WRT the US economy, it’s far less impressive than it’s touted to be. The US is far more a country of pettifogging bureaucracy, overtaxation (except for the super rich), absurd amounts of money wasted on a mediocre healthcare system, and grinding poverty at the bottom, than it is the land of the free and rugged entrepreneurs.
WRT the US economy, it’s far less impressive than it’s touted to be. The US is far more a country of pettifogging bureaucracy, overtaxation (except for the super rich), absurd amounts of money wasted on a mediocre healthcare system, and grinding poverty at the bottom, than it is the land of the free and rugged entrepreneurs.
One of the big reasons it's done so well is because the average US person sticks their money into the stock market far more than we do here, where it's either cash or buying more houses - both of which are, in the round, non or low producing assets; whereas in the US the big companies have so much implied capital they can just buy anything halfway promising elsewhere in the world.
I read in the Grauniad that Keith's speech is going to say that the answer to the rise of the far right is growth.
OK, fine. Poverty is the driver of all of these protests - people feeling well off and content in their lot do not feel the need to shout at buildings.
But *how* are we to get this growth? Because the investment we need to be making in jobs and skills and infrastructure we're not going to make because apparently we can't afford it.
To be honest I think the era of perpetual growth is over. What comes next? I don’t know. It probably won’t be great though.
We are on the verge of a tech inspired growth explosion that might be more impactful than the taming of fire. The real question is the extent to which that new wealth (and associated power) gets concentrated.
The other question is whether any of it at all gets concentrated in the UK.
They had the chap who confounded Games Workshop on R4 this morning talking about the Games industry in light of the Saudi buy and it’s the same story as with anything vaguely technological in the UK. People in the UK create great things, nobody wants to really throw funding into them and then a US company or similar swoop in, buy it and then pocket all the upside, the taxes, the growth.
This should be at the forefront of political thinking at the moment - I want to hear Kemi, or anyone, start putting together really strong proposals for keeping innovation in the UK so we reap the long term rewards.
Is it structural or is it cultural?
You can see the difference watching Dragons Den back to back with Shark Tank. The Americans throw vast sums at anything vaguely promising but the Brits will invest small amounts in basically a sure thing.
Are we just chronically risk adverse?
Private Equity says hello in a swashbuckling style. Pirates the lot of them.
Are their swashes really that buckled, or their buckles really that swashed?
An awful lot of PE seems to be buying up cash cows and loading them with borrowing.
Private Equity isn’t Venture Capital.
In fact it is something close to the reverse. Huge piles of cash looking for a certain return. Buying a going concern and finacialising it is a certain return in the short/medium term.
Whereas VC is about finding the 1% chance.
There is next to no VC in the U.K. - by the standards of the US.
A lot of generals Hegseth is gathering. I'm not sure that the official explanation is that likely. Hmm.
I see that Trump will now be in attendance, too. 800 generals and senior officers all in one place. I doubt very much that the reason is just to renew "the warrior ethos", as officially given.
WRT the US economy, it’s far less impressive than it’s touted to be. The US is far more a country of pettifogging bureaucracy, overtaxation (except for the super rich), absurd amounts of money wasted on a mediocre healthcare system, and grinding poverty at the bottom, than it is the land of the free and rugged entrepreneurs.
One of the big reasons it's done so well is because the average US person sticks their money into the stock market far more than we do here, where it's either cash or buying more houses - both of which are, in the round, non or low producing assets; whereas in the US the big companies have so much implied capital they can just buy anything halfway promising elsewhere in the world.
On that there is also a virtuous circle that because US stock markets have outperformed ours, Brits, French, German, Japanese et all invest significantly more in US companies than their citizens do in ours.
A lot of generals Hegseth is gathering. I'm not sure that the official explanation is that likely. Hmm.
I see that Trump will now be in attendance, too. 800 generals and senior officers. I doubt very much that the reason is to renew "the warrior ethos", as officially given.
Trump hardly exemplifies stern Roman military fortitude.
I read in the Grauniad that Keith's speech is going to say that the answer to the rise of the far right is growth.
OK, fine. Poverty is the driver of all of these protests - people feeling well off and content in their lot do not feel the need to shout at buildings.
But *how* are we to get this growth? Because the investment we need to be making in jobs and skills and infrastructure we're not going to make because apparently we can't afford it.
To be honest I think the era of perpetual growth is over. What comes next? I don’t know. It probably won’t be great though.
We are on the verge of a tech inspired growth explosion that might be more impactful than the taming of fire. The real question is the extent to which that new wealth (and associated power) gets concentrated.
The other question is whether any of it at all gets concentrated in the UK.
They had the chap who confounded Games Workshop on R4 this morning talking about the Games industry in light of the Saudi buy and it’s the same story as with anything vaguely technological in the UK. People in the UK create great things, nobody wants to really throw funding into them and then a US company or similar swoop in, buy it and then pocket all the upside, the taxes, the growth.
This should be at the forefront of political thinking at the moment - I want to hear Kemi, or anyone, start putting together really strong proposals for keeping innovation in the UK so we reap the long term rewards.
Is it structural or is it cultural?
You can see the difference watching Dragons Den back to back with Shark Tank. The Americans throw vast sums at anything vaguely promising but the Brits will invest small amounts in basically a sure thing.
Are we just chronically risk adverse?
Private Equity says hello in a swashbuckling style. Pirates the lot of them.
Are their swashes really that buckled, or their buckles really that swashed?
An awful lot of PE seems to be buying up cash cows and loading them with borrowing.
Private Equity isn’t Venture Capital.
In fact it is something close to the reverse. Huge piles of cash looking for a certain return. Buying a going concern and finacialising it is a certain return in the short/medium term.
Whereas VC is about finding the 1% chance.
There is next to no VC in the U.K. - by the standards of the US.
Also VC are putting up their own hard reddies to risk against these 1% chances, PE standard play has become a leveraged buy-out i.e. borrow the money against the assets of the company (and then also charge management fees to a consultancy firm they also own). EA take over is very much a leveraged buy-out.
One of the differences UK vs US is not only the tolerance for risk but also much more common for "this pay it forward" mentality i.e. you make a fortune, you don't retire to live on a yach and sit on your money with low risk investements, you instantly looking to be funding new start-ups. Now you might argue that is just more greed in US, but either way, they are willing to put their money back at risk and in play.
A lot of generals Hegseth is gathering. I'm not sure that the official explanation is that likely. Hmm.
I see that Trump will now be in attendance, too. 800 generals and senior officers. I doubt very much that the reason is to renew "the warrior ethos", as officially given.
How many are BME or Native American I wonder? And what will become of them after today?
Incidentally, on the Native American thing I'm seeing quite a few Facebook posts with obvious Native Americans wearing teeshirts with mildly abusive messages about immigrants.
WRT the US economy, it’s far less impressive than it’s touted to be. The US is far more a country of pettifogging bureaucracy, overtaxation (except for the super rich), absurd amounts of money wasted on a mediocre healthcare system, and grinding poverty at the bottom, than it is the land of the free and rugged entrepreneurs.
One of the big reasons it's done so well is because the average US person sticks their money into the stock market far more than we do here, where it's either cash or buying more houses - both of which are, in the round, non or low producing assets; whereas in the US the big companies have so much implied capital they can just buy anything halfway promising elsewhere in the world.
Stocks appear to be another thing people look at and say 'You made money in the markets? Then we should have taxed you more!'. Look at the perma-onanism around the idea of a financial transaction tax.
WRT the US economy, it’s far less impressive than it’s touted to be. The US is far more a country of pettifogging bureaucracy, overtaxation (except for the super rich), absurd amounts of money wasted on a mediocre healthcare system, and grinding poverty at the bottom, than it is the land of the free and rugged entrepreneurs.
One of the big reasons it's done so well is because the average US person sticks their money into the stock market far more than we do here, where it's either cash or buying more houses - both of which are, in the round, non or low producing assets; whereas in the US the big companies have so much implied capital they can just buy anything halfway promising elsewhere in the world.
Stocks appear to be another thing people look at and say 'You made money in the markets? Then we should have taxed you more!'. Look at the perma-onanism around the idea of a financial transaction tax.
Most people don’t understand stocks, and see such investments as gambling. Whereas, if you spread your risk, it’s as safe as depositing money in a building society, with a far better rate of return.
General Roman Hyťha, 47, the head of the Czech army's intelligence department, was attacked with a knife and taken to hospital, Aktualne reported . The incident, recorded on September 26, took place in a restaurant in Prague. The attacker was a man he did not know before.
Roman Hyťha is one of the closest associates of the army chief, Karel Řehka, and is in charge of the implementation of drones in the Czech army. Military police are investigating the circumstances of the attack https://x.com/AlexandruC4/status/1972605644747284701
60 years old. A source of much joy and wonder in the young me. As well as the "FIVE!" countdown, I still remember theme music within the show - like the music for the Crablogger....
Like all sensible PBers, I have the Thunderbirds box set, and gave one as a birth gift to my godson. Imagine a world where rockets return to base for re-use, where communications are monitored by satellite, and where everyone smokes.
A lot of generals Hegseth is gathering. I'm not sure that the official explanation is that likely. Hmm.
I see that Trump will now be in attendance, too. 800 generals and senior officers all in one place. I doubt very much that the reason is just to renew "the warrior ethos", as officially given.
Suspect it will be to tell them to concentrate on the day job of keeping the country safe and being prepared for war, rather than (as Trump and Hegseth will see it) the recent obsessions with crap like diversity, equity, and transgenderism, seen as coming down from the brass hats present today and distracting those on the front line from working effectively.
A lot of generals Hegseth is gathering. I'm not sure that the official explanation is that likely. Hmm.
I see that Trump will now be in attendance, too. 800 generals and senior officers all in one place. I doubt very much that the reason is just to renew "the warrior ethos", as officially given.
Suspect it will be to tell them to concentrate on the day job of keeping the country safe and being prepared for war, rather than (as Trump and Hegseth will see it) the recent obsessions with crap like diversity, equity, and transgenderism, seen as coming down from the brass hats present today and distracting those on the front line from working effectively.
That more routine form of Trump propagandising could be done online, or via email. I just think that, with the level of effort involved, it's very likely that it's something more unusual than that.
I read in the Grauniad that Keith's speech is going to say that the answer to the rise of the far right is growth.
OK, fine. Poverty is the driver of all of these protests - people feeling well off and content in their lot do not feel the need to shout at buildings.
But *how* are we to get this growth? Because the investment we need to be making in jobs and skills and infrastructure we're not going to make because apparently we can't afford it.
To be honest I think the era of perpetual growth is over. What comes next? I don’t know. It probably won’t be great though.
We are on the verge of a tech inspired growth explosion that might be more impactful than the taming of fire. The real question is the extent to which that new wealth (and associated power) gets concentrated.
The other question is whether any of it at all gets concentrated in the UK.
They had the chap who confounded Games Workshop on R4 this morning talking about the Games industry in light of the Saudi buy and it’s the same story as with anything vaguely technological in the UK. People in the UK create great things, nobody wants to really throw funding into them and then a US company or similar swoop in, buy it and then pocket all the upside, the taxes, the growth.
This should be at the forefront of political thinking at the moment - I want to hear Kemi, or anyone, start putting together really strong proposals for keeping innovation in the UK so we reap the long term rewards.
Is it structural or is it cultural?
You can see the difference watching Dragons Den back to back with Shark Tank. The Americans throw vast sums at anything vaguely promising but the Brits will invest small amounts in basically a sure thing.
Are we just chronically risk adverse?
The US is a much bigger and more diverse economy. That means you might have two potential unicorns in the UK and say twenty in the US. That makes it easier to spread the risk in the US. There's a deeper pool of capital, too. If the EU ever got their act together they could use the size of their capital and product markets to achieve something similar. But we couldn't be a part of that anyway after Brexit. Scale is what counts. That's why the US and China are the leaders in innovation.
Up to a point. Look though at Taiwan or S Korea, for small technology led economies.
The US is big, but most of it is empty. The densities on the coasts and even the mid west are not that different from much of Europe, Sure being King of the Hill in Montana is easier, but not the same in Connecticut or even California. In fact California has about the same density as Spain, Connecticut about the same as the UK.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
I don't believe you can use third party translation apps either.
60 years old. A source of much joy and wonder in the young me. As well as the "FIVE!" countdown, I still remember theme music within the show - like the music for the Crablogger....
Like all sensible PBers, I have the Thunderbirds box set, and gave one as a birth gift to my godson. Imagine a world where rockets return to base for re-use, where communications are monitored by satellite, and where everyone smokes.
The ITV Retro YouTube channel is putting a load of the Gerry and Sylvia Anderson shows up at the moment. There's quite a lot of remastered Thunderbirds and some Joe 90 and Stingray as too. Hopefully they do Captain Scarlett at some point as well.
WRT the US economy, it’s far less impressive than it’s touted to be. The US is far more a country of pettifogging bureaucracy, overtaxation (except for the super rich), absurd amounts of money wasted on a mediocre healthcare system, and grinding poverty at the bottom, than it is the land of the free and rugged entrepreneurs.
One of the big reasons it's done so well is because the average US person sticks their money into the stock market far more than we do here, where it's either cash or buying more houses - both of which are, in the round, non or low producing assets; whereas in the US the big companies have so much implied capital they can just buy anything halfway promising elsewhere in the world.
Stocks appear to be another thing people look at and say 'You made money in the markets? Then we should have taxed you more!'. Look at the perma-onanism around the idea of a financial transaction tax.
Most people don’t understand stocks, and see such investments as gambling. Whereas, if you spread your risk, it’s as safe as depositing money in a building society, with a far better rate of return.
In secondary school history I was taught about the Wall Street Crash. I was not taught about the origins of the London Stock Exchange, or the role it played in the Industrial Revolution. The history syllabus appears designed to discourage investment in shares.
What we choose to cover and how we teach history has consequences.
All ready for conference speech/activist/pundt reaction bingo I hope:
You missed
"A politics of predatory grievance preying on the problems of working people and using that infrastructure of division against the politics of patriotic renewal, rooted in communities, building a better country brick by brick from the bottom up"
I read in the Grauniad that Keith's speech is going to say that the answer to the rise of the far right is growth.
OK, fine. Poverty is the driver of all of these protests - people feeling well off and content in their lot do not feel the need to shout at buildings.
But *how* are we to get this growth? Because the investment we need to be making in jobs and skills and infrastructure we're not going to make because apparently we can't afford it.
Plenty of the people shouting at buildings are comfortable, and some are well off. As for those inciting them, well they’re well off beyond any historical parallel. Including inciter in chief, the richest man in the world.
You mean the people massed on the pavements with their flags and placards aren't hardworking just managing concerned parents of vulnerable young children? Perhaps more money for HMRC, building services and trading standards would be the leftfield solution?
On Starmer, I think the most insightful, and empathetic, comment on this was from John McDonnell on WATO, who said he'd worked with Keir for a long time and if things haven't improved and his personal ratings are a problem then Keir will step aside. Expect a managed coronation, so not Burnham, I'm happy with my bet on Milliband.
He's semi incoherent and a several times loser. My money would be Wes Streeting. The most articulate by a distance
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
I don't believe you can use third party translation apps either.
Also note that GQ modern etiquette guide says to remove ear pods while conversing with other people.
A lot of generals Hegseth is gathering. I'm not sure that the official explanation is that likely. Hmm.
I see that Trump will now be in attendance, too. 800 generals and senior officers all in one place. I doubt very much that the reason is just to renew "the warrior ethos", as officially given.
Suspect it will be to tell them to concentrate on the day job of keeping the country safe and being prepared for war, rather than (as Trump and Hegseth will see it) the recent obsessions with crap like diversity, equity, and transgenderism, seen as coming down from the brass hats present today and distracting those on the front line from working effectively.
But that's the issue: they've not been 'obsessions'. The amount of money spent on these 'obsessions' could probably buy one wing of a B2. And the advantages of that money, at the time military recruitment is proving troublesome, might massively outweigh the costs.
All ready for conference speech/activist/pundt reaction bingo I hope:
You missed
"A politics of predatory grievance preying on the problems of working people and using that infrastructure of division against the politics of patriotic renewal, rooted in communities, building a better country brick by brick from the bottom up"
Has a breakdown on stage and screams 'get it up ya' in Andy Burnhams face
A lot of generals Hegseth is gathering. I'm not sure that the official explanation is that likely. Hmm.
I see that Trump will now be in attendance, too. 800 generals and senior officers all in one place. I doubt very much that the reason is just to renew "the warrior ethos", as officially given.
Suspect it will be to tell them to concentrate on the day job of keeping the country safe and being prepared for war, rather than (as Trump and Hegseth will see it) the recent obsessions with crap like diversity, equity, and transgenderism, seen as coming down from the brass hats present today and distracting those on the front line from working effectively.
That more routine form of Trump propagandising could be done online, or via email. I just think that, with the level of effort involved, it's very likely that it's something more unusual than that.
It’s easier to do “Things here will be very different from TODAY!” in person though, especially with those in top leadership positions who might otherwise be inclined to place such a memo in the circular filing cabinet under their desk.
But it’s definitely going to be something out of the ordinary, a change in philosophy rather than merely operational instructions. They already have a very clear chain of command that tells them how to head for Taiwan or Russia, and what to do when they get there.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
I don't believe you can use third party translation apps either.
I don’t know if it’s the EU law actually blocking my download or not - I do know these Babelfish AirPods aren’t legally functional in the EU (yes, they’re a Brexit benefit)
Anyway I just used a vpn routed via the UK and it’s worked. Just tested them now. It actually works
Now I’m heading out into Naples, Italy, to find people who speak Spanish, German or French
I read in the Grauniad that Keith's speech is going to say that the answer to the rise of the far right is growth.
OK, fine. Poverty is the driver of all of these protests - people feeling well off and content in their lot do not feel the need to shout at buildings.
But *how* are we to get this growth? Because the investment we need to be making in jobs and skills and infrastructure we're not going to make because apparently we can't afford it.
Plenty of the people shouting at buildings are comfortable, and some are well off. As for those inciting them, well they’re well off beyond any historical parallel. Including inciter in chief, the richest man in the world.
You mean the people massed on the pavements with their flags and placards aren't hardworking just managing concerned parents of vulnerable young children? Perhaps more money for HMRC, building services and trading standards would be the leftfield solution?
On Starmer, I think the most insightful, and empathetic, comment on this was from John McDonnell on WATO, who said he'd worked with Keir for a long time and if things haven't improved and his personal ratings are a problem then Keir will step aside. Expect a managed coronation, so not Burnham, I'm happy with my bet on Milliband.
He's semi incoherent and a several times loser. My money would be Wes Streeting. The most articulate by a distance
Wes Streeting will be tagged as the continuity Blairite candidate, and that's unlikely to be a net benefit.
Ed Miliband occupies the soft-left comfort ground for a wounded Labour party that wants to feel good about itself, while avoiding the internal infighting of the Corbyn period.
Unless there's a younger standard bearer for that group, then I think Ed has a great chance of winning a Labour leadership election if there is one in the nearish future.
Benjamin Netanyahu says the IDF ‘will remain in most of the territory’ In a video statement published on his Telegram channel discussing his visit to the US, Benjamin Netanyahu said the IDF “will remain in most of the territory” as part of the plan drawn up with Trump, and that Israel did “absolutely not” agree to a Palestinian state. Netanyahu said:
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
Should have invited my granddaughter along, as she is fluent in Italian and spent a year at Turin University !!!!
All ready for conference speech/activist/pundt reaction bingo I hope:
You missed
"A politics of predatory grievance preying on the problems of working people and using that infrastructure of division against the politics of patriotic renewal, rooted in communities, building a better country brick by brick from the bottom up"
It’s actually not a million to one he uses it
Final prep of my speech ahead of tomorrow, where I’ll outline the patriotic case for national renewal.
I read in the Grauniad that Keith's speech is going to say that the answer to the rise of the far right is growth.
OK, fine. Poverty is the driver of all of these protests - people feeling well off and content in their lot do not feel the need to shout at buildings.
But *how* are we to get this growth? Because the investment we need to be making in jobs and skills and infrastructure we're not going to make because apparently we can't afford it.
Plenty of the people shouting at buildings are comfortable, and some are well off. As for those inciting them, well they’re well off beyond any historical parallel. Including inciter in chief, the richest man in the world.
You mean the people massed on the pavements with their flags and placards aren't hardworking just managing concerned parents of vulnerable young children? Perhaps more money for HMRC, building services and trading standards would be the leftfield solution?
On Starmer, I think the most insightful, and empathetic, comment on this was from John McDonnell on WATO, who said he'd worked with Keir for a long time and if things haven't improved and his personal ratings are a problem then Keir will step aside. Expect a managed coronation, so not Burnham, I'm happy with my bet on Milliband.
He's semi incoherent and a several times loser. My money would be Wes Streeting. The most articulate by a distance
I would have thought you would have changed your mind and backed Burnham as he wants labour to campaign to rejoin the EU
A lot of generals Hegseth is gathering. I'm not sure that the official explanation is that likely. Hmm.
I see that Trump will now be in attendance, too. 800 generals and senior officers all in one place. I doubt very much that the reason is just to renew "the warrior ethos", as officially given.
Suspect it will be to tell them to concentrate on the day job of keeping the country safe and being prepared for war, rather than (as Trump and Hegseth will see it) the recent obsessions with crap like diversity, equity, and transgenderism, seen as coming down from the brass hats present today and distracting those on the front line from working effectively.
That more routine form of Trump propagandising could be done online, or via email. I just think that, with the level of effort involved, it's very likely that it's something more unusual than that.
It’s easier to do “Things here will be very different from TODAY!” in person though, especially with those in top leadership positions who might otherwise be inclined to place such a memo in the circular filing cabinet under their desk.
But it’s definitely going to be something out of the ordinary, a change in philosophy rather than merely operational instructions. They already have a very clear chain of command that tells them how to head for Taiwan or Russia, and what to do when they get there.
I think the key purpose is to establish Trump's personal, as opposed to constitutional, control over the top brass.
Trump is most concerned with the ability to use the US military against his internal opponents, rather than enemies abroad, and to do that he needs personal loyalty from the military commanders. We know this from what the chairman of the joint chiefs at the time of the Jan 6th coup attempt has said.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
Should have invited my granddaughter along, as she is fluent in Italian and spent a year at Turin University !!!!
Not sure you’ve entirely grasped the purpose of my experiment
A lot of generals Hegseth is gathering. I'm not sure that the official explanation is that likely. Hmm.
I see that Trump will now be in attendance, too. 800 generals and senior officers. I doubt very much that the reason is to renew "the warrior ethos", as officially given.
How many are BME or Native American I wonder? And what will become of them after today?
Incidentally, on the Native American thing I'm seeing quite a few Facebook posts with obvious Native Americans wearing teeshirts with mildly abusive messages about immigrants.
There's a subculture of native American Trumpism. Remember the chap with the native headdress who broke into the Capitol, albeit he was white.
Ahead of his conference speech Keir Starmer’s approval rating has fallen to another new low of -48. Badenoch is at -21. Farage at -9 and Ed Davey is the least disapproved of at -
That bit ot positive bump of Starmer on the world stage quickly gone away. Fat bloke in a wetsuit aka the unknown stuntman pissing people off the least.
Doesn't suggest (although these things don't follow like night and day) Labours recovery to 25% and 3 adrift from last week will hold in the morning. Fag Ash Lil starting to smell a bit off too
I read in the Grauniad that Keith's speech is going to say that the answer to the rise of the far right is growth.
OK, fine. Poverty is the driver of all of these protests - people feeling well off and content in their lot do not feel the need to shout at buildings.
But *how* are we to get this growth? Because the investment we need to be making in jobs and skills and infrastructure we're not going to make because apparently we can't afford it.
Plenty of the people shouting at buildings are comfortable, and some are well off. As for those inciting them, well they’re well off beyond any historical parallel. Including inciter in chief, the richest man in the world.
You mean the people massed on the pavements with their flags and placards aren't hardworking just managing concerned parents of vulnerable young children? Perhaps more money for HMRC, building services and trading standards would be the leftfield solution?
On Starmer, I think the most insightful, and empathetic, comment on this was from John McDonnell on WATO, who said he'd worked with Keir for a long time and if things haven't improved and his personal ratings are a problem then Keir will step aside. Expect a managed coronation, so not Burnham, I'm happy with my bet on Milliband.
He's semi incoherent and a several times loser. My money would be Wes Streeting. The most articulate by a distance
I would have thought you would have changed your mind and backed Burnham as he wants labour to campaign to rejoin the EU
If someone is obviously unsuitable, they are obviously unsuitable, even if they are carrying the flag for a cherished policy.
If the Conservative selectorate had understood that, we would have been spared Johnson and Truss.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
I don't believe you can use third party translation apps either.
I don’t know if it’s the EU law actually blocking my download or not - I do know these Babelfish AirPods aren’t legally functional in the EU (yes, they’re a Brexit benefit)
Anyway I just used a vpn routed via the UK and it’s worked. Just tested them now. It actually works
Now I’m heading out into Naples, Italy, to find people who speak Spanish, German or French
I was in Naples last February and much preferred it to Rome, which was not what I was expecting based on what you read/hear.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
I don't believe you can use third party translation apps either.
I don’t know if it’s the EU law actually blocking my download or not - I do know these Babelfish AirPods aren’t legally functional in the EU (yes, they’re a Brexit benefit)
Anyway I just used a vpn routed via the UK and it’s worked. Just tested them now. It actually works
Now I’m heading out into Naples, Italy, to find people who speak Spanish, German or French
Obviously the Union of European Translators did enough lobbying against Big Nasty American Technology, on one of their monthly trips between Brussels and Strasbourg.
"It’s really just a very nice meeting talking about how well we’re doing militarily, talking about being in great shape, talking about a lot of good, positive things. It’s just a good message,” Trump told NBC News in a phone call. “We have some great people coming in and it’s just an ‘esprit de corps.’ You know the expression ‘esprit de corps’? That’s all it’s about. We’re talking about what we’re doing, what they’re doing, and how doing.”
So it's definitely something very different from this, and unusual.
WRT the US economy, it’s far less impressive than it’s touted to be. The US is far more a country of pettifogging bureaucracy, overtaxation (except for the super rich), absurd amounts of money wasted on a mediocre healthcare system, and grinding poverty at the bottom, than it is the land of the free and rugged entrepreneurs.
One of the big reasons it's done so well is because the average US person sticks their money into the stock market far more than we do here, where it's either cash or buying more houses - both of which are, in the round, non or low producing assets; whereas in the US the big companies have so much implied capital they can just buy anything halfway promising elsewhere in the world.
Stocks appear to be another thing people look at and say 'You made money in the markets? Then we should have taxed you more!'. Look at the perma-onanism around the idea of a financial transaction tax.
Most people don’t understand stocks, and see such investments as gambling. Whereas, if you spread your risk, it’s as safe as depositing money in a building society, with a far better rate of return.
Around the millenium the Economist had a review of the preceding century, it may even have been a special issue, and one thing they looked at was the returns of property versus equities. There was only one decade when you would have been better off in property than equities. So if you invest for the long term you are simply better off investing in a productive asset rather than a mere pile of bricks and mortar. Of course it's more nuanced than that, but I suspect that the average Brit bar their pension has little to no investment in equities, and sees their house as "their pension", Americans as a whole seem far more inclined to put their money in funds that track the stock markets, or even direct investing.
According to the Trump " It’s really just a very nice meeting talking about how well we’re doing militarily, talking about being in great shape, talking about a lot of good, positive things. It’s just a good message,” Trump told NBC News in a phone call. “We have some great people coming in and it’s just an ‘esprit de corps.’ You know the expression ‘esprit de corps’? That’s all it’s about. We’re talking about what we’re doing, what they’re doing, and how doing.”
So it's definitely something unusual.
Hmm.
There are going to be 800+ people there. Something is going to leak.
"It’s really just a very nice meeting talking about how well we’re doing militarily, talking about being in great shape, talking about a lot of good, positive things. It’s just a good message,” Trump told NBC News in a phone call. “We have some great people coming in and it’s just an ‘esprit de corps.’ You know the expression ‘esprit de corps’? That’s all it’s about. We’re talking about what we’re doing, what they’re doing, and how doing.”
So it's definitely something very unusual, and different from this.
WRT the US economy, it’s far less impressive than it’s touted to be. The US is far more a country of pettifogging bureaucracy, overtaxation (except for the super rich), absurd amounts of money wasted on a mediocre healthcare system, and grinding poverty at the bottom, than it is the land of the free and rugged entrepreneurs.
One of the big reasons it's done so well is because the average US person sticks their money into the stock market far more than we do here, where it's either cash or buying more houses - both of which are, in the round, non or low producing assets; whereas in the US the big companies have so much implied capital they can just buy anything halfway promising elsewhere in the world.
Stocks appear to be another thing people look at and say 'You made money in the markets? Then we should have taxed you more!'. Look at the perma-onanism around the idea of a financial transaction tax.
Most people don’t understand stocks, and see such investments as gambling. Whereas, if you spread your risk, it’s as safe as depositing money in a building society, with a far better rate of return.
No it isn't.
Even a widely diversified holding is exposed to various risks that cash saving isn't. A general fall in markets will affect a widely-diversified holding as it will a concentrated holding. Cash doesn't have the capital risk that investment does.
My old boss and mentor used to say 'share money is spare money'.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
I don't believe you can use third party translation apps either.
I don’t know if it’s the EU law actually blocking my download or not - I do know these Babelfish AirPods aren’t legally functional in the EU (yes, they’re a Brexit benefit)
Anyway I just used a vpn routed via the UK and it’s worked. Just tested them now. It actually works
Now I’m heading out into Naples, Italy, to find people who speak Spanish, German or French
Obviously the Union of European Translators did enough lobbying against Big Nasty American Technology, on one of their monthly trips between Brussels and Strasbourg.
This is becoming a real issue for the EU. It is regulating new tech into oblivion, guaranteeing the EU falls critically behind at a crucial stage. Like a government outlawing steam power in 1836
No doubt Labour is desperate for Britain to copy Brussels
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
Should have invited my granddaughter along, as she is fluent in Italian and spent a year at Turin University !!!!
Not sure you’ve entirely grasped the purpose of my experiment
Do the AirPods translate what you say too? Or how does that side of the conversation go? Presumably because you are English, if the Italians don't understand you just shout louder until they do?
According to the Trump " It’s really just a very nice meeting talking about how well we’re doing militarily, talking about being in great shape, talking about a lot of good, positive things. It’s just a good message,” Trump told NBC News in a phone call. “We have some great people coming in and it’s just an ‘esprit de corps.’ You know the expression ‘esprit de corps’? That’s all it’s about. We’re talking about what we’re doing, what they’re doing, and how doing.”
So it's definitely something unusual.
Hmm.
There are going to be 800+ people there. Something is going to leak.
Perhaps I should buy extra rice and loo roll?
My guess is most likely it is changing the oath from constitution to Trump in person.
According to the Trump " It’s really just a very nice meeting talking about how well we’re doing militarily, talking about being in great shape, talking about a lot of good, positive things. It’s just a good message,” Trump told NBC News in a phone call. “We have some great people coming in and it’s just an ‘esprit de corps.’ You know the expression ‘esprit de corps’? That’s all it’s about. We’re talking about what we’re doing, what they’re doing, and how doing.”
So it's definitely something unusual.
Hmm.
There are going to be 800+ people there. Something is going to leak.
Perhaps I should buy extra rice and loo roll?
Pretty sure some utter bellends are still going through the stock from 2020...
Incidentally, with our house remodel we went from one toilet to three (I know, luxury). For some reason the wife doesn't think I serious when I say we need three times as much toilet roll.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
I don't believe you can use third party translation apps either.
I don’t know if it’s the EU law actually blocking my download or not - I do know these Babelfish AirPods aren’t legally functional in the EU (yes, they’re a Brexit benefit)
Anyway I just used a vpn routed via the UK and it’s worked. Just tested them now. It actually works
Now I’m heading out into Naples, Italy, to find people who speak Spanish, German or French
Obviously the Union of European Translators did enough lobbying against Big Nasty American Technology, on one of their monthly trips between Brussels and Strasbourg.
This is becoming a real issue for the EU. It is regulating new tech into oblivion, guaranteeing the EU falls critically behind at a crucial stage. Like a government outlawing steam power in 1836
No doubt Labour is desperate for Britain to copy Brussels
"It’s really just a very nice meeting talking about how well we’re doing militarily, talking about being in great shape, talking about a lot of good, positive things. It’s just a good message,” Trump told NBC News in a phone call. “We have some great people coming in and it’s just an ‘esprit de corps.’ You know the expression ‘esprit de corps’? That’s all it’s about. We’re talking about what we’re doing, what they’re doing, and how doing.”
So it's definitely something very unusual, and different from this.
Hmm.
Hope Canada has been working on its defences!
Our eldest and his Canadian wife are flying in from Vancouver where they live to visit us in a couple of weeks
It will be interesting to listen to their take on Trump and US-Canadian friction
Now, what happens if they want to take refuge here in North Wales is another question !!!!!!!!!!
WRT the US economy, it’s far less impressive than it’s touted to be. The US is far more a country of pettifogging bureaucracy, overtaxation (except for the super rich), absurd amounts of money wasted on a mediocre healthcare system, and grinding poverty at the bottom, than it is the land of the free and rugged entrepreneurs.
One of the big reasons it's done so well is because the average US person sticks their money into the stock market far more than we do here, where it's either cash or buying more houses - both of which are, in the round, non or low producing assets; whereas in the US the big companies have so much implied capital they can just buy anything halfway promising elsewhere in the world.
Stocks appear to be another thing people look at and say 'You made money in the markets? Then we should have taxed you more!'. Look at the perma-onanism around the idea of a financial transaction tax.
Most people don’t understand stocks, and see such investments as gambling. Whereas, if you spread your risk, it’s as safe as depositing money in a building society, with a far better rate of return.
No it isn't.
Even a widely diversified holding is exposed to various risks that cash saving isn't. A general fall in markets will affect a widely-diversified holding as it will a concentrated holding. Cash doesn't have the capital risk that investment does.
My old boss and mentor used to say 'share money is spare money'.
According to the Trump " It’s really just a very nice meeting talking about how well we’re doing militarily, talking about being in great shape, talking about a lot of good, positive things. It’s just a good message,” Trump told NBC News in a phone call. “We have some great people coming in and it’s just an ‘esprit de corps.’ You know the expression ‘esprit de corps’? That’s all it’s about. We’re talking about what we’re doing, what they’re doing, and how doing.”
So it's definitely something unusual.
Hmm.
There are going to be 800+ people there. Something is going to leak.
Perhaps I should buy extra rice and loo roll?
My guess is most likely it is changing the oath from constitution to Trump in person.
Bonus prize for any that change Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler, right?
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
Should have invited my granddaughter along, as she is fluent in Italian and spent a year at Turin University !!!!
Not sure you’ve entirely grasped the purpose of my experiment
Do the AirPods translate what you say too? Or how does that side of the conversation go? Presumably because you are English, if the Italians don't understand you just shout louder until they do?
Nope. Which is a major drawback. The other person has to be wearing them as well
I’ve found some Spanish people and tried it and the translation is laggy and glitchy - but it works. So you can see that eventually - 2 years? - this tech will be transformative
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
I don't believe you can use third party translation apps either.
I don’t know if it’s the EU law actually blocking my download or not - I do know these Babelfish AirPods aren’t legally functional in the EU (yes, they’re a Brexit benefit)
Anyway I just used a vpn routed via the UK and it’s worked. Just tested them now. It actually works
Now I’m heading out into Naples, Italy, to find people who speak Spanish, German or French
Obviously the Union of European Translators did enough lobbying against Big Nasty American Technology, on one of their monthly trips between Brussels and Strasbourg.
This is becoming a real issue for the EU. It is regulating new tech into oblivion, guaranteeing the EU falls critically behind at a crucial stage. Like a government outlawing steam power in 1836
No doubt Labour is desperate for Britain to copy Brussels
Lewis Godall is going the way of Vorderman and being radicalised by twitter...
The blood and soil ethno-nationalism on full grim parade on this website this morning well demonstrates why the (English) Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood was completely right to call it out for what it is.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
I don't believe you can use third party translation apps either.
I don’t know if it’s the EU law actually blocking my download or not - I do know these Babelfish AirPods aren’t legally functional in the EU (yes, they’re a Brexit benefit)
Anyway I just used a vpn routed via the UK and it’s worked. Just tested them now. It actually works
Now I’m heading out into Naples, Italy, to find people who speak Spanish, German or French
I was in Naples last February and much preferred it to Rome, which was not what I was expecting based on what you read/hear.
WRT the US economy, it’s far less impressive than it’s touted to be. The US is far more a country of pettifogging bureaucracy, overtaxation (except for the super rich), absurd amounts of money wasted on a mediocre healthcare system, and grinding poverty at the bottom, than it is the land of the free and rugged entrepreneurs.
One of the big reasons it's done so well is because the average US person sticks their money into the stock market far more than we do here, where it's either cash or buying more houses - both of which are, in the round, non or low producing assets; whereas in the US the big companies have so much implied capital they can just buy anything halfway promising elsewhere in the world.
Stocks appear to be another thing people look at and say 'You made money in the markets? Then we should have taxed you more!'. Look at the perma-onanism around the idea of a financial transaction tax.
Most people don’t understand stocks, and see such investments as gambling. Whereas, if you spread your risk, it’s as safe as depositing money in a building society, with a far better rate of return.
No it isn't.
Even a widely diversified holding is exposed to various risks that cash saving isn't. A general fall in markets will affect a widely-diversified holding as it will a concentrated holding. Cash doesn't have the capital risk that investment does.
My old boss and mentor used to say 'share money is spare money'.
It depends on your investment horizon. If you're seeking returns over a long time period then it's hard to beat a diversified equity portfolio. If you want to preserve your capital over a shorter period of time you want to hold cash.
"It’s really just a very nice meeting talking about how well we’re doing militarily, talking about being in great shape, talking about a lot of good, positive things. It’s just a good message,” Trump told NBC News in a phone call. “We have some great people coming in and it’s just an ‘esprit de corps.’ You know the expression ‘esprit de corps’? That’s all it’s about. We’re talking about what we’re doing, what they’re doing, and how doing.”
So it's definitely something very unusual, and different from this.
Hmm.
Hope Canada has been working on its defences!
Our eldest and his Canadian wife are flying in from Vancouver where they live to visit us in a couple of weeks
It will be interesting to listen to their take on Trump and US-Canadian friction
Now, what happens if they want to take refuge here in North Wales is another question !!!!!!!!!!
The Canada invasion is win/win for the Trumpists, not just land and power grab at home, (permanent) postponement of elections due to the war, but also the millions of Canadian refugees to Europe will finally see their mates Farage and Le Pen succeed here.
According to the Trump " It’s really just a very nice meeting talking about how well we’re doing militarily, talking about being in great shape, talking about a lot of good, positive things. It’s just a good message,” Trump told NBC News in a phone call. “We have some great people coming in and it’s just an ‘esprit de corps.’ You know the expression ‘esprit de corps’? That’s all it’s about. We’re talking about what we’re doing, what they’re doing, and how doing.”
So it's definitely something unusual.
Hmm.
There are going to be 800+ people there. Something is going to leak.
Perhaps I should buy extra rice and loo roll?
Pretty sure some utter bellends are still going through the stock from 2020...
Incidentally, with our house remodel we went from one toilet to three (I know, luxury). For some reason the wife doesn't think I serious when I say we need three times as much toilet roll.
Insist that everyone uses a specific loo based on a set rota. Tell her it's for wear balancing reasons.
According to the Trump " It’s really just a very nice meeting talking about how well we’re doing militarily, talking about being in great shape, talking about a lot of good, positive things. It’s just a good message,” Trump told NBC News in a phone call. “We have some great people coming in and it’s just an ‘esprit de corps.’ You know the expression ‘esprit de corps’? That’s all it’s about. We’re talking about what we’re doing, what they’re doing, and how doing.”
So it's definitely something unusual.
Hmm.
There are going to be 800+ people there. Something is going to leak.
Perhaps I should buy extra rice and loo roll?
My guess is most likely it is changing the oath from constitution to Trump in person.
I imagine that they will be daring them to be the first person in a room of 800 to object, and they will dismiss any person who does.
My expectation is that after the meeting the US military will be personally subordinated to Trump's will, and it may also be facing a leadership crisis caused by the exit of dozens of generals and admirals.
But maybe that's my innate optimism talking, and the invasion of Greenland is imminent.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
I don't believe you can use third party translation apps either.
I don’t know if it’s the EU law actually blocking my download or not - I do know these Babelfish AirPods aren’t legally functional in the EU (yes, they’re a Brexit benefit)
Anyway I just used a vpn routed via the UK and it’s worked. Just tested them now. It actually works
Now I’m heading out into Naples, Italy, to find people who speak Spanish, German or French
I was in Naples last February and much preferred it to Rome, which was not what I was expecting based on what you read/hear.
WRT the US economy, it’s far less impressive than it’s touted to be. The US is far more a country of pettifogging bureaucracy, overtaxation (except for the super rich), absurd amounts of money wasted on a mediocre healthcare system, and grinding poverty at the bottom, than it is the land of the free and rugged entrepreneurs.
One of the big reasons it's done so well is because the average US person sticks their money into the stock market far more than we do here, where it's either cash or buying more houses - both of which are, in the round, non or low producing assets; whereas in the US the big companies have so much implied capital they can just buy anything halfway promising elsewhere in the world.
Stocks appear to be another thing people look at and say 'You made money in the markets? Then we should have taxed you more!'. Look at the perma-onanism around the idea of a financial transaction tax.
Most people don’t understand stocks, and see such investments as gambling. Whereas, if you spread your risk, it’s as safe as depositing money in a building society, with a far better rate of return.
No it isn't.
Even a widely diversified holding is exposed to various risks that cash saving isn't. A general fall in markets will affect a widely-diversified holding as it will a concentrated holding. Cash doesn't have the capital risk that investment does.
My old boss and mentor used to say 'share money is spare money'.
It depends on your investment horizon. If you're seeking returns over a long time period then it's hard to beat a diversified equity portfolio. If you want to preserve your capital over a shorter period of time you want to hold cash.
Yes, over the long term it's hard to beat a diversified equity portfolio, but there is still risk even then. Plus people underestimate wildly the leech fees they are paying.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
Should have invited my granddaughter along, as she is fluent in Italian and spent a year at Turin University !!!!
Not sure you’ve entirely grasped the purpose of my experiment
Do the AirPods translate what you say too? Or how does that side of the conversation go? Presumably because you are English, if the Italians don't understand you just shout louder until they do?
Nope. Which is a major drawback. The other person has to be wearing them as well
I’ve found some Spanish people and tried it and the translation is laggy and glitchy - but it works. So you can see that eventually - 2 years? - this tech will be transformative
The chat with an Ai expert last week said what I think you have said AI is as bad now as it will ever be - it will only improve. I'm setting a literature review this morning for 3rd year students. I will be explicitly telling them to use AI and reflect on its use. Eventually assessment will need to go back to the old style viva voce.
I read in the Grauniad that Keith's speech is going to say that the answer to the rise of the far right is growth.
OK, fine. Poverty is the driver of all of these protests - people feeling well off and content in their lot do not feel the need to shout at buildings.
But *how* are we to get this growth? Because the investment we need to be making in jobs and skills and infrastructure we're not going to make because apparently we can't afford it.
Plenty of the people shouting at buildings are comfortable, and some are well off. As for those inciting them, well they’re well off beyond any historical parallel. Including inciter in chief, the richest man in the world.
You mean the people massed on the pavements with their flags and placards aren't hardworking just managing concerned parents of vulnerable young children? Perhaps more money for HMRC, building services and trading standards would be the leftfield solution?
On Starmer, I think the most insightful, and empathetic, comment on this was from John McDonnell on WATO, who said he'd worked with Keir for a long time and if things haven't improved and his personal ratings are a problem then Keir will step aside. Expect a managed coronation, so not Burnham, I'm happy with my bet on Milliband.
He's semi incoherent and a several times loser. My money would be Wes Streeting. The most articulate by a distance
Wes Streeting will be tagged as the continuity Blairite candidate, and that's unlikely to be a net benefit.
Ed Miliband occupies the soft-left comfort ground for a wounded Labour party that wants to feel good about itself, while avoiding the internal infighting of the Corbyn period.
Unless there's a younger standard bearer for that group, then I think Ed has a great chance of winning a Labour leadership election if there is one in the nearish future.
If Ed Miliband is the answer, then they’re definitely asking the wrong question.
Despite the crowded field, he’s by some distance the worst minister for anything like an agenda to drive growth in the economy.
Hint to government, economic growth is strongly inversely proportional to energy prices, with the growth figures lagging the energy prices by a year or so.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
Should have invited my granddaughter along, as she is fluent in Italian and spent a year at Turin University !!!!
Not sure you’ve entirely grasped the purpose of my experiment
Do the AirPods translate what you say too? Or how does that side of the conversation go? Presumably because you are English, if the Italians don't understand you just shout louder until they do?
Nope. Which is a major drawback. The other person has to be wearing them as well
I’ve found some Spanish people and tried it and the translation is laggy and glitchy - but it works. So you can see that eventually - 2 years? - this tech will be transformative
The chat with an Ai expert last week said what I think you have said AI is as bad now as it will ever be - it will only improve. I'm setting a literature review this morning for 3rd year students. I will be explicitly telling them to use AI and reflect on its use. Eventually assessment will need to go back to the old style viva voce.
That is one thing I have them found bad, using AI for "literature review", both from these dedicated start-ups and general LLMs. Which is quite surprising given there is google scholar, arxiv, which collate all this infomration.
WRT the US economy, it’s far less impressive than it’s touted to be. The US is far more a country of pettifogging bureaucracy, overtaxation (except for the super rich), absurd amounts of money wasted on a mediocre healthcare system, and grinding poverty at the bottom, than it is the land of the free and rugged entrepreneurs.
One of the big reasons it's done so well is because the average US person sticks their money into the stock market far more than we do here, where it's either cash or buying more houses - both of which are, in the round, non or low producing assets; whereas in the US the big companies have so much implied capital they can just buy anything halfway promising elsewhere in the world.
Stocks appear to be another thing people look at and say 'You made money in the markets? Then we should have taxed you more!'. Look at the perma-onanism around the idea of a financial transaction tax.
Most people don’t understand stocks, and see such investments as gambling. Whereas, if you spread your risk, it’s as safe as depositing money in a building society, with a far better rate of return.
No it isn't.
Even a widely diversified holding is exposed to various risks that cash saving isn't. A general fall in markets will affect a widely-diversified holding as it will a concentrated holding. Cash doesn't have the capital risk that investment does.
My old boss and mentor used to say 'share money is spare money'.
Depends on perceptions and timescales. In the short term a savings account is safer than a global tracker, in the long term it is a guarantee of loss.
Only if your savings rate is below your personal rate of inflation. Negative real interest rates is a comparatively new phenomenon. Most people cannot afford to lose any capital, and those chasing leech fees, aka commission, have an incentive to over-invest clients. And they do.
I read in the Grauniad that Keith's speech is going to say that the answer to the rise of the far right is growth.
OK, fine. Poverty is the driver of all of these protests - people feeling well off and content in their lot do not feel the need to shout at buildings.
But *how* are we to get this growth? Because the investment we need to be making in jobs and skills and infrastructure we're not going to make because apparently we can't afford it.
Plenty of the people shouting at buildings are comfortable, and some are well off. As for those inciting them, well they’re well off beyond any historical parallel. Including inciter in chief, the richest man in the world.
You mean the people massed on the pavements with their flags and placards aren't hardworking just managing concerned parents of vulnerable young children? Perhaps more money for HMRC, building services and trading standards would be the leftfield solution?
On Starmer, I think the most insightful, and empathetic, comment on this was from John McDonnell on WATO, who said he'd worked with Keir for a long time and if things haven't improved and his personal ratings are a problem then Keir will step aside. Expect a managed coronation, so not Burnham, I'm happy with my bet on Milliband.
He's semi incoherent and a several times loser. My money would be Wes Streeting. The most articulate by a distance
Wes Streeting will be tagged as the continuity Blairite candidate, and that's unlikely to be a net benefit.
Ed Miliband occupies the soft-left comfort ground for a wounded Labour party that wants to feel good about itself, while avoiding the internal infighting of the Corbyn period.
Unless there's a younger standard bearer for that group, then I think Ed has a great chance of winning a Labour leadership election if there is one in the nearish future.
I think Ed is toxic for people who really wanted David Miliband. It's not rational, but it is real. I've been unimpressed with Streeting which probably means he'll get it.
I think membership would be very keen to choose a woman. Shabana Mahmood is a relatively fresh face which people might want. Also, no one is talking about Yvette Cooper - I think she's probably in with a shout.
I read in the Grauniad that Keith's speech is going to say that the answer to the rise of the far right is growth.
OK, fine. Poverty is the driver of all of these protests - people feeling well off and content in their lot do not feel the need to shout at buildings.
But *how* are we to get this growth? Because the investment we need to be making in jobs and skills and infrastructure we're not going to make because apparently we can't afford it.
Plenty of the people shouting at buildings are comfortable, and some are well off. As for those inciting them, well they’re well off beyond any historical parallel. Including inciter in chief, the richest man in the world.
You mean the people massed on the pavements with their flags and placards aren't hardworking just managing concerned parents of vulnerable young children? Perhaps more money for HMRC, building services and trading standards would be the leftfield solution?
On Starmer, I think the most insightful, and empathetic, comment on this was from John McDonnell on WATO, who said he'd worked with Keir for a long time and if things haven't improved and his personal ratings are a problem then Keir will step aside. Expect a managed coronation, so not Burnham, I'm happy with my bet on Milliband.
He's semi incoherent and a several times loser. My money would be Wes Streeting. The most articulate by a distance
Wes Streeting will be tagged as the continuity Blairite candidate, and that's unlikely to be a net benefit.
Ed Miliband occupies the soft-left comfort ground for a wounded Labour party that wants to feel good about itself, while avoiding the internal infighting of the Corbyn period.
Unless there's a younger standard bearer for that group, then I think Ed has a great chance of winning a Labour leadership election if there is one in the nearish future.
If Ed Miliband is the answer, then they’re definitely asking the wrong question.
Despite the crowded field, he’s by some distance the worst minister for anything like an agenda to drive growth in the economy.
Hint to government, economic growth is strongly inversely proportional to energy prices, with the growth figures lagging the energy prices by a year or so.
A lot of analysis on here is bedevilled by the, "rational actor hypothesis."
Why would you expect the right questions to be asked during the leadership election for a British political party?
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
I don't believe you can use third party translation apps either.
I don’t know if it’s the EU law actually blocking my download or not - I do know these Babelfish AirPods aren’t legally functional in the EU (yes, they’re a Brexit benefit)
Anyway I just used a vpn routed via the UK and it’s worked. Just tested them now. It actually works
Now I’m heading out into Naples, Italy, to find people who speak Spanish, German or French
Obviously the Union of European Translators did enough lobbying against Big Nasty American Technology, on one of their monthly trips between Brussels and Strasbourg.
This is becoming a real issue for the EU. It is regulating new tech into oblivion, guaranteeing the EU falls critically behind at a crucial stage. Like a government outlawing steam power in 1836
No doubt Labour is desperate for Britain to copy Brussels
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
I don't believe you can use third party translation apps either.
I don’t know if it’s the EU law actually blocking my download or not - I do know these Babelfish AirPods aren’t legally functional in the EU (yes, they’re a Brexit benefit)
Anyway I just used a vpn routed via the UK and it’s worked. Just tested them now. It actually works
Now I’m heading out into Naples, Italy, to find people who speak Spanish, German or French
Obviously the Union of European Translators did enough lobbying against Big Nasty American Technology, on one of their monthly trips between Brussels and Strasbourg.
This is becoming a real issue for the EU. It is regulating new tech into oblivion, guaranteeing the EU falls critically behind at a crucial stage. Like a government outlawing steam power in 1836
No doubt Labour is desperate for Britain to copy Brussels
It's the first absolute clear-as-day Brexit bonus: our AI regulation can be different to EU's precautionary principle stuff.
Absolutely, and it’s the sort of thing the government should be all over, massive opportunities to get ahead in a rapidly-developing, potentially game-changing new technology.
Instead they appear determined to copy the EU approach.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
Should have invited my granddaughter along, as she is fluent in Italian and spent a year at Turin University !!!!
Not sure you’ve entirely grasped the purpose of my experiment
Do the AirPods translate what you say too? Or how does that side of the conversation go? Presumably because you are English, if the Italians don't understand you just shout louder until they do?
Nope. Which is a major drawback. The other person has to be wearing them as well
I’ve found some Spanish people and tried it and the translation is laggy and glitchy - but it works. So you can see that eventually - 2 years? - this tech will be transformative
The chat with an Ai expert last week said what I think you have said AI is as bad now as it will ever be - it will only improve. I'm setting a literature review this morning for 3rd year students. I will be explicitly telling them to use AI and reflect on its use. Eventually assessment will need to go back to the old style viva voce.
That is one thing I have them found bad, using AI for "literature review", both from these dedicated start-ups and general LLMs. Which is quite surprising given there is google scholar, arxiv, which collate all this infomration.
Yes. In preparation for setting the task I had a go myself with Copilot (probably not the best, but thats the official one for the Uni). Despite carefully tailoring prompts etc its still around 45%. I asked for 3000 words and it returned about 800 of vagueness.
One of my colleagues is enamoured of using it as a search engine, as it is perhaps better at finding the articles you want than say Web of Science (my go to) or Embase, Pubmed. Those can tend to throw up a lot of references, depending on how you search.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
I don't believe you can use third party translation apps either.
I don’t know if it’s the EU law actually blocking my download or not - I do know these Babelfish AirPods aren’t legally functional in the EU (yes, they’re a Brexit benefit)
Anyway I just used a vpn routed via the UK and it’s worked. Just tested them now. It actually works
Now I’m heading out into Naples, Italy, to find people who speak Spanish, German or French
French speaking asylum seekers might be your best bet.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
Should have invited my granddaughter along, as she is fluent in Italian and spent a year at Turin University !!!!
Not sure you’ve entirely grasped the purpose of my experiment
Do the AirPods translate what you say too? Or how does that side of the conversation go? Presumably because you are English, if the Italians don't understand you just shout louder until they do?
Nope. Which is a major drawback. The other person has to be wearing them as well
I’ve found some Spanish people and tried it and the translation is laggy and glitchy - but it works. So you can see that eventually - 2 years? - this tech will be transformative
The chat with an Ai expert last week said what I think you have said AI is as bad now as it will ever be - it will only improve. I'm setting a literature review this morning for 3rd year students. I will be explicitly telling them to use AI and reflect on its use. Eventually assessment will need to go back to the old style viva voce.
That is one thing I have them found bad, using AI for "literature review", both from these dedicated start-ups and general LLMs. Which is quite surprising given there is google scholar, arxiv, which collate all this infomration.
Yes. In preparation for setting the task I had a go myself with Copilot (probably not the best, but thats the official one for the Uni). Despite carefully tailoring prompts etc its still around 45%. I asked for 3000 words and it returned about 800 of vagueness.
One of my colleagues is enamoured of using it as a search engine, as it is perhaps better at finding the articles you want than say Web of Science (my go to) or Embase, Pubmed. Those can tend to throw up a lot of references, depending on how you search.
I have found they miss a lot of important papers, while including lots that yes they cite a particular paper but are tangential at best. It's that missing "understanding" of context that an knowledgeable person in the field can see when it is relevant and when it isn't.
All of which is quite surprising to me as publications are listed, tagged and collated.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
I don't believe you can use third party translation apps either.
I don’t know if it’s the EU law actually blocking my download or not - I do know these Babelfish AirPods aren’t legally functional in the EU (yes, they’re a Brexit benefit)
Anyway I just used a vpn routed via the UK and it’s worked. Just tested them now. It actually works
Now I’m heading out into Naples, Italy, to find people who speak Spanish, German or French
I was in Naples last February and much preferred it to Rome, which was not what I was expecting based on what you read/hear.
WRT the US economy, it’s far less impressive than it’s touted to be. The US is far more a country of pettifogging bureaucracy, overtaxation (except for the super rich), absurd amounts of money wasted on a mediocre healthcare system, and grinding poverty at the bottom, than it is the land of the free and rugged entrepreneurs.
One of the big reasons it's done so well is because the average US person sticks their money into the stock market far more than we do here, where it's either cash or buying more houses - both of which are, in the round, non or low producing assets; whereas in the US the big companies have so much implied capital they can just buy anything halfway promising elsewhere in the world.
Stocks appear to be another thing people look at and say 'You made money in the markets? Then we should have taxed you more!'. Look at the perma-onanism around the idea of a financial transaction tax.
Most people don’t understand stocks, and see such investments as gambling. Whereas, if you spread your risk, it’s as safe as depositing money in a building society, with a far better rate of return.
No it isn't.
Even a widely diversified holding is exposed to various risks that cash saving isn't. A general fall in markets will affect a widely-diversified holding as it will a concentrated holding. Cash doesn't have the capital risk that investment does.
My old boss and mentor used to say 'share money is spare money'.
Depends on perceptions and timescales. In the short term a savings account is safer than a global tracker, in the long term it is a guarantee of loss.
Only if your savings rate is below your personal rate of inflation. Negative real interest rates is a comparatively new phenomenon. Most people cannot afford to lose any capital, and those chasing leech fees, aka commission, have an incentive to over-invest clients. And they do.
I suspect financial institutions make far bigger margins/leech fees on savings accounts than investment accounts.
If you don't move your savings accounts at least once a year, banks and building societies all take advantage.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
I don't believe you can use third party translation apps either.
I don’t know if it’s the EU law actually blocking my download or not - I do know these Babelfish AirPods aren’t legally functional in the EU (yes, they’re a Brexit benefit)
Anyway I just used a vpn routed via the UK and it’s worked. Just tested them now. It actually works
Now I’m heading out into Naples, Italy, to find people who speak Spanish, German or French
Obviously the Union of European Translators did enough lobbying against Big Nasty American Technology, on one of their monthly trips between Brussels and Strasbourg.
This is becoming a real issue for the EU. It is regulating new tech into oblivion, guaranteeing the EU falls critically behind at a crucial stage. Like a government outlawing steam power in 1836
No doubt Labour is desperate for Britain to copy Brussels
It's the first absolute clear-as-day Brexit bonus: our AI regulation can be different to EU's precautionary principle stuff.
Absolutely, and it’s the sort of thing the government should be all over, massive opportunities to get ahead in a rapidly-developing, potentially game-changing new technology.
Instead they appear determined to copy the EU approach.
The only getting ahead with AI is control of the models as they approach AGI. Use of AI to do a little bit of translation is just fiddling while Rome burns. We control none and Brexit or no Brexit it makes no difference.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
Should have invited my granddaughter along, as she is fluent in Italian and spent a year at Turin University !!!!
Not sure you’ve entirely grasped the purpose of my experiment
Do the AirPods translate what you say too? Or how does that side of the conversation go? Presumably because you are English, if the Italians don't understand you just shout louder until they do?
Nope. Which is a major drawback. The other person has to be wearing them as well
I’ve found some Spanish people and tried it and the translation is laggy and glitchy - but it works. So you can see that eventually - 2 years? - this tech will be transformative
The chat with an Ai expert last week said what I think you have said AI is as bad now as it will ever be - it will only improve. I'm setting a literature review this morning for 3rd year students. I will be explicitly telling them to use AI and reflect on its use. Eventually assessment will need to go back to the old style viva voce.
That is one thing I have them found bad, using AI for "literature review", both from these dedicated start-ups and general LLMs. Which is quite surprising given there is google scholar, arxiv, which collate all this infomration.
Yes. In preparation for setting the task I had a go myself with Copilot (probably not the best, but thats the official one for the Uni). Despite carefully tailoring prompts etc its still around 45%. I asked for 3000 words and it returned about 800 of vagueness.
One of my colleagues is enamoured of using it as a search engine, as it is perhaps better at finding the articles you want than say Web of Science (my go to) or Embase, Pubmed. Those can tend to throw up a lot of references, depending on how you search.
They’re usually pretty good at returning references to fictitious scientific papers and legal cases, that’s a good test of whether your students have actually read and understood the output.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
Should have invited my granddaughter along, as she is fluent in Italian and spent a year at Turin University !!!!
Not sure you’ve entirely grasped the purpose of my experiment
Do the AirPods translate what you say too? Or how does that side of the conversation go? Presumably because you are English, if the Italians don't understand you just shout louder until they do?
Nope. Which is a major drawback. The other person has to be wearing them as well
I’ve found some Spanish people and tried it and the translation is laggy and glitchy - but it works. So you can see that eventually - 2 years? - this tech will be transformative
The chat with an Ai expert last week said what I think you have said AI is as bad now as it will ever be - it will only improve. I'm setting a literature review this morning for 3rd year students. I will be explicitly telling them to use AI and reflect on its use. Eventually assessment will need to go back to the old style viva voce.
That is one thing I have them found bad, using AI for "literature review", both from these dedicated start-ups and general LLMs. Which is quite surprising given there is google scholar, arxiv, which collate all this infomration.
Yes. In preparation for setting the task I had a go myself with Copilot (probably not the best, but thats the official one for the Uni). Despite carefully tailoring prompts etc its still around 45%. I asked for 3000 words and it returned about 800 of vagueness.
One of my colleagues is enamoured of using it as a search engine, as it is perhaps better at finding the articles you want than say Web of Science (my go to) or Embase, Pubmed. Those can tend to throw up a lot of references, depending on how you search.
Hold on. You read nmr spectra for a living – are you hoping to retire before British universities can afford new, AI-enabled kit?
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
I don't believe you can use third party translation apps either.
I don’t know if it’s the EU law actually blocking my download or not - I do know these Babelfish AirPods aren’t legally functional in the EU (yes, they’re a Brexit benefit)
Anyway I just used a vpn routed via the UK and it’s worked. Just tested them now. It actually works
Now I’m heading out into Naples, Italy, to find people who speak Spanish, German or French
I was in Naples last February and much preferred it to Rome, which was not what I was expecting based on what you read/hear.
Naples is my favourite city in Italy
It’s my favourite city on the Continent. The Hotel San Francesco Al Monte is incredible. It’s high above the city, with spectacular views, fine dining, and its own art gallery. Last year, a suite of double bedroom, large sitting room, bathroom, and hallway cost me £249 per night.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
Should have invited my granddaughter along, as she is fluent in Italian and spent a year at Turin University !!!!
Not sure you’ve entirely grasped the purpose of my experiment
Do the AirPods translate what you say too? Or how does that side of the conversation go? Presumably because you are English, if the Italians don't understand you just shout louder until they do?
Nope. Which is a major drawback. The other person has to be wearing them as well
I’ve found some Spanish people and tried it and the translation is laggy and glitchy - but it works. So you can see that eventually - 2 years? - this tech will be transformative
The chat with an Ai expert last week said what I think you have said AI is as bad now as it will ever be - it will only improve. I'm setting a literature review this morning for 3rd year students. I will be explicitly telling them to use AI and reflect on its use. Eventually assessment will need to go back to the old style viva voce.
That is one thing I have them found bad, using AI for "literature review", both from these dedicated start-ups and general LLMs. Which is quite surprising given there is google scholar, arxiv, which collate all this infomration.
Yes. In preparation for setting the task I had a go myself with Copilot (probably not the best, but thats the official one for the Uni). Despite carefully tailoring prompts etc its still around 45%. I asked for 3000 words and it returned about 800 of vagueness.
One of my colleagues is enamoured of using it as a search engine, as it is perhaps better at finding the articles you want than say Web of Science (my go to) or Embase, Pubmed. Those can tend to throw up a lot of references, depending on how you search.
ChatGTP is often a better search engine when looking for poorly-linked obscure/very obscure topics. Google doesn't seem to have got its head around the big lumps of data that places like Archive.org and Bitsavers hold.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
Should have invited my granddaughter along, as she is fluent in Italian and spent a year at Turin University !!!!
Not sure you’ve entirely grasped the purpose of my experiment
Do the AirPods translate what you say too? Or how does that side of the conversation go? Presumably because you are English, if the Italians don't understand you just shout louder until they do?
Nope. Which is a major drawback. The other person has to be wearing them as well
I’ve found some Spanish people and tried it and the translation is laggy and glitchy - but it works. So you can see that eventually - 2 years? - this tech will be transformative
The chat with an Ai expert last week said what I think you have said AI is as bad now as it will ever be - it will only improve. I'm setting a literature review this morning for 3rd year students. I will be explicitly telling them to use AI and reflect on its use. Eventually assessment will need to go back to the old style viva voce.
That is one thing I have them found bad, using AI for "literature review", both from these dedicated start-ups and general LLMs. Which is quite surprising given there is google scholar, arxiv, which collate all this infomration.
Yes. In preparation for setting the task I had a go myself with Copilot (probably not the best, but thats the official one for the Uni). Despite carefully tailoring prompts etc its still around 45%. I asked for 3000 words and it returned about 800 of vagueness.
One of my colleagues is enamoured of using it as a search engine, as it is perhaps better at finding the articles you want than say Web of Science (my go to) or Embase, Pubmed. Those can tend to throw up a lot of references, depending on how you search.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
I don't believe you can use third party translation apps either.
I don’t know if it’s the EU law actually blocking my download or not - I do know these Babelfish AirPods aren’t legally functional in the EU (yes, they’re a Brexit benefit)
Anyway I just used a vpn routed via the UK and it’s worked. Just tested them now. It actually works
Now I’m heading out into Naples, Italy, to find people who speak Spanish, German or French
Obviously the Union of European Translators did enough lobbying against Big Nasty American Technology, on one of their monthly trips between Brussels and Strasbourg.
This is becoming a real issue for the EU. It is regulating new tech into oblivion, guaranteeing the EU falls critically behind at a crucial stage. Like a government outlawing steam power in 1836
No doubt Labour is desperate for Britain to copy Brussels
It's the first absolute clear-as-day Brexit bonus: our AI regulation can be different to EU's precautionary principle stuff.
Absolutely, and it’s the sort of thing the government should be all over, massive opportunities to get ahead in a rapidly-developing, potentially game-changing new technology.
Instead they appear determined to copy the EU approach.
The only getting ahead with AI is control of the models as they approach AGI. Use of AI to do a little bit of translation is just fiddling while Rome burns. We control none and Brexit or no Brexit it makes no difference.
There’s an awful lot of EU citizens on social media who disagree with you, vehemently
Thanks also for the kind messages and prayers sent to me and my wife after the birth of our stillborn son a few days ago. To update we have been able to hold him, read to him, write a card of our love for him and have a few days with him at least. The hospital chaplain also gave him a blessing. We named him Theo.
That sounds as though the hospital are on the ball, and have thinking about you as part of their practice - which is good.
But how do we mourn adults known to us who die? I see a reticence about that, sometimes - though things have changed significantly over say 3-4 decades.
(When my mum died in hospital in 2019, I went and spent some time with her body - saying goodbye, starting to put my memories in order and put her in the pas, and so on.)
Lewis Godall is going the way of Vorderman and being radicalised by twitter...
The blood and soil ethno-nationalism on full grim parade on this website this morning well demonstrates why the (English) Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood was completely right to call it out for what it is.
I noticed that the two Carole conspiracies were at the Labour conference, still pushing the conspiracies.
Godall is excellent. One of the very few commentators whose principles are rock solid and that includes Maitliss and Sopel. Not loved by Zionists because he's a seeker after truth
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
I don't believe you can use third party translation apps either.
I don’t know if it’s the EU law actually blocking my download or not - I do know these Babelfish AirPods aren’t legally functional in the EU (yes, they’re a Brexit benefit)
Anyway I just used a vpn routed via the UK and it’s worked. Just tested them now. It actually works
Now I’m heading out into Naples, Italy, to find people who speak Spanish, German or French
Try the cruise ship port - and if there are no cruise ships, you might get lucky with a local signorina.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
Should have invited my granddaughter along, as she is fluent in Italian and spent a year at Turin University !!!!
Not sure you’ve entirely grasped the purpose of my experiment
Do the AirPods translate what you say too? Or how does that side of the conversation go? Presumably because you are English, if the Italians don't understand you just shout louder until they do?
Nope. Which is a major drawback. The other person has to be wearing them as well
I’ve found some Spanish people and tried it and the translation is laggy and glitchy - but it works. So you can see that eventually - 2 years? - this tech will be transformative
The chat with an Ai expert last week said what I think you have said AI is as bad now as it will ever be - it will only improve. I'm setting a literature review this morning for 3rd year students. I will be explicitly telling them to use AI and reflect on its use. Eventually assessment will need to go back to the old style viva voce.
That is one thing I have them found bad, using AI for "literature review", both from these dedicated start-ups and general LLMs. Which is quite surprising given there is google scholar, arxiv, which collate all this infomration.
Yes. In preparation for setting the task I had a go myself with Copilot (probably not the best, but thats the official one for the Uni). Despite carefully tailoring prompts etc its still around 45%. I asked for 3000 words and it returned about 800 of vagueness.
One of my colleagues is enamoured of using it as a search engine, as it is perhaps better at finding the articles you want than say Web of Science (my go to) or Embase, Pubmed. Those can tend to throw up a lot of references, depending on how you search.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
I don't believe you can use third party translation apps either.
I don’t know if it’s the EU law actually blocking my download or not - I do know these Babelfish AirPods aren’t legally functional in the EU (yes, they’re a Brexit benefit)
Anyway I just used a vpn routed via the UK and it’s worked. Just tested them now. It actually works
Now I’m heading out into Naples, Italy, to find people who speak Spanish, German or French
Obviously the Union of European Translators did enough lobbying against Big Nasty American Technology, on one of their monthly trips between Brussels and Strasbourg.
This is becoming a real issue for the EU. It is regulating new tech into oblivion, guaranteeing the EU falls critically behind at a crucial stage. Like a government outlawing steam power in 1836
No doubt Labour is desperate for Britain to copy Brussels
It's the first absolute clear-as-day Brexit bonus: our AI regulation can be different to EU's precautionary principle stuff.
Absolutely, and it’s the sort of thing the government should be all over, massive opportunities to get ahead in a rapidly-developing, potentially game-changing new technology.
Instead they appear determined to copy the EU approach.
The only getting ahead with AI is control of the models as they approach AGI. Use of AI to do a little bit of translation is just fiddling while Rome burns. We control none and Brexit or no Brexit it makes no difference.
There’s an awful lot of EU citizens on social media who disagree with you, vehemently
Yeah but that’s just consumerism. It’s a bonus from a consumer perspective, sure. But the real value in AI is the models themselves and that’s where the wealth will be created.
WRT the US economy, it’s far less impressive than it’s touted to be. The US is far more a country of pettifogging bureaucracy, overtaxation (except for the super rich), absurd amounts of money wasted on a mediocre healthcare system, and grinding poverty at the bottom, than it is the land of the free and rugged entrepreneurs.
One of the big reasons it's done so well is because the average US person sticks their money into the stock market far more than we do here, where it's either cash or buying more houses - both of which are, in the round, non or low producing assets; whereas in the US the big companies have so much implied capital they can just buy anything halfway promising elsewhere in the world.
Stocks appear to be another thing people look at and say 'You made money in the markets? Then we should have taxed you more!'. Look at the perma-onanism around the idea of a financial transaction tax.
Most people don’t understand stocks, and see such investments as gambling. Whereas, if you spread your risk, it’s as safe as depositing money in a building society, with a far better rate of return.
No it isn't.
Even a widely diversified holding is exposed to various risks that cash saving isn't. A general fall in markets will affect a widely-diversified holding as it will a concentrated holding. Cash doesn't have the capital risk that investment does.
My old boss and mentor used to say 'share money is spare money'.
Depends on perceptions and timescales. In the short term a savings account is safer than a global tracker, in the long term it is a guarantee of loss.
Only if your savings rate is below your personal rate of inflation. Negative real interest rates is a comparatively new phenomenon. Most people cannot afford to lose any capital, and those chasing leech fees, aka commission, have an incentive to over-invest clients. And they do.
I suspect financial institutions make far bigger margins/leech fees on savings accounts than investment accounts.
If you don't move your savings accounts at least once a year, banks and building societies all take advantage.
The problem is a misunderstanding of the way management fees are presented.
So if a fund hypothetically returns 10% per year, the difference between a 1% tracker fee and a 3% managed fund fee is not 2%, but 20%. If the fund returns 5% per year, it’s a 40% difference that cuts your returns *in half*.
OT Oxford Dictionaries have new words in time for Christmas, including:-
brain rot: a perceived loss of intelligence or critical thinking skills, especially on account of the overconsumption of unchallenging or frivolous content posted online
cheap date: informal a person who has inexpensive needs or desires when on a date, especially one who drinks little or easily becomes drunk
climate breakdown: the progressively detrimental effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels, environmental degradation, and the increasing incidence and intensity of extreme weather
cosy crime: a genre of crime fiction characterized by a lack of explicit violence or sex, and often featuring amateur detectives
CubeSat: a small, lightweight space satellite that fits into a cube with 10 cm (3.94 inch) sides, typically made from inexpensive parts and used for research projects
debank (of a bank): deny (a person or company) access to a bank account or other financial services to avoid possible financial, legal, or reputational risk
doggy day care: informal supervision of and care for a pet dog provided at a care centre while the owner is at work during the day
food sovereignty: the power of a country or community to control its own food supply, and to determine the policies and processes that govern food production and distribution
Generation Alpha: the generation born between the early 2010s and mid 2020s, noted as the first to be born in an era of widespread digital technology and social media and as having their childhood disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic
hallucinate: (of an artificial intelligence program or tool) produce a response that appears to be accurate or plausible but that contains inaccurate or misleading information
jungle primary: US English a primary election in which all candidates appear on the same ballot and run against each other, irrespective of party affiliation
large language model: a software tool capable of corpus-based linguistic analysis and prediction, particularly an artificial intelligence system that processes written instructions (prompts) and is capable of generating natural language text
nepo baby: informal, derogatory a person who has achieved success largely on account of having a well-known or influential parent or other relative
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
Should have invited my granddaughter along, as she is fluent in Italian and spent a year at Turin University !!!!
Not sure you’ve entirely grasped the purpose of my experiment
Do the AirPods translate what you say too? Or how does that side of the conversation go? Presumably because you are English, if the Italians don't understand you just shout louder until they do?
Nope. Which is a major drawback. The other person has to be wearing them as well
I’ve found some Spanish people and tried it and the translation is laggy and glitchy - but it works. So you can see that eventually - 2 years? - this tech will be transformative
The chat with an Ai expert last week said what I think you have said AI is as bad now as it will ever be - it will only improve. I'm setting a literature review this morning for 3rd year students. I will be explicitly telling them to use AI and reflect on its use. Eventually assessment will need to go back to the old style viva voce.
That is one thing I have them found bad, using AI for "literature review", both from these dedicated start-ups and general LLMs. Which is quite surprising given there is google scholar, arxiv, which collate all this infomration.
Yes. In preparation for setting the task I had a go myself with Copilot (probably not the best, but thats the official one for the Uni). Despite carefully tailoring prompts etc its still around 45%. I asked for 3000 words and it returned about 800 of vagueness.
One of my colleagues is enamoured of using it as a search engine, as it is perhaps better at finding the articles you want than say Web of Science (my go to) or Embase, Pubmed. Those can tend to throw up a lot of references, depending on how you search.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
I don't believe you can use third party translation apps either.
I don’t know if it’s the EU law actually blocking my download or not - I do know these Babelfish AirPods aren’t legally functional in the EU (yes, they’re a Brexit benefit)
Anyway I just used a vpn routed via the UK and it’s worked. Just tested them now. It actually works
Now I’m heading out into Naples, Italy, to find people who speak Spanish, German or French
Obviously the Union of European Translators did enough lobbying against Big Nasty American Technology, on one of their monthly trips between Brussels and Strasbourg.
This is becoming a real issue for the EU. It is regulating new tech into oblivion, guaranteeing the EU falls critically behind at a crucial stage. Like a government outlawing steam power in 1836
No doubt Labour is desperate for Britain to copy Brussels
It's the first absolute clear-as-day Brexit bonus: our AI regulation can be different to EU's precautionary principle stuff.
Absolutely, and it’s the sort of thing the government should be all over, massive opportunities to get ahead in a rapidly-developing, potentially game-changing new technology.
Instead they appear determined to copy the EU approach.
The only getting ahead with AI is control of the models as they approach AGI. Use of AI to do a little bit of translation is just fiddling while Rome burns. We control none and Brexit or no Brexit it makes no difference.
There’s an awful lot of EU citizens on social media who disagree with you, vehemently
Yeah but that’s just consumerism. It’s a bonus from a consumer perspective, sure. But the real value in AI is the models themselves and that’s where the wealth will be created.
If I was allowed to talk about this I could tell you all so much more. But I’m not. I could assist @turbotubbs and tell him where he’s going wrong. But I can’t. Hey Ho
Or “ggglem lech mm nyoo” as my AirPods have just put it, translating from German (I forgot to toggle the language)
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
Should have invited my granddaughter along, as she is fluent in Italian and spent a year at Turin University !!!!
Not sure you’ve entirely grasped the purpose of my experiment
Do the AirPods translate what you say too? Or how does that side of the conversation go? Presumably because you are English, if the Italians don't understand you just shout louder until they do?
Nope. Which is a major drawback. The other person has to be wearing them as well
I’ve found some Spanish people and tried it and the translation is laggy and glitchy - but it works. So you can see that eventually - 2 years? - this tech will be transformative
The chat with an Ai expert last week said what I think you have said AI is as bad now as it will ever be - it will only improve. I'm setting a literature review this morning for 3rd year students. I will be explicitly telling them to use AI and reflect on its use. Eventually assessment will need to go back to the old style viva voce.
That is one thing I have them found bad, using AI for "literature review", both from these dedicated start-ups and general LLMs. Which is quite surprising given there is google scholar, arxiv, which collate all this infomration.
Yes. In preparation for setting the task I had a go myself with Copilot (probably not the best, but thats the official one for the Uni). Despite carefully tailoring prompts etc its still around 45%. I asked for 3000 words and it returned about 800 of vagueness.
One of my colleagues is enamoured of using it as a search engine, as it is perhaps better at finding the articles you want than say Web of Science (my go to) or Embase, Pubmed. Those can tend to throw up a lot of references, depending on how you search.
ChatGTP is often a better search engine when looking for poorly-linked obscure/very obscure topics. Google doesn't seem to have got its head around the big lumps of data that places like Archive.org and Bitsavers hold.
Well that isn't really a surprise because it will have be trained on archive data. Google is trying to give you links to currently active websites based upon how sites link to one anothet and people navigate the web.
Comments
In fact it is something close to the reverse. Huge piles of cash looking for a certain return. Buying a going concern and finacialising it is a certain return in the short/medium term.
Whereas VC is about finding the 1% chance.
There is next to no VC in the U.K. - by the standards of the US.
One of the differences UK vs US is not only the tolerance for risk but also much more common for "this pay it forward" mentality i.e. you make a fortune, you don't retire to live on a yach and sit on your money with low risk investements, you instantly looking to be funding new start-ups. Now you might argue that is just more greed in US, but either way, they are willing to put their money back at risk and in play.
Incidentally, on the Native American thing I'm seeing quite a few Facebook posts with obvious Native Americans wearing teeshirts with mildly abusive messages about immigrants.
Roman Hyťha is one of the closest associates of the army chief, Karel Řehka, and is in charge of the implementation of drones in the Czech army. Military police are investigating the circumstances of the attack
https://x.com/AlexandruC4/status/1972605644747284701
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
What we choose to cover and how we teach history has consequences.
"A politics of predatory grievance preying on the problems of working people and using that infrastructure of division against the politics of patriotic renewal, rooted in communities, building a better country brick by brick from the bottom up"
But it’s definitely going to be something out of the ordinary, a change in philosophy rather than merely operational instructions. They already have a very clear chain of command that tells them how to head for Taiwan or Russia, and what to do when they get there.
Anyway I just used a vpn routed via the UK and it’s worked. Just tested them now. It actually works
Now I’m heading out into Naples, Italy, to find people who speak Spanish, German or French
Ed Miliband occupies the soft-left comfort ground for a wounded Labour party that wants to feel good about itself, while avoiding the internal infighting of the Corbyn period.
Unless there's a younger standard bearer for that group, then I think Ed has a great chance of winning a Labour leadership election if there is one in the nearish future.
In a video statement published on his Telegram channel discussing his visit to the US, Benjamin Netanyahu said the IDF “will remain in most of the territory” as part of the plan drawn up with Trump, and that Israel did “absolutely not” agree to a Palestinian state. Netanyahu said:
Final prep of my speech ahead of tomorrow, where I’ll outline the patriotic case for national renewal.
https://x.com/keir_starmer/status/1972783274243293328?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
Missed opportunity for 'cos' and 'leaf' (hat tip to SiR) in that too
"It happened cos we voted leaf, not romaine"
Trump is most concerned with the ability to use the US military against his internal opponents, rather than enemies abroad, and to do that he needs personal loyalty from the military commanders. We know this from what the chairman of the joint chiefs at the time of the Jan 6th coup attempt has said.
Fag Ash Lil starting to smell a bit off too
If the Conservative selectorate had understood that, we would have been spared Johnson and Truss.
"It’s really just a very nice meeting talking about how well we’re doing militarily, talking about being in great shape, talking about a lot of good, positive things. It’s just a good message,” Trump told NBC News in a phone call. “We have some great people coming in and it’s just an ‘esprit de corps.’ You know the expression ‘esprit de corps’? That’s all it’s about. We’re talking about what we’re doing, what they’re doing, and how doing.”
So it's definitely something very different from this, and unusual.
Hmm.
Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich described the Gaza plan as a “resounding diplomatic failure” that would “end in tears”.
https://x.com/annmarie/status/1972957418368737612
Perhaps I should buy extra rice and loo roll?
Even a widely diversified holding is exposed to various risks that cash saving isn't. A general fall in markets will affect a widely-diversified holding as it will a concentrated holding. Cash doesn't have the capital risk that investment does.
My old boss and mentor used to say 'share money is spare money'.
https://www.cmcmarkets.com/en-gb/investing-guides/risks-of-investing
No doubt Labour is desperate for Britain to copy Brussels
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/09/25/apple-warns-europeans-may-not-get-new-gadgets-because-of-br/
Incidentally, with our house remodel we went from one toilet to three (I know, luxury). For some reason the wife doesn't think I serious when I say we need three times as much toilet roll.
It will be interesting to listen to their take on Trump and US-Canadian friction
Now, what happens if they want to take refuge here in North Wales is another question !!!!!!!!!!
I’ve found some Spanish people and tried it and the translation is laggy and glitchy - but it works. So you can see that eventually - 2 years? - this tech will be transformative
The blood and soil ethno-nationalism on full grim parade on this website this morning well demonstrates why the (English) Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood was completely right to call it out for what it is.
https://x.com/lewis_goodall/status/1972942174393450872
I noticed that the two Carole conspiracies were at the Labour conference, still pushing the conspiracies.
My expectation is that after the meeting the US military will be personally subordinated to Trump's will, and it may also be facing a leadership crisis caused by the exit of dozens of generals and admirals.
But maybe that's my innate optimism talking, and the invasion of Greenland is imminent.
Despite the crowded field, he’s by some distance the worst minister for anything like an agenda to drive growth in the economy.
Hint to government, economic growth is strongly inversely proportional to energy prices, with the growth figures lagging the energy prices by a year or so.
I've been unimpressed with Streeting which probably means he'll get it.
I think membership would be very keen to choose a woman. Shabana Mahmood is a relatively fresh face which people might want. Also, no one is talking about Yvette Cooper - I think she's probably in with a shout.
Why would you expect the right questions to be asked during the leadership election for a British political party?
Instead they appear determined to copy the EU approach.
One of my colleagues is enamoured of using it as a search engine, as it is perhaps better at finding the articles you want than say Web of Science (my go to) or Embase, Pubmed. Those can tend to throw up a lot of references, depending on how you search.
All of which is quite surprising to me as publications are listed, tagged and collated.
If you don't move your savings accounts at least once a year, banks and building societies all take advantage.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/sep/29/labour-to-bring-back-maintenance-grants-for-students-on-priority-courses
Sounds a great idea to me, something that could really make a difference with social mobility and equality of opportunity.
Can I pick up one thought from HYUFD's post FPT: That sounds as though the hospital are on the ball, and have thinking about you as part of their practice - which is good.
But how do we mourn adults known to us who die? I see a reticence about that, sometimes - though things have changed significantly over say 3-4 decades.
(When my mum died in hospital in 2019, I went and spent some time with her body - saying goodbye, starting to put my memories in order and put her in the pas, and so on.)
So if a fund hypothetically returns 10% per year, the difference between a 1% tracker fee and a 3% managed fund fee is not 2%, but 20%. If the fund returns 5% per year, it’s a 40% difference that cuts your returns *in half*.
Invested £1000
Returned 5% £50
Fee 1% £10, profit £40
Fee 3% £30, profit £20
The dirty little secret is that very few actively managed funds consistently outperform a basic tracker fund over time.
- brain rot: a perceived loss of intelligence or critical thinking skills, especially on account of the overconsumption of unchallenging or frivolous content posted online
- cheap date: informal a person who has inexpensive needs or desires when on a date, especially one who drinks little or easily becomes drunk
- climate breakdown: the progressively detrimental effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels, environmental degradation, and the increasing incidence and intensity of extreme weather
- cosy crime: a genre of crime fiction characterized by a lack of explicit violence or sex, and often featuring amateur detectives
- CubeSat: a small, lightweight space satellite that fits into a cube with 10 cm (3.94 inch) sides, typically made from inexpensive parts and used for research projects
- debank (of a bank): deny (a person or company) access to a bank account or other financial services to avoid possible financial, legal, or reputational risk
- doggy day care: informal supervision of and care for a pet dog provided at a care centre while the owner is at work during the day
- food sovereignty: the power of a country or community to control its own food supply, and to determine the policies and processes that govern food production and distribution
- Generation Alpha: the generation born between the early 2010s and mid 2020s, noted as the first to be born in an era of widespread digital technology and social media and as having their childhood disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic
- hallucinate: (of an artificial intelligence program or tool) produce a response that appears to be accurate or plausible but that contains inaccurate or misleading information
- jungle primary: US English a primary election in which all candidates appear on the same ballot and run against each other, irrespective of party affiliation
- large language model: a software tool capable of corpus-based linguistic analysis and prediction, particularly an artificial intelligence system that processes written instructions (prompts) and is capable of generating natural language text
- nepo baby: informal, derogatory a person who has achieved success largely on account of having a well-known or influential parent or other relative
https://premium.oxforddictionaries.com/words/summer-2025-update (£££)Or “ggglem lech mm nyoo” as my AirPods have just put it, translating from German (I forgot to toggle the language)