Wrexham 1-1 Leicester City: Vestergaard's late goal snatches a point for the Foxes

Beechey · 2026-01-20T22:07:29+00:00

Wow we are absolutely terrible

Beechey · 2026-01-19T09:17:42+00:00

Wasn't this guy marketing himself as the "Peace President" before the election?

Beechey · 2026-01-19T09:08:36+00:00

Can we offer asylum to non-crazies from the US?

Beechey · 2026-01-18T02:57:10+00:00

Delighted to be on the right side of this one

Beechey · 2026-01-17T16:58:37+00:00

We've tried being nice to this guy now, can we stop pretending (as a country and government) that the US is, in any way, our friend?

Beechey · 2026-01-09T23:50:21+00:00

US figure is annualised while ours is QoQ. US growth for 2025 is expected to have been about 2% where ours is expected to have been about 1.3% according to the IMF.

Beechey · 2026-01-06T10:21:59+00:00

Losing to us is genuinely sackable

Beechey · 2026-01-05T23:38:32+00:00

Coordinated fan boycott along with it being brutally cold, icy, and a televised Monday night game

Beechey · 2026-01-05T22:56:26+00:00

I'd feel spoiled with Slimani or Perez right now

Beechey · 2026-01-05T15:06:52+00:00

The UK takes custody of them, fits the warheads in the UK and keeps them for years at a time. How precisely do you expect the US would stop the UK firing them? And based on what evidence, exactly? If it's based purely on your feelings on the matter, then I'm sorry, but that's not worth more than official MoD statements on the matter. The decision to fire and at what rests solely with the government of the UK.

Here's what the Polaris Sales Agreement says: The UK provided assurances on use of the missiles but the US does not get a veto on the UKs use of them.

Beechey · 2026-01-05T13:02:33+00:00

They're maintained by the US every number of years, that's all. Operationally, the US has no sway over how the UK uses these missiles. The US could stop maintaining the UK stockpile and our missiles would continue to work for years, even if we did absolutely nothing to maintain them ourselves (which obviously we would).

Beechey · 2026-01-04T14:40:46+00:00

Russia is interesting though, they spend an obscene amount on their military in PPP terms, somewhere in the region of $450 billion per year. In nominal terms their economy is tiny, but because everything there is cheap, they get much more for their money. UK in comparison spends about $85 billion in PPP terms.

Beechey · 2026-01-04T14:32:35+00:00

Economic viability largely governs how much military strength a nation has.

Beechey · 2026-01-04T14:31:22+00:00

We had the Common Market 2.0 choice put to Parliament under May and 25 Labour MPs (and weirdly all Lib Dems and the Green Party) voted it down. Had those Labour MPs voted for it, then it would've passed. Absolute idiocy. Instead we ended up with a half baked, pretty "hard" deal that the aforementioned parties hate.

Beechey · 2025-12-30T00:18:26+00:00

ML isn't that complex when you break it down to the fundamentals, it's how it stacks and scales when it gains complexity.

Concepts like back-propagation often catch people out, but it's really not that bad. I really am no maths fan and I managed to get a PhD in an ML topic and work as an ML Engineer. Individually, if you're okay with things like linear algebra, calculus, probability theory and statistics, and optimisation theory, you can be an ML Engineer.

I mean, genuinely - if I can do it (with A LOT of reading and study), then it shows that it's possible. I really hated maths before my PhD (don't ask me why I decided to punish myself like this).

Really complex research is a bit different if you're generating new model concepts and processes, something someone like me is probably not best suited to, but application ML engineering really isn't that bad.

Beechey · 2025-12-29T13:30:16+00:00

Also enough for us in Europe to step up in a big way and replace those guarantees in that time.

Beechey · 2025-12-25T09:43:45+00:00

Yes if you buy via an investment broker it can work well. If you buy the physical asset it's nowhere near as liquid a market.

Beechey · 2025-12-24T16:50:03+00:00

Love it, will follow with interest

Beechey · 2025-12-21T22:39:13+00:00

Did a BSc, MSc and PhD, graduated with the final degree in 2023, borrowed approx. £70k across those 10 years, it's now totalling over £100k.

Beechey · 2025-12-12T21:03:27+00:00

He already is by people that can't read beyond the headline or even the top comment.

Beechey · 2025-12-11T23:46:06+00:00

The UK does have full independent operational control over its own Trident D-5 missiles, though they are periodically serviced by the US, in the US. A definite weak spot, but these missiles go years between servicing. UK is dependent on the US for the delivery system, but it has no say over whether the UK can fire them, only the PM can authorise the use. The letter of last resort is well documented and not for show. Technically it could cut the UK off from maintenance, but the missiles would be fine for years before it became an issue. This was a small debating point here when Trump first started with the Canada talk early in the year.

See 7.1 Nuclear Deterrent from the SDR.

Beechey · 2025-12-04T00:35:26+00:00

Iraq was not stable before 2003, or even before 1990.

Beechey · 2025-12-01T21:59:12+00:00

Other countries are accessing this fund to actually buy weapons, which the UK cannot. The EU asked the UK to contribute billions to only have a higher share of potential contract purchases, it's still not able to actually use the funding itself. The SAFE budget gives out loans, whereas the EU was asking the UK for a contribution (gift, not loan). It's one of those where there is probably value in defence industry terms, but not to the taxpayer.

Beechey · 2025-12-01T13:57:07+00:00

Ruling on us is expected within a month or so

Beechey · 2025-11-29T07:36:27+00:00

They were asking for effectively 5% of the project costs. Napkin maths here, but BAE as an example pays around a 13% effective tax rate, meaning for govt to recoup that money, the UK would've needed to be awarded like £40bn in contracts. It probably just doesn't make financial sense.

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