#The UK government is too busy with in fighting

[radley-writes]

This is the anti-marketing website, etc. etc. etc., but I've seen a couple of these posts do okay and it's Pride month so... Here goes?

Do ya wanna support a queer disabled author who is still slightly baffled that they broke into tradpub?

Do ya like stories about working class uprisings, set against a backdrop of corporate corruption and Superheroes Behaving Badly?

Do ya yearn for a plucky lesbian underdog of a hero, who becomes a supervillain sidekick while navigating her voracious horniness for both her grumpy butch coworker and her straight best friend (oddly specific, I know)?

Do ya want a murder mystery where we know the victim and the killer, but have to untangle the motive?

Do the descriptions "Laughed my butt off", "Me lesbeeb" and "Books that made me want to burn down the government" make you reach for your wallet?

If so, look no further than my debut, Strictly No Heroics!

[ID: cover of a book showing a figure in a gasmask, hoodie and gloves, leant on an old TV. A rainbow pride pin is pinned to their jacket. Text reads ‘STRICTLY NO HEROICS’ in neon pink and green, and ‘B. L. Radley’ in white.]

Have an actual blurb too, while you're reading!

If you're a powerless normie in a world run by superheroes, you need three rules to survive:

1: Keep your head down

2: Don’t make enemies

3: STRICTLY NO HEROICS

When a hero gropes her best friend, Riley Jones breaks all of them.

​Her attempt at serving justice gets her fired from her summer job. Luckily, Sunnylake City’s biggest business is booming (literally, when there's C4 involved).

​Every villain wants henchmen: masked cronies who take their coffee orders, vacuum their secret lairs, and posture in the background while they fight. The HENCH agency provides a steady stream of drop-outs and losers who are willing to get beaten up for minimum wage.

​Riley might just be the perfect candidate.

You can

buy my book here

UK version here

Reblogs are greatly appreciated, and kisses to everyone who's already got their hands on a copy!

[zvaigzdelasas]

[BBC is UK State Media]

“Finding work has become extremely difficult," he says. He is a member of Turkish-backed opposition forces that have been fighting President Bashar al-Assad for more than a decade.

The faction he works for pays him less than $50 (£40) a month, so when Turkish recruiters appeared offering $1,500 (£1,160) a month to work in Niger, he decided it was the best way to earn more money.

He says Syrian faction leaders help facilitate the process and after “faction taxes and agents��� he would still be left with at least two-thirds of the money. “And if I die in battle [in Niger], my family will receive compensation of $50,000 (£40,000)," he adds.

Violence in West Africa's Sahel region has worsened in recent years as a result of conflict with jihadist groups. Niger, along with neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso have all been affected - and all three countries have experienced military coups in the past few years, partly as a result of the instability.[...]

Ali (not his real name), who lives in a tent in rural Idlib joined Syria’s opposition forces 10 years ago when he was 15. He says he is paid less than $50 (£40) a month too, which lasts him five days. He has had to borrow to support his family and sees Niger as the only way to pay off his debts. "I want to leave the military profession entirely and start my own business," he says.

And for Raed (not his real name), another 22-year-old opposition fighter, going to Niger feels like the only way to build up enough money to “achieve my dream of marriage and starting a family".

Since December 2023, more than 1,000 Syrian fighters have travelled to Niger via Turkey, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which monitors the conflict in Syria through a network of sources on the ground. They tend to sign up for six months, but some have now extended the contract to a year.[...]

The SOHR and friends of mercenaries who have already worked in Niger told the BBC that Syrians have ended up under Russian command fighting militant jihadist groups in the border triangle between Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso.[...]

The recruits we spoke to claim their faction leaders have told them that a Turkish company called SADAT would look after them once the contracts are signed and would be involved in arranging their travel and logistics.

About five years ago, Abu Mohamad went to Libya where he worked as a mercenary for six months and claims that was also arranged by SADAT.

The SOHR also claims that, based on information from other mercenaries who have already been to Niger, SADAT is involved in the process.[...]

This is not the first time the Turkish government has been accused of sending Syrian fighters abroad. Several reports, including one by the US Department of Defence have documented Turkish-backed Syrian fighters in Libya - Turkey previously acknowledged that Syrian fighters were present there but did not admit recruiting them. It has also denied that it recruited and deployed Syrian mercenaries to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in the Caucasus.

15 Jul 24

[hussyknee]

Fellas, is it an act of war against a Western European country to hold their citizens prisoner in the open air prison they're carpet bombing?

Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthis have been launching attacks on US military bases in Syria and Iraq and firing missiles at Israel in tandem with Hamas's attacks. All three are funded by Iran.

(I am HEAVING with laughter at Vox and every single one of these propagandist chucklefucks calling them "militias" and "terrorist organisations" and trying to frame this as justification for continuing to fund Israel like. MOTHERFUCKER WHOSE REGION ARE YOU IN EXACTLY?? WHO IS GENOCIDING PEOPLE ON THEIR OWN SOIL??)

"But they're fundie theocratic military states!!!"

*looks at Israel*

*looks at you*

*looks at current state of US*

Oh, ARE they?

US officials have met with the Lebanese caretaker government in an effort to try and prevent the conflict from spreading into Lebanon.

Um. Was this before or after Israel poured white phosphorus on Lebanon? Do y'all even have any control over your dog?

(Btw if you MCU brainrotted Western leftists don't stop trying to pick a Good Guy out of this mess instead of understanding basic geo-politics and the horrific ground realities of the countries the US and its allies have left in tatters, you're frankly just as much of an enemy to the people in those countries as your leaders are. Every one of these people are fascist cunts.)

For those of you who have been BLEATING about Ukraine non-stop, like it's NOT an expendable non-NATO country they're only interested in defending in case Putin gets any bright ideas about Poland, here's an opinion that makes sense to me:

Tell me it wouldn't be perfectly on brand if the US government announced, "Our great democracy bows to the will of the people. We hear you, we see you. We will divest...from Ukraine."

The West has never given one singular shit about protecting ANYONE from genocide. Vulnerability is liability. The only difference between them and Putin is that Putin is greedy megalomaniacal fascist surrounded by self-interested yes-men and the US is run by a committee of greedy egomaniacal fascists surrounded by self-interested yes-men whose end goal is keeping the death machine spinning money rather than even "winning" territories. All they have to do to turn this around is divest from Israel and focus on Ukraine. And no, Israel can't throw in with Putin because it'll be too busy trying to fight off three countries at once without the sugar from its Daddy.

Putin will not stop at Ukraine, for the same reason the US didn't stop at Afghanistan. Empires are built on their military power and militaries need to be fed and kept active and kept active to be fed. The minute you stop, it tries to eat itself. If Putin makes a move on Poland, NATO has to respond, and if the West is also embroiled in an all-out war with the Middle East, well. It looks kinda like a global conflict.

Oh and btw, if this does escalate into another regional war in the Middle East, we're going to be plunged into an oil crisis. Which might actually be the last straw for the UK economy, but it very DEFINITELY will be for the rest of the Global South.

(Also Biden's already auctioned off the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska for oil companies for such an intensive scale of fracking that it's projected to tip the world over the edge of climate collapse. In the event of a war in the ME, the US is going to need that oil soooooo. Good luck stopping it.)

[raisengen]

Something I remember being struck by during Near Light’s first run is that the root of many of the knights’ disquiet is that none of them can answer the question of what it truly means to be a knight.

The Candle Knight, Viviana. A flawless competition knight who funnels her winnings to charities abroad. She fights, and she does good, but the two are entirely fungible. Any high-paid job could produce the funds, and her do-gooding is as simple as signing a cheque. There’s no external resistance, no struggle in the moment. Knighthood isn’t Effective Altruism, there has to be a personal battle.

Nightmare Knight Tola. He thinks he knows. Prove yourself on the battlefield, fight great opponents head-on and emerge victorious. Only, he has no cause to fight for. No khagan, no quest. He’s just seeking violence for its own sake. Knighthood isn’t just fighting, there has to be a higher cause.

I’ll also mention the Silverlances as our “historical” knights. Disciplined, proud, devastatingly effective, yes. But soldiers, moved by the political will of their masters, not their own convictions. The ideal of chivalric knighthood is not embodied by the actual knights of yore.

The Blood Knight, Dikaiopolis. He has a higher cause, and his struggles have directly paid off in real terms. But it’s only so much, and achieved through compromise or working the system. Is this the limit? Can he achieve no more? Is realpolitik and achievable ambition the way of knighthood?

Our headline act, The Radiant Knight, Margaret Nearl. Throughout Near Light, what struck me was how vague her plan was. She was to become a beacon, to lead by example, but… how? Is knighthood a state of being, or of doing? Can you set out with the goal of being an ideal knight, or is the pinnacle of knighthood only attained in pursuit of some other goal? Will she amount to anything at all?

(I admit, after seeing footballers in the UK do a better job of opposing the government than the actual opposition does, and the particular parallels of the Gary Lineker case, I have more patience for Nearl’s idea.)

Perhaps Pinus Sylvestris are the closest, though they’re too busy to notice. They fight to carve out their survival, and do all they can to support the other Infected. An all-consuming, noble and personal struggle. And yet… the cynic in me wonders, are they only able to do this because they have no choice? Was The Blood Knight once like them? The strong may choose their methods, while the weak must take whichever path they can. Is knighthood only able to exist against such stark and uncaring odds?

All these questions, and yet no clear answer. Perhaps it is for each of us to decide what knighthood should mean.

Finally, let’s not forget our Blemishine. She very openly says she has no idea what knighthood is (though it’s definitely not corporate sponsorship). She just fought for the sake of her family, in the way she thought was right. And she held no illusions of glory, bowing out as she realised the life of a “knight” was not for her. Yet, or perhaps therefore, I can’t help but feel she might find her own form of knighthood anyway.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Elon Musk’s wars: Brazil to Australia, UK to US, the X owner’s many battles

The billionaire has taken on multiple governments, claiming he’s fighting for free speech. But often, his business interests and political views are in play too.

Throughout history, the world’s richest people — almost all men — have often operated from the shadows, taking on governments they don’t like quietly.

Not the world’s current richest man.

In recent months, Elon Musk has taken on government after government, mostly left or liberal administrations, in public online wars centred around his claim that they are curbing free speech. But often, the spats have also come amid attempts by governments to regulate social media — where Musk, the owner of X, has a direct business interest as well.

From Brazil to Australia, France to the United Kingdom, and of course the United States, here’s a look at the battles Musk has stirred, and how they’ve played out for him and his companies.

Continue reading.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

It was bound to happen sooner or later: a guest on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow presented an artefact, which derived from the slave trade – an ivory bangle.

One of the programme’s experts, Ronnie Archer-Morgan, himself a descendant of slaves, said that it was a striking historical artefact but not one that he was willing to value.

‘I do not want to put a price on something that signifies such an awful business,’ he said.

It’s easy to understand how he feels. The idea of people profiting from the artefacts left over from slavery is distasteful.

Yet, as Archer-Morgan said, it is not that the bangle has no value: it has great educational value.

It should be bought by a museum and displayed in order to demonstrate the complex nature of slavery and as a corrective to the narrative that slavery was purely a crime committed by Europeans against Africans.

The bangle was, it seems, once in the possession of a Nigerian slaver who was trading in other Africans.

It’s a reminder that slavery was rife in Africa long before colonial government.

It could also remind us that, though slavery was a global institution, the country that led the world in the rebellion against this barbarism – and played a bigger role than perhaps anyone else in its eradication – was the United Kingdom.

Britain did not invent slavery.

Slaves were kept in Egypt since at least the Old Kingdom period and in China from at least the 7th century AD, followed by Japan and Korea.

It was part of the Islamic world from its beginnings in the 7th century.

Native tribes in North America practised slavery, as did the Aztecs and Incas farther south.

African traders supplied slaves to the Roman empire and to the Arab world. Scottish clan chiefs sold their men to traders.

Barbary pirates from north Africa practised the trade too, seizing around a million white Europeans – including some from Cornish villages – between the 16th and 18th centuries.

It was in fear of such pirates that the song ‘Rule Britannia’ was written: hence the line that ‘Britons never ever ever shall be slaves.’

Even slaves who escaped their masters in the Caribbean went on to take their own slaves.

The most concerted campaign against all this was started by Christian groups in London in the 1770s who eventually recruited William Wilberforce to their campaign, and parliament went on to outlaw the slave trade in 1807.

British sea power was then deployed to stamp it out.

The largely successful British effort to eradicate the transatlantic slave trade did not grow out of any kind of self-interest.

It was driven by moral imperative and at considerable cost to Britain and the Empire.

At its peak, Britain’s battle against the slave trade involved 36 naval ships and cost some 2,000 British lives.

In 1845, the Aberdeen Act expanded the Navy’s mission to intercept Brazilian ships suspected of carrying slaves.

Much is made about how Britain profited from the slave trade, but we tend not to hear about the extraordinary cost of fighting it.

In a 1999 paper, US historians Chaim Kaufmann and Robert Pape estimated that, taking into account the loss of business and trade, suppression of the slave trade cost Britain 1.8 per cent of GDP between 1808 and 1867.

It was, they said, the most expensive piece of moral action in modern history.

The cost of fighting the slave trade cancelled out much, if not all of Britain’s profits from it over the previous century.

There are those who continue to demand reparations for slavery from the UK government and other western powers, yet they rarely, if ever, acknowledge Britain’s role in all but eradicating the evil of the transatlantic slave trade, a cause on which we spent the equivalent of £1.5 billion a year for half a century.

Britain’s role in hastening slavery’s extinction is a remarkable achievement.

It’s astonishing that we have forgotten it almost entirely in the 21st century.

It would be difficult to find anyone in the world whose ancestral tree does not somewhere extend back to a slave-trader.

Huge numbers of us, too, will have been partly descended from slaves.

Britain should not minimise or deny the extent to which it traded slaves to the colonies in the early days of Empire.

But it is also important to remember the thousands who served and died with the West Africa Squadron while seizing 1,600 slave ships and freeing some 150,000 Africans.

We must examine and remember everything about the history of the slave trade, including the forces – moral and military – that eventually brought it to an end.

It’s profoundly worrying that slavery evolved to be a near-universal phenomenon among human societies and inspiring that it came to be all but eradicated within a single human lifespan.

[fumblingmusings]

You ready for the most niche thing ever but hey this is what we do here you just have to bear with me as I take 3,000 years to get to the point because learning more about the repeal of Britain's Corn Laws in the 19th Century the more it's just a microcosm of that oh so blessed North American Triangle of Britain and America making deals and Canada going hey wait a second dynamic. Poor Mattie playing second fiddle at... nearly every interaction involving these two.

So. Corn. The Corn Laws were passed after the Napoleonic Wars by Britain to keep prices high for domestic producers, of course making lovely profits for landowners, rather than the farmers who actually grew the stuff. It also prioritised colonial grains, so Canada got a boon with its wheat and flour. Nice example of Mercantilism right there.

The problem wassssssss by the 1840s you have the Irish Famine, food prices are too gosh dang high, no-one has disposable income because factory owners are cutting wages wherever they can, and it's so blatantly obvious that this system only profits the top 10% of British Society. There's no shortage of food, it just costs too fucking much. Ireland is starving and the government is sitting on their hands being useless.

A lot of pressure later, Free Trade is favoured over Mercantilism, and the Corn Laws are dropped. Britain can start importing wheat, barley and other cereals form the cheapest supplier: the US. This is not coincidental that the main MP pushing for their repeal - Richard Cobden - was a massive fan of the USA, doing a lot to try and get the two countries to be friendlier to each other. He subscribed to the 'the more economically entangled you are with another country the less likely you are to fight them' which... has its truths.

So... cheap bread good? So that's one thing.

EXCEPT Canada got completely screwed over since they had gotten priority for any externally grown grain for most of the 1840s - causing a bubble in their market. So when the Corn Laws got repealed and it was open season to the cheapest supplier much of Canada's businesses went bankrupt and following series of unfortunate events semi related to corn people burnt Montreal's Parliament and the capital moved to Toronto and it gave yet another push towards Confederation in the 1860s.

So that's a second thing.

It also kind of screwed over the domestic UK farming industry as the age old 'why buy domestic expensive if foreign cheap?' came into play and another wave of emigrants move to the US and the Dominions in the second half of the 19th century because being an agricultural labourer ain't what it used to be (like 100,000 of people with those jobs 'vanish' from the census within ten years, going to the city of abroad). The fact that, compared to 1830 where Britain imported just 2% of its grain, to the 1880s where it was 45%, (65% for wheat)... Uh-oh.

So that's a third thing.

ALTHOUGH, this did have another side affect of ensuring Britain could not get involved in the American Civil War like okay yes the South was very much banking on the need for cotton to push Britain to intercede but psych! The working class people of Lancashire are braver than any Confederate solider and refuse to work with cotton picked by enslaved peoples and would literally rather starve. Especially as, at that point 40% of the wheat people ate came from Northern US states. What's more important? Bread or cotton?

So... that's a fourth thing.

Anyway. Corn.

Sorry I had to make use of an out of date meme.

I'm just fascinated by how domestic actions can still massively impact other nations... Arthur doing the right thing for his people by lowering bread prices indirectly fucks over Matthew but also protects Alfred down the line. Like... urGH! You know?

[not-very-kawaii-of-you]

Pretty soon Brazil will release a new census for 2022, they did not make it in 2015 (not enough money), so the last one was in 2010 when its population was stated at 213 million, it's not finished yet but the results are already estimated at 207 million.

About 5,2 million people are missing, and the Brazilian population which was always estimated to have a growing population of around 1 million per year, has shrunk more than Japan (which went from its height of 128 to 125 now). Brazil is now on the list of shrinking society, and it's the largest country in the world that is losing people (if you trust the Chinese government which still claims they are growing).

Brazil ever since 2010 went on its most significant economic crisis in recorded history, impeached its president, and went into one of the most turbulent political periods of its history.

It still has not recovered from its height of 2012 2,6 trillion dollars in GDP, nowadays it's sitting around 1,8. Its fertility rate (1,6) it's below that of the USA (1,7) but it's been suffering from the economic crisis when people decide to postpone having children because of financial hardships, also the lockdowns made people afraid of having children too, creating another moment of very low birthrates.

Not to mention that Brazil has not attracted immigrants in considerable numbers since the 1970s. Its population is actually moving away in increasingly more significant waves. USA, Japan, Paraguay, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, China, and Switzerland, all have seen increases in their Brazillian migrant communities in the last decade.

Brazil is suffering the consequences of its own political games, their economy never thrives in a significant way and for a sustained period because of government intervention. Its people are poor and suffering and they know it. Their elites are too busy enjoying their wealth and playing their beliefs in politics (climate change policies, green energy subsidies, welfare programs to fight inequality).

In terms of freedom, Brazil can easily rank below countries that proclaim to be communists and/or dictatorships. This nation barely elect an outsider as president, for 4 years, and the machine made everything possible (even elevating a supreme court authoritarian regime) just to re-elect the most corrupt man in its history and bring back the old Brazil, one of the most corrupt and failed republics of South America.

Brazil is the country of the future, a future that will never come. Escape while you can.

[collymore]

The insolence and prejudices which vilely envelop the murderous, Grenfell Inferno!

By Stanley Collymore

How dare it be suggested that MPs actually care about common people! Since they only need them when it's election time, for in between such elections these distinctly and quite irrefutably common people simply don't matter. So candidly let's really be both literally and perfectly honest about this that governments and big businesses effectively don't basically crucially care about truly ordinary people so your MPs aptly taking their cue from them simply thoroughly likewise do effectively behave accordingly! And anyway, what's being undertaken literally evidently, relative to the Grenfell Tower Inferno situation, is really actually simply virtue signalling!

And that's undoubtedly so, because any crucial fight for justice, and the true workings, of an authentic criminal inquiry will be actually purposely drawn out over several and most likely, over ten years; actually by which time the same companies undeniably literally responsible for this obviously devastatingly Grenfell Tower Inferno, simply will have changed their names and ownership, and the actual culprits, distinctively involved in this quite unwarranted and clearly catastrophic deaths, of these luckless 72 persons, will crucially have retired, died or predictably conveniently and rather callously and similarly unflustered opportunistically taken up residence obviously in significantly safe locations outside the United Kingdom! (C) Stanley V.  Collymore 7 September 2024.

Author's Remarks: Self-evidently some lives and ethnicities are obviously and unquestionably regarded as undoubtedly far superior to others; and it doesn't require a Mensa IQ to ascertain who those favoured individuals are! Significantly too, justice needs to be administered quickly in order to have any genuine effect!

And haven't you got it yet? Not only in the case of the Grenfell Tower tragedy but also generally; the UK's parliament is a joke, and in essence nothing more than an institution stuffed with largely self-serving sycophants; and as the evident bunch of leeches that they unquestionably are, clearly with their snouts stuck in the requisite financial troughs. So the Grenfell Tower catastrophe and clearly who the victims are wouldn't matter much, if at all, to the majority of them. As discernibly quite clearly, these casualties don't look like them!

[yoshiyolotli]

Need help with this! My province's "leader" is about to make life for students and teachers really difficult. The UK just went through something like this. Ugh! Why does anyone think it is their right to dictate how someone identifies themselves?

I will be honest and say that this has been a lifetime journey for me. I grew up in the late 70s and 80s during the AIDS pandemic and a whole lot of misinformation, disinformation fear, you name it. But I have finally gotten to the point in my life, a number of years ago, that regardless of ... actually, in part because of my faith ... to realize that people just need to be loved for who they are. And it really shouldn't be anyone's business who anyone is attracted to or how they identify themselves or whatever. This new legislation is going to make life very difficult. I teach kids who are too afraid to let their parents know how they want to be identified, but trust that knowledge with us because they feel safer at school then at home.

Please do what you can to get this out there. I know our local teachers union is trying to fight this. But this particular provincial government seems to think that they don't have to listen to the people in their province and that they can run things pretty much like a dictatorship. It is maddening. We have a cost-of-living crisis, a healthcare crisis, and education, crisis, and all sorts of other things, but all this administration wants to do is regulate how people identify themselves and what you can't do in your private life .



[thessalian]

To clarify the bit about “the backing of the government” - while we ostensibly don’t have a two-party system, we functionally do, and the Big Two are both backing a change to the Equal Rights Act that will differentiate ‘biological sex’ from ‘sex’ in terms of equality. Both are backing an increase in the exclusion of trans people (though they’re mostly talking about trans women) from single-sex spaces. The Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Bill is going to force trans women into men’s prisons. The party in government is systematically stripping the rights and protections from trans people in the UK, and the primary opposition party is matching them beat for beat to try to steal “the transphobe vote” from the Tories. The Labour leader has been quoted as basically saying “of course women don’t have penises”.

Yeah, it’s a meme and a joke if you don’t live in this country. But the trans people in this country are watching the two major political parties tripping all over themselves to make trans’ people’s very existence illegal. The anti-British memes and the “everyone in [X place] should die” comments just make it even harder for the people being stamped on by a highly vocal, extremely powerful minority with a majority that’s too busy worrying about fighting their economic oppression (like, how they’re going to feed themselves) to stand up for the ones being oppressed in other ways, however much danger they’re in.

Someone made an engagement map for TERF tweets

[two-reflections]

WIP Wednesday ✨

Fic ✨

I've been slowly working on my fic for the 40k summer exchange. Can't share any of that, of course. The scope of the story has grown and I'm still wondering if it's okay to post one chapter and release the rest over the next new weeks. I guess we'll have to see. If I'm not done by the deadline, that's what it'll have to be.

I'm also not sure quite how smutty this one should be. Hmm.

Nothing more to report for WIP Wednesday, so let's talk about larp.

LARP ✨

Last weekend, my favourite larp ever finally finished...

It was an amazing game through and through. Not going to post the name because I'd basically be doxxing myself and it's over anyway, but the vibe was XCOM meets Bloodborne meets the Industrial Revolution and the rise of Labour rights.

This game gave me my first leadership role at a larp. Way back in 2018, I was chosen as the Commander of a secret government bureau responsible for fighting fear-based entities called Nightmares that were encroaching upon a newly industrial country in the wake of a revolution. I thought I'd be terrible in a leadership role, but actually, I had a great time and we collectively smashed the ending. I feel like I did a good job.

And my character got her desired ending. She led the bureau in redefining the nature of Nightmares, empowered the Dreaming Dead who watch over the country, helped establish a new form of government to replace the old monarchy, mostly kept her comrades alive, was promoted to the highest rank of the bureau, and finally, just as the game ended, sat down to rest with a cup of tea.

There are a lot of larps in involved in, but I'm going to miss this game so much.

...oh, go on then. Here are a couple of pictures.

So, as for the reason why there's so little 40k progress this week... Last week, I was busy preparing for the big larp finale, and this week, I've got Covid AGAIN. There are a couple of strains going around the UK again, seems like everyone and their dog has it at the moment. All attendees had to test before the game and about four long-time players couldn't come, but I guess someone slipped through. I'm self-isolating now, coughing a lot and feeling like utter shit, but I guess I chose this so I shouldn't complain too much. They really need to make the jab more easily available again, I would have gotten it if I could.

Oh well. Game was worth it.

[jcmarchi]

Bank of England Governor: AI won't lead to mass job losses

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/bank-of-england-governor-ai-wont-lead-to-mass-job-losses/

Bank of England Governor: AI won't lead to mass job losses

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Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, has rebutted fears that AI will lead to widespread unemployment.

“I’m an economic historian, before I became a central banker. Economies adapt, jobs adapt, and we learn to work with it. And I think, you get a better result by people with machines than with machines on their own,” Bailey told the BBC.

Bailey’s comments come as the latest economic assessment shows that UK businesses investing in AI are expected to see gains in efficiency and output. Utilising AI is anticipated to provide productivity benefits across multiple sectors.  

However, Baroness Stowell of the House of Lords has cautioned that the UK risks “missing out on the AI goldrush” if it does not act quickly.

A report from the Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee honed in on large language models and tools like ChatGPT. The report called for updated copyright laws and urged the government to provide clarity on AI regulation—warning too much could hinder AI development in the country.

Both Bailey and the Lords committee seem to agree that the focus should be on harnessing the upsides of AI while managing legitimate risks. 

The financial services industry also stands to gain from responsible AI adoption.

“Generative AI brings potentially exciting benefits for financial institutions. When it comes to fighting financial crime, for example, AI can improve the accuracy and speed of detection by analysing large data sets,” said Dr Henry Balani, Head of Industry & Regulatory Affairs at Encompass Corporation.

Balani emphasised however that key roles like Know Your Customer (KYC) analysts are irreplaceable for now. “It will instead accelerate existing processes and augment the work of analysts, empowering them to detect financial crime risk more quickly and comprehensively,” he added.

“The maximum value of generative AI can only be realised if banks and financial institutions have already put in place robust digital and automated processes to optimise the quality of data collated and deliver deeper customer insights. By prioritising this now, banks will be well equipped to take advantage of this new technology as it continues to evolve and mature.”

Last month, research from EXL found that around 89 percent of insurance and banking firms in the UK have introduced AI solutions over the past year. However, issues with data optimisation are often hindering their benefits.

(Image Credit: Bank of England under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED license. Cropped from original for effect.)

See also: Experts from 30 nations will contribute to global AI safety report

Want to learn more about AI and big data from industry leaders? Check out AI & Big Data Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. The comprehensive event is co-located with Digital Transformation Week and Cyber Security & Cloud Expo.

Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.

Tags: ai, andrew bailey, artificial intelligence, bank of england, careers, economy, finance, jobs, uk

[mysteriouslytransparentwombat]

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[the-firebird69]

A lot of the Eevee cars know some of them are arriving in California in a couple other destinations about 1 million. They get it and they say it's severely underpowered and the battery is way too much so they switch them out pretty easily and they gave people trouble for it so they get chastised and it's automotive engines on the wheels and they work well I know in all four and when they put the new batteries in the vehicle goes about 85 mph top speed no it's about 120 miles per hour and he's amazed that's a lot it's because of the DraStic weight change the old batteries way about 850 lb new ones weigh about 120 lb and really it helps because the truck is light duty now you can carry some things a couple hundred pounds few people and that's about it and it goes a little slower but it's still because the batteries are better and those are game batteries if you put it in solid lithium it was 130 mph and 85 mph with five people and 200 lb so people want this thing it's snazzy they lower the shocks and put on different tires that are made for speed it goes faster about 135 to 140 and when it's got one person in it it'll go 300 miles with new tires and lowered it'll go about 200 with five people in it which is amazing it's just a dream and our son wants one and we say we can't get it to him and he can't change the batteries and he says he'll have to figure it out it still goes 100 miles and it does say that and with him in it it'll go 100 miles and the lead acid are not that bad but it costs money and he doesn't have money so back to the drawing board. A lot of people are starting to figure out what their role really is it's not very good they have a very hard time holding on to it

The sun is found out to be a baby giant and they looked around and they have similar attributes and they're yelling at each other you might be one and the trumpster say you've been selected and got about 7 foot good night they're not Giants and they put the good night in there and they're going to pay for it. We also have some other stuff for them we're going to start taking over all the businesses because they're in the way and they're useless and their current actions are proving it. We don't want their help and we don't need it it's detrimental and my speech was accepted this time. Nothing's going to start moving and rapidly and I caught my son saying this to me and said I can say whatever I want order whatever I want it's not as effective as what I do and he means me and Freya and it's true and I looked at it it was exactly what people are doing and he's pissed off about it and you lately been saying he's running it and you're nuts and you just bothering me cuz you're a losers and it's true I'm going to start hitting them right now

There's a lot going on here so everybody hold on to the seat belts this is going to be fun people are going to get messed up and out in the first ring it's starting to show nobody wants them there and nobody wants to stupid fight they're telling them to go home or they wipe them out so they hit like half the force in a couple minutes and they said no after are you satisfied so they're going to just hit them and they'll lose these people and 10 houses are gone no it's going to start happening again and they are way up at 1:20 and the employees are still there and the government employees and the sheriff and the police and it doesn't seem like they're going to go anywhere but the battle in the war in the UK is going to make it happen. Tons of them are there huge armies are prepping to leave when they leave we take over and they're big areas in the United States it's about 1/3 of the West and it's mostly vacant he says it's kind of true it's like Sacramento and south and north of Sacramento to San Francisco that whole area is going to become vacant and there's a way we can move in and we can encroach with bases in the wall and we'll have nuclear buildings and storage facilities and regular buildings and we're going to build cities is wondering about San Francisco we can't really build there and someone had the idea already and it was Hera and it's true from listening to him so I'm going to pull buildings out of San Francisco and we're going to build them to the South and to get to Nevada you don't have to go that far there's a pass and the pass is just north of Los Angeles and it goes out to Reno and then if you continue it will go to that area of Nevada and Reno is jumping for joy they're going to start building casinos if they see something and we're going to show them something very soon and he says we have to beef up the presents in Vegas first and we're going to go ahead and do that

Thor Freya

Olympus

They came to me this morning and he said we have to get up early and get out there that's it for what it's going to go find a dump and buy a sign and find a crappy building and it looks like Stan has trying to replicate it it's a gas station so it doesn't qualify ing there yet not one soon as I get to it at the moment

Hera

Zues

[ict-reports]

U.S. Air Filter Market Forecast 2030 Global Business Growth, Competition Landscape, Size, Market Drivers and Trends

An extensive overview of the global "U.S. Air Filter Market Size" is provided by the Growth, Share, Price, Trends, Report and Forecast 2030, which evaluates the market based on segments such as types, applications, structural designs, and major regions.

The report examines the most recent market updates and their effects on the whole market. In addition, it analyzes price and demand indicators as well as market demand. Additionally, the report uses Porter's Five Forces and the SWOT models to track the market.

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List of Top Key Players in U.S. Air Filter Market:

3M Company (U.S.)

Donaldson Company, Inc. (U.S.)

MANN + HUMMEL (Germany)

Coway Co.,Ltd. (South Korea)

Freudenberg Filtration Technologies SE & Co. KG (Germany)

K&N Engineering, Inc. (U.S.)

DAIKIN INDUSTRIES, Ltd. (Japan)

PARKER-HANNIFIN CORP (U.S.)

Cummins Inc. (U.S.)

Camfil (Sweden)

The global U.S. Air Filter Market is divided up according to the type, application, country, company, etc. As they utilize the report as a potent resource, players, stakeholders, and other participants in the global U.S. Air Filter Market will be able to gain the upper hand. Sales, revenue, and forecasts by type, application, and region (country) are the main topics of the segmental analysis.

An Overview of the Impact of COVID-19 on this Market:

The COVID-19 conference increased industry digitization, stressed supply chain resilience, raised health and safety issues, sped up the expansion of e-commerce, changed the dynamics of remote work, encouraged sustainability initiatives, and stimulated innovation. In the post-pandemic future, these long-lasting changes will reshape sectors by promoting adaptability and an emphasis on long-term resilience.

The emergence of COVID-19 has brought the world to a standstill. We understand that this health crisis has brought an unprecedented impact on businesses across industries. However, this too shall pass. Rising support from governments and several companies can help in the fight against this highly contagious disease. There are some industries that are struggling and some are thriving. Overall, almost every sector is anticipated to be impacted by the pandemic.

We are making continuous efforts to help your business sustain and grow during COVID-19 pandemics. Based on our experience and expertise, we will offer you an impact analysis of coronavirus outbreaks across industries to help you prepare for the future.

Report Highlights:

A thorough rundown of U.S. Air Filter Market Size and the current developments influencing the sector, Provide information on past and anticipated growth rates.

Important elements supporting, limiting, challenging, and offering the market a chance.

Significant industry advancements and important insights.

Prominent entities operating within U.S. Air Filter Market Size.

Players' major tactics include launching new products to increase revenue generation, collaborating with other businesses, and others.

Some other market trends.

Regional Analysis for U.S. Air Filter Market:

North America (the USA and Canada)

Europe (UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia and Rest of Europe)

Asia Pacific (Japan, China, India, Australia, Southeast Asia and Rest of Asia Pacific)

Latin America (Brazil, Mexico and Rest of Latin America)

The U.S. Air Filter Market Size research report provides a thorough evaluation of the sector. The report's estimates were developed based on well-established research philosophies and hypotheses.