ForumGarden

There is a point which needs making before the imminent invasion of the Gaza Strip starts. It stems from asking why Hamas mounted its disgraceful, deplorable and immoral operation four days ago. I suggest Hamas intended to invest a proportion of its limited resources into triggering a massive knee-j...

“There are not two sides to these events,” the UK prime minister said on Monday. "There is no question of balance. I stand with Israel. We stand with Israel, the United Kingdom stands with Israel against this terrorism today, tomorrow and always." https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/20...

Matters have taken a turn for the worse overnight, with war being formally declared - the government website issued a press release to that effect https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/spoke-war081023 . Delving into what a declaration of war against a non-state entity means, I came up with this: Pr...

"Wes Streeting says Labour will come down on vaping industry ‘like tonne of bricks’ over sales to children – live" https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2023/oct/08/keir-starmer-labour-party-conference-rishi-sunak-conservatives-uk-politics-live No, that's not what he said at all. &quo...

If I refer to "The territory bounded by Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt" as "The Region", am I being both explicit and neutral in describing the area? Because that is my intention. I'll give it a try anyway. Depending on your historical outlook there's some vocabulary you'd cons...

It has been a notorious recognized mantra, a formulaic denial which prohibits discussion. It was repeatedly prominent in Tony Blair and Jack Straw's deflections in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq: A recurrent theme in statements made by the British government in the build-up to war concerned the ...

One PR aspect of the announcement is getting attention today, because Mark Harper, the transport secretary, has had to explain why No 10 kept telling us all that no decision about HS2 had been taken when Sunak had already recorded a video announcing it. Downing Street posted a video from Sunak just...

And back to Claude-2. They each have very different tone. As background to the idea of lived experience casting in the modern entertainment industry, can you set your mind back to 20th century US experiments using white participants treated with melanin and spending time being perceived as African-A...

Continuing with ChatGPG. I'm five days into a backache following a paired vaccination, sleep has abandoned me at the moment but this is a silly time to be awake. There have been three periods in history when Britain has used the expression "blackface". It has been used as a pejorative sinc...

Here's some pros and cons discussed by Claude-2. I have been invited to audition for the role of Othello. My cultural heritage is White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, I have considerable acting skills and the director wants to focus on the religious discrimination discovered through the text. To what exten...

There's no Culture forum for some reason. TV will have to do. Helen Mirren addresses Golda controversy: ‘I told the director that I’m not Jewish’ Mirren has spoken of her dismay at the backlash to her casting as Golda Meir, former prime minister of Israel, in forthcoming film Golda https://www.thegu...

There is, as you say, demonization involved. I don't see how it helps, I'd much rather have a balanced discussion. I would, for example, like to consider President Trump's first term and compare it with the one before and after. I think the long view would be that domestically the Trump administrati...

crystal jellyfish who can grow up to a foot wide, have 150 tentacles and are usually found some 2,000 miles away in the Mediterranean. But, do not worry, their sting is not too painful. Swimmers in Devon and Cornwall have been left stunned by the arrival of thousands of them this week. https://www....

I'm not sure where to post this. President Trump is asking for a second term, knowing he'd be 82 by the end of it? Goodness knows what sort of clarity he expects to command by then. He certainly knows nothing at all about batteries. “If I’m sitting down and that boat is going down and I’m on top of ...

Walker is the chairwoman of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council, a small group of Indigenous Americans who once lived along the coast of San Luis Obispo county. Records of their occupation of the central coast date back to 18,000 years. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/01/morro-bay-indi...

What weight of grain is produced annually worldwide? As of my last update in 2022, the annual global production of cereals (which includes major grains like wheat, rice, maize, barley, oats, rye, millet, and sorghum) typically exceeds 2.5 billion tonnes. However, it's important to note the breakdow...

At some stage before 2050, it is likely there will need to be a new industry for the sequestration of CO2e from anthropogenic sources or directly the atmosphere. It is essential that this should not contribute to ocean acidification - it would be a bonus if it tended to mitigate it. Please list all...

Along with schools across the country and a lot of emerging information appearing via news channels, we are concerned about the increasing levels of vaping by children. Vapes were never intended to be used as a recreational activity, and we have all noticed a concerning exposure via many outlets wh...

I'm not sure a state refusing to allow a rabble-rouser on the ballot wouldn't be worse for long-term democracy than having him win. It's a partisan measure where there are principles of even-handedness. Besides, bringing a 'disqualified' case against him without formally getting a prior verdict that...

A quote from President Trump's address to Californian Republicans, in pursuit of the primary nomination: “We will immediately stop all of the pillaging and theft. Very simply: If you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store,” Trump said, spurring applause. “Shot!” h...

"I'll have the McMassiveBurger, it's only the third out. With fries. Make that with two fries. And a Bud", or something equally incomprehensible.

Some people made a lifetime hobby out of seeing how many people they could browbeat across the Internet, I expect it made them feel powerful.

I fear this may be a bit simplistic, but if only for completeness ForumGarden ought to have a thread. People may not have paid enough attention so far. Q. What is it that we eat? A. What we eat is stuff that has been alive. We do not eat minerals. We eat stuff that grew and quite often ran around or...

Here we go - out this week, the 2023 report. "The Most comprehensive report on the UK’s current biodiversity" State of Nature uses the latest and best data from biological monitoring and recording schemes, collated by the incredible work of thousands of skilled people, most of whom are vol...

I'd quite forgotten Sorcha Faal. Katsung47 used to mention her as a source. The best headline she ever got up was "Mysterious Planet Ejected From Black Hole At Center Of Galaxy Warned Could Soon Impact Earth". They don't write them like that any more. I was here for a reason but I sort of ...

Sir Michael Gambon died.

Startlingly exciting actor. If anyone's never seen this it's a good remembrance.

After 2050? If all of the preceding post turns out to be roughly correct? The CO2e concentration in the atmosphere, which is driving global warming, will reach a maximum and stay at that maximum level indefinitely. The effects of global warming will have reached their worst and will stay that way at...

I will, if I may, offer my conclusions from this country-by-country exercise. I have, I think, demonstrated there are some countries which have in practice shown a will to reach Net Zero by 2050. I don't believe any will get there significantly before 2050, and I don't think they'll get all the way ...

There was a recent drive to revisit the ERA, but it still failed. We now will have to start from the beginning, if we ever want to encode equal rights for women in this country. Sad, this day and age. What I gathered about the 1980 backlash by the housewives of America - we had one like that in the...

To draw the parallels, this is Wikipedia's first paragraph on its Demagogue article ... A demagogue (/ˈdɛməɡɒɡ/; from Greek δημαγωγός, a popular leader, a leader of a mob, from δῆμος, people, populace, the commons + ἀγωγός leading, leader), or rabble-rouser, is a political leader in a democracy who ...

A conversation with Claude-2 https://www.anthropic.com/index/claude-2 ... May we discuss the Cincinnati? I believe it's a club founded by officers of the Revolutionary Army. Of course! You're referring to the Society of the Cincinnati, a hereditary society founded in 1783 by officers of the Continen...

I would like to add, ..., For current events reading, you may want to study the progress of the Equal Rights Amendment https://www.archives.gov/women/era The Equal Rights Amendment took me an hour earlier today, as far as I got with it. The consensus is that it ran from the 20s to the 80s and defin...

For the avoidance of doubt, I'm a great deal more sympathetic toward Aaron Burr than to Thomas Jefferson.

Today's news: Amazon said on Monday that it would invest up to $4 billion in the artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic.

Well done Claude.

A subsequent conversation about Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr with ChatGPT ... Could you evaluate the interactions between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr? One, I believe, was necessarily a rogue if the other wasn't. They can't both have been well-meaning. The interactions and relationship between...

"The Man Without a Country" (1863 short story) - An American officer exiled for treason looks back on his life. Those who recall Edward G Robinson with pleasure would perhaps enjoy an hour of his company while he reads the short story. It begins with the Treason Trial of Aaron Burr which ...

A conversation with Claude-2 https://www.anthropic.com/index/claude-2 ... Assume an amendment to the US Constitution is contemplated. Those in favor have a sufficient majority in Congress and the Supreme Court and the support of the President, and want the new amendment to be applicable law as soon ...

A conversation with Claude-2 https://www.anthropic.com/index/claude-2 ... How many officers fought in the Revolutionary War against the British? Unfortunately I do not have enough information to determine the exact number of officers who fought in the American Revolutionary War against the British. ...

Here you are, take your choice. Aquavista Services Aveman - Averías Y Mantenimientos Blackstone Facility Service Canarias Mantenimiento Profesional S.L.U. Destellos Servicios Edades Tenerife Servicios Sociales Facility Management Blackfox Corporation S.A Iss Facility Services Loyan Group Facility Se...

Over a hundred Metropolitan Police officers handed in their firearms licence this week in protest against the prosecution of one of their fraternity appearing in court on a murder charge. Here's a transcript off my phone of Today's Radio 4 interview with a serving officer, though I can't give a link...

Well, I reckon that Biden's office must feel the need to throw in on this thing. Though it's not like the US has ever gone over to another country and taken out a citizen of that country. Naw, we wouldn't do such a thing. The State Department can cause Narendra Modi as much grief as they like, he d...

Wordle 827 4/6

India-Canada row: Blinken calls on Delhi to cooperate in push for ‘accountability’ over killing Secretary of state says US takes ‘very, very seriously’ incidents of transnational repression amid dispute over killing of Sikh separatist in British Columbia https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/2...

I'll offer one other category, micro-nations with interesting patterns. Afghanistan shows the consequence of hosting Americans for twenty years. That's around a thousand tons of CO2e per year per enlisted occupier, what on earth were they smoking. Cambodia has no such excuse but it is the worst exam...

Finally, here are the irredeemable rogue countries making no effort whatever to convert to renewable resources. The one at the beginning is the world as a whole - these bad guys are swamping the efforts of those which are trying. Look at Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Look at India, Bangladesh, ...

Here's the odd ones mentioned above. Sanctions pushed Venezuela off a cliff, it might be the first to get to Net Zero at this rate but it's not actually trying to get there. These few are because of sanctions, or not recovering from the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1990, or (Kuwait) Iraq burning t...

Well, thanks. I feel so much better, now. Basically, we are probably doomed. The world our grandchildren will pass on to their own grandkids will likely be a far less pleasant place. And the resistance to the necessary changes dashes hope at nearly every turn. Though the conversation is changing, s...

Well, we may have actually reached something resembling a milestone. For the last few years we seem to have leveled off global consumption at something under 100 million barrels per day. I'll plot the world variation by time of absolute CO2 equivalent atmospheric anthropogenic addition, from the mo...

Wordle 823 X/6

Ah. I forgot it could do that.

PM says people to be given more time to switch gas boilers to heat pumps, and ban on sale of new petrol and diesel cars delayed https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2023/sep/20/rishi-sunak-net-zero-targets-car-industry-uk-politics-live The Prime Minister finished announcing his major policy sh...

The Victorians, IMO, were a great deal more sensible. But then, they didn't have TVs everywhere.

I'm definitely not going to google that then.

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