DaedPsyker

I don't think you honestly need a high GDP for conflict and violence. There has been a number of genocides that have happened since the Berlin wall came down, that were not performed by advanced military equipment.

World's GDP spent on military I would argue applies more to inter-state violence, which is comparatively more rare than violence within the state.

To me this reads like an argument centered on an idealised national soldier.

People join the military for multitude of reasons, including just to have a job that isn't working a till. No one is joining the French Foreign Legion to die for France, no one joins a mercenary company to die for stock holders. It's a job, yes for some it's a pure calling but often more than not, it's a place to work and pick up new skills.

In my case not, I have a pretty rare last name. The map does show it's heavily regional with just a few scatterings elsewhere.

It seems that banks are the new target for the UK. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60476137

London is one of the key centers for global banking. That said, I can't imagine Russian billionaires don't have means to shelter funds, nested shells in some offshore bank I'd imagine.

But what benefit does that serve the BBC? Outside of the world service, it's funding doesn't depend on views.

I'm not sure on the actuality of reduction in rationality but using shifting meaning and changes in phrases just strikes me just a slight step up from reading tea leafs.

Yes if there was some obvious shift of everyone referencing religious texts or astrological forecasts that would be one thing. Going from I concur to I believe is just a stretch to state anything about rationality.

I'm not really a fan of this argument, I think it really fails in explaining the failure of 3d glasses. 3d TV/films don't really change anything about delivery of content, it is a slight augmentation of regular 2d.

If we could achieve full star trek holodeck but needed a headset (so maybe mixed with a bit of matrix) I don't anyone would be complaining. Now, vr still isn't holodeck level obviously and it's still an open question if it's usefulness can overcome the downsides of a headset but it will die for being of limited utility, not because it is a headset.

I certainly agree that certain aspects harm its own adoption, primarily from choice anxiety which can be overwhelming. That said, there is limits to what I think should be standardised. Nothing stops standardised approach being incorrect, and inertia allowing problems to fester. I've noticed that is a a problem in open source video games. To be fair it doesn't easily translate into the FOSS realm but maybe we think too much of converting existing commercial methods of development to FOSS. An open source dreams like platform, where there is standards could be more effective.

That said that doesn't mean everything should be unique. We should allow time and experience to generate good robust concepts then allow those to be easily utilised.

It's not a law, the highway code does contain legal requirements but it's primary purpose is as a guide, particularly to new drivers.

The article is paywalled so I'm not sure what Graeber says, but I'm pretty happy with the system Ireland has recently being following. Essentially put difficult questions to the public through a citizen's assembly, random 99 citizens who are basically in a jury like system. In this case it's still only a recommendation and politicians have to actually enact it.

Is it perfect, no of course not but then perfection is the enemy of the good.

For small countries like Ireland, culture is a useful resource to promote abroad that generate interest and in turn other benefits to the island.

I really don't see how buying more buses to service areas that are lacking is somehow harder or more expensive than a technology that hasn't matured yet to the level that will satisfy the public.

I very much hope that the tech does massively improve but my opinion of it getting there soon is much more dim (although I'd say in the above case, lots of self driving tram like buses would be still better).

I'm curious, why go through the hassle of a VPN rather than another search engine? Are the other results so poor or do the others do the same as Google?

I think what I would like to note is the appropriateness in Unreal demonstrating this with Matrix. An engine and an film from the same era (if I remember, the the first full release of the engine was the year before the film).

For the technology itself, it is incredibly impressive but more than anything and something which is hard to demonstrate with a demo, is how easy it is to actually use. Nanite models are simple to make from 3d objects, this with photogrammetry would be a dream.

If the concern is the protection of the consumer then why not just grant an enforceable "Authentic" badge? The consumer can see then what is and isn't legitimate. Companies will certainly capitalise and make said badge prominent and bring to court those that falsely use it.

The consumer is protected, the company has recognisable authority and the concept exists within public space.

GCHQ has effectively no legal limit, UK may 'technically' be under ECHR rules but they don't have means of verifying that they actually comply.

I'd say a good historical analogues (personal opinion ofc) would be the fall the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The political system was heavily fragmented and easily bought, and essentially foreign countries cheaply bought influence specifically to undermine the country. Selfishness doomed attempts at reform, and doomed the country as a whole.

That's absolutely possible but I would add another. The tendency in large corporations for someone to get some software or thing for the whole company because they've got bamboozled by the marketing and now inertia has stuck with it.

It's an easy enough one to sell to management, "stop lost sales!", Oh crikey we can't have that, this software company says all the right things and sounds professional, I'll buy it!

How many have been affected by emissions because we let perfect be the enemy of good? We don't go out with a bang with coal, no spectacular single point to focus attention. Nonetheless people are dying early right now this minute because it's easier to dismiss the actual long drawn out deaths than the theoretical ones.

That's not what the above comment said. It asked why didn't the academic paper discuss it in a manner that is attempting to cast suspicion on the findings. You discuss your own findings, quite frankly I'm not entirely sure their point. That Oxford shares the same country as this company? Is it somehow obligated based on this?

Fantastic endeavour. I'm someone who has needed to force myself in mathematics for my career. I needed extra help at school, but had no real trouble in any other class.

I thought I was just too dumb for maths. I came to realise that my problem was not in mathematical concepts which it turns out are fairly easy, but in the language of maths itself and how it is taught (some exceptions such as Strang who is just a wonderful educator). Programming in particular really helped me to learn. That's not to say that certain areas aren't still difficult but reformulating away from the traditional notation and teaching style has helped me.

Well I guess USA better rename itself too.

I'm curious now as to what benefit does the Falun Gong see in promoting the far right in Europe? I've never known them to be overly critical or discuss China much at all, some even seem to admire their tactics (Russia is mostly the focus of praise though). Perhaps they might be racist to local Chinese, is it some type of doomsday, chaos thing?

In Northern Ireland there was a debate on that, a down syndrome activist had campaigned against it which was readily taken up by parties that had opposed abortion in the first place. I'm not sure if it passed fully or just the first stage but there was a bill introduced a ban on non-fatal disabilities.

Can I ask, why has APL suddenly become the flavour of the month? This isn't a downer on the language, I'm just genuinely curious.

I think HOI problem (more familiar with 4) is that it feels much more half baked. US Congress is mostly click a few event popups, click a few policy stuff in a menu and see the congress members just flip. It's more shoehorning it into the HOI system.

I think you could make the process fun, but in paradox style games where you need to generalise a system to fit everywhere in the world, it can fall flat.

I think there is only so far you can stretch that before reputational damage is too great. I've seen early access games effectively abandoned as result.

The soon to be classic example is cyberpunk. Funny this actually happened to them before with the first Witcher game, originally very buggy and had a re-release that patched it, but they were a smaller studio then and their reputation effectively unknown.

It sounds like being ruled over by a socialite.

I don't know anything about Peter, did he take anything apart from fashion from his grand tour?

It says he worked at a shipyard which is admirable but no further mention of what impression that left.

While I get the sentiment, regulatory issues would be only one factor to decide and in some cases not that big (medical for example is heavily regulated the world over).

The fact that you guys have a large pool of talent for advanced manufacturing (for this kind of thing probably the biggest consideration), and central location with easy access to all other parts of Europe were the likely elements to win out.

Don't sell yourself short.

That's very true, I'm usually careful not to fall into the assumption of the 'mad man' since it's usually just an illusion to appear dangerous.