JoBo

@ JoBo @feddit.uk

Posts

37
Comments

1018
Joined

3 yr. ago

www.theguardian.com /commentisfree/article/2024/may/21/biden-gaza-2024-election

2y ago

Biden is dramatically out of touch with voters on Gaza. He may lose because of it | Moira Donegan

2y ago

The Unpunished: How Extremists Took Over Israel

JoBo @feddit.uk 2y ago

I agree with a lot of this but this bit is a non-sequitur:

One thing many people don’t realize is that the Zionist colonial project was in motion long before WWII, as far back as the late 1800s.

Political zionism did get started in the late 1800s, as a proposed solution to the centuries of pogroms, expulsions and discrimination against Jews in Europe. Prior to the horrors of WWII, most Jews considered it literal heresy. It was the Holocaust that convinced many that Zionism was their only option, not least because most of the free world closed its borders to Jews fleeing the Holocaust and its aftermath. There was nowhere else to go.

This is a very useful short piece by a Jewish anti-zionist, pleading with the pro-Palestinian movement to take more care with their understanding of history: Zionism, Antisemitism and the Left Today

The Palestinians are paying the price for Europe's crimes. The problem cannot be solved by denying that those crimes ever happened.

2y ago

How come liberals dont hate conservatives the way conservatives hate liberals

JoBo @feddit.uk 2y ago

Because there is no mirror image.

@pjwestin@lemmy.world has given you a good description of fascist methods. They're not available to the opponents of fascism because they are not fascists.

Fascism appeals to the worst parts of our nature. It gives permission to those feeling fear, humiliation or shame to lash out in anger and destroy the people that make them feel that way.

You can't deploy the same tactics to make those people want to be on your side instead. If you try to shame them, they will just hate harder.

You should, of course, expose and ridicule the grifters who lead fascist movements and punching fascists is encouraged. But you need to distinguish between authoritarian leaders and the people they seek to lead.

You should not pander to the billionaire-funded leaderships (take note NYT), but you must not sneer at the people they are trying to lead (take note centrist Dems).

2y ago

Rishi Sunak admits Tories may not win general election | ITV News

The fact Starmer won’t even think about joining the single market is stupid too.

Joining the single market would simplify border issues but it wouldn't solve them.. We'd have to join the Customs Union and the common VAT area as well to do that. SM-only is not completely pointless but there is a massive political risk attached because it doesn't solve all the problems its advocates pretend it does.

There are only two ways to make Brexit work. One is to be an EU member in all but name (following all the rules but having a very limited role in making the rules). The other is a united Ireland (with a lot more expenditure on customs and warehousing in Britain).

The first is politically impossible, and also pointless. The second is up to the people of the island of Ireland and requires a British govt which is willing to invest in the real economy, rather than keeping most of us around to create the illusion of a real country instead of a tax haven based on a massive casino.

politics @lemmy.world

www.theguardian.com /commentisfree/article/2024/may/03/columbia-pro-palestinian-protest-south-africa-divestment

2y ago

Let us remember the last time students occupied Columbia University | Omar Barghouti, Tanaquil Jones, and Barbara Ransby

politics @lemmy.world

edition.cnn.com /2024/05/05/us/united-methodist-church-embraces-lgbtq-reaj/index.html

2y ago

‘A better church is possible:’ Methodists celebrate as the church embraces the LGBTQ | CNN

2y ago

[BBC News] Claims that smart motorways tech leaves drivers at risk

JoBo @feddit.uk 2y ago

National Highways says the radar detects 89% of stopped vehicles - but that means one in 10 are not spotted.

At least 79 people have been killed on smart motorways since they were introduced in 2010. In the past five years, seven coroners have called for them to be made safer.

National Highways' latest figures suggest that if you break down on a smart motorway without a hard shoulder you are three times more likely to be killed or seriously injured than on one with a hard shoulder.

No brainer. But then they quote this prick without directly challenging the contradiction:

The agency's operational control director Andrew Page-Dove says action was being taken to "close the gap between how drivers feel and what the safety statistics show".

The 'gap' seems to be a result of drivers having a much more accurate perception than the people paid to defend them.

National Highways says reinstating the hard shoulder would increase congestion and that there are well-rehearsed contingency plans to deal with power outages.

Just add more lanes. That'll work. It's never worked but obviously it'll work. Fuckwits.

2y ago

Gun supervisor for 'Rust' movie to be sentenced for fatal shooting by Alec Baldwin on set

JoBo @feddit.uk 2y ago

She was crap at her job but she was also too inexperienced for it and employed to do it by cost-cutting producers who took so many shortcuts on set safety, half the crew walked out before this happened.

More powerful heads need to roll.

2y ago

Thousands of disabled people ‘will get £2,800 a year less under universal credit’

JoBo @feddit.uk 2y ago

It is very easy to have a play with a benefits calculator to find out what reality looks like for yourself.

In-work benefits keep working people who earn less than they need to survive at or slightly above the poverty level. For people who are unable to work, due to sickness, disability or a lack of available jobs, it keeps them stuck below the poverty level with just about enough to survive but not to thrive.

As the article points out, the philosophy this system was built on was not necessarily well thought out at the time. In the post-covid era it is disastrous.

2y ago

On Being an Outlier

JoBo @feddit.uk 2y ago

Where did you get insurance carriers from?

No idea what your post, before or after edit, is trying to say. But the subject of your quoted sentence is "proponents of AI" not "AI", and the sentence is about what is enabled by AI systems. Your attempt at pedantry makes no sense.

If you're suggesting that it is possible to build an AI with none of the biases embedded in the world it learns from, you might want to read that article again because the (obvious) rebuttal is right there.

2y ago

Alan Bates considers private prosecutions of Post Office bosses

JoBo @feddit.uk 2y ago

All barristers are only as good as the evidence given to them

That's not entirely true. The Secret Barrister made a good point on the site I won't visit to grab the link: people always ask how you can defend someone you know is guilty; they never ask how you can prosecute someone who you know is innocent.

We have an adversarial system, not an inquisatorial one. Barristers are paid to present one case or the other, not decide what is true for themselves.

There are barristers and judges who may well be sanctioned, professionally if not also criminally, for their part in this scandal. Richard Morgan is one that sticks in my mind. He relied on an entirely circular argument (Lee Castleton signed off the accounts therefore the reliability of Horizon is irrelevant, even though it produced the accounts that Castleton had to sign if he wanted to continue trading). If you read/watch his appearance at the inquiry, it appears to literally dawn on him during the questioning. He was professionally negligent and he should not be allowed to get away with it.

Technology @lemmy.world

www.goethe.de /prj/geg/en/thm/tru/25453339.html

2y ago

On Being an Outlier

2y ago

Alan Bates considers private prosecutions of Post Office bosses

I told Post Office the truth about Horizon in 2003, IT expert says

The CPS, and equivalents in Scotland, brought around a third of the wrongful prosecutions.

The barristers the CPS employs to bring prosecutions are the same barristers used by the Post Office, using the same courts and the same judges.

This scandal just shines a light on how impossible the criminal justice system is for ordinary people with more limited means. Bates vs PO only happened because they managed to find 555 claimants (500 being the minimum their funders needed to risk it).

There was a case settled in 2003 because the court appointed a single independent expert to act for both sides and he pointed out all the holes in the Post Office case. That should have been the end of it. But they made the Cleveleys subpostmaster sign a confidentiality agreement, slandered the expert, and carried on prosecuting.

UK Politics @feddit.uk

www.theguardian.com /media/2024/apr/14/political-ads-could-heading-uk-tv-screens-legal-loophole-itv

2y ago

Political ads could be heading to UK TV screens due to legal loophole

2y ago

Leak reveals Tory plan to cut cold weather cash for disabled people

JoBo @feddit.uk 2y ago

This is disgusting. PIP is designed to help with additional costs incurred due to an illness or disability but there are loads of people who are too sick to work who don't need it, and many others who do need it but don't qualify.

Cold weather payments should be extended to everyone who is reliant on benefits to survive (which would mean almost every benefit other than PIP being a qualifying benefit).

2y ago

How is the hydrogen made?

How hydrogen is transforming these tiny Scottish islands

JoBo @feddit.uk 2y ago

That is true of all colours of hydrogen other than green (and possibly natural stores of 'fossil' hydrogen if they can be extracted without leakage).

Green hydrogen is better thought of as a battery than a fuel. It's a good way to store the excess from renewables and may be the only way to solve problems like air travel.

That's not to say it's perfect. Hydrogen in the atmosphere slows down the decomposition of methane so leaks must be kept well below 5% or the climate benefits are lost. We don't have a good way to measure leaks. It's also quite inefficient because a lot of energy is needed to compress it for portable uses.

And, of course, the biggest problem is that Big Carbon will never stop pushing for dirtier hydrogens to be included in the mix, if green hydrogen paves the way.

2y ago

A Pat on the Back Statistically Improves Free Throw Numbers in Basketball

JoBo @feddit.uk 2y ago

The data showed that the chance of scoring rose when teammates showed their support through touch. The effect only appeared after a failed first shot, which makes sense because such a scenario is likely to spike stress levels.

Of course, the data is not shown. And the study is not able to draw causal conclusions. In this case, they've hunted around and found a subset of shots (second shots after a first failed shot) where it's true. And it's easy to make up reasons after the fact why that might make sense.

It does seem very reasonable to hypothesise that supportive team mates make it less likely you choke on the second shot. But they haven't shown this is down to touch (they just used that as a proxy for supportive team mates). Nor that the percentage of successful second shots after a failed first shot would be improved by more touching regardless of whether team mates are genuinely supportive or quietly seething..

2y ago

[BBC Sounds] Helen Lewis has left the chat

She has used her considerable platform to make trans lives worse in many ways, not just with regard to sport.

Because she is a transphobic piece of shit, you see.

2y ago

[BBC Sounds] Helen Lewis has left the chat

JoBo @feddit.uk 2y ago

As I've said elsewhere, it's about who you want to benefit from your clicks. Pirate her books and articles if you want to know what she has to say (but honestly, it's not much so probs don't bother).

2y ago

[BBC Sounds] Helen Lewis has left the chat

Laurel Hubbard: First transgender athlete to compete at Olympics

She's very similar to JK Rowling, even if Jordan Peterson is as far as she's got in her adventures with the far right so far.

You have an incorrect mental timeline on sports inclusion. Some sporting bodies have recently begun to introduce bans under pressure from conservative politicians desperate to distract the people they are pickpocketing. The stronger trend is for inclusion, because two years on gender-affirming hormones eliminates all the advantages a trans woman might have apart from extra height for those who went through a male puberty because they weren't lucky enough to get puberty blockers early enough.

The 43-year-old became eligible to compete at the Olympics when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2015 changed its rules allowing transgender athletes to compete as a woman if their testosterone levels are below a certain threshold.

(Feel free to look up Hubbard's performances before and after transition.)

One of the big tells with Lewis is her scare-mongering about trans women in women's prisons. It has long been the case in the UK that women who are considered too violent to be housed in a women's prison have been sent to men's prisons. This applies to all women, cis and trans, and obviously includes trans women who have committed violent crimes against other women. People like Lewis seize on very rare instances where errors have been made to cause alarm and distress. Of course, they ignore the fates of trans women who have mistakenly been housed in men's prisons without any of the protective segregation cis women in men's prisons receive.

Also it was weird of you to bring up her race in the original comment - her being a white woman is orthogonal to the criticism you are making of her.

No idea why you think race and class are not relevant in a comment about her abuse of intersectionality. If you don't understand, dictionaires exist.

2y ago

[BBC Sounds] Helen Lewis has left the chat

JoBo @feddit.uk 2y ago

I didn't say they were. But people should be aware of who they are giving their clicks to.

2y ago

[BBC Sounds] Helen Lewis has left the chat

JoBo @feddit.uk 2y ago

And?

2y ago

[BBC Sounds] Helen Lewis has left the chat