dewclin

> Russians understand how the Western societies work and how they can be broken

Do you not also think the West understands how Russian society works and how it can be broken?

I find it interesting how we're ignorant of our own propaganda activities in other countries. For example, in the UK we have a dedicated army unit [1] that:

> uses social media such as Twitter and Facebook to influence populations and behaviour [which is] involved in manipulation of the media including using fake online profiles

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/77th_Brigade_(United_Kingdom)#...

> without having to shed a single drop of american blood

And 10's of thousands of Ukrainian dead and wounded, lives and families destroyed, is a small price to pay for American hegemony.

Both sides use propaganda.

> the U.K. government could use existing powers to require that the company meet surveillance capability demands as a condition of making a product or feature available.

> If the government’s demands are not met, the company may have no choice but to abandon the product or feature launch, giving the government essentially a veto power on how companies innovate and improve their products

Well, that's going to attract tech companies to the UK /s

> Don't degrade your product. If it gets worse, chances are I won't buy it, no matter for what price you sell it.

Completely agree: recently I wanted some peppermints, and I noticed the sugar had been replaced by "glucose syrup".

I didn't buy them, and I've done this for other products.

Are companies losing sales, which will make them "degrade their product" more as their revenues decline, which will lose sales, and so-on?

I'm in the UK. Looking at my bill, per kWh electricity is 3x more expensive than gas:

electricity: 30.823p

gas: 9.756p

It's much cheaper to heat my house with gas.

> The Tories are obsessed with weakening privacy and data protection laws.

Labour has pledged to "toughen" the "weakened and gutted" online safety bill [1].

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jan/01/labour-pl...

> Child safety is what is pushed in the press

For example, in yesterday's Guardian [1]. Meta introducing encryption "will let child abusers ‘hide in the dark’".

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/20/meta-encr...

This should get more coverage, as it's a worrying development. The tone of the letter is disturbing.

Surprisingly enough, the mainstream media haven't covered it at all ...

> If UK citizens don't want such laws, they can always protest, at the voting booth or in the streets.

Protest has been restricted [1], and neither the Conservatives or Labour offer different positions. For example, Labour have pledged to "toughen" the OSB [1].

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56400751 [2] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jan/01/labour-pl...

Interestingly (?) earlier this year Kit Klarenberg was also held at Luton after getting of a plane from Belgrade ...

https://thegrayzone.com/2023/05/30/journalist-kit-klarenberg...

... and here's the Fairlight in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0mF9soHA8M

Similar story (no pun intended) in The Guardian [1]:

> UK ministers seek to allay WhatsApp and Signal concerns in encryption row

Nothing to see here folks, just a minor dispute between the Gov and two companies ...

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/sep/06/whatsapp-signa...

> For a political party that likes the cliché "tough on crime"

Labour also likes that cliché too [1].

They're all the same.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/sep/27/labour-evok...

> Criticising the current PM doesn't automatically make it a partisan issue IMHO.

In hindsight I was wrong to say that; it was a bad choice of words. I agree with you. Thanks.

Returning back to the OT of surveillance and oversight, and as you're making this into a partisan issue, what would Labour do differently?

"Authoritarian" concerns were expressed last time Labour was in government [1], and they're "seriously considering" resurrecting their policy of mandatory id cards if they get in power again [2].

And, before I get smeared as a "Tory"/"Brexiteer", I am not - I'm someone who remembers what happened last time Labour was in power and see neither party offers an alternative to increasing surveillance in the UK.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/apr/24/commen...

[2] https://labourlist.org/2022/11/mandatory-id-card-policy-shou...

> And when was the last time you saw a high-top soccer cleat?

Interestingly (?) early football boots were very much ankle-length [1], and this style continued well into the 1950's [2].

[1] https://www.footy-boots.com/football-boots-history/

[2] https://www.kraveantiques.co.uk/products/Nailed-Stud-Footbal...

> Not on major media either…

Guardian have something:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/apr/18/surrey-and-s...

Also (possibly only amongst bankers in London):

- "Yard" - £billion (derived from the french "milliard")

> What I'm hoping comes out of this is some backstop for the ~4 million Brits with no bank account in our increasingly cashless society.

Izabella Kaminska (ex FT-journalist) had a good take on this on her podcast or website [1, 2] (I forget which).

If this is for all unbanked individuals, then that must also include people banks don't want anything to do with right now, like criminals and other people who don't currently pass KYC or AML checks.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/@theblindspotpodcast [2] https://the-blindspot.com/

> we don't need everything in a plastic wrapper

I bought a celeriac the other day, it was in a vacuum wrapped plastic cover. What a waste of resources.

> the Green Party (which was founded as direct result of the Chernobyl disaster)

Chernobyl was 1986 and the West German green party existed before that:

> Alliance 90/The Greens ... is a green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (formed in East Germany in 1990) [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_90/The_Greens

A feature, not a bug.

I'm sorry to read this, I also have a similar same situation with my father.

He's in his late 70's and a year ago bought himself an iPhone. He now spends ~4 hours a day reading a tabloid newspaper app, which has endless content. His attention span has fallen noticeably and he can't keep up with conversations that happen in the same room while he's "scrolling".

When I visit he's on his phone, and we go out for a walk (in the beautiful countryside around us) he stops and disengages when his app sends him the latest notification about what's happened on "love island", or some other nonsense. When I leave he's on his phone.

I tried to talk to him about it, and about how it's particularly effecting my mother, who I can see is lonely and lost a person she could talk to, important at their time of life. He just gets defensive and angry, which leads no-where.

Will he spend the most of the rest of his life looking at a screen?

Edit: wording of final sentence.

Thank you.

I'm wondering if someone can help, re low FODMAP diet, as I'm finding some contradictory information about which foods are low FODMAP.

For example, at [1], Chickpeas are listed as low FODMAP, but at [2] they're listed as "high". Similarly for Green bell peppers.

Thanks for any help.

[1] https://www.ibsdiets.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IBSDiets... [2] https://med.virginia.edu/ginutrition/wp-content/uploads/site...

Along the same lines, I recently reviewed a junior engineer's design document and pointed out to them a diagram showing the actors, their roles and interactions would have saved two pages of dense, complex text, and made the solution clearer.

"A picture is worth a thousand words.."

I've really enjoyed using clubhouse [1].

[1] https://clubhouse.io/vs/jira/

My experience has been very different: I update the quota in the console and it's approved very quickly.