Perhaps a good time to announce help on energy bills is early May !
Never let a crisis go to waste . At the same time nail Farage and Badenoch to the wall on their support for the war and its economic impact on the UK .
Job done and the elections in May might not be such a horror show for Labour !
Needs to explain where the money is coming from not least with bond rates soaring and huge increases needed now in defence spending
Fuck defence spending until Trump and Bibi have stopped their shit show.
A plane in 6 years not 5 or a shop in 11 years not 10 stops no one from freezing or petrol rising.
A new analysis finds that Brexit raised the number of foreign-born workers in the UK by about 200,000, but resulted in a more dramatic shift in the countries of origin.
Yep with Europeans no longer coming the intake was unsurprisingly more coloured
Nothing wrong with that at all, unless you're a racist.
The irony is that most people who voted for Brexit are
Most people who voted for Brexit are not racists. But most racists voted for Brexit.
I am trying to picture the associated Venn diagram. I am envisioning a smaller circle marked racist completely subsumed into a larger circle marked Brexit.
That's not a Venn diagram, which by construction never has one circle fully enclosed in another.
I realise that, but how does one represent the fact that every racist voted Brexit but not every Brexiter is a racist.
You can't.
The intersection of Voted Remain and Racist is not a null set.
I am asserting that all racists voted Brexit. I have not conceded than a single racist voted Remain, so draw me my Venn diagram.
There isn't necessarily always going to be a cold, dark, still week in January that we are never able to cover with renewables. Tidal and geothermal continue regardless of the weather. Hydroelectric is less connected to the weather and pumped-storage hydroelectricity is unaffected by the weather. More efficient solar and more solar means you make the most of whatever the weather conditions are. Better interconnectivity means you can rely on somewhere where it's windier and brighter.
If you are going to burn carbon, it can be domestically produced biofuels, biogas and waste-to-energy.
So, should we be spending money on a big investment in methane storage capacity, or could we spend it better on nuclear, wave, geothermal, biofuels, solar...?
I was curious what the current figures are for UK gas imports. 2024 figures are...
Norway 50.2% Domestic (North Sea) 33.8% US 11% Qatar 1.2% Trinidad and Tobago 1.1% others less than 1% each
And then I thought, what would Trump do? Presumably invade Trinidad and Tobago. How quickly can we get an aircraft carrier to the Caribbean?
As I said earlier, remember Norway already proposed cutting the supply of gas to the UK last year.
And a few other points:
Current hydro capacity is about 1 percent of demand. Pumped Storage is not generation. It is simply a liquid battery. Tidal and geothermal are almost non existent in the UK and successive governments have refused to invest in them, which is criminal to my mind. Interconnectvity can only provide about 9GW of power total. Peak demand in the UK is around 60GW.
All of these things are important and on a decades level, if we get a government with any sense (no laughing at the back please), then tidal, geothermal and nuclear could be a huge leap forward for us. But that is a very very long way away. Even further with the sorts of governments we seem to get these days.
It's worth a mention that the UK's first geothermal power plant has just been turned on:
It's not much and it's been a long time coming, but it's a start.
Its brilliant and we should be doing far more like this. There have been geothermal projects running in the Hampshre Basin for decades but they have never been commercialised/adopted because the Government isn't interested in them.
The average temperature gradient for the North Sea is 25 degrees C per 1000m. This is even higher in some places onshore. The scope for geothermal is huge even though we don't have the vulcanism like Iceland.
Given that we now have lots of oil rigs twiddling their thumbs, would it be viable to put a geothermal engine to produce electricity on them? Or even a SMR?
We don't have any oil rigs twiddling their thumbs. Indeed rig rates have gone through the roof. This is what people don't seem to understand. The oil industry is practially dead in the UK but in the rest of the world it is absolutely booming. There are waiting lists of several years for rigs. In Norway there are drilling campaigns and development projects that have had to be put on hold because they can't get the rigs or the tools to do the work. The average daily rig rate for a semi sub has doubled in the last 18 months.
The only three rigs I know that are not either in refit/modification or are actually working are three that have been converted for abandonment work. And they are only on standby because the technical work is not done yet to allow them to start the projects.
The whole of the rest of the world is drilling - not just the Mad Orange Mullah in the US but everyone. Except us.
Has anyone used the governments new petrol price finder website? Perhaps it also has a code for "no fuel available..."
Some sites have new functionality...
Is this going to be like that incident from a few years ago, when a couple of stations in a specific area ran out of petrol, but Radio 5 Live could talk about nothing else for six hours, treating it as a national emergency and setting off panic buying among all the road warriors who spend their days listening to the radio.
Why should journalists learn from mistakes?
The US are doing a great job today of proving “No matter how much you hate the media, it’s never enough”
What actually happened is there was a demonstration outside Mamdani’s official residence, led by a guy who’s best described as an American Tommy Robinson.
Two jihadis threw bombs into the crowd of demonstrators, which the NYPD have confirmed were viable explosive devices. They were arrested at the scene.
If you only read the headlines, you’d be pretty sure that the people with the bombs were the people protesting Mamdani. The Mayor’s statement also deliberately confuses the situation.
The American Tommy Robinson is described by Sky News thus:
“Mr Lang was previously charged with assaulting an officer with a baseball bat, civil disorder and other crimes before being pardoned as part of President Donald Trump's sweeping act of clemency for defendants connected to the January 6 riots in Washington DC.”
I guess the difference between the US and the UK is that we don’t pardon Tommy Robinson.
The problem isn’t that this guy was a moron, he’s clearly a moron, it’s that the media are being very careful to avoid saying that the bombs were from those opposing him.
No, I think part of the problem is that this guy is a violent nutcase. And part of the problem is that there are some other violent nutcases who chucked a bomb at the first violent nutcase.
The media taking a bit of time to work out what happened and meanwhile just regurgitating bland police reports… not a huge problem, no.
Oh dear.
So the headline is “bomb… far-right protest…. Mamdani residence…”
The actuality is that far-left Islamists, supporters of the mayor, threw bombs at the right-wing protestors.
No, the headline in the UK's leading liberal newspaper is: "Explosive device thrown outside of Zohran Mamdani’s residence at anti-Islam protest"
Which is what happened. Not 'by' or 'during'. At.
Which any regular human would think to mean that the anti-Islam protestors threw a bomb at the residence.
What actually happened is that the protesters were the *victims* of a couple of pro-Mamdani jihadis.
The headline is technically accurate but factually bollocks.
Your interpretation of it is technically and factually bollocks. It's entirely clear, as is the story below, which doesn't adopt the right wing media habit of burying the essential details in the last paragraph.
"libsofticktock". Please.
Really? All “libsoftiktok” has done is pulled headlines from newspapers that are deliberately distorting the incident.
Is that all libsoftiktok has done? Let's check their Wikipedia page:
Libs of TikTok is the username of various American anti-LGBTQ[b] and far-right[a] social-media accounts operated by Chaya Raichik (/ˈxɑːjə ˈraɪtʃɪk/ KHAH-yə RY-chik),[10] [...]
Raichik's posts have resulted in threats, harassment, and doxing perpetuated by her followers against teachers, medical providers, children's hospitals, libraries, LGBTQ venues, and educational facilities.[22][23][24] At least 60 bomb threats have been linked to Libs of TikTok posts.[24][25][26]
[...]
On November 20, 2022, Libs of TikTok received renewed media attention following the Colorado Springs nightclub shooting,[116][22][117] a mass killing that took place at an LGBTQ venue in which five people were killed and dozens more were injured. Club Q, the venue targeted by the shooter, frequently hosts drag events, including those advertised to an all-ages audience. The Independent noted that Libs of TikTok often attracts negative attention to such events with her social media accounts and that harassment and threats are often sent by her followers against patrons and performers following her postings.[22] Hours after the shooting, Raichik used her Twitter account to target a "drag organization" in the same state where the massacre took place, underlining the names of two Colorado state legislators, one of whom was trans, for supporting it.[116][118][119] The Advocate criticized the post, saying that: "In the hours after news of the Club Q shooting spread, Raichik, for example, doubled down on her anti-LGBTQ+ messaging by posting about other drag-inclusive events in the state."[120] They drew attention to an interview previously published on their website with Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, in which she stated that social media accounts such as Libs of TikTok practice stochastic terrorism by provoking extremist outrage against marginalized groups, but using "vague language that allows the agitator to deny responsibility for the act".[120]
Yes, because "Wikipedia" is so famously accurate and unbiased? That's presumably why one of its co-creators has abandoned it, and admits it has been destroyred by leftist editors
"Nobody should trust Wikipedia, says man who invented Wikipedia"
It's more accurate and unbiased than most sources you link to.
I mean, if we're going to have a rule whereby only sources more trustworthy than Wikipedia can be referenced on here it's you and ilk who would be most inconvenienced.
Do you ever say interesting things? You should try it
Says the man who posts pictures of his bric a brac.
It’s a half billion years ago old organism, emerging from the primordial slime. A massive great Trilobite
And right behind it is a vulgar gold copper pot, made in Nazi Germany in about 1941. And the copper pot sits on a ceramic trivet, dating from 1914, celebrating the alliance of the British French and Belgians in the Great War
And the trilobite is resting on a 17th century polychrome delft tile portraying an itinerant piper, which I have sprayed with clear lacquer and adorned with felt feet, turning it into a perfect coaster for my 1780s Georgian amethyst wineglass
And that’s just one corner of my William IV mahogany writing table
“Bric a brac”
Pffff!!
Doing that to a 17th century tile ought to be punishable by the death penalty
lol
Why? I've given it a new purpose. It has a task, a role, a job. Once it was a tile on a wall in Holland of the Golden Age now it is a handsome coaster in north London, several centuries later
If you were a 350 year old tile, would you rather sit in a museum, being ignored and gathering dust, or be part of human life once more, occasionally being splattered with excellent Rioja but getting to feel truly useful. I've basically reincarnated it
Using as a coaster is fine but covering it in lacquer seems a bit invasive and unnecessary. Putting lacquer over it messes up the lovely patina which is one of the main joys of owning antiques. If it's a tile then the firing process should mean that it will survive your Rioja just fine anyway. It's a very small step from what you did to slathering Farrow and Ball Mystic Sage over your William IV writing table.
This ignore several factors. One, I want to put hot drinks on these things, or teapots etc. I don't believe a fragile 17th century patina would endure that. The lacquer protects it, but as it is clear you still see all the lovely colours and details of the hand painting
Also as I've perfected this process - turning antique tiles into coasters (they make brillaint and unique gifts!) I've found better and better lacquers. The last one I did was a manganese Delft tile from the early 18th century. The lacquer actually enhances the tile, it makes it glow and shine. I love it
I'll bow to your superior lacquering knowledge. I used to be an habitue of local auctions (until internet bidding ruined everything) and I've seen enough lovely 18th century cutlery boxes and vases clumsily turned into letter racks and lamps to have an instinctive horror of converting old things.
Perhaps a good time to announce help on energy bills is early May !
Never let a crisis go to waste . At the same time nail Farage and Badenoch to the wall on their support for the war and its economic impact on the UK .
Job done and the elections in May might not be such a horror show for Labour !
Needs to explain where the money is coming from not least with bond rates soaring and huge increases needed now in defence spending
Fuck defence spending until Trump and Bibi have stopped their shit show.
A plane in 6 years not 5 or a shop in 11 years not 10 stops no one from freezing or petrol rising.
"Then two drones exploded next to our building, I was listed #3 on the UAE public prosecutor’s list for “publishing illegal content” (the video of the Fairmont on fire that got 1.7m views) resulting in my X account being banned across the country, followed by another week of hiding in the basement due to constant barrages of missiles and drones.
"Then a couple days ago after Marina 23 and the airport got hit I decided we’ve pushed our luck far enough.
"Made our way over the border into Oman the night before last and flew out this morning.
"Good luck to everyone in the GCC. But if you have the means to get out – I suggest you do so. Don’t FAFO."
LOL, need to monetise the clicks, likes, and shares.
No-one who isn’t an ‘influencer’ is leaving Dubai right now.
I'm sorry, I just don't for a second believe that is true. And yes, you live in Dubai (and I sincerely wish you luck!)
But the fact is most people find the idea of bombs and drones, falling out of the sky, genuinely horrifying, no matter how much evidence you offer that they are statistically more at risk from falling coconuts on a tropical beach (I think that might be true, btw)
You are different. You've shown it. You went to Ukraine twice, or thrice (like me) during the war You've got cullions of tungsten and you can take a bit of danger
Most people can't. Moreover, one of the main reason people MOVE to Dubai is "safety". That and the low taxes are in fact the main attractor. It's not the weather. It's very pleasant in winter but for six months you cannot go outside without frying to death
So these people have lost a massive reason to hang around in Dubai. I would be frankly astonished if lots of them, if they have the choice, are not fleeing ASAP
The random coconuts on the beach probably isn’t far off. As of now there’s been four civilian casualties in the UAE, a country of 11m people. May they rest in peace.
Road accident deaths in an average Ramadan would be way higher than that.
Yeah I’ve been to Ukraine, as have you, and you know that what’s going on there is orders of magnitude worse, with constant sirens and orders to shelter.
Safety in Dubai is still absolute, it’s always been one of the safest places in the world and that hasn’t significantly changed in the past 10 days.
The weather is indeed awesome in the winter and crap in the summer, which is why it’s so popular as a tourist destination. Don’t visit here between Easter and October half-term unless you know what to expect. I always laugh at the crazy deals the hotels do here in August, and the Brits that take the bait and turn up not understanding the climate. Awesome for us locals though, getting $1,000 hotel rooms for $200 out of season.
Yes there’s a few high-profile “millionaires” and “influencers” in Dubai. They’re my customers, and the vast majority of us Brits here are just normal people doing normal jobs earning normal money.
Good luck, stay strong, and I hope you're right
I just have less faith in the fortitude and risk analysis of the average human, perhaps
You should come here, be the only guy who’s actually making a point of going to Dubai right now....
Apart from the tax exiles worried about their 90/120 day limits of course ...
A new analysis finds that Brexit raised the number of foreign-born workers in the UK by about 200,000, but resulted in a more dramatic shift in the countries of origin.
Yep with Europeans no longer coming the intake was unsurprisingly more coloured
Nothing wrong with that at all, unless you're a racist.
The irony is that most people who voted for Brexit are
Most people who voted for Brexit are not racists. But most racists voted for Brexit.
I am trying to picture the associated Venn diagram. I am envisioning a smaller circle marked racist completely subsumed into a larger circle marked Brexit.
That's not a Venn diagram, which by construction never has one circle fully enclosed in another.
I realise that, but how does one represent the fact that every racist voted Brexit but not every Brexiter is a racist.
You can't.
The intersection of Voted Remain and Racist is not a null set.
I am asserting that all racists voted Brexit. I have not conceded than a single racist voted Remain, so draw me my Venn diagram.
I just explained how you would do that (though your work would be incorrect).
A Venn diagram by definition covers all possible combinations. Some combinations can be null sets though.
So the way you could do it is to estimate eg the percentage of voters that you think are racist and voted leave, racist and voted remain, not-racist and voted leave, not-racist and voted remain and put those percentages down on your diagram leaving the intersection of remain and racist (which could be eg outside the two circles but inside the rectangle) as 0.
It wouldn't be correct, but that is how you would represent it.
A new analysis finds that Brexit raised the number of foreign-born workers in the UK by about 200,000, but resulted in a more dramatic shift in the countries of origin.
Yep with Europeans no longer coming the intake was unsurprisingly more coloured
Nothing wrong with that at all, unless you're a racist.
The irony is that most people who voted for Brexit are
Most people who voted for Brexit are not racists. But most racists voted for Brexit.
I am trying to picture the associated Venn diagram. I am envisioning a smaller circle marked racist completely subsumed into a larger circle marked Brexit.
That's not a Venn diagram, which by construction never has one circle fully enclosed in another.
I realise that, but how does one represent the fact that every racist voted Brexit but not every Brexiter is a racist.
You can't.
The intersection of Voted Remain and Racist is not a null set.
I am asserting that all racists voted Brexit. I have not conceded than a single racist voted Remain, so draw me my Venn diagram.
the overlap with Brexit can be almost total but not quite, the bit that doesn't doesn't need to overlap with remain, as there are three options - leave/remain/abstain.
9 days in, the most basic question about the Iran war remains unanswered In just over a week, Trump and top administration officials have given at least 17 different responses about why the war began
"Then two drones exploded next to our building, I was listed #3 on the UAE public prosecutor’s list for “publishing illegal content” (the video of the Fairmont on fire that got 1.7m views) resulting in my X account being banned across the country, followed by another week of hiding in the basement due to constant barrages of missiles and drones.
"Then a couple days ago after Marina 23 and the airport got hit I decided we’ve pushed our luck far enough.
"Made our way over the border into Oman the night before last and flew out this morning.
"Good luck to everyone in the GCC. But if you have the means to get out – I suggest you do so. Don’t FAFO."
LOL, need to monetise the clicks, likes, and shares.
No-one who isn’t an ‘influencer’ is leaving Dubai right now.
I'm sorry, I just don't for a second believe that is true. And yes, you live in Dubai (and I sincerely wish you luck!)
But the fact is most people find the idea of bombs and drones, falling out of the sky, genuinely horrifying, no matter how much evidence you offer that they are statistically more at risk from falling coconuts on a tropical beach (I think that might be true, btw)
You are different. You've shown it. You went to Ukraine twice, or thrice (like me) during the war You've got cullions of tungsten and you can take a bit of danger
Most people can't. Moreover, one of the main reason people MOVE to Dubai is "safety". That and the low taxes are in fact the main attractor. It's not the weather. It's very pleasant in winter but for six months you cannot go outside without frying to death
So these people have lost a massive reason to hang around in Dubai. I would be frankly astonished if lots of them, if they have the choice, are not fleeing ASAP
The random coconuts on the beach probably isn’t far off. As of now there’s been four civilian casualties in the UAE, a country of 11m people. May they rest in peace.
Road accident deaths in an average Ramadan would be way higher than that.
Yeah I’ve been to Ukraine, as have you, and you know that what’s going on there is orders of magnitude worse, with constant sirens and orders to shelter.
Safety in Dubai is still absolute, it’s always been one of the safest places in the world and that hasn’t significantly changed in the past 10 days.
The weather is indeed awesome in the winter and crap in the summer, which is why it’s so popular as a tourist destination. Don’t visit here between Easter and October half-term unless you know what to expect. I always laugh at the crazy deals the hotels do here in August, and the Brits that take the bait and turn up not understanding the climate. Awesome for us locals though, getting $1,000 hotel rooms for $200 out of season.
Yes there’s a few high-profile “millionaires” and “influencers” in Dubai. They’re my customers, and the vast majority of us Brits here are just normal people doing normal jobs earning normal money.
Good luck, stay strong, and I hope you're right
I just have less faith in the fortitude and risk analysis of the average human, perhaps
You should come here, be the only guy who’s actually making a point of going to Dubai right now. Would be a great story.
We’ve about a month of good weather left.
I’ll buy you a beer at Fibber Magee’s Irish Bar.
Weirdly, Fibber Magee's has opened a branch in my home suburb in an old branch of Greggs.
"Then two drones exploded next to our building, I was listed #3 on the UAE public prosecutor’s list for “publishing illegal content” (the video of the Fairmont on fire that got 1.7m views) resulting in my X account being banned across the country, followed by another week of hiding in the basement due to constant barrages of missiles and drones.
"Then a couple days ago after Marina 23 and the airport got hit I decided we’ve pushed our luck far enough.
"Made our way over the border into Oman the night before last and flew out this morning.
"Good luck to everyone in the GCC. But if you have the means to get out – I suggest you do so. Don’t FAFO."
LOL, need to monetise the clicks, likes, and shares.
No-one who isn’t an ‘influencer’ is leaving Dubai right now.
I'm sorry, I just don't for a second believe that is true. And yes, you live in Dubai (and I sincerely wish you luck!)
But the fact is most people find the idea of bombs and drones, falling out of the sky, genuinely horrifying, no matter how much evidence you offer that they are statistically more at risk from falling coconuts on a tropical beach (I think that might be true, btw)
You are different. You've shown it. You went to Ukraine twice, or thrice (like me) during the war You've got cullions of tungsten and you can take a bit of danger
Most people can't. Moreover, one of the main reason people MOVE to Dubai is "safety". That and the low taxes are in fact the main attractor. It's not the weather. It's very pleasant in winter but for six months you cannot go outside without frying to death
So these people have lost a massive reason to hang around in Dubai. I would be frankly astonished if lots of them, if they have the choice, are not fleeing ASAP
The random coconuts on the beach probably isn’t far off. As of now there’s been four civilian casualties in the UAE, a country of 11m people. May they rest in peace.
Road accident deaths in an average Ramadan would be way higher than that.
Yeah I’ve been to Ukraine, as have you, and you know that what’s going on there is orders of magnitude worse, with constant sirens and orders to shelter.
Safety in Dubai is still absolute, it’s always been one of the safest places in the world and that hasn’t significantly changed in the past 10 days.
The weather is indeed awesome in the winter and crap in the summer, which is why it’s so popular as a tourist destination. Don’t visit here between Easter and October half-term unless you know what to expect. I always laugh at the crazy deals the hotels do here in August, and the Brits that take the bait and turn up not understanding the climate. Awesome for us locals though, getting $1,000 hotel rooms for $200 out of season.
Yes there’s a few high-profile “millionaires” and “influencers” in Dubai. They’re my customers, and the vast majority of us Brits here are just normal people doing normal jobs earning normal money.
Good luck, stay strong, and I hope you're right
I just have less faith in the fortitude and risk analysis of the average human, perhaps
You should come here, be the only guy who’s actually making a point of going to Dubai right now. Would be a great story.
We’ve about a month of good weather left.
I’ll buy you a beer at Fibber Magee’s Irish Bar.
A generous offer which I'd happily take up - but must decline. Not coz I'm scared of drones and bombs - I've lingered calmly on an Odessa balcony, wine glass in hand, and watched as the Ukrainians shot down Russian drones 300 metres away from my hotel - and much else
No what puts me off is the fact I've already been travelling hard for two solid months - Thailand, Cambodia, Taiwan, China - and frankly I'm glad to be home. With my Delft tiles, my patriotic Ulster linen tea towels, and my disturbingly eerie new Trilobite
Yeah but it’s the new WAR ZONE!!!!
You could be fact-checking Ms Oaksehott in real time, from a building around the corner from her.
Has anyone used the governments new petrol price finder website? Perhaps it also has a code for "no fuel available..."
Some sites have new functionality...
Is this going to be like that incident from a few years ago, when a couple of stations in a specific area ran out of petrol, but Radio 5 Live could talk about nothing else for six hours, treating it as a national emergency and setting off panic buying among all the road warriors who spend their days listening to the radio.
Why should journalists learn from mistakes?
The US are doing a great job today of proving “No matter how much you hate the media, it’s never enough”
What actually happened is there was a demonstration outside Mamdani’s official residence, led by a guy who’s best described as an American Tommy Robinson.
Two jihadis threw bombs into the crowd of demonstrators, which the NYPD have confirmed were viable explosive devices. They were arrested at the scene.
If you only read the headlines, you’d be pretty sure that the people with the bombs were the people protesting Mamdani. The Mayor’s statement also deliberately confuses the situation.
The American Tommy Robinson is described by Sky News thus:
“Mr Lang was previously charged with assaulting an officer with a baseball bat, civil disorder and other crimes before being pardoned as part of President Donald Trump's sweeping act of clemency for defendants connected to the January 6 riots in Washington DC.”
I guess the difference between the US and the UK is that we don’t pardon Tommy Robinson.
The problem isn’t that this guy was a moron, he’s clearly a moron, it’s that the media are being very careful to avoid saying that the bombs were from those opposing him.
No, I think part of the problem is that this guy is a violent nutcase. And part of the problem is that there are some other violent nutcases who chucked a bomb at the first violent nutcase.
The media taking a bit of time to work out what happened and meanwhile just regurgitating bland police reports… not a huge problem, no.
Oh dear.
So the headline is “bomb… far-right protest…. Mamdani residence…”
The actuality is that far-left Islamists, supporters of the mayor, threw bombs at the right-wing protestors.
No, the headline in the UK's leading liberal newspaper is: "Explosive device thrown outside of Zohran Mamdani’s residence at anti-Islam protest"
Which is what happened. Not 'by' or 'during'. At.
Which any regular human would think to mean that the anti-Islam protestors threw a bomb at the residence.
What actually happened is that the protesters were the *victims* of a couple of pro-Mamdani jihadis.
The headline is technically accurate but factually bollocks.
Your interpretation of it is technically and factually bollocks. It's entirely clear, as is the story below, which doesn't adopt the right wing media habit of burying the essential details in the last paragraph.
"libsofticktock". Please.
Really? All “libsoftiktok” has done is pulled headlines from newspapers that are deliberately distorting the incident.
Is that all libsoftiktok has done? Let's check their Wikipedia page:
Libs of TikTok is the username of various American anti-LGBTQ[b] and far-right[a] social-media accounts operated by Chaya Raichik (/ˈxɑːjə ˈraɪtʃɪk/ KHAH-yə RY-chik),[10] [...]
Raichik's posts have resulted in threats, harassment, and doxing perpetuated by her followers against teachers, medical providers, children's hospitals, libraries, LGBTQ venues, and educational facilities.[22][23][24] At least 60 bomb threats have been linked to Libs of TikTok posts.[24][25][26]
[...]
On November 20, 2022, Libs of TikTok received renewed media attention following the Colorado Springs nightclub shooting,[116][22][117] a mass killing that took place at an LGBTQ venue in which five people were killed and dozens more were injured. Club Q, the venue targeted by the shooter, frequently hosts drag events, including those advertised to an all-ages audience. The Independent noted that Libs of TikTok often attracts negative attention to such events with her social media accounts and that harassment and threats are often sent by her followers against patrons and performers following her postings.[22] Hours after the shooting, Raichik used her Twitter account to target a "drag organization" in the same state where the massacre took place, underlining the names of two Colorado state legislators, one of whom was trans, for supporting it.[116][118][119] The Advocate criticized the post, saying that: "In the hours after news of the Club Q shooting spread, Raichik, for example, doubled down on her anti-LGBTQ+ messaging by posting about other drag-inclusive events in the state."[120] They drew attention to an interview previously published on their website with Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, in which she stated that social media accounts such as Libs of TikTok practice stochastic terrorism by provoking extremist outrage against marginalized groups, but using "vague language that allows the agitator to deny responsibility for the act".[120]
Yes, because "Wikipedia" is so famously accurate and unbiased? That's presumably why one of its co-creators has abandoned it, and admits it has been destroyred by leftist editors
"Nobody should trust Wikipedia, says man who invented Wikipedia"
It's more accurate and unbiased than most sources you link to.
I mean, if we're going to have a rule whereby only sources more trustworthy than Wikipedia can be referenced on here it's you and ilk who would be most inconvenienced.
Do you ever say interesting things? You should try it
Says the man who posts pictures of his bric a brac.
It’s a half billion years ago old organism, emerging from the primordial slime. A massive great Trilobite
And right behind it is a vulgar gold copper pot, made in Nazi Germany in about 1941. And the copper pot sits on a ceramic trivet, dating from 1914, celebrating the alliance of the British French and Belgians in the Great War
And the trilobite is resting on a 17th century polychrome delft tile portraying an itinerant piper, which I have sprayed with clear lacquer and adorned with felt feet, turning it into a perfect coaster for my 1780s Georgian amethyst wineglass
And that’s just one corner of my William IV mahogany writing table
“Bric a brac”
Pffff!!
Doing that to a 17th century tile ought to be punishable by the death penalty
lol
Why? I've given it a new purpose. It has a task, a role, a job. Once it was a tile on a wall in Holland of the Golden Age now it is a handsome coaster in north London, several centuries later
If you were a 350 year old tile, would you rather sit in a museum, being ignored and gathering dust, or be part of human life once more, occasionally being splattered with excellent Rioja but getting to feel truly useful. I've basically reincarnated it
Using as a coaster is fine but covering it in lacquer seems a bit invasive and unnecessary. Putting lacquer over it messes up the lovely patina which is one of the main joys of owning antiques. If it's a tile then the firing process should mean that it will survive your Rioja just fine anyway. It's a very small step from what you did to slathering Farrow and Ball Mystic Sage over your William IV writing table.
This ignore several factors. One, I want to put hot drinks on these things, or teapots etc. I don't believe a fragile 17th century patina would endure that. The lacquer protects it, but as it is clear you still see all the lovely colours and details of the hand painting
Also as I've perfected this process - turning antique tiles into coasters (they make brillaint and unique gifts!) I've found better and better lacquers. The last one I did was a manganese Delft tile from the early 18th century. The lacquer actually enhances the tile, it makes it glow and shine. I love it
I'll bow to your superior lacquering knowledge. I used to be an habitue of local auctions (until internet bidding ruined everything) and I've seen enough lovely 18th century cutlery boxes and vases clumsily turned into letter racks and lamps to have an instinctive horror of converting old things.
Yes, that can be really sad, but even sadder for me is the "museum-ification" of objects meant to be used and enjoyed
eg I have some lovely Bhutanese handmade silks, from the royal silkmaker herself. Bought them in Bhutan 25 years ago on a whim. When redecorating I discovered they are worth a LOT of money. Together they could make £15k at auction. I paid a couple of hundred quid
Friends told me "oh you must frame them and put them on the wall" (or "jesus just sell them")
I decided No, I'm going to keep them, and use them, and let them beautify chairs and tables and rooms (tho maybe out of direct sunlight!) as they were meant to be enjoyed. Life is short, don't put beautiful stuff in a glass box to preserve it for eternity, that's a ludicrous illusion. Carpe diem
9 days in, the most basic question about the Iran war remains unanswered In just over a week, Trump and top administration officials have given at least 17 different responses about why the war began
Many things worth doing have many reasons why they are worth doing.
That there are so many valid reasons why this war is happening is further proof that it is a good idea, not proof that it is a bad one.
You really are off your head, aren't you? The Trump administration has no plan at all, and no means of achieving any of its stated aims. Far from a victorious march to victory, what is most likely to happen is that after a highly disruptive few weeks of conflict, an unstable truce is put in place with none of Trump's aims achieved whatsoever, but at a cost of several trillion dollars, not to mention the shattering of the illusory security of countries in the GCC and a long term economic downturn- not to mention the benefits to Russia.
The abject incompetence of Trump may bring the benefit that the GOP are utterly trashed at the midterms, but then we will have 2 years of infantile bluster from the emasculated Trump, which- granted- is better than he actually retains any power, but will be an abject humiliation for the USA and the West in general.
Has anyone used the governments new petrol price finder website? Perhaps it also has a code for "no fuel available..."
Some sites have new functionality...
Is this going to be like that incident from a few years ago, when a couple of stations in a specific area ran out of petrol, but Radio 5 Live could talk about nothing else for six hours, treating it as a national emergency and setting off panic buying among all the road warriors who spend their days listening to the radio.
Why should journalists learn from mistakes?
The US are doing a great job today of proving “No matter how much you hate the media, it’s never enough”
What actually happened is there was a demonstration outside Mamdani’s official residence, led by a guy who’s best described as an American Tommy Robinson.
Two jihadis threw bombs into the crowd of demonstrators, which the NYPD have confirmed were viable explosive devices. They were arrested at the scene.
If you only read the headlines, you’d be pretty sure that the people with the bombs were the people protesting Mamdani. The Mayor’s statement also deliberately confuses the situation.
The American Tommy Robinson is described by Sky News thus:
“Mr Lang was previously charged with assaulting an officer with a baseball bat, civil disorder and other crimes before being pardoned as part of President Donald Trump's sweeping act of clemency for defendants connected to the January 6 riots in Washington DC.”
I guess the difference between the US and the UK is that we don’t pardon Tommy Robinson.
The problem isn’t that this guy was a moron, he’s clearly a moron, it’s that the media are being very careful to avoid saying that the bombs were from those opposing him.
No, I think part of the problem is that this guy is a violent nutcase. And part of the problem is that there are some other violent nutcases who chucked a bomb at the first violent nutcase.
The media taking a bit of time to work out what happened and meanwhile just regurgitating bland police reports… not a huge problem, no.
Oh dear.
So the headline is “bomb… far-right protest…. Mamdani residence…”
The actuality is that far-left Islamists, supporters of the mayor, threw bombs at the right-wing protestors.
No, the headline in the UK's leading liberal newspaper is: "Explosive device thrown outside of Zohran Mamdani’s residence at anti-Islam protest"
Which is what happened. Not 'by' or 'during'. At.
Which any regular human would think to mean that the anti-Islam protestors threw a bomb at the residence.
What actually happened is that the protesters were the *victims* of a couple of pro-Mamdani jihadis.
The headline is technically accurate but factually bollocks.
Your interpretation of it is technically and factually bollocks. It's entirely clear, as is the story below, which doesn't adopt the right wing media habit of burying the essential details in the last paragraph.
"libsofticktock". Please.
Really? All “libsoftiktok” has done is pulled headlines from newspapers that are deliberately distorting the incident.
Is that all libsoftiktok has done? Let's check their Wikipedia page:
Libs of TikTok is the username of various American anti-LGBTQ[b] and far-right[a] social-media accounts operated by Chaya Raichik (/ˈxɑːjə ˈraɪtʃɪk/ KHAH-yə RY-chik),[10] [...]
Raichik's posts have resulted in threats, harassment, and doxing perpetuated by her followers against teachers, medical providers, children's hospitals, libraries, LGBTQ venues, and educational facilities.[22][23][24] At least 60 bomb threats have been linked to Libs of TikTok posts.[24][25][26]
[...]
On November 20, 2022, Libs of TikTok received renewed media attention following the Colorado Springs nightclub shooting,[116][22][117] a mass killing that took place at an LGBTQ venue in which five people were killed and dozens more were injured. Club Q, the venue targeted by the shooter, frequently hosts drag events, including those advertised to an all-ages audience. The Independent noted that Libs of TikTok often attracts negative attention to such events with her social media accounts and that harassment and threats are often sent by her followers against patrons and performers following her postings.[22] Hours after the shooting, Raichik used her Twitter account to target a "drag organization" in the same state where the massacre took place, underlining the names of two Colorado state legislators, one of whom was trans, for supporting it.[116][118][119] The Advocate criticized the post, saying that: "In the hours after news of the Club Q shooting spread, Raichik, for example, doubled down on her anti-LGBTQ+ messaging by posting about other drag-inclusive events in the state."[120] They drew attention to an interview previously published on their website with Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, in which she stated that social media accounts such as Libs of TikTok practice stochastic terrorism by provoking extremist outrage against marginalized groups, but using "vague language that allows the agitator to deny responsibility for the act".[120]
Yes, because "Wikipedia" is so famously accurate and unbiased? That's presumably why one of its co-creators has abandoned it, and admits it has been destroyed by leftist editors
"Nobody should trust Wikipedia, says man who invented Wikipedia"
Larry Sanger left Wikipedia in a snit and founded Citizendium as a competitor. Twenty years ago.
Citizendium currently has about 17,000 articles. Sanger believes that articles should be held to a high standard of correctness, written by named individuals, and shepherded in to their final form carefully. This doesn't work
Wikipedia currently has 7.1 million English articles. Wales (the founder) believes that articles should be written and corrected via Cunningham's Law, written by people using aliases, and continually evolving. This does work
I know you're parroting some kind of online right shibboleth about how Wiki is der capturred by woke leftists, but it is bollocks.
It really really isn't, you twit. It's been analysed and proven multiple times
"Is Wikipedia Politically Biased? A computational analysis of Wikipedia's content suggests that Wikipedia’s Neutral Point of View policy is not achieving its stated goal of impartiality"
Wiki is still genuinely useful for non controversial topics, but for anything politically explosive it is now so warped as to be near redundant
This applies to multiple contentious issues, btw, it's not a simple left v right dichotomy
Yet all journalism is biased - you can’t say that a Telegraph article is unbiased. Heck history is written by the winners
I wouldn't disagree. Same goes for the Guardian, Times, Mail, Fox, anything
The difference is just that Wiki really was unbiassed, for a while - that's why Wales and Sanger founded it. They thought that crowd-sourcing and crowd-policing an online encyclopedia would produce something uniquely accurate and objective. It was a Utopian vision, and it worked, for a while
Until humans worked out how to game it, how they could capture subjects as senior editors, and all that malarkey, and the Wiki dream died
Likesay, it's still pretty brilliant if you want quick info on the mating rituals of the common eel etc
Why are you forever saying that things which happen to be treasured by good progressive-minded people are doomed or dying?
9 days in, the most basic question about the Iran war remains unanswered In just over a week, Trump and top administration officials have given at least 17 different responses about why the war began
"Then two drones exploded next to our building, I was listed #3 on the UAE public prosecutor’s list for “publishing illegal content” (the video of the Fairmont on fire that got 1.7m views) resulting in my X account being banned across the country, followed by another week of hiding in the basement due to constant barrages of missiles and drones.
"Then a couple days ago after Marina 23 and the airport got hit I decided we’ve pushed our luck far enough.
"Made our way over the border into Oman the night before last and flew out this morning.
"Good luck to everyone in the GCC. But if you have the means to get out – I suggest you do so. Don’t FAFO."
LOL, need to monetise the clicks, likes, and shares.
No-one who isn’t an ‘influencer’ is leaving Dubai right now.
I'm sorry, I just don't for a second believe that is true. And yes, you live in Dubai (and I sincerely wish you luck!)
But the fact is most people find the idea of bombs and drones, falling out of the sky, genuinely horrifying, no matter how much evidence you offer that they are statistically more at risk from falling coconuts on a tropical beach (I think that might be true, btw)
You are different. You've shown it. You went to Ukraine twice, or thrice (like me) during the war You've got cullions of tungsten and you can take a bit of danger
Most people can't. Moreover, one of the main reason people MOVE to Dubai is "safety". That and the low taxes are in fact the main attractor. It's not the weather. It's very pleasant in winter but for six months you cannot go outside without frying to death
So these people have lost a massive reason to hang around in Dubai. I would be frankly astonished if lots of them, if they have the choice, are not fleeing ASAP
The random coconuts on the beach probably isn’t far off. As of now there’s been four civilian casualties in the UAE, a country of 11m people. May they rest in peace.
Road accident deaths in an average Ramadan would be way higher than that.
Yeah I’ve been to Ukraine, as have you, and you know that what’s going on there is orders of magnitude worse, with constant sirens and orders to shelter.
Safety in Dubai is still absolute, it’s always been one of the safest places in the world and that hasn’t significantly changed in the past 10 days.
The weather is indeed awesome in the winter and crap in the summer, which is why it’s so popular as a tourist destination. Don’t visit here between Easter and October half-term unless you know what to expect. I always laugh at the crazy deals the hotels do here in August, and the Brits that take the bait and turn up not understanding the climate. Awesome for us locals though, getting $1,000 hotel rooms for $200 out of season.
Yes there’s a few high-profile “millionaires” and “influencers” in Dubai. They’re my customers, and the vast majority of us Brits here are just normal people doing normal jobs earning normal money.
Good luck, stay strong, and I hope you're right
I just have less faith in the fortitude and risk analysis of the average human, perhaps
You should come here, be the only guy who’s actually making a point of going to Dubai right now. Would be a great story.
We’ve about a month of good weather left.
I’ll buy you a beer at Fibber Magee’s Irish Bar.
Weirdly, Fibber Magee's has opened a branch in my home suburb in an old branch of Greggs.
Yes. It’s the guy’s home town, and he’s literally fulfilling a lifetime ambition doing it.
I’m not sure if he cares it makes any money, because his two bars in Dubai make a fortune!
A new analysis finds that Brexit raised the number of foreign-born workers in the UK by about 200,000, but resulted in a more dramatic shift in the countries of origin.
Yep with Europeans no longer coming the intake was unsurprisingly more coloured
Nothing wrong with that at all, unless you're a racist.
The irony is that most people who voted for Brexit are
Most people who voted for Brexit are not racists. But most racists voted for Brexit.
I am trying to picture the associated Venn diagram. I am envisioning a smaller circle marked racist completely subsumed into a larger circle marked Brexit.
That's not a Venn diagram, which by construction never has one circle fully enclosed in another.
Point of order: that absolutely is a Venn diagram.
A new analysis finds that Brexit raised the number of foreign-born workers in the UK by about 200,000, but resulted in a more dramatic shift in the countries of origin.
Yep with Europeans no longer coming the intake was unsurprisingly more coloured
Nothing wrong with that at all, unless you're a racist.
The irony is that most people who voted for Brexit are
Most people who voted for Brexit are not racists. But most racists voted for Brexit.
I am trying to picture the associated Venn diagram. I am envisioning a smaller circle marked racist completely subsumed into a larger circle marked Brexit.
No diagrams from me but on the question of how big is the racist vote in the UK - the best proxy for this is having a positive opinion of Donald Trump. We have a poll on this thread which does the job for us. You can work it out from that. I have done and it accords with what I thought, give or take. You cannot win an election with this vote but if you can snaffle it en bloc and in doing so somehow not repel the mass of apolitical floating voters then you probably will. This, in a nutshell, is Nigel Farage's challenge.
There isn't necessarily always going to be a cold, dark, still week in January that we are never able to cover with renewables. Tidal and geothermal continue regardless of the weather. Hydroelectric is less connected to the weather and pumped-storage hydroelectricity is unaffected by the weather. More efficient solar and more solar means you make the most of whatever the weather conditions are. Better interconnectivity means you can rely on somewhere where it's windier and brighter.
If you are going to burn carbon, it can be domestically produced biofuels, biogas and waste-to-energy.
So, should we be spending money on a big investment in methane storage capacity, or could we spend it better on nuclear, wave, geothermal, biofuels, solar...?
I was curious what the current figures are for UK gas imports. 2024 figures are...
Norway 50.2% Domestic (North Sea) 33.8% US 11% Qatar 1.2% Trinidad and Tobago 1.1% others less than 1% each
And then I thought, what would Trump do? Presumably invade Trinidad and Tobago. How quickly can we get an aircraft carrier to the Caribbean?
As I said earlier, remember Norway already proposed cutting the supply of gas to the UK last year.
And a few other points:
Current hydro capacity is about 1 percent of demand. Pumped Storage is not generation. It is simply a liquid battery. Tidal and geothermal are almost non existent in the UK and successive governments have refused to invest in them, which is criminal to my mind. Interconnectvity can only provide about 9GW of power total. Peak demand in the UK is around 60GW.
All of these things are important and on a decades level, if we get a government with any sense (no laughing at the back please), then tidal, geothermal and nuclear could be a huge leap forward for us. But that is a very very long way away. Even further with the sorts of governments we seem to get these days.
It's worth a mention that the UK's first geothermal power plant has just been turned on:
It's not much and it's been a long time coming, but it's a start.
Its brilliant and we should be doing far more like this. There have been geothermal projects running in the Hampshre Basin for decades but they have never been commercialised/adopted because the Government isn't interested in them.
The average temperature gradient for the North Sea is 25 degrees C per 1000m. This is even higher in some places onshore. The scope for geothermal is huge even though we don't have the vulcanism like Iceland.
Given that we now have lots of oil rigs twiddling their thumbs, would it be viable to put a geothermal engine to produce electricity on them? Or even a SMR?
There isn't necessarily always going to be a cold, dark, still week in January that we are never able to cover with renewables. Tidal and geothermal continue regardless of the weather. Hydroelectric is less connected to the weather and pumped-storage hydroelectricity is unaffected by the weather. More efficient solar and more solar means you make the most of whatever the weather conditions are. Better interconnectivity means you can rely on somewhere where it's windier and brighter.
If you are going to burn carbon, it can be domestically produced biofuels, biogas and waste-to-energy.
So, should we be spending money on a big investment in methane storage capacity, or could we spend it better on nuclear, wave, geothermal, biofuels, solar...?
I was curious what the current figures are for UK gas imports. 2024 figures are...
Norway 50.2% Domestic (North Sea) 33.8% US 11% Qatar 1.2% Trinidad and Tobago 1.1% others less than 1% each
And then I thought, what would Trump do? Presumably invade Trinidad and Tobago. How quickly can we get an aircraft carrier to the Caribbean?
As I said earlier, remember Norway already proposed cutting the supply of gas to the UK last year.
And a few other points:
Current hydro capacity is about 1 percent of demand. Pumped Storage is not generation. It is simply a liquid battery. Tidal and geothermal are almost non existent in the UK and successive governments have refused to invest in them, which is criminal to my mind. Interconnectvity can only provide about 9GW of power total. Peak demand in the UK is around 60GW.
All of these things are important and on a decades level, if we get a government with any sense (no laughing at the back please), then tidal, geothermal and nuclear could be a huge leap forward for us. But that is a very very long way away. Even further with the sorts of governments we seem to get these days.
It's worth a mention that the UK's first geothermal power plant has just been turned on:
It's not much and it's been a long time coming, but it's a start.
Its brilliant and we should be doing far more like this. There have been geothermal projects running in the Hampshre Basin for decades but they have never been commercialised/adopted because the Government isn't interested in them.
The average temperature gradient for the North Sea is 25 degrees C per 1000m. This is even higher in some places onshore. The scope for geothermal is huge even though we don't have the vulcanism like Iceland.
Given that we now have lots of oil rigs twiddling their thumbs, would it be viable to put a geothermal engine to produce electricity on them? Or even a SMR?
We don't have any oil rigs twiddling their thumbs. Indeed rig rates have gone through the roof. This is what people don't seem to understand. The oil industry is practially dead in the UK but in the rest of the world it is absolutely booming. There are waiting lists of several years for rigs. In Norway there are drilling campaigns and development projects that have had to be put on hold because they can't get the rigs or the tools to do the work. The average daily rig rate for a semi sub has doubled in the last 18 months.
The only three rigs I know that are not either in refit/modification or are actually working are three that have been converted for abandonment work. And they are only on standby because the technical work is not done yet to allow them to start the projects.
The whole of the rest of the world is drilling - not just the Mad Orange Mullah in the US but everyone. Except us.
At present, all five Nordic countries straddle the Arctic circle (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark (via Greenland), and Iceland). However, Iceland is just clinging on, and in the near-future it will lose* its place in that list altogether. https://x.com/theiaincameron/status/2030981868527464910
Comments
The only three rigs I know that are not either in refit/modification or are actually working are three that have been converted for abandonment work. And they are only on standby because the technical work is not done yet to allow them to start the projects.
The whole of the rest of the world is drilling - not just the Mad Orange Mullah in the US but everyone. Except us.
A Venn diagram by definition covers all possible combinations. Some combinations can be null sets though.
So the way you could do it is to estimate eg the percentage of voters that you think are racist and voted leave, racist and voted remain, not-racist and voted leave, not-racist and voted remain and put those percentages down on your diagram leaving the intersection of remain and racist (which could be eg outside the two circles but inside the rectangle) as 0.
It wouldn't be correct, but that is how you would represent it.
Ah, no wait, I see how that doesn't work.
She's determined to competely destroy the Tory Party
I'm quite warming to her.
NEW THREAD
My dad will be livid if Boris blunders back on scene
Now the Israelis, they know what they are doing. Bomb Iran back to the Stone Age and keep them there.
You could be fact-checking Ms Oaksehott in real time, from a building around the corner from her.
eg I have some lovely Bhutanese handmade silks, from the royal silkmaker herself. Bought them in Bhutan 25 years ago on a whim. When redecorating I discovered they are worth a LOT of money. Together they could make £15k at auction. I paid a couple of hundred quid
Friends told me "oh you must frame them and put them on the wall" (or "jesus just sell them")
I decided No, I'm going to keep them, and use them, and let them beautify chairs and tables and rooms (tho maybe out of direct sunlight!) as they were meant to be enjoyed. Life is short, don't put beautiful stuff in a glass box to preserve it for eternity, that's a ludicrous illusion. Carpe diem
The abject incompetence of Trump may bring the benefit that the GOP are utterly trashed at the midterms, but then we will have 2 years of infantile bluster from the emasculated Trump, which- granted- is better than he actually retains any power, but will be an abject humiliation for the USA and the West in general.
Foreign Secretary.
He'd love to shaft the legacy of Cameron again.
He's also probably the only living Tory who can move the immovable Pritti.
Oh hang on..
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/09/revealed-uks-multibillion-ai-drive-is-built-on-phantom-investments
I'd have expected Cameron to beat him to it...
I’m not sure if he cares it makes any money, because his two bars in Dubai make a fortune!
https://x.com/theiaincameron/status/2030981868527464910
(*and eventually regain it.)