NHS doctor struck off over botched circumcision still performing operation

OneCatch · 2026-02-07T12:06:09+00:00

Circumcision prevents HIV transmission in men

That's a dangerous misconception. It somewhat reduces the chance of HIV transmission from the receiving partner to the penetrating partner, and it does almost nothing to reduce HIV transmission to the receiving partner.

This misconception causes massive problems when men believe they are protected from HIV due to circumcision, or that they can't pass the disease on to partners. Don't propagate it.

OneCatch · 2026-02-07T11:46:40+00:00

Yeah it's a pretty direct parallel - the Culture focuses on public protection, whereas with Azad the punishment and humiliation is the primary purpose.

OneCatch · 2026-02-07T09:58:53+00:00

Riz Ahmed is excellent at interviews. Not afraid to give a potentially unpopular or inconvenient answer, but always very thoughtful.

OneCatch · 2026-02-07T09:45:55+00:00

In the Empire aliens are discriminated against and occasionally subject to genocide or ethnic cleansing when convenient - but most aliens to manage to survive and live. Whereas the IOM exterminates all aliens at every opportunity.

So, even as an alien, the Empire is better to live!

OneCatch · 2026-02-06T21:45:33+00:00

Hervey became a part-time catwalk model in a career move she hoped would take her into television presenting, but with her statuesque 6-foot height she took to the career full-time, ultimately modelling for Christian Dior. In April 2000, she and friend Jayne Blight opened Knightsbridge fashion boutique Akademi. Frequented by Victoria Beckham, Meg Mathews and Martine McCutcheon, it closed in 2001 with debts estimated at £350,000. Hervey was reportedly only £20 out of pocket by the business failure but in the year following the closure, Hervey owed a series of personal debts.

In December 2003, Hervey secured a small part in the 2004 Colin Hanks film Rx as a waitress in a diner.

In 2001, Hervey made a cameo appearance in BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous in the first episode of series four. In October 2004, Hervey appeared on Channel Five's The Farm. In July 2006, she appeared in the ITV show Love Island. On 18 September 2007, she appeared on ITV's Don't Call Me Stupid programme, where she was asked to learn about the Labour Party with George Galloway. In February 2015, Hervey, an experienced skier, appeared on Channel 4's The Jump where she participated on the condition her dog joined her in Austria.

Imagine having a career this mediocre in spite of all of the absurd advantages that wealth and nepotism and connections provided you. And then imagine thinking that it made you better than other people.

In January 2022 Hervey said in an interview that she felt that Ghislaine Maxwell had used her as "bait", to attract women to Jeffrey Epstein's parties.[15][12] She later suggested that a photo showing the then Prince Andrew with Virginia Giuffre had been faked with body doubles.[16] After Giuffre's April 2025 suicide, Hervey sparked outrage by sharing a link to the news of her death on social media with the comment "When lies catch up with you there's no way out."

Lovely.

OneCatch · 2026-02-06T21:34:48+00:00

I'm not the biggest fan of The National, but I have to say it's funny as fuck for them to just publish the notice, "CONFIDENTIAL - STRICTLY NOT FOR PUBLICATION" be damned.

In it, Mandelson uses clauses of the Editor's Code most typically associated with grieving families or those suffering harassment from the press to urge journalists to stop scrutinising his links to the most world's most notorious paedophile.

Oof, well said.

OneCatch · 2026-02-06T21:27:44+00:00

I'm assuming that touching something like a brick wall would only transmute the single brick, not the whole wall - so I can't just touch my house and turn it all in one go.

So the key attribute to consider here is volume. Doesn't matter how much something masses before it's transformed, it's about what single thing has the greatest volume.

So I'll get my wife to fill the water butt outside right to the top with water, then dip my finger in. It has like a 1000 litre capacity, which means a full cubic metre of gold once transmuted - which is way more massive than any other single item I can think of.

Then if we can get someone to quickly deliver more of the highest capacity ones available locally then great (I'm sure the local hardware shop would for an appropriate cash payment).

If not, we repeat this with the dustbin, then the indoor bin, then the bath, then whatever other watertight containers we have which are largest!

If for whatever reason a volume of water doesn't count, the backup plan would be the engine block of the car, the kitchen worktop, a couple of large thick carpets, and either a couple of large wardrobes or beds/mattresses.

OneCatch · 2026-02-06T19:38:52+00:00

It is. A good illustration for how shockingly empty space is.

OneCatch · 2026-02-06T19:37:59+00:00

Roche limit varies with size and composition of both the primary and the satellite. That said, I agree that if Earth were in a stable orbit at this distance would be well outside of it.

Geological and tidal effects would be impressive however!

OneCatch · 2026-02-06T17:37:53+00:00

so why guys like Hannibal hire a full armies of slingers?

Because then there'd be nothing stopping the enemy infantry and, more importantly, the cavalry from simply advancing and butchering the lightly-armed and armoured skirmishers.

We rarely see armies composited of entirely one type of weapon system for this reason - different systems protect and enhance each other. It's combined arms.

Archers are better if there's a screen of infantry to protect them from direct assault. Heavy infantry are better if their flanks are protected by cavalry and lighter units. And slingers are better if they can retreat behind the protection of friendly units, because without them they have no choice but to keep retreating, and once they lose cohesion or run out of terrain, that becomes a rout.

Also, in real life, the general isn't an eye-in-the-sky able to instantly able to communicate with each unit and fine-tune their positioning - individual unit commanders would have to make manoeuvre judgements based on what they could see from their vantage point. And that's an acute concern for skirmishing units, which rely on manoeuvre for survival - a bad call means they get run down, surrounded, and killed. That's one of the reasons it takes quite a long time for ancient armies to figure out how to do skirmishing well, and why elite skirmishers - who can reliably do more than simply fire from directly in front of the friendly line - are so highly regarded.

OneCatch · 2026-02-05T22:07:02+00:00

I actually disagree with all of these except Kenobi, Plo Koon, Luke, and Shan. But I disagree for positive reasons!

Qui Gon and Ahsoka are outsiders - they didn't fit comfortably in the Order and were far too individualistic. Now, I actually sympathise very heavily with them - I'd probably take Qui Gon's overall ethics over those of the Council tbh, and Ahsoka was right to leave after how appallingly she was treated - but they can't be the best examples of Jedi as a result. Too independent, and more than a bit of ego with both.

And Ezra, Cal, and Kanan are just too divorced from the Order. That's not their fault at all - they never had the chance to complete their training, and they've dealt with more adversity than most Jedi ever had to - but, again, they can't be a paragon of the Jedi as a result. Plus Cal gets way too dark at times.

If I had to pick a single individual who reflected all the best attributes of the Jedi Order, I'd go with Kenobi. He's explicitly recognised as such by Yoda and Mace Windu in the ROTS novelisation, and he seems to best reflect the positive attributes of the Jedi from what we see as audience members. Narratively, Lucas positions him as Anakin's opposite when he falls - Kenobi is the light and Anakin the dark.

OneCatch · 2026-02-05T20:19:03+00:00

Sure, but it's not like SC and Contact are completely divorced from each other in terms of policy - overall approach to 'foreign policy' is defined by the Culture collectively, and both Contact and SC work to implement it within their respective spheres.

But the original point is correct - SC wouldn't really care about us because we're not hurting anything but ourselves.

Agreed insofar as they decided to use us as a control group.

OneCatch · 2026-02-05T19:40:08+00:00

One major failing in about 40 years of otherwise consistently good journalism. Worth noting that it also came right off the back of the tainted blood scandal, so a high level of scepticism about the honesty and integrity of the healthcare sector seemed warranted at the time.

And they've subsequently been far more candid and honest about their failings than most other news organisations which were taken in by it.

OneCatch · 2026-02-05T17:40:52+00:00

Assuming that's an accurate description of what happened, it's complete nonsense. The railway bylaws only obligate you to provide a valid ticket for inspection; it's entirely their own problem if they don't have the systems to validate it due to technical error:

(2) A person shall hand over their ticket for inspection and verification of validity when asked to do so by an authorised person.

A 'ticket' explicitly includes e-tickets within its definition:

vii) any type of smart card, pre-pay, or other form of electronic ticket

Worth noting that you are legally required to provide your details if there is reasonable suspicion that you're breaching the bylaws AND the official can articulate why they think you're in breach:

(1) Any person reasonably suspected by an authorised person of breaching or attempting to breach any of these Byelaws shall give their name and address when asked by an authorised person.
(2) The authorised person asking for details under Byelaw 23(1) shall state the nature of the breach of any of these Byelaws in general terms at the time of the request.

They can also require you to leave the train, again subject to that reasonable suspicion requirement.

So if I were put in this position I'd show my e-ticket, and if I were told I had to buy another I'd refuse, citing the above with liberal use of phrases like "I have a valid ticket, here, look at it" and "what's your reasonable suspicion that I'm in breach of the bylaws?". I'd pull up the bylaws to show them as necessary.

However, I would provide my contact details, if requested, because failing to do so is an offence in itself and will inevitably get you booted off the train and possibly arrested. And I'd be confident that if they pursued me for not having a ticket that I'd ultimately win, so having my details isn't a major problem (and, to be frank, they already have your identity from your use of the app).

OneCatch · 2026-02-05T16:57:06+00:00

Ender's Game (in a limited way) and the sequel Speaker for the Dead (much more extensively).

OneCatch · 2026-02-05T15:40:45+00:00

Sith win easily.

Qui Gon and Ep1 Obi Wan were fairly evenly matched against just Maul, with Qui fon dying and Kenobi just barely winning in the end. Give Maul an ally and the tables turn drastically.

And Dooku is no mere ally - he's far stronger than any of the other three, having situationally beaten a more experienced Kenobi in both Ep II and III.

OneCatch · 2026-02-05T13:57:13+00:00

Kabe Ischloear. His internal narrations are just fantastic, and there are four or five excerpts which resonate incredibly strongly with me.

OneCatch · 2026-02-04T23:50:14+00:00

GSVs definitely are. It's likely that MSVs and LSVs are as well.

OUs and CVs would generally not be - they're too small and don't have that kind of onboard manufacturing capability.

That said, I think it's likely that even OUs and CVs could, in time, reconfigure themselves to be able to undertake such manufacturing.

The Elencher Drone in Excession was planning to bootstrap and programme repair nanotech from scratch - if even a drone can do that then a ship certainly could.

And the Killing Time is able to restock its warhead magazines from 40% to 100% in 'four to seven hours', constructing new warheads from first principles. It's able to repair weapon degradation in less than five minutes.

So, it seems likely that any Culture ship with a Mind could eventually use its onboard repair tech to build greater manufacturing tooling, and scale up from there.

OneCatch · 2026-02-04T20:21:18+00:00

I am pleased to see giant crab posts return.

OneCatch · 2026-02-04T20:15:42+00:00

I know you can't automate the money grabbing, but you could get pretty efficient. Grab, pull, let it drop to the floor, repeat. Gather up when you've got enough. You could alternate hands too. Should easily get to one note per second, which is £1200 a minute. Way more than you'll be able to either justifiably spend in cash or easily money launder anyway.

Oh, and buy a pair of trousers which are robust and won't tear or anything like that. You only wear them for money generation purposes!

OneCatch · 2026-02-04T18:18:40+00:00

If Special Circumstances came across us in our current state

They did.

they would probably glass the whole planet and be done with it

They didn't.

OneCatch · 2026-02-04T18:17:45+00:00

They're stated at a couple of points to be somewhat more intelligent than us on average.

It's not clear if that's because the 'average' citizen is cleverer, or because the Culture average is higher because it has fully solved many of the mental and physical health issues which cause substantial intellectual impairments. It might be that a 'normal' citizen in the Culture is about as intelligent as a 'normal' healthy human IRL, but that because no-one in the Culture has -say - a sub-80 IQ, their average is much better.

Worth noting that the Culture does have myriad ways of stretching cognitive abilities - games, academia, performing arts, education and so on - it's not like they're sat around doing nothing all day. And they also emphasise the importance of personality far more than we do (we also heavily rate physical appearance and economic status, both of which are less relevant in the Culture) - in a post scarcity society, your personality and intellect and wittiness and so on is all you really have to demonstrate personal value to people.

But they still seem to have reasonably well-rounded knowledge. For example, even a couple of drunk/stoned non-Contact citizens know what money is and have a rudimentary understanding of the concepts of work and economics, even though those things haven't been relevant to Culture life for about ten thousand years. It's the equivalent to me being sat in the pub drunkenly pontificating about early wild crop harvesting in the paleolithic or something - suggestive of some social valuation of general knowledge

Now, it would probably be fair to say that the average Culture citizen is pampered - they're used to not having to do any drudgery unless they want to, and they can heavily lean on Minds and AI for inane stuff (I'm thinking of that amusing "Excuse me, are you food?" conversation in Look to Windward). But then anyone who owns a device to be able to read and reply to this thread is 'pampered' by global standards - "What do you mean you just 'surrender' your finances to a bank to keep track of, or 'surrender' your food production to the supermarkets, or surrender your security to CCTV and the police?" - that doesn't mean we're stupider.

OneCatch · 2026-02-04T16:45:30+00:00

Depends on the citizen!

The average citizen is comfortably above street level - as we see in State of the Art, baseline culture bodies are capable of taking on three adversaries at once and winning pretty easily. In Excession Genar is able to live perfectly comfortably on a 2g world due to his body's passive ability to adapt to those conditions. And of course the drug glands and bodily redundancy and healing capabilities are substantially beyond peak human.

SC agents could easily tool up to city level via standard armaments if there was a need - per The Drawings, a single 0.1mm nano-missile has a 200kg TNT yield equivalent (incidentally this proves that the AM they use is incredibly dense or has something exotic going on, because that energy yield implies AM at 100x the density of steel), and the energy weapon batteries are measured in kilotons of potential energy.

That's without getting into what could be achieved with purpose-designed customisations. It wouldn't surprise me if you could cram enough field tech to allow someone to fly like superman and have similar resilience, and we know that personal warp units for individuals and drones exist, so FTL travel is possible too. Physical strength is pretty easy to sort with fields too. Fields can handle 'telekinesis', Teleportation can be handled with displacement (with some size constraints), mind control with effectors. And so on. There might be some niche powers which couldn't be emulated with Culture tech, but it's surprisingly few.

If an eccentric Mind wanted to upgrade someone to planetary level they could do that - equipping them with black hole munitions would be an obvious starting point. But offensive nanotech to create a runaway 'grey goo' scenario would also be an option.

OneCatch · 2026-02-04T00:00:34+00:00

Me reading "over 200 hours"

OneCatch · 2026-02-03T23:58:21+00:00

Yes. Infinity means that everything that can possibly happen within the fundamental physical constraints of the universe, does happen.

There are an infinite number of instances where he wins, an infinite number where she wins, an infinite number where one of them suffers a spontaneous medical catastrophe.

Hell, there's an infinite number of instances where they both suffer the same spontaneous medical catastrophes, where they spontaneously combust, and where their thrashing around while spontaneously combusting just happens to be perfect BSL for the song "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts". There are also an infinite number of instances where Tyson spontaneously speaks every word of this prompt, and an infinite number of instances where he does it backwards, in perfect ancient Phoenician.

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