leicsmac

Pretty much. And the consequences of such backslides have always been brutal in the past and will in all likelihood be even worse now. It's truly disturbing that some people apparently don't or can't understand the cost in lives and suffering at stake here. The blood, when it flows, will be on their hands as much as those with the power that they elect. The Chinese must view this as a golden opportunity to surpass the US in terms of scientific progress.

I would think that this is the case with the undersea fibreoptic cables too in terms of critical societal infrastructure. We build those and use those anyway, I think if the option is available we have to do the same here.

Well, at least they've revised the object diameter down to at most 90m which means there's most likely nothing of it will hit the ground; but the airburst alone would be enough to cause some nasty problems if it were in the wrong place.

Agree with all of that. Now we need governments farsighted and driven enough to make it happen.

If this isn't the solution in principle (if perhaps not in practice), then I wouldn't mind hearing suggestions as to what the solution is for undergoing a necessary change to sustainable energy generation while keeping costs down.

And do it in a sustainable fashion. Getting more serious on fission power is something else this government is doing right, along with other non fossil fuel solutions. It's just a shame that the UK is going to be playing catchup on that.

...and it's giving the usual suspects an excuse to spread more ragebait too, which is deeply annoying.

Better option than Faes or Vesty tbh.

Random Internet find: "The nirvana fallacy is the single most powerful impediment to tackling climate change that I've encountered in my decades of trying to develop technology to help us deal with it- next to our desire to find someone else to help pay for it." And the best thing about that fallacy is that it's an easy one for the powerful to sell to everyone else through media to perpetuate the status quo.

Times is a decent paper tbf.

It's a legacy of the empire and Cold War - the UK still has that veto seat on the UNSC because it has nuclear weapons, so it's expected to have that reputation for power that it can't really now live up to. There's a lot of more moderate powers that the UK could choose to emulate and boost quality of life - a fair few of the northern European and Scandinavian nations are reasonable options.

I think you're right and also the bolded isa distinct possibility right now due to that, and other factors. As lots of people (including me) have remarked, we live in interesting times.

I agree, but we can't do that by ourselves. Collaboration will be required.

Well, that's not great either...

And that point is taken on board, and you're right about it.

Going high should be the way to go, agreed. However (and this is the scary part), is sticking to facts, as well intentioned and right as it may be, helping or going to help much given the current situation? These people aren't swayed by honest discussion or being shown things that are true, as much as I'd like to believe in the power of debate.

I'm glad, but I'd hope that's a pretty low bar clearable but anyone with the vaguest hint of a conscience tbh. Fair to say. That all being said, the intent from him and his backers in this case is pretty damn clear imo. Edit: to clarify my point, the truth and being exact is important, but something being true and exact is no longer a defence against these people.

Is there any real difference in terms of sentiment and ideal between when he was talking about that and how's he's talking about Gaza now, though? I don't see any.

And to back this up...while Trump is distracting people with all this bombast about Gaza, Musk and his staffers are staging what is tantamount to an administrative coup d'etat at as many federal agencies as they can reach. Something which appears to be happening below the radar and not well reported right now. The Beeb has an article on what's going onat USAID, but only obliquely mentions the many other federal organisations being targeted at the same time. What happens when they knock on the door of those impartial who oversee the electoral process?

Building contracting and property rights in the redeveloped area once the ethnic cleansing is done and the Israeli settlers move into their new "resort". The big payoff.

You may be right, but personally I'm not going to assume slapstick incompetence over malice here when firstly it's rather difficult to tell which it is and secondly the former has the same effect as the latter when applied on an advanced and a widespread scale anyway. The policy decisions of the man are going to needlessly (bloded for emphasis) cost lives, that is obvious. It will just be a question of how many and how many can somehow be prevented.

Agreed. But there also has to be a baseline of approval from people out in the world of these rather terrible things for them to be in any way viable.

Those who see certain groups of people as things will love it. And sadly there appear to be enough of those with power around for this idea to not be immediately seen and rejected as the ethnic cleansing it is.

Exactly. And, purely for the record, that's not a good thing. Not good for anyone outside very specific groups short term, and not good for anyone at all long term. I'm not sure where the man has earned the benefit of any doubt whatsoever and the upheaval is barely beginning, but fair enough.