Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » A 20/1 tip to start off 2017

13»

Comments

  • glwglw Posts: 9,871
    So work to decentralize whiteness: in your children’s school lessons, in your PTA meetings, in your office meetings, in your city council meetings, in the film and TV you watch, in the music you listen to, in the leaders you support. If you do not decentralize whiteness in your movements for progress, you will leave people of color behind. And what kind of progress is that?"
    I'll have to remember that the next time I'm making a play list on Spotify. Don't make lists of good tunes by theme, or artist, or genre; do decentralize whiteness. FFS!
  • PlatoSaidPlatoSaid Posts: 10,383
    Samanth Subrahaniam
    May all the crimes you encounter in 2017 be only as serious as this one, out of Ireland: https://t.co/O0JvKmXV5b
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,314
    edited January 2017
    ydoethur said:

    @SeanT and others:

    Incidentally, have you noticed that Keegan has quite brilliantly mucked up his figures in that sentence about the so-called people? 52% on a 72% turnout is 37.4% which by various rounding methods would go up to 38% in practice - not the 28% he claims.

    This merely confirms me in my belief that he's basically thick, as well as patronising. You have to wonder what strings had to be pulled to get him a job at the Guardian, even for a job involving economic forecasting where I suppose blatant fiddling is to be expected.

    He's dividing the number of votes by the whole UK population, rather than the electorate, presumably to account for unregistered votes but also including ineligible voters such as children and prisoners. As a complete coincidence, this makes his percentage of Brexit voters smaller than it actually was. Edit: and foreigners.

    Funny how these 'mistakes' only ever work one way, but then again the Guardian probably had a sweepstake sunning of who could come up with the smallest percentage of the Brexit vote that could be plausibly explained.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,301
    edited January 2017
    ydoethur said:

    @SeanT and others:

    Incidentally, have you noticed that Keegan has quite brilliantly mucked up his figures in that sentence about the 'so-called people'? 52% on a 72% turnout is 37.4% which by various rounding methods would go up to 38% in practice - not the 28% he claims.

    This merely confirms me in my belief that he's basically thick, as well as patronising. You have to wonder what strings had to be pulled to get him a job at the Guardian, even for a job involving economic forecasting where I suppose blatant fiddling is to be expected.

    I've seen the 28% figure bandied about before.

    It is calculated by 17.4 million no voters divided by the entire the population of the UK, of approx 64million, which works out around 28%.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,528

    ydoethur said:

    @SeanT and others:

    Incidentally, have you noticed that Keegan has quite brilliantly mucked up his figures in that sentence about the 'so-called people'? 52% on a 72% turnout is 37.4% which by various rounding methods would go up to 38% in practice - not the 28% he claims.

    This merely confirms me in my belief that he's basically thick, as well as patronising. You have to wonder what strings had to be pulled to get him a job at the Guardian, even for a job involving economic forecasting where I suppose blatant fiddling is to be expected.

    I've seen the 28% figure bandied about before.

    It is calculated by 17.4 million no voters divided by the entire the population of the UK, of approx 64million, which works out around 28%.
    It's still a rubbish statistic.
  • My favourite misuse of statistics was when some chap described the monthly increase in inflation from 0.9% to 1.2% as a 33% increase in inflation.
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    edited January 2017

    ydoethur said:

    @SeanT and others:

    Incidentally, have you noticed that Keegan has quite brilliantly mucked up his figures in that sentence about the 'so-called people'? 52% on a 72% turnout is 37.4% which by various rounding methods would go up to 38% in practice - not the 28% he claims.

    This merely confirms me in my belief that he's basically thick, as well as patronising. You have to wonder what strings had to be pulled to get him a job at the Guardian, even for a job involving economic forecasting where I suppose blatant fiddling is to be expected.

    I've seen the 28% figure bandied about before.

    It is calculated by 17.4 million no voters divided by the entire the population of the UK, of approx 64million, which works out around 28%.
    Yes, spinners such as this man seem to think including people who weren't able to vote (new born babies etc) is valid. It is the equivalent of saying 73% of the public didn't vote for Cameron's deal to Remain, utterly pathetic.

    When people stoop so low to try and win an argument or make a point it is very hard to take anything they say seriously.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,586

    ydoethur said:

    @SeanT and others:

    Incidentally, have you noticed that Keegan has quite brilliantly mucked up his figures in that sentence about the 'so-called people'? 52% on a 72% turnout is 37.4% which by various rounding methods would go up to 38% in practice - not the 28% he claims.

    This merely confirms me in my belief that he's basically thick, as well as patronising. You have to wonder what strings had to be pulled to get him a job at the Guardian, even for a job involving economic forecasting where I suppose blatant fiddling is to be expected.

    I've seen the 28% figure bandied about before.

    It is calculated by 17.4 million no voters divided by the entire the population of the UK, of approx 64million, which works out around 28%.
    There are (IIRC) 45 million registered voters in the UK (parliamentary) and 46 million (local and EU). I think that's right...
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,154

    ydoethur said:

    @SeanT and others:

    Incidentally, have you noticed that Keegan has quite brilliantly mucked up his figures in that sentence about the 'so-called people'? 52% on a 72% turnout is 37.4% which by various rounding methods would go up to 38% in practice - not the 28% he claims.

    This merely confirms me in my belief that he's basically thick, as well as patronising. You have to wonder what strings had to be pulled to get him a job at the Guardian, even for a job involving economic forecasting where I suppose blatant fiddling is to be expected.

    I've seen the 28% figure bandied about before.

    It is calculated by 17.4 million no voters divided by the entire the population of the UK, of approx 64million, which works out around 28%.
    What, including babes in arms? That's ridiculous (even if the 64 million figure is accurate, which ironically it almost certainly isn't). The statistic has to be related to those in a position to vote, or it is meaningless.

    Although in fairness babes in arms might make better writers on economics than William Keegan.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 21,794

    SeanT said:

    Talking of Twitter, check this

    https://twitter.com/thomasknox/status/815528097609121792


    To be charitable to the journalist, William Keegan, he is quite old and maybe a bit doddery, and - maybe - he didn't realise how this would sound. i.e. oozing contempt, reinforcing every stereoptype of Remoaners.

    What amazes me is that the Guardian editors let it pass. A good or sensible sub-editor would have jumped on it and taken it out in a trice. It's in the first sentence!

    I sense possible terminal decline here. The Guardian is the Queen with a cold.

    I pray fervently that the Queen survives The Guardian.
    The chance of a 'mere mortal' living to 100 is one in 10,000. I doubt the royal family have better genes or a much better diet, but they might have better medical care.
    Wrong statistic. We need the odds of a 90-year-old surviving to 100, not any mere mortal.
    https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/population/longevity.html
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118

    My favourite misuse of statistics was when some chap described the monthly increase in inflation from 0.9% to 1.2% as a 33% increase in inflation.

    That is far more valid then Keegan's 28% in my opinion.
  • MaxPB said:

    ydoethur said:

    @SeanT and others:

    Incidentally, have you noticed that Keegan has quite brilliantly mucked up his figures in that sentence about the 'so-called people'? 52% on a 72% turnout is 37.4% which by various rounding methods would go up to 38% in practice - not the 28% he claims.

    This merely confirms me in my belief that he's basically thick, as well as patronising. You have to wonder what strings had to be pulled to get him a job at the Guardian, even for a job involving economic forecasting where I suppose blatant fiddling is to be expected.

    I've seen the 28% figure bandied about before.

    It is calculated by 17.4 million no voters divided by the entire the population of the UK, of approx 64million, which works out around 28%.
    It's still a rubbish statistic.
    It is, binary choice referendums are settled by the side that gets the most votes.
  • AnneJGPAnneJGP Posts: 3,055
    edited January 2017

    Best wishes for 2017 to everyone who posts - or even lurks!

    Astonished re AndyJS. Not just for the work he put in, but his willingness to share it with one and all was exemplary.

    This might be a bit datageeky but I do wonder whether his spreadsheets deserved to be covered by thread headers, not just confined to the comments section.

    Well I was one of the less than ten who voted for AndyJS.

    I suspect that Andy's low score is an indicator of how few people actually bet among readers of PB.

    HNY to all.
    For information, I don't bet and I voted for Andy - although it's possible I used too narrative a style and name-checked others as well resulting in a 'spoiled ballot'.

    His spreadsheet wasn't useful only for the betting. It made sense of the results as they arrived, and made the whole night so much more interesting.

    (Edited to add: good afternoon, everyone, and Happy New Year.)
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,314
    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    @SeanT and others:

    Incidentally, have you noticed that Keegan has quite brilliantly mucked up his figures in that sentence about the 'so-called people'? 52% on a 72% turnout is 37.4% which by various rounding methods would go up to 38% in practice - not the 28% he claims.

    This merely confirms me in my belief that he's basically thick, as well as patronising. You have to wonder what strings had to be pulled to get him a job at the Guardian, even for a job involving economic forecasting where I suppose blatant fiddling is to be expected.

    I've seen the 28% figure bandied about before.

    It is calculated by 17.4 million no voters divided by the entire the population of the UK, of approx 64million, which works out around 28%.
    What, including babes in arms? That's ridiculous (even if the 64 million figure is accurate, which ironically it almost certainly isn't). The statistic has to be related to those in a position to vote, or it is meaningless.

    Although in fairness babes in arms might make better writers on economics than William Keegan.
    And of course EU citizen residents (a couple of million?) couldn't vote in the referendum either. The 28% figure is bollocks on stilts, and the author probably knows it but thinks he's being clever.
  • ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    @SeanT and others:

    Incidentally, have you noticed that Keegan has quite brilliantly mucked up his figures in that sentence about the 'so-called people'? 52% on a 72% turnout is 37.4% which by various rounding methods would go up to 38% in practice - not the 28% he claims.

    This merely confirms me in my belief that he's basically thick, as well as patronising. You have to wonder what strings had to be pulled to get him a job at the Guardian, even for a job involving economic forecasting where I suppose blatant fiddling is to be expected.

    I've seen the 28% figure bandied about before.

    It is calculated by 17.4 million no voters divided by the entire the population of the UK, of approx 64million, which works out around 28%.
    What, including babes in arms? That's ridiculous (even if the 64 million figure is accurate, which ironically it almost certainly isn't). The statistic has to be related to those in a position to vote, or it is meaningless.

    Although in fairness babes in arms might make better writers on economics than William Keegan.
    ONS estimates that the population of the UK on June 30th 2015 was 65.1 million

    https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,320
    Sandpit said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    @SeanT and others:

    Incidentally, have you noticed that Keegan has quite brilliantly mucked up his figures in that sentence about the 'so-called people'? 52% on a 72% turnout is 37.4% which by various rounding methods would go up to 38% in practice - not the 28% he claims.

    This merely confirms me in my belief that he's basically thick, as well as patronising. You have to wonder what strings had to be pulled to get him a job at the Guardian, even for a job involving economic forecasting where I suppose blatant fiddling is to be expected.

    I've seen the 28% figure bandied about before.

    It is calculated by 17.4 million no voters divided by the entire the population of the UK, of approx 64million, which works out around 28%.
    What, including babes in arms? That's ridiculous (even if the 64 million figure is accurate, which ironically it almost certainly isn't). The statistic has to be related to those in a position to vote, or it is meaningless.

    Although in fairness babes in arms might make better writers on economics than William Keegan.
    And of course EU citizen residents (a couple of million?) couldn't vote in the referendum either.
    Which is actually a valid complaint about the referendum. Why let Commonwealth residents vote but not EU residents?
  • MattWMattW Posts: 22,703
    SeanT said:

    Talking of Twitter, check this

    https://twitter.com/thomasknox/status/815528097609121792


    To be charitable to the journalist, William Keegan, he is quite old and maybe a bit doddery, and - maybe - he didn't realise how this would sound. i.e. oozing contempt, reinforcing every stereoptype of Remoaners.

    What amazes me is that the Guardian editors let it pass. A good or sensible sub-editor would have jumped on it and taken it out in a trice. It's in the first sentence!

    I sense possible terminal decline here. The Guardian is the Queen with a cold.

    Do you have any credible evidence for the existence of editors at the Guardian?

    Here is another one today which indicates the contrary:
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/01/good-health-good-society-we-are-suffering

  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,141
    ydoethur said:

    @SeanT and others:

    Incidentally, have you noticed that Keegan has quite brilliantly mucked up his figures in that sentence about the 'so-called people'? 52% on a 72% turnout is 37.4% which by various rounding methods would go up to 38% in practice - not the 28% he claims.

    This merely confirms me in my belief that he's basically thick, as well as patronising. You have to wonder what strings had to be pulled to get him a job at the Guardian, even for a job involving economic forecasting where I suppose blatant fiddling is to be expected.

    One could just as easily (and dishonestly) state that only 26% of the population want to remain in the EU.
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,141
    isam said:

    SeanT said:

    Talking of Twitter, check this

    https://twitter.com/thomasknox/status/815528097609121792


    To be charitable to the journalist, William Keegan, he is quite old and maybe a bit doddery, and - maybe - he didn't realise how this would sound. i.e. oozing contempt, reinforcing every stereoptype of Remoaners.

    What amazes me is that the Guardian editors let it pass. A good or sensible sub-editor would have jumped on it and taken it out in a trice. It's in the first sentence!

    I sense possible terminal decline here. The Guardian is the Queen with a cold.

    Guardian tips for a happy 2017

    "Decentralize whiteness

    Just about every aspect of western culture centralizes whiteness. Our history, infrastructure, medical system, justice system, education system, entertainment industry – and yes, our social justice organizations – all do this. Whiteness is default, it’s ubiquitous and it’s insidious.

    We don’t have to purposefully center whiteness. When we neglect to decentralize it, it will be automatically centered. So work to decentralize whiteness: in your children’s school lessons, in your PTA meetings, in your office meetings, in your city council meetings, in the film and TV you watch, in the music you listen to, in the leaders you support. If you do not decentralize whiteness in your movements for progress, you will leave people of color behind. And what kind of progress is that?"

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/01/how-to-keep-fighting-for-justice-in-2017?CMP=twt_gu
    Some people seem to think that the demographic profile of inner London applies to the UK as a whole.
  • DecrepitJohnLDecrepitJohnL Posts: 13,300
    viewcode said:

    SeanT said:

    Talking of Twitter, check this

    https://twitter.com/thomasknox/status/815528097609121792


    To be charitable to the journalist, William Keegan, he is quite old and maybe a bit doddery, and - maybe - he didn't realise how this would sound. i.e. oozing contempt, reinforcing every stereoptype of Remoaners.

    What amazes me is that the Guardian editors let it pass. A good or sensible sub-editor would have jumped on it and taken it out in a trice. It's in the first sentence!

    I sense possible terminal decline here. The Guardian is the Queen with a cold.

    I pray fervently that the Queen survives The Guardian.
    The chance of a 'mere mortal' living to 100 is one in 10,000. I doubt the royal family have better genes or a much better diet, but they might have better medical care.
    Wrong statistic. We need the odds of a 90-year-old surviving to 100, not any mere mortal.
    https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/population/longevity.html
    Thanks; so were she American, the Queen could look forward to another 4.8 years (no confidence bounds given) all other things being equal.
  • Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453

    I've seen the 28% figure bandied about before.

    It is calculated by 17.4 million no voters divided by the entire the population of the UK, of approx 64million, which works out around 28%.

    We covered this before.

    The issue is not how many voted, or the result, the issue is we live in a representative, not absolute, democracy.

    Given the referendum was advisory (ducks), how are the people who were not eligible to vote in this referendum to be represented by Parliament as we move forward?
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,205
    HYUFD said:

    FU Resolving that problem would help but the difference between them is you can use Twitter to debate whereas Facebook is largely a glorified photo album

    That's not the impression I get from Twitter conversations I have seen, and neither from FB. Although I freely adm
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    I deliver a lecture called "Why I'm Not On Facebook" to schools and parents about the perils of social media

    In a world where Mr Pussy-Grabber can become President, perhaps we need to accept that some of the perceived risks of oversharing are overblown.
    But yet people still think death threats and the documentation of their own illegal activities are somehow okay.

    This year's graduates will have been on social media since they were 13 or 14. How much of what they have posted in the intervening period, would they wish to have disappeared from the internet as they enter the real world of life and work?

    The first thing to understand it that there's no delete button, even if you think there is.
    The second thing to understand is that if you're not paying for something (and sometimes even if you are) then you're not the customer, you are the product sold to the customer advertisers.
    The third thing to understand is that anything you post on *someone else's website* is basically theirs to do with as they wish, that US freedom of speech laws ban very little in this regard, and that if you have a problem with it you'll need expensive lawyers.

    I could (and often do, professionally) go on all day about this, so I think I'll quit now rather than derail the New Year thread completely!
    This is PB: thread derailing appears to be positively encouraged.

    I was talking to my nephew about this at Christmas. He's 18, and on FB and several other social media sites. He said he was staggered by what his compatriots put online: often highly personal texts and images that he says are cringeworthy after ten minutes, yet alone ten years.

    He seems mainly to use FB to see what his mum's put on the site, and laugh at that ...

    One lesson I taught him from he was knee-high to a grasshopper: "The Internet has a memory."
  • DecrepitJohnLDecrepitJohnL Posts: 13,300
    PlatoSaid said:

    Samanth Subrahaniam
    May all the crimes you encounter in 2017 be only as serious as this one, out of Ireland: https://t.co/O0JvKmXV5b

    An old story from a now-discontinued humorous account, or fake news in the modern argot.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,314

    Sandpit said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    @SeanT and others:

    Incidentally, have you noticed that Keegan has quite brilliantly mucked up his figures in that sentence about the 'so-called people'? 52% on a 72% turnout is 37.4% which by various rounding methods would go up to 38% in practice - not the 28% he claims.

    This merely confirms me in my belief that he's basically thick, as well as patronising. You have to wonder what strings had to be pulled to get him a job at the Guardian, even for a job involving economic forecasting where I suppose blatant fiddling is to be expected.

    I've seen the 28% figure bandied about before.

    It is calculated by 17.4 million no voters divided by the entire the population of the UK, of approx 64million, which works out around 28%.
    What, including babes in arms? That's ridiculous (even if the 64 million figure is accurate, which ironically it almost certainly isn't). The statistic has to be related to those in a position to vote, or it is meaningless.

    Although in fairness babes in arms might make better writers on economics than William Keegan.
    And of course EU citizen residents (a couple of million?) couldn't vote in the referendum either.
    Which is actually a valid complaint about the referendum. Why let Commonwealth residents vote but not EU residents?
    Probably for the same reason that the family didn't let their 'pet' turkey partake in the family's vote on whether or not to celebrate Christmas this year?

    The electorate definition was passed by Parliament, although I can't remember if it were in the original Bill or was an amendment.
  • Ishmael_ZIshmael_Z Posts: 8,981
    edited January 2017

    SeanT said:

    Talking of Twitter, check this

    https://twitter.com/thomasknox/status/815528097609121792


    To be charitable to the journalist, William Keegan, he is quite old and maybe a bit doddery, and - maybe - he didn't realise how this would sound. i.e. oozing contempt, reinforcing every stereoptype of Remoaners.

    What amazes me is that the Guardian editors let it pass. A good or sensible sub-editor would have jumped on it and taken it out in a trice. It's in the first sentence!

    I sense possible terminal decline here. The Guardian is the Queen with a cold.

    I pray fervently that the Queen survives The Guardian.
    The chance of a 'mere mortal' living to 100 is one in 10,000. I doubt the royal family have better genes or a much better diet, but they might have better medical care.

    The Queen's father died in middle age. Her sister apparently followed the advice 'live fast die young'. Who knows if she'll get to 101, like her mother. I think it's possible she'll die before the Scott Trust runs out of money or sub-editors who should surely have also spotted this and questioned it.
    Father and sister died of smoking, so aren't genetically relevant. Mother living past 100 is.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,231
    Ishmael_Z said:

    SeanT said:

    Talking of Twitter, check this

    https://twitter.com/thomasknox/status/815528097609121792


    To be charitable to the journalist, William Keegan, he is quite old and maybe a bit doddery, and - maybe - he didn't realise how this would sound. i.e. oozing contempt, reinforcing every stereoptype of Remoaners.

    What amazes me is that the Guardian editors let it pass. A good or sensible sub-editor would have jumped on it and taken it out in a trice. It's in the first sentence!

    I sense possible terminal decline here. The Guardian is the Queen with a cold.

    I pray fervently that the Queen survives The Guardian.
    The chance of a 'mere mortal' living to 100 is one in 10,000. I doubt the royal family have better genes or a much better diet, but they might have better medical care.

    The Queen's father died in middle age. Her sister apparently followed the advice 'live fast die young'. Who knows if she'll get to 101, like her mother. I think it's possible she'll die before the Scott Trust runs out of money or sub-editors who should surely have also spotted this and questioned it.
    Father and sister died of smoking, so aren't genetically relevant. Mother living past 100 is.
    The Queen at 90 looks more robust than the QM did at her age, and the latter went on to live for another decade.
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,141
    @Scott, those who care can contact MP's.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,320
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    @SeanT and others:

    Incidentally, have you noticed that Keegan has quite brilliantly mucked up his figures in that sentence about the 'so-called people'? 52% on a 72% turnout is 37.4% which by various rounding methods would go up to 38% in practice - not the 28% he claims.

    This merely confirms me in my belief that he's basically thick, as well as patronising. You have to wonder what strings had to be pulled to get him a job at the Guardian, even for a job involving economic forecasting where I suppose blatant fiddling is to be expected.

    I've seen the 28% figure bandied about before.

    It is calculated by 17.4 million no voters divided by the entire the population of the UK, of approx 64million, which works out around 28%.
    What, including babes in arms? That's ridiculous (even if the 64 million figure is accurate, which ironically it almost certainly isn't). The statistic has to be related to those in a position to vote, or it is meaningless.

    Although in fairness babes in arms might make better writers on economics than William Keegan.
    And of course EU citizen residents (a couple of million?) couldn't vote in the referendum either.
    Which is actually a valid complaint about the referendum. Why let Commonwealth residents vote but not EU residents?
    Probably for the same reason that the family didn't let their 'pet' turkey partake in the family's vote on whether or not to celebrate Christmas this year?
    We shouldn't make assumptions. What about people like Gisela Stuart (presumably a citizen now) or the Latvian wife of one of the posters on here who is apparently anti-EU?
  • Ishmael_ZIshmael_Z Posts: 8,981

    Ishmael_Z said:

    SeanT said:

    Talking of Twitter, check this

    https://twitter.com/thomasknox/status/815528097609121792


    To be charitable to the journalist, William Keegan, he is quite old and maybe a bit doddery, and - maybe - he didn't realise how this would sound. i.e. oozing contempt, reinforcing every stereoptype of Remoaners.

    What amazes me is that the Guardian editors let it pass. A good or sensible sub-editor would have jumped on it and taken it out in a trice. It's in the first sentence!

    I sense possible terminal decline here. The Guardian is the Queen with a cold.

    I pray fervently that the Queen survives The Guardian.
    The chance of a 'mere mortal' living to 100 is one in 10,000. I doubt the royal family have better genes or a much better diet, but they might have better medical care.

    The Queen's father died in middle age. Her sister apparently followed the advice 'live fast die young'. Who knows if she'll get to 101, like her mother. I think it's possible she'll die before the Scott Trust runs out of money or sub-editors who should surely have also spotted this and questioned it.
    Father and sister died of smoking, so aren't genetically relevant. Mother living past 100 is.
    The Queen at 90 looks more robust than the QM did at her age, and the latter went on to live for another decade.
    And by all accounts drinks much less gin.
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    edited January 2017
    Sean_F said:

    isam said:

    SeanT said:

    Talking of Twitter, check this

    https://twitter.com/thomasknox/status/815528097609121792


    To be charitable to the journalist, William Keegan, he is quite old and maybe a bit doddery, and - maybe - he didn't realise how this would sound. i.e. oozing contempt, reinforcing every stereoptype of Remoaners.

    What amazes me is that the Guardian editors let it pass. A good or sensible sub-editor would have jumped on it and taken it out in a trice. It's in the first sentence!

    I sense possible terminal decline here. The Guardian is the Queen with a cold.

    Guardian tips for a happy 2017

    "Decentralize whiteness

    Just about every aspect of western culture centralizes whiteness. Our history, infrastructure, medical system, justice system, education system, entertainment industry – and yes, our social justice organizations – all do this. Whiteness is default, it’s ubiquitous and it’s insidious.

    We don’t have to purposefully center whiteness. When we neglect to decentralize it, it will be automatically centered. So work to decentralize whiteness: in your children’s school lessons, in your PTA meetings, in your office meetings, in your city council meetings, in the film and TV you watch, in the music you listen to, in the leaders you support. If you do not decentralize whiteness in your movements for progress, you will leave people of color behind. And what kind of progress is that?"

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/01/how-to-keep-fighting-for-justice-in-2017?CMP=twt_gu
    Some people seem to think that the demographic profile of inner London applies to the UK as a whole.
    Do you reckon in the Jamaican Guardian they are saying "Decentralise Blackness. Blackness is default, it’s ubiquitous and it’s insidious." ?
  • Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453
    Sean_F said:

    @Scott, those who care can contact MP's.

    ...and that's fine, because MPs have such a crucial role in scrutinising, debating and approving our plans for Brexit.

    Oh, wait...
  • NEW THREAD

  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,207
    I know some of you are fans of strategy / wargames.

    I found out about this site a few days ago, it came heavily recommended to me.

    http://www.vassalengine.org/index.php

    just look at the modules available

    http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Category:Modules

    Including Carcassone, Squad leader, Advanced Squad leader, 2nd fleet and Gulf Strike to name a few
  • Sandpit said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    @SeanT and others:

    Incidentally, have you noticed that Keegan has quite brilliantly mucked up his figures in that sentence about the 'so-called people'? 52% on a 72% turnout is 37.4% which by various rounding methods would go up to 38% in practice - not the 28% he claims.

    This merely confirms me in my belief that he's basically thick, as well as patronising. You have to wonder what strings had to be pulled to get him a job at the Guardian, even for a job involving economic forecasting where I suppose blatant fiddling is to be expected.

    I've seen the 28% figure bandied about before.

    It is calculated by 17.4 million no voters divided by the entire the population of the UK, of approx 64million, which works out around 28%.
    What, including babes in arms? That's ridiculous (even if the 64 million figure is accurate, which ironically it almost certainly isn't). The statistic has to be related to those in a position to vote, or it is meaningless.

    Although in fairness babes in arms might make better writers on economics than William Keegan.
    And of course EU citizen residents (a couple of million?) couldn't vote in the referendum either.
    Which is actually a valid complaint about the referendum. Why let Commonwealth residents vote but not EU residents?
    For the same reason we let Commonwealth residents vote in General Elections but not EU residents.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,314

    HYUFD said:

    FU Resolving that problem would help but the difference between them is you can use Twitter to debate whereas Facebook is largely a glorified photo album

    That's not the impression I get from Twitter conversations I have seen, and neither from FB. Although I freely adm
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    I deliver a lecture called "Why I'm Not On Facebook" to schools and parents about the perils of social media

    .
    But yet people still think death threats and the documentation of their own illegal activities are somehow okay.

    This year's graduates will have been on social media since they were 13 or 14. How much of what they have posted in the intervening period, would they wish to have disappeared from the internet as they enter the real world of life and work?

    The first thing to understand it that there's no delete button, even if you think there is.
    The second thing to understand is that if you're not paying for something (and sometimes even if you are) then you're not the customer, you are the product sold to the customer advertisers.
    The third thing to understand is that anything you post on *someone else's website* is basically theirs to do with as they wish, that US freedom of speech laws ban very little in this regard, and that if you have a problem with it you'll need expensive lawyers.

    I could (and often do, professionally) go on all day about this, so I think I'll quit now rather than derail the New Year thread completely!
    This is PB: thread derailing appears to be positively encouraged.

    I was talking to my nephew about this at Christmas. He's 18, and on FB and several other social media sites. He said he was staggered by what his compatriots put online: often highly personal texts and images that he says are cringeworthy after ten minutes, yet alone ten years.

    He seems mainly to use FB to see what his mum's put on the site, and laugh at that ...

    One lesson I taught him from he was knee-high to a grasshopper: "The Internet has a memory."
    Unfortunately too many teenagers are learning this in the hardest way possible, often seriously screwing up their future lives in the process.

    Three British kids in this part of the world are currently in the big house for posting a video of them smoking dope at a party, there are several more in the UK inside for 'production and distribution of child pornography', and there are several 'Revenge Porn' sites in the US that post images and personal details of mostly young adults, that are pretty much impossible to take down and work hard on boosting search results for their 'models'. These things can't be undone.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,320

    Sandpit said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    @SeanT and others:

    Incidentally, have you noticed that Keegan has quite brilliantly mucked up his figures in that sentence about the 'so-called people'? 52% on a 72% turnout is 37.4% which by various rounding methods would go up to 38% in practice - not the 28% he claims.

    This merely confirms me in my belief that he's basically thick, as well as patronising. You have to wonder what strings had to be pulled to get him a job at the Guardian, even for a job involving economic forecasting where I suppose blatant fiddling is to be expected.

    I've seen the 28% figure bandied about before.

    It is calculated by 17.4 million no voters divided by the entire the population of the UK, of approx 64million, which works out around 28%.
    What, including babes in arms? That's ridiculous (even if the 64 million figure is accurate, which ironically it almost certainly isn't). The statistic has to be related to those in a position to vote, or it is meaningless.

    Although in fairness babes in arms might make better writers on economics than William Keegan.
    And of course EU citizen residents (a couple of million?) couldn't vote in the referendum either.
    Which is actually a valid complaint about the referendum. Why let Commonwealth residents vote but not EU residents?
    For the same reason we let Commonwealth residents vote in General Elections but not EU residents.
    Yes, because of an outdated convention.
  • PaganPagan Posts: 259

    MaxPB said:

    I didn't realise HTC were in such big doo doo.

    Vive sales have taken a massive nosedive after an initial flurry of action. Would be surprised if they lasted the year.
    Have they? I thought they were slightly the better of the VR systems on the market, at least from reviews and specs.

    It'll be interesting to see what patents they have, and how valuable they are.

    On that note: I decided against buying this generation of VR systems when I got my new PC. I'm banking on the second generation being far superior as the providers compete. But with Vive out of the market there might not be the case.
    Vive is the best of all the VR so far, but it still isn't really that great, and it is way more expensive than Playstation VR (both the unit cost and needing a really high spec pc) and the games are generally crap. Playstation VR is doing better, because well Sony "get games".
    Ah, but I play Elite Dangerous. That game is apparently mahoossively good under VR.

    I attended the Virtuality conference in 1994. Back then everyone was saying that VR was the next big thing. It'd be a shame if VR fails again, over twenty years later.
    Been in ED over christmas in an oculus rift, makes a huge difference to the game, when playing flat screen I am playing a game, in the rift I am flying a spaceship
  • leaveleave Posts: 3
    Writing "the so-called people" and referring to the 28% was not an accident or sloppy maths by Keegan, instead he chose his words carefully and deliberately. Some may call this madness, but it certainly has a method. There continues to be a belief in some circles that the UK should not leave the EU and Brexit must be stopped either in the courts or in parliament (read AC Grayling's tweets or the New European newspaper or Britain for Europe. Delegitimising the referendum is central to this. Likely this kind of view will continue until the UK actually leaves the EU.
  • Bendy buses in London were very popular with fare dodgers who used to get on at the back.

    They were also good at culling a particular kind of cyclist.
  • I am a newbie here and I am super excited to watch all the threads in politicalbetting. I could see some good updates here.
This discussion has been closed.