One extra effect of describing the riots as exclusively 'far right' even if they are not is that it increases the feelings of fear among the non-white population. May be ethically dubious but definitely good politics from the left wing culture warriors.
Sure, there were probably some mindless thugs and looters involved too, but the riots were rooted in white supremacy, a current in British society that rises to the surface occasionally, especially when pandered to by people who should know better. This isn't a left wing confection, if only it was.
Well I'm glad you've already worked out what the riots were all about.
People throwing stones at mosques, setting fire to asylum hotels and vandalising cars and houses thought to belong to immigrants have all rather revealed their motives without a question being asked.
One extra effect of describing the riots as exclusively 'far right' even if they are not is that it increases the feelings of fear among the non-white population. May be ethically dubious but definitely good politics from the left wing culture warriors.
Sure, there were probably some mindless thugs and looters involved too, but the riots were rooted in white supremacy, a current in British society that rises to the surface occasionally, especially when pandered to by people who should know better. This isn't a left wing confection, if only it was.
Well I'm glad you've already worked out what the riots were all about.
People throwing stones at mosques, setting fire to asylum hotels and vandalising cars and houses thought to belong to immigrants have all rather revealed their motives without a question being asked.
What about people wanting a ruck with Plod
Well, if they want to be banged up then that's the way to do it!
One extra effect of describing the riots as exclusively 'far right' even if they are not is that it increases the feelings of fear among the non-white population. May be ethically dubious but definitely good politics from the left wing culture warriors.
Sure, there were probably some mindless thugs and looters involved too, but the riots were rooted in white supremacy, a current in British society that rises to the surface occasionally, especially when pandered to by people who should know better. This isn't a left wing confection, if only it was.
Well I'm glad you've already worked out what the riots were all about.
People throwing stones at mosques, setting fire to asylum hotels and vandalising cars and houses thought to belong to immigrants have all rather revealed their motives without a question being asked.
What about people wanting a ruck with Plod
Well, if they want to be banged up then that's the way to do it!
Thing is you are deciding on the motives of all rioters, as Frank is saying, and it is not that clear cut.
Happy Dad. My younger son got into Durham to read politics with A*s in Latin, Classical Civilisation, Extended Project Qualification (Does Scotland have the right to independence?) and A in Politics (just missing the A*).
One of my nephews did a degree in politics and is now a delivery driver. Impress on your child the importance of getting a (probably unpaid) internship in one of the parties/think tanks, or prepare for a further degree in the (decreasing) academic sector. Good luck.
He also needs to write, imo.
My eldest is going to read history.
She told me "Don't worry, I will do a Business/IT conversion Masters, afterwards."
Oh well....
Tell her I did philosophy and never did any kind of conversion or management course. And things worked out OK for me.
Josephine Cumbo @JosephineCumbo Son achieved AAA in Physics, Further Maths and Maths and no offer from First Choice or Insurance University. Now doing mad scramble for Clearing places. Stress levels are high.
But, then I remembered that there is now an A* grade. Presumably, for many universities, the A* just replaced the A.
Hmmm.
He must have aimed very high with his first uni if he got no response to three As in those subjects.
But I'm also surprised his insurance offer wasn't rather lower than three As. That suggests bad planning.
If he's got an A in Further Maths I'd also be surprised if he has any trouble at all getting a place through Clearing, but maybe it would be better to defer?
Anyway, none of that is presumably of any use to her.
Lots of duplication between Maths, Further Maths, and Physics, though - it's only really 2½ A-Levels at best.
Presumably he'll have done another one or two subjects as well, so maybe the conditional offers were based on those?
Not necessarily. There's lots we're not told here, but plenty of places would limit you to three courses (though Ma, FM, Ph is, as you say, a bit of a blaggy combination.)
My guess is that his initial application five were a bit toppy, or that he chose to have a main offer at A*A*A and A*AA for insurance. Which isn't brilliant tactics.
One extra effect of describing the riots as exclusively 'far right' even if they are not is that it increases the feelings of fear among the non-white population. May be ethically dubious but definitely good politics from the left wing culture warriors.
Sure, there were probably some mindless thugs and looters involved too, but the riots were rooted in white supremacy, a current in British society that rises to the surface occasionally, especially when pandered to by people who should know better. This isn't a left wing confection, if only it was.
Well I'm glad you've already worked out what the riots were all about.
People throwing stones at mosques, setting fire to asylum hotels and vandalising cars and houses thought to belong to immigrants have all rather revealed their motives without a question being asked.
Josephine Cumbo @JosephineCumbo Son achieved AAA in Physics, Further Maths and Maths and no offer from First Choice or Insurance University. Now doing mad scramble for Clearing places. Stress levels are high.
But, then I remembered that there is now an A* grade. Presumably, for many universities, the A* just replaced the A.
Who the hell has an insurance offer dependent on getting A*s?
I got an offer from Cambridge (AAB), and a slew of other offers (St Andrews, LSE, UCL and Aberdeen). I chose UCL as my insurance because they generously offered me EE, and I reckoned that I was likely to achieve that even on a really bad day. St Andrew's offer (ABB) was discarded almost immediately because it was simply too close to my Cambridge offer. I didn't want a situation where I got ABC and didn't get in anywhere.
I should note that I got an A in History, with Bs in Maths and Economics.
I also got an A in General Studies.
Trinity College, Cambridge sent me a letter telling me that I had failed to get the required grades.
So I called them and told them that the offer didn't specifically exclude General Studies. The lady said that "we don't count general studies," and I politely pointed out that the letter they'd sent me didn't mention that.
An hour later the Admissions Director called me to let me know that I was in.
I framed and hung my rejection letter on the wall of my room in the first year.
That's odd. No doubt you must have had a strong dose of imposter syndrome when surrounded by the likes of Kwasi Kwarteng. However what life eventually teaches us is that excelling in exams isn't everything.
Kwasi and I had a mutual friend: a utterly brilliant lady, who managed to do three degrees simultaneously, getting simultaneous Firsts in Philosophy, Music and English.
I always liked him, but do wonder if he wouldn't have been a lot happier if he'd chosen a career path other than politics.
One extra effect of describing the riots as exclusively 'far right' even if they are not is that it increases the feelings of fear among the non-white population. May be ethically dubious but definitely good politics from the left wing culture warriors.
Sure, there were probably some mindless thugs and looters involved too, but the riots were rooted in white supremacy, a current in British society that rises to the surface occasionally, especially when pandered to by people who should know better. This isn't a left wing confection, if only it was.
Well I'm glad you've already worked out what the riots were all about.
People throwing stones at mosques, setting fire to asylum hotels and vandalising cars and houses thought to belong to immigrants have all rather revealed their motives without a question being asked.
What about people wanting a ruck with Plod
Big payday if it's in Manchester Airport.
That has all gone quiet apart from the family holding a press conference with their new lawyer.
Well that isn't price controls, either. The article is about allowing Medicare to actually negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. It's absurd that's not allowed.
One extra effect of describing the riots as exclusively 'far right' even if they are not is that it increases the feelings of fear among the non-white population. May be ethically dubious but definitely good politics from the left wing culture warriors.
Sure, there were probably some mindless thugs and looters involved too, but the riots were rooted in white supremacy, a current in British society that rises to the surface occasionally, especially when pandered to by people who should know better. This isn't a left wing confection, if only it was.
Well I'm glad you've already worked out what the riots were all about.
People throwing stones at mosques, setting fire to asylum hotels and vandalising cars and houses thought to belong to immigrants have all rather revealed their motives without a question being asked.
What about people wanting a ruck with Plod
Big payday if it's in Manchester Airport.
That has all gone quiet apart from the family holding a press conference with their new lawyer.
I suspect both the copper and the victim will end up with a criminal record if not prison time.
Well that isn't price controls, either. The article is about allowing Medicare to actually negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. It's absurd that's not allowed.
Honestly, you need better arguments.
I think there are two things going on, Biden announced the result of a medicare negotiation and Harris announced something to do with grocery prices and things.
One extra effect of describing the riots as exclusively 'far right' even if they are not is that it increases the feelings of fear among the non-white population. May be ethically dubious but definitely good politics from the left wing culture warriors.
Sure, there were probably some mindless thugs and looters involved too, but the riots were rooted in white supremacy, a current in British society that rises to the surface occasionally, especially when pandered to by people who should know better. This isn't a left wing confection, if only it was.
Well I'm glad you've already worked out what the riots were all about.
People throwing stones at mosques, setting fire to asylum hotels and vandalising cars and houses thought to belong to immigrants have all rather revealed their motives without a question being asked.
What about people wanting a ruck with Plod
Well, if they want to be banged up then that's the way to do it!
Thing is you are deciding on the motives of all rioters, as Frank is saying, and it is not that clear cut.
Some are far right racists others are opportunistic hoodlums and looters, and a few others were over reacting vigilantes offended by the first 2. A pretty firm crackdown is a necessary lesson for them all.
Happy Dad. My younger son got into Durham to read politics with A*s in Latin, Classical Civilisation, Extended Project Qualification (Does Scotland have the right to independence?) and A in Politics (just missing the A*).
Well done, bright lad. I hope he loves his time at Durham. It is a lovely place as is the region.
One extra effect of describing the riots as exclusively 'far right' even if they are not is that it increases the feelings of fear among the non-white population. May be ethically dubious but definitely good politics from the left wing culture warriors.
Sure, there were probably some mindless thugs and looters involved too, but the riots were rooted in white supremacy, a current in British society that rises to the surface occasionally, especially when pandered to by people who should know better. This isn't a left wing confection, if only it was.
Well I'm glad you've already worked out what the riots were all about.
People throwing stones at mosques, setting fire to asylum hotels and vandalising cars and houses thought to belong to immigrants have all rather revealed their motives without a question being asked.
What about people wanting a ruck with Plod
Big payday if it's in Manchester Airport.
That has all gone quiet apart from the family holding a press conference with their new lawyer.
I suspect both the copper and the victim will end up with a criminal record if not prison time.
The copper will be an ex-copper, probably no more than that. As for the thugs that started it - justice ought to be as swift and harsh as for the rioters.
Happy Dad. My younger son got into Durham to read politics with A*s in Latin, Classical Civilisation, Extended Project Qualification (Does Scotland have the right to independence?) and A in Politics (just missing the A*).
One of my nephews did a degree in politics and is now a delivery driver. Impress on your child the importance of getting a (probably unpaid) internship in one of the parties/think tanks, or prepare for a further degree in the (decreasing) academic sector. Good luck.
He also needs to write, imo.
My eldest is going to read history.
She told me "Don't worry, I will do a Business/IT conversion Masters, afterwards."
Oh well....
Tell her I did philosophy and never did any kind of conversion or management course. And things worked out OK for me.
Yes, but as you told us, you knew how to blag before you got in. Not everyone has that ability.
One extra effect of describing the riots as exclusively 'far right' even if they are not is that it increases the feelings of fear among the non-white population. May be ethically dubious but definitely good politics from the left wing culture warriors.
Sure, there were probably some mindless thugs and looters involved too, but the riots were rooted in white supremacy, a current in British society that rises to the surface occasionally, especially when pandered to by people who should know better. This isn't a left wing confection, if only it was.
Well I'm glad you've already worked out what the riots were all about.
People throwing stones at mosques, setting fire to asylum hotels and vandalising cars and houses thought to belong to immigrants have all rather revealed their motives without a question being asked.
What about people wanting a ruck with Plod
Big payday if it's in Manchester Airport.
That has all gone quiet apart from the family holding a press conference with their new lawyer.
I suspect both the copper and the victim will end up with a criminal record if not prison time.
The copper will be an ex-copper, probably no more than that. As for the thugs that started it - justice ought to be as swift and harsh as for the rioters.
One thing these riots have confirmed is that the judiciary are happy to send people who attack emergency workers to prison.
If you read what she is talking about, it is the practise of buying up supply and then ramping the price.
It's considered market abuse in many, many places. Often their specific laws against it.
The outstanding example of that is a lovely chap who was doing that with medicines.
Yes, Martin Shrekli, I remember it well. There were also patent trolls too.
However they are already have limited the price of drugs and that is having an impact as the article shows. That was the Inflation Reduction Act.
What they are talking about now is applying the same logic to food and groceries.
Ummm:
Previously, Medicare/Medicaid were legally prohibited from negotiating drug pricing with pharmaceutical companies. This meant they frequently paid 10x what - for example - the NHS paid.
Is the NHS engaging in an illegal price fixing conspiracy by negotiating with drug companies? And if so, should we pay the same as Medicare/Medcaid historically paid?
Excellent (paywalled) article on the recent riots. Some snippets:
UK needs no lessons from apologists for rioters
Those behind the rioting are not misguided social justice warriors, they are violent, far-right racists fortified by a general hooligan element that was up for a ruck and expected to face no consequences. Now they know better.
It is easy to mock Sir Keir Starmer for reverting to type as a former prosecutor but nearly 1,000 arrests and some rapid and tough sentences was the right response [to restore confidence in the law]
For all the vacuous “something must be donery” of many commentators there are real underlying issues. But even if you accept that the riots were about anything beyond violence, they have not changed the calculation. The answers are what they have always been: improved economic prospects, investment in skills to secure high-status blue-collar jobs, better housing, good public services. In fact, all the things Labour was elected to deliver.
For Starmer, these grim scenes have marred the start of his government. But the riots told us nothing we didn’t already know about the state of Britain except perhaps the value of a tough response, the true measure of the instigators and the cynicism of their apologists.
All that was needed to quell the riots was the swift response. The lengthy sentences are excessive: a week or two would suffice as deterrent. Contrast this with other crimes that appear to have no consequence because there is a year or more delay before reaching trial.
Yes, it shows what can be done. Let's start to treat other crimes as seriously.
To be fair, when people plead guilty at the first available opportunity, it's easy to sentence them and to send them to jail.
The problems occur when people actually want trials with barristers and witnesses and judges and juries and all.
If they'd pleaded not guilty wouldn't they have been held on remand till a jury trial could have been scheduled - which may have been... a while ?
I think some of the sentences for the keyboard warriors are chilling fwiw.
I've pointed out for 20 years that people say things on the internet that they would previously only have said in the pub and that people don't understand how big the difference actually is.
These sentences are showing the reality of that fact..
I remember when 'the internet' wasn't considered real life.
At some point it became real life, then it swiftly became 'actually more real than real life'.
A lot of folks haven't cottoned on to this yet. But that's entirely understandable - it is an absolutely nonsensical reality.
Well that isn't price controls, either. The article is about allowing Medicare to actually negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. It's absurd that's not allowed.
Honestly, you need better arguments.
I think there are two things going on, Biden announced the result of a medicare negotiation and Harris announced something to do with grocery prices and things.
The devil will, as always, be in the details. Which the Hill story didn't give.
There's plenty of time before the election to work out whether these are sensible proposals, or an unwise interference in the market.
But honestly, the US pharmaceuticals market is absolutely broken (which isn't entirely the fault of Big Pharma). Don't get me started on Pharmacy Benefit Managers...
As for unfair contract terms, let me remind you of the Disney wrongful death story from a couple of days ago.
Like many Scots, I got an unconditional offer and, having turned 18, went to the pub and set fire to stuff in the Chemistry lab for the rest of 6th year.
I thought Scots went to Uni at 17?
Only idiots. No alcohol in 1st year? You only have to pass the first two years in Scotland, which is how I ended up bagging 128 Munros before 3rd year.
The best result is a conditional offer for 2nd year entry based on Advanced Highers. I had one of those too but dropped it because it wasn't as good a uni.
I was only just 17 when I went to University (16 when I left school). I must have missed the lecture about no alcohol in the first year though. In those days pubs would take your student union card as proof of age.
In those days we didn't have advanced Highers but something called Sixth Year studies which were pointless and I skipped. My kids did advanced Highers which seemed much more like an A level equivalent than anything I did.
David in those days you could go into some pubs in short trousers and get served. I remember when I was 15/16 in our favoured hostelry our history teacher was in and complained to the bar owner about our ages and she barred him for being a trouble maker
If you read what she is talking about, it is the practise of buying up supply and then ramping the price.
It's considered market abuse in many, many places. Often their specific laws against it.
The outstanding example of that is a lovely chap who was doing that with medicines.
Yes, Martin Shrekli, I remember it well. There were also patent trolls too.
However they are already have limited the price of drugs and that is having an impact as the article shows. That was the Inflation Reduction Act.
What they are talking about now is applying the same logic to food and groceries.
Ummm:
Previously, Medicare/Medicaid were legally prohibited from negotiating drug pricing with pharmaceutical companies. This meant they frequently paid 10x what - for example - the NHS paid.
Is the NHS engaging in an illegal price fixing conspiracy by negotiating with drug companies? And if so, should we pay the same as Medicare/Medcaid historically paid?
Okay, but that is not what the article is claiming. It is making an explicit claim that price controls are making companies slash research. Of course you may say this contractor would say that as he is a vested interested.
"A portent came last week from Charles River Laboratories, a top research contractor that helps drug makers with clinical trials. The company warned in its quarterly earnings report that pharmaceutical companies are slashing research and development owing to the IRA’s drug price controls."
Of course in any commercial engagement both parties should be able to negotiate and agree a price.
One extra effect of describing the riots as exclusively 'far right' even if they are not is that it increases the feelings of fear among the non-white population. May be ethically dubious but definitely good politics from the left wing culture warriors.
Sure, there were probably some mindless thugs and looters involved too, but the riots were rooted in white supremacy, a current in British society that rises to the surface occasionally, especially when pandered to by people who should know better. This isn't a left wing confection, if only it was.
Well I'm glad you've already worked out what the riots were all about.
People throwing stones at mosques, setting fire to asylum hotels and vandalising cars and houses thought to belong to immigrants have all rather revealed their motives without a question being asked.
What about people wanting a ruck with Plod
Big payday if it's in Manchester Airport.
That has all gone quiet apart from the family holding a press conference with their new lawyer.
I suspect both the copper and the victim will end up with a criminal record if not prison time.
The copper will be an ex-copper, probably no more than that. As for the thugs that started it - justice ought to be as swift and harsh as for the rioters.
It is sheer luck that his kicking of a prone man didn’t cause serious injury.
It is something the rozzers were taught not to do following Dalian Atkinson’s death.
If you read what she is talking about, it is the practise of buying up supply and then ramping the price.
It's considered market abuse in many, many places. Often their specific laws against it.
The outstanding example of that is a lovely chap who was doing that with medicines.
Yes, Martin Shrekli, I remember it well. There were also patent trolls too.
However they are already have limited the price of drugs and that is having an impact as the article shows. That was the Inflation Reduction Act.
What they are talking about now is applying the same logic to food and groceries.
Ummm:
Previously, Medicare/Medicaid were legally prohibited from negotiating drug pricing with pharmaceutical companies. This meant they frequently paid 10x what - for example - the NHS paid.
Is the NHS engaging in an illegal price fixing conspiracy by negotiating with drug companies? And if so, should we pay the same as Medicare/Medcaid historically paid?
The market abuses being defended in the name of the "free market" would have Adam Smith spinning in his grave.
One extra effect of describing the riots as exclusively 'far right' even if they are not is that it increases the feelings of fear among the non-white population. May be ethically dubious but definitely good politics from the left wing culture warriors.
Sure, there were probably some mindless thugs and looters involved too, but the riots were rooted in white supremacy, a current in British society that rises to the surface occasionally, especially when pandered to by people who should know better. This isn't a left wing confection, if only it was.
Well I'm glad you've already worked out what the riots were all about.
People throwing stones at mosques, setting fire to asylum hotels and vandalising cars and houses thought to belong to immigrants have all rather revealed their motives without a question being asked.
What about people wanting a ruck with Plod
Big payday if it's in Manchester Airport.
That has all gone quiet apart from the family holding a press conference with their new lawyer.
I suspect both the copper and the victim will end up with a criminal record if not prison time.
The copper will be an ex-copper, probably no more than that. As for the thugs that started it - justice ought to be as swift and harsh as for the rioters.
It is sheer luck that his kicking of a prone man didn’t cause serious injury.
It is something the rozzers were taught not to do following Dalian Atkinson’s death.
I have wondered if there is a relationship aspect to this - was the copper who kicked the little shit on the ground in a relationship with one of the women PC's? Would go some way to explain his actions.
One extra effect of describing the riots as exclusively 'far right' even if they are not is that it increases the feelings of fear among the non-white population. May be ethically dubious but definitely good politics from the left wing culture warriors.
Sure, there were probably some mindless thugs and looters involved too, but the riots were rooted in white supremacy, a current in British society that rises to the surface occasionally, especially when pandered to by people who should know better. This isn't a left wing confection, if only it was.
Well I'm glad you've already worked out what the riots were all about.
People throwing stones at mosques, setting fire to asylum hotels and vandalising cars and houses thought to belong to immigrants have all rather revealed their motives without a question being asked.
What about people wanting a ruck with Plod
Big payday if it's in Manchester Airport.
That has all gone quiet apart from the family holding a press conference with their new lawyer.
I suspect both the copper and the victim will end up with a criminal record if not prison time.
The copper will be an ex-copper, probably no more than that. As for the thugs that started it - justice ought to be as swift and harsh as for the rioters.
It is sheer luck that his kicking of a prone man didn’t cause serious injury.
It is something the rozzers were taught not to do following Dalian Atkinson’s death.
I have wondered if there is a relationship aspect to this - was the copper who kicked the little shit on the ground in a relationship with one of the women PC's? Would go some way to explain his actions.
Yeah, two coppers in the Dalian Atkinson death were in a relationship.
If you read what she is talking about, it is the practise of buying up supply and then ramping the price.
It's considered market abuse in many, many places. Often their specific laws against it.
The outstanding example of that is a lovely chap who was doing that with medicines.
Yes, Martin Shrekli, I remember it well. There were also patent trolls too.
However they are already have limited the price of drugs and that is having an impact as the article shows. That was the Inflation Reduction Act.
What they are talking about now is applying the same logic to food and groceries.
Ummm:
Previously, Medicare/Medicaid were legally prohibited from negotiating drug pricing with pharmaceutical companies. This meant they frequently paid 10x what - for example - the NHS paid.
Is the NHS engaging in an illegal price fixing conspiracy by negotiating with drug companies? And if so, should we pay the same as Medicare/Medcaid historically paid?
The market abuses being defended in the name of the "free market" would have Adam Smith spinning in his grave.
Who's defending market abuses ?
Not me.
The article cites a claim that price controls means fewer cures coming to market. It is not unreasonable to question that.
Of course if the article is misleading or incorrect and this is simply the industry pushing back against a practise that is taking excess revenue from it then that is a different matter and something I have quoted to support a point may well be flawed.
If you read what she is talking about, it is the practise of buying up supply and then ramping the price.
It's considered market abuse in many, many places. Often their specific laws against it.
The outstanding example of that is a lovely chap who was doing that with medicines.
Yes, Martin Shrekli, I remember it well. There were also patent trolls too.
However they are already have limited the price of drugs and that is having an impact as the article shows. That was the Inflation Reduction Act.
What they are talking about now is applying the same logic to food and groceries.
Ummm:
Previously, Medicare/Medicaid were legally prohibited from negotiating drug pricing with pharmaceutical companies. This meant they frequently paid 10x what - for example - the NHS paid.
Is the NHS engaging in an illegal price fixing conspiracy by negotiating with drug companies? And if so, should we pay the same as Medicare/Medcaid historically paid?
Okay, but that is not what the article is claiming. It is making an explicit claim that price controls are making companies slash research. Of course you may say this contractor would say that as he is a vested interested.
"A portent came last week from Charles River Laboratories, a top research contractor that helps drug makers with clinical trials. The company warned in its quarterly earnings report that pharmaceutical companies are slashing research and development owing to the IRA’s drug price controls."
Of course in any commercial engagement both parties should be able to negotiate and agree a price.
They're talking utter horseshit.
Estimated US pharmaceutical revenues during this administration: 2020 516bn 2021 556bn 2022 608bn 2023 678bn
If there's a research problem in big Pharma (which is arguable), it's because they're cutting costs to drive short term profits. And certainly there's no apparent shortage of capital going into biotech startups.
Josephine Cumbo @JosephineCumbo Son achieved AAA in Physics, Further Maths and Maths and no offer from First Choice or Insurance University. Now doing mad scramble for Clearing places. Stress levels are high.
But, then I remembered that there is now an A* grade. Presumably, for many universities, the A* just replaced the A.
I wonder how poor his personal statement was.
I know that my nephew was rejected from a lot of universities for having nothing to write about for hobbies or achievements outside academia (he's ended up in Birmingham). My niece (next year) shouldn't have a problem given that she has done things outside of school, is the bassist in a reasonably successful band and makes money doing GCSE maths tuition.. Downside is she wants to do medicine so everything rests on the exam in a few weeks.
Oh I suspect his personal statement was excellent as he got the offer. Alas, he didn't make the grade.
At Bath the main criteria for offer is existing and predicted grades. The personal statement has little weight. Other courses/unis may differ (e.g. medicine its important to have gained experiences in healthcare and to reflect on them).
Medicine has got it wrong, as can be seen from the number of junior doctors looking for outs.
A friend was talking about his nephew who is studying medicine. They had arranged for him to shadow a consultant, including dealing with an emergency which, it was later agreed, should not have included the nephew, leading to a great personal statement. His friend who did not have the same contacts did not get in.
There is definitely something in this. I also recall an old TV show about applicants for Officer training at (I think) Sandhurst. The interviewers (all seemingly old public school chaps) got on best and ranked best the public school applicants...
At Bath we are required to take endless unconscious bias training etc. It has its point, but sometimes seems rather biased in its presentation.
At my Medical School we don't look at the personal statements. We found it both useless in predictive value for performance in course and potentially biasing. Many are not written by the candidate anyway.
When I was interviewed for medical school, unsuccessfully, the first three questions were: is your father a doctor? Grandfather? Any uncles?
Josephine Cumbo @JosephineCumbo Son achieved AAA in Physics, Further Maths and Maths and no offer from First Choice or Insurance University. Now doing mad scramble for Clearing places. Stress levels are high.
But, then I remembered that there is now an A* grade. Presumably, for many universities, the A* just replaced the A.
Hmmm.
He must have aimed very high with his first uni if he got no response to three As in those subjects.
But I'm also surprised his insurance offer wasn't rather lower than three As. That suggests bad planning.
If he's got an A in Further Maths I'd also be surprised if he has any trouble at all getting a place through Clearing, but maybe it would be better to defer?
Anyway, none of that is presumably of any use to her.
Lots of duplication between Maths, Further Maths, and Physics, though - it's only really 2½ A-Levels at best.
Presumably he'll have done another one or two subjects as well, so maybe the conditional offers were based on those?
I dimly recall my physics teacher complaining the head of maths thought simple harmonic motion was just an equation.
The headline says "Man charged with stirring up racial hatred online"
so who is doing the shitty reporting?
Right but then it says, "Nottingham Magistrates' Court heard the posts were alleged to contain anti-Muslim and anti-establishment rhetoric" which is kind of weird because anti-establishment rhetoric isn't illegal. Most likely either the "anti-establishment" part is a bad paraphrase or that sentence is missing some context.
Right the phrasing is slightly odd, but nowhere does it say that he is being charged with "anti-establishment rhetoric", and to focus on that when the *actual headline* says what he IS being charged with is even odder.
Washington, District of Columbia, is the nation's capital. (Most Americans will understand if you refer to it as DC.)
(I have no idea why anyone thinks the founding of DC was related to slavery, other than an attempt to explain every part of US history in terms of slavery. (Well, almost every. That many Indian tribes took slaves from other tribes is something that probably can't be mentioned in, for example, the Guardian.)
Those who think the US founders intended to preserve and extend slavery should learn about the 1787 Northwest Ordinance, which prohibited slavery in an enormous area.)
If you read what she is talking about, it is the practise of buying up supply and then ramping the price.
It's considered market abuse in many, many places. Often their specific laws against it.
The outstanding example of that is a lovely chap who was doing that with medicines.
Yes, Martin Shrekli, I remember it well. There were also patent trolls too.
However they are already have limited the price of drugs and that is having an impact as the article shows. That was the Inflation Reduction Act.
What they are talking about now is applying the same logic to food and groceries.
Ummm:
Previously, Medicare/Medicaid were legally prohibited from negotiating drug pricing with pharmaceutical companies. This meant they frequently paid 10x what - for example - the NHS paid.
Is the NHS engaging in an illegal price fixing conspiracy by negotiating with drug companies? And if so, should we pay the same as Medicare/Medcaid historically paid?
The market abuses being defended in the name of the "free market" would have Adam Smith spinning in his grave.
Who's defending market abuses ?
Not me.
Congress, to a large extent. To be fair, it's a complicated problem, and much of the price gouging is down by the middlemen - the insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers (which are now largely owned by the insurance companies). The solutions advanced by (eg) Bernie Sanders are also simplistic and foolish. But to take a small example, there's little wrong with the way the current administration achieved a one off cap on previously scandalous insulin pricing even if that doesn't really address the systemic problems.
Re comments on Democrats winning the House and Senate.
The former looks entirely possible. It’s on a knife edge anyway.
The Senate likely all comes down to Montana. They are generally polling ahead in the other close races I think, and WV is gone. So Tester winning would produce a 50-50 Senate and VP casting vote. At the moment, I think Tester is polling slightly behind.
I’m not sure they’ll be too upset with a 49-51 Senate though. The filibuster sadly probably remains, but they’ll have Murkowski and Collins on the GOP side who will probably get them where they need to be on nominations etc.
Dems are behind in Montana. But even if they win there, there are a few other very close races they would need to hold to keep it 50-50.
Some say Dems have a 'tough map this year'. Which is kind of true. But the truth is the whole Senate map of 50 states is tough for the Dems. There are simply more red states than blue states. And as the phenomenon of Dem senators in red states slowly disappears, it's going to be very hard for the Dems to get a Senate majority in any election where the national vote is close-ish.
Which is why its ridiculous they've not made DC and Puerto Rico states, both of which deserve to be states.
The latter would be a purple state, but a purple one they could win in a good year.
It was a deliberate choice by the founders that Washington was not a state
It was a deliberate choice to maintain the institution of slavery. It doesn't mean it can't be changed.
And the Article IV process for admitting a new state is massively simpler than that for amending the Constitution. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.
Canberra is not a state either
The seat of federal government should not be part of a state because that muddies the lines of accountability.
Happy Dad. My younger son got into Durham to read politics with A*s in Latin, Classical Civilisation, Extended Project Qualification (Does Scotland have the right to independence?) and A in Politics (just missing the A*).
Amongst the nicest PB posts to read are those where the poster's children have worked hard and done well and are getting into uni/leaving uni.
Excellent (paywalled) article on the recent riots. Some snippets:
UK needs no lessons from apologists for rioters
Those behind the rioting are not misguided social justice warriors, they are violent, far-right racists fortified by a general hooligan element that was up for a ruck and expected to face no consequences. Now they know better.
It is easy to mock Sir Keir Starmer for reverting to type as a former prosecutor but nearly 1,000 arrests and some rapid and tough sentences was the right response [to restore confidence in the law]
For all the vacuous “something must be donery” of many commentators there are real underlying issues. But even if you accept that the riots were about anything beyond violence, they have not changed the calculation. The answers are what they have always been: improved economic prospects, investment in skills to secure high-status blue-collar jobs, better housing, good public services. In fact, all the things Labour was elected to deliver.
For Starmer, these grim scenes have marred the start of his government. But the riots told us nothing we didn’t already know about the state of Britain except perhaps the value of a tough response, the true measure of the instigators and the cynicism of their apologists.
All that was needed to quell the riots was the swift response. The lengthy sentences are excessive: a week or two would suffice as deterrent. Contrast this with other crimes that appear to have no consequence because there is a year or more delay before reaching trial.
Yes, it shows what can be done. Let's start to treat other crimes as seriously.
To be fair, when people plead guilty at the first available opportunity, it's easy to sentence them and to send them to jail.
The problems occur when people actually want trials with barristers and witnesses and judges and juries and all.
If they'd pleaded not guilty wouldn't they have been held on remand till a jury trial could have been scheduled - which may have been... a while ?
I think some of the sentences for the keyboard warriors are chilling fwiw.
I've pointed out for 20 years that people say things on the internet that they would previously only have said in the pub and that people don't understand how big the difference actually is.
These sentences are showing the reality of that fact..
Yes, some people are only now, and with some degree of bewilderment, discovering that laws on "hate preaching" apply just as much to influencers on the internet as they do to imams in the mosque.
Fox NEws puts out a poll that supports their deeply held gut feeling?
I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
Carried out by Beacon Research/Shaw & Co. Research who are rated 2.8 stars (out of 3) on 538 pollster ratings, so can't just be dismissed.
It will be dismissed because it's good for "Trump".
Unforgivable on a betting site - particularly one that was founded to discuss the 2004 Kerry v Bush election - but that's where we're at.
My cynicism comes from the fact it's the perfect result for Fox news - it may be 100% accurate but it also 100% matches the result Fox would want to talk about..
The one thing I've picked up from this site is that US polling is awful compared to the UK..
I've also picked up that this site is terrible at discussing the US election dispassionately.
FWIW I think Harris remains a pretty weak candidate (particularly her speeches, and I don't think there is a guarantee she'll be any good in the debate), and therefore the Democrat campaign is reliant on good vibes and Walz being American Dad. That might be enough but it's a long time till the election.
I wouldn't be surprised if this is peak Harris.
Harris will be the third president in a row to be a one-term president who ranks in the bottom quintile of presidents overall, and who is there largely because her opponent is so dreadful. Still, I'd take that from here.
Absurd, IMO, to rank Biden in the bottom quintile of US presidents. Even setting aside Trump (who currently polls around the bottom of the pile), what about Buchanan; Pierce; Andrew Johnson; Harding; Fillmore; Taylor; Tyler; Hoover; Coolidge; Nixon or GW Bush ?
He's governed a country as divided as it's been since the 60s, and managed to get substantial domestic and foreign policy legislation through a divided Congress. And dealt pretty gracefully with being obliged to retire at the end of his first term, while living his party considerably stronger than he found it.
I'd rate him pretty highly myself.
As for Harris, we'll have to wait and see.
He's done a great job both domestically (see investment in manufacturing following his reforms) and internationally in helping Ukraine to defeat Putin.
The one failure in his term was Afghanistan but that owes more to his predecessors than him. It was Trump who signed a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban and it was GWB who invaded and him and his successors who failed to win the peace after the invasion.
Biden is right to retire, but he'll retire in the top half of Presidents overall.
Nonsense. Refer back to my message from the other day. His administration has wilfully politicised monetary policy with an eye on 5th Nov. And even so, nominal growth has lagged federal debt growth.
He has also been poor from start to finish on Russia Ukraine. “It depends what sort of invasion”. To delaying tanks, delaying planes, delaying missiles, overly restrictive rules of engagement. It is reported the British haven’t blocked storm shadow use in Russia, the US has! Then we come to the rising malignancy of Iran in the last few years…
He doesn’t understand deterrence, he’s weakened the US in the eyes of global autocrats and he’s replaced the foundations of the US economy with sand.
History will come to judge him as one of the poorest presidents of all. And in time, his flag bearers will pretend they always said as much.
Josephine Cumbo @JosephineCumbo Son achieved AAA in Physics, Further Maths and Maths and no offer from First Choice or Insurance University. Now doing mad scramble for Clearing places. Stress levels are high.
But, then I remembered that there is now an A* grade. Presumably, for many universities, the A* just replaced the A.
I wonder how poor his personal statement was.
I know that my nephew was rejected from a lot of universities for having nothing to write about for hobbies or achievements outside academia (he's ended up in Birmingham). My niece (next year) shouldn't have a problem given that she has done things outside of school, is the bassist in a reasonably successful band and makes money doing GCSE maths tuition.. Downside is she wants to do medicine so everything rests on the exam in a few weeks.
Oh I suspect his personal statement was excellent as he got the offer. Alas, he didn't make the grade.
At Bath the main criteria for offer is existing and predicted grades. The personal statement has little weight. Other courses/unis may differ (e.g. medicine its important to have gained experiences in healthcare and to reflect on them).
Medicine has got it wrong, as can be seen from the number of junior doctors looking for outs.
A friend was talking about his nephew who is studying medicine. They had arranged for him to shadow a consultant, including dealing with an emergency which, it was later agreed, should not have included the nephew, leading to a great personal statement. His friend who did not have the same contacts did not get in.
There is definitely something in this. I also recall an old TV show about applicants for Officer training at (I think) Sandhurst. The interviewers (all seemingly old public school chaps) got on best and ranked best the public school applicants...
At Bath we are required to take endless unconscious bias training etc. It has its point, but sometimes seems rather biased in its presentation.
First three minutes of this might blow your mind...
Re comments on Democrats winning the House and Senate.
The former looks entirely possible. It’s on a knife edge anyway.
The Senate likely all comes down to Montana. They are generally polling ahead in the other close races I think, and WV is gone. So Tester winning would produce a 50-50 Senate and VP casting vote. At the moment, I think Tester is polling slightly behind.
I’m not sure they’ll be too upset with a 49-51 Senate though. The filibuster sadly probably remains, but they’ll have Murkowski and Collins on the GOP side who will probably get them where they need to be on nominations etc.
Dems are behind in Montana. But even if they win there, there are a few other very close races they would need to hold to keep it 50-50.
Some say Dems have a 'tough map this year'. Which is kind of true. But the truth is the whole Senate map of 50 states is tough for the Dems. There are simply more red states than blue states. And as the phenomenon of Dem senators in red states slowly disappears, it's going to be very hard for the Dems to get a Senate majority in any election where the national vote is close-ish.
Which is why its ridiculous they've not made DC and Puerto Rico states, both of which deserve to be states.
The latter would be a purple state, but a purple one they could win in a good year.
It was a deliberate choice by the founders that Washington was not a state
It was a deliberate choice to maintain the institution of slavery. It doesn't mean it can't be changed.
And the Article IV process for admitting a new state is massively simpler than that for amending the Constitution. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.
Canberra is not a state either
The seat of federal government should not be part of a state because that muddies the lines of accountability.
If you read what she is talking about, it is the practise of buying up supply and then ramping the price.
It's considered market abuse in many, many places. Often their specific laws against it.
The outstanding example of that is a lovely chap who was doing that with medicines.
Yes, Martin Shrekli, I remember it well. There were also patent trolls too.
However they are already have limited the price of drugs and that is having an impact as the article shows. That was the Inflation Reduction Act.
What they are talking about now is applying the same logic to food and groceries.
Ummm:
Previously, Medicare/Medicaid were legally prohibited from negotiating drug pricing with pharmaceutical companies. This meant they frequently paid 10x what - for example - the NHS paid.
Is the NHS engaging in an illegal price fixing conspiracy by negotiating with drug companies? And if so, should we pay the same as Medicare/Medcaid historically paid?
Okay, but that is not what the article is claiming. It is making an explicit claim that price controls are making companies slash research. Of course you may say this contractor would say that as he is a vested interested.
"A portent came last week from Charles River Laboratories, a top research contractor that helps drug makers with clinical trials. The company warned in its quarterly earnings report that pharmaceutical companies are slashing research and development owing to the IRA’s drug price controls."
Of course in any commercial engagement both parties should be able to negotiate and agree a price.
They're talking utter horseshit.
Estimated US pharmaceutical revenues during this administration: 2020 516bn 2021 556bn 2022 608bn 2023 678bn
If there's a research problem in big Pharma (which is arguable), it's because they're cutting costs to drive short term profits. And certainly there's no apparent shortage of capital going into biotech startups.
That's revenue. Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity. Be interesting to see what has happened to the margins.
Is legislation against monopolies, or price fixing, or unfair consumer contract terms, the same thing as "price controls" ?
"Get a grip on inflation!" "No, not like that!"
"We will have the best economy, as soon as I'm President again." (Pretty well the entirety of the GOP platform.)
I think one of Trump's biggest problems is the lack of substance. His 'offer' is essentially Donald Trump. P25 was supposed to provide a coherent policy framework but he's having to disown that because it's too far to the right of the electorate.
Biden's withdrawal has really left him in a bad place. His re-election ticket was "Me big and strong, Him frail and feeble". That was it, pretty much, and it was probably going to be enough. Now, robbed of that, he's befuddled and just flailing about basically.
Excellent (paywalled) article on the recent riots. Some snippets:
UK needs no lessons from apologists for rioters
Those behind the rioting are not misguided social justice warriors, they are violent, far-right racists fortified by a general hooligan element that was up for a ruck and expected to face no consequences. Now they know better.
It is easy to mock Sir Keir Starmer for reverting to type as a former prosecutor but nearly 1,000 arrests and some rapid and tough sentences was the right response [to restore confidence in the law]
For all the vacuous “something must be donery” of many commentators there are real underlying issues. But even if you accept that the riots were about anything beyond violence, they have not changed the calculation. The answers are what they have always been: improved economic prospects, investment in skills to secure high-status blue-collar jobs, better housing, good public services. In fact, all the things Labour was elected to deliver.
For Starmer, these grim scenes have marred the start of his government. But the riots told us nothing we didn’t already know about the state of Britain except perhaps the value of a tough response, the true measure of the instigators and the cynicism of their apologists.
All that was needed to quell the riots was the swift response. The lengthy sentences are excessive: a week or two would suffice as deterrent. Contrast this with other crimes that appear to have no consequence because there is a year or more delay before reaching trial.
Yes, it shows what can be done. Let's start to treat other crimes as seriously.
To be fair, when people plead guilty at the first available opportunity, it's easy to sentence them and to send them to jail.
The problems occur when people actually want trials with barristers and witnesses and judges and juries and all.
If they'd pleaded not guilty wouldn't they have been held on remand till a jury trial could have been scheduled - which may have been... a while ?
I think some of the sentences for the keyboard warriors are chilling fwiw.
I've pointed out for 20 years that people say things on the internet that they would previously only have said in the pub and that people don't understand how big the difference actually is.
These sentences are showing the reality of that fact..
Yes, some people are only now, and with some degree of bewilderment, discovering that laws on "hate preaching" apply just as much to influencers on the internet as they do to imams in the mosque.
I don't even think people would say in the pub half the things they say online. Especially in heated arguments on politics groups on Facebook.
Most people here are pretty civil, we can all be a little tetchy at times, but most don't cross the line.
Josephine Cumbo @JosephineCumbo Son achieved AAA in Physics, Further Maths and Maths and no offer from First Choice or Insurance University. Now doing mad scramble for Clearing places. Stress levels are high.
But, then I remembered that there is now an A* grade. Presumably, for many universities, the A* just replaced the A.
I wonder how poor his personal statement was.
I know that my nephew was rejected from a lot of universities for having nothing to write about for hobbies or achievements outside academia (he's ended up in Birmingham). My niece (next year) shouldn't have a problem given that she has done things outside of school, is the bassist in a reasonably successful band and makes money doing GCSE maths tuition.. Downside is she wants to do medicine so everything rests on the exam in a few weeks.
Oh I suspect his personal statement was excellent as he got the offer. Alas, he didn't make the grade.
At Bath the main criteria for offer is existing and predicted grades. The personal statement has little weight. Other courses/unis may differ (e.g. medicine its important to have gained experiences in healthcare and to reflect on them).
Medicine has got it wrong, as can be seen from the number of junior doctors looking for outs.
A friend was talking about his nephew who is studying medicine. They had arranged for him to shadow a consultant, including dealing with an emergency which, it was later agreed, should not have included the nephew, leading to a great personal statement. His friend who did not have the same contacts did not get in.
There is definitely something in this. I also recall an old TV show about applicants for Officer training at (I think) Sandhurst. The interviewers (all seemingly old public school chaps) got on best and ranked best the public school applicants...
At Bath we are required to take endless unconscious bias training etc. It has its point, but sometimes seems rather biased in its presentation.
First three minutes of this might blow your mind...
Interesting (although, frankly, not surprising) Monmouth University polling on who the Biden/Trump double-haters were going to actually end up voting for.
In June, they broke 29% Biden, 19% Trump. (Biden +10%)
Now there is an alternative, they are breaking Harris 53%, Trump 11% (Harris +42%)
Josephine Cumbo @JosephineCumbo Son achieved AAA in Physics, Further Maths and Maths and no offer from First Choice or Insurance University. Now doing mad scramble for Clearing places. Stress levels are high.
But, then I remembered that there is now an A* grade. Presumably, for many universities, the A* just replaced the A.
I wonder how poor his personal statement was.
I know that my nephew was rejected from a lot of universities for having nothing to write about for hobbies or achievements outside academia (he's ended up in Birmingham). My niece (next year) shouldn't have a problem given that she has done things outside of school, is the bassist in a reasonably successful band and makes money doing GCSE maths tuition.. Downside is she wants to do medicine so everything rests on the exam in a few weeks.
Oh I suspect his personal statement was excellent as he got the offer. Alas, he didn't make the grade.
At Bath the main criteria for offer is existing and predicted grades. The personal statement has little weight. Other courses/unis may differ (e.g. medicine its important to have gained experiences in healthcare and to reflect on them).
Medicine has got it wrong, as can be seen from the number of junior doctors looking for outs.
A friend was talking about his nephew who is studying medicine. They had arranged for him to shadow a consultant, including dealing with an emergency which, it was later agreed, should not have included the nephew, leading to a great personal statement. His friend who did not have the same contacts did not get in.
There is definitely something in this. I also recall an old TV show about applicants for Officer training at (I think) Sandhurst. The interviewers (all seemingly old public school chaps) got on best and ranked best the public school applicants...
At Bath we are required to take endless unconscious bias training etc. It has its point, but sometimes seems rather biased in its presentation.
First three minutes of this might blow your mind...
Josephine Cumbo @JosephineCumbo Son achieved AAA in Physics, Further Maths and Maths and no offer from First Choice or Insurance University. Now doing mad scramble for Clearing places. Stress levels are high.
But, then I remembered that there is now an A* grade. Presumably, for many universities, the A* just replaced the A.
Hmmm.
He must have aimed very high with his first uni if he got no response to three As in those subjects.
But I'm also surprised his insurance offer wasn't rather lower than three As. That suggests bad planning.
If he's got an A in Further Maths I'd also be surprised if he has any trouble at all getting a place through Clearing, but maybe it would be better to defer?
Anyway, none of that is presumably of any use to her.
Lots of duplication between Maths, Further Maths, and Physics, though - it's only really 2½ A-Levels at best.
Presumably he'll have done another one or two subjects as well, so maybe the conditional offers were based on those?
I'd certainly agree with the maths/further maths. Not so sure about physics - at least in my day there was a considerable lab based element.
Our school pushed the best maths students through GCSE a year early, then A level the same giving u the Further maths in one year.
Roughly 15 - 20% of A level physics is practicals but I'd say a third of the rest could be described as the application of maths. Plenty of people do Maths but not Physics at A level, but some struggle if doing Physics without Maths.
Josephine Cumbo @JosephineCumbo Son achieved AAA in Physics, Further Maths and Maths and no offer from First Choice or Insurance University. Now doing mad scramble for Clearing places. Stress levels are high.
But, then I remembered that there is now an A* grade. Presumably, for many universities, the A* just replaced the A.
I wonder how poor his personal statement was.
I know that my nephew was rejected from a lot of universities for having nothing to write about for hobbies or achievements outside academia (he's ended up in Birmingham). My niece (next year) shouldn't have a problem given that she has done things outside of school, is the bassist in a reasonably successful band and makes money doing GCSE maths tuition.. Downside is she wants to do medicine so everything rests on the exam in a few weeks.
Oh I suspect his personal statement was excellent as he got the offer. Alas, he didn't make the grade.
At Bath the main criteria for offer is existing and predicted grades. The personal statement has little weight. Other courses/unis may differ (e.g. medicine its important to have gained experiences in healthcare and to reflect on them).
Medicine has got it wrong, as can be seen from the number of junior doctors looking for outs.
A friend was talking about his nephew who is studying medicine. They had arranged for him to shadow a consultant, including dealing with an emergency which, it was later agreed, should not have included the nephew, leading to a great personal statement. His friend who did not have the same contacts did not get in.
There is definitely something in this. I also recall an old TV show about applicants for Officer training at (I think) Sandhurst. The interviewers (all seemingly old public school chaps) got on best and ranked best the public school applicants...
At Bath we are required to take endless unconscious bias training etc. It has its point, but sometimes seems rather biased in its presentation.
First three minutes of this might blow your mind...
Josephine Cumbo @JosephineCumbo Son achieved AAA in Physics, Further Maths and Maths and no offer from First Choice or Insurance University. Now doing mad scramble for Clearing places. Stress levels are high.
But, then I remembered that there is now an A* grade. Presumably, for many universities, the A* just replaced the A.
I wonder how poor his personal statement was.
I know that my nephew was rejected from a lot of universities for having nothing to write about for hobbies or achievements outside academia (he's ended up in Birmingham). My niece (next year) shouldn't have a problem given that she has done things outside of school, is the bassist in a reasonably successful band and makes money doing GCSE maths tuition.. Downside is she wants to do medicine so everything rests on the exam in a few weeks.
Oh I suspect his personal statement was excellent as he got the offer. Alas, he didn't make the grade.
At Bath the main criteria for offer is existing and predicted grades. The personal statement has little weight. Other courses/unis may differ (e.g. medicine its important to have gained experiences in healthcare and to reflect on them).
Medicine has got it wrong, as can be seen from the number of junior doctors looking for outs.
A friend was talking about his nephew who is studying medicine. They had arranged for him to shadow a consultant, including dealing with an emergency which, it was later agreed, should not have included the nephew, leading to a great personal statement. His friend who did not have the same contacts did not get in.
There is definitely something in this. I also recall an old TV show about applicants for Officer training at (I think) Sandhurst. The interviewers (all seemingly old public school chaps) got on best and ranked best the public school applicants...
At Bath we are required to take endless unconscious bias training etc. It has its point, but sometimes seems rather biased in its presentation.
First three minutes of this might blow your mind...
Is legislation against monopolies, or price fixing, or unfair consumer contract terms, the same thing as "price controls" ?
"Get a grip on inflation!" "No, not like that!"
"We will have the best economy, as soon as I'm President again." (Pretty well the entirety of the GOP platform.)
I think one of Trump's biggest problems is the lack of substance. His 'offer' is essentially Donald Trump. P25 was supposed to provide a coherent policy framework but he's having to disown that because it's too far to the right of the electorate.
Biden's withdrawal has really left him in a bad place. His re-election ticket was "Me big and strong, Him frail and feeble". That was it, pretty much, and it was probably going to be enough. Now, robbed of that, he's befuddled and just flailing about basically.
Trump's platform is the same as Starmer's. The incumbents have made a mess of things. Let me fix it (don't worry about how).
The differences are that the mess is arguably not as bad in the US as in the UK, and Starmer doesn't have Trump's negatives (but Starmer doesn't have such strong supporters either).
Josephine Cumbo @JosephineCumbo Son achieved AAA in Physics, Further Maths and Maths and no offer from First Choice or Insurance University. Now doing mad scramble for Clearing places. Stress levels are high.
But, then I remembered that there is now an A* grade. Presumably, for many universities, the A* just replaced the A.
Hmmm.
He must have aimed very high with his first uni if he got no response to three As in those subjects.
But I'm also surprised his insurance offer wasn't rather lower than three As. That suggests bad planning.
If he's got an A in Further Maths I'd also be surprised if he has any trouble at all getting a place through Clearing, but maybe it would be better to defer?
Anyway, none of that is presumably of any use to her.
Lots of duplication between Maths, Further Maths, and Physics, though - it's only really 2½ A-Levels at best.
Presumably he'll have done another one or two subjects as well, so maybe the conditional offers were based on those?
I dimly recall my physics teacher complaining the head of maths thought simple harmonic motion was just an equation.
In my day, when dinosaurs ruled the earth, Maths was split between Pure Maths and Applied Maths with a separate A Level for each which seems very logical to me, but I believe not the norm these days. There was no overlap between Pure Maths and Physics, but there was between the Dynamics element of Applied Maths and Physics, although to be honest the Applied Maths content soon left the overlapping Physics element behind in its wake.
For those who wanted just one maths A level there was a combined maths A level from the easier 1st paper from each of the other two A levels. That was taken by students taking Physics and Chemistry A levels to make up their 3rd A level.
Washington, District of Columbia, is the nation's capital. (Most Americans will understand if you refer to it as DC.)
(I have no idea why anyone thinks the founding of DC was related to slavery, other than an attempt to explain every part of US history in terms of slavery. (Well, almost every. That many Indian tribes took slaves from other tribes is something that probably can't be mentioned in, for example, the Guardian.)
Those who think the US founders intended to preserve and extend slavery should learn about the 1787 Northwest Ordinance, which prohibited slavery in an enormous area.)
You should read what I was replying to, Jim. It was simply a comparison demonstrating that the opinions of the founders are pretty well irrelevant in deciding what's good policy today.
As far as your history goes, I'm well aware of the Ordinance. But that doesn't change the fact that the Constitution was a compromise that certainly entrenched slavery in the slaveholding states.
It doesn't "explain" all of US history, but it affects all of US history - including the founding of DC. Maryland and Virginia were, of course, slave states, and slavery existed in DC from its founding, to the extent that it was a regional market for the domestic trade.
The South wanted the capital, and the North only agreed to it in return for their plans for federal finance, largely paid for by the South.
If you read what she is talking about, it is the practise of buying up supply and then ramping the price.
It's considered market abuse in many, many places. Often their specific laws against it.
The outstanding example of that is a lovely chap who was doing that with medicines.
Yes, Martin Shrekli, I remember it well. There were also patent trolls too.
However they are already have limited the price of drugs and that is having an impact as the article shows. That was the Inflation Reduction Act.
What they are talking about now is applying the same logic to food and groceries.
Ummm:
Previously, Medicare/Medicaid were legally prohibited from negotiating drug pricing with pharmaceutical companies. This meant they frequently paid 10x what - for example - the NHS paid.
Is the NHS engaging in an illegal price fixing conspiracy by negotiating with drug companies? And if so, should we pay the same as Medicare/Medcaid historically paid?
Even funnier - it was Maggie Thatcher who insisted that the NHS use its full bargaining power with respect to drug prices.
I still recall the howling when her government approved generics for use in the NHS. One eminent chap was thundering away on Radio 4 that they were "useless"
I was quite young, so I asked my father - "If they are the same chemical, why would the generic be useless?"
He'd worked on medical ethics... "The generics are useless for getting you invited to all-expenses-paid conferences in the Caribbean."
Josephine Cumbo @JosephineCumbo Son achieved AAA in Physics, Further Maths and Maths and no offer from First Choice or Insurance University. Now doing mad scramble for Clearing places. Stress levels are high.
But, then I remembered that there is now an A* grade. Presumably, for many universities, the A* just replaced the A.
I wonder how poor his personal statement was.
I know that my nephew was rejected from a lot of universities for having nothing to write about for hobbies or achievements outside academia (he's ended up in Birmingham). My niece (next year) shouldn't have a problem given that she has done things outside of school, is the bassist in a reasonably successful band and makes money doing GCSE maths tuition.. Downside is she wants to do medicine so everything rests on the exam in a few weeks.
Oh I suspect his personal statement was excellent as he got the offer. Alas, he didn't make the grade.
At Bath the main criteria for offer is existing and predicted grades. The personal statement has little weight. Other courses/unis may differ (e.g. medicine its important to have gained experiences in healthcare and to reflect on them).
Medicine has got it wrong, as can be seen from the number of junior doctors looking for outs.
A friend was talking about his nephew who is studying medicine. They had arranged for him to shadow a consultant, including dealing with an emergency which, it was later agreed, should not have included the nephew, leading to a great personal statement. His friend who did not have the same contacts did not get in.
There is definitely something in this. I also recall an old TV show about applicants for Officer training at (I think) Sandhurst. The interviewers (all seemingly old public school chaps) got on best and ranked best the public school applicants...
At Bath we are required to take endless unconscious bias training etc. It has its point, but sometimes seems rather biased in its presentation.
First three minutes of this might blow your mind...
Busted. I'm surprised you saw me because I'm behind that ginormous fat cat in the corner of the parade square.
Edit: big boned.
Is big boned-shaming OK then?
Depends on the species.
I was indeed viewing that film and thinking an alien watching it would instantly conculde that there were two hominid species inhabiting Pirbright. So Homo rupertensis would be added to sapiens, neanderthalensis, Denisovan, and hobbit.
Josephine Cumbo @JosephineCumbo Son achieved AAA in Physics, Further Maths and Maths and no offer from First Choice or Insurance University. Now doing mad scramble for Clearing places. Stress levels are high.
But, then I remembered that there is now an A* grade. Presumably, for many universities, the A* just replaced the A.
I wonder how poor his personal statement was.
I know that my nephew was rejected from a lot of universities for having nothing to write about for hobbies or achievements outside academia (he's ended up in Birmingham). My niece (next year) shouldn't have a problem given that she has done things outside of school, is the bassist in a reasonably successful band and makes money doing GCSE maths tuition.. Downside is she wants to do medicine so everything rests on the exam in a few weeks.
Oh I suspect his personal statement was excellent as he got the offer. Alas, he didn't make the grade.
At Bath the main criteria for offer is existing and predicted grades. The personal statement has little weight. Other courses/unis may differ (e.g. medicine its important to have gained experiences in healthcare and to reflect on them).
Medicine has got it wrong, as can be seen from the number of junior doctors looking for outs.
A friend was talking about his nephew who is studying medicine. They had arranged for him to shadow a consultant, including dealing with an emergency which, it was later agreed, should not have included the nephew, leading to a great personal statement. His friend who did not have the same contacts did not get in.
There is definitely something in this. I also recall an old TV show about applicants for Officer training at (I think) Sandhurst. The interviewers (all seemingly old public school chaps) got on best and ranked best the public school applicants...
At Bath we are required to take endless unconscious bias training etc. It has its point, but sometimes seems rather biased in its presentation.
First three minutes of this might blow your mind...
Happy Dad. My younger son got into Durham to read politics with A*s in Latin, Classical Civilisation, Extended Project Qualification (Does Scotland have the right to independence?) and A in Politics (just missing the A*).
Amongst the nicest PB posts to read are those where the poster's children have worked hard and done well and are getting into uni/leaving uni.
Re comments on Democrats winning the House and Senate.
The former looks entirely possible. It’s on a knife edge anyway.
The Senate likely all comes down to Montana. They are generally polling ahead in the other close races I think, and WV is gone. So Tester winning would produce a 50-50 Senate and VP casting vote. At the moment, I think Tester is polling slightly behind.
I’m not sure they’ll be too upset with a 49-51 Senate though. The filibuster sadly probably remains, but they’ll have Murkowski and Collins on the GOP side who will probably get them where they need to be on nominations etc.
Dems are behind in Montana. But even if they win there, there are a few other very close races they would need to hold to keep it 50-50.
Some say Dems have a 'tough map this year'. Which is kind of true. But the truth is the whole Senate map of 50 states is tough for the Dems. There are simply more red states than blue states. And as the phenomenon of Dem senators in red states slowly disappears, it's going to be very hard for the Dems to get a Senate majority in any election where the national vote is close-ish.
Which is why its ridiculous they've not made DC and Puerto Rico states, both of which deserve to be states.
The latter would be a purple state, but a purple one they could win in a good year.
It was a deliberate choice by the founders that Washington was not a state
It was a deliberate choice to maintain the institution of slavery. It doesn't mean it can't be changed.
And the Article IV process for admitting a new state is massively simpler than that for amending the Constitution. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.
Canberra is not a state either
The seat of federal government should not be part of a state because that muddies the lines of accountability.
It's a view. Which is why most proposals for DC statehood suggest something along the lines of Barty's earlier comment. "Redefining the capital territory as the uninhabited land spanning the White House, US Congress etc while admitting the rest of the inhabited territory as a new state would be entirely plausible and reasonable."
If you read what she is talking about, it is the practise of buying up supply and then ramping the price.
It's considered market abuse in many, many places. Often their specific laws against it.
The outstanding example of that is a lovely chap who was doing that with medicines.
Yes, Martin Shrekli, I remember it well. There were also patent trolls too.
However they are already have limited the price of drugs and that is having an impact as the article shows. That was the Inflation Reduction Act.
What they are talking about now is applying the same logic to food and groceries.
Ummm:
Previously, Medicare/Medicaid were legally prohibited from negotiating drug pricing with pharmaceutical companies. This meant they frequently paid 10x what - for example - the NHS paid.
Is the NHS engaging in an illegal price fixing conspiracy by negotiating with drug companies? And if so, should we pay the same as Medicare/Medcaid historically paid?
Okay, but that is not what the article is claiming. It is making an explicit claim that price controls are making companies slash research. Of course you may say this contractor would say that as he is a vested interested.
"A portent came last week from Charles River Laboratories, a top research contractor that helps drug makers with clinical trials. The company warned in its quarterly earnings report that pharmaceutical companies are slashing research and development owing to the IRA’s drug price controls."
Of course in any commercial engagement both parties should be able to negotiate and agree a price.
Even if that was the case (and Mandy Rice-Davis applies), it is doubtful it is in the interests of the American taxpayer to fund drug development for the rest of the world.
What does the article say ? And have the entire editorial staff gone bonkers ?
Same rant as in the previous n weeks from Heath. Labour will be all woke madness, public sector featherbedding, no growth, crushingly high taxes, rich will flee, innovation totally killed, net zero is madness etc etc.
His fellow opinion writer AEP meanwhile regularly explains how the future is green technology and oil is so over etc.
I can't believe TSE has gone on holiday and missed this story. Perhaps Robert could pass it on ?
Talking to a Former Madam About Using AI and Big Data to Help RFK Jr. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/08/robert-f-kennedy-jr-kristin-davis-manhattan-madam-2024-election/ Last week, a mini-scoop on Radar triggered titters within the political media world: The once notorious “Manhattan Madam,” who ran a high-end escort service in New York City, has been working as an adviser to a political action committee supporting independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The gossip website did not go into details about what the former call-girl ringmaster was doing to help RFK Jr. And, it turns out, the full story is far more interesting than what Radar reported, for Kristin Davis, that former prostitution entrepreneur, has made at least $215,000 since May 2023 working for the Common Sense PAC overseeing an artificial intelligence-driven project to find voters likely to support the anti-vax conspiracy theorist.
Davis, who served four months in 2008 on charges related to her prostitution business and then 18 months in the mid 2010s for selling prescription pills to an FBI cooperating witness, has been involved in politics for years. She ran a protest campaign for New York governor in 2010—an effort managed by longtime right-wing dirty trickster Roger Stone. And since 2008, she has operated a public relations firm called Think Right, which has represented Stone and other conservative figures. In 2012, she was a fundraiser for Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson. On her LinkedIn page, she says she also “designed proprietary software platform to disseminate issue-based messaging on various platforms such as email blasts, Twitter and Facebook.” She is doing her work for Common Sense through a firm she set up called Buzzify PR...
...Without much hope that Kennedy can win the race, Davis notes another desirable outcome would be for RFK Jr. to cut the deal he has reportedly discussed with Trump: an endorsement of Trump in return for being named head of the Department of Health and Human Services..
As for the recent headlines about her and her past, Davis muses, “I will forever be notorious for something from 16 years ago. I have done a lot of campaigns and stayed in the background because I realized most of the time it hurts a candidate. In 2022, I posted a pic and said I was so happy to have been hired to do an event for Rudy Giuliani, and he got criticized. As if hiring me makes them dumb. I’ve gone through a scandal, a government investigation, and I’ve been slammed by the media. Who better than me to represent all theses people? But I don’t personally want to be the focus of anything. I’ve been successfully behind the scenes for many things for a long time.” She also points out that she worked at a hedge fund before becoming a madam...
Josephine Cumbo @JosephineCumbo Son achieved AAA in Physics, Further Maths and Maths and no offer from First Choice or Insurance University. Now doing mad scramble for Clearing places. Stress levels are high.
But, then I remembered that there is now an A* grade. Presumably, for many universities, the A* just replaced the A.
I wonder how poor his personal statement was.
I know that my nephew was rejected from a lot of universities for having nothing to write about for hobbies or achievements outside academia (he's ended up in Birmingham). My niece (next year) shouldn't have a problem given that she has done things outside of school, is the bassist in a reasonably successful band and makes money doing GCSE maths tuition.. Downside is she wants to do medicine so everything rests on the exam in a few weeks.
Oh I suspect his personal statement was excellent as he got the offer. Alas, he didn't make the grade.
At Bath the main criteria for offer is existing and predicted grades. The personal statement has little weight. Other courses/unis may differ (e.g. medicine its important to have gained experiences in healthcare and to reflect on them).
Medicine has got it wrong, as can be seen from the number of junior doctors looking for outs.
A friend was talking about his nephew who is studying medicine. They had arranged for him to shadow a consultant, including dealing with an emergency which, it was later agreed, should not have included the nephew, leading to a great personal statement. His friend who did not have the same contacts did not get in.
There is definitely something in this. I also recall an old TV show about applicants for Officer training at (I think) Sandhurst. The interviewers (all seemingly old public school chaps) got on best and ranked best the public school applicants...
At Bath we are required to take endless unconscious bias training etc. It has its point, but sometimes seems rather biased in its presentation.
First three minutes of this might blow your mind...
Josephine Cumbo @JosephineCumbo Son achieved AAA in Physics, Further Maths and Maths and no offer from First Choice or Insurance University. Now doing mad scramble for Clearing places. Stress levels are high.
But, then I remembered that there is now an A* grade. Presumably, for many universities, the A* just replaced the A.
I wonder how poor his personal statement was.
I know that my nephew was rejected from a lot of universities for having nothing to write about for hobbies or achievements outside academia (he's ended up in Birmingham). My niece (next year) shouldn't have a problem given that she has done things outside of school, is the bassist in a reasonably successful band and makes money doing GCSE maths tuition.. Downside is she wants to do medicine so everything rests on the exam in a few weeks.
Oh I suspect his personal statement was excellent as he got the offer. Alas, he didn't make the grade.
At Bath the main criteria for offer is existing and predicted grades. The personal statement has little weight. Other courses/unis may differ (e.g. medicine its important to have gained experiences in healthcare and to reflect on them).
Medicine has got it wrong, as can be seen from the number of junior doctors looking for outs.
A friend was talking about his nephew who is studying medicine. They had arranged for him to shadow a consultant, including dealing with an emergency which, it was later agreed, should not have included the nephew, leading to a great personal statement. His friend who did not have the same contacts did not get in.
There is definitely something in this. I also recall an old TV show about applicants for Officer training at (I think) Sandhurst. The interviewers (all seemingly old public school chaps) got on best and ranked best the public school applicants...
At Bath we are required to take endless unconscious bias training etc. It has its point, but sometimes seems rather biased in its presentation.
First three minutes of this might blow your mind...
Busted. I'm surprised you saw me because I'm behind that ginormous fat cat in the corner of the parade square.
Edit: big boned.
Is big boned-shaming OK then?
Depends on the species.
I was indeed viewing that film and thinking an alien watching it would instantly conculde that there were two hominid species inhabiting Pirbright. So Homo rupertensis would be added to sapiens, neanderthalensis, Denisovan, and hobbit.
Is legislation against monopolies, or price fixing, or unfair consumer contract terms, the same thing as "price controls" ?
"Get a grip on inflation!" "No, not like that!"
"We will have the best economy, as soon as I'm President again." (Pretty well the entirety of the GOP platform.)
I think one of Trump's biggest problems is the lack of substance. His 'offer' is essentially Donald Trump. P25 was supposed to provide a coherent policy framework but he's having to disown that because it's too far to the right of the electorate.
Biden's withdrawal has really left him in a bad place. His re-election ticket was "Me big and strong, Him frail and feeble". That was it, pretty much, and it was probably going to be enough. Now, robbed of that, he's befuddled and just flailing about basically.
Trump's platform is the same as Starmer's. The incumbents have made a mess of things. Let me fix it (don't worry about how).
The differences are that the mess is arguably not as bad in the US as in the UK, and Starmer doesn't have Trump's negatives (but Starmer doesn't have such strong supporters either).
A further (big) difference is that Trump is essentially a Personality Cult. SKS is "the government I will lead" whereas Trump is more "I am the government".
It's common sense that A grades should go to roughly the top 10%, and A stars to the top 2 or 3%.
Isn't that more or less how it works ( I don't know about the actual percentage numbers)?The percentage stays the same so the grades move up and down a correlation curve depending on the difficulty of the exams.
If you read what she is talking about, it is the practise of buying up supply and then ramping the price.
It's considered market abuse in many, many places. Often their specific laws against it.
The outstanding example of that is a lovely chap who was doing that with medicines.
Yes, Martin Shrekli, I remember it well. There were also patent trolls too.
However they are already have limited the price of drugs and that is having an impact as the article shows. That was the Inflation Reduction Act.
What they are talking about now is applying the same logic to food and groceries.
Ummm:
Previously, Medicare/Medicaid were legally prohibited from negotiating drug pricing with pharmaceutical companies. This meant they frequently paid 10x what - for example - the NHS paid.
Is the NHS engaging in an illegal price fixing conspiracy by negotiating with drug companies? And if so, should we pay the same as Medicare/Medcaid historically paid?
Okay, but that is not what the article is claiming. It is making an explicit claim that price controls are making companies slash research. Of course you may say this contractor would say that as he is a vested interested.
"A portent came last week from Charles River Laboratories, a top research contractor that helps drug makers with clinical trials. The company warned in its quarterly earnings report that pharmaceutical companies are slashing research and development owing to the IRA’s drug price controls."
Of course in any commercial engagement both parties should be able to negotiate and agree a price.
Even if that was the case (and Mandy Rice-Davis applies), it is doubtful it is in the interests of the American taxpayer to fund drug development for the rest of the world.
That's actually an interesting question. It might well be, in a similar way it might have been in China's interests to do much of the development of manufacturing technology for both solar panels and battery electric vehicles for the rest of the world.
It's probably not in their interests to fund the massive costs of administering healthcare in the US, which exceed those of Pharma R&D, production and sales, and have few of the associated economic benefits.
Off topic, on inflation I paid £1.369 for diesel this morning which was lower than I can remember it being for a long while.
That's cheaper than I see but should be some scope for prices come down a little. Our fleet fuel is 1.29 this week
I have never seen the difference between fleet cost and supermarkets so large (nearest Tesco is 1.42).
Some of this is down to Asda (who historically were the cheapest suppermarket) being in such an utter mess.
Costco is the only fuel supplier with honest prices in my opinion. Obviously it's not practical for everyone but if one's near your commute it's well worth the £35 annual fee, in addition the diesel they sell is premium grade so better for your engine. If Asda et al could sort themselves out it'd probably be worth -0.1% or so to inflation.
Josephine Cumbo @JosephineCumbo Son achieved AAA in Physics, Further Maths and Maths and no offer from First Choice or Insurance University. Now doing mad scramble for Clearing places. Stress levels are high.
But, then I remembered that there is now an A* grade. Presumably, for many universities, the A* just replaced the A.
I wonder how poor his personal statement was.
I know that my nephew was rejected from a lot of universities for having nothing to write about for hobbies or achievements outside academia (he's ended up in Birmingham). My niece (next year) shouldn't have a problem given that she has done things outside of school, is the bassist in a reasonably successful band and makes money doing GCSE maths tuition.. Downside is she wants to do medicine so everything rests on the exam in a few weeks.
Oh I suspect his personal statement was excellent as he got the offer. Alas, he didn't make the grade.
At Bath the main criteria for offer is existing and predicted grades. The personal statement has little weight. Other courses/unis may differ (e.g. medicine its important to have gained experiences in healthcare and to reflect on them).
Medicine has got it wrong, as can be seen from the number of junior doctors looking for outs.
A friend was talking about his nephew who is studying medicine. They had arranged for him to shadow a consultant, including dealing with an emergency which, it was later agreed, should not have included the nephew, leading to a great personal statement. His friend who did not have the same contacts did not get in.
There is definitely something in this. I also recall an old TV show about applicants for Officer training at (I think) Sandhurst. The interviewers (all seemingly old public school chaps) got on best and ranked best the public school applicants...
At Bath we are required to take endless unconscious bias training etc. It has its point, but sometimes seems rather biased in its presentation.
First three minutes of this might blow your mind...
What does the article say ? And have the entire editorial staff gone bonkers ?
Same rant as in the previous n weeks from Heath. Labour will be all woke madness, public sector featherbedding, no growth, crushingly high taxes, rich will flee, innovation totally killed, net zero is madness etc etc.
His fellow opinion writer AEP meanwhile regularly explains how the future is green technology and oil is so over etc.
It's common sense that A grades should go to roughly the top 10%, and A stars to the top 2 or 3%.
The problem with that is that - in subjects other than mathematics and the hard sciences - then there is a fair degree of subjectivity in marking. So, getting three markers who all agree on which are the two best answers out of 100 to an essay question on the James I's financial woes is far from trivial. If it's the top 10, at least there will normally be 7 or 8 they all agree should be in there.
One extra effect of describing the riots as exclusively 'far right' even if they are not is that it increases the feelings of fear among the non-white population. May be ethically dubious but definitely good politics from the left wing culture warriors.
Sure, there were probably some mindless thugs and looters involved too, but the riots were rooted in white supremacy, a current in British society that rises to the surface occasionally, especially when pandered to by people who should know better. This isn't a left wing confection, if only it was.
Well I'm glad you've already worked out what the riots were all about.
People throwing stones at mosques, setting fire to asylum hotels and vandalising cars and houses thought to belong to immigrants have all rather revealed their motives without a question being asked.
What about people wanting a ruck with Plod
Big payday if it's in Manchester Airport.
That has all gone quiet apart from the family holding a press conference with their new lawyer.
Surprised they got bailed, surely thumping coppers would mean no bail. Does not seem much consistency re crimes in general across the country
Poor old Rachel Gunn - really affected by her Olympics experience. Whatever her performance it's a shame that an Olympian, who went through the selection process (I appreciate there were questions over this) should have been so badly affected.
Off topic, on inflation I paid £1.369 for diesel this morning which was lower than I can remember it being for a long while.
That's cheaper than I see but should be some scope for prices come down a little. Our fleet fuel is 1.29 this week
I have never seen the difference between fleet cost and supermarkets so large (nearest Tesco is 1.42).
Some of this is down to Asda (who historically were the cheapest suppermarket) being in such an utter mess.
Costco is the only fuel supplier with honest prices in my opinion. Obviously it's not practical for everyone but if one's near your commute it's well worth the £35 annual fee, in addition the diesel they sell is premium grade so better for your engine. If Asda et al could sort themselves out it'd probably be worth -0.1% or so to inflation.
I've found petrolprices.com (and their app) to be very useful when away from home - especially when looking for a cheap supermarket just off the motorway.
Is legislation against monopolies, or price fixing, or unfair consumer contract terms, the same thing as "price controls" ?
"Get a grip on inflation!" "No, not like that!"
"We will have the best economy, as soon as I'm President again." (Pretty well the entirety of the GOP platform.)
I think one of Trump's biggest problems is the lack of substance. His 'offer' is essentially Donald Trump. P25 was supposed to provide a coherent policy framework but he's having to disown that because it's too far to the right of the electorate.
Biden's withdrawal has really left him in a bad place. His re-election ticket was "Me big and strong, Him frail and feeble". That was it, pretty much, and it was probably going to be enough. Now, robbed of that, he's befuddled and just flailing about basically.
Trump's platform is the same as Starmer's. The incumbents have made a mess of things. Let me fix it (don't worry about how).
The differences are that the mess is arguably not as bad in the US as in the UK, and Starmer doesn't have Trump's negatives (but Starmer doesn't have such strong supporters either).
A further (big) difference is that Trump is essentially a Personality Cult. SKS is "the government I will lead" whereas Trump is more "I am the government".
Trump is more "Leave me alone. I am not the Government" - last time, he was so uninterested that they stopped giving him daily intelligence briefings.
He'll be playing with something else - I've no idea what. I'm sticking by my Kaiser Bill comparison who played with, I think, boats.
Josephine Cumbo @JosephineCumbo Son achieved AAA in Physics, Further Maths and Maths and no offer from First Choice or Insurance University. Now doing mad scramble for Clearing places. Stress levels are high.
But, then I remembered that there is now an A* grade. Presumably, for many universities, the A* just replaced the A.
I wonder how poor his personal statement was.
I know that my nephew was rejected from a lot of universities for having nothing to write about for hobbies or achievements outside academia (he's ended up in Birmingham). My niece (next year) shouldn't have a problem given that she has done things outside of school, is the bassist in a reasonably successful band and makes money doing GCSE maths tuition.. Downside is she wants to do medicine so everything rests on the exam in a few weeks.
Oh I suspect his personal statement was excellent as he got the offer. Alas, he didn't make the grade.
At Bath the main criteria for offer is existing and predicted grades. The personal statement has little weight. Other courses/unis may differ (e.g. medicine its important to have gained experiences in healthcare and to reflect on them).
Medicine has got it wrong, as can be seen from the number of junior doctors looking for outs.
A friend was talking about his nephew who is studying medicine. They had arranged for him to shadow a consultant, including dealing with an emergency which, it was later agreed, should not have included the nephew, leading to a great personal statement. His friend who did not have the same contacts did not get in.
There is definitely something in this. I also recall an old TV show about applicants for Officer training at (I think) Sandhurst. The interviewers (all seemingly old public school chaps) got on best and ranked best the public school applicants...
At Bath we are required to take endless unconscious bias training etc. It has its point, but sometimes seems rather biased in its presentation.
First three minutes of this might blow your mind...
It's common sense that A grades should go to roughly the top 10%, and A stars to the top 2 or 3%.
The problem with that is that - in subjects other than mathematics and the hard sciences - then there is a fair degree of subjectivity in marking. So, getting three markers who all agree on which are the two best answers out of 100 to an essay question on the James I's financial woes is far from trivial. If it's the top 10, at least there will normally be 7 or 8 they all agree should be in there.
That's a problem with any marking scheme, but once you have a numeric score it's no problem to allocate grades based on percentages.
Josephine Cumbo @JosephineCumbo Son achieved AAA in Physics, Further Maths and Maths and no offer from First Choice or Insurance University. Now doing mad scramble for Clearing places. Stress levels are high.
But, then I remembered that there is now an A* grade. Presumably, for many universities, the A* just replaced the A.
I wonder how poor his personal statement was.
I know that my nephew was rejected from a lot of universities for having nothing to write about for hobbies or achievements outside academia (he's ended up in Birmingham). My niece (next year) shouldn't have a problem given that she has done things outside of school, is the bassist in a reasonably successful band and makes money doing GCSE maths tuition.. Downside is she wants to do medicine so everything rests on the exam in a few weeks.
Oh I suspect his personal statement was excellent as he got the offer. Alas, he didn't make the grade.
At Bath the main criteria for offer is existing and predicted grades. The personal statement has little weight. Other courses/unis may differ (e.g. medicine its important to have gained experiences in healthcare and to reflect on them).
Medicine has got it wrong, as can be seen from the number of junior doctors looking for outs.
A friend was talking about his nephew who is studying medicine. They had arranged for him to shadow a consultant, including dealing with an emergency which, it was later agreed, should not have included the nephew, leading to a great personal statement. His friend who did not have the same contacts did not get in.
There is definitely something in this. I also recall an old TV show about applicants for Officer training at (I think) Sandhurst. The interviewers (all seemingly old public school chaps) got on best and ranked best the public school applicants...
At Bath we are required to take endless unconscious bias training etc. It has its point, but sometimes seems rather biased in its presentation.
First three minutes of this might blow your mind...
Josephine Cumbo @JosephineCumbo Son achieved AAA in Physics, Further Maths and Maths and no offer from First Choice or Insurance University. Now doing mad scramble for Clearing places. Stress levels are high.
But, then I remembered that there is now an A* grade. Presumably, for many universities, the A* just replaced the A.
I wonder how poor his personal statement was.
I know that my nephew was rejected from a lot of universities for having nothing to write about for hobbies or achievements outside academia (he's ended up in Birmingham). My niece (next year) shouldn't have a problem given that she has done things outside of school, is the bassist in a reasonably successful band and makes money doing GCSE maths tuition.. Downside is she wants to do medicine so everything rests on the exam in a few weeks.
Oh I suspect his personal statement was excellent as he got the offer. Alas, he didn't make the grade.
At Bath the main criteria for offer is existing and predicted grades. The personal statement has little weight. Other courses/unis may differ (e.g. medicine its important to have gained experiences in healthcare and to reflect on them).
Medicine has got it wrong, as can be seen from the number of junior doctors looking for outs.
A friend was talking about his nephew who is studying medicine. They had arranged for him to shadow a consultant, including dealing with an emergency which, it was later agreed, should not have included the nephew, leading to a great personal statement. His friend who did not have the same contacts did not get in.
There is definitely something in this. I also recall an old TV show about applicants for Officer training at (I think) Sandhurst. The interviewers (all seemingly old public school chaps) got on best and ranked best the public school applicants...
At Bath we are required to take endless unconscious bias training etc. It has its point, but sometimes seems rather biased in its presentation.
First three minutes of this might blow your mind...
Comments
It's considered market abuse in many, many places. Often their specific laws against it.
The outstanding example of that is a lovely chap who was doing that with medicines.
My guess is that his initial application five were a bit toppy, or that he chose to have a main offer at A*A*A and A*AA for insurance. Which isn't brilliant tactics.
But this is why we have clearing.
However they are already have limited the price of drugs and that is having an impact as the article shows. That was the Inflation Reduction Act.
What they are talking about now is applying the same logic to food and groceries.
I always liked him, but do wonder if he wouldn't have been a lot happier if he'd chosen a career path other than politics.
Is legislation against monopolies, or price fixing, or unfair consumer contract terms, the same thing as "price controls" ?
Month USD EUR
2023-08-01 1.2762 1.1624
2023-09-01 1.2673 1.1675
2023-10-01 1.2198 1.1548
2023-11-01 1.2126 1.1507
2023-12-01 1.2635 1.1658
2023-12-15 1.2760 1.1603
2024-01-01 1.2625 1.1536
2024-02-01 1.2682 1.1794
2024-03-01 1.2650 1.1688
2024-04-01 1.2632 1.1694
2024-05-01 1.2520 1.1710
2024-06-01 1.2772 1.1750
2024-07-01 1.2672 1.1841
2024-08-01 1.2828 1.1872
The article is about allowing Medicare to actually negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. It's absurd that's not allowed.
Honestly, you need better arguments.
"No, not like that!"
Previously, Medicare/Medicaid were legally prohibited from negotiating drug pricing with pharmaceutical companies. This meant they frequently paid 10x what - for example - the NHS paid.
Is the NHS engaging in an illegal price fixing conspiracy by negotiating with drug companies? And if so, should we pay the same as Medicare/Medcaid historically paid?
At some point it became real life, then it swiftly became 'actually more real than real life'.
A lot of folks haven't cottoned on to this yet. But that's entirely understandable - it is an absolutely nonsensical reality.
Which the Hill story didn't give.
There's plenty of time before the election to work out whether these are sensible proposals, or an unwise interference in the market.
But honestly, the US pharmaceuticals market is absolutely broken (which isn't entirely the fault of Big Pharma). Don't get me started on Pharmacy Benefit Managers...
As for unfair contract terms, let me remind you of the Disney wrongful death story from a couple of days ago.
"A portent came last week from Charles River Laboratories, a top research contractor that helps drug makers with clinical trials. The company warned in its quarterly earnings report that pharmaceutical companies are slashing research and development owing to the IRA’s drug price controls."
Of course in any commercial engagement both parties should be able to negotiate and agree a price.
(Pretty well the entirety of the GOP platform.)
It is something the rozzers were taught not to do following Dalian Atkinson’s death.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-64989418
Not me.
The article cites a claim that price controls means fewer cures coming to market. It is not unreasonable to question that.
Of course if the article is misleading or incorrect and this is simply the industry pushing back against a practise that is taking excess revenue from it then that is a different matter and something I have quoted to support a point may well be flawed.
Estimated US pharmaceutical revenues during this administration:
2020 516bn
2021 556bn
2022 608bn
2023 678bn
If there's a research problem in big Pharma (which is arguable), it's because they're cutting costs to drive short term profits.
And certainly there's no apparent shortage of capital going into biotech startups.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_(state)
Washington, District of Columbia, is the nation's capital. (Most Americans will understand if you refer to it as DC.)
(I have no idea why anyone thinks the founding of DC was related to slavery, other than an attempt to explain every part of US history in terms of slavery. (Well, almost every. That many Indian tribes took slaves from other tribes is something that probably can't be mentioned in, for example, the Guardian.)
Those who think the US founders intended to preserve and extend slavery should learn about the 1787 Northwest Ordinance, which prohibited slavery in an enormous area.)
To be fair, it's a complicated problem, and much of the price gouging is down by the middlemen - the insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers (which are now largely owned by the insurance companies).
The solutions advanced by (eg) Bernie Sanders are also simplistic and foolish. But to take a small example, there's little wrong with the way the current administration achieved a one off cap on previously scandalous insulin pricing even if that doesn't really address the systemic problems.
The seat of federal government should not be part of a state because that muddies the lines of accountability.
He has also been poor from start to finish on Russia Ukraine. “It depends what sort of invasion”. To delaying tanks, delaying planes, delaying missiles, overly restrictive rules of engagement. It is reported the British haven’t blocked storm shadow use in Russia, the US has! Then we come to the rising malignancy of Iran in the last few years…
He doesn’t understand deterrence, he’s weakened the US in the eyes of global autocrats and he’s replaced the foundations of the US economy with sand.
History will come to judge him as one of the poorest presidents of all. And in time, his flag bearers will pretend they always said as much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KJAPL3ScZ8
Biden's withdrawal has really left him in a bad place. His re-election ticket was "Me big and strong, Him frail and feeble". That was it, pretty much, and it was probably going to be enough. Now, robbed of that, he's befuddled and just flailing about basically.
Most people here are pretty civil, we can all be a little tetchy at times, but most don't cross the line.
Facebook and Twitter politics is a total cesspit.
In June, they broke 29% Biden, 19% Trump. (Biden +10%)
Now there is an alternative, they are breaking Harris 53%, Trump 11% (Harris +42%)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxFOtFxcGc8
Edit: big boned.
Plenty of people do Maths but not Physics at A level, but some struggle if doing Physics without Maths.
The differences are that the mess is arguably not as bad in the US as in the UK, and Starmer doesn't have Trump's negatives (but Starmer doesn't have such strong supporters either).
For those who wanted just one maths A level there was a combined maths A level from the easier 1st paper from each of the other two A levels. That was taken by students taking Physics and Chemistry A levels to make up their 3rd A level.
It was simply a comparison demonstrating that the opinions of the founders are pretty well irrelevant in deciding what's good policy today.
As far as your history goes, I'm well aware of the Ordinance. But that doesn't change the fact that the Constitution was a compromise that certainly entrenched slavery in the slaveholding states.
It doesn't "explain" all of US history, but it affects all of US history - including the founding of DC. Maryland and Virginia were, of course, slave states, and slavery existed in DC from its founding, to the extent that it was a regional market for the domestic trade.
The South wanted the capital, and the North only agreed to it in return for their plans for federal finance, largely paid for by the South.
I still recall the howling when her government approved generics for use in the NHS. One eminent chap was thundering away on Radio 4 that they were "useless"
I was quite young, so I asked my father - "If they are the same chemical, why would the generic be useless?"
He'd worked on medical ethics... "The generics are useless for getting you invited to all-expenses-paid conferences in the Caribbean."
Our fleet fuel is 1.29 this week
I have never seen the difference between fleet cost and supermarkets so large (nearest Tesco is 1.42).
Some of this is down to Asda (who historically were the cheapest suppermarket) being in such an utter mess.
Seriously though - having gone through that it's remarkable you've become the well balanced citizen you are (odd lapse notwithstanding).
So now Challenger 2 and T-90 tanks are fighting fascists in the second battle of Kursk!
Which is why most proposals for DC statehood suggest something along the lines of Barty's earlier comment.
"Redefining the capital territory as the uninhabited land spanning the White House, US Congress etc while admitting the rest of the inhabited territory as a new state would be entirely plausible and reasonable."
The new Government has been unleashed, dedicating itself to total victory in both the class and culture wars'
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/14/labour-is-no-longer-bothering-to-hide-its-terrifying-new-ag/
And have the entire editorial staff gone bonkers ?
His fellow opinion writer AEP meanwhile regularly explains how the future is green technology and oil is so over etc.
Perhaps Robert could pass it on ?
Talking to a Former Madam About Using AI and Big Data to Help RFK Jr.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/08/robert-f-kennedy-jr-kristin-davis-manhattan-madam-2024-election/
Last week, a mini-scoop on Radar triggered titters within the political media world: The once notorious “Manhattan Madam,” who ran a high-end escort service in New York City, has been working as an adviser to a political action committee supporting independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The gossip website did not go into details about what the former call-girl ringmaster was doing to help RFK Jr. And, it turns out, the full story is far more interesting than what Radar reported, for Kristin Davis, that former prostitution entrepreneur, has made at least $215,000 since May 2023 working for the Common Sense PAC overseeing an artificial intelligence-driven project to find voters likely to support the anti-vax conspiracy theorist.
Davis, who served four months in 2008 on charges related to her prostitution business and then 18 months in the mid 2010s for selling prescription pills to an FBI cooperating witness, has been involved in politics for years. She ran a protest campaign for New York governor in 2010—an effort managed by longtime right-wing dirty trickster Roger Stone. And since 2008, she has operated a public relations firm called Think Right, which has represented Stone and other conservative figures. In 2012, she was a fundraiser for Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson. On her LinkedIn page, she says she also “designed proprietary software platform to disseminate issue-based messaging on various platforms such as email blasts, Twitter and Facebook.” She is doing her work for Common Sense through a firm she set up called Buzzify PR...
...Without much hope that Kennedy can win the race, Davis notes another desirable outcome would be for RFK Jr. to cut the deal he has reportedly discussed with Trump: an endorsement of Trump in return for being named head of the Department of Health and Human Services..
As for the recent headlines about her and her past, Davis muses, “I will forever be notorious for something from 16 years ago. I have done a lot of campaigns and stayed in the background because I realized most of the time it hurts a candidate. In 2022, I posted a pic and said I was so happy to have been hired to do an event for Rudy Giuliani, and he got criticized. As if hiring me makes them dumb. I’ve gone through a scandal, a government investigation, and I’ve been slammed by the media. Who better than me to represent all theses people? But I don’t personally want to be the focus of anything. I’ve been successfully behind the scenes for many things for a long time.” She also points out that she worked at a hedge fund before becoming a madam...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjRotmD0FBA
It might well be, in a similar way it might have been in China's interests to do much of the development of manufacturing technology for both solar panels and battery electric vehicles for the rest of the world.
It's probably not in their interests to fund the massive costs of administering healthcare in the US, which exceed those of Pharma R&D, production and sales, and have few of the associated economic benefits.
If Asda et al could sort themselves out it'd probably be worth -0.1% or so to inflation.
Way more meaningful/useful, if a little brutal.
It's sort of a cross between an extended grunt and a whine.
He'll be playing with something else - I've no idea what. I'm sticking by my Kaiser Bill comparison who played with, I think, boats.