    That sounds… not enticing.

    Elon Musk says we must accept "temporary hardship" once Trump is elected.
    https://x.com/PiperK/status/1850019114074435650

    Ah, some detail.

    Elon says he'll "need a lot of security" once he stops government programs that help the poor and middle class because "a lot of people are going to be upset about that."
    https://x.com/PiperK/status/1850027819914391736

    Government of the people, by the billionaires, for the billionaires ?
    The new party of Lincoln.
    There's something quite dark about Musk. Maybe from growing up in South Africa, that sense of threat that comes with extreme privilege, the fear of it all falling apart, the distrust of the masses. The weird sense of grievance.
    It's a lovely sunny weekend on the East Coast of America. It's got that late summer feeling. Like 1914.
    Or 2001
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,720
    edited October 27
    Fishing said:

    TimS said:

    It’s difficult to draw a proper distinction between art and craft. I think that’s because art comes from Latin and craft comes from Germanic languages. Both originally referred to similar things. But German also has Kunst.

    Then we have techne from Greek, and technique / technology.

    Often the case where you have two similar but subtly different word meanings that come from different sides of our language family tree. Like the difference between house and mansion.

    Skill is the other one - it's Viking.

    Very often the Frenchified/Latinate words sound poncey and pretentious, the Germanic/Viking are usually more honest and down to earth.

    Compare a hearty welcome (Germanic) and a cordial reception (Frenchified).
    Interesting to ponder how much of our class system is down to 1066 and the ruling class speaking a different language, which persists to this day.
  • Labour will have to suspend him now. Looks career ending to me.
  • Jim_MillerJim_Miller Posts: 2,960
    There are three recent Supreme Court decisions that bode well for American democracy: First, of course, is Dobbs, which has made us less of a kritarchy, by restoring control of the issue to the people and their elected representatives.

    Second, is the restoration of our civil rights laws by killing affirmative action.

    Third, is the reminder to Congress that they can't delegate law making to unelected bureaucrats
  • Labour will have to suspend him now. Looks career ending to me.
    And liberty ending. The person he punched had his hands in his pockets. It's difficult to think of what he might have been saying that was sufficient for the MP to think he needed to take action because he felt he was in imminent danger.
    By election on its way.
  • Nigel_ForemainNigel_Foremain Posts: 14,283
    That is a pretty serious assault. Should be a custodial sentence.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,205

    That is a pretty serious assault. Should be a custodial sentence.
    Wibble Wibble cuŕrygate
  • Nigel_ForemainNigel_Foremain Posts: 14,283

    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    That sounds… not enticing.

    Elon Musk says we must accept "temporary hardship" once Trump is elected.
    https://x.com/PiperK/status/1850019114074435650

    Ah, some detail.

    Elon says he'll "need a lot of security" once he stops government programs that help the poor and middle class because "a lot of people are going to be upset about that."
    https://x.com/PiperK/status/1850027819914391736

    Government of the people, by the billionaires, for the billionaires ?
    The new party of Lincoln.
    OK... Accepting that Musk has a brain the size of a planet, and skating over who made him Trump's spokesman...

    ... why would you say that?
    Because he has very high IQ, but comparatively low EQ
  • Nigel_ForemainNigel_Foremain Posts: 14,283

    Fishing said:

    KWASI KWARTENG: Okay, my Budget wasn't perfect - but this one will be naked class war
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14006593/Kwaski-Kwarteng-budget-class-war.html

    The Mail proves satire is not dead.

    The centrepiece of his budget being... checks notes... a tax cut for those on over £150k a year. Yeah definitely no class war from Old Etonian Kwarteng going on there.
    Yeah, God forbid those who work for their money should be allowed to keep a fraction more of it.

    Blatant class war.
    Nobody under 150k works for their money?
    I am not sure it is "class war" anymore. It is now "sector war". The Labour Party is the political wing of the public sector that rules only in the interest of the public sector. Anyone who owns their own business and works crazy long hours to keep it going is a person to be despised by Kier "Freebie" Toolmakerson.
  • theakestheakes Posts: 928
    What happens if contrary to what most think Trump gets most votes but Harris holds on in the "Battleground States". Can you hear the cries from the Republicans, "Abolish the Electoral College"
    Personally the winds are blowing so much in their favour I cannot see Trump losing.
  • Nigel_ForemainNigel_Foremain Posts: 14,283

    That is a pretty serious assault. Should be a custodial sentence.
    Wibble Wibble cuŕrygate
    Wtf is that supposed to mean?
  • Jim_MillerJim_Miller Posts: 2,960
    There are, of course, many good Kims, too, for example, Joseph Kim, who is arguing for the renewal of the North Korean Human Rights Act. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/25/congress-reauthorize-north-korea-human-rights/ (Congress has failed to do that. I plan to write my Congress critter to ask her to act.)

    His personal experience is inspiring:
    "It still seems impossible to me that as a 15-year-old, I managed to escape from my oppressed homeland, survive and ultimately thrive in a new country where I didn’t speak the language or understand the culture."

    (Trigger warning for Guardianistas: Joseph Kim has kind words for a former president they despise.)
  • Labour will have to suspend him now. Looks career ending to me.
    And liberty ending. The person he punched had his hands in his pockets. It's difficult to think of what he might have been saying that was sufficient for the MP to think he needed to take action because he felt he was in imminent danger.
    By election on its way.
    Last election - Lab 53%, Ref 18%, Con 16%, Green 6%, LD 5%. You would probably expect Lab to hang on in any by-election but Reform would certainly have a good go at it.
  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,503

    Labour will have to suspend him now. Looks career ending to me.
    And liberty ending. The person he punched had his hands in his pockets. It's difficult to think of what he might have been saying that was sufficient for the MP to think he needed to take action because he felt he was in imminent danger.
    By election on its way.
    If so, interesting battle for second place: https://members.parliament.uk/member/4667/electionresult
  • NEW THREAD

  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 21,794

    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    Leon said:

    Schoolboys practising Judo by Osaka Castle. You’re welcome


    They are very small schoolboys

    Or very big stones.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,205

    That is a pretty serious assault. Should be a custodial sentence.
    Wibble Wibble cuŕrygate
    Wtf is that supposed to mean?
    When this story broke, some reacted that it was just another desperate 'smear' against Labour, in the manner of currygate (a statement I disagree with to begin with ...).

    Because Labour / left figures need to be defended at all costs, whereas any Tory with even the mildest sniff of impropriety is GUILTY!!!!! and should BURN!!!! ;)

    My own initial view was that the initial video was inconclusive. This angle is much more conclusive, and does not loon good for the MP.
  • Labour will have to suspend him now. Looks career ending to me.
    And liberty ending. The person he punched had his hands in his pockets. It's difficult to think of what he might have been saying that was sufficient for the MP to think he needed to take action because he felt he was in imminent danger.
    By election on its way.
    If so, interesting battle for second place: https://members.parliament.uk/member/4667/electionresult
    That majority will be smashed apart if either the cons or reform can be the clear alternative.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,205
    edited October 27
    (wrong thread...)
  • oniscoidoniscoid Posts: 11
    edited October 28
    TimS said:


    There's something quite dark about Musk. Maybe from growing up in South Africa, that sense of threat that comes with extreme privilege, the fear of it all falling apart, the distrust of the masses. The weird sense of grievance.
    It's a lovely sunny weekend on the East Coast of America. It's got that late summer feeling. Like 1914.

    wasn't Elon Musk bullied by his peers as a child?
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