leicsmac

The Fleshlight. But in all seriousness, fair point. I think it's wise to know though that the higher the power of a new invention, the greater degree of both good and bad it can cause. AI has the potential to be very powerful in that way.

Yeah, that's about right. Unfortunately the ROK seems to be stuck in a revolving door of having the leading two parties taking turns with power (and then get kicked out/ impeached/ arrested) every five years, so I fear that in five years time we might be back here with the same problems involving an idiot hawk in charge.

From the other side of the world... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c79llljy4qeo South Korea's military has shrunk to about 450,000 people - a decline of 20% over the last six years, according to a defence ministry report released by a ruling party lawmaker on Sunday. Authorities say the main reason behind the decline is the country's dismal birth rate, which at 0.75 babies per woman is the world's lowest. South Korea retains compulsory military service mainly because the country is still technically at war with its nuclear-armed neighbour North Korea. Demographic crisis might lead to a problem... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2klzxldl6o South Korea's military says North Korea has begun removing some of the loudspeakers used to broadcast propaganda across the border between the two countries. North Korea's move appears to be a positive reaction to the overtures from newly elected South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who had campaigned on improving inter-Korean ties. South Korea dismantled some of its own loudspeakers earlier this week. It had halted broadcasts along the demilitarised zone shortly after Lee took office in June - prompting a similar response from its neighbour. ... or perhaps not, if we continue to see this kind of promising detente.

Climate is the principal driver of weather. Of course, carbon dioxide is far from the only greenhouse gas (methane another key party there), but from the first page of this very thread: https://www.nature.com/articles/srep21691 "Our study unambiguously shows one-way causality between the total Greenhouse Gases and GMTA (Global Mean Temperature Anomalies). Specifically, it is confirmed that the former, especially CO2, are the main causal drivers of the recent warming." If people are quibbling over what they think is a lack of consensus on what particular gases drive climate change, then they are mistaken and such quibbles are pointless given the drivers are pretty much accounted for within the scientific consensus of data. It's absolutely right that the warming climate results in more extreme events, and that should be emphasised. NB. I think at this point you show a rather extremely disproportionate level of charity to the climate change ignorers corps by believing them to be simply sceptical of a few parts of the drivers of it, rather than (as appears to be more and more obvious) either ignorant or maliciously self-interested or both. Giving the benefit of the doubt to them and entertaining their points in practically any fashion involving policy decision-making at this time is nothing more than wasting time. Time that costs money and lives, both present and future.

It is difficult to tell whether or not Vance's added smarts would be more dangerous (as in he's more effective at xenophobic nationalism) or less (in that he would actually be inclined to listen to voices of reason and cooperation and be talked round by them). Hopefully we won't have to find out.

Would agree with both of these. Guess only time will tell. The one thing I think I could add is that I don't think he can play to the gallery of bigoted prejudice in the same way that Trump can and that might have an effect on the landscape in a few years time.

Appreciate the clarification, and fair enough. It's certainly a problem of complexity.

Certainly not. However, it does reduce the choice to an area 40% the size and with perhaps 25% of the population of the overall UK and even within that area reduces one to a very particular house type. How right that is, is clearly up to the beholder. Possibly so. To clarify, I believe that you're making the argument that getting on the housing ladder is possible for the vast majority of people in the UK with some effort. While I'd tentatively agree with the general statement, it does appear at the moment to come with a lot of restrictions on where and how one can live that are no fault of theirs. Again, how right that may or may not be is clearly up to the beholder.

And for those (roughly) 50% of people who earn below that amount?

I'm finding it hard to pin down Vance tbh. I honestly don't know whether he genuinely buys into the Trump cult of personality, or is more interested in the self interested death-worship that embodies a lot of the Trump base, or whether he's just attached himself to it all as a means to gain personal power. Or a combination of the above. The man is certainly more enigmatic and gives off more mixed signals than his master, that's for sure.

https://phys.org/news/2025-08-rewrite-national-climate.html US President Donald Trump's administration is revising past editions of the nation's premier climate report—its latest move to undermine the scientific consensus on human-caused global warming. The decision, announced by Energy Secretary Chris Wright during a CNN appearance Tuesday night, follows the government's revocation of the Endangerment Finding, a scientific determination that underpins a host of regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Asked by CNN's Kaitlan Collins why previous editions of the National Climate Assessment were no longer available online, former fracking company CEO Wright responded: "Because we're reviewing them, and we will come out with updated reports on those and with comments on those." Fvck around... https://phys.org/news/2025-08-north-atlantic-hurricane-clusters-climate.html Tropical cyclones, commonly known as typhoons or hurricanes, can form in clusters and impact coastal regions back-to-back. For example, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria hit the U.S. sequentially within one month in 2017. The Federal Emergency Management Agency failed to provide adequate support to hurricane victims in Puerto Rico when Maria struck because most rescue resources and specialized disaster staffers were deployed for the responses to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. A new study published in Nature Climate Change confirms these hurricane clusters are becoming more frequent in the North Atlantic in recent decades—a trend projected to continue in the near future. ...and find out.

Yep. If the average (mean, median or mode?) salary in the UK is 38k, that gets you (at a generous 4.5x) roughly 170k. Even if you pair that with a 30k deposit you're still at about 200k, which rules out pretty much anything freehold south of Northampton and even in the Midlands you'll struggle to get much more than a 2-bed terrace in good nick for that.

From what it sounds like, that was a one time unforeseen incident that can be guarded against in future. That doesn't stop the usual suspects from using it as a convenient excuse to bash renewable energy and look to open the door to much worse things in future, though.

Tolkien depicting doomscrolling a century before it got popular. Also, it's wild that Peter Thiel called his company by the same name - Palantir. Either he's wildly ignorant of the context, or he knows it through and through and is just showing off the sociopathy of the service he offers because he feels he can get away with it.

I would like to think that not all of them are, but yes, far too many at least. Carney and Albanese, among others, need to hold their nerve on the matter too. It is so important to have a viable bloc that isn't selling the shitebag nationalist ideals that both the US and Russia are trying to impress upon the world right now.

A lot of sirens in Nuneaton. Possible protest going on?

Jim Lovell, commander of Apollo 13 (among others) and the only man to visit the Moon twice but never set foot on it, aged 97. This one has hit me hard. It is a mark of huge shame on our species that we turned away from the steps he and others made and that he, in the course of his very long life, never got to see "when will we be going back, and who will that be".

Yep. Shocker, right?

Lammy's welcome to JD "Sofa Violator" Vance is...well, pretty horrific in it's sycophancy. Should have stuck to your guns, David. Cowardice wasn't the way here.

I think right now there really needs to be more "let's find cancers that were impossible to find otherwise" and less "what if we make the Dead Internet Theory real and shred the fabric of society through half truths while being as avaricious about it as possible, techbros?" about it all, tbh. There are horrific poisoned excuses for recipes out there that people are cooking because they're being convinced that AI output is reliable.

This series has shown that they can do that, I think. The total amount of runs scored shows that. England just need the bowling to fire so that they're not chasing 350+ to win every Test.

IMO if the England team show up all guns blazing and things go right, it could be 2-2 or 3-2 either way. If not, it will be 3-1 or 4-1 Oz.

There's a few items where you should pay a little extra for quality. Bog roll is definitely one of them.

I'm so glad they appear to have got it right. They really needed to. Looking forward to seeing it myself.

Related: https://www.npr.org/2025/08/04/nx-s1-5453731/nasa-carbon-dioxide-satellite-mission-threatened Unconscionable.