Marcus Nichols

yup: ICE SUVs Range Rover Sport, Land Rover Defender, Volvo XC90 2,200 – 2,600+kg Electric SUVs Kia EV9, BMW iX, Tesla Model Y 2,200 – 2,800+kg So, the 'enormous' difference in kerbweight of an average regular SUV vs the electric equivalent is ~200kg max, (or about 1 Jeremey Clarkson).

Well, I knew that Stalin exterminated the Kulaks in Ukraine and the forced agricultural collectivisation that followed led to near universal starvation in rural areas as apparatchiks seized all the food and grain for the proles in the cities. I just did not know it had a name. I knew that Bolsheviks made common cause with Mensheviks and others to overthrow the Tsar before the slaughter began.

My mom has a Master's Degree in History Education and wrote her dissertation on the Holocaust. I asked her about the Bolshevik Revolution and she didn't know what it was. This is how fake and gay our education system is.

Or how about a photo of any of the 4 independent Islamist MP's grassroots orgs?

@HazelAppleyard I can't claim this as my own. I think I read it many decades ago in a UK edition Readers' Digest magazine.

@HazelAppleyard Try "so brave of you not wearing a bra".

I aspire to be this petty

@strikitea Wow!, such attention to detail. Very impressive.

@MMCLN 操作方式はISOです カウンタウエイトはブームから先の重さと同じくらいになるように鉄や鉛で7kgの重さにしてあります（おそらくカウンタウエイトの重さは不足しています）

#HitachiZX890ラジコン まだ未完成だけど1年半にわたる制作期間と20万円以上をかけて作ってきた1/12スケールのラジコンを砂浜で動かしてきた 何度も壊れてアップグレードを繰り返してきたので、壊れずに十分な掘削能力があることが証明されて本当に嬉しい　 何にも代えがたい達成感がある

Fun fact; the WB-57 was a license built version of the English Electric Canberra light jet bomber which first flew in May 1949. English Electric was a railway locomotive and heavy electrical manufacturer. They were given the Canberra contract because 'everyone else was busy' with other projects. EE later went on to build the Lightning, Britains only Mach 2+ supersonic interceptor. The B-57 Canberra was the American-built version (license-produced by Martin). It was the only foreign aircraft ever adopted in large numbers by the U.S. Air Force. NASA still operates three heavily modified WB-57s for high-altitude scientific research. They are the last flying Canberras in the world. It held the world altitude record for several years (reaching over 63,000 ft / 19,200 m in 1955).

@WEASEL32 @kero_gami During Artemis reentry and splashdown the NASA commentators mentioned NASA using a WB-57 to film the reentry. facebook.com/groups/3487044…

@kero_gami 米国防総省のアメリカミサイル防衛局（MDA）が保有する特殊望遠カメラを搭載したガルフストリーム機で追尾撮影しています 極超音速ミサイルも補足できるので大気圏に再突入するカプセルのモニターに使われました defence-blog.com/highly-modifie…

スマホの望遠で飛行機撮るのだって大変なのに、飛行機なんて比じゃない速度で落ちてくるちっこい宇宙船をこの望遠で、しかも空撮で逃さずに撮るカメラマンさんエグいよなぁ…。パラシュートカバー飛んでくとこもちゃんと撮れてるんだぜ…。

This is the rub. For five or six decades or more, the civil service have frustrated elected MP's attempts at governing. If a minister deviated from the Whitehall plan, they would just slow-walk them until the minister was replaced. If a minister pushed, the civil service briefed against them and if that did not bring them into line, they rolled out the cry bully tactics, got HR involved and got a senior civil servant to conduct an enquiry about how senior civil servants were harmed by workplace bullying. My take is everything starts there. Reform or replace the civil service or nothing else changes.

C'mon Mike, its the Electronic Frontier Foundation ffs. It's in their bio.

She should get herself to Calais, I hear that they have a regular boat service across the channel.

@t3mp3rl3y The weight/height difference makes me think that there's also an age difference? He was set up to be beat.

Mujer acepta pelear con un niño: arranca castigándolo con saña. Él absorbe, espera, mide. Cuando decide que basta, una sola patada y se termina. La escena, lejos de épica, resulta casi pedagógica (para quien quiera entender).

This replicates across many industries and sectors. One Saturday morning my phone began pinging with alerts for a series of unapproved debits from my online banking app. Because online banking, I was able to immediately login and freeze my account. So the bleeding stopped. I next tried to call the bank, but its one of those fancy new no brick and mortar branches online only operations. There was an online fraud reporting tool but it was quite clumsy, I had to challenge each of the ~10 transactions individually. Next I tried calling the destination of all the fraudulent payments, an online sports betting site. Because weekend (when most ppl are betting?), the call was answered immediately, I mean before the first ring. A quick description of my problem and they transferred me to their fraud section, again with no delay. The fraud contact took my details, asked a few questions and accepted my verbal assertion that I did not make the bets and agreed to cancel the charges and reverse them. Without any equivocation, pushback or foot dragging. Next up, I called the local police on their non emergency number. They told me they did not receive or record fraud reports because it now done by the Home Office online. I went online and started filing fraud reports. Each report was done individually, I mean, name, contact info, description of fraud and time date and amount of fraud etc. It took an hour. Betting op reversed the charges Monday? I think. Online bank cancelled the debits with credits then reversed that once they saw that the betting operation had repaid. Finally the Home Office sent me an email to state that they had closed the investigation and because the charges had been reversed, "no fraud had been committed". So UK stats are that ~£550m in debit card fraud from ~3.1m cards (2023). So just how much would be the figure if the "no fraud committed" figures were included?

知り合いから聞いた話が、あまりにもリアルだったので書いておく。 サブスクを解約しようと思い、解約専用の電話番号に何度かけても繋がらなかったらしい。 10分、20分、30分。保留音だけが流れ続けた。「もう諦めようかな」と思いかけたとき、ふと試してみたことがあった。 同じ会社の、申し込みフォームに載っている番号にかけてみた。 2コールで繋がった。 「なんで？」と思ったらしい。 でもこれは偶然じゃない。構造的な話だ。 多くの企業にとって、解約は「損失」で、申し込みは「利益」だ。 だからオペレーターの数が、そのまま優先順位に反映される。 申し込み窓口には人を厚く配置し、解約窓口は意図的に繋がりにくくする。 待たせることで「面倒だからまあいいか」と諦めさせる。 これはダークパターンと呼ばれる、企業が意図的に設計したユーザー体験の罠だ。 その知り合いは申し込み窓口から繋いでもらい、そのまま解約の手続きを取り次いでもらったらしい。 担当者は少し戸惑っていたが、断られることはなかった。 知っておくと役立つ対抗手段がある。 解約電話が繋がらないとき、申し込み番号に電話する。それでも対応されない場合、「解約の意思を内容証明郵便で送る」と伝えると、対応が急に変わることがある。 契約上、解約の意思表示は書面でも有効だからだ。 企業が設計した「諦めさせる仕組み」に気づいた瞬間、もう騙されない。

Good question. There are multiple overlapping answers. 1st, MP's and ministers have no power. All power has been transferred from Westminster to Whitehall for >50 years. Since the purpose of cabinet was changed to adopt EEC/EC/EU directives as prepared by CS and drive that through Parliament with the "least amount of hissing", cabinet has forgotten how to govern and Whitehall now believes that they set the agenda. MP's and their parties know this, hence the abjectly mediocre cadre of MP's and Peers across Parliament today. 2nd, junior ministers are given too much to manage. During the Post Office Horizon enquiry, it became apparent (to many of us who had not realised it before) that a British junior minister might be given 6 or more unrelated portfolios to manage simultaneously and would be churned out in ~12-18 months. Add to thgis their civil service advisors are on their own 24 month treadmill and both outgoing ministers and civil servants 'feel' they are forbidden to verbally handover when being replaced. Singapore is slightly different. PAP, the ruling party has been in power since independence and truly believe that the people, the parliament and the party are all in the same dragon boat, rowing in the same direction. SG ministers and MP's are paid a bunch of money (amongst highest paid legislators in the world). That tends to attract top talent. SG having no cringe or kowtow fealty owed to any other external authority, makes its own laws. Mp's get to play their part in that. As for junior ministers in SG government, they might have two portfolios (not 4-8 like in UK) and they will be related such as Education & Manpower. They also generally get far longer than 12-18 months in post and are advised by a much higher class of civil servants.

I always weep reading the Wikipedia pages of senior Singaporean politicians. The general career path seems to be: Excel at school and secure a scholarship to study some super difficult subject, like maths or physics, at Cambridge University. Excel at university and get a scholarship to do a post-grad degree in governance or an MBA at Harvard. Join the Singaporean military and excel. Reach at least the rank of Brigadier or General. Enter politics. Excel even compared with others who have similar CVs, rise to become a senior position. Compare that with the career path of the average senior British politican. Get the same results as every other middle class child at school. Do PPE or straight up politics at university. Leverage your contacts to become a SPAD for a cabinet or shadow cabinet member. Get a column writing gig at the Spectator, Economist or New Statesman Become a more senior SPAD. Run in an impossible to win seat to prove you really want to be in parliament. Get parachuted into a safe seat as a rising star. Get a junior ministerial position in the first reshuffle after the election. Get made a cabinet member after the next election. Now, why is Singapore an extremely well run country and we are not?

At first glance this reads like KS is leading the initiative and wants DT to join in?

Most soy is not grown for latte milk. ~80% of soyabean production is for feedlot cattle and dairy, intensive CAFO piggeries, battery chicken and aquaculture (fish farms). Mostly illegal in UK. As for the ~15% or so soy processed for human food, any that is not fermented contains enough 'phytoestrogens' for men to grow their own tits. So, ya know, there's that.

@SamaHoole @thames_pilgrim Farming beef cattle produces about 8kg of edible protein per acre per year, and about 6 tonnes of CO2. Soya, a viable crop in the U.K. (especially in the south), produces 400-500kg of edible protein per acre per year, and about 1.5 tonnes of CO2. So, ya know, there's that.

You want to know the most efficient land use in Britain? Not almonds. (You can't grow almonds here. The climate would make them feel personally attacked.) Not avocados. (Laughable.) Not quinoa. (We tried. It's fine. It's not fine.) Grass. Which grows on the 65% of British agricultural land that cannot support arable crops. Which feeds ruminants. Which converts that grass into complete protein, saturated fat, and fat-soluble vitamins through a digestive system that has been running without modification for forty million years. The cow is not a problem to be solved. The cow is the solution that was already here.

"Intelligence-led operation?" Do they mean they activated "find my phone" and got 500 hits from one shop?

I didn't think AstroTurf needed mowing?