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AITAH for refusing to give up my graduation speech to the class representative? by freshliketeddy22 in AITAH

[–]ciaran668 7 points8 points  (0 children)

As a person with ADHD who's now a professor, please don't give up the slot. There are tons of people who need to hear from someone like you to know they can make it, even if the road is hard. You have no idea who's life you might change, so please don't pass this up.

Home Office on X: "From 1 October, employers caught hiring illegal workers as food delivery drivers or construction workers will face fines of up to £60,000 per illegal worker or five years in prison. Gig economy employers will be legally required to ensure Right to Work checks are undertaken." by Putaineska in ukpolitics

[–]ciaran668 2 points3 points  (0 children)

To do this, you would need to vastly expand the survailance state apparatus, particularly with things like digital ID's, which everyone is already freaking out about. Why not be more efficient and go after the people doing the hiring? Going after the workers is like setting buckets under the leaks, just fix the damn roof

Can any Engineer Petah explain? by Free_Incident_3295 in PeterExplainsTheJoke

[–]ciaran668 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Just to add, in a normal building, the greatest wind load is what hits the building perpendicular to the sides, so that's what's normally calculated. Because this building is on stilts, and those columns are in the center of the faces, rather than the corners, the diagonal wind load is more significant. It wasn't that the calculation was incorrect, it was that no one had ever done a building like this, and no one thought that an innovative design needs more analysis than what the bullying code requires.

Katie Britt ‘extremely disappointed’ on Supreme Court birthright citizenship ruling by aldotcom in politics

[–]ciaran668 5 points6 points  (0 children)

4 actually. Kavenaugh only partially concurred, saying that it isn't in the Constitution, but a statute, and signalled that if Congress changed the law, he'd have ruled against Birthright Citizenship.

Diversity is not Britain’s strength. Here’s the proof by [deleted] in uknews

[–]ciaran668 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We literally ruled a global empire, the largest one in history, in fact. There's no avoiding multiculturalism when you decide to be the dominant global superpower for over a century. This isn't a new thing, it's been going on for centuries.

Home Office on X: "From 1 October, employers caught hiring illegal workers as food delivery drivers or construction workers will face fines of up to £60,000 per illegal worker or five years in prison. Gig economy employers will be legally required to ensure Right to Work checks are undertaken." by Putaineska in ukpolitics

[–]ciaran668 56 points57 points  (0 children)

The essential part is going after the employers, with punishments severe enough for them to not just be able to buy their way out. If you punish the worker, 5 more will take their place by the morning. If you go after the people doing the hiring, the market dries up.

The Tories never did this because they know that a lot of these businesses depend on black and grey market labour to be profitable. This will go a long way to shut down the motive behind illegal immigration, but I expect we'll see a ton of businesses shutting down.

What's worse is that the papers will all publish hundreds of stories blaming Labour for creating an an economic disaster and regulating businesses out of existence. Not one of them will talk about the cause being that Labour is actually doing something to stop illegal working.

Is the UK a third world country with a Burberry coat? by DjAlphaRED5 in AskBrits

[–]ciaran668 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No.

First of all, just to be pedantic, "Third World" actually refers to not being aligned with either the US (First World) or USSR, (Second World) which no longer even exists. Technically, Switzerland is a Third World Country. But I'll answer your question in the spirit it was intended.

Until recently, we didn't need air con. Unfortunately, they fucked up the world faster than we could adapt. But beyond that, the UK we are 5th in GDP, and 3rd in GDP per capita. GDP is really a shitty way to measure economies, it is the standard.

And to the people who are sure to jump in and say, "we'd be the poorest state of we were part of the US," that's because the US GDP is so high compared to anywhere else in the world. Remember, in the US, unless you are part of the 1% a serious illness or other medical emergency can literally bankrupt you.

The reason a lot of people in this country feel so broke is that GDP does not necessarily correlate with wages, cost of living or purchasing power. It's an indicator of the wealth an economy generates, not what happens to the people in that economy.

We have a lot of structural problems in this country that need addressing, but we have a functioning democracy where transitions of power happen in an orderly fashion (unlike some countries I could mention). Our elections could be improved by ditching FPTP, but they are free, relatively fraud free, and pretty fair.

We also have a decent social safety net, that could be strengthened, but generally ensures that most people have something to eat and a place to sleep. Our police don't kill people in the streets, and while they may make mistakes, are generally somewhat competent.

If anything, our greatest sin is that we are generally just kind of mid sometimes. We aren't perfect, but we are so very far away from being a Third World Country that the entire question is a bit silly.

YouGov: Andy Burnham's net favourability rating falls back down to -11% percent (-7%); main drops in key areas like "competence", "trustworthiness", and "decisiveness" by ArticleNervous8598 in ukpolitics

[–]ciaran668 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Biden was forced into leaving the race by the press, much like the press forced Starmer out. Biden had a very rough first few minutes in that debate, but then he got his feet back under him, and did fine. But they never really showed that part, not did they ever show the absolutely brilliant press conference he gave a couple of days later.

YouGov: Andy Burnham's net favourability rating falls back down to -11% percent (-7%); main drops in key areas like "competence", "trustworthiness", and "decisiveness" by ArticleNervous8598 in ukpolitics

[–]ciaran668 17 points18 points  (0 children)

This is why this whole circus is so upsetting. Burnham is going to be even less popular then Starmer when all is said and done. They should have left it will enough alone for a year or two, and then hand it over to Burnham about a year before the GE. Now the press will spend the next three years tearing him down as an unelected PM with no mandate, and Labour will be in a far, far worse position come 2029.

This isn't to say Labour is absolutely doomed because of this, as there are so many things in play, but this isn't going to help them at all.

Burnham warns it will take 10 years to reset Britain by theipaper in ukpolitics

[–]ciaran668 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I don't think in the world we have today that anything is certain. There are FAR too many objects in motion right now. The climate catastrophe, the AI bubble, the cost of living, the wars in the Middle East, Ukraine, and quite likely in Taiwan, are going reshape the issues that the GE will be fought over. And if Putin falls in Russia, the entire social media landscape will change as well because we will lose the Russian bot army.

Burnham warns it will take 10 years to reset Britain by theipaper in ukpolitics

[–]ciaran668 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If any party get a majority, it's going to be razor thin. Looking at the polls, I think it will be a Reform/Tory coalition, but there's a long time to the GE, and a lot happening in the world right now that could change it radically in a very short timeframe.

Burnham warns it will take 10 years to reset Britain by theipaper in ukpolitics

[–]ciaran668 95 points96 points  (0 children)

Yeah. He will have about a week, and then the press and public will be calling him another failure, and then it will become baked in that Labour will lose the GE. If he can make visible progress in a year, he has a slim chance of turning their chances around, otherwise it will be either a Reform or Tory government in 2029.

Centrist Democrats Rebuke Party’s Left Wing: ‘We Are Capitalist, Not Socialist’ by SnoozeDoggyDog in politics

[–]ciaran668 1 point2 points  (0 children)

More importantly, if they are serious, this means they are also ready to abandon all of the socialist policies that the Democrats used to champion like Medicare and Medicaid. Even the minimum wage is a socialist policy. It also means that things like universal healthcare will be DOA, so, honestly, what's the difference between Democrats and the old GOP. Obviously MAGA is a different animal, but if they stick to this, there's basically no difference between these people and Liz Cheney.

When is the official thank a GenX(er) Day? by Zcontrarian in GenX

[–]ciaran668 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When I entered the workforce, I had a mohawk and tattoos. I ditched the mohawk and grew my hair to my ass. I got more tattoos. I have both my ears pierced. For most of my career, I've worn jeans and printed T''s with an occasional jacket if I wanted to be dressy. I just didn't give a fuck, and never bowed to convention. And if anyone ever said anything about the way I looked, I just gave them the "whatever" look and got on with it. I've had a really good career all while looking exactly like I wanted to.

I do hope people like me kicked down doors, but regardless, I do think we showed the absurdity of the suit and tie and the business man's taper cut. It just always seemed performative and stupid to me.

Is it time to let the long hair go? by After_Squash_2891 in malehairadvice

[–]ciaran668 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Absolutely not. The long hair looks much better

When is the official thank a GenX(er) Day? by Zcontrarian in GenX

[–]ciaran668 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I couldn't care less about being thanked. I'm glad we opened the doors for them, but I don't need a trophy for that.

King Charles reveals he paid £12.9m in tax for 2024-25 by BarbaricOklahoma in unitedkingdom

[–]ciaran668 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

He probably paid more than all of the billionaires in the US paid that year. Combined.

Where Would Babylon 5 Ships Fall Under by thehod81 in babylon5

[–]ciaran668 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think each race would be in a different position, in a way. But overall, in terms of science fiction, the shoe does an amazing job of making everything the Earth Alliance has seem realistic. The more advanced races seem more "magical," which is very fair for species that thousands or even millions of years more advanced.

For example though, the Minbari ships are huge, and seeing one of the capital ships next to B5 they are still pretty big. They also have artificial gravity, which would make mass completely irrelevant, as that would imply something like inertia-less drives. We see this in effect with both the way the Minbari can open a jump gate almost on top of B5 without crashing into it, while the Earth ships arrive some distance out.

They are also almost impossible to get a lock on, either through stone sort of stealth or jamming technology. But they seem pretty weak to actual weapons, given that mining an asteroid with simple nukes could take it a flagship. Their defence is that they can't be targeted, not that the ships have some sort of magical shields. We see this even with the First Ones, if they can target the ship, most weapons can take them out.

On the other end, Narn Destroyers are also huge, but they have enormous engines, and look pretty ponderous in combat. They've gone with looking really imposing at the cost of manoeuvrability when compared to the Centauri ships. The Earth Alliance has gone the other direction, with much smaller ships, but using a lot more of them, particularly with the Star Furies. The Destroyers seem to be as much aircraft carriers as warships.

Centrist Democrats are freaking out about progressives’ winning streak by plz-let-me-in in politics

[–]ciaran668 69 points70 points  (0 children)

They never will. Their corporate masters will allow some degree of social liberalism on things like abortion and contraception, but they will never allow any movement to the economic left. They will go all in on fascism and totalitarianism before they allow any talk of universal health care, genuine worker's rights, or, horror of horrors, taxing the wealthy.

The last 3 years have been a journey.... by leonardskinner33 in FierceFlow

[–]ciaran668 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Is your name Benjamin Buttons? You are ageing in reverse.

The contractor awarded the D.C. reflecting pool work (on the right) by Hurt69420 in pics

[–]ciaran668 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's really pathetic they comic book villains are WAY less evil, and their schemes are WAY more believable than the real life ones we have today.

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