leicsmac

...Years and Years timeline, anyone?

On the gen topic above, a quote: "What is the only provocation that could bring about the use of nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons. What is the priority target for nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons. What is the only established defense against nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons. How do we prevent the use of nuclear weapons? By threatening the use of nuclear weapons. And we can't get rid of nuclear weapons, because of nuclear weapons. The intransigence, it seems, is a function of the weapons themselves."

That size of ego and thinness of skin really isn't the best combination for a world leader, is it?

A couple of other interesting takeaways from that chart: - Reform are poaching mostly from the Tories rather than a broader base and once they're there they're tending to stay there. - their age appeal does lean more towards 50+, but around one third are still below the age of 50.

No idea. Also have no idea why some folks are so enamoured of the idea of the above mentioned Cold War style world where the big powers carve up everything else, but this time they're just a little less antagonistic towards each other.

I emphatically agree. That's why any agreement has to come with security guarantees, or it's pointless.

Yes, it's the powers that be reverting to the old "spheres of influence" model best known during the Cold War (but with less actual antagonism between those same powers). Whether people think that's acceptable or even inimical to future progress and survival as a civilisation is clearly up to the beholder. Personally, I think that an agreement along the lines of "Russia gets what it has taken, but it won't happen again" will be arrived at, and, yet again, the deaths and displacement of millions of people for the sake of some puerile great game is tragic and, more importantly, meaningless.

There will be an agreement reached before that happens, simply because as much as both the US and Russian leadership value looking hard, they value their own ego and self-preservation more. If, gods forbid, it does happen, it will be because of some kind of terrible error or misunderstanding at some point in escalation, not as a deliberate act.

Yep. And I think it's a "charity" from the point of view that it's an organisation that doesn't turn a profit? Its current objectives certainly do not seem particularly charitable.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c86076qd40xo The heads of the UK's national institute for artificial intelligence (AI) have acknowledged recent months have been "challenging" for staff as the charity undergoes "substantial" change. It comes after staff raised "serious and escalating concerns" in a whistleblowing complaint this week submitted to the Charity Commission. They warned that the body - which receives £100m from the government - is at risk of collapse after Technology Secretary Peter Kyle instructed it to prioritise defence, and threatened to pull its funding if it did not. In a letter seen by the BBC, Chair Dr Doug Gurr said the Turing Institute would "step up at a time of national need". It's one of those sad truths that when tech moves forward, even in a place like the UK, it tends to manifest itself around the cause of killing people. Oh no, sorry, "defence".

Absolutely right. Only thing to do is to keep fighting the good fight. "They cannot conquer forever."

There's plenty of good and altruistic mixed in with the evil, both past and present. However, while humans have stayed humans, our technological power has not, and therefore the stakes are higher than they have been at any time since the dawn of recorded civilisation. So things do have to change, because if they don't, the next time the wheel is spun and it lands on a zero, the consequences will not be limited as they have been in historical examples, simply because of how far we've come along the tech tree. The old ideas can't survive the new times.

I think that's entirely possible, but my point about any sane human not wanting to be part of the world after all that still stands. The first could easily set off the second there. Nothing gets guns firing like lack of vital resources, which increased global average temperature will happily facilitate if our species lets it.

If you're right about this, then IMO there's not much point in stocking up as no one sane would want to live in the world that would exist afterwards. The dead, those who went instantly and painlessly, would be the luckiest. I've never understood survivalist rhetoric in a world that would be nothing but suffering even though the idea of death terrifies me.

Appreciate the elaboration. I think in that case the European powers will have known this corner was coming at some point ever since November 5th 2024 - the wedge on this matter has clearly and obviously existed between Europe and the US since that date. One would hope in that case that they now have had time to form a workable contingency, or perhaps it was all for show and they knew that bullshit Might Makes Right realpolitik in all its death, suffering and ugliness would succeed in spite of all they're trying to do yet again.

May I ask how so?

Starship Flight 10 set for August 24th. They really could do with getting one totally right.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn02g0n2kepo The death toll from heavy monsoon floods and landslides in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir continues to rise rapidly, with at least 307 people confirmed dead. Most of the deaths were recorded by disaster authorities in the mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in north-west Pakistan. At least 74 homes have been damaged, while a rescue helicopter crashed during operations, killing its five crew. Nine were killed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, while another five died in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, authorities said. Government forecasters said heavy rainfall was expected until 21 August in the north-west of the country, where several areas have been declared disaster zones. That's horrible. ...In July, Punjab, home to nearly half of Pakistan's 255 million people, recorded 73% more rainfall than the previous year and more deaths than in the entire previous monsoon. Scientists say that climate change has made weather events more extreme and more frequent. Northern Pakistan is also one of the most glaciated areas in the region, but they are fast thinning and retreating because of global warming - meaning debris such as rocks, soil, and other materials are vulnerable to being dislodged. Monsoon rains now further destabilise the mountains, resulting in landslides. While the exact cause of the recent floods and landslides are yet to be determined, glaciologists say that ice melt is a contributing factor. ... doubly horrible when the root cause is at least reasonably obvious.

To add to this: Anyone who "Backs British Farming" and then completely ignores/downplays/denies the anthropogenic causes of changing weather patterns which are by far the biggest threat to their industry - and to food supply for everyone else - in the medium and long term.

Both jury trial and jury nullification should be options avaliable to everyone in a free and fair society, yes.

I am, but I was making the distinction because there are so many out there much better at it than I am.

The truly perverse thing about the Covid pandemic may be that it wasn't devastating enough. It took lives, destroyed lives, so many of them, but the fact that so many people didn't consider it to be a problem, either at the time or now, leading directly to the path that those Stateside have taken, possibly means that it didn't touch enough lives to convince enough folks of the truth that natural events (whether human driven or not), are the greatest threat to them. That will come back to haunt our species. It is doing so already. Not being able to look beyond a tribal mindset that results in both paranoia about other human groups and failure to understand threats that are global when they're not in your face is such a weakness. Such a costly one, too.

Welcome to the political dilemma science communicators (and me) have been tearing our hair out about for a long time now. Being opposed to what is perceived a problem and then be also opposed to addressing the root causes of that problem both present and future is a truly amazing feat of cognitive dissonance. Not only is it frustrating, it costs money and lives, and will cost a lot more over time.

I keep saying it, but Kojima called it almost 25 years ago. I fear, however, that in terms of possible devastation caused by such digital division, we have really seen nothing yet. As always though, I really hope that I'm wrong.

Don't let facts get in the way of anecdotes.