Women exist and are equal to men in artistic spheres. There is no reason they can’t compete for the same award.

The need for separate recognition of men and women implies separate standards for men and women.

Amazon had their walk in walk out stores.

AI was meant to track what you put in the basket and charge you without you going through checkout.

They launched as an AI store.

Humans were looking at cases and were just meant to be “error correction”.

They were doing 80% of the work of tracking the images and barcodes into actual products.

Amazon closed the store.

Lots of “AI” systems are currently in this state. A computer can do the easy 10 to 20% of the job. Humans are doing the rest.

Venture capital are just investing in anything that looks like it’s working on “AI”. Even when it’s currently taking more human labour than the work did previously.

Companies are launching now as “AI” gambling on getting that percentage up otherwise they end up late to market. Lots will fail to actually use AI and probably fold.

I know everything I need to know about heat pumps.

I live in a flat. I am literally not allowed to install anything outside for a proper split.

There is no location in my small property where noise would not disturb sleep or the general enjoyment of being here. So even with permission an air source pump is not viable.

I’d need permission to install a ground source unit outside which wouldn’t be impossible.

But then it’s likely to be got the whole building as that would be the most efficient.

I’m not sharing an energy bill for heating with my neighbours. My consumption is low.

There are millions like me in this country.

What I would install is an electric boiler. Essentially inductive or resistive heat.

Which is half as efficient as a heat pump. But I’d have control of my bill and with the consumption for a single person flat the long term expense of installing and maintaining a heat pump eat into any efficiency savings they have.

The only thing stopping me is gas is cheaper per kW because we’re burning gas to make electricity at a ~45% efficiency compared to a 90% efficiency of piping it here to be turned directly into heat.

Cut fossil fuels out of the electricity supply. Then I’ll install an electric boiler. Until then I’ll burn gas more efficiently here.

Heat pumps work for those with outside space. Those who have luxuries.

Electric cars work for those with driveways. More outside space. More luxury.

I could buy into that luxury soon enough. I will upgrade my property at some point. But it’s not going to solve any climate change issues unless they solve the issue for everyone, not just the middle class and upwards.

The government need to stop burning gas for electricity. When they do I’ll probably be paying more for energy, but the poorest can use the same infrastructure and be subsidised.

Renewables, grid storage, reasonably priced charging with on street chargers near everyone’s homes. We’ll all be able to go carbon free.

Heat pumps are part of the solution, but really they’re the smallest part. They only offer an efficiency saving over resistive heating. The cost is noise pollution, maintenance cost, space, and complexity.

I don’t take the government’s climate targets seriously when heat pumps are their main policy.

The water system is a business. The labs are businesses. A competent business shuttering when the market shrinks to avoid making a loss is an effect of Brexit.

The fact our water infrastructure is run as a business is an effect of Thatcher selling it.

We need to vote for a government to reverse Brexit eventually. But we’re also still waiting 35 years to reverse the privatisation of the 80s.

The problem with voting for destructive Conservative governments is it costs a lot of money to replace the things they’ve given away or destroyed.

Honestly this isn’t hard.

Businesses plan more than a year in advance.

These labs carried on as long as they could make a profit without significant maintenance cycle costs.

Then they look at their market and whether the next cycle is worth the investment.

If we were in the EU they’d be looking into claiming that large market in 2026, instead they’re shuttering the business before it starts making a loss.

They’re looking at 5, 10, and 25 year profitability. You’re looking at a 1 year plan.

This is why politicians and their billionaire donors are so easily able to trick you into voting like an idiot. You choose not to think.

People still want more than 12 thousand a year.

So anyone you like, but the price for keeping someone turning up to any menial working environments raises a lot.

Plumbing is already a skilled trade, there will be no shortage of plumbers. They will work for the money. Of course you might find they’ll walk more easily if treated with disrespect. Honestly that’ll happen with a good plumber now.

The same will happen to all jobs. You can’t yell at anyone anymore or you’ll be refused service.

If no one had to be there the worst customers who ruin service work suddenly have to behave like decent human beings all the time. Or they don’t get the privilege of being a customer.

It might have lost the party the election

But the rich party donors don’t actually mind their party losing as long as they also control the second party well enough to avoid regulations, taxes, or any modicum of responsibility towards society.

FPTP isn’t about which party wins, it’s about reducing the power of the electorate far enough that change only happens with the content of the rich.

Sure and cops can’t lie about being a cop.

Definitely real rules.

Due to a quirk of unifying 2 standards, Europe and the UK, the range is 216.2 volts to 253.0 volts.

That encompasses infrastructure built to a tighter tolerance around 220V in Europe and infrastructure built to a tighter tolerance around 240V in the UK (and Australia).

We expect 3150W out of a kettle most of the time. Our heaters will say 3kW.

Usually you’ll find a few volts over 240 out of our outlets and that’s to design spec.

And Hollywood profits aren’t from movies, honestly you’ve fallen for basic accounting tricks…

A franchise that doesn’t make money devalues the retail space. McDonald’s model links rents to sales so they take maximum value at all times.

Royalty fee: 4% of gross revenues

Brand marketing and promotion fee: 4% of gross revenues

Location rent: Unlike most other franchises, McDonald’s owns the land and buildings at its locations and franchisees pay rent that can be based on a percentage of sales or as a fixed amount. Percentage rents are 31.75% of sales. Fixed rents are typically £100,000 to £225,000 per month.

So Corporately it looks like they make their money from rent. But that rent is directly linked to sales and labour in most cases.

Without sales they don’t get rent unless they’ve agreed a fixed rent and that’s increasingly rare. Usually only the highest value sites.

The real estate value of the property is linked to business revenue as well. If a franchise fails and doesn’t get another investor then the empty building is worth a lot less.

By picking McDonald’s you’re actually about as wrong as possible. Everything of value is linked back to labour, even the value of the land.

It might work differently in other countries but I doubt it. Economics work the same everywhere and McDonalds didn’t like to standardise when they find a winning model for themselves.

Yes. If you have a half full battery it’s at 50% full.

If the charge goes up by 50% you get a 75% full battery.

If the charge goes up by 50 percentage points it goes up to 100%

It remains to be seen what he’s actually done to benefit anyone who gave him anything.

And he stopped accepting them once he entered the office. We found out because he told us about it all and the mistake of accepting some gifts a bit too late.

With the only arguable benefits being publicity for the brand it’s not nothing but it really is daft the perspective tricks that have been played with that particular molehill. It’s the press that actually gave the gifters the benefits, not any actions by Starner himself.

Being given something isn’t proof of being bought. Acting for the person who gave you something is.

I predict that as the COVID era corruption comes to light his previous job will result in him prosecuting and recovering quite a lot of public money. Sadly I don’t think he will get a result of jail time for anyone. The laws just aren’t in place for that and he can’t get them made retrospectively.

A UK constitution would be very interesting. But I’d just settle for some actual laws specifically against corruption rather than relying on MPs following conventions and being honourable.

The shocking thing is that hundreds of millions of pounds worth of corruption through the “fast lane” wasn’t illegal to do. We’ll only be able to recoup from the companies who actually didn’t deliver their contracts.

He’s a prosecutor who apparently can’t be bought.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/13/tax-authorities-should-prosecute-evaders-keir-starmer

That’s far more dangerous to a billionaire than a firebrand.

If Starner only delivers a non-corrupt legal system it’ll be an incredible win for the Country. But I do think he needs 10 years in office so he should focus on actually winning the next election.

Look into the maintenance costs of Germany’s 1970s reactors before calling an entire nation brain dead.

The cost of nuclear today is high and continues for thousands of years. Cost is the entire problem.

Nuclear power isn’t green, it’s just at the beginning of the cycle where it’s waste is seen as a small problem because there isn’t a lot of it. Like fossil fuels were a century ago.

Unfortunately we don’t have a lot of suitable places to put nuclear waste so the small amount we already have is already causing problems in Europe. The US being a bigger place may get to that point a little later than us. But nuclear waste stores are already oversubscribed in the UK, Germany, and France.

Nuclear power is short sighted.

The money spent should be on renewables and grid storage. Then more efficient heating and insulation.

Not nuclear, not carbon capture.

Proponents of nuclear power never look at the total lifecycle cost of a reactor. In fact it’s usually deliberately hidden.

Nuclear reactors have always been and will always be military technology. They should be funded as military spending.

By all means put a price on carbon so they can get a better price on energy but the military should be funding the reactors they need and dealing with the waste out of their budgets.

It was dead the moment we didn’t elect a low towing fop.

Russia funded and led the conservative movement here in the past 10 years. We got Brexit, we got incompetent government, they got a place to park their wealth (a lot of it is still here), they got crimes without much fuss.

Europe was weakened.

As the funding for Trump’s loans and Musk’s Twitter buyout as well the moment we woke up and voted for a different party we became a target state instead of a puppet state.

Even Boris Johnson realised we had to help Ukraine. They replaced him with Truss and Sunak, more controllable puppets.

There are of course other factors, but the effect of global oligarchs spending fossil fuel wealth is clear in Western Democracy at the moment. Saudi is another big influence, they court both sides as long as they aren’t crossed.

Every crisis delays climate action, every election they can influence delays action. The longer they delay the more profit they get.

Trains are easy and they’re easily electrified already. So putting solar on the trains won’t have any advantage.

Rails are the difficult part of railways. They never seem to put them between my house and my work. They’ve put something called a road in between instead.

Not when you consider the maintenance costs of the plants they closed. Basically of them were beyond original design life.

And the democracy sausage!

Because by having a private company “screen” people there’s added corruption.

He gets to simply sell clearances to private companies.

From the typical Conservative viewpoint this makes no sense.

“The state provision needs to be better or this needs to stay illegal”

So if the state can’t provide a service, neither can the private sector.

Extend that logic and Streeting is a hardcore socialist.

He’s not voting with any of his stated principles, which is proof he has none.