@MoonRabbit I believe it was you that had a theory that Liverpool's second half of the season was going to be much tougher than the first half due to the away fixtures remaining - which didn't make any sense to me as already by that stage Arsenal were the only viable rival and their second half meeting is at Anfield.
With 11 point lead (albeit Arsenal have a game in hand and 11 remaining games I wonder if you still stand by that theory? Especially since interestingly the remaining fixtures not only include hosting Arsenal at Anfield, but 7 of Liverpool's 11 remaining fixtures are at Anfield.
Of course its still "only February" but we're actually only 2 fixtures away from April now.
Takes some very special pleading to say it isn't Liverpool's title.
The interest is only in the half dozen places below them.
Thank fuck the AfD don't look like getting more than 20%. We can just about live with the neo-fascists being supported by only 1 in 5 voters.
And yet the centre left - for so long dominant in Germany - have fallen BEHIND the Far Right
Because this was all being predicted by the polls it seems shrug-worthy. It is not. It is seismic
The Uniparty have won the election.
In German terms the Greens really belong in the centre left too. I’d say they fit the niche that the Lib Dems plus the rural NIMBY greens have in Britain. Plus a touch of idiocy on nuclear power just to pep things up a bit.
I would cross reference as follows:
CDU/CSU: @Big_G_NorthWales and @MarqueeMark plus blue wall former Tory Lib Dems plus some Blairites SPD: @OnlyLivingBoy, some Blairites plus a chunk of Lib Dems Green: @SandyRentool, UK rural Green Party plus some soft left and the greener Lib Dems Linke: @NickPalmer , the nicer Corbynites, and the NUS BSW: @bigjohnowls plus some of our Saturday visitors AfD: Reform plus a bit of EDL FDP: @BartholomewRoberts
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
How about an article about why they named it after the stuff you make plates and cups out of.
Why didn’t they call it “Gold” - is it a sign of a built-in Chinese modesty or was it an early sign that the Chinese recognised that the ordinary cheaper items would be their route to global trade dominance.
I, for one, would like to know.
You do realise it isn't called China in Chinese?
The name China probably came indirectly from the Qin dynasty (the terracotta warriors man). The Mandarin (north Chinese) name for Chinese is Han, the next dynasty, while the same name in Cantonese is Tong, or Tang, a much later dynasty reflecting the later colonisation of south China.
So arguably it was called China in Chinese at one point.
It ought to be called a totalitarian dictatorship in any language.
Thank fuck the AfD don't look like getting more than 20%. We can just about live with the neo-fascists being supported by only 1 in 5 voters.
And yet the centre left - for so long dominant in Germany - have fallen BEHIND the Far Right
Because this was all being predicted by the polls it seems shrug-worthy. It is not. It is seismic
The Uniparty have won the election.
In German terms the Greens really belong in the centre left too. I’d say they fit the niche that the Lib Dems plus the rural NIMBY greens have in Britain. Plus a touch of idiocy on nuclear power just to pep things up a bit.
I would cross reference as follows:
CDU/CSU: @Big_G_NorthWales and @MarqueeMark plus blue wall former Tory Lib Dems plus some Blairites SPD: @OnlyLivingBoy, some Blairites plus a chunk of Lib Dems Green: @SandyRentool, UK rural Green Party plus some soft left and the greener Lib Dems Linke: @NickPalmer , the nicer Corbynites, and the NUS BSW: @bigjohnowls plus some of our Saturday visitors AfD: Reform plus a bit of EDL FDP: @BartholomewRoberts
I don't know where I'd fit into that as a Shire Tory that is fairly right-wing.
While a fusillade of blistering Trump attacks have been launched against other countries – among them places as various as Canada, Denmark, Mexico and Panama – the UK has so far avoided being whacked.
Nobody sentient in Number 10, the Foreign Office or the Ministry of Defence is relaxed now. Not after what has been unleashed over the past 10 days. As a doctrine, “Don’t poke the beast” only worked for so long as the beast chose not to bite off your leg regardless. One question accompanying the prime minister across the Atlantic is how “ballsy” he is prepared to be when he is up close and personal with the US president. Should Trump repeat his smears about Ukraine, the prime minister will have a choice to make. If he responds meekly or mutely, it will be at the great risk of looking pathetically pusillanimous. If he calls it out as a calumny, it will be at the serious peril of making himself the target of the fiery wrath of this thin-skinned and vindictive US president.
I’m told that the prime minister will contend to the president that leaving Europe insecure will undermine the strategic position of the US because it will embolden aggressive moves by China and strengthen Beijing’s ties with Moscow, exactly the opposite of what Washington wants. Sir Keir will also make the case that Europe is now heeding Trump on taking more responsibility for its own security.
Diplomats reckon that there is one approach with the greatest potential to have traction on this occupant of the Oval Office. That is to appeal to his ego and self-interest with the warning that a dirty carve-up of Ukraine on the Kremlin’s terms will project Putin as the apex predator and leave the US president looking like a weak dupe. Kim Darroch, a former UK ambassador to the US, suggests: “If I were Starmer, I would say to Trump that this is your chance for your place in history, the man who brought peace and ended this war. But it has to be a fair deal. If it’s a bad deal, you are not going to get that praise, you are going to get a load of criticism and that will be your record in the history books.”
Vanity is one of the more reliable traits of Donald Trump. Leaning into his narcissism may be undignified, but it may also be essential if Sir Keir is to come home from Washington with anything that he can call a success.
If possible, it would be desirable for Starmer to educate Trump that VAT in the UK is a form of sales tax on all goods, whatever their origin, not a tariff just on imported goods, so does not discriminate against imports from the USA.
The government missed a trick in not sending Mistress Rayner.
The AfD is doubling its vote every five years or so. Ergo they will be the German government by the end of the decade
Their share is far higher in the east and they have little traction in the west. Their ceiling is lower than you might hope
These maps showing a stark divide between East and West are misleading if you interpret them to mean that the AfD has little traction in the West. You can't real 20% nationally without a lot of support in the West and most AfD voters are actually in the former West Germany.
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
Is Taiwan a feint? It will come back into the fold, sometime within the next century.
The real prize is all of Russia's sub-surface wealth east of the Urals, currently defended by three boys with a donkey and a sharp stick.
So KPD v NSDAP rerun to come? Tomorrow not belonging to the yokels on those numbers.
Young voters always vote more left than average and the far right tend to do better amongst young voters and voters of working age than pensioners, the latter have experience, are wary of extremes and have built up more capital
Though the AfD % for first time voters seems to be slightly less than the AfD % overall. Statista has AfD support highest in men 30-59.
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
Is Taiwan a feint? It will come back into the fold, sometime within the next century.
The real prize is all of Russia's sub-surface wealth east of the Urals, currently defended by three boys with a donkey and a sharp stick.
Lab leak. Tits. The prostitute in the hotel turret. Easy.
So Scholz gets the Rishi Sunak treatment, yet another incumbent government getting an historic thrashing. He fully deserves it. Another government with no clear ideas or any kind of vision for the future.
Democracy seems to be a revolving door of throw the bastards out. How long will the public tolerate this state of affairs before the wheels come off? Its not a good state of affairs and it does not bode well.
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
Watch some Chinese movies and say how it shows Hollywood is over or something, people love hearing about Hollywood being over.
The AfD is doubling its vote every five years or so. Ergo they will be the German government by the end of the decade
Their share is far higher in the east and they have little traction in the west. Their ceiling is lower than you might hope
These maps showing a stark divide between East and West are misleading if you interpret them to mean that the AfD has little traction in the West. You can't real 20% nationally without a lot of support in the West and most AfD voters are actually in the former West Germany.
This is for the 2024 European elections but we don’t have the detailed breakdown for today obviously
Looking at the results for eastern and western Germany separately, major differences across almost all parties can be observed. The biggest difference, of 15 percentage points, is seen for the AfD. The party reached 28 per cent in eastern Germany but only 13 per cent in western Germany.
I would argue that 13% is firmly in the “other” camp. “Little traction” may be harsh but certainly “limited traction” is fair.
So KPD v NSDAP rerun to come? Tomorrow not belonging to the yokels on those numbers.
Young voters always vote more left than average and the far right tend to do better amongst young voters and voters of working age than pensioners, the latter have experience, are wary of extremes and have built up more capital
Though the AfD % for first time voters seems to be slightly less than the AfD % overall. Statista has AfD support highest in men 30-59.
The AfD is doubling its vote every five years or so. Ergo they will be the German government by the end of the decade
Their share is far higher in the east and they have little traction in the west. Their ceiling is lower than you might hope
These maps showing a stark divide between East and West are misleading if you interpret them to mean that the AfD has little traction in the West. You can't real 20% nationally without a lot of support in the West and most AfD voters are actually in the former West Germany.
You get a similar effect if you map AfD support by place, though:
Another pattern is also clear across the whole country: the AfD is stronger in remote and rural areas and weaker in urban centres. There is less support in cities such as Berlin, Cologne, Dresden, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich and Stuttgart. Places with more globalised cultures, international business and diverse populations remain comparably resilient to the spread of the far right.
"Free speech no longer exists in the US government. For @theatlantic.com I spoke with 12+ federal workers in 6 agencies who said the Trump administration’s actions have led to pervasive self-censorship, even on issues some view as critical to national security."
A bit of a shite electoral system where the make up of the government depends on whether a fringe party achieved 4.9% or 5% of the vote.
And a combined vote total of 45% resulting in an absolute majority of seats ain't PR as far as I'm concerned.
But still better than FPTP, mind!
Which system is better?
d'Hondt with minimum 8 member constituencies and candidate order determined by party primaries.
But one of your complaints was
"a combined vote total of 45% resulting in an absolute majority of seats ain't PR as far as I'm concerned."
Your system could easily have the same problem, or worse.
But I am not advocating a national PR system, just multi-member local PR.
If we had a fully proportional national list system, I would be comfortable with that, but I am aware that some people value local representation, hence my compromise of constituencies big enough that the result can be fairly represented by who gets elected.
Fine. But you can't really complain about the lack of total proportionality in PR system with a 5% hurdle, if your preferred system also isn't totally proportional. Indeed it has a higher local hurdle.
The hurdle distorts what aims to be a nationally fully proportional system.
While I can understand why the hurdle is there, to keep cranks and extremists out of parliament, it doesn't exactly work when such parties get 20% of the vote, and a relatively mainstream party ends up being excluded.
The hurdle isn't there to keep out cranks and extremists (obviously), it's there to limit the number of different parties in parliament so a stable coalition has better chance of forming.
If it keeps out lots of parties that means it's DOING IT'S JOB.
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
Drop by any famous UK university and ask them.
A distinguished academic at my party last night pointed out that if you look at almost any journal in any area of science you will find it absolutely dominated by Chinese papers published by China based academics. In his view they are now utterly dominant in almost every area of science.
The biggest one is quantum computing. China's investment in that area is 5x that of the US. Whoever breaks that will break encryption and have total access. Its a bit scary.
Blimey, those alt-right Andrew Tate bros were even dumber than I thought with all their 'break free from the matrix' nonsense.
It’s a bizarre take for someone who must surely have the British experience of curry. Which doesn’t generally involve yoga.
It's hilarious enough it could well be parody, I haven't checked, but there's enough genuine woman hating matrix barmy stuff out there that it could be real.
The AfD is doubling its vote every five years or so. Ergo they will be the German government by the end of the decade
Their share is far higher in the east and they have little traction in the west. Their ceiling is lower than you might hope
These maps showing a stark divide between East and West are misleading if you interpret them to mean that the AfD has little traction in the West. You can't real 20% nationally without a lot of support in the West and most AfD voters are actually in the former West Germany.
You get a similar effect if you map AfD support by place, though:
Another pattern is also clear across the whole country: the AfD is stronger in remote and rural areas and weaker in urban centres. There is less support in cities such as Berlin, Cologne, Dresden, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich and Stuttgart. Places with more globalised cultures, international business and diverse populations remain comparably resilient to the spread of the far right.
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
Drop by any famous UK university and ask them.
A distinguished academic at my party last night pointed out that if you look at almost any journal in any area of science you will find it absolutely dominated by Chinese papers published by China based academics. In his view they are now utterly dominant in almost every area of science.
The biggest one is quantum computing. China's investment in that area is 5x that of the US. Whoever breaks that will break encryption and have total access. Its a bit scary.
The AfD is doubling its vote every five years or so. Ergo they will be the German government by the end of the decade
Their share is far higher in the east and they have little traction in the west. Their ceiling is lower than you might hope
These maps showing a stark divide between East and West are misleading if you interpret them to mean that the AfD has little traction in the West. You can't real 20% nationally without a lot of support in the West and most AfD voters are actually in the former West Germany.
You get a similar effect if you map AfD support by place, though:
Another pattern is also clear across the whole country: the AfD is stronger in remote and rural areas and weaker in urban centres. There is less support in cities such as Berlin, Cologne, Dresden, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich and Stuttgart. Places with more globalised cultures, international business and diverse populations remain comparably resilient to the spread of the far right.
So Scholz gets the Rishi Sunak treatment, yet another incumbent government getting an historic thrashing. He fully deserves it. Another government with no clear ideas or any kind of vision for the future.
Democracy seems to be a revolving door of throw the bastards out. How long will the public tolerate this state of affairs before the wheels come off? Its not a good state of affairs and it does not bode well.
Quite happy for the revolving door to continue until at least first Tuesday in November 2028.
Blimey, those alt-right Andrew Tate bros were even dumber than I thought with all their 'break free from the matrix' nonsense.
It’s a bizarre take for someone who must surely have the British experience of curry. Which doesn’t generally involve yoga.
Complete WTF moment reading that.
I love curry and have never associated it with yoga.
Still - if one can fit in a few extra poppadums, another pint, and still be able to find room for the over-ordered vegetables. Well, I'll give yoga a go.
SPD 116 CDU/CSU 211 Greens 98 AfD 142 Left 62 SSW 1
630 seats, so 315ish needed for a majority
SPD+Green+Left = 276 so won't work CDU/CSU + Green = 309 might work CDU/CSU+AfD = 353 so will work, but um... CDU/CSU+SPD = 327, which will work but be hysterical
So there y'go. Musk bought another election. Bad Musk.
The AfD is doubling its vote every five years or so. Ergo they will be the German government by the end of the decade
Their share is far higher in the east and they have little traction in the west. Their ceiling is lower than you might hope
These maps showing a stark divide between East and West are misleading if you interpret them to mean that the AfD has little traction in the West. You can't real 20% nationally without a lot of support in the West and most AfD voters are actually in the former West Germany.
This is for the 2024 European elections but we don’t have the detailed breakdown for today obviously
Looking at the results for eastern and western Germany separately, major differences across almost all parties can be observed. The biggest difference, of 15 percentage points, is seen for the AfD. The party reached 28 per cent in eastern Germany but only 13 per cent in western Germany.
I would argue that 13% is firmly in the “other” camp. “Little traction” may be harsh but certainly “limited traction” is fair.
In that election, their national total was 15.9%, so it just goes to show that their score in West Germany only trails their national score by a few percent.
I’m told that the prime minister will contend to the president that leaving Europe insecure will undermine the strategic position of the US because it will embolden aggressive moves by China and strengthen Beijing’s ties with Moscow, exactly the opposite of what Washington wants. Sir Keir will also make the case that Europe is now heeding Trump on taking more responsibility for its own security.
The problem is that this comes across as patronising. It's not as though this position isn't well-represented within the internal policy debate in the US.
For once I agree with you. Absolutely, flatter the lying sociopath, but it's not likely to work unless it's on his terms. Trump despises Ukraine and Zelenskyy ever since he refused to dig the dirt on Hunter Biden and Trump loves Putin because his money and fifth column activities helped Trump swing it in 2016.
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
How about an article about why they named it after the stuff you make plates and cups out of.
Why didn’t they call it “Gold” - is it a sign of a built-in Chinese modesty or was it an early sign that the Chinese recognised that the ordinary cheaper items would be their route to global trade dominance.
I, for one, would like to know.
You do realise it isn't called China in Chinese?
The name China probably came indirectly from the Qin dynasty (the terracotta warriors man). The Mandarin (north Chinese) name for Chinese is Han, the next dynasty, while the same name in Cantonese is Tong, or Tang, a much later dynasty reflecting the later colonisation of south China.
So arguably it was called China in Chinese at one point.
"China" comes from Sanskrit and predates the Qin dynasty. So probably not.
@MoonRabbit I believe it was you that had a theory that Liverpool's second half of the season was going to be much tougher than the first half due to the away fixtures remaining - which didn't make any sense to me as already by that stage Arsenal were the only viable rival and their second half meeting is at Anfield.
With 11 point lead (albeit Arsenal have a game in hand and 11 remaining games I wonder if you still stand by that theory? Especially since interestingly the remaining fixtures not only include hosting Arsenal at Anfield, but 7 of Liverpool's 11 remaining fixtures are at Anfield.
Of course its still "only February" but we're actually only 2 fixtures away from April now.
Takes some very special pleading to say it isn't Liverpool's title.
The interest is only in the half dozen places below them.
It's unlikely at this point IMHO that AfD will go back under 20%, and it's possible that the next update will see BSW go over 5% and hence get seats. i think the FDP are stepmom'd.
Blimey, those alt-right Andrew Tate bros were even dumber than I thought with all their 'break free from the matrix' nonsense.
It’s a bizarre take for someone who must surely have the British experience of curry. Which doesn’t generally involve yoga.
It's hilarious enough it could well be parody, I haven't checked, but there's enough genuine woman hating matrix barmy stuff out there that it could be real.
Never had Ethiopian food though.
Almost inedibly hot. Served with a type of bread that looks like tripe.
Looks disappointing that the FDP might miss the threshold, not for the first time, but this goes to show why the "wasted vote" concern can be an issue in PR just as much as FPTP.
If I were a German voter I'd want to vote FDP first, but my second concern would be stopping the AfD. And if the FDP might not reach the threshold, then voting CDU/CSU might be the best option to stop the AfD - but then that could help confirm the FDP not hitting the threshold.
So the wasted vote dilemma is definitely still there.
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
Drop by any famous UK university and ask them.
A distinguished academic at my party last night pointed out that if you look at almost any journal in any area of science you will find it absolutely dominated by Chinese papers published by China based academics. In his view they are now utterly dominant in almost every area of science.
The biggest one is quantum computing. China's investment in that area is 5x that of the US. Whoever breaks that will break encryption and have total access. Its a bit scary.
Any ways to develop quantum proof encryption?
Write in lemon juice. Hold paper over candle until visible. Burn the paper and make sure you shred it to ashes.
or
Hold one to one unwired whispered conversation in the middle of a forest. Take no notes.
Tom Harwood @tomhfh Why are more people not talking about Microsoft’s topological superconductor?
They literally created a new state of matter and the news is leading with the anniversary of a war, elections in Germany, and people praying for the pope.
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
Drop by any famous UK university and ask them.
A distinguished academic at my party last night pointed out that if you look at almost any journal in any area of science you will find it absolutely dominated by Chinese papers published by China based academics. In his view they are now utterly dominant in almost every area of science.
The biggest one is quantum computing. China's investment in that area is 5x that of the US. Whoever breaks that will break encryption and have total access. Its a bit scary.
Any ways to develop quantum proof encryption?
IANAE by any means. But each increase in the length of the algorithm increases the possibilities geometrically. I have reservations about brute processing power breaking encryption. Surely you can block anyone who fails a certain number of times? My friend, however, knows vastly more about it than me and he thought it inevitable. He reckoned you need 1m qubits. He estimated that the recent Microsoft Majorana 1 was about 100 although they claim more.
Thank fuck the AfD don't look like getting more than 20%. We can just about live with the neo-fascists being supported by only 1 in 5 voters.
And yet the centre left - for so long dominant in Germany - have fallen BEHIND the Far Right
Because this was all being predicted by the polls it seems shrug-worthy. It is not. It is seismic
The Uniparty have won the election.
In German terms the Greens really belong in the centre left too. I’d say they fit the niche that the Lib Dems plus the rural NIMBY greens have in Britain. Plus a touch of idiocy on nuclear power just to pep things up a bit.
I would cross reference as follows:
CDU/CSU: @Big_G_NorthWales and @MarqueeMark plus blue wall former Tory Lib Dems plus some Blairites SPD: @OnlyLivingBoy, some Blairites plus a chunk of Lib Dems Green: @SandyRentool, UK rural Green Party plus some soft left and the greener Lib Dems Linke: @NickPalmer , the nicer Corbynites, and the NUS BSW: @bigjohnowls plus some of our Saturday visitors AfD: Reform plus a bit of EDL FDP: @BartholomewRoberts
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
Drop by any famous UK university and ask them.
A distinguished academic at my party last night pointed out that if you look at almost any journal in any area of science you will find it absolutely dominated by Chinese papers published by China based academics. In his view they are now utterly dominant in almost every area of science.
The biggest one is quantum computing. China's investment in that area is 5x that of the US. Whoever breaks that will break encryption and have total access. Its a bit scary.
Any ways to develop quantum proof encryption?
Well yes of course. Decryption can never hope to keep up with active encryption.
While a fusillade of blistering Trump attacks have been launched against other countries – among them places as various as Canada, Denmark, Mexico and Panama – the UK has so far avoided being whacked.
Nobody sentient in Number 10, the Foreign Office or the Ministry of Defence is relaxed now. Not after what has been unleashed over the past 10 days. As a doctrine, “Don’t poke the beast” only worked for so long as the beast chose not to bite off your leg regardless. One question accompanying the prime minister across the Atlantic is how “ballsy” he is prepared to be when he is up close and personal with the US president. Should Trump repeat his smears about Ukraine, the prime minister will have a choice to make. If he responds meekly or mutely, it will be at the great risk of looking pathetically pusillanimous. If he calls it out as a calumny, it will be at the serious peril of making himself the target of the fiery wrath of this thin-skinned and vindictive US president.
I’m told that the prime minister will contend to the president that leaving Europe insecure will undermine the strategic position of the US because it will embolden aggressive moves by China and strengthen Beijing’s ties with Moscow, exactly the opposite of what Washington wants. Sir Keir will also make the case that Europe is now heeding Trump on taking more responsibility for its own security.
Diplomats reckon that there is one approach with the greatest potential to have traction on this occupant of the Oval Office. That is to appeal to his ego and self-interest with the warning that a dirty carve-up of Ukraine on the Kremlin’s terms will project Putin as the apex predator and leave the US president looking like a weak dupe. Kim Darroch, a former UK ambassador to the US, suggests: “If I were Starmer, I would say to Trump that this is your chance for your place in history, the man who brought peace and ended this war. But it has to be a fair deal. If it’s a bad deal, you are not going to get that praise, you are going to get a load of criticism and that will be your record in the history books.”
Vanity is one of the more reliable traits of Donald Trump. Leaning into his narcissism may be undignified, but it may also be essential if Sir Keir is to come home from Washington with anything that he can call a success.
If possible, it would be desirable for Starmer to educate Trump that VAT in the UK is a form of sales tax on all goods, whatever their origin, not a tariff just on imported goods, so does not discriminate against imports from the USA.
The crazy thing is that Trump probably knows this, he’s just deluded enough/arrogant enough to think he can make a play to have VAT removed from American goods.
He is that one-eyed that he thinks he can demand this in an American exceptionalism way or just bully the crap out of everyone.
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
Drop by any famous UK university and ask them.
A distinguished academic at my party last night pointed out that if you look at almost any journal in any area of science you will find it absolutely dominated by Chinese papers published by China based academics. In his view they are now utterly dominant in almost every area of science.
The biggest one is quantum computing. China's investment in that area is 5x that of the US. Whoever breaks that will break encryption and have total access. Its a bit scary.
The most fascinating thing to me about China is its demographics. The official projections show an astonishing decline (there is a nice animation on the 'population of China' Wikipedia page.) But even this is almost certainly presenting far too rosy a picture - it's likely that official figures have been inflated for decades. The true figure for the Chinese population c. 2050 is probably about 15.
The second most fascinating thing about China is its property market. Some estimates of the amount of empty housing in China are in the billions of units.
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
Drop by any famous UK university and ask them.
A distinguished academic at my party last night pointed out that if you look at almost any journal in any area of science you will find it absolutely dominated by Chinese papers published by China based academics. In his view they are now utterly dominant in almost every area of science.
The biggest one is quantum computing. China's investment in that area is 5x that of the US. Whoever breaks that will break encryption and have total access. Its a bit scary.
Any ways to develop quantum proof encryption?
Well yes of course. Decryption can never hope to keep up with active encryption.
The next question being can that be done before quantum computing can breach the common encryption methods used today (or has it already been done)? As that feels like the common example use case for quantum computing, but sounds like that won't be the key then.
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
Drop by any famous UK university and ask them.
A distinguished academic at my party last night pointed out that if you look at almost any journal in any area of science you will find it absolutely dominated by Chinese papers published by China based academics. In his view they are now utterly dominant in almost every area of science.
The biggest one is quantum computing. China's investment in that area is 5x that of the US. Whoever breaks that will break encryption and have total access. Its a bit scary.
Any ways to develop quantum proof encryption?
One time pads.
"Codes" are lookup tables ("Olympic" means "Invade japan on the 2nd"). You can't crack them. They encode semantics.
"Ciphers" are algorithms ("A" is changed to "BC", "B" is changed to "R", "C" is changed to "LMD"). You can crack them. They encipher syntax.
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
Drop by any famous UK university and ask them.
A distinguished academic at my party last night pointed out that if you look at almost any journal in any area of science you will find it absolutely dominated by Chinese papers published by China based academics. In his view they are now utterly dominant in almost every area of science.
The biggest one is quantum computing. China's investment in that area is 5x that of the US. Whoever breaks that will break encryption and have total access. Its a bit scary.
The most fascinating thing to me about China is its demographics. The official projections show an astonishing decline (there is a nice animation on the 'population of China' Wikipedia page.) But even this is almost certainly presenting far too rosy a picture - it's likely that official figures have been inflated for decades. The true figure for the Chinese population c. 2050 is probably about 15.
The second most fascinating thing about China is its property market. Some estimates of the amount of empty housing in China are in the billions of units.
Should make housing costs cheap in China then, lowering people's costs.
Blimey, those alt-right Andrew Tate bros were even dumber than I thought with all their 'break free from the matrix' nonsense.
It’s a bizarre take for someone who must surely have the British experience of curry. Which doesn’t generally involve yoga.
It's hilarious enough it could well be parody, I haven't checked, but there's enough genuine woman hating matrix barmy stuff out there that it could be real.
Never had Ethiopian food though.
Almost inedibly hot. Served with a type of bread that looks like tripe.
I am a fan, but it’s a bit of a one trick pony. The Eritreans make a delicious mead, which I was able to sample at a restaurant in Birmingham recently (Eritrean and Ethiopian food is to all intents and purposes identical). My country-collecting friend has just returned from a trip to Eritrea and pronounces Asmara the best capital city in Africa.
Blimey, those alt-right Andrew Tate bros were even dumber than I thought with all their 'break free from the matrix' nonsense.
I’m guessing that one night whilst on the knacker with his mates they swapped his chicken Korma for a chicken phaal and he’s never touched curry again, terrified that not only could he not stomach what he thought was the weakest curry but he ended up anally exploding in some girl’s bed.
We have discovered the nexus between his hatred for curry and his hatred for women - jolly curry house japes.
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
Drop by any famous UK university and ask them.
A distinguished academic at my party last night pointed out that if you look at almost any journal in any area of science you will find it absolutely dominated by Chinese papers published by China based academics. In his view they are now utterly dominant in almost every area of science.
The biggest one is quantum computing. China's investment in that area is 5x that of the US. Whoever breaks that will break encryption and have total access. Its a bit scary.
The most fascinating thing to me about China is its demographics. The official projections show an astonishing decline (there is a nice animation on the 'population of China' Wikipedia page.) But even this is almost certainly presenting far too rosy a picture - it's likely that official figures have been inflated for decades. The true figure for the Chinese population c. 2050 is probably about 15.
The second most fascinating thing about China is its property market. Some estimates of the amount of empty housing in China are in the billions of units.
Any way they could fly a few million of those over here, Xanatos style, to make new towns? Would solve a lot of problems.
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
Drop by any famous UK university and ask them.
A distinguished academic at my party last night pointed out that if you look at almost any journal in any area of science you will find it absolutely dominated by Chinese papers published by China based academics. In his view they are now utterly dominant in almost every area of science.
The biggest one is quantum computing. China's investment in that area is 5x that of the US. Whoever breaks that will break encryption and have total access. Its a bit scary.
The most fascinating thing to me about China is its demographics. The official projections show an astonishing decline (there is a nice animation on the 'population of China' Wikipedia page.) But even this is almost certainly presenting far too rosy a picture - it's likely that official figures have been inflated for decades. The true figure for the Chinese population c. 2050 is probably about 15.
The second most fascinating thing about China is its property market. Some estimates of the amount of empty housing in China are in the billions of units.
No way China’s population falls to 15 people by 2050. More like a dozen, tops
Tom Harwood @tomhfh Why are more people not talking about Microsoft’s topological superconductor?
They literally created a new state of matter and the news is leading with the anniversary of a war, elections in Germany, and people praying for the pope.
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
Drop by any famous UK university and ask them.
A distinguished academic at my party last night pointed out that if you look at almost any journal in any area of science you will find it absolutely dominated by Chinese papers published by China based academics. In his view they are now utterly dominant in almost every area of science.
The biggest one is quantum computing. China's investment in that area is 5x that of the US. Whoever breaks that will break encryption and have total access. Its a bit scary.
The most fascinating thing to me about China is its demographics. The official projections show an astonishing decline (there is a nice animation on the 'population of China' Wikipedia page.) But even this is almost certainly presenting far too rosy a picture - it's likely that official figures have been inflated for decades. The true figure for the Chinese population c. 2050 is probably about 15.
The second most fascinating thing about China is its property market. Some estimates of the amount of empty housing in China are in the billions of units.
Should make housing costs cheap in China then, lowering people's costs.
If only the same were the case here.
Well it's more complicated than that. Housing is an investment vehicle. People club together to buy flats. Flats are sort of used as an alternative currency, like Bitcoin. So prices remain artificially high. At some point, surely, a crash is coming. But it is a wildly, wildly imbalanced market. I have some sympathy with your view that there should be fewer restrictions on housebuilding and that the UK ought to have more empty housing stock. But no sane country should have (far?) more empty housing than occupied housing. This is not the outcome a free market would deliver.
Thank fuck the AfD don't look like getting more than 20%. We can just about live with the neo-fascists being supported by only 1 in 5 voters.
And yet the centre left - for so long dominant in Germany - have fallen BEHIND the Far Right
Because this was all being predicted by the polls it seems shrug-worthy. It is not. It is seismic
The Uniparty have won the election.
In German terms the Greens really belong in the centre left too. I’d say they fit the niche that the Lib Dems plus the rural NIMBY greens have in Britain. Plus a touch of idiocy on nuclear power just to pep things up a bit.
I would cross reference as follows:
CDU/CSU: @Big_G_NorthWales and @MarqueeMark plus blue wall former Tory Lib Dems plus some Blairites SPD: @OnlyLivingBoy, some Blairites plus a chunk of Lib Dems Green: @SandyRentool, UK rural Green Party plus some soft left and the greener Lib Dems Linke: @NickPalmer , the nicer Corbynites, and the NUS BSW: @bigjohnowls plus some of our Saturday visitors AfD: Reform plus a bit of EDL FDP: @BartholomewRoberts
While a fusillade of blistering Trump attacks have been launched against other countries – among them places as various as Canada, Denmark, Mexico and Panama – the UK has so far avoided being whacked.
Nobody sentient in Number 10, the Foreign Office or the Ministry of Defence is relaxed now. Not after what has been unleashed over the past 10 days. As a doctrine, “Don’t poke the beast” only worked for so long as the beast chose not to bite off your leg regardless. One question accompanying the prime minister across the Atlantic is how “ballsy” he is prepared to be when he is up close and personal with the US president. Should Trump repeat his smears about Ukraine, the prime minister will have a choice to make. If he responds meekly or mutely, it will be at the great risk of looking pathetically pusillanimous. If he calls it out as a calumny, it will be at the serious peril of making himself the target of the fiery wrath of this thin-skinned and vindictive US president.
I’m told that the prime minister will contend to the president that leaving Europe insecure will undermine the strategic position of the US because it will embolden aggressive moves by China and strengthen Beijing’s ties with Moscow, exactly the opposite of what Washington wants. Sir Keir will also make the case that Europe is now heeding Trump on taking more responsibility for its own security.
Diplomats reckon that there is one approach with the greatest potential to have traction on this occupant of the Oval Office. That is to appeal to his ego and self-interest with the warning that a dirty carve-up of Ukraine on the Kremlin’s terms will project Putin as the apex predator and leave the US president looking like a weak dupe. Kim Darroch, a former UK ambassador to the US, suggests: “If I were Starmer, I would say to Trump that this is your chance for your place in history, the man who brought peace and ended this war. But it has to be a fair deal. If it’s a bad deal, you are not going to get that praise, you are going to get a load of criticism and that will be your record in the history books.”
Vanity is one of the more reliable traits of Donald Trump. Leaning into his narcissism may be undignified, but it may also be essential if Sir Keir is to come home from Washington with anything that he can call a success.
If possible, it would be desirable for Starmer to educate Trump that VAT in the UK is a form of sales tax on all goods, whatever their origin, not a tariff just on imported goods, so does not discriminate against imports from the USA.
What the PM could (but never will in the real world) do is start referring to Trump’s tariffs as a federal sales tax, including at the joint press conference. He could point to Trump himself saying they were equivalent and get him very mad.
While a fusillade of blistering Trump attacks have been launched against other countries – among them places as various as Canada, Denmark, Mexico and Panama – the UK has so far avoided being whacked.
Nobody sentient in Number 10, the Foreign Office or the Ministry of Defence is relaxed now. Not after what has been unleashed over the past 10 days. As a doctrine, “Don’t poke the beast” only worked for so long as the beast chose not to bite off your leg regardless. One question accompanying the prime minister across the Atlantic is how “ballsy” he is prepared to be when he is up close and personal with the US president. Should Trump repeat his smears about Ukraine, the prime minister will have a choice to make. If he responds meekly or mutely, it will be at the great risk of looking pathetically pusillanimous. If he calls it out as a calumny, it will be at the serious peril of making himself the target of the fiery wrath of this thin-skinned and vindictive US president.
I’m told that the prime minister will contend to the president that leaving Europe insecure will undermine the strategic position of the US because it will embolden aggressive moves by China and strengthen Beijing’s ties with Moscow, exactly the opposite of what Washington wants. Sir Keir will also make the case that Europe is now heeding Trump on taking more responsibility for its own security.
Diplomats reckon that there is one approach with the greatest potential to have traction on this occupant of the Oval Office. That is to appeal to his ego and self-interest with the warning that a dirty carve-up of Ukraine on the Kremlin’s terms will project Putin as the apex predator and leave the US president looking like a weak dupe. Kim Darroch, a former UK ambassador to the US, suggests: “If I were Starmer, I would say to Trump that this is your chance for your place in history, the man who brought peace and ended this war. But it has to be a fair deal. If it’s a bad deal, you are not going to get that praise, you are going to get a load of criticism and that will be your record in the history books.”
Vanity is one of the more reliable traits of Donald Trump. Leaning into his narcissism may be undignified, but it may also be essential if Sir Keir is to come home from Washington with anything that he can call a success.
If possible, it would be desirable for Starmer to educate Trump that VAT in the UK is a form of sales tax on all goods, whatever their origin, not a tariff just on imported goods, so does not discriminate against imports from the USA.
What the PM could (but never will in the real world) do is start referring to Trump’s tariffs as a federal sales tax, including at the joint press conference. He could point to Trump himself saying they were equivalent and get him very mad.
Out-Trump Trump.
Trump doesn't care if people point out, with evidence, he said something, he just denies it anyway. It's very poweful.
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
Drop by any famous UK university and ask them.
A distinguished academic at my party last night pointed out that if you look at almost any journal in any area of science you will find it absolutely dominated by Chinese papers published by China based academics. In his view they are now utterly dominant in almost every area of science.
The biggest one is quantum computing. China's investment in that area is 5x that of the US. Whoever breaks that will break encryption and have total access. Its a bit scary.
The most fascinating thing to me about China is its demographics. The official projections show an astonishing decline (there is a nice animation on the 'population of China' Wikipedia page.) But even this is almost certainly presenting far too rosy a picture - it's likely that official figures have been inflated for decades. The true figure for the Chinese population c. 2050 is probably about 15.
The second most fascinating thing about China is its property market. Some estimates of the amount of empty housing in China are in the billions of units.
Should make housing costs cheap in China then, lowering people's costs.
If only the same were the case here.
The opposite - Chinese houses are much more expensive than the UK.
But I guess the data is harder to verify for China, and the price:income ratio for poorer countries does tend to be higher in general.
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
Drop by any famous UK university and ask them.
A distinguished academic at my party last night pointed out that if you look at almost any journal in any area of science you will find it absolutely dominated by Chinese papers published by China based academics. In his view they are now utterly dominant in almost every area of science.
The biggest one is quantum computing. China's investment in that area is 5x that of the US. Whoever breaks that will break encryption and have total access. Its a bit scary.
The most fascinating thing to me about China is its demographics. The official projections show an astonishing decline (there is a nice animation on the 'population of China' Wikipedia page.) But even this is almost certainly presenting far too rosy a picture - it's likely that official figures have been inflated for decades. The true figure for the Chinese population c. 2050 is probably about 15.
The second most fascinating thing about China is its property market. Some estimates of the amount of empty housing in China are in the billions of units.
Should make housing costs cheap in China then, lowering people's costs.
If only the same were the case here.
Well it's more complicated than that. Housing is an investment vehicle. People club together to buy flats. Flats are sort of used as an alternative currency, like Bitcoin. So prices remain artificially high. At some point, surely, a crash is coming. But it is a wildly, wildly imbalanced market. I have some sympathy with your view that there should be fewer restrictions on housebuilding and that the UK ought to have more empty housing stock. But no sane country should have (far?) more empty housing than occupied housing. This is not the outcome a free market would deliver.
All sane countries should have more empty housing than occupied housing stock.
You can't have fewer housing than occupied housing stock and if you don't have more then there's nowhere for people to move into.
A free market absolutely can and does deliver excess housing and for bloody good reason, empty housing serves a purpose. It means that run-down, badly maintained or overly-expensive housing can be rightly by-passed by building something new instead of getting trapped into being forced into something decrepit, damp-ridden and expensive because there is no alternative.
You need vacant houses just like you need unemployed people for frictional reasons if no other reason. There's a reason we consider ~4% unemployed to be "full employment" and its similar with housing, in most nations over 10% of houses are vacant at any one time, in the UK we're in the horrendous situation of it only being about 1%.
It's been that way for a while. Big acts like Ed Sheeran and Adele (where is she by the way?) masked the decline.
I just haven't heard of these people any more. Which looking at that American thing with the unironic moustache who apparently had the world's biggest hit single last year, doesn't bother me too much.
While a fusillade of blistering Trump attacks have been launched against other countries – among them places as various as Canada, Denmark, Mexico and Panama – the UK has so far avoided being whacked.
Nobody sentient in Number 10, the Foreign Office or the Ministry of Defence is relaxed now. Not after what has been unleashed over the past 10 days. As a doctrine, “Don’t poke the beast” only worked for so long as the beast chose not to bite off your leg regardless. One question accompanying the prime minister across the Atlantic is how “ballsy” he is prepared to be when he is up close and personal with the US president. Should Trump repeat his smears about Ukraine, the prime minister will have a choice to make. If he responds meekly or mutely, it will be at the great risk of looking pathetically pusillanimous. If he calls it out as a calumny, it will be at the serious peril of making himself the target of the fiery wrath of this thin-skinned and vindictive US president.
I’m told that the prime minister will contend to the president that leaving Europe insecure will undermine the strategic position of the US because it will embolden aggressive moves by China and strengthen Beijing’s ties with Moscow, exactly the opposite of what Washington wants. Sir Keir will also make the case that Europe is now heeding Trump on taking more responsibility for its own security.
Diplomats reckon that there is one approach with the greatest potential to have traction on this occupant of the Oval Office. That is to appeal to his ego and self-interest with the warning that a dirty carve-up of Ukraine on the Kremlin’s terms will project Putin as the apex predator and leave the US president looking like a weak dupe. Kim Darroch, a former UK ambassador to the US, suggests: “If I were Starmer, I would say to Trump that this is your chance for your place in history, the man who brought peace and ended this war. But it has to be a fair deal. If it’s a bad deal, you are not going to get that praise, you are going to get a load of criticism and that will be your record in the history books.”
Vanity is one of the more reliable traits of Donald Trump. Leaning into his narcissism may be undignified, but it may also be essential if Sir Keir is to come home from Washington with anything that he can call a success.
If possible, it would be desirable for Starmer to educate Trump that VAT in the UK is a form of sales tax on all goods, whatever their origin, not a tariff just on imported goods, so does not discriminate against imports from the USA.
The crazy thing is that Trump probably knows this, he’s just deluded enough/arrogant enough to think he can make a play to have VAT removed from American goods.
He is that one-eyed that he thinks he can demand this in an American exceptionalism way or just bully the crap out of everyone.
Trying to see it from his perspective, UK companies can reclaim vat on their inputs and American companies can’t. Therefore UK companies are paying less tax. Therefore it’s a subsidy.
Tom Harwood @tomhfh Why are more people not talking about Microsoft’s topological superconductor?
They literally created a new state of matter and the news is leading with the anniversary of a war, elections in Germany, and people praying for the pope.
Tom Harwood @tomhfh Why are more people not talking about Microsoft’s topological superconductor?
They literally created a new state of matter and the news is leading with the anniversary of a war, elections in Germany, and people praying for the pope.
What Microsoft have done/discovered is mindblowing
Add it to THAT technology and… whooooooooh
The fact xAI have surpassed everybody else in 18 months has not got a single mention either, and quietly built absolutely enormous compute capacity (they have more than the 200k GPU cluster they announced).
Much of the Black middle class was built by federal jobs. That may change.
“The federal workforce was a means to help build Black middle class. It hired Black Americans at a higher rate than private employers,” said Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents the Education Department employees.
As a part of his efforts, President Trump is angling to shut down the Department of Education, a move that will have dramatic repercussions around the country. Nearly 30% of Education employees are Black according to a 2024 report by the department
reading a new article from the New York Times today on Jackson County, Fla., in the state's panhandle, which was already struggling in the wake of Hurricane Michael, but which is now also feeling the adverse effects of Trump's government shutdown. The piece included this anecdote:
A few miles away, another prison employee, Crystal Minton, accompanied her fiancé to a friend's house to help clear the remnants of a metal roof mangled by the hurricane. Ms. Minton, a 38-year-old secretary, said she had obtained permission from the warden to put off her Mississippi duty until early February because she is a single mother caring for disabled parents. Her fiancé plans to take vacation days to look after Ms. Minton's 7-year-old twins once she has to go to work.The shutdown on top of the hurricane has caused Ms. Minton to rethink a lot of things."I voted for him, and he's the one who's doing this," she said of Mr. Trump. "I thought he was going to do good things. He's not hurting the people he needs to be hurting."
I've seen plenty of memorable quotes from Trump voters over the last couple of years, but "he's not hurting the people he needs to be hurting" is among the most striking.
Always better to look at the distribution maps, than raw, nationwide percentages.
why? the nationwide percentages of the party vote are what count.
Because a sectional party has a fundamental limit on its success - it’s section.
But that map doesn't tell you very much about how parties are doing in different areas, it only shows the predicted biggest party in each constituency.
And which parties do you mean based on that map? The SPD?
Tom Harwood @tomhfh Why are more people not talking about Microsoft’s topological superconductor?
They literally created a new state of matter and the news is leading with the anniversary of a war, elections in Germany, and people praying for the pope.
Why are more people not talking about this? Try these reasons; they don't know what to say; they don't understand it; more powerful computing doesn't link with getting a GP appointment faster; Trump and friends are staging a coup d'etat and quantum entanglement won't stop them; computing works fast enough for most people most of the time.
But the biggest reason is that science communicators have not mastered the art of science communication; in particular they ignore the most interesting thing Wittgenstein ever said: Everything that can be said can be said clearly.
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
Drop by any famous UK university and ask them.
A distinguished academic at my party last night pointed out that if you look at almost any journal in any area of science you will find it absolutely dominated by Chinese papers published by China based academics. In his view they are now utterly dominant in almost every area of science.
The biggest one is quantum computing. China's investment in that area is 5x that of the US. Whoever breaks that will break encryption and have total access. Its a bit scary.
Any ways to develop quantum proof encryption?
Yes. It's known as PQC (Post-Quantum Cryptography), and apps like iMessage, WhatsApp and Signal already use it.
The main security risk from large quantum computers (number of qubits) is not really against cryptographic systems of the future, or even the present, but those of the past which aren't built from ciphers that use methods like lattice based cryptography. We know the limits of theoretical quantum computers well enough to know how they will fair against existing ciphers, and what classes of problems they will not be much good for.
Cooper goes to a sex club full of beautiful women and signs up, being told they won't stop until he says the safe word which he laughs at as why would he want them to stop? Then as soon as he agrees the girls leave, the club gets transformed into BDSM, the girls are replaced with men, and the safe word is an unintelligible word he can't say so matters get worse.
Tom Harwood @tomhfh Why are more people not talking about Microsoft’s topological superconductor?
They literally created a new state of matter and the news is leading with the anniversary of a war, elections in Germany, and people praying for the pope.
Why are more people not talking about this? Try these reasons; they don't know what to say; they don't understand it; more powerful computing doesn't link with getting a GP appointment faster; Trump and friends are staging a coup d'etat and quantum entanglement won't stop them; computing works fast enough for most people most of the time.
But the biggest reason is that science communicators have not mastered the art of science communication; in particular they ignore the most interesting thing Wittgenstein ever said: Everything that can be said can be said clearly.
Someone could usefully explain it to me. I have absolutely no Scooby about Microsoft's topological semiconductors. It's a bit like what three words. Three words I am aware of but no conceivable meaning.
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
Drop by any famous UK university and ask them.
A distinguished academic at my party last night pointed out that if you look at almost any journal in any area of science you will find it absolutely dominated by Chinese papers published by China based academics. In his view they are now utterly dominant in almost every area of science.
The biggest one is quantum computing. China's investment in that area is 5x that of the US. Whoever breaks that will break encryption and have total access. Its a bit scary.
I don't know if anyone on here is interested, but there is a Stand with Ukraine event tomorrow at 6:30 pm in Trafalgar Square to mark three years since Russia's criminal three day military operation started.
I will certainly make it if I can finish work by then.
Tomorrow I have to write about China for the Knapper’s Gazette
No idea what to say. I might say that young Chinese women have surprisingly big hooters - which they do - but I’m not sure I can maintain that level of sophisticated political analysis over 1200 words
Ideas welcome
Drop by any famous UK university and ask them.
A distinguished academic at my party last night pointed out that if you look at almost any journal in any area of science you will find it absolutely dominated by Chinese papers published by China based academics. In his view they are now utterly dominant in almost every area of science.
The biggest one is quantum computing. China's investment in that area is 5x that of the US. Whoever breaks that will break encryption and have total access. Its a bit scary.
The most fascinating thing to me about China is its demographics. The official projections show an astonishing decline (there is a nice animation on the 'population of China' Wikipedia page.) But even this is almost certainly presenting far too rosy a picture - it's likely that official figures have been inflated for decades. The true figure for the Chinese population c. 2050 is probably about 15.
The second most fascinating thing about China is its property market. Some estimates of the amount of empty housing in China are in the billions of units.
Its property market is a serious risk to world economic stability with the threat of destroying its banking sector and drying up the source of capital for their industry. It is in many ways remarkable that this has not happened already. They really need to demolish entire ghost cities to create any kind of scarcity and property stability.
Off topic, but I'm a mod so I can get away with it:
Groq (not Grok) is absolutely amazing. It's a platform for running opensource LLMs (like LLaMa or DeepSeek), and it runs at 5x the speed of ChatGPT or Grok or Claude. It is absolutely staggering what a difference it makes when replies appear instantly.
If you combine it with Open WebUI, you can hook these models up to the Internet, and have your own personal ChatGPT that is simply better than ChatGPT.
reading a new article from the New York Times today on Jackson County, Fla., in the state's panhandle, which was already struggling in the wake of Hurricane Michael, but which is now also feeling the adverse effects of Trump's government shutdown. The piece included this anecdote:
A few miles away, another prison employee, Crystal Minton, accompanied her fiancé to a friend's house to help clear the remnants of a metal roof mangled by the hurricane. Ms. Minton, a 38-year-old secretary, said she had obtained permission from the warden to put off her Mississippi duty until early February because she is a single mother caring for disabled parents. Her fiancé plans to take vacation days to look after Ms. Minton's 7-year-old twins once she has to go to work.The shutdown on top of the hurricane has caused Ms. Minton to rethink a lot of things."I voted for him, and he's the one who's doing this," she said of Mr. Trump. "I thought he was going to do good things. He's not hurting the people he needs to be hurting."
I've seen plenty of memorable quotes from Trump voters over the last couple of years, but "he's not hurting the people he needs to be hurting" is among the most striking.
Tom Harwood @tomhfh Why are more people not talking about Microsoft’s topological superconductor?
They literally created a new state of matter and the news is leading with the anniversary of a war, elections in Germany, and people praying for the pope.
What Microsoft have done/discovered is mindblowing
Add it to THAT technology and… whooooooooh
The fact xAI have surpassed everybody else in 18 months has not got a single mention either, and quietly built absolutely enormous compute capacity (they have more than the 200k GPU cluster they announced).
You keep saying this but everyone I talk to thinks Anthropic/Open AI have something better. I have no idea personally.
The reality is that Musk and Trump halted the march of the far right.
Reform are very silly to ally with them. I do think this is peak Reform. Many laughed when I called peak Johnson but I was right.
Farage and Reform are continuing to do only little bits of routine rubbish on Twitter/X; this has been the case for several days. They are avoiding the USA Trumpy issues altogether. They are scared, and have a lot to be scared about. SFAICS if USA continues down its present course, Reform are going to have to clearly break with the gangster oligarchy or risk being seen in the same light as NF/BNP/EDL. Which he does not want. Farage wants to be mainstream. But he also wants to be in the playground with the big boys.
The AfD is doubling its vote every five years or so. Ergo they will be the German government by the end of the decade
Their share is far higher in the east and they have little traction in the west. Their ceiling is lower than you might hope
These maps showing a stark divide between East and West are misleading if you interpret them to mean that the AfD has little traction in the West. You can't real 20% nationally without a lot of support in the West and most AfD voters are actually in the former West Germany.
This is for the 2024 European elections but we don’t have the detailed breakdown for today obviously
Looking at the results for eastern and western Germany separately, major differences across almost all parties can be observed. The biggest difference, of 15 percentage points, is seen for the AfD. The party reached 28 per cent in eastern Germany but only 13 per cent in western Germany.
I would argue that 13% is firmly in the “other” camp. “Little traction” may be harsh but certainly “limited traction” is fair.
In that election, their national total was 15.9%, so it just goes to show that their score in West Germany only trails their national score by a few percent.
It shows nothing of the sort; it's simply a result of the fact that the population of West Germany is >4 times the population of East Germany.
Tom Harwood @tomhfh Why are more people not talking about Microsoft’s topological superconductor?
They literally created a new state of matter and the news is leading with the anniversary of a war, elections in Germany, and people praying for the pope.
What Microsoft have done/discovered is mindblowing
Add it to THAT technology and… whooooooooh
The fact xAI have surpassed everybody else in 18 months has not got a single mention either, and quietly built absolutely enormous compute capacity (they have more than the 200k GPU cluster they announced).
You keep saying this but everyone I talk to thinks Anthropic/Open AI have something better. I have no idea personally.
They potentially have something better coming, OpenAI perhaps this week. But the point is the xAI have shown themselves to be yet another very serious player in a very short space of time and built massive compute, so they aren't going away anytime soon. They are no longer the "oh they make the joke LLM for blue tick subs on tw@tter".
Compare to the world's media never shutting up about DeepSeek (which isn't the best model, it was just on par maybe) for a week including them buying the BS backstory.
The reality is that Musk and Trump halted the march of the far right.
Reform are very silly to ally with them. I do think this is peak Reform. Many laughed when I called peak Johnson but I was right.
I think so. But a far right takeover of the world's richest most powerful nation is a stiff price to pay to halt them here.
Yes. But the USA can halt them in their tracks if they act soon. Congress could exert itself and do its job; and millions of ordinary people can take to the streets; and the courts can do their job too. But I don't think they have all that long.
Comments
The interest is only in the half dozen places below them.
The real prize is all of Russia's sub-surface wealth east of the Urals, currently defended by three boys with a donkey and a sharp stick.
Statista has AfD support highest in men 30-59.
Democracy seems to be a revolving door of throw the bastards out. How long will the public tolerate this state of affairs before the wheels come off? Its not a good state of affairs and it does not bode well.
Looking at the results for eastern and western Germany separately, major differences across almost all parties can be observed. The biggest difference, of 15 percentage points, is seen for the AfD. The party reached 28 per cent in eastern Germany but only 13 per cent in western Germany.
I would argue that 13% is firmly in the “other” camp. “Little traction” may be harsh but certainly “limited traction” is fair.
https://www.fes.de/en/sozial-und-trendforschung/european-elections
Another pattern is also clear across the whole country: the AfD is stronger in remote and rural areas and weaker in urban centres. There is less support in cities such as Berlin, Cologne, Dresden, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich and Stuttgart. Places with more globalised cultures, international business and diverse populations remain comparably resilient to the spread of the far right.
https://theconversation.com/these-maps-of-support-for-germanys-far-right-afd-lay-bare-the-depth-of-the-urban-rural-divide-248405
Anyone know enough about German geography to explain the AfD-y patch in the south west?
"Free speech no longer exists in the US government. For @theatlantic.com I spoke with 12+ federal workers in 6 agencies who said the Trump administration’s actions have led to pervasive self-censorship, even on issues some view as critical to national security."
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/02/trump-federal-workers-self-censorship/681781/?gift=lhL3dXSYCcu9vqTqEbg0OHRpPXkuQgOQnL1mzzt3V0k&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
If it keeps out lots of parties that means it's DOING IT'S JOB.
The biggest one is quantum computing. China's investment in that area is 5x that of the US. Whoever breaks that will break encryption and have total access. Its a bit scary.
Never had Ethiopian food though.
I love curry and have never associated it with yoga.
Update at 19:59 German time/18:59 GMT
SPD 16.3%
CDU/CSU 28.6%
Green 12.3%
FDP 4.7%
AFD 20.4%
Left 8.5%
BSW 4.9% <---- Note. Creeping up
Others 4.3%
Source https://www.tagesschau.de/wahl/archiv/2025-02-23-BT-DE/charts/index-content/chart_1846725.shtml
Manually typed, so apologies for any errors
SPD 119
CDU/CSU 209
Green 90
AFD 149
Left 62
SSW 1
630 seats, so 315ish needed for a majority
Source https://www.tagesschau.de/wahl/archiv/2025-02-23-BT-DE/charts/index-content/chart_1846729.shtml
Manually typed, so apologies for any errors
Leader debate with English voiceover
If I were a German voter I'd want to vote FDP first, but my second concern would be stopping the AfD. And if the FDP might not reach the threshold, then voting CDU/CSU might be the best option to stop the AfD - but then that could help confirm the FDP not hitting the threshold.
So the wasted vote dilemma is definitely still there.
or
Hold one to one unwired whispered conversation in the middle of a forest. Take no notes.
Tom Harwood
@tomhfh
Why are more people not talking about Microsoft’s topological superconductor?
They literally created a new state of matter and the news is leading with the anniversary of a war, elections in Germany, and people praying for the pope.
What’s going to matter more on a ten year horizon? Raise your eyes.
https://nitter.poast.org/tomhfh/status/1893642213449511164#m
https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten
He is that one-eyed that he thinks he can demand this in an American exceptionalism way or just bully the crap out of everyone.
The second most fascinating thing about China is its property market. Some estimates of the amount of empty housing in China are in the billions of units.
"Codes" are lookup tables ("Olympic" means "Invade japan on the 2nd"). You can't crack them. They encode semantics.
"Ciphers" are algorithms ("A" is changed to "BC", "B" is changed to "R", "C" is changed to "LMD"). You can crack them. They encipher syntax.
If only the same were the case here.
We have discovered the nexus between his hatred for curry and his hatred for women - jolly curry house japes.
*that one is for @kinabalu who gets a tiny secret thrill in hoping I’m actually a Nazi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrS4PKDln0E (12 mins)
"Neo"
At some point, surely, a crash is coming. But it is a wildly, wildly imbalanced market.
I have some sympathy with your view that there should be fewer restrictions on housebuilding and that the UK ought to have more empty housing stock. But no sane country should have (far?) more empty housing than occupied housing. This is not the outcome a free market would deliver.
Out-Trump Trump.
But I guess the data is harder to verify for China, and the price:income ratio for poorer countries does tend to be higher in general.
You can't have fewer housing than occupied housing stock and if you don't have more then there's nowhere for people to move into.
A free market absolutely can and does deliver excess housing and for bloody good reason, empty housing serves a purpose. It means that run-down, badly maintained or overly-expensive housing can be rightly by-passed by building something new instead of getting trapped into being forced into something decrepit, damp-ridden and expensive because there is no alternative.
You need vacant houses just like you need unemployed people for frictional reasons if no other reason. There's a reason we consider ~4% unemployed to be "full employment" and its similar with housing, in most nations over 10% of houses are vacant at any one time, in the UK we're in the horrendous situation of it only being about 1%.
Sigh.
What Microsoft have done/discovered is mindblowing
Add it to THAT technology and… whooooooooh
Everything he has done to date matches that scenario
Be careful what you get yourself into.
Much of the Black middle class was built by federal jobs. That may change.
“The federal workforce was a means to help build Black middle class. It hired Black Americans at a higher rate than private employers,” said Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents the Education Department employees.
As a part of his efforts, President Trump is angling to shut down the Department of Education, a move that will have dramatic repercussions around the country. Nearly 30% of Education employees are Black according to a 2024 report by the department
reading a new article from the New York Times today on Jackson County, Fla., in the state's panhandle, which was already struggling in the wake of Hurricane Michael, but which is now also feeling the adverse effects of Trump's government shutdown. The piece included this anecdote:
A few miles away, another prison employee, Crystal Minton, accompanied her fiancé to a friend's house to help clear the remnants of a metal roof mangled by the hurricane. Ms. Minton, a 38-year-old secretary, said she had obtained permission from the warden to put off her Mississippi duty until early February because she is a single mother caring for disabled parents. Her fiancé plans to take vacation days to look after Ms. Minton's 7-year-old twins once she has to go to work.The shutdown on top of the hurricane has caused Ms. Minton to rethink a lot of things."I voted for him, and he's the one who's doing this," she said of Mr. Trump. "I thought he was going to do good things. He's not hurting the people he needs to be hurting."
I've seen plenty of memorable quotes from Trump voters over the last couple of years, but "he's not hurting the people he needs to be hurting" is among the most striking.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-voter-hes-not-hurting-the-people-he-needs-be-hurting-msna1181316
"Useful idiot for ..."
Reform are very silly to ally with them. I do think this is peak Reform. Many laughed when I called peak Johnson but I was right.
But that map doesn't tell you very much about how parties are doing in different areas, it only shows the predicted biggest party in each constituency.
And which parties do you mean based on that map? The SPD?
The boys with elbow joint problems.
But the biggest reason is that science communicators have not mastered the art of science communication; in particular they ignore the most interesting thing Wittgenstein ever said: Everything that can be said can be said clearly.
Certainly looks like polling has changed in Canada of late...
The main security risk from large quantum computers (number of qubits) is not really against cryptographic systems of the future, or even the present, but those of the past which aren't built from ciphers that use methods like lattice based cryptography. We know the limits of theoretical quantum computers well enough to know how they will fair against existing ciphers, and what classes of problems they will not be much good for.
Cooper goes to a sex club full of beautiful women and signs up, being told they won't stop until he says the safe word which he laughs at as why would he want them to stop? Then as soon as he agrees the girls leave, the club gets transformed into BDSM, the girls are replaced with men, and the safe word is an unintelligible word he can't say so matters get worse.
I have absolutely no Scooby about Microsoft's topological semiconductors.
It's a bit like what three words. Three words I am aware of but no conceivable meaning.
https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/bollocks.pdf
I will certainly make it if I can finish work by then.
Glory to Ukraine.
THREE YEARS of this shit.
Groq (not Grok) is absolutely amazing. It's a platform for running opensource LLMs (like LLaMa or DeepSeek), and it runs at 5x the speed of ChatGPT or Grok or Claude. It is absolutely staggering what a difference it makes when replies appear instantly.
If you combine it with Open WebUI, you can hook these models up to the Internet, and have your own personal ChatGPT that is simply better than ChatGPT.
I have no idea personally.
Scholz might just have been utterly useless.
Compare to the world's media never shutting up about DeepSeek (which isn't the best model, it was just on par maybe) for a week including them buying the BS backstory.