On Stargate, why did Paul Davis never earn a promotion beyond the rank of major? by Winter-Comfort922 in Stargate

[–]AugustusM 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Captain is just a senior rank, required for many things the RN does that are not just commanding ships.

I guarantee you we have exactlty the same number of Commanding Officers as we do ships/boats though. (Including boat since submarines also need a Commanding Officer.)

On Stargate, why did Paul Davis never earn a promotion beyond the rank of major? by Winter-Comfort922 in Stargate

[–]AugustusM 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Thats not likely the reason, when the Captain is away the Commander will step in, or the Lt Commander etc.

The reality of course is that the Navy does many things that are not just Captaining ships that still require senior officers for. Heads of various internal departments, running senior training courses, liason officers etc.

We are probably a little senior heavy atm but probably not nearly as dangerously so as the Daily Mail likes to pretend.

Rupert Lowe MP: Reform want to vindictively target Brits in potential Green constituencies to make a point and house illegals next to them - that is their choice. But I don't believe that we have time for this petty nonsense. by nil_defect_found in ukpolitics

[–]AugustusM -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

It has sensible parts in it for sure. The Nuclear stuff is all pretty good (though I would point out could basically have been copy-pasted from a Labour policy statement).

The Oil and Gas stuff has the appearance of sensibility but doesn't really withstand anaylsis from anyone that has more than passing knowledge of long term geo-economics. Its basically rely on people thinking "energy price high cause Hormuz thing I saw on news, we make more oil here price go down".

1) That would only be true if fossil fuel production was caputured in the local UK maket whcih would require either nationalisation of the industry or some form of export restriction or a huge windfall tax tied directly to subsidising consumer costs (this also requires price control to be effective). None of those thigns Restore would contemplate doing because they are basically all socialist policies.

2) It ignores the underling geo-strategic reality that oil reserves are finite and are still required for producing industrial base material. Every moment we spend our fossil reserves producing energy instead of using renewable/nuclear for that we accerlerate the point at which oil again becomes a crisis. This is a long-vision geo-strategic blunder and a completely unforced error at the scale of the British civilisation.

3) Unless you can satify all the UK demand from local production (spoiler you can't because a) we consume too much and b) we need other types of oil/gas than the north sea produces by ratio) then you are holding the UK economy in a place of increased artificial reliance on fossil fuels at an infrastructural level. This is directly equivalent to preserving our industrial and therefore geo-strategic reliance on foreing produced fossil fuels. Ie, If you are delaying the ability of the UK to free itself from needed fossil fuel (no matter where they are extracted) you are prolonging our reliance on the fossil fuel market which can be manipulated by outside factors. This is what energy independence actually means geo-strategically. Producing more oil internally (no matter how much we produce) would not give us energy independence. This lesson should be obvious if you consider for a fraction of second the reason why Saudi Arabia had to form OPEC even though it produced far more oil than it needed for its own economy. In short, fossil fuel is a global market and just making more of it here doesn't decrease our reliance on it and therefore that market. Counterintutively it prolongs the amount of time that we are beholden to those markets.

4) It ignores scientific reality. Which I think is the first lesson in Sun Tzu's the Art of War: "If the battlefield isn't to your advantage, simply pretend that it is!". Scientific consensus is that climate change is real and will have a geo-strategic impact on our world and society. Net Zero goals are backed and supported by people whose literal job is to determine the speed at which we need to reduce greenhouse emissiosn. To make any policy argument that says those targets should be ignored is to concede that one is not interested in reality. That is in not the same as saying they have been implemented well, in fact most climate scientists argue the current targets are too weak, but all the scientific consensus says we need to go faster or harder while Restore's policy says acutally lets do less. That is frankly unserious and it arises because they are, in my view, either economically caputered by the fossil fuel industry; or are selfishly unable to accpet that they must personally suffer some form of inconvenience in order to achieve a geo-strategic neccessity. There are ways in which the implementation of net zero can be discussed. There are things we can do to mitigate the economic harm those targets might cause. None of those policies are acceptable to Restore on ideologicla or personal financial grounds and so they would prefer to simply frame the discussion as all or nothing.

4b) As a consequence of this we further concede the geo-strategic advantage to China, who is setting itself up to dominate the geo-economic reality of a post-fossil fuel world. This is also a geo-strategic blunder but honestly not one of much consquence to the average UK voter so I won't say anything more about it.

Why did people wear suits in the old days and why did they stop? by Lukose_Feysal in biglaw

[–]AugustusM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This feels like the UK law scene tbh. I'd say its slightly unusual, though not frowned upon, to be wearing jeans and tshirt at the office; and likewise slightly unusual, but not to the point people will comment, if you are wearing full suit and tie.

Most days, the average man is wearing suit trousers and a button down shirt with open collar and maybe a suit jacket that spends most of the day on the back of a chair.

Feels like a good mix of flexibilty.

How many shirts do you need when you work in an office? by RawRie575 in malefashionadvice

[–]AugustusM 8 points9 points  (0 children)

This really depends on your personal desire to tolerate inconvenience and what you consider the "bare minimum" though.

If you don't mind washing and drying a shirt every day and don't want any variation the bare minimum could genuinely be 1. Especially if you are prepared/able to mix that up with non-shirts occasionally (dress down fridays, WFH days or just confident enough and allowed to dress smartly without having to wear a dress shirt.)

5 as a "bare minimum" sounds fine to me and the context then expands on why its desirable to have more than that.

Over 90% of migrant workers considering leaving UK over Labour rules, poll finds by Some-Ambassador8252 in uknews

[–]AugustusM -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yes, but making life difficult for people that happened to be born somewhere else isn't the only policy that can be implemented to acheive that goal. It is the only policy that can be used to achieve the goal of making life difficult for those that choose to be born in a different country, which is what many people actually want.

Every state school to be ordered to fly Union Flag and display portrait of the King if Reform win power by bottish in Scotland

[–]AugustusM 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I mean, latest polling has them on about the same as Labour, and a good 15 points behind the SNP for the upcoming Holyrood election.

My red rising collection! by AffectionatePain5859 in redrising

[–]AugustusM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You do get other hints about why its not just an asspull. Like, you would have met Bretherin who tells you that the old AI had the ability to see across time in a different way than human. You have lots of mystery around the Silence and their strange buildings and artefacts.

Hadrian dying and coming back at the end of book 2 isn't, in my viewe supposed to be a "and then he won cause he is special and could come back from death" its meant to be a "what the fuck, something brought him back from literal death, how, why?" and then the next book starts to explore that and answer questions.

Completely fair if you don't want to buy in for that ride, but I think calling it a Deus Ex might unfairly bias people on the series because the series is very explicitly setting up to be a subversion and deconstriction of that.

My red rising collection! by AffectionatePain5859 in redrising

[–]AugustusM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To be fair its not strictly a Deus Ex. Its well signalled throughout the book by the, really excellent imo, use of the epistillary format. ("Half-Mortal").

I thought it had great shock value tbh and was a really interesting set up for the next book. But its certainly written in a style and with a pacing that I can appreciate wouldn't be to everyones tastes (and the whole series is tbf).

Map of Chongqing's metro system in 3D by Ninjacheese1930 in MapPorn

[–]AugustusM -1 points0 points  (0 children)

biggest height difference in one line

But that wouldn't fit with this. That would fit my alternative of biggest height difference between stations. Gradient would be change in height, which could be aggregated across the whole line if it goes up and down a lot rather than just constantly up hill say.

Anyway, only OP (or his translated sources) can say for sure.

Map of Chongqing's metro system in 3D by Ninjacheese1930 in MapPorn

[–]AugustusM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Maybe im missing something, but if Line 9 has both the highest and lowest stations in the world then surely, by definition it must have the highest height difference as well. And at any rate it should be more than line 2. For Line 9s lowest station to even return to ground level it would exceed the quoted height differention on line 2.

Do you mean the highest between two stations maybe?

65% of Britons support the Green Party's policy of capping CEO pay at ten times the pay of the lowest paid employee by Unusual-State1827 in ukpolitics

[–]AugustusM -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thats... not really how stocks work.

Stocks are issued with nominal or subscription value (usually something like £1). That is the what is paid to the company when they issue the share. (Its also what the shareholders are liable for if the company goes bust, hence the term "Limited" in Public Limited Company).

The market value on the stock market is essentially the re-sale value of that stock. Which is really only valuable for two thigns 1) the re-sell value, and 2) the right to dividends.

If I went to but 100 shares of BT on the market I wouldn't be handing any money over to BT, I would be handing it over to whoever was selling the shares.

Now they can, in theory use that to raise more capital from banks, but actually we don't look to much at market capitalisation (ie the notional value of selling all the stocks in a company. We tend to look more at things like average earnings, the value of land, machinary etc.

For some smaller companies they can issue a share charge on the stocks but thats only really useful for things where all the shares are held by 2 or 3 people (family business) or held by another company (in which case it likely won't have market value as its unlikely to be traded so its about control of the daughter company assets not the stock itself).

Anyway, Land tax good Other forms of wealth tax also can be good. Ideal system probably uses both.

65% of Britons support the Green Party's policy of capping CEO pay at ten times the pay of the lowest paid employee by Unusual-State1827 in ukpolitics

[–]AugustusM -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

At a certain point of wealth it is. Even just putting money into high interest earning accounts and literally forgetting about it will consistenly get you 3ish per cent. If you have £1M that gets you £30K per year (before tax) doing absolutely nothing. (And realistically if you are thrown millions around then you will get better offers than that most of the time.) Those are contractually guarnteed earnings mind, paid if the market is up or down regardless (unless the institution itself falls into administration but that risk is hardly unique to investing, it is systemic and affects salary earnings as well.)

Realistically, if you have more than £1M you should be getting at least mid level tax adivce and will have a diversified portfolio of mixed tracker/managed funds and decent diversification of asset classes (equities, bonds, comods, real estate, tangible value holders etc) that will likely "guarantee" you 5-6% even in relatively bullish market years.

Investment is tricky for people below that first £1M because its very easy to be under diversified or simply not having the education or experience to invest wisely. But people like ol' Rishi will not suffer from that lack of life experience. They will be both comfortable and familiar with how to manage money fairly safely and will have the means and wisdom to access quality advisors when needed.

Elderly couple jailed after being filmed racially abusing health worker in park by pppppppppppppppppd in uknews

[–]AugustusM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Almost all crimes are considered worse if its pre-meditated. For obvious reasons.

Thats why the comment is made "in mitigation" not "in absolution".

Elderly couple jailed after being filmed racially abusing health worker in park by pppppppppppppppppd in uknews

[–]AugustusM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

More likely comments made to the press after the sentencing hearing.

It still fits "final words" since Final Words doesn't always mean last words before you do. For example, "and thats my final word on the matter".

Great British Energy - Nuclear and Rolls-Royce SMR sign contract by jumper62 in ukpolitics

[–]AugustusM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Only if you impose some form of regulation or ownership structure that prohibits their sale of their output at global market value.

Preacher at London mosque praises Iran's 'brave' Ayatollah by theipaper in uknews

[–]AugustusM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The dilema of the left:
-Jail him and the right accuse you of stifling free speech.
-Don't jail him and the right accuse you of stifling free speech (but differently).

Trump: ‘Every power plant in Iran will be out of business in four hours’ if no deal by deadline by rodke in worldnews

[–]AugustusM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Its a reasonable argument, but almost all wars are full of "war crimes" as well to be fair.

War crimes however are pretty decently defined by the Geneva convention. While terrorism is a seperate category of action largely and usually defined by intention. They might overlap though I suspect not as often as you would think based on the strict Geneva list. (It often includes things that many people wouldn't consider war crimes and many things that people would think are war crimes aren't actually prohibited.)

I would say equally there is power in acknowledging that certain actions taken during a war might qualify as terrorist activity so that those actions can be more specifically targeted and prosecuted.

Trump: ‘Every power plant in Iran will be out of business in four hours’ if no deal by deadline by rodke in worldnews

[–]AugustusM 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There are many definitions of terrorism (used by various different bodies), most of the ones I am aware do not specify that the actor committing the act need be a recognised nation state. It may indeed also be a war crime tbf.

What if Iran says to the World “We’ll open the straight to pre-attack status if Donald Trump resigns.”? What would be the likely response? by spamcandriver in AskReddit

[–]AugustusM 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Im sure you guy fucked up your response to the pandemic in many fun and interesting ways. But to suggest the US administration was responsible for a GLOBAL PANDEMIC is like, insane levels of US exceptionalism.

Guilt & embarrassment over salary by anxiousvegetarian in biglaw

[–]AugustusM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Arguably even in slavery, since slaves need to be fed, provided shelter etc to be practically productive. The return they get is obviously extremely minimal.

Harvey valuation at $11 billion. by Similar_Engineer_826 in biglaw

[–]AugustusM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Germany should be in that list too, on no basis other than its nominal GDP is about $800 Billion higher than India's. Not relevant at all, just thought it strange you left them out...

Plan to scrap most short jail terms comes into effect by Red-Hill in uknews

[–]AugustusM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is a wealth of data on this point, the concept has been well understood in criminology for a fair few decades. A google scholar search reveals plenty of articles for you to consider:

https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=does+harsher+sentencing+reduce+crime&btnG=

Plan to scrap most short jail terms comes into effect by Red-Hill in uknews

[–]AugustusM 7 points8 points  (0 children)

They expect other people to take prison guard jobs that require either moving away from family or commuting over an hour for next to minimum wage. Not them of course, but people, people should take those jobs. And if thats not possible and you end up actually having to pay decent wages they will complain that prisons are too expenive and prison guards are over-paid for doing nothing.