@ChrisMayLA6 @JugglingWithEggs So we are, in other words, royally f***ed with regard to #ISDS. Wonderful! So much for #democracy, & for people wanting to stop #datacentres. We can't do it, even if we want to, it seems.
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22 results for “_chrismay”
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I see the BigTech builders of UK data centres are sufficiently concerned about the prospect of widening (local) political resistance & protests that they are seeking Govt. intervention to deliver a 'compact' to ease the local environment for construction...
Of course, given our political class' disdain for protest and people's local interest(s), we're more likely to see proscription of protest groups & repression of campaigns against data centres.
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AI & its associated technologies may be stoking inflation directly & indirectly...
directly via spikes in demand for computing components; on electricity use; for construction materials for data centres.
indirectly, via increases in spending in expectation of an AI-related technological boom (even if many are sceptical).
But how significant are these pressures in the general inflationary context *and* does (as many clam) AI reduces costs to balance out these pressures?
#AI #economics
h/t FT -
The mid-terms in the USA will be (another) testbed fro the proposition that you can *just* buy the result of democracy... Republicans have built up a 'archest of nearly $1bn around double what the Democrats have available to spend.
However, currently polls are favouring the Democrats, so the Q. is whether the Republicans' spend can reverse that polling advantage.
And of course there's always the chance of *actual* electoral interference from the White House.
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Not sure what the implications of the decision to give the go-ahead to the Jackdaw North Sea gas field are?.... then here is a reasonable overview of the issues from @BBC Verify.
As I've said before away from the spotlight there is still good journalism happening at the BBC, just not by their high profile commentariat.
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Poverty kills, and for people aged between 25 & 49 in the North, this is especially the case... the death rate in this age group has tripled since 1981, and the gap between North & South (in broad terms) has also widened.
This may not be surprising to many, but it remains a stark reminder of the regional inequality that patterns the UK, and is why (as posted earlier) those based in the South can blithely but wrongly talk about the UK's 'resilience'!
#health #politics
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq78pnk10vr9o -
The spread of the world's fastest moving Ebola outbreak continues, with reports it has now reached the capital of Nigeria (with a patent only admitted to hospital four days after showing symptoms one can only speculate how many people she was in contact with).
This outbreak of a new strain of Ebola seems to be accelerating & widening, and at present (partly due to aid cuts) the work to contain the outbreak looks uneven at best.
#Africa #ebola #health #politics
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/21/nigeria-first-ebola-case-africa-outbreak-latest
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OpenAI is reporting (celebrating, warning?) ChatGPT got around inbuilt regulatory safeguards (avoiding its own monitoring systems). Although both incidents were during internal tests the implication might be that regulating AI & associated technologies will be more akin to the legal enforcement of human law(s) than technology rules..... or is it?
The problem is its difficult to distinguish between AI status reports & marketing intended to show how powerful ChatGPT is...
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Chinese domestic demand remains weak, the property market is stagnant & domestic debt levels have fallen (a lack of consumer demand ); often seen as the flip side of China's focus on exporting, could this also be a parallel circumstance to Japan's lost decades after its own financial & property/debt crisis in the 1980s?
While China is navigating things differently, are the parallel close enough to help understand where China is right now?
I'm not so sure....
#China #economics
h/t FT -
RE: https://mas.to/@kityates/117473041326560608
Here's a thread from @kityates that's likely to make your blood boil... he's summarising the Covid Inquiry's Module Six report....
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My favourite paintings No. 79
John Piper, Coventry Cathedral, 15 November, 1940 (1940)
I've a soft spot for John Piper, primarily as he was my father's favourite artist; Piper found beauty in the destruction wrought by bombing in WW2 (my dad was in bomber command & delivered a fair amount of destruction himself). On one level this is a classic gothic celebration of ruins, but for my dad I think it was more an emotional response to his own role in such destruction?
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While I completely understand young people's reported desire to get more preparation for work while at school (given the requirement to work is central to any capitalist society), its also a depressing indication of how influential the instrumental view of education has become (even among children).
Learning *could* be about so much more than work, but the focus of education has narrowed to see it merely as a preparation for employment...
#workers #education #politics
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6m2dmdxgz2xo -
Should we focus on the drop in support for the NHS' 'founding principles' reported by the Kings Fund, or should we celebrate that despite the continuing engineered crisis, around three quarters of the UK population *still* support the idea the health service should be 'free to use, available to everyone & tax-funded'?
Support for the NHS actually remains pretty high in comparison with other aspects of UK society.
Glass half full or half empty?
#health #NHS #politics
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/oct/20/public-support-founding-principles-nhs-falling-across-uk-population -
Across the professional classes Limited Liability Partnerships have been used to classify partners as (essentially) risk taking entrepreneurs whose income should be taxed accordingly (lightly);
however in landmark case the HMRC has convinced the UK Supreme Court that in most cases this is actually a tax avoidance strategy, and as such there's now a rush across financial & professional services firms using LLPs to try and deal with likely back tax demands...
Oh dear....
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While the Govt. seeks to halt leaks of the budget, its not averse to pre-announcing aspects itself.
John Healey having 'listened' to business, says he will not be raising Capital Gains Tax at all, having already ruled out equalising CGT with income tax.
Given this was seen on the Left as a key indicator of intent over fiscal management & taxation, many may well see this as an early indication of what 'following the money' indicates about budget priorities!
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One of the striking differences between UK employers & the Dutch is the issue of responsibility;
Dutch employers see themselves with responsibility for the well-being of young workers; in the UK many employers see labour as a cost that needs to be reduced, training as a luxury & young workers only being employable if they *already* have work experience.
To replicate the Dutch model of partnership will require significant cultural change!
#workers #NEETS #politics
https://feweek.co.uk/what-alan-milburn-and-i-learned-from-the-dutch/ -
Wow. Just realized that Cosmic Python, written by @hjwp, came out in March of 2020.
Such an influential book. Such an influential time.
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I've done a lot of experimenting while I've been off Mastodon, and I look forward to talking more about it.
It feels like all the work I've done over the last few years to examine everything about how I approach coding is paying off with many dividends.
I'm building a personal web app to improve everything around my family's monthly grocery getting process, leaning in to web-native tools, and it's so much fun.
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Hello Mastodon friends! It's been a while.
I had an in-organization job shuffle, and a few other things filled my brain too much.
But I'm hoping to be around again.
How are you doing?
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🎧 Ab 18 Uhr reden @chrismarquardt und @nSonic live über Polarlichter, KI-Wasserzeichen, Videoframes als Fotos, Weltraumkameras und View-Master.
Gerne weitersagen 🚀
https://twitch.tv/chrismarquardthimself
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMm9qRI48qA#hslive #fotografie #podcast #livestream #polarlicht #KI #NASA #ViewMaster #Canon
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Business school is a pox on society and encourages the worst behavior in its graduates: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/18/opinion/business-school-mba-harvard-cornell-cambridge.html
#nyt #newyorktimes #capitalism #business #academia #chrismarquis #labor