"I believe the U.S. Government knows what the “drones” are and doesn’t wish to clear this up definitively, preferring panic & loss of credibility to disclosure.
That is the least crazy thing that could be happening. And that is totally crazy."
Of course it knows. It knows that they are aeroplanes.
So why doesn't Trump say that? Belittle the story, accuse the government of allowing hysteria to multiply
He doens't. He explictly says "something strange is going on", and when he's asked if he's been briefed he says "no comment" - he surely has been briefed. He will be president in about a month
Also, this:
"Drone Incursions Closed Wright Patterson Air Force Base’s Airspace Friday Night
Wright Patterson AFB, a high-profile base that's home to critical Air Force units, is the latest installation to deal with mysterious drones.
“I can confirm small aerial systems were spotted over Wright-Patterson between Friday night and Saturday morning,” base spokesman Bob Purtiman told The War Zone on Sunday in response to our questions about the sightings. “Today leaders have determined that they did not impact base residents, facilities, or assets. The Air Force is taking all appropriate measures to safeguard our installations and residents.”
The drones “ranged in sizes and configurations,” Purtiman said. “Our units are working with local authorities to ensure the safety of base personnel, facilities, and assets.”
‘Most of the New Jersey drone sightings were misidentified, so it is notable that the ones spotted over Wright Patterson, as with the other U.S. military installations, were seen by trained observers that are equipped with high-end gear to maintain security and to discriminate between friend and foe.’
Oh good we are back at trained observers again. Why on Earth do you believe anything coming out of Trumps mouth? He is a complete and utter arse who lies and blusters his way through life. And to remind you again, Gatwick was closed with no evidence of an actual drone ever being found. Who says that didn’t happen at Wright Patterson?
This is not just one airbase. From the same report:
"Still, as we have reported in the past, there are several confirmed drone sightings in New Jersey reported by trained observers at Picatinny and Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey. A Coast Guard vessel off New Jersey also had a recent encounter with what it called “multiple low-altitude aircraft.” U.S. officials are still trying to discover the origin of drones that appeared over four U.S. Air Force bases in the U.K., a story we first broke. They’ve been spotted over RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall, and RAF Feltwell, all within close proximity, and RAF Fairford, about 130 miles to the west."
A few days ago, Ramstein Air Base in Germany joined the growing list of places registering unknown drone overflights."
Yes, it could still be a flap, but it is now a flap of quite astonishing proportions and duration, if so. And Trump's reaction tells me that there is more to this. He has surely been briefed on the truth, and if there is one thing he hates it is looking like a stupid loser. I don't think he would say this stuff if he didn't have reason to say it
Has Chump moved on from closing down the FBI?
I'm not sure where he is on the CIA, but since it's outside the USA it's presumably unnecessary in his view .
That line delivered in Kenneth Williams voice I hope. 🙂
Data, Star Trek
Do you pronounce it Data or Data?
Sir Patrick pronounces it Day-ta!
Well he is French. 😎
According to IMDB:
"According to Brent Spiner, [Sir Patrick] Stewart largely affected the way Americans pronounce the word "data". On Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), the name of Spiner's character, Data, was intended to be pronounced "dat-uh", as was commonly used in American English as the time, but Patrick Stewart's used the British pronunciation "day-tah" during the first table read and that was subsequently used for the series. Spiner credits Stewart's pronunciation, coupled with the popularity of the series, for making "day-tah" the more commonly used pronunciation in American English vernacular."
This may have already been discussed, but have the mods / OGH considered the impact the Online Safety Bill is going to have on PB when it goes into law next March?
It seems a heavy compliance burden & legal liability is going to fall on the site owners?
It's also going to set our AI industry back IMO. The government needs to take a pause and look at the intended and unintended consequences of the bill and rework it. Get industry experts in and not a bunch of know nothing bureaucrats to write it. The EU took the latter approach and it's hurt the tech industry there to point that it's now terminal, we can't allow that to happen here.
I don’t think this Labour government even understand what “ unintended consequences” actually are.
Indeed, I had a quick look at the research on the inheritance tax exemption changes and I think it's correct that more money will be lost from behavioural changes than will be raised by the tax. What bothers me is that no one did this beforehand, so the government is left with ploughing on and damaging the economy and family run businesses or they have an embarrassing climb down. It's about as bad as Liz Truss right now, indeed the first Labour budget leaves is with more borrowing than Liz Truss called for.
That the Truss budget was an economic disaster I keep calling out as a myth and lie of “let them eat cake” proportions.
The budget itself was only a giveaway of about £12B once the stealth taxes were properly included. That took a week to understand, but BBC, Sky, etc already told us on the day it was costly, expensive budget and never apologised for calling it so wrong.
All currency’s were being whacked by the dollar that week. The borrowing costs had been climbing all year and went even higher under Sunak without same hysterical media reporting. The pension issue was nothing to do with Truss budget, but Sunak’s awful treasury unaware the issue of bad hedging had been building in pensions some time.
In terms of the political fury at cutting the top rate of tax, it was only a tax invented in 2010 as Gordon Brown salted the earth ahead of a Conservative win - and Osborne had already halved it to applause, not anger.
From the moment Truss stood up to give her victory speech, without acknowledging Sunak or shaking his hand, the Tory MPs were determined to get rid of her, so it was weeks of Tory and Labour both spreading the same lies about a budget. Sunak largely implemented and Labour largely backed Truss budget after Truss was gone.
The unintended consequences of the blue on blue, was it gave the impression Tories crashed economy, and that lost them many votes in 2024. They got Rishi as leader, but trashed their parties credibility whilst doing it.
What caused Truss problems with the markets was a promise outside the budget - to continue the energy pay outs all up to the election, 2.5 years - would still being paid this week to show how stupid the promise was, backed up by press releases boasting it would cost 8% of GDP. The unintended consequence of that promise (not going through the OBR) was market evaluation of upwards of £250B paying that one item alone. Hunt’s first action was to announce just six months not all up to election, and instantly the markets happy, like a volcano that’s just had sacrifice thrown in it.
That’s the true history. PB like everywhere else in political media, prefers convenient myths, and rarely mentions unintended consequences.
The removal of IR35 would have created a £20-30bn reduction in Employer NI revenue - we were rapidly setting up what would have been a very large accountancy firm for the market it was going to create. Heck we expect 40,000 lorry drivers to switch to self employment before we looked at other areas..
Except the budget would not have removed IR35. All it proposed was returning to the situation prior to the last set of reforms in 2021. It was those reforms that caught so many people in incorrect status decisions and killed contracting for many businesses.
It was rolling back to the prior to 2020/1 version I was talking about. And that figure came from 2 driver recruitment agencies..
So removing the idiotic 2021 reforms that forced genuine contractors inside IR35. And I don't recall there being a £20 - £30 Billion increase in Employer NI revenue when they introduced the reforms.
"I believe the U.S. Government knows what the “drones” are and doesn’t wish to clear this up definitively, preferring panic & loss of credibility to disclosure.
That is the least crazy thing that could be happening. And that is totally crazy."
Of course it knows. It knows that they are aeroplanes.
So why doesn't Trump say that? Belittle the story, accuse the government of allowing hysteria to multiply
He doens't. He explictly says "something strange is going on", and when he's asked if he's been briefed he says "no comment" - he surely has been briefed. He will be president in about a month
Also, this:
"Drone Incursions Closed Wright Patterson Air Force Base’s Airspace Friday Night
Wright Patterson AFB, a high-profile base that's home to critical Air Force units, is the latest installation to deal with mysterious drones.
“I can confirm small aerial systems were spotted over Wright-Patterson between Friday night and Saturday morning,” base spokesman Bob Purtiman told The War Zone on Sunday in response to our questions about the sightings. “Today leaders have determined that they did not impact base residents, facilities, or assets. The Air Force is taking all appropriate measures to safeguard our installations and residents.”
The drones “ranged in sizes and configurations,” Purtiman said. “Our units are working with local authorities to ensure the safety of base personnel, facilities, and assets.”
‘Most of the New Jersey drone sightings were misidentified, so it is notable that the ones spotted over Wright Patterson, as with the other U.S. military installations, were seen by trained observers that are equipped with high-end gear to maintain security and to discriminate between friend and foe.’
Oh good we are back at trained observers again. Why on Earth do you believe anything coming out of Trumps mouth? He is a complete and utter arse who lies and blusters his way through life. And to remind you again, Gatwick was closed with no evidence of an actual drone ever being found. Who says that didn’t happen at Wright Patterson?
This is not just one airbase. From the same report:
"Still, as we have reported in the past, there are several confirmed drone sightings in New Jersey reported by trained observers at Picatinny and Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey. A Coast Guard vessel off New Jersey also had a recent encounter with what it called “multiple low-altitude aircraft.” U.S. officials are still trying to discover the origin of drones that appeared over four U.S. Air Force bases in the U.K., a story we first broke. They’ve been spotted over RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall, and RAF Feltwell, all within close proximity, and RAF Fairford, about 130 miles to the west."
A few days ago, Ramstein Air Base in Germany joined the growing list of places registering unknown drone overflights."
Yes, it could still be a flap, but it is now a flap of quite astonishing proportions and duration, if so. And Trump's reaction tells me that there is more to this. He has surely been briefed on the truth, and if there is one thing he hates it is looking like a stupid loser. I don't think he would say this stuff if he didn't have reason to say it
Who are these trained observers? And what training do they have?
They're military personnel at a US airforce base, or RAF bases. Pretty much their entire job is staring at the sky, looking for threats
So I give them more credence than some drunk guy in Jersey City misidentifying planes heading for JFK (which is definitely happening a lot, as that same report says)
And they are not just the latest batch of trainee airforce crew on late night guard duty looking up? Seriously? Lakenheath/Rendlesham was the guards on watch at night, if I recall correctly.
I may be wrong in all this. But it all just smacks of a self sustaining flap, and I give very little credence to (a) Trump and (b) Military spokesmen.
You could be right, still
But there is lots of evidence you're not, yet none of it is conclusive
My best guess
15% chance this is psy-ops 15% chance this is some hi tech stuff they want to hide (but have to train?) 15% chance this is training for some disaster (see public reaction?) 15% chance this is an actual disaster they are trying to avert (the nuke theory) 15% chance this is a flap 25% chance all the other whacko theories: China, pranksters, Russia, interdimensions, a space time glitch, aliens, God, or we are in the Simulation
Most likely a mixture of some of the above, which will be one reason for no official comment. Even if the USAF could trace every drone one night back to college pranksters, suburban gardens, an arms manufacturer's test flights and interservice rivalries, they still could not logically rule out that the previous night had not included official KGB drones.
So we have a bunch of drones amidst more misidentified aeroplanes and even the odd particularly bright star, but any official reassurances would be hostage to fortune.
That line delivered in Kenneth Williams voice I hope. 🙂
Data, Star Trek
Do you pronounce it Data or Data?
Sir Patrick pronounces it Day-ta!
Well he is French. 😎
According to IMDB:
"According to Brent Spiner, [Sir Patrick] Stewart largely affected the way Americans pronounce the word "data". On Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), the name of Spiner's character, Data, was intended to be pronounced "dat-uh", as was commonly used in American English as the time, but Patrick Stewart's used the British pronunciation "day-tah" during the first table read and that was subsequently used for the series. Spiner credits Stewart's pronunciation, coupled with the popularity of the series, for making "day-tah" the more commonly used pronunciation in American English vernacular."
No love for the antipodean (and probably older English) pronunciation, dah-tah?
That line delivered in Kenneth Williams voice I hope. 🙂
Data, Star Trek
Do you pronounce it Data or Data?
Sir Patrick pronounces it Day-ta!
Well he is French. 😎
According to IMDB:
"According to Brent Spiner, [Sir Patrick] Stewart largely affected the way Americans pronounce the word "data". On Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), the name of Spiner's character, Data, was intended to be pronounced "dat-uh", as was commonly used in American English as the time, but Patrick Stewart's used the British pronunciation "day-tah" during the first table read and that was subsequently used for the series. Spiner credits Stewart's pronunciation, coupled with the popularity of the series, for making "day-tah" the more commonly used pronunciation in American English vernacular."
No love for the antipodean (and probably older English) pronunciation, dah-tah?
That line delivered in Kenneth Williams voice I hope. 🙂
Data, Star Trek
Do you pronounce it Data or Data?
Sir Patrick pronounces it Day-ta!
Well he is French. 😎
According to IMDB:
"According to Brent Spiner, [Sir Patrick] Stewart largely affected the way Americans pronounce the word "data". On Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), the name of Spiner's character, Data, was intended to be pronounced "dat-uh", as was commonly used in American English as the time, but Patrick Stewart's used the British pronunciation "day-tah" during the first table read and that was subsequently used for the series. Spiner credits Stewart's pronunciation, coupled with the popularity of the series, for making "day-tah" the more commonly used pronunciation in American English vernacular."
Re the Letby press conference today, a couple of comments:
1) The new team have to keep things on the boil publicity wise in order to be seen to be doing their job
2) I suggest taking no view about the 'expert change of mind' until the expert involved has clearly said the same
3) It is still worthy of note that although the defence in the trial challenged the admissibility and reliability of that particular expert, and made it a ground of appeal, nonetheless they called in defence no evidence at all to rebut what he said at the trial, despite (it is said) having material available
4) Draw no conclusions until the defence failure to call expert evidence is explained.
The commentary on both sides seems to be mixing up two different questions. Did she do it? Was she properly convicted? And you can apply those separately to each death for any number of combinations.
For instance, why the defence took a certain line at trial or did not call rebuttal evidence addresses the question of conviction but not innocence. Likewise it is easily possible that Letby did kill all or some of the babies but that the court's understanding of probability and statistics was low to zero.
I agree with a lot of this; but one qualification on the failure to call defence expert evidence, for which no rational explanation has been offered by the defence or by those who suggest Letby is innocent.
The overwhelmingly probable explanation is that in totality, and when analysed in the light of how it would be cross examined the defence concluded they had nothing safe to use. Either in fact their experts agreed more or less with the prosecution, or if they disagreed would nonetheless have shown in cross examination that Letby was still the killer.
The thought that the defence had decent expert evidence of innocence and didn't use it is not feasible. I draw the obvious conclusion until a better one arises.
I am not a lawyer but have seen it suggested in other, older cases (and by Rumpole) that often defence barristers have to pick one narrative and stick to it, rather than risk confusing the jury.
On the question of the prosecution and bench misunderstanding probability, I see no reason to believe defence counsel would have understood it any better. It was only as the trial proceeded and was published by newspapers that outside experts raised doubts on these grounds.
But tracking back to the dichotomy suggested earlier, it is entirely possible that the jury convicted on the basis of false or misinterpreted evidence, but that Letby did kill some or all of the babies anyway. These are separate questions.
Something is going on with Celtic singers. Cerys Matthews is 55 and Enya is 63! They’re all ageing!
Even I am older than I was then. What's going on?
What's going on is that a lot more people dye their hair than admit it.
I don't know that the percentage is of the US Senate, but it's perhaps quite significant.
It's a genuine surprise if I see someone under 50 with some amount of grey hair, but that cannot possibly actually be rare. My father is 75 and only has a little at the temples, and insists he is not dyeing; I'd have doubts, but his beard is fully grey.
I saw online an actress who is only in their early 40s who was showing a lot of grey, and it was very shocking.
Something is going on with Celtic singers. Cerys Matthews is 55 and Enya is 63! They’re all ageing!
Even I am older than I was then. What's going on?
What's going on is that a lot more people dye their hair than admit it.
I don't know that the percentage is of the US Senate, but it's perhaps quite significant.
It's a genuine surprise if I see someone under 50 with some amount of grey hair, but that cannot possibly actually be rare. My father is 75 and only has a little at the temples, and insists he is not dyeing; I'd have doubts, but his beard is fully grey.
I saw online an actress who is only in their early 40s who was showing a lot of grey, and it was very shocking.
I am 42 and 90% of the hairs on my head are white. I'm like Steve Martin without all that talent baggage.
This may have already been discussed, but have the mods / OGH considered the impact the Online Safety Bill is going to have on PB when it goes into law next March?
It seems a heavy compliance burden & legal liability is going to fall on the site owners?
Yup.
It's why I stamped down on the bullshit that for example Leon and Blanche were desperate to post about Starmer a few weeks ago which they read on X and turned out to be bollocks.
We might put repeat offenders in to the pending folder, so their comments are only published after the mods have checked them.
PBers are quite good at self regulating themselves but we're entering a new regulatory word. Deleting problematic posts will not be effective.
OGH has made it quite clear he doesn't want to spend his pension and his retirement dealing with legal issues.
Point of order, I didn't read about it from X, I heard about stuff from someone close to a story. Some of us have connections, darling
Obvs I am not going to repeat anything, especially if there are insane new laws coming in. Does anyone know how bad they are going to be? Why are we self harming our tech industries? Bonkers
Wow. That looks incredibly wide in its scope, to this layman's eye
It's a laundry list, for sure. But I don't see which part goes to TSE's concerns about libel.
So it is well known that PB is read by senior politicians, including an incumbent PM and a First Minister of Scotland, say some posters posted defamatory content about a senior politician that could be considered a harm.
Because the bill is so broad we won't know exactly how things will be interpreted until we seem some examples and PB doesn't want to be a test case.
Something is going on with Celtic singers. Cerys Matthews is 55 and Enya is 63! They’re all ageing!
Even I am older than I was then. What's going on?
What's going on is that a lot more people dye their hair than admit it.
I don't know that the percentage is of the US Senate, but it's perhaps quite significant.
It's a genuine surprise if I see someone under 50 with some amount of grey hair, but that cannot possibly actually be rare. My father is 75 and only has a little at the temples, and insists he is not dyeing; I'd have doubts, but his beard is fully grey.
I saw online an actress who is only in their early 40s who was showing a lot of grey, and it was very shocking.
I am 42 and 90% of the hairs on my head are white.
Something is going on with Celtic singers. Cerys Matthews is 55 and Enya is 63! They’re all ageing!
Even I am older than I was then. What's going on?
What's going on is that a lot more people dye their hair than admit it.
I don't know that the percentage is of the US Senate, but it's perhaps quite significant.
It's a genuine surprise if I see someone under 50 with some amount of grey hair, but that cannot possibly actually be rare. My father is 75 and only has a little at the temples, and insists he is not dyeing; I'd have doubts, but his beard is fully grey.
I saw online an actress who is only in their early 40s who was showing a lot of grey, and it was very shocking.
I am 42 and 90% of the hairs on my head are white.
This may have already been discussed, but have the mods / OGH considered the impact the Online Safety Bill is going to have on PB when it goes into law next March?
It seems a heavy compliance burden & legal liability is going to fall on the site owners?
Yup.
It's why I stamped down on the bullshit that for example Leon and Blanche were desperate to post about Starmer a few weeks ago which they read on X and turned out to be bollocks.
We might put repeat offenders in to the pending folder, so their comments are only published after the mods have checked them.
PBers are quite good at self regulating themselves but we're entering a new regulatory word. Deleting problematic posts will not be effective.
OGH has made it quite clear he doesn't want to spend his pension and his retirement dealing with legal issues.
Point of order, I didn't read about it from X, I heard about stuff from someone close to a story. Some of us have connections, darling
Obvs I am not going to repeat anything, especially if there are insane new laws coming in. Does anyone know how bad they are going to be? Why are we self harming our tech industries? Bonkers
Wow. That looks incredibly wide in its scope, to this layman's eye
It's a laundry list, for sure. But I don't see which part goes to TSE's concerns about libel.
So it is well known that PB is read by senior politicians, including an incumbent PM and a First Minister of Scotland, say some posters posted defamatory content about a senior politician that could be considered a harm.
Because the bill is so broad we won't know exactly how things will be interpreted until we seem some examples and PB doesn't want to be a test case.
Something is going on with Celtic singers. Cerys Matthews is 55 and Enya is 63! They’re all ageing!
Even I am older than I was then. What's going on?
What's going on is that a lot more people dye their hair than admit it.
I don't know that the percentage is of the US Senate, but it's perhaps quite significant.
It's a genuine surprise if I see someone under 50 with some amount of grey hair, but that cannot possibly actually be rare. My father is 75 and only has a little at the temples, and insists he is not dyeing; I'd have doubts, but his beard is fully grey.
I saw online an actress who is only in their early 40s who was showing a lot of grey, and it was very shocking.
I am 42 and 90% of the hairs on my head are white. I'm like Steve Martin without all that talent baggage.
At my med school reunion, it was either grey hairs or none. Grey hair is better.
Something is going on with Celtic singers. Cerys Matthews is 55 and Enya is 63! They’re all ageing!
Even I am older than I was then. What's going on?
What's going on is that a lot more people dye their hair than admit it.
I don't know that the percentage is of the US Senate, but it's perhaps quite significant.
It's a genuine surprise if I see someone under 50 with some amount of grey hair, but that cannot possibly actually be rare. My father is 75 and only has a little at the temples, and insists he is not dyeing; I'd have doubts, but his beard is fully grey.
I saw online an actress who is only in their early 40s who was showing a lot of grey, and it was very shocking.
I am 42 and 90% of the hairs on my head are white. I'm like Steve Martin without all that talent baggage.
At my med school reunion, it was either grey hairs or none. Grey hair is better.
Something is going on with Celtic singers. Cerys Matthews is 55 and Enya is 63! They’re all ageing!
Even I am older than I was then. What's going on?
What's going on is that a lot more people dye their hair than admit it.
I don't know that the percentage is of the US Senate, but it's perhaps quite significant.
It's a genuine surprise if I see someone under 50 with some amount of grey hair, but that cannot possibly actually be rare. My father is 75 and only has a little at the temples, and insists he is not dyeing; I'd have doubts, but his beard is fully grey.
I saw online an actress who is only in their early 40s who was showing a lot of grey, and it was very shocking.
Went out with an American girl of 30 whose hair was an extremely dark shade of purple. After a few weeks, I ventured to ask her real colour. She'd been grey since age 22.
Something is going on with Celtic singers. Cerys Matthews is 55 and Enya is 63! They’re all ageing!
Even I am older than I was then. What's going on?
What's going on is that a lot more people dye their hair than admit it.
I don't know that the percentage is of the US Senate, but it's perhaps quite significant.
It's a genuine surprise if I see someone under 50 with some amount of grey hair, but that cannot possibly actually be rare. My father is 75 and only has a little at the temples, and insists he is not dyeing; I'd have doubts, but his beard is fully grey.
I saw online an actress who is only in their early 40s who was showing a lot of grey, and it was very shocking.
I am 42 and 90% of the hairs on my head are white. I'm like Steve Martin without all that talent baggage.
Oh pointy birds, oh pointy-pointy Annoint my head, anointy-nointy...
Something is going on with Celtic singers. Cerys Matthews is 55 and Enya is 63! They’re all ageing!
Even I am older than I was then. What's going on?
What's going on is that a lot more people dye their hair than admit it.
I don't know that the percentage is of the US Senate, but it's perhaps quite significant.
It's a genuine surprise if I see someone under 50 with some amount of grey hair, but that cannot possibly actually be rare. My father is 75 and only has a little at the temples, and insists he is not dyeing; I'd have doubts, but his beard is fully grey.
I saw online an actress who is only in their early 40s who was showing a lot of grey, and it was very shocking.
I am 42 and 90% of the hairs on my head are white. I'm like Steve Martin without all that talent baggage.
Oh pointy birds, oh pointy-pointy Annoint my head, anointy-nointy...
Not seen that one. Directed by Carl Reiner? Goes on the list...
This may have already been discussed, but have the mods / OGH considered the impact the Online Safety Bill is going to have on PB when it goes into law next March?
It seems a heavy compliance burden & legal liability is going to fall on the site owners?
Yup.
It's why I stamped down on the bullshit that for example Leon and Blanche were desperate to post about Starmer a few weeks ago which they read on X and turned out to be bollocks.
We might put repeat offenders in to the pending folder, so their comments are only published after the mods have checked them.
PBers are quite good at self regulating themselves but we're entering a new regulatory word. Deleting problematic posts will not be effective.
OGH has made it quite clear he doesn't want to spend his pension and his retirement dealing with legal issues.
LFGSS (a cycling forum) is just going to shut up shop entirely: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/401475/ I suspect a lot of smaller fora might follow in their footsteps.
I don't think we've considered this over at Buildhub, but we're a Company Ltd but Guarantee, and have always been tightly run, with just a couple of awkward types.
The owner of LFGSS (London Fixed Gear Single Speed if anyone needs to know) is worried by the potential personal liability should trolls come after him with the intention to disrupt.
This may have already been discussed, but have the mods / OGH considered the impact the Online Safety Bill is going to have on PB when it goes into law next March?
It seems a heavy compliance burden & legal liability is going to fall on the site owners?
Yup.
It's why I stamped down on the bullshit that for example Leon and Blanche were desperate to post about Starmer a few weeks ago which they read on X and turned out to be bollocks.
We might put repeat offenders in to the pending folder, so their comments are only published after the mods have checked them.
PBers are quite good at self regulating themselves but we're entering a new regulatory word. Deleting problematic posts will not be effective.
OGH has made it quite clear he doesn't want to spend his pension and his retirement dealing with legal issues.
LFGSS (a cycling forum) is just going to shut up shop entirely: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/401475/ I suspect a lot of smaller fora might follow in their footsteps.
I don't think we've considered this over at Buildhub, but we're a Company Ltd but Guarantee, and have always been tightly run, with just a couple of awkward types.
The owner of LFGSS (London Fixed Gear Single Speed if anyone needs to know) is worried by the potential personal liability should trolls come after him with the intention to disrupt.
"I believe the U.S. Government knows what the “drones” are and doesn’t wish to clear this up definitively, preferring panic & loss of credibility to disclosure.
That is the least crazy thing that could be happening. And that is totally crazy."
Of course it knows. It knows that they are aeroplanes.
So why doesn't Trump say that? Belittle the story, accuse the government of allowing hysteria to multiply
He doens't. He explictly says "something strange is going on", and when he's asked if he's been briefed he says "no comment" - he surely has been briefed. He will be president in about a month
Also, this:
"Drone Incursions Closed Wright Patterson Air Force Base’s Airspace Friday Night
Wright Patterson AFB, a high-profile base that's home to critical Air Force units, is the latest installation to deal with mysterious drones.
“I can confirm small aerial systems were spotted over Wright-Patterson between Friday night and Saturday morning,” base spokesman Bob Purtiman told The War Zone on Sunday in response to our questions about the sightings. “Today leaders have determined that they did not impact base residents, facilities, or assets. The Air Force is taking all appropriate measures to safeguard our installations and residents.”
The drones “ranged in sizes and configurations,” Purtiman said. “Our units are working with local authorities to ensure the safety of base personnel, facilities, and assets.”
‘Most of the New Jersey drone sightings were misidentified, so it is notable that the ones spotted over Wright Patterson, as with the other U.S. military installations, were seen by trained observers that are equipped with high-end gear to maintain security and to discriminate between friend and foe.’
Oh good we are back at trained observers again. Why on Earth do you believe anything coming out of Trumps mouth? He is a complete and utter arse who lies and blusters his way through life. And to remind you again, Gatwick was closed with no evidence of an actual drone ever being found. Who says that didn’t happen at Wright Patterson?
This is not just one airbase. From the same report:
"Still, as we have reported in the past, there are several confirmed drone sightings in New Jersey reported by trained observers at Picatinny and Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey. A Coast Guard vessel off New Jersey also had a recent encounter with what it called “multiple low-altitude aircraft.” U.S. officials are still trying to discover the origin of drones that appeared over four U.S. Air Force bases in the U.K., a story we first broke. They’ve been spotted over RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall, and RAF Feltwell, all within close proximity, and RAF Fairford, about 130 miles to the west."
A few days ago, Ramstein Air Base in Germany joined the growing list of places registering unknown drone overflights."
Yes, it could still be a flap, but it is now a flap of quite astonishing proportions and duration, if so. And Trump's reaction tells me that there is more to this. He has surely been briefed on the truth, and if there is one thing he hates it is looking like a stupid loser. I don't think he would say this stuff if he didn't have reason to say it
Who are these trained observers? And what training do they have?
They're military personnel at a US airforce base, or RAF bases. Pretty much their entire job is staring at the sky, looking for threats
So I give them more credence than some drunk guy in Jersey City misidentifying planes heading for JFK (which is definitely happening a lot, as that same report says)
And they are not just the latest batch of trainee airforce crew on late night guard duty looking up? Seriously? Lakenheath/Rendlesham was the guards on watch at night, if I recall correctly.
I may be wrong in all this. But it all just smacks of a self sustaining flap, and I give very little credence to (a) Trump and (b) Military spokesmen.
It's easy to imagine that, after there's one anomalous sighting at one military base, the order is sent out by a senior staff officer to the base commanding officers that they want to hear about anything odd that is seen. So all the guards are told to be extra vigilant and they report anything and everything (even if it's nothing) and the "thing" snowballs from there. Meanwhile the staff officers don't know what these things are, because there's nothing there so nothing to definitively identify, but it's impossible to prove the absence of something - so they're left with the only thing they can say, which is that they're trying to work out what's going on, but don't have any details to share right now.
And in steps credulous fools like Leon to put their favourite conspiracy into the gaps.
It's actually easier to see how something like this can spread among a hierarchical organisation like the military, than among the population generally. And the Chinese balloon incident should have taught us that the military know a lot less about what's up in the sky than most people think.
I don't think this is a patch on the moving statues in Ireland of 1985. Now that was a mass population psychosis event of astonishing proportions and duration. A few misidentified aircraft and some hobby drones is but nothing in comparison.
Has anyone put a bet on England winning the cricket?
Just have and on the draw. Book is green all over now. Crazy low odds for the England win at 26. Seriously low. No way one side in 27 wins from here. It’s never been done.
Something is going on with Celtic singers. Cerys Matthews is 55 and Enya is 63! They’re all ageing!
Even I am older than I was then. What's going on?
What's going on is that a lot more people dye their hair than admit it.
I don't know that the percentage is of the US Senate, but it's perhaps quite significant.
It's a genuine surprise if I see someone under 50 with some amount of grey hair, but that cannot possibly actually be rare. My father is 75 and only has a little at the temples, and insists he is not dyeing; I'd have doubts, but his beard is fully grey.
I saw online an actress who is only in their early 40s who was showing a lot of grey, and it was very shocking.
I am 42 and 90% of the hairs on my head are white. I'm like Steve Martin without all that talent baggage.
Oh pointy birds, oh pointy-pointy Annoint my head, anointy-nointy...
Not seen that one. Directed by Carl Reiner? Goes on the list...
If you want a somewhat more disturbing version, Malcolm Middleton and David Shrigley did "Monkeys" :
Has anyone put a bet on England winning the cricket?
Just have and on the draw. Book is green all over now. Crazy low odds for the England win at 26. Seriously low. No way one side in 27 wins from here. It’s never been done.
This morning I tipped England at 120s.
Excellent of Joe Root to get out and make way for Harry Brook.
Root out. Talking of roots, I once had a haircut at my local, cheap, barbers, with Fat Boy Slim in the next chair. A very nice, modest, unassuming chap, I thought.
Has anyone put a bet on England winning the cricket?
Just have and on the draw. Book is green all over now. Crazy low odds for the England win at 26. Seriously low. No way one side in 27 wins from here. It’s never been done.
England were on 654/5 chatting 696, when they ran out of time and had to catch the boat home from South Africa in 1939.
That's only four runs short of England target of 658.
Probably needed Root to score at least a century though. They'd likely need at least three centurions.
Something is going on with Celtic singers. Cerys Matthews is 55 and Enya is 63! They’re all ageing!
Even I am older than I was then. What's going on?
What's going on is that a lot more people dye their hair than admit it.
I don't know that the percentage is of the US Senate, but it's perhaps quite significant.
It's a genuine surprise if I see someone under 50 with some amount of grey hair, but that cannot possibly actually be rare. My father is 75 and only has a little at the temples, and insists he is not dyeing; I'd have doubts, but his beard is fully grey.
I saw online an actress who is only in their early 40s who was showing a lot of grey, and it was very shocking.
Went out with an American girl of 30 whose hair was an shade of purple. After a few weeks, I ventured to ask her real colour. She'd been grey since age 22.
Was extremely dark purple one of her fifty shades of grey?
Has anyone put a bet on England winning the cricket?
Just have and on the draw. Book is green all over now. Crazy low odds for the England win at 26. Seriously low. No way one side in 27 wins from here. It’s never been done.
England were on 654/5 chatting 696, when they ran out of time and had to catch the boat home from South Africa in 1939.
That's only four runs short of England target of 658.
Probably needed Root to score at least a century though. They'd likely need at least three centurions.
I’m off to bed safe in the knowledge that the game will be over before I wake and the series will end 2-1.
It seems quite long term - the aim is "first wave this Parliament".
It is phased in terms of extent of responsibilities they get, by (some version of) capability.
I'd suggest that means next year's Elections are happening. OCICBW.
An issue will be if Regional Mayors do not respect localities eg " we will buld everything THERE". Of to pander to what they think is *their* constituency disproportionately.
I am not convinced we have that many politicians capable of being good across such a very broad scope.
It's critically dependent on Mayors being very good. That concerns me with a couple of current one's doing culture war ... Ben Houchen on a cycle track is one example. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn4y45yp8pwo
There are some bodies not considered ... Network Rail, for example. Perhaps they have to be sorted out via the DFT.
I don't like policing supervision remaining political.
Like most of the current slow rolling potential reforms, I'd say "Two Cheers, Keir".
Finally would add the mood in focus groups particularly with Lab switchers tends to be “disappointed, but still willing to give them the benefit of the doubt” mood hasn’t set against Labour and if delivery and narrative improve over next year things will look very different.
This may have already been discussed, but have the mods / OGH considered the impact the Online Safety Bill is going to have on PB when it goes into law next March?
It seems a heavy compliance burden & legal liability is going to fall on the site owners?
Yup.
It's why I stamped down on the bullshit that for example Leon and Blanche were desperate to post about Starmer a few weeks ago which they read on X and turned out to be bollocks.
We might put repeat offenders in to the pending folder, so their comments are only published after the mods have checked them.
PBers are quite good at self regulating themselves but we're entering a new regulatory word. Deleting problematic posts will not be effective.
OGH has made it quite clear he doesn't want to spend his pension and his retirement dealing with legal issues.
You could hold all those for whatever is Leon’s wacko theory of the day in the pending folder, and then release them once we’re all asleep?
OR WHEN HE IS PROVED RIGHT!!11!!
...
Which gives TSE/OGH way longer not to worry about it.
It seems quite long term - the aim is "first wave this Parliament".
It is phased in terms of extent of responsibilities they get, by (some version of) capability.
I'd suggest that means next year's Elections are happening. OCICBW.
An issue will be if Regional Mayors do not respect localities eg " we will buld everything THERE". Of to pander to what they think is *their* constituency disproportionately.
I am not convinced we have that many politicians capable of being good across such a very broad scope.
It's critically dependent on Mayors being very good. That concerns me with a couple of current one's doing culture war ... Ben Houchen on a cycle track is one example. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn4y45yp8pwo
There are some bodies not considered ... Network Rail, for example. Perhaps they have to be sorted out via the DFT.
I don't like policing supervision remaining political.
Like most of the current slow rolling potential reforms, I'd say "Two Cheers".
One authority that isn't get additional authority is Tees Valley - there are probably a number of reasons why and I hope a journalist or 2 picks up the (probably dodgy) reasons soon.
This may have already been discussed, but have the mods / OGH considered the impact the Online Safety Bill is going to have on PB when it goes into law next March?
It seems a heavy compliance burden & legal liability is going to fall on the site owners?
Yup.
It's why I stamped down on the bullshit that for example Leon and Blanche were desperate to post about Starmer a few weeks ago which they read on X and turned out to be bollocks.
We might put repeat offenders in to the pending folder, so their comments are only published after the mods have checked them.
PBers are quite good at self regulating themselves but we're entering a new regulatory word. Deleting problematic posts will not be effective.
OGH has made it quite clear he doesn't want to spend his pension and his retirement dealing with legal issues.
LFGSS (a cycling forum) is just going to shut up shop entirely: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/401475/ I suspect a lot of smaller fora might follow in their footsteps.
I don't think we've considered this over at Buildhub, but we're a Company Ltd but Guarantee, and have always been tightly run, with just a couple of awkward types.
The owner of LFGSS (London Fixed Gear Single Speed if anyone needs to know) is worried by the potential personal liability should trolls come after him with the intention to disrupt.
Has anyone put a bet on England winning the cricket?
Just have and on the draw. Book is green all over now. Crazy low odds for the England win at 26. Seriously low. No way one side in 27 wins from here. It’s never been done.
This morning I tipped England at 120s.
Excellent of Joe Root to get out and make way for Harry Brook.
You really don't know who is Kate Burley? You lucky, lucky bugger...
I might well recognise her as YT keeps recommending Sky News to me with big thumbnails. But the name means nothing. I'm guessing Sky's version of the BBC "Sources have told me", "Senior voices are saying", ".... blah"?
This may have already been discussed, but have the mods / OGH considered the impact the Online Safety Bill is going to have on PB when it goes into law next March?
It seems a heavy compliance burden & legal liability is going to fall on the site owners?
Yup.
It's why I stamped down on the bullshit that for example Leon and Blanche were desperate to post about Starmer a few weeks ago which they read on X and turned out to be bollocks.
We might put repeat offenders in to the pending folder, so their comments are only published after the mods have checked them.
PBers are quite good at self regulating themselves but we're entering a new regulatory word. Deleting problematic posts will not be effective.
OGH has made it quite clear he doesn't want to spend his pension and his retirement dealing with legal issues.
LFGSS (a cycling forum) is just going to shut up shop entirely: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/401475/ I suspect a lot of smaller fora might follow in their footsteps.
I don't think we've considered this over at Buildhub, but we're a Company Ltd but Guarantee, and have always been tightly run, with just a couple of awkward types.
The owner of LFGSS (London Fixed Gear Single Speed if anyone needs to know) is worried by the potential personal liability should trolls come after him with the intention to disrupt.
Has anyone put a bet on England winning the cricket?
Just have and on the draw. Book is green all over now. Crazy low odds for the England win at 26. Seriously low. No way one side in 27 wins from here. It’s never been done.
This morning I tipped England at 120s.
Excellent of Joe Root to get out and make way for Harry Brook.
Has anyone put a bet on England winning the cricket?
Just have and on the draw. Book is green all over now. Crazy low odds for the England win at 26. Seriously low. No way one side in 27 wins from here. It’s never been done.
This morning I tipped England at 120s.
Excellent of Joe Root to get out and make way for Harry Brook.
The benefits of removing toxic chemicals from plastics
https://www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10.1073/pnas.2412714121 More than 16,000 chemicals are incorporated into plastics to impart properties such as color, flexibility, and durability. These chemicals may leach from plastics, resulting in widespread human exposure during everyday use. Two plastic-associated chemicals—bisphenol A (BPA) and di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP)—and a class of chemicals—brominated flame retardants [polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)]—are credibly linked to adverse health and cognitive impacts. BPA exposures are associated with ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, DEHP exposure with increased all-cause mortality among persons 55 to 64 y old, and prenatal PBDE exposures in mothers with IQ losses in their children. We estimate BPA, DEHP, and PBDE exposures in 38 countries containing one-third of the world’s population. We find that in 2015, 5.4 million cases of IHD and 346,000 cases of stroke were associated with BPA exposure; that DEHP exposures were linked to approximately 164,000 deaths among 55-to-64 y olds; and that 11.7 million IQ points were lost due to maternal PBDE exposure. We estimate the costs of these health impacts to be $1.5 trillion 2015 purchasing power parity dollars. If exposures to BPA and DEHP in the United States had been at 2015 levels since 2003, 515,000 fewer deaths would have been attributed to BPA and DEHP between 2003 and 2015. If PBDE levels in mothers had been at 2015 levels since 2005, over 42 million IQ points would have been saved between 2005 and 2015...
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
Has anyone put a bet on England winning the cricket?
Just have and on the draw. Book is green all over now. Crazy low odds for the England win at 26. Seriously low. No way one side in 27 wins from here. It’s never been done.
This morning I tipped England at 120s.
Excellent of Joe Root to get out and make way for Harry Brook.
The test match ended just after 2pm local time as England wilted like a (you can add your own analogy, political or otherwise) for just 234 to leave the New Zealanders easing home by just 423 runs.
Ben Stokes didn’t bat and the last three wickets went for 3 runs - top scorer in the England 2nd innings was Jacob Bethell with 76.
Labour is making systemic change. At least unlike the last lot, they are doing things.
We can say all day how bad they are but the Tories really were utterly pointless in the end.
Not just pointless but actually toxic. However bad Labour are or even become, the Tories were the worst government in modern history, and on some measures the worst since the Cabal.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
No. The local Government arrangements have to work for the people and the place. Unitary has a place certainly in major towns and cities but the two tier County/District arrangements represent the duality of identity - the small market town and the larger county.
The other question is responsibilities - who should do what? The current division of responsibilities is imprecise and not always appropriate - running libraries at county level doesn’t convince whereas collecting and administering Council Tax at County level makes more sense.
I think we should be looking at responsibilities rather than structures and organizations.
The civil servant has a point, surely? What exactly is it that the government is trying to do but has been blocked by the Civil Service?
Read the memoirs of politicians of various stripes. An idea, a policy. Why does it not happen? Why cannot a Minister “cloaked in immense power” get something done?
During COVID, at an entrance inside No. 10 Downing Street, there was a keypad lock. Since it was for security it wasn’t disabled. Even getting a gel dispenser fitted next to it took months. Despite the highest in the land (politicians and civil servants) wanting it.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
No. The local Government arrangements have to work for the people and the place. Unitary has a place certainly in major towns and cities but the two tier County/District arrangements represent the duality of identity - the small market town and the larger county.
The other question is responsibilities - who should do what? The current division of responsibilities is imprecise and not always appropriate - running libraries at county level doesn’t convince whereas collecting and administering Council Tax at County level makes more sense.
I think we should be looking at responsibilities rather than structures and organizations.
Lol, this is quite an amusing analysis. I live at the north end of Notts but near a whole heap of rural and semi rural Rotherham MBC towns & villages. Do Gildingwells, Letwell, Maltby and Dinnington not have "Duality of place" ? Metropolitan or Unitary is just more efficient.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
No. The local Government arrangements have to work for the people and the place. Unitary has a place certainly in major towns and cities but the two tier County/District arrangements represent the duality of identity - the small market town and the larger county.
The other question is responsibilities - who should do what? The current division of responsibilities is imprecise and not always appropriate - running libraries at county level doesn’t convince whereas collecting and administering Council Tax at County level makes more sense.
I think we should be looking at responsibilities rather than structures and organizations.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
No. The local Government arrangements have to work for the people and the place. Unitary has a place certainly in major towns and cities but the two tier County/District arrangements represent the duality of identity - the small market town and the larger county.
The other question is responsibilities - who should do what? The current division of responsibilities is imprecise and not always appropriate - running libraries at county level doesn’t convince whereas collecting and administering Council Tax at County level makes more sense.
I think we should be looking at responsibilities rather than structures and organizations.
It’s also a question of incentives.
I’ve seen in France that the local Mayors and councils in rural areas *want* development. They want more people. They want growth.
Not all, perhaps, or all the time.
But it is noticeable. Because the economics work so that they get bigger budgets - the village expanding into a town is an opportunity, not something to be fought.
The civil servant has a point, surely? What exactly is it that the government is trying to do but has been blocked by the Civil Service?
Read the memoirs of politicians of various stripes. An idea, a policy. Why does it not happen? Why cannot a Minister “cloaked in immense power” get something done?
During COVID, at an entrance inside No. 10 Downing Street, there was a keypad lock. Since it was for security it wasn’t disabled. Even getting a gel dispenser fitted next to it took months. Despite the highest in the land (politicians and civil servants) wanting it.
Must finish the header on The Blob.
If civil servants wanted it, who delayed it? This sounds like Dominic Cummings complaining that civil servants insisted on following the law.
A 7.3 earthquake has hit Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu.
The shallow quake has caused significant damage in the capital - the building containing the US Embassy and the diplomatic offices for New Zealand, Britain and France has reportedly collapsed.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
No. The local Government arrangements have to work for the people and the place. Unitary has a place certainly in major towns and cities but the two tier County/District arrangements represent the duality of identity - the small market town and the larger county.
The other question is responsibilities - who should do what? The current division of responsibilities is imprecise and not always appropriate - running libraries at county level doesn’t convince whereas collecting and administering Council Tax at County level makes more sense.
I think we should be looking at responsibilities rather than structures and organizations.
Lol, this is quite an amusing analysis. I live at the north end of Notts but near a whole heap of rural and semi rural Rotherham MBC towns & villages. Do Gildingwells, Letwell, Maltby and Dinnington not have "Duality of place" ? Metropolitan or Unitary is just more efficient.
The problem with moving from the current situation in two tier areas is you replicate or triplicate organisational structures for things like Adult Education, Trading Standards, Highways, Fire and, most significantly, the care of vulnerable adults and children.
The current structures are more professional than geographical in many instances.
Okay, so wakes up to see the German government has collapsed, the Canadian government is about to collapse, the Koreans are still arguing between the President and the Parliament, and the UK government is proposing the postponement of local elections next year, all in the space of 12 hours.
The cricket score though, now that wasn’t much of a surprise.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
I believe the favoured solution here is a ‘Solent’ mayoralty covering Portsmouth, Southampton and the island. Presumably with a few adjacent bits of the mainland thrown in. Whether this is sorting out a mess, or creating one, is the question? Quite how a mayoralty covering two cities of obvious and known rivalry plus the island would work politically, or in terms of the personalities, isn’t clear. Yes, you can argue the whole area has, or should have, some economic synergies, but once you get beyond that, the politics and political issues for each of the cities, and for the island, are different.
Labour is making systemic change. At least unlike the last lot, they are doing things.
We can say all day how bad they are but the Tories really were utterly pointless in the end.
Not just pointless but actually toxic. However bad Labour are or even become, the Tories were the worst government in modern history, and on some measures the worst since the Cabal.
The issue though is the MSM has basically written off any reference back / investigation / proper analysis of the 14 years of Tory Government and especially the toxic years since 2019 as old news and simply and ruthlessly attacked the NEW Government literally since Friday 5th July (I'll never forget a scowling Rigby outside No 10 that morning), and blamed labour for anything and everything that needs sorting literally from that date.
NO PM has ever had a more hostile and totally unfair reception in to No 10.
Their negativity lies slander and denial of the crisis he inherited like a self professing doom loop!
A high-ranking general in the Russian armed forces has been killed in an explosion in Moscow.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defence Forces (NBC), was leaving a residential block early on Tuesday when a device hidden in a scooter was detonated, Russia's investigative committee said.
It added that Kirillov's assistant was also killed.
Morning all. On last night’s discussion re the online safety bill and its effects on PB I was wondering, as someone who knows absolutely nothing about the technicalities of websites and their “location”, could PB not be “moved” so registered at RCS’ address and then protected by US free speech laws?
The updates coming out of Vanuatu suggest the earthquake has caused significant damage and loss of life in and around Port Vila.
The tsunami warnings for Fiji and New Zealand have been lifted but it appears a mudslide has hit the port part of Port Vila but the extent of the damage isn’t clear at this time.
A high-ranking general in the Russian armed forces has been killed in an explosion in Moscow.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defence Forces (NBC), was leaving a residential block early on Tuesday when a device hidden in a scooter was detonated, Russia's investigative committee said.
It added that Kirillov's assistant was also killed.
It’s becoming a dangerous place, Moscow.
First we had all of those unsafe windows, and now randomly exploding scooters on the street.
A high-ranking general in the Russian armed forces has been killed in an explosion in Moscow.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defence Forces (NBC), was leaving a residential block early on Tuesday when a device hidden in a scooter was detonated, Russia's investigative committee said.
It added that Kirillov's assistant was also killed.
Labour is making systemic change. At least unlike the last lot, they are doing things.
We can say all day how bad they are but the Tories really were utterly pointless in the end.
Not just pointless but actually toxic. However bad Labour are or even become, the Tories were the worst government in modern history, and on some measures the worst since the Cabal.
The issue though is the MSM has basically written off any reference back / investigation / proper analysis of the 14 years of Tory Government and especially the toxic years since 2019 as old news and simply and ruthlessly attacked the NEW Government literally since Friday 5th July (I'll never forget a scowling Rigby outside No 10 that morning), and blamed labour for anything and everything that needs sorting literally from that date.
NO PM has ever had a more hostile and totally unfair reception in to No 10.
Their negativity lies slander and denial of the crisis he inherited like a self professing doom loop!
Clearly you’ve never read the press reports on Macdonald’s appointment in 1924.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
I believe the favoured solution here is a ‘Solent’ mayoralty covering Portsmouth, Southampton and the island. Presumably with a few adjacent bits of the mainland thrown in. Whether this is sorting out a mess, or creating one, is the question? Quite how a mayoralty covering two cities of obvious and known rivalry plus the island would work politically, or in terms of the personalities, isn’t clear. Yes, you can argue the whole area has, or should have, some economic synergies, but once you get beyond that, the politics and political issues for each of the cities, and for the island, are different.
I would have thought the Isle of Wight as a unitary with a mayor of its own would make sense given its geography, although 20 years of hard labour in the education system has warned me that government policy has nothing to do with common sense and frequently only a passing acquaintance with reality.
Morning all. On last night’s discussion re the online safety bill and its effects on PB I was wondering, as someone who knows absolutely nothing about the technicalities of websites and their “location”, could PB not be “moved” so registered at RCS’ address and then protected by US free speech laws?
In theory, a British court could order British ISPs to block any website that doesn’t comply with the provisions of the Act. They can also take action against employees or shareholders in the UK.
There’s almost certainly going to be a lot of case law quickly developed, and you can bet that police and prosecutors indend to start with small sites then use that case law to go after the Facebooks and Googles, rather than letting massive companies with unlimited legal budgets be involved in setting the prescident.
It’s worth noting that when Paul Staines set up the Guido Fawkes website, he set up an offshore company in the Carribean, hosted it out of the US, and holds an Irish passport with an address in Ireland. All of which one might suspect was a quite deliberate attempt to stop him getting sued for defamation or libel in the UK.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
I believe the favoured solution here is a ‘Solent’ mayoralty covering Portsmouth, Southampton and the island. Presumably with a few adjacent bits of the mainland thrown in. Whether this is sorting out a mess, or creating one, is the question? Quite how a mayoralty covering two cities of obvious and known rivalry plus the island would work politically, or in terms of the personalities, isn’t clear. Yes, you can argue the whole area has, or should have, some economic synergies, but once you get beyond that, the politics and political issues for each of the cities, and for the island, are different.
I would have thought the Isle of Wight as a unitary with a mayor of its own would make sense given its geography, although 20 years of hard labour in the education system has warned me that government policy has nothing to do with common sense and frequently only a passing acquaintance with reality.
The government wants mayoral areas to have populations of at least 500,000, as per the white paper.
That this mostly involves tacking countryside onto large labour-voting cities isn’t, I am sure, part of the consideration…
Although from a Westminster perspective this is being badged as ‘devolution’, it’s going to feel like centralisation to a lot of us on the receiving end. Parishes only get a passing mention in the paper (apparently the relationship with them is going to be “rewired”, whatever that might mean) but the idea that a mayor sitting in Southampton and maybe a local councillor with the chance to ask the mayor a question every month, elected from quite a large slice of the island, represents real local democracy, is a stretch.
Got to say something is missing in this story and I can’t work out who is to blame - it feels a bit too risky for Ukraine to be responsible
Exploding scooters, presumably based on a rental-type vehicle that wouldn’t look out of place, is AFAIK a new method, so it could be anyone.
The dodgy windows and poisonings are usually the work of the Kremlin, and the explosions usually the work of either internal Russian terrorists or Ukranian special forces, so this incident probably leans towards the latter - or at least someone trying to make it look that way.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
I believe the favoured solution here is a ‘Solent’ mayoralty covering Portsmouth, Southampton and the island. Presumably with a few adjacent bits of the mainland thrown in. Whether this is sorting out a mess, or creating one, is the question? Quite how a mayoralty covering two cities of obvious and known rivalry plus the island would work politically, or in terms of the personalities, isn’t clear. Yes, you can argue the whole area has, or should have, some economic synergies, but once you get beyond that, the politics and political issues for each of the cities, and for the island, are different.
I would have thought the Isle of Wight as a unitary with a mayor of its own would make sense given its geography, although 20 years of hard labour in the education system has warned me that government policy has nothing to do with common sense and frequently only a passing acquaintance with reality.
The government wants mayoral areas to have populations of at least 500,000, as per the white paper.
That this mostly involves tacking countryside onto large labour-voting cities isn’t, I am sure, part of the consideration…
Although from a Westminster perspective this is being badged as ‘devolution’, it’s going to feel like centralisation to a lot of us on the receiving end. Parishes only get a passing mention in the paper (apparently the relationship with them is going to be “rewired”, whatever that might mean) but the idea that a mayor sitting in Southampton and maybe a local councillor with the chance to ask the mayor a question every month, elected from quite a large slice of the island, represents real local democracy is a stretch.
That is interesting as their own research has repeatedly confirmed the sweet spot for unitaries is around 300,000.
If they want unitaries of that size they are going to have to do major reorganisation on the existing ones.
I wonder if Rayner* has any idea of just what fury that would unleash. Or how expensive and time-consuming it would be.
Unitaries out of larger districts with elected mayors at a county level would make a great deal of sense, as long as they were filtered through a modicum of common sense (e.g. the IoW and Cornwall being treated separately due to geographical considerations).
These proposals look like an idiot from London who has no idea of England beyond looking at a map thinking they’ve come up with something clever.
Labour is making systemic change. At least unlike the last lot, they are doing things.
We can say all day how bad they are but the Tories really were utterly pointless in the end.
Not just pointless but actually toxic. However bad Labour are or even become, the Tories were the worst government in modern history, and on some measures the worst since the Cabal.
The issue though is the MSM has basically written off any reference back / investigation / proper analysis of the 14 years of Tory Government and especially the toxic years since 2019 as old news and simply and ruthlessly attacked the NEW Government literally since Friday 5th July (I'll never forget a scowling Rigby outside No 10 that morning), and blamed labour for anything and everything that needs sorting literally from that date.
NO PM has ever had a more hostile and totally unfair reception in to No 10.
Their negativity lies slander and denial of the crisis he inherited like a self professing doom loop!
I used to watch a YouTube channel called 'BlackBeltBarrister' (*). As a non-lawyer, I felt he gave interesting and informed commentary on a few legal issues of interest. I enjoyed it.
Since the election though, he has become rabidly anti-government, with clickbait titles. The last few videos:
"Which of these is worse?" with pictures of Starmer and Lammy. "This could bring them down!" (TV licensing) "None of this adds up" (Reeves) "I was right" (Starmer) "This must be EMBARASSING" (Reeves) "How many will it takre" (Starmer) etc
I am not a Labour supporter, and have not been massively impressed with Starmer's first few months in power. But the BBB channel has become unwatchable due to an utter lack of balance and, sadly, insight. My opinion of him has changed from him being a thoughtful guy who makes insightful comments, to him being an utter nutcase. I wouldn't trust him with giving me an opinion on what to eat at McDonalds, let alone anything legal.
He gets hundreds of thousands of views, and seemingly more than he did before the election, which I think must be why he does it. I'm no longer a viewer of his, sadly.
(Again; it's not the fact he's attacking Labour; it's the consistency of his attacks compared to attacks on the previous government, and the utter lack of any balance or insight.)
Got to say something is missing in this story and I can’t work out who is to blame - it feels a bit too risky for Ukraine to be responsible
Exploding scooters, presumably based on a rental-type vehicle that wouldn’t look out of place, is AFAIK a new method, so it could be anyone.
The dodgy windows and poisonings are usually the work of the Kremlin, and the explosions usually the work of either internal Russian terrorists or Ukranian special forces, so this incident probably leans towards the latter - or at least someone trying to make it look that way.
Apparently the Ukrainians have accused him of using chemical weapons in Ukraine, so I would assume it's them.
Comments
I'm not sure where he is on the CIA, but since it's outside the USA it's presumably unnecessary in his view
"According to Brent Spiner, [Sir Patrick] Stewart largely affected the way Americans pronounce the word "data". On Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), the name of Spiner's character, Data, was intended to be pronounced "dat-uh", as was commonly used in American English as the time, but Patrick Stewart's used the British pronunciation "day-tah" during the first table read and that was subsequently used for the series. Spiner credits Stewart's pronunciation, coupled with the popularity of the series, for making "day-tah" the more commonly used pronunciation in American English vernacular."
I don't know that the percentage is of the US Senate, but it's perhaps quite significant.
So we have a bunch of drones amidst more misidentified aeroplanes and even the odd particularly bright star, but any official reassurances would be hostage to fortune.
https://deadline.com/2024/12/kay-burley-sky-news-breakfast-show-1236204071/
On the question of the prosecution and bench misunderstanding probability, I see no reason to believe defence counsel would have understood it any better. It was only as the trial proceeded and was published by newspapers that outside experts raised doubts on these grounds.
But tracking back to the dichotomy suggested earlier, it is entirely possible that the jury convicted on the basis of false or misinterpreted evidence, but that Letby did kill some or all of the babies anyway. These are separate questions.
I saw online an actress who is only in their early 40s who was showing a lot of grey, and it was very shocking.
Rarely do I spend £6 on a bottle of beer.
https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/fullers-vintage-ale/902418-834239-834240
I have put one away to mature.
Didn't fancy kissing him though.
Now, if it had been Dan Craig...
After a few weeks, I ventured to ask her real colour.
She'd been grey since age 22.
The new Daniel Craig movie, Queer, based on the William S Burroughs novel.
Don't bother.
Annoint my head, anointy-nointy...
I once found myself next to Rev. Richard Coles in the gents in Northampton train station... 🙏
War hero Simon Weston at a Challenge Cup final.
And ex world champion Joe Johnson at the UK snooker.
The owner of LFGSS (London Fixed Gear Single Speed if anyone needs to know) is worried by the potential personal liability should trolls come after him with the intention to disrupt.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42433044
Mostly standard-issue Hacker News drivel, but a few interesting comments.
And in steps credulous fools like Leon to put their favourite conspiracy into the gaps.
It's actually easier to see how something like this can spread among a hierarchical organisation like the military, than among the population generally. And the Chinese balloon incident should have taught us that the military know a lot less about what's up in the sky than most people think.
I don't think this is a patch on the moving statues in Ireland of 1985. Now that was a mass population psychosis event of astonishing proportions and duration. A few misidentified aircraft and some hobby drones is but nothing in comparison.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSmdU66I3pk
(From the same album, if you need a little lighter relief - "The Tree")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivyTyIVgWn8
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14199087/Justin-Trudeau-brink-resigning-liberal-government-collapses-canada.html
Excellent of Joe Root to get out and make way for Harry Brook.
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/5062368/#Comment_5062368
Talking of roots, I once had a haircut at my local, cheap, barbers, with Fat Boy Slim in the next chair. A very nice, modest, unassuming chap, I thought.
That's only four runs short of England target of 658.
Probably needed Root to score at least a century though. They'd likely need at least three centurions.
It seems quite long term - the aim is "first wave this Parliament".
It is phased in terms of extent of responsibilities they get, by (some version of) capability.
I'd suggest that means next year's Elections are happening. OCICBW.
An issue will be if Regional Mayors do not respect localities eg " we will buld everything THERE". Of to pander to what they think is *their* constituency disproportionately.
I am not convinced we have that many politicians capable of being good across such a very broad scope.
It's critically dependent on Mayors being very good. That concerns me with a couple of current one's doing culture war ... Ben Houchen on a cycle track is one example.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn4y45yp8pwo
There are some bodies not considered ... Network Rail, for example. Perhaps they have to be sorted out via the DFT.
I don't like policing supervision remaining political.
Like most of the current slow rolling potential reforms, I'd say "Two Cheers, Keir".
https://x.com/LukeTryl/status/1868737913581965682
This is all that matters.
...
Which gives TSE/OGH way longer not to worry about it.
Brook out.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10.1073/pnas.2412714121
More than 16,000 chemicals are incorporated into plastics to impart properties such as color, flexibility, and durability. These chemicals may leach from plastics, resulting in widespread human exposure during everyday use. Two plastic-associated chemicals—bisphenol A (BPA) and di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP)—and a class of chemicals—brominated flame retardants [polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)]—are credibly linked to adverse health and cognitive impacts. BPA exposures are associated with ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, DEHP exposure with increased all-cause mortality among persons 55 to 64 y old, and prenatal PBDE exposures in mothers with IQ losses in their children. We estimate BPA, DEHP, and PBDE exposures in 38 countries containing one-third of the world’s population. We find that in 2015, 5.4 million cases of IHD and 346,000 cases of stroke were associated with BPA exposure; that DEHP exposures were linked to approximately 164,000 deaths among 55-to-64 y olds; and that 11.7 million IQ points were lost due to maternal PBDE exposure. We estimate the costs of these health impacts to be $1.5 trillion 2015 purchasing power parity dollars. If exposures to BPA and DEHP in the United States had been at 2015 levels since 2003, 515,000 fewer deaths would have been attributed to BPA and DEHP between 2003 and 2015. If PBDE levels in mothers had been at 2015 levels since 2005, over 42 million IQ points would have been saved between 2005 and 2015...
JFDI.
We can say all day how bad they are but the Tories really were utterly pointless in the end.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/16/whitehall-keir-starmer-civil-servants-tories
https://x.com/indecargentina/status/1868733170180669746
The test match ended just after 2pm local time as England wilted like a (you can add your own analogy, political or otherwise) for just 234 to leave the New Zealanders easing home by just 423 runs.
Ben Stokes didn’t bat and the last three wickets went for 3 runs - top scorer in the England 2nd innings was Jacob Bethell with 76.
The other question is responsibilities - who should do what? The current division of responsibilities is imprecise and not always appropriate - running libraries at county level doesn’t convince whereas collecting and administering Council Tax at County level makes more sense.
I think we should be looking at responsibilities rather than structures and organizations.
During COVID, at an entrance inside No. 10 Downing Street, there was a keypad lock. Since it was for security it wasn’t disabled. Even getting a gel dispenser fitted next to it took months. Despite the highest in the land (politicians and civil servants) wanting it.
Must finish the header on The Blob.
Metropolitan or Unitary is just more efficient.
I’ve seen in France that the local Mayors and councils in rural areas *want* development. They want more people. They want growth.
Not all, perhaps, or all the time.
But it is noticeable. Because the economics work so that they get bigger budgets - the village expanding into a town is an opportunity, not something to be fought.
The shallow quake has caused significant damage in the capital - the building containing the US Embassy and the diplomatic offices for New Zealand, Britain and France has reportedly collapsed.
One death confirmed so far.
The current structures are more professional than geographical in many instances.
The cricket score though, now that wasn’t much of a surprise.
NO PM has ever had a more hostile and totally unfair reception in to No 10.
Their negativity lies slander and denial of the crisis he inherited like a self professing doom loop!
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defence Forces (NBC), was leaving a residential block early on Tuesday when a device hidden in a scooter was detonated, Russia's investigative committee said.
It added that Kirillov's assistant was also killed.
The tsunami warnings for Fiji and New Zealand have been lifted but it appears a mudslide has hit the port part of Port Vila but the extent of the damage isn’t clear at this time.
First we had all of those unsafe windows, and now randomly exploding scooters on the street.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/17/lieutenant-general-igor-kirillov-russian-general-killed-moscow-explosion-chemical-weapons
Got to say something is missing in this story and I can’t work out who is to blame - it feels a bit too risky for Ukraine to be responsible
There’s almost certainly going to be a lot of case law quickly developed, and you can bet that police and prosecutors indend to start with small sites then use that case law to go after the Facebooks and Googles, rather than letting massive companies with unlimited legal budgets be involved in setting the prescident.
It’s worth noting that when Paul Staines set up the Guido Fawkes website, he set up an offshore company in the Carribean, hosted it out of the US, and holds an Irish passport with an address in Ireland. All of which one might suspect was a quite deliberate attempt to stop him getting sued for defamation or libel in the UK.
That this mostly involves tacking countryside onto large labour-voting cities isn’t, I am sure, part of the consideration…
Although from a Westminster perspective this is being badged as ‘devolution’, it’s going to feel like centralisation to a lot of us on the receiving end. Parishes only get a passing mention in the paper (apparently the relationship with them is going to be “rewired”, whatever that might mean) but the idea that a mayor sitting in Southampton and maybe a local councillor with the chance to ask the mayor a question every month, elected from quite a large slice of the island, represents real local democracy, is a stretch.
The dodgy windows and poisonings are usually the work of the Kremlin, and the explosions usually the work of either internal Russian terrorists or Ukranian special forces, so this incident probably leans towards the latter - or at least someone trying to make it look that way.
If they want unitaries of that size they are going to have to do major reorganisation on the existing ones.
I wonder if Rayner* has any idea of just what fury that would unleash. Or how expensive and time-consuming it would be.
Unitaries out of larger districts with elected mayors at a county level would make a great deal of sense, as long as they were filtered through a modicum of common sense (e.g. the IoW and Cornwall being treated separately due to geographical considerations).
These proposals look like an idiot from London who has no idea of England beyond looking at a map thinking they’ve come up with something clever.
*Autocorrect does - it made her into ‘Ratner.’
Since the election though, he has become rabidly anti-government, with clickbait titles. The last few videos:
"Which of these is worse?" with pictures of Starmer and Lammy.
"This could bring them down!" (TV licensing)
"None of this adds up" (Reeves)
"I was right" (Starmer)
"This must be EMBARASSING" (Reeves)
"How many will it takre" (Starmer)
etc
I am not a Labour supporter, and have not been massively impressed with Starmer's first few months in power. But the BBB channel has become unwatchable due to an utter lack of balance and, sadly, insight. My opinion of him has changed from him being a thoughtful guy who makes insightful comments, to him being an utter nutcase. I wouldn't trust him with giving me an opinion on what to eat at McDonalds, let alone anything legal.
He gets hundreds of thousands of views, and seemingly more than he did before the election, which I think must be why he does it. I'm no longer a viewer of his, sadly.
(Again; it's not the fact he's attacking Labour; it's the consistency of his attacks compared to attacks on the previous government, and the utter lack of any balance or insight.)
(*) Someone else mentioned this the other week...
https://x.com/osinttechnical/status/1868897042724274297
Looks like those sympathetic to Ukraine are the first suspects here.