Oh, the humanities – politicalbetting.com

Pagan2 said:

SeaShantyIrish2 said:

Pagan2 said:

Pagan2 said:

LloydBanks said:

EPG said:

MJW said:

If you want an example of how and why the humanities - when taught well - are important and have their place there's a great one in Elon Musk's (Physics and Economics) disastrous running of Twitter.

He's had tremendous success in fields that were essentially about cracking an engineering problem and marketing it. It's undoubtedly true that it takes a degree of genius to spot that if you can solve an engineering problem like getting the performance electric cars in line with ICE ones, or cheaper space travel, then doing it, there'll be huge demand.

But social media is a different problem, in that once you've built the underlying tech - not all that difficult these days, as we've seen with recent Twitter clones - it's more like managing a delicate ecosystem and understanding how to manage communities in a way that makes them first desirable to users and then advertisers/sellers.

Which is where the humanities comes in. History, philosophy, literature, and the more thorough branches of cultural and social studies (admittedly there's been some dreck) can give you a far better idea of the human consequences of doing certain things to your online ecosystem than treating everything as a problem that can be 'hardcored' by adding features you can charge for.

Musk's purchase of Twitter is likely about buying political influence rather than making money from ads or building a pristine managed community for bored journalists.

True, but Twitter only provides political influence if it keeps its users and keeps its advertisers. Musk's cack handed stewardship of the platform is a threat to this, and I agree with the poster quoted that Musk is by nature a sociopath who thinks people make decisions by logic flow

Do you believe having a humanities degree would have made him less of a sociopath?

Ted bundy for example studied a humanities degree, psychology....not sure it did much to stop him killing women

Ted Bundy was also a Republican Party activist in WA State. Knew couple of folks who actually worked with him, including one guy for whom Bundy was his campaign manager. In that case, the candidate was a well-know advocate for Asian communities in Seattle's Internation District/Chinatown.

Who was pissed off with the Democratic establishment, and decided to run for the legislature as a GOPer; when he requested assistance, the state Republican Party sent Ted Bundy to help out. The candidate lost, but then he never expected to win, just to send a message to the Dems.

Both of my sources - extremely prominent in WA State politics then & for decades afterwards, told me that Ted Bundy was very competent AND (came across as) a nice guy.

In interests of balance, will also point out that notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacey was a Democratic activist in Chicago, indeed a precinct captain for the Cook Co. Democratic organization.

I don't think either your political proclivities or what you study makes a difference personally and wasn't the one arguing it. An arsehole is an arsehole who ever they vote for or what they study

Wasn't arguing against you. That is, was NOT playing intellectual ping-pong with you, just making a totally tangential comment from the peanut gallery!

Just noting these particular circumstances re: Ted Bundy who(m) you brought up in passing. Which blew my cotton-picking mind, when I heard about it and to this day.

SeaShantyIrish2 said:

Pagan2 said:

Pagan2 said:

LloydBanks said:

EPG said:

MJW said:

If you want an example of how and why the humanities - when taught well - are important and have their place there's a great one in Elon Musk's (Physics and Economics) disastrous running of Twitter.

He's had tremendous success in fields that were essentially about cracking an engineering problem and marketing it. It's undoubtedly true that it takes a degree of genius to spot that if you can solve an engineering problem like getting the performance electric cars in line with ICE ones, or cheaper space travel, then doing it, there'll be huge demand.

But social media is a different problem, in that once you've built the underlying tech - not all that difficult these days, as we've seen with recent Twitter clones - it's more like managing a delicate ecosystem and understanding how to manage communities in a way that makes them first desirable to users and then advertisers/sellers.

Which is where the humanities comes in. History, philosophy, literature, and the more thorough branches of cultural and social studies (admittedly there's been some dreck) can give you a far better idea of the human consequences of doing certain things to your online ecosystem than treating everything as a problem that can be 'hardcored' by adding features you can charge for.

Musk's purchase of Twitter is likely about buying political influence rather than making money from ads or building a pristine managed community for bored journalists.

True, but Twitter only provides political influence if it keeps its users and keeps its advertisers. Musk's cack handed stewardship of the platform is a threat to this, and I agree with the poster quoted that Musk is by nature a sociopath who thinks people make decisions by logic flow

Do you believe having a humanities degree would have made him less of a sociopath?

Ted bundy for example studied a humanities degree, psychology....not sure it did much to stop him killing women

Ted Bundy was also a Republican Party activist in WA State. Knew couple of folks who actually worked with him, including one guy for whom Bundy was his campaign manager. In that case, the candidate was a well-know advocate for Asian communities in Seattle's Internation District/Chinatown.

Who was pissed off with the Democratic establishment, and decided to run for the legislature as a GOPer; when he requested assistance, the state Republican Party sent Ted Bundy to help out. The candidate lost, but then he never expected to win, just to send a message to the Dems.

Both of my sources - extremely prominent in WA State politics then & for decades afterwards, told me that Ted Bundy was very competent AND (came across as) a nice guy.

In interests of balance, will also point out that notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacey was a Democratic activist in Chicago, indeed a precinct captain for the Cook Co. Democratic organization.

Says all you need to know about political activists of any stripe, really.

And General Studies. The pub quiz of A-levels.

Lol.

MJW said:

If you want an example of how and why the humanities - when taught well - are important and have their place there's a great one in Elon Musk's (Physics and Economics) disastrous running of Twitter.

He's had tremendous success in fields that were essentially about cracking an engineering problem and marketing it. It's undoubtedly true that it takes a degree of genius to spot that if you can solve an engineering problem like getting the performance electric cars in line with ICE ones, or cheaper space travel, then doing it, there'll be huge demand.

But social media is a different problem, in that once you've built the underlying tech - not all that difficult these days, as we've seen with recent Twitter clones - it's more like managing a delicate ecosystem and understanding how to manage communities in a way that makes them first desirable to users and then advertisers/sellers.

Which is where the humanities comes in. History, philosophy, literature, and the more thorough branches of cultural and social studies (admittedly there's been some dreck) can give you a far better idea of the human consequences of doing certain things to your online ecosystem than treating everything as a problem that can be 'hardcored' by adding features you can charge for.

What Elon Musk has been successful at is not so much solving engineering problems - but running organisations that can move things up this chart



For example -



A Full Flow Staged Combustion engine (FFSC) was long talked off as the holy grail of liquid rocket engines. Not invented by SpaceX - but they bolted them to a rocket and flew. Also mass produced, like airliner jet engines. TRL1-3 moved to TRL-9

The version above, looks weirdly incomplete, to someone who knows rocket engines. To the point where a respected expert thought the engine was incomplete when the first pictures were shown.

It doesn’t have a tangle of small tube and accessories around the power head (the top bit). They aren’t gone. Instead, using 3D printing, they are buried in the metal of the engine itself.

This was long speculated as an advantage of using 3D printing in metal - easier to cool, protect from vibration damage, protected from the environment around engine. More efficient in many ways, including weight.

Again, SpaceX didn’t invent 3D printing in metal. They didn’t invent 3D printing rocket engine parts. They didn’t invent accessory piping within engine parts - see the Fairy Monarch double engine of 1940.

What they did was to put these ideas together and productionise them. TRL1-3 has become TRL-9

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

LloydBanks said:

EPG said:

MJW said:

If you want an example of how and why the humanities - when taught well - are important and have their place there's a great one in Elon Musk's (Physics and Economics) disastrous running of Twitter.

He's had tremendous success in fields that were essentially about cracking an engineering problem and marketing it. It's undoubtedly true that it takes a degree of genius to spot that if you can solve an engineering problem like getting the performance electric cars in line with ICE ones, or cheaper space travel, then doing it, there'll be huge demand.

But social media is a different problem, in that once you've built the underlying tech - not all that difficult these days, as we've seen with recent Twitter clones - it's more like managing a delicate ecosystem and understanding how to manage communities in a way that makes them first desirable to users and then advertisers/sellers.

Which is where the humanities comes in. History, philosophy, literature, and the more thorough branches of cultural and social studies (admittedly there's been some dreck) can give you a far better idea of the human consequences of doing certain things to your online ecosystem than treating everything as a problem that can be 'hardcored' by adding features you can charge for.

Musk's purchase of Twitter is likely about buying political influence rather than making money from ads or building a pristine managed community for bored journalists.

True, but Twitter only provides political influence if it keeps its users and keeps its advertisers. Musk's cack handed stewardship of the platform is a threat to this, and I agree with the poster quoted that Musk is by nature a sociopath who thinks people make decisions by logic flow

Do you believe having a humanities degree would have made him less of a sociopath?

It's possible that he could have been redirected from being some version of an incel if he had had chance to deal with people, rather than computers ... if that's what happened to him.

Art and similar is known to be effective in some cases for rehabilitation, or education to help in some conditions. I have a young relative who's parents helped considerably by sending him to Stagecoach for a number of years.

Well plenty of humanities style people it hasn't helped, for example hitler dabbled as a painter, johnson was an humanities student, Stalin was training as a priest, mao studies both law and economics, pol pot was in a buddhist monastery studying for a year, napolean read widely in geography , history and literature at the ecole francaise......humanities works out so well

Indeed. That's why we talk about "some" and "possible".

Positing humanities would have helped musk when most of the most vicious dictators in living memory have been humanites type people is a reach

I don't think so.

You seem to be arguing that environment has no effect. I disagree.

Disagree all you like but 100% of the worst people in living memory have been humanities students....sorry doesn't give your argument credence....your argument is based on hopium

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

LloydBanks said:

EPG said:

MJW said:

If you want an example of how and why the humanities - when taught well - are important and have their place there's a great one in Elon Musk's (Physics and Economics) disastrous running of Twitter.

He's had tremendous success in fields that were essentially about cracking an engineering problem and marketing it. It's undoubtedly true that it takes a degree of genius to spot that if you can solve an engineering problem like getting the performance electric cars in line with ICE ones, or cheaper space travel, then doing it, there'll be huge demand.

But social media is a different problem, in that once you've built the underlying tech - not all that difficult these days, as we've seen with recent Twitter clones - it's more like managing a delicate ecosystem and understanding how to manage communities in a way that makes them first desirable to users and then advertisers/sellers.

Which is where the humanities comes in. History, philosophy, literature, and the more thorough branches of cultural and social studies (admittedly there's been some dreck) can give you a far better idea of the human consequences of doing certain things to your online ecosystem than treating everything as a problem that can be 'hardcored' by adding features you can charge for.

Musk's purchase of Twitter is likely about buying political influence rather than making money from ads or building a pristine managed community for bored journalists.

True, but Twitter only provides political influence if it keeps its users and keeps its advertisers. Musk's cack handed stewardship of the platform is a threat to this, and I agree with the poster quoted that Musk is by nature a sociopath who thinks people make decisions by logic flow

Do you believe having a humanities degree would have made him less of a sociopath?

It's possible that he could have been redirected from being some version of an incel if he had had chance to deal with people, rather than computers ... if that's what happened to him.

Art and similar is known to be effective in some cases for rehabilitation, or education to help in some conditions. I have a young relative who's parents helped considerably by sending him to Stagecoach for a number of years.

Well plenty of humanities style people it hasn't helped, for example hitler dabbled as a painter, johnson was an humanities student, Stalin was training as a priest, mao studies both law and economics, pol pot was in a buddhist monastery studying for a year, napolean read widely in geography , history and literature at the ecole francaise......humanities works out so well

Indeed. That's why we talk about "some" and "possible".

Positing humanities would have helped musk when most of the most vicious dictators in living memory have been humanites type people is a reach

I don't think so.

You seem to be arguing that environment has no effect. I disagree.

Disagree all you like but 100% of the worst people in living memory have been humanities students....sorry doesn't give your argument credence....your argument is based on hopium

Hitler was a soldier and artist, Mao was a librarian iirc, Stalin was a priest, Putin has law and economics degrees.

Harold Wilson was a statistician. Thatcher was a chemist.

STEM grads rock. 😎

AP (via Seattle Times) - RFK Jr. shows up too late to testify in court against Democrats’ ballot challenge in Pennsylvania

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. showed up too late to testify Tuesday in a court case in Pennsylvania where Democratic activists are trying to bar him from the ballot for president in the premier battleground state, prompting testy exchanges between the judge and Kennedy’s lawyer.

Lawyers for the two Democratic activists who filed the challenge say Kennedy’s candidacy paperwork states a fake home address — an allegation being aired in other state courts — and falls short of the signature-gathering requirement applied by state law to third-party candidates.

Kennedy showed up an hour and 40 minutes late, blaming a canceled flight from Massachusetts to Harrisburg, and never testified after Commonwealth Court Judge Lori Dumas chose to proceed without him as a witness. . . .

Barnesian said:

Casino_Royale said:

I did Highers and A-levels, including maths, further maths, physics and chemistry.

None were easy. Chemistry was the hardest.

I was the same. I'm very poor at retaining information but very good at retaining knowledge.

So I was/am poor at languages, history, geography, chemistry but excellent at maths and physics.

Information is one-off facts. For example I had to learn by heart από ξηρά και από θάλασσα for my Greek -O Level (though I still remember it because I made such an effort and scrambled a pass). History facts, Geography facts. Chemistry facts. Really difficult to remember. I'm hopeless at remembering faces and names.

Knowledge is re-usable abstractions - principles, models, heuristics, rules, equations. I can remember them and delight in exploiting them.

These days I just Google like a bastich. My entire professional life is built on stealing stuff from smarter people and summarizing it. CoPilot is a godsend, although you do have to check it.

Every aspiring politician should watch these interviews. Every one a masterclass.

Fox News just re-learned why you can’t come for Pete Buttigieg with a gotcha question.

This is incredible to watch.
https://x.com/buttigiegwins/status/1825949321981997297

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

LloydBanks said:

EPG said:

MJW said:

If you want an example of how and why the humanities - when taught well - are important and have their place there's a great one in Elon Musk's (Physics and Economics) disastrous running of Twitter.

He's had tremendous success in fields that were essentially about cracking an engineering problem and marketing it. It's undoubtedly true that it takes a degree of genius to spot that if you can solve an engineering problem like getting the performance electric cars in line with ICE ones, or cheaper space travel, then doing it, there'll be huge demand.

But social media is a different problem, in that once you've built the underlying tech - not all that difficult these days, as we've seen with recent Twitter clones - it's more like managing a delicate ecosystem and understanding how to manage communities in a way that makes them first desirable to users and then advertisers/sellers.

Which is where the humanities comes in. History, philosophy, literature, and the more thorough branches of cultural and social studies (admittedly there's been some dreck) can give you a far better idea of the human consequences of doing certain things to your online ecosystem than treating everything as a problem that can be 'hardcored' by adding features you can charge for.

Musk's purchase of Twitter is likely about buying political influence rather than making money from ads or building a pristine managed community for bored journalists.

True, but Twitter only provides political influence if it keeps its users and keeps its advertisers. Musk's cack handed stewardship of the platform is a threat to this, and I agree with the poster quoted that Musk is by nature a sociopath who thinks people make decisions by logic flow

Do you believe having a humanities degree would have made him less of a sociopath?

It's possible that he could have been redirected from being some version of an incel if he had had chance to deal with people, rather than computers ... if that's what happened to him.

Art and similar is known to be effective in some cases for rehabilitation, or education to help in some conditions. I have a young relative who's parents helped considerably by sending him to Stagecoach for a number of years.

Well plenty of humanities style people it hasn't helped, for example hitler dabbled as a painter, johnson was an humanities student, Stalin was training as a priest, mao studies both law and economics, pol pot was in a buddhist monastery studying for a year, napolean read widely in geography , history and literature at the ecole francaise......humanities works out so well

Indeed. That's why we talk about "some" and "possible".

Positing humanities would have helped musk when most of the most vicious dictators in living memory have been humanites type people is a reach

I don't think so.

You seem to be arguing that environment has no effect. I disagree.

Disagree all you like but 100% of the worst people in living memory have been humanities students....sorry doesn't give your argument credence....your argument is based on hopium

So if ANYONE can cite just ONE of "the worst people in living memory" who was NOT a "humanities student" then your argument is ipso facto WRONG?

ydoethur said:

Mexicanpete said:

williamglenn said:

Stocky said:

Dems are drifting - out to 2.08 (bf). Any ideas what's driving this? Reps 1.92.

End of the honeymoon period for Harris and Walz.

I suspect and hope you are wrong, particularly as we are in the midst of a very positive Dem bunfight. However, perhaps you are right.

williamglenn said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

LloydBanks said:

EPG said:

MJW said:

If you want an example of how and why the humanities - when taught well - are important and have their place there's a great one in Elon Musk's (Physics and Economics) disastrous running of Twitter.

He's had tremendous success in fields that were essentially about cracking an engineering problem and marketing it. It's undoubtedly true that it takes a degree of genius to spot that if you can solve an engineering problem like getting the performance electric cars in line with ICE ones, or cheaper space travel, then doing it, there'll be huge demand.

But social media is a different problem, in that once you've built the underlying tech - not all that difficult these days, as we've seen with recent Twitter clones - it's more like managing a delicate ecosystem and understanding how to manage communities in a way that makes them first desirable to users and then advertisers/sellers.

Which is where the humanities comes in. History, philosophy, literature, and the more thorough branches of cultural and social studies (admittedly there's been some dreck) can give you a far better idea of the human consequences of doing certain things to your online ecosystem than treating everything as a problem that can be 'hardcored' by adding features you can charge for.

Musk's purchase of Twitter is likely about buying political influence rather than making money from ads or building a pristine managed community for bored journalists.

True, but Twitter only provides political influence if it keeps its users and keeps its advertisers. Musk's cack handed stewardship of the platform is a threat to this, and I agree with the poster quoted that Musk is by nature a sociopath who thinks people make decisions by logic flow

Do you believe having a humanities degree would have made him less of a sociopath?

It's possible that he could have been redirected from being some version of an incel if he had had chance to deal with people, rather than computers ... if that's what happened to him.

Art and similar is known to be effective in some cases for rehabilitation, or education to help in some conditions. I have a young relative who's parents helped considerably by sending him to Stagecoach for a number of years.

Well plenty of humanities style people it hasn't helped, for example hitler dabbled as a painter, johnson was an humanities student, Stalin was training as a priest, mao studies both law and economics, pol pot was in a buddhist monastery studying for a year, napolean read widely in geography , history and literature at the ecole francaise......humanities works out so well

Hitler, Johnson, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Napoleon. Spot the odd one out.

I hate difficult multiple choice exam questions when all the answers seem plausible. No, just can't spot the odd one out.

Oh comes on, that's easy.

Pol Pot was the only one who wasn't a creepy sex pest.

What do Pol Pot and Suella Braverman have in common?

SeaShantyIrish2 said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

LloydBanks said:

EPG said:

MJW said:

If you want an example of how and why the humanities - when taught well - are important and have their place there's a great one in Elon Musk's (Physics and Economics) disastrous running of Twitter.

He's had tremendous success in fields that were essentially about cracking an engineering problem and marketing it. It's undoubtedly true that it takes a degree of genius to spot that if you can solve an engineering problem like getting the performance electric cars in line with ICE ones, or cheaper space travel, then doing it, there'll be huge demand.

But social media is a different problem, in that once you've built the underlying tech - not all that difficult these days, as we've seen with recent Twitter clones - it's more like managing a delicate ecosystem and understanding how to manage communities in a way that makes them first desirable to users and then advertisers/sellers.

Which is where the humanities comes in. History, philosophy, literature, and the more thorough branches of cultural and social studies (admittedly there's been some dreck) can give you a far better idea of the human consequences of doing certain things to your online ecosystem than treating everything as a problem that can be 'hardcored' by adding features you can charge for.

Musk's purchase of Twitter is likely about buying political influence rather than making money from ads or building a pristine managed community for bored journalists.

True, but Twitter only provides political influence if it keeps its users and keeps its advertisers. Musk's cack handed stewardship of the platform is a threat to this, and I agree with the poster quoted that Musk is by nature a sociopath who thinks people make decisions by logic flow

Do you believe having a humanities degree would have made him less of a sociopath?

It's possible that he could have been redirected from being some version of an incel if he had had chance to deal with people, rather than computers ... if that's what happened to him.

Art and similar is known to be effective in some cases for rehabilitation, or education to help in some conditions. I have a young relative who's parents helped considerably by sending him to Stagecoach for a number of years.

Well plenty of humanities style people it hasn't helped, for example hitler dabbled as a painter, johnson was an humanities student, Stalin was training as a priest, mao studies both law and economics, pol pot was in a buddhist monastery studying for a year, napolean read widely in geography , history and literature at the ecole francaise......humanities works out so well

Indeed. That's why we talk about "some" and "possible".

Positing humanities would have helped musk when most of the most vicious dictators in living memory have been humanites type people is a reach

I don't think so.

You seem to be arguing that environment has no effect. I disagree.

Disagree all you like but 100% of the worst people in living memory have been humanities students....sorry doesn't give your argument credence....your argument is based on hopium

So if ANYONE can cite just ONE of "the worst people in living memory" who was NOT a "humanities student" then your argument is ipso facto WRONG?

Adam Britton read zoology if that helps.

williamglenn said:

ydoethur said:

Mexicanpete said:

williamglenn said:

Stocky said:

Dems are drifting - out to 2.08 (bf). Any ideas what's driving this? Reps 1.92.

End of the honeymoon period for Harris and Walz.

I suspect and hope you are wrong, particularly as we are in the midst of a very positive Dem bunfight. However, perhaps you are right.

williamglenn said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

LloydBanks said:

EPG said:

MJW said:

If you want an example of how and why the humanities - when taught well - are important and have their place there's a great one in Elon Musk's (Physics and Economics) disastrous running of Twitter.

He's had tremendous success in fields that were essentially about cracking an engineering problem and marketing it. It's undoubtedly true that it takes a degree of genius to spot that if you can solve an engineering problem like getting the performance electric cars in line with ICE ones, or cheaper space travel, then doing it, there'll be huge demand.

But social media is a different problem, in that once you've built the underlying tech - not all that difficult these days, as we've seen with recent Twitter clones - it's more like managing a delicate ecosystem and understanding how to manage communities in a way that makes them first desirable to users and then advertisers/sellers.

Which is where the humanities comes in. History, philosophy, literature, and the more thorough branches of cultural and social studies (admittedly there's been some dreck) can give you a far better idea of the human consequences of doing certain things to your online ecosystem than treating everything as a problem that can be 'hardcored' by adding features you can charge for.

Musk's purchase of Twitter is likely about buying political influence rather than making money from ads or building a pristine managed community for bored journalists.

True, but Twitter only provides political influence if it keeps its users and keeps its advertisers. Musk's cack handed stewardship of the platform is a threat to this, and I agree with the poster quoted that Musk is by nature a sociopath who thinks people make decisions by logic flow

Do you believe having a humanities degree would have made him less of a sociopath?

It's possible that he could have been redirected from being some version of an incel if he had had chance to deal with people, rather than computers ... if that's what happened to him.

Art and similar is known to be effective in some cases for rehabilitation, or education to help in some conditions. I have a young relative who's parents helped considerably by sending him to Stagecoach for a number of years.

Well plenty of humanities style people it hasn't helped, for example hitler dabbled as a painter, johnson was an humanities student, Stalin was training as a priest, mao studies both law and economics, pol pot was in a buddhist monastery studying for a year, napolean read widely in geography , history and literature at the ecole francaise......humanities works out so well

Hitler, Johnson, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Napoleon. Spot the odd one out.

I hate difficult multiple choice exam questions when all the answers seem plausible. No, just can't spot the odd one out.

Oh comes on, that's easy.

Pol Pot was the only one who wasn't a creepy sex pest.

What do Pol Pot and Suella Braverman have in common?

Where does one begin?

viewcode said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

LloydBanks said:

EPG said:

MJW said:

If you want an example of how and why the humanities - when taught well - are important and have their place there's a great one in Elon Musk's (Physics and Economics) disastrous running of Twitter.

He's had tremendous success in fields that were essentially about cracking an engineering problem and marketing it. It's undoubtedly true that it takes a degree of genius to spot that if you can solve an engineering problem like getting the performance electric cars in line with ICE ones, or cheaper space travel, then doing it, there'll be huge demand.

But social media is a different problem, in that once you've built the underlying tech - not all that difficult these days, as we've seen with recent Twitter clones - it's more like managing a delicate ecosystem and understanding how to manage communities in a way that makes them first desirable to users and then advertisers/sellers.

Which is where the humanities comes in. History, philosophy, literature, and the more thorough branches of cultural and social studies (admittedly there's been some dreck) can give you a far better idea of the human consequences of doing certain things to your online ecosystem than treating everything as a problem that can be 'hardcored' by adding features you can charge for.

Musk's purchase of Twitter is likely about buying political influence rather than making money from ads or building a pristine managed community for bored journalists.

True, but Twitter only provides political influence if it keeps its users and keeps its advertisers. Musk's cack handed stewardship of the platform is a threat to this, and I agree with the poster quoted that Musk is by nature a sociopath who thinks people make decisions by logic flow

Do you believe having a humanities degree would have made him less of a sociopath?

It's possible that he could have been redirected from being some version of an incel if he had had chance to deal with people, rather than computers ... if that's what happened to him.

Art and similar is known to be effective in some cases for rehabilitation, or education to help in some conditions. I have a young relative who's parents helped considerably by sending him to Stagecoach for a number of years.

Well plenty of humanities style people it hasn't helped, for example hitler dabbled as a painter, johnson was an humanities student, Stalin was training as a priest, mao studies both law and economics, pol pot was in a buddhist monastery studying for a year, napolean read widely in geography , history and literature at the ecole francaise......humanities works out so well

Indeed. That's why we talk about "some" and "possible".

Positing humanities would have helped musk when most of the most vicious dictators in living memory have been humanites type people is a reach

I don't think so.

You seem to be arguing that environment has no effect. I disagree.

Disagree all you like but 100% of the worst people in living memory have been humanities students....sorry doesn't give your argument credence....your argument is based on hopium

Hitler was a soldier and artist, Mao was a librarian iirc, Stalin was a priest, Putin has law and economics degrees.

Harold Wilson was a statistician. Thatcher was a chemist.

STEM grads rock. 😎

It's probably true that you're less likely to be a demagogue if you're good at maths. That feels right to me as a statement.

williamglenn said:

ydoethur said:

Mexicanpete said:

williamglenn said:

Stocky said:

Dems are drifting - out to 2.08 (bf). Any ideas what's driving this? Reps 1.92.

End of the honeymoon period for Harris and Walz.

I suspect and hope you are wrong, particularly as we are in the midst of a very positive Dem bunfight. However, perhaps you are right.

williamglenn said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

LloydBanks said:

EPG said:

MJW said:

If you want an example of how and why the humanities - when taught well - are important and have their place there's a great one in Elon Musk's (Physics and Economics) disastrous running of Twitter.

He's had tremendous success in fields that were essentially about cracking an engineering problem and marketing it. It's undoubtedly true that it takes a degree of genius to spot that if you can solve an engineering problem like getting the performance electric cars in line with ICE ones, or cheaper space travel, then doing it, there'll be huge demand.

But social media is a different problem, in that once you've built the underlying tech - not all that difficult these days, as we've seen with recent Twitter clones - it's more like managing a delicate ecosystem and understanding how to manage communities in a way that makes them first desirable to users and then advertisers/sellers.

Which is where the humanities comes in. History, philosophy, literature, and the more thorough branches of cultural and social studies (admittedly there's been some dreck) can give you a far better idea of the human consequences of doing certain things to your online ecosystem than treating everything as a problem that can be 'hardcored' by adding features you can charge for.

Musk's purchase of Twitter is likely about buying political influence rather than making money from ads or building a pristine managed community for bored journalists.

True, but Twitter only provides political influence if it keeps its users and keeps its advertisers. Musk's cack handed stewardship of the platform is a threat to this, and I agree with the poster quoted that Musk is by nature a sociopath who thinks people make decisions by logic flow

Do you believe having a humanities degree would have made him less of a sociopath?

It's possible that he could have been redirected from being some version of an incel if he had had chance to deal with people, rather than computers ... if that's what happened to him.

Art and similar is known to be effective in some cases for rehabilitation, or education to help in some conditions. I have a young relative who's parents helped considerably by sending him to Stagecoach for a number of years.

Well plenty of humanities style people it hasn't helped, for example hitler dabbled as a painter, johnson was an humanities student, Stalin was training as a priest, mao studies both law and economics, pol pot was in a buddhist monastery studying for a year, napolean read widely in geography , history and literature at the ecole francaise......humanities works out so well

Hitler, Johnson, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Napoleon. Spot the odd one out.

I hate difficult multiple choice exam questions when all the answers seem plausible. No, just can't spot the odd one out.

Oh comes on, that's easy.

Pol Pot was the only one who wasn't a creepy sex pest.

What do Pol Pot and Suella Braverman have in common?

AI says:

...both Pol Pot and Suella Braverman have been part of discussions related to law enforcement and policing, albeit in very different ways.

Stark_Dawning said:

williamglenn said:

ydoethur said:

Mexicanpete said:

williamglenn said:

Stocky said:

Dems are drifting - out to 2.08 (bf). Any ideas what's driving this? Reps 1.92.

End of the honeymoon period for Harris and Walz.

I suspect and hope you are wrong, particularly as we are in the midst of a very positive Dem bunfight. However, perhaps you are right.

williamglenn said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

LloydBanks said:

EPG said:

MJW said:

If you want an example of how and why the humanities - when taught well - are important and have their place there's a great one in Elon Musk's (Physics and Economics) disastrous running of Twitter.

He's had tremendous success in fields that were essentially about cracking an engineering problem and marketing it. It's undoubtedly true that it takes a degree of genius to spot that if you can solve an engineering problem like getting the performance electric cars in line with ICE ones, or cheaper space travel, then doing it, there'll be huge demand.

But social media is a different problem, in that once you've built the underlying tech - not all that difficult these days, as we've seen with recent Twitter clones - it's more like managing a delicate ecosystem and understanding how to manage communities in a way that makes them first desirable to users and then advertisers/sellers.

Which is where the humanities comes in. History, philosophy, literature, and the more thorough branches of cultural and social studies (admittedly there's been some dreck) can give you a far better idea of the human consequences of doing certain things to your online ecosystem than treating everything as a problem that can be 'hardcored' by adding features you can charge for.

Musk's purchase of Twitter is likely about buying political influence rather than making money from ads or building a pristine managed community for bored journalists.

True, but Twitter only provides political influence if it keeps its users and keeps its advertisers. Musk's cack handed stewardship of the platform is a threat to this, and I agree with the poster quoted that Musk is by nature a sociopath who thinks people make decisions by logic flow

Do you believe having a humanities degree would have made him less of a sociopath?

It's possible that he could have been redirected from being some version of an incel if he had had chance to deal with people, rather than computers ... if that's what happened to him.

Art and similar is known to be effective in some cases for rehabilitation, or education to help in some conditions. I have a young relative who's parents helped considerably by sending him to Stagecoach for a number of years.

Well plenty of humanities style people it hasn't helped, for example hitler dabbled as a painter, johnson was an humanities student, Stalin was training as a priest, mao studies both law and economics, pol pot was in a buddhist monastery studying for a year, napolean read widely in geography , history and literature at the ecole francaise......humanities works out so well

Hitler, Johnson, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Napoleon. Spot the odd one out.

I hate difficult multiple choice exam questions when all the answers seem plausible. No, just can't spot the odd one out.

Oh comes on, that's easy.

Pol Pot was the only one who wasn't a creepy sex pest.

What do Pol Pot and Suella Braverman have in common?

AI says:

...both Pol Pot and Suella Braverman have been part of discussions related to law enforcement and policing, albeit in very different ways.

One was brought to justice and one continues to evade it?

DavidL said:

When I was in 5th year at school (16) I did 6 highers. Most people in my school did 5. I did physics, chemistry and maths, English, Latin and history.

The only reason I could do 6 was because the classics department were willing to fit me in whenever I had a spare period, they were great and Latin was probably my favourite, closely followed by chemistry. It was, I thought at the time and since, a proper rounded education.

Move forward 40 odd years and Advanced highers were the thing. My son did 4, also an unusual thing. They were Maths, statistics, modern studies and economics. He did modern studies from scratch, not having done it at either Nat 5s or Higher but he wanted to show he could do an essay based subject for PPE.

Both of these seem to me to offer a proper mix of both maths and the arts, mine perhaps more than my son's. I completely agree with the thread header that is a good thing.

Modern Studies is a fantastic subject and it's always boggled my mind that there seems to be no equivalent in English schools.

viewcode said:

ydoethur said:

viewcode said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

LloydBanks said:

EPG said:

MJW said:

If you want an example of how and why the humanities - when taught well - are important and have their place there's a great one in Elon Musk's (Physics and Economics) disastrous running of Twitter.

He's had tremendous success in fields that were essentially about cracking an engineering problem and marketing it. It's undoubtedly true that it takes a degree of genius to spot that if you can solve an engineering problem like getting the performance electric cars in line with ICE ones, or cheaper space travel, then doing it, there'll be huge demand.

But social media is a different problem, in that once you've built the underlying tech - not all that difficult these days, as we've seen with recent Twitter clones - it's more like managing a delicate ecosystem and understanding how to manage communities in a way that makes them first desirable to users and then advertisers/sellers.

Which is where the humanities comes in. History, philosophy, literature, and the more thorough branches of cultural and social studies (admittedly there's been some dreck) can give you a far better idea of the human consequences of doing certain things to your online ecosystem than treating everything as a problem that can be 'hardcored' by adding features you can charge for.

Musk's purchase of Twitter is likely about buying political influence rather than making money from ads or building a pristine managed community for bored journalists.

True, but Twitter only provides political influence if it keeps its users and keeps its advertisers. Musk's cack handed stewardship of the platform is a threat to this, and I agree with the poster quoted that Musk is by nature a sociopath who thinks people make decisions by logic flow

Do you believe having a humanities degree would have made him less of a sociopath?

It's possible that he could have been redirected from being some version of an incel if he had had chance to deal with people, rather than computers ... if that's what happened to him.

Art and similar is known to be effective in some cases for rehabilitation, or education to help in some conditions. I have a young relative who's parents helped considerably by sending him to Stagecoach for a number of years.

Well plenty of humanities style people it hasn't helped, for example hitler dabbled as a painter, johnson was an humanities student, Stalin was training as a priest, mao studies both law and economics, pol pot was in a buddhist monastery studying for a year, napolean read widely in geography , history and literature at the ecole francaise......humanities works out so well

Indeed. That's why we talk about "some" and "possible".

Positing humanities would have helped musk when most of the most vicious dictators in living memory have been humanites type people is a reach

I don't think so.

You seem to be arguing that environment has no effect. I disagree.

Disagree all you like but 100% of the worst people in living memory have been humanities students....sorry doesn't give your argument credence....your argument is based on hopium

Hitler was a soldier and artist, Mao was a librarian iirc, Stalin was a priest, Putin has law and economics degrees.

Harold Wilson was a statistician. Thatcher was a chemist.

STEM grads rock. 😎

Mao was a teacher, not a librarian.

Stalin was never a priest although he was educated (as a boy) at a seminary.

Although briefly, and not at the highest level, Mao was indeed a librarian. Not your full ook, more somebody who collected the newspapers, but yes he was.

By that logic, so am I. But I would definitely call myself a teacher, not a librarian.

Tim_in_Ruislip said:

On the talk of civil war: I just don't think it's particularly credible.

Our political system and institutions have been through a period of immense stress over the last decade, at least, and, while painful for everyone, remain intact and are in some ways stronger as a result.

People are critical, and want them improved. They don't want them torn down.

And British people really hate political violence, mobs and vigilantism.

I think Tim Shipman's *out* series of books is likely to pretty much bookend the crisis period.

There are 15million pensioners in the UK. Pensioners aren't revolutionaries. We are not going to have a civil war.

Eabhal said:

I note that a number of solar panels were destroyed by a SC 500 Luftwaffe bomb today in Belfast. Bet you won't find that risk in the cost-benefit analysis for net zero.

Er...were they?

Do you have a link?

williamglenn said:

ydoethur said:

Mexicanpete said:

williamglenn said:

Stocky said:

Dems are drifting - out to 2.08 (bf). Any ideas what's driving this? Reps 1.92.

End of the honeymoon period for Harris and Walz.

I suspect and hope you are wrong, particularly as we are in the midst of a very positive Dem bunfight. However, perhaps you are right.

williamglenn said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

LloydBanks said:

EPG said:

MJW said:

If you want an example of how and why the humanities - when taught well - are important and have their place there's a great one in Elon Musk's (Physics and Economics) disastrous running of Twitter.

He's had tremendous success in fields that were essentially about cracking an engineering problem and marketing it. It's undoubtedly true that it takes a degree of genius to spot that if you can solve an engineering problem like getting the performance electric cars in line with ICE ones, or cheaper space travel, then doing it, there'll be huge demand.

But social media is a different problem, in that once you've built the underlying tech - not all that difficult these days, as we've seen with recent Twitter clones - it's more like managing a delicate ecosystem and understanding how to manage communities in a way that makes them first desirable to users and then advertisers/sellers.

Which is where the humanities comes in. History, philosophy, literature, and the more thorough branches of cultural and social studies (admittedly there's been some dreck) can give you a far better idea of the human consequences of doing certain things to your online ecosystem than treating everything as a problem that can be 'hardcored' by adding features you can charge for.

Musk's purchase of Twitter is likely about buying political influence rather than making money from ads or building a pristine managed community for bored journalists.

True, but Twitter only provides political influence if it keeps its users and keeps its advertisers. Musk's cack handed stewardship of the platform is a threat to this, and I agree with the poster quoted that Musk is by nature a sociopath who thinks people make decisions by logic flow

Do you believe having a humanities degree would have made him less of a sociopath?

It's possible that he could have been redirected from being some version of an incel if he had had chance to deal with people, rather than computers ... if that's what happened to him.

Art and similar is known to be effective in some cases for rehabilitation, or education to help in some conditions. I have a young relative who's parents helped considerably by sending him to Stagecoach for a number of years.

Well plenty of humanities style people it hasn't helped, for example hitler dabbled as a painter, johnson was an humanities student, Stalin was training as a priest, mao studies both law and economics, pol pot was in a buddhist monastery studying for a year, napolean read widely in geography , history and literature at the ecole francaise......humanities works out so well

Hitler, Johnson, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Napoleon. Spot the odd one out.

I hate difficult multiple choice exam questions when all the answers seem plausible. No, just can't spot the odd one out.

Oh comes on, that's easy.

Pol Pot was the only one who wasn't a creepy sex pest.

What do Pol Pot and Suella Braverman have in common?

Both have names that are longer/shorter than the originals: "SueEllen" for Suella, "Pol" for Pol Pot?

Luckyguy1983 said:

viewcode said:

Tim_in_Ruislip said:

On the talk of civil war: I just don't think it's particularly credible.

Our political system and institutions have been through a period of immense stress over the last decade, at least, and, while painful for everyone, remain intact and are in some ways stronger as a result.

People are critical, and want them improved. They don't want them torn down.

And British people really hate political violence, mobs and vigilantism.

I think Tim Shipman's *out* series of books is likely to pretty much bookend the crisis period.

There are 15million pensioners in the UK. Pensioners aren't revolutionaries. We are not going to have a civil war.

The last English civil war didn't really involve the people that much.

A greater percentage of the population of the British Isles died in the Civil War than died in the First World War - 5% in Great Britain, maybe as much as 20% of the population of Ireland. The First World War was 2.6%.

https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/british-civil-wars

You might be thinking of the Wars of the Roses, which with the rather dramatic exceptions of Towton, Barnet and Tewkesbury were much less impactful on the lives of ordinary people.

Pagan2 said:

SeaShantyIrish2 said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

LloydBanks said:

EPG said:

MJW said:

If you want an example of how and why the humanities - when taught well - are important and have their place there's a great one in Elon Musk's (Physics and Economics) disastrous running of Twitter.

He's had tremendous success in fields that were essentially about cracking an engineering problem and marketing it. It's undoubtedly true that it takes a degree of genius to spot that if you can solve an engineering problem like getting the performance electric cars in line with ICE ones, or cheaper space travel, then doing it, there'll be huge demand.

But social media is a different problem, in that once you've built the underlying tech - not all that difficult these days, as we've seen with recent Twitter clones - it's more like managing a delicate ecosystem and understanding how to manage communities in a way that makes them first desirable to users and then advertisers/sellers.

Which is where the humanities comes in. History, philosophy, literature, and the more thorough branches of cultural and social studies (admittedly there's been some dreck) can give you a far better idea of the human consequences of doing certain things to your online ecosystem than treating everything as a problem that can be 'hardcored' by adding features you can charge for.

Musk's purchase of Twitter is likely about buying political influence rather than making money from ads or building a pristine managed community for bored journalists.

True, but Twitter only provides political influence if it keeps its users and keeps its advertisers. Musk's cack handed stewardship of the platform is a threat to this, and I agree with the poster quoted that Musk is by nature a sociopath who thinks people make decisions by logic flow

Do you believe having a humanities degree would have made him less of a sociopath?

It's possible that he could have been redirected from being some version of an incel if he had had chance to deal with people, rather than computers ... if that's what happened to him.

Art and similar is known to be effective in some cases for rehabilitation, or education to help in some conditions. I have a young relative who's parents helped considerably by sending him to Stagecoach for a number of years.

Well plenty of humanities style people it hasn't helped, for example hitler dabbled as a painter, johnson was an humanities student, Stalin was training as a priest, mao studies both law and economics, pol pot was in a buddhist monastery studying for a year, napolean read widely in geography , history and literature at the ecole francaise......humanities works out so well

Indeed. That's why we talk about "some" and "possible".

Positing humanities would have helped musk when most of the most vicious dictators in living memory have been humanites type people is a reach

I don't think so.

You seem to be arguing that environment has no effect. I disagree.

Disagree all you like but 100% of the worst people in living memory have been humanities students....sorry doesn't give your argument credence....your argument is based on hopium

So if ANYONE can cite just ONE of "the worst people in living memory" who was NOT a "humanities student" then your argument is ipso facto WRONG?

I pointed out all the worst people in living memory have been humanites students, mao, hitler,pol pot, stalin....who did I miss out...also pointed out napolean, johnson and bundy....between them all they have been responsible for probably 100 million dead, seems a fairly comprehensive list to me

Napoleon was an artillery man. Definitely a scientist.

ydoethur said:

Pagan2 said:

SeaShantyIrish2 said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

LloydBanks said:

EPG said:

MJW said:

If you want an example of how and why the humanities - when taught well - are important and have their place there's a great one in Elon Musk's (Physics and Economics) disastrous running of Twitter.

He's had tremendous success in fields that were essentially about cracking an engineering problem and marketing it. It's undoubtedly true that it takes a degree of genius to spot that if you can solve an engineering problem like getting the performance electric cars in line with ICE ones, or cheaper space travel, then doing it, there'll be huge demand.

But social media is a different problem, in that once you've built the underlying tech - not all that difficult these days, as we've seen with recent Twitter clones - it's more like managing a delicate ecosystem and understanding how to manage communities in a way that makes them first desirable to users and then advertisers/sellers.

Which is where the humanities comes in. History, philosophy, literature, and the more thorough branches of cultural and social studies (admittedly there's been some dreck) can give you a far better idea of the human consequences of doing certain things to your online ecosystem than treating everything as a problem that can be 'hardcored' by adding features you can charge for.

Musk's purchase of Twitter is likely about buying political influence rather than making money from ads or building a pristine managed community for bored journalists.

True, but Twitter only provides political influence if it keeps its users and keeps its advertisers. Musk's cack handed stewardship of the platform is a threat to this, and I agree with the poster quoted that Musk is by nature a sociopath who thinks people make decisions by logic flow

Do you believe having a humanities degree would have made him less of a sociopath?

It's possible that he could have been redirected from being some version of an incel if he had had chance to deal with people, rather than computers ... if that's what happened to him.

Art and similar is known to be effective in some cases for rehabilitation, or education to help in some conditions. I have a young relative who's parents helped considerably by sending him to Stagecoach for a number of years.

Well plenty of humanities style people it hasn't helped, for example hitler dabbled as a painter, johnson was an humanities student, Stalin was training as a priest, mao studies both law and economics, pol pot was in a buddhist monastery studying for a year, napolean read widely in geography , history and literature at the ecole francaise......humanities works out so well

Indeed. That's why we talk about "some" and "possible".

Positing humanities would have helped musk when most of the most vicious dictators in living memory have been humanites type people is a reach

I don't think so.

You seem to be arguing that environment has no effect. I disagree.

Disagree all you like but 100% of the worst people in living memory have been humanities students....sorry doesn't give your argument credence....your argument is based on hopium

So if ANYONE can cite just ONE of "the worst people in living memory" who was NOT a "humanities student" then your argument is ipso facto WRONG?

I pointed out all the worst people in living memory have been humanites students, mao, hitler,pol pot, stalin....who did I miss out...also pointed out napolean, johnson and bundy....between them all they have been responsible for probably 100 million dead, seems a fairly comprehensive list to me

Napoleon was an artillery man. Definitely a scientist.

At the time of his education? No such thing as a 'scientist', I think? A mathematician or a natural philosopher, perhaps.

Edit: Military academy, tops in maths and good at history (!) and geography.

Not surprising for an artilleryman.

ydoethur said:

Pagan2 said:

SeaShantyIrish2 said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

LloydBanks said:

EPG said:

MJW said:

If you want an example of how and why the humanities - when taught well - are important and have their place there's a great one in Elon Musk's (Physics and Economics) disastrous running of Twitter.

He's had tremendous success in fields that were essentially about cracking an engineering problem and marketing it. It's undoubtedly true that it takes a degree of genius to spot that if you can solve an engineering problem like getting the performance electric cars in line with ICE ones, or cheaper space travel, then doing it, there'll be huge demand.

But social media is a different problem, in that once you've built the underlying tech - not all that difficult these days, as we've seen with recent Twitter clones - it's more like managing a delicate ecosystem and understanding how to manage communities in a way that makes them first desirable to users and then advertisers/sellers.

Which is where the humanities comes in. History, philosophy, literature, and the more thorough branches of cultural and social studies (admittedly there's been some dreck) can give you a far better idea of the human consequences of doing certain things to your online ecosystem than treating everything as a problem that can be 'hardcored' by adding features you can charge for.

Musk's purchase of Twitter is likely about buying political influence rather than making money from ads or building a pristine managed community for bored journalists.

True, but Twitter only provides political influence if it keeps its users and keeps its advertisers. Musk's cack handed stewardship of the platform is a threat to this, and I agree with the poster quoted that Musk is by nature a sociopath who thinks people make decisions by logic flow

Do you believe having a humanities degree would have made him less of a sociopath?

It's possible that he could have been redirected from being some version of an incel if he had had chance to deal with people, rather than computers ... if that's what happened to him.

Art and similar is known to be effective in some cases for rehabilitation, or education to help in some conditions. I have a young relative who's parents helped considerably by sending him to Stagecoach for a number of years.

Well plenty of humanities style people it hasn't helped, for example hitler dabbled as a painter, johnson was an humanities student, Stalin was training as a priest, mao studies both law and economics, pol pot was in a buddhist monastery studying for a year, napolean read widely in geography , history and literature at the ecole francaise......humanities works out so well

Indeed. That's why we talk about "some" and "possible".

Positing humanities would have helped musk when most of the most vicious dictators in living memory have been humanites type people is a reach

I don't think so.

You seem to be arguing that environment has no effect. I disagree.

Disagree all you like but 100% of the worst people in living memory have been humanities students....sorry doesn't give your argument credence....your argument is based on hopium

So if ANYONE can cite just ONE of "the worst people in living memory" who was NOT a "humanities student" then your argument is ipso facto WRONG?

I pointed out all the worst people in living memory have been humanites students, mao, hitler,pol pot, stalin....who did I miss out...also pointed out napolean, johnson and bundy....between them all they have been responsible for probably 100 million dead, seems a fairly comprehensive list to me

Napoleon was an artillery man. Definitely a scientist.

He read geography, history and lit at l'ecole francais...the fact he could do fairly basic maths and artillery is fairly basic maths is beside the point

ydoethur said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

viewcode said:

Tim_in_Ruislip said:

On the talk of civil war: I just don't think it's particularly credible.

Our political system and institutions have been through a period of immense stress over the last decade, at least, and, while painful for everyone, remain intact and are in some ways stronger as a result.

People are critical, and want them improved. They don't want them torn down.

And British people really hate political violence, mobs and vigilantism.

I think Tim Shipman's *out* series of books is likely to pretty much bookend the crisis period.

There are 15million pensioners in the UK. Pensioners aren't revolutionaries. We are not going to have a civil war.

The last English civil war didn't really involve the people that much.

A greater percentage of the population of the British Isles died in the Civil War than died in the First World War - 5% in Great Britain, maybe as much as 20% of the population of Ireland. The First World War was 2.6%.

https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/british-civil-wars

You might be thinking of the Wars of the Roses, which with the rather dramatic exceptions of Towton, Barnet and Tewkesbury were much less impactful on the lives of ordinary people.

Worryingly parochial that source - "British", and "Civil Wars" both highly narrow. The civil wars of Britain and Ireland lasted from 1639 [edit!] to 1746, not 1642 to 1651.

dixiedean said:

Review of Civ 7

https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/aug/20/civilization-7-history-firaxis-games-civilization-6

I liked two and four. Since then they've been pulling away from what I want and seven doesn't look to be reverting.

Eabhal said:

I note that a number of solar panels were destroyed by a SC 500 Luftwaffe bomb today in Belfast. Bet you won't find that risk in the cost-benefit analysis for net zero.

Bloody hell - didn't anyone tell that Junkers Ju 88 crew the war is over?

Trump media stock tanking.

rottenborough said:

Trump media stock tanking.

I am not sure I can take any more good news.

Benpointer said:

Black hole update:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/aug/20/rachel-reeves-planning-to-raise-taxes-and-cut-spending-in-october-budget

Among the changes Reeves is believed to be considering are:

- Raising more money from inheritance tax and capital gains tax.
- Sticking to plans for a 1% increase in public spending even though it would involve cuts for some Whitehall departments.
- Rejecting pressure to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
- Changing the way debt is measured to exclude the Bank of England.

Forgive my ignorance, is that last point the same one that Luckyguy and others have been promoting?

The last point has been debated endlessly for weeks now by various analysts and economists and pol types. It's a pretty dry area of policy and all about technicalities.

Foss said:

dixiedean said:

Review of Civ 7

https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/aug/20/civilization-7-history-firaxis-games-civilization-6

I liked two and four. Since then they've been pulling away from what I want and seven doesn't look to be reverting.

Three was my favourite.

rottenborough said:

Benpointer said:

Black hole update:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/aug/20/rachel-reeves-planning-to-raise-taxes-and-cut-spending-in-october-budget

Among the changes Reeves is believed to be considering are:

- Raising more money from inheritance tax and capital gains tax.
- Sticking to plans for a 1% increase in public spending even though it would involve cuts for some Whitehall departments.
- Rejecting pressure to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
- Changing the way debt is measured to exclude the Bank of England.

Forgive my ignorance, is that last point the same one that Luckyguy and others have been promoting?

"Among the changes Reeves is believed to be considering are:

- Raising more money from inheritance tax and capital gains tax."

The Guardian is saying this is news?? Jeez...

What about a 230,000,000% tax on second homes in Tuscany owned by Guardian columnists?

rottenborough said:

Benpointer said:

Black hole update:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/aug/20/rachel-reeves-planning-to-raise-taxes-and-cut-spending-in-october-budget

Among the changes Reeves is believed to be considering are:

- Raising more money from inheritance tax and capital gains tax.
- Sticking to plans for a 1% increase in public spending even though it would involve cuts for some Whitehall departments.
- Rejecting pressure to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
- Changing the way debt is measured to exclude the Bank of England.

Forgive my ignorance, is that last point the same one that Luckyguy and others have been promoting?

"Among the changes Reeves is believed to be considering are:

- Raising more money from inheritance tax and capital gains tax."

The Guardian is saying this is news?? Jeez...

CGT rates to be same as IT nailed on

Rachel possibly won't increase the ISA limit either!

Yes arts subjects give you good language and communication skills and STEM subjects good logic and reasoning skills. The EBacc the last government introduced also ensures schools which see students get good GCSEs in humanities as well as Maths and the sciences are rewarded

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

LloydBanks said:

EPG said:

MJW said:

If you want an example of how and why the humanities - when taught well - are important and have their place there's a great one in Elon Musk's (Physics and Economics) disastrous running of Twitter.

He's had tremendous success in fields that were essentially about cracking an engineering problem and marketing it. It's undoubtedly true that it takes a degree of genius to spot that if you can solve an engineering problem like getting the performance electric cars in line with ICE ones, or cheaper space travel, then doing it, there'll be huge demand.

But social media is a different problem, in that once you've built the underlying tech - not all that difficult these days, as we've seen with recent Twitter clones - it's more like managing a delicate ecosystem and understanding how to manage communities in a way that makes them first desirable to users and then advertisers/sellers.

Which is where the humanities comes in. History, philosophy, literature, and the more thorough branches of cultural and social studies (admittedly there's been some dreck) can give you a far better idea of the human consequences of doing certain things to your online ecosystem than treating everything as a problem that can be 'hardcored' by adding features you can charge for.

Musk's purchase of Twitter is likely about buying political influence rather than making money from ads or building a pristine managed community for bored journalists.

True, but Twitter only provides political influence if it keeps its users and keeps its advertisers. Musk's cack handed stewardship of the platform is a threat to this, and I agree with the poster quoted that Musk is by nature a sociopath who thinks people make decisions by logic flow

Do you believe having a humanities degree would have made him less of a sociopath?

It's possible that he could have been redirected from being some version of an incel if he had had chance to deal with people, rather than computers ... if that's what happened to him.

Art and similar is known to be effective in some cases for rehabilitation, or education to help in some conditions. I have a young relative who's parents helped considerably by sending him to Stagecoach for a number of years.

Well plenty of humanities style people it hasn't helped, for example hitler dabbled as a painter, johnson was an humanities student, Stalin was training as a priest, mao studies both law and economics, pol pot was in a buddhist monastery studying for a year, napolean read widely in geography , history and literature at the ecole francaise......humanities works out so well

Indeed. That's why we talk about "some" and "possible".

Positing humanities would have helped musk when most of the most vicious dictators in living memory have been humanites type people is a reach

I don't think so.

You seem to be arguing that environment has no effect. I disagree.

Disagree all you like but 100% of the worst people in living memory have been humanities students....sorry doesn't give your argument credence....your argument is based on hopium

Er no. My argument is based on experience and recognising nuance.

You can't argue that everyone is like Hitler, or that your sample of about 6 of "the worst people in history" are a statistically significant representation of humanity.

Anyhoo - I'm not doing logic chopping, so have a good evening .

There’s Mengele, of course.

rottenborough said:

Trump is now fav (just) on BF.

I think that happened as Hillary Clinton was speaking at the DNC. Punters got confused for a second.

viewcode said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

LloydBanks said:

EPG said:

MJW said:

If you want an example of how and why the humanities - when taught well - are important and have their place there's a great one in Elon Musk's (Physics and Economics) disastrous running of Twitter.

He's had tremendous success in fields that were essentially about cracking an engineering problem and marketing it. It's undoubtedly true that it takes a degree of genius to spot that if you can solve an engineering problem like getting the performance electric cars in line with ICE ones, or cheaper space travel, then doing it, there'll be huge demand.

But social media is a different problem, in that once you've built the underlying tech - not all that difficult these days, as we've seen with recent Twitter clones - it's more like managing a delicate ecosystem and understanding how to manage communities in a way that makes them first desirable to users and then advertisers/sellers.

Which is where the humanities comes in. History, philosophy, literature, and the more thorough branches of cultural and social studies (admittedly there's been some dreck) can give you a far better idea of the human consequences of doing certain things to your online ecosystem than treating everything as a problem that can be 'hardcored' by adding features you can charge for.

Musk's purchase of Twitter is likely about buying political influence rather than making money from ads or building a pristine managed community for bored journalists.

True, but Twitter only provides political influence if it keeps its users and keeps its advertisers. Musk's cack handed stewardship of the platform is a threat to this, and I agree with the poster quoted that Musk is by nature a sociopath who thinks people make decisions by logic flow

Do you believe having a humanities degree would have made him less of a sociopath?

It's possible that he could have been redirected from being some version of an incel if he had had chance to deal with people, rather than computers ... if that's what happened to him.

Art and similar is known to be effective in some cases for rehabilitation, or education to help in some conditions. I have a young relative who's parents helped considerably by sending him to Stagecoach for a number of years.

Well plenty of humanities style people it hasn't helped, for example hitler dabbled as a painter, johnson was an humanities student, Stalin was training as a priest, mao studies both law and economics, pol pot was in a buddhist monastery studying for a year, napolean read widely in geography , history and literature at the ecole francaise......humanities works out so well

Indeed. That's why we talk about "some" and "possible".

Positing humanities would have helped musk when most of the most vicious dictators in living memory have been humanites type people is a reach

I don't think so.

You seem to be arguing that environment has no effect. I disagree.

Disagree all you like but 100% of the worst people in living memory have been humanities students....sorry doesn't give your argument credence....your argument is based on hopium

Hitler was a soldier and artist, Mao was a librarian iirc, Stalin was a priest, Putin has law and economics degrees.

Harold Wilson was a statistician. Thatcher was a chemist.

STEM grads rock. 😎

Osama Bin Laden studied civil engineering and computing

HYUFD said:

Benpointer said:

Black hole update:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/aug/20/rachel-reeves-planning-to-raise-taxes-and-cut-spending-in-october-budget

Among the changes Reeves is believed to be considering are:

- Raising more money from inheritance tax and capital gains tax.
- Sticking to plans for a 1% increase in public spending even though it would involve cuts for some Whitehall departments.
- Rejecting pressure to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
- Changing the way debt is measured to exclude the Bank of England.

Forgive my ignorance, is that last point the same one that Luckyguy and others have been promoting?

Yet more Labour tax rises on the way then, especially hitting home owners and their children and entrepreneurs

'Yet more'? Which ones have they introduced so far?

HYUFD said:

Yes arts subjects give you good language and communication skills and STEM subjects good logic and reasoning skills. The EBacc the last government introduced also ensures schools which see students get good GCSEs in humanities as well as Maths and the sciences are rewarded

Not really true. Maths is maths not logic (you can reduce it to logic but it's bloody hard work, see under Peano), physics is about as illogical as it gets, etc. History and languages require at least as much routine logic. Philosophy itself including philosophical logic is regarded as an arts subject.

HYUFD said:

Benpointer said:

Black hole update:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/aug/20/rachel-reeves-planning-to-raise-taxes-and-cut-spending-in-october-budget

Among the changes Reeves is believed to be considering are:

- Raising more money from inheritance tax and capital gains tax.
- Sticking to plans for a 1% increase in public spending even though it would involve cuts for some Whitehall departments.
- Rejecting pressure to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
- Changing the way debt is measured to exclude the Bank of England.

Forgive my ignorance, is that last point the same one that Luckyguy and others have been promoting?

Yet more Labour tax rises on the way then, especially hitting home owners and their children and entrepreneurs

It has been obvious both before the election and after Reeves was going to increase taxes, no doubt causing upset in those who are affected

On another subject 70% in Wales oppose 20mph policy according to YouGov

https://news.sky.com/story/seven-in-10-oppose-default-20mph-speed-limit-in-wales-new-poll-finds-as-welsh-government-vows-to-listen-to-concerns-13200258

Casino_Royale said:

I did Highers and A-levels, including maths, further maths, physics and chemistry.

None were easy. Chemistry was the hardest.

I did maths and the three sciences with a view to studying medicine, after I bombed out in AS year that dream ended (after 5 years of being in an all boys school sixth form was joint with the girls school, unsurprisingly lots of us did quite badly at exams in our first year of A-Levels). I'm quite glad it died though, I can't imagine being a doctor today, I think I'd hate it. Though I am a good analyst so I'd probably do pretty well at diagnosing patients.

I found biology the worst of the four but held onto it because of the 3 day field trip to Swanage joint with girls school. I managed to scrape through with good grades but because I had loads of January resits I didn't get into any medicine courses and had to go for my backup choice of Chemistry.

mercator said:

ydoethur said:

If anyone wants a crazy statistic on Civil Wars v World Wars, how's this for one:

US casualties (dead) WW2: 407,316
Us Casualties (dead) WW1: 116,708
US Casualties (dead) Civil War: 620,000

Even on the most conservative estimate, over 50% of all US military fatalities occurred in the Civil War until the time of Vietnam.

Which is quite a thought.

And that doesn't include civilian casualties in the south especially during Sherman's rampage.

US had a very cheap ww1 vs UK nearly 900,000 and a pretty cheap ww2, about the same as UK but proportionally less. Soviet losses were just awesome. 27 million of which about 10 million military. Stalin was bang on the money about time money and blood.

Stalin also conveniently forgot how much lendlease had gone to the USSR. There were US jeeps at Stalingrad, for instance.

Nigelb said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

MattW said:

Pagan2 said:

LloydBanks said:

EPG said:

MJW said:

If you want an example of how and why the humanities - when taught well - are important and have their place there's a great one in Elon Musk's (Physics and Economics) disastrous running of Twitter.

He's had tremendous success in fields that were essentially about cracking an engineering problem and marketing it. It's undoubtedly true that it takes a degree of genius to spot that if you can solve an engineering problem like getting the performance electric cars in line with ICE ones, or cheaper space travel, then doing it, there'll be huge demand.

But social media is a different problem, in that once you've built the underlying tech - not all that difficult these days, as we've seen with recent Twitter clones - it's more like managing a delicate ecosystem and understanding how to manage communities in a way that makes them first desirable to users and then advertisers/sellers.

Which is where the humanities comes in. History, philosophy, literature, and the more thorough branches of cultural and social studies (admittedly there's been some dreck) can give you a far better idea of the human consequences of doing certain things to your online ecosystem than treating everything as a problem that can be 'hardcored' by adding features you can charge for.

Musk's purchase of Twitter is likely about buying political influence rather than making money from ads or building a pristine managed community for bored journalists.

True, but Twitter only provides political influence if it keeps its users and keeps its advertisers. Musk's cack handed stewardship of the platform is a threat to this, and I agree with the poster quoted that Musk is by nature a sociopath who thinks people make decisions by logic flow

Do you believe having a humanities degree would have made him less of a sociopath?

It's possible that he could have been redirected from being some version of an incel if he had had chance to deal with people, rather than computers ... if that's what happened to him.

Art and similar is known to be effective in some cases for rehabilitation, or education to help in some conditions. I have a young relative who's parents helped considerably by sending him to Stagecoach for a number of years.

Well plenty of humanities style people it hasn't helped, for example hitler dabbled as a painter, johnson was an humanities student, Stalin was training as a priest, mao studies both law and economics, pol pot was in a buddhist monastery studying for a year, napolean read widely in geography , history and literature at the ecole francaise......humanities works out so well

Indeed. That's why we talk about "some" and "possible".

Positing humanities would have helped musk when most of the most vicious dictators in living memory have been humanites type people is a reach

I don't think so.

You seem to be arguing that environment has no effect. I disagree.

Disagree all you like but 100% of the worst people in living memory have been humanities students....sorry doesn't give your argument credence....your argument is based on hopium

Er no. My argument is based on experience and recognising nuance.

You can't argue that everyone is like Hitler, or that your sample of about 6 of "the worst people in history" are a statistically significant representation of humanity.

Anyhoo - I'm not doing logic chopping, so have a good evening .

There’s Mengele, of course.

Shipman another Bad Doctor.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/aug/20/rachel-reeves-planning-to-raise-taxes-and-cut-spending-in-october-budget

Is the "reclassification of BoE debt" in this article the one pushed by John Redwood et al? I had assumed it was nutjob stuff...

Big_G_NorthWales said:

HYUFD said:

Benpointer said:

Black hole update:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/aug/20/rachel-reeves-planning-to-raise-taxes-and-cut-spending-in-october-budget

Among the changes Reeves is believed to be considering are:

- Raising more money from inheritance tax and capital gains tax.
- Sticking to plans for a 1% increase in public spending even though it would involve cuts for some Whitehall departments.
- Rejecting pressure to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
- Changing the way debt is measured to exclude the Bank of England.

Forgive my ignorance, is that last point the same one that Luckyguy and others have been promoting?

Yet more Labour tax rises on the way then, especially hitting home owners and their children and entrepreneurs

It has been obvious both before the election and after Reeves was going to increase taxes, no doubt causing upset in those who are affected

On another subject 70% in Wales oppose 20mph policy according to YouGov

https://news.sky.com/story/seven-in-10-oppose-default-20mph-speed-limit-in-wales-new-poll-finds-as-welsh-government-vows-to-listen-to-concerns-13200258

20MPH

kinabalu said:

rottenborough said:

Trump is now fav (just) on BF.

I think that happened as Hillary Clinton was speaking at the DNC. Punters got confused for a second.

I thought Hillary spoke very well last night, it is a pity she is such a poor campaigner (even though she did win the popular vote) as she would have been a very tough and competent President. Foreign leaders would have respected her even if not always liked her in a way they don't really with Biden and likely won't with Harris and didn't even with Obama by the end of his term despite their mostly warm initial welcome for him and they just mostly see Trump as mad

Anabobazina said:

Four hours ago people were talking about what A-levels they did at school.

Pop back in. They still are.

Bring back Catman Leon. All is forgiven.

I did Chemistry, Physics and Biology. Predicted ABB, but got AAB instead.

rottenborough said:

londonpubman said:

rottenborough said:

Benpointer said:

Black hole update:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/aug/20/rachel-reeves-planning-to-raise-taxes-and-cut-spending-in-october-budget

Among the changes Reeves is believed to be considering are:

- Raising more money from inheritance tax and capital gains tax.
- Sticking to plans for a 1% increase in public spending even though it would involve cuts for some Whitehall departments.
- Rejecting pressure to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
- Changing the way debt is measured to exclude the Bank of England.

Forgive my ignorance, is that last point the same one that Luckyguy and others have been promoting?

"Among the changes Reeves is believed to be considering are:

- Raising more money from inheritance tax and capital gains tax."

The Guardian is saying this is news?? Jeez...

CGT rates to be same as IT nailed on

Rachel possibly won't increase the ISA limit either!

ISA is bloody ridiculous. Far too high an amount per year.

Encourage small amounts of saving by ordinary folks not a vehicle for the rich to escape tax.

The rich will find ways of escaping tax anyway and ultimately in this modern world they can live anywhere and take their taxes with them

Nigelb said:

mercator said:

ydoethur said:

If anyone wants a crazy statistic on Civil Wars v World Wars, how's this for one:

US casualties (dead) WW2: 407,316
Us Casualties (dead) WW1: 116,708
US Casualties (dead) Civil War: 620,000

Even on the most conservative estimate, over 50% of all US military fatalities occurred in the Civil War until the time of Vietnam.

Which is quite a thought.

And that doesn't include civilian casualties in the south especially during Sherman's rampage.

US had a very cheap ww1 vs UK nearly 900,000 and a pretty cheap ww2, about the same as UK but proportionally less. Soviet losses were just awesome. 27 million of which about 10 million military. Stalin was bang on the money about time money and blood.

Apart from helping Hitler start the slaughter in the first place.

I don't think that affects his point