Squaredy

Having watched the videos it does look like the ICE officer was out of order, and it is totally wrong of Trump to immediately declare he did no wrong. There clearly needs to be a proper investigative process. But there is a lesson there for other people. If a number of armed officers of the law are trying to speak to you or arrest you it is probably wise to comply. She did not deserve to die but she played with fire to try and drive off when being apprehended. She is also partly to blame.

By the way I totally agree food in the UK is too cheap. We got used to super cheap food prices over the decades and few now choose to remember what food cost before every town had a supermarket. In 1960 food absorbed about 25% of average wages in the UK. Now it is around 6% (one of the lowest ratios in the world).

Well you miss my point a little. Of course the supermarkets are all trying to maximise profit. But in so doing we end up with a choice. If price is your only concern you shop at Aldi/Lidl. If you want a slightly more relaxed experience you might use Sainsbury’s or Tesco, but you will pay more. So no they will not invest in self-service checkouts because they want to give us cheap food, but to survive and make money. Same with AI. If you prefer a more inclusive non capitalist experience I guess there is always the Co-op. But despite having no shareholders they are actually more expensive.

Ironically AI itself could no doubt be involved in suggesting what could usefully be done with all the available labour. But I don’t think it is difficult to think of examples. So much more could be done to encourage children to interact with the real world For example. Local groups getting children involved in ecology, history, politics, culture. This on its own could employ hundreds of thousands. How about really great practical help for people who never work and have never worked. Currently if you answer the questions right in the form that is pretty much the end of it. How about if every person stuck in a rut had a caseworker who helps them out if that rut? Creative doesn’t just mean art or music! Rehabilitation of prisoners is another one that is currently a disaster and could really benefit from a whole new army of workers. Now you might say how are we to pay for all these extra workers? Well I am talking about where existing employers have freed up large numbers of people due to AI. If the local public sector employers drastically reduced their workforce this could work perfectly. In the private sector it is a bit different. If supermarkets (for example) end up with no workers they could undercut even Aldi and Lidl. I think many people would avoid them, but that is the beauty of a free market - we would have a choice - super cheap food bought from a bot or more expensive food bought in a shop with humans. By the way when you say human oversight isn’t really happening think about it at a macro level. I have no doubt many businesses are rushing to embrace AI and the ones that ruin their product or services will quickly disappear or reverse, or improve their management and use of AI. The public sector is more difficult as if they introduce major AI into, for instance, schools or hospitals we don’t really have much choice. But if AI can reduce the cost of running a hospital so they can have enough staff we all win. So the oness is on senior leadership to make wise decisions in their departments. God help us in my area! But the point is, no-one will be forced to adopt a poor AI.

Well yes there will certainly be lots of jobs for people managing AI. Debugging, developing, rolling out and whatever the opposite of rolling out is. And of course dealing with the fallout of the faults and limitations of AI.

I agreee that AI is going to make some very significant changes to the labour market. The main point I was trying to make is that machines of one sort or another have been displacing human workers for at least two hundred years now. Before the railways came to the UK almost everyone worked in the countryside. Within one generation this had been turned on its head - most people worked in factories and lived in towns. It didn't mean most people were out of work. Actually AI might be a far more positive thing than the industrial revolution. That detroyed creative, hard but fulfilling jobs like growing food and replaced them with (mainly) soul destroying jobs in factories. AI could end up destroying many boring jobs and replacing them with creative jobs. I don't see AI as fundamentally different from other developments. Yes the changes will be collosal. But no we don't yet know how it will pan out. Instead of my local council employing hundreds of people to do soul destroying things like make figures on a spreadsheet add up and plan stuff a computer can plan much better they can actually pick litter, clean off graffiti, work with local businesses to develop and many other creative things. Newport council manage 160 acres of woodland, with a budget and team of zero. If they can save a fortune on routine things a clever AI computer can do maybe they can finally employ some forestry and environmental officers to look after them. It seems to me it is too easy to say "jobs will be lost" and forget that this may actually be a good thing. Of course there will be those who are unwilling or unable to re-train. So there will be a whole load of new jobs created helping such people to adapt. Sadly some people will simply refuse and become victims, but for many it could be the end of a dull job and the beginning of a creative job. I guess I see the needs for human intervention as almost unending, and if AI gives us the ability to tackle some of this then bring it on.

Well his basic point made a lot of sense. USA simply don’t need the oil, but they do see China as a threat, and China was increasingly established in Venezuela. It would apparently have given them a perfect base to attack the US fleet along the Gulf coast and of course control the Panama Canal.

Indeed. As far as I can see all media has bias one way or another. What is good about the spectator is they have multiple, often contradictory articles. They are generally right leaning, but they actually publish articles by current Labour MPs as well.

The Spectator have today published a new article stating that the Venezuela action is nothing to do with oil. The writer said it is all about keeping China at bay. I will try and post the link later when I get the chance. I have no view one way or another, but the guy seemed to know his stuff.

Yes and even when they ’fix’ The problem what actually happens is someone comes up with a workaround which sometimes just kicks the problem down the road, and sometimes creates a whole series of other problems. I clearly remember my reaction when I first worked in IT support that no-one tried to actually understand the cause of the bug - they just attempted to alleviate the symptom. And that was thirty years ago; I guess it is way more complex now.

But to add to my answer just now, even though it was not AI, it highlights the importance of any system, machine or indeed AI having proper oversight by actual humans with the right skills.

No it was a system designed in the nineties that had a flaw. All IT systems have flaws -bugs- often thousands. Usually when a roll-out happens the developers work with the end users and gradually work through them and you hopefully eventually get a functional system. What seems to have happened with Horizon is the state’s natural instinct to deflect any blame kicked in and therefore the only possible reason for all the errors was that suddenly hundreds of hard working sub-postmasters had become thieves. It is quite a scary scenario and no doubt not unique.

Where I see lots of benefit in AI is beuracracy. If you think of civil servants who work for HMRC, DWP, D of E, and many others, replace these with far fewer humans (presumably AI will need oversight for a long time, maybe always) and use the money saved to actually improve public services. Get rid of 1000 people at D of E and employ 1000 extra teachers for example.

Remember that automation started around 200 years ago. Far less time globally is taken up with providing food and shelter than it was then. But our expectations have evolved. You might think that car manufacturing (as an example) would employ less people due to robots and automation. Wrong. More people work in car manufacture today than in 1960. Our needs and expectations have changed. We don’t yet know how things will evolve due to AI; but the fact that millions of jobs will be lost does not mean there will be millions unemployed!

At least spelling errors tell me these posts are not AI. I wonder if you can tell AI to mis-spell random words to make it look human produced?! I have all the original Tom & Jerry on one DVD, with all the proper characters, such as the large black woman before she was replaced by a woke alternative. I actually bought it for my kids before they discovered YouTube.

I wish I could disagree with you, but I think the reality is more and more people are waking up the reality. Look what happened in Germany. In 2015 crowds applauded the new immigrants arriving. Now in 2025 all recent polling shows majority think it has gone too far and not been managed. Sounds familiar. By the way anybody who bothers to actually read Enoch Powell's 'Rivers of Blood' speech from 1968 will see he was not a racist but a very wise man. Yes the language is now dated, but he actually undertsated the case. In many ways it is far worse than he foresaw.

Fair play, that looks awesome.

So what you are saying is you only tested the outside. If it has been kilned quickly the outside will be dry and the middle sopping wet. You need to split a large piece and test the centre. All wood will burn well if dry.

A photo of the cut end would help. And how did you test the moisture? In the middle or the edge? It makes a massive difference.

You need to attach the photo. But also when you tested the moisture did you split a piece and test the middle?

Yes very true. He even seems an elder statesman of politics now. Apparently he has quite a strong influence over the current Labour Party.

I haven’t seen the recent series about it but I have followed this for over thirty years. It is still not over; a suspect will be coming to trial next year in the US I believe. Incredible that the UK and US governments have known from day one the truth, and still the farce of investigation continues. It is the most incredible waste of public money. Can you imagine any other person found guilty of murdering 270 people being released after just 8 years?

That is a very good point. Reform certainly are influential, but only because they keep talking sense about issues which are of grave concern. EG they keep banging on about immigration, but if none of the public thought it was a concern they would get no more airtime than the Monster Raving Luny party.

LOL... to be fair I said I would not go to Pillgwenlly in Newport after dark....but thanks for the mention!

And perhaps because they are getting a fair bit of support!