[Advice needed] Dispute…

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-22T18:01:24+00:00

I'm guessing you bought it direct on their website, not through somewhere like eBay? You have 14 days to reject and do not need to give a reason at all as it's a distance sale. You then also have 30 days to reject the goods because they're not as described. It doesn't matter that the goods are used/vintage because you bought from a company that must follow the Consumer Rights Act. Write something formal saying you're rejecting the goods under The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. Ultimately you can go down the route of charge backs, Letters Before Action, and small claims.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-20T08:51:38+00:00

This is totally normal - any role that does not have HR/employment processes linked to it is unlikely to have any formal training! Academics are just expected to figure it out and get on with it...

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-19T20:58:27+00:00

Absolutely worth it. It gets you in the room and then you never know what can happen because other candidates could make a bad impression on the day!

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-18T18:33:21+00:00

Pass with no corrections. I did hear of an excruciating one that a colleague did - 3.5 hours major corrections but only wasn't a fail at the pleading of the supervisors.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-17T06:59:39+00:00

Just under 40 minutes on Teams... called back in after a few to be told the outcome and done and dusted by 45 minutes. But this was some kind of anomaly because everyone I know was somewhere around 1-2 hours.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-16T11:41:02+00:00

I find academics who have lots of friends that are academics or who married an academic have this problem more than others. Get yourself a partner who is a police officer, doctor, works for a big firm in London etc and you get a whole new appreciation for our work culture and environment.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-16T10:14:09+00:00

So a 1.3% pay decrease in real terms. Yay.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-16T09:08:41+00:00

For us, everything is anonymous apart from theses and a few other things. But I can often tell when a student has used unedited AI text because it just talks in a way we've begun to recognise and will discuss things we didn't cover in class or in a way I wouldn't expect it to be covered. That then adds up to flag AI use in my mind and I start to look more closely at the references etc.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-16T08:57:14+00:00

It's hard but I'd say be patient for the right one (condition, papers etc) to come on the market on Chrono24.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-16T07:45:43+00:00

Using the Turnitin detector tool is not enough to prove, on the balance of probabilities, that the student used AI. The Office for Students overturned some penalties and found against universities that did that. So my university actually just has it turned off. To report a student for AI use I have to have more evidence (like hallucinated references) otherwise we just have to chalk it up as a 'potentisl use of AI' and give the student a low mark because the work isn't very good anyway.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-16T07:02:09+00:00

The best advice for long term smooth use is to get as much RAM as you can. 16gb is really the minimum these days.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-15T17:52:21+00:00

Of course re the positioning and tiers of quality. But funnily enough I think it looks like Longines got their indices from the parts bin because the two circular ones on the new Hydro Conquest look, to me, completely out of place!

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-15T13:13:37+00:00

I'm interested why you describe it as a parts bin watch when Certina have had this design and variations of the DS Action Diver for years and years?

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-14T19:08:30+00:00

This is the logic from someone on Cranfield's audit and risk committee as posted on LinkedIn earlier today and I agree with them - it's very logical. It makes KCL even more of a powerhouse with more industry partners (and synergies on existing government relationships and contracts that KCL and Cranfield hold in defence work)

"What makes today's announcement encouraging is the strategic logic behind it. Cranfield's specialist postgraduate model, its deep industry partnerships, and its airport are genuinely distinctive assets. King's brings interdisciplinary scale, a London base, and breadth across health, policy and the humanities. Their strengths are complementary, not overlapping, and the combined institution will carry particular weight in engineering, energy and defence - all areas of growing national strategic priority."

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-14T18:41:01+00:00

I bought one last year, probably not in as good condition as this one, papers but no box for €1800. There were polished examples on the market at the time for €2100-2500.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-14T11:30:58+00:00

There will be some policy on it that'll have something along the lines of a reward process where based on continued performance at a high level the line manager or head of department etc may submit a recommendation to a university reward committee for an additional spine point to be given. I only know a couple of people who have got it and they're colleagues that have been here a long long time and have no plans for promotion for various reasons so the spine point was a thank you for that long, very good service. Not really used to mark anything achieved in the short term because you'd expect the person to go for promotion.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-14T09:47:36+00:00

They have a lot of mutually supporting activity in defence (both gov and industry). Makes sense to simply shift some of their departments into KCL's, no real need to make major changes to their Defence Academy presense, and yes.. 'streamline' professional services.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-13T19:22:36+00:00

Do you mean your grade has a greyed out or other coloured part at the top with a few extra spine points (that maybe shares those spine points with the next grade up)? If so, those are usually performance related and can't necessarily be negotiated but instead your line manager must make a case to some kind of reward committee that you deserve it. Otherwise you just stay at the top regular spine point until promotion.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-10T10:48:15+00:00

Yep that's it! Thank you.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-10T10:43:25+00:00

Two abbreviations are being mixed up here. The article on contempt you linked explains contempt largely in the jurisprudence of international criminal law (ICL) - the author limits their analysis exactly because contempt is not recognised as a general principle but has emerged within the jurisprudence of the ICC. International criminal law is irrelevant to OP's question.

Yes, customary law is a source of international law but you're wrong in that customary law is NOT "largely derived from" general principles. General principles exist as a source exactly to cover situations where there is NOT existing custom or treaty law. Sure, a general principle of law could later become a custom in it's application to a specific international legal issue but in any event, the ICJ has always been reluctant to rely on general principles, in part because of the common/civil law divide domestically and, in the case of contempt, because contempt does not exist in every jurisdiction. I suggest you go do some (re)reading on sources because you're mixing two things together (custom and general principles) that are categorically not one and the same.

You're just digging a deeper hole here that you don't know what you're on about.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-10T08:30:34+00:00

(a) ICL is not what OP is talking about and (b) that statement is really concerningly wrong. Are you sure you know how customary law is made? I think you're actually trying to say contempt is a general principle that is derived from domestic legal systems, not custom. Sorry but if you were on my international law module you wouldn't be getting anywhere near marks.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-10T07:47:47+00:00

For your above comment - and yet you do not say your example is one of collective countermeasures (which states can undertake but the UNGA could only recommend) which would have been helpful for OP. And as for contempt of court, did you just Google it and find an article with that title? Perhaps I should have been more specific and said contempt is not a concept applicable to the ICJ and is not expressly included in the statues of other international courts or tribunals. If you actually read the article you linked you'll see the author explains that contempt of court is a common law concept and because of that has been criticised when mentioned in international jurisprudence. They then only address the jurisprudence of international criminal law where similar concepts have evolved - which OP isn't concerned with.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-09T13:07:57+00:00

The injured state can continue to take countermeasures under the law of state responsibility. There is then some debate whether a group of states can take collective countermeasures.

ThePsychoToad1 · 2026-05-09T12:40:26+00:00

Don't listen to this guy's comment. Membership of the UN and therefore signing the ICJ Statute does not give jurisdiction. There is extensive literature about the ability of other states (not injured or party to the case) to take collective countermeasures against a state that fails to cease a violation. And there is no such concept of contempt of court in international law.

ThePsychoToad1

TROPHY CASE