leicsmac

You're not alone there. I don't think anyone would. A major war now would play out like the movie Threads. Only worse.

I've never really understood this idea. Words are important. Words have power both for and over people. Words often lead to deeds. That's why the dictatorships of the past and present always reduce access to them. Fully appreciate the salient point about police resources though, and you do wonder where the resources are going given this era where it really should be much easier to deal with petty theft and the like.

In other news, 80 years today since Victory in Japan was declared, and official hostilities in World War II came to an end. Never Again.

Fair enough, so it is Appeal to Bigger Problems then based on anecdotes, then? I can see why that would be compelling, given the current environment. Speaking of anecdotes, the women I know that I've talked to have indicated that they (and every other woman) have experienced harassment of this type, and while they do mostly have to just brush it off it would be nice if some blokes would acknowledge that it's 2025, not 1965, and actually pick their clubs off the ground rather than dragging them around. I'm inclined to agree with them, given that there are so many better ways to express admiration that don't involve deliberately trying to make a person uncomfortable, and so I'm not altogether sad that at least some police resources are being used to remind these blokes that the freedom to unsolicited harassment sometimes comes with the freedom to take the consequences.

... is there anything for this beyond the theoretical or is it just a very cogent and structured example of a Appeal to Bigger Problems Fallacy? NB. I'd be interested in hearing what women think of this matter given they're the ones having the trouble.

The US police forces in a few places including DC have been discriminatory along lines of skin colour? That's a matter of record that is easily citable. (That being said, again, this particular comment was more tongue in cheek.) Of course, the moderators here are always free to do as they like with no complaint from me. Edit: If there's any more you'd like to comment on our last bit of back-and-forth, I'd be interested.

Score one for the former category! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgr94xxye2lo Artificial intelligence has invented two new potential antibiotics that could kill drug-resistant gonorrhoea and MRSA, researchers have revealed. The drugs were designed atom-by-atom by the AI and killed the superbugs in laboratory and animal tests. The two compounds still need years of refinement and clinical trials before they could be prescribed. But the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) team behind it say AI could start a "second golden age" in antibiotic discovery.

In a rather more bright and amusing fuzz story, apparently some UK lady police officers have been picking off some low-tier misogynists by posing as joggers: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/undercover-police-joggers-catcalling-surrey-women-harassment-b2806738.html Top tip: if you don't want to get a tap on the shoulder as a knuckle-dragging harasser of women, don't act like one.

Tongue firmly in cheek on that one, hence the emoji afterwards. The above being said...once again though, it's pretty unreal that the person - whoever they are - likely only crossed paths with the fuzz because of a truly sensational piece of gaslighting and falsehood from the powers that be over there.

Those qualities, and/or focused and determined sociopathy, appear to be a prerequisite for high or mid level government work over there right now.

Yeah, true. Person must have been white otherwise they'd be another statistic right now. And to think this all started because some supremacist YouTuber goon in favour with the current government got a kicking.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy7ypm6zxp2o Imagine doing time for throwing a sandwich at a policeman, who was only there because of a massive ideological lie.

If this is true and class ideology is the key driver here, then I wonder why people from an equal or lower socioeconomic background are being targeted at the present time on the matter, simply because they happen to be a different skin colour or come from a different "place".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9vd79x97zlo Cities across the UK are facing a growing threat from an emerging phenomenon called "firewaves" as temperatures rise due to climate change, scientists have warned. The term, coined by researchers at Imperial College London, describes multiple urban wildfires triggered by extended periods of hot, dry weather. The warning comes as firefighters battled three separate heath fires in London and a dramatic gorse blaze on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh in recent days, as this summer's latest heatwave left vegetation across both capitals dangerously dry. These fires, though now contained, highlight the increasing vulnerability of urban areas to wildfires - a risk that was once considered largely rural. Nothing but good news right now, huh?

The divisions you talk of here do have to stop, or at least be mitigated. That is a matter of necessity.

I feel the same when other folks decide to beat a retreat rather than fully defending their point when scientific fact and consequence are explained to them. But I guess people are people and in the case of the forum the rules are the rules and we all post here at the sufferance of those who set those rules.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz71rp7yn05o The wife of South Korea's jailed former president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has been arrested over a raft of charges, including stock manipulation and bribery. Former first lady Kim Keon Hee denied all charges during a four-hour court hearing in Seoul on Tuesday. But the court issued a detention warrant, citing the risk that she may destroy evidence. South Korea has a history of former presidents being indicted and imprisoned. However, this is the first time both the former president and former first lady have been jailed. Yoon was detained in January to face trial over a failed martial law bid last year that plunged the country into chaos and eventually led to his ouster. Prosecutors say Kim, 52, made over 800 million won ($577,940; £428,000) by participating in a price-rigging scheme involving the stocks of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer in South Korea. The SK's don't tend to mess around when it comes to corrupt politics.

*plays Colonel speech from end of Metal Gear Solid 2 again* "The world is being engulfed in 'truth'". It's as plausible a theory as any tbh.

Another thing to add. Everything, including the political, appears to have become so much more personal. And far too many people conflate the "personal" with "always important".

It wasn't just the UK, either. Around that time things started to get pushed to 11 in other places, too. As for what happened or exactly how it happened, I have no idea. Which is frustrating because getting a bead on exactly how we ended up here is critical to addressing it going forward.

One part of the solution, yes.

Farmers are vital and should be supported as needed, I agree. That includes a multifaceted approach including measures to ensure that the land they're growing/raising stuff on continues to remain in somewhere approaching a condition to do so.

Net zero carbon emissions is the only way to food security long term, or even medium term. We're seeing just a taste of what more extremes of weather driven by increasing global average temperature can do to food sourcing in the UK.

I'm trying to put my finger on exactly when such things became so fast-food. The era of widespread instant digital communication, perhaps? Or perhaps things always were that way and the digital era has just given the sentiment much more power.

I'm actually inclined to think that Clarkson is just engaging in some ragebait/engagement farming here, as he's on record as knowing what the problem is and what needs to be done. Being a farmer appears to have opened his eyes somewhat there. Perhaps that's giving him too much of the benefit of the doubt, though.