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FOARP

@foarp

China, Taiwan, Poland. Ukraine and IP law mostly

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Latest posts by FOARP @foarp

Normally I'm pretty sceptical about stories like this.

But after the Russian gas shock, which, from 2022 to 2025 cost the UK ~Β£90bn in additional cost of gas over 2021 prices...

11.03.2026 11:02 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Remember all that talk about how Ukraine could become World War 3 from a certain D.J. Trump?

The way a war becomes a world-war is not just that people, Michael Scott-style, emerge from their offices shouting "I declare world war!!!". It is that leaders spread conflicts they have no idea how to end.

11.03.2026 10:14 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Lord Arran was a hereditary peer, and introduced the Sexual Offences Act 1967 legalising homosexuality.

11.03.2026 09:57 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

If there is a link between good speeches and good legislation, that might be something (not saying there isn/isn't, but it would be interesting thing to look at if it were at all possible to analyse).

11.03.2026 08:36 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Not bothered either way about the departure of the remaining Hereditaries, but parliament's job is not ultimately to make speeches either.

11.03.2026 08:35 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Terror Weapons: The British Experience of Gas and Its Treatment in the First World War Chemical weapons accounted for only 1 per cent of the 750,000 British troops killed in the First World War and yet caused disproportionate casualties (estimated at 180,100). The considerable investment in the development of new toxins and methods of ...

Fascinating article on the treatment of gas casualties in WW1.

The TL;DR version is that the psychological effect of gas really cannot be underemphasised even if you think you know all about it already.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

10.03.2026 22:00 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

She also did LLB.

As far as I can tell she never got a job requiring either degree.

10.03.2026 21:17 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

In as much as I can work it out I appear to have overlapped with Badenoch at Sussex and (assuming that’s true) very likely sat in the same lecture theatres as her at least once or twice since we would both have been in the same part of the University.

Absolutely no memory of her. Didn’t stand out.

10.03.2026 20:52 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Political party membership is not a protected characteristic under the HRA 2010, but yeah, other factors can come into play depending on the case.

10.03.2026 19:22 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Golding?

Up to you, but a business that had Robinson or similar as a customer wouldn’t have me as one.

10.03.2026 19:08 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I for one would welcome living in a one-off Turtledove novel.

(Not any of the extended serieses as world wars aren’t my thing)

10.03.2026 18:57 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Like, if you do what they tell you to do and turn up for your two-hour-flight two hours early, you just halved your average speed for the trip versus boarding straight away and flying.

I can near-enough just drive straight on to the Eurostar. Why not that, but for flying?

10.03.2026 18:54 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

If they could take your (electric) car with them at the same time, that might be something.

100MPH in a straight line can work for some use-cases (short flights across geographical obstacles). A lot of flying time is just sitting around waiting, so cutting down on that might even things up.

10.03.2026 18:51 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Operation Eagle Claw was the result of exactly this kind of thinking … though the guy ultimately behind it was at least military veteran and had some kind of idea of what he was trying to achieve. Trump doesn’t even have that.

10.03.2026 15:10 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Who would have been their equivalents in 1986?

The Jack White equivalent would have had to have been famous in the 1960’s and 70’s but still alive in 1986 so … McCartney or Dylan? Ray Davies?

The 1986 Taylor Swift would have to also have debuted in the 1960’s. Cher maybe? Dunno.

10.03.2026 15:03 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I guess if you’re already sold on the idea of giving people what appoints to pointless hazing in order to gain citizenship, then the CoE question - not something I needed to know going to a CoE school - probably doesn’t seem too off.

But from my perspective this whole policy was bad from the start.

10.03.2026 14:48 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

When kids get pocket money? establishment date of the CoE?

10.03.2026 14:30 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image Post image

Here's some Q's from a practise exam published circa April 2010.

Happy to believe that it may be different tonally now, but the questions were daft then too.

10.03.2026 14:21 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Correct answer.

This is a Gordon Brown policy. It was stupid then. It is stupid now.

Brown glazing really has gone too far in recent years and is due a correction.

10.03.2026 14:05 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

The government should see every summer being treated by the papers as β€œRacism Is OK Now Actually” season and have a strategy ready to counter it.

09.03.2026 08:32 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

This about those warships the Israelis broke out of a French port?

08.03.2026 22:19 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

My vague impression is that Oryx thought he should have been paid for what he was doing (which was completely correct BTW).

08.03.2026 22:06 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

You mean Trent Telenko wasn’t legit? My world is crumbling before my eyes!

08.03.2026 22:04 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Do… do… do they think these playgrounds don’t exist any more?

08.03.2026 21:50 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I remember, circa 2003, watching the students of NUAA (a Chinese military-funded university) walking around campus with miniature radios trying to get VoA, BBC World Service etc., and then speaking along with them to practise their English.

08.03.2026 21:26 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

That also a human being is capable of random association, which is the opposite of what a probabilistic model is.

That a human being actually perceives the world around them. LLMs do not do this.

So whatever you want to call what it is that LLMs do, it is not thinking in the same way a person does

08.03.2026 21:11 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I don’t know about β€œconscious”.

I do know that a human being can create, in their mind, a physical model of how something will work, and that a probabilistic model is not that. That LLMs are not doing that.

08.03.2026 21:06 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

No bothering to check but… these aren’t the same guys who crashed j to that Antarctic mountain are they? Or is it just the same culture?

08.03.2026 14:31 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Icelandis in more or less a similar situation, the most recent poll had the cursed 52%/48% ratio join/leave.

08.03.2026 13:31 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0