MicroB

Slightly old news but a Russian missile dseigner, Mikhail Shatsky, was found shot outside of Moscow. A seperate thread had been posted, but the link was wrong, and a Moderator had erroneously decided the report was inaccurate, when in fact it has been widely reported, and can be considered reliable: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/12/13/russias-top-missile-expert-gunned-down-in-moscow-park https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/12/12/russian-cruise-missiles-designer-assassinated-by-ukraine/ https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-missile-designer-reports-assassination-moscow-ukraine-invasion/33237577.html https://www.thetimes.com/world/russia-ukraine-war/article/ukrainian-secret-service-assassination-mikhail-shatsky-28m6wxrq8 Edit: A forum spftware glitch is preventing the posting of links, so you may need to copy/paste the URLs. https://www.newsweek.com/top-russian-cruise-missile-maker-assassinated-moscow-reports-1999674

Pensoners already went to court: https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#{"dmdocnumber":["864611"],"itemid":["001-97704"]}

It needs to get to Court first. A judicial review claim has been filed with the High Court. Solicitors are advising clients not to hang around presupposing a decision. And even if the Court decides the government acted unlawfully, it doesn't have to set aside the decision being challenged or make any other order. All that might happen is a moral victory. I see some analogy with private healthcare. Before COVID, the private sector in the UK was relatively under utilised, for mainly electives. When COVID hit, there was really a firming up of the relationship between the NHS and Private Sector, with the government effectively buying up all the beds, or spare capacity, in the excpectation it would be a mass casualty event. More recently NHS referrals to the private sector are in the context of dealing with pent up demand, longer waiting times. Essentially, a patient can be referred to the private sector for their Op, and the NHS is billed at the same price the procedure might cost the NHS. Its possible the patient might recuperate in a NHS facility, or, with D2A, discharged to a private nursing home who bills the NHS. The surgeons doing the work frequently also work in the NHS. Labour tells us Education is facing some sort of crisis. Teacheris are leaving, not enough teachers, hungry kids, buildings falling apart. 8 million kids taught by half a million teachers. They can't fill all the teaching vacancies as it is. Teachers do move between sectors; state to private and private to state. On balance, the movement to private is in the positive, ie better working conditions etc In the private sector its about half a million kids taught be 80,000 teachers. The ratios are crude, because its more complex than that. But, even now, private schools provide thousands of hours of free specialist teaching and access to facilities to their state counterparts The government could increase the education budget by £5 billion (a 5% increase), and really, it will have an insignificant impact on the sector. Money spent now wont be felt for 5-10 years. The government could view private schools as surge capacity. Sending pupils to them en masse doesn't really work, because often these schools are in the wrong places compared to state schools (the issue causing the transfer problems now). There could be ways for the government to make more parents see independant schools as a viable alternative (subsidy, vouchers). That wuld requre the fees to drop significantly, which can be mitigated to the schools through rolls, protecting revenues. Also, there could be greater secondment of teachers between the sectors, even part time. One reason for the increase in fees, particularly between 2003 and 2014, has been employer pension contributions. Private school teachers are in the same pension scheme as state. Since 2003, that employer contribution has racked up considerably (now 25% of salary?). Based on average 1990 day fees in 1990, if they had tracked with inflation, the average cost would now be about £7500, which does show that in 1990, private education was making better use of resources than the state. Besides secondments, the government could come to an agreement over pension contributions.Even a time limited arrangement might give the state sector some breathing space, espeically with the thorny question of school construction. How do you rebuild a school without kids spending years being taught in rotted portacabins.

All that money, but he has to invent imaginary friends I genuinely feel a little sad for him. He spends $40billion because he so wants to be liked. But its not working, given the rather sad post he made on December 29th.

Someone obviously didn't like being called a Nazi, and lost their sh*t over a drunken Christmas. National Socialism/Fascism is its own ism. Yes, it wasn't particularly original, in pinching ideas from other movements. Mussolini literally invented fascism, after being a socialist journalist; he was quite intellectual. Hitler, less so. Hitler apparently had most of his fellow socialists killed. Mussolini had them rounded up/ The Iranian Revolutionaries wrote their constitution heavily influenced by the French Republic Constitution, which in itself was inspired by the American Constitution . Does that mean the Mad Mullahs are all George Washington fans in turbans. Of course not. The Nazis had this thing called Gleichschaltung; bringing into line. Essentially the process of Nazifying Germany. Socialism (I think you really mean communism, because socialism is not a revolutonary creed) nationalises industries, to bring them under ideological control. The Weimar Republic had already nationalised many industries during the currency crises. The Nazis reversed most of this. The term "Privatization" was coined by commentators at the time to describe what Hitler was doing. Privatisierung was a German term from the 19th Century, first translated into English when a newspaper report speculated about American railroad companies acquiring German companies. Privatization was a cornerstone of Nazi economic power.German industrialists supported Nazi economic policies, because inreturn for business assistance, the Nazis restored to private capitalism a number of monopolies held or controlled by Weimar. One of the first acts by Hitler was quite dull. He pursued a policy to return bus companies back to private ownership. They used the term "Reprivatisierung". Next they talked about privatizing the banks. By 1936, a German newspaper, Der Deutsche Volkswirt, ran an editorial speculating about the expansion of the privatisation programme. This newspaper was considered the mouthpiece of Hjalmar Schacht, who was head of the Reichbank, and later Minister for the Economy. When the Communists took over Russia, there was a flight of capital from the country; Monarchists and White Russians fled with suitcases of cash, gold and jewels. The opposite happened in Nazi Germany. Industry quite liked Mr Hitler. While he despised Capitalists, he respected private wealth, right until the end (factories were issuing invoices into 1945, and were still getting some semblance of payment). As a result, Nazi policies attracted particular support from across conservative political movements across Europe. This policy implied a large-scale programme by which the government transferred ownership to private hands. Hitler's motivation for this was planning for a war economy. Stalin ran a war economy through state enterprise. It wasn't efficient, because it utterly depended on imported raw materials (Lend Lease etc). Hitler reasons that in a War economy needed low levels of private consumption. He wanted people to save money. Hitler reasoned that the reason people saved money was because of inequality of wealth. Transferance of enterprises into private hands ensured that the "capitalist class" continued to serve for the accumulation of revenue, against which Germany could borrow to purchase Swedish Steel, Ford military trucks, Coca Cola sodas etc. Privatization intensified during the war years, with the goal of "organising less, producing more". So, the companies operating the factories had leased the tooling from the government. Now they could purchase the tooling outright. The accumulation of wealth naturally also brought willing support. German companies such as BASF, Opel, were not strong armed into supporting the Nazis. They profited out of the relationship. In contrast, in Eastern Europe, where a semblance of private industry still existed, it was very different. Factory owners were coerced, asset stripped, and followed the party line out of self-preservation. Both Communism and Nazism/Fascism bred corruption, as do all other 'isms. In the Soviet Union, leaders enjoyed life immensely, by skimming off state industry. Under the Nazis, party members actually owned the companies, and operated them under the protection of the state, as "pseudo-state" companies, in that the proceeds were not channeled to central government. Hence Putin is basically a Nazi. His War of Aggression is supported and financed by private industry. Those tank factories, missile factories bullet factories, all owned by Oligarchs who got them for kopeks on the ruble. Like under the Nazis in Germany, capital had flowed inwards into Putin's Russia, hence the reluctance of many Western copanies to leave. Organisations that emerged purely in the private sector have allied themselves to Putin (the Hacker groups). Where Putin is failing as a Nazi is that he's not been able to reign in private spending, despite launching shiney new Ladas that are missing airbags and ABS pumps (like the woeful Nazi era VW, which was only made into a decent car by an Opel executive post WW2), evidenced by the masses of Russians you are hanging out with in Thai bars or Gentleman Clubs, who probably called you a Nazi. That fair definition for an 8th grader. Simplistic, but I suppose fits with afore mentioned 8th Grade understanding. As an 8th Grader, your spelling is poor. That is a definition of Bolsheviks, and to an extent, Mensheviks, but does not apply to other forms of Socialism. I don't see the Swedish king swinging from a lamp post on a Stockholm street. More piss poor spelling But not just the Left. Trump wants a revolution. He is not Leftwing. Khomeni returned to Iran following the Shah seizing private land, to launch an Islamic Revolution. The Boston Tea Party Goers and others described themselves as Revolutionaries. Maggie Thatcher's time has been referred to as a Thetcherite revolution. etc. So do other movements, which you have deliberately ignored, because it spoils your drunken Christmas rage post. Wrong, as I demonstrated. You might be referring to the Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetrieb (DWB), a holding company for SS-enterprises. These were not financed through appropriated German assets, but through war booty. Ownership fell to some individuals, rather than the State. Postwar, the DWB didn't become some asset of the German Federal Government, to be disposed of to the German people. It was simply dissolved and stolen assets returned to France etc. German private industry was a very willing participant; their interests coincided, because they made lots of money, and were able to inorganically grow their companies very cheaply by buying up companies in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, France, the Netherlands and many other occupied countries. If you believe Hitler cared for the Volk, you have fallen for Nazism. This was merely a recruiting slogan, along with rebranding with the Socialism word that has evidently confused you. He wasn't the first to do that, and not the last, as we have seen in recent days. Utter tosh. Infantile in fact. George Washington was a Revolutionary and had a Revolutionary nature, but was not Left Wing. Of course, you might sincerely believe the US Founding Fathers were a bunch of dirty communists, who's remains need to be dug up like Oliver Cromwell, and impaled pikes for public mockery. No you haven't. What you have demonstrated is an infantile understanding, driven by the fact someone called you a Nazi. All you have demonstrated is that many political ideologies have a propensity to violence. Well, factually incorrect. We know the Communists carried out Mass Murder. We know the Nazis carried out mass murder. We know the Maoists carried out mass murder. We know the Islamists carried out mass murder. We knowom British Imperialists carried out mass murder. We know Cromwell's Commonwealth carried out mas murder. We know the Americans carried out mass murder during Westward migration. We know the Spanish carried out Mass Murder in the New World. We know Gaddafi carried out mass murder. We know the Baathists carried out mass murder. We know Jim Jones carried out mass murder. We know the Israelis have carried out mass murder. We know the Palestinians have carried out mass murder. We know the Turkish state carried out mass murder. We know French Gaullists carried out mass murder. The Romans carried out mass murder. Hannibal carried out mass murder. And on and on. You could say "Socialism" is like Nazism, because the end result might be the same. I could say Trump is like a Nazi, based on him and some supporters expressing Nazi-like beliefs. It doesn't make them Nazis. For a start, Trump doesn't possess the intellect. He hasn't suffered some trauma early in life that has shaped his world view. He's just an uncouth masturbator who's turned into an old man yelling at the telly. He's in awe of clever people, hence immediately agreeing with Musk, who I suspect intimidates and manipulates him, because Musk is very clever and manipulative. Billy Joel had it right.

Early days, but I expect some loon with grievances blown out of all proportion. But the major difference with Al Abdulmohsen, he won't have been on Twitter moaning about how he couldn't a gun.

There has also been a significant push on showing polls showing the public highly supportive of the policy. But that same public also wants hanging back.

Ha ha. I mistyped. I meant sack not save them, on the off chance he's not one of them. I still believe (naively) Starmer is basically a decent man, but flawed. Reeves I think is simply incompetant, but does a good job interview. Phillipson is simply vindictive; there are dark allegations made on social media about her mother. I wish I could read that article, but I suspect it will be tragically comic. VAT on gambling will raise over £3bn a year, but they won't tax that because of working man etc. Tax on TEFL schools will raise a decent £300m, but they won't do that due to Subcontinent politics. Tax on childrenswear will raise at least £1.3bn (varying estimates of the market size). The government think richer parents should specifically support the education the children of poorer parents. Yet, education funding is something that is generally accepted as something that the whole of society funds, whether with child, with children, childless, child-free. This is not out of some alturistic motivation but because today's kids are tomorrow's taxpayers. And state pension is paid by todays taxpayers, not yesterdays. Quid Pro Quo. Will childless people now be targeted for more tax because, presumably, they have lots more money sloshing around that they don't know what to do with? Its interesting when you dig far into the past, before VAT, when the UK had Purchase Tax (Luxury Tax introduced in WW2). Hansard debates are interesting. It wasn't always the case that Private Education was not taxed. But parents had tax relief that was capped at (in 1963 £) at about £80 a year (about £1200 today). It interesting to read the Hansard debate from the day. Its much the same as now, though tax relief was couched in terms of providing relief to an over stretched state sector. If the government was at all concerned with children, it could have looked mutiple options and models. One is the idea of the School voucher, amounting to say £7000, which would be effectively a £7000 discount on the average £18,000 annual fee. All schools only exist at the pleasure of the government; they cannot operate without government approval. A government could easily require said schools to increase admission numbers. The net result is probably more middle class parents would be interested in independant education, VAT take increases, relief on state schools, as state schools and private schools become more and more similar. Another approach is means tested tax relief, coupled with increased admission numbers, You are shifting x% of students where its going to cost you £5bn just to get 1 extra teacher for 3 schools to a system where you have 76,000 ready made teachers paid for by someone else. A colleague in India explained to me how it works in India (not suggesting Indian standards). He complained there are too many schools. But there are private schools and state schools, and some of these private schools have a very good reputation. Parents who want their children to attend these schools have to go into a lottery, and children drawn at random. The state pays most of the fees, and the parents, if they wish to take up the place, pay a very modest amount. I'm sure there are flaws in that approach, but its an example of lots of ways the government could have considered, but instead followed a show of hands at a party conference, which, like all party conferences of whatever colour, is only attended by fanatics and ideologues (Student Grant Types, Lefties, Blue Rinse Brigade, Gammons, Swivel Eyed Loons, Powerfully Built Dieectors, whatever you want to call them). Oh, and Philipson has put a suspension of Free School applications and anything associated. Gove's reforms have been generally welcomed by the profession, except by her. She might have got wind of Eton College proposing to open 3 state Sixth Forms. Another act of vandalism by an unusually ill-qualified Education Secretary (in truth, virtually all Education Secretaries are unqualified, one one in the last 40 years was a former teacher, and she reisgned as she felt she wasn't up to the job).

I've not bothered to read all the replies on this thread, but pleased that the topic is being discussed. Its a long post, so skip if you don't want to read it. My nephew has attended an independant school since the age of 4. He's now on the cusp of starting his GCSEs, and is thriving, all the more so since joining the school cadet force, which has greatly enhanced his confidence. His mother is a school teacher in the state sector, falling within the bottom 90% of the population (earning £59,000 or less). She does not live with the boy's father, who is also a state school teacher. They both contribute to his upbringing. They have first hand knowledge of the state of public education in the English East Midlands; its abysmal. My sister has experienced 2 of her pupils being stabbed to death. She has been assaulted by pupils objecting to being taught by a female. On parents night, she has met parents who have turned up drunk or under the influence. In her previous school, the majority of kids in her class were from Eastern Europe. She has been impressed how diligent they were. It is routine that teachers buy stationary supplies from their own pockets. In her present school, many parents seem to have second homes in Dubai and drive fancy cars. Both parents agree that they will try their utmost for their son not to be disadvantaged by the state school. They feel he will not be given a fair shot in life. My mother and late father financially supported this. They were motivated not just out of love for their grandson, but out of concern for my sister. When she was much younger, she suffered a mental breakdown, which included being sectioned. Mercifully, that seems behind her, and she has gone on to be a school leader. But, as anyone who has suffered a mental breakdown, you never forget, and that memory can be frightening, and stress can see it return. So my parents, being elderly, were interested in the pastoral care the private school could offer (its a traditional RC school. We are not RC and not at all religious, and the boy's father is from the Subcontinent), in case something happened to them and my sister. For 11 years, its been just about affordable. My sister lives frugally, with the occasional holiday in Cornwall, never eats out. She receives no bursary. This move by the government has obviously caused distress. The VAT bill is about £5000 a year. In 3 weeks time, she has to hand over a check for £10,000 to the school. The fees go up again in April, once the business rates concession are withdrawn. Increase employer NI is also kicking in. While she already knew the general availability of places in the area, her enquiries reveal there are zero places in the county for his year. The LA say they would be obliged to send him to a neighbouring county, by taxi, at a cost of £8,000 per year to the rate payer. Net loss to the public purse; £3000. This is likely to be repeated across the country. This is ludicrous. Oxfordshire has already said it will decline all mid year 10/11 transfers in January. Surrey, by FOI request, forecasts zero years 9-11 places in September 2025. She has resigned herself to struggling to pay the fees. She has no choice. The alternative would be to resign her position, and home school her child. Its been a tough christmas. Her house is in a floodzone, and she has had to pay a £1500 house insurance, plus brake repairs on her car. She has had to borrow money for food this month. Naturally, the lad's christmas gifts were a bit threadbare, but he's ok with that. I feel a bit sad for him. His grandad died a couple of years ago, his gran is in a nursing home due to a NHS mistake, and now this. Both came from working class, ex-military. He's resiliant. I'm not sure if it has been mentioned so far, but schools do not receive additional funding for mid-year transfers. Budgets are set based on the October rolls. The government has not put in place any additional funding. The net result might include hiring freezes, deferrment of maintenance, cuts in consumable ordering (pencils, paper etc). Also, there are over 5,300 partnerships between independent and state schools, through the Schools Together programme. Some of this came about when schools had to demonstrate their charitable status, but in many cases, the programme merely formalises informal arrangements that go back decades. Its interesting looking at the Schools Together website at the nature of these partnerships. Examples include letting state school kids use the swimming pool free of charge, hosting inter-school sports events and concerts at no or nominal cost, providing speciality teachers (I estimate about 300,000 hours per year, representing I suppose about £15,000,000 @ £50 per hour). The government has defined independant schools as businesses, which should pay VAT (though its actually the parents paying the VAT), and while they have not removed charitable status, they have removed most of the incentives to have charitable status (business rate relief). Many schools are likely to see accelerated declining rolls (nationally, there is a decline in overall school rolls, but not for all years), but still have the same salaries and upkeep bills. I suspect some of these partnerships in the future will come with an invoice, to help cover swimming pool upkeep, groundsman salary, contract teacher supply. The result will be less kids get to learn to swim, more end up obese, and more ignorant of the rare subjects. The government, in its legislation, define the following as businesses: Private schools, including non-maintained special schools Universities Commercial providers teaching English as a foreign language Universities and TEFL schools remain exempt from charging VAT on services provided. The average gross margin for universities is about 4-5%, which is pretty good compared to a supermarket at 1-2%. No logic is provided why private schools in particular are exempt. I suspect Universities would put up more of a fight, as their existance is through Acts of Parliament, but Private Schools can only exist because the government lets them. TEFL schools I guess represent a potential voter base. Of course, acquiring a decent command of English is one of the prerequisates to gaining citizenship. I expect some correspondants have interjected on the thread as supportive of the policy, along the lines of "squeezing the pips", on the assumption that the parents must be very rich. I can see how that perception arise. If I drop off the nephew at his school, there is a high density of Bentleys, Range Rovers, Porsches. I'm into my cars, but they are both old; a elderly retired race car, complete with dents and rust (nothing exotic, its Japanese) and a 20 year old Jag (because I want to tick off a V8 off the bucket list). Yeah, so I'm turning up in a banger, but they get the most looks from the kids, because kids are kids. https://medium.com/@diarmid.mackenzie/diversity-across-uk-independent-schools-a015a006f41b I was surprised what the real world data. About 50% of kids come from households with an income of more than £59,000. I wouldn't say in 2024, £59,000 defines one as rich. It doesn't even qualify you for the LTR visa. 25% come from the bottom 70%, which means households with less than £40,000 in income. So how on earth do 50% of families at independent schools afford the average £18k day fees? The answer is they can't. 1% are on full fee bursaries. 7% are on means tested bursaries. 33% have a scholarship or discount (https://www.pepf.co.uk/fact-finder/facts-and-figures/). The increases due to government policy will accelerate the decline in rolls. There will be less bursaries and scholarships. The share of that pie chart by the top 10% will grow. Schools will become more exclusive, and probably less integrated with the local community as the percentage of international boarders grows The others scrimp and save, often with extended family support, such as grandparents. Most of the fees already benefit the economy. The schools are often major sources of employment for rural areas. 80% of the fees typically goes in salries, which are spent in the UK. The government's unsaid objective is to drive the schools out of business. They can't afford to absorb the schools, because that means finding salaries for 80,000 teachers. Some of the oldest schools are on very expensive properties, with complex covenants. They will likely be sold off for exclusive high end residential development. Teachers in speciality subjects such as Latin will have zero chance of re-employment in the state sector. Most will probably leave educaton or go overseas. The death of the schools will be long and drawn out, as they lose critical mass, with empty classrooms The government is vague about the expected windfall. It will certainly be negative in the first year, as VAT on capital expenditure over the last 10 years is paid out. Initially it was £1.5 billion in 2025, now it might be £1.8bn in 2029. The Treasury will say it will be spent on "improving public services", which might mean anything, the Department of Education is convinced they will get all the money, which I doubt. And even if they do, if they don't know how much money will be realised, how can they set budgets; government spending through raising loans, paid off by tomorrow's taxes. But really they don't care, because its Class Warfare. And Class Warfare involves dimwitted econimics, imaging the £18,000 will be spent on other taxable things, but it won't. It will be spent on holidays in the Maldives, German cars and yachts. I had under estimated how factionalised Western Democracy had become, with governments around the world beholden to special interest groups, whether thats Brexiteers, Corbynites, MAGA. I'm a lifelong Tory, but consider myself to be part of the rapidly disappearing centre right/Disraeli/One-Nation part (I actively campaigned for Rory Stewart). I voted Tory in 2024; I had nothing against the sitting Tory, even though he was from the traditional Dry wing, because we have many common values. But Labour won the seat, the new MP has turned out to be a complete idiot, with whom I have vigourously and forecefully engaged with by Email. My mistake was assume that Starmer would be a "normal" politician, and "normal" discourse would resume. I'd like to think that he's not really all that committed to this policy, and believes the country has far bigger issues, and probably concluded its not a vote loser , so its a sop to the Left. But I failed to understand that he's weak. This will translate to an increasingly unhinged Labour Parliamentary Party, kind of the Ying to the Yang of the last Tory government. He won't see out his term. They came for the old, then the kids. Then the rest. If private schools are businesses to be taxed, then why not universities (the Deputy PM probably thinks a University Education is a luxury, she didn't need it), certainly all those would-be fat cat CEOs getting their MBAs. Dentists as well, no excuse that you can't find a NHS one, because the government will pull out some spreadsheet showing how they increased funding for refugee dentistry. Insurance; a car is a luxury, so 20% on your policy. House contents insurance; VAT on that. Travel insurance; holidays are an indulgance for the rich only, plus killing the planet, tax on that. Books; the government missed its 20% on Harry Potter sales, it won't repeat that mistake again. Certain historic political works by Engels etc will naturally be exempted. Food; the 5% vat on cavier will end. And meat, And Kellogs, because its American etc. Electricity and water; the country as a hole will have to shoulder the burden when the government discovers a hidden £40bn blackhole under the sofa. Sadly, Labour is reverting to type, but without the intelligence of Foot, Benn, Wilson, so vindictiveness coupled to stupidity. In 5 years time, the country will be in actual and figurative ruins. The chink of light is that the Tories will rediscover what they are about, and that's aspiration, and thats a pretty positive thing. Reform-UK is about negativity, things what they don't like. Reform is to the Tories what the SDP/Militant Tendency were to Labour (the two conspired to keep Labout out of power for 20 years). With the current case, maybe the High Court case will be won, and that's Starmer's get out clause to save Rachel from Accounts and Phillipson, as he was a Human Rights Lawyer (of some distinction). But I am doubtful.

Hmm Ah, civil war. I have teams of Analysts in UK, Canada and India. We used to have Analysts in North East US, but they priced themselves out of the market. The offices now are maintained by sales drones and a few consultants. Its gotten hard to recruit now in London, as there is intense competition when you are in the Biotech triangle. Toronto has simlar salaries to London, but easy supply of quality graduates for my specialty roles. The backroom guys we have in India, but also a little team in ASEAN. The pay for a recent graduate in India (and by that, someone with an Indian BS and Indian "MBA") is about £6000 a year. That's decent money for a graduate there. Or it was. We are losing staff to big Pharma who have set up shop in the area, and they are offering 100% payrises. That's difficult to compete with and its breaking the pay model in India. This is one of then reasons that H1B visas are probably now in terminal decline. And its not about jobs being onshored in the US. The likes of Google, Apple etc aren't renting offices in India. They are making huge investments in infrastructure. They are there to stay, and will outlast an Octogenerian Trumpf. There was a time when my Indian analysts would go on about company transfers to the US, because of the incredible apparent salaries. Until I pointed out the cost of stuff there. My opposite number in India is on about 25% of my UK salary, but he lives better than me. He has two properties, maids, his own driver, and recently installed a marble bathroom in his townhouse. Ovr the years, we've noticed the new Indian graduates are becoming less and less employable in a Western setting. India's previous strength was the widespread adoption of English among graduates. Understanding of English is still very good, but Hinglish is gaining the upper hand (English with Hindi grammar), much to the disappointment of my colleague who prides himself on his Irish Nun education. The argument about H1b seems to be an argument about yesterday, and they don't realise the increasing irrelevance. It was always about race

Thai nationals identified: https://thai.news/news/thailand/heartfelt-tributes-remembering-jongluk-duongmanee-and-sirithon-chaue-after-jeju-air-tragedy Very sad. I suspect the older lady was returning after seeing her kids in Thailand. Meanwhile, in the UK, one of the TV channels broadcasts the movie "Airport", the plot of which involves a passenger blowing himself up in the lavatory of a 707. George Kennedy, playing a cigar chomping chief ground mechanic, had the memorable line, when trying to free up a 707 frozen to the runway; Normally there is programme rescheduling in these cases.

I'm a Conservative Party member. As part of the membership, I am part of a community where there are numerous benefits. I get to vote for a new leader. I can select local candidates. I can shape party policy through the Forum. I can attend Party Conference. I am automatically a member of my local Association. For a bit extra, I can be in my own private drinking club, aka the Connie Club, with reasonably priced beer, and a decent lunch. They also push on me numerous discounts and wine vouchers that I never use. If I join Reform UK, I get a membership card and an emailed newsletter. Until September 2024, Nigel Farage was the owner of Reform UK. The Party is unique in that it is a Private Limited Company. They are apparently forming a constitution. Members are shareholders, and thus will have voting rights. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd6q0j8pdj4o However, Companies House still lists Nigel Paul Farage, age 60, as an active director. He currently has more than 50% of the shares but less than 75%. In its accounts, membership dues are described as donations. You get to benefit Nigel.

We want Ohio and Wisconsin back. Spain might want Florida back. The City of St Augustine was largely paid for by the British taxpayer afgter we burnt down the original Spanish settlement. Just a joke though.

The Nazi party (National Socialists) adopted "Socialist" as part of a branding exercises. They needed to win votes from people viting Socialist. So figured changing their name would work. And it did. The Nazis were originally called Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; the German Worker's Party.

No, he's moved on from buying Greenland. Now he simply thinks the US should control it (capture it). Apparently annexing Canada was a joke. There are hints about taking over Mexico. He's not even in office year. Apparently he's no Nazi, but already embarking on Lebensraum. Invading Ukraine is apparently bad, but MAGAts are now cheering on invation of Panama. As a young student in Tennessee, I attended a speech given by the then Present Bush in January 1990. The US had just invaded Panama, to capture Noreiga. Probably a morally justifiable action. But this President was comparing it to a recent basketball match. Pretty flippant. Trump has given the impression that he wanted to end all this flippancy, and no more wars, pull out of NATO etc etc. But John Bolton reminded us to day that Trump is an idiot. He was an idiot 20 years go. With age, his widom didn't increase. Instead the idiocy gene started expressing more and more.

None of the data Mindray are capturing on their devices can be used for designing "bioweapons". Its the wrong sort of data. I work in the field. Currently the UK government promotes to the world the NHS, because its the world's largest single system patient database. This is an important consideration if you are looking to set up clinical trials, and want to recruit patients with a certain profile, such as age, gender, weight, ethnicity. Canda is the UK's number 1 competitor in that regard, because it also has access to a large patient database, that like the UK, is ethnically diverse. Japan has been a difficult country to launch new drugs and medical devices, because the country requires clinical data related to a Japanese population. One outcome of that was for years, Japanese women had no access to BRCA mutation testing in Japan, vital in detecting the most common familial breast and ovarian cancers. Instead, samples were taken in Japan and sent to the US for testing by Myriad Genetics. Recently, Japan has started to accept trials data that includes ethnically Japanese people, opening up Canada as a place a company could set up trials. Clinical trials are complicated things, with recruitment and retention rates varying greatly by country. The UK and Canada have very good records in this respect. In recent years, China has begun to tighten up its regulation. By 2030, the Chinese government wants 90% of its healthcare needs to be provided by Chinese companies. China has a 4 tier healthcare system, if you include Traditional Medicine Hospitals (which aren't quite what you think)/ Top tier hospitals are utterly dominated by Western and Japanese brands. Bottom tier hospitals use frankly substandard Chinese products that aren't seen beyond the 3rd World. Companies like Mindray are considered top tier. Lower tier hospitals want better products, and Doctors there want the same products as Doctors in top tier hospitals. Russia has found out that you can't force doctors to buy Russian devices and medicines simply out of patriotic pride (Trump will find out this, when he discovers 70% of US medtech iis made overseas, and cannot be smply reshored). China will come up with better designs, I have no doubt. They have some very capable biomedical engineers and scientists. But they won't hit their 2030 target. Where China is really good is at AI/ AI is transforming drug discovery, shaving decades off biomarker discovery. But, in medtec, its really good for gaining a competitive advantage in those areas that have become nearly commoditized, eg diagnostic imaging, blood tests, endoscopy. AI needs access to big, high quality data sets. The bigger the dataset, the more accurate the result. German companies are complaining that their government has hamstrung them by banning the movement of German patient data to outside of Germany, even to other EU states, to combine with with data sets. The EU has strict restrictions. So Germany is uncompetitive in this respect. China in this area. Arguably the UK is stronger, and thats due to a combination of the business environment, but also the role of the NHS taking a lead on AI; the NHS has an arm, NHS-X (its been renamed), responsible for development of in house AI solutions (the online 111 service is AI powered), but also commercialising those solutions (eg its now selling an Ambulance logistics App and CKD patient tracker to the Gulf States, Singapore and Australia). Training the tech using the NHS dataset is a real competitive advantage. But innovation is overcoming challenges even when that data set is not big enough. for instance, I have been talking to a company which is seeking to improve mammography outcomes. 50% of mammogram results are wrong. Either a cancer is missed, or, more commonly, cancer is mistakingly diagnosed, leading to unecessary surgery. Mammograms are typically analysed by a human. Image analysis can help, but its pretty subjective, and there have been scandals in recent years. AI can improve image analysis. But the system needs to be trained to recognise cancerous tissue. So it needs images of healthy and diseased breased. A lot of them, of exceptional quality produced by the latest 3D Tomography machines. 200 million images. There aren't enough of these images in the world. So they used AI to create the images to create a training data set. Accuracy is now 75%. Post COVID, data is the big transformation in medicine. Every pandemic has resulted in a step change in medicine. Spanish flu helped create rules for infection control. Polio, besides the Iron Lung that was literally created over night, caused the invention of Intensive Care Medicine. The 1957 Mao flu pandemic heralded the role of the path lab in fighting outbreaks. These things we take for granted now, but only came about than tkso Plato's famous maxim (often quoted, slightly wrongly, as Necessity is the Mother of Invention). Most people are aware of Fleming discovering penicillin, but not many know it was WW2 and Operation Overlord that really made it practical (and which invented the Pharmaceutical Industry, which didn't really exist before WW2). I suspect the events that lead to the COVID1-9 Pandemic will eventually be traced back to events surrounding the US mortgage crisit of 2008, that caused the Global crash, and which had a profound effect on how global trade was conducted. And really because of those events, most countries are more cash strapped post Pandemic than they needed have been. All healthcare systems have struggled to catch up. Frankly, some of the problem will go away as patient die. There isn't any more money to pump into healthcare. AI and telehealth is part of the response to deal with that (do more, with less). And that will far reaching implications and benefits. China might be a big country, but it has a disperate and badly organised healthcare system, with varying quality datasets. Mining UK patient data isn't a threat to the safety of the British state itself; such notions are fanciful. But it is a competitive threat, if China was able to design AI that is more accurate for European populations. And the prize, as always, is the US. The medical industry in the US has really pushed up the cost of healthcare. The Insurance industry get a lot of stick, but companies like United are only making 6-7% margins. Thats not excessive profits. The Insurers push back against claims, because there is a lot of uncessary medical care. The loon who shot the United CEO, had previously undergone very expensive spinal fusion surgery, which has dubious efficacy (rates have increased 10x in the US), probably left him in pain, with no further options except increasingly risky and ineffective further surgery. The US doesn't have anything like the UK's NICE as the gatekeeper to tell doctors what treatments and medicines are most effective (follow NICE guidelines, and you will not lose a Law Suit. Don't follow the Guidelines, it might not be wrong, but you are on your own). The Federal government hasn't done enough; the FDA for instance, gave up regulating genetic tests 40 years ago, and are now left with a monster load of tests no one knows actually work. Partly to protect their shareholders, the insurance companies step in. Their one weapon is to refuse claims. US hospitals have the worst readmission rates in the West; you're more likely to go to hospital, get treated, go home, and end up back in hospital, usually dying. This is because hospitals are quick to discharge, but inadquate in following up. The Insurers are on to this, and have told hospitals don't improve readmission rates, they will cut reimbursements by 50%. As a result, hospitals are scrambling to beef up community nursing; nurses going to patients; homes to see how they are. This is where AI comes in, and the sort of data that is collected on Mindray devices (Mindray will mostly be seen in Snart Beds, bedside monitors, ventilators with built in controls). The more measurements the nurse can collect, recorded on a handheld device, and fed into the Cloud, he better AI can predict outcome, and the more likely the hospital will intervene to prevent the patient going back to hospital in a worse way that before. Datawise, the US is a bit like China; there is a lot of data, but its not collected very well, and is not in one place. HCUP produces a national patient procedure dataset. They present data on how many procedures are undertaken and what sort. All of that is used in strategic planning to forecast demand. Only its not real data. HCUP can only collect data from 16 States, not 50, so the number is eztrapolated.

I have a 2014 Fiesta. Yeah, it needed the clutch doing, about £2k at a Ford dealer on the island, about what I paid for it. But clutch aside, its a very good car, so I felt it was worth repairing. Toyotas might be better, but for the same age, cost twice as much. And 20 year old Toyotas do break down. Ford revised the parts somewhat over the years. If you find one with all the receipts for a recent clutch pack by a main dealer, Sometimes, the clutch problems are all down to a faulty earth strap. I think it will be a very good buy. Its still a very modern looking car. The Power shift is basically an electrically actuated manual box. It was a good idea, but Ford skimmed corners, but eventually addressed the issues. On mine, the signs of it failing was the car started to judder in heavy traffice, just like on a normal manual car someone riding the clutch. Eventually, it failed to go into reverse. The diagnosis was straightforward, and there were a few Fiestas in getting the same work. The parts are a similar price to the UK, but obviously the labour cost was a fraction.

The previous Volgoneft tankers that sunk weren't supposed to be in the Black Sea. Tankers normally used for inland waterways. This third one is another Volgoneft coastal tanker. A really good explanation why coastal tankers are in the Black Sea following the pullout of the Black Sea Fleet from Crimea, depriving shipping of protection in the Sea of Azov. Ukrainian attacks on the Kerch Bridge has resulted the Russians having to take action that has reduced the navigability through the Straits. Obviously there is mockery about Russian shipping, and concerns about environmental impacts. I suspect everything this guy is describing the Russian know about. It shows how important it is for Russia to get their oil down the Don for export, that they are prepared to take risks. The crews must know the risks, so the bonuses must be pretty decent. Not a country that is winning.

Well, if you look at his posts in the last 72 hours on Twitter, it is sort of about Islam. He was motivated, it seems, by being ignored by the German authorities about criminal complaints he made about a refugee organisation, run by Germans and Saudis, being a front for under age prostitution. His last posting has made very stron allegations. In the last few weeks, he has posted images of the Quran being overlaid with a cigarette warning label, the Kaba'a in Mecca being overlaid with an AI Clown,, copies of chats he has had telling Muslims what they need to do to renounce Islam, and that he's a witness to that, as well as an image that literally says "<deleted> Islam". If he was a sleeper, he has balls not to have been offed by his own side. Unless they are all in on it. He's am experienced psychiatrist, specialist in psychotherapy, and therefore with access to controlled drugs. Probably he has self diagnosed, self treated, and become increasingly delusional. I suspect he probably was quite threatened by friends of Saudi Arabia, and this has fed the delusion. People renouncing religion or adopting a religion late in life often have personal issues at the root of things. Religion can offer solace, easy answer. Religion can also be co-opted to recruit vulnerable individuals, and cause them to do bad things.

You need to look at his Twitter account. Its quite clear. He's been involved in ex-Muslim activism, and as a result, certain refugee organisations. He has spent far too much time on Social Media. He had made a complaint to the police about some German and Saudi individuals who run a certain refugee organisation. He claims the police ignored him, destroyed and stole evidence. He moves in circles which are clearly under the gaze of Saudi intelligence, who we know have a record of murdering dissidants. His derangement has become such that he believes the German state, and therefore the German people, are enabling the Saudi state, and that brand of Islam, resulting in underage women being forced into prostitution. None of it might be true, but he seems to believe hit. I think what happened yesterday will be interpreted in light of his postings. But his posts, other that being obsessed with Trump, Musk, AfD (liking them), gun rights (liking them), socialism (hating that), are fairly "normal". No hint of what he was about to do. The drug test may be significant.

You've never heard of Barry the Convert and Nick Brody then have you? Yes, he left Saudi Arabia in 2006. Yes, he obtained refugee status in 2016 Yes, he came from Hofof Yes, he was/is a doctor and practiced in Bernberg Yes, he worked as a psychiatrist, specialising in psychotherapy Yes, he is a 50 year old man, not a 18 year old youth Yes, after arrest, he was tested, and found to be under the influence of unidentified drugs, Yes, he has a social media trail indicating both Anti-Islamic in Nature and anti-Saudi Government. Yes, he has a social media trail praising AfD and Muslims who denounce their religion Yes, he appeared in a 2019 BBC documentary, explaining how he apparently helped people f;ee Arab countries, but that the only country they did not flee from was Oman (see https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07g2vrp) Yes, he was featured by the Jerusalem Post in 2019 (https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/saudi-activist-successful-in-helping-women-seek-asylum-from-gulf-states-595547) Yes, he was featured in the newspaper, "New Arab", in 2017, describing his work supporting women fleeing from the Gulf States (https://www.newarab.com/features/saudi-activist-helps-women-flee-oppressive-kingdom) Yes, in 2016, he attempted a Crowd Funding type of effort to help him publish a book on the "Creative Refutation of Islam" (see https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/creative-refutation-of-islam#/) Yes, there is social media footage of him stating he is a Leftist, but at the same time stating Leftists are the worst criminals on the planet Yes, he has supported tweets from Elon Musk, Tommy Robinson and Alex Jones Yes, he posted comments supportive of Israel following October 7th Yes he posted that both he and the AfD were fighting the "same enemy" "to protect Germany" Yes, he posted comments accusing the German government of trying to "Islamise" Europe Yes, he posted comments accusing the German government of reading his mail and stealing a USB stick. Yes, he posted that he held German Citizens accountable for his alleged persecution Yes, he tweeted a LOT. His account posts are pretty significan; starting in 2016, he shared over 5000 images and videos, 47,000 followers. Amongst which, in January, an image of a list of acadmics allegedly friends of Epstein, and Richard Dawkings in underlined, Richard Dawkins of course is a famous Atheist. Yes, a few days ago, Elon Musk tweeted that only the AfD can "save" Germany Yes, Germany has a history of contrived violence before an election. 4 Lions was of course a work of fiction. So was Homeland, which if you recall, had a core plot of an American soldier who had been held by Al Qaida for many years, before a dramatic rescue, but who turned out to have been turned in captivity and become a "sleeper". Both explanations have been put forward; that for 18 years, he cleverly pretended, laying a false 16 year multi-lingual social media trail across all the major SM platforms (which included posting some pretty blasphemous images of the Quran and the Kaba'a). Or that he had become an extremist in his own world and wanted to provoke some sort of change in Germany/ Europe, and that is SM postings are an obvious clue. Both works of fiction though recognise some that is true; many religious converts are zealots in their new, adopted religion, or belief system. Al-Abdulmohsen has been described as an "Atheist". That was probably something he described himself as. Most self defined Atheists don't fully fit the actual definition. He believed in mysterious forces that would "save Germany". There is quasi-religious tones among these groups. A man I won't name for fear of being accused of invoking some law, was famously an Atheist, but also described as speaking in messianic tones. I posit another explanation. The man had lost his marbles, which is the case with many terrorists who commit mass murder. He clearly courted opinion in 2017-2019, with interviews with numerous international media or. He then has a video where he describedganisations. After then, they got bored. There are no more interviews, probably because COVID was more interesting. He was still fuming on X, and going down dark hole. He has self diagnosed (I know of a Consultant who self diagnosed himself, and secretly took Lithium until a midlife crisis caused his world to fall apart, loss of job and inevitable Sectioning), self medicated (drug test result), increasing medication, increasing delusion. His X activity very recently was extremely active. No final manifesto. Lots of examples of him coaching people how to renounce Islam, stories about how terrible Saudi is, stories about the overthrow of Assas, stories about Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk being arrested in Fermany, tweets praising Trump. His last tweets were in English, somewhat bizarre, but eloquent; 1. He described America and Europe as the inheritors of Greedk Civilisation. But he held the German nation to be responsible for the death of Socrates. Socrates of course died in prison, after drinking hemlock 2. His next video is about a stolen USB stick. He blames Germans for his persecution. He then discusses Socialism, Classical Liberalism. He says in Germany, because the laws are socialist, he's not allowed to installed a camera to monitor his mailbox. Last year, it seems, he had filed a criminal complaint with the police in Cologne, about someone I believe to be a Saudi woman, the police then distorted his complaint, and stole the USB which he said had all the evidence. He claims the police told him he was confused and refused to open the USB stick, sent it back to him, whereupon it was stolen from his mail. In the video, he is showing the police correspondance. He claims the woman is used by Germany to destroy ex-muslim activism. He says he has sent documents to various activist organisations. 3. He posts a video about allegations he's making against a corrupt refugee organisation, and that their main representative is a prostitute, coercing under age refugees into the sex industry. He basically says this organisation is designed to trick Saudi women into prostitution. He has posted videos that he says support his allegations. There is a young Saudi woman, who, with her sister, are in a hostel, and she is alleging that the organisation is trying to groom her through assault. He sounds calm, educated, fluent in English and German. Before, he had been on a Human Rights livestream, that was apparently hacked by someone posting pornographuc images. Attendees made allegations who was behind that. Many people who convert to a religion (particularly those actively abandoning one religion for another) become zealots, the Barry the Convert/ Nick Brody trope. For people with mental health issues, religion can offer solace. It helped Cat Stevens when he became Yusuf Islam, but for many years, he became a very strict Muslim, to the extent that he abandoned music because he thought it unIslamic. Late in life, its wonderful to see him realise that was stupid, and he still has a fantasitc voice and song writing skills. Rocket Ronnie O'Sullivan, the snooker player who has more than a few demons in the closet (who wouldn't with a dad banged up for murder after running a chain of sex shops, and mum doing time for tax evasion) dallied with Islam and Bhuddism. A friend of mine has Aspergers, and has announced he's now a Sufi Muslim who wants Scottish Independence (so very delusional, but not sure which of those is a passing fancy). I'm not very surprised. I think this is going to pan out not as people, from both sides of the aisle, expect. I think he probably was a "nice Muslim doctor", who was suffering from a delusion, maybe even a transient delusion, related to why he left Saudi Arabia, and the work he has done over the years, but he has been triggered by domestic events in Germany along with statements by social media influencers. Ultimately, the actions he took were deranged.

If you believe Rascist propaganada. But more likely a patsy, like the supposed Russian minorities rounded up after the FSB murder of Boris Nemstov. So now you are saying the Russians are justified in massacring civilians. Putin is doing that anyhow. The bloke was a spook, in charge of repressing anti-Communist groups in East Germany when in the KGB. The so-called suspect will apparently say whatever they want, then fall out of window. I notice you are very pro-Russian.

No surprise you say this. You probably also support CCP efforts to suppress minorities with the same quisling justification. Plus you've deliberately ignored 1989 to 2001 to continue your effort to support the policies of Russia and the Soviet Union and to denigrate the West. You know what happened during that perod. Assad is a murderous bastard, but there are people in the West that admire that trait.

I know. A Yankee doesn't need to lecture me about my history. You also should acknowledge that there are non-Han minorities on Taiwan, but curiously, you "forgot" to acknowledge that, implying you are a CCP supporter. and well as a Putin fanboi. How do you think Russians ended up living in the Donbas. I just told you......

Constantine's round up of Russian news, Week 50, 2024. eg potato shortages https://www.youtube.com/live/-AokQS-qUkc?si=boZOtq7Ckru2Ip0m