Actual biologists should corect me if I am wrong, but I think we can be more precise than this: "If you're XY, you're a guy. If you're XX, you're of the fairer sex."
A mammal with one -- or more -- Y chromosomes is male; otherwise they are female.
Swyer syndrome is when a person has XY (male) chromosomes and functional female genitalia (vulva). While XY chromosomes usually result in the development of a penis and scrotum, people with Swyer syndrome develop a vagina, uterus and fallopian tubes.
People with Swyer syndrome don’t have sex glands (ovaries or testicles). Instead, they have functionless scar tissue (called streak gonads). This means they won’t go through puberty unless they have hormone replacement therapy. They also won’t become pregnant naturally but can conceive through egg donation.
Swyer syndrome is a rare condition that affects about 1 in 80,000 births."
Male or female?
And if they use female toilets from birth, but only have the disorder diagnosed later (often when puberty doesn't hit normally) are you really going to banish them from the ladies? When they are pregnant?
This, for me, is the clincher DSD that says we have to have flexibility in the approach and look at each set of cases, rather than trying for absolutely rigid definitials.
WTF, one in 80K , how many will get pregnant and surely the one or two of them can use a disabled toilet, get a grip of yourself and give your head a wobble.
It is one of several such syndromes, for many of which we would probably agree clearly a bloke, clearly a woman and the definition you come up with agrees, so no problem. However, a good few of the syndromes, each with a prevalence that in aggregate ends up a 1 in a few thousand (DSDs overall end up of the order of 1 in 1000 and quite possibly still outnumber the gender reassigned), would give a definition at odds with the natural answer.
All those people competing for disabled loos with the actually disabled, all my tax money going into a higher incidence of disabled loos than needed, all that utterly futile inconvenience, access keys. Just to hold you at a definition.
If you think the a Swyer sufferer can't continue to go into the ordinary ladies for some absolutely incomprehensible reason that I can't for the life of me fathom, it's your head that needs the wobble, Malc.
Mind you I also feel that another load of retelling of HP to be maintained for another decade is a combination of flogging a dead horse and naked greed.
HBO/WB appear to be redoing Potter because they're having trouble coming up with anything new.
I went to see Prometheus on the weekend at the BFI (cos I'm just that posh ) and it occurs to me that it and the first "Fantastic Beasts" movie have the same problem: a show runner with artistic investment in the mythos makes a brave attempt to extend the franchise, partially fails due to artistic limits[1] and audience impatience, gets cold feet, and the next movies return to the same old franchise points. If both had stuck to their guns it may have worked.
[1] Rowling does too many scenes where the characters explain the plot to each other and has lost the knack of casting (holding on to Johnny Depp, for example), Scott can't tell the difference between a good script and a steaming pile of shit.
Prometheus is overhyped rubbish. The bit where they are running away from something rolling towards them, instead of going to the side, which more than a little Tom and Jerry. There were also various other "why the **** would they do that? moments.)
(I hope I've remembered that correctly; I only saw it once, at the cinema...)
I've seen it three or four times now - it's one of my favourite films - but yes, it is totally a load of old tosh, and somebody should have knocked sense into the scriptwriters (of which Damon Lindelof was one?). And yes, it inaugurated the "Prometheus school of running away from things" meme.
Ah, good to see that my memory isn't *that* defective. Me and Mrs J looked at each other at that point and said "WTF!"
Incidentally, I wish more writers of films set in space - particularly modern-day space - would remember the title of Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise's book: "Never Panic Early". Astronauts are trained that when a problem appears, don’t panic but instead calmly work to solve it.
Too many books and films have highly-trained people panic very early. That makes for good drama, but is really unrealistic.
(Incidentally, The Martian, particularly the book, goes a little too far the other way.)
We’re getting Project Hail Mary next year.
I haven't read the PHM book. I quite enjoyed his previous book Artemis, although that won't be made in a film in the current environment, as it has a (shock, horror!) female protagonist. Worse, she is BLACK !!!! How WOKE!!!!
I also enjoyed The Martian book, but got a bit fed up with the "He's fixed the problem! Oh no! There's another peril!" trend through the book. The film thankfully dialled back on that a little, to its benefit, and made the film IMO better than the book. And it's unusual for me to say that.
Artemis was his difficult second album. He tried to prove he could write a black woman and didn't really pull it off, underperforming in sales. PHM was a return to the Martian format of "massive geek overcomes problems thru Science!" and returned to his normal sales levels.
I'd argue that Jazz in Artemis was a much better-written and well-rounded, character than Watney in The Martian. Perhaps because, although we spend a lot of time in their heads, Jazz actually interacts with people.
Yes, but that's not necessarily a good thing. It was more a whodunnit than a "ScienceMan Solves Sequential Problems!", and the latter was his strong point.
I have just been out and come back to find Trump and Blair are to run Gaza
This a bit of extreme news to keep Starmer and his problems off the news tomorrow
Not sure how Labour will receive Blair's part in this if it actually happens
Just bizarre
Blair was the four quarters envoy in mid east for years. He knows this stuff.
Don't knock that aspect of this.
But the plan seems to be predicated on Hamas laying down arms.
LOL
It's a gamble on either Hamas leadership being at the stage of running out of cash/arms, or wanting a safe out to a cushier country for a big sack of hard currency.
An issue with that is Israel's capacity for vengeance. After WW2, Israel (rightly IMO) went after Nazi war criminals, sometimes through kidnapping (Eichmann). Hamas' leadership will know that, and know their big sack of currency may not keep them safe in a decade's time.
I have just been out and come back to find Trump and Blair are to run Gaza
This a bit of extreme news to keep Starmer and his problems off the news tomorrow
Not sure how Labour will receive Blair's part in this if it actually happens
Just bizarre
Blair was the four quarters envoy in mid east for years. He knows this stuff.
Don't knock that aspect of this.
But the plan seems to be predicated on Hamas laying down arms.
LOL
It's a gamble on either Hamas leadership being at the stage of running out of cash/arms, or wanting a safe out to a cushier country for a big sack of hard currency.
Or it's an offer designed to be rejected to provide justification for whatever Israel does next.
Or it's just to boost Trump's ego for a few minutes.
I don't think we should take it entirely seriously as a proposal to end the fighting.
Mind you I also feel that another load of retelling of HP to be maintained for another decade is a combination of flogging a dead horse and naked greed.
HBO/WB appear to be redoing Potter because they're having trouble coming up with anything new.
I went to see Prometheus on the weekend at the BFI (cos I'm just that posh ) and it occurs to me that it and the first "Fantastic Beasts" movie have the same problem: a show runner with artistic investment in the mythos makes a brave attempt to extend the franchise, partially fails due to artistic limits[1] and audience impatience, gets cold feet, and the next movies return to the same old franchise points. If both had stuck to their guns it may have worked.
[1] Rowling does too many scenes where the characters explain the plot to each other and has lost the knack of casting (holding on to Johnny Depp, for example), Scott can't tell the difference between a good script and a steaming pile of shit.
Prometheus is overhyped rubbish. The bit where they are running away from something rolling towards them, instead of going to the side, which more than a little Tom and Jerry. There were also various other "why the **** would they do that? moments.)
(I hope I've remembered that correctly; I only saw it once, at the cinema...)
I've seen it three or four times now - it's one of my favourite films - but yes, it is totally a load of old tosh, and somebody should have knocked sense into the scriptwriters (of which Damon Lindelof was one?). And yes, it inaugurated the "Prometheus school of running away from things" meme.
Prometheus was a classic compared to the absolute rubbish of Alien Covenant. Nothing will ever get close though to Alien and then Aliens .
Alien Earth started well, nailing the atmosphere from the originals, but sadly degenerated into nonsense.
Donald Trump will run Gaza with the assistance of Sir Tony Blair as part of the US president’s 20-point plan to end the war.
Mr Trump will oversee the transitional governance of Gaza as the head of a new body called the Board of Peace, which Sir Tony will also sit on, the White House announced.
“Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people in Gaza,” the plan reads.
Telegraph blog
Trump technocratic ? If it weren't so serious, that would be very funny.
Mind you I also feel that another load of retelling of HP to be maintained for another decade is a combination of flogging a dead horse and naked greed.
HBO/WB appear to be redoing Potter because they're having trouble coming up with anything new.
I went to see Prometheus on the weekend at the BFI (cos I'm just that posh ) and it occurs to me that it and the first "Fantastic Beasts" movie have the same problem: a show runner with artistic investment in the mythos makes a brave attempt to extend the franchise, partially fails due to artistic limits[1] and audience impatience, gets cold feet, and the next movies return to the same old franchise points. If both had stuck to their guns it may have worked.
[1] Rowling does too many scenes where the characters explain the plot to each other and has lost the knack of casting (holding on to Johnny Depp, for example), Scott can't tell the difference between a good script and a steaming pile of shit.
Prometheus is overhyped rubbish. The bit where they are running away from something rolling towards them, instead of going to the side, which more than a little Tom and Jerry. There were also various other "why the **** would they do that? moments.)
(I hope I've remembered that correctly; I only saw it once, at the cinema...)
I've seen it three or four times now - it's one of my favourite films - but yes, it is totally a load of old tosh, and somebody should have knocked sense into the scriptwriters (of which Damon Lindelof was one?). And yes, it inaugurated the "Prometheus school of running away from things" meme.
Prometheus was a classic compared to the absolute rubbish of Alien Covenant. Nothing will ever get close though to Alien and then Aliens .
Alien Earth started well, nailing the atmosphere from the originals, but sadly degenerated into nonsense.
I actually liked it, and the ending. Problem is, nobody else did
Mind you I also feel that another load of retelling of HP to be maintained for another decade is a combination of flogging a dead horse and naked greed.
HBO/WB appear to be redoing Potter because they're having trouble coming up with anything new.
I went to see Prometheus on the weekend at the BFI (cos I'm just that posh ) and it occurs to me that it and the first "Fantastic Beasts" movie have the same problem: a show runner with artistic investment in the mythos makes a brave attempt to extend the franchise, partially fails due to artistic limits[1] and audience impatience, gets cold feet, and the next movies return to the same old franchise points. If both had stuck to their guns it may have worked.
[1] Rowling does too many scenes where the characters explain the plot to each other and has lost the knack of casting (holding on to Johnny Depp, for example), Scott can't tell the difference between a good script and a steaming pile of shit.
Prometheus is overhyped rubbish. The bit where they are running away from something rolling towards them, instead of going to the side, which more than a little Tom and Jerry. There were also various other "why the **** would they do that? moments.)
(I hope I've remembered that correctly; I only saw it once, at the cinema...)
I've seen it three or four times now - it's one of my favourite films - but yes, it is totally a load of old tosh, and somebody should have knocked sense into the scriptwriters (of which Damon Lindelof was one?). And yes, it inaugurated the "Prometheus school of running away from things" meme.
Ah, good to see that my memory isn't *that* defective. Me and Mrs J looked at each other at that point and said "WTF!"
Incidentally, I wish more writers of films set in space - particularly modern-day space - would remember the title of Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise's book: "Never Panic Early". Astronauts are trained that when a problem appears, don’t panic but instead calmly work to solve it.
Too many books and films have highly-trained people panic very early. That makes for good drama, but is really unrealistic.
(Incidentally, The Martian, particularly the book, goes a little too far the other way.)
We’re getting Project Hail Mary next year.
I haven't read the PHM book. I quite enjoyed his previous book Artemis, although that won't be made in a film in the current environment, as it has a (shock, horror!) female protagonist. Worse, she is BLACK !!!! How WOKE!!!!
I also enjoyed The Martian book, but got a bit fed up with the "He's fixed the problem! Oh no! There's another peril!" trend through the book. The film thankfully dialled back on that a little, to its benefit, and made the film IMO better than the book. And it's unusual for me to say that.
Artemis was his difficult second album. He tried to prove he could write a black woman and didn't really pull it off, underperforming in sales. PHM was a return to the Martian format of "massive geek overcomes problems thru Science!" and returned to his normal sales levels.
I'd argue that Jazz in Artemis was a much better-written and well-rounded, character than Watney in The Martian. Perhaps because, although we spend a lot of time in their heads, Jazz actually interacts with people.
Yes, but that's not necessarily a good thing. It was more a whodunnit than a "ScienceMan Solves Sequential Problems!", and the latter was his strong point.
Well, it was the strong point in his first book, and his failure to expand on that shows he only has one trick.
The problem with Watney was that he was bland. Yes, I wanted him to survive, as I'd want anyone to survive in that situation. But there wasn't any depth to his character, or indeed much characterisation. *Why* did I want him to survive, aside from the fact he was a human being?
If you saw a person with complete AIS in the street -- or even in a shower -- you would say "that's a woman". If a geneticist did a test, they would say "that's a man". And, if a technician did a scan, they would call everyone near them over to look at this individual with internal testes -- and an external vulva.
(As a practical matter, I would say we should treat such individuals with sympathy and - except for athletic competitions - as women.)
I see no way a person without ovaries can become a biological mother -- and I have long been curious as to whether they could, with some surgical help, and a partner, become a father.
Donald Trump will run Gaza with the assistance of Sir Tony Blair as part of the US president’s 20-point plan to end the war.
Mr Trump will oversee the transitional governance of Gaza as the head of a new body called the Board of Peace, which Sir Tony will also sit on, the White House announced.
“Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people in Gaza,” the plan reads.
Telegraph blog
Trump technocratic ? If it weren't so serious, that would be very funny.
Body of Peace Artists.
Eight wars resolved in as many months. If Trump can persuade Zelensky to concede that'll be nine.
I have just been out and come back to find Trump and Blair are to run Gaza
This a bit of extreme news to keep Starmer and his problems off the news tomorrow
Not sure how Labour will receive Blair's part in this if it actually happens
Just bizarre
Blair was the four quarters envoy in mid east for years. He knows this stuff.
Don't knock that aspect of this.
But the plan seems to be predicated on Hamas laying down arms.
LOL
It's a gamble on either Hamas leadership being at the stage of running out of cash/arms, or wanting a safe out to a cushier country for a big sack of hard currency.
Or it's an offer designed to be rejected to provide justification for whatever Israel does next.
Or it's just to boost Trump's ego for a few minutes.
I don't think we should take it entirely seriously as a proposal to end the fighting.
It does seem like an 'I tried...' manoeuvre, then supply Bibi with a huge amount of resources to carry on.
Hamas must realise they're not dealing with Biden now, Trump is actually mental, so he won't have any qualms about finishing the elimination of the entire population so he can turn it into the ME answer to Vegas.
Ukraine will receive Swedish Gripen fighter jets, as well as additional F-16s and French Mirages, — Deputy Defense Minister Havrylyuk said in an interview with the BBC. https://x.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1972670697001324661
If you saw a person with complete AIS in the street -- or even in a shower -- you would say "that's a woman". If a geneticist did a test, they would say "that's a man". And, if a technician did a scan, they would call everyone near them over to look at this individual with internal testes -- and an external vulva.
(As a practical matter, I would say we should treat such individuals with sympathy and - except for athletic competitions - as women.)
I see no way a person without ovaries can become a biological mother -- and I have long been curious as to whether they could, with some surgical help, and a partner, become a father.
The only thing that makes me hopeful is that Trump is clearly eaten up by the fact that Obama has a Nobel Peace Prize. He must wake up in the night thinking about this.
So he will make efforts to end Israel/Gaza and Russia/Ukraine on the off chance that he might get two Nobel Prizes.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Fox: "We're announcing today expanded programs to help the American coal industry. We're helping it because for years it has been under assault. It was out of fashion with the chardonnay set in San Francisco, Boulder, Colorado, and New York City ... coal just makes the world go round." https://x.com/atrupar/status/1972640578027352329
I don’t think that wars of conquest have been cost-effective, for a very long time now.
Plunder economics provides a one-off gain, and that’s it. Trading with other nations provides a recurring gain.
If you want valuable natural resources, it’s generally cheaper to buy them from local elites, rather than an occupy a country, recruit an army of occupation, and fight insurgents.
If you saw a person with complete AIS in the street -- or even in a shower -- you would say "that's a woman". If a geneticist did a test, they would say "that's a man". And, if a technician did a scan, they would call everyone near them over to look at this individual with internal testes -- and an external vulva.
(As a practical matter, I would say we should treat such individuals with sympathy and - except for athletic competitions - as women.)
I see no way a person without ovaries can become a biological mother -- and I have long been curious as to whether they could, with some surgical help, and a partner, become a father.
So King Andy has thrown the towel in, and the Home Secretary has announced a policy that Keir Starmer said was racist at ten past nine yesterday morning. All going brilliantly, isn't it?
Maybe the home secretary should take over as prime minister.
If you saw a person with complete AIS in the street -- or even in a shower -- you would say "that's a woman". If a geneticist did a test, they would say "that's a man". And, if a technician did a scan, they would call everyone near them over to look at this individual with internal testes -- and an external vulva.
(As a practical matter, I would say we should treat such individuals with sympathy and - except for athletic competitions - as women.)
I see no way a person without ovaries can become a biological mother -- and I have long been curious as to whether they could, with some surgical help, and a partner, become a father.
Castor Semenya is twice a father. Allegedly.
I doubt it. Apart from having female external genitalia she has vestigial internal testes, and internal testes are too warm to produce sperm.
There are many intersex conditions, but they are not really relevant to discussing Trans and gender misalignment, which is a state of mind rather than a physical issue, though its treatment can be physical.
Of course it would be convenient to some if gender misalignment didn't exist, but it does.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Fox: "We're announcing today expanded programs to help the American coal industry. We're helping it because for years it has been under assault. It was out of fashion with the chardonnay set in San Francisco, Boulder, Colorado, and New York City ... coal just makes the world go round." https://x.com/atrupar/status/1972640578027352329
Isn't Nigel (no not you) going to re-open all the Welsh Superpits closed and flooded since 1990?
Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Fox: "We're announcing today expanded programs to help the American coal industry. We're helping it because for years it has been under assault. It was out of fashion with the chardonnay set in San Francisco, Boulder, Colorado, and New York City ... coal just makes the world go round." https://x.com/atrupar/status/1972640578027352329
Coal is dead in the UK for *power generation*. Its corpse should be cemented over and "Here be dragons!" signs planted atop. Which would be fitting, given the number of people who have died from the consequent pollution.
That does not mean coal does not have other marginal uses; but for power generation it should remain dead.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Fox: "We're announcing today expanded programs to help the American coal industry. We're helping it because for years it has been under assault. It was out of fashion with the chardonnay set in San Francisco, Boulder, Colorado, and New York City ... coal just makes the world go round." https://x.com/atrupar/status/1972640578027352329
Coal is dead in the UK for *power generation*. Its corpse should be cemented over and "Here be dragons!" signs planted atop. Which would be fitting, given the number of people who have died from the consequent pollution.
That does not mean coal does not have other marginal uses; but for power generation it should remain dead.
The word 'program' does not warm my heart in the least.
In what seems like the most well trodden path for lefties who start to think for themselves, Emma Watson is getting absolutely blasted on bluecry by the "tolerant" and "open minded" people of the left. Being compared to Hitler, death threats, being called a fascist all because she decided that people are free to have their own opinions.
That audience she sucked up to and cultivated by shitting all over JK Rowling has turned on her and you just love to see it. A taste of what she has been doing to people who she disagreed with for the last decade.
Watson did not "shit all over" J K Rowling. She politely expressed a different view, and one which stupid people then said: "How DARE she disagree with someone who had something to do with her employment 20 years ago!!!! She OWES J K Rowling!!!"
You can easily see it the other way from the way you put it, and that Watson decided to have her own opinions, and was shouted down by Rowling and others. I find it hard to see how you can say what Watson said recently was anything other than polite and considerate, and that Rowling's response was plain nasty.
You're literally rewriting history. For a decade the left have been trying to cancel JKR, attempted to boycott her books, games and other media she's been responsible for, it was people like Watson who were revving those people up by denouncing Rowling. Now you're saying that it was Watson and Radcliffe being cancelled? Pull the other one. What's changed is that the left lost the argument on crossdressers and transvestites pretending to be women, that has been the turning point for the return of sanity and why it seems Watson has repented from those attempts to cancel JKR.
As I said, I've got a wife and two daughters who don't have the same megaphone that JKR does to stand up to the TRA bullies, I will always be thankful that she used her voice to protect women's spaces. She deserves an apology from Watson and Radcliffe and I do hope that they begin to see after this backlash against Watson exactly what it is they encouraged and helped create with their denouncements of JKR.
I've never really got this narrative about toilets etc. Surely now trans men will have to use women's toilets. What's a woman supposed to do if she finds a person who looks like a man in the toilet? Demand that they drop their trousers to check if they are a trans man or a biological man? What's a trans man supposed to do when they are confronted or threatened every time they use a women's toilet? How will any of this make women feel any safer? How will trans women be kept safe in men's toilets? How is any of this anything other than a sideshow when most violence against women and girls is carried out by cis men and usually by someone they know?
It's about power and violence, sexual or physical. Pretending trans man and trans women are the same thing is unhelpful.
The law says go by biological sex so they are the same thing. Trans men must use women's toilets just as trans women must use men's toilets.
So King Andy has thrown the towel in, and the Home Secretary has announced a policy that Keir Starmer said was racist at ten past nine yesterday morning. All going brilliantly, isn't it?
Maybe the home secretary should take over as prime minister.
Give it a couple of years, and that may be the plan. Think of the boats as her Arthurian trial.
I suspect that Labour- and the country- could do a lot worse.
In what seems like the most well trodden path for lefties who start to think for themselves, Emma Watson is getting absolutely blasted on bluecry by the "tolerant" and "open minded" people of the left. Being compared to Hitler, death threats, being called a fascist all because she decided that people are free to have their own opinions.
That audience she sucked up to and cultivated by shitting all over JK Rowling has turned on her and you just love to see it. A taste of what she has been doing to people who she disagreed with for the last decade.
Watson did not "shit all over" J K Rowling. She politely expressed a different view, and one which stupid people then said: "How DARE she disagree with someone who had something to do with her employment 20 years ago!!!! She OWES J K Rowling!!!"
You can easily see it the other way from the way you put it, and that Watson decided to have her own opinions, and was shouted down by Rowling and others. I find it hard to see how you can say what Watson said recently was anything other than polite and considerate, and that Rowling's response was plain nasty.
You're literally rewriting history. For a decade the left have been trying to cancel JKR, attempted to boycott her books, games and other media she's been responsible for, it was people like Watson who were revving those people up by denouncing Rowling. Now you're saying that it was Watson and Radcliffe being cancelled? Pull the other one. What's changed is that the left lost the argument on crossdressers and transvestites pretending to be women, that has been the turning point for the return of sanity and why it seems Watson has repented from those attempts to cancel JKR.
As I said, I've got a wife and two daughters who don't have the same megaphone that JKR does to stand up to the TRA bullies, I will always be thankful that she used her voice to protect women's spaces. She deserves an apology from Watson and Radcliffe and I do hope that they begin to see after this backlash against Watson exactly what it is they encouraged and helped create with their denouncements of JKR.
I've never really got this narrative about toilets etc. Surely now trans men will have to use women's toilets. What's a woman supposed to do if she finds a person who looks like a man in the toilet? Demand that they drop their trousers to check if they are a trans man or a biological man? What's a trans man supposed to do when they are confronted or threatened every time they use a women's toilet? How will any of this make women feel any safer? How will trans women be kept safe in men's toilets? How is any of this anything other than a sideshow when most violence against women and girls is carried out by cis men and usually by someone they know?
It's about power and violence, sexual or physical. Pretending trans man and trans women are the same thing is unhelpful.
The law says go by biological sex so they are the same thing. Trans men must use women's toilets just as trans women must use men's toilets.
In what seems like the most well trodden path for lefties who start to think for themselves, Emma Watson is getting absolutely blasted on bluecry by the "tolerant" and "open minded" people of the left. Being compared to Hitler, death threats, being called a fascist all because she decided that people are free to have their own opinions.
That audience she sucked up to and cultivated by shitting all over JK Rowling has turned on her and you just love to see it. A taste of what she has been doing to people who she disagreed with for the last decade.
Watson did not "shit all over" J K Rowling. She politely expressed a different view, and one which stupid people then said: "How DARE she disagree with someone who had something to do with her employment 20 years ago!!!! She OWES J K Rowling!!!"
You can easily see it the other way from the way you put it, and that Watson decided to have her own opinions, and was shouted down by Rowling and others. I find it hard to see how you can say what Watson said recently was anything other than polite and considerate, and that Rowling's response was plain nasty.
You're literally rewriting history. For a decade the left have been trying to cancel JKR, attempted to boycott her books, games and other media she's been responsible for, it was people like Watson who were revving those people up by denouncing Rowling. Now you're saying that it was Watson and Radcliffe being cancelled? Pull the other one. What's changed is that the left lost the argument on crossdressers and transvestites pretending to be women, that has been the turning point for the return of sanity and why it seems Watson has repented from those attempts to cancel JKR.
As I said, I've got a wife and two daughters who don't have the same megaphone that JKR does to stand up to the TRA bullies, I will always be thankful that she used her voice to protect women's spaces. She deserves an apology from Watson and Radcliffe and I do hope that they begin to see after this backlash against Watson exactly what it is they encouraged and helped create with their denouncements of JKR.
I've never really got this narrative about toilets etc. Surely now trans men will have to use women's toilets. What's a woman supposed to do if she finds a person who looks like a man in the toilet? Demand that they drop their trousers to check if they are a trans man or a biological man? What's a trans man supposed to do when they are confronted or threatened every time they use a women's toilet? How will any of this make women feel any safer? How will trans women be kept safe in men's toilets? How is any of this anything other than a sideshow when most violence against women and girls is carried out by cis men and usually by someone they know?
The best solution to the toilets issue is that transsexuals are granted the use of their newly-assigned gender's facilities post surgery, as I have said on many occasions. During their transition, they should be granted the use of disabled toilet facilities which are not communal by definition.
One cannot change ones' biological sex. But if someone is in such distress at their own sex that they cannot live without altering it, society should do them the courtesy of maintaining a polite pretence. That doesn't apply to men who like wearing women's clothes but retain the distinguishing marks of their sex and enjoy the use of them.
Mind you I also feel that another load of retelling of HP to be maintained for another decade is a combination of flogging a dead horse and naked greed.
HBO/WB appear to be redoing Potter because they're having trouble coming up with anything new.
I went to see Prometheus on the weekend at the BFI (cos I'm just that posh ) and it occurs to me that it and the first "Fantastic Beasts" movie have the same problem: a show runner with artistic investment in the mythos makes a brave attempt to extend the franchise, partially fails due to artistic limits[1] and audience impatience, gets cold feet, and the next movies return to the same old franchise points. If both had stuck to their guns it may have worked.
[1] Rowling does too many scenes where the characters explain the plot to each other and has lost the knack of casting (holding on to Johnny Depp, for example), Scott can't tell the difference between a good script and a steaming pile of shit.
Prometheus is overhyped rubbish. The bit where they are running away from something rolling towards them, instead of going to the side, which more than a little Tom and Jerry. There were also various other "why the **** would they do that? moments.)
(I hope I've remembered that correctly; I only saw it once, at the cinema...)
I've seen it three or four times now - it's one of my favourite films - but yes, it is totally a load of old tosh, and somebody should have knocked sense into the scriptwriters (of which Damon Lindelof was one?). And yes, it inaugurated the "Prometheus school of running away from things" meme.
Prometheus was a classic compared to the absolute rubbish of Alien Covenant. Nothing will ever get close though to Alien and then Aliens .
Alien Earth started well, nailing the atmosphere from the originals, but sadly degenerated into nonsense.
I think I am the lone voice to stand up for "Raised By Wolves". I found it quite remarkable and.... weird and.... silly, and scary and...
Which may account for it not being a wild success.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Fox: "We're announcing today expanded programs to help the American coal industry. We're helping it because for years it has been under assault. It was out of fashion with the chardonnay set in San Francisco, Boulder, Colorado, and New York City ... coal just makes the world go round." https://x.com/atrupar/status/1972640578027352329
Coal is dead in the UK for *power generation*. Its corpse should be cemented over and "Here be dragons!" signs planted atop. Which would be fitting, given the number of people who have died from the consequent pollution.
That does not mean coal does not have other marginal uses; but for power generation it should remain dead.
The word 'program' does not warm my heart in the least.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Fox: "We're announcing today expanded programs to help the American coal industry. We're helping it because for years it has been under assault. It was out of fashion with the chardonnay set in San Francisco, Boulder, Colorado, and New York City ... coal just makes the world go round." https://x.com/atrupar/status/1972640578027352329
Isn't Nigel (no not you) going to re-open all the Welsh Superpits closed and flooded since 1990?
Very nice to hear of all the multitude of policies Andy Burnham has alongside all his proposed tax and spend changes from the other day. Would he perhaps care to win a mandate for those at the ballot box if he becomes PM, or is he just hoping to become PM and do what the hell he likes (another comparison to Truss).
We are not a Presidential democracy. Parliament is sovereign. I learned that during the EU Referendum.
A new Prime Minister doesn't have to go to the country. The Prime Minister already has a mandate because (altogether) Parliament is sovereign.
Constitutionally? Absolutely.
But not in the case of wider public legitimacy. This was exactly what Sunak and Truss grappled with, and lost.
Sunak grappled with it, I agree. Truss didn't seem to grapple with anything.
Well not in this dimension. But perhaps she had access to others. There were hints of other realities in her speeches, after all.
I don’t think that wars of conquest have been cost-effective, for a very long time now.
Plunder economics provides a one-off gain, and that’s it. Trading with other nations provides a recurring gain.
If you want valuable natural resources, it’s generally cheaper to buy them from local elites, rather than an occupy a country, recruit an army of occupation, and fight insurgents.
When was the last war of plunder where the game was actually worth the candle? I haven't got a clue.
That incomprehension is the motor behind the Dr Evil/Number Two dynamic in Austin Powers. More seriously, I'm pretty sure it's similar to the motor behind the retired boomer/younger worker dynamic that quietly drives a lot of global politics. The map of the world that someone like Trump or Putin (and I suspect Farage) is using to navigate just isn't an accurate description of the world any more, any more than the road atlas my parents used that didn't feature the M25.
(Heck, it only had the M27 as two bits with a gap in the middle.)
Mind you I also feel that another load of retelling of HP to be maintained for another decade is a combination of flogging a dead horse and naked greed.
HBO/WB appear to be redoing Potter because they're having trouble coming up with anything new.
I went to see Prometheus on the weekend at the BFI (cos I'm just that posh ) and it occurs to me that it and the first "Fantastic Beasts" movie have the same problem: a show runner with artistic investment in the mythos makes a brave attempt to extend the franchise, partially fails due to artistic limits[1] and audience impatience, gets cold feet, and the next movies return to the same old franchise points. If both had stuck to their guns it may have worked.
[1] Rowling does too many scenes where the characters explain the plot to each other and has lost the knack of casting (holding on to Johnny Depp, for example), Scott can't tell the difference between a good script and a steaming pile of shit.
Prometheus is overhyped rubbish. The bit where they are running away from something rolling towards them, instead of going to the side, which more than a little Tom and Jerry. There were also various other "why the **** would they do that? moments.)
(I hope I've remembered that correctly; I only saw it once, at the cinema...)
I've seen it three or four times now - it's one of my favourite films - but yes, it is totally a load of old tosh, and somebody should have knocked sense into the scriptwriters (of which Damon Lindelof was one?). And yes, it inaugurated the "Prometheus school of running away from things" meme.
Prometheus was a classic compared to the absolute rubbish of Alien Covenant. Nothing will ever get close though to Alien and then Aliens .
Alien Earth started well, nailing the atmosphere from the originals, but sadly degenerated into nonsense.
I think I am the lone voice to stand up for "Raised By Wolves". I found it quite remarkable and.... weird and.... silly, and scary and...
Which may account for it not being a wild success.
The concept for the series was a fairly decent one. The plotting was ... absurd.
I think one of the problems (perhaps) is that you can just about get away with fridge logic in a movie. Extended over a series, you just create a tangled mess.
The look was great, as was the cast. The script wasn't.
I have just been out and come back to find Trump and Blair are to run Gaza
This a bit of extreme news to keep Starmer and his problems off the news tomorrow
Not sure how Labour will receive Blair's part in this if it actually happens
Just bizarre
It rather reminds me of Hague's brilliant European President speech. If this was looked at with gloom on these benches imagine how it was received in Downing Street. (Something which had D Miliband almost falling off his bench with laughter).
I think the current Labour party would rather Blair simply didn't exist.
In what seems like the most well trodden path for lefties who start to think for themselves, Emma Watson is getting absolutely blasted on bluecry by the "tolerant" and "open minded" people of the left. Being compared to Hitler, death threats, being called a fascist all because she decided that people are free to have their own opinions.
That audience she sucked up to and cultivated by shitting all over JK Rowling has turned on her and you just love to see it. A taste of what she has been doing to people who she disagreed with for the last decade.
Watson did not "shit all over" J K Rowling. She politely expressed a different view, and one which stupid people then said: "How DARE she disagree with someone who had something to do with her employment 20 years ago!!!! She OWES J K Rowling!!!"
You can easily see it the other way from the way you put it, and that Watson decided to have her own opinions, and was shouted down by Rowling and others. I find it hard to see how you can say what Watson said recently was anything other than polite and considerate, and that Rowling's response was plain nasty.
I know this world. There was a profound attempt to get Rowling cancelled - disowned by publishers, shunned by all - and they came surprisingly close. Any lesser writer (in commercial terms) would have been crushed and exiled. And Watson and Radcliffe absolutely drove this
I don’t think that wars of conquest have been cost-effective, for a very long time now.
Plunder economics provides a one-off gain, and that’s it. Trading with other nations provides a recurring gain.
If you want valuable natural resources, it’s generally cheaper to buy them from local elites, rather than an occupy a country, recruit an army of occupation, and fight insurgents.
When was the last war of plunder where the game was actually worth the candle? I haven't got a clue.
That incomprehension is the motor behind the Dr Evil/Number Two dynamic in Austin Powers. More seriously, I'm pretty sure it's similar to the motor behind the retired boomer/younger worker dynamic that quietly drives a lot of global politics. The map of the world that someone like Trump or Putin (and I suspect Farage) is using to navigate just isn't an accurate description of the world any more, any more than the road atlas my parents used that didn't feature the M25.
(Heck, it only had the M27 as two bits with a gap in the middle.)
Britain's conquest of India was certainly very lucrative. The Mexican-American War was also worth it for the US.
More recently, the German invasion of Bohemia and Moravia was certainly worthwhile and at quite low cost. It went wrong for the Nazis with later conquests.
I don’t think that wars of conquest have been cost-effective, for a very long time now.
Plunder economics provides a one-off gain, and that’s it. Trading with other nations provides a recurring gain.
If you want valuable natural resources, it’s generally cheaper to buy them from local elites, rather than an occupy a country, recruit an army of occupation, and fight insurgents.
When was the last war of plunder where the game was actually worth the candle? I haven't got a clue.
(Snip)
Perhaps the US expansion over the Native American lands of the 19th Century? Russia's expansion over central Asia at the similar time? Soviet expansion immediately post-WW2, where they gained benefits from the more civilised eastern European countries that are still seeing them through today? Though that may not have been a war of plunder per se.
Booooooo. Too sensible. I just buy a ticket to where im going and back though. Its not a difficult transaction
It is bollocks. You can pay less by buying Advances.
The journeys are very short distances where advance tickets don't exist.
Would I use the approach travelling to London, nope
Would I use it travelling from Durham to Newcastle, Yep (because advance tickets don't exist on that route).
Northern offer Advances for short distance journeys. I buy them all the time.
Yes, but it's a terrible model.
Back when I temporarily lived in Yorkshire, trains from the local station were a roughly equal mix of Northern and Transpennine. So to go to Leeds or Huddersfield or Manchester, you could either buy a cheap advance ticket or a more expensive flexible ticket. And yes, the cheap tickets were cheap, but they were also ruddy inconvenient.
The London model of turning up, flashing a card and getting on with your life is much much better. (See also: car insurance, TV contracts and goodness knows what else. I get the theory of yield management, but it mostly makes peoples' lives worse by making them jump through hoops. Isn't this the sort of thing we elect socialist governments to deal with?)
In what seems like the most well trodden path for lefties who start to think for themselves, Emma Watson is getting absolutely blasted on bluecry by the "tolerant" and "open minded" people of the left. Being compared to Hitler, death threats, being called a fascist all because she decided that people are free to have their own opinions.
That audience she sucked up to and cultivated by shitting all over JK Rowling has turned on her and you just love to see it. A taste of what she has been doing to people who she disagreed with for the last decade.
Watson did not "shit all over" J K Rowling. She politely expressed a different view, and one which stupid people then said: "How DARE she disagree with someone who had something to do with her employment 20 years ago!!!! She OWES J K Rowling!!!"
You can easily see it the other way from the way you put it, and that Watson decided to have her own opinions, and was shouted down by Rowling and others. I find it hard to see how you can say what Watson said recently was anything other than polite and considerate, and that Rowling's response was plain nasty.
I know this world. There was a profound attempt to get Rowling cancelled - disowned by publishers, shunned by all - and they came surprisingly close. Any lesser writer (in commercial terms) would have been crushed and exiled. And Watson and Radcliffe absolutely drove this
Ms Rowling is rightly furious
Read what Watson said, and Rowling's reply.
The only person trying to get anyone 'cancelled' is Rowling.
I don’t think that wars of conquest have been cost-effective, for a very long time now.
Plunder economics provides a one-off gain, and that’s it. Trading with other nations provides a recurring gain.
If you want valuable natural resources, it’s generally cheaper to buy them from local elites, rather than an occupy a country, recruit an army of occupation, and fight insurgents.
When was the last war of plunder where the game was actually worth the candle? I haven't got a clue.
That incomprehension is the motor behind the Dr Evil/Number Two dynamic in Austin Powers. More seriously, I'm pretty sure it's similar to the motor behind the retired boomer/younger worker dynamic that quietly drives a lot of global politics. The map of the world that someone like Trump or Putin (and I suspect Farage) is using to navigate just isn't an accurate description of the world any more, any more than the road atlas my parents used that didn't feature the M25.
(Heck, it only had the M27 as two bits with a gap in the middle.)
Britain's conquest of India was certainly very lucrative. The Mexican-American War was also worth it for the US.
More recently, the German invasion of Bohemia and Moravia was certainly worthwhile and at quite low cost. It went wrong for the Nazis with later conquests.
Post-WWII and I'm struggling to think of any.
Tibet? But then that also gets mixed up in the Greater China project.
I don’t think that wars of conquest have been cost-effective, for a very long time now.
Plunder economics provides a one-off gain, and that’s it. Trading with other nations provides a recurring gain.
If you want valuable natural resources, it’s generally cheaper to buy them from local elites, rather than an occupy a country, recruit an army of occupation, and fight insurgents.
When was the last war of plunder where the game was actually worth the candle? I haven't got a clue.
(Snip)
Perhaps the US expansion over the Native American lands of the 19th Century? Russia's expansion over central Asia at the similar time? Soviet expansion immediately post-WW2, where they gained benefits from the more civilised eastern European countries that are still seeing them through today? Though that may not have been a war of plunder per se.
I don’t think that wars of conquest have been cost-effective, for a very long time now.
Plunder economics provides a one-off gain, and that’s it. Trading with other nations provides a recurring gain.
If you want valuable natural resources, it’s generally cheaper to buy them from local elites, rather than an occupy a country, recruit an army of occupation, and fight insurgents.
When was the last war of plunder where the game was actually worth the candle? I haven't got a clue.
(Snip)
Perhaps the US expansion over the Native American lands of the 19th Century? Russia's expansion over central Asia at the similar time? Soviet expansion immediately post-WW2, where they gained benefits from the more civilised eastern European countries that are still seeing them through today? Though that may not have been a war of plunder per se.
"But Tsar Alexander made it all the way to Paris!" - Stalin, 1945.
In what seems like the most well trodden path for lefties who start to think for themselves, Emma Watson is getting absolutely blasted on bluecry by the "tolerant" and "open minded" people of the left. Being compared to Hitler, death threats, being called a fascist all because she decided that people are free to have their own opinions.
That audience she sucked up to and cultivated by shitting all over JK Rowling has turned on her and you just love to see it. A taste of what she has been doing to people who she disagreed with for the last decade.
Watson did not "shit all over" J K Rowling. She politely expressed a different view, and one which stupid people then said: "How DARE she disagree with someone who had something to do with her employment 20 years ago!!!! She OWES J K Rowling!!!"
You can easily see it the other way from the way you put it, and that Watson decided to have her own opinions, and was shouted down by Rowling and others. I find it hard to see how you can say what Watson said recently was anything other than polite and considerate, and that Rowling's response was plain nasty.
I know this world. There was a profound attempt to get Rowling cancelled - disowned by publishers, shunned by all - and they came surprisingly close. Any lesser writer (in commercial terms) would have been crushed and exiled. And Watson and Radcliffe absolutely drove this
Ms Rowling is rightly furious
Read what Watson said, and Rowling's reply.
The only person trying to get anyone 'cancelled' is Rowling.
I don’t think that wars of conquest have been cost-effective, for a very long time now.
Plunder economics provides a one-off gain, and that’s it. Trading with other nations provides a recurring gain.
If you want valuable natural resources, it’s generally cheaper to buy them from local elites, rather than an occupy a country, recruit an army of occupation, and fight insurgents.
When was the last war of plunder where the game was actually worth the candle? I haven't got a clue.
That incomprehension is the motor behind the Dr Evil/Number Two dynamic in Austin Powers. More seriously, I'm pretty sure it's similar to the motor behind the retired boomer/younger worker dynamic that quietly drives a lot of global politics. The map of the world that someone like Trump or Putin (and I suspect Farage) is using to navigate just isn't an accurate description of the world any more, any more than the road atlas my parents used that didn't feature the M25.
(Heck, it only had the M27 as two bits with a gap in the middle.)
Britain's conquest of India was certainly very lucrative. The Mexican-American War was also worth it for the US.
More recently, the German invasion of Bohemia and Moravia was certainly worthwhile and at quite low cost. It went wrong for the Nazis with later conquests.
Post-WWII and I'm struggling to think of any.
Tibet? But then that also gets mixed up in the Greater China project.
Yes. I think Tibet qualifies.
That's an interesting precedent, as it may also encourage the Chinese leadership to be overconfident about conquest of Taiwan.
In what seems like the most well trodden path for lefties who start to think for themselves, Emma Watson is getting absolutely blasted on bluecry by the "tolerant" and "open minded" people of the left. Being compared to Hitler, death threats, being called a fascist all because she decided that people are free to have their own opinions.
That audience she sucked up to and cultivated by shitting all over JK Rowling has turned on her and you just love to see it. A taste of what she has been doing to people who she disagreed with for the last decade.
Watson did not "shit all over" J K Rowling. She politely expressed a different view, and one which stupid people then said: "How DARE she disagree with someone who had something to do with her employment 20 years ago!!!! She OWES J K Rowling!!!"
You can easily see it the other way from the way you put it, and that Watson decided to have her own opinions, and was shouted down by Rowling and others. I find it hard to see how you can say what Watson said recently was anything other than polite and considerate, and that Rowling's response was plain nasty.
You're literally rewriting history. For a decade the left have been trying to cancel JKR, attempted to boycott her books, games and other media she's been responsible for, it was people like Watson who were revving those people up by denouncing Rowling. Now you're saying that it was Watson and Radcliffe being cancelled? Pull the other one. What's changed is that the left lost the argument on crossdressers and transvestites pretending to be women, that has been the turning point for the return of sanity and why it seems Watson has repented from those attempts to cancel JKR.
As I said, I've got a wife and two daughters who don't have the same megaphone that JKR does to stand up to the TRA bullies, I will always be thankful that she used her voice to protect women's spaces. She deserves an apology from Watson and Radcliffe and I do hope that they begin to see after this backlash against Watson exactly what it is they encouraged and helped create with their denouncements of JKR.
I've never really got this narrative about toilets etc. Surely now trans men will have to use women's toilets. What's a woman supposed to do if she finds a person who looks like a man in the toilet? Demand that they drop their trousers to check if they are a trans man or a biological man? What's a trans man supposed to do when they are confronted or threatened every time they use a women's toilet? How will any of this make women feel any safer? How will trans women be kept safe in men's toilets? How is any of this anything other than a sideshow when most violence against women and girls is carried out by cis men and usually by someone they know?
It's about power and violence, sexual or physical. Pretending trans man and trans women are the same thing is unhelpful.
The law says go by biological sex so they are the same thing. Trans men must use women's toilets just as trans women must use men's toilets.
And that is pretty much unenforceable as there are not usually bouncers on toilets. In practice it only becomes an issue if Trans-women behave inappropriately in toilets or changing rooms. If someone "passes" well and discretely slips in and out of a cubicle, who is to know? If someone deliberately exposes themselves, or engages in voyerism in order to cause alarm and distress then they are already acting illegally.
Whatever the law says, enforcement can only be via social pressure.
I don’t think that wars of conquest have been cost-effective, for a very long time now.
Plunder economics provides a one-off gain, and that’s it. Trading with other nations provides a recurring gain.
If you want valuable natural resources, it’s generally cheaper to buy them from local elites, rather than an occupy a country, recruit an army of occupation, and fight insurgents.
When was the last war of plunder where the game was actually worth the candle? I haven't got a clue.
That incomprehension is the motor behind the Dr Evil/Number Two dynamic in Austin Powers. More seriously, I'm pretty sure it's similar to the motor behind the retired boomer/younger worker dynamic that quietly drives a lot of global politics. The map of the world that someone like Trump or Putin (and I suspect Farage) is using to navigate just isn't an accurate description of the world any more, any more than the road atlas my parents used that didn't feature the M25.
(Heck, it only had the M27 as two bits with a gap in the middle.)
Britain's conquest of India was certainly very lucrative. The Mexican-American War was also worth it for the US.
More recently, the German invasion of Bohemia and Moravia was certainly worthwhile and at quite low cost. It went wrong for the Nazis with later conquests.
Post-WWII and I'm struggling to think of any.
Funnily enough, the East India Company sank into insolvency quite soon after it started to rule, as opposed to just trading. The cost of maintaining a large standing army was ruinous.
I think that the last really worthwhile conquests were the interior of the USA, Australia, and Argentina, in the 19th century, and Siberia at the same time. Converting these regions from nomadic societies to agricultural ones, enabled vast new populations to be sustained, at a higher income level.
Even supposing the Nazis had won, they'd have been reducing the living standards of even their own people, by trying to convert a high-tech, industrial, export-oriented economy, into an autarkic, agricultural one.
I don’t think that wars of conquest have been cost-effective, for a very long time now.
Plunder economics provides a one-off gain, and that’s it. Trading with other nations provides a recurring gain.
If you want valuable natural resources, it’s generally cheaper to buy them from local elites, rather than an occupy a country, recruit an army of occupation, and fight insurgents.
When was the last war of plunder where the game was actually worth the candle? I haven't got a clue.
That incomprehension is the motor behind the Dr Evil/Number Two dynamic in Austin Powers. More seriously, I'm pretty sure it's similar to the motor behind the retired boomer/younger worker dynamic that quietly drives a lot of global politics. The map of the world that someone like Trump or Putin (and I suspect Farage) is using to navigate just isn't an accurate description of the world any more, any more than the road atlas my parents used that didn't feature the M25.
(Heck, it only had the M27 as two bits with a gap in the middle.)
Britain's conquest of India was certainly very lucrative. The Mexican-American War was also worth it for the US.
More recently, the German invasion of Bohemia and Moravia was certainly worthwhile and at quite low cost. It went wrong for the Nazis with later conquests.
I don’t think that wars of conquest have been cost-effective, for a very long time now.
Plunder economics provides a one-off gain, and that’s it. Trading with other nations provides a recurring gain.
If you want valuable natural resources, it’s generally cheaper to buy them from local elites, rather than an occupy a country, recruit an army of occupation, and fight insurgents.
When was the last war of plunder where the game was actually worth the candle? I haven't got a clue.
That incomprehension is the motor behind the Dr Evil/Number Two dynamic in Austin Powers. More seriously, I'm pretty sure it's similar to the motor behind the retired boomer/younger worker dynamic that quietly drives a lot of global politics. The map of the world that someone like Trump or Putin (and I suspect Farage) is using to navigate just isn't an accurate description of the world any more, any more than the road atlas my parents used that didn't feature the M25.
(Heck, it only had the M27 as two bits with a gap in the middle.)
Britain's conquest of India was certainly very lucrative. The Mexican-American War was also worth it for the US.
More recently, the German invasion of Bohemia and Moravia was certainly worthwhile and at quite low cost. It went wrong for the Nazis with later conquests.
Post-WWII and I'm struggling to think of any.
Tibet? But then that also gets mixed up in the Greater China project.
Yes. I think Tibet qualifies.
That's an interesting precedent, as it may also encourage the Chinese leadership to be overconfident about conquest of Taiwan.
The seizure of Western Sahara by Morocco may be another post war example, and the annexation of West Papua by Indonesia.
So King Andy has thrown the towel in, and the Home Secretary has announced a policy that Keir Starmer said was racist at ten past nine yesterday morning. All going brilliantly, isn't it?
Maybe the home secretary should take over as prime minister.
Give it a couple of years, and that may be the plan. Think of the boats as her Arthurian trial.
I suspect that Labour- and the country- could do a lot worse.
That could indeed be the case, but it feels to me like Mahmood is the latest candidate in the “quick, find a successor” game, after Reeves dropped a 20kt bomb on her chances and Rayner managed to remove herself from play (at least for now).
She may indeed be a skilled operator, but for me it is far too early to say. She isn’t squeamish about stricter rules on immigration, or at least that is the angle she’s going for. Beyond that, what is her vision? What qualifies her for being in the driving seat? Maybe time will tell and she’ll show us why - I am not ruling it out, she seems quite effective from what I’ve seen , it just feels to me like the jury is very much out on that one, and might be for quite some time.
@IhabHassane BREAKING: Hamas issues its first response to President Trump’s proposal. Hamas leader Mahmoud Mardawi:
1- Trump’s plan has not reached us, nor any Palestinian party so far. 2- We had no prior knowledge before its announcement, and its provisions mirror the Israeli vision. 3- The plan is vague and offers no guarantees. 4- We will reject any proposal that does not ensure Palestinian self-determination and protection from massacres. 5- We will review the American proposal and discuss it with Palestinian factions.
What do the people of Gaza think of Blair running their area?
I doubt they will be overjoyed, which is yet another reason for thinking that the Trump plan won't happen.
And whilst DJT is clearly vain enough and gaga enough for that not to affect his views, I didn't think that Blair was that far gone, on either dimension.
Trump now pitching yet again for this bloody nobel peace prize.
He thinks he's going to sort it in a jiffy, tea and medals all round then a shit ton of money to be made turning Gaza into the new Dubai by the sounds of it. With Tony as Governor General in a splendid hat.
Pith helmets and watermelon smiles all round, eh Saunders?
Mind you I also feel that another load of retelling of HP to be maintained for another decade is a combination of flogging a dead horse and naked greed.
HBO/WB appear to be redoing Potter because they're having trouble coming up with anything new.
I went to see Prometheus on the weekend at the BFI (cos I'm just that posh ) and it occurs to me that it and the first "Fantastic Beasts" movie have the same problem: a show runner with artistic investment in the mythos makes a brave attempt to extend the franchise, partially fails due to artistic limits[1] and audience impatience, gets cold feet, and the next movies return to the same old franchise points. If both had stuck to their guns it may have worked.
[1] Rowling does too many scenes where the characters explain the plot to each other and has lost the knack of casting (holding on to Johnny Depp, for example), Scott can't tell the difference between a good script and a steaming pile of shit.
Prometheus is overhyped rubbish. The bit where they are running away from something rolling towards them, instead of going to the side, which more than a little Tom and Jerry. There were also various other "why the **** would they do that? moments.)
(I hope I've remembered that correctly; I only saw it once, at the cinema...)
I've seen it three or four times now - it's one of my favourite films - but yes, it is totally a load of old tosh, and somebody should have knocked sense into the scriptwriters (of which Damon Lindelof was one?). And yes, it inaugurated the "Prometheus school of running away from things" meme.
Prometheus was a classic compared to the absolute rubbish of Alien Covenant. Nothing will ever get close though to Alien and then Aliens .
Alien Earth started well, nailing the atmosphere from the originals, but sadly degenerated into nonsense.
I think I am the lone voice to stand up for "Raised By Wolves". I found it quite remarkable and.... weird and.... silly, and scary and...
Which may account for it not being a wild success.
The concept for the series was a fairly decent one. The plotting was ... absurd.
I think one of the problems (perhaps) is that you can just about get away with fridge logic in a movie. Extended over a series, you just create a tangled mess.
The look was great, as was the cast. The script wasn't.
I think the absurdity was what appealed to me. In a sea of 'well written' but quite dull sci-fi, it was quite refreshing to have something so very, very 'wtaf is going on?'. I didn't mind the androids baby turning into a flying dragon creature that slept ontop of a mountain and loved melons(?) - a bit of mad once in a while** cheers me up. Had a little flavour of drunken celtic/norse mythology about it.
In what seems like the most well trodden path for lefties who start to think for themselves, Emma Watson is getting absolutely blasted on bluecry by the "tolerant" and "open minded" people of the left. Being compared to Hitler, death threats, being called a fascist all because she decided that people are free to have their own opinions.
That audience she sucked up to and cultivated by shitting all over JK Rowling has turned on her and you just love to see it. A taste of what she has been doing to people who she disagreed with for the last decade.
Watson did not "shit all over" J K Rowling. She politely expressed a different view, and one which stupid people then said: "How DARE she disagree with someone who had something to do with her employment 20 years ago!!!! She OWES J K Rowling!!!"
You can easily see it the other way from the way you put it, and that Watson decided to have her own opinions, and was shouted down by Rowling and others. I find it hard to see how you can say what Watson said recently was anything other than polite and considerate, and that Rowling's response was plain nasty.
I know this world. There was a profound attempt to get Rowling cancelled - disowned by publishers, shunned by all - and they came surprisingly close. Any lesser writer (in commercial terms) would have been crushed and exiled. And Watson and Radcliffe absolutely drove this
Ms Rowling is rightly furious
Read what Watson said, and Rowling's reply.
The only person trying to get anyone 'cancelled' is Rowling.
This is simply a lie
It isn't.
We had Rowling, who has very eloquently expressed her opinion on something (*). As is her right. Watson politely expressed her contrary opinion, as is her right. Both have received threats due to their positions.
At no stage, as far as I am aware, has Watson called for Rowling to be cancelled, or harmed, or anything else. She has just expressed her opinion, which happens to differ from Rowling's.
And the latest events appear to be Watson saying; "I value everything you did for me, and would like us to continue to be friends despite our differences on this issue."
Whereas Rowling's reply is somewhat (ahem) impolite.
Watson is not responsible for the hate towards Rowling; all she did was dare to express a different opinion. Unless you want to live in a world where having a differing opinion from famous multimillionaires is verboten.
(*) It should be noted that Rowling's position on this is very much against the interests of the friend you mentioned on the previous thread.
The RAFs contribution to Operation Eastern Sentry is a couple of Typhoons flying out of one of the English air bases, I forget which one, and they have to be refueled three times before they reach Polish air space. Presumably three times more on the way back, and extra times if they want to remain in Polish air space for any meaningful period.
I don't suppose Britain has the refuelling fleet to repeat Operation Black Buck these days, so I expect there will be plenty of use for USAF refuellers.
The RAFs contribution to Operation Eastern Sentry is a couple of Typhoons flying out of one of the English air bases, I forget which one, and they have to be refueled three times before they reach Polish air space. Presumably three times more on the way back, and extra times if they want to remain in Polish air space for any meaningful period.
I don't suppose Britain has the refuelling fleet to repeat Operation Black Buck these days, so I expect there will be plenty of use for USAF refuellers.
The RAFs contribution to Operation Eastern Sentry is a couple of Typhoons flying out of one of the English air bases, I forget which one, and they have to be refueled three times before they reach Polish air space. Presumably three times more on the way back, and extra times if they want to remain in Polish air space for any meaningful period.
I don't suppose Britain has the refuelling fleet to repeat Operation Black Buck these days, so I expect there will be plenty of use for USAF refuellers.
Try as I might, I find it hard not to join this dot to Hegseth’s in person all-generals meeting
@IhabHassane BREAKING: Hamas issues its first response to President Trump’s proposal. Hamas leader Mahmoud Mardawi:
1- Trump’s plan has not reached us, nor any Palestinian party so far. 2- We had no prior knowledge before its announcement, and its provisions mirror the Israeli vision. 3- The plan is vague and offers no guarantees. 4- We will reject any proposal that does not ensure Palestinian self-determination and protection from massacres. 5- We will review the American proposal and discuss it with Palestinian factions.
China has moved beyond mere copying and IP theft, and we really haven't digested the full implications of that.
For example.
Ok, I looked into this because sometimes claims that "China invents Y" can be somewhat exaggerated. But this is real, and completely insane.
This technology called "Bone 02" (inspired by the well-known "502 glue" in China) has been developed for the past 9 years by a team of orthopedic surgeons in Zhejiang province. The team leads are Professor Fan Shunwu (范顺武, Director of the Orthopedics Department at Zhejiang University) and Lin Xianfeng (https://researchgate.net/profile/Xianfeng-Lin-2).
It's inspired by oysters because the researchers noticed their extraordinary ability to firmly attach themselves in harsh underwater environment by secreting a special adhesive known as bio-cement, which creates a strong chemical interaction with surfaces and hardens quickly.
The properties of the glue are almost miraculous (sources: http://news.cn/20250910/1df9380a9ed945dca7142431f530a0c8/c.html and https://news.ifeng.com/c/8mVMq4PBdmJ): - Nearly instant adhesion in blood-soaked wet physiological environments (it just takes 2-3 minutes) - Extremely strong adhesive properties (bonding tensile force of over 400 pounds - over 181 kg) - Complete biodegradability that naturally absorbs after about 6 months as the bone heals (no need for secondary surgery previously required in conventional treatments) - Vast reduction of infection risks related to the traditional metal plates and screws normally needed for bone surgery - Minimally invasive and rapid surgery since you just need a small opening large enough to apply the glue (as opposed to a complex surgery attaching metal fixations)
This glue could be especially useful for fractures with small bone fragments which are very difficult to fix with metal plates and screws.
The glue has already undergone a proper "prospective, multicenter, blinded, randomized, parallel-controlled, non-inferiority clinical trial" with over 150 patients (https://c.m.163.com/news/a/K95S9C0M05198R3E.html). They've announced positive results - the glue "achieved seamless bonding of all fracture fragments" - and will soon publish the peer-reviewed paper in an orthopedics journal detailing full trial data... https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1972481656536829995
@IhabHassane BREAKING: Hamas issues its first response to President Trump’s proposal. Hamas leader Mahmoud Mardawi:
1- Trump’s plan has not reached us, nor any Palestinian party so far. 2- We had no prior knowledge before its announcement, and its provisions mirror the Israeli vision. 3- The plan is vague and offers no guarantees. 4- We will reject any proposal that does not ensure Palestinian self-determination and protection from massacres. 5- We will review the American proposal and discuss it with Palestinian factions.
In what seems like the most well trodden path for lefties who start to think for themselves, Emma Watson is getting absolutely blasted on bluecry by the "tolerant" and "open minded" people of the left. Being compared to Hitler, death threats, being called a fascist all because she decided that people are free to have their own opinions.
That audience she sucked up to and cultivated by shitting all over JK Rowling has turned on her and you just love to see it. A taste of what she has been doing to people who she disagreed with for the last decade.
Watson did not "shit all over" J K Rowling. She politely expressed a different view, and one which stupid people then said: "How DARE she disagree with someone who had something to do with her employment 20 years ago!!!! She OWES J K Rowling!!!"
You can easily see it the other way from the way you put it, and that Watson decided to have her own opinions, and was shouted down by Rowling and others. I find it hard to see how you can say what Watson said recently was anything other than polite and considerate, and that Rowling's response was plain nasty.
You're literally rewriting history. For a decade the left have been trying to cancel JKR, attempted to boycott her books, games and other media she's been responsible for, it was people like Watson who were revving those people up by denouncing Rowling. Now you're saying that it was Watson and Radcliffe being cancelled? Pull the other one. What's changed is that the left lost the argument on crossdressers and transvestites pretending to be women, that has been the turning point for the return of sanity and why it seems Watson has repented from those attempts to cancel JKR.
As I said, I've got a wife and two daughters who don't have the same megaphone that JKR does to stand up to the TRA bullies, I will always be thankful that she used her voice to protect women's spaces. She deserves an apology from Watson and Radcliffe and I do hope that they begin to see after this backlash against Watson exactly what it is they encouraged and helped create with their denouncements of JKR.
I've never really got this narrative about toilets etc. Surely now trans men will have to use women's toilets. What's a woman supposed to do if she finds a person who looks like a man in the toilet? Demand that they drop their trousers to check if they are a trans man or a biological man? What's a trans man supposed to do when they are confronted or threatened every time they use a women's toilet? How will any of this make women feel any safer? How will trans women be kept safe in men's toilets? How is any of this anything other than a sideshow when most violence against women and girls is carried out by cis men and usually by someone they know?
It's about power and violence, sexual or physical. Pretending trans man and trans women are the same thing is unhelpful.
The law says go by biological sex so they are the same thing. Trans men must use women's toilets just as trans women must use men's toilets.
And that is pretty much unenforceable as there are not usually bouncers on toilets. In practice it only becomes an issue if Trans-women behave inappropriately in toilets or changing rooms. If someone "passes" well and discretely slips in and out of a cubicle, who is to know? If someone deliberately exposes themselves, or engages in voyerism in order to cause alarm and distress then they are already acting illegally.
Whatever the law says, enforcement can only be via social pressure.
It's not fair to expect somebody to risk a criminal conviction for using the toilet of the sex they present as, just because 99% of the time they might get away with it. The whole thing is ludicrous. Sure, a man can dress as a woman to gain access to a female toilet and attack women. A man can also dress as a toilet attendant for the same purpose. Or a man could even do it without dressing as anyone. Or he could attack women in all the millions of other places that men attack women all the time.
@IhabHassane BREAKING: Hamas issues its first response to President Trump’s proposal. Hamas leader Mahmoud Mardawi:
1- Trump’s plan has not reached us, nor any Palestinian party so far. 2- We had no prior knowledge before its announcement, and its provisions mirror the Israeli vision. 3- The plan is vague and offers no guarantees. 4- We will reject any proposal that does not ensure Palestinian self-determination and protection from massacres. 5- We will review the American proposal and discuss it with Palestinian factions.
Sounds like a 'yes'.
Honestly, who cares what Hamas has to say?
Who cares what Dopey Donald and Tired Tony have to say?
If you saw a person with complete AIS in the street -- or even in a shower -- you would say "that's a woman". If a geneticist did a test, they would say "that's a man". And, if a technician did a scan, they would call everyone near them over to look at this individual with internal testes -- and an external vulva.
(As a practical matter, I would say we should treat such individuals with sympathy and - except for athletic competitions - as women.)
I see no way a person without ovaries can become a biological mother -- and I have long been curious as to whether they could, with some surgical help, and a partner, become a father.
In Semanya’s case I first became aware of her when my wife shouted ‘Come quickly, there’s a man winning the women’s 800m…’ So not in the shower but on the athletics track she looked like a man.
Thanks also for the kind messages and prayers sent to me and my wife after the birth of our stillborn son a few days ago. To update we have been able to hold him, read to him, write a card of our love for him and have a few days with him at least. The hospital chaplain also gave him a blessing. We named him Theo.
He has now gone for a postmortem, which will take a few weeks but hopefully give us some answers as to why it happened, after which we will arrange a small funeral for him and bury his ashes
In what seems like the most well trodden path for lefties who start to think for themselves, Emma Watson is getting absolutely blasted on bluecry by the "tolerant" and "open minded" people of the left. Being compared to Hitler, death threats, being called a fascist all because she decided that people are free to have their own opinions.
That audience she sucked up to and cultivated by shitting all over JK Rowling has turned on her and you just love to see it. A taste of what she has been doing to people who she disagreed with for the last decade.
Watson did not "shit all over" J K Rowling. She politely expressed a different view, and one which stupid people then said: "How DARE she disagree with someone who had something to do with her employment 20 years ago!!!! She OWES J K Rowling!!!"
You can easily see it the other way from the way you put it, and that Watson decided to have her own opinions, and was shouted down by Rowling and others. I find it hard to see how you can say what Watson said recently was anything other than polite and considerate, and that Rowling's response was plain nasty.
You're literally rewriting history. For a decade the left have been trying to cancel JKR, attempted to boycott her books, games and other media she's been responsible for, it was people like Watson who were revving those people up by denouncing Rowling. Now you're saying that it was Watson and Radcliffe being cancelled? Pull the other one. What's changed is that the left lost the argument on crossdressers and transvestites pretending to be women, that has been the turning point for the return of sanity and why it seems Watson has repented from those attempts to cancel JKR.
As I said, I've got a wife and two daughters who don't have the same megaphone that JKR does to stand up to the TRA bullies, I will always be thankful that she used her voice to protect women's spaces. She deserves an apology from Watson and Radcliffe and I do hope that they begin to see after this backlash against Watson exactly what it is they encouraged and helped create with their denouncements of JKR.
I've never really got this narrative about toilets etc. Surely now trans men will have to use women's toilets. What's a woman supposed to do if she finds a person who looks like a man in the toilet? Demand that they drop their trousers to check if they are a trans man or a biological man? What's a trans man supposed to do when they are confronted or threatened every time they use a women's toilet? How will any of this make women feel any safer? How will trans women be kept safe in men's toilets? How is any of this anything other than a sideshow when most violence against women and girls is carried out by cis men and usually by someone they know?
It's about power and violence, sexual or physical. Pretending trans man and trans women are the same thing is unhelpful.
The law says go by biological sex so they are the same thing. Trans men must use women's toilets just as trans women must use men's toilets.
And that is pretty much unenforceable as there are not usually bouncers on toilets. In practice it only becomes an issue if Trans-women behave inappropriately in toilets or changing rooms. If someone "passes" well and discretely slips in and out of a cubicle, who is to know? If someone deliberately exposes themselves, or engages in voyerism in order to cause alarm and distress then they are already acting illegally.
Whatever the law says, enforcement can only be via social pressure.
It's not fair to expect somebody to risk a criminal conviction for using the toilet of the sex they present as, just because 99% of the time they might get away with it. The whole thing is ludicrous. Sure, a man can dress as a woman to gain access to a female toilet and attack women. A man can also dress as a toilet attendant for the same purpose. Or a man could even do it without dressing as anyone. Or he could attack women in all the millions of other places that men attack women all the time.
Yes, but at some level, that's not quite the point.
There is some deep magic going on here. The presenting issues may be about practicalities, but the real issue is about identity- who people are and who they understand themselves to be. We all ought to respect that more than we do. But because we don't, there is a temptation to try to attach practical issues to discussions and blow them out of all proportion. Which makes the debate even more difficult than it needs to be. No, I don't know how you resolve contradictory senses of identity when neither of them look like they would survive intense probing. (Actually I do; it's one of the many variants of how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, but that's not going to happen.)
See also: ID cards. For some, part of being English is not having to carry papers, even when carrying papers would make everyone's life easier- including the holder. See also: Brexit.
(One of the advantages of having to think through one's Theory of Mind, instead of just doing it intuitively, is that you get a better answer about what's going on, just a bit more slowly and with more effort.)
Thanks also for the kind messages and prayers sent to me and my wife after the birth of our stillborn son a few days ago. To update we have been able to hold him, read to him, write a card of our love for him and have a few days with him at least. The hospital chaplain also gave him a blessing. We named him Theo.
He has now gone for a postmortem, which will take a few weeks but hopefully give us some answers as to why it happened, after which we will arrange a small funeral for him and bury his ashes
That is so beautiful and emotional and just simply I shed a tear reading it
God bless you and your family and you will have a place to visit him
As Jesus said ' suffer the little children to come unto me'
Thanks also for the kind messages and prayers sent to me and my wife after the birth of our stillborn son a few days ago. To update we have been able to hold him, read to him, write a card of our love for him and have a few days with him at least. The hospital chaplain also gave him a blessing. We named him Theo.
He has now gone for a postmortem, which will take a few weeks but hopefully give us some answers as to why it happened, after which we will arrange a small funeral for him and bury his ashes
Thanks also for the kind messages and prayers sent to me and my wife after the birth of our stillborn son a few days ago. To update we have been able to hold him, read to him, write a card of our love for him and have a few days with him at least. The hospital chaplain also gave him a blessing. We named him Theo.
He has now gone for a postmortem, which will take a few weeks but hopefully give us some answers as to why it happened, after which we will arrange a small funeral for him and bury his ashes
Thanks also for the kind messages and prayers sent to me and my wife after the birth of our stillborn son a few days ago. To update we have been able to hold him, read to him, write a card of our love for him and have a few days with him at least. The hospital chaplain also gave him a blessing. We named him Theo.
He has now gone for a postmortem, which will take a few weeks but hopefully give us some answers as to why it happened, after which we will arrange a small funeral for him and bury his ashes
Thanks also for the kind messages and prayers sent to me and my wife after the birth of our stillborn son a few days ago. To update we have been able to hold him, read to him, write a card of our love for him and have a few days with him at least. The hospital chaplain also gave him a blessing. We named him Theo.
He has now gone for a postmortem, which will take a few weeks but hopefully give us some answers as to why it happened, after which we will arrange a small funeral for him and bury his ashes
You are a wonderful father to Theo. Sending love to all three of you. x
Thanks also for the kind messages and prayers sent to me and my wife after the birth of our stillborn son a few days ago. To update we have been able to hold him, read to him, write a card of our love for him and have a few days with him at least. The hospital chaplain also gave him a blessing. We named him Theo.
He has now gone for a postmortem, which will take a few weeks but hopefully give us some answers as to why it happened, after which we will arrange a small funeral for him and bury his ashes
That is so beautiful and emotional and just simply I shed a tear reading it
God bless you and your family and you will have a place to visit him
As Jesus said ' suffer the little children to come unto me'
Thanks BigG and everyone else for your comments, we too have shed a few tears over the last few days but also been able to share our love with Theo and we will always be his parents even if as you say he is now with Jesus in spirit
If you saw a person with complete AIS in the street -- or even in a shower -- you would say "that's a woman". If a geneticist did a test, they would say "that's a man". And, if a technician did a scan, they would call everyone near them over to look at this individual with internal testes -- and an external vulva.
(As a practical matter, I would say we should treat such individuals with sympathy and - except for athletic competitions - as women.)
I see no way a person without ovaries can become a biological mother -- and I have long been curious as to whether they could, with some surgical help, and a partner, become a father.
In Semanya’s case I first became aware of her when my wife shouted ‘Come quickly, there’s a man winning the women’s 800m…’ So not in the shower but on the athletics track she looked like a man.
Thanks also for the kind messages and prayers sent to me and my wife after the birth of our stillborn son a few days ago. To update we have been able to hold him, read to him, write a card of our love for him and have a few days with him at least. The hospital chaplain also gave him a blessing. We named him Theo.
He has now gone for a postmortem, which will take a few weeks but hopefully give us some answers as to why it happened, after which we will arrange a small funeral for him and bury his ashes
Comments
Wired: Tony Blair will run Gaza
Life comes fast these days...
All those people competing for disabled loos with the actually disabled, all my tax money going into a higher incidence of disabled loos than needed, all that utterly futile inconvenience, access keys. Just to hold you at a definition.
If you think the a Swyer sufferer can't continue to go into the ordinary ladies for some absolutely incomprehensible reason that I can't for the life of me fathom, it's your head that needs the wobble, Malc.
Or it's just to boost Trump's ego for a few minutes.
I don't think we should take it entirely seriously as a proposal to end the fighting.
If it weren't so serious, that would be very funny.
Body of Peace Artists.
The problem with Watney was that he was bland. Yes, I wanted him to survive, as I'd want anyone to survive in that situation. But there wasn't any depth to his character, or indeed much characterisation. *Why* did I want him to survive, aside from the fact he was a human being?
(Note, I still enjoyed the book and film.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgen_insensitivity_syndrome
If you saw a person with complete AIS in the street -- or even in a shower -- you would say "that's a woman". If a geneticist did a test, they would say "that's a man". And, if a technician did a scan, they would call everyone near them over to look at this individual with internal testes -- and an external vulva.
(As a practical matter, I would say we should treat such individuals with sympathy and - except for athletic competitions - as women.)
I see no way a person without ovaries can become a biological mother -- and I have long been curious as to whether they could, with some surgical help, and a partner, become a father.
Hamas must realise they're not dealing with Biden now, Trump is actually mental, so he won't have any qualms about finishing the elimination of the entire population so he can turn it into the ME answer to Vegas.
https://x.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1972670697001324661
Not sure when, but this is good news.
So he will make efforts to end Israel/Gaza and Russia/Ukraine on the off chance that he might get two Nobel Prizes.
Would I use the approach travelling to London, nope
Would I use it travelling from Durham to Newcastle, Yep (because advance tickets don't exist on that route).
Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Fox: "We're announcing today expanded programs to help the American coal industry. We're helping it because for years it has been under assault. It was out of fashion with the chardonnay set in San Francisco, Boulder, Colorado, and New York City ... coal just makes the world go round."
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1972640578027352329
I don’t think that wars of conquest have been cost-effective, for a very long time now.
Plunder economics provides a one-off gain, and that’s it. Trading with other nations provides a recurring gain.
If you want valuable natural resources, it’s generally cheaper to buy them from local elites, rather than an occupy a country, recruit an army of occupation, and fight insurgents.
There are many intersex conditions, but they are not really relevant to discussing Trans and gender misalignment, which is a state of mind rather than a physical issue, though its treatment can be physical.
Of course it would be convenient to some if gender misalignment didn't exist, but it does.
Coal is dead in the UK for *power generation*. Its corpse should be cemented over and "Here be dragons!" signs planted atop. Which would be fitting, given the number of people who have died from the consequent pollution.
That does not mean coal does not have other marginal uses; but for power generation it should remain dead.
I suspect that Labour- and the country- could do a lot worse.
Which may account for it not being a wild success.
That incomprehension is the motor behind the Dr Evil/Number Two dynamic in Austin Powers. More seriously, I'm pretty sure it's similar to the motor behind the retired boomer/younger worker dynamic that quietly drives a lot of global politics. The map of the world that someone like Trump or Putin (and I suspect Farage) is using to navigate just isn't an accurate description of the world any more, any more than the road atlas my parents used that didn't feature the M25.
(Heck, it only had the M27 as two bits with a gap in the middle.)
The plotting was ... absurd.
I think one of the problems (perhaps) is that you can just about get away with fridge logic in a movie. Extended over a series, you just create a tangled mess.
The look was great, as was the cast.
The script wasn't.
I think the current Labour party would rather Blair simply didn't exist.
I know this world. There was a profound attempt to get Rowling cancelled - disowned by publishers, shunned by all - and they came surprisingly close. Any lesser writer (in commercial terms) would have been crushed and exiled. And Watson and Radcliffe absolutely drove this
Ms Rowling is rightly furious
More recently, the German invasion of Bohemia and Moravia was certainly worthwhile and at quite low cost. It went wrong for the Nazis with later conquests.
Post-WWII and I'm struggling to think of any.
Russia's expansion over central Asia at the similar time?
Soviet expansion immediately post-WW2, where they gained benefits from the more civilised eastern European countries that are still seeing them through today? Though that may not have been a war of plunder per se.
Back when I temporarily lived in Yorkshire, trains from the local station were a roughly equal mix of Northern and Transpennine. So to go to Leeds or Huddersfield or Manchester, you could either buy a cheap advance ticket or a more expensive flexible ticket. And yes, the cheap tickets were cheap, but they were also ruddy inconvenient.
The London model of turning up, flashing a card and getting on with your life is much much better. (See also: car insurance, TV contracts and goodness knows what else. I get the theory of yield management, but it mostly makes peoples' lives worse by making them jump through hoops. Isn't this the sort of thing we elect socialist governments to deal with?)
The only person trying to get anyone 'cancelled' is Rowling.
That's an interesting precedent, as it may also encourage the Chinese leadership to be overconfident about conquest of Taiwan.
Whatever the law says, enforcement can only be via social pressure.
I think that the last really worthwhile conquests were the interior of the USA, Australia, and Argentina, in the 19th century, and Siberia at the same time. Converting these regions from nomadic societies to agricultural ones, enabled vast new populations to be sustained, at a higher income level.
Even supposing the Nazis had won, they'd have been reducing the living standards of even their own people, by trying to convert a high-tech, industrial, export-oriented economy, into an autarkic, agricultural one.
She may indeed be a skilled operator, but for me it is far too early to say. She isn’t squeamish about stricter rules on immigration, or at least that is the angle she’s going for. Beyond that, what is her vision? What qualifies her for being in the driving seat? Maybe time will tell and she’ll show us why - I am not ruling it out, she seems quite effective from what I’ve seen , it just feels to me like the jury is very much out on that one, and might be for quite some time.
BREAKING: Hamas issues its first response to President Trump’s proposal. Hamas leader Mahmoud Mardawi:
1- Trump’s plan has not reached us, nor any Palestinian party so far.
2- We had no prior knowledge before its announcement, and its provisions mirror the Israeli vision.
3- The plan is vague and offers no guarantees.
4- We will reject any proposal that does not ensure Palestinian self-determination and protection from massacres.
5- We will review the American proposal and discuss it with Palestinian factions.
And whilst DJT is clearly vain enough and gaga enough for that not to affect his views, I didn't think that Blair was that far gone, on either dimension.
Splendid - mine’s a triple G&T
Uh oh.
**Though not in a real-world governmental sense
The fanfiction written on a notes app that’s become a bestseller – with a seven-figure film deal
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/sep/29/senlinyu-harry-potter-fanfiction-alchemised-seven-figure-film-deal
We had Rowling, who has very eloquently expressed her opinion on something (*). As is her right.
Watson politely expressed her contrary opinion, as is her right.
Both have received threats due to their positions.
At no stage, as far as I am aware, has Watson called for Rowling to be cancelled, or harmed, or anything else. She has just expressed her opinion, which happens to differ from Rowling's.
And the latest events appear to be Watson saying; "I value everything you did for me, and would like us to continue to be friends despite our differences on this issue."
Whereas Rowling's reply is somewhat (ahem) impolite.
Watson is not responsible for the hate towards Rowling; all she did was dare to express a different opinion. Unless you want to live in a world where having a differing opinion from famous multimillionaires is verboten.
(*) It should be noted that Rowling's position on this is very much against the interests of the friend you mentioned on the previous thread.
I don't suppose Britain has the refuelling fleet to repeat Operation Black Buck these days, so I expect there will be plenty of use for USAF refuellers.
For example.
Ok, I looked into this because sometimes claims that "China invents Y" can be somewhat exaggerated. But this is real, and completely insane.
This technology called "Bone 02" (inspired by the well-known "502 glue" in China) has been developed for the past 9 years by a team of orthopedic surgeons in Zhejiang province. The team leads are Professor Fan Shunwu (范顺武, Director of the Orthopedics Department at Zhejiang University) and Lin Xianfeng (https://researchgate.net/profile/Xianfeng-Lin-2).
It's inspired by oysters because the researchers noticed their extraordinary ability to firmly attach themselves in harsh underwater environment by secreting a special adhesive known as bio-cement, which creates a strong chemical interaction with surfaces and hardens quickly.
The properties of the glue are almost miraculous (sources: http://news.cn/20250910/1df9380a9ed945dca7142431f530a0c8/c.html and https://news.ifeng.com/c/8mVMq4PBdmJ):
- Nearly instant adhesion in blood-soaked wet physiological environments (it just takes 2-3 minutes)
- Extremely strong adhesive properties (bonding tensile force of over 400 pounds - over 181 kg)
- Complete biodegradability that naturally absorbs after about 6 months as the bone heals (no need for secondary surgery previously required in conventional treatments)
- Vast reduction of infection risks related to the traditional metal plates and screws normally needed for bone surgery
- Minimally invasive and rapid surgery since you just need a small opening large enough to apply the glue (as opposed to a complex surgery attaching metal fixations)
This glue could be especially useful for fractures with small bone fragments which are very difficult to fix with metal plates and screws.
The glue has already undergone a proper "prospective, multicenter, blinded, randomized, parallel-controlled, non-inferiority clinical trial" with over 150 patients (https://c.m.163.com/news/a/K95S9C0M05198R3E.html). They've announced positive results - the glue "achieved seamless bonding of all fracture fragments" - and will soon publish the peer-reviewed paper in an orthopedics journal detailing full trial data...
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1972481656536829995
The whole thing is ludicrous. Sure, a man can dress as a woman to gain access to a female toilet and attack women. A man can also dress as a toilet attendant for the same purpose. Or a man could even do it without dressing as anyone. Or he could attack women in all the millions of other places that men attack women all the time.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15132275/Andy-Burnham-Labour-row-MPs-WANT-oust-Keir-Starmer.html
Fatah has the attitude towards Hamas of
rm -rf *.*
Or as the great Belgian philosopher put it - “I’ve seen the future. And you’re not in it.”
Be kind to yourself and love to all your family
He has now gone for a postmortem, which will take a few weeks but hopefully give us some answers as to why it happened, after which we will arrange a small funeral for him and bury his ashes
There is some deep magic going on here. The presenting issues may be about practicalities, but the real issue is about identity- who people are and who they understand themselves to be. We all ought to respect that more than we do. But because we don't, there is a temptation to try to attach practical issues to discussions and blow them out of all proportion. Which makes the debate even more difficult than it needs to be. No, I don't know how you resolve contradictory senses of identity when neither of them look like they would survive intense probing. (Actually I do; it's one of the many variants of how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, but that's not going to happen.)
See also: ID cards. For some, part of being English is not having to carry papers, even when carrying papers would make everyone's life easier- including the holder. See also: Brexit.
(One of the advantages of having to think through one's Theory of Mind, instead of just doing it intuitively, is that you get a better answer about what's going on, just a bit more slowly and with more effort.)
God bless you and your family and you will have a place to visit him
As Jesus said ' suffer the little children to come unto me'
All three medalists in the women's 800 meters at the 2016 Olympics were men with DSDs.
if you are struggling could I suggest contacting Sands: https://www.sands.org.uk/support-you/how-we-offer-support.
They have a lot of support and resources that they can offer including a helpline.