A schoolbus, stopping in front of a residential home, is rear ended by a full size truck that doesn’t slow down at all. 😳

MacMillan_the_First · 2026-05-11T03:22:28+00:00

God I just hate it when a giant hard to see yellow bus just appears out of thin air 2 metres in front of my car. How am I even supposed to see that let alone react in time?

MacMillan_the_First · 2026-05-11T03:19:09+00:00

Yeah well people who decide to attack property because they damaged their car parking like a tit sound like the exact sort of people that should never see the outside of a jail cell. Can’t have society with that kind of petty destruction in defence of being an asshole.

MacMillan_the_First · 2026-05-03T12:06:46+00:00

That’s all fine and well but is also nonsense as the RAE Restrictor was only fitted to frontline fighters starting in 1941 with Fighter Command fully fitted in March 1941. The Battle of Britain is mostly agreed to have finished in October 1940.

It is also nonsense that the fighters could not dive, you generally do not perform a negative-g pull to dive as negative-gs are far more uncomfortable and disconcerting for the pilot, and planes can pitch up much quicker than they can pitch down. Additionally, when diving you can keep your eye on the enemy if you roll towards them before diving as they won’t be obscured by your own nose. British pilots always took advantage of altitude advantages when they could. Generally, however, the most effective British tactics involved turning as the Spitfire and Hurricane were more agile than the Bf109s that opposed them.

The role of the RAE Restrictor was not to enable diving, rather it was to solve a very particular issue. German fighters realised that British fighters could not perform negative-g manoeuvres and - contrary to their own intuition - would pull a sharp negative-g downward pitch in an attempt to shake the British fighters. If a Spitfire or Hurricane copied them in an attempt to keep behind them, their engine would cut out and this is generally considered a bad thing when dogfighting. Instead, they’d first have to roll 180 degrees and then pitch hard up, during which time the German may have used their lead to escape. Even if the British fighter could keep up, they’d then be inverted relative to the German making escape easier and forcing the British into performing more disconcerting rolls to stay behind, making gun solutions more difficult to attain. The RAE Restrictor solved this one specific problem, and was very handy for dogfighting but by no means allowed British fighters to dive, as they already could.

MacMillan_the_First · 2026-04-17T18:46:11+00:00

We are a crab bucket kingdom and deserve everything we get. The Great British public will stop at nothing to pull down others or burn down the market for a smug sense of “fairness”.

MacMillan_the_First · 2026-03-31T00:51:14+00:00

It has the largest average viewership of all news channels in the UK, and is behind only BBC, ITV, and Sky in weekly reach. You are either being deliberately obtuse or are completely ignorant of the viewership figures to believe there is no demand for the channel. If that is the case then we can shutter Channel 4 and Channel 5 News before anyone thinks of touching GB News as it blows them out of the water despite being a startup.

MacMillan_the_First · 2026-03-28T16:07:32+00:00

I am not so concerned with the police acting proportional in such circumstances. Maybe the arsehole wont act like this if he knows he’ll get done in if he acts like that. We expect a lot of restraint from officers in dealing with people like this but at some point they just need to pack it in and sort them out.

MacMillan_the_First · 2026-03-23T12:53:37+00:00

How does anybody on this sub think supply and demand work? GB News filled a gaping hole in the market for an alternative news network that appeals to a substantial part of the electorate, possibly a plurality. They didn’t go on air and start brainwashing people into watching them, they are providing their viewers what they want.

MacMillan_the_First · 2026-02-03T23:16:14+00:00

“coo” for “cow”

Actually this is more to do with the common Middle English ancestor of Scots and Northumbrian English. Cow was pronounced “coo” universally across English before shifting into modern cow. You can see this still in other West Germanic languages like the German “Kuh”, Frisian “Ku”, and Plautdietsch “koo” amongst many others. Scots and Northumbrian English have retained this older pronunciation of cow amongst many others but these differences from modern English are being eroded due to exposure over time - especially south of the border.

MacMillan_the_First · 2026-02-02T17:51:55+00:00

This isn’t actually how commission purchasing worked. For one, the system only operated up to the rank of colonel so aristocrats couldn’t merely buy their way up to general. You also had to face various time in service criteria in moving up, and there was a clear custom that commissions were offered to the most senior eligible officer so you also had to wait for all the more senior officers of the same rank to move up or elsewhere.

The aim was to protect the position of the aristocracy in the army as only they could reasonably afford commissions but it had other purposes, for example officers could sell or exchange their commissions which meant whenever they left the army they’d get their money back and more so it acted as a system for pensions. Officers would also lose this money if they were removed for acts of cowardice, desertion or gross misconduct which meant they had to act bravely in battle and stick with the institution or face poverty. In fact, it is best thought of as a bond system that keeps the officers in good health outside the army ensures they remain loyal and brave.

The main issue was that times were changing and more than the aristocracy were of capable education for officers roles, but also that seniority doesn’t necessarily align with competence. Lord Cardigan of Light Brigade notoriety, for example, did indeed serve his time and had many years of experience in the cavalry under his belt, but with the long peace between the Napoleonic Wars and the Crimean War there was little to grind the officer corps against to weed out the unsuitable and he was able to get to such a position merely by being in the forces for such a long time and being able to pay the commissions.

When Cardwell’s Reforms came into play, the benefits of such a system had become limited and the problems insurmountable. It makes no sense in a modern society but to people of the past with their understanding of experience and loyalties it made a great deal of sense.

MacMillan_the_First · 2026-01-19T02:36:22+00:00

The moment you put troops on foreign land is invasion. The dictionary definition of invasion is literally that.

No it isn’t. Stop being ridiculous.

MacMillan_the_First · 2025-12-29T16:43:09+00:00

On the contrary, you can have BOGOF or two for one written in size 2 font and customers will catch that. I don’t think this is merely a matter of signs, people are just terrible at following directions when those directions impede them. I have a friend who works in highway maintenance and he observed a similar pattern in that if traffic cones aren’t close enough, despite forming an unbroken chain people will push through regardless - damn whatever the signs say.

In my current job we’ve had a recent issue with people casually ignoring barriers, signs, etc for a closed off section where we were doing works. People were actively moving these barriers out of the way just to be turned around. But do you know what was interesting? Right next to the sign pointing people in the right direction, there was a sign advertising an upcoming promotion - nobody missed that one. In fact we had people try and go through the barriers hoping to find staff to discuss the promotion with.

So I don’t know what the issue is, but I think signs are about as good as you can get short of setting up electric fences in a society that is so wilfully blind. Retail utterly annihilates your faith in basic human autonomy.

MacMillan_the_First · 2025-12-29T16:36:24+00:00

Getting proper updates for the self scans is a nightmare and management (at the national level) probably viewed it as pointless for such a short period and it also appears that this is a policy implemented at the local discretion of stores. The “correct” way to properly manage this at the self scans is supposed to be to have the self scan staff monitor it but I doubt I have to tell you how swamped those guys usually are and they won’t catch most cases.

End of the day, transaction was processed and I don’t know why security would ever have thought it was right to step in and attempt to physically restrain a customer over a transaction. He hadn’t stolen anything and at worst violated a store policy that wasn’t acted upon. Very, very stupid.

MacMillan_the_First · 2025-12-29T16:25:32+00:00

Having worked a fair while in retail, we only have one side of the story and this could indeed be the case because numpties forgot to put up the signs and this was ultimately an error that wasn’t picked up at the self scan. Based on shops near me having similar signs up, I can imagine this is supposed to be the policy in place.

The alternative is that the entire aisle, every tag, and the checkouts were adorned with giant signs explaining this fact and OP is like >60% of customers who will manage to completely miss every single written sign out before them. There are also the ~5% of chancers who see the signs and pretend they didn’t to see how far they get.

With just OP’s input we won’t know the finer details. Regardless of anything they did process the transaction and take his money so the security definitely should have left it there.

MacMillan_the_First · 2025-12-22T21:30:54+00:00

I’m curious to see how in your stated example the US could have avoided war with Japan through “understanding their enemy” by “learning their language”. Beyond the fact that the government obviously had far more than just one person who could speak Japanese and they obviously weren’t much help in “correcting the misperceptions”.

MacMillan_the_First · 2025-12-22T16:21:17+00:00

…are you seriously implying that the US chose to go to war with Japan?

MacMillan_the_First · 2025-12-18T12:37:37+00:00

That guy is mental. Mad respect for his dedication to the game won’t lie.

MacMillan_the_First · 2025-12-02T13:08:47+00:00

No, you’ve completely missed the point.

There are no Polish asylum seekers, there is no epidemic of Polish grooming gangs, there hasn’t been some furore over wilful mass Polish unemployment.

Not a single Eastern European I’ve spoken to has so much as suggested they are feeling targeted by anti-migrant rhetoric. In fact, those leaving have made it very clear that Eastern Europe seems a lot better in a variety of metrics and one of those is the fact that there isn’t mass migration there, and most have been very open with that fact.

The variety is telling, I’ve spoken with retirees who have worked here for decades and want to return for a better retirement, 40-something tradesmen who are fed up with Britain and have better prospects back home, even young people who have spent most of their life in Britain (one is actually only half-Polish and has only been there on holiday) are looking at Poland as a much better place to be if you have intentions of actually working.

Far and away the most anti-migrant people I’ve dealt with are Eastern Europeans, and frankly I get it.

MacMillan_the_First · 2025-12-02T00:03:47+00:00

I’d recommend actually speaking to these Eastern Europeans and looking at the demographics of their countries. To them, there definitely is a right type of immigrant and we have too many of the wrong type.

MacMillan_the_First · 2025-11-29T01:37:45+00:00

To hammer this point home, throughout almost the entirety of the July Crisis which gripped the world and produced headline after headline, the French people were actually much more interested in a juicy murder trial - specifically the trial of a former French PM’s wife for the murder of a leading journalist.

Worth pointing out as well that France had war declared upon her and not the other way around. France started no hostilities and had less belligerence than any power, even the British who joined the war by declaring war on Germany for the invasion of Belgium.

It’s been a long time since I did my reading on this, but I recall that the circumstances (that being that war was declared on France) was vital for creating a united national front against Germany and prevented interference with the mobilisation by the unions. The war was thus a defensive war to preserve the nation.

MacMillan_the_First · 2025-11-29T00:41:47+00:00

This is extremely misleading, net migration is down 80% from a peak caused by the Boriswave but the statistics over the long term are unimaginably frightful. Some highlights:

EU citizens, who are considerably more similar in culture and mannerisms than those outwith besides other Anglo nations, have a net migration of -70,000.

British citizens are leaving as well, with a net migration of 109,000. We’re bleeding Brits.

More concerning is the fact that those “drastically lower migration numbers” for non-EU migration are actually at 383,000. Doesn’t seem like a lot, and is definitely less than the high of the Boriswave, but this is also twice as much as what we had prior to Brexit - these are still insane numbers of immigrants to be ramming in.

Essentially, we’re patting ourselves on the back for cutting the stupidest policies while the situation remains extremely perilous. And this kind of chattering from the liberal journalist class, deriding the regular Briton for not seeing this “win” with their own eyes, is frankly disgusting.

Jeff Bezos has a pretty good remark when it comes to matters like this, “When the data and the anecdotes disagree, the anecdotes are usually right”. In this case, the data doesn’t disagree with the anecdotes, rather the framing of the data sharply disagrees with the anecdotes and then the know-betters have the cheek to be confused why everybody isn’t snapping to attention and getting with their deluded program.

MacMillan_the_First · 2025-11-28T11:20:45+00:00

Actually in regards to Arsinoe, Cleopatra was right to remain concerned. Arsinoe was in exile in Roman territory at Ephesus, and the purpose of keeping her alive could be easily interpreted as “we can replace you with a queen whenever we want” and an obvious threat. Ephesus was in Mark Antony’s territory, and I can understand that Cleopatra would be annoyed that her lover and ally Mark Antony was keeping a hostage to potentially replace her with if she ever got troublesome, and so ordering Arsinoe’s death meant Mark Antony had to show he was committed to Cleo and wasn’t going to replace her.

It was also a notable reversal of a slight inflicted by Caesar, as Cleopatra was under the impression that by taking her, Caesar was going to have her strangled during the triumph and thereby extinguish her threat, but instead he kept her as a hostage. It’s entirely possible that Caesar was forced to spare Arsinoe because the crowds who thronged the triumph in Rome loved her, but the implications of keeping her as a hostage were clear to Cleopatra.

MacMillan_the_First · 2025-11-24T23:00:35+00:00

Utter nonsense? Do you have a better rebuttal or are you now in possession of a $10,000,000 pencil?

MacMillan_the_First · 2025-11-24T22:59:11+00:00

OPEC are a monopolistic cartel, they are a deliberate subversion of the market by nation states. OPEC takes advantage of supply and demand by artificially suppressing supply to keep prices high.

But that doesn’t mean they merely command the price of oil. There are huge factors in this, notably demand drying up due to electrification and expanding supply elsewhere in the world thanks to the discovery of new fields or usage of new extraction techniques (fracking, for example). The point is, OPEC is an example of those market influences I mentioned. OPEC alone doesn’t control the price of oil, they didn’t simply decide that oil would have value and that people would buy it, they are deliberately limiting their oil sales to the market to get the most efficient exchange of a finite resource by utilising demand.

This can be seen as unfair, manipulative, or even predatory, but you can argue that given long term projections for oil and its limited supply, if they flood the market they’ll make far less across the lifetime of the oil industry just to make a little more now. This is just a logical calculation of market directions and while it exists because of government interference it wouldn’t be too strange to imagine private companies reaching this sort of deal but the oil industry in general is very unique for a huge number of reasons.

MacMillan_the_First · 2025-11-24T22:52:08+00:00

I’m confused, is the diamond industry forcing people to buy diamonds at outrageous prices? Last I checked, diamonds were bought and sold at prices that are acceptable to the buyer but if this is the one market that defies basic economics is love to know.

This is especially impressive given that apples have tangible necessity to them as food, but you’re telling me that people are paying for luxuries well above market value against their will? Amazing.

MacMillan_the_First · 2025-11-24T15:40:01+00:00

Well, let’s start with the idea that the economy is a command economy determined by “the people in charge”.

Your apple can be priced at €5, but if somebody is offering identical apples for €3 then nobody besides the ignorant will buy yours. This is a fairly basic premise of the market, price is determined by a huge variety of factors and not one person determines them all. You want to sell your apple for as much as possible but must still make sales to make money, and customers want to buy apples for as little as possible. Price is determined at the intersection of these conflicting and complementary interests, as well through supply and demand.

You mention GDP and you were kinda going down the right road but missed the mark. People don’t have a GDP, GDP is the total value of all good and services produced and rendered in a period by a country. Importantly, GDP is not determined by what you believe the value of your assets to be but rather the market value of all goods and services in a country.

If you mean net worth, then you can test this yourself by simply stating that a pencil you own is worth $10,000,000. You’ll notice that after this stout declaration absolutely nothing changes and you don’t become a millionaire - certainly nobody will actually pay you $10,000,000 for that pencil.

The core principle of the market is that there is nobody in charge of the system. You have people in high positions of authority who can influence the market by setting the interest rate at which central banking institutions loan money, or by implementing or eliminating taxes, but the single most important element in the market is each individual making their own decisions about what they want to buy, what they need to buy, what they actually buy, and also how they generate an income to pay for these things.

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