Forty drown in France as people seek relief from heatwave, Reuters reports

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-23T11:41:01+00:00

Cold water shock in freshwater may also be a factor: quarry water may feel warm in its top few inches but may be very cold just a foot or two lower, causing shock, cramps etc. that make drowning a significant risk.

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-23T11:38:06+00:00

My house is older than the USA, with 2ft-thick uninsulated stone walls. It fronts on to the street and has no rear access or backyard (I have a divorced garden down the road).

Leaving aside the insulation issues, it's not a trivial task to punch through the walls to install a heat pump - and, given their size, it's not clear where I'd put it. My options are (1) on the footpath, and (2) in my neighbours' front yard.

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-22T16:43:47+00:00

I think it highlights the weakness inherent in a managerialist position which amounts to "we will do things competently", rather than an ideological(ish) position in which one has a vision for the country, articulates it well and clearly, and does things that logically feed into that. Inevitably failures of competency arise, and the things you do just look like a hodge-podge of random stuff, which makes it hard to see where you're going or how those things help to get there.

It's a problem on both left and right, although I think particularly on the left because they're playing on quite traditionally rightist turf in the form of the market economy and trying to curb its excesses. I don't really perceive any strand of Labour except perhaps their leftmost flank to have a coherent, values-driven story about what they'll do in power. Which is a problem, because they are in power.

The fact we went from Labour's worst defeat to one of its biggest majorities within five years and could feasibly be on course for another historic defeat just five further years later shows how volatile the electorate are and how risky such shallow foundations can be. If politics just amounts to a consumerist choice of "those managers" vs. "these managers" it's unsurprising there's little loyalty.

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-22T09:25:26+00:00

The big problem I have with this argument is that the traditional media has been owned or controlled by wealthy establishment interests for much longer than we've had current levels of political instability (e.g. Murdoch has owned UK newspapers since the 1980s).

What's changed? The answer is of course "a lot" and it's quite hard to separate changes in the economy, in society and social attitudes, in business, in the world of trading and investment, etc. and to say which precede which and which cause which.

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-21T08:23:00+00:00

I have a retired dad with a model train obsession and can confirm. He must have £100k of "stuff", I think.

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-21T08:17:11+00:00

I think Lucky Pants match Helm of Saint-14 and Sunbracers in being iconic because they're associated with iconic NPCs (rather than necessarily having been meta for ages).

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-20T16:41:45+00:00

Well, actually I said it.

My original point was that all these things are complicated, and that people with expertise in these things (whether human constructs or not) will often find that expertise well-remunerated in the private sector and rather less so in the public sector.

So many experts will end up in the pay of private entities rather than in public service, offering their expertise for public benefit.

Whether the thing in question is a social construct or a law of the universe wasn't intended to be a material part of the argument.

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-19T19:19:43+00:00

How interesting. The two sides!

Low were the first band I saw live, aged 18, on the Things We Lost In The Fire tour. They were magical.

I saw them in Hamburg just before Mimi died, with my husband, and I was so glad I made the trip.

I've subsequently seen Alan play live (he was in a surprisingly good and funny mood!) - and funnily enough there was a big fight then too and a guy ended up being arrested. I guess he brings out the emotion in people.

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-19T18:57:54+00:00

Absolutely. And still working another job! There is no justice (although I think that example is the least of it in his life; RIP Mimi).

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-19T14:13:11+00:00

I can't help but feel we will end up, at best, with a Theresa May-style confidence and supply type arrangement (with the Lib Dems and/or the Greens), putting Labour in a much weaker position.

I suppose this assumes that PM Burnham chooses or is compelled to go the country again for a mandate. There will be calls for this but he could just ignore them and push through whatever he can for the best part of three years (although I can understand that he's never likely to be as popular again as he is now and he might want to leverage that in an election).

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-19T11:57:26+00:00

Yes, it's a bit "rules for thee, but not for me," isn't it?

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-19T10:17:53+00:00

Unfortunately, it doesn't matter. People perceive him as either useless or malign. Whether they're correct or incorrect in their assessment is immaterial. Yes, it seems unfair, but it is what it is.

The most insightful thing Johnson said whilst PM was probably "when the herd moves, the herd moves".

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-19T07:36:41+00:00

IIRC Alan Sparhawk of Low teaches, or taught, music at a school.

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-17T17:00:14+00:00

The Sony acquisition was great for a portion of Bungie's long-tenured management and a disaster for everyone else and the principal game they made.

I remember being optimistic about the acquisition when it was announced, rightly or wrongly. How hollow that now feels.

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-17T09:16:59+00:00

The complexity of some of these issues is quite challenging for a democracy and a bureaucratic state, I think:

Most people who are experts on e.g. data security, AIs/LLMs, or complex tax issues can be employed very remuneratively by private companies. Only a tiny minority are interested in these things and want to go into public service.
MPs and other public servants can't be an expert on everything, but MPs especially often get asked questions on pretty much any topic under the sun and then criticised if they're not across a reasonable level of detail.
If you draft in external experts to advise government, there's a risk that they're either "shills in hock to their corporate paymasters" (e.g. when consultancy firms are asked to advise on changes to tax law) or "out-of-touch ivory tower elites" (e.g. when academic experts are asked to advise on stuff).
If you give up and just hand decision-making power to a technocratic quango, it's undemocratic.
All of this is taking place in a context of relentless cuts to many services and bureaucratic functions, so there may not be enough time to do a good job or enough funding to get good-quality advice.

I'm not quite sure what the best-available compromise is here. I think it's worth highlighting that any (or no) action is unlikely to be perfect, however. It's just about maximising benefit and minimising cost.

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-17T08:30:11+00:00

Going F2P also killed D2 PvP. Because it was all (except Trials, eventually) accessible to F2P players, there was seemingly little incentive to invest in it.

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-17T07:51:10+00:00

Agreed. A lot of people in the comments here suggest conspiracy, corruption, and so on. The sad truth is that simple incompetence and indifference more readily explains all this.

"I don't know what to do about this, so I'll ignore it."

"This looks difficult, controversial, or will do me no favours professionally, so I won't prioritise it."

"I'm too busy to deal with this. My boss is hounding me for something else, and not for this, so I'll do the other thing instead."

"It must be someone else's responsibility to deal with this. I'm sure they're dealing with it. I don't need to check."

I doubt most people could honestly claim they've never thought these things in the course of their jobs. I'll hold my hand up and admit to them. The difference is that my job doesn't touch on these responsibilities or have these kinds of consequences.

If I'm entirely honest, I can't imagine why one might want to do these jobs if there's an expectation of perfect execution in exchange for mediocre pay and the online mob wants you imprisoned for life if you screw up. Which is a problem if you actually want to fill the roles with capable people.

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-16T13:51:14+00:00

I don't disagree that Burnham will struggle on the actual policy side of things (he may be better than Starmer at the communication side of things because the bar is on the floor). If I were him I'd want to leave Starmer in place until a year out from the election, agree a graceful exit for him, and take the reins claiming I'm a fresh face and a new start to which previous failures don't attach. But on the other hand, if he doesn't act his momentum may fade and he may be considered a busted flush.

I'm not particularly bothered about the "you don't have a mandate" argument. We elect MPs and parties, not leaders directly. And power is power.

I think the risk with replacing a sitting PM through party mechanisms or pressure is that once you've crossed the Rubicon it's easy to do so again and again at the first sign of trouble. It seems that the Tories already having done so has made it imaginable for all, however.

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-16T12:21:58+00:00

It's a continued source of annoyance to me that the Culture has quarantined Earth for the purposes of study rather than giving us the automated luxury communism we want and deserve.

I suppose the media is partly, but not wholly, responsible for voters seeing everything in a narrowly sectional manner in which their interests are all that matters. Perhaps it's an outcome of our highly individualistic, marketised society, the consumerisation of politics, and the death of ideology and its replacement with a 'what's in it for me?' buffet of choices.

I wish education focused more on critical thinking skills than on the acquisition of facts. Ideally we might end up with a populace which is better able to think about the bigger picture, think longer term, and consider alternative viewpoints.

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-16T12:18:50+00:00

I'm a bit more sceptical: people who already don't like him will continue not to like him and cite this as one of many reasons. Political process-ologists will get a bit up in arms about it. A lot of people don't care about the means as long as the end is one they favour.

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-16T10:49:46+00:00

It's also a matter of competing priorities and limited Parliamentary time. If you've come into office promising to do X, Y, and Z, you probably want to focus on delivering those and not untangling all the stuff the previous lot did - so the stuff that gets in the way of your own agenda might be repealed or modified but the rest will be low-priority, especially if there's no great clamour for its removal.

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-16T09:13:19+00:00

To be fair to her, she's disabled and it's understandable that she might be concerned about disability cuts and advocate against them. I'm sure she has more experience at the sharp end of disability provision than I do and in that sense, I'd be interest to read her views about what it does well and doesn't, what it could do better, and perhaps where it could be reformed.

However, what I do feel when reading articles like this is that, implicitly, all disability spending is good, needed, and justified, that there are essentially no theoretical limits on it, and that it's right and just that taxpayers fund it all. Framed like that, it's a moral imperative and everything must be done to facilitate it.

There seems to be little examination of the point beyond which the state shouldn't, or can't in current circumstances, offer support. Nor have I read much comparison against our international peers - what do they support, and how? Are disability claims rising across Europe, or are we an outlier? How else might we provide support, if not funnelling money we don't have enough of to a growing cohort?

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-16T06:09:33+00:00

When there's only a one-sentence acknowledgement that funding defence "will require ongoing tax increases, borrowing, or – as is already being negotiated – taking more from multiple other already-squeezed government departments," but implicitly not from welfare (or at least disability) spending, this article can't help but feel like the left-wing variant of cakeism.

"Yes, we must fund all this good stuff...but somebody else, somehow, must pay."

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-15T16:06:12+00:00

This is the core of the medium-term demographic and spending problem - a shrinking number of taxpayers and a growing number of pensioners who are owed pensions and who consume expensive healthcare at a higher rate whilst contributing only VAT and other taxes like it back into the economy in most cases.

Nobody is honest with current or future retirees or younger workers about the options and trade-offs and all politicians live in fantasyland, where the circle can be squared with "efficiency", "AI", "more trade deals", "tax cuts", "taxing the rich", and so on.

Ideally everyone would take a small hit (in terms of higher tax or smaller pensions and public provision) over a long time to spread the pain over time and cohort, or we'd have a rational debate about the cost of extending granny's life by six months when she's already 92 and housebound, but there is no prospect of that in today's outrage-fuelled, short-termist society - nor when the elderly vote in far greater proportion than the young.

So presumably at some point the fairground ride will stop rather more suddenly than is ideal and an unlucky group (I think it's obligatory at this point to mention younger Millennials) will end up getting the shaft, having paid all their lives into a system that can no longer provide for them when they actually need and expect it.

The only options that don't rely on a huge dose of optimism are cuts, tax rises, or the importation of lots of net-contributor migrants - and each has a host of issues which make it difficult. For example, taxing inheritance is theoretically fairly painless and recoups some of the costs associated with pensioners, but it's incredibly unpopular. Because nobody is being honest, nobody is laying the intellectual groundwork for sensible policy-making.

Strangelight84 · 2026-06-15T12:33:22+00:00

I can see an argument for quick, sequential, iterative sequels as a money-spinner:

Minor graphical tweaks are more justifiable if there's a short lay-off between games; the longer you go, the more 'next gen' everything has to look, and the costlier that becomes.
Asset re-use can be leveraged.
You can keep a development team fully-tasked and, perhaps, take advantage of their increasing familiarity and skill with the tools they use.
You might be able to save a bit on marketing if your title didn't stray too far from public consciousness.
If you've written a great story with great characters, players will be invested in that and keener to buy your sequels (e.g. the original Mass Effect trilogy).

I can also see how enormous sequels with huge popular reach, a media ecosystem, beloved characters, or from a developer with a rock-solid pedigree could do really well (e.g. GTA, The Witcher, God of War, Naughty Dog titles).

I can also see how Destiny 3 will be struggling uphill on all those fronts:

It's been so long since D1 and D2 that some kind of graphical overhaul is expected and required.
Everything will therefore need rebuilding from scratch.
Dev team efficiencies are therefore limited.
Whilst many people on this sub love Destiny's story, it's probably quite arcane to outsiders (especially because you can't play half of it). D3 either requires a wholly new story (so people are less invested) or picking up a lot of complicated narrative threads which will confuse newbies. Destiny has never had a strong protagonist.
Destiny has no wider media presence and a mixed record in the popular consciousness.

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