Video game developer.
Centrist with background in international law.
Anti-corruption. Anti-fascist. Anti-commie.
Pro-democracy, free trade & capitalism.
Some more reasons why HS2 is cripplingly expensive:
It's not just a railway, it's also a 140 mile long nature reserve.
7 million trees and shrubs. Net biodiversity gains. Rare fauna planting. Chalk hill reshaping. Wetland creation. Cycle paths and bridleways. Reptile habitats. Public viewing points. River realignment with new bends, pools, and riffles.
"Alongside the construction of Britain's new high speed railway, HS2 is delivering one of the largest environmental programmes ever undertaken in the UK".
You'd think that a new railway would be environmentally beneficial enough. But no. Because this is a government project it can't just be a railway. It has to be a nature reserve too, and a jobs creator, plus a view protector, forest creator, and the most expensive bat protection project in the world.
Thanks to all these expensive boondoggles, the railway itself has been cut and cut and cut, and no longer goes to Leeds or Manchester - it's been slashed from 330 miles to 140.
It would obviously be better for the environment to have forgone the nature slop and just built the sodding railway in full, on time, and within budget.
The Victorians weren't magically better at building than we seemingly are today. When private companies build a railway they care about costs, profit, and efficiency. When a government builds a railway they care about creating a camel to appeal to all people.
It can't just be a railway. It has to be so much more. And that's when we see costs spiral to destruction.
A staggering 22% of all Traveller males die in car crashes, compared to >1% among the general population.
We essentially have a subgroup of our population who treat every car journey like a Tatooine podrace.
https://t.co/lLo61qyYoJ
https://t.co/sylOZTaUN1
The data center panic feels exactly like the anti-GMO movement.
A bunch of technical claims that sound scary and reasonable until you spend 10 minutes actually looking into them.
Then when one claim falls apart, it’s immediately replaced with another.
At some point it stops being about water, jobs, or the grid and starts being “I already decided this technology is evil, now help me justify it.”
“Come to Russia we have good job for you lots of money, blonde Russian women many you will have sex with. Come, come”
“Is this real?”
“Yes come, come to Russia. Is not trick we not conscript you”
“Are you sure?”
“No no, we not make you fight in Ukraine. Hurry up quickly”
“Ok I trust you”
I thought this was disinformation so I had to check it.
Yup, they're literally getting their heating paid for with no usage restrictions.
Glaring loophole in the system that needs fixed.
Even if you're very pro-immigration it's terrible optics come winter.
BBC news articles advising elderly how to stay warm and ration heat while these people are given free heating.
@LegalYookay@grok
Fact check this.
Can asylum seekers in the UK avail of unlimited free heating of their homes?
Or are they expected to pay for it out of their allowance?
Debt as a % GDP is the same than when labour won the election
July 2024: 94.2% GDP
July 2026: 94.1% GDP
Still to high, still nearing £3 trillion and has ranged from 92 to 95.5% under this government, but remember how responsible @Conservatives are for Britain’s debt problem
Am I the only one who doesn’t understand why we need data centers?
I spent all morning searching Google and Wikipedia and couldn’t find a single good reason. Then I watched a 45-minute YouTube explainer in 4K, but it was mostly about AI, and I’m just waiting for that bubble to pop.
I opened 200 browser tabs, downloaded a few hundred research papers, translated three from Chinese, and uploaded 2TB of sequencing data so colleagues in eight countries could analyze it with me. Then we discussed the results on Zoom while Slack transcribed the meeting and emailed everyone a summary.
Around lunch, my phone backed up 14,000 family photos, synchronized my contacts and calendar across six devices, routed me around traffic, checked the weather using live satellite data, booked a doctor’s appointment, refilled a prescription, paid a bill, transferred money between banks, approved payroll for hundreds of employees, and ordered groceries.
Later, I read about hospitals retrieving patient records and medical scans in seconds, emergency services coordinating disaster responses, scientists designing protein therapies and sharing enormous datasets, utilities balancing the electrical grid, and airlines continuously rerouting thousands of flights.
But these all felt like pretty niche edge cases.
So I asked an AI agent to turn everything I had done that day into a Twitter post, make it increasingly insane and obvious, and optimize it for maximum engagement.
@SilEstAureum@_fod0@SnoozeThroughF1@Pagan_GMR No one is ransacking a city full of homes though.
They're searching two specific Discord servers where the leaker is known to be operating from to prevent billions in damages.
@_fod0@SnoozeThroughF1@Pagan_GMR If someone somehow stole billions from the store, then yes - the courts probably would let them do that to assist in recovery/prevention of loss.
GTA6 is expected to earn over $3bn.
Sea Legend a Chinese shipping company has begun the first regular northern sea route Ningbo-> Felixstowe
The new route Takes as little as 18 days compared with more than 40 days for the Suez Canal and avoids the risk of being struck by Houthi missile.
This new route is a huge opportunity for the UK if played successfully.
🚨Just watched the video of security taking a bloke off a London train for having no valid ticket.
A passenger keeps shouting “This is disgusting” throughout, demanding badge numbers and saying you’re not the police.
People around are far more bothered by what the security officers can and can’t do than by the fact the guy simply wasn’t paying.
No real condemnation of him at all.
This attitude is exactly why the country’s in a mess.
People would rather criticise those doing a job than the person committing the issues.
"Healthcare is a human right," I mutter.
Suddenly a fully staffed hospital materializes downtown. MRI machines descend from the heavens. Nurses, surgeons, primary care doctors and specialists begin spawning out of the ether.
Emboldened, I shout louder:
"HEALTHCARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT! HEALTHCARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT!"
Operating rooms multiply by the minute. Ambulances glide down every street like Ubers. Prescriptions become free and refill themselves. Dental, vision, therapy and rehab pour forth in abundance. Waiting rooms evaporate. Insurance paperwork dissolves into ash. Every rural town gets a trauma center and three dermatologists. Medical scarcity had just been solved, and it really was that easy.