If Gaza is ethnically cleansed then it's difficult to see how we, as a rich Western nation, can refuse to take anyone. It's exactly the kind of situation the refugee convention was designed for in the wake of the second world war.
As long as the policy is to rescue people from Israel, Gaza, Jordan, Egypt then Starmer would have no choice but to try and sell it to the nation. Perhaps package it up with a proposal to reform the convention a bit to "stop the boats".
But Trump has promised them "beautiful new homes." So that wouldn't be here.
Perhaps Starmer's visit to King Charles' housing project had a hidden agenda.
A smart press pack question to Trump would be to ask of his West Bank position?
“After you’ve brought peace to the Gaza Strip by removing 100% of Hamas from it, what are you going to do about the West Bank, Mr President? Why should the offer of help, nice new homes, jobs and nice safe places for Palestinians to resettle apply only to Gaza Palestinians - from where the evil catastrophe came from which caused the war - and not to those Palestinians whose presence on the West Bank is helping to cause escalating tensions?”
John Bolton suggested the other day that Israel and Jordon jointly control/administer West Bank.
How would it work though? Surely get in the way of Israel intimidating the Palestinians out?
Jordanian “administrators” versus Israeli settlers… FIIIIIIIGHT
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
The west doesn't have a massively good record of integrating people from medeival hellholes. I feel sympathy for them. But don't really want them here.
The obvious solution is that anyone who wants to leave Gaza goes to live on the West Bank.
The good news is there’s a whole load of nice new villages with illegal settlers than can be kicked out. They can live in those.
Strangely, I don't think the Israeli government is going to be too keen on that.
There’s a story to be told, that’s not really been told yet despite how many 2nd World War books keep covering the same things, of how allied liberators, clearly following instruction from Washington and London, allowed communists to seize far far more control, land and opponents to massacre all across Europe, that we should have done more to prevent imo.
I know Czechs came to us saying you are closer to Prague than the Russians, you can easily liberate us first - it was a conscious decision not to. Soviet Union set up Iron Curtain, or should history books suggest allied decisions/deals with Moscow in 44/45 create it?
The Americans actually got as far east as Budweis in the Czech lands, not to mention a huge slice of what was to become East Germany.
Then how come we ceded it?
There was an alliance. See Norway, where it was the Sovs who pulled out. There was no Iron Curtain then.
As for Prague, the ROA under General Vlasov played an important role in its liberation. (By then they'd stopped being allied with Germany.)
Been following the Scottish trans doctor vs nurse case in Scotland. Finally have photos of said doctor. But no clarity about whether she retains her male genitalia. Which is surely the crux of the case (I’m assuming she dies, hence the nurse refusing to refer to her as a woman).
You are mistaken about the crux of the case. It is in the nature of gender critical people that they refuse to acknowledge the possibility of a sex change/gender transition/whatever, regardless of any surgery or presence or absence of genitals. If the doctor had a penis the nurse, the counsel for the nurse and her allies would have said so loudly, clearly, and repeatedly, possibly writing operas about it to ram the point home. The doctor could have sliced, diced and pureed their penis and fed it to the swans and the dispute would still be happening.
The primary locus of dispute is whether the nurse should have harassed the doctor. The defence is that the doctor is a male and hence the nurses actions were not harassment. The penis or otherwise of the doctor is not the issue and was not part of the complaint as (IIUC) the doctor's genitals were never visible.
The crux of the case is that a male doctor is forcing a female nurse to change in front of him, in distressing circumstances for her. And it is her being taken to court. Paid for by your NHS.
Human beings cannot change sex. Whether the doctor has undergone some plastic surgery is not to be discussed in the case. I believe that has been made clear. Visible or not.
It's a man, pushing his beliefs on women. A married man, forcing other women to cosplay his fetishes.
We have here, a doctor, a medical man, who believes that biological sex is nebulous. Who believes that a woman who wants to see a female doctor, who may have suffered sexual assault, may have to be seen by him as he believes he does not have to give personal information.
A doctor who despite not believing in biological sex, always finds himself in the women's changing room at the end of the day. A male doctor who describes himself as a biological female, because he has a body and thinks he is female, despite the obvious.
A lot of people will be questioning how someone who does not believe in biological sex and has the opinions he has uttered in this case, can still be medically practising.
Been following the Scottish trans doctor vs nurse case in Scotland. Finally have photos of said doctor. But no clarity about whether she retains her male genitalia. Which is surely the crux of the case (I’m assuming she dies, hence the nurse refusing to refer to her as a woman).
You are mistaken about the crux of the case. It is in the nature of gender critical people that they refuse to acknowledge the possibility of a sex change/gender transition/whatever, regardless of any surgery or presence or absence of genitals. If the doctor had a penis the nurse, the counsel for the nurse and her allies would have said so loudly, clearly, and repeatedly, possibly writing operas about it to ram the point home. The doctor could have sliced, diced and pureed their penis and fed it to the swans and the dispute would still be happening.
The primary locus of dispute is whether the nurse should have harassed the doctor. The defence is that the doctor is a male and hence the nurses actions were not harassment. The penis or otherwise of the doctor is not the issue and was not part of the complaint as (IIUC) the doctor's genitals were never visible.
The crux of the case is that a male doctor is forcing a female nurse to change in front of him, in distressing circumstances for her. And it is her being taken to court. Paid for by your NHS.
Human beings cannot change sex. Whether the doctor has undergone some plastic surgery is not to be discussed in the case. I believe that has been made clear. Visible or not.
It's a man, pushing his beliefs on women. A married man, forcing other women to cosplay his fetishes.
We have here, a doctor, a medical man, who believes that biological sex is nebulous. Who believes that a woman who wants to see a female doctor, who may have suffered sexual assault, may have to be seen by him as he believes he does not have to give personal information.
A doctor who despite not believing in biological sex, always finds himself in the women's changing room at the end of the day. A male doctor who describes himself as a biological female, because he has a body and thinks he is female, despite the obvious.
A lot of people will be questioning how someone who does not believe in biological sex and has the opinions he has uttered in this case, can still be medically practising.
A smart press pack question to Trump would be to ask of his West Bank position?
“After you’ve brought peace to the Gaza Strip by removing 100% of Hamas from it, what are you going to do about the West Bank, Mr President? Why should the offer of help, nice new homes, jobs and nice safe places for Palestinians to resettle apply only to Gaza Palestinians - from where the evil catastrophe came from which caused the war - and not to those Palestinians whose presence on the West Bank is helping to cause escalating tensions?”
John Bolton suggested the other day that Israel and Jordon jointly control/administer West Bank.
How would it work though? Surely get in the way of Israel intimidating the Palestinians out?
Jordanian “administrators” versus Israeli settlers… FIIIIIIIGHT
To be fair he does say he "once proposed" this in his Telegraph piece. It is not clear from the article whether he definitely supports this now - it is more musings on what Trump 2.0 golf course Gaza plan might mean.
If Gaza is ethnically cleansed then it's difficult to see how we, as a rich Western nation, can refuse to take anyone. It's exactly the kind of situation the refugee convention was designed for in the wake of the second world war.
As long as the policy is to rescue people from Israel, Gaza, Jordan, Egypt then Starmer would have no choice but to try and sell it to the nation. Perhaps package it up with a proposal to reform the convention a bit to "stop the boats".
But Trump has promised them "beautiful new homes." So that wouldn't be here.
Perhaps Starmer's visit to King Charles' housing project had a hidden agenda.
migrants ... granted the right to live in the UK ... made use of a scheme ... pinko judge said something about their human rights ... floodgates ... floodgates ... floodgates ... many applicants using human rights laws (boo! hiss!) to fight their removal.
It's like National Front propaganda from the 1970s, and there really are far more immigrants here now.
If Gaza is ethnically cleansed then it's difficult to see how we, as a rich Western nation, can refuse to take anyone. It's exactly the kind of situation the refugee convention was designed for in the wake of the second world war.
As long as the policy is to rescue people from Israel, Gaza, Jordan, Egypt then Starmer would have no choice but to try and sell it to the nation. Perhaps package it up with a proposal to reform the convention a bit to "stop the boats".
But Trump has promised them "beautiful new homes." So that wouldn't be here.
Perhaps Starmer's visit to King Charles' housing project had a hidden agenda.
To me that could opposite agenda to how media portrayed it, or a bit of both using the other. I think it was about the King chasing this visit for a long time, trying to influence government policy and politicians with his own view of architecture and “community builds.” I have support for the Kings position on this. Labour can rush build a lot of crappy ghetto’s in coming years and hail themselves as brilliant at achieving x million homes, but what’s the point in quantity over quality?
the Kings approach is space for allotments where people can meet, grow their own, and other architecture to encourage community spirit, helping with mental health and quality of living.
I hope they listened to our king, but I doubt they did.
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
The west doesn't have a massively good record of integrating people from medeival hellholes. I feel sympathy for them. But don't really want them here.
The obvious solution is that anyone who wants to leave Gaza goes to live on the West Bank.
The good news is there’s a whole load of nice new villages with illegal settlers than can be kicked out. They can live in those.
Strangely, I don't think the Israeli government is going to be too keen on that.
There’s a story to be told, that’s not really been told yet despite how many 2nd World War books keep covering the same things, of how allied liberators, clearly following instruction from Washington and London, allowed communists to seize far far more control, land and opponents to massacre all across Europe, that we should have done more to prevent imo.
I know Czechs came to us saying you are closer to Prague than the Russians, you can easily liberate us first - it was a conscious decision not to. Soviet Union set up Iron Curtain, or should history books suggest allied decisions/deals with Moscow in 44/45 create it?
The Americans actually got as far east as Budweis in the Czech lands, not to mention a huge slice of what was to become East Germany.
Then how come we ceded it?
Pressure from Uncle Joe - fall back to the previously agreed demarcation, or give up your planned presence in West Berlin.
If Gaza is ethnically cleansed then it's difficult to see how we, as a rich Western nation, can refuse to take anyone. It's exactly the kind of situation the refugee convention was designed for in the wake of the second world war.
As long as the policy is to rescue people from Israel, Gaza, Jordan, Egypt then Starmer would have no choice but to try and sell it to the nation. Perhaps package it up with a proposal to reform the convention a bit to "stop the boats".
But Trump has promised them "beautiful new homes." So that wouldn't be here.
Perhaps Starmer's visit to King Charles' housing project had a hidden agenda.
To me that could opposite agenda to how media portrayed it, or a bit of both using the other. I think it was about the King chasing this visit for a long time, trying to influence government policy and politicians with his own view of architecture and “community builds.” I have support for the Kings position on this. Labour can rush build a lot of crappy ghetto’s in coming years and hail themselves as brilliant at achieving x million homes, but what’s the point in quantity over quality?
the Kings approach is space for allotments where people can meet, grow their own, and other architecture to encourage community spirit, helping with mental health and quality of living.
I hope they listened to our king, but I doubt they did.
Apart from the stupidity about trams, these people have good ideas.
A smart press pack question to Trump would be to ask of his West Bank position?
“After you’ve brought peace to the Gaza Strip by removing 100% of Hamas from it, what are you going to do about the West Bank, Mr President? Why should the offer of help, nice new homes, jobs and nice safe places for Palestinians to resettle apply only to Gaza Palestinians - from where the evil catastrophe came from which caused the war - and not to those Palestinians whose presence on the West Bank is helping to cause escalating tensions?”
John Bolton suggested the other day that Israel and Jordon jointly control/administer West Bank.
Ummm: how would that possibly work?
Ultimately, there need to be settled borders, and Israel seems to have no interest in that currently.
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
The west doesn't have a massively good record of integrating people from medeival hellholes. I feel sympathy for them. But don't really want them here.
The obvious solution is that anyone who wants to leave Gaza goes to live on the West Bank.
The good news is there’s a whole load of nice new villages with illegal settlers than can be kicked out. They can live in those.
Strangely, I don't think the Israeli government is going to be too keen on that.
There’s a story to be told, that’s not really been told yet despite how many 2nd World War books keep covering the same things, of how allied liberators, clearly following instruction from Washington and London, allowed communists to seize far far more control, land and opponents to massacre all across Europe, that we should have done more to prevent imo.
I know Czechs came to us saying you are closer to Prague than the Russians, you can easily liberate us first - it was a conscious decision not to. Soviet Union set up Iron Curtain, or should history books suggest allied decisions/deals with Moscow in 44/45 create it?
The Americans actually got as far east as Budweis in the Czech lands, not to mention a huge slice of what was to become East Germany.
Well I have just found a branch of mathematics that really isn't that out there which none of the LLMs can do at all, total and utter bust, no matter how much guidance, attempts to correct, show and tell examples, etc.
Well I have just found a branch of mathematics that really isn't that out there which none of the LLMs can do at all, total and utter bust, no matter how much guidance, attempts to correct, show and tell examples, etc.
Well I have just found a branch of mathematics that really isn't that out there which none of the LLMs can do at all, total and utter bust, no matter how much guidance, attempts to correct, show and tell examples, etc.
Well I have just found a branch of mathematics that really isn't that out there which none of the LLMs can do at all, total and utter bust, no matter how much guidance, attempts to correct, show and tell examples, etc.
...and it is?
Well the most well known / introductory part of it that engineering students probably seen is dual-quaternions. There is a much more complicated and deeper things you can look at to do with the idea of the dual and algebra of geometry. But they can't do any dual quaternion properly at all. It spits out the textbook definitions, but can't use them properly.
It makes me very suspicious of all these maths test benchmarks they show they say they now operate at grad level maths.
Well I have just found a branch of mathematics that really isn't that out there which none of the LLMs can do at all, total and utter bust, no matter how much guidance, attempts to correct, show and tell examples, etc.
...and it is?
Well the most well known / introductory part of it that engineering students probably seen is dual-quaternions. There is a much more complicated and deeper things you can look at to do with the idea of the dual and algebra of geometry. But they can't do any dual quaternion properly at all. It spits out the textbook definitions, but can't use them properly.
It makes me very suspicious of all these maths test benchmarks they show they say they now operate at grad level maths.
You can make the LLMs learn anything by brute forcing them: showing them millions of examples, and using that to train their neural nets. That's why they perform so well on synthetic maths tests: it's because they've been trained with millions of examples that are incredibly close to the questions they'll be asked.
But when you interact with ChatGPT, there is essentially no training. You are not updating its network of connections. So you cannot really teach them new concepts.
At some point in the future, someone will train the models on dual quarternions, and then they pass your math test.
But until there is an ability for these networks to be constantly updating themselves as they interact with the world and users, then they cannot learn in any meaningful way outside of structured training. It's why -despite them being incredibly good at many things- we don't have anything like AGI today.
Well I have just found a branch of mathematics that really isn't that out there which none of the LLMs can do at all, total and utter bust, no matter how much guidance, attempts to correct, show and tell examples, etc.
...and it is?
Well the most well known / introductory part of it that engineering students probably seen is dual-quaternions. There is a much more complicated and deeper things you can look at to do with the idea of the dual and algebra of geometry. But they can't do any dual quaternion properly at all. It spits out the textbook definitions, but can't use them properly.
It makes me very suspicious of all these maths test benchmarks they show they say they now operate at grad level maths.
You can make the LLMs learn anything by brute forcing them: showing them millions of examples, and using that to train their neural nets. That's why they perform so well on synthetic maths tests: it's because they've been trained with millions of examples that are incredibly close to the questions they'll be asked.
But when you interact with ChatGPT, there is essentially no training. You are not updating its network of connections. So you cannot really teach them new concepts.
At some point in the future, someone will train the models on dual quarternions, and then they pass your math test.
But until there is an ability for these networks to be constantly updating themselves as they interact with the world and users, then they cannot learn in any meaningful way outside of structured training. It's why -despite them being incredibly good at many things- we don't have anything like AGI today.
Of course. My point isn't really specifically dual quaternions, but there is a whole very large branch of maths that moves in the same world. I am genuinely shocked not been trained on it and also that none of these supposed maths benchmarks involve problems about it. The ideas of the dual / dual space are all over maths.
Its also shows this whole "reasoning" element really isn't that impressive. It literally can't "reason" about something very simple (a maths undergraduate can do this stuff with no problem), despite knowing the textbook definitions.
The government has toughened up rules making it almost impossible for a refugee who arrives in the UK on a small boat to become a British citizen. New guidance states that anyone who enters the UK illegally will normally be refused citizenship, regardless of the time that has passed.
In a statement the Home Office said the strengthened measures made it clear that anyone who entered the UK illegally – including on small boats – would face having a British citizenship application refused.
The government has toughened up rules making it almost impossible for a refugee who arrives in the UK on a small boat to become a British citizen. New guidance states that anyone who enters the UK illegally will normally be refused citizenship, regardless of the time that has passed.
In a statement the Home Office said the strengthened measures made it clear that anyone who entered the UK illegally – including on small boats – would face having a British citizenship application refused.
Oliver Johnson @BristOliver Extremely impressive list of signatories to a letter in the Times about the value of maths to AI, and the folly of Government cuts to A Level support
The top story on tonight’s New Zealand evening news linking it to a series of anti-Semitic attacks in Australia in recent months. There’s no evidence the filmed conversations were anything more than banter - New Zealand also recently shut down a hotline where people were being asked to report sightings of IDF forces on holiday.
Second story was the second day of the Gisborne siege drama - the stand off continues as the cat refuses to come down from the tree……
Off topic but I think it's here that someone keeps going on about the Ngorongoro Crater - just planning annual trip to Southern Africa and considering it - is it really that great?
I don’t think I’ve seen it mentioned on here, but maybe I missed it. Anyway, I went there years ago and camped on the crater rim, and it was pretty impressive.
The inside of the crater looks a bit like the Black Mountains in the sunshine, with wildebeest and flamingos. The landscape on the drive there is beautiful: lush, rolling, oddly like the drive towards the Black Mountains through Southern Herefordshire.
Thanks. Worth a few days of "diversion" though? Assume for sake of this that everyone involved has been on safari before and seen the big 4 but not necessarily particularly "impressive" manifestations thereof.
There's definitely someone who considers it magical though.
I would absolutely go to the Ngorongoro crater if you have a chance and then head over tor Zanzibar. My wife and I went as part of our honeymoon and it's genuinely the best place I've ever been.
Yes Zanzibar is great. Stone Town is a weird mix of influences - Arab slavers, Indian traders, black African and of course English to provide a veneer of technology (like Africa's oldest electricity supply and lift). The unique carved wooden doors are famous. And the beaches are wonderful. And the Tanzanians are very friendly - they say "Jambo!" ("Hi") even to complete strangers.
Stone Town was home to Freddie Mercury in his boyhood. And those doors.
As feared, we are at risk because of the way Trump sees VAT.
Yes.
This is the BS Chump was coming up with about Usonian cars and the EU - that they were that unfair import duties that disadvantaged Usonian cars. His figures were something like 30% import duty vs 10%. I don't know if he counted Usonian sales takes as state / district level.
He ignored - as one would expect given that he has the economics understanding of a teddy bear - that in UK/Europe VAT applies to all cars, not just Usonian ones, that plenty of normal Usonian marque cars sell in UK/Europe (including some horrible tonka tanks), and that ones made in North America don't generally come here because they are dangerous & designed for lobotomised rednecks *.
* With apologies to OGH Minor's ownership of his Rivian. Perhaps it wasn't designed for him? .
If Gaza is ethnically cleansed then it's difficult to see how we, as a rich Western nation, can refuse to take anyone. It's exactly the kind of situation the refugee convention was designed for in the wake of the second world war.
As long as the policy is to rescue people from Israel, Gaza, Jordan, Egypt then Starmer would have no choice but to try and sell it to the nation. Perhaps package it up with a proposal to reform the convention a bit to "stop the boats".
But Trump has promised them "beautiful new homes." So that wouldn't be here.
As feared, we are at risk because of the way Trump sees VAT.
Yes.
This is the BS Chump was coming up with about Usonian cars and the EU - that they were that unfair import duties that disadvantaged Usonian cars. His figures were something like 30% import duty vs 10%. I don't know if he counted Usonian sales takes as state / district level.
He ignored - as one would expect given that he has the economics understanding of a teddy bear - that in UK/Europe VAT applies to all cars, not just Usonian ones, that plenty of normal Usonian marque cars sell in UK/Europe (including some horrible tonka tanks), and that ones made in North America don't generally come here because they are dangerous & designed for lobotomised rednecks *.
* With apologies to OGH Minor's ownership of his Rivian. Perhaps it wasn't designed for him? .
BTW I got the full article on that one btw, and I don't know where we are on linking to archive sites the Telegraph let's through its paywall. But I have a very good plugin called Archive Today Automator which is single click.
The top story on tonight’s New Zealand evening news linking it to a series of anti-Semitic attacks in Australia in recent months. There’s no evidence the filmed conversations were anything more than banter - New Zealand also recently shut down a hotline where people were being asked to report sightings of IDF forces on holiday.
Second story was the second day of the Gisborne siege drama - the stand off continues as the cat refuses to come down from the tree……
Even if it is banter, it is out of order and the nurses/doctors should be sacked.
I am not Israeli or Jewish, and if I overheard a medical practitioner talking like that, I would have concerns over how they might treat me. After all, who knows how they might find me objectionable?
The Goldman Sachs International's chief executive Richard Gnodde circumlocuting himself into a Knot of Gordion:
The investment bank had pledged that it would only help a business sell its shares on a stock exchange if it had two diverse board members, one of which had to be a woman.
But Richard Gnodde told the BBC: "That policy was put in place to try and drive a change in behaviour and I think that's happened."
In a wide-ranging interview, he also said the UK government needed to get on and start infrastructure projects now and warned that uncertainty over US policy was dampening firms' "animal spirit". ... "This was a policy from a decade or so ago *, I think it has served its purpose." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gwvxn5377o
Just say what you mean, man, if that's what you mean, and stop sounding like Arthur Dent modelling a pair of leopard print Speedos enclosing an added shuttlecock like Wham.
I can see I'm going to lose my patience with these Walters trying to Dennis-the-Menace-signal.
* Actually 2020. His arithmetic skills are following Mr Trump's tax returns, as well.
The top story on tonight’s New Zealand evening news linking it to a series of anti-Semitic attacks in Australia in recent months. There’s no evidence the filmed conversations were anything more than banter - New Zealand also recently shut down a hotline where people were being asked to report sightings of IDF forces on holiday.
Second story was the second day of the Gisborne siege drama - the stand off continues as the cat refuses to come down from the tree……
Even if it is banter, it is out of order and the nurses/doctors should be sacked.
I am not Israeli or Jewish, and if I overheard a medical practitioner talking like that, I would have concerns over how they might treat me. After all, who knows how they might find me objectionable?
The latest from Sydney is the three nurses involved are talking to the Police and expect to be fired despite a public apology. One is a recent citizen having been an Afghan refugee.
As feared, we are at risk because of the way Trump sees VAT.
Yes.
This is the BS Chump was coming up with about Usonian cars and the EU - that they were that unfair import duties that disadvantaged Usonian cars. His figures were something like 30% import duty vs 10%. I don't know if he counted Usonian sales takes as state / district level.
He ignored - as one would expect given that he has the economics understanding of a teddy bear - that in UK/Europe VAT applies to all cars, not just Usonian ones, that plenty of normal Usonian marque cars sell in UK/Europe (including some horrible tonka tanks), and that ones made in North America don't generally come here because they are dangerous & designed for lobotomised rednecks *.
* With apologies to OGH Minor's ownership of his Rivian. Perhaps it wasn't designed for him? .
Had your teddy bear done something to upset you this morning? If not, why are you so rude about it?
Bill Kristol @BillKristol · 13m Prediction: Trump will never again let Musk take questions in the Oval Office.
Perhaps those who are anti Trump-Musk in the media and entertainment or other high profile people should start referring to President Musk. The more everyone does that the more angry Trump will get as Musk will start to believe it and they can have a dirty great fall-out.
On obscure but possibly important items, is anyone aware of the UK's policy if any to encourage British flagged merchant shipping, and build up the merchant navy?
There were successful but quiet practices within HMRC and other places iirc in the noughties to build, then everything drifted and Brexit happened, and promises evaporated. My photo quota, weight of ships flagged to UK:
If Gaza is ethnically cleansed then it's difficult to see how we, as a rich Western nation, can refuse to take anyone. It's exactly the kind of situation the refugee convention was designed for in the wake of the second world war.
As long as the policy is to rescue people from Israel, Gaza, Jordan, Egypt then Starmer would have no choice but to try and sell it to the nation. Perhaps package it up with a proposal to reform the convention a bit to "stop the boats".
But Trump has promised them "beautiful new homes." So that wouldn't be here.
And certainly not in poorer Jordan - a country with a tenth our GDP per capita.
As feared, we are at risk because of the way Trump sees VAT.
Yes.
This is the BS Chump was coming up with about Usonian cars and the EU - that they were that unfair import duties that disadvantaged Usonian cars. His figures were something like 30% import duty vs 10%. I don't know if he counted Usonian sales takes as state / district level.
He ignored - as one would expect given that he has the economics understanding of a teddy bear - that in UK/Europe VAT applies to all cars, not just Usonian ones, that plenty of normal Usonian marque cars sell in UK/Europe (including some horrible tonka tanks), and that ones made in North America don't generally come here because they are dangerous & designed for lobotomised rednecks *.
* With apologies to OGH Minor's ownership of his Rivian. Perhaps it wasn't designed for him? .
Had your teddy bear done something to upset you this morning? If not, why are you so rude about it?
His woolly-kapok is escaping and I thought of Mr Trump.
I'd actually like to switch the Archbishop Rowan Bear off my avatar, but I can't find the option .
It's time for a change, and Monsieur Maladroit is waiting.
On obscure but possibly important items, is anyone aware of the UK's policy if any to encourage British flagged merchant shipping, and build up the merchant navy?
There were successful but quiet practices within HMRC and other places iirc in the noughties to build, then everything drifted and Brexit happened, and promises evaporated. My photo quota, weight of ships flagged to UK:
If I were world dictator, I would stop the flags of convenience nonsense and force all the world's shipping to adhere to minimum standards, perhaps set by the ITF.
The standards some sailors endure in the merchant navies is sometimes akin to slavery. And we all turn a blind eye as we get our cheap goods.
A smart press pack question to Trump would be to ask of his West Bank position?
“After you’ve brought peace to the Gaza Strip by removing 100% of Hamas from it, what are you going to do about the West Bank, Mr President? Why should the offer of help, nice new homes, jobs and nice safe places for Palestinians to resettle apply only to Gaza Palestinians - from where the evil catastrophe came from which caused the war - and not to those Palestinians whose presence on the West Bank is helping to cause escalating tensions?”
John Bolton suggested the other day that Israel and Jordon jointly control/administer West Bank.
How would it work though? Surely get in the way of Israel intimidating the Palestinians out?
Jordanian “administrators” versus Israeli settlers… FIIIIIIIGHT
Jordan is very heavily reliant on Israel for power and especially water. There would be no fighting that would jeopardise their agreements on either.
Some Jordanian politicians claim otherwise but they are lying more fluently than Trump. If they ever got into power God help the Jordanian people who already have major water shortages to contend with.
As feared, we are at risk because of the way Trump sees VAT.
Yes.
This is the BS Chump was coming up with about Usonian cars and the EU - that they were that unfair import duties that disadvantaged Usonian cars. His figures were something like 30% import duty vs 10%. I don't know if he counted Usonian sales takes as state / district level.
He ignored - as one would expect given that he has the economics understanding of a teddy bear - that in UK/Europe VAT applies to all cars, not just Usonian ones, that plenty of normal Usonian marque cars sell in UK/Europe (including some horrible tonka tanks), and that ones made in North America don't generally come here because they are dangerous & designed for lobotomised rednecks *.
* With apologies to OGH Minor's ownership of his Rivian. Perhaps it wasn't designed for him? .
I have not been lobotomized; or at least, not recently.
GB News spent some of today interviewing someone from 'DOGE UK'.
So it begins...
Let's copy America and go down the Trump rabbit hole into a fascist state.
Just great.
As it happens this person - Charlotte Gill - has often flooded twitter with examples of what she says is wasteful woke spending. So she has form.
So, not DOGE, more DODGY.
If Sir One Term wanted to copy DOGE but claim originality, he could retool that daft 'Department of Value for Money' thing he created and get that to do the hacking and slashing. There are enough daft quangos in this country to find billions of savings before cutting to any actual bone.
I know it's dropped off the news, and thankfully they've apparently reopened some roads (We shall see though !) but just clocked why police are terrified to storm the Sheffield flat. Nothing to do with Wilgoose as I was thinking yesterday but it's the Martyn Blake prosecution....
Two New South Wales hospital workers who appeared in a social media video appearing to threaten to refuse to treat and to kill Israeli patients have been identified as nurses at a Sydney hospital and have been “stood down immediately”, the state’s health minister says.
Well I have just found a branch of mathematics that really isn't that out there which none of the LLMs can do at all, total and utter bust, no matter how much guidance, attempts to correct, show and tell examples, etc.
...and it is?
Well the most well known / introductory part of it that engineering students probably seen is dual-quaternions. There is a much more complicated and deeper things you can look at to do with the idea of the dual and algebra of geometry. But they can't do any dual quaternion properly at all. It spits out the textbook definitions, but can't use them properly.
It makes me very suspicious of all these maths test benchmarks they show they say they now operate at grad level maths.
You can make the LLMs learn anything by brute forcing them: showing them millions of examples, and using that to train their neural nets. That's why they perform so well on synthetic maths tests: it's because they've been trained with millions of examples that are incredibly close to the questions they'll be asked.
But when you interact with ChatGPT, there is essentially no training. You are not updating its network of connections. So you cannot really teach them new concepts.
At some point in the future, someone will train the models on dual quarternions, and then they pass your math test.
But until there is an ability for these networks to be constantly updating themselves as they interact with the world and users, then they cannot learn in any meaningful way outside of structured training. It's why -despite them being incredibly good at many things- we don't have anything like AGI today.
Of course. My point isn't really specifically dual quaternions, but there is a whole very large branch of maths that moves in the same world. I am genuinely shocked not been trained on it and also that none of these supposed maths benchmarks involve problems about it. The ideas of the dual / dual space are all over maths.
Its also shows this whole "reasoning" element really isn't that impressive. It literally can't "reason" about something very simple (a maths undergraduate can do this stuff with no problem), despite knowing the textbook definitions.
Indeed. That’s because it can’t reason. It’s an LLM. It can predict the next word.
As feared, we are at risk because of the way Trump sees VAT.
Yes.
This is the BS Chump was coming up with about Usonian cars and the EU - that they were that unfair import duties that disadvantaged Usonian cars. His figures were something like 30% import duty vs 10%. I don't know if he counted Usonian sales takes as state / district level.
He ignored - as one would expect given that he has the economics understanding of a teddy bear - that in UK/Europe VAT applies to all cars, not just Usonian ones, that plenty of normal Usonian marque cars sell in UK/Europe (including some horrible tonka tanks), and that ones made in North America don't generally come here because they are dangerous & designed for lobotomised rednecks *.
* With apologies to OGH Minor's ownership of his Rivian. Perhaps it wasn't designed for him? .
I have not been lobotomized; or at least, not recently.
Well I have just found a branch of mathematics that really isn't that out there which none of the LLMs can do at all, total and utter bust, no matter how much guidance, attempts to correct, show and tell examples, etc.
...and it is?
Well the most well known / introductory part of it that engineering students probably seen is dual-quaternions. There is a much more complicated and deeper things you can look at to do with the idea of the dual and algebra of geometry. But they can't do any dual quaternion properly at all. It spits out the textbook definitions, but can't use them properly.
It makes me very suspicious of all these maths test benchmarks they show they say they now operate at grad level maths.
Didn't do any dual quarternions myself at uni but shouldn't this be precisely the sort of thing AI can do ?
Bill Kristol @BillKristol · 13m Prediction: Trump will never again let Musk take questions in the Oval Office.
Perhaps those who are anti Trump-Musk in the media and entertainment or other high profile people should start referring to President Musk. The more everyone does that the more angry Trump will get as Musk will start to believe it and they can have a dirty great fall-out.
Off topic but I think it's here that someone keeps going on about the Ngorongoro Crater - just planning annual trip to Southern Africa and considering it - is it really that great?
I don’t think I’ve seen it mentioned on here, but maybe I missed it. Anyway, I went there years ago and camped on the crater rim, and it was pretty impressive.
The inside of the crater looks a bit like the Black Mountains in the sunshine, with wildebeest and flamingos. The landscape on the drive there is beautiful: lush, rolling, oddly like the drive towards the Black Mountains through Southern Herefordshire.
Thanks. Worth a few days of "diversion" though? Assume for sake of this that everyone involved has been on safari before and seen the big 4 but not necessarily particularly "impressive" manifestations thereof.
There's definitely someone who considers it magical though.
I would absolutely go to the Ngorongoro crater if you have a chance and then head over tor Zanzibar. My wife and I went as part of our honeymoon and it's genuinely the best place I've ever been.
Yes Zanzibar is great. Stone Town is a weird mix of influences - Arab slavers, Indian traders, black African and of course English to provide a veneer of technology (like Africa's oldest electricity supply and lift). The unique carved wooden doors are famous. And the beaches are wonderful. And the Tanzanians are very friendly - they say "Jambo!" ("Hi") even to complete strangers.
Stone Town was home to Freddie Mercury in his boyhood. And those doors.
Been following the Scottish trans doctor vs nurse case in Scotland. Finally have photos of said doctor. But no clarity about whether she retains her male genitalia. Which is surely the crux of the case (I’m assuming she dies, hence the nurse refusing to refer to her as a woman).
You are mistaken about the crux of the case. It is in the nature of gender critical people that they refuse to acknowledge the possibility of a sex change/gender transition/whatever, regardless of any surgery or presence or absence of genitals. If the doctor had a penis the nurse, the counsel for the nurse and her allies would have said so loudly, clearly, and repeatedly, possibly writing operas about it to ram the point home. The doctor could have sliced, diced and pureed their penis and fed it to the swans and the dispute would still be happening.
The primary locus of dispute is whether the nurse should have harassed the doctor. The defence is that the doctor is a male and hence the nurses actions were not harassment. The penis or otherwise of the doctor is not the issue and was not part of the complaint as (IIUC) the doctor's genitals were never visible.
Comments
Jordanian “administrators” versus Israeli settlers… FIIIIIIIGHT
As for Prague, the ROA under General Vlasov played an important role in its liberation. (By then they'd stopped being allied with Germany.)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/11/court-gives-gazans-right-settle-uk-palestine-ukraine/
migrants ... granted the right to live in the UK ... made use of a scheme ... pinko judge said something about their human rights ... floodgates ... floodgates ... floodgates ... many applicants using human rights laws (boo! hiss!) to fight their removal.
It's like National Front propaganda from the 1970s, and there really are far more immigrants here now.
the Kings approach is space for allotments where people can meet, grow their own, and other architecture to encourage community spirit, helping with mental health and quality of living.
I hope they listened to our king, but I doubt they did.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czdllq5z6jeo
Yet more problems with Stoke schools.
https://www.createstreets.com/
Ultimately, there need to be settled borders, and Israel seems to have no interest in that currently.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam_Conference
https://conservativehome.com/2025/02/10/starmer-should-gift-the-chagos-islands-to-trump-and-end-our-grand-delusion-of-global-britain/
It makes me very suspicious of all these maths test benchmarks they show they say they now operate at grad level maths.
But when you interact with ChatGPT, there is essentially no training. You are not updating its network of connections. So you cannot really teach them new concepts.
At some point in the future, someone will train the models on dual quarternions, and then they pass your math test.
But until there is an ability for these networks to be constantly updating themselves as they interact with the world and users, then they cannot learn in any meaningful way outside of structured training. It's why -despite them being incredibly good at many things- we don't have anything like AGI today.
Its also shows this whole "reasoning" element really isn't that impressive. It literally can't "reason" about something very simple (a maths undergraduate can do this stuff with no problem), despite knowing the textbook definitions.
In a statement the Home Office said the strengthened measures made it clear that anyone who entered the UK illegally – including on small boats – would face having a British citizenship application refused.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9d5wj9l8e2o
Be interesting to see if this survives contact with the courts.
https://x.com/cjsnowdon/status/1889448449990390027?s=61
This country really does deserve all it is getting.
Win-win.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/footage-shows-pair-in-hospital-uniforms-bragging-about-killing-israeli-patients-20250212-p5lbf3.html
US officials say UK taxes are being used to gain an ‘unfair trade advantage’
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/02/11/britain-at-risk-of-trump-tariff-raid-over-vat/ (£££)
As feared, we are at risk because of the way Trump sees VAT.
Second story was the second day of the Gisborne siege drama - the stand off continues as the cat refuses to come down from the tree……
This is the BS Chump was coming up with about Usonian cars and the EU - that they were that unfair import duties that disadvantaged Usonian cars. His figures were something like 30% import duty vs 10%. I don't know if he counted Usonian sales takes as state / district level.
He ignored - as one would expect given that he has the economics understanding of a teddy bear - that in UK/Europe VAT applies to all cars, not just Usonian ones, that plenty of normal Usonian marque cars sell in UK/Europe (including some horrible tonka tanks), and that ones made in North America don't generally come here because they are dangerous & designed for lobotomised rednecks *.
* With apologies to OGH Minor's ownership of his Rivian. Perhaps it wasn't designed for him?
I am not Israeli or Jewish, and if I overheard a medical practitioner talking like that, I would have concerns over how they might treat me. After all, who knows how they might find me objectionable?
The investment bank had pledged that it would only help a business sell its shares on a stock exchange if it had two diverse board members, one of which had to be a woman.
But Richard Gnodde told the BBC: "That policy was put in place to try and drive a change in behaviour and I think that's happened."
In a wide-ranging interview, he also said the UK government needed to get on and start infrastructure projects now and warned that uncertainty over US policy was dampening firms' "animal spirit".
...
"This was a policy from a decade or so ago *, I think it has served its purpose."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gwvxn5377o
Just say what you mean, man, if that's what you mean, and stop sounding like Arthur Dent modelling a pair of leopard print Speedos enclosing an added shuttlecock like Wham.
I can see I'm going to lose my patience with these Walters trying to Dennis-the-Menace-signal.
* Actually 2020. His arithmetic skills are following Mr Trump's tax returns, as well.
There were successful but quiet practices within HMRC and other places iirc in the noughties to build, then everything drifted and Brexit happened, and promises evaporated. My photo quota, weight of ships flagged to UK:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/shipping-fleet-statistics-2021/shipping-fleet-statistics-2021--2
I'd actually like to switch the Archbishop Rowan Bear off my avatar, but I can't find the option
It's time for a change, and Monsieur Maladroit is waiting.
The standards some sailors endure in the merchant navies is sometimes akin to slavery. And we all turn a blind eye as we get our cheap goods.
Some Jordanian politicians claim otherwise but they are lying more fluently than Trump. If they ever got into power God help the Jordanian people who already have major water shortages to contend with.
Two New South Wales hospital workers who appeared in a social media video appearing to threaten to refuse to treat and to kill Israeli patients have been identified as nurses at a Sydney hospital and have been “stood down immediately”, the state’s health minister says.
I'll ask them to invert a 4 x 4 matrix today
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