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The Wrath of Khan – politicalbetting.com

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  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 61,406
    Sean_F said:

    kle4 said:

    The Rory-JD discourse will probably further drag the UK into a shared political space with the US. There is no escape from the Anglosphere.

    True, but we don't need to fully integrate the worst of each of our political cultures with each other either.
    What annoyed me about Rory Stewart was presenting his wishful thinking about the US election as serious analysis.
    Which he is still unrepentant about.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 44,127
    Perhaps a limited audience for this, but a presentation by Sophie Wilson on the future of microprocessors.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkbgZMCTUyU

    She throws mid-level technical terms around like confetti, but if it helps, when she uses a term you don't understand, just replace it with 'magic' ;)

    IMO worth watching to show the difficulties we will have in increasing chip speed, especially for non-parallelable tasks.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 58,045

    rcs1000 said:

    TimS said: "Now it’s all IQ, and bizarrely specific. I mean who the fuck has actually done an IQ test since the age of about 8?"

    Since 1955, good high school students in the US routinely have taken the National Merit Test, qualifying as semi-finalists, finalists, or even winners of scholarships: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Merit_Scholarship_Program

    Think of it as a sort of public IQ test. (The winners usually get their names in local newspapers.)

    Here's a list of prominent people who have done well on it:
    https://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/interior.aspx?sid=1758&gid=2&pgid=416

    (For the record: In judging elected officials, I prefer, where possible, to look at their achievements -- if any.)

    Bill Gates, Peter Thiel, Jeff Bezos, an actress from Buffy, some astronauts, Supreme Court Justices and Mayor Pete.

    Five Nobel prize winners, except there are at least six because they do not note Ben Bernanke's 2022 prize in economics.
    Economics is not a real Nobel prize.
    Said PB Tories after Paul Krugman criticised austerity. Of course, they accepted Milton Friedman's prize was real.

    Speaking of Milton Friedman, did pb see Kwasi on Mrs T?

    Kwasi Kwarteng: I learnt the hard way, Thatcher's politics don't belong in 2025
    The circumstances that gave rise to Thatcher couldn’t have been more different to today

    https://inews.co.uk/opinion/kwasi-kwarteng-margaret-thatcher-politics-dont-belong-2025-3509499

    And note Kwasi's final line to Conservatives: They should not simply indulge in a grotesque cosplay of an idealised Thatcher who only ever existed in their imagination.

    Apropos of nothing, the same paper last week treated us to:-

    Truss goes full Maga to show Trumpists she's 'a new Thatcher cut off in her prime'
    https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/liz-truss-plan-woo-trump-fanatics-maga-thatcher-3491922

    "Said PB Tories after Paul Krugman criticised austerity"

    I've been recommending Paul Krugman's Substack on here, so I'm not entirely sure why you'd single me out for that particular criticism.

    My point is a simple one: the "Nobel Prize for Economics" was created in 1968 by the Swedish central bank (Sveriges Riksbank) in honor of Nobel and is officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 58,045

    Perhaps a limited audience for this, but a presentation by Sophie Wilson on the future of microprocessors.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkbgZMCTUyU

    She throws mid-level technical terms around like confetti, but if it helps, when she uses a term you don't understand, just replace it with 'magic' ;)

    IMO worth watching to show the difficulties we will have in increasing chip speed, especially for non-parallelable tasks.

    I knew Sophie when she went by a different name.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 44,127
    Taz said:

    ...

    kinabalu said:

    Marianne Faithful has died.

    Sad news. If you listed 10 people to personify the 60s in London she'd be on it.
    Mick Jagger
    Marianne Faithfull
    Michael Caine
    Mary Quant
    David Bailey
    Dusty Springfield
    Ray Davies
    Cathy McGowan
    Vidal Sassoon
    Jean Shrimpton
    You've missed out Terrence Stamp, Twiggy and Julie Christie. But who goes from your list?
    Bobby Moore, the Kray twins and Christine Keeler.
    The sixties wasn’t just the swinging sixties, the second half of the decade. Every name I have seen is based on the second half of the sixties.

    1960-1964 was also part of the sixties.
    I once asked my dad what he experienced of the swinging sixties. He replied that he was too busy trying to earn a living. Having asked a few other people the same question, my impression is that it was something that happened to a small minority of people, but it left a big cultural impression. Perhaps if it had extended to more people the seventies would not have been so dire?

    (Whereas a friend of my parents was very much involved in the Swinging Sixties in London, and always struggled for money later in life...)
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 49,743

    ...

    Taz said:

    ...

    kinabalu said:

    Marianne Faithful has died.

    Sad news. If you listed 10 people to personify the 60s in London she'd be on it.
    Mick Jagger
    Marianne Faithfull
    Michael Caine
    Mary Quant
    David Bailey
    Dusty Springfield
    Ray Davies
    Cathy McGowan
    Vidal Sassoon
    Jean Shrimpton
    You've missed out Terrence Stamp, Twiggy and Julie Christie. But who goes from your list?
    Bobby Moore, the Kray twins and Christine Keeler.
    The sixties wasn’t just the swinging sixties, the second half of the decade. Every name I have seen is based on the second half of the sixties.

    1960-1964 was also part of the sixties.
    The sixties didn't start on January 1st 1960. It started on the release of Love me do. We missed out the Beatles, but to paraphrase Mandy Rice-Davies "I would say that wouldn't I?" Oh and George Best.
    Wasn't it specifically Londoners of the sixties?

    Perec Rachman ought to be in there.

  • LeonLeon Posts: 57,636
    The JD Vance analysis of the dumbkopf Rory Stewart is completely accurate. He has an IQ of 110 - mildly bright - thinks he has an IQ of 130 - very bright

    Add in a posh voice and a good education and it is all explained, including his credulous admirers, who are almost as inane as him

  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 44,127
    Leon said:

    The JD Vance analysis of the dumbkopf Rory Stewart is completely accurate. He has an IQ of 110 - mildly bright - thinks he has an IQ of 130 - very bright

    Add in a posh voice and a good education and it is all explained, including his credulous admirers, who are almost as inane as him

    Your obsession with IQ is particularly stupid...
  • LeonLeon Posts: 57,636

    Leon said:

    The JD Vance analysis of the dumbkopf Rory Stewart is completely accurate. He has an IQ of 110 - mildly bright - thinks he has an IQ of 130 - very bright

    Add in a posh voice and a good education and it is all explained, including his credulous admirers, who are almost as inane as him

    Your obsession with IQ is particularly stupid...
    You have an IQ of 113
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 29,029
    edited 7:02AM
    Taz said:

    ...

    kinabalu said:

    Marianne Faithful has died.

    Sad news. If you listed 10 people to personify the 60s in London she'd be on it.
    Mick Jagger
    Marianne Faithfull
    Michael Caine
    Mary Quant
    David Bailey
    Dusty Springfield
    Ray Davies
    Cathy McGowan
    Vidal Sassoon
    Jean Shrimpton
    You've missed out Terrence Stamp, Twiggy and Julie Christie. But who goes from your list?
    Bobby Moore, the Kray twins and Christine Keeler.
    The sixties wasn’t just the swinging sixties, the second half of the decade. Every name I have seen is based on the second half of the sixties.

    1960-1964 was also part of the sixties.
    Well, were they? Culturally, there's something to be said for considering decades running from mid-point to mid-point, so the fifties meant 1955-64 and so on. Or maybe that sounds too much like an Oxbridge debate title.

    Anyway, West Ham won the FA Cup in 1964 so Bobby Moore still counts, and the Profumo affair was 1963 so I'm keeping Christine Keeler.

    ETA Jonathan & Mexicanpete said something similar only better and first.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 57,636
    edited 7:00AM
    Ho Chi Minh cried when he learned of the death of the Mayor of Cork
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 72,256
    Leon said:

    Ho Chi Minh cried when he learned of the death of the Mayor of Cork

    The loss of Cork let the djinn out of the bottle?
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 29,029
    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TimS said: "Now it’s all IQ, and bizarrely specific. I mean who the fuck has actually done an IQ test since the age of about 8?"

    Since 1955, good high school students in the US routinely have taken the National Merit Test, qualifying as semi-finalists, finalists, or even winners of scholarships: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Merit_Scholarship_Program

    Think of it as a sort of public IQ test. (The winners usually get their names in local newspapers.)

    Here's a list of prominent people who have done well on it:
    https://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/interior.aspx?sid=1758&gid=2&pgid=416

    (For the record: In judging elected officials, I prefer, where possible, to look at their achievements -- if any.)

    Bill Gates, Peter Thiel, Jeff Bezos, an actress from Buffy, some astronauts, Supreme Court Justices and Mayor Pete.

    Five Nobel prize winners, except there are at least six because they do not note Ben Bernanke's 2022 prize in economics.
    Economics is not a real Nobel prize.
    Said PB Tories after Paul Krugman criticised austerity. Of course, they accepted Milton Friedman's prize was real.

    Speaking of Milton Friedman, did pb see Kwasi on Mrs T?

    Kwasi Kwarteng: I learnt the hard way, Thatcher's politics don't belong in 2025
    The circumstances that gave rise to Thatcher couldn’t have been more different to today

    https://inews.co.uk/opinion/kwasi-kwarteng-margaret-thatcher-politics-dont-belong-2025-3509499

    And note Kwasi's final line to Conservatives: They should not simply indulge in a grotesque cosplay of an idealised Thatcher who only ever existed in their imagination.

    Apropos of nothing, the same paper last week treated us to:-

    Truss goes full Maga to show Trumpists she's 'a new Thatcher cut off in her prime'
    https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/liz-truss-plan-woo-trump-fanatics-maga-thatcher-3491922

    "Said PB Tories after Paul Krugman criticised austerity"

    I've been recommending Paul Krugman's Substack on here, so I'm not entirely sure why you'd single me out for that particular criticism.

    My point is a simple one: the "Nobel Prize for Economics" was created in 1968 by the Swedish central bank (Sveriges Riksbank) in honor of Nobel and is officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
    And my point is equally simple – that everyone calls it the Nobel Prize in economics.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 49,743

    Taz said:

    ...

    kinabalu said:

    Marianne Faithful has died.

    Sad news. If you listed 10 people to personify the 60s in London she'd be on it.
    Mick Jagger
    Marianne Faithfull
    Michael Caine
    Mary Quant
    David Bailey
    Dusty Springfield
    Ray Davies
    Cathy McGowan
    Vidal Sassoon
    Jean Shrimpton
    You've missed out Terrence Stamp, Twiggy and Julie Christie. But who goes from your list?
    Bobby Moore, the Kray twins and Christine Keeler.
    The sixties wasn’t just the swinging sixties, the second half of the decade. Every name I have seen is based on the second half of the sixties.

    1960-1964 was also part of the sixties.
    I once asked my dad what he experienced of the swinging sixties. He replied that he was too busy trying to earn a living. Having asked a few other people the same question, my impression is that it was something that happened to a small minority of people, but it left a big cultural impression. Perhaps if it had extended to more people the seventies would not have been so dire?

    (Whereas a friend of my parents was very much involved in the Swinging Sixties in London, and always struggled for money later in life...)
    I remember my dad on the Sixties (he was aged 25 in 1960, living in a flat in then run down Notting Hill).

    "It was a very depressing time, everyone was trying to emigrate"

    Indeed he tried to take his young family to Canada in 1967, but we got turned down for a visa on grounds of my mother's health (the visa X ray found TB).
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 29,029

    Taz said:

    ...

    kinabalu said:

    Marianne Faithful has died.

    Sad news. If you listed 10 people to personify the 60s in London she'd be on it.
    Mick Jagger
    Marianne Faithfull
    Michael Caine
    Mary Quant
    David Bailey
    Dusty Springfield
    Ray Davies
    Cathy McGowan
    Vidal Sassoon
    Jean Shrimpton
    You've missed out Terrence Stamp, Twiggy and Julie Christie. But who goes from your list?
    Bobby Moore, the Kray twins and Christine Keeler.
    The sixties wasn’t just the swinging sixties, the second half of the decade. Every name I have seen is based on the second half of the sixties.

    1960-1964 was also part of the sixties.
    I once asked my dad what he experienced of the swinging sixties. He replied that he was too busy trying to earn a living. Having asked a few other people the same question, my impression is that it was something that happened to a small minority of people, but it left a big cultural impression. Perhaps if it had extended to more people the seventies would not have been so dire?

    (Whereas a friend of my parents was very much involved in the Swinging Sixties in London, and always struggled for money later in life...)
    Same as punk rock in the 1970s – a mainly middle-class phenomenon centred around a couple of shops in Carnaby Street and wannabe edgy teenagers wearing safety pins in their school uniforms, and all over in a year or two.
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,594
    Jonathan said:

    Taz said:

    ...

    kinabalu said:

    Marianne Faithful has died.

    Sad news. If you listed 10 people to personify the 60s in London she'd be on it.
    Mick Jagger
    Marianne Faithfull
    Michael Caine
    Mary Quant
    David Bailey
    Dusty Springfield
    Ray Davies
    Cathy McGowan
    Vidal Sassoon
    Jean Shrimpton
    You've missed out Terrence Stamp, Twiggy and Julie Christie. But who goes from your list?
    Bobby Moore, the Kray twins and Christine Keeler.
    The sixties wasn’t just the swinging sixties, the second half of the decade. Every name I have seen is based on the second half of the sixties.

    1960-1964 was also part of the sixties.
    A bit like saying the 90s were not about BritPop, Blair and Beckham, they were about John Major, Graham Taylor and Robson and Jerome.

    Maybe it’s a shout out for Profumo and Alec Douglas Home.
    Beckham I always think of as early-Noughties. Straddles the line admittedly with the Spice Girls association but his redemption from his WC 98 sending off was complete at the 2002 tournament so...
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 44,127
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    The JD Vance analysis of the dumbkopf Rory Stewart is completely accurate. He has an IQ of 110 - mildly bright - thinks he has an IQ of 130 - very bright

    Add in a posh voice and a good education and it is all explained, including his credulous admirers, who are almost as inane as him

    Your obsession with IQ is particularly stupid...
    You have an IQ of 113
    I've no idea what my IQ is. But your pronouncements on IQ are invariably wrong. :)

    (As I've said before; people going on about their own IQ are invariably stupid, even if they are intelligent...)
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 29,029
    edited 7:10AM
    Leon said:

    The JD Vance analysis of the dumbkopf Rory Stewart is completely accurate. He has an IQ of 110 - mildly bright - thinks he has an IQ of 130 - very bright

    Add in a posh voice and a good education and it is all explained, including his credulous admirers, who are almost as inane as him

    Eton, Oxford, and the Conservative Party. What could go wrong?
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 58,045

    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TimS said: "Now it’s all IQ, and bizarrely specific. I mean who the fuck has actually done an IQ test since the age of about 8?"

    Since 1955, good high school students in the US routinely have taken the National Merit Test, qualifying as semi-finalists, finalists, or even winners of scholarships: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Merit_Scholarship_Program

    Think of it as a sort of public IQ test. (The winners usually get their names in local newspapers.)

    Here's a list of prominent people who have done well on it:
    https://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/interior.aspx?sid=1758&gid=2&pgid=416

    (For the record: In judging elected officials, I prefer, where possible, to look at their achievements -- if any.)

    Bill Gates, Peter Thiel, Jeff Bezos, an actress from Buffy, some astronauts, Supreme Court Justices and Mayor Pete.

    Five Nobel prize winners, except there are at least six because they do not note Ben Bernanke's 2022 prize in economics.
    Economics is not a real Nobel prize.
    Said PB Tories after Paul Krugman criticised austerity. Of course, they accepted Milton Friedman's prize was real.

    Speaking of Milton Friedman, did pb see Kwasi on Mrs T?

    Kwasi Kwarteng: I learnt the hard way, Thatcher's politics don't belong in 2025
    The circumstances that gave rise to Thatcher couldn’t have been more different to today

    https://inews.co.uk/opinion/kwasi-kwarteng-margaret-thatcher-politics-dont-belong-2025-3509499

    And note Kwasi's final line to Conservatives: They should not simply indulge in a grotesque cosplay of an idealised Thatcher who only ever existed in their imagination.

    Apropos of nothing, the same paper last week treated us to:-

    Truss goes full Maga to show Trumpists she's 'a new Thatcher cut off in her prime'
    https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/liz-truss-plan-woo-trump-fanatics-maga-thatcher-3491922

    "Said PB Tories after Paul Krugman criticised austerity"

    I've been recommending Paul Krugman's Substack on here, so I'm not entirely sure why you'd single me out for that particular criticism.

    My point is a simple one: the "Nobel Prize for Economics" was created in 1968 by the Swedish central bank (Sveriges Riksbank) in honor of Nobel and is officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
    And my point is equally simple – that everyone calls it the Nobel Prize in economics.
    Ah, this is clearly some new meaning of the word "everyone" that I was previously unaware of.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 49,743
    edited 7:15AM

    Taz said:

    ...

    kinabalu said:

    Marianne Faithful has died.

    Sad news. If you listed 10 people to personify the 60s in London she'd be on it.
    Mick Jagger
    Marianne Faithfull
    Michael Caine
    Mary Quant
    David Bailey
    Dusty Springfield
    Ray Davies
    Cathy McGowan
    Vidal Sassoon
    Jean Shrimpton
    You've missed out Terrence Stamp, Twiggy and Julie Christie. But who goes from your list?
    Bobby Moore, the Kray twins and Christine Keeler.
    The sixties wasn’t just the swinging sixties, the second half of the decade. Every name I have seen is based on the second half of the sixties.

    1960-1964 was also part of the sixties.
    I once asked my dad what he experienced of the swinging sixties. He replied that he was too busy trying to earn a living. Having asked a few other people the same question, my impression is that it was something that happened to a small minority of people, but it left a big cultural impression. Perhaps if it had extended to more people the seventies would not have been so dire?

    (Whereas a friend of my parents was very much involved in the Swinging Sixties in London, and always struggled for money later in life...)
    Same as punk rock in the 1970s – a mainly middle-class phenomenon centred around a couple of shops in Carnaby Street and wannabe edgy teenagers wearing safety pins in their school uniforms, and all over in a year or two.
    I really don't think so.

    Punk had a major and immediate impact on popular culture and music, as did the swinging sixties. National impact too.

    For example the 1963 film Billy Liar, set in a humdrum working class Northern town, but with Julie Christie symbolising the swinging sixties and escape.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 58,045
    Leon said:

    The JD Vance analysis of the dumbkopf Rory Stewart is completely accurate. He has an IQ of 110 - mildly bright - thinks he has an IQ of 130 - very bright

    Add in a posh voice and a good education and it is all explained, including his credulous admirers, who are almost as inane as him

    As opposed to Donald Trump who boasts of an IQ of how much, again?
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 44,127
    "Tesla’s 2024 financial results are out—and they’re terrible
    40 percent of its profit came from selling regulatory credits."

    https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/01/teslas-2024-financial-results-are-out-and-theyre-terrible/
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 58,045
    Foxy said:

    Taz said:

    ...

    kinabalu said:

    Marianne Faithful has died.

    Sad news. If you listed 10 people to personify the 60s in London she'd be on it.
    Mick Jagger
    Marianne Faithfull
    Michael Caine
    Mary Quant
    David Bailey
    Dusty Springfield
    Ray Davies
    Cathy McGowan
    Vidal Sassoon
    Jean Shrimpton
    You've missed out Terrence Stamp, Twiggy and Julie Christie. But who goes from your list?
    Bobby Moore, the Kray twins and Christine Keeler.
    The sixties wasn’t just the swinging sixties, the second half of the decade. Every name I have seen is based on the second half of the sixties.

    1960-1964 was also part of the sixties.
    I once asked my dad what he experienced of the swinging sixties. He replied that he was too busy trying to earn a living. Having asked a few other people the same question, my impression is that it was something that happened to a small minority of people, but it left a big cultural impression. Perhaps if it had extended to more people the seventies would not have been so dire?

    (Whereas a friend of my parents was very much involved in the Swinging Sixties in London, and always struggled for money later in life...)
    Same as punk rock in the 1970s – a mainly middle-class phenomenon centred around a couple of shops in Carnaby Street and wannabe edgy teenagers wearing safety pins in their school uniforms, and all over in a year or two.
    I really don't think so.

    Punk had a major and immediate impact on popular culture and music, as did the swinging sixties.
    It did:

    It allowed the musically challenged (like me) to have at least a couple of songs that are "singable" on karaoke night.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 29,029
    DougSeal said:

    Jonathan said:

    Taz said:

    ...

    kinabalu said:

    Marianne Faithful has died.

    Sad news. If you listed 10 people to personify the 60s in London she'd be on it.
    Mick Jagger
    Marianne Faithfull
    Michael Caine
    Mary Quant
    David Bailey
    Dusty Springfield
    Ray Davies
    Cathy McGowan
    Vidal Sassoon
    Jean Shrimpton
    You've missed out Terrence Stamp, Twiggy and Julie Christie. But who goes from your list?
    Bobby Moore, the Kray twins and Christine Keeler.
    The sixties wasn’t just the swinging sixties, the second half of the decade. Every name I have seen is based on the second half of the sixties.

    1960-1964 was also part of the sixties.
    A bit like saying the 90s were not about BritPop, Blair and Beckham, they were about John Major, Graham Taylor and Robson and Jerome.

    Maybe it’s a shout out for Profumo and Alec Douglas Home.
    Beckham I always think of as early-Noughties. Straddles the line admittedly with the Spice Girls association but his redemption from his WC 98 sending off was complete at the 2002 tournament so...
    One interesting thing about Posh & Becks was that when they became a couple, she was more famous than he was.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 58,045

    "Tesla’s 2024 financial results are out—and they’re terrible
    40 percent of its profit came from selling regulatory credits."

    https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/01/teslas-2024-financial-results-are-out-and-theyre-terrible/

    And a significant additional chunk came from marking up their Bitcoin holding.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 29,029
    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TimS said: "Now it’s all IQ, and bizarrely specific. I mean who the fuck has actually done an IQ test since the age of about 8?"

    Since 1955, good high school students in the US routinely have taken the National Merit Test, qualifying as semi-finalists, finalists, or even winners of scholarships: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Merit_Scholarship_Program

    Think of it as a sort of public IQ test. (The winners usually get their names in local newspapers.)

    Here's a list of prominent people who have done well on it:
    https://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/interior.aspx?sid=1758&gid=2&pgid=416

    (For the record: In judging elected officials, I prefer, where possible, to look at their achievements -- if any.)

    Bill Gates, Peter Thiel, Jeff Bezos, an actress from Buffy, some astronauts, Supreme Court Justices and Mayor Pete.

    Five Nobel prize winners, except there are at least six because they do not note Ben Bernanke's 2022 prize in economics.
    Economics is not a real Nobel prize.
    Said PB Tories after Paul Krugman criticised austerity. Of course, they accepted Milton Friedman's prize was real.

    Speaking of Milton Friedman, did pb see Kwasi on Mrs T?

    Kwasi Kwarteng: I learnt the hard way, Thatcher's politics don't belong in 2025
    The circumstances that gave rise to Thatcher couldn’t have been more different to today

    https://inews.co.uk/opinion/kwasi-kwarteng-margaret-thatcher-politics-dont-belong-2025-3509499

    And note Kwasi's final line to Conservatives: They should not simply indulge in a grotesque cosplay of an idealised Thatcher who only ever existed in their imagination.

    Apropos of nothing, the same paper last week treated us to:-

    Truss goes full Maga to show Trumpists she's 'a new Thatcher cut off in her prime'
    https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/liz-truss-plan-woo-trump-fanatics-maga-thatcher-3491922

    "Said PB Tories after Paul Krugman criticised austerity"

    I've been recommending Paul Krugman's Substack on here, so I'm not entirely sure why you'd single me out for that particular criticism.

    My point is a simple one: the "Nobel Prize for Economics" was created in 1968 by the Swedish central bank (Sveriges Riksbank) in honor of Nobel and is officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
    And my point is equally simple – that everyone calls it the Nobel Prize in economics.
    Ah, this is clearly some new meaning of the word "everyone" that I was previously unaware of.
    It is the same meaning everyone uses, which is almost but not quite literally everyone.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 44,127
    Hesitating to comment on my own IQ, but this is slightly different:

    Ten years ago I had meningitis, which mucked up my short-term memory. Because it is hard to measure memory, I have little proof as to whether it has improved back to where it was, or whether any decline is down to the meningitis or general aging.

    I also wonder if it affected my intelligence. For months I had a general brain fug that made concentrating harder, but that seems to have gone. I don't think it did affect my intelligence, but I'm unsure.

    Also, how does IQ alter with age?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 73,259
    Someone fact checks Trump’s (unsurprisingly, untrue) claim about the US sending Gaza $50m to buy condoms.

    So it looks like the "condoms in Gaza" were being sent to the province of "Gaza" in...Mozambique. If the Administration doesn't like the idea of helping fight STDs in Africa (like PEPFAR) then they should say so. But they thought you'd think of that other Gaza…

    … Needless to say, the full grant here was clearly not just for condoms. It's for Alcancar, which provides maternal, neonatal, and child health care and also works with the Integrated Family Planning Project in a neighboring province.

    https://x.com/AstorAaron/status/1884724339548774415

    Trump supported the program in 2019.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 120,614

    NEW THREAD

  • JonathanJonathan Posts: 21,786
    Decades usually take a few years to reveal their character. The 80s didn’t get started until about 1983.

    The 20s are an exception, firmly established themselves as utterly shite from a few weeks in. Somehow managing to be worse than the dismal soulless 10s.

    We’ve had a bad run.
  • BattlebusBattlebus Posts: 202
    I've been putting off reading Project2025 - all 923 pages of it, so ran it through Perplexity AI to summarise. One thing I didn't expect was that the concept of Project2025 isn't new(#5). Anyway here is the summary

    The "2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf" is a comprehensive document created by The Heritage Foundation and other conservative organizations as part of "Project 2025," a presidential transition project[1]. This document, titled "Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise," is a collective effort aimed at preparing for a potential conservative administration taking office on January 20, 2025[1].

    Key aspects of the document include:

    1. Purpose: To provide a unified conservative plan for governing, ready for implementation on day one of a new administration[1].

    2. Structure: The document is divided into five main sections covering various aspects of government:
    - Taking the Reins of Government
    - The Common Defense
    - The General Welfare
    - The Economy
    - Independent Regulatory Agencies[1]

    3. Content: It contains detailed policy prescriptions and recommendations for major federal agencies, written by conservative thought leaders and former government officials[1].

    4. Collaboration: Over 50 leading conservative organizations contributed to this project, making it a broad coalition effort[1].

    5. Historical Context: This document follows in the tradition of the original Mandate for Leadership presented to President-elect Ronald Reagan in 1980[1].

    The project also includes additional components beyond the document itself:

    - A personnel database for building and reviewing candidate profiles
    - A Presidential Administration Academy for training potential appointees
    - Transition plans for immediate action upon a new administration taking office[1]

    This document represents a significant effort by conservative organizations to prepare for a potential change in administration, focusing on personnel, policy, and implementation strategies across the federal government[1].

    Citations:
    [1] https://ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/web/direct-files/51289533/c65135ed-7f74-4100-ac00-27bbbc79679c/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf


    Will Trump's P-2025 be as successful as Regan's tenure?
  • MattWMattW Posts: 24,577
    edited 7:36AM
    TimS said:

    HYUFD said:

    Scott_xP said:

    JD Vance attacks Rory Stewart directly:

    https://x.com/jdvance/status/1885073046400012538

    Just google “ordo amoris.” Aside from that, the idea that there isn’t a hierarchy of obligations violates basic common sense. Does Rory really think his moral duties to his own children are the same as his duties to a stranger who lives thousands of miles away? Does anyone?

    I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: the problem with Rory and people like him is that he has an IQ of 110 and thinks he has an IQ of 130. This false arrogance drives so much elite failure over the last 40 years.

    @Dannythefink

    It’s interesting that @jdvance thinks this gap is a predictor of failure. What IQ does Donald Trump think he has? And what IQ does he actually have?
    The highest IQ President since WW2 was probably Nixon closely followed by Carter and the highest IQ defeated presidential candidate was probably Hillary Clinton so high IQ alone does not guarantee success in political leadership
    Why are right wing people so obsessed with IQ tests these days? Where has it come from? People used to talk about intelligence, or intellect, or wisdom, or being bright. Now it’s all IQ, and bizarrely specific. I mean who the fuck has actually done an IQ test since the age of about 8?
    I'd suggest it's at least in part a theme resurfacing from decades ago.

    One of the organisations exposed by Hope not Hate in the October 2024 Despatches documentary was trying to mainstream "Race Science" again, which is the ideas around different "races" being different for IQ, libido etc, and an ideology to allow the current self-regarded "top dogs" to justify their position.

    The modern era has a long history of efforts to establish the legitimacy of race science. Race science states that biological race and genetic endowments explain differences between ‘races’ in intelligence (IQ), health, physical abilities, cognitive skills, and behavioural propensities (e.g., criminality).

    https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9668105/#:~:text=The modern era has a,propensities (e.g., criminality).

    (One of the surveys mentioned in the programme by the organisers on hidden camera was of prostitutes trying to evaluate the libido of black men vs white men and so on. They were being funded by the internet entrepreneur who founded Adult Friend Finder, who ran a mile when it became public.)

    It's the sort of racist theme pursued from time to time by eg Spectator Columnist Taki Theodoracopulos (and perhaps more so in his own Taki's Magazine). He is also party responsible for "The American Conserative" where my "America First" article linked earlier came from.

    The Establishment Right seem cool with it; they only chucked him off the Spectator when he became a convicted, attempted rapist, as well as a public racist.

    The Hope not Hate Despatches documentary is here:
    https://www.channel4.com/programmes/undercover-exposing-the-far-right

    (To be clear - this is my personal opinion.)
  • kamskikamski Posts: 5,410
    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    The JD Vance analysis of the dumbkopf Rory Stewart is completely accurate. He has an IQ of 110 - mildly bright - thinks he has an IQ of 130 - very bright

    Add in a posh voice and a good education and it is all explained, including his credulous admirers, who are almost as inane as him

    As opposed to Donald Trump who boasts of an IQ of how much, again?
    He "aced" that "very difficult" cognitive test that it's "very rare" for anyone to pass. You know, the one where you are shown a picture of an elephant and you have to say whether it's a giraffe or an elephant.

    Does he still go on about that, or is he too concerned about windmills upsetting anchovies or whatever it is nowadays?

    Anyway good to know Trump wants only the brightest and the best working for the FAA. This explains why he's only offering cabinet positions to such a bunch of asshats - he doesn't want to risk make anyone bright or good unavailable for the job of FAA office cleaner.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 61,406
    Jonathan said:

    Decades usually take a few years to reveal their character. The 80s didn’t get started until about 1983.

    The 20s are an exception, firmly established themselves as utterly shite from a few weeks in. Somehow managing to be worse than the dismal soulless 10s.

    We’ve had a bad run.

    Yeah, they haven't been great. No two ways about it.

    That said, Covid aside, at least the weather during 2020 was nice.
  • TazTaz Posts: 16,079

    Taz said:

    ...

    kinabalu said:

    Marianne Faithful has died.

    Sad news. If you listed 10 people to personify the 60s in London she'd be on it.
    Mick Jagger
    Marianne Faithfull
    Michael Caine
    Mary Quant
    David Bailey
    Dusty Springfield
    Ray Davies
    Cathy McGowan
    Vidal Sassoon
    Jean Shrimpton
    You've missed out Terrence Stamp, Twiggy and Julie Christie. But who goes from your list?
    Bobby Moore, the Kray twins and Christine Keeler.
    The sixties wasn’t just the swinging sixties, the second half of the decade. Every name I have seen is based on the second half of the sixties.

    1960-1964 was also part of the sixties.
    I once asked my dad what he experienced of the swinging sixties. He replied that he was too busy trying to earn a living. Having asked a few other people the same question, my impression is that it was something that happened to a small minority of people, but it left a big cultural impression. Perhaps if it had extended to more people the seventies would not have been so dire?

    (Whereas a friend of my parents was very much involved in the Swinging Sixties in London, and always struggled for money later in life...)
    Same as punk rock in the 1970s – a mainly middle-class phenomenon centred around a couple of shops in Carnaby Street and wannabe edgy teenagers wearing safety pins in their school uniforms, and all over in a year or two.
    And Nazi iconography as well. Classy.
  • TazTaz Posts: 16,079

    Jonathan said:

    Decades usually take a few years to reveal their character. The 80s didn’t get started until about 1983.

    The 20s are an exception, firmly established themselves as utterly shite from a few weeks in. Somehow managing to be worse than the dismal soulless 10s.

    We’ve had a bad run.

    Yeah, they haven't been great. No two ways about it.

    That said, Covid aside, at least the weather during 2020 was nice.
    Last Summer up here was quite damp. The Covid summer was splendid.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,484
    Foxy said:

    Taz said:

    ...

    kinabalu said:

    Marianne Faithful has died.

    Sad news. If you listed 10 people to personify the 60s in London she'd be on it.
    Mick Jagger
    Marianne Faithfull
    Michael Caine
    Mary Quant
    David Bailey
    Dusty Springfield
    Ray Davies
    Cathy McGowan
    Vidal Sassoon
    Jean Shrimpton
    You've missed out Terrence Stamp, Twiggy and Julie Christie. But who goes from your list?
    Bobby Moore, the Kray twins and Christine Keeler.
    The sixties wasn’t just the swinging sixties, the second half of the decade. Every name I have seen is based on the second half of the sixties.

    1960-1964 was also part of the sixties.
    I once asked my dad what he experienced of the swinging sixties. He replied that he was too busy trying to earn a living. Having asked a few other people the same question, my impression is that it was something that happened to a small minority of people, but it left a big cultural impression. Perhaps if it had extended to more people the seventies would not have been so dire?

    (Whereas a friend of my parents was very much involved in the Swinging Sixties in London, and always struggled for money later in life...)
    I remember my dad on the Sixties (he was aged 25 in 1960, living in a flat in then run down Notting Hill).

    "It was a very depressing time, everyone was trying to emigrate"

    Indeed he tried to take his young family to Canada in 1967, but we got turned down for a visa on grounds of my mother's health (the visa X ray found TB).
    Not the least great thing about Withnail and I is the depiction of the seedy unglamorous side of the 60s.
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,594
    Leon said:

    The JD Vance analysis of the dumbkopf Rory Stewart is completely accurate. He has an IQ of 110 - mildly bright - thinks he has an IQ of 130 - very bright

    Add in a posh voice and a good education and it is all explained, including his credulous admirers, who are almost as inane as him

    Wearingly, Vance didn’t bother to attack his argument but instead made unverifiable assertions about Stewart’s IQ.

    While admittedly opening myself up to accusations of massive hypocrisy, as before I took a break I was as homineming like a bastard, this is a problem. Even I had a basic stab at critiquing Vance’s interpretation of St Augustine and found it obviously wanting. His IQ is no concern of mine. The most formidable lawyer I ever worked with scraped a third in his LLB.

  • TazTaz Posts: 16,079
    DougSeal said:

    Leon said:

    The JD Vance analysis of the dumbkopf Rory Stewart is completely accurate. He has an IQ of 110 - mildly bright - thinks he has an IQ of 130 - very bright

    Add in a posh voice and a good education and it is all explained, including his credulous admirers, who are almost as inane as him

    Wearingly, Vance didn’t bother to attack his argument but instead made unverifiable assertions about Stewart’s IQ.

    While admittedly opening myself up to accusations of massive hypocrisy, as before I took a break I was as homineming like a bastard, this is a problem
    . Even I had a basic stab at critiquing Vance’s interpretation of St Augustine and found it obviously wanting. His IQ is no concern of mine. The most formidable lawyer I ever worked with scraped a third in his LLB.

    To be fair you are just a random poster on a small forum on the internet most people here do not know who you are. Vance is the VP of the Leader of the Free world.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 73,259
    DougSeal said:

    Leon said:

    The JD Vance analysis of the dumbkopf Rory Stewart is completely accurate. He has an IQ of 110 - mildly bright - thinks he has an IQ of 130 - very bright

    Add in a posh voice and a good education and it is all explained, including his credulous admirers, who are almost as inane as him

    Wearingly, Vance didn’t bother to attack his argument but instead made unverifiable assertions about Stewart’s IQ.

    While admittedly opening myself up to accusations of massive hypocrisy, as before I took a break I was as homineming like a bastard, this is a problem. Even I had a basic stab at critiquing Vance’s interpretation of St Augustine and found it obviously wanting. His IQ is no concern of mine. The most formidable lawyer I ever worked with scraped a third in his LLB.

    Vance is a propagandist, and in the right setting a very talented one (despite his apparent lack of interpersonal skills).

    He doesn't come across as having much in the way of judgment.
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