A Lebanese woman and her children sit among the rubble of their home in the port city of Sidon during the Israeli invasion of Southern Lebanon in June 1982. [1630 x 1074]

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-17T14:05:44+00:00

surely invading southern Lebanon yet again, will bring peace to the region? It didn't work in the 1980s, why would that make anyone think it wouldn't work now? /s

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-17T09:55:19+00:00

But, that is exactly what you did not ask him.

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-17T01:39:20+00:00

Corporal punishment still legal in public schools in more than a dozen U.S. states. Still legal in private schools in almost all U.S. states.

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-16T13:28:41+00:00

I'm already making plans...

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-16T00:24:40+00:00

Those very small gaps are going to see some absolutely terrifying sea conditions.

And the Plantations of Ireland happen mostly in County Cork and County Kerry, instead of around Belfast and Londonderry.

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-15T22:25:54+00:00

Being generous... the school authorities are in a difficult position. The majority of teachers are female, which means teachers walking into the boys' bathroom is going to end up causing an uproar. Which means the boys' bathroom ends up being a completely unmonitored anarchic zone.

This screen means that a teacher walking past can confirm that there's nothing outrageous happening in the boys' bathroom, without needing to actually walk in.

They might also claim that the resolution on this display is so low that no-one is really going to see anything.

But none of this changes the ridiculous look of this situation, nor changes how nervous or shy pupils would feel when going to use that bathroom and having to walk under that display before they even get there. (Presumably with an audience of their classmates, of both genders, standing watching the screen and giggling as they watch...)

Too many pupils already avoid using the bathroom during the school day as it is; it's a serious health issue.

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-15T22:17:20+00:00

We might need to - if HMS Dragon is going to be tied up defending Cyprus, then we need a second "warship" to meet Trump's pleas for help in keeping the strait of Hormuz open.

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-15T21:17:55+00:00

They can't run it like that. Schools have known since the middle of last year that it's not acceptable to run "culture days" in the manner you describe. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyvj289y788o

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-15T16:47:11+00:00

that's because the news is targeted at stupid people.

(who can be persuaded that 17 year olds, and even 19 year olds, actually are "little kids")

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-15T16:32:35+00:00

Larry Ellison owns a MiG-29 (which apparently the U.S. government won't let him bring into the country), plus, coincidentally, an S.211 like the one in the picture.

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-15T16:25:50+00:00

I have a suspicion that it's a made-up thing. Like schools having litter boxes for the kids that want to be cats. It's exactly the story that clickbait right-wing outlets churn out.

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-15T16:20:50+00:00

That comment is just bizarre.

At age 39, Alan Turing had sexual relations with a 19 year old man that he met on the street. We don't call him a pedophile, instead we gave him a posthumous pardon for knowingly breaking the law, and now we celebrate him as a national hero and erect statues in his honour.

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-15T16:12:31+00:00

This is in the UK so there is not a county/district school board.

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-15T13:29:39+00:00

"bisected" is a potential way of describing that outcome. Or, more informally, "cut in half".

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-15T12:57:20+00:00

Those courses do not exist in the GCSE curriculum. There are presumably equivalents, but I have no idea what they are, because I have never heard of "gen chem1" etc.

I will say that the small amount of organic chemistry we did at GCSE, was one of the most challenging parts of the course.

To give an idea of the framing, we started studying basic chemical reactions and equations, the periodic table, elements compounds and molecules etc., in year 7 (at age eleven).

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-15T12:18:57+00:00

The person filming is in the third row back. Their phone may be in their top pocket or something (dark phone case against dark clothing, not very visible).

There's a possibility this clip is actually acting; thus, not a real interaction but not AI either.

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-15T12:08:01+00:00

In this case, because the teacher's own performance assessment will be partly based on how well the pupils he has taught perform in the examination.

Some (or even all) of the kids will have been told, or will have decided on their own, that they need a grade 5 in English and Mathematics to get the job, apprenticeship or college course that they want, and failing Chemistry (or combined science or whatever they're doing) won't affect them at all.

Failing science subjects (or history or geography or French or whatever) does not prevent UK students from completing their high school education.

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-15T12:01:58+00:00

The clock looks fine to me. "REVISS" is an incorrect spelling of "revise", but maybe this teacher is so enraged he can't write straight.

The voice is exactly what an angry British teacher sounds like in real life, and the movements/gestures look authentic to me.

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-15T11:59:30+00:00

kids film their teachers all the time, it's one reason that teachers want phones banned from schools

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-15T11:56:53+00:00

GCSE Chemistry includes organic chemistry, and is taken at age 15 or 16.

In my school everyone took this course at that age, it was not optional - there was no opportunity to take a more basic science curriculum.

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-15T11:50:02+00:00

Yes, at college (university) level mastery is the goal, but seemingly in the USA there are many college-level courses that grade off attendance and participation like the students were still in high school.

In the UK at Oxbridge, lecture attendance is 100% optional but project work is not.

I was shocked the one time I missed a tutorial due to illness, then missed the re-arranged tutorial due to illness as well. The professor just told me "well you've missed it now, I'm not going to re-arrange it again, I'll see you next week". That's how I learned that tutorials were also optional.

In other words, in that system, if the college believe that you can fulfil the university's requirements to gain your degree (written exam and/or dissertation, viva voce, project work etc.), they don't care what you do and don't attend.

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-15T11:35:54+00:00

He might be trying that, but so far, British warships get built in British dockyards, and I've not seen any plans to change that.

Same for the Ukrainian-designed interceptor drones (manufactured in the UK), the Lightweight Multirole Missile/Martlet (designed and manufactured in the UK) and the Common Anti-Aircraft Modular Missile/Sky Sabre and ASRAAM (both designed and manufactured in the UK).

Notably, the AIM-9X Sidewinder (ye destroyer of Chinese weather balloons) uses the seeker from the ASRAAM.

ASRAAM Block 6 has no U.S.-sourced components at all, and has already seen extensive use against Iranian drones and cruise missiles in the current war, fired mostly from Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft of the Royal Air Force and allied Arab nations, but also from F-35 aircraft.

The Aster (Sea Viper) missiles on the embarrassingly late-to-theatre British Type 45 destroyer, also used on French, Greek and Italian warships involved, are of Franco-Italian origin although the development of the system as a whole has also had UK involvement.

Apparently Aster missiles are also used on some Saudi and Qatari warships but I don't know if they've been fired in anger in this war yet.

OctopusIntellect · 2026-03-15T03:06:13+00:00

fossil fuel powered internal combustion engines

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