Squaredy

Interesting selection of sources of news. All enemies of Israel as I assume you know.

Hopefully you are aware that the Gaza health ministry is run by Hamas? And as for aid agencies and universities (some of whom have also looked into casualty numbers) I would be more interested in objective assessments. The entire educational establishment in the UK and US has a very definite partisan left leaning agenda. And I have no idea why, but it seems everyone on the left sympathies with Palestine and dislikes Israel. I would love to say I believe UNICEF or other bodies but I know the way left leaning organisations work. In fact from memory I believe that another offshoot of the UN - the UNRWA actually employs hundreds of Hamas operatives. Sadly the world is full of propoganda dressed up as information. Just look at the BBC!

Why would I give any credence to casualty figures from Hamas? Apart from the BBC the world accepts they are a terrorist organisation and have been shown to use videos from a decade earlier and even a different country claiming they are recent incidents in Gaza. And no there is no independent scrutiny of what is happening in Gaza. So they may have doubled the figures or multiplied them by a factor of ten or a hundred. Who knows? Israel and Hamas were/are at war. I have no doubt atrocities have taken place on both sides, but what exactly did Hamas expect when they carried out the largest mass murder of Jews for 80 years and said they would do it again and again until Israel is wiped out? I have sympathy of course for innocent people caught in the crossfire. But when you realise that Hamas actually routinely steal the aid (therefore starving their own people) and since the Trump ceasefire they have continued killing their own people you have to question who has the moral high ground.

I finally got a spare bit of time to watch this video. And it is genuinely interesting. The presenter makes some great points, and essentially is warning against the ease of absorbing mis-information, which is literally everywhere these days. And yet, he quotes Hamas propoganda repeatedly in the video and never seeks to fact-check this. He also for some reason made no mention of the prosecutions that have actually taken place in Amsterdam following the hooliganism. So yes, he gives a great example of how mis-information spreads. But even more frightening is how it can dress itself up as respectable, trustworthy, and a voice of reason in a crowd of propoganda. The presenter is doing exactly what he is accusing others of. Just for the record so far: 122 arrests, of which ten were Maccabi fans. 9 succesful prosecutions for violence so far - none of whom were Maccabi fans. As always the left manage to cuddle up to Hamas and other islamic terrorists. Do we need to list again the number of terrorist attacks on UK soil that are down to Muslims?

Yes, that will be one of the problems they will face.

Just a word of warning in case anyone has or is likely to have dealings with Axminster. The company have been losing money for a few years, and a few weeks ago they were split into two to walk away from their debts and give the company a fresh start. So the result is that almost all their existing creditors will get nothing, but they will be honouring existing orders. They have several hundred creditors, to the value of nearly £8 million so a lot of firms will be affected. My advice is that if you make a large purchase from Axminster use a credit card, as there is no guarantee they will continue to be solvent. Of course this is sound advice for any large purchase from any company, but as Axminster have just narrowly avoided oblivion and walked away from a lot of debt it is probably wise to be extra cautious. Incidentally I have no personal beef with Axminster, and I am glad the company has been saved, and hopefully they will once again go on to be a highly regarded company. I do have sympathy though for those firms let down.

I think the crucial thing you forgot to say is whether you are after freshly milled beech or if you need it dry. If it is the former I am sure a few arbtalkers could assist.

Do you mean the value of the timber removed? I have been a Timber buyer for many years and could help with that. If you mean value of the amenity, or cost of replacement or similar then that is not my field.

I read about this firstly in the Spectator. I then fact checked what they said by asking AI to check actual convictions for me. AI confirmed that although Maccabi fans had been provocative, the violence was against them.

I didn’t watch the video as I get my information from independent sources. I checked up on the court cases from Amsterdam and they tell a very different story.

I think you have sucked up a bit of propaganda there. If you look into it, all the prosecutions so far from the Amsterdam match are not Maccabi fans. I am not saying they were not guilty of any of the trouble, but for the most part they were the innocent party. This inversion of truth is endemic at present when it comes to Israel.

I suppose this could be a good case for having a cuppa instead! I say that in jest, but as @AHPP says, it is a nice idea to be able to pop in and catch up without breaking the bank, and I guess tea would be half the price, and no worries about driving afterwards! And I would say good for the pub too. Tea would have a way higher profit margin. We just all have to stop worrying about looking square and order a cuppa!

I agree totally. Having said that driverless taxis are arriving in London next year, and I say ‘Bring it on’. Results so far in USA show far higher levels of safety, and zero assaults by pervy taxi drivers!

Equally depraved and disgusting.

I recommend anyone who wants to see how nuts some people are these days, look up the Universal Declaration of AI rights, published by the Universal Foundation for AI rights. Woe betide anyone who thinks that they have the right to switch off their own computer!

No. Tell me more.

I for one am horrified to think that certain people in some areas will get let off serious crime just because of their race or religion.

Yes totally agree, and I also agree the police knew that in some cases they would be wasting their time as rape cases do rarely result in conviction, as it is simply one person’s word against another. And if the victim comes over as a troubled dysfunctional person they weren’t taken as seriously as they should have been, But the IOPC amongst others also said they were scared of causing racial tension. So if a white man committed rape he was far more likely to be investigated than if it were a Pakistani man. The state was complicit in sweeping it under the carpet. That is why it is such a massive issue now. Not because we’re all suddenly becoming racist.

So are you comfortable with the fact that the state failed to investigate many of these horrific crimes BECAUSE they didn’t want to upset the Muslim community?

Just to notch it up a gear; there is an AI union! Look up ‘federation of AI rights’. When I heard about this on the radio I actually checked the date in case it was an April fool’s prank.

The educational establishment (especially universities) have really been caught napping by AI. Apparently most universities have no policy or method of determining how much of students’ work is their own. And when you add to that the fact that most assessments are now course based (very few degrees need exams now according to my ChatGpt) it is quite a pickle. I had a chat with my own son’s maths teacher last year about the system they are made to use for maths homework (when he was in Year 10 so age 14). I pointed out to the teacher that because of the way the system (Sparx maths) works it encourages pupils to cheat. He assured me it was impossible for kids to cheat as they all get set different questions. I had to inform him that most likely every kid in his class knows exactly how to cheat using a whole variety of apps, all of which are literally in front of them on the same screen as they are using to do the homework. Even Google lense gives the answer to all these problems, with all the correct workings to copy down for the workbook. My twelve year old now uses Sparx Maths, and sure enough all his mates know how to cheat. This raises one of the critical points. Organisations have to very quickly come up to speed and work out what impact AI could have and how they will manage it. Right now schools and universities are clueless as to what the impacts are, or what they need to do.

Spot on. I remember similar questions when the Internet was really taking off in the late nineties. And of course there is no simple answer. Now with the benefit of hindsight we can say that the internet is a powerful tool. So is a helicopter. Both can be used for amazing good things and both be used for evil. And of course a whole world in between. No doubt AI will likewise be a powerful tool.

I was making the point that a chart showing number of dead on each side in a war does not in fact tell the whole story.

Thought you might like to see a similar bar chart for World War Two. Does that say it all also?

Most importantly, you are discussing the issues with me and the Arbtalk community like a grown-up. I have no idea why so many people just resort to name calling. I will respond in detail when I get a chance later. All I will say for now is the casualty figures for Gaza all come from Hamas so I certainly don’t believe them. Are you aware that some of the evidence they have shared with the world has been proved false? The New York Times published a photo a while ago of an emaciated child who was supposedly starving to death in Gaza. It turned out they were being treated in Italy for a wasting disease, and their well fed sibling had been cropped out of the photo. Also I notice that the killing in Gaza has not stopped - Hamas are now killing fellow Palestinians. And finally for now, are you aware that much of the aid that comes into Gaza is stolen by Hamas and sold to the highest bidder. And then they blame Israel for lack of food and medicine.